"Stop the car!"
Chi Ye shouted, startling the driver, who quickly switched on the turn signal and pulled over. Then he watched his boss, who had been resting with his eyes closed, yank open the door and run out.
Chi Ye stood there looking from side to side, his expression tense, perhaps even a little frightened. Puzzled, the driver came over and asked,
"Boss, what happened?"
Chi Ye tried hard to steady himself before saying, "Go see if there's a girl around here. Completely expressionless, the kind who looks like she doesn't want to live to see tomorrow. Oh, and she's very pretty and very aloof. Look for someone like that."
With that, Chi Ye headed the other way. The driver scratched his head, wondering for the first time whether his boss's vocabulary was a little muddled.
Who had a face that said they didn't want to live to see tomorrow?
With no other choice, the driver started searching along the river.
After returning to S City, Chi Ye had taken the contract out to a business engagement. It had finally ended, and the driver was taking him home. Between the alcohol and the flight, his head had felt heavy all day.
Shen Zhiyi's words had more or less ended any chance of the two of them working together, and Chi Ye knew perfectly well that he couldn't waste any more time on her.
Madam Ye would be back in half a month. He had to use that time to find someone who would satisfy the old man, so Madam Ye wouldn't suspect he was faking it.
As soon as he got into the car, he sat in the back to rest. Tonight's prospective business partner was a master at evasion. If he hadn't genuinely wanted to work with them, he would have walked out long ago.
His mind wouldn't stop. Bit by bit, he was planning tomorrow's schedule. Progress on the Q7 project was slow at the moment. Tomorrow, he had to identify the problems and solve them.
They also needed more planning, art, and technical staff. They worked in the internet industry, so their technical requirements would only get higher.
As he thought, another voice suddenly appeared in his mind. It was Shen Zhiyi's.
An abrupt wave of sorrow swept through his heart. He seemed to see someone walking into the river. A suffocating sensation enveloped his nose, and he couldn't help gasping for breath before telling the driver to stop.
Something's happened to Shen Zhiyi. He remembered that face of hers that never smiled. He remembered how her eyes were always like stagnant water, dull and lifeless.
His heart began to ache. Nothing could happen to Shen Zhiyi. Although he had just declared that he wanted to see her again, he had never thought of making her disappear.
The wind by the river grew stronger. This stretch was sparsely populated, with only the rustling of leaves in the wind.
"Shen Zhiyi! Shen Zhiyi!" he shouted, heedless of appearances, hoping she would answer.
He couldn't hear Shen Zhiyi's thoughts anymore. Her thoughts were always so quiet. She didn't like talking and was always staring into space alone.
What she said most often was that he was an idiot. He couldn't find her. The riverside was vast, and the streetlights were spaced rather far apart, leaving some places too dark to see into.
Shen Zhiyi walked to the river's edge. There was a railing in the way, but it wasn't very high. If she went a little farther, she could easily climb over it.
Perhaps she was smiling. The river was beautiful. She spread her arms, feeling free for the first time in ages. The air smelled of the evening breeze. It was early summer, the clouds weren't particularly thick, and there were no stars in the sky.
Then she hoped she could become a star to light up this night sky. The river would embrace her and let her sink to the bottom.
But she seemed to have forgotten something. There was no place for her in the cemetery. She didn't know where she would be sent after she died.
"Shen Zhiyi!"
Chi Ye would never forget that scene. She stood there, her silhouette so frail it seemed a gust of wind could scatter it. Her outstretched arms were like a dancing butterfly, but she let herself fall freely.
The railing couldn't stop her. She fell without hesitation, raising only a small ripple on the river as it swallowed her figure out of sight.
Chi Ye tried like a madman to catch her. He had been so close, just a little short of grabbing Shen Zhiyi.
He stripped off his jacket and jumped straight into the river. The driver, arriving a moment later, hurried to look for a stick in the landscaped strip.
"Boss!"
The river was cold, bitterly cold. Early summer in S City wasn't hot yet. The river looked gentle, but it could actually freeze a person to death.
Chi Ye ignored all that and simply swam hard toward Shen Zhiyi.
Shen Zhiyi kept her eyes closed, letting herself sink with the river's current. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly in relief. She was free. She felt the suffocation.
Her features, her chest-every part of her suffered the force of the water pressure. It was agonizing.
But the agony seemed only temporary. Once she died, she could be free forever. She would no longer have to suffer the onslaught of nightmares or face Mother Fang's resentful gaze day after day.
She wouldn't have to hear Shen Kangnan calling her his sister in her dreams.
After losing her home, she had become an orphan. In the chain-reaction crash, even the driver responsible hadn't escaped death in the explosion.
She hadn't been able to recover her parents' remains. The explosion had left nothing behind. She had lost her home, and arranging the funeral, choosing a cemetery, and more expenses than she could count had all bombarded her at once.
No one wanted to adopt her. Her relatives all kept their distance. All she had left was a house.
The person who had offered a helping hand was her father's good friend, the one who had been willing to lend him a car, but the car was gone too. Her father's friend had supported her through school as she grew up. That support ended when she turned eighteen, and she began working her way through school, working and working to repay her debts.
Chi Ye's three hundred thousand had cleared every last one of her debts. At that point, she had already decided how her life would end.
But then she had unexpectedly received a call from Boss Yao, and because of that, she had clung to life for another half month.
Chi Ye swam toward her with all his might, then caught her hand and pulled her to his side. Shen Zhiyi opened her eyes, a little dazed.
She saw Chi Ye. He seemed very angry.
Shen Zhiyi thought he had every right to be angry. She had wronged him over the past half month, wasting so much of his time.
Her apology hadn't been sincere either. Anyone would have been furious with her. She just hadn't expected to see Chi Ye at the end of her life.
It seemed she still felt guilty toward Chi Ye in this world. Then, after she died, she would watch over him from the underworld.
Chi Ye was frantic. Shen Zhiyi merely opened her eyes and looked at him, showing no sign that she would struggle at all.
With no other choice, seeing that she was about to close her eyes again, he pulled her over and pressed her head toward him. The river was too cold.
Their soft lips met. After breathing air into her mouth, he dragged her toward shore.
On the bank, the driver shouted anxiously,
"Boss! Boss!"
A while later, larger ripples spread across the river. Chi Ye broke the surface, holding Shen Zhiyi up. Seeing them, the driver quickly extended the stick and pulled them both ashore.
Chi Ye collapsed to one side, gasping for breath, then struggled up and patted Shen Zhiyi's face. He couldn't worry about anything else.
He immediately began chest compressions and rescue breaths. His complexion looked bad as he called out again and again,
"Shen Zhiyi, wake up. Shen Zhiyi, you have to wake up." His voice was hoarse and lost. He was afraid.
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