Song Yu was baffled by this turn of events too. What was this-villains getting their just deserts at the hands of other villains?
He and Xie Sui had originally been the central figures, but now that this had happened, hardly anyone paid them any attention.
Cai Mingzhu's father was the president of a corporation in this part of Jing City, and she was used to throwing her weight around. She was petty and narrow-minded. Once someone crossed her, paying compensation would hardly settle the matter. If she set her mind on driving this family out of Jing City, she had plenty of ways to make their lives impossible.
Inside the police station, after they checked the surveillance footage and saw what had happened, Song Yu's face went livid with anger. That kid had thrown a stone that nearly hit Xie Sui in the eye. He had braked abruptly and accidentally fallen off his bike. Yet this woman had turned around and accused Xie Sui of deliberately riding into him. What a vile person.
Only now, the woman looked even worse than he did.
Because the footage clearly showed that one of her son's marbles had struck that car.
The woman was already on her knees, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe, and dragged her child down to kneel with her. The five-year-old boy howled as she beat him.
The woman kept crying. "I was wrong, Miss Cai, Miss Cai! I'll beat this disobedient brat to death! I'll vent your anger for you! I was wrong! Miss Cai, we can't afford to pay! Our whole family, old and young, is crammed into a little house. Even if you killed me, I couldn't pay!"
Cai Mingzhu sneered the entire time.
In the end, the woman actually cried herself unconscious. She regretted it utterly, her guts twisting together, but it was too late for anything.
After leaving the police station.
Song Yu took Xie Sui to a small clinic to get some medicine.
"Can you still walk?"
Xie Sui had also hurt his leg a little when he fell off his bicycle. Song Yu frowned as he looked at it.
Holding the plastic bag of vegetables in one hand, Xie Sui said mildly in a low voice, "It should be fine."
Song Yu thought for a moment, then said, "I'll take you home."
Xie Sui looked stunned, his fingers involuntarily tightening around the handles, but at the serious expression on Song Yu's face, he finally nodded after a long pause.
His dark, slightly curled lashes hid the faint coldness in his eyes.
It was already evening.
Starlight spilled across the road.
The shadows cast by the streetlights stretched long.
The July breeze carried a faint, dry heat.
Song Yu's earlier agitation settled too.
After some thought, he asked, "You're not working at Linshui anymore, right?"
Xie Sui gave a quiet "Mm."
Song Yu let out a breath of relief. "Good. That place is a mess. It's not somewhere you should be."
Xie Sui hesitated for a while, then seemed to summon his courage to ask the question that had lingered in his mind for so long. "You... why are you so..." With his personality, he simply couldn't get those last words out.
Under the streetlight, the boy's delicate, pale, cool features showed a little bewilderment and uncertainty.
Song Yu finished for him. "Why am I so nice to you?"
Xie Sui's voice was so quiet it melted into the wind. "Mm."
Song Yu looked up at the night sky, his soft hair gently stirring.
"Probably... because I'm just too kind."
Xie Sui: "..."
That really was a unique answer.
Song Yu thought he really was too kind. He could have spent those five perfectly good years just eating and drinking his way through life. Instead, he had insisted on coming to Jing City, tearing into rich brats and trading insults with shrews. He was almost moved by himself.
He scratched his head. "I just can't stand seeing people get bullied in front of me, and as luck would have it, every time I run into you, it's always something like this."
Xie Sui couldn't help laughing.
But Song Yu was immersed in his own world and didn't hear it. He said earnestly, "I've saved you twice. That has to count as fate, so I guess we count as friends. Don't get the wrong idea. I treat other people the same way."
Xie Sui smiled. "Okay." He didn't believe him.
The Song Family treasured this son so much. How could they possibly bear to let him come to Jing City alone?
Linshui could be called an accident, but Song Yu showing up on Lianyun Street couldn't possibly be "fate."
Song Yu had come for him.
Then... why? Come to think of it, he and Song Yu had played together as children, but those memories were from before they were five. What did that count for?
Partly to test him and partly out of amusement, Xie Sui took Song Yu home.
The stairwell in Grandma Chen's building was very old, and even the sound-activated lights only worked intermittently. Song Yu had to stamp his feet several times before the dingy yellow bulb lit up. The stairs were extremely narrow, and Song Yu supported Xie Sui as they climbed. Flyers were piled up in the stairwell, and the air smelled stale. With so little space, Song Yu was practically pressed against Xie Sui.
His clothes carried a faint scent of greenery, light and pleasant. Xie Sui lowered his head and saw the boy's neck, so pale and fragile, and was briefly dazed.
"Which floor?"
"The third."
In this little building, the third floor was the top floor.
When they opened the door, Grandma Chen had already fallen asleep waiting on the sofa, with just a blanket draped over her. The food on the table was untouched. It looked like she had been waiting for Xie Sui.
Faint yellow light shone through the small but cozy room.
Xie Sui quietly set the vegetables on the table and walked over to the sofa.
Song Yu knew what he wanted to do. "Let me. Your leg's hurt."
He picked Grandma Chen up. She was old and her eyesight was poor. She woke groggily. "...A Sui's back. Why were you out so late?"
Song Yu said softly, "Grandma Chen, I'm Xie Sui's friend."
Still half asleep, Grandma Chen murmured, "A friend. Friends are good. A Sui's always been alone..."
Song Yu thought for a long time, then said quietly.
"He won't be alone anymore."
Warm yellow light flowed over the boy's brows and lashes, gentle as old times standing still.
Behind him, Xie Sui's expression was cool and aloof.
After a long while, he scoffed, turned to wash his hands, and tossed the marble hidden in his sleeve into the trash along the way.
The fifteen-year-old Xie Sui had never had a single friend. Though cold on the surface, deep down he yearned for beautiful things and could be moved by the most insignificant gestures. But the twenty-five-year-old Xie Sui had experienced far too much flattery and too many approaches with ulterior motives. His looks and family background had brought him so many overtures, both genuine and false.
Indifference had seeped into his bones. Kindness and gentleness could no longer move him the way they had when he was fifteen.
Xie Sui recalled some disgusting things from his previous life, and a mocking smile curved his lips, though it was unclear whom it was directed at.
How inferior did someone have to feel to bare their heart over a little warmth? How cowardly did they have to be to need someone else's help to escape their obsession?
When Song Yu came out.
Xie Sui was cooking noodles in the kitchen.
Song Yu sat down at the table without standing on ceremony. "Isn't there still food here?"
The heat was switched off.
Xie Sui brought out a steaming bowl of noodles.
Xie Sui was a very good cook. The noodles were sprinkled with chopped scallions, with a layer of minced meat and oil floating on top, and looked delicious. As the aroma reached his nose, Song Yu, who hadn't eaten all day, suddenly felt hungry.
"The food's cold."
Xie Sui sat down opposite him, pushed the noodles in front of him, and said, "You eat."
He had remembered that Song Yu seemed not to have eaten all day, so this counted as repayment.
Song Yu froze. "For me?"
God, what a pitiful little thing, such a good wife and loving mother.
Under his gaze, Xie Sui seemed a little shy. "Mm."
"Thanks."
Song Yu stirred the noodles with his chopsticks, sighing inwardly. How could someone so kind and adorable be treated so cruelly in the book?
After finishing, he left and called the driver to pick him up.
In the car, the driver was puzzled. "Young master, weren't you buying books? How did you end up buying them all the way out here?"
Song Yu looked out the window. "I ran into a very important friend and changed my plans."
The driver was startled. "You've only been in Jing City a few days, and you already have a very important friend?"
Song Yu made his words sound perfectly reasonable. "Uncle, you don't understand. It's called hitting it off at first sight."