What was this video?
It seemed to have something to do with Xie Qingcheng.
He Yu glanced impassively at the code rapidly scrolling past his phone screen. His opponent would need some time to catch up to him, but it wouldn't take long. It was very possible this video had been sent to him to disrupt his concentration.
Closing the chat window, he set the matter aside. He didn't want to get distracted.
However, a moment later, a second message jumped out like a lingering spirit that refused to move on.
Edward, I know that you suffer from a rare psychological disorder. While you were attacking our firewall, we also looked into your files.
He Yu's fingers stilled.
Though his condition was a secret, his personal hospital and physician had copies of his medical records. The organization's hacking skills were advanced enough that, with certain clues, it wouldn't be impossible for them to determine his true identity and obtain important records within a short amount of time.
Immediately thereafter, his opponent sent a third message.
That Xie Qingcheng is lying to you and using you—aren't you curious about why he suddenly stopped being a doctor?
A fourth message.
Stop throwing your life away for him. Why don't you take a look at this video?
The video pop-up appeared again, chasing him relentlessly like a venomous serpent.
He Yu's willpower wasn't that weak, so he still didn't click on it. But the fangs of that venomous serpent had indeed sunken into his flesh, causing him to hesitate for a split second.
If his opponent wanted to quickly tear through his mental barriers, they needed to be very cunning with the entry point of their attack. And the information that the other hacker was sending him had indeed been a thorn in his side for a very long time.
Why did Xie Qingcheng have to go?
He had insisted so stubbornly on leaving. Even after He Yu had set aside his pride and asked him pathetically to stay, all Xie Qingcheng would say was Your father is the one paying me. You can't afford to employ me.
He Yu would never forget the way he felt back then.
In all his life, he had only ever been close to two people. One was Xie Qingcheng, and the other was Xie Xue. But that day, that evening, they both became illusions that may as well have never existed at all.
He Yu had tried so hard to live—to live like a normal person, constantly refusing to submit to his inner demons. He had tried for a whole seven years.
At that moment, he had genuinely been crumbling apart inside.
But when all was said and done, he had never truly resented Xie Qingcheng. He Yu was used to loneliness, and also to understanding all sorts of people. Some time later, he did come to understand Xie Qingcheng's choice.
After all, what they had was nothing more than a simple doctor-patient relationship, a job that paid for Xie Qingcheng. Since they were neither family nor friends, it was completely within Xie Qingcheng's rights to leave at any time. And before he left, Xie Qingcheng had neither tricked him nor lied to him; he had explained his reasons very clearly.
There was no reason for He Yu to resent him.
It was true that He Yu couldn't get over Xie Qingcheng's sudden departure. But later on, He Yu had thought to himself that at least this person had come to him and given him clear-cut articles of faith so that he had the courage to properly live on. At least this person had once told him that patients with mental illnesses needed to rebuild their bridges to society and shouldn't be isolated, that he wasn't an abnormality within society.
He Yu thought he ought to understand and forgive Xie Qingcheng for that alone.
Xie Qingcheng always had a way of winning people over and gaining their understanding.
Just like his conversation with Lu Yuzhu just now—He Yu had caught a few snatches of it. Xie Qingcheng had always been a good speaker, and after so many years, he could still convince people with logic and appeal to their hearts.
When the thought crossed his mind, He Yu glanced at Lu Yuzhu's expression. He could clearly see that she had been affected. Even if she had sunken too deep into the muck, even if this brief conversation ultimately couldn't hold up against more than a decade of suffering, she was still truly moved.
Xie Qingcheng was trying to convince Lu Yuzhu to learn the truth behind his parents' deaths. So then how had Xie Qingcheng acted toward He Yu?
Had he really been entirely honest, without hiding anything?
He Yu didn't click on the video. But his gaze did wander somewhat. He looked at Xie Qingcheng facing off against Lu Yuzhu.
It was precisely during this moment of inattention that his opponent's commands unexpectedly caught up. By the time He Yu realized what had happened, they had already broken through his defensive firewall!
Beep—beep—beep—
The countdown to detonation resumed, ticking away even faster than before. The enemy technician had sped up the five-minute timer—there was now only one minute and a dozen or so seconds before the bomb would go off!
He Yu snapped abruptly back to attention and cursed under his breath. This really wasn't the time to be thinking about such things.
He immediately refocused his attention and typed a command to forcibly shut out the distraction of the video. Sweat beaded on his smooth forehead as his almond eyes stared fixedly at the screen. His fingers moved fast enough to leave afterimages, their movements blurring together.
Meanwhile, as Lu Yuzhu watched He Yu, she grew certain that it had to be him.
This young man had to be the one using his cell phone to interfere with the organization's signal. In that case, the most important person here wasn't Xie Qingcheng but rather this young man.
She walked toward him, calm and collected. Though her eyes were locked on Xie Qingcheng, as though she were still confronting him, she was really following He Yu in her peripheral vision.
As she slowly moved closer and closer, she unlocked the safety on the handgun. There were eleven bullets inside.
He Yu rapidly typed out a string of commands and hit confirm.
There was a flash of red light.
Intercepted!
The frantic countdown was halted once again.
He Yu let out a sigh of relief and looked up. Just as he was about to give Xie Qingcheng an "okay" sign, his eyelids suddenly twitched. A sixth sense made him feel a prickling sensation at the back of his neck, and he whipped his head around—
At that very same moment, Lu Yuzhu pulled the pistol out from behind her back, pointed it at He Yu, and pulled the trigger!
A bullet burst out of the barrel with an earsplitting bang. The recoil from the gun made Lu Yuzhu's arm go numb, and she staggered back several steps. Her shot had gone wide and hit a cabinet full of archival materials. The entire front of the cabinet caved in from the impact, a spiderweb of cracks lacing through the glass display window before it shattered violently.
"He Yu!"
Xie Qingcheng paled and immediately rushed toward Lu Yuzhu, tackling her and pinning her to the floor. Even so, Lu Yuzhu didn't let go of the gun. She struggled and screamed at Xie Qingcheng as they tussled. And although Xie Qingcheng was in danger of being shot at any moment, since his chest was so close to the gun's muzzle, he didn't let go either.
"Move aside!" Lu Yuzhu yelled, her hair disheveled, eyes bulging from anger. She pointed the black muzzle straight at Xie Qingcheng's chest, but for some reason, she didn't shoot. "Or else I'll kill you too!"
"You can take my life, Lu Yuzhu, but you can't attack him. You can't attack a child." Xie Qingcheng spoke softly to Lu Yuzhu amid the chaos, his teeth gritted.
Unfortunately, He Yu couldn't hear his words over the sounds of Lu Yuzhu's shouts. She let out an inhuman howl of fury.
Her heart had been released from its inhibitions; that first shot had killed any remaining hesitation and compassion. Whatever reason and warmth she had once possessed now began to fade quickly.
Gradually, she lost sight of the tear-filled eyes of the mother in the sky. After all, she was a woman who had been abandoned by her child.
She had been abandoned…
Scenes from the past flashed before her eyes.
The support from the county's residents, the happiness when she took office—
"Lu Yuzhu is amazing! She's the first female graduate student in our county! She graduated from a top university and came back to be the county secretary—the first woman secretary at that! So impressive! Make sure you do great things for our county!"
"Secretary Lu, thank you for helping repair the roads in our village and building Hope Elementary School. After stalling for so many years, they just weren't willing to do it."
"Secretary Lu, thank you. If it wasn't for you, my mother would have forced me to get married… I-I still want to study… Thank you for helping me, and for allowing me to continue my studies… Thank you, really, thank you…"
"Secretary Lu, why don't you accept our thank-you gifts? So many secretaries have come and gone, but none of them were like you, taking us villagers seriously and helping us with so much…"
"Thank you."
Thank you…
Suddenly, like thunder from a clear sky, she plummeted from high up in the clouds into the abyss.
"Lu Yuzhu, someone reported you. Someone reported you for embezzlement and bribery. Please come with us to the police station."
"Yuzhu…"
"Ma…ma… Mama…"
There seemed to be a blubbering child at the bottom of the abyss, bawling indistinctly. That child reached out to her and stared at her with tears in her eyes.
"Ma…ma…" she cried incessantly.
When she returned years later, the girl who had once reached out to her now stood timidly behind another woman, afraid to approach her.
"W-who are you…?"
Who are you?
Who am I? Lu Yuzhu wondered.
In a filthy hotel dishwashing room, amid piles of dirty tablecloths and tableware—
"Lu Yuzhu, faster. Aren't you from the countryside? It's just a little bit of work; how are you so slow?"
"You know, she was a graduate student."
"Eh? A graduate student doing dishes?"
"I think she studied something pretty trendy, computer information security… How weird. What happened to her?"
"Lu Yuzhu, human resources reviewed your file again. You're an ex-convict! You can't hide such a thing when applying for a job. You should leave. I'll settle your salary for this month, but you don't have to come to work tomorrow."
In the musky massage room, between the inappropriately familiar men's faces—
"This little beauty actually seems kinda embarrassed."
"Putting on airs? Whore! Aren't you just selling yourself? Saying so much nonsense even though I've already given you money! The fact that I've taken a liking to you is already a sign of respect! Yet you dare to bite me!"
A slap to the face! Then another.
Loud, silent, corporeal, intangible, from the darkness, from every direction—slap after slap struck her across the face.
Kneeling, she cried as she clawed at the ground until her hands were covered in blood, as though she wanted to dig up a bit of light and truth to show them.
Yes, she had done something wrong.
She had done something wrong—she had accepted money…but it was only enough money to buy a pig, an unwritten rule in the village, and she didn't even accept it personally. She didn't even know…
Why did she have to be reduced to this, her family torn asunder, all alone with nowhere to go!
Why…
She couldn't defend herself even if she had a hundred mouths. Everything was blotted out by a judgment she couldn't escape.
She hoped to find someone she could trust, who could bring her hope. She waited and waited, until her heart had shriveled, but all that arrived was one disappointment after another.
"My surname is Duan. Your name is Lu Yuzhu, right? You have a graduate degree."
Suddenly, there was a spark.
It was the flare of a customer's lighter.
The man was just here to relieve his boredom, to see something new, playing around with some good-for-nothing friends. He had no intention of actually slaking his desires and no interest in the women in these cheap establishments. He found her interesting, so amid those specks of light, he slowly exhaled a breath of smoke from his cigarette.
"You studied so much." He tossed the lighter onto the tea table and looked at her. "Why are you doing this kind of work?"
Lu Yuzhu didn't respond.
Maybe it was because the man's gaze was too calm, without any trace of disdain. She could even say that it was focused and earnest, genuinely interested in understanding her.
At that moment, a heavy blow suddenly struck the crumbling walls of Lu Yuzhu's heart. She endured it for a few seconds, or perhaps a dozen, but in the end, she couldn't bear it anymore. Falling to her knees, she covered her face and began sobbing bitterly, right in front of that customer…
It was as though her sobbing and despair from days past materialized once again as Lu Yuzhu snarled at Xie Qingcheng, "Don't try to stop me from protecting him!"
It was truly frightening what a person could do when they were cornered. Who knew where she found the strength, but she managed to push back against Xie Qingcheng holding her arm down and turn toward He Yu, who was standing off to the side.
He Yu hadn't run. On the contrary, when he realized that Xie Qingcheng was in danger, he came forward to help his companion. In the past, Lu Yuzhu probably would have admired a young man like this. But now, she didn't hesitate. She strained to lift her wrist, twisting her hand… With great effort, she gripped the gun and aimed it at He Yu—and pulled the trigger!
An ear-splitting bang rang out!
Her first shot missed. Lu Yuzhu's eyes were already red with bloodlust, her expression shattered. The veins on her forehead popped violently as she bared her teeth, looking less like a human than a captive beast. Xie Qingcheng shoved her back to the ground, yet she refused to let go of the gun, spraying bullets in He Yu's direction as if she had gone mad.
Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!
Ignoring his own safety, Xie Qingcheng still refused to let go despite being so close to the onslaught. But when Lu Yuzhu exploded with the strength of someone making their last stand, it was impossible for Xie Qingcheng to wrest away her gun so quickly under such chaotic circumstances.
Lu Yuzhu didn't waste a single bullet on Xie Qingcheng. She kept firing at He Yu, the man who was preventing her from blowing up the archives.
Bang-bang-bang!
Suddenly, there was a dull thud.
Xie Qingcheng's eyes went wide as he whipped around, his pupils contracting. "He Yu!"
In the end, the young man was still wounded. Because he refused to leave, because he still hadn't abandoned Xie Qingcheng and fled, he had been hit.
Clutching his shoulder, He Yu leaned heavily against the wall. He was wearing all black, so the blood pouring from his wound wasn't very obvious at first. As the fresh, red blood seeped into the black material of his clothes, it didn't look so bright under the dim lights.
But when he placed a hand over the gunshot wound, pressing his cold, pale fingers to it, his hand came away dyed by gush after gush of blood. Crimson oozed over his pallid skin, creating an immediately ghastly sight.
It was as though Xie Qingcheng's vision itself had been dyed scarlet.
Seeing that she had struck him, Lu Yuzhu panted heavily from where she was still pressed against the ground by Xie Qingcheng. Looking at the blood pouring from He Yu's injury, she suddenly tossed her head back and began to laugh. That ear-piercing laugh was mournful and terrifying. Tears began to flow down her cheeks and into her disheveled hair.
"Ha ha ha ha… Ha ha ha ha ha…"
Her grip loosened, and the gun fell to the ground.
Xie Qingcheng jumped to his feet and immediately ran toward He Yu. He Yu tried to pick up his phone again with his injured arm; he wanted to finish keying in his last command. He made two attempts, but his hands were shaking too hard, so the phone, its screen already covered in blood, slipped from his grip and clattered to the ground.
"He Yu, you…"
"…I'm fine. We have to go, Xie Qingcheng."
He Yu's eyes were fierce and cold as he stared at Lu Yuzhu's face. His complexion was deathly pale, sweat dripping from his forehead. His words, however, were addressed to Xie Qingcheng.
"You won't be able to get anything out of her. She's in too deep." He paused. "I know you'll regret missing your chance with this witness, but if we don't leave now, it'll be too late."
As if to confirm his words, the other technician quickly broke through his firewall and regained control of the detonator now that He Yu could no longer keep up with the coding battle.
He Yu furrowed his brow. He wasn't all that afraid of injury, and to him, blood was an exceedingly unremarkable thing. What worried him was that his injured hand could no longer grip anything.
They'd lost control of the situation.
"Let's go."
276… 275… 274…
The countdown flew by, speeding up once again. Supporting He Yu, Xie Qingcheng turned to look at the woman collapsed amid a web of detonation wires through his bloodshot peach-blossom eyes.
Lu Yuzhu was like a moth caught in a spider's web. She occasionally trembled with laughter, but tears streamed down her face. She raised her arm and covered her eyes. The top half of her face was tearful, yet the bottom half was still twisted in maniacal laughter.
Xie Qingcheng squeezed his eyes shut. The moment he turned around, he felt as if he was moving in slow motion, as if he was looking away from the ice-cold bodies of his parents from nineteen years ago.
But there was still one last bullet in Lu Yuzhu's handgun!
As she sobbed and laughed and lost her mind, she heard them as they made to leave. She instinctively picked up the gun she had just discarded and pointed it at them…
"Get down!" shouted He Yu.
Xie Qingcheng's full attention was on He Yu's injuries, and his back was fully turned to Lu Yuzhu. So He Yu was the one who noticed Lu Yuzhu's movement this time around.
Bang!
Who knew what He Yu was thinking. Perhaps he wasn't thinking at all, and it was just the instinct of an evil dragon protecting his hoard. He immediately shoved Xie Qingcheng down—and that caused the final bullet to strike his already-injured arm, just slightly above the first gunshot wound.
He Yu's body spasmed in pain and went limp in Xie Qingcheng's arms, blood splattering all over as Xie Qingcheng looked on.
Xie Qingcheng's scalp prickled. He was a doctor, but at that moment, he was completely incapable of handling this outpour of blood…
"Why did you…!"
He Yu didn't make a sound. His dark eyes were fearful as he gazed at his wound, as if he was also thinking, Why did I do this?
Indeed…
Why…?
The timer was still frantically ticking away, so Xie Qingcheng couldn't afford to waste any more time. Propping He Yu upright, he grabbed the injured boy and sprinted down the corridor…
He Yu's hot blood trickled from his shoulder. As Xie Qingcheng kept running, he stopped thinking about what had happened in the past and how he had forfeited this last living witness.
Holding He Yu tightly as he ran toward the exit, he said to him, "Everything's going to be fine. I'm getting you out of here."
"…Don't worry… I'm not afraid of these things, Xie Qingcheng." He Yu's voice floated up quietly. They made it through the hallway into the main hall, their unsteady footfalls echoing behind them.
He Yu was still very calm.
"I'm not afraid of death or blood, and I don't care about pain either—
remember?"
Xie Qingcheng didn't know what to say.
"It was probably because I don't fear death enough that I did that just now." The color began to drain from He Yu's lips. "It's fine."
But Xie Qingcheng cared; he ached. He wrapped his arms tighter around He Yu. Because He Yu had lost so much blood so quickly, his face was already alarmingly pale.
He was such a young kid—only nineteen years old. A normal kid would still be asking their parents for allowance money, cheerfully playing games, nonchalantly reading books, feeling youthful strength course through them without worries, looking forward to a future of boundless prospects.
But what about He Yu?
He knew very well that there was only darkness before his eyes; ahead of him, there were only the three long-deceased psychological Ebola patients leering at him, telling him that his entire life would be a long night without a dawn, a dead end with no way out.
But still, he gritted his teeth and struggled to crawl toward that future which might still hold some semblance of hope.
Childhood, innocence, laughter, carelessness… None of it had anything to do with He Yu.
He was only nineteen… No matter how impressive or capable, in the end, he was still a child.
At that moment, Xie Qingcheng finally woke from the muddled chaos that the desire to avenge his parents had plunged him into. He finally realized why he'd had the feeling before that something was inappropriate: he shouldn't have dragged He Yu into this.
Why did he do such a thing?
Who was He Yu to him?
This boy had already worked hard enough. Xie Qingcheng had only given He Yu the most basic kind of concern as his personal physician. How was that enough for this boy to put his life on the line and jump with him into a living hell?
Xie Qingcheng's hand, which was covering He Yu's wound, trembled slightly.
He had never felt much sorrow for He Yu before—at most, he'd felt a sense of responsibility, care, and pity. But at that moment, the young man's warm blood seemed to trickle along his skin, down his spine, to pierce his heart and stab deep into the marrow of his bones.
That was right… They were merely a doctor and a patient with a relationship of employment that couldn't be any more clear-cut. For Xie Qingcheng, because of a personal debt and the unique characteristics of psychological Ebola, he was supposed to pay special attention to He Yu.
However, the same couldn't be said for He Yu. He Yu didn't owe him anything. When he looked at Xie Qingcheng, he shouldn't have had any emotions apart from those accorded to a doctor.
Yet He Yu had still accompanied him to the library.
Just because Xie Qingcheng had said, I want to know the truth behind my parents' deaths.
He desperately wanted to find the perpetrator. But that had nothing at all to do with He Yu…
As Xie Qingcheng ran outside with He Yu in tow, keeping firm pressure on He Yu's injured shoulder, he said hoarsely, "I'll bring you to the hospital right away. Don't talk too much."
He Yu was very quiet.
Then, after a long moment of silence, the young man let out a soft laugh. "I'm fine, really. However, I wanted to ask you something, Doctor Xie." His breath puffed out right by Xie Qingcheng's ear. It was scorching hot, yet it seemed to carry a slight chill. "I really want to know—back then, why did you suddenly stop being a doctor? Was it really as simple as your contract coming to an end?"
Xie Qingcheng was silent.
"Why was it that no matter how I tried to keep you, you still rejected me?"
Xie Qingcheng still didn't answer.
"It's been seven years, Xie Qingcheng. My dad told me that outside of employment, there's goodwill between people. Today… Today, I really want to ask you." He Yu was still bleeding, but he didn't bother looking down. Instead, in the terrifyingly endless night, his black eyes only gazed unblinkingly at Xie Qingcheng.
The look in his eyes was the same as the one from all those years ago, when that boy suddenly became childish in his helplessness, so childish that he tried to use his allowance to convince Xie Qingcheng to stay. No matter how high that boy's pain tolerance was or how numb his mind was, after suffering these two gunshot wounds, he would still be hurt.
He Yu's voice was very soft. Perhaps it was because they had run too fast, but it even sounded a bit hoarse. "Xie Qingcheng… Back then, did you really not feel an ounce of extra compassion for me?"