Having said those words, Bai Luo Yin felt rather content. He was finally able to get it all off his chest today after holding back for eight long years.
Gu Yang went silent for a long time as he watched Bai Luo Yin’s expression of utter disdain gradually fade—now, his face instead has an accumulation of emotions that were tinted with regret to sorrow. Although, the words he said made Gu Yang think about things more deeply, he could no longer sense any hostility.
“Are you done talking?” Gu Yang asked.
Bai Luo Yin proudly answered, “I’m done.”
“Do you feel satisfied that I was fooled by the two of you? Does it feel good to blow off some steam?”
Raising his brows, Bai Luo Yin simply said, “Pretty damn good.”
Hearing that, Gu Yang snorted, appearing as though he did not care at all.
Bai Luo Yin quickly bumped his knee against Gu Yang’s leg as his dreadfully earnest eyes swept over him. “I’m serious about what I said to you! Don’t think I’m playing around with you!”
“I know.” Gu Yang’s complexion suddenly changed—when he turned toward Bai Luo Yin again, the expression in his eyes were already dark. “In regard to your accusations and retaliation against me, I accept it all. But you have to also understand. if I want to completely destroy Gu Hai right now, I have plenty of methods to do so. You have two options to choose from: either you continue to treat me with the same attitude as before and we become enemies, or you could treat me like any ordinary person and let the previous grudges and resentments be written off. In the future, we will no longer interfere with each other’s lives.”
Bai Luo Yin’s bright and expressive eyes looked over Gu Yang with great tolerance.
“I never thought about being your enemy to begin with. You are Gu Hai’s blood brother and could also be considered as my friend. I have no reason to make life difficult for you. But when a person does something unethical, they must pay the price. The way I’ve been treating you is already considered quite merciful so take it just as that. But since you said it, then we can reach an agreement now. All the confidential documents that we took from each other’s company have to all be destroyed. We will each go back to fix our own messes and from now on, we will no longer use any personal reasons to harm the other’s company.”
Gu Yang remained indifferent as he replied, “That doesn’t matter to me. Consider those funds as my gift to help you guys.”
“Stop trying to make yourself look better. That’s what you owe us. It’s only natural for you to return it to us!”
For the sake of not hearing any more of those sarcastic words, Gu Yang kept his mouth closed and endured it. He has never lacked money in his life or thought that it was a good thing.
“Do you have anything else to add?”
Bai Luo Yin thought about it for a moment, “I can’t think of anything else for the time being.”
“Can I say a few words?” Gu Yang asked with a courteous manner that he rarely used.
Raising his chin, Bai Luo Yin had an expression of a Major who had to listen to his subordinate elaborate on their suggestions.
“That agreement of yours is only between Gu Hai and I. Since you haven’t mentioned anything regarding the two of us then I will put forth some additional conditions for you. From now on, you are strictly forbidden to bring up the accident from eight years ago. I will treat you guys with a normal attitude and you have to also do the same. As to what a ‘normal attitude’ is, I don’t think I need to say it for you to understand, right?”
Bai Luo Yin modestly replied, “I don’t really understand. Excuse me, please explain that a bit more clearly.”
Gu Yang held his frown back before he used a calm tone to elaborate. “That is, if I express my good feelings towards you again, you can’t use a doubtful mindset to receive me. From the bottom of your heart, please treat me equally as any other living thing that has a ‘life’, acknowledge my efforts, relax when interacting with me and get rid of all your prejudices against me.”
Bai Luo Yin took a deep breath, “About those matters, they can’t be controlled by human nature. You know that the human heart is the most free of all. Often, it is reckless and has a mind of its own irrespectively. Therefore, if it is unguarded just by a bit, it will run to the other side. So, how my heart respond will all depend on your ability—if it is good enough and you are able to make me treat you differently than those requests of yours will naturally be satisfied…”
To speak the truth, in Gu Yang’s eyes, Bai Luo Yin now appeared to be a tiny bit lacking yet also a tiny bit adorable. In short, it made people love and hate him at the same time while rendering them immobile from saying anything ruthless to him.
In the end, Gu Yang only threw an indifferent expression at Bai Luo Yin, “Up to you.”
As a result, Bai Luo Yin felt as though the tons of rock pressing down on him for all these years have been removed—albeit, not completely. The somber clouds that rendered his emotions dark and morose, instantly cleared up and the sun now shone so gloriously that even his eyes started to light up as he walked back to Gu Hai bursting with glowing lights.
Meanwhile, Gu Hai was still battling against himself—but seeing Bai Luo Yin and Gu Yang walking back wearing their completely refreshed and lively expression, his heart became even more uneasy. An enormous gust of fire was set aflame as it scattered throughout his body and flared out to seize the approaching Bai Luo Yin.
“What exactly did you talk to him about?”
Bai Luo Yin shot a glance at Gu Hai, emulating the same mysterious expression that he had used earlier. “That is a secret.”
Upon hearing the last word, Gu Hai exploded, “Secret? There are still secrets between the two of you? Bai Luo Yin, let me ask you, during the ten or more days that I was gone, and you adamantly refused to let me return, was really for the sake of letting me wreck his company or was it that you wanted to sneakily pass your days with him?”
The small explosive in Bai Luo Yin went off as he immediately retaliated, “Wasn’t it enough that I gave you an opportunity to have an affair? I pushed you all the way to Hong Kong just to let you meet a handsome guy, didn’t I?”
Gu Hai took a few deep breaths before his hands landed firmly on Bai Luo Yin’s shoulders.
“I’m asking you, are those confidential documents in my brother’s computer actually related to the company or is it something else?”
Standing to the side, Gu Yang conveniently added a sentence as an ‘assistance’, “Those are naked photographs of Bai Luo Yin that were taken on my bed eight years ago.”
Bai Luo Yin immediately shot a demonic glare at him, “Gu Yang, you bastard! Do you want to fucking get me killed? You know that he’s a stubborn ass[1], yet you still insist on provoking and confusing him??!!”
“You’re right, I really am an ass.” Gu Hai flipped out, “All day long, I painstakingly plow and sow your body and satisfy your desires. But in the end, I still have to get belted by you every now and then, right?”
Feeling ashamed and resentful, Bai Luo Yin angrily squeezed Gu Hai’s mouth shut, “Can you not fucking say those kinds of word in front of other people?”
“So, what if I say it in front of him? Even if I fuck you in front of him right now, it still wouldn’t be too much!!”
Gu Hai’s face darkened as he dragged Bai Luo Yin more than ten meters away and firmly held on to his waist and asked, “Those naked pictures that he mentioned just now, what exactly was that about? How did you get on his bed eight years ago? When I was in the tunnel for all those days, what did you do for him in order to get me out of there?”
Bai Luo Yin was completely convinced—convinced that Gu Hai was truly a marvelous writer. Even two completely unrelated circumstances would somehow be linked together.[2] Not only that, it was linked as such that a bursting point was created, ready to explode at any second. It was truly a waste of talent if he didn’t become a journalist or reporter for a gossip column!
Seeing that Bai Luo Yin did not speak, Gu Hai surmised that he admitted to it by default. Consequently, the hand that he had on Bai Luo Yin’s waist tighten even more ruthlessly. Earlier, Bai Luo Yin could endure the pain but the sudden pressure on that spot now was so unbearable that he nearly jumped—however, he cursed out loud instead.
Not too far off, Gu Yang was unclear about what they were talking about, but he could see what Gu Hai was doing. Hence, he kindly shouted a reminder: “Take it easy, his waist was injured.”
Hearing that, Gu Hai immediately lifted the hem of Bai Luo Yin’s shirt only to see a huge red bruise around that immediately shocked him to stand still.
Bai Luo Yin was still breathing heavily as the pain race around his waist. Fuck those tiger claws! A real dick must really not be messed with!
“How does he know that your waist was injured?” Gu Hai asked with a grim expression.
As that sentence ended, Bai Luo Yin’s heart became cold. I was afraid you’d be worried, so I silently hid it from you the entire time. Yet you’re fine! Seeing that I’m injured, you didn’t even say a word of comfort and instead threw that kind of question at me? You’re truly wonderful!!
“Because he bit me there!! If you have the ability, cut out the entire flesh around there from me and knock out all his fucking teeth, then I will tell you how those naked pictures came about!!”
Once he finished saying that, Bai Luo Yin strode back with an appalling expression.
After a long while, Gu Hai also walked back, but he did not go to Bai Luo Yin. But rather, he returned to their original position that was less than one meter away from Gu Yang. If he wanted to eliminate this adulterer, he only needed to reach his hands out to accomplish it.
Although Gu Yang was calm and collected the whole time, the air that Gu Hai exhaled was cold and gloomy.
After a good while, Gu Hai suddenly turned his head toward Gu Yang.
“Are you trying to drive a wedge between the two of us?”
Gu Yang really wanted to retaliate. You’re only fucking reacting now? Stealing my company’s things is actually quite an incredible accomplishment, but how come, when it comes to Bai Luo Yin, your brain is immediately kicked by your own hooves?
Gu Hai stood up and gave Gu Yang a deadly glare before he aggressively said, “I’ll deal with you in a bit!”
After saying that, he walked over to Bai Luo Yin.
Gu Yang could only conjure a couple of words, “Serves you right!”
Just as he said that, a familiar figure suddenly appeared in Gu Yang’s line of sight, catching him off guard.
In this world, aside from him and Gu Hai, was there two other people who could look so alike?
The person who Gu Yang saw also couldn’t help but to stare blankly.
When Tong Zhe and Gu Hai set off on this venture, he was originally wearing clothes that were suitable for him. But after changing to women’s clothes, there was no time to change back again even if he wanted to. Moreover, adding to the fear of being recognized by their pursuer, they had intentionally worn these shabby clothes. Now that he was walking around the country small road, he really does look a bit like the natives.
Is that Gu Yang or Gu Hai?Tong Zhe was also confused, mixing up the two. If he went according to his intuition, that should be Gu Yang but how could he be here? The person that had jumped down with him was clearly Gu Hai!!
For the sake of seeing his appearance clearly, Gu Yang deliberately asked, “Dude, how far is it from here to Shijiazhuang?”[3]
Tong Zhe stuck both his hands into his sleeves and spoke with a Shan Dong accent. “Hey-hi, I’m not a native. I’m from Shan Dong. You can go and ask over there!”
Gu Yang, “…”
—
Translator’s Note:
[1] 驴[lǘ] - donkey = ass
[2] 八竿子（也）打不着[Bāgānzi (yě) dǎbùzháo] – originally means ‘far in distance’; metaphorically means, the relation between two persons or things is not close or they are unrelated at all.
[3] Shijiazhuang - capital of Hebei Province
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Learn a word a day:
Altschmerz – n. weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had—the same boring flaws and anxieties you’ve been gnawing on for years, which leaves them soggy and tasteless and inert, with nothing interesting left to think about, nothing left to do but spit them out and wander off to the backyard, ready to dig up some fresher pain you might have buried long ago.