Ning Zhuo hated conglomerates and big corporations more than anything else in his life.
When he rushed into that container maze, he thought he was saving another child about to lose their family and the course of their fate.
Unexpectedly, he had saved a young master whose life could be easily redeemed with money.
All the suspicious points were now explained.
The wound on the young master’s neck wasn’t some sort of punishment or threat. The kidnappers were trying to dig out a tracking chip.
The messy, dirty clothes on the young master were prepared in advance, fearing he had some kind of advanced equipment on him.
They had blindfolded and gagged him after bringing him back to their base because they intended to obediently return him once they got the ransom.
He was never like Ning Zhuo.
He was a cherished young master from the upper district, while Ning Zhuo was mud struggling to survive in the lower district.
The same kidnapping had brought them fates as different as heaven and earth.
The so-called intersection of their lives and the debt of saving his life were nothing more than wishful thinking on Ning Zhuo’s part.
By rashly saving him, Ning Zhuo had instead put him in danger.
Thinking of this, Ning Zhuo lifted his head expressionlessly and said to Shan Rong’en, “He’s joking.”
This was just a business transaction.
Boss Fu’s methods were satisfying, but what Ning Zhuo wanted was for “Haina” to leave a good impression in the upper district.
He didn’t need to pretend to be magnanimous and owe any favors, as that would make him seem overly ambitious.
Moreover…
Moreover, Ning Zhuo needed to use real money to erase this relationship that never should have happened from his life.
Ning Zhuo unbuttoned his shirt collar, pulled down his left shoulder garment, and revealed a once bloody and mangled through-and-through wound.
Next to the edge of his lowered shirt, the end of an old knife scar could be seen, contrasting the fresh wound on his shoulder, proof that it had recently been inflicted.
Shamelessly displaying his injury, Ning Zhuo made his offer: “One hundred thousand.”
Shan Rong’en’s shoulder twitched slightly.
He only vaguely knew that Ning Zhuo had been injured while saving his son, but he didn’t realize it was this serious.
The wound was on the left side; just a little further, and it would have pierced his heart, killing him on the spot.
The severity of this wound was worth much more than one hundred thousand.
Shan Rong’en used a clean linen handkerchief from his upper pocket to wipe his nose, showing what little compassion he had through his offer: “One hundred eighty thousand. For good fortune.”
Ning Zhuo buttoned his shirt. “Thank you.”
Boss Fu’s expression remained calm, not the least bit annoyed that Ning Zhuo had publicly overruled his decision. Instead, he cheerfully bent over to pour them more tea. “Have some tea, have some tea.”
Ning Zhuo straightened his collar. “I’ll bring him.”
Shan Rong’en: “I’ll leave it to you.”
When Ning Zhuo reached the door, he paused slightly.
He asked, “What’s his name?”
Shan Rong’en looked up, smiling faintly. “Oh? He didn’t tell you?”
Ning Zhuo nodded and didn’t respond further, stepping out.
Min Min, who had been listening in the whole time, quickly followed him out, brewing a stomach full of words. Just as he was about to speak, he saw Ning Zhuo suddenly turn around—
“—Investigate.”
Ning Zhuo’s voice was emotionless: “There’s a flaw in our security system. They’ve been watching us for so long; why didn’t anyone notice?”
Min Min was stunned by his cold stare and didn’t dare say another word. All his intended comfort condensed into a single reply: “Yes.”
Leaving Min Min behind, Ning Zhuo’s tightly suppressed anger gradually surged within him, burning him to the point where he couldn’t stand straight. He bent forward, leaning against the wall while pressing down on his stomach, which felt like it was on fire.
He rested against the wall for a while before lifting his cold eyes and walking step by step toward his room.
When he placed his hand on the doorknob, Ning Zhuo felt as though he had been scalded by the icy coldness, the muscles in his forearm twitching a few times.
For a moment, he almost had the urge to turn around and leave.
But the impulse disappeared in an instant.
He pushed the door open.
The young master had changed into a pair of denim overalls, clothes Ning Zhuo had bought for him, making him look both playful and upright.
In the past three months, the young master had grown slightly taller. He had specifically come to Ning Zhuo to show off several times, usually by pulling on his old clothes and dramatically sighing, “Oh no, aren’t these a bit short?”
Ning Zhuo was very frugal when it came to clothing. Year-round, he wore nothing but black or white.
He knew the young master was much more lively than he was and needed brighter colors to match.
Now, all those clothes were included in the one hundred eighty thousand in compensation. It was well worth it.
Hearing the door open, the young master hadn’t even turned around before his eyes were already gleaming with a bright smile.
“Ning-ge, come have some tea!” His voice was as cheerful and crisp as sunshine, “Wolfberries, fresh ginger, red dates—I begged a little bit of each from the older brothers and sisters. There’s not much, so I’ll be watching to make sure you finish it all!”
Ning Zhuo: “No rush.”
He closed the door but didn’t approach Xiao Bai, only leaning against it and observing him from a distance.
With just those two words, Xiao Bai could already tell something was off in Ning Zhuo’s tone.
Likewise, Ning Zhuo could see a slight shift in Xiao Bai’s expression.
This made Ning Zhuo realize that Xiao Bai was far more perceptive than he had imagined.
…So smart, it was annoying.
Xiao Bai straightened up, lowered his head, and thought for a moment.
He knew a guest had arrived at the base.
Lifting his head, he directly pointed out the crux of the issue: “Ge, my dad came, didn’t he?”
Ning Zhuo’s tone carried sarcasm: “Yeah. Back from the dead, a biological miracle.”
Xiao Bai licked his dry lips and muttered, trying to sound casual: “…Seriously. So, what do you need me to do?”
When Ning Zhuo first entered the room, he had been seething with volcanic anger, ready to make Xiao Bai face the consequences.
But when he saw Xiao Bai’s young face, his tightly wound shoulders relaxed, and an overwhelming fatigue washed over him. “Go home, young master.”
Ning Zhuo no longer wanted to play this pretend game with him.
His time and energy were precious, and he had already wasted three months on this.
To his surprise, that sentence seemed to hit a nerve with Xiao Bai.
He jerked his head up, his entire body bristling like a cornered animal: “Ning-ge?! You promised not to abandon me!”
“When you were Xiao Bai; of course, I wouldn’t have abandoned you.” Ning Zhuo shook his head slightly. “But who are you now? I don’t know.”
Xiao Bai’s voice became urgent: “I-I’m called Shan Feibai. Feibai is a style in calligraphy, and I was born in November—”
Ning Zhuo flatly nodded: “Oh. So your birthday is fake too.”
He had told Ning Zhuo before that he was born in spring and wanted an electronic cat as a birthday gift.
Ning Zhuo had scoffed at it but still looked up the price of the electronic cat.
“Have your miracle dad buy you the gift,” Ning Zhuo said with a bitter smile. “I’ve done my part in entertaining you, and one hundred and eighty thousand is worth it.”
Shan Feibai froze.
When he spoke again, his voice trembled with disbelief, as if on the verge of tears: “One hundred and eighty thousand, and you’re just selling me off?”
Ning Zhuo’s head throbbed with pain. He wanted to grab some peppermint oil to soothe it, but he knew now wasn’t the time.
He directly stabbed at Shan Feibai’s heart with his words: “One hundred and eighty thousand is what your father offered. I only asked for one hundred thousand.”
“You—”
Xiao Bai’s chest heaved with anger, and it looked like Ning Zhuo had driven him to the edge of madness. “You, you, you’re breaking your promise!”
He lunged forward, grabbing Ning Zhuo’s collar. “Fight him for me! You’re so strong—don’t you know he’s just a worthless coward? You just need a gun, a knife, to stand in front of him! He’s scared of you! You just need to say that you’ll keep me, and I’m willing—”
“Why should I fight him? For you? Are you that important?”
Ning Zhuo opened his eyes, his tone indifferent: “What would I want with a deceitful, hollow young master? The Shan family young master thinks too highly of himself.”
Shan Feibai trembled all over from Ning Zhuo’s words, his hands tightly twisting his shirt, staring at Ning Zhuo with tears streaming down his pale face, his breath hitching as he gasped for air: “You, Ning Zhuo, you—”
Both of them were so furious at each other that it felt like the anger was eating them up from the inside. They glared at one another as though they had become enemies.
Shan Feibai lowered his head, took a few deep breaths, and finally managed to steady his emotions.
“Yes, I can’t stay,” he said softly. “The old man will say you kidnapped me.”
After mumbling that to himself, Shan Feibai raised his head again: “Ning-ge, I’ll go now. I lied to you in the beginning because I didn’t know what kind of person you were. Later, I knew, but I had lied too much. I know you hate that… Sorry for all the trouble.”
Having said that politely, he seemed on the verge of crying again and lowered his eyes. “Just remember me a little, that’s all.”
At this point, the farewell, although rushed and awkward, could at least be kept superficially polite.
But Ning Zhuo had never been one for politeness.
He felt like Shan Feibai had played him for a fool.
Ning Zhuo had always been a savage.
If he was hurt, he would make sure the one who caused him pain suffered a hundredfold.
He coldly tore away the layer of pretense and courtesy: “Why should I remember you?”
Shan Feibai, crushed under the weight of the impending separation, suddenly looked up at Ning Zhuo.
“What’s your name? Oh, Shan Feibai. I forgot; I only learned that a minute ago.”
On the surface, Ning Zhuo appeared calm, but his fists behind his back were clenched tightly, like iron.
He used his mechanical hand to push aside the fabric on his shoulder, exposing the wound again: “Even if I remember those three kidnappers, I won’t remember you. At least they left me this. What did you leave me?”
Ning Zhuo took a deep breath, his heart tightening with bitterness: “…A fake person. A pile of lies. What could I possibly remember about you? What makes you worthy of being remembered?”
As Ning Zhuo finished speaking, his temples throbbed painfully.
Shan Feibai’s expression froze.
After a moment, he slowly walked toward Ning Zhuo.
Ning Zhuo looked into his sorrowful eyes, gritting his teeth as he forced down the lump in his throat.
When Shan Feibai reached him, he kneeled on the ground, looking up at him as if gazing at a dream or a deity.
Ning Zhuo waved him off with an indifferent face: “Don’t. Go kneel to your parents. I can’t take this…”
However, Shan Feibai hadn’t kneeled to thank him.
The next second, he suddenly lunged up and bit down hard on Ning Zhuo’s finger.
Of course, it wasn’t his right hand.
The pain shot straight to Ning Zhuo’s heart. He reacted quickly, kicking Shan Feibai to the ground face-first. Then, still riding his leftover anger, he drew the leather whip hanging from his boot and lashed out at him.
The strike was vicious, snapping one of the straps of Shan Feibai’s overalls.
A large, bloody mark appeared on his back.
The suddenness of the attack left Ning Zhuo more confused than in pain.
Even though his finger was slightly deformed from the bite, with blood dripping from his ring finger, Ning Zhuo didn’t pay it any mind.
His focus was on this child, someone he had carefully cared for over the past three months but had never truly understood.
Shan Feibai didn’t show any pain. He merely glanced at the blood seeping from his shoulder, as if it were just a puddle of spilled water.
He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb and calmly said, “Ning-ge, I know you don’t like anything my dad or I give you.”
“Ge, I just thought, since you have a hole in your shoulder, you’ll definitely have a scar. So, I’ll give you a scar too.”
“It wouldn’t be fair for you to only remember them. You have to remember me too.”
“Remember you?”
Ning Zhuo laughed at his twisted reasoning, raising his foot and pushing Shan Feibai’s shoulder, effortlessly flipping him over: “Get lost, you little mutt.”
A perfectly good person, but with such a dog-like appearance!
Shan Feibai stood up, bowed to him, and gracefully rolled away.
Before leaving, he took one of Ning Zhuo’s jackets and draped it over himself, covering the whip marks on his back.
Ning Zhuo didn’t see him off.
He sat by the bed, sitting there for a long time.
He sat for so long that the dull pain in his finger eventually reminded him of its injury.
Shan Feibai’s bite had been precise, determined, and ruthless—likely hitting the bone.
He had intended to leave a permanent scar.
Ning Zhuo began to regret letting Shan Feibai go so easily.
So, he reached out and summoned the transparent personal screen, just in time to see Shan Feibai and his father walking out of the reception room.
There was no emotional reunion, no tears, hugs, or joy at being found.
Shan Rong’en’s expression was composed and dignified, while Shan Feibai showed no trace of the hysteria he had displayed earlier.
The two of them looked as if they had just finished a business dinner. The guests hadn’t left yet, so they stood side by side, still wearing their official, polite masks as they greeted and saw people off.
But every time Shan Feibai passed a surveillance camera, he would glance up at it.
It seemed as though he was waiting for a plea that would never come.
After waiting for too long, his eyes seemed to glisten.
He lowered his head slightly and sniffed, asking, “How did you find me?”
Shan Rong’en didn’t respond, walking ahead, continuing his elegant and steady pace.
Shan Feibai wasn’t asking his father anyway.
He turned his gaze toward the butler beside him.
Ning Zhuo sensed that the butler seemed a bit afraid of Shan Feibai.
Facing such a child, the butler swallowed nervously and answered with great solemnity: “On the day you went missing, we used some connections from ‘White Shield’ and traced you to that farm. A man’s jaw had been shattered, leaving him severely injured and unconscious. Another cyborg was already dead. We rescued the one still alive and got him to write down some information. He said you were taken by a man with a mechanical right arm. He…”
Shan Feibai, in his soft, youthful voice, said slowly: “Oh, that guy was pretty loyal. There were three kidnappers in total, and the others were probably lightly injured and escaped afterward, right?”
“After you treat him, send him to a prison ranked in the bottom three for conditions. Any one of them will do.”
“Find the one who escaped. I’ll provide a sketch for you.”
“Find him, and send him where he belongs.”
Shan Feibai spoke so nonchalantly about how to deal with the kidnappers.
Ning Zhuo finally realized that this child, whether sincere or pretending, had never shown him his true self.
…Except for that bite—it was the only real thing.
—He had been completely outplayed.
Filled with fury, Ning Zhuo glanced at the cup neatly placed by his bedside and found it irritating. He picked it up and drank it all in one go.
The jujube, wolfberry, and ginger tea had cooled, sliding sweetly down his throat and igniting a small fire in his stomach.
Ning Zhuo no longer looked at the floating surveillance screen, not caring about the remaining scenes.
It wasn’t until two years later, while reviewing the surveillance points in and around the base, that he found an old recording.
As Shan Feibai approached the high-end hovercar that had come to pick him up, he paused slightly and bent down.
When he stood up again, he was holding a newly-bloomed wildflower from early spring.
Shan Feibai played with the flower for a long time, tossing it around in his hands.
When he couldn’t find anyone to give it to, he eventually crushed it, bit by bit, between his fingers.
Ning Zhuo, sinking into his chair, staring at this remnant of past emotions, suddenly felt an urge to go outside, to the hillside, and see if any flowers were blooming there.
But he didn’t go.
The flowers in the surveillance footage were already from two years ago.
Facing the screen, Ning Zhuo raised his hand and pressed the “delete” button.
His ring finger twitched with a faint ache.
But Ning Zhuo knew it was just an illusion.
__
Author’s note:
Both of them completely lost control.
