Chapter 34 "Little Ci, don't be afraid."...
Bars were bustling with activity during the New Year period, with booths and private rooms in high demand.
Zhou Yiyang called a little late and could only reserve a booth by the window. Around six o'clock, he called Sheng Yu, but it took several tens of seconds for her to answer. Sheng Yu's lazy and impatient voice came through.
"What's up?"
"You had insomnia again last night?" Zhou Yiyang asked casually. "Want to come to One for drinks tonight?"
Sheng Yu became more sober: "Send me the address."
Having received an answer, Zhou Yiyang continued his rambling, asking, "Where's Xiao Tangci? I haven't seen her lately?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Sheng Yu said, "Hang up."
The busy signal rang out, and Jin Ming, who was curled up on the sofa playing games, turned around: "Did he break up with that bookworm?"
Zhou Yiyang shrugged, indicating that he didn't know either. He picked up the game controller from the coffee table, sat back down on the sofa, and joined the battle.
Jin Ming popped a cherry tomato into his mouth and mumbled between chews, "I told you two wouldn't last long, they're not a good match at all."
Zhou Yiyang paused, tilting his head to look at him: "Don't say things like that again."
Jin Ming swallowed the tomato in his mouth and asked in confusion, "What can't be said? So many girls who used to fawn over Brother Yu all broke up after a while."
Zhou Yiyang said calmly, "Tang Ci is different."
"I think they're all the same." Jin Ming pouted. "Yu-ge is just interested in her because she's new. He'll get tired of her soon enough."
Zhou Yiyang shook his head and ignored him.
One Bar.
Several friends arrived at the booth one after another. Sheng Yu was the first to arrive. As usual, he was dressed in all black and sat on the sofa near the floor-to-ceiling window, scrolling through his phone while slowly sipping a glass of wine.
Jin Ming came over with a few girls, and greeted Sheng Yu when they saw her from afar.
Sheng Yu looked up from her phone and gestured with her chin towards him.
The girls following Jin Ming blushed immediately, huddled together, whispering among themselves, their eyes constantly glancing at Sheng Yu.
Before sitting down, Jin Ming called the waiter to bring out some board games, and then sat down next to Sheng Yu to boast: "Stop playing your Tetris, come play Monopoly."
He turned his head to look at his phone screen, and was stunned to see a screen full of numbers: "Seriously, bro? You're doing math problems at a bar?"
Zhou Yiyang tossed the dice over and glanced at Jin Ming with disdain: "Don't you have any culture? This is called Sudoku."
Jin Ming, who hadn't paid attention in many classes, shrugged innocently: "That's scary enough."
With almost everyone present, the game officially began. Sheng Yu remained seated in the corner, casually tossing the dice. The dice rolled across the table, tugging at the hearts of the girls at the table.
Even though he was attracted to her, no one at the table dared to approach her. Rather than saying that Sheng Yu's mind wasn't on the girl, he even lost interest in playing games.
The only thing that could catch his attention was the phone on the table. Sheng Yu would light up the screen from time to time, but he would only look at it, seemingly waiting for a message from someone.
After the game went around a few times, Sheng Yu half-heartedly won most of the assets. As the game slowed down, more people started to approach him and chat.
A schoolgirl with pigtails, a white-collar worker in a skirt suit and red lipstick, an artist with waist-length hair—Sheng Yu lifts her eyelids, and her lines for rejecting people remain unchanged, except for a simple "I'm sorry."
His coldness was obvious. Most of the women who tried to chat him up left awkwardly. But the woman with pigtails was not discouraged and came back several times under different pretexts, either to borrow tissues or to ask for directions.
Sheng Yu was not surprised and dismissed the man with a few words.
One last time, the girl with twin ponytails simply brought over her wine glass and started befriending everyone at the table, almost sitting down next to Sheng Yu.
Sheng Yu reached out and grabbed Jin Ming's bag, then tossed it onto the empty seat next to him.
The girl with pigtails stiffened for a moment, then steeled herself, pretending nothing had happened, and moved closer, only to trip over the corner of the table with her platform shoes.
Her body and arm swayed, and half a glass of wine spilled onto Sheng Yu's arm.
The atmosphere instantly turned cold. Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. The girl with pigtails regretted her carelessness and took a step back to meet Sheng Yu's cold gaze, explaining in a dry voice, "Handsome, I really didn't mean to this time."
Sheng Yu raised an eyebrow and scoffed, "So the previous times were intentional."
The girl with pigtails rubbed her hands together, clearly disillusioned, and said seriously, "How about I pay you back for the clothes?"
Sheng Yu frowned and waved his hand, his gaze already shifting away from her: "Just don't come again."
After the girl with twin ponytails left, Zhou Yiyang rolled the dice and laughed, "Brother Yu, your charm is getting greater and greater. You can make girls run errands for you four or five times."
One of the boys chimed in, "That's what they call 'the unattainable is always more alluring.' The more you ignore it, the more others will cherish it."
Jin Ming shouted, "Isn't this just being a simp?"
Sheng Yu looked away from his phone screen, which was blank, and did not join the discussion. His expression was even more stern than before, completely out of place in the bustling and mundane bar, as if he were in a detached meditation.
He lowered his eyelashes, picked up the dice, and was about to throw them when his phone, which was off, rang.
Sheng Yu ignored him, twisted his wrist, and the dice jumped and rolled on the table, stopping at the five.
He then slowly glanced at his phone, saw the caller's name, and answered it indifferently.
The person opposite him only said one sentence, and his brow furrowed suddenly. As he stood up, his knee slammed against the edge of the table, causing the table to screech.
Sheng Yu was surrounded by an aura of anxiety and malice. He quickly asked the person on the other end of the phone for the address, ignored everyone at the table, and ran out the door.
A moment of deathly silence fell over the booth. Then someone asked, "What's wrong with Brother Yu?"
Zhou Yiyang was closest to Sheng Yu and vaguely heard the words "billiard hall" coming from Sheng Yu's phone. He gripped his wine glass, pondered for a few seconds, then decisively got up, called Jin Ming, and followed.
/
The old streets and alleys, soon to be demolished, are a maze of dilapidated walls, and it's pitch black all around.
A faint panting sound came from around the corner. Tang Ci's heart was about to leap out of her throat, her ears began to ring, and her breathing rate became abnormal.
She leaned against the dilapidated wall, realizing she couldn't run anymore.
But Lin Yao was still leading people to search for her location, and the rustling footsteps and voices constantly tugged at her nerves.
Once her heartbeat had calmed down a bit, Tang Ci ran in the dark toward the right-hand street leading to the main road, but heard hurried footsteps coming from the right.
Tang Ci's heart leaped to her head again. She held her breath and observed a pile of construction waste as tall as a person in the dead-end alley to her left.
She tiptoed back along the wall, quickly disappearing into the shadows of the scrap.
Just as she curled up into a ball and squatted down, a blinding light shone into the alley.
The bald man, not seeing Tang Ci in the shadows, put his hands on his hips and shone his flashlight elsewhere, cursing, "Where could that little bitch be hiding? She wouldn't have gone out, would she?"
Lin Yao lit a cigarette with a snap: "She can't escape; there are people guarding several intersections."
Tang Ci broke out in a cold sweat, thankful that she hadn't run towards the exit. Through the gaps in the wood, she saw several more thugs arriving at the intersection.
They were probably tired from chasing, so they either squatted or stood and started smoking.
The blond guy arrived last, took a cardboard box from his pocket, opened it, and spread it out in front of everyone: "Want some hand-rolled cigarettes?"
Lin Yao stubbed out his cigarette against the wall, took a few clumps of dry leaves from Huang Mao's hand, wrapped them in cigarette paper, and put them in his mouth.
As the lighter ignited the cigarette, a foul and pungent odor instantly filled the entire dark alley.
Tang Ci carefully covered her mouth and nose, and through the gaps in the building materials, she saw several thugs smoking what they called hand-rolled cigarettes, looking dazed and stiff.
Realizing what the group of people were doing, Tang Ciqiang suppressed her fear and reached into the inner pocket of her backpack, where she found the new cell phone that Sheng Yu had given her.
Tang Ci turned the phone's light down to the lowest setting, carefully wrapped it in her clothes, and aimed the camera at the gaps in the building materials.
The camera captured Lin Yao casually flicking off a bit of cigarette ash: "Once we catch her, we'll let her taste some good stuff too."
The bald man paused for a moment, then laughed: "Is this why Sheng Yu broke up with you?"
Lin Yao's expression was ferocious under the beam of the flashlight: "His beloved woman also smokes? I want to see what he'll do then?"
Tang Ci's hand trembled slightly, and she bit her lower lip to steady herself. She kept the phone hidden in her bag until she had recorded the process of them rolling cigarettes.
/
As soon as Sheng Yu got out of the taxi, he ignored the phone calls that kept going unanswered and headed straight for the intricate network of dark alleys.
He stood under a tree across the street and saw one or two thugs guarding each of the two alley exits. His back teeth clenched suddenly, but his heart, which had been hanging in suspense, calmed down a little.
The presence of guards means that Lin Yao and his group have not left yet, and Tang Ci has most likely not been found.
As he leaped onto the wall, he saw a crushed cell phone at the bottom. The old black casing was smashed into pieces; it was Tang Ci's phone.
His face darkened, and he walked along the wall, using his palms to support himself on the tree trunk as he jumped onto the higher rooftop. Then he searched for the figure below the wall, one alley after another.
The evergreen trees in this abandoned neighborhood grew wildly, their lush branches providing him with excellent cover.
Sheng Yu silently passed by a few thugs under the wall and spotted Lin Yao.
He stubbed out his cigarette and led his men to scatter to the north. Behind them, in a dead-end alley, a small figure was huddled under a pile of rubble.
It's easy to overlook if you don't look closely.
As the breath he had been holding in finally dissipated, Sheng Yu suddenly realized how foolish and ridiculous his deliberate distancing during this period had been.
Once Lin Yao and his group were a little further away, Sheng Yu jumped down, bracing himself against the wall.
Tang Ci watched as the street corner returned to its empty state. She stretched her sore and numb calves slightly, then immediately pulled them back, preparing to wait until the footsteps faded away before going out to try her luck.
The sudden, soft thud behind her was no different from a clap of thunder. Tang Ci's nerves were on edge, her face turned pale with fright, and she almost screamed.
A dry, slightly warm palm suddenly covered her mouth and nose, and her back pressed against a broad chest.
Tang Ci's temples throbbed, and she smelled the raw scent of the person's palm, the unique aroma of a tree trunk that had been cut off.
The owner of the hand exerted a little force, turning her stiff neck and making her turn her head to look at him.
When Tang Ci saw those familiar dark pupils, all the strength in her body dissipated, her nose tingled, and her eyes uncontrollably welled up with tears.
Sheng Yu released her hand from her chest, gently pulled her into her arms, and patted her back softly, saying, "Little Ci, don't be afraid."
Tang Ci gripped his sleeve tightly, widened her eyes, and asked him in a low voice, "How did you know I was here?"
It couldn't be explained in a few words, so Sheng Yu soothingly patted her hair and said, "Let's go out first."
Tang Ci composed herself, got out of Sheng Yu's arms, and leaned over the edge of the wood to look out into the alley.
Without a word, Sheng Yu pulled her behind him, his usually calm and drooping eyes suddenly lifting sharply upon hearing the sound of the motorcycle.
Tang Ci grabbed his clothes and pressed her whole body against his back, clinging to him like a little animal.
Suddenly, some memories flashed through Sheng Yu's mind. In that hazy time before his eyes, someone was also pressed tightly against his back, and a little girl called him "brother" in a soft voice.
He rolled his Adam's apple, turned slightly to the side, and gestured above Tang Ci's head, which only reached his collarbone.
Tang Ci thought he had made some discovery, so she looked up and asked softly, "Have they gone far?"
Sheng Yu suddenly reached out and lifted her chin; the sharp, delicate touch made him squint.
He lowered his voice and asked, "Little one, is that you?"
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