winter
That morning, a loud bang on the door startled Cheng Xiaorui, who was drowsy, and Lu Ziyi, who was weakened by blood loss and restraints. Chen Zihan almost instantly jumped up from the sofa, his face showing the first sign of unexpected panic.
"Bang!" With a resounding bang, the apartment's sturdy security door was forcibly pried open by external tools, twisting and collapsing inward. Several muscular bodyguards in black suits swiftly filed in, instantly commandeering the entire living room. Their movements were professional and cold, without any unnecessary words.
Chen Zihan still wanted to resist, but the two bodyguards easily tied his hands behind his back. Like a trapped young animal, he struggled angrily and roared in vain: "Let me go! Did you send me from my mother?! Let me go!"
Ignoring his cries, one bodyguard expertly bound his hands and feet with prepared restraints, while another taped his mouth shut. The entire process took less than thirty seconds. Chen Zihan was roughly carried out like cargo and shoved into a waiting black van. Only his bloodshot eyes, filled with resentment and madness, stared intently through the car window into the room.
Cheng Xiaorui and Lu Ziyi, still dazed and weak, were carefully untied by several other bodyguards. The chains around Cheng Xiaorui's ankles were cut with specialized tools, leaving deep purple bruises. Both were covered with blankets and helped into separate ambulances, each taken to the hospital for examination and treatment.
After preliminary treatment and examination at the hospital, it was confirmed that both were not seriously injured, suffering primarily from superficial injuries, weakness, and stress. That afternoon, Lu Ziyi and Cheng Xiaorui, a still terrified look on his face, were taken to the Lu Group headquarters, to the imposing yet cold office of Chairman Lu Yu.
Behind the large desk sat Lu Yu with a sullen face, and next to him was a middle-aged woman with delicate makeup and eyes and eyebrows that looked somewhat similar to Chen Zihan, but at this moment her face was also frosty - Chen Ya, Chen Zihan's mother.
"Nonsense! This is a complete joke!" Lu Yu slammed the table, shaking the teacups so hard that they jumped. His sharp gaze swept across his son, Lu Ziyi, his forehead bandaged, his face pale but his back straight, then landed on Cheng Xiaorui, who trembled beside him, his head bowed. Finally, his expression snorted in a mixture of anger and disbelief.
"For him?" Lu Yu's finger was almost poking Cheng Xiaorui's nose, and his tone was full of condescending contempt. "You two! One is my son, Lu Yu, and the other is Chen Ya's son, who was carefully nurtured. You gave up your studies and bright future, and for such a... an unrelated person, you made a scene known to everyone, fought, and even committed such a horrific scandal as illegal imprisonment! Do you still have this family in your eyes? Do you still have rules?"
Chen Ya also stood up, her well-maintained face filled with grief and indignation. "Zi Yi, Zi Han is ignorant, why did you follow his lead and do such a foolish thing? You're going to take the college entrance exams soon! And then you'll go to top universities abroad for further studies. The future of the Lu and Chen companies will fall on your shoulders! Now, for an outsider, you've messed everything up. Do you think you can live up to our expectations?!"
The couple exchanged heated words, simplistically characterizing this tragedy, born of complex emotions and paranoia, as "ignorance," "nonsense," and a "scandal that will affect one's future." In their view, Cheng Xiaorui's presence was like a pebble dropped into a tranquil lake, disrupting the perfectly planned elite paths they had planned for their two sons.
"Ridiculous! This is absolutely ridiculous!" Lu Yu waved his hands in a weary and disgusted manner, as if to dispel something unclean. "I've already contacted the school and asked for a long vacation for you. From today on, the two of you, stay home and reflect on your mistakes, and prepare carefully for your applications to foreign universities! No one is allowed to go out without my permission, and you are not allowed to contact any irrelevant people!"
His final decision was to take his two "disobedient" sons back home and confine them, using physical isolation to forcibly cut off this mess.
After dealing with his "own" child, Lu Yu's gaze finally fell on Cheng Xiaorui, who had remained silent. There was no trace of sympathy in his eyes, only complete impatience and a cold desire to clear up the trouble as soon as possible.
He pulled a checkbook from his suit pocket, signed a number in a flamboyant manner, tore it off, and handed it to the assistant beside him. The assistant understood and placed the light yet heavy check on the coffee table in front of Cheng Xiaorui.
"Student Cheng," Lu Yu said in a voice devoid of emotion, "Here's some money. It's enough for you to leave this city and start a new life somewhere else, finish high school, and even support yourself through college."
He paused, his tone carrying an unquestionable final verdict: "Take it and leave here. Never appear in front of Ziyi and Zihan again, and never disturb their lives again. This is the best ending for you, and for all of us."
Cheng Xiaorui stared blankly at the check, the zeros on it like mocking circles. He had lost his mother, experienced imprisonment and fear, and in the end, all he got in return was a cold "compensation" and a lighthearted "leave."
"Dad! You--!" Lu Ziyi panicked instantly. He wanted to stop this behavior, but was interrupted by Lu Yu's voice.
"Shut up!" Lu Yu glanced at him.
Cheng Xiaorui did not look at Lu Ziyi, nor did he pick up the check. He just turned around numbly, like a doll with its soul drained out, and walked out of this office that symbolized power and cruelty silently under the "escort" of bodyguards.
The door closed behind him, separating two worlds. In one world, there was confinement and a predetermined elite future; in the other world, there was a young man, scarred and with a broken heart, exiled to an unknown and lonely future.
Assistant Lu Yu drove Cheng Xiaorui downtown and forced the check he hadn't taken. The car door closed, the engine whirred away, and he was left alone on the busy street, like a piece of discarded garbage. The check in his pocket pricked his skin, like a red-hot iron, marking the shame of his "dealing."
Where should he go? What should he do?
His mind went blank. A flood of grief and bewilderment washed over him like a tide. He couldn't even feel the pain of the bruise left by the chain on his ankle, nor the itch of the scab forming on the wound. A deeper, more complete feeling of powerlessness gripped him, even more intense than when he was imprisoned by Chen Zihan. Back then, at least he still had anger, a desire to struggle, a longing for freedom. But now, even that faint flame had gone out.
He moved on instinct, like a wandering spirit. When he regained consciousness, he found himself at the school gate. A place that once held a glimmer of struggle and hope now seemed nothing but irony. He didn't enter. Instead, under the guard's skeptical gaze, he asked for a withdrawal form.
He leaned against the cold wall and filled out the form stroke by stroke with trembling hands. In the column of "Reason for dropping out", he paused for a long time and finally wrote only four words: "Personal reasons".
When he handed the form to the teacher in the Academic Affairs Office, the teacher who had encouraged him looked at him in surprise: "Cheng Xiaorui? You're...taking the college entrance exam soon. You have good grades. If you have any difficulties, the school can help you..."
Cheng Xiaorui simply shook his head, forced a smile uglier than tears, whispered "Thank you, teacher," and turned to leave. He didn't even have the courage to go back to the classroom to pack his books. There were too many memories there: Chen Zihan's once fake sunny smile, Lu Ziyi's cold but occasionally complex gaze... Everything was over.
He went to the old house where he and his mother had lived together for so many years. He opened the door with the key he had lost and found, now meaningless. The familiar smell of home, tinged with his mother's scent, instantly brought tears to his eyes. He sat alone in that empty house, filled with memories, for a long time, from sunrise to sunset.
Finally, he contacted an agent and quickly sold this last and only harbor in his life at a price far below the market price. He could no longer live here. Every inch of air was a reminder of everything he had lost.
Cheng Xiaorui deposited the money Lu Yu had given him, along with all the proceeds from the sale of his house, into a single card. This sum, bought with his mother's home, his dignity, and that twisted relationship, weighed so heavily on him that he could barely hold the card.
He didn't tell anyone, nor did he have anyone to say goodbye to. On a gray morning, he carried a simple bag and bought a ticket for the earliest train to an unfamiliar coastal town in the south.
The train slowly started to move. The familiar city receded and shrank outside the window, eventually disappearing from view. Cheng Xiaorui leaned against the cold window, watching the blurry scenery passing by quickly, his face expressionless.
He had no future, no plans. He didn't know what awaited him in that small town, and he didn't even know why he went there. Perhaps it was simply because it was far enough away, far enough to bury everything that had happened here, far enough to allow him to slowly lick his wounds in the sea breeze, where no one knew him, or... slowly rot.
The train roared, carrying a young man who had lost his home, his mother, his studies, his friends, and almost all hope, heading towards an unknown and empty future.
The snowflakes seem to have stopped falling. This winter is so painful, as if it will never end.
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