Chapter 13
The moment the car door closed, it was as if all the sounds and light from the outside world were shut out. The interior was filled with the scent of high-quality leather and a cool fragrance—luxurious, yet cold and devoid of any human warmth.
The engine roared to life as it started, smoothly gliding into traffic. The back seat was spacious, yet felt like an icebox.
Jiang Ci sat pressed tightly against the car door, trying to keep as much distance as possible from his father. He lowered his eyes, staring at his fingers, which were white from the effort, his whole body tense, like a small animal caught in a trap but refusing to show any weakness.
Jiang's father did not speak immediately. He did not even look at Jiang Ci. He just stared at the passing street scene outside the window, his fingertips slowly tapping on the leather armrest. Each tap hit Jiang Ci's tense nerves.
After a long, suffocating silence, Jiang's father's voice rang out. It wasn't loud, even steady, but it cut into the deathly silence with the precision of a scalpel:
"Looks like transferring schools didn't teach you a lesson. You're still so easily fooled by some clueless people with a little cheap kindness."
Jiang Ci's eyelashes trembled violently, and her fingertips dug deeply into her palms.
“Just like your mother,” Jiang’s father’s voice revealed an undisguised disgust and cold sarcasm, “He can’t judge people well, acts on his emotions, and in the end, he hurts himself and others.”
The word "Mom" was like a red-hot branding iron, scalding Jiang Ci's most bleeding wound. He abruptly looked up, his eyes instantly red, not from sadness, but from immense anger and the pain of being desecrated. He stared intently at his father's cold face, his voice hoarse and broken, squeezed out from between his teeth:
You are not worthy to mention her!
"I'm not worthy?" Jiang's father finally turned his face and looked at him directly. There was no fatherly affection in his eyes, only the pickiness and impatience of examining goods. "Then who is worthy? That senior who used you and then exposed your homosexuality, ruining your reputation? Or that poor kid from just now, pretending to be something he'd like and trying to curry favor with you?"
"Xie Qingyan isn't!" Jiang Ci roared uncontrollably. He felt heartbroken for his mother, and even more furious that Xie Qingyan had been so slandered. "He's not like any of those people you're talking about! He doesn't know anything! He's just..."
"What is he just?" Jiang's father interrupted him, his tone carrying an all-knowing understanding, yet even more cruel. "Just because he pities you? Just because he simply wants to help you? Jiang Ci, wake up. There's no such thing as kindness without a reason. What he values is either your grades or the shadow of the Jiang family behind you. You think he's being kind and righteous just because he rushes out and says a few nice words? How naive!"
“He’s not that kind of person!” Jiang Ci retorted, but his father’s logic, based on interests and calculations, was like an impenetrable wall, making his arguments seem so pale and powerless. In his father’s world, pure goodwill did not exist.
"What guarantees do you have? You've made the same guarantees before, and what was the result? You were used, abandoned, and proven to be utterly worthless. Jiang Ci, don't be naive."
Jiang Ci felt a chill run down his spine.
His father's words were like the most vicious curse, forcing him to confront the deepest fears in his heart.
"I don't want to hear your nonsense anymore." Jiang's father lost his last bit of patience, his tone resolute as he uttered his final verdict, "From today onwards, cut off all contact with that Xie Qingyan. I will have a driver pick you up and drop you off on time every day, and you can go straight home after school."
Home? That cold villa, with its stepmother's harsh gaze? That's just a magnificent cage!
Jiang Ci felt a suffocating despair. "What right do you have..."
"Just because I'm your father! Just because you eat my food, wear my clothes, and live in my house!" Jiang's father's voice suddenly rose, carrying an undeniable air of authority. "Jiang Ci, I'm warning you, if you continue to misbehave and associate with these shady characters, trying to challenge my bottom line..."
He paused, his gaze like that of a hawk seizing Jiang Ci, and then spoke each word clearly and coldly:
“I don’t mind letting you and Xie Qingyan both experience what it means to pay the price. For example, his parents’ vegetable garden, which they depend on for a living, or whether he might suddenly lose the opportunity to take the college entrance examination because of some character issues.”
Every word was like a poisoned ice pick, piercing Jiang Ci's heart.
He knew his father was capable of anything. To maintain his ridiculous facade and absolute control, he was capable of anything. His mother couldn't stand this control and indifference back then... And Xie Qingyan, the Xie family... they were so ordinary, living so diligently, yet they were so fragile and vulnerable in the face of his father's power.
A raging fire burned fiercely in Jiang Ci's chest, threatening to consume him. He wanted to roar, to rebel, to smash everything in the car!
But then, Xie Qingyan's clear eyes, the warm light of the Xie family home, Xie's mother's kind smile as she served food... all flashed before his eyes. He couldn't, he couldn't drag Xie Qingyan into the mire any further, he couldn't let the only home that had ever given him warmth suffer an undeserved disaster because of him.
The power that had sustained his roar deflated like a balloon punctured by a needle. After the raging fire died down, only endless, cold ashes remained.
All his struggles and resistance became a joke in the face of his father's absolute power and ruthless threats.
Slowly, extremely slowly, he loosened his clenched fists. His straight back gradually hunched over, as if bearing an immense weight.
Finally, he lowered his head, his stray hairs obscuring his bloodshot eyes and the last glimmer of light within them.
With all his might, he squeezed out a broken, numb word from deep within his throat:
"good."
The sound was so soft it was almost inaudible.
Inside the car, deathly silence returned, colder and more desperate than before.
Jiang Ci felt that the faint but warm little lamp in her heart, which Xie Qingyan had just lit, was completely and ruthlessly extinguished by her father's cold words.
Only darkness remained.
The car drove smoothly toward that magnificent yet cold cage. Jiang Ci looked out the window at the rapidly receding, gradually lighting up thousands of lights. Not one of them was left for him, and no one would rush out to protect him as he was being dragged away.
He slowly and very gently crumpled the note Xie Qingyan had written for him in his pocket into a ball and clenched it tightly in his sweaty palm.
It was as if he had stolen the last bit of warmth.
---
Dusk completely swallowed the last glimmer of light on the horizon. Xie Qingyan dragged his heavy steps home.
The small but warm room was brightly lit, and the aroma of food filled the air. Xie's mother was carrying the last dish out of the kitchen, while Xie's father had already set out the bowls and chopsticks. When they saw their son enter alone, they both paused for a moment in surprise.
"Xiao Yan's back? Quickly wash your hands and come eat. I made your favorite sweet and sour pork ribs and sauerkraut fish!" Xie's mother greeted him with a smile, but her gaze involuntarily drifted behind him. "Hey? Where's Xiao Ci? Didn't she come back with you?"
“Jiang Ci had some urgent business at home and his father took him back.” Xie Qingyan tried to make his tone sound normal, but the words “took him back” tasted slightly bitter on his tongue. It was clearly not going home, but being escorted away.
The dinner table was filled with the aroma of steam. Her parents inquired about her exams with concern, chatting casually. Xie Qingyan responded mechanically, but the food she picked up with her chopsticks tasted bland.
His thoughts had already drifted far away, firmly fixed on the person who was taken away in the black car.
How is Jiang Ci right now? Is he enduring cold rebukes, or even more hurtful insults? What expression does that pale face hold in such a suffocating environment? Is it his usual gloomy stubbornness, or utter, lifeless despair?
A strange, intense protective instinct surged through Xie Qingyan's chest. This feeling was so vivid that it even overwhelmed his initial bewilderment and anxiety about his situation upon arrival.
He recalled the sharp glint of true genius that occasionally flashed in Jiang Ci's eyes when he explained difficult problems; he recalled Jiang Ci's childish hair-pulling when he was frustrated; and he recalled the subtle, almost precious expression on his face when he silently ate every piece of meat that Xie's mother had placed on his plate.
Such a brilliant and talented person, with a mind as sharp as crystal, should have shone brightly in a wider world. But now he is being forcibly imprisoned in the cage controlled by his father, having his edges worn away, his spirit drained, and turning him into a refined walking corpse?
Isn't this another kind of murder? How similar in essence to his conspiracy to drown him in the lake in his previous life! Both are about destroying beauty and talent under the selfishness and cruelty of the closest people.
However, in his previous life, he was an unsuspecting victim. Now that he has witnessed it, he cannot stand by and watch the same thing happen to Jiang Ci.
A pain akin to shared suffering, and a deep understanding that transcended mere sympathy, gripped him tightly. They seemed to stand on opposite banks of the river of fate, separated by vast distances of time and space, yet both bearing the chill of being stripped of their achievements. He had lost the fame and life he had earned through ten years of hard work, while Jiang Ci was losing the future and self he had earned with his talent and sweat.
He couldn't save his past self, but perhaps... he could try to hold onto Jiang Ci in front of him.
Once the thought took hold, it spread like wildfire and could no longer be contained. He needed to do something, he had to do something.
"Xiao Yan? Why are you only eating rice and not vegetables? Are you too tired from the exam?" Xie's father's rough but gentle voice interrupted his turbulent thoughts. "Or is something on your mind?"
Xie Qingyan snapped back to reality, looking up at his parents' concerned faces. This family gave him unconditional warmth and support. Jiang Ci, on the other hand, had nothing.
A clear and urgent thought suddenly struck him—connection. He had to re-establish contact with Jiang Ci. In this era, the most common and crucial bond was…
He put down his chopsticks, sat up straight, and all his chaotic thoughts settled into a firm light in his eyes.
“Dad, Mom,” he began, his voice slightly trembling from the previous turmoil, yet unusually clear, “I feel I did alright on this mock exam. If… if my ranking could improve significantly,” he paused, then resolutely stated the tool that had become his new goal, “could I buy a cell phone?”
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