Chapter 71
Cheng Yanjin had just promised never to lay a hand on anyone again, but he broke his promise just two hours later.
When Lin Langyi got home, she changed into slippers and went straight to the study.
Cheng Yanjin followed behind her, and hearing her hurried footsteps, he eagerly followed as well, watching her take the miniature Taj Mahal from the bookshelf.
She fixed her phone to the stand, aimed it at the camera, and started recording.
"What are you doing?" Cheng Yanjin asked, puzzled.
"Don't talk." Lin Langyi took out a small pair of scissors and started to disassemble it.
Although small, the object was quite sturdy. She made a few cuts on the connecting lines, and the beads loosened, finally falling apart with a "crash".
She didn't care how many pearls bounced and rolled to the ground; she just coldly used scissors to pry open the model's core, finally revealing a black positioning listening device the size of a fingernail.
Cheng Yanjin's expression suddenly changed, his gaze fixed on it like churning clouds, and he was about to snatch it away.
Lin Langyi sat at the table with a cold face. With a flick of her wrist, she turned the scissors so that the sharp blade was pointing downwards and plunged them in.
Cheng Yanjin immediately stopped what he was doing.
The object was small, but surprisingly sturdy. The forceful blow landed squarely on it, and apart from slight wear on the surface, it was impossible to tell whether it was still working or not.
"Was this also sent by Bean Sprouts?" Cheng Yanjin's voice was as cold as a knife. "See if I don't kill him."
Before she could finish speaking, Lin Langyi's phone vibrated.
She dropped the scissors, bent down to pick up the phone, and saw the words "Chi Shu" clearly displayed on the screen.
That's impressive, daring to call her at a time like this.
Lin Langyi tossed a sentence at Cheng Yanjin, who seemed to want to break the chip-sized listening device to pieces: "Don't lose anything. Hand it over to the police later."
She walked out of the study, slammed the door shut, and headed towards the living room while answering the phone.
The environment on the other end of the phone was very quiet. Chi Shu was very close to the receiver, so close that the sound of his breathing seemed to be right next to her ear.
She waited for him to speak.
So he softly called out "Sister," as lightly as a feather falling onto the water's surface, without causing a ripple.
Lin Langyi refused with a cold face.
Chi Shu still covered her left cheek with one hand, on which a disposable hemostatic dressing was haphazardly applied. The transparent tape at the edges was rough and wrinkled, squeezing out grooves into the skin, like an ill-fitting face mask.
"Sister, why are you ignoring me?"
His palms were covered in his own blood, oh, and maybe some of it came from Bian Shu, but it didn't matter anymore, because the bloodstains had formed hard scabs, and if you rubbed them with your fingers, they would turn into dust and fall off in a flurry.
Lin Langyi sneered: "Why should I pay attention to a liar who's full of lies?"
Yuan Chuyu sent her all the information he had found, and Chi Shu was clearly not a poor student struggling financially.
On the contrary, he was an only child, his parents owned a small factory, and his family was well-off, so he didn't have to worry about food, drink, or other necessities.
His usual worn-out, faded clothes seemed like an irony at this moment, a mockery of others' sympathy.
Lin Langyi: "I was a little surprised at first. How could a student from such a poor family be able to learn an expensive art? But at that time you said that you were quite hardworking and worked part-time to support yourself. Since you mentioned this before, I believed you."
"Yes, I have to thank you, senior brother." He suddenly laughed, but perhaps because of the injury on his face, the laughter quickly changed, and he gasped for breath, feeling both pain and itchiness.
"I really didn't expect you to be such a good actor." Lin Lang felt a chill run down her spine when she thought of the injury on Bian Shu's arm. "Since you hate him so much, who were you trying to impress with that act of admiration and respect you put on in front of me and him?"
"It seems like not a single word you say is true. You hate him so much, yet you still try so hard to imitate him, to imitate his poor but excellent student persona, to imitate his fashion sense. Aren't you tired?"
"You already know?" His tone remained light and airy, like a duckweed blown by the wind, but the words he spoke sent chills down one's spine.
He said, "Well, from the very beginning, I hated him so much that I wanted him to die."
Lin Langyi frowned deeply, but before she could speak, she heard the elevator "ding" from the other side.
Chi Shu let out a soft "Ah," and said, "I've arrived."
What?
He said, "Sister, look at me, I'm right across from you."
It felt like a cold snake was coiling around my calf, the friction of its scales sending a shiver down my spine.
Lin Langyi froze for a moment, then looked out onto the balcony outside the living room as if she had a premonition.
The transparent sightseeing elevator doesn't show which floor it's on, but it's a different story if there are people inside.
She didn't even need to count; she was all too familiar with the angle from here looking down to the 17th floor.
Lin Langyi stood at the junction of the living room and the balcony, without walking towards the terrace.
Chi Shu held her phone to her ear, her forehead resting against the elevator's viewing glass, staring intently at the opposite side.
He could only vaguely see the figures in the living room through a layer of snow-white diamond-studded curtains.
It wasn't very clear, but that didn't matter; he could still make out her features.
Chi Shu exclaimed, "Sister, you're so brave! You actually dared to buy a unit on the floor opposite!"
The blurry figure didn't move, and the breathing rate on the phone didn't change either.
She's so calm... no wonder... Chi Shu shifted her feet, her forehead still pressed against the glass, her hair rustling as it passed through.
He was a little excited, and a strange sense of pride and admiration rose within him. He said, "I really like you, sister. I really like your spirit."
“Who wouldn’t fall for you…” he sighed. “So Yuan Chuyu is also infatuated with you to this extent? Is 1702 your secret base?”
There was a large black duffel bag next to his legs: "I guess your fiancé doesn't know yet?"
"If he knew, he probably wouldn't be so calm."
Lin Langyi didn't believe that Chi Shu had any evidence. Yuan Chuyu said that he had asked the property management and no one else had come to retrieve the surveillance footage. Moreover, Yuan Chuyu had never been to 1702 since he first came to scout the place.
She thought Chi Shu was probably still "testing the waters" and said disdainfully, "Wishful thinking. Go ahead and tell me, should I give the phone to Cheng Yanjin right now?"
There was a brief silence on the other end.
Lin Langyi bet he wouldn't dare say that, after all, if that mad dog Cheng Yanjin were to make a move, he could rush over right now and beat him to a pulp.
Ke Chi Shu said in a vague tone, "Okay, let him answer the phone."
Lin Langyi frowned sharply and looked at the other side again.
Could he have actually obtained some evidence? She didn't recall making any phone calls to Yuan Chuyu from the study.
"But wait a moment. I don't want irrelevant people to disturb my time with Sister Langyi right now." Chi Shu squatted down and opened the duffel bag beside her. "Sister, could you come here for a second? I have something I want to show you."
"I have nothing more to say to you, and nothing more to see you about." Lin Langyi glanced at the clock on the wall, calculating in her mind when the police would arrive.
Chi Shu sighed heavily with sadness: "I won't do anything to you, sister. No matter what, I would never hurt you."
"Really? You're making it sound so nice, I was almost convinced the locator had accidentally fallen in there."
Lin Langyi flung open the sliding door to the balcony, stepped onto the terrace, looked across, and said, "Chi Shu, never call me again, and never come looking for me again."
Chi Shu remained silent for a long time, still squatting, with an open, bulging duffel bag in front of him.
He touched his face again; the crooked, ill-fitting bandage must be so ugly that it was unbearable to look at.
"Yeah, from now on, we won't see each other again." He ran his fingertips along the creases, then smiled at the person on the opposite balcony. "I'm not pretty anymore."
Lin Langyi turned to go back to the living room when the voice on the phone suddenly became anxious: "Langyi, wait a minute! I, I'll sing you one last song, the same one we sang when we first met, The West Chamber."
Lin Langyi paused, unable to connect the Romance of the Western Chamber with Chi Shu in her mind.
Chi Shu picked up the shoulder strap of the duffel bag, turned it over, and dumped all the contents of the bag onto the ground.
Cosmetics in bottles and jars: foam strips, decorative tops, water gauze, sheets, butterfly strings, phoenix-shaped beads...
There are also peach-pink water sleeves and colorful shoes.
"I'm quick with my makeup." He put his phone on speakerphone on the ground and started tightening the head patch. "I'll try to be dressed before the police arrive."
Lin Langyi stood blankly on the terrace, watching Chi Shu's hurried yet orderly movements across the way.
He was probably worried that she would be bored during the waiting period, so he kept chatting with her: "I know you must have forgotten that the first time we met was not through Bian Shu's introduction, but backstage at the freshman party rehearsal."
"Wasn't the opera performance the grand finale? That 'teacher' was none other than the one I had hired. At that time, I was still a senior in high school and not a student at Y University. I was afraid people would laugh at me, so I came with full makeup."
Lin Langyi finally had fragmented flashback memories of this past.
Actually, the main character in that opera performance was not Cui Yingying, but rather the accompaniment provided by a group of freshmen who could play musical instruments.
The instruments include the pipa, guzheng, yueqin, dizi, jinghu, and the Western-style piano.
This "Cui Yingying" was hired from outside.
"It's you?" Lin Langyi recalled the opera teacher's slender waist and gentle, tender eyes, a veritable leading lady of the opera world.
At that time, Lin Langyi happened to be backstage. At first, the sweet and melodious opera singing of "Cui Yingying" made it impossible to tell that he was a male actor playing a female role, because apart from singing, he hardly interacted with anyone.
She listened intently, clapping and cheering several times.
If it weren't inconvenient to "reveal the trailer" before the official performance, she would have liked to record this heavenly voice on her phone.
Everything was perfect and harmonious until "Cui Yingying" went to the restroom on the way and was seen by the boy.
The ridicule of certain stereotypes comes very naturally, and of course, the use of phrases like "masculinity" is even more frequent, as if any adjective that carries even a hint of femininity is inferior.
Lin Langyi had only gone to the restroom temporarily, and after hearing the words at the entrance of the men's restroom that were even more stinky than the toilet stalls, she immediately cursed back.
Actually, she had forgotten what she had said at the time. Because there were many of them, and they were all her senior brothers in terms of age, she went all out and attacked them like a cannon firing at full power. She cursed those scoundrels so badly that they were not even worth a toe of "Cui Yingying". She showed no mercy to them.
Later, the group of men scattered like birds and beasts. She turned around, wanting to say a few words to this "Cui Yingying" teacher, but found that he had also left quietly at some point.
Later, I heard that the "Cui Yingying" teacher on the show refunded the entire order and even paid a "penalty for breach of contract." The show later found another teacher, and the performance still received a standing ovation.
“We actually met a long time ago.” Chi Shu didn’t even clear her throat before singing a few lines of opera, her voice as soft and melodious as pearls falling onto a plate.
Ten years of hard work offstage—a few words were all it took to bring Lin Langyi back to the memories of that backstage viewing experience.
“Actually, I usually practice secretly. There’s a stage in my hometown. When I was a child, my parents were busy at the factory, so I would go to the theater troupe and sing along.” He held up a mirror in one hand and drew his eyebrows with the other.
“My parents don’t approve of me wearing water sleeves. They say I’ve wasted my life raising this son, that he’s been possessed by an evil spirit.” After drawing his eyebrows, he started applying blush from his eye sockets and the bridge of his nose, sweeping on bright peach-red rouge, and then drawing his eyes.
“I asked my master to leave these clothes at the theater troupe. I brought two of them home before, but my dad saw them by accident and cut them up, so I had to throw them away.”
He looked around in the mirror, scrutinizing himself, and drew a charming, upturned hook at the corner of his eye: "Sister Langyi, you wanted to record a video last time but didn't have the chance. Are you going to record it again today?"
He was a master at applying makeup in front of the mirror, and because he didn't have any makeup on his face, the time was even shorter. In the end, he only needed to put on his costume over his thin summer clothes.
"But my makeup didn't go well today. I got a scratch on my face, so I could only do half of my face... so it probably doesn't look that good."
He turned slightly to face her, his waist slumped, and his two long, flowing sleeves overlapped gracefully. With tears streaming down his face, he turned his head toward her, his orchid-like fingers flicking, and the flowing sleeves on his fair wrists were pulled up and lifted, as beautiful as water.
There were no instruments, no accompaniment, and no lighting. After midnight, no one used the elevator anymore. He sang and danced alone in the narrow and cramped elevator, unable to even straighten his outstretched sleeves.
It's as if he's spent his whole life spying on others from the sidelines, watching them dance gracefully from below the stage.
Lin Langyi ran a hand through her hair, inwardly cursing herself for being too kind-hearted. She spoke into the phone, "Chi Shu, call and turn yourself in now. Your face can be fixed; with today's advanced cosmetic and medical technology, there's no need—"
The siren pierced the air, growing closer and closer. She heard it, and he, on the other end of the phone, naturally heard it too.
He began to spin around, the jewels on his head swaying gently, but his breathing remained long and steady, undisturbed in the slightest.
He sang: "Those who understand will know in their hearts, those who are moved will be heartbroken."①
"His music had not yet ended, but my feelings grew stronger."①
"Joy and sorrow, gathering and parting, are all contained in a cup of wine; across ten thousand miles, north, south, east, and west."①
Lin Langyi didn't hang up the phone; she changed her shoes and walked outside.
The police are almost here; it's safer to go to the other side now.
But as soon as she opened the door, Cheng Yanjin suddenly burst out of the study, carrying the dissected listening locator and all the collected pearls, shouting, "Lin Langyi, I'm all packed up. I've disassembled everything. Let's go call the police."
He had barely finished speaking when he saw her about to leave and paused, asking, "Where are you going?"
Lin Langyi: "...Go call the police."
She couldn't shake off Cheng Yanjin, who followed her everywhere, and she didn't bother arguing with him anymore. She quickly got off the elevator, crossed the underground parking lot, and pressed the button for the elevator opposite.
The journey was smooth and skillful, and Cheng Yanjin frequently glanced at her.
As the elevator descended, the doors opened to reveal Chi Shu, dressed in formal attire. Lin Langyi raised her arm to block Cheng Yanjin, making him take a few steps back.
He was pushed backward by her like a mule eager to be released from its stall, confused: "What are you doing?"
"You remember what I said, right?" Lin Langyi's gaze was still fixed on the constantly changing numbers on the display screen as she reminded him, "Don't start a fight."
"How could that be?!" Cheng Yanjin had no idea why Lin Langyi came here in the middle of the night. It was like he was traveling with a reliable friend. He didn't need to use his brain at all; he just needed to follow his friend who knew how to plan the trip.
Cheng Yanjin patted his chest and assured him, "Really, I'm not the kind of person who would just lay a hand on someone."
As soon as he finished speaking, the elevator arrived at the first floor and opened with a "ding".
The light inside poured down to the ground at an angle, and there was a special fragrance in the air, like dandelion seeds drifting aimlessly.
Cheng Yanjin twitched his nose and turned his gaze over.
Chi Shu turned to the side, her injured face turned away so that no one could see it.
"You—" Cheng Yanjin immediately lost his temper, kicking his leg as if to rush forward.
Lin Langyi grabbed the unruly, barking dog and calmly said, "The police have arrived."
Chi Shu didn't even blink, maintaining the bowing gesture that follows the end of a theatrical performance.
“I didn’t record it,” Lin Langyi said. “I think it didn’t sound as good as it did backstage that time, and I’m not satisfied with the costumes and props either.”
He nodded slightly, his demeanor reserved and gentle: "I'm starting to regret not performing for you before... Actually, when I was imitating Bian Shu, just thinking about my current state made me realize what the word 'inferiority' really meant."
"I'm a little hesitant." He smiled, looking somewhat troubled. "On the contrary, now that my face is ruined and you know my true colors, I have no more worries."
"It's just a pity that this time it couldn't compare to any of the rehearsals." He lowered his head slightly with regret. The costume made him look even thinner, like a piece of ice floating on the sea.
Cheng Yanjin kept his muscles tense, leaning slightly forward, looking as if he wanted to tear him to pieces.
Lin Langyi's phone rang; it was the police calling 110. She handed the phone to Cheng Yanjin to distract him: "The police might not know where it is. Can you give them directions?"
He reluctantly took the phone, speaking into the other end, but his eyes never left Chi Shu, remaining vigilant.
“If you feel regret about this, then there’s no need to.” Lin Langyi pointed her finger at Cheng Yanjin’s phone next to his ear. “As an unrelated person, I couldn’t record the backstage footage that time, but the freshmen who participated in the rehearsal did record it, the one who played the moon lute.”
Lin Langyi said, "After it was over, I asked her if she had a copy."
Chi Shu's eyes widened slightly.
The area around her eyes was painted a peach-colored hue, so beautiful that when tears streamed down her face, her red eye sockets looked as if they had been outlined with vermilion eyeliner, making her look more like an actor with tears in her eyes.
That face, half made up, was delicate and pretty, and the other half was completely bare, with bloodstains still visible under its eyes. The crumpled bandage on its face looked like a spinning lantern, half beautiful and half evil.
He kept his gaze fixed on his toes, like a shy young lady from a prominent family who dared not look at people, or like someone who was still trapped in the role given to him by his costume and could not get out of it.
Chi Shumu stared blankly at the ground, muttering, "That's great..."
“I will still sue you. I’ll hire the best lawyers. I won’t let you off a single day less from your sentence.” Lin Langyi crossed her arms. “One thing at a time.”
He gave a soft "hmm".
A police car drove in from a distance. Cheng Yanjin took two steps back, leaned back and looked around, then immediately raised his hand and waved, eagerly saying, "Here!"
"I'll heal your face." Lin Langyi looked Chi Shu up and down. "Since you've studied opera, you'll know that it's best to part ways while you still have a good impression of me. Don't come looking for me again."
"In that case, when I listen to that video again, all I'll remember is the original you. As long as you don't show up in front of me again, I'll pretend I don't remember anything after that."
Chi Shu still gave a soft "hmm," and his tears fell even more rapidly, large and round, flowing down and leaving faint traces on his makeup.
He raised his hand and silently covered his injured cheek with his long sleeve.
"The police need to take a statement." Cheng Yanjin's brows were so furrowed they could crush an insect. "I'll go, you go home and rest first."
Lin Langyi looked away and nodded: "You called a lawyer?"
He raised the Taj Mahal, now in pieces, in his hands: "Of course, do you think I'm the kind of person who would let him off the hook?"
Lin Langyi gave an "OK" sign.
After briefly verifying their identities, the police took Chi Shu and Cheng Yanjin away.
Only after the car turned the corner and Lin Langyi was out of sight did Cheng Yanjin reluctantly turn his gaze away from the car window.
He glanced to the side and saw what message Chi Shu had sent to Lin Langyi at the end, and he immediately became furious.
"What are you sending? I'll have Lin Langyi block you right now!"
Chi Shu uttered a string of gibberish and raised her hand to smooth the hairpin at her temple: "It's a memoir I kept with Sister Langyi. If you want to read it, remember to follow my account. It's only visible to my followers."
"Who wants to see that kind of stuff?!" Cheng Yanjin sneered repeatedly, remembering Lin Langyi's three-word mantra, "Don't fight," and resisted the urge to grab Chi Shu's long braid and slap him twice.
The car had traveled a short distance when it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Cheng Yanjin had always had a bad memory; even memorizing texts took him ages when he was in school. But somehow, that string of gibberish was so easy to remember, as if it were engraved on his forehead.
He secretly took out his phone, and like a thief caught in the act, quickly typed, searched, clicked, and followed.
What utter nonsense about having to follow someone to watch! I'll unfollow him after he finishes watching!
When you're straining to hear something, it's easy to become a little flustered. His finger slipped, and he didn't realize which day or which line it was. He quickly stopped and looked closely:
[In my dream, I was back backstage again, dressed in costume and makeup. I was the only actor, and she was the only audience member. She was clapping and asking for a reward, and I was kneeling in front of her, ( ) up.]
She saw it; the costume hadn't covered me up, which was really offensive. She slapped me across the face. It hurt, but it made me even more hard.
With a muffled thud, the police officer quickly turned around and saw Cheng Yanjin pressing down on Chi Shu's neck from behind, while his other hand clenched into a fist and punched him in the abdomen.
"Hey! Who dares to cause trouble again?! This is a police car, so get your heads straight!"
Chi Shu's costume was crumpled and torn. He turned to look at Cheng Yanjin, completely unconcerned that his injured and unsightly face was exposed.
Anyway, as long as Lin Langyi doesn't see it, it doesn't matter if everyone else in the world sees it.
"Are you angry?" His laughter was sinister and eerie, and his deliberately soft voice gave one goosebumps.
"Why are you angry with me? I'm no threat to you. Why don't you take it out on Yuan Chuyu instead?"
Cheng Yanjin's raised fist remained frozen in mid-air, as if someone had pressed the pause button.
This is the second time I've heard something like this.
Last time, it was Bian Shu.
"Guess why I'm in that building across the street..." The flower on Chi Shu's head was crooked because of Cheng Yanjin's rude treatment, as if it was about to fall off at any moment.
He neither helped nor offered assistance, and the remaining words were almost spoken in a whisper:
"The locator is clearly in your building, so why would I go to the other side...?"
"You came to find me with Sister Langyi just now. Is she familiar with this route?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Cheng Yanjin's words were completely off-key, and his mind went blank.
“My liking for Sister Langyi and my hatred for you lot are not contradictory at all.” Chi Shu turned her head away, no longer saying anything else, but instead said with resentment as if making a vow, “Except for her, you can all die.”
The vehicle sped along the main road, its headlights like a sharp blade slicing through the darkness, mercilessly revealing its secrets.
The moon still hangs serenely in the sky.
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