Chapter 25 Moonlit Nightingale, remember to run fast.
Ninth Sister frowned suddenly, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw the car's logo. Her expression changed slightly, revealing a hint of curiosity.
Ye Yuying stared blankly at that familiar figure. For a moment, she seemed to hear the gurgling sound of a train entering a tunnel, as if she had been pulled into a closed vacuum and could hear nothing at all.
She was puzzled. Why was he here? Did he want to get involved in this mess?
Cheng Mingdu wore a dark woolen short coat, the collar half open, the collar slightly upturned, fluttering gently in the wind, wrapping around the boy's tall and straight figure.
She had never had a clear idea of Cheng Mingdu's height before, but when he appeared outside the crowd, she found that he was much taller and more imposing than she had imagined.
Later, as she grew up, she never saw Cheng Mingdu from that period of time again; he possessed both the refined handsomeness of a boy just coming of age and the sharp edge of a young man just beginning to take shape.
These eyes were as still as water, their expression calm and gentle, their demeanor refined and elegant. They did not belong to this chaotic world, yet they became a ray of moonlight that had strayed into the wolf pack.
But it is precisely this untimely composure that brings an awe-inspiring aura.
He walked calmly through the crowd, like the evening breeze piercing the heavy night, like a cold star falling into a filthy world. His gaze swept across the crowd and landed on the isolated and helpless girl in the middle.
Seeing this, Ninth Sister barely came to her senses, staring at him with half-closed eyes, then looked at Ye Yuying, a cigarette dangling from her lips, and slowly exhaled a smoke ring into her face, saying lazily, "Oh, a hero saving a beauty."
Ye Yuying almost suffocated in the unpleasant and overwhelming smell of smoke, her feet were firmly nailed to the ground, and her whole body was stiff.
She stared at Cheng Mingdu as he drew closer, her face growing paler and paler—the thing she feared most had come to pass.
The men in front of her chuckled twice, fiddling with their zippers and striking the ground with their sticks, the sound clear in the wind like hungry wolves panting before a hunt, ready to strike at any moment.
Ninth Sister, with a cigarette in her mouth, turned to look at Ye Yuying and asked with a half-smile, "Little brat, do you know this person?"
Ye Yuying choked up and almost reflexively said, "I don't know him."
She clenched her teeth, her nails digging into her palms, her heart felt as if it were being squeezed by iron clamps, and her pale face was like a struggling patch of oil paint.
She didn't want to involve Cheng Mingdu.
This group of people are not the petty brawlers in schools; they are the real troublemakers who can get into trouble, be detained and reprimanded afterward, and then continue to swagger around and commit crimes like mad dogs.
Ninth Sister squinted, about to say something, when someone beside her whispered a reminder.
Ninth Sister smiled arrogantly: "Cheng Mingdu? I don't know him."
The man mentioned another name, and Ninth Sister's expression paused slightly, as if weighing whether or not she could move against the person in front of her, "Cheng Jianian..."
Before Cheng Mingdu could speak or make a move, a small figure, while everyone was stunned, suddenly pierced through the crowd like an unexpected cold arrow, brushing past Cheng Mingdu's side like a white gust of wind.
With an almost desperate determination, she rammed into Cheng Mingdu's side, grabbed his wrist without hesitation, and whispered, "Run!"
All of this happened so fast that she didn't have time to think. From her experience of running away for so long, she knew that any moment of hesitation could lead her to disaster.
Since you've decided to run, you have to run with all your might, until your bones crack and your blood boils and your muscles tear!
Don't look back, don't worry about what lies ahead, just break straight out of your current predicament.
She didn't know how she managed to pull Cheng Mingdu along. Their shadows stretched long on the dimly lit winter street. Ye Yuying used almost all her strength, her heart was pounding, and her eardrums were aching from the howling cold wind.
Cheng Mingdu looked at the surprisingly swift figure in front of him, a moment of surprise flashing in his eyes. But he reacted quickly, without the slightest hesitation, grabbed her wrist with his backhand, and took a long stride to easily keep up with her pace.
A furious roar came from behind—
"Chase after them! Chase them!"
The thugs realized what was happening and quickly chased after them, their footsteps sounding like hunting dogs howling as they chased a roe deer under the moonlight!
She was already very familiar with the escape routes around her, because she had already figured out the blind spots and dead corners of alleys in the surrounding area during her escape.
She quickly crossed the alleyway corner, pushed open a rusty little door at the back of an abandoned building, and without thinking twice, pulled Cheng Mingdu inside!
The moment the small door closed, darkness pressed down overhead, and the crowd outside rushed past, their sounds fading into the distance.
Ye Yuying leaned against the damp wall, relaxing her breath from a moment of holding her breath, panting heavily, her breath filled with the smell of mildew and blood in her mouth.
Through the darkness, their eyes met. Ye Yuying couldn't see Cheng Mingdu clearly, but she could sense that he was right in front of her, very close.
Her eyes felt a little hot.
"I'm sorry, I don't know if what I did was right or wrong..." she said in a hoarse voice, her voice filled with suppressed regret and guilt.
She dragged him into her own quagmire.
Cheng Mingdu merely glanced down at her, his brows furrowed, and his voice low: "Didn't you say you could handle it yourself?"
His voice rang out again from the darkness: "Why are you running?"
“There are some desperate criminals in this group; they don’t know their own strength when they fight.”
Do you think I'm someone who can be easily bullied?
“You’re on an academic path, which is different from ours. You have a bright future, and you’re about to return to school. You shouldn’t get involved in any trouble.”
Her voice was hoarse, like the wind carrying dust, every word sincere, but in the darkness, it sounded as light as willow catkins.
At this moment, Ye Yuying was speaking the truth, but this truth was tantamount to admitting the vast difference between them.
Some things, if you don't admit them, it's just because you feel awkward. But if you actually say them out loud, you'll feel a little bitter inside.
She added coldly, with a selfish tone, "And if you're in trouble, I'll be in even bigger trouble."
He kept staring at her, and in those eyes that were always as calm as still water, a ripple of light finally appeared. He didn't move, didn't say anything, as if he was pondering the weight of her words.
After a long silence, he spoke softly, "If you and your mother were the same kind of people, I would stand idly by, but you are not."
"Jiang Xinxue is too shrewd. Her ambition is impossible to hide. Her eyes are full of calculations and speculation."
"I originally thought her daughter would be one of the tools she used to dismantle the Cheng family, but it's clear that she wants to get rid of you completely."
She lacked that tact, pretense, and sophistication; she was even somewhat slow, clumsy, and sincere, living a lonely and cautious life.
When she walked into her home covered in injuries and still managed a smile, it was clear that she possessed a backbone far stronger than Jiang Xinxue's.
How could someone like that have a daughter like that?
Her eyelashes trembled slightly. She didn't speak, but instead lowered her head and took a deep breath, trying to suppress the urge to cry.
"Don't cry, what are you crying for?" Cheng Mingdu's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a sharpness and determination unique to a young man. It came crashing down in the darkness, like a sudden frost that swept away all the lingering warmth.
A tissue was placed over her eyes the instant she finished speaking, then quickly pulled away. She instinctively raised her hand and pressed the tissue to the corner of her eye to wipe away the tears.
"Weren't you the kind of person who even dared to hit Ninth Sister?" He paused, his voice softening slightly. "If you didn't cry then, you shouldn't cry now."
His words contained no blame, but rather a gentle tinge of mockery, which lifted her from the depths of her emotional turmoil.
"Okay, I won't cry." After the wind dried the tears on her face, she cleared her throat and said firmly.
"I'll take care of this before I leave, but there will definitely be a lot of minor troubles afterward, so you need to be careful."
Ye Yuying was about to nod, but paused for a moment, "What do you plan to do..."
Cheng Mingdu looked back at her, "It definitely won't be the kind of fighting and killing you're thinking of."
“But those people only care about fists,” Ye Yuying said seriously.
She thought she knew these people well enough, and she even thought that it wasn't herself who was naive, but Cheng Mingdu.
Cheng Mingdu slightly curled the corners of his lips, but there was no smile in his eyes: "They only recognize fists, but they are not only afraid of fists."
When he said this, his voice was so calm it was almost indifferent, as if he were casually stating a precise formula.
"What's truly frightening is never the fist itself. Do you think that if you beat her into submission, she'll let you go? She'll only bring more people to surround you."
Ye Yuying nodded, deeply agreeing.
He lowered his eyes, his gaze falling on Ye Yuying's thin shoulders in the darkness, and his voice also deepened: "Her backer is her boyfriend, and I happen to have something to say about it."
"How could you know such people..." Ye Yuying suppressed her curiosity, feeling that he should never have any dealings with these people.
His tone was extremely calm, without the slightest fluctuation, "Because I was once just like you."
"Would anyone dare to bully you in Chengdu?"
He casually remarked, "It's not because I'm Cheng Mingdu that no one dares to bully me, but because I can solve these problems that I can become Cheng Mingdu."
He explained two causes and effects to her, and Ye Yuying understood some of it, but not all of it.
She remained silent for a long while, as if trying to savor the meaning of those words from the very marrow of her bones.
"You mean... people are not powerful because of their status, but rather they deserve that status because they are powerful?" she asked in a low voice.
Cheng Mingdu didn't answer directly, but simply pushed open the iron gate and walked out.
They saw the light of day again, and the outside light shone on him, making him look no different from usual.
It was as if the person who had spoken to her in the darkness, leaning against the mottled wall, had never existed.
Ye Yuying felt that his personality was a mystery, and a sense of unreality suddenly arose in her heart.
She suddenly realized that her previous understanding of Cheng Mingdu was actually very superficial.
She had always thought that Cheng Mingdu was a moon that had never been tainted by a speck of dust, but perhaps he had simply been buried in ashes, but he broke free of them, cleaned himself up, and then walked the path of light.
*
Two days later, Cheng Mingdu boarded a flight to the East Coast of the United States. Everything in the Cheng family was as usual and in good order.
Ye Yuying will never see those rice balls or that figure drinking water again at midnight.
He left so naturally and without a trace, as if he had never been a passerby.
But a few days later, she left a large package at her door containing several brand-new shoes, all of which were suitable for everyday wear and long-distance running.
Tucked inside the package was a note; the paper was clean and tidy, and the handwriting was sharp and forceful:
—Ye Yuying, when you can't resist, remember to run fast.
She held the paper, staring at it for a very long time, until her eyes slowly welled up with tears.
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Author's Note: 50 red envelopes [Cat emoji]
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