Chapter 61 The Secret: Since there's no way out, why hesitate? ...
Ye Yuying didn't dare to look into his eyes at that moment, and simply lowered her head even further. The aura emanating from him was still the familiar cleanliness.
Those eyes had never been stained with such blood before; the word "disheveled" would never be associated with him.
However, having grown up amidst rumors and gossip, she coexisted with this filth. Because of this long coexistence, she had even grown into one with this filth, and even if she were to be shattered to pieces, she could not be completely cleansed.
While she was filled with immense regret and pain...
Cheng Mingdu stepped forward and just reached out his hand.
She abruptly stepped back, her eyes wide with shock, like a startled antelope caught in the beam of a hunter's flashlight.
She didn't know how to react, and only felt that she should stay as far away from him as possible.
So she ran away.
Like a startled butterfly with torn wings in a deep alley, it uses its last bit of strength to flutter desperately from this dark, suffocating alleyway toward the boundless, dazzling lights of the city in the distance.
She ran very fast, as fast as a fleeting glimmer of light, and completely disappeared into the boundless night.
At that moment, from the other end of the alley came several ear-piercing roars of motorcycle engines.
Immediately afterwards, a dozen or so young men dressed in a sleazy manner, clearly not students, walked in, cigarettes dangling from their mouths, baseball bats and iron pipes in their hands, cursing and swearing.
The one leading the group was none other than Ge Jie's boyfriend, the "gang leader" she had just complained about on the phone.
"Who the hell dares to touch my girl?!" The leader of the thugs slammed his cigarette butt on the ground, stomped it out, picked up the baseball bat beside him, and scanned the mess in the alley with a fierce look.
When he saw Ge Jie lying on the ground, groaning in pain, the fat on his face instantly contorted, and he pointed the baseball bat in his hand at Cheng Mingdu, the only person standing at the alley entrance.
Real, adult-oriented, and far more vile violence is coming.
Cheng Mingdu stood still, his tall figure like a silent, cold stone statue cast in the shadows of the alleyway, motionless.
His deep eyes calmly watched the group of thugs, armed with weapons, approaching him.
There was no fear, no panic, not even anger in those eyes, only a kind of... cold, impatient indifference when looking at a swarm of buzzing, yet incredibly annoying flies.
Wang Fang pointed his baseball bat at Cheng Mingdu, the only person at the alley entrance, and glared at him fiercely. "It's you, isn't it! You dare to mess with so many of my men all by yourself?"
The dozen or so thugs behind him also formed a fan shape, slowly surrounding Cheng Mingdu, demonstratively swinging the iron pipes and sticks in their hands, making a whooshing sound in the dim light.
"Kid, did you hear me? Are you going to kneel down and take my blow, or wait for me to help you?"
However, Cheng Mingdu didn't even lift an eyelid when surrounded and threatened by this group.
The henchman next to him gently tugged at Wang Fang's arm and whispered in his ear, "Should we double-check? Just in case we've called the wrong person..."
I had a vague sense of unease as I faced Cheng Mingdu.
"Brother Fang, this kid looks kind of familiar."
Wang Fang was furious and spat impatiently, cursing, "Bullshit! You coward, you look familiar to everyone! Get out of my way!"
He felt his authority had been challenged, especially in front of his girlfriend, and he had to get back at her.
Without another word, he raised the baseball bat high in his hand, a fierce glint appearing in his already unfriendly eyes, ready to smash it down hard on Cheng Mingdu's head!
However, his arm was once again grabbed tightly and desperately by the underling with all his might in mid-air!
"No! Let go, brother! Please don't do it!!" The henchman's voice was trembling with fear, choked with sobs and shrill crackles. "I remember! I remember who he is!"
"Are you fucking done yet?!" Wang Fang roared, turning around to kick him.
At the heart of this farce, Cheng Mingdu, who was being pointed at with a baseball bat and surrounded by more than a dozen people, reacted with an almost eerie calm.
He scrutinized the crowd before him with his eyes, as silent as a predator.
Throughout, he showed no sign of fear, as if he were waiting for them to make their move.
A dangerous aura filled the air, and he was even about to take a half-step forward.
The wind howled, and a white figure flashed past.
"Run!"
The girl who had decided to disappear completely suddenly turned back at this moment!
Ye Yuying didn't know when her mind changed, but she recklessly rushed back into this dark alley.
Taking advantage of the chaos, she rushed to Cheng Mingdu and grabbed his wrist. That thin, injured hand suddenly burst forth with astonishing strength.
"Come with me!" she said urgently, almost commanding, trying to drag him out of the dangerous vortex.
A hint of surprise flashed across Cheng Mingdu's eyes at her sudden action.
He looked down at the girl, who was covered in wounds and had bloodstains on her face, yet seemed to be trying to protect him without any hesitation. A burning emotion surged in her eyes, which were filled with the pain of fate.
But at this moment, in this filthy alley, the person he was supposed to save instead used her frail body, so thin it seemed like it would break at any moment, to shield him.
She tried to save him with her meager, futile strength.
He's such a little kid...
Foolish, yet so...tragic...
"Let's get out of here first." Ye Yuying acted quite skillfully; even though her left eye was now closed, she could still use her right eye to quickly determine the escape route.
She could be a devil for only a few minutes, but she had over a decade of rich experience as a deserter.
He couldn't be pulled before, but he was pulled at this moment.
Cheng Mingdu restrained all his aura and power, matching her pace so that she could rush forward with almost no burden.
The thugs in the alley finally realized what was happening. Amidst Wang Fang's furious roar, they kicked one of their underlings to the ground and frantically chased after them in the direction they had fled.
"Damn it! What's the point of verification? They've ruined my plans! Arrest them!"
The curses and chaotic footsteps behind her grew closer, and Ye Yuying's heart leaped into her throat. She pulled Cheng Mingdu along, skillfully weaving through these familiar, dark, and filthy alleyways.
She led him, dodging mountains of garbage and leaping over stinking sewage ditches.
She would even instinctively reach out her other hand to shield Cheng Mingdu's head as they passed a low, rusty pipe, using the back of her scratched hand to protect him from any obstacles that might injure him.
She completely forgot about her injuries and escaped by sheer willpower.
After passing through the last narrow alley, they rushed onto a relatively wide, deserted back street.
With her last breath, Ye Yuying pulled Cheng Mingdu into the shadows of an abandoned bus stop, then braced herself on her knees, breathing heavily and painfully.
After she stopped moving, her wounds seemed to suddenly come to life. Hundreds of resurrected insects frantically tore at every part of her body, causing her to grimace in pain and break out in a cold sweat.
The tide of adrenaline was receding, while the reef of pain began to erode her sharply and mercilessly.
She leaned against the cold, rusty metal of the abandoned bus stop, feeling as if she might collapse at any moment.
The instinct to escape overwhelmed all her pain.
"I'm sorry..." she gasped, her voice broken from exhaustion, "I...I can't go on...You should go, there are too many of them, if they catch up...it will be troublesome..."
"They're all thugs who often beat people up and send them to the hospital... If you run into them, you're in trouble."
She turned around and looked at him with her good eye.
Cheng Mingdu remained silent, his jawline taut, and made no movement.
"When you say these things, do you not think about yourself for a single moment?" he asked, looking at Ye Yuying.
“We are different…” Ye Yuying’s lips moved, and she finally sighed.
"What's different?"
He simply let out a very soft, almost sighing laugh.
There was no mockery in that laughter, only a deep, overwhelming sense of helpless melancholy.
"We don't need to go anywhere."
His voice was low and deep, carrying a power that could instantly calm people down.
Ye Yuying looked up at him, puzzled and bewildered: "But..."
The next second, he walked out alone, facing the dozen or so thugs wielding weapons, slowly heading into the dim light and shadow.
The alleyway lights stretched across his thin figure, like a sharp blade pointing directly at the thugs ahead, and the night seemed to freeze instantly.
The next scene unfolded so fast that Ye Yuying could barely breathe.
It was a chaotic battle, but one filled with the aesthetics of violence.
Cheng Mingdu's temperament is aloof and refined, belonging to the study and the world-class arena, making it hard to associate him with the word violence.
But at this moment, he seemed to have been possessed, and had become a different person. His movements were devoid of any unnecessary flourishes. Every strike was precise and ruthless, giving his opponent no chance to breathe.
After the weapon was taken from the first person, it became a real, one-sided execution.
Soon, only painful groans remained in the alley.
A few minutes later, the dozen or so thugs who had been so arrogant just moments before were all lying on the ground, staggering and groaning in pain. None of them could get up again.
Cheng Mingdu threw away the stick, took out a handkerchief and slowly wiped his hands, his breathing not even slightly disordered.
He escaped unscathed.
It wasn't until Cheng Mingdu walked towards her that Ye Yuying snapped out of her daze. She rushed forward and anxiously looked him up and down: "Are you...are you injured?"
Her gaze finally settled on his right hand.
The hand, with its distinct joints, was slowly opening. At the wrist, there was a fresh wound from a splinter, from which blood was seeping.
"You're injured!" she exclaimed, grabbing his wrist without thinking.
At that very moment, in order to see more clearly, she subconsciously and gently lifted the cuff of his finely crafted shirt, which was stained crimson with blood—
She froze completely.
On his seemingly perfect, fair arms, which were always covered by clothing, were several old wounds, some deep and some shallow, pale white, that had long since healed.
Those weren't accidental scrapes. There were linear scars from a knife cut, and irregular scars left from being hit by some blunt object.
These grotesque marks, belonging to another dark world, were thus branded onto his perfect appearance.
Ye Yuying raised her head and looked at him with a shocked expression, as if she were looking at a stranger.
Finally, at this moment, she inadvertently touched upon a truth she had never imagined.
It turned out that Cheng Mingdu was not the fragile young nobleman she had imagined, the one who needed her protection.
His seemingly innate, domineering calmness and power did not come from nowhere.
In the time she was unaware of, there was also blood and fire, and no one ever had a peaceful time.
“Ye Yuying, we are no different. I am not as upright as you think,” Cheng Mingdu said, glancing at her sideways.
Yes, they're no different.
They are just two isolated mountain peaks, both covered in snow and wind.
In a fleeting moment of destiny, they saw each other's presence from afar.
None of them are perfect.
Cheng Mingdu slowly withdrew his hand and pulled down his sleeve again, trying to cover up the scars from the past that he had long forgotten.
However, just as he lowered his hand, a small, cool, and slightly trembling hand belonging to a young girl gently and tentatively covered his wrist.
It conveniently covered the deepest scar beneath the fabric.
For a fleeting moment, Cheng Mingdu's body became incredibly stiff.
He hesitated for a moment, looked down at the little hand in his own, then looked up at her equally disheveled face, which also had a hideous bloodstain.
She wasn't afraid of him.
Even after witnessing his coldest and most violent side.
He slowly raised his uninjured hand.
His fingertips, gently and with utmost care, covered the gruesome wound beneath the corner of her left eye, where blood was still seeping out.
In the desolate ruins, two equally wounded souls, in the most primal and honest way, silently touch each other's deepest scars.
For the first time, she saw herself in his eyes.
A violent, insane, and reckless demon, and the remorseful yet exhilarated self after the malice subsides.
Space, at this moment, is stretched, distorted, and torn apart.
She said self-deprecatingly, "I'm sorry, I still resorted to violence, even though I tried my best to restrain myself..."
Cheng Mingdu placed his thumb on her wound and gently wiped away the newly gushing blood.
He said, "In this world, there is no absolute right or wrong, good or evil."
The gaze directed at her was deep and unwavering, like a dark starry sky that could contain all her shame and sins.
"When language and rules fail, this is the only, and last, means."
He looked at her, at the pupils in her eyes that were slowly widening in shock, and uttered, word by word, the divine oracle that was enough to overturn her entire understanding of the world and to completely rescue her from the hell of self-loathing.
"Since there's no way out, why hesitate?"
These words, like the most compassionate mantra, instantly and silently shattered the darkness and chaos in my heart.
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Author's note: 50~
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