Neon Abyss
On a rainy night, the world is out of control.
Under the shadow of the crumbling ginkgo tree, the young man in the black baseball cap felt cold all over.
＿＿
Every word that Bai Luo had just spoken to his mother fell into his ears.
He originally wanted to see how long Bai Luo could stay with the person he liked, but unexpectedly, in a moment, the girl moved to another booth.
There was no way to guess her intentions. But a message flashed on WeChat within seconds.
[Leave quickly.]
Information from Meng Ning.
He found an excuse to leave, and Chen Cisi, Lu Fei, and Wu Kai followed him closely.
The four of them returned to the office and ordered some barbecue takeout. As their bottle of beer was empty, a slender shadow appeared in the quiet corridor outside the see-through glass window.
Bai Luo slumped to the ground in dejection. Then came the sound of unbearable insults.
In the pervasive humidity of the South, four young men in their early twenties sat in the room, their eyes etched with blood.
For the first time, they truly understood her family.
A glimpse into her silent growing pains.
No wonder strangers avoid one person. No wonder people respect and avoid one person.
It turns out that everything can be traced.
How has a person gritted his teeth and moved forward step by step over the years?
Such thin shoulder blades. Such delicate butterfly bones.
No one knows.
They only see her tough side and her hard work.
Little did they know that beneath the strong shell was a skeleton that had long been rotten.
Life hangs by a thread, rotten to the bone.
＿＿
"Let's chat."
I don’t know if it was the biting cold wind, or the aching pain in my heart that was surging up.
Bo Xi's already swollen eyelids were now red and shattered, red and hot.
Like a fire that has been burning all night.
"Do you know me?"
Chang Liu, with one hand in his trouser pocket, frowned and looked at the young man who was covered in the rain.
Tsk.
He actually delivered it to my door.
Millennium Lane is narrow, and the wind blows the boy's white shirt into a puff.
A ruffian-like man passed by with a cold look on his face, and his cold words were insolent.
"Be nice to her, otherwise, I won't let you go."
His heart was a barren wilderness, a wilderness of silent gray.
He had thought about getting Bai Luo, even if she had someone she liked, even if she hated him.
But now, he doesn't want to anymore.
The girl had lived such a hard and painful life for so many years. There was no love, only loneliness.
He didn't want to add more bitterness to her pain.
He just wants her to be happy, as long as she is happy.
It doesn’t matter whether he is the one who stays with her in the end or not.
Love is like gambling; winning or losing depends on a single thought. He lost, completely, and willingly admitted defeat.
"What if I don't?"
The sky was filled with heavy rain. A defiant voice drifted out with arrogance. He wanted to see how much 002 cared about 001.
How could the person who overturned the chess game of life and death care about the provocation of a chess piece?
"Hold."
Next second.
A violent and brutal force knocked Chang Liu into the muddy water. Blood oozed from the corner of his mouth, but he laughed with his head tilted back.
"What? You can't help it?"
Blood welled up in Bo Xi's eyes. He grabbed Chang Liu's collar and threw him against the mottled wall. Rain rolled down their hair.
Chang Liu showed no fear at all, but leaned close to whisper in his ear.
"The more you act like this, the more terrifying you will become to her. And I will take good care of her for you."
"court death!"
Filled with rage, Bo Xi smashed Chang Liu's fist hard into his abdomen, as if he had lost his mind and had no restraint at all, wishing he could cut him into pieces.
Chang Liu bent over in pain, but laughed madly, his laughter was sarcastic and ironic.
"Look at you now. What's the difference between you and a mad dog on the street?"
The boy's temper was completely out of control, and he felt violent. The rain washed over his trembling, reddened hands.
In the neon alleys of the millennium, some see a dead end. Some see a dead end. Some see a way out.
What Bo Xi saw was his own reflection.
Mad dog on the street.
Isn't that him?
The cold rain melted into the blood mist, frowning and confusing the heart.
The streetlights were dim, and the young man was extremely depressed. He leaned against the damp and cold wall.
The cigarette box in my trouser pocket was soaked, and even the cigarette itself was damp. The night wind blew it away. The Zippo lighter seemed to have gone out, with no flame.
The world was muddled and broken. Just like him. A sense of desolation and fragmentation haunted him like light.
"sorry."
The wakefulness after being soaked is more painful than the numbness after being dry.
"Don't tell her."
For the first time, like a child who had made a mistake, he apologized to his love rival purely and sincerely.
He would rather become a ridiculous discarded pawn in the chess game than have his filth reflected in her eyes.
It's quite ironic.
Chang Liu looked up with disdain and laughed wildly, his words full of ridicule. He pressed his finger even further, frivolously and arrogantly.
"Kneel down and beg me, she won't know a word about what happened today."
Every word was sinister and filled with vicious threats.
"Otherwise, she will never forgive you for what happened today."
These two sentences stripped Bo Xi's dignity to utter pieces.
On one side is the unyielding pride, and on the other side is the girl's everlasting grudge.
A dim light slanted down from the corner of his hat. Bo Xi's eyes suddenly flushed red, a touch of physiological wateriness.
This city is used to covering up the noise with rain, and people are used to covering up the pain with laughter.
Heavy rain destroyed the reflection.
The young man who was arrogant all his life compromised for love.
Kneel for love.
The straight knees bent, and he bowed to the humiliation on the ground.
"Please."
Beneath the dust, there is an unknown madness.
"Ah."
Shen Cisi ran hurriedly, his pupils trembling with unbelievable pain.
The young man, born with pride and arrogance, is willing to bow down in the dust.
He doesn't understand.
Shen Cisi rushed forward like a violent storm, grabbed Chang Liu's collar and threw him to the ground.
"Who do you think you are? You're not worthy of being kneeled down!"
Chang Liu was caught off guard and was hit in the jaw by a punch, with a crisp sound of bone cracking audible.
"You fucking..."
Before he finished speaking, Shen Cisi's fists had already rained down like a torrential rain, and each blow was filled with violent resentment.
"Bang! Bang!"
The sound of fists hitting flesh mixed with Chang Liu's cries of pain. His nose was collapsed, blood was oozing from the corners of his mouth, but he was sneering grimly.
"You'll regret this!"
Bo Yi looked back in shock, his voice hoarse.
"Asi! Stop it!"
But Shen Cisi's eyes were red and his fists fell straight down.
Until the sirens suddenly sounded in the distance. Chang Liu fell to the ground, his face bruised and swollen.
The three were taken into a police car, sirens wailing as they passed by.
*
The ginkgo leaves are falling one by one.
After hanging up the phone, Bai Luo stumbled across the neon-lit dance floor, as if falling into a fleeting dream.
In the bar's upscale bathroom, two girls from the university town were carefully putting on makeup in front of their reflections in the mirror.
"Was that Bo Xi from Hangzhou University? He's a thousand times more handsome in person than in his pictures."
"If I had known earlier, I would have chosen Hangzhou University as my first choice."
"Even if you fill it out, you won't be able to catch up. He is a child of destiny."
"It's enough to see him every day."
Bai Luo fluttered his eyelashes.
I chewed over the term "chosen one" carefully.
yes.
No matter how much Bo Xi degenerates, in the eyes of others, he is still a favored child of heaven and a flower on the high mountain.
The future is boundless and full of light.
Her future is full of thorns and bad things.
Startling step by step.
How could he be dragged down to hell?
An intoxicating feeling of tipsiness permeated the air. Bai Luo touched his reflection in the mirror.
The person in the mirror kisses the person outside the mirror, the shadows are obsessed and shattered when touched.
Walking out of the bathroom, she stared at the drunken crowd in the booth, feeling as if the whole world was soaked in rotten alcohol.
There was no one in sight on the circular sofas at the three booths, A, B, and C.
Empty silence.
While he was still conscious, he told Chang Liu his decision.
[I'm sorry, Sixth Brother.]
[I can't leave with you.]
How can I withdraw?
This chess game of life and death has only revealed a bloody corner.
The drug lord pursued her for ten years and never gave up.
What is the reason?
It's just the key to the vault that has been greedily coveted for ten years.
The vault is not a physical entity, but a distributed ledger that exists on the dark web, storing Southeast Asia's largest drug trafficking records and huge Bitcoin accounts.
The key is the bargaining chip she made with the god of death and the last spark of her revenge for her father.
After ten years on the run, the key has long been engraved in my bones and blood.
It's just that... the set time hasn't arrived yet. And... you only have one chance to enter the key.
*
The rain was drizzling at midnight. Bai Luoben wanted to take a taxi back to his rental house.
Hesitated for a moment.
She suddenly remembered that she had accidentally lost one of Bo's lighters. He had countless lighters, so the one she lost was certainly not missing.
Probably don't care.
But she always felt that she should return it. She couldn't keep owing him.
I owe too much and I am afraid it will take me my whole life to pay it off.
I’m afraid... I’ll still be haunting him in my next life.
Goodbye. She has bad luck, don't let her bad luck be passed on to him.
She hopes the young man will have a smooth life.
Everything goes smoothly and safely. No disaster or trouble.
Not an unknown undercover policeman, but a famous diplomat.
Autumn in Hangzhou and Hong Kong is not that bleak.
The lights on Ginkgo Avenue are always on.
Bai Luo aimlessly searched for a 24-hour niche Fire Art shop.
The store has a retro salon feel, with lighters neatly arranged in the display cabinets.
The owner, a middle-aged man with a mustache, was polishing an old Ronson lighter with a suede cloth.
Bai Luo fell in love with a Nonearth lighter at first sight.
Dark Pioneer handmade lighter. Gothic style. Textured texture. Simple yet elegant.
After paying, she borrowed a cigarette from the shopkeeper.
"Miss, please smoke less."
The polite concern made the person who borrowed the cigarette feel relaxed.
The three words "smoke less" are ringing in my ears thousands of times.
＿＿
The ramshackle rental house. Every time she bit on the thin cigarette and lowered her eyes to light it, there was always a pair of eyes staring at her.
Caught red-handed.
"Smoke less. Throw it away."
"..." It wasn't a smoking addiction, it was just to relieve the loneliness. The two of them didn't chat much, and the topics of conversation were scattered and sparse.
She always obeyed him and would just secretly smoke one to relieve her boredom while he was cooking.
But the fireworks could not escape his eyes.
"Smoking?"
“…”
She lowered her eyes and said nothing, poking the chicken wings and cola sauce with her bamboo chopsticks, silently venting her dissatisfaction.
"The chicken died for you, do you want it to be restless even after death?"
“…”
I had no choice but to put on disposable gloves and concentrate on eating.
＿＿
She didn't know when, day, or minute it was, but she got used to his nagging.
I'm used to having him around.
But one should not be overly dependent on another person. The sense of disparity will always be with you.
The wind blew away the cold mist from the Hangzhou River Bridge, seeping into the ever-changing lights of thousands of homes.
She squinted her eyes, stroking the cigarette with her slender white fingers. The rain could not extinguish the cigarette, nor could it cool her bones.
Bai Luo stared at his own reflection.
Half is burning, half is drowning.
"Buzz buzz buzz~"
The cold ringing of the telephone cut through the world in the rain.
Unknown phone call.
Bai Luo collected his thoughts, thinking it was a harassing call, but somehow he pressed the answer button.
The sound of the current was deafening. A woman's voice was piercing from the other end.
"Excuse me, are you Chang Liu's family member? The patient is currently receiving emergency treatment in the hospital. Please come as soon as possible."
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