Chapter 76: New Life
Seeing the police officer step forward to check on him, Huo Beixing gave the man a pat on the shoulder. “You’ve worked hard, Officer.”
And just like that, he swaggered out of the crime scene and walked up to An Yi, who was still standing there in shock.
“Wife, let’s go home.”
Looking at this scheming dog of a man in front of him, An Yi felt both pained and exasperated, as if the pure and innocent Huo Dabao had suddenly entered his rebellious phase.
He really had been terrified just now. He had genuinely thought Li Shouquan was going to hurt him, and even now his face was still pale, a fine layer of sweat on his forehead.
Meanwhile, Huo Beixing was practically glowing with springtime pride at the fact that he no longer had to get divorced.
Damn.
Not having to get divorced made even the air smell fresher.
An Yi reached out, grabbed a fistful of muscle on Huo Beixing’s arm, and twisted hard.
He put his whole strength into it, like he wanted to wring a piece clean off him.
The sudden pain made Huo Beixing grit his teeth.
An Yi was furious. “What were you doing just now? Were you using your life as a joke?”
Huo Beixing saw that his little face was full of anger and quickly stopped acting smug, bowing his head at once. “I knew what I was doing. Don’t be mad.”
An Yi immediately took hold of his face and turned his head left and right, checking him over. Only after confirming that there really was no wound on his neck did he finally relax.
When Li Shouquan had held that knife to Huo Beixing’s throat just now, it had felt as though someone had seized his heart in their hand.
His mind had gone completely blank. All he had wanted was for Li Shouquan to let Huo Beixing go. He would have traded places himself if he could.
In his heart, he knew this much:
He would never meet a second Huo Beixing.
That man who supported him, trusted him, and always stood on his side.
Seeing the guilt on An Yi’s face, Huo Beixing pulled him out of the crowd and brought him under a tree.
It was technically a plane tree, though in the eyes of Pink Crystal Maiden Heart it was apparently a willow.
Huo Beixing’s old reputation had been flamboyant beyond help, but he had never actually dated anyone. This time, he really had gone too far. A man so tall and broad was now bent over beside An Yi, awkwardly apologizing.
His entire body seemed to be spelling out four words: at a loss.
An Yi muttered, “I’m divorcing you. My marriage is full of lies.”
Huo Beixing was a hundred percent unwilling. The wife he had finally gotten in hand was supposed to fly away now? “No.”
“Why not?”
Huo Beixing instantly changed his air, bending down close, his peach-blossom eyes full of scrutiny. “You want to lie?”
An Yi looked guilty under his gaze.
Huo Beixing turned his head and raised his voice, “Officer, Comra—”
An Yi hurriedly slapped a hand over his mouth. “No divorce, no divorce!”
He looked like he wanted to knead Huo Beixing into a ball and stuff him into a trash can.
Dog bastard!
Did you hear that? Dog bastard. 🙂
Huo Beixing raised a brow, half his face hidden behind An Yi’s palm, his eyes smiling.
Still, he properly admitted fault. “I won’t do it again.”
He sounded very sincere, and sincerely delighted too, now that he had escaped the fate of becoming a second-marriage man.
The next day, when An Yi went to give his statement, he learned from the police that Li Shouquan still hadn’t woken up.
An Yi was stunned. “He still hasn’t woken up?”
Huo Beixing had only thrown him over the shoulder once. Was it really that serious?
The police officer nodded. “Your man’s got some real skill.”
An Yi: ?
The officer said, “He nearly got thrown into a vegetative state.”
An Yi: ……
By the time they delivered him to the hospital, aside from the injury on the back of his head, one wrist was fractured, and one shoulder had been dislocated.
Add that to the injuries from the previous two fights—before the old wounds had even gone cold, fresh ones had piled right on top, like stacking buffs in a game.
Once Li Shouquan woke up, everything would continue to proceed accordingly. What he was facing now was not only jail time, but also a crushing amount of debt.
He had to pay part of the penalty for breaching contract, but the cooperation projects he had taken on were not just one or two. Put together, the total was staggering. The company he belonged to had already sued him as well.
Because of the case of taking someone else’s identity, the police had also immediately arrested the related accomplice—Li Shouquan’s uncle. The man was already nearing fifty and worked as a vice principal in the county. He had been planning to take early retirement in a few years, but now that he had been arrested, the scandal spread all over the small county. His reputation in his old age was ruined. Knowing he was going to prison, he had fainted multiple times in the police car.
When he saw An Yi, he dropped to his knees with a thud, crying bitterly and begging him to let him go. He was nearly fifty, he said. He had worked hard his whole life, and he was just about to enjoy the rest of it.
Now his reputation was ruined, and so was the rest of his life.
He begged and begged, because An Yi was his last straw, his only chance of turning things around.
“An Yi, please, let your teacher go. Your teacher remembers you were a good child.”
“I can’t go to prison. I’m already this old.”
“I wronged you, yes. I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
An Yi did not look at him.
What had happened to the man today was no more than what he deserved. But the things stolen from An Yi would never come back.
What had been stolen from him was not just university.
It was a bright future stretching ten thousand miles.
After coming out of the police station, An Yi stood under the scorching sunlight outside for a long time.
Only now did he understand that even if he tried to avoid the memories of the past, their shadows would still hang over him.
Only now did he feel that the invisible weight pressing on his shoulders had finally disappeared.
His resentment. His unwillingness.
But the obsession in his heart—he probably would never be able to let that go for the rest of his life. Time did not flow backward. Some things did not happen twice. His university, the beginning of his life’s new chapter, had indeed been destroyed.
That was a darkness he would never walk out of.
No one had longed more than eighteen-year-old An Yi to go out and see the world beyond.
He had held onto that enormous hope, waited for it day and night. It had been his reason to keep living, his light at the end of the road. He had thought he had received salvation for his life.
But it had all been destroyed.
Even now, even with Li Shouquan paying the price and facing legal punishment, the emptiness inside him still could not be filled.
The wasteland in his heart would never bloom again.
Just as An Yi was about to call a taxi home, his phone suddenly buzzed with a message.
It was an overseas message.
An Yi froze. The sender was an internationally renowned design institute. The content roughly told him to prepare for the entrance exam in half a year.
Little Frog became alert.
Could this be a scam?
He turned back and glanced at the police station behind him.
The nerve of these people.
But looking at the school name, he could not help feeling drawn to it. It was a famous institution he often saw mentioned in magazines and the news.
He stood there in distress.
What if it was real?
No, impossible.
He hadn’t even qualified to apply.
It definitely wasn’t real.
Little Frog was not the kind of frog who indulged in fantasy.
Five minutes later—
An Yi: “Yeah, Chinese.”
He was stumbling through in heavily accented English, barely managing to communicate with the foreigner on the other end.
The person was checking the information for him.
The final result came back: “Good luck preparing. We look forward to your enrollment.”
Little Frog stood there dumbfounded.
Wow!
“Excuse me? Excuse me?!”
“Yeah, excuse you, excuse you!”
“Oh~ brother~”
“Yeah~ brother~~”
An Yi hung up in excitement. It really was him.
Excuse me!!!
It bloomed. It bloomed. The wasteland really bloomed!!!
Little Frog instantly felt light as air. He had originally thought he was just going to jump out of the well that had trapped him. Instead, he had suddenly sprouted wings and flown straight into the sky.
Sitting in the taxi, he could no longer hide the joy inside him.
But as he smiled and smiled, his vision gradually blurred. At last he could not hold it in anymore and covered his face, sobbing in the car.
His dream.
The dream he had had at eighteen.
If An Bingsheng knew that he now had the chance to go to university, how happy would he have been?
To him, the man had not been a good father, but in An Yi’s heart, both he and his mother would always have a place. Even more so than An Shaofeng and Chen Lin.
He changed his route, bought two bottles of white liquor, and went to the cemetery. After coming to the city, he had moved An Bingsheng and his wife’s ashes there.
He took out his phone and read the message aloud once.
After the sorrow passed, what remained was pure joy.
But he also knew that this notice could not have appeared out of thin air.
When he got home, Huo Beixing was in the kitchen fussing over the three bottles of red wine he had brought from home, clearly preparing to celebrate something tonight.
An Yi had intended to go find him at the Huo house, but after thinking about Huo Beixing’s whimsical habits, figured he was probably still at his apartment.
Sure enough, he was.
Huo Beixing turned when he heard footsteps. “You’re back.”
An Yi nodded, then hesitated. “Huo Beixing, I have something I want to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“Did you arrange for that design school entrance exam notice I received today?”
Huo Beixing did not hide it. “Half and half.”
An Yi: ?
He set down the red wine. “Mainly your work passed the selection. Otherwise they wouldn’t have let it through.”
An Yi’s eyes lit up.
Huo Beixing lowered his gaze to him. “Happy?”
“Happy!”
Huo Beixing raised the wine. “Shall we celebrate?”
An Yi nodded, then went into the room to change clothes, planning to come back out for dinner.
Watching his overjoyed figure leave, Huo Beixing’s eyes softened with a smile.
He lowered his head to the wine in his hand.
He had chosen it on purpose.
He had picked bottles with relatively high alcohol content.
A beautiful night was starting from tonight.
An Yi sat on the sofa watching TV while Huo Beixing finished ordering food from the hotel, then went into the bathroom and cleaned himself up for quite a while. When he came out, he was practically a peacock in full display.
Clearly, he intended to make the most of this lovely evening.
Holding the wine bottle, An Yi said when he saw him emerge, “Open it.”
To his surprise, Huo Beixing was basically offering himself up.
Such a chance could not be missed. He took the corkscrew over and opened the wine for him.
Yet after three rounds of drinks, Huo Beixing ended up leaning painfully against the sofa, his head buzzing.
His tolerance was not actually low, but red wine hit hard later, and between them they had polished off nearly two bottles. Huo Beixing’s drunkenness was setting in, yet An Yi still looked perfectly fine.
Looking at Huo Beixing’s slightly tipsy handsome face, An Yi asked, “Not drinking anymore?”
Huo Beixing looked at An Yi, who still seemed completely clear-headed, and almost laughed in disbelief.
An Yi kept chattering smugly into his ear, “Huo Beixing, your alcohol tolerance isn’t that great.”
Looking at the proud little face in front of him, Huo Beixing liked him more than ever.
“Did you drink before too?”
An Yi answered, “For a while, yeah. That’s when I built up my tolerance.”
“How long?”
“Less than a month.”
Less than a month?
By rights, his tolerance shouldn’t have gotten this good.
“What were you drinking?”
“Erguotou.” (a type of Chinese liquor)
“……”
Author’s Note:
Huo Er: My molars were all crushed.
