Chapter 9
Qu Tongqiu knocked on the door stubbornly for a long time.
He was sure the owner was home, because he could faintly hear movement inside. He had always been careful, afraid of bothering Ren Ningyuan, but this time was different.
The door finally opened. Ren Ningyuan stood there barefoot, his trouser legs falling loosely over the tops of his feet, looking relaxed and casual. He glanced at him and said, “You’re out of the hospital?”
“Mm, I just got out today.”
Ren Ningyuan answered with an indifferent “Oh.”
Qu Tongqiu couldn’t tell whether he was angry or not, and said uneasily, “Boss.”
“What is it?”
Even though he had chewed over this fact again and again these past two days, he still stammered when he spoke: “My—my girlfriend… she’s pregnant.”
Ren Ningyuan suddenly lifted his eyes. Their gazes met, and neither spoke. Qu Tongqiu had never looked at Ren Ningyuan so seriously or for so long. Those eyes, lacking obvious emotion, were deep and dark. When they narrowed slightly, the pressure was overwhelming, making him panic a little.
He hadn’t done anything beastly. It was just his first taste of forbidden fruit—he never expected to succeed in one go and end up “making a person.”
After a while, Ren Ningyuan’s expression finally changed. He frowned slightly and asked, “So careless?”
“I—I don’t really know either…” Someone who knew nothing about men and women before—how could he talk about being careful or not?
“You came to me to ask for help with what? Finding a hospital? Abortion fees?”
Qu Tongqiu was startled. “We can’t abort the child!”
Ren Ningyuan looked at him. “Then what? You want her to give birth? Being a single mother is very hard.”
“I know…” Qu Tongqiu swallowed nervously. Facing Ren Ningyuan, just like when he had faced Yang Miao, he forced himself to speak: “I—I want to get married.”
Once the words left his mouth, he didn’t know why, but it felt as if the air froze instantly. No sound, no movement. He could only look at Ren Ningyuan in fear. The scene was exactly like the brief calm before his father lashed out after discovering his hidden failing report card.
Luckily, Ren Ningyuan wasn’t as hot-tempered as his father. After averting his gaze, his tone became calmer instead. “What about your studies?”
Qu Tongqiu hesitated. More than that, he felt guilty, like someone who had done something wrong. “Then… there’s no other way. I—I’ll tell my family…”
“Do you think it’s worth it?”
There was no such thing as worth it or not. One had to bear the consequences of one’s own actions, which meant inevitably giving some things up. He liked Yang Miao, was willing to be a father, and even more so had to take responsibility for a pregnant woman and an unborn child.
“Boss… then from now on, I won’t be staying in school anymore.”
When he said “marriage,” he had felt nervous and happy. Saying this sentence, however, filled him with nothing but pain.
Just thinking that things would never be the same again made his heart feel as if it were being squeezed, his breathing turning uneven. “Boss, I’ll work hard to find a job here. We can still meet often.”
There was no response.
Seeing Ren Ningyuan’s indifferent expression, he suddenly realized that Ren Ningyuan didn’t care about whether they met or not. The sadness and reluctance were all one-sided, his alone. So he changed his words. “I can still be like before. If you need me to do anything, Boss, just tell me.”
Ren Ningyuan gave a short “Mm.” “That’s enough. You can go back.”
Seeing him turn to go inside, Qu Tongqiu wanted to pull him back, but didn’t dare touch him anywhere. He could only grab his sleeve. “Boss…”
Ren Ningyuan looked down at his sleeve, then at him. “What?”
“Boss…” Qu Tongqiu felt as if a lump was?? in his chest. But no matter how much he thought, all it came down to was the word “reluctant.”
To him, there was only one Ren Ningyuan. But to Ren Ningyuan, followers like him were countless—one more or one less made no difference. Turn around once, and he would blur into the vast river of time.
Such feelings of attachment from a nobody like him were something Ren Ningyuan couldn’t possibly understand. After staring at him longingly for a while, his nose stung, and he squeezed out, “You—take care…”
Ren Ningyuan pulled his sleeve back and smiled. “You too.” Then he went inside and closed the door.
Qu Tongqiu was sad for a while. He also understood how hard reality was. Once he started working, became a busy husband and father, striving to support a small family, that would be a completely new kind of life.
As for the stage of university life, he had barely shown his face before having to exit early.
As long as the main characters were still there, losing a small supporting role midway wouldn’t change anything. But to him, this last bit of screen time was precious. Before officially dropping out and parting ways, he still wanted to see Ren Ningyuan a few more times.
Fortunately, if they stayed in the same city, the distance wasn’t too far. That at least gave him some hope and comfort.
That day, he managed to grab a buy-one-get-one-free walnut cake at a cake shop. He kept one for Yang Miao and took the other to give to Ren Ningyuan.
After ringing the doorbell with no answer as usual, he reached out to knock. At the first knock, he realized the door was only ajar. Feeling secretly pleased at Ren Ningyuan’s rare carelessness, he carried the paper bag and pushed the door open.
The moment he stepped inside, something struck his forehead, sending stars dancing before his eyes.
By now, Qu Tongqiu had developed a conditioned reflex to violent attacks. He immediately dropped what he was holding and covered his head. Luckily, the other party only intended to subdue him and didn’t plan to beat him senseless. Once he realized the disparity in strength, he almost immediately gave up struggling, surrendering obediently and avoiding a lot of pain.
The burly man who hit him yanked him up. Seeing how cowardly he was, the man looked at him with disdain, grabbed some filthy cloth, and tied Qu Tongqiu’s hands behind his back in a few quick moves. After tossing him onto the ground, he ignored him.
Qu Tongqiu was badly shaken. After all that, though his face was bruised and swollen, he hadn’t been hurt in vital spots. He also saw clearly that there were several big, intimidating men in the room. A man sat in the chair at the center—and facing him was Ren Ningyuan, who was also tied up.
Qu Tongqiu’s head buzzed. Blood rushed upward, his face turning purple as he struggled to shout, “Boss! Boss!” As soon as he made a sound, someone slapped him hard, telling him to shut up. When he kept shouting in panic, they simply stuffed a rag into his mouth.
Ren Ningyuan glanced at him, frowned, but showed no further reaction.
The man didn’t let this distraction affect him at all, treating it as if a fly had just buzzed into the room, and continued speaking to Ren Ningyuan calmly.
“I, Qiao Si, appreciate talent. Unfortunately, you don’t understand the rules. You injured so many of my people, smashed my venues, ruined my business.” He tapped one palm lightly with the fingers of the other hand. “A newborn calf not afraid of tigers.”
Ren Ningyuan didn’t make a sound, only adjusted himself in the chair into a slightly more comfortable position.
“Do you think I should teach you a lesson?”
The wording sounded polite, but coming from his mouth, it was chilling.
Qu Tongqiu whimpered in terror, watching as the man extended his fingers. His nails were neatly rounded, and slowly, they reached toward Ren Ningyuan’s eyeball.
Ren Ningyuan didn’t blink at all, maintaining that faintly furrowed brow. Qiao Si’s finger nearly touched his eye. After pausing for a moment, he withdrew it, then smiled at Ren Ningyuan.
“Such a fine pair of eyes.”
Cold sweat soaked Qu Tongqiu’s back. His body went limp, his heart pounding wildly. He racked his brain desperately, but couldn’t think of any way to get Ren Ningyuan out of this place.
“Such a handsome young man—going blind like this would really be a pity.” Qiao Si laughed softly again, spreading his fingers and touching Ren Ningyuan’s cheek. “You really are good-looking. I’ve played with so many, but none can compare to you.”
Qu Tongqiu almost jumped up. Even Ren Ningyuan’s expression wavered slightly, his brow furrowing deeper. “What are you doing?”
Qiao Si’s smile grew even more ambiguous. He waved his hand, and several burly men knowingly retreated outside, closing the door behind them.
Qu Tongqiu was tied up and thrown into a corner. When he saw Qiao Si’s hand already reaching inside Ren Ningyuan’s clothes, he was instantly terrified, cold sweat pouring down his face, the veins on his forehead bulging.
No matter what else Qiao Si was praising, Ren Ningyuan only said one sentence: “You’ll regret this.” Then he fell silent.
Qu Tongqiu’s mind was in complete chaos. He struggled desperately to work at the cloth binding his wrists. When he had been tied up, he had deliberately kept his hands spread just a little. Someone as cowardly as him usually didn’t raise much suspicion, and no one noticed that small, barely visible trick.
The binding loosened into a tiny gap. He fought with everything he had to pull his hands free, rubbing them again and again against any hard surface he could reach behind his back. The skin on his wrists was rubbed raw, but he didn’t feel the pain. Using all his strength, he finally broke free.
Qiao Si had his back to him, clearly about to do something unspeakable to Ren Ningyuan. Holding his breath, Qu Tongqiu struggled to his feet, tore the rag from his mouth, and staggered forward.
Qiao Si heard the noise and turned around at once. Before he could react, Qu Tongqiu didn’t know where the strength and speed came from—he swung up a chair and smashed it down hard on Qiao Si’s head.
Qiao Si didn’t even have time to make a sound. He crashed face-first onto the floor and lay still.
Qu Tongqiu stared at the unconscious body, his whole body stiff, as if sleepwalking. After a few stunned seconds, he suddenly snapped back to his senses and hurriedly untied Ren Ningyuan. The murderous aura he’d had moments ago vanished without a trace; his fingers were trembling uncontrollably.
“Boss…”
Ren Ningyuan signaled him to keep his voice down, then crouched and checked the man’s breathing. Turning to Qu Tongqiu, whose face was pale and bluish, he said, “Don’t be afraid. You didn’t kill him. He’s still alive.”
Qu Tongqiu was still shaking, his legs trembling.
Ren Ningyuan stood up, bent slightly forward, and gripped his shoulders with both hands. “You did very well. Chu Mo will bring people here soon. We’ll be fine. Listen to me—when you leave here later, withdraw from school immediately. Pack up as fast as you can and take Yang Miao back to your hometown.”
With no time to prepare anything, Qu Tongqiu followed Ren Ningyuan’s arrangements in a daze and fled S City like he was escaping.
The withdrawal paperwork was handled by Ren Ningyuan afterward. After Yang Miao quit her job, all the miscellaneous follow-up matters were also taken care of by him.
Qu Tongqiu didn’t know how badly Qiao Si was hurt, nor how the matter ultimately ended. He didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye to Ren Ningyuan.
He left in such a hurry that he didn’t have time to look back even once.
