Chapter 76: Transmigrated as a Stingy Phoenix Man (Extra)
The day Yu Jinheng died, snow was falling.
Ever since Yu Xinyu passed away, his health had been consistently poor. At thirty-nine years old, his vitality was completely burnt out.
Everyone who saw Yu Jinheng said the same thing—
He was like this simply because he missed his younger brother far too much.
Of course, no one dared bring up Yu Xinyu’s name in front of Yu Jinheng… After Yu Xinyu died, Yu Jinheng withdrew even further into seclusion. Occasionally, the older servants at the family estate would recall that Yu Xinyu had once had a major row with Yu Jinheng before leaving in anger.
That had happened six or seven years ago, and the reason for their fight was simple: another person whose name could not be brought up.
Just thinking of that name gave the Yu family’s servants a headache, as if confronted with a insurmountable problem. Everyone still remembered that farce, as well as the image of that person leaping directly from the building.
It had been a Tuesday morning. Yu Jinheng’s assistant still remembered that day when Yu Jinheng, who never missed a company meeting, suddenly fell gravely ill. He stayed away from the office for an entire week, followed by a month-long stay in a sanatorium.
From that moment on, his health took a turn for the worse.
As for Yu Xinyu…
The assistant wanted to sigh whenever he recalled what happened that day.
Yu Xinyu had started a livestream. Facing the camera, Yu Xinyu confessed his sins, meticulously recounting everything he had done—his selfish desires, his deliberate act of letting online public opinion swallow Cen Yu whole… He gnawed on his fingers like a madman until someone realized something was wrong, dragged him away, and cut the stream.
Afterward, Yu Xinyu was permanently confined to a sanatorium.
It was the very same place where Yu Jinheng had stayed.
The assistant truly felt as though the Yu family was cursed… How was it that both Yu Jinheng and Yu Xinyu couldn’t escape that sanatorium?
He remembered accompanying Yu Jinheng on a visit to the sanatorium. Yu Xinyu sat in a wheelchair, wearing a straitjacket designed to prevent him from hurting himself during emotional outbursts.
Yu Jinheng merely stared at Yu Xinyu.
Yu Xinyu didn’t look back at him. He sat by the window, gazing out at a large tree outside.
“…He hasn’t seen my house yet,” he murmured, talking to no one in particular.
“I planted a lemon tree. When he pushes open the window, he can pick one just by reaching out.” Yu Xinyu seemed calm now. Turning his head to look at Yu Jinheng, he let out a laugh. “I heard Cen Yu speaking to me. He told me to die.”
“He didn’t tell you to die,” Yu Jinheng said, breaking into a few quiet coughs.
Looking at his younger brother, he pursed his lips slightly. “He said bye-bye.”
“…He wasn’t even willing to say goodbye to me,” Yu Xinyu said. “He didn’t want to see me ever again.”
With that, he burst into foolish laughter, addressing the window, “By the way, the sea breeze was so strong that day. I saw you standing by the shore and thought to myself, as expected of my Little Yu—he really is beautiful.”
“But why couldn’t I hold on to you?”
As he spoke, he slipped back into endless memories once again.
Yu Jinheng watched Yu Xinyu talking to himself, ultimately turning and leaving the sanatorium.
After Cen Yu’s incident, there was no possibility of continuing the variety show… Shortly after, Sang Qianshan announced his retirement from the entertainment industry, returning home to officially take over the family business. Lou Baichuan also departed from his former company.
Yu Jinheng could feel his own business expansion hitting roadblocks at every turn, with both the Sang family and the Lou family relentlessly sabotaging and pressuring him.
Three years after that incident, inside the apartment that had been bought out, Yu Jinheng received the postcard Cen Yu had mailed.
He went to the sanatorium and sat across from Yu Xinyu. At this point, Yu Xinyu no longer bore the frantic madness from three years ago. He would occasionally sit by the window and paint; his artwork was always simple, depicting only a lemon tree, a white house, and Cen Yu.
He painted Cen Yu countless times, capturing happy expressions that Cen Yu had never once shown in real life.
Yu Jinheng handed the postcard to Yu Xinyu… then adjusted his clothes, preparing to rise and leave.
The moment Yu Jinheng stood up, Yu Xinyu suddenly spoke—
“Brother.”
Yu Jinheng looked back at him.
“Goodbye.”
Yu Jinheng threw a glance at Yu Xinyu. “Goodbye.”
Word had it that on the very night he left the sanatorium, a sudden fire broke out in Yu Xinyu’s room. Those paintings and Yu Xinyu himself were all consumed by the blaze.
No one knew what Yu Jinheng was thinking, only that from then on, his physical condition deteriorated further, right up until the winter of this year.
Lying in bed, perhaps experiencing a brief rally before the end, he suddenly regained his energy and retrieved a photo album from the safe.
The assistant didn’t know what was inside the album, only that Yu Jinheng opened it and stared at it for a long time before putting it back into the safe.
He lay quietly in bed, merely waiting for his final moment to arrive.
As if sensing something in the dark, he coughed a few more times and softly murmured the name of the figure he saw—
“…Little Yu…”
Just as the assistant was about to call for medical intervention, he discovered that Yu Jinheng had already stopped breathing.
Recalling the name Yu Jinheng had just called out, he simply assumed Yu Jinheng had passed away due to overwhelming grief over his younger brother’s death.
After all, who could have guessed that the name Yu Jinheng had uttered belonged to a man he had only met a handful of times and spent a brief period with?
The undeliverable postcard ultimately returned to Sang Qianshan’s hands.
Looking at the words he had written three years ago on the postcard, he felt only a sense of irony… Stopping his car, he visited Cen Yu’s grave, only to spot Lou Baichuan standing there.
The man looked travel-worn, as if he had just returned from a business trip.
When their eyes met, the two exchanged a brief nod without saying a word.
They stood there for a very long time… Sang Qianshan pulled a lighter from his pocket and set the postcard ablaze in front of Cen Yu’s tombstone.
May your life be free of worries, safe, and filled with joy.
Sang Qianshan watched the flames devour the postcard, releasing his grip only right before the fire singed his fingers.
He watched as the postcard quickly turned to ashes, scattering into the air…
He thought that if there were a next life, these would still be the words he wished to say to Cen Yu.
