Four-Faced Buddha [To My Shore] - Chap 81
Chapter 81 When will Fan Xiao die?
2024-10-13 07:32 Category: Four-Faced BuddhaTurn off the lights
You Shulang hasn’t left the apartment for almost a month since Fan Xiao forcibly took him back.
The June sun was already blazing, but the heavy curtains had never been drawn.
Most of the time, the guest rooms are dark. The time sequence is chaotic, day and night are indistinguishable, like a dead tomb, yet it houses living people.
Except when Fan Xiao dragged him out for meals, You Shulang almost never left his guest room.
He was quiet, as if he had become accustomed to blending into the darkness. Apart from the occasional sound of a lighter and a burst of light that struggled to pierce the darkness, the entire room was filled with a cold silence.
During this time, Fan Xiao tried countless ways to beg for forgiveness, but never mentioned leaving You Shulang’s life.
He moved all his work back home, standing guard outside the guest room door, discussing projects, holding video conferences, and reviewing documents. Every now and then, he would push open that door with various pleasing items and food, but he would usually only receive the reply: “Don’t worry, I’m not dead yet.”
When there’s no work to do, Fan Xiao would squeeze himself into a corner, letting the opposite wall tightly encircle him, as if that would sustain his last remaining obsession.
“I can’t live without you,” he often muttered to himself. “If you don’t want me, who will?”
The three meals a day were plentiful, all prepared by Fan Xiao himself, yet You Shulang was still visibly declining.
His hair had grown much longer, slightly obscuring his eyebrows and making his jaw appear even narrower. You Shulang had never had a weak appearance; he was elegant and gentle when he smiled, and powerful when he was angry. Now, however, all that remained was a broken and sickly look.
He adjusted to the light for a while before picking up his chopsticks. His bowl was already piled high with food by Fan Xiao. He never picked and chose, eating whatever was given to him, but he ate very little, less than a third of what he used to eat.
“Shulang, I made pork bone soup, have a bowl.”
Nowadays, Fan Xiao not only knows how to cook Thai food, but he has also learned many nutritious dishes from videos and puts them on the table in different ways every day.
“I’ve made this soup three times. The first two times it was either too salty or too bland. This time it’s better. Try it.”
You Shulang looked up, glanced at the computer behind Fan Xiao, and then looked away.
He picked up the soup bowl and saw Fan Xiao’s surprised expression; with a flick of his wrist, the hot soup spilled all over his leg, and the surprise in Fan Xiao’s eyes turned into astonishment!
“Shulang!” He suddenly stood up, went around the table, grabbed You Shulang’s hand, knelt on one knee, and went to check on his injuries.
With the thin pajama bottoms clinging to his skin, Fan Xiao dared not move rashly. He found a pair of scissors and carefully cut open the pant legs.
The burns weren’t too serious. By the time the soup was handed to You Shulang, Fan Xiao had let it cool for a while, so it was safe to sip.
The slightly red and swollen skin startled Fan Xiao, who broke out in a cold sweat and said in a panic, “Let’s go to the hospital.”
“I’m not going.”
You Shulang got up and went back to the bedroom, but Fan Xiao stopped him again: “No, the burns will cause serious problems if they are not treated.”
You Shulang glanced at him and said sarcastically, “What big problem could be bigger than the problem between you and me right now?”
He waved his hand listlessly, turned around and repeated, “Not going to the hospital.”
“Then I’ll go buy burn ointment.” Fan Xiao pressed You Shulang down into a chair. “You sit here and wait for me to come back with the medicine. Don’t move and don’t touch the wound.”
You Shulang slumped into his chair, looking very impatient, but he did not object further.
Only after Fan Xiao left in a panic did he stand up again, slowly walk to Fan Xiao’s temporary desk, and place his slender fingers on the cold laptop.
Fan Xiao’s work laptop was opened, and his long fingers pressed the keyboard, causing a dialog box to appear on the screen for entering a password.
You Shulang thought for a moment, entered a set of numbers, pressed Enter, and got an error.
He clicked his tongue, casually typed in another set of characters, pressed enter again, and got the same error again.
After trying several times without success, You Shulang closed the laptop and sat back down in his chair.
After applying the medicine, You Shulang silently returned to his guest room, closed the door, and shut out Fan Xiao’s worried face.
With only an empty cigarette pack left, You Shulang rummaged through the drawer for cigarettes, and his fingertips reached out and touched his cell phone, which he hadn’t used for many days.
The phone remained sturdy, with a sliver of battery remaining. The screen lit up instantly when touched by a fingertip. You Shulang glanced at it instinctively and saw numerous missed call notifications, as well as a message displayed across the screen.
He frowned slightly, picked up his phone, swiped the screen, his fingers trembling, hesitated for a moment, and then clicked on a video.
The man in the video is sitting in the back seat of a car, his chin raised, his face contorted with rage. One hand is moving rhythmically beneath him, the frequency of which reflects his expression. When he moves quickly, he furrows his brow; when he moves slowly, he breathes heavily. Pain and pleasure are intertwined. And the one who is showing this expression is none other than You Shulang himself!
!!
You Shulang exited the video call, gripped his phone tightly, and sat there for a while before dialing back.
The call was answered immediately, and he asked, “What do you want?”
This is the first time in nearly a month that You Shulang has voluntarily suggested going out.
Fan Xiao gripped the doorknob, his expression grave: “Can you tell me who you’re going to see?”
You Shulang said sarcastically, “Aren’t you good at stalking? You can come with me and see for yourself.”
“I won’t stalk you anymore, and I won’t interfere with you.” Fan Xiao released his hand and opened the door. “As long as you allow me to stay by your side, I won’t do anything to hurt you again.”
You Shulang chuckled, pushed Fan Xiao aside, and left, leaving behind a nonchalant remark: “The biggest hurt you’ve done to me is that you still haven’t left.”
Fan Xiao: “…”
In a quiet café away from the hustle and bustle, melodious music plays softly.
In the deepest corner, Qin Zhiyang sat opposite You Shulang.
The boy, barely twenty, looked meticulously groomed, his perfume emanating from him. Yet, upon seeing the emaciated You Shulang, he flew into a rage! His uncontrollable anger was more overwhelming than the scent of his perfume, and his teeth-gritting voice shattered the tranquility of the café.
“Fan Xiao has tortured you like this! I’m going to call the police right now!”
You Shulang’s lips left the coffee cup, the moist color of his lips bringing a touch of radiance to his face. His hair was too long, obscuring his eyebrows and eyes. A hair tie provided by the coffee shop for women was hooked out by his long fingers, and the strands of hair on his forehead were combed back. You Shulang casually put on the hair tie.
Her extremely gentle face, now thin and melancholic, was further enhanced by her casually tied-back long hair, giving her an air of detached indifference.
“Don’t be impulsive.” He looked at Qin Zhiyang and said, “A video recorded by a dashcam doesn’t count as being secretly filmed, and he didn’t distribute it. You stole it yourself. If you report it to the police, it’s uncertain who will bear the legal responsibility.”
The usually stern-faced CEO Qin’s knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists: “So his imprisonment of you isn’t a crime?”
You Shulang took a sip of coffee: “He didn’t imprison me, it’s just that I…” A faint, sorrowful smile appeared on the man’s face, “…it’s just that I wanted to escape.”
People outside the window had all changed into light summer clothes, but You Shulang was still wrapped in a long trench coat, like a cicada that had failed to emerge from its chrysalis, destined to die on a summer night.
You Shulang gazed out the window, thinking of the woman’s smiling face on the tombstone. He came from there, and now he still carried bits of grass and wood from the grave with him.
A few hours earlier, he had removed the grass from the grave, sat on the ground, and leaned against the tombstone.
The mountain breeze is gentle, like a woman’s calm gaze.
“Mom, it’s been so long since I’ve come to see you. You’re not angry with me, are you?” You Shulang took out a cigarette and slowly rubbed it in his hand. “Has Xiao Chen come by? I heard that he and that person have been taken into custody by the police. The amount of money they embezzled was quite large, and they’re supposedly going to jail.”
“Do you blame me for not taking good care of Xiao Chen?” You Shulang turned his head to look at the woman. “Maybe you really shouldn’t have picked me up back then. If you hadn’t taken me home, you and Xiao Chen might be living happily now.”
The sound of her voice was blown away, and the warm breeze was like a woman’s rough yet gentle hand.
“Mom, the belief that has sustained me for almost thirty years has been shattered. Family, love, everything I’ve worked so hard to build has turned around and stabbed me in the back.” You Shulang gave a self-deprecating laugh. “What’s the point of living a good life? Mom, you’re wrong after all. Living a good life won’t bring happiness in the end.”
He slumped down, leaning against the tombstone as if into his mother’s arms: “Mom, I’m tired, so tired. Sometimes I feel like I’ve been detached from this world. There’s nothing here that I cherish, and I have no expectations for it anymore. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a very long time. I always dream about you, about the past, about Xiao Chen following behind me calling me ‘brother.’ Whenever I tell myself that this is the real world, that you on the tombstone, Xiao Chen on the rooftop, the crazy Fan Xiao, it’s all fake, all just a dream, I wake up, wake up from that beautiful dream, and feel an emptiness in my heart, as if I’ve lost everything.”
You Shulang slowly slid down, curled up in front of the tombstone, and whispered, “Mom, when I have money, I’ll buy the spot next to you and reserve it for myself so I can visit you sooner, okay? Mom, I want to eat your dumplings,” a tear slid down his eyelid, “pork and sauerkraut dumplings.”
The music in the coffee shop changed, and Qin Zhiyang brought You Shulang, who had been lost in thought, back to reality.
“You…Shulang,” he had never called a man by his name before, and in the few days they had worked together, they had always addressed each other by their titles, “What are your plans for the future? If you need my help, just let me know.”
You Shulang turned his gaze away from the window and looked at Qin Zhiyang again, asking, “Did you hack into Fan Xiao’s computer to get the video?”
Qin Zhiyang said with an air of invincibility: “I studied computer science and technology in college. If my dad hadn’t insisted that I take over the company, my dream wouldn’t have been ruined, and I would have ended up dealing with scumbags now.”
“You can hack into all computers?”
“It depends on the level of the defense system; not all systems can be hacked.”
You Shulang nodded, took out a chip from his pocket, and pushed it in front of Qin Zhiyang: “Can the program here be modified?”
His five fingers moved so fast on the keyboard that they were almost blurry. After a series of operations, Qin Zhiyang showed a disdainful expression: “That’s it? Can it be changed?”
You Shulang took a sip of coffee and said casually, “How can I thank you?”
“Thank me?”
Whether it was a trick of his eyes or not, You Shulang felt Qin Zhiyang glance at his collar and then linger on his lips, which made him blush.
Qin Zhiyang, who had always had a cold and stern expression, suddenly showed a bit of youthful embarrassment. His ears burned, which stood out against his fair skin.
“Have you watched the video?” You Shulang asked suddenly, stirring his coffee with a spoon and looking down.
“No…no.” Qin Zhiyang’s embarrassment deepened. His fingers gently crumpled the tablecloth, and his voice was deliberately calm. “I only looked at the beginning, and when I realized something was wrong, I turned it off. I’m not as perverted as Fan Xiao.”
After thinking for a moment, he explained, “You know, I’m a spiritual Platonist, not… into kissing and sex.”
“Hmm,” You Shulang replied indifferently. “Tell me, how can I thank you?”
“You’re welcome, but if… you leave Fan Xiao in the future, can I pursue you?”
Seeing You Shulang roll his eyes at him, Qin Zhiyang explained again, “It’s not a necessary exchange of bargaining chips. This is just my request. I hope you can give me a chance.”
You Shulang pondered for a moment, then tapped the table with his finger: “Sorry, I don’t want to talk about relationships right now.”
“Then let’s wait until you want to talk. I’m young, I can wait.”
You Shulang: “…”
Qin Zhiyang left with his computer, and less than fifteen minutes later, another person sat down opposite You Shulang.
The man reluctantly sat down and immediately complained, “Why did we meet in such a shabby place? The teahouse we went to last time was so much better. We listened to Peking Opera and drank tea. That was real elegance.”
Seeing that no one paid any attention, he clicked his tongue and said, “Director You, when will Fan Xiao die in your hands? I’m so anxious!”
