Chapter 25: Fireworks

Fu Yingcheng followed Ji Fanling, walking on the street one after the other.

They were clearly together, yet it seemed as if they were strangers, maintaining a distance of about two steps between them.

It was a bustling time on the pedestrian street, with people coming and going. The atmosphere was lively and full of the warmth of daily life. Ji Fanling carried a plastic bag in one hand while the other was casually tucked in her pocket. She skillfully turned into a small alley, weaving through the spider-web-like alleys of the old town.

Occasionally, she would stop and glance back to check if Fu Yingcheng was keeping up.

The two eventually arrived in front of an abandoned, unfinished building.

Its old iron gate was sealed shut with a heavy iron chain and a rusted lock. Ji Fanling led him around half of the building until they found a section of the wire fence at the back that had a hole in it.

The girl crouched down effortlessly and slipped through the gap.

Although Fu Yingcheng was slender, the hole in the fence was still too small for his tall and lean frame. He struggled a bit to get through, and in the end, the corner of his coat got torn.

Ji Fanling heard the sound of fabric ripping and turned back to look at him, hesitating before speaking. “I thought you were pretty slim…”

Fu Yingcheng shot her a chilly glance.

Ji Fanling leaned in, lowering her head to inspect the small tear in his coat, as if calculating the economic loss. She muttered, almost sulking, “This place is known only to me. I’ve never brought anyone here before. I thought you could squeeze through…”

Only she knew.

The boy’s lowered eyelashes quivered slightly.

“You can ask the neighbor grandma to sew it for you,” Ji Fanling said with absolute confidence. “No one will ever notice…”

“No need,” Fu Yingcheng replied, pulling his sleeve back.

Ji Fanling looked up at him.

They were close, so close that they were almost within arm’s reach.

The boy leaned back slightly, shifting his gaze away first. He said indifferently, “No need to mend it.”

“…This jacket, I didn’t really want it in the first place,” he added.

Ji Fanling responded with an “oh,” letting out a relieved breath before turning around. “Then let’s head upstairs.”

The abandoned building had six floors, and the staircase was unlit.

They climbed the narrow stairwell in the dark, feeling their way up. When they pushed open the rusted iron door at the top, the open-air rooftop unfolded before them, vast and unobstructed.

Night had fallen halfway, and the distant horizon shifted from a pale white to a somber deep blue. Skyscrapers rose like towering glass walls, while the uneven heights of the low-rise houses below created a jagged silhouette.

Ji Fanling stood on the raised edge of the rooftop and pointed into the distance. “Look over there.”

Fu Yingcheng said, “Get down.”

Ji Fanling replied, “Huh?”

She instinctively turned her head, moving too quickly and pulling at the wound on her neck.

A sharp burst of pain made her squint her eyes, and she stumbled half a step, with one foot dangling off the edge.

Fu Yingcheng’s expression changed instantly. He stepped forward, climbed over the railing, and firmly grasped her wrist. His voice was as hard as a command: “Get down!”

“…What are you afraid of? I won’t fall,” she replied.

Ji Fanling seemed indifferent as she took two steps back. Noticing his expression, she smirked and said teasingly, “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of heights?”

Fu Yingcheng let go of her wrist, frowning at her without saying a word.

Ji Fanling turned around and pointed once more at the giant electronic screen below. “Do you see the stadium next to it?”

“So what?” 

“There’s a tour concert starting at eight. From up here, you can see everything, it’s even clearer than sitting inside,” Ji Fanling said with a hint of pride. After speaking, she glanced at him guiltily:

“The singer is Xu Chenglin. Do you like him?”

Xu… something Lin.

Never heard of him.

Fu Yingcheng’s interest in celebrities was no greater than his interest in radishes.

“They’re okay,” Fu Yingcheng said.

Ji Fanling propped herself up with one hand and casually sat on the edge of the rooftop steps, her legs dangling freely over the side. She turned her head to see the boy frowning deeply at the unfinished concrete ground covered in dust.

Ji Fanling reached into her pocket, pulled out a crumpled tissue, and carefully spread it out on the ground beside her. She made a “please” gesture and said, “Here, it’s clean.”

Fu Yingcheng’s eye twitched.

Ji Fanling shrugged. “Fine, don’t believe me.”

Fu Yingcheng took off his torn jacket and spread it on the ground, as if making good on his earlier statement that he “didn’t want it anymore.”

The two sat side by side on the rooftop. One with a leg casually bent, exuding a sloppy, indifferent air; the other sitting straight-backed like a pine tree, as if attending a lecture.

The evening breeze swept over the two contrasting figures.

The breeze was cool and pleasant, yet a thin layer of sweat formed on Fu Yingcheng’s body.

His gaze repeatedly fell on the girl’s poorly concealed, upright collar.

As time passed, a faint stain of blood began to seep through the collar.

It was worse than he had thought. He had only tended to the wounds on her neck, but the blood had continued to spread to deeper areas on her back.

The bloodstain grew darker and more pronounced.

The veins on the back of the boy’s hand stood out, tense.

A shadow-like restlessness clung to him, making him feel as if he were sitting on pins and needles.

It was already past eight o’clock. The concert had begun its warm-up act. An explosive opening group dance rose amid the sudden bursts of flames around the stage, ascending in sync with the rapid drum beats.

The deafening cheers from below surged like a tidal wave, reaching up to the skies.

After the first song ended, the girl did nothing but stare at the stadium beneath her.

Fu Yingcheng finally couldn’t hold back and spoke in a cold tone, “You came here just to listen to a concert?”

“What else?” Ji Fanling replied, her expression puzzled.

“You have time to listen to a concert here but no time to go to the hospital?”

Ji Fanling’s expression fell. “What’s it to you?”

Fu Yingcheng’s dark eyes bore into her.

It was a look filled with helplessness and anger, as if something precious to him was being recklessly ruined by someone else, yet all he could do was watch.

And there was something even more veiled in that gaze.

The boy, stubborn to the core, would never admit it, yet he felt it unmistakably—

An acute, suffocating ache that pierced his heart.

Fu Yingcheng’s voice carried a slight chill. “Are you numb to pain or what? Can’t you feel it?”

“I was perfectly fine,” Ji Fanling turned her face away. “If you hadn’t brought it up, I’d almost forgotten about it.”

Fu Yingcheng retorted, “So it’s my fault?”

Ji Fanling said coldly, “If you don’t want to listen, then go. Stop nagging me here.”

She had shared her secret spot, partly hoping to see an expression of delight on Fu Yingcheng’s face.

Although it was hard to imagine someone like him, who is perpetually cold and indifferent, like an iceberg, showing much excitement.

But was it really that hard to at least act happy?

Not even a little?

Neither of them spoke again.

After all, they couldn’t really be considered friends—

Just unfamiliar classmates in the same class.

Ji Fanling had pretty much just told him to leave, but Fu Yingcheng didn’t grab his things and walk away as she had expected.

The boy, always proud and intolerant of even the smallest faults, simply sat there beside her, refusing to leave or speak. Half his face was shadowed by the night, his expression so dark that it was almost frightening.

Ji Fanling glanced at him once, then again.

Strange.

He looked so angry, as if he were about to lash out… Yet she still couldn’t sense even the slightest trace of malice from him.

Ji Fanling kept a straight face. “Hey, what are you so angry about?”

“…”

“Your face looks a bit pale.” She started to feel a little worried. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of blood?”

“…”

“Afraid of heights, afraid of blood, and a clean freak…” Ji Fanling muttered to herself, unable to hold back a laugh.

“—Miss Fu.”

Fu Yingcheng’s temple twitched violently. “Say that one more time, I dare you.”

Behind them came a soft meow of a cat.

Ji Fanling turned her upper body with some effort to look and let out a small “Ah,” before curling her finger in a beckoning gesture. “Come here.”

It was a gray stray kitten, still young, with one eye blind. It was unclear whether it was from an injury or a congenital defect.

Ji Fanling effortlessly grabbed the kitten by the scruff of its neck and placed it on her lap.

The kitten seemed very familiar with her.

It rubbed its head against her hand, kneaded with its tiny paws, and purred contentedly as the girl’s fingers scratched its fluffy chin.

However, its remaining green, slit-pupil eye stayed narrowed in vigilance, fixed intently on Fu Yingcheng.

After petting the cat for a while, Ji Fanling reached into an inner pocket of her clothes and pulled out a sausage. She held it between her teeth, tilted her head and bit off the wrapper. She asked him, “…Want some?”

Fu Yingcheng withdrew his gaze. “No.”

Ji Fanling looked slightly disappointed but also a bit pleased. She broke off a piece of the sausage to feed the cat, then took a small bite herself, her eyes narrowing in satisfaction.

She shared the sausage with the cat, but in the end, the cat ate most of it.

Fu Yingcheng watched her movements out of the corner of his eye and suddenly regretted not bringing anything along.

All he had was a plastic bag full of tutoring books.

For the first time, those brand-new, ink-scented books felt like a heavy and useless burden.

Night had fully fallen. Above them, the sky was densely packed with stars, while below, the stadium was brightly lit.

In the sea of darkness below, glowing sticks surged like waves, and the sound system amplified the live band’s music to the skies, so loud that even on the rooftop, it was deafening.

Time passed quickly as one song after another played beneath them.

The stray cat took a nap on the girl’s lap, licked her hand a few times, and then jumped off the steps, disappearing somewhere into the night.

The two of them chatted sporadically, their conversation light and relaxed, both at ease in each other’s presence.

Ji Fanling swung her legs as she looked at him. “What do you usually do besides studying?”

“Nothing.”

“You just study all the time? Isn’t that tiring?”

Fu Yingcheng replied, “I don’t feel anything.”

Ji Fanling clicked her tongue in response.

Fu Yingcheng glanced at her. “What about you? Why are you always sleeping in class?”

Ji Fanling didn’t answer and instead asked, “Were you sent by Old Tang?”

Fu Yingcheng paused for a moment. “What do you want to do in the future?”

Ji Fanling answered without hesitation, “Go eat Jiang Family Noodles.”

Fu Yingcheng corrected her, “I’m not talking about tomorrow, but I mean the future.”

“Oh… the future.”

Ji Fanling finally understood. She took her time thinking about it, then nodded. “Go eat Jiang Family Noodles.”

Fu Yingcheng: “…”

“What about you?” Ji Fanling asked.

The glowing lights beneath them resembled a river of stars flowing across the ground.

What Fu Yingcheng wanted to do was something he had never shared with anyone in all these years.

Because Fu Zhiyuan had deliberately caused the largest pharmaceutical scandal of the 21st century, the company inherited from their ancestors became infamous, lost all credibility, and was universally condemned.

What Fu Yingcheng aspired to achieve would be a hundred times more difficult than for an ordinary person, simply because he was Fu Zhiyuan’s son, simply because it was him trying to do it.

More difficult, more absurd, more… undeserving.

“I want to rebuild Jiuzhou Medical,” the boy said quietly.

Surprisingly, the words he had hidden for so many years came out effortlessly.

Fu Yingcheng’s pitch-black eyes reflected his resolve. “I want to turn it into China’s largest pharmaceutical company, independently develop the best drugs and medical devices, and sell them worldwide.”

No one knew that every word spoken by this still-young boy would become a legendary tale repeated in the medical field for decades to come.

After listening, Ji Fanling merely responded with a faint “Mm.” She added, “It shouldn’t be that hard for you.”

Fu Yingcheng was startled. “Why?”

“Because you’re the top student in the grade,” the girl said earnestly.

Fu Yingcheng looked into her eyes, stayed silent for two seconds, then couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh. “Do you know how far being the top student is from what I just said?”

“Is that so?”

Ji Fanling looked straight ahead as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “You’re different. You’re Fu Yingcheng.”

Fu Yingcheng stared at her profile, his gaze unwavering. In the depths of his dark eyes, it seemed like waves were endlessly surging.

The final song of the concert drifted up on the warm night breeze.

【Let what’s sought be lost,】

【Let the fleeting endure,】

【Even knowing the ending is a tragedy,】

【I’ll fight against the torrent of fate.】

“What about you?” Fu Yingcheng asked softly.

“What about me?”

“What do you plan to do in the future? What university do you want to attend? What job do you want to have?” Fu Yingcheng’s tone carried no trace of mockery; he was simply stating it calmly. “Are you just going to drift through school aimlessly, letting things slide?”