Chu Shangluo was unaware that someone nearby was watching him. He straightened up and sat on his electric bike, holding a cigarette and exhaling smoke.

There was a hint of weariness in his eyes as he spoke to the person on the phone who had remained silent, “Dad, if you have something to say, just say it. If not, I have other things to do.” When the other party still didn’t respond, Chu Shangluo was about to hang up when Lin Zhi approached, excitedly saying, “Boss, I just got news that Yu Family has agreed to meet with us for the second time.” Chu Shangluo had thought not long ago that Yu Family had given up on his proposal, so he had felt a little down. But now, Yu Family’s delayed response reignited his fighting spirit.

Just then, the silent Chu Chendong on the other end of the phone finally spoke, “Don’t you want to come back?”

“No,” Chu Shangluo replied firmly, deciding to put an end to his parents’ wishes. “Even if it’s not for my brother, or for myself to stand up for this, there are still so many Chu family members who believe in me. I won’t abandon them now.”

“Dad, I don’t know what happened to you, but do you still remember the responsibility we carry?” Chu Shangluo continued, “Either you or I, we cannot let the entire family suffer because of our personal issues.”

At his age, Chu Chendong couldn’t bear being lectured by his youngest son. His face reddened and he said, “That’s why I started teaching everyone a skill ten years ago. It’s better to teach a man to fish than to give him fish. I was afraid of this day, and now they’ll have the skills to support themselves.”

Chu Shangluo frowned, “Dad, you weren’t afraid of this day, you knew it was coming. From the moment you told me not to clash directly with the Wen family, I knew you’d been soft towards them for a long time. But you are you, and I am me. I will never bow to anyone.”

Chu Chendong’s face turned a mix of green and red as he struggled, then said, “Come back, don’t go head-to-head with the Wen family, you can’t handle it.”

Chu Shangluo’s mood, lifted by Yu’s notification, was instantly crushed by Chu Chendong’s words. The opportunity for the Chu family to rise again was right in front of him, and yet Chu Chendong was telling him to go back. His father was really selfish.

He suppressed his anger and said, “I won’t go back. At most, you can pretend I’m not your son. I can see you don’t want me anymore!”

“Chu Shangluo!” Chu Chendong shouted angrily. “I’m doing this for your own good! Why don’t you understand? Fine! Then I’ll tell you exactly what happened!”

Twenty minutes later, Chu Chendong finished telling him about the grudges between the Wen family and the Ruan family over the years. He no longer cared about his dignity, even admitting that he might have been involved in the fire that killed someone from the Wen family. Though he may not have been the best father, he didn’t want his youngest son to get involved in any more trouble.

Wen Zhengyang was actually a madman, unscrupulously achieving his goals. To seize the Ruan family’s assets, he married Ruan Shu’s younger sister. But she couldn’t bear children, so he had an affair and fathered a child with his mistress. Later, he used the Ruan family fortune to abandon his first wife and marry his mistress, while his first wife’s whereabouts remained unknown. Meanwhile, Chu Chendong had been holding onto his secrets. For the sake of the Chu family’s reputation and for his wife and children, Chu Chendong had been backing down from the Wen family. But more than these reasons, it was also because of his own cowardice that he had fallen into Wen Zhengyang’s schemes. As time passed, Wen Zhengyang became bolder and more unscrupulous, but with his powerful connections, many of his darker deeds were buried.

The Chu family has always been clean and above board, avoiding any dealings in the gray areas, and they do not have powerful connections to back them up. Therefore, Chu Chendong did not want his youngest son to take risks.

The father and son fell silent once more. Chu Shangluo tried to digest the immense amount of information he had just received. He realized that, more than the fact that Ren Jiaoming and he were enemies, what he found hardest to accept was his father’s actions. When he was young, his father was a pillar of support in his heart, someone who shielded him from all suffering. To him, his father was hardworking and had led the Chu family to prosperity. He was a hero in the eyes of every Chu family member, including his own. But now, after learning all this, he discovered that his father was not the great hero he had once believed him to be, but a weak and cowardly man. Chu Shangluo felt deeply distressed. The image of his strong and upright father, which had once been his driving force, collapsed in an instant, and he couldn’t accept it. He took a deep drag of his cigarette, and the ember burned down to the filter. The bitterness was overwhelming.

“You…” Even now, Chu Shangluo couldn’t believe that his father was the arsonist. “If you had gone to the police and cooperated with the investigation, maybe things wouldn’t have turned out this way. You said you blacked out, that you don’t remember. Everything Wen Zhengyang said could have been fabricated, because he is the one who ultimately benefits from this series of events.”

Chu Chendong fell silent, and after calming down, he had thought about this possibility as well. But by the time he realized what had happened, all the evidence had been lost. If he had turned himself in then and explained the situation, the possibility of clearing his name would have been slim. Everyone would have believed he was the arsonist. If he had been manipulated by Wen Zhengyang, he would have carried that unjust stigma for the rest of his life. He had suffered the consequences of avoiding things at the time and his cowardice later on. He spent his life in doubt over whether he had truly committed the crime. His smartest eldest son had taken over the company but had been struck dumb after decisively blocking the Wen family’s progress. His proud youngest son had been ruined by the Wen family and had yet to recover. And he couldn’t help with anything. Chu Chendong sighed and said, “I still have money here. If you’re short…”

“I don’t need money,” Chu Shangluo interrupted, throwing away his cigarette butt. “Even knowing all this, I won’t go back. Hang up.”

Chu Shangluo didn’t want to hear his father’s voice anymore, so he ended the call. He slumped weakly against the wall, gazing at the sky, exhaling deeply. Instinctively, he reached for another cigarette and put it in his mouth. When he tried to light it, he realized the lighter was out of fuel. He threw the lighter away and held the unlit cigarette between his lips. His eyes gradually went blank as he blocked out all sounds. The sun slowly aligned with the horizon, and the sky blended hues of blue and pink. The entire city of Beijing was bathed in a dim, pale twilight.

The porch lights in front of the villa lit up, casting a dull glow on Chu Shangluo’s dimmed eyes. He could slowly hear the sounds of Chu family members nearby chatting and laughing while they worked. Chu Shangluo’s eyelashes fluttered, and he snapped back to reality.

Lin Zhi came out holding a jacket and draped it over Chu Shangluo’s cold body. With concern, he asked, “Boss, what’s wrong? You’ve been zoning out for a long time. I’ve been calling you, but you didn’t respond.”

Chu Shangluo shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

“Are you cold? Your hands are freezing,” Lin Zhi said, holding Chu Shangluo’s icy hand, quickly rubbing it to warm him up.

But in the next moment, another hand grabbed Chu Shangluo’s, pulling it forcefully away from Lin Zhi’s grasp.

Ren Jiaoming stood with a cold expression, his body filled with the chill of late autumn. He had been standing nearby for as long as Chu Shangluo had been sitting outside. During that time, every action, smile, irritation, sadness, and despair of Chu Shangluo had not escaped his watchful eyes. When Lin Zhi grabbed Chu Shangluo’s hand, Ren Jiaoming could no longer hide his feelings. He walked decisively toward Chu Shangluo. It wasn’t just jealousy—it was that he wanted to hold those fiery hands.

Lin Zhi was stunned and instinctively took a step back when Ren Jiaoming suddenly appeared. In his haste, he stepped on a stone and tripped, falling backward. Chu Shangluo quickly reacted, shaking off Ren Jiaoming’s hand and supporting Lin Zhi. “Are you okay? You’re not steady on your feet, be more careful.”

“Oh, I’m fine, Boss. Don’t underestimate me,” Lin Zhi responded.

Ren Jiaoming watched them completely ignore him, his hand still hanging in midair from when Chu Shangluo had forcefully pushed him away. He pressed his lips tightly together and lowered his hand. The lingering warmth from when he had grabbed Chu Shangluo’s wrist still remained on his palm, and he slowly clenched his fist, hoping to hold onto that brief moment of warmth that no longer belonged to him. His heart ached, and as he saw Chu Shangluo already hooking his arm around Lin Zhi’s shoulder and walking away, Ren Jiaoming once again seized Chu Shangluo’s wrist and, with a hint of urgency in his voice, said, “We need to talk.”

“Who are you? Why should I talk to you?” Chu Shangluo tried to pull his wrist free from Ren Jiaoming’s grip, but this time, he couldn’t break free. Ren Jiaoming was burning with fever, his body swaying, yet he held onto Chu Shangluo’s wrist like it was a rock.

After learning about the tangled history between his family and Ren Jiaoming, Chu Shangluo wanted nothing more than to avoid him. But why was Ren Jiaoming suddenly so persistent? Didn’t he always want to distance himself from him? Hadn’t he always been talking about boundaries and propriety? What was Ren Jiaoming doing now? Now that things had developed like this, who was he trying to disgust by pulling this stunt?

“There’s nothing left to talk about between us,” Chu Shangluo said coldly, glaring at Ren Jiaoming’s pale face. He exerted all his strength to pull his reddened wrist free. “You didn’t want to talk when I asked before, but now you do, and I don’t want to hear it. Lin Zhi, let’s go.”

Ren Jiaoming’s face turned pale, and as he watched Chu Shangluo’s retreating back, a malicious look slowly appeared in his eyes. Chu Shangluo, still feeling the pain in his chest, had barely taken two steps with Lin Zhi when his wrist was grabbed once more. This time, the force was different—it was obsessive, filled with possessiveness. Chu Shangluo was pulled with no chance of resistance, only able to curse Ren Jiaoming while being dragged along.

Chu Shangluo was pulled into a quiet, deserted villa. His body was shoved against the wall by Ren Jiaoming, who then pinned him down forcefully. Chu Shangluo looked at Ren Jiaoming, who was breathing heavily in front of him, his eyes revealing a hint of madness, and scoffed, “Ren Jiaoming, you’re really pathetic.”

In Ren Jiaoming’s cold eyes, there was only Chu Shangluo. He noticed that the buttons of Chu Shangluo’s shirt were undone incorrectly, so he raised his hand to rebutton them. Chu Shangluo knew he couldn’t overpower Ren Jiaoming, so he simply stopped resisting. He still had an unlit cigarette in his mouth from earlier and was irritated as he searched his pockets, only to remember that he had thrown his lighter away.

“Damn it!” Chu Shangluo frowned at Ren Jiaoming, who remained silent, and asked, “What exactly do you want to talk about?”

Ren Jiaoming quietly reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter, lighting Chu Shangluo’s cigarette. He didn’t smoke, but because Chu Shangluo did, it had become a habit for him to carry a lighter for him in case he ever ran out.

Chu Shangluo took a slow drag, unceremoniously blowing the smoke in Ren Jiaoming’s face. “You’ve got one minute.”

Ren Jiaoming’s expression remained unchanged, not the slightest bit disturbed by the smoke. However, in his eyes, a turbulent undercurrent was stirring. In the past, when Chu Shangluo smoked, he would deliberately avoid him, but now, Chu Shangluo no longer cared. The sharp contrast caused a stabbing pain in his heart. The various complex emotions he’d been dealing with recently had completely overwhelmed him, and it felt as though his heart was sinking to the bottom.

Seeing that Ren Jiaoming remained silent, Chu Shangluo grew more and more irritated. He really couldn’t understand why Ren Jiaoming had brought him here. Was this all just to keep him silent while they stood there in mutual silence? He couldn’t stand Ren Jiaoming acting like a mute—it only made him extremely frustrated and made him want to punch him.

Chu Shangluo thought this, and so he did it. He punched Ren Jiaoming in the shoulder and shouted irritably, “If you don’t say anything, I’m leaving!”

Chu Shangluo’s strong movements stirred Ren Jiaoming’s emotions. He had been delirious from his high fever for some time now, and the usual restraint he maintained had completely dissolved. Just as Chu Shangluo was about to push him away, Ren Jiaoming only had one thought: he couldn’t let Chu Shangluo leave. Without thinking, he grabbed Chu Shangluo in an embrace.

Ren Jiaoming’s chest ached, and his mind was in turmoil. He realized just how desperately he craved this person.

Chu Shangluo was momentarily stunned, then he snapped back to his senses. He exhaled a puff of smoke, pinched the cigarette out, and threw it to the ground. “The minute’s over.”