Yan Chen came late at night, followed by two burly men he had hired.

As soon as they entered, the two men restrained Xie Nancang on the hospital bed, while Yan Chen went straight to the window, without saying a word, took out a rope and tied up An Yi’s hands and feet, then hoisted him onto his shoulder.

An Yi struggled violently, alarming the doctors and nurses on duty at night, but no one dared to move recklessly.

Because no one recognized this tall man who appeared in the middle of the night, and they didn’t know the grudges between them, who could guarantee that this cold-faced young man wouldn’t suddenly pull out a gun from behind his waist?

“Let me go! Are you crazy, Yan Chen! Put me down!”

An Yi’s head hung down, his field of vision swaying with Yan Chen’s steps, and his face quickly turned red from congestion.

He heard Xie Nancang’s voice from the distant ward, vaguely hearing him calling his name, which made An Yi even more anxious, “Yan Chen! Can’t you hear me talking? Don’t make things difficult for Xie Nancang, I’m begging you!”

Yan Chen still ignored him, walking out of the hospital directly, throwing An Yi into the car.

An Yi wanted to jump out of the car, but his hands and feet were tied, making it difficult to move. Before he could open the car door, Yan Chen had already sat in the driver’s seat.

He slammed the accelerator to the floor, and the car rushed into the pitch-black night.

The glass of the car window reflected the man’s cold and stern profile, making An Yi’s back break out in cold sweat.

“What exactly are you planning to do!” He was worried about the situation at the hospital, “Xie Nancang has a fractured rib, and he can’t afford to be injured again! Yan Chen, calm down, release him first, can we talk things out properly?”

Yan Chen’s face was indifferent, and An Yi felt the car speeding up.

The trees and streets outside the window were retreating rapidly, turning into blurry black shadows.

“Yan Chen!”

An Yi’s raised voice was drowned out by the sharp sound of tires scraping against the ground in the next second, and the car suddenly stopped on the empty roadside.

An Yi was thrown by the immense inertia, and his whole body surged forward, almost hitting the glove compartment in front of the passenger seat.

Yan Chen fiercely pounded the steering wheel.

At this moment, a car passed by in the opposite lane, and the passing headlights allowed An Yi to see the fierce and cruel expression on his face.

The interior of the car returned to darkness, and after a while, An Yi heard Yan Chen let out a deep sigh, his voice cold and heavy: “Since we met, you haven’t cared about me at all. You haven’t asked me if I’ve been eating well this past month, if I’ve been sleeping well, or if I’ve been sick. Instead, all I hear is ‘Xie Nancang’.”

The overhead light suddenly turned on, and An Yi’s chin was pinched. He saw the deep-seated anger and sadness in Yan Chen’s eyes.

“An Yi, have you changed your mind too quickly?”

Even in this situation, An Yi lost focus for a moment on this handsome, somewhat bewitching face.

He lowered his eyes, wanting to avoid Yan Chen’s scrutiny and interrogation, but Yan Chen wouldn’t let him escape.

“Answer me, why did you have to run away?” Yan Chen turned his body halfway, forcing An Yi to face him. “Didn’t we have a good time this past half year? Did I treat you badly? Did I ever betray you and go to someone else?! Why did you still run away?!”

“If you don’t want me to marry someone else, just say it. You’re more narrow-minded than a needle, faster than a rabbit, yet you turn around and kiss someone else, is that what you call love?”

An Yi’s eyes welled up with tears, but he didn’t speak.

Yan Chen couldn’t help but feel annoyed, his tone gradually becoming more agitated. “Tell me, where have I mistreated you? Damn it! I’ve never chased after anyone like this in my life, circling half the globe for you! You’re the only one for me! No matter what happens today, even if I have to knock you unconscious, I’ll take you away!”

“What are you doing?” An Yi spoke up.

Yan Chen frowned, looking at him.

An Yi sat up straight, his eyes reddening, but he didn’t cry.

“Yan Chen, about six years ago, around this time of year, we got into bed, and after it was over, you told me ‘no talking about feelings, no talking about the future’. Now I’ll give you a line too,” An Yi took a deep breath, revealing a faint, bitter smile, “let’s part on good terms.”

Yan Chen’s face suddenly changed color. “Are you still acting out?!”

“I’m not,” An Yi’s voice was unusually calm, “in the past half year, you’ve been good to me, but I’m not happy at all. I think, I probably don’t love you anymore.”

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, then shut up!” Yan Chen was almost fuming, he started the car again, intending to take An Yi to the airport, but then he heard An Yi casually say, “I slept with someone else.”

The car, just started, came to a halt once more.

The dim light from the overhead lamp cast a heavy shadow on Yan Chen’s face.

Yan Chen warned in a low voice, “It’s okay if you’re angry with me, but don’t say such things lightly.”

“I’m not saying it lightly,” An Yi smiled lightly. “We tried many positions, he was very gentle, and his skills were good…”

“Shut up!” Yan Chen growled lowly.

But An Yi seemed not to hear, continuing on his own, “I enjoyed it a lot, and after we finished, he even helped me clean up. I didn’t catch a fever, overall it felt pretty good…”

“Shut up!” Yan Chen suddenly reached out to pinch his jaw, forcing An Yi to stop talking, “You’re fucking lying to me!”

An Yi stared straight into his dark eyes, unflinching.

Yan Chen’s breath was so hot, as if it could scald someone, “You’re deliberately lying to me, trying to piss me off, aren’t you?! Impossible! How could you?!”

An Yi loved him so much, willingly being with him for five years, without seeking money or status, only wholeheartedly loving him. How could such a person turn around and sleep with someone else!

But.

But the sounds he heard outside the room on the cruise ship that night, the scene of them kissing at noon today, kept flashing back in Yan Chen’s mind.

He had thought about it, but he didn’t dare to dwell on it, let alone face it.

An Yi forcefully turned his head, breaking free from Yan Chen’s grasp.

With his cheeks reddened from being pinched, he said calmly, “Yan Chen, I…I always thought it would be difficult for me to be with someone else, but I was wrong.”

His words were light and airy, yet they pierced Yan Chen’s heart like a steel blade.

“This feeling is not bad. I don’t blame you for being promiscuous. Now that it’s my turn to experience it, it’s indeed much more stimulating and enjoyable than being in a relationship with just one person.”

Yan Chen pursed his lips, his eyes tinged with red.

The usually handsome and graceful face now completely turned cold, giving off a chilling aura that sent shivers down one’s spine.

He asked, “It’s Xie Nancang, isn’t it?”

There was no need to wait for An Yi to answer; Yan Chen had already made up his mind.

“What are you trying to do!” An Yi saw him taking out his phone to make a call, and with a forceful push forward, he tried to knock Yan Chen’s phone away.

“I damn well want him dead!” Yan Chen roared uncontrollably. “He dared to touch what’s mine, damn it, he’s going to die!”

“Even if he dies, there will be someone else!” An Yi shouted back. “If you want to kill someone, you might as well kill me!”

“Do you think I don’t dare?” Yan Chen glared at him with red eyes.

An Yi stretched out his neck, exposing his vulnerable throat to him. “Then come on, choke me to death! I’ve lived enough anyway!”

The hysterical argument suddenly fell into a deathly silence.

An Yi noticed that Yan Chen was actually crying.

Only a single tear silently slid down, so light and quick that Yan Chen might not have even noticed its presence.

But his eye sockets were so red, his eyelashes dampened, as he silently stared at An Yi, as if accusing him of heartlessness and betrayal.

An Yi felt uncomfortable with the swelling ache in his heart and looked away.

He said softly, “Let me go. Like I said before, let’s part ways amicably.”

Yan Chen didn’t say anything. After a moment of silence, he restarted the car.

Compared to his angry outbursts, his silence now made An Yi feel even more frightened and suffocated.

He raised his voice. “Stop the car and let me go! I really don’t want to go back with you!”

Ignoring his pleas, Yan Chen drove on. An Yi gritted his teeth and, just as the car accelerated, he forcibly pushed open the door and leaned out with all his strength, jumping out of the car amidst Yan Chen’s cries of shock.

His body slammed heavily onto the rough asphalt road, and he rolled a few times from the momentum before coming to a stop.

His knees and elbows burned with pain.

Ignoring his injuries, he shook off the restraints on his feet and kicked off the bindings on his hands. Then, limping, he ran in the opposite direction.

In the distance, police sirens seemed to be approaching.

Yan Chen slammed the car door shut and quickly caught up, blocking his path. The trace of tears had disappeared from his eyes.

All that was left was a complexity that An Yi couldn’t understand.

“Do you know you could have died just now?!” Yan Chen stared at him intently. “You’d rather die than come with me?”

As he spoke, he tried to check the bruises on An Yi’s elbows, but An Yi abruptly dodged backward, shouting loudly, “If you force me again, I’ll die right now and show you!”

An Yi’s attitude of avoiding him at all costs deeply pierced Yan Chen’s heart.

He never knew that a single gesture or glance from someone could so easily hurt his heart.

Just as the two were deadlocked, the sirens grew louder and several cars arrived, their headlights illuminating the road around them.

Being in a foreign country at this moment, there was no need to cause such a big fuss over a relationship dispute.

An Yi quickly thought, racking his limited English vocabulary, planning to help explain to Yan Chen later. But then he saw several unfamiliar Eastern faces getting out of the cars, blocking Yan Chen’s path firmly before the police arrived.

Shortly after, Jiang Hai hurriedly approached, handing a phone with a still lit screen to Yan Chen.

“It’s Chairman Heng’s call, please answer it.”

Yan Chen’s gaze remained glued to An Yi’s face as he took the phone to his ear. Before he could speak, he heard his brother’s cold voice from the other end of the line, “Making a fool of yourself even abroad? I don’t care who you’re chasing after outside, but tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock, I must see you at home.”

With that, the call abruptly ended.

Yan Chen glanced at the screen, and Jiang Hai whispered to him, “The fight you had at noon today has already spread to China.”

After a pause, he added, “The headlines weren’t very pleasant, so Chairman Heng is very angry.”

Yan Chen threw the phone back, saying coldly, “Got it.”

As An Yi moved to the side while Yan Chen was on the phone, he heard someone calling him “An An” from the police car. An Yi responded with a nod, squinting slightly, and saw Xie Nancang walking towards him.

An Yi was afraid that his appearance would provoke Yan Chen again, so he quickly ran towards the police car.

“An Yi!” Yan Chen shouted loudly, wanting to chase after him, but he was firmly held back by the bodyguards sent by his brother.

An Yi, holding his head, directly jumped into the car where Xie Nancang was.

Even after the car door closed, he could still hear Yan Chen’s shouts from several meters away: “An Yi!!! How dare you go with him?! Come back here!”

^[1]Author’s Note: [After seeing comments from readers asking what Xie Nancang did to not be chosen by An Yi, I think the question should be reframed: What did Yan Chen do to prevent Xie Nancang … Continue reading