The Liang mansion was quiet in a way that felt wrong.
Mr Liang stood in the entrance hall with his coat on and his briefcase in his hand and his face was pale and tired. Xinyi stood at the bottom of the stairs with her arms crossed and her eyes full of something that looked like fear.
"Father," she said and her voice was steady but her hands were shaking. "Don't go. There has to be another way. We can call the police. We can call the authorities. We don't have to do what they say."
Mr Liang shook his head and his face was grim. "They have Wenhao. They have his friend. If I don't go they'll kill them both and I can't let that happen."
"Then let me go. Let me go instead. I can—"
"No." Mr Liang's voice was firm. "You stay here. You take care of Ruifen. You take care of the house. If I don't come back you're in charge. You understand me."
Xinyi's eyes went wet but she didn't cry. She never cried in front of her father. "You have to come back."
Mr Liang smiled a small sad smile and walked out the door.
The black car was waiting in the driveway. The driver opened the door and Mr Liang climbed into the back seat and the car pulled away from the mansion and through the gates and onto the main road.
He didn't see the figure on the balcony above. He didn't see the phone pressed to someone's ear. He didn't see the dark eyes watching him leave.
On the balcony of the mansion, a person stood with her phone pressed to her ear. Her face was calm and her voice was low.
"He's on his way. Yes.....Don't fail."
She hung up and walked back inside and no one noticed.
The car drove through the city and the streets grew emptier as they left the main roads behind. Mr Liang stared out the window and his mind was full of Wenhao.
I should have told him everything. I should have been honest from the start. I should have been a better father.
He was still thinking these thoughts when the truck came out of nowhere.
It hit the car from the side with a sound like thunder and the world turned upside down. Glass shattered. Metal screamed. Mr Liang's body was thrown against the door and then the roof and then the floor and everything went black.
The car rolled three times before it stopped, crumpled and smoking in a ditch on the side of the empty road.
The truck didn't stop. It kept going and disappeared around the bend.
In the Zhenlong mansion, the clock on the wall ticked slowly. Each second felt like an hour. Each minute felt like a day.
Zhenlong sat in his chair with his fingers steepled and his black eyes fixed on the door. Hua Cheng stood near the window with his arms crossed and his jaw tight. Wenhao was forced to kneel in the corner of the room with Shen Wei beside him and guards standing over them with hard faces.
Wenhao's knees hurt and his back hurt and his whole body ached from the cold floor and the sleepless night and the fear that was eating him alive.
But the worst part was the waiting.
"I don't understand," Wenhao said for the fifth time. "You said my father will come to—"
"Shut up," one of the guards said and shoved Wenhao's shoulder.
Shen Wei reached out and grabbed Wenhao's hand and held it tight. His fever was still high and his face was still flushed but he squeezed Wenhao's fingers and Wenhao squeezed back.
Hua Cheng's phone buzzed.
He pulled it out and looked at the screen and his eyebrows went up. He answered and held it to his ear.
"Liang Xinyi," he said coldly. "You're calling to beg? Too late."
Xinyi's voice came through the speaker and it was shaking but it was fierce. "I'm not begging. I'm informing. My father was on his way to sign your papers but he got into an accident. He's in the hospital. He couldn't make it. Give us some time if you need those signature".
Hua Cheng's face went still. "How do I know you're telling the truth."
"You can check the news. You know how these things spread. Or you can send someone to the hospital and see for yourself. But if you hurt my brother, if you hurt his friend, I will find you. I don't care who you are or who you work for. I will find you and I will make you pay."
She cut the call.
Hua Cheng stared at his phone for a long moment. Then he turned and walked toward Zhenlong.
Wenhao watched him move and his heart was pounding so hard he could hear it in his ears. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
Hua Cheng leaned down and spoke quietly to Zhenlong. His voice was too low for Wenhao to hear but he saw Zhenlong's face change. The calm mask cracked for just a second and something dark flickered behind his eyes.
Wenhao couldn't take it anymore.
"Let me go," he shouted and he tried to stand but the guards pushed him back down. "I want to go to my father. Please. I need to see him. Something happened to him. I know something happened. Let me go. Please let me go."
His voice cracked on the last word and the tears that he had been holding back for so long finally spilled over.
Hua Cheng looked at him and his face was unreadable. He turned to the guards and waved his hand. "Take them away. Back to the room. Keep them there."
The guards grabbed Wenhao and Shen Wei and dragged them out of the room. Wenhao was still screaming and crying and fighting against their grip but he was too weak and too tired and too broken.
"Please," he sobbed. "Please let me see him. He's my father. He's all I have. Please."
Hua Cheng looked at Shen Wei. Looked at his flushed face and his shaking hands and his glassy eyes. Looked at the way he was barely standing.
Hua Cheng sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Then he turned towards Zhenlong.
"Should we release the kid?" Hua Cheng asked. "The small one. The one with the glasses. He's sick. Sick and traumatized. He's not going to cause any trouble. He can barely stand."
Zhenlong looked up and his black eyes were cold and irritated. The sound of Wenhao's screaming and crying echoed through the room and Zhenlong's jaw tightened.
"Do whatever you want with him," Zhenlong said and his voice was sharp. "Just get them out of my sight. I'm tired of the noise."
He stood up and walked out of the room without looking back.
Hua Cheng stood alone in the middle of the room and listened to Wenhao's sobs echoing down the hallway.
He sighed again and walked toward the door.
The hospital hallway was cold and white and Xinyi couldn't stop shaking.
She sat on the plastic chair with her hands clasped in her lap and her knees pressed together and her whole body trembled like she was sitting in a freezer. Her eyes were red and swollen and her mascara was smeared down her cheeks and she didn't care. She didn't care about anything.
Ruifen sat beside her with her arm wrapped around Xinyi's shoulders and her voice was soft and steady. "He's going to be okay. He has to be okay. The doctors are doing everything they can."
Xinyi shook her head and more tears fell. "You didn't see the car. Ruifen you didn't see it. It was crushed. Completely crushed. They had to cut him out. They had to use the jaws of life. There was blood everywhere. So much blood."
Ruifen pulled Xinyi closer and held her tighter. "He's strong. And you have to be strong too"
Xinyi buried her face in Ruifen's shoulder and her body shook with silent sobs. She had been so angry at him. So angry about the secrets and the lies and Ruifen and her mother. She had said she would hate him forever.
But forever was supposed to be longer than this.
The door to the operating room opened and a doctor walked out. His scrubs were stained and his face was tired and his eyes were serious.
Xinyi jumped up so fast she almost knocked Ruifen over. "Doctor. How is he. Is he okay. Can I see him."
The doctor looked at her and his face was tight. "I can't say anything for now. We're doing everything we can. Please wait."
He walked away quickly and his footsteps echoed down the hall and Xinyi stood there frozen with her hands hanging useless at her sides.
He couldn't say anything.
That meant something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
Xinyi collapsed back onto the chair and the sobs came out of her like water from a broken dam. Loud and ugly and uncontrollable. She covered her face with her hands and cried and cried and cried.
Ruifen held her and didn't say anything because there was nothing to say.
In the room at the Zhenlong estate, Wenhao sat on the edge of the bed with his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. His face was swollen from crying and his eyes were red and his throat was raw from screaming.
Shen Wei lay on the bed beside him with his eyes closed and his breathing shallow. The fever patch was still on his forehead but it had stopped working hours ago and his skin was hot and dry.
"Weiwei," Wenhao whispered. "Weiwei don't sleep I'm scared"
Shen Wei's eyes fluttered but didn't open. His lips moved but no sound came out.
Wenhao reached out and touched Shen Wei's cheek and his fingers burned from the heat. A tear fell from Wenhao's eye and landed on Shen Wei's cheek and rolled down his skin like a tiny river.
The door opened.
Two men walked in and their faces were hard and their hands were rough and they walked straight to the bed and grabbed Shen Wei by the arms.
Wenhao's body moved before his brain could catch up.
"Get away from him," he screamed and he threw himself at the men and started hitting them with his fists. His punches were weak and wild and they barely hurt but he didn't stop. He grabbed a lamp from the nightstand and swung it at one of the men's heads and the man ducked and the lamp shattered against the wall.
"What are you doing," Wenhao shrieked. "Don't touch him. Don't touch him. I'll kill you. I swear I'll kill all of you. Let go of him. Let go."
One of the men tried to grab Wenhao but Wenhao bit his hand and the man yelped and pulled back.
"Stay away from me," Wenhao snarled and he grabbed a shoe from the floor and threw it at the other man's face. "I'll kill you. I'll kill everyone in this building. Let him go. Let him go now."
The men looked at each other and then at the door and then back at Wenhao who was wild-eyed and screaming and completely out of control.
"Get hua cheng," one of them said.
The other man dropped Shen Wei's arm and ran out of the room.
Wenhao kept fighting. He picked up a book and threw it. He picked up a pillow and swung it.
Nothing worked.
Zhenlong walked into the room like a storm cloud he looked irritated.
His black eyes were cold and his face was hard and he moved faster than Wenhao could react. He grabbed Wenhao by the back of his hair and yanked his head back and Wenhao's whole body went stiff.
"I'm being nice to you," Zhenlong said and his voice was low and dangerous. "That doesn't mean I won't hurt you. So you better shut the fuck up if you want your friend to go back to his filthy apartment."
Wenhao froze.
His eyes went wide and his mouth fell open and the fight drained out of him like water from a cracked glass.
Shen Wei. Going back. To his apartment.
That meant they were letting him go. They were actually letting him go.
Wenhao's eyes went to Shen Wei's limp body and the men who were still holding him and then back to Zhenlong's hard face.
"Please," Wenhao whispered and his voice was small and broken. "Don't hurt him. Don't hurt him. Please."
Zhenlong let go of Wenhao's hair and shoved him backward and Wenhao stumbled and fell onto the bed.
"Take him," Zhenlong said to the men. "Drop him off at his address. Make sure he gets inside. Don't let him see where he is. Blindfold him in the car."
The men nodded and dragged Shen Wei out of the room.
Wenhao watched them go and his whole body was shaking and his hands were clutching the sheets and he was trying so hard not to cry. He was trying to be brave. He was trying to be strong.
But the door closed and the footsteps faded and he was alone.
And the tears came anyway.
They came like a flood and they wouldn't stop and Wenhao buried his face in the pillow and sobbed. Huge ugly sobs that shook his whole body and made his chest hurt and his throat burn.
The sobs turned into hiccups and the hiccups turned into gasps and Wenhao lay on the bed with his face in the pillow and his body shaking and the room was quiet except for his broken breathing.
He had never felt so alone in his entire life.