Pei Cangyu fainted.
The movie played on. The men and women on screen, entwined, were rushing toward the great harmony of life amidst thickets and birds, but Pei Cangyu had simply lost consciousness. Bai Shi slowly rose from atop him and sat to the side, watching his senseless middle school classmate. Pei’s face was still a shameful shade of red, and his lower body was damp.
Bai Shi stood up and looked down at him. There was no one else in the house right now; even the butler was away. No one could come to take care of Pei Cangyu.
He paced downstairs and poured himself a drink. Madala bounded out from the basement, joyfully trotting over with a small iron box in his mouth. Bai Shi took it and opened it; inside were the teeth of the man he had dismantled last time.
He clicked his tongue, snapped the lid shut, and tossed it aside, continuing to sip his liquor.
What would Pei Cangyu do when he woke up?
How should he handle it—the carrot or the stick?
He set down his glass and extended his hand, staring at it blankly. His palm still held the sensation of the warmth of Pei Cangyu’s back, the touch of the vertebrae—that line of twisting hard bone embedded in his back. Just thinking about it sent a jolt through Bai Shi, making his hand feel numb as if electrified. He turned his head to look at Madala. The dog panted, tongue lolling and tail wagging, looking back at him happily.
Bai Shi held out both hands. "If you want me to go up, lick the left hand. Otherwise, lick the right."
Madala huffed twice, sniffed the left hand, then the right, and finally licked the right.
Bai Shi took a tissue and wiped his hand, his tone icy. "That took too long. Doesn't count. Again."
Madala let out a dejected whimper, ears drooping. When his master extended both hands again, he licked the left.
His master stood up irritably and headed upstairs. "What a nuisance."
Madala, who could do nothing right, spun in a circle on the spot before curling up on the floor to sleep. His master went upstairs, picked Pei Cangyu up off the floor, carried him back to his room, and changed the sheets. When he considered helping him change his clothes, he stopped himself, threw the quilt over him, and went back downstairs.
"I’ve done all I can," Bai Shi said to Zhou Linyuan, whom he had summoned in the middle of the night.
Zhou Linyuan was very tired. He simply nodded and looked at his boss. "And then?"
Bai Shi picked up a baseball bat and smashed a vase, then tossed the bat to Zhou Linyuan. Zhou Linyuan turned and whistled. The men behind him rolled up their sleeves and began to wreck the place. They smashed with speed; they smashed with style. One even sent a decorative plate sailing toward the chandelier on the vaulted ceiling, then ran away laughing with his hands over his head as the shards rained down—joyful vandals.
Bai Shi sipped his black tea with an air of feigned arrogance. After two sips, he found it too cold, frowned, spat it onto the floor, and casually tossed the cup. It shattered with a sharp *crack*. He then went upstairs to sleep. Some of the men found smashing the first floor boring and tried to move to the second. As soon as one of them touched the banister, Bai Shi’s gaze locked onto him.
The man froze. Zhou Linyuan spoke from behind, "No going upstairs, no going into the basement. Just stay here."
Avoiding Bai Shi’s eyes, the man turned back.
The next morning, the butler was horrified the moment he arrived. His usually expressionless face twisted into a look of utter shock, and his voice cracked on the very first word. "How... *ahem*, who would dare?"
Bai Shi walked downstairs with his hands in his pockets. "I did it."
"I see." The butler accepted this instantly, asking no further questions. "I will go wake Mr. Pei now."
Bai Shi paused. "Fine." He followed behind the butler.
By the time Bai Shi had adjusted his peak acting skills to appear before Pei Cangyu, he was met with a gaze of extreme repulsion. That sense of resistance, with disgust written all over Pei's face, made Bai Shi feel incredibly irritable. Dealing with Pei Cangyu always made him irritable; if he hadn't honed his acting for years, he might have lost his temper and turned violent. Pei Cangyu even slapped his hand away, causing Bai Shi’s hand to clench into a fist inside his pocket. His molars itched with the urge to pin Pei Cangyu to the floor and make him repeat the moans from last night, just to remind him exactly what he was. But Bai Shi didn't. After all, he was a method actor.
He was playing a role...
Right, he would play the part of a brave little gay guy whose pursuit of love had failed. Most importantly, he had to remain gentle. Pei Cangyu liked gentle people best.
Setting complete.
Action.
When Best Actor Bai Shi saw Pei Cangyu calling for the dog, Madala, he still allowed a flash of melancholy to cross his face. Since it didn't strictly belong to the character, he quickly suppressed it.
***
At ten in the morning, the Bai family was holding a grand meeting—one of those endless conferences. This time, it was about the distribution of assets under Bai Yinhua’s name following his death. Though the killer was unidentified and the body was barely cold, the vultures would starve if they missed a single meal, to say nothing of the predatory members of the Bai family.
Before the meeting, Bai Shi still had to see Ding Chuan.
Even though the sun was shining brightly today, Ding Chuan remained huddled in his claustrophobic room. He had the humidifier running at maximum power, coughing in the deepest corner, holding a withered hand over his mouth to catch the blood.
"Today," Ding Chuan finally stopped coughing, "are you sure we can vote Peng Zhu out?"
Bai Shi answered cautiously, "Everything is arranged. Who do you want to replace him?"
Ding Chuan pointed to a man in a suit nearby. "Ding Siyu. You’ve met him."
Ding Siyu bowed to Ding Chuan and then stepped to Bai Shi’s side.
Ding Chuan took a few breaths to steady himself. "He will take over the media sector. Understood?"
Bai Shi nodded. "Understood."
Ding Chuan suddenly chuckled. "You’re being particularly obedient today."
Bai Shi smiled as well. "That’s because you’re being particularly reasonable today."
Ding Chuan snorted and waved his hand, dismissing Bai Shi.
"One more thing." Bai Shi stopped as he was leaving. "The police officer following the case in Zone Z has been identified. His name is Tu Ziyun."
Bai Shi saw Ding Chuan, hidden in the shadows, jerk violently. Half of his face moved into the sunlight; his clouded eyes flashed with a manic light, yet he kept his voice suppressed. "Is that so?"
"Do you know him?"
Ding Chuan leaned back again. "Go."
Bai Shi and Ding Siyu took their leave.
Ding Siyu was thirty-five, tall and sturdy. He was fiercely loyal to Ding Chuan, but he wasn't particularly friendly toward someone like Bai Shi—a man who had betrayed his own family to join Ding Chuan’s faction halfway through.
He glanced at Bai Shi. "When we get to the meeting, I’ll do the talking."
"Fine," Bai Shi responded in a gentle tone, not even looking at him.
"Don't say anything reckless. Those people are all shrewd old-timers; you can't outplay them. It wouldn't be good to disappoint Brother Chuan again."
"Mm-hmm." Bai Shi’s eyes crinkled into a kind smile, still not looking at him.
They walked toward the main gate. By the flowerbed stood a tall, curvaceous, beautiful woman. Her red dress traced her graceful lines. She held a long, slender cigarette, staring at the sunflowers in the garden. Seeing the two men approach, she put on a smile and waved at Bai Shi. "Long time no see."
Bai Shi returned the same smile and asked Ding Siyu to wait in the car, saying he’d be over after a few words. Ding Siyu stared intently at the smiling, beautiful woman, nodded blankly twice, and left.
As Bai Shi walked over, the identical smiles on both their faces vanished simultaneously, replaced by expressions of icy indifference. This wasn't surprising; Bai Shi’s "gentle" acting and his inherited smile—from the lips to the corners of the eyes—were all learned from her.
"What is it?" Bai Shi asked.
"This courtyard isn't suitable for sunflowers at all. Why insist on planting them?" The woman flicked her cigarette ash. It drifted onto her dress; she glanced at it but didn't bother to brush it off.
"None of your business." Bai Shi turned to leave.
"You're tangled up with Pei Cangyu again."
Bai Shi turned back, stepped close to her, grabbed her waist, and pulled her toward him. "The butler told you?"
The woman didn't deny it.
Bai Shi let her go. She simply shrugged. "One should have self-awareness."
She smeared the ash on her dress into a streak, then rubbed it twice more, making the dress even dirtier. "Do you want me to prescribe you more medicine?"
Bai Shi ignored her and left.
Though he hadn't waited long, Ding Siyu was already getting anxious. He frowned and asked Bai Shi why he was so slow, but Bai Shi ignored him. Hearing Pei Cangyu’s name from that woman’s mouth had stirred up all of Bai Shi’s irritability. The man buzzing in his ear now was making him even more annoyed.
Inside the skyscraper that reached into the clouds, the fate of the media industry was to be decided today. As soon as the car stopped, Bai Shi put on his smile. Ding Siyu was about to open the door and get out, but Bai Shi stopped him. "You go up from the parking garage."
With that, he got out of the car himself, meeting the interviewing reporters with a welcoming face. Ding Siyu was driven away by the chauffeur without a word.
Cool gusts of wind blew through the dim parking garage. How could it compare to the dazzling brilliance of the magnificent Bai Corporation building? The center of power, the very heart of wealth. Ding Siyu shivered, feeling somewhat indignant.
Ding Siyu had been by Ding Chuan’s side for twelve years. He had witnessed Ding Chuan fall from the heights and climb back to his current position. He had seen all the Bai family’s grievances and the entanglements of the previous generation. Back then, he was just a silent, insignificant character. Even after the Bai family and the police joined forces to sacrifice Ding Chuan, he hadn't even been investigated by either side. He thought that was the end of it and was preparing to go back to Southeast Asia to fish for a living. He hadn't expected Ding Chuan to rise from the ashes and even seek him out. The reason was—*you weren't prominent enough back then.*
Fishing obviously didn't pay well, so Ding Siyu followed Ding Chuan back. There was also a wolf-dog by Ding Chuan’s side: Bai Shi. That crazed, vicious Bai Shi, who saw blood as if it were water and felt no pain. But he was mentally ill; he never went anywhere without his pills and a short blade. After taking his medicine, he would vomit until he was half-dead. He was cruel to others, but even crueler to himself. Once, simply because someone said something Bai Shi didn't like, Bai Shi wanted to cut out the man's tongue. Ding Chuan intervened to mediate and told Bai Shi to apologize. Bai Shi refused, saying an apology was impossible, but he would accept punishment. He then took a tree branch and shoved it directly into his right ear. Blood spilled all over the floor on the spot. He had intended to do the same to the left ear, but Ding Chuan stopped him.
But ever since he started moving against the Bai family—starting with his own mother—Bai Shi wasn't "crazy" anymore. At least, not on the surface. He was polite, always smiling, fitting Ding Chuan’s requirements for a Bai family successor.
However, Ding Siyu thought to himself, there was definitely something wrong with Bai Shi. His issues were far beyond the "loyalty" discussions one would have regarding normal people. His problems were severe, and he stayed by the side of a venomous snake like Ding Chuan, who was the embodiment of hatred. Ding Chuan himself lived with a sense of mission that he would die as soon as his revenge was complete, let alone bother to get Bai Shi treated.
Thinking of this, Ding Siyu shuddered. Who would kill or die over a single sentence? Actually, it wasn't even a sentence; it seemed to be a name.
What was it called...
Something like "Yu"...
***
