Chapter 96#

There wasn’t much wind tonight; even on the mountaintop, the stars flickered overhead.

Nie Xu gave him an affirmative look, then went back to fiddling with the equipment in the trunk.

Ji Yang walked up along the slope.

He had still been hesitating, unsure how to greet Yu Qin, but Yu Qin had already come down to meet him first. He seemed very mindful of his leg and wanted to support him, asking, “Can you walk?”

“No problem.” With Nie Xu’s reassurance beforehand, Ji Yang was very natural and relaxed when actually facing Yu Qin. He lifted his foot to show him. “I’ve adapted very well. There’s no difference from a normal person.”

Yu Qin was stunned for a moment, then murmured, “How could there be no difference?”

Ji Yang didn’t know what to say for a moment.

If he said he really didn’t care much, he’d seem heartless; if he said he cared, that didn’t seem quite appropriate either.

Yu Qin adjusted quickly, though, and took the initiative to find an unrelated topic. “What happened online this afternoon really shocked me. I heard from Nie Xu that you started a company—won’t it have a bad effect on you?”

Ji Yang followed along with this topic and replied, “At present, it’s controllable.”

“At present?” Yu Qin frowned.

Ji Yang said as a matter of course, “Backlash from using the internet isn’t anything new. I’ve seen it plenty. Nothing can be guaranteed to be one hundred percent. But the company was already in transition. Traffic can only serve as an engine; by shifting from content to physical entities, it won’t rely too heavily on the influence of the internet.”

Yu Qin: “A composite company? That will be exhausting.”

“You think too highly of me.” Ji Yang laughed. “The company isn’t mine alone. I’m good at taking shortcuts and have no great ambition.”

Yu Qin didn’t speak for a while.

The two walked side by side for ten meters before Yu Qin suddenly said, “You really are like your mother.”

This time it was Ji Yang’s turn to be silent.

Yu Qin said with emotion, “She also often said she had no great ambition, but she never missed a single thing she should do.” As he spoke, Yu Qin stopped and looked at him. “I’m not a good uncle. I came back so late. But since we’ve met now, I hope that in the years to come, I can make it up.”

Now that this topic had come up, Ji Yang wanted to ask more about Yu Fei.

Just then, Yu Qin’s colleague called out to them from a distance.

Yu Qin put a hand on his back and gave him a slight push. “Let’s not talk about so much today. We came here to relax in the first place.”

Ji Yang also knew this wasn’t a good time, so he went with Yu Qin toward them.

When they got closer, someone asked Yu Qin curiously, “Dr. Yu, you refused when we first mentioned the team-building trip. I thought a big shot like you, coming back from abroad, wouldn’t like this kind of enthusiastic domestic welcome. I just saw you chatting so familiarly with someone—who’s this?”

Ji Yang took the initiative to greet them and nodded. “Hello, everyone. My name is Ji Yang. I’m Dr. Yu’s…”

“Nephew.” Yu Qin took over the words himself, and like a mature elder, put an arm around Ji Yang and introduced him seriously. “My nephew. By blood. For some reasons, we lost contact for many years. I’ll be counting on everyone to look out for him in the future.”

The people sitting in a circle all chimed in, “Isn’t that only natural?”

“Exactly. They say a nephew takes after his uncle. Don’t say it—looking at him now, he really does.”

“But having a doctor look after you isn’t a good thing. That kind of talk isn’t appropriate. Ji… Yang, right? Little Yang, come out and play with us often when you have time. Plenty of young interns at the hospital want to learn from Dr. Yu. Put in a few good words for them.”

First, Ji Yang hadn’t expected Yu Qin to say outright what their relationship was without any scruples; second, he hadn’t expected that he really did seem to be quite capable.

Ji Yang could also sense it: those who had appeared here tonight with Yu Qin probably all held not-low positions at the hospital, and even the youngest was around thirty. Doctors each had a different temperament. They neither talked about internet gossip nor asked Ji Yang this and that. Someone had even brought an astronomical telescope and had been adjusting it at the side the whole time.

Ji Yang really was like a younger generation member brought along by a parent—sitting at the side while people stuffed him with a pile of food.

Listening to this group chat about everything under the sun.

They talked about cases, industry development, and the differences between domestic and foreign environments.

Ji Yang quickly relaxed in this atmosphere.

He actually rarely spent time with elders and had almost no experience, but he quickly discovered that with Yu Qin there, Yu Qin could block almost all the words directed at him without making a show of it, making the whole chatting atmosphere very harmonious.

Ji Yang didn’t need to deal with it at all.

At some moments, Ji Yang even felt that the middle-aged people’s talk of daily necessities, family trivialities, and the ordinary routine of commuting at fixed times was very close to him. It was as if his having just fought three hundred rounds online that afternoon with the family of the former richest man in Fanzhou had been an illusion.

Until Ji Zhonglin and Ji Mingyue sent him messages almost one after the other.

Both about the same thing.

They were asking him why he hadn’t said earlier that someone had switched his medication.

Compared with before, Ji Zhonglin’s attitude was much more peaceful, like a normal older brother sending concern. Only after confirming that the person who switched the medication was Ji Chengyi did he pause and say, “I was wrong before. No matter where you are now, you can come to me if you run into anything.”

Ji Yang tapped out a reply, “You don’t need to worry about this.” He didn’t forget to mock him. “I heard those cousins from your maternal grandfather’s family are no pushovers. You’ve been pretty miserable lately, haven’t you? Keep it up, I’m rooting for you!”

Ji Zhonglin was so angry on the spot that he didn’t reply.

After angering Ji Zhonglin, he turned around and got scolded by Ji Mingyue.

She said he was utterly disloyal and even wanted to invite a famous foreign doctor to detoxify him.

Ji Yang refused, telling her not to meddle blindly.

Ji Yang also got a piece of news from Ji Mingyue: this afternoon, shortly after Ji Changshou and his wife left, the old master called for a doctor, and the doctor said he showed some signs of a stroke.

The third and second branches both went back tonight.

But it wasn’t too serious.

Ji Yang had no reaction to this news. He even felt that if Ji Yansong had a stroke and just died at this time, that would be heaven being blind.

Ji Yang was looking down, typing away furiously, when a hand suddenly pressed down on his head.

Ji Yang tilted his head back and saw Nie Xu coming up.

Nie Xu looked down at him. “Bored?”

Ji Yang shook his head, indicating he wasn’t.

Nie Xu glanced at his phone screen, at the chat records with Ji Mingyue filling the screen, and after confirming that he really wasn’t bored, let him be.

Nie Xu greeted everyone present one by one. Compared with Ji Yang, he could chat a bit with anyone.

By the time Ji Yang looked up to find him again, he had already gone to help someone adjust the telescope equipment. He had taken off his jacket, and it landed on Ji Yang’s back.

Everyone around was an adult. Even if they noticed something, no one would be so tactless as to ask directly.

Only Yu Qin glanced at Nie Xu’s back, then turned back to look at Ji Yang.

He said with a smile, “He’s pretty good.”

“Yeah, pretty good.” Ji Yang nodded. “He won’t hit back when hit, and won’t talk back when scolded.”

Yu Qin was surprised. “…Have you two come to blows?”

Ji Yang was also stunned, and gave a soft “Ah.” “One-sided, maybe?”

Yu Qin disapproved. “He’s been in this line of work for so long. His personal space and emotions are both in an extremely compressed state. If he got serious, could you be his match?”

Ji Yang said with certainty, “He wouldn’t.”

Yu Qin looked at him, until Ji Yang was left speechless.

He emphasized, “He really wouldn’t.”

Yu Qin looked at Nie Xu again and said slowly, “I’ve had contact with him. I believe that point.” In the next second, he changed tack. “Have you ever seen him lose control?”

Ji Yang thought about it. That time he was taken away on South Island probably counted, right?

Now, looking back on the whole process, most of it had actually happened in places Ji Yang couldn’t see. Ji Yang only learned afterward from Jiang Lei and the others that Nie Xu had discovered midway that the tracking route was too hidden and turned back to find Zhao Yuan.

Whether it was using special privileges or the moment he held him in the activity room, Ji Yang had glimpsed the surging undercurrent beneath his calm.

Yu Qin said, “From a psychological perspective, a high-pressure environment makes people accustomed to clearing emotional obstacles in advance with a logical framework. Once the ‘critical overflow effect’ occurs, or has been passively produced, it’s equivalent to saying that if a person is too good at being right, every choice he has made, at every point in time, is the most reasonable solution. But reasonableness itself won’t tell you the outcome, and it will push the person deeper into the dark zones of the subconscious.”

Ji Yang frowned. “What do you mean?”

Yu Qin shook his head and smiled. “This is only a psychological analysis. Since you believe in him, then you just need to keep believing in him.”

Ji Yang wanted to ask more, but Yu Qin didn’t continue, so Ji Yang had no way to ask.

The place Nie Xu chose to pitch the tent was a corner on the leeward slope, with few people around.

But the view was good.

Ji Yang ate something in the evening and sat at the tent entrance waiting for meteors.

It was already twelve o’clock, and some people had already gone to sleep.

Nie Xu came over with a cup of hot water. “Drink some.”

“Thanks.” Ji Yang took it, but only held it to warm his hands, and shifted to the side, motioning for him to sit.

Just as Nie Xu sat down, Ji Yang put down the cup and jumped up.

He looked up in surprise. “You can really see them!”

It wasn’t just him—the whole mountaintop suddenly erupted into screams and excitement.

A meteor with a silver-blue trail cut diagonally down from the other side, so fast there was no time to catch it. Soon there was a second and a third; from the peak of their brightness to their disappearance, only a few breaths passed, yet it was as if all their weight had been pressed onto that arc.

Someone in the distance sighed, “So fast!”

Someone else urged, “Quick, make a wish, make a wish!”

“Not making one?” Nie Xu had at some point come to stand behind him.

Ji Yang turned back to look at him and shook his head. “Just seeing it is enough. Compared with making a wish, I’d rather believe in myself.”

“Hm?” Just as Nie Xu made that sound, Ji Yang suddenly pushed him backward.

Nie Xu cooperated and retreated, falling onto the sleeping bag in the tent. He caught Ji Yang, who had darted in after him, and laughed relaxedly. “Don’t tell me this is your wish?”

Ji Yang straddled his waist and asked knowingly, “Which one?”

Nie Xu caught his restless hand and lifted his chin slightly in reminder. “Although this is the back slope, there’s a lamp in here. Whatever posture you’re in now, that’s the posture of the shadow cast out from the tent. Are you sure?”

Ji Yang turned his head and immediately rolled over to sit beside him.

Two seconds later, he reached out and turned off the lamp.

It was the middle of the night. Outside gradually quieted, leaving only the chirping of insects and the rustling of the breeze.

Ji Yang reached out one hand and quietly slipped it into the sleeping bag beside him.

He didn’t forget to complain, “Why bring two single ones?”

Nie Xu didn’t speak.

Ji Yang thought he had fallen asleep and suddenly felt bored. Just as he was about to withdraw his hand, it was grabbed again.

Nie Xu’s voice was only inches away, mingling with the dark night, sounding half amused and half suppressed. “My original intention was to bring you here to relax. Do you have to seek this kind of thrill?”

“Yeah.” Ji Yang used the same breathy voice. “I just like open-air wild places.”

These words seemed to provoke Nie Xu, and he directly covered his mouth.

The zipper of the sleeping bag was pulled open.

Ji Yang’s collar was rubbed askew, revealing half a collarbone. Nie Xu’s knee pressed on his leg; it was essentially a restraining move, to prevent him from struggling or jerking when he couldn’t take the stimulation.

A narrow space, closely pressed bodies.

The heat climbed steadily in the darkness.

Ji Yang knew the conditions in this place were limited, and at first he hadn’t really thought they could do anything. Now his back was damp with sweat, the fabric of the sleeping bag rubbed against his skin, and every rise and fall of his breathing seemed amplified.

Unlike the slow wearing-down the first time Nie Xu helped him, the most direct stimulation, with a bit of fierceness, made Ji Yang almost cry out several times.

Ji Yang didn’t want to admit defeat, and his hand also reached down.

The sleeping bag was wrinkled and messy, all tangled up.

Rough breaths suppressed to the throat, kisses with faint wet sounds, and outside the tent, someone’s unknown footsteps quietly passed by, hiding this private intimacy in an extremely suppressed way in this secret corner of the deep night, unnoticed.

Ji Yang slept very deeply that night.

When he opened his eyes the next day, it was already late, and everyone on the mountain had left.

The sleeping bag in the tent was neat and tidy, and even his clothes showed no traces.

Ji Yang crawled out of the tent. On the road below the slope, Nie Xu and that Hummer had both disappeared.

Han Biao and several bodyguards were waiting by a black sedan at the roadside.

Han Biao: “Young master, the boss told me to come pick you up.”

Ji Yang stood at a high point.

In his mind, he unconsciously recalled the places he had previously found off.

Nie Xu had said, “I hope that no matter when you come back, this place will be a familiar place to you.”

“Even if I’m not here, this will be a layer of protection for you.”

Yu Qin had said, “Since you choose to believe in him, then you just need to keep believing in him.”

Ji Yang walked down without expression.

Standing in front of Han Biao: “Where is he?”

Han Biao touched his nose and said nothing.

Ji Yang was so angry that his chest heaved several times. He kicked the big rock by the roadside and cursed, “Fuck!”

The sound of metal colliding with hard stone.

It made the several bodyguards present feel their scalps go numb.