Chapter 48#
World 2: I Want to Be a Fish in Your Pond#
On the narrow balcony, Ye Rongzheng, who was like a large beast, was now bending his waist and lowering his head, frantically avoiding Qin Qing’s gaze.
It turned out that when Qin Qing wasn’t smiling, he could be so cold, like a delicate flower suddenly growing defensive thorns, sharp enough to be frightening.
The words he asked echoed in Ye Rongzheng’s mind one by one, and smashed into his temples like punches, causing him pain, dizziness, and panic.
“Don’t listen to my friends’ nonsense! I couldn’t possibly think of you like that!” He denied it immediately.
Qin Qing shook his head and sighed with disappointment, “But that is exactly what you think.” He cast his gaze towards the endless dark sky, his hollow voice full of dejection and loneliness: “Borrowing one hundred and fifty thousand and then disappearing without a trace, any normal person would feel cheated. When meeting again, shouldn’t you ask for the reason?”
Qin Qing shook his head again, his sigh drawn out a bit longer: “But you completely avoided this topic, as if afraid of scaring me away. Are you fishing for me? Afraid that I’ll unhook and escape as soon as we meet?”
“That’s because I don’t care if you pay back the money or not. I have plenty of money!” Ye Rongzheng said hurriedly.
“No, you care.” Qin Qing closed his eyes slightly, his face full of weariness: “Taking a photo of two hundred thousand in cash and sending it to me from a strange number, that was bait, right? You had already decided that I was a greedy scammer. To lure this scammer out, you could only use more money.”
“No, it’s not like that.” Ye Rongzheng shook his head stiffly.
“Who would dare to take out another two hundred thousand after being scammed out of one hundred and fifty thousand? This is a tactic to deal with scammers. Seeing money, a scammer would dive right in. But I came to find you not for this money, but because I was worried that you would be in danger wandering outside with a huge sum of money.”
Qin Qing finally fixed his deep gaze quietly on Ye Rongzheng’s panicked face.
“After my father jumped off a building and my mother remarried, I once suffered from severe depression. I have medical records on my phone, you can take a look.” He said softly.
“Qin Qing.” Ye Rongzheng, with red eyes, tried to catch Qin Qing’s slender and fair hands.
Qin Qing avoided him, clasped his own hands together, and placed them helplessly on his knees.
“You and Duke D’Orsay, who also lent me one hundred and fifty thousand, are my only two friends. There are things on my mind I dare not tell Yun Siyu, but I can tell you. You are also willing to tell me what’s on your mind. At that time, I really felt there was hope in living. I was slowly healing.”
Qin Qing looked straight at Ye Rongzheng and shook his head wearily: “I shouldn’t have borrowed money from you, and even more so, I shouldn’t have blocked your contact information because I was desperate. But I never thought of escaping forever. In fact, before you contacted me, I had already removed you from the blacklist. Whether you believe it or not, I was determined to pay back the money.”
Qin Qing opened the account book, tore out a blank page, and quickly wrote an IOU.
“Within three months, I will pay off this one hundred and fifty thousand. You also saw the IOU Yun Siyu wrote me. As long as he sends the money over, I will transfer whatever amount to you. I know how hateful it is not to pay debts. After all, my father died because of this. Others owed him hundreds of millions and refused to pay. He was desperate and committed suicide. I won’t be that kind of person, don’t worry.”
He handed over the IOU, recounting the most painful experience in the most helpless language.
Ye Rongzheng stared blankly at the IOU, then raised his crimson eyes to stare blankly at Qin Qing’s tired and lonely face. He simply couldn’t cope with the current situation.
He thought he came for revenge, but after seeing Qin Qing, he realized that his so-called revenge plan was so disgusting!
He disgusted himself! Disgusted enough to vomit!
Qin Qing stuffed the IOU into Ye Rongzheng’s palm, then gently cupped the man’s face and sighed: “I originally wanted to pretend I knew nothing. I originally wanted to keep you here. I originally wanted to be friends with you. I originally wanted to find someone for company. I didn’t want to be lonely anymore.”
Each “I originally” was like a heavy hammer, smashing onto Ye Rongzheng’s aching heart.
“You can keep me here. Just pretend you don’t know, okay?” He begged with red eyes.
Being cupped by Qin Qing’s hands felt like being choked by the throat; he dared not move at all. He feared that the slightest movement would make him lose this touch of gentleness.
“But I saw that text message, how can I pretend not to know?” The gentleness in Qin Qing’s pitch-black eyes was slowly fading.
Ye Rongzheng’s heart trembled violently. A deeply ominous premonition swept through his brain.
Could Qin Qing have discovered that vicious plan?
Even a plan that Ye Rongzheng himself could only describe as vicious, what would it look like in Qin Qing’s eyes? Death couldn’t make Ye Rongzheng feel fear, yet facing Qin Qing at this moment, he was afraid.
Qin Qing asked in a cold tone: “At the back of the account book, I wrote a debt repayment plan. Did you read it carefully?”
Ye Rongzheng said anxiously: “I read it.”
“Then you should remember, my first debt repayment plan was stock trading. You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, and so was I. You studied finance, and I also like finance. When I decided to trade stocks to pay off debts, I studied the stock market. I know that in a few months, Jialin Chip will completely collapse. What did your friend want to do by instigating you to make me buy this stock?”
Qin Qing let go of Ye Rongzheng’s face, leaned back in the chair, and finally raised his chin, scrutinizing Ye Rongzheng quietly with a condescending, indifferent, and weary gaze.
Ye Rongzheng shook his head, wanting to deny, “No—”
Qin Qing interrupted him: “Don’t lie to me, and don’t say Jialin Chip will skyrocket. Its current market performance is indeed very good, but the new president of Arkan is about to take office. This country is the largest silicon raw material supplier for Jialin Group. And the new president’s campaign manifesto mentioned this sentence—restricting the export of strategic resources. No one knows what he means by strategic resources, but I guess silicon raw materials should be one of them. Once he officially takes office and promulgates relevant policies, Jialin Group’s stock price will inevitably plummet in response. At this critical juncture, you asked me to buy this stock. What did you want to do?”
Qin Qing closed his eyes briefly and said in a slightly hoarse voice: “I don’t have money to trade stocks. The only source of funds is mortgaging real estate or borrowing from loan sharks. If Jialin Chip’s stock price collapses, I will inevitably go bankrupt again. That is despair within despair, destruction within destruction. I might even be like my father, standing on the rooftop, jumping down, ending it all. Is this your plan? Borrowing money and inexplicably losing contact, I was indeed wrong, but I have to say, using such a vicious plan to deal with me, you are really too excessive!”
Qin Qing opened his tear-filled eyes and looked at Ye Rongzheng with great sorrow.
“You want to buy my life for one hundred and fifty thousand?” His steady voice finally showed a slight tremor, as if unable to face this cruel reality.
Ye Rongzheng dared not look directly into these broken eyes. He, who had never feared anything in heaven or earth, was so afraid at this moment!
“For one hundred and fifty thousand, you want me to die. Is it really because of this? Really just because of one hundred and fifty thousand? Is my life so worthless?” Qin Qing stared straight at Ye Rongzheng, questioning repeatedly.
He didn’t believe things would be so simple!
“No, it’s not…”
Ye Rongzheng shook his head, paused for a moment, and then fell into an awkward silence. He couldn’t face Qin Qing. He really regretted it, regretted it endlessly!
Qin Qing closed his eyes to calm himself, then opened them again, cupped Ye Rongzheng’s pale face, and gently rubbed his handsome features with his fingertips: “Before we met, I was always imagining what you looked like. Seeing you just as I imagined, a familiar feeling welled up in my heart before we even spoke. At that moment, I was so happy.”
He pursed his thin lips and smiled affectionately.
Ye Rongzheng stared foolishly at his smiling face. His anxious, teetering heart suddenly became settled.
However, in just a second, this affectionate smile turned into endless pain and disappointment.
“Why are you like this? I was wrong, you could have called the police to arrest me, but what you wanted was to completely destroy me. My father was betrayed by his best friend and driven to a dead end. I didn’t expect you to be this kind of person too. I am really sad now. You shouldn’t be like this, I really can’t accept it…”
Qin Qing let go of Ye Rongzheng’s face, leaned back in the chair, and sighed exhaustedly.
He even closed his slightly teary eyes, unwilling to look at Ye Rongzheng again.
Ye Rongzheng gripped his slender wrist tightly and said anxiously: “Qin Qing, please don’t be angry, okay?”
Qin Qing’s wet eyelashes trembled slightly, shaking his head: “I’m not angry, I just feel very disappointed.”
He shook his head and sighed deeply again.
Ye Rongzheng’s eyes became even redder. Those feelings of discomfort, anxiety, and regret turned into cold despair in Qin Qing’s sigh.
He knew that the moment the truth was revealed, Qin Qing was already very, very far away from him, so far that he could never touch him again!
“I’m sorry, Qin Qing, I was wrong! Please forgive me. I didn’t know your situation. If I had known, I would never have done this! After seeing you, I never thought about tricking you into buying stocks, really!”
The “sorry” that he couldn’t say all night blurted out at this moment. No matter how great the arrogance, how wild the temperament, it all turned into humble pleading at this moment.
Ye Rongzheng’s heart ached dully, his throat was tight and speechless, and his limbs were trembling slightly. This was a stress reaction. When humans face immense fear, they produce this kind of reaction.
Ye Rongzheng feared Qin Qing’s rejection and alienation, and also feared Qin Qing’s cold heartlessness.
Qin Qing did not accept these apologies. He opened his eyes, stood up, held Ye Rongzheng’s hand with one hand, and carried the travel bag containing two hundred thousand with the other.
So Ye Rongzheng stood up obediently, looking at him with expectant eyes.
Qin Qing walked to the entrance, opened the door, pushed Ye Rongzheng out, and then threw the travel bag into Ye Rongzheng’s arms.
“It’s a pity that we met in such a way. Your extremism and cruelty scare me. Let’s pretend we don’t know each other in the future. I will pay off that money very soon.”
Qin Qing closed the door, shutting out Ye Rongzheng’s gaze full of pain and pleading.
996 was stunned.
“You don’t want to seduce the protagonist gong anymore? You’re not snatching the protagonist gong’s luck? By the way, have you really not read the script?” Its whole head was confused.
After being confused for a while, it screamed again: “Qin Qing, you damn well ruined an important plot point again! You should have let the protagonist gong move in!”
Qin Qing shook his head, sighed, and then walked to the balcony to pick up Tagore’s poetry collection.
The sentence underlined in red leaped clearly into his eyes. The evening wind blew the pages, making a rustling sound and trembling slightly.
Is it true that your love traveled through ages and worlds in search of me?
“It is true, but such a search is so hard…” Qin Qing pressed the book against his faintly aching chest, closed his eyes, and sighed wearily.
Ye Rongzheng stood blankly at the door, carrying two hundred thousand in cash. He felt like a hopeless fool! Before clarifying things, how could he agree to Mu Feiyan’s plan!
He almost destroyed Qin Qing!
He had even destroyed everything!
Ye Rongzheng wanted to smash the door, wanted to shout, but feared annoying Qin Qing even more.
Pretend not to know each other in the future… But those first sights, those thrilling scenes, were engraved in his mind like a brand! How could he pretend not to know? He wanted to be friends with Qin Qing, best friends!
His huge fist was raised in mid-air, just short of smashing hard against the door panel, but at the last second, Ye Rongzheng gave up.
He looked at this thin wooden board with red eyes, then walked away with heavy steps.
Arriving downstairs and sitting in the car, he smashed the steering wheel hard a few times before starting the engine.
A silver lightning bolt sped on the road, weaving left, turning right, drifting with tail flicks. The roar of the engine was deafening, like the roar of a beast.
Ye Rongzheng frowned, staring ahead, controlling the steering wheel with a fierce expression, flooring the gas pedal, changing direction at the last second before hitting the car in front. Only extreme speed and the alternation of life and death could bring him peace.
However, thinking of Qin Qing’s tearful eyes, sorrowful expression, and words of breaking off relations, he couldn’t be calm at all.
On the other end, Qin Qing calmly flipped through Tagore’s poetry collection.
996 hid in the kitchen rummaging through the refrigerator.
Wondering what he thought of, Qin Qing picked up his phone and dialed a number.
The melodious ringtone echoed in the narrow driver’s cabin. Ye Rongzheng didn’t want to pay attention at all, but catching a glimpse of the caller ID on the LCD screen, his heart raced instantly, and his blood boiled. He pressed the answer button with the fastest speed, fearing that if he was a second slow, the call would hang up.
“Qin Qing.” He called out with a hoarse voice.
“Are you racing?” Qin Qing asked knowingly.
Ye Rongzheng didn’t speak, but his breathing was rapid.
Qin Qing ordered: “Slow down immediately and drive home slowly.”
Ye Rongzheng held his breath and said: “Have you forgiven me?”
The words weren’t clear, but carried a threatening tone. As long as Qin Qing didn’t forgive him, he would inevitably drive the car to top speed! It didn’t matter if he crashed and died, anyway, Qin Qing was already ignoring him.
“If you die, I will feel guilty for a lifetime. Is this the result you want?” Qin Qing asked coldly.
Ye Rongzheng, who had previously claimed that death ends all troubles and hurting parents and friends didn’t matter, now released the gas pedal just because of Qin Qing’s words about guilt.
“Sorry, I’m already slowing down.” He said in a hoarse voice.
As if worried Qin Qing would doubt him, he pointed the phone at the windshield, “Listen, the engine sound is quieter. I will drive slowly, don’t be angry.”
He had never been so cowardly, cowardly to the point of being a bit humble.
Qin Qing listened quietly for a while, then softened his tone: “Go back early, goodbye.”
The call hung up without warning, leaving Ye Rongzheng no time to even say “goodbye”. For a second, Ye Rongzheng gripped the steering wheel, really wanting to floor the gas pedal, but remembering that Qin Qing would feel guilty, blame himself, and have a depression relapse, he restrained himself again.
The silver sports car drove slowly into the underground parking lot of a leisure club.
After eating barbecue, Jin He and the group of rich second generations came here for entertainment. Seeing Ye Rongzheng walking into the private room with large strides carrying the travel bag, they were all stunned.
“Brother Ye, didn’t you move in with Qin Qing? Why are you back?” A rich second generation asked curiously.
Many exquisite-looking boys and girls surrounded these rich second generations, whispering softly and sweetly.
Glancing at the travel bag, another rich second generation said: “Yo, you brought the money back too? Didn’t we agree to leave it at Qin Qing’s house, unlocked, waiting for him to steal it anytime?”
These words obviously angered Ye Rongzheng, making his already crimson eyes even redder.
Without a word, he opened the travel bag, took out a stack of bright red banknotes, tore off the binding tape, and threw them at everyone. After throwing one stack, he opened another and continued throwing them into the air.
“Take all this money! Whoever wants it, take it! Don’t let me see them again, damn dirty things!” He cursed viciously, as if he had a grudge against the money.
The rich second generations were stunned, but those beautiful boys and girls screamed excitedly and jumped into the air to grab the banknotes. Loud laughter and fawning flattery filled this space of debauchery.
But Ye Rongzheng wasn’t happy at all; instead, he felt even more uncomfortable.
After scattering the banknotes, he walked to the corner and punched a decorative sandbag fiercely. The powerful punch quickly broke the canvas bag, causing sand to pour out.
Sweat covered Ye Rongzheng’s body. His robust muscles glistened with a layer of wet light, displaying beauty and terrifying power. A drop of sweat fell into his eye, causing him to show a stung expression.
He looked very dangerous like this, but Jin He sensed the pain and fragility hidden behind this danger.
“Stop hitting, sit down and tell us properly what happened between you and Qin Qing.” Jin He shooed away the group of boys and girls and asked with concern.
Ye Rongzheng punched the sandbag several more times before telling the whole story.
“Jialin Chip’s stock price, Brother Qin predicted it so early?” A rich second generation smacked his lips in disbelief, and finally mocked: “Brother Ye, compared to Brother Qin, you and Mu Feiyan are simply like two idiots!”
Ye Rongzheng couldn’t deny this sentence. He also felt that he was truly the number one idiot in the world!
“Brother Qin is such a good person, how can you be worthy of him. It’s good that you broke up.” Another rich second generation said gloatingly.
“That Yun Siyu is the real idiot, right? How does he have the face to spend millions of Brother Qin’s money? He treats Brother Qin as a sucker! Fuck, if I see him at school, I’ll definitely beat him up. Too fucking shameless, haven’t seen such a person in several lifetimes! Clearly has no bottom line but pretends to be pure and kind! Fuck! Truly fucking disgusting!”
“Stop talking, I’m disgusted enough to vomit! But Brother Ye, you and Mu Feiyan are actually quite disgusting too. If I were Brother Qin, I wouldn’t play with you anymore either.”
These words pierced Ye Rongzheng’s heart like ice picks. Instead of getting comfort from his friends, he felt even worse.
He stood up and beat the broken sandbag fiercely again, cursing while hitting: “Ye Rongzheng, you are an idiot! You are a big idiot!”
As he cursed, two lines of tears actually fell from his red eyes. Since coming out of his mother’s womb, he had never cried!
The rich second generations dared not make sarcastic remarks anymore.
Jin He, however, picked up his phone and recorded a video of the crying Ye Rongzheng.
“Do you fucking want to die?” Ye Rongzheng cursed viciously, his eyes and nose red, two lines of tears hanging on his face, looking truly somewhat comical.
“I’ll send the video to Qin Qing to see his reaction.” Jin He explained.
Ye Rongzheng, who was gnashing his teeth and glaring angrily just now as if wanting to eat people, said hoarsely after a slight pause: “Then continue filming, film it clearly.”
“Pfft!” This was the sound of several rich second generations hiding aside and bursting into laughter.
Oh my god! If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, they wouldn’t believe even if beaten to death that Brother Ye would have such a day! Really so cowardly and cheap!
Jin He gritted his teeth hard, suppressing the urge to burst out laughing.
“I’m filming very clearly, don’t worry.” While saying this, he was still filming, using several close-up shots to capture Ye Rongzheng’s wretched appearance of snot and tears.
Ye Rongzheng had to hit the sandbag while crying, not daring to stop.
“Did Qin Qing reply?” He asked anxiously.
“Let me see, he replied.” Jin He said slowly: “Qin Qing said he is still friends with us.”
“Still friends with you guys?” Ye Rongzheng was stunned, his hoarse voice carrying pain and despair: “Meaning, he and I are no longer friends?”
Jin He nodded awkwardly: “That’s probably what it means.”
Ye Rongzheng punched the sandbag fiercely, his expression becoming more and more fierce, but more and more tears fell. How could it be like this? He really liked Qin Qing, the kind of like he couldn’t suppress!
Jin He circled around filming Ye Rongzheng, directing loudly: “Yes, just like that, tremble your lips, the flesh on your left cheek should also tremble, so you can express your pain and regret vividly. OK, perfect! That’s the expression!”
Ye Rongzheng roared in breakdown: “Jin He, get the hell out! All of you get out! Whoever fucking provokes me again today will die!”
However, his rage no longer triggered the fear and avoidance of the past, but a burst of rampant laughter. Ye Rongzheng, who fell in love with Qin Qing and was dumped by Qin Qing, was clearly furious, but seemed to have turned into a person with flesh, blood, and emotions.
Getting along with a beast requires constant vigilance, but getting along with a human naturally doesn’t. The friends laughed louder and louder, and some even slapped the table holding their bellies.
This video was naturally sent to Qin Qing by Jin He again.
Qin Qing receiving the video: “…”
996 peeking at the video: “…”
“You said he doesn’t like me at all? You said he fell in love with Yun Siyu at first sight? You said he doesn’t care about me at all? You said I’m just a nobody to him?” Qin Qing raised his eyebrows and asked sentence by sentence.
996 raised its chubby paw and covered its big flat face: “Qin Qing, that’s enough, don’t slap the face when hitting people, you know?”