BFILWY CH 6

Chapter 6: Ye Qinghe’s Trouble

Ye Qinghe, sitting on the edge of the flowerbed and smoking, furrowed his brow as he looked at the small white flowers hidden among the leaves. It wasn’t until the cigarette burned down to the filter and scalded his fingers that he reflexively jerked his hand and tossed the cigarette butt away.

What happened to that little fool? They said he committed s*icide after Ye Qinghe left. At that time, he had been proudly holding the bottle of Blue Label he won, thinking that it was enough to make someone love him to the point of desperation. With a mix of disdain and some lingering fear, Ye Qinghe asked with a defiant laugh, “Did he d*e?”

“Seems like he didn’t,” was what he vaguely remembered one of the fool’s colleagues saying. He walked over and stepped on the half-burned cigarette butt he had tossed, then bent down to pick it up and throw it in the trash. Just like how he had callously discarded that little fool.

Sigh! Ye Qinghe irritably raked his fingers through his hair. After that group of people caused trouble at his house, they thought he was clueless. One by one, they either tried to deceive him or borrow money, all trying to get their hands on his family’s wealth. Ye Qinghe loved to play, but he wasn’t stupid. He distanced himself from those people. The friends he once thought he had were nothing but useless. The only one who had flown back from abroad to accompany him through the hardest times was He Zhifan.

He Zhifan didn’t know about these shady dealings, and Ye Qinghe never mentioned them. Now, after a meal, the apology he had avoided for six years finally came rushing to him, like a thorny net tightening around his heart.

Fine. He admitted it. He had never cared about the little fool’s struggles in life. Instead, he found it amusing to see him make a fool of himself. But after today’s meal, he couldn’t laugh anymore.

In these past few years, he had done his best to avoid thinking about those absurd days. If he didn’t think about it, he wouldn’t connect it to what others called his retribution—the plane crash that took his parents and brother. Although he knew logically that the crash was purely an accident and had nothing to do with his past wicked actions, he couldn’t help but ask heaven: Why?

Why wasn’t the retribution for the b*stard himself?

Ye Qinghe wandered aimlessly along the street. The June night breeze was cool, and the fifth of the month was coincidentally the fifth day, with the crescent moon shining unexpectedly bright. It was clearly a gentle, peaceful night, but the silvery moon and the soft breeze couldn’t dispel the gloom in Ye Qinghe’s heart. He walked along the sidewalk, turning right at every intersection without purpose. Over half an hour later, he found himself back at the small flowerbed in front of the restaurant with no lights.

Someone walked out of the restaurant, carrying a backpack, their back straight as they walked at a slow, steady pace. Ye Qinghe inexplicably felt that this person looked somewhat familiar.

Ha, here it comes again. So, tonight is all about reminiscing about the little fool, right? Even some random stranger walking by feels like him. Before tonight, he had almost forgotten about this person, and his appearance was nearly lost to him. How could he possibly recognize him from just his back?

Moreover, that person was clearly not blind.

Ye Qinghe stood there, watching the person’s figure grow more distant as he crossed the street. He turned his back to that person and walked a few steps, but finally couldn’t resist sighing and turned to chase after him.

“Hey, wait a second,” Ye Qinghe called out anxiously as he jogged. The person ahead had already walked quite a distance. He wanted to call out to him, but for a moment, he forgot the little fool’s name.

“Uh, that… Chen… no, Wang… hey, you there, stop!” He jogged while calling out. At the sound of Ye Qinghe’s shout, the young man in front stopped for just a second or two, then resumed walking. Whether it was just Ye Qinghe’s imagination, it seemed like the person was walking faster.

An Yue hooked his hands around the straps of his backpack, and indeed, he was walking faster. Last week, there had been an incident near here, right at the small park at the intersection ahead. He’d heard that the culprit had pretended to be someone familiar with the victim. Once the victim stopped, the perpetrator would take the opportunity to approach and rob them at knifepoint.

The person behind him was still calling out, and it sounded like they were even running now. An Yue felt a little nervous, pulling his backpack tighter. He was about to start running himself when he heard the sharp sound of a car horn and the screeching of brakes. The tires screamed against the pavement, followed by a loud “bang.”

An Yue froze, turning around just in time to see someone fall from mid-air. The person crashed heavily onto the ground, lying motionless. On the asphalt, a deep, red pool of blood slowly spread out, thick and persistent, expanding at a glacial pace.

An Yue stood there stunned. It was the first time he had witnessed a car accident. A living person was dying right in front of him… Ah, no, no, no! Maybe he wasn’t dead yet! As the driver got out of the car, swearing and trembling while checking, An Yue, as a witness, rushed over to help.

“Dammit, he ran the red light! Did you see that? He didn’t even look before charging across! Damn, I’m so unlucky, is he dead? Is he dead? Oh my god…” The driver, a middle-aged, fat man, was shaking uncontrollably, his face pale, looking like he might burst into tears, and he couldn’t stop babbling.

“Shut up.” An Yue snapped at the driver to stop making noise. His incessant shouting was getting on his nerves. Kneeling down, An Yue noticed the injured person’s legs were bent at an unnatural angle. A chilling pain ran up his spine. He extended a trembling hand to the person’s neck, trying to check for a pulse. After a tense moment, he finally felt a weak, faint pulse—slow, reluctant, but there.

In a hoarse voice, he issued instructions to the bystanders, who had gathered around: “There’s a pulse. Call an ambulance. You, the one in the blue shirt, call for help.” He quickly pointed to a young man in a blue shirt.

The young man in the blue shirt immediately took out his phone to call for help. It wasn’t long before an ambulance and police car arrived, screeching to a halt. The driver explained the incident to the police, while the paramedics worked swiftly, expertly stabilizing the injured person and lifting him onto a stretcher. Strangely, An Yue found himself inexplicably following the injured person onto the ambulance.

At the emergency room of C University Hospital, An Yue wasn’t sure what he could do. He just kept following the unconscious injured person. The triage staff found the person’s wallet in his pocket and pulled out the identification. An Yue took a glance and muttered to himself, “Ah, so this bad guy’s name is Ye Qinghe.” He curled his lips. Comparing this man’s current state—bloodied and unconscious—to the neat, well-dressed photo on his ID, the contrast was stark.

The medical staff in the emergency room were skilled, and it wasn’t long before the examination was complete. Ye Qinghe had multiple abrasions on his body, a broken left thigh, and more seriously, a skull fracture with internal bleeding. The operating room had already been contacted, and the neurosurgeon was on the way to perform an emergency craniotomy.

An Yue silently followed the stretcher, accompanying the injured man all the way to the operating room. He watched as the man was wheeled inside, the screen on the wall flashing “Surgery in Progress.”

“Good luck, Mr. Ye,” An Yue murmured as he sat down in a chair in the corridor. He pulled a milk candy from his pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth. The sweet, milky flavor filled his mouth, and the sugar quickly replenished the energy that had been drained from the shock. Sucking on the candy, An Yue patted his now less shaky knees, stood up, and left.

For someone he had just met, even if the person was a bad guy, he didn’t hesitate to offer a blessing.

An Yue never expected that he would encounter this person again in the future. And by the looks of it, he had bad luck and couldn’t shake him off.

(To be continued…)