BSS CH 13

Escape

“How much longer?” Liang Jingmin impatiently glanced at his watch for the third time, a rare sign of anxiety on his face.

Butler Zhai drove swiftly but steadily. Midway, he received confirmation that Cheng Jing had bought a high-speed rail ticket leaving Xijing for Mingzhou. Only thirty minutes remained before boarding closed.

He replied calmly, “Two more traffic lights, and we’ll be there. Don’t worry; our people are in place. He won’t get away.”

Despite Cheng Jing’s careful planning and the pain he endured, it was too late. Liang Jingmin’s network was too vast—his reach in Xijing was unrivaled, leaving Cheng Jing nowhere to hide.

Cheng Jing’s plan had been meticulous, the timing tight. Had Butler Zhai not arranged for surveillance in advance, Liang Jingmin wouldn’t have had enough time to intercept him in Xijing.

The car stopped at the station entrance. Liang Jingmin stepped out quickly. Staff members were already waiting nearby. One approached him with a report. “Mr. Liang, Mr. Cheng is at the entrance. We’ve detained him. How should we proceed?”

The station was crowded with passengers, a sea of people surging through the high-speed rail terminal. Liang Jingmin hadn’t taken the high-speed train in years, yet everything still felt familiar. Through the dense crowd, he easily spotted Cheng Jing near the entrance.

He had nothing with him, just a gray jacket on his back, flanked by two men in black suits who looked like bodyguards. He hadn’t yet noticed Liang Jingmin watching him from a distance.

Liang Jingmin’s gaze lingered on Cheng Jing, taking in the dullness in his eyes, the sunken cheeks, the blood-stained gauze on his brow, the bruised wound near his ear, and his snow-white hair.

For years, Liang Jingmin had kept Cheng Jing captive in every way—physically, emotionally, isolating him from the world. What he called protection had become a habit. He no longer remembered why he started.

As the orange sunset bathed the station’s dome, turning Cheng Jing’s hair to a soft gold, Liang Jingmin felt an unexpected hesitation. He remembered the night three years ago when he forbade Cheng Jing from returning to Yuecheng. Cheng Jing had sat on the bed, sobbing uncontrollably, wrists locked to the frame, skin broken from his struggles.

Liang Jingmin had never seen anyone cry so much. He never imagined someone as strong as Cheng Jing could break like that.

His pale, cold cheeks had seemed as fragile as glass, with delicate goldfish swimming behind them. Liang Jingmin felt that with one squeeze, the glass would shatter, and the goldfish would flop helplessly on the ground, suffocating in the air.

He couldn’t recall what he felt back then. Maybe he wished for some superpower that would let him take all of Cheng Jing’s pain onto himself, as if his own suffering could somehow ease Cheng Jing’s.

He had never believed in fate or the Buddha, but at that moment, he sincerely prayed to the heavens. “Let it be enough to torture me, not the one I love.”

But unfortunately, he was just a mortal with flesh and blood, without any superpowers. So every time he saw the hopeless, dull look in Cheng Jing’s eyes, he was haunted by the image of Cheng Jing’s heart-wrenching pain from that day.

Liang Jingmin snapped back to reality, feeling the long-lost rationality return. Three years had passed, and the person who had brought Cheng Jing so much suffering seemed to have transformed from someone else to him.

He had become the person he hated most. Liang Jingmin gave a bitter smile.

He stared at Cheng Jing’s figure as though he had been looking at it for a century, so long that it felt like a statue turned to stone.

The people around him were baffled, unsure of why a simple gaze seemed to have such a profound effect on Liang Jingmin’s expression.

Just when everyone thought Liang Jingmin wouldn’t speak again, he finally opened his mouth.

His face was ashen, his eyes closed as he whispered, “Let him go.”

The two bodyguards who had been blocking Cheng Jing loosened their grip. Cheng Jing asked a couple of questions in disbelief, but received no answer.

He turned to look around, but he couldn’t find Liang Jingmin’s figure through the crowd.

The announcement urged passengers to board, but Cheng Jing still didn’t see Liang Jingmin from a distance. He passed through the gate, and before long, his figure disappeared from view.

Liang Jingmin turned and walked away, feeling as though each step was like walking through thick mud. The path ahead felt so distant, and it was as if the sunset had soaked into his body, leaving a cold chill.

No matter what, although Cheng Jing had left him with a baseless accusation and a cold reconciliation letter, he still hadn’t said he wanted a divorce. Liang Jingmin was still his legal husband.

Earlier, when he went to Yue City, Liang Jingmin had thought he would lose Cheng Jing forever. However, Mingzhou gave him peace of mind. There, Cheng Jing had no home, no family, and would never stay forever. Liang Jingmin was convinced Cheng Jing would return, even though there was no real reason to believe that.

Lost in thought, Liang Jingmin didn’t notice Liang Yulin appearing in front of him.

“Brother, what a coincidence,” Liang Yulin said, dressed in a way that suggested he was looking for trouble, his expression smug as though he’d come to mock him.

Liang Jingmin, of course, had no idea it was all part of Liang Yulin’s scheme. However, seeing him, he had no words to say, so he just stopped walking, preparing to listen to what he had to say.

“I just received your wedding invitation,” Liang Yulin continued, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “I saw you rush off to the high-speed rail station earlier, and I thought you were running away from your wedding.”

Liang Yulin’s voice was as sharp as always, but Liang Jingmin had no time for a verbal sparring match. He shot him a quick glance and replied, “Instead of minding your own business, you keep an eye on me every day. You really hate me, don’t you, Ah Lin?”

“Don’t call me that.” Liang Yulin’s expression turned colder.

Looking into his eyes, Liang Jingmin suddenly realized something.

“You know why he’s leaving this time?” Liang Jingmin’s tone had hardened, no longer casual but laced with subtle pressure.

It was then that Liang Jingmin noticed Liang Yulin was carrying luggage, unsure if he was going on a business trip or somewhere else. For a moment, he couldn’t tell if their meeting was a coincidence or something more deliberate.

“You’re always doubting me. You might as well put your energy into taking care of your wife. If you did that, she wouldn’t be constantly threatening to leave, would she?” Liang Yulin raised an eyebrow, responding without directly answering Liang Jingmin’s question.

Every time his schemes were exposed, he would always act with a sense of righteousness. But the way he answered this time made him seem even more suspicious. However, Liang Jingmin, recently overwhelmed with trouble and having just seen Cheng Jing leave, didn’t take the time to dig deeper into Liang Yulin’s words.

Others didn’t know the complexities of their relationship, the reasons why the brothers had turned against each other, nor why Liang Jingmin, fully aware that Butler Zhai and Liang Yulin had maintained contact behind the scenes, still allowed him to stay by his side.

Only Zhai Zhenlei knew—Liang Jingmin was indulging his brother.

Many believed the brothers’ estrangement stemmed from the fact that they had different mothers, but that wasn’t the case.

Liang Yulin was only three years younger than Liang Jingmin. His mother had initially thought she was lucky to marry into the Liang family, but after a few months, she saw the truth. It took a great deal of effort for her to escape, leaving behind a young child to fend for himself.

He had watched the two brothers grow up and remembered how inseparable they were as children. Raised under Liang Jianzhong’s strict rule, the two of them only had each other to rely on.

Liang Jingmin seemed obedient and mature, and his way of handling things resembled their father’s. But when he was in his teens, without saying a word, he left Xijing for Yue City, escaping the hellish environment and leaving Liang Yulin behind with their father.

When Liang Jingmin returned to Xijing years later, Liang Yulin had already become distant and brooding, almost a complete replica of their father, Liang Jianzhong.

Liang Yulin had already been abandoned by his mother, and then by his own older brother. He resented his father, hated his fate, but most of all, he loathed the one who had abandoned him—the very brother, Liang Jingmin.

At the time, Liang Jingmin wasn’t strong enough; he had no choice but to leave his brother behind, hoping that, in the not-too-distant future, he could return to save him. What he hadn’t expected was that Liang Yulin’s deterioration would happen so quickly.

Liang Yulin didn’t know that back then, Liang Jingmin was barely hanging on himself, struggling at the edge of collapse. Yue City was his only lifeline.

So, when he was finally able to stand on his own, he began to relentlessly pick fights with Liang Jingmin. Liang Jingmin, feeling guilty, mostly turned a blind eye to his actions. He may never admit it, but he still loved the younger Liang Yulin—the angel he would have protected even at the cost of his own pain. Their bond had once been the only light in Liang Jingmin’s life.

Liang Jingmin glanced at Liang Yulin, not knowing what more could be said. He turned and left.

Behind him, Liang Yulin waved wildly, shouting, “Take care!”

Unable to tolerate it any longer, Liang Jingmin got back into the car, which then sped off under Butler Zhai’s driving.

“I have to ask, why let him go when you’ve already captured him?” Butler Zhai asked, puzzled.

Liang Jingmin quickly responded to work messages on his phone, seemingly unconcerned, and casually said, “If he wants to leave, let him. Last time, didn’t we catch him, and yet he still escaped?”

Butler Zhai replied, “Sorry to speak out, but if you really love him, you shouldn’t let him go.”

Hearing this, Liang Jingmin lifted his gaze and looked at Butler Zhai.

His expression was calm, almost devoid of emotion, as he stared at the back of Butler Zhai’s head. “Zhai Shu, you’ve been talking a lot lately.”

In the blind spot where Butler Zhai couldn’t see, Liang Jingmin’s eyes suddenly turned cold.

He then spoke again, his tone now much more serious: “In this line of work, talking too much isn’t a good thing.”

When Liang Jingmin was calm, his presence was the most imposing. Butler Zhai nodded in understanding, not daring to speak another word.

After warning Butler Zhai, Liang Jingmin couldn’t help but recall his words—“Since you love him.”

It reminded him of the time Cheng Jing had asked him, wondering why, out of all the people in the world, he had to be the one who suffered.

Looking out at the setting sun, it seemed like another spectacular sunset was about to light up Xijing. Liang Jingmin remembered how it all began.

It felt like a winter break study session, when the competition group needed to print the test papers. That week, Liang Jingmin was in charge of the physics papers and planned to go to the print shop to make copies of the questions, and while he was there, he intended to arrange a time with Cheng Jing, who was responsible for the chemistry questions.

The weather was beautiful that day, and Yue City rarely had such a clear sunset. That day, though, there was a strong chance the sunset would be spectacular. Liang Jingmin asked if he could meet at 6:30 at the print shop. Cheng Jing’s voice was soft as he replied, “I’m going to the rooftop to watch the sunset at 6:30. Can we meet at 6:45?”

For some strange reason, Liang Jingmin asked, “Why do you always go to the rooftop?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. They were merely acquaintances; he shouldn’t have known that Cheng Jing often went to the rooftop. Yet, during their conversation, Cheng Jing seemed a bit absent-minded and didn’t seem to mind the detail.

Cheng Jing looked out the window, slightly furrowing his brows. The vibrant sky reflected in his eyes as he answered, “I don’t do anything. I just like listening to the wind.”

And so, Liang Jingmin, without meaning to, ended up falling for the Cheng Jing who liked listening to the wind.