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As Xia Songbai turned the corner, he saw Di Guoxing sitting astride his motorcycle by the roadside, one long leg slanted against the ground, a helmet tucked under one arm as he listlessly scrolled through his phone.

His legs were extraordinarily long; stretched out like that, they seemed to have no end. His silver-blue hair was conspicuous enough, and paired with his handsome, intimidating face, it drew sidelong glances from quite a few passersby.

Sometimes Xia Songbai wondered whether Di Guoxing suffered from some kind of permanent scowl syndrome. He had never once seen the man give a proper smile.

But there was a certain charm to not smiling. Plenty of people in Di Guoxing’s fan club had declared that they adored his unbearably cocky expression—and that it would be even better if he would insult them a little.

Xia Songbai: …

Your hobbies are certainly unique.

He jogged a few steps. “Little Xing.”

Di Guoxing raised his eyes. When he saw Xia Songbai, his gaze softened, though he still clicked his tongue. “I told you not to call me that.”

“It’s cute.”

Xia Songbai had even secretly changed Di Guoxing’s name in his contacts to “Little Xing in Crayons.”

Seeing him snickering to himself, Di Guoxing’s lips lifted almost imperceptibly. “Suit yourself. I told you to come watch my race, but you didn’t. Where do you want me to take you?”

Xia Songbai had already hopped onto the motorcycle. “If you wanted to kidnap someone and take them into the mountains, which mountain would you choose?”

Di Guoxing: ?

He turned to look at Xia Songbai, who wore an innocent expression, both hands wrapped around his helmet and looking utterly harmless.

Speechless, Di Guoxing said, “I’ve never kidnapped anyone.”

“Then ask around for me.”

Xia Songbai himself did not realize that whenever he asked someone for a favor, his voice would grow soft and gentle, like a little bird skimming past the branches, its downy feathers brushing against them—sweet and ticklish.

Before the Di family acknowledged him, Di Guoxing had raced illegally in underground gambling circuits and knew all kinds of people. He had refused at first only because he wanted to hear Xia Songbai plead with him a few more times.

They had been friends for so long that Xia Songbai knew his temper inside out. He showered him with flattering words until, having truly run out of things to say, he murmured weakly, “If you don’t ask around for me, I won’t buy you McDonald’s.”

“You want me to do you a favor, and all I get is that?”

Xia Songbai answered with perfect righteousness. “That’s right.”

Di Guoxing was so exasperated that he laughed. He sent out a message, and after a while said, “Put your helmet on.”

“You found out?”

“Someone from outside recently came through the harbor. People inside have been watching him for a while.”

“I knew coming to you was the right choice,” Xia Songbai said admiringly.

He was a little liar, all sweetness and no sincerity, capable of producing honeyed words at the drop of a hat. But even after seeing through him, Di Guoxing was still perfectly willing to do these things for him.

The motorcycle roared to life, and Xia Songbai instinctively caught hold of the hem of Di Guoxing’s shirt.

In the damp, mist-laden wind, Di Guoxing said, “I’m going to Italy next month for a rally. Want to come watch?”

“Next month…”

“Each competitor can bring one family member for free.”

“You’re trying to pass me off as your son again, aren’t you?” Xia Songbai pressed his five fingers together in the gesture Italians used most often, then lightly poked Di Guoxing on the shoulder. “I’ll be starting my internship. I won’t have time.”

Di Guoxing reached back and caught his hand, driving one-handed.

Xia Songbai jumped in fright.

“Can’t you take three days off?” Di Guoxing asked.

The truth was, Xia Songbai simply did not want to leave the country.

This was a crucial period in the plot’s development. He was terrified that if he went away for a few days, he might return to find Lian Sheng waiting outside his home, ready to drag him off and turn him into a mop.

Xia Songbai said vaguely, “We’ll see.”

Di Guoxing released his hand unhappily and did not speak again for the rest of the journey. That was simply the kind of temper he had: say one wrong thing, and he would get angry.

Still, he was easy enough to coax.

“Big Brother Xingxing, don’t be mad at me. Once I earn money from my internship, I’ll buy you new tires.”

Di Guoxing remained silent. After a long while, he said awkwardly, “I have sponsors. You don’t need to buy them.”

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Halfway there.

Xia Songbai blinked. “Then how about I sew you a racing suit by hand? I’ll stitch your name over the chest. I guarantee it’ll look spectacular.”

In the end, Di Guoxing smiled. “You?”

Yes! He’s happy now!

Xia Songbai had said it deliberately. There was no way he would actually sew a racing suit. Once he saw that Di Guoxing was no longer angry, he signaled for him to stop, hopped off, and went into the McDonald’s by the roadside to collect the meal he had ordered in advance.

The two of them stopped wherever they found a suitable place at the foot of the mountain. Xia Songbai did not care that the ground was dirty; he simply sat by the roadside, pulled out a hamburger, and handed it to Di Guoxing.

“Eat. We still have something important to do afterward.”

“What exactly is it?” Di Guoxing asked.

With an apple pie between his teeth, Xia Songbai answered distractedly, “You’ll know when the time comes.”

In the original story, Ning Qing was kidnapped and taken into the mountains. Although Lian Sheng rescued him in time, he was nearly assaulted and beaten while struggling, suffering an injury to the back of his head that left him temporarily blind. This later triggered a series of scenes filled with both physical and emotional torment.

Xia Songbai could not be bothered to complain about the worldview of the original story, where apparently every man was attracted to other men and ready to lust at any time or place. But now that he knew Ning Qing would be put through such an ordeal, even though pretending not to know would have been the safest choice, Xia Songbai still could not stand by and do nothing.

Since he had put it that way, Di Guoxing did not press him. He sat down beside him, inserted a straw into Xia Songbai’s cola and handed it over, then pulled out a tissue and wiped the salad dressing from Xia Songbai’s cheek.

Both men had extraordinarily long legs and model-perfect faces. Sitting by the roadside as the wind swept past, they looked as though they were filming some kind of idol drama.

Xia Songbai was absentmindedly chewing on his hamburger when his eyes suddenly lit up. “There.”

The book said that after the kidnappers captured Ning Qing, they split into two groups. One group stayed behind to watch Ning Qing, while several others went down the mountain to buy daily necessities. They had never considered Ning Qing a threat, believing that someone as helpless and alone as him could not possibly cause trouble. Thus, they had made no attempt whatsoever to conceal their movements.

Xia Songbai: …

You already know he has no one to rely on. Why kidnap him at all?

Were they hoping his gambling-addict father would come up with the ransom?

This book had far too many plot holes!

As for how Xia Songbai knew it was this particular vehicle, that was of course because later in the story, Lian Sheng hijacked this very car and fought his way out with Ning Qing. To highlight Lian Sheng’s lone-heroic valor, the book had gone into great detail describing the vehicle’s features, repeatedly emphasizing just how dilapidated it was.

So Xia Songbai recognized it at a glance.

A vehicle that filthy and battered was not easy to mistake.

Xia Songbai pulled Di Guoxing to his feet and climbed onto the motorcycle. “Follow that car.”

Di Guoxing did not move. “Tell me what we’re going to do first.”

At that, Xia Songbai raised his brows and smiled. His teeth were dazzlingly white, and the tips of his sharp canines showed just enough to make him look especially bright and mischievous.

“I want to see whether fate’s arrangements can be changed.”

Even if the original plot had already been set and everyone was destined to accept the roles assigned to them—

he still wanted to see whether he could carve out another world beneath the hands that turned the tides.

—

The wind rose and the clouds shifted. There were no stars or moon, and the last traces of twilight folded themselves behind the heavy clouds.

Although Xia Songbai had told him to follow the vehicle, Di Guoxing did not go after it directly. Instead, he drove in the opposite direction, looped around, and cut back along a side road. After waiting a little while, the SUV finally came into view.

Di Guoxing switched off the headlights and followed the SUV from the edge of the tree-lined road. He watched it make several turns before finally winding up halfway up the mountain.

Xia Songbai remembered that the place had once been a small estate built by a wealthy man. Supposedly, the man had even kept cattle and sheep there, playing at pastoral living in the middle of the city. Unfortunately, he later went bankrupt, and the land was sold. Since the buildings had never been demolished, the site had become a hideout for criminals.

Xia Songbai watched until the SUV drove inside and its engine went quiet.

“Are we going in?” Di Guoxing asked.

Xia Songbai looked surprised. “Why would we?”

Di Guoxing was even more surprised than he was. “You followed them all this way. Wasn’t it to rescue someone?”

Even if Xia Songbai had not told him, he could still guess that the group must have kidnapped someone.

“Do I have to rescue them myself?” Xia Songbai asked with a sweet smile as he pulled out his phone and dialed the police. “Hello, Officer? I’d like to report a kidnapping and unlawful confinement!”

Twenty minutes later, the police arrived.

Xia Songbai immediately hurried over to greet them, enthusiastically serving as their cheerful guide.

They did say that whenever you ran into trouble, you should call the police.

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In less than ten minutes, the battle inside was over. Several dejected kidnappers were led away with their heads covered. Ning Qing’s clothes were dirty, but he had suffered no serious injuries. He did not even need anyone to support him and walked out on his own.

This was a stark contrast to the original story, where he was described as “covered in wounds and blind in both eyes,” requiring Lian Sheng to carry him in his arms.

Standing in the shadows, Xia Songbai watched him quietly. Once he had confirmed that Ning Qing was all right, he smiled faintly.

Even if he could not completely alter the direction of the plot, he could at least correct some of the details.

Suddenly, a commotion broke out ahead. A Humvee came speeding toward them, apparently intending to drive straight into the estate.

Unfortunately, it was stopped halfway by the police.

Lian Sheng then climbed out of the vehicle with an displeased expression. Anyone who had a gun pointed at them would have trouble looking pleased.

Seeing the police surrounding the place, Lian Sheng found it unbelievable.

How had so many police officers gotten here?

Who had called them?

It was not that Ning Qing’s kidnapping should not have been reported. It was simply that years of conditioning within an influential family had taught Lian Sheng to handle problems himself first and seek official help only when absolutely necessary.

That was what he had done this time as well. Upon receiving word that Ning Qing had been kidnapped, Lian Sheng had rushed over without a moment’s thought. He had searched desperately for a long time and even mobilized many of his own connections before finally tracking down the kidnappers’ whereabouts.

On the way there, Lian Sheng had been frantic with worry. He had even prepared himself to dismember the kidnappers if anything happened to Ning Qing.

But who could tell him why, by the time he arrived, everything was already over?

…It was not that he wanted anything to happen to Ning Qing. It was just…

Wasn’t this all rather different from what he had imagined?

Lian Sheng stood there in silence, unable to recover for quite some time.

Ning Qing saw him and walked over. “Lian Sheng.”

Only then did Lian Sheng come back to himself. “Qingqing, are you hurt?”

Ning Qing shook his head, though his tone was hesitant. “The police arrived in time. Lian Sheng… it was Mr. Xia who called them and saved me.”

“What?!”

How could it have been Xia Songbai?

Lian Sheng’s first reaction was to darken his expression. “Was he the one who had you kidnapped?”

Ning Qing stared at him in disbelief. “How could you think that? Those people kidnapped me to collect a debt. What could Mr. Xia possibly have to do with it?”

The words had slipped out before Lian Sheng could stop them. He immediately realized his mistake and corrected himself. “Qingqing, I was just too worried about you.”

Ning Qing was not a dull-witted person, and Lian Sheng’s frantic journey here had moved him. He could not say that he felt nothing.

But he could not stop thinking about what had just happened: the police arriving like divine soldiers from heaven to save him at the moment of greatest danger, then telling him that they had come because someone had reported the crime—and that the person who had made the report was Xia Songbai.

Ning Qing could not fully recall what he had felt in that moment. He remembered only that his first reaction had been to blush scarlet.

What exactly had he been doing? Allowing himself to become entangled with a married man.

It was not something he should have done.

Lian Sheng reached out, intending to embrace him. “I’ll take you back to the hospital for an examination.”

But Ning Qing stepped away from him. “I still have to go to the police station and give a statement. Mr. Lian, I appreciate your kindness, but…”

Ning Qing paused. He had clearly made up his mind, yet the moment he saw Lian Sheng, his sense of shame sank once more beneath the inexplicably surging tide of love.

He steadied himself before finally saying the words.

“We should not see each other again.”

Those were words Lian Sheng himself had once spoken. Yet hearing them from Ning Qing made his heart lurch with pain, leaving him almost unable to breathe.

The pain was so violent that, even amid his sorrow, a trace of bewilderment rose within him.

Did he really like Ning Qing this much?

Did he like him so much that the mere thought of Ning Qing leaving could cause him such agony?

Was love truly this important to him?