On the third day after Xu Anci jumped off the cliff, Mu Liang briefly went into cardiac arrest.
“Sigui Cliff has extremely steep terrain. The vertical distance of Mr. Xu’s fall exceeded twenty meters. At that height, even though the heavy rainfall had caused the tide to rise at the time of the incident, the consequences would have been no different from those of a high-altitude fall.”
The police superintendent in charge of the search and rescue operation spoke with blunt honesty. “What’s more, the seabed beneath the cliff is covered with sharp rocks. Even if Mr. Xu didn’t die immediately after falling, the sea tide would have carried him into the rocks, repeatedly crashing his body against them…”
There was a high probability that the reason they could not find his body was because not a single bone had remained intact.
However, the police superintendent ultimately could not bring himself to say those final words aloud.
Because the man who had maintained the exact same posture ever since taking his seat, the man who had once been the subject of countless news reports, who possessed numerous titles, including that of the wealthiest man in the country, and who had been envied, hated, and resented by countless people, even as he was feared, admired, and respected by them had collapsed without the slightest warning.
Advanced emergency equipment and medical treatment managed to save Mu Liang’s life. However, five full minutes of cardiac arrest were enough to inflict a devastating blow on a man who had once possessed a strong and healthy body.
From that day onward, in addition to his chronic stomach pain, Mu Liang was left with another lifelong ailment: angina.
Mu Liang lay on the hospital bed, surrounded by a sea of white. Everything he could see was white, yet he alone was stained with blood, his entire being filthy and tainted from his flesh to the depths of his soul.
He listened calmly as the doctor explained the series of complications that could potentially arise from his cardiac arrest. He nodded to indicate that he understood, then tore off every piece of equipment monitoring his heart rate.
Once again, he drove to Sigui Cliff.
The sun shone brightly, and spring was in full bloom. He walked past groups of hikers climbing the trail while laughing and chatting, past the camping tents set up among the trees along the roadside, and made his way straight to the very edge of the cliff.
Far below, the sea rose and fell in a peaceful, rhythmic motion, as though breathing. In the distance, the deep-blue horizon merged with the clear blue sky. The warning tape had already been removed, and there was not the slightest indication that this place had once swallowed a living human being.
This was the burial ground of his beloved. It would also become the place where a sinner like him sought atonement.
Yet fate did not grant him the opportunity to redeem himself.
The assistant and bodyguards following behind him sensed that something was wrong. At the critical moment, they lunged forward and tackled him to the ground.
His already overburdened heart began to spasm once more. His body went limp, collapsing like a heap of mud, while he raised his eyes toward the blinding sun blazing across the sky. His vision gradually blurred.
They said that when a person was on the verge of death, hearing was the last sense to fade.
Mu Liang stared blankly with his eyes open, but all he could hear were the chaotic sounds surrounding him.
Someone tried to console him. “President Mu, the dead cannot be brought back to life. Please take care of yourself and accept my condolences!”
Someone else encouraged him. “President Mu, you have to stay strong. Mr. Xu loved you and cared about you so much. He would definitely want you to live a good life.”
Another person sighed with emotion. “President Mu and Mr. Xu knew each other when they were young. Come to think of it, President Mu pursued him for three whole years before finally winning his heart. No wonder he’s so devastated now.”
After being locked inside the storage room and then accidentally discovered and rescued by Mu Liang, all forms of bullying directed at Xu Anci were immediately brought to a halt.
It was not because Mu Liang had suddenly developed a conscience.
Rather, through his interactions with Xu Anci, he had discovered an entirely new way to play the game.
A poor student who could barely survive with the help of educational loans and financial assistance had managed to endure such treatment for so long. A person sinking in a quagmire, yet whose eyes still held self-respect and pride.
That sight stirred a faint ripple in the depths of Mu Liang’s barren heart.
He began pursuing Xu Anci.
Since Xu Anci was still studying and had not yet reached adulthood, Mu Liang’s pursuit did not initially reach the point of being blatant or openly suggestive. At first, he merely assumed the role of an outstanding senior who had graduated as a model student, offering academic guidance to a top student with the potential to gain admission to prestigious universities such as Huada and Qingda.
Later, he began inserting himself into Anci’s daily life.
On weekends, he would occasionally send over meals to improve the boy’s diet.
Under the pretext of accompanying him to browse the shopping mall, any product that Xu Anci’s eyes lingered on for even a moment would appear in his dormitory the following day.
No one could easily withstand such an endless stream of gentle advances, least of all Xu Anci, a poor student who had grown up in an orphanage in an impoverished county and possessed virtually no experience of the outside world.
Under the gilded bombardment of money and tenderness, that proud backbone would gradually bend. The defiance and unruliness buried within his soul would soon be tamed. The extraordinary young man would become ordinary and vulgar, turning into someone irritating and disappointing.
The pure, stubborn flame that burned in Xu Anci’s eyes would eventually disappear.
But Mu Liang was wrong.
Xu Anci stopped accepting his academic tutoring. The sneakers, luxury custom-made clothing, the latest gaming consoles… Every gift that could be used as a display of wealth, every item capable of satisfying the vanity of a teenage boy, was returned without exception.
Holding a cardboard box in his arms, Xu Anci carefully placed the gifts into Mu Liang’s hands.
There was money among the things Mu Liang had given him as well. A thick stack of banknotes lay right on top of the gifts, their vivid red color glaringly conspicuous and painfully ironic.
The young man was still wearing that tattered school uniform. Countless graffiti marks, many of them carrying humiliating implications, remained on the fabric despite repeated washing.
The uniform of a private high school was expensive, costing several thousand or even tens of thousands of yuan. Yet Xu Anci had not even been willing to use the money Mu Liang had given him to buy himself a new set of clothes.
His tone was as gentle as ever, his voice clear and pleasant, but his words were firm.
“Senior, I really can’t accept this.”
“If I’m not mistaken, your surname is Mu. Perhaps you or your family are the ones sponsoring my education. Because of your kindness, I’ve been given the opportunity to receive an education, and I’m already more grateful than I can express. As for these additional gifts, I have no reason to accept them.”
The young man took a step backward and bowed to Mu Liang.
His tone was entirely that of a beneficiary expressing gratitude toward a philanthropist. With just a few words, he blocked the ten thousand reasons Mu Liang had come up with to justify his actions, leaving every one of them lodged in his throat.
The useless pride of an insignificant ant.
Mu Liang watched the young man’s retreating figure as he hurried away, and the desire to conquer him, which had briefly subsided, flared up once again in his heart.
On the eve of the college entrance examination, the air was filled with tension.
During that period, Mu Liang was busy as well. After taking over the Mu Group, he had cleared out a number of redundant employees. Some of the directors stubbornly clung to outdated ideas, wanting to confine the company’s business to fields such as real estate. They were deeply dissatisfied with his sweeping reforms.
In order to establish a technology company, he had to withstand the pressure of the board of directors while also taking on the enormous risk of failure in the research and development of an emerging industry.
The young man who had once “rejected” him was temporarily pushed to the back of his mind.
Until a phone call reached his mobile.
The principal of that private high school told him that Xu Anci had encountered an accident while on his way to a tutoring job outside school and had been beaten by a group of local delinquents.
“I noticed that you seemed familiar with Xiao Xu before, so perhaps you might be able to contact his relatives… After all, the college entrance examination is just around the corner. If he doesn’t recover properly and it affects his performance in the exam, that could cause serious problems.”
When Mu Liang arrived at the hospital, Xu Anci had not yet regained consciousness.
His black hair had been cut short, making the white bandages wrapped around his head appear particularly stark and conspicuous. The young man lay asleep on his side, completely unaware of his surroundings. His lips were pale, and his already thin cheeks made the sharp, defined structure of his features even more pronounced.
He would rather go out and work as a private tutor to save money for his university tuition than accept expensive gifts.
The sarcasm on Mu Liang’s face vanished the instant the young man opened his eyes.
Several years in the business world had already taught him how to conceal his genuine emotions behind a carefully constructed mask.
Catching the surprise in Xu Anci’s eyes, Mu Liang once again transformed into the understanding and considerate senior he had always pretended to be.
“The college entrance examination is the most crucial turning point in a person’s life. If you miss it or your performance is affected, it could influence your entire future. Anci, if you’re short of money, why didn’t you tell me?”
Faced with his almost harsh questioning, Anci lowered his head without attempting to defend himself.
“There are many places where money is needed.”
Short-sighted. Unrefined. Vulgar and uninteresting.
Mu Liang silently assigned these judgments to Xu Anci.
Then he noticed the young man’s brows drawing tightly together as he clutched his chest, looking as though he could barely catch his breath.
“What’s wrong?”
“I feel a little nauseous.”
Xu Anci took several sips of water from the cup Mu Liang held out to him. His middle finger was slightly deformed from years of holding a pen.
They were not particularly beautiful hands.
They were hands that seemed to reveal, at a glance, how much hardship their owner had endured.
His hands were cold, icy cold, with a thin layer of calluses covering the skin. They did not possess the soft, delicate texture Mu Liang had imagined.
And yet Mu Liang felt as though he had been shocked by electricity.
Only then did he realize that the moment Xu Anci had shown signs of physical discomfort, his body had already reacted before his mind could catch up, instinctively placing the glass of water in front of Anci.
Mu Liang was not the sort of person who knew how to care for others. Even after his father’s death and the subsequent decline of his family, when he had been forced to move from one city to another, servants and housekeepers had always surrounded him, attending to his every need.
He had been a man accustomed to having his clothes brought to him and his meals placed before him.
Yet because of a young man who had rejected him, he had instinctively responded without a second thought.
Unfortunately, he was still young at the time, too shallow and inexperienced to see through the surface and recognize the truth beneath it.
He put on an act of concern and accompanied Xu Anci during his three-day hospital stay. After that came the college entrance examination.
Mu Liang volunteered to take him to the examination center.
As he watched Anci’s retreating figure disappear into the examination hall, a smile appeared on his face, a smile he himself had not even noticed.
Mu Liang had long since forgotten Xu Anci’s exact college entrance examination score. He only remembered that the boy had scored over seven hundred points, placing him among the top fifty students in the entire province.
Even that private aristocratic high school, which gathered the children of the province’s most powerful and wealthy families and primarily sent its students abroad for further education, put up large posters celebrating the achievement.
That day, his phone was practically blown up by his friend, Wan Hao.
“So this is the result of your revenge? You raised your enemy’s son into a top student at Huada?”
“Back then, you said you had a better plan to avenge Uncle and Aunt. I thought you were going to do something incredible. But in the end, you actually started tutoring him, and you even… went to be his caretaker at the hospital?”
“Mu Liang, don’t you dare forget what happened back then. If Xu Anci’s father hadn’t tampered with the brake pads, how would your parents have ended up falling off the cliff and dying? Xu Shen was a gambler! He killed his own business partner for money. You’re raising Xu Shen’s son by your side. Sooner or later, that kid is going to turn around and bite you!”
…..
After spending the entire day negotiating business matters and working on an acquisition proposal, Mu Liang was so exhausted that his head felt dizzy and his vision swam.
It took considerable effort for him to brush Wan Hao off with a few perfunctory replies before hanging up the call. Only then did Mu Liang realize that his phone had accumulated a large number of messages throughout the day.
Aside from the useless work-related texts, one message from Xu Anci lay quietly on his screen.
“President Mu, are you available? I’m downstairs at your company. There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”
The message had been sent at ten in the morning.
Mu Liang turned his head and looked out the window.
The setting sun had already begun to sink below the horizon. Brilliant neon signs and the endless stream of headlights illuminated the entire city, making the last remaining trace of evening clouds in the sky appear dim and insignificant.
Nearly ten hours had passed since Xu Anci sent the message. Mu Liang did not believe the boy would still be waiting downstairs.
He instructed the driver to get ready and headed straight down to the underground parking garage on Level B1.
However, as the car entered the main road and passed the front entrance of the company’s office building, he inexplicably turned his gaze toward the entrance.
Someone was lying on a bench beside the parking area at the company’s main entrance.
Three minutes later, he arrived in front of the bench and looked down at the young man’s peaceful sleeping face.
The boy was wearing a short-sleeved shirt that had been washed so many times it had become loose and shapeless. His exposed arms were thin and fair, and under the illumination of the streetlights, his skin seemed to emit the gentle luster of jade.
The young man was clutching something tightly in his hand.
Mu Liang reached down and pulled the object out.
It turned out to be a gift box.
It was wrapped in black-and-blue striped book-cover paper, with a small, delicate bow tied from a deep-blue ribbon.
The movement moments earlier had disturbed Xu Anci.
He rubbed his eyes and pushed himself upright. Perhaps because he had been asleep for so long, his pair of clear, limpid eyes appeared hazy with mist. He had worked up a sweat during the daytime, when the temperature was high, and several strands of black hair clung to the side of his face, making his jade-like complexion appear even more striking.
The young man did not notice the faint traces of desire surging through Mu Liang’s gaze.
He held out the gift box in his hands.
“A gift for you.”
Xu Anci lowered his head, revealing the pale, delicate curve of his neck. His complexion was naturally fair, but a faint layer of pink spread across his skin from embarrassment.
“I noticed that you usually use things from this brand, so it took me quite a while to save enough money. Thank you for helping me these past few times… I’ve already applied to the Mathematics Department at Huada. Once I have the ability to do so in the future, I’ll give back to society as well and pass on the kindness you’ve shown me.”
……
It turned out that Xu Anci had not been working as a private tutor to earn money for his tuition fees. He had been doing it to buy Mu Liang a gift.
Xu Anci’s gift was a handkerchief. It was not made from any particularly high-end material, merely an ordinary handkerchief woven from a blend of cotton and polyester. Yet, because of the brand premium attached to the luxury label Lanxue, its price had been inflated a hundredfold.
Mu Liang slowly tightened his grip around the handkerchief in his hand.
His gaze shifted upward, and the faces and voices of his parents remained forever frozen within their black-and-white memorial photographs.
He secretly swore that he would use the cruelest and most vicious methods available to make Xu Anci gradually lose everything, forcing him to experience the most excruciating suffering imaginable.
Yet a name could be the shortest of curses.
Even if he merely thought of the name Xu Anci in the depths of his mind, the image of Xu Anci sleeping beneath the streetlights would surface before his eyes.
Quiet and pale, almost to the point of seeming dull.
The brief moment of panic when he had been startled awake, followed by his long-winded expressions of gratitude and explanation. And then, when he heard Mu Liang say, “Thank you. I really like it,” those dark eyes had suddenly brightened, their light unmistakable.
……..
His vision gradually returned.
Mu Liang slowly awakened from the heart palpitations that had overwhelmed him. The first sensation to recover was not the agonizing pain twisting through his chest, but the sharp sting burning across his cheek.
Anci was still holding his arm up, maintaining the posture of someone about to slap him. He looked as though he was on the verge of tears, yet unable to cry.
In a small voice, he kept murmuring, “You can’t die.”
“Mu Liang, you haven’t paid me my wages yet.”
