Chapter 71

Outside the gates of the Military Base, Gu Yunchi held an umbrella and watched Lu Heyang take the driver's seat. There was no one from Jiang Wen's people in the car — only Lu Heyang.

Once he drove out of the military zone, bodyguards arranged by Lu Chengyu would follow Lu Heyang, just as they had for the past eighteen years.

The dense raindrops battered the umbrella, making it tremble ceaselessly. Through the car window, Gu Yunchi saw Lu Heyang raise his hand and wave to him — like the most ordinary farewell — and then the car pulled out toward the main road.

Gu Yunchi realized he had guessed wrong. Xu Ze might have been a rather suitable candidate, able to achieve the desired result at the lowest cost — but it was all idle talk in the end, because Lu Heyang had never, from beginning to end, placed Xu Ze within the range of his options.

The wipers swept in steady rhythm, clearing the water from the windshield. Though it was noon, the headlights had to stay on just to make out the road ahead. Lu Heyang drove calmly — so calmly it was almost drowsy; perhaps not drowsy, but tired.

The problems before him were many: the safety of Xu Ze, Ye Yunhua, even Lin Yumian; Lu Qingmo's predicament; Lu Chengyu's control over everything. They should have been resolved slowly, but now it seemed there was no time. Lu Heyang rarely acted without certainty, but once a piece was placed, he did not regret it — no one could guarantee that everything would succeed, and a choice made after eliminating every wrong option was not necessarily the right one. Perhaps in certain matters there was simply no correct choice at all; he only needed to confirm that he had the capacity to bear every consequence.

The drive from the Military Base to the city took over an hour. As the car rounded a low hill, the dense woods around them cut off all light, leaving only the glow of the headlights. Lu Heyang glanced at the rearview mirror — the bodyguard car had not yet caught up.

Twenty seconds later, the front right tire gave a muffled thud, and the entire car lurched sharply toward the railing on the right amid a burst of urgent alarm tones. Lu Heyang immediately slammed the brakes, steadied the runaway steering wheel, and the tires screamed against the road.

Bang — the front of the car, skewed sideways, slammed into the steel guardrail at the roadside. By inertia, Lu Heyang was thrown hard against the steering wheel, his braced hands striking with violent pain.

He raised his head and saw someone climbing over the guardrail to the side of the car.

Xu Ze arrived outside the cardiac surgery room at Capital City Second Hospital; Chi Jiahán was already there. The trip from the school had taken nearly an hour — long enough to wear away every last shred of his patience and composure. When Zhou Zhen brought the consent form for him to sign, Xu Ze could not even grip the pen steadily; the signature came out crooked and barely legible.

Zhou Zhen quickly returned to the surgery room. Xu Ze stood where he was, unsure whether he had really seen it — the lead surgeon's signature on the consent form seemed to be Li Zhan's.

That top cardiac specialist had once performed a full examination on Ye Yunhua. Xu Ze had assumed it was coincidence — that someone at the Sanatorium had invited Professor Li over, and he had simply benefited from it. But it was not. Only someone as foolish as he was would have believed it was coincidence.

Xu Ze turned his head. The corridor was bright and empty. Lu Heyang had not yet arrived.

Sitting in the smoke-flooded van with his eyes covered, Lu Heyang felt a dull ache somewhere deep in his mind. Distant, half-hidden memories drifted up like ice beneath the surface of water, slowly overlapping with the present — that should have been him as a child.

Over half an hour later, the van stopped, and Lu Heyang was led inside. The sound of the rain faded away bit by bit. Lu Heyang caught the smell of damp, musty air and dust — the kind that came from years without sunlight.

Someone pressed him down into a chair. A cold iron cuff closed around his wrists, pinning his hands in place; two cold patches were pressed against his temples. Then the black cloth over his eyes was removed. The light was not harsh. Lu Heyang opened his eyes.

An abandoned underground warehouse. In the corners, dust-covered burlap sacks and broken cardboard boxes were piled up; to his right stood an old desk with a power strip on it, a black cord running back to the chair. Lu Heyang looked down at the armrests — this was a crude Electric Chair.

Footsteps sounded. The Alpha stepped leisurely out of the shadows, holding a slim syringe between his fingers as one might hold a cigarette.

Tang Feiyi looked neither disheveled nor dejected — still the picture of a man doing well. He pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Lu Heyang, studying him under the light with a pleased expression. 'Finally got you.'

Lu Heyang showed no reaction, meeting his gaze in silence. Tang Feiyi clicked his tongue. 'There's probably a locator in your Mobile Phone? Too bad there's a signal jammer here. Jiang Wen's people have been lured off to look for you somewhere else — they won't be coming anytime soon.'

'Speaking of which, you still owe me a hand.' Tang Feiyi raised his own right hand and looked at it. 'I heard you're going to attend the Military Academy. The Military Academy wouldn't want a cripple, would it?'

Following his movement, Lu Heyang looked at that hand — a vicious scar crawled across it — but what Lu Heyang thought of was the cigarette burn on Xu Ze's wrist.

'I hold grudges. Even if I'm about to run for my life, I still have to repay the debt double before I go.' Tang Feiyi stood up, walked to Lu Heyang's left side, pressed down on the back of his head, and exposed the Alpha's gland. 'I have a very good idea just now.'

He pressed the plunger of the syringe lightly; a few drops of clear liquid fell from the tip of the needle. Then he pressed the needle against Lu Heyang's skin, pierced it, and slowly pushed the liquid from the barrel into the gland.

Tang Feiyi tossed the syringe aside and returned to stand before Lu Heyang. In a nervously excited tone, as though sharing a brilliant idea, he said, 'If you just died like this, it would be too easy on the Lu Family. Lu Chengyu would only feel regret for a few years. So I've thought of a better way.'

'If you became an idiot with a low Pheromone Level, the chairman's proudest son would become a complete failure. This kind of disgrace — surely more than the grief of losing a son — would be enough to disgust him for the rest of his life.'

The gland began to burn with pain. Lu Heyang frowned slightly, but his gaze was still clear. He opened his mouth and asked an unrelated question: 'Was I present when Xu Ming had his accident?'

It took Tang Feiyi several seconds to recall who Xu Ming was. Then he burst out laughing. 'More than present — he was holding you at the time. I could see through the scope his blood spraying all over your face.'

So that was how it was. Lu Heyang had his answer. It matched the psychiatric diagnostic report he had only recently obtained — the series of stress disorders and three months of muteness described in it. It was because he had witnessed such a scene that he had subsequently undergone two years of psychiatric treatment, with most of his memories erased through psychological intervention.

And speaking of Xu Ming, Tang Feiyi seemed to be reminded of something. 'Ah... right, I should let Xu Ze know, shouldn't I? He cares about you the most.'

He tilted his chin toward the person beside him, signaling them to turn off the signal jammer. Enough, the timing was just right. By the time Jiang Wen's people re-tracked the signal and rushed over, all they would find in the warehouse was the gift he had left for them — Lu Heyang, turned into a wreck.

Tang Feiyi picked up the Mobile Phone and dialed Xu Ze's number.

Xu Ze felt himself split in two — one half facing the surgery room, waiting for the doctor's word; the other half watching the elevator entrance behind him, waiting for Lu Heyang to arrive. He longed for Lu Heyang to appear in the next second, so that he could be sure the other man was safe.

'Sit down first.' Chi Jiahán reached to pull Xu Ze's stiff arm. 'The surgery won't be that quick.'

Xu Ze answered, 'Okay,' but after saying it, he made no move to do so, still standing there.

The Mobile Phone rang. Xu Ze's fingertips twitched; he immediately reached for his pocket, answered without even looking at the number on the screen, his voice urgent: 'Hello?'

'Let me guess — you're waiting for someone right now, aren't you, dear Number 17.'

A clap of thunder suddenly sounded outside, almost making the entire building tremble slightly. Xu Ze felt his heart bound and hoisted high. He forced a breath out from his chest, wanting to say something, but then heard Tang Feiyi's regretful voice: 'Time's a bit tight. Let's hear what he has to say to you.'

Xu Ze's fingers trembled. He turned on the speaker and pressed his ear tight against the phone. One second, two seconds — no one spoke. He heard only breathing, calm and even.

He had still been clinging to the hope that it might be a fake — but strangely, even from just the sound of breathing, Xu Ze recognized in an instant that it was Lu Heyang.

'Oh, looks like he has nothing to say to you.'

Beep — Tang Feiyi ended the call. Xu Ze remained in the posture of holding the phone, stunned for a moment. He unlocked the screen, pressed several times before hitting the right spot, opened the call log, found the number Lu Heyang had last called him from, and dialed back.

He held his breath as if his throat were being choked, listening to the beeps in the phone ringing on and on as if they would never stop — until it became a busy tone, telling him no one was picking up.

Xu Ze's face showed no expression, as though he had lost every emotion. He kept redialing, holding the phone to his ear and listening carefully; if it didn't connect, he would call again, over and over.

Chi Jiahán finally noticed something was wrong. He pressed Xu Ze's shoulder and turned him toward himself, asking, 'What's wrong?'

That face was pale, bloodless, looking cold, as if one tap would shatter it. Chi Jiahán, a little panicked, raised his voice and called out: 'Xu Ze?!'

Click — without warning, the Huanghua Li Buddhist Beads on his wrist snapped. Twelve beads scattered to the floor like raindrops, rolling in every direction. Xu Ze was finally pulled back to a sliver of awareness. He froze, then knelt down, listening obsessively to the phone while reaching out with his left hand to pick up the fallen beads one by one. His ears were filled with the beeping of the phone and the clicking of the beads hitting the floor; he could hear nothing else.

The surgery room door opened. Zhou Zhen hurried out with a critical condition notice: 'Xu Ze, sign this.'

Every word sounded blurred. There were still a few beads by the wall, and Xu Ze stubbornly kept picking them up, but his vision strangely grew less and less clear; the last bead took him several tries to pick up. Chi Jiahán pulled at Xu Ze's clothes, his voice on the verge of tears: 'Xu Ze, stop picking them up!'

Xu Ze said nothing. Kneeling on the ground, he gathered all the beads and cupped them in one hand against his chest. His gaze went blank and distant for two seconds; then he finally raised his head. Chi Jiahán saw his eyes and froze, startled.

All twelve of his grandmother's beads were gathered up, but Lu Heyang's call still had not gone through.

'I wanted to play with you a little longer, but unfortunately there's no time.' Tang Feiyi lit a cigarette and took the continuously ringing Mobile Phone from Lu Heyang's pocket. 'Poor Xu Ze — he'll never get you to answer his call.'

He let go; the phone fell to the ground, the ringtone still sounding. Lu Heyang lowered his eyes to the name on the screen.

Tang Feiyi pressed the power strip switch and turned the dial of the Electric Chair to its highest setting, a look of deep satisfaction on his face. In a low, dark voice: 'Goodbye.'

Beep — the instant the start button was pressed, high-intensity current surged through the patches and quickly crawled into Lu Heyang's skin. His brain's protective mechanism kicked in, so he did not feel much pain, but his body's muscles reacted so violently that Lu Heyang, chair and all, crashed to the ground. In the last second before his eyes closed, his gaze fell on the lit screen of the Mobile Phone twenty centimeters away — though he could no longer make out the name of the caller.

Gunshots rang out somewhere far away and yet seemingly close at hand. Accompanied by chaotic footsteps, someone called his name. Before his consciousness sank into complete darkness, a series of fragmented images flashed through Lu Heyang's mind — most familiar, some quite strange.

The house he had lived in as a child; a fine-weather afternoon; the swing in the garden; and standing on the other side of a fence, the little Alpha who had never spoken a word — long since vanished from his memories before the age of ten.