UCS Chapter 125

“Dongdong, your mother knows you’re fond of Youzhi. She is a good girl, and that’s why when you wanted to marry her before, your father and I were both in favour.”

“But now she has lost her eye, and one of her arms is gone. I’m not asking you to marry a girl who brings advantages to the family. But you cannot marry one who will hold you back.”

“When you go out to socialise and make connections, she will only be able to stay home. The path of being a hostess wife is finished.”

“You have no idea how many people will look at her and whisper.”

“And she will be at home, unable to go out, while you are out building your career. Do you think she won’t have doubts? Won’t start imagining things?”

Gao Shi and Ran Qiu had originally come to check on Zhou You’s condition and see whether she could give a statement. They had not expected to walk in on this.

The mother of the minor second-generation heir was in the middle of persuading her son to break up with Zhou You.

The young man clenched his fist. His voice was quiet. “Youzhi has no parents. This is exactly when she needs me most. Please stop.”

His mother grew anxious. She had not expected her son to be such a devoted romantic. “Dongdong! Do you know why Zhou You was taken in the first place? Because she accepted an invitation from Xiao Yusheng to go out. And she went without telling you. If she had just let you know before she left the house, she wouldn’t have taken this long to be rescued. She wouldn’t have lost her eye or her arm either!”

The young man’s voice was hoarse. “Mum, I trust her. She probably kept it from me because she was worried I’d get jealous, so she wanted to deal with it herself. I know her. She would never do something like that.”

His mother, frustrated past her limit, cried, “You foolish child!”

In the end, she left.

The young man dragged a hand down his face. He looked exhausted, as though he had aged considerably all at once, nothing left of his former easy confidence. He slapped himself firmly on both cheeks, drew a deep breath, and turned to walk toward Zhou You’s hospital room.

Ran Qiu exhaled quietly. “It’s hard on everyone.”

“Following them in, Chief?”

“Let’s go.”

They went forward, called out to the young man, asked after Zhou You’s condition, and enquired whether she was able to give a statement.

The young man went to ask Zhou You, then let them in.

In the hospital room, Zhou You sat quietly on the bed. Her eyes were still covered by white gauze, beneath which lay flat, empty eyelids.

Hearing them enter, she smiled and gave a small nod in the direction of Gao Shi and Ran Qiu.

Her face was pale. Her lips were pale too.

Her lips were not cracked, however, and there was a cup of water within reach. By all appearances, she was being well looked after.

“Yes. Xiao Yusheng made several indirect advances toward me on previous occasions. I refused each time.”

“Coming forward about that sort of thing would have convinced no one. Like all those celebrities before who got torn apart for supposedly riding his coattails.”

“So later, when Xiao Yusheng asked to meet me after we finished filming, I agreed. I wanted to resolve the situation cleanly. I value my reputation. I had no wish to become entangled with him, and would not have dared.”

“Did you not consider telling your boyfriend?”

“No.”

“How to put it… my boyfriend and I come from very different walks of life. Without him, I would probably never have moved in these circles. Of course I love him deeply. But between him and Xiao Yusheng, honestly speaking, there was a considerable gap in standing.”

“The right kind of rival can actually draw two people closer together. But a rival with far more power and status than yourself only pushes them further apart. He is the jealous type. I wasn’t going to put our relationship through that kind of test over something like this. So my first instinct was to handle it on my own.”

Zhou You gave a bitter smile.

“I never imagined… if I had known…”

Gao Shi went on to ask Zhou You several more questions.

Xiao Yusheng had originally been drawn to eyes soaked in tears, eyes that held the tension of hope and despair together. What he had not anticipated was that Zhou You’s resistance had left a scratch on his arm, a mark of blood on his flawless skin. This had enraged him. So rather than killing her immediately, he had gouged out her eyes and then removed one of her arms to process into pigment.

By the original plan, had everything gone as intended, Zhou You would have died from blood loss the day after Gao Gusheng had stumbled in.

Zhou You had kept her life, but she had lost both her eyes and one arm.

When Gao Shi had finished his questions, he looked at Zhou You’s ashen face and said, “The Gao family has developed a bionic eye. It has already been through trials. It has simply not come to market yet. If you are willing, the Gao family will perform the transplant surgery for you free of charge.”

“What…”

Watching Zhou You sit bolt upright, Gao Shi continued, “Do not worry. The Gao family’s technology is already highly advanced. The probability of rejection is under five percent.”

“The sooner bionic surgery is performed after your body has recovered the better. When you have made up your mind, please call this number.”

“There is nothing to consider, Mr. Gao. I am willing to have the surgery.” Zhou You turned her gauze-covered face toward Gao Shi and said with complete sincerity, “Thank you.”

Gao Shi said, “Consider it… a thank-you for the photography you once did for the Gao family.”

Seeing Zhou You brought to his mind the image of Gao Gusheng having his corneas forcibly removed.

In the original timeline, Zhou You had still joined Xiao Yusheng’s production. She had not lived long enough for Gao Gusheng to break into Xiao Yusheng’s residence. She had died in that dark, hidden cage.

And Gao Gusheng, who had exhausted every resource escaping the control of those three people, had walked straight into Gui Yan’s tender trap and lost a cornea.

This time, Gao Shi had set up a dedicated technology division specifically for bionic organs, as a safeguard against every possible contingency. Now, seeing bionic technology put to use for Zhou You, a person whose life had been derailed in the same way as Gao Gusheng’s, felt like things returning to their rightful place.

Zhou You was a very intelligent woman. She was resilient enough, and sharp enough, to have no doubt already thought through everything her disability would mean going forward.

Gao Shi had no intention of interfering in her life. He simply wanted to share with someone who had walked the same road as Gao Gusheng the light that Gao Gusheng himself had never received in the dream.

Think of it as accumulating good fortune on Gao Gusheng’s behalf.

They stepped out of the room and, not far away, saw her boyfriend.

Gao Shi went over to him and gave him the video recorded that night, showing Xiao Yusheng making implicit advances toward Zhou You, and Zhou You refusing and leaving.

He seemed taken aback. Then came anger, then a deep tenderness.

Finally a wry smile settled on his face.

He said that he had believed her. He always had.

Perhaps because of the gap between their backgrounds, Zhou You had always placed herself in the lesser position. She knew her boyfriend loved her, but she had always kept herself ready for the possibility of being left, unable to give her trust completely.

Perhaps, Gao Shi thought, she could try trusting her boyfriend a little more.

***

Gao Shi pushed the door open.

“Dad, you’re back!”

“Woof woof woof!”

“Awoooo—”

The trio of Gao Gusheng and the two dogs created a sound that gave Gao Shi the brief, disorienting sensation of having raised three sons, or perhaps three dogs.

The two large dogs had been thoroughly washed by the housekeeper and, setting aside their healing wounds, were practically like new.

Gao Shi ruffled his son’s head, then gave the golden retriever’s head a good scrub, and ran his hand along the German shepherd’s tail. The texture was immensely satisfying.

For some reason, though, he kept feeling that these two dogs ought not to feel this fluffy.

If a dog was not fluffy, what else would it be? Surely not hard and rigid?

He recalled the golden dragon-shadows that had risen from the two dogs’ bodies, and thought to himself that in their past lives they might well have been a pair of dragons. It sounded not entirely scientific, but given that past lives and reincarnation were already on the table, scientific or unscientific hardly seemed like a relevant distinction anymore.

Gao Shi went to shower, carrying with him a sense of bemused wonder.

He was combing through his damp hair with his fingers while blow-drying it when a hand behind him took over the dryer. Ying Bujie’s fingers threaded through Gao Shi’s short hair. His movements with the blow dryer were slightly unpractised at first, but he found his rhythm quickly.

His cool fingertips pressed across Gao Shi’s scalp. The faint, pleasant sensation made Gao Shi’s eyes drift half-shut. He gave up holding himself upright and leaned back, and was caught in a full embrace.

Gao Shi settled into a comfortable position against this living armchair. Ying Bujie let him shift as he liked, never pausing the movement of his hands. Gao Shi, inexplicably, found himself reading into it a certain quality of principled restraint.

No, what am I thinking.

He was so amused by his own imagination that he laughed.

A person as upright as himself, and here his mind was painting Ying Bujie as some sort of rogue taking liberties with the Daoist.

But as Gao Shi went on smiling, the smile stiffened.

Because he had suddenly realised that his own conduct in his past life could not honestly be called well-behaved either. And in this life, after meeting Ying Bujie, even the steadiness he had cultivated through all those years of raising a son had been tossed entirely out the window.

“What are you thinking about?”

Ying Bujie pressed the acupoint at the crown of Gao Shi’s head. Gao Shi felt a tingling warmth spread across his scalp, deeply comfortable, and whatever he had been pondering a moment ago was swept completely away. He tilted his head back in Ying Bujie’s arms. “This feels wonderful. Did you study how to do it on purpose?”

Ying Bujie made a soft sound of assent, gathered the hair at Gao Shi’s forehead and directed the warm air over it. “I learned it for you.”

A flash of light crossed Gao Shi’s mind. A phantom appeared, as it had on the two previous days. Someone cradling his long hair, fingertips holding a breath of warmth, drawing the water droplets away from each strand.

[Why haven’t you dried your hair after bathing.]

[Ha. If it were dried, how would I get to enjoy… the honour of the Lord of the Underworld himself drying my hair for me?]

Ying Bujie bent forward. Long hair cascaded down from behind him and tangled with Gao Shi’s own.

A sigh, and a low laugh. [You…]

The rest of the sentence dissolved somewhere between lips and teeth.

A vision this vivid?

Gao Shi felt himself drifting, barely able to tell past from present, aware of nothing except the faint coolness against his lips, a slow and patient pressure turning pale lips the colour of a red-stained petal.

Isn’t the sensation a little too real?

He started. He leaned back and found that at some point the phantom and reality had merged into one. He was gripping the front of Ying Bujie’s robe and drawing him down, bending him into a kiss.

…What the hell am I doing.

He let go on instinct, went rigid. “I’m sorry, I…”

Ying Bujie set the blow dryer down and came to stand in front of Gao Shi. The tips of his ears were plainly red, as though he had been the one imposed upon, and yet he leaned down and kissed him again. “…I liked it very much.”

Jade-white fingers tangled in ink-black hair, a strangely beautiful contrast. The temperature in the room climbed. The soft sound of water draining over tiles swallowed every other small noise—

“Dad! Father! Shouldn’t we be getting the golden retriever and the…”

Gao Gusheng threw the bedroom door open.

Gao Gusheng: …

Gao Gusheng quietly pulled the door shut again.

***

 (advanced chapters available on kofi)