Bai Yuxiu rushed over, his face similar to Xie Mu’s was full of concern. He looked at the youth sitting in Wen Mingquan’s home and said, “Xiao Mu, don’t worry. Call Rong Jing and let him clarify.”
“You two are lovers. As long as he helps you clarify, everything will be fine.”
“He’s not answering the phone.”
Xie Mu’s face was pale, with his phone in his hand. His eyes were lifeless as he muttered repeatedly, “He’s not answering the phone…”
Bai Yuxiu comfortingly hugged him. The young man didn’t even have the energy to struggle. Bai Yuxiu seemed to earnestly think of solutions for him, saying, “It’s okay, Xiao Mu. Rong Jing likes you so much; he will definitely come forward.”
Wen Mingquan stood there, watching Bai Yuxiu’s gentle and patient persuasion. He lowered his head to look at his watch, his eyes sinking little by little.
As if sensing his gaze, Bai Yuxiu looked up and met his eyes.
The increasingly panicked young man completely failed to notice what kind of agreement had been reached between the former lovers.
Perhaps even they themselves couldn’t have imagined that they would one day unite for Xie Mu’s sake .
The young man kept dialing the phone incessantly, but it remained ringing without an answer.
Seeing the clock on the wall ticking away, Bai Yuxiu stopped him.
“Xiao Mu, stop calling. He won’t answer.”
“He might be sleeping, or in a meeting, so his phone is turned off. As long as I keep calling, Rong Jing will definitely answer…”
Xie Mu muttered, his eyes full of panic as he tried to convince himself, “Rong Jing said he loves me. He won’t ignore me.”
“Xiao Mu…”
Wen Mingquan half knelt in front of the young man, grasping his cold hand. In his panicked gaze, he said, “Rong Jing has told many people that he likes them.”
“He is simply a liar.”
“No, he’s not…”
Xie Mu shook his head, tears brimming in his eyes but refusing to fall.
“Rong Jing wouldn’t deceive me. He likes me, he’s good to me, he even said he would stay with me until I grow old…”
“Is this his version of liking you?”
Wen Mingquan tossed his phone onto the table. In the video, the man was still passionately kissing someone else, surrounded by cheering voices.
The video was clear, and even though the face of the person he was kissing could not be clearly seen, one could clearly see the tenderness and love in Rong Jing’s eyes.
“He just needs to say a word, and your current predicament will be immediately resolved, but what now? He’s playing dead!”
After Wen Mingquan finished speaking, Bai Yuxiu also advised and continued to persuade, “Xiao Mu, now that your reputation has plummeted, why not go abroad for a while?”
“I know a place in Country X. It’s a beautiful town.People there won’t pay attention to our country’s affairs at all. You should go there for a while to lay low, and come back when things have calmed down.”
Xie Mu shook his head numbly, stubbornly insisting on calling Rong Jing.
When the call wouldn’t go through, he went back to the Rong’s house.
But the housekeeper told him that Rong Jing never came back.
Wen Mingquan took him to the company, but there was no sign of that man.
He was avoiding him.
The young man accepted this fact.
Wen Mingquan and Bai Yuxiu were helping him prepare to leave the country. All he needed to do was board the plane, and they would take care of the rest for him.
Wait until Xie Mu is tricked into country X.
It would be the moment when the two confronted each other.
They opened the door to the hotel room, but couldn’t find the young man anywhere.
Immediately, both of them panicked.
They summoned the manager, checked the surveillance footage, only to find that the youth had gone up to the rooftop.
In an instant, the faces of Wen Mingquan and Bai Yuxiu turned pale, almost without thinking, they desperately rushed up.
Sure enough, Xie Mu was on the rooftop, sitting on the edge of the railing, continuously dialing a number.
Seeing them coming, he lifted his head and looked at the two.
“Xiao, Xiao Mu…”
Wen Mingquan stepped forward first, scared by the scene, and afraid to provoke the young man. He cautiously approached while softly coaxing him, “You come down first, come down, all right?”
Xie Mu didn’t move, staring at them with hatred.
“It’s all you.”
“Because of you both, Rong Jing ignores me.”
Wen Mingquan froze, looking at the young man in disbelief. “Xiao Mu?”
But the young man seemed as if he couldn’t hear their voices at all. He kept dialing the number on his phone. As no one responded, his expression became more and more anxious.
Bai Yuxiu said nothing and took the opportunity to try to pull the young man down, but Xie Mu suddenly leaned back.
“Don’t come over!”
This action made both of them break out in a cold sweat.
“Okay, okay, we won’t come over. Xiao Mu, you come down first…”
“It’s okay, we’ll send you abroad. Once you’re overseas, everything will be fine…”
“Go abroad?”
The young man, with a pale face, looked at the two in front of him. “Why should I believe you?”
“You’re both liars.”
“Colluding to deceive me…”
“Only Rong Jing, he is the only one who will not lie to me…”
He kept dialing Rong Jing’s number incessantly, his once clear eyes devoid of clarity, resembling a robot.
“Xiaomu, I know I made a mistake. It’s all my fault. I will change…”
The young man stared blankly at him, then suddenly laughed.
“Do you think I would believe you?”
“These photos, you released them, right?”
Wen Mingquan felt as if all the blood in his body froze after this sentence fell.
How could Xie Mu know…
“You always do this…”
Xie Mu’s eyes were red, and he laughed bitterly, his voice filled with bitterness. “You treat me like a fool, playing me here and there…”
“I believed you again and again, but every time, what I got was pain…”
“You said you would send me abroad, but whose bed are you sending me to? A foreigner?”
Looking at the young man in front of him, with a numb and pale expression, Wen Mingquan felt a dull ache in his heart.
“I didn’t…”
“I really want to help you…”
Xie Mu shook his head. “No, you won’t help me, none of you will…”
“In this world, only Rong Jing truly likes me, only he loves me…”
Now, no matter what Wen Mingquan says, Xie Mu won’t believe anymore.
Who’s to blame?
It’s just, reaping what one sows.
Bai Yuxiu spoke softly, his eyes full of tenderness and worry. “Xiao Mu, you can blame them, but what about me?”
As he spoke, he approached, “I’ve never harmed you, you know…”
“I lied to you for your own good, Xiao Mu…”
The young man stared blankly at him, Bai Yuxiu’s gaze still gentle, without any hint of aggression. “I’ve always been with you, treating you well. Come down, we will go abroad together, I’ll protect you.”
They were getting closer, soon they could pull the young man down…
However, Xie Mu staggered and stood on the railing.
This was a high place, with no protection. Standing there, he seemed like a gust of wind could blow him off.
Bai Yuxiu, who had just maintained his composure, immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
“Fake……”
Xie Mu chuckled foolishly. “I will never believe you again.”
“Absolutely not.”
Just then, the phone he had been calling all along connected.
A startling hope flashed in the young man’s eyes as he quickly put the phone to his ear.
The expressions in Wen Mingquan and Bai Yuxiu’s eyes dimmed simultaneously.
In the end, it still can’t be done?
They couldn’t keep Xie Mu by their side.
Their unwillingness reignited with hope after seeing Xie Mu’s absent-minded look.
The young man blankly moved the phone away, looking at the darkness on the screen.
As he laughed, tears streamed down his face. “It turned off…”
“Why is it, every time…”
“I haven’t done anything wrong, I haven’t hurt anyone… Why does it always end up like this, just when I think there’s hope…”
Tears streamed down Xie Mu’s fair cheeks as he dropped the phone from his hand.
He looked at Wen Mingquan and gave him a pale smile.
“Do you like me?”
The man almost without thinking, quickly replied, “Xiao Mu, I love you.”
“Love…”
The young man slowly spread his arms, staring blankly at the sky.
The blue sky, the white clouds, everything was beautiful.
But this beauty didn’t belong to him.
“don’t believe…”
He muttered softly, “I don’t believe it…”
Like a scene from a movie, he lay back and fell.
“Xiao Mu—”
Wen Mingquan sensed something was wrong with the youth and rushed over quickly.
But in the end, he only caught the air.
His slender hands futilely grasped a few times, eyes filled with frozen despair.
Gone…
His Xiao Mu.
【Ding! Wen Mingquan’s favorability: 100, Host, do you want to jump worlds?】
“Don’t jump, don’t jump, let’s take a look.”
***
Rong Jing woke up from his hangover and as soon as he picked up his phone, he saw numerous missed calls.
All of them from Xie Mu.
His heart skipped a beat, about to call back, but then he received another call.
“Hello…”
He only managed to say this one word before the line went silent.
Calling back, the phone was already switched off.
An inexplicable unease settled in Rong Jing’s heart. Getting up from the bed, he realized he was in a hotel room.
Someone entered through the door, noticing him, and greeted, “Rong Ge, you’re awake? How much did you drink last night? It’s already mid-afternoon.”
No.
Rong Jing frowned. Although he could get drunk, he never got drunk to this extent.
He got up and looked at the person in front of him. “How did I end up here?”
“Oh, I wanted to go to a bar yesterday and ran into you on the street. You were shouting about going to Mu, so I just brought you here.”
“Hey, Rong Ge, did you have a falling out with someone? When I was helping you walk yesterday, there was someone following us from behind. Luckily, I was smart enough to call a cab and shake them off.”
Mid-afternoon…
Xie Mu’s award ceremony was in the morning—
Rong Jing didn’t have time to dwell on it. He quickly put on his shoes and headed outside.
Did Xie Mu call him so many times because of the award ceremony, because he didn’t show up?
Rong Jing had a splitting headache, but he still forced himself into the elevator.
He wanted to find Xie Mu and explain, but what could he explain? His confused mind couldn’t make sense of it all.
As soon as he got downstairs, the man saw a crowd ahead.
The glaring redness made Rong Jing’s steps unconsciously come to a halt.
This scene was so familiar, familiar as if it were a dream.
Someone was covering the body with a white cloth.
Fresh blood flowed from under the white cloth.
The hand not covered by the cloth was visible.
On the delicate wrist, there was a blood-stained watch.
