14 – Past and Secrets

Episode 14: Past and Secrets

“Xie Qingcheng, why did you follow me into the fire scene earlier?”

Having finally calmed down, Xie Xue sat quietly in a chair, resting alongside the other rescue workers. He Yu and Xie Qingcheng had to endure a few stern words from the firefighters. Once the lecture ended, the two of them moved aside. He Yu glanced at Xie Qingcheng, who was lighting a cigarette he had received from a police officer. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand Xie Qingcheng’s actions from before.

“It wasn’t a scene that dangerous.”

Xie Qingcheng took a long drag on the filter and slowly exhaled the smoke. Only now had his tension completely dissipated.

The ember of the cigarette flickered between his fingers. Ash fell from the tip like snowflakes.

“Explain your situation.”

Xie Qingcheng flicked the ash and looked forward.

“Since when has it been like that?”

He was talking about the blood bone.

“…Not long after you left, Teacher. I went to a private hospital for a re-examination and met a psychiatric patient; that’s when I discovered it by chance. If I use my blood as bait, they listen to me. Do you know what this phenomenon is?”

“I do.”

Xie Qingcheng coughed slightly, took another puff of his cigarette, and asked in a voice as indifferent as possible.

“Blood bone, a kind of mutant branch of Psychological Ebola. …You didn’t tell anyone else about this, did you?”

For some reason, He Yu gave a thin smile with a hazy look in his eyes.

“Only you know, Teacher.”

“….”

“If I ever want to silence you later, I guess I’ll have to kill you first.”

At those words, Xie Qingcheng glared at him with cold eyes and replied.

“Go ahead and try.”

The cigarette the police gave him didn’t suit Xie Qingcheng’s taste. It was a cheap peppermint-flavored capsule cigarette. After choking on it several times, Xie Qingcheng became displeased and crushed the cigarette out.

“Don’t tell anyone else about that. Especially not a doctor.”

“I’m not that stupid, Xie Qingcheng,” He Yu replied flatly.

He truly looked like a young nobleman. Despite having gone through a harrowing ordeal together, he was the most pristine person there. His appearance was so neat and handsome that the rescued people nearby were all busy stealing glances at him.

“Psychological Ebola is an incurable disease anyway. Now that this kind of ability—making psychopaths obey—has manifested, there’s no hope for a peaceful life. But Xie Qingcheng, keep this one thing in mind.”

The almond-shaped eyes stepped closer, scanning Xie Qingcheng’s face as the pupils rolled slowly.

“That these eyes of yours are the only eyes that witnessed everything firsthand.”

Because he was so close, his eyelashes felt as if they were almost touching Xie Qingcheng’s eyes. Amidst the commotion, that voice flowed slowly into Xie Qingcheng’s ear alone.

A whisper, or perhaps a threat.

“And that your mouth is the only mouth that can expose the truth.”

Soon, his gaze dropped to Xie Qingcheng’s lips. The gaze, moving quietly as if stroking the thin lips, was infinitely light. However, a heavy sense of intimidation coiled within.

Xie Qingcheng was currently wearing clothes provided by the firefighters.

Standing before him, He Yu looked at Xie Qingcheng’s face and reached out to fasten his collar. To others, it would have looked like a very kind gesture. Only the two of them knew how rough that grip was, and what kind of warning and threat were contained in the act of calmly pulling the collar.

Having fastened the collar properly, He Yu smiled with exceptional softness and politeness.

“So, keep this secret—swallow it well inside your mouth. So it doesn’t leak out.”

Xie Qingcheng snapped back sharply.

“Are you threatening me right now?”

“Hardly. I’m just telling you as a warning.”

He Yu sighed as he slid his hand beneath Xie Qingcheng’s collar.

“I just want to live normally, too.”

Xie Qingcheng thought that this psychopath wasn’t even worth talking to.

Why react this far?

If he truly intended to reveal He Yu’s supernatural ability, he wouldn’t have advised him not to tell others.

But He Yu didn’t think that way. He didn’t trust Xie Qingcheng much.

He simply felt that Xie Qingcheng’s mouth was a threat that needed to be plugged immediately. To ensure his secret wasn’t leaked, he wanted to roughly shove something into that mouth and shut it, like a tightly bound hostage.

Xie Qingcheng stared at him and spoke.

“Is being with your own kind that important? To the point where you’d risk your life?”

He Yu’s returning voice was cold.

“You can’t understand us, Teacher. How could someone in the light see the dark night?”

“….”

Xie Qingcheng sighed. He didn’t want to continue this topic any further.

“One last thing. Since you have the blood bone ability, why didn’t you use it on Jiang Lanpei?”

“Because it was unstable,” He Yu said.

“My blood has the possibility of making others even more insane. I couldn’t gamble in that situation. Unlike some people—”

As he spoke, He Yu suddenly paused.

“Honestly, Teacher, bringing up the story of Cinderella while being held as a hostage… What if I hadn’t understood? What kind of gamble was that?”

“Because I knew you were a smart brat,” Xie Qingcheng replied indifferently.

“And when I changed clothes at your dormitory last time, didn’t you also try to bring up the story of Cinderella to me?”

Sunk in silence, He Yu eventually lowered his head and chuckled. Xie Qingcheng also raised his hand to his forehead. Only then did a more relaxed atmosphere flow between the two, who had narrowly escaped death.

Yes, in fact, both of them remembered that day. Of course, they hadn’t known it would become a code to be used in an emergency.

That was an episode that happened when He Yu was about nine years old.

At the time, Xie Qingcheng believed that when treating a patient, periodic changes of pace were necessary in addition to the basic treatment process. While the common consensus was that treating mental illness relied on medication, Xie Qingcheng supported a different school of thought. This school judged that a mental state was a kind of reaction to the environment a person was in. Medication could not play a decisive role in overcoming mental illness. Only when the patient rebuilt bonds with society and family could they overcome the illness.

So, he presented his opinion to Lu Zishu.

While busy making business calls, Mrs. Lu glanced up and smiled with an apologetic expression.

“I don’t have time. Please take him, Mr. Xie.”

Xie Qingcheng said, suppressing his anger, “He is your son, Ma’am.”

Mrs. Lu, who was an expert in business, replied without even looking up.

“I’ll pay you more.”

“….”

Then, she put the phone to her ear and began a long-winded explanation. She seemed like someone whose primary profession was a merchant and whose role as a mother was a side job. The plump noblewoman smiled brightly throughout, rambling about ‘President Jang, President Lee.’ She didn’t give Xie Qingcheng a single glance in between.

Needless to say, the same went for He Yu, who was standing behind Xie Qingcheng.

Xie Qingcheng turned and looked down. He Yu didn’t seem to mind his mother’s attitude. Rather, as if this kind of mother-son relationship was routine, he simply sat on the sofa with his eyes cast down, peeling a brilliant golden tangerine.

The tangerine was larger than He Yu’s hand. When he had peeled half of it, the tangerine, which he couldn’t grip properly, slipped from his hand, fell to the floor, and rolled under the table. The child jumped off the sofa and reached out. However, a beautifully colored apple suddenly entered his field of vision.

“You’re going to eat something that fell on the floor?”

Xie Qingcheng sighed. He didn’t know why he felt so much sympathy. He handed the Christmas Eve commemorative apple to He Yu and picked up the dirty tangerine.

“Let’s go to the amusement park tomorrow.”

Thus, the next day, Xie Qingcheng took his younger sister and He Yu to the amusement park. The kind and cheerful Xie Xue took care of the boy attentively. He Yu also seemed to be in quite good condition.

But who could have known that a sudden rain shower would pour down on the way back?

The three of them, looking like drowned rats, barely managed to catch a taxi. The He family’s villa was in the suburbs, so it took quite a while to arrive. In a hurry, Xie Qingcheng took the two children to the medical school dormitory.

Xie Qingcheng’s college dormitory was a four-person room, just like He Yu’s current school.

When he returned with the two soaking wet children, his roommates were away at the lab working on a project.

“Brother! Your cactus bloomed!”

Xie Xue, who rushed to Xie Qingcheng’s desk as if she were in her own room, smiled brightly and touched the golden flower blooming in the pot.

“Wow… it’s so pretty.”

Her touch was very familiar, as if she had visited her brother’s dormitory once or twice before.

Xie Qingcheng brewed two cups of hot ginger tea and placed them in the children’s hands.

“Drink it before it gets cold.”

Xie Xue, who loved spicy food, began to gulp down the ginger tea. A cup of warm ginger tea was emptied in no time. However, He Yu’s teacup remained untouched. The young master, who struggled with stimulating foods, held the cup for a long time but couldn’t even drink two sips.

While Xie Qingcheng was washing his hands in the bathroom, He Yu fell into deep thought about how to deal with this hot and spicy tea. Meanwhile, Xie Xue, who was beside him, let out a satisfied sigh.

“It’s delicious.”

“….”

He Yu turned his head and quietly looked at her.

Feeling the gaze, Xie Xue turned and chuckled, glancing at his cup.

“If you don’t like it by any chance…”

“No, I like it,” He Yu said calmly.

“Doesn’t seem like it? You’ve barely had a few sips!”

At those words, He Yu smiled thinly.

“I like it so much that I’m savoring it.”

“…Oh…”

Perhaps persuaded by the plausible words, Xie Xue nodded regretfully and tried to look away.

Only then did He Yu hold out the mug he had wanted to get rid of from in front of him for a while.

“You drink it.”

“Huh? You said you like ginger tea too?”

“I’ll give it to you if you want to drink it.”

The foolish little lady’s eyes widened, and she quickly took the warm ginger tea.

He Yu didn’t forget to caution the foolish little girl.

“Drink it quickly, before my brother finds out. You’ll get scolded again if he does.”

“Okay, okay!”

Despite being completely fooled, Xie Xue was so moved that she almost choked while gulping down the hot tea in one go.

He Yu smiled and patted Xie Xue’s back.

“I love ginger tea the most.”

Having barely caught her breath, Xie Xue softly lowered her eyes. Then, holding the mug that still held a lukewarm warmth, she lowered her voice and spoke.

“When I was little, I lived in a small alley, and on snowy days, there was nothing to warm the body, so my brother used to make this for me…”

It must have been a difficult and painful memory, yet Xie Xue’s eyes sparkled.

As if she were recalling a past that was infinitely joyful.

Returning after washing his hands, Xie Qingcheng glanced at the two children sitting side by side on his dormitory bed.

“Are you finished drinking?”

The two children exchanged a secretive look. Unlike the calm He Yu, Xie Xue was slightly flustered and nodded vigorously. Having filled her stomach by drinking two cups of ginger tea, Xie Xue nodded and then opened her small mouth and hiccuped.

Leaving the two children behind, Xie Qingcheng went to the wardrobe to find clothes to change into. The place where Xie Xue learned kickboxing was near the medical school, and since she became drenched in sweat every time training ended, he had kept spare clothes in the dormitory so she could change.

“Do you like Bella, or Cinderella?”

What came out of Xie Qingcheng’s thin lips as he rummaged through the wardrobe were the names of fairy tale princesses.

The girl exclaimed with delight, “Bella!”

Xie Qingcheng handed his sister a forsythia-colored princess dress. Xie Xue cheered, took the dress, and ran to the bathroom to change.

Even after Xie Xue left, He Yu stood in front of the bed with his body still damp.

After rummaging through the wardrobe for a long time, Xie Qingcheng sighed and then committed a very inhumane act.

“You wear this.”

He Yu unfolded the clothes he was handed and said calmly, “Teacher, I think you gave me the wrong one.”

“No way.”

He Yu froze for a moment and then slowly raised his head. A blatant gloom flickered in his narrowed eyes.

“This is a skirt.”

And a blue princess dress that Cinderella wears.

Facing He Yu, who was suppressing his irritation, Xie Qingcheng burst into laughter, whether intentionally or unconsciously. Of course, since his face was originally as cold as frost, it was hard to tell if it was a sneer or a pure laugh.

“You have no choice. This is the only thing that fits your size.”

“I think your shirt would be fine, Teacher.”

Xie Qingcheng crossed his arms and looked down at the boy while leaning against the bunk bed ladder.

“Kid, my shirt is too big for you to wear.”

“….”

“Don’t want to? If you don’t, go out naked.”

“….”

The ceaseless sound of rain flowed as the background noise to that day’s conversation…

The flames that had swallowed the Qingkang Psychiatric Hospital were slowly brought under control. Firefighters entered the scene one after another, and the police began their investigation. Xie Qingcheng and He Yu locked eyes. Shadows of the past flickered in each other’s eyes.

He Yu spoke.

“You said it back then, Teacher. That it wasn’t my loss anyway, and since there were candies in the princess dress pocket, I should take them as psychological compensation. And I replied like this: that I don’t eat poison. Thinking about it now, you really had no conscience back then.”

“…I don’t remember.”

Xie Qingcheng replied curtly and quickly turned away.

“Where do you get such pathetic lies?”

He Yu leaned against the tree behind Xie Qingcheng, blocking his path, and narrowed his eyes.

“You don’t remember? You brought up the Cinderella candy to tell me to search the phone in the pocket when I was caught by Jiang Lanpei, and now you say you don’t remember?”

As if not feeling guilty at all, Xie Qingcheng replied with a cold expression.

“It was a coincidence.”

He Yu felt a surge of anger.

He shouldn’t have just taken Xie Qingcheng to the dormitory and put a T-shirt on him last time. He should have called a courier service and made him wear a wedding dress. Or he should have put sexy stockings with lace garter belts on his thighs, and if he refused, tortured him and throw him onto the bed. He should have insulted Xie Qingcheng like that. Because this man was too shameless!

“So you don’t remember, is that it?”

He lowered his head and murmured.

“Then be careful from now on. If you happen to get drenched again…”

He Yu’s gaze slowly scanned Xie Qingcheng’s features. A low voice followed.

“The clothes you change into next time won’t be an old T-shirt.”

Unfazed by the threat, Xie Qingcheng raised his hand and tapped He Yu’s face.

“Don’t worry, kid. There won’t be such an opportunity. If I get wet, I’ll just go out naked.”

“Naked?”

A police officer approaching them discovered the two madmen who had jumped into the fire scene earlier and quickly spoke.

“Please don’t go in naked! Do you know how dangerous it is! No, I mean, you shouldn’t go in even if you are wearing clothes…”

He Yu curved his eyes and smiled softly.

“Exactly, that’s what I was going to say. Do you have any idea how dangerous that was, sir?”

“What on earth are you talking about? Your brother followed you in because you jumped in first, didn’t he?”

The young police officer glared.

“Ha, whatever. Have you two had your injuries treated? If you’re done, let’s get moving. It’s going to be a busy evening.”

Since it was a heavy case involving many people, everyone present at the scene had to be carefully questioned and their statements recorded in turn.

Police cars took the involved parties to the station one by one. Because there were so many people, several lounge areas had to be cleared out so those waiting for interrogation could spend the night.

Xie Xue also headed to the police station, following Xie Qingcheng and his group.

Following the arrangement that grouped the women together, she shared a room with a nurse. He Yu and Xie Qingcheng were placed in the room next to them.

Before closing her eyes in the lounge, Xie Xue’s tension had already mostly dissipated. Since she had been unconscious throughout and avoided the horrific scenes, she hadn’t suffered any shock. Instead, she began to comfort the terrified nurse.

“It’s okay. You survived a major incident, so only good things will happen from now on. Let’s just try to get some sleep. The police said they’ll come call us when it’s our turn.”

“I can’t sleep, waaaaah….”

“Then I’ll sing you a lullaby. Throw it… throw it… throw the handkerchief….”

“Aaaah! Stop singing that funeral dirge!”

Xie Xue was momentarily bewildered.

“Why did that suddenly come to mind? I feel like someone was singing it next to me while I was passed out…. Then I’ll do a different song. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are….”

The nurse’s eyes widened at the sudden medley of children’s songs.

Xie Xue said gloomily,

“I think I’ve lost my mind. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Instead of singing, I’ll tell you a funny story.”

At the same time, Xie Qingcheng and He Yu arrived at the lounge.

“You two are in this room. The conditions aren’t great, but please try to get some shut-eye for now. If you need anything, feel free to ask. We’ll come call you when it’s your turn.”

Having finished the hand-off, the officer hurriedly left to guide the other witnesses.

Xie Qingcheng and He Yu opened the door and stepped into the room side by side. Both of them froze at the sight before them.

No matter how much of a makeshift lounge it was….

There was only one bed in this damn room.

Exactly how were they supposed to sleep?