TA •Chapter 75

After having dinner with Xu Ding and chatting a bit about the shop, Xu Ding’s phone rang. He glanced at it. "I found it. I’ll send it to you. I’ll delete it on my end."

"Okay," Cheng Ke nodded, suddenly a little nervous. "That fast?"

"It’s just a detailed call record. How hard could it be?" Xu Ding said. "If you could get his ID, you could just go there and pull it up directly."

Cheng Ke smiled and looked at the file Xu Ding had sent to his phone, hesitating over whether to open it now or wait until he got back.

He very much wanted to open it right away, to check it at once, to sort through the numbers from the past two months one by one and find every out-of-town number, then find a city that hadn’t seen snow during some Spring Festival.

But after hesitating, he still put the phone back in his pocket.

No matter what, he didn’t want to look too eager. He didn’t want anyone to think Jiang Yuduo’s condition might not be very good.

Xu Ding was still very considerate. After chatting a few more minutes, he called the waiter over and paid the bill. "I’ll送 you back."

"Mm."

Cheng Ke stood up.

When Xu Ding helped him get one arm into his coat, he felt a little uncomfortable. Back when Jiang Yuduo helped him put on a coat, it hadn’t even been when they were "boyfriends," and he had still felt perfectly natural.

Thinking of that feeling, Cheng Ke felt his heart soften a little.

After Xu Ding送ed him back to Jiang Yuduo’s place, he hadn’t even gone in before he took out his phone first, then his keys.

Jiang Yuduo had given him a key, and he had strung it onto that cat-head keychain together with the others.

Once he got inside, Miao came over and rubbed against his leg. It was probably hungry.

While opening the file, he casually scooped some cat food and a lump of canned food into the bowl. "Make do for now. If you get hungry tonight, go find your Third Brother."

After the file opened, Cheng Ke didn’t even get around to reading it. He slid a finger up immediately, wanting to check how long the call record was first and estimate the workload.

The table whizzed upward.

It hadn’t even been 0.1 seconds before it stopped.

Cheng Ke froze. He wondered if he had seen it wrong.

He swiped up again. It really was the bottom, so he swiped down, 0.1, and returned to the top.

To make sure he hadn’t been imagining things, he dragged it all the way to the end again and looked at the serial number. 21.

Incoming and outgoing calls, a total of 21 records.

Since leaving home, Jiang Yuduo hadn’t used his phone much either, but if they were counting over two months, there should have been more than 21 real estate ads alone.

It looked like Jiang Yuduo’s number had been used very little.

That was good. It meant his workload was much smaller. He should be able to pick out the out-of-town numbers in just a second…

He stared at the column labeled call type and looked down.

Local, local, local, local, local…

21 local calls.

Cheng Ke looked at the screen, unable to say what he felt.

Jiang Yuduo had not used his own phone to contact Sister Luo, or rather, he had simply never contacted this Sister Luo at all.

Cheng Ke didn’t know which guess was right, but approaching it from this angle had obviously failed.

He deleted the file, set the phone on the coffee table, and leaned back on the sofa with his eyes closed.

He didn’t know when Jiang Yuduo would be back. Cheng Ke kept wrestling with himself over whether he should ask Jiang Yuduo about the psychologist. If he asked, what kind of reaction would Jiang Yuduo have?

"Fuck." Cheng Ke felt a little irritated and flopped onto the sofa.

He remembered that he was lying on the spot where Miao had just pooped, but he didn’t move.

People really could adapt to their environment. Right now, unless Miao came over and took a dump on his pants, given his current mood, he absolutely was not moving.

When Jiang Yuduo turned into the alley, he swept a glance back over his shoulder with the corner of his eye. A shadow flickered behind him, moving very fast. If he hadn’t known someone was behind him and deliberately paid attention, he probably would have missed it.

The person this time was different from the previous ones. They followed closely, moved fast, and… couldn’t be shaken off.

This whole area was packed with shopping malls, a bar street, residential compounds. He had already wound his way through all kinds of not-quite-streets and not-quite-buildings for nearly half an hour. Even for someone like him, who had lived here for ten years and knew every brick and tile as well as his own palm lines, it was difficult not to lose someone.

But the person behind him was still there, like a shadow attached to him. No matter what route he chose, he couldn’t shake them off. They kept the same distance from him at all times.

Jiang Yuduo began to feel fear.

You can’t get away.

No matter where you run, you can’t get away.

He felt his steps becoming a little chaotic.

That was a major taboo. Footwork mattered enormously for both offense and defense. It determined the stance and speed of your strike.

His breathing was becoming uneven.

His joints were starting to stiffen too.

All of it was reminding him.

Fear.

He was scared.

He wasn’t afraid of the person behind him hurting him. Being hit with a brick, smashed with a stick, stabbed with a knife, none of that would scare him.

If he couldn’t shake the person behind him, if he went back and those people were still there, that was what he feared most.

Cheng Ke would know.

Cheng Ke never said it, but he knew Cheng Ke would worry, would struggle with it, would become careful, would keep watching his reactions, every move he made.

Once or twice, a day or two, maybe that wasn’t a problem.

But if it went on too long, no one would stay here anymore.

He was afraid, afraid that "next year" would never come again.

Ahead was the bar street. Jiang Yuduo had turned back here for the second time.

The bar street was messier than other places. It was crowded at this hour, with lots of cars too. Light and shadow overlapped everywhere, and human voices and music spilled out from behind every door. People passing through sometimes couldn’t even tell where the sounds were coming from.

Jiang Yuduo decided to shake the person behind him off here.

He looked back once.

There were quite a few people behind him, but at a glance he still saw those two figures at the very back.

If there were only two people, that wasn’t a big problem.

There was a recessed open space by the street ahead, and inside that open space was a narrow alley.

He darted in quickly.

After walking about a dozen steps, Jiang Yuduo heard footsteps behind him.

He frowned.

This wasn’t the person who had been following him all along.

Those people wouldn’t make footsteps. They wouldn’t let him hear them.

This was…

It was only when Jiang Yuduo noticed the surroundings that he suddenly realized.

This was the narrow alley behind Zhang Daqi’s bar.

The left side was the wall and sealed windows of Zhang Daqi’s bar, and the right side was a brick wall. If you kept going forward about fifty meters, past trash cans of all sizes and a pile of junk dumped there by several bars, you could get out to another street.

Jiang Yuduo knew this place very well. It was the main site of the conflicts between them and Zhang Daqi’s people.

And because he was nervous and afraid, he had actually walked right into here.

Zhang Daqi’s people had already blocked him from behind. When they looked up ahead, they also saw people.

He was trapped in the middle, and the people who had been following him were definitely waiting for the right moment too.

"Lao San," a voice rang out in the dark. "You’ve been twisting around for over half an hour now. You really think we can’t see you?"

Jiang Yuduo didn’t answer. He slipped his left hand into his pocket.

To stop Cheng Ke from worrying, he hadn’t kept a knife in his pocket for a long time. When his hand went in now, all he found was a pack of tissues.

But two meters ahead, there was an iron pipe leaning against the wall, probably the leg of a high stool.

"What about your guys? Today you actually let their Third Brother play lone hero?" The man in the dark sounded mocking. "Want me to give you some time? Make a call and tell them to come collect your corpse in five minutes…"

Jiang Yuduo didn’t listen to him. Only when the man was at his most amused did he suddenly charge forward and grab the iron pipe.

Then he swung hard to the side.

Zhang Daqi’s people hadn’t yet gotten close. They didn’t have that speed. His swing was aimed at the people who had been tracking him.

But because of that disruption, when Zhang Daqi’s people lunged at him, he didn’t have time to bring the pipe back. His arm was struck hard.

It didn’t hurt. He only felt fear.

People were all around him, yet he couldn’t see a single one.

The light only illuminated him.

He held the iron rod and swung it at the opponents closing in.

Head, shoulder, back, leg, anywhere could be attacked, and anywhere could be attacked too.

Not feeling pain wasn’t because it didn’t hurt, but because he couldn’t allow himself to feel it.

Once he became aware of pain, defeat would follow.

Attack! Raise your hand and hit him! Don’t protect your head! Hit! The ribs! Not enough force!

…

Jiang Yuduo swung his arm viciously, lifted a leg, and kicked hard, giving up defense entirely.

If you were at a disadvantage, defense would only let you lose completely.

You had to struggle, had to fight back, had to abandon protection in order to attack.

"Run! Jiang Yuduo! Run! Get out!" a man’s voice shouted.

Jiang Yuduo gasped for breath and started running.

Run forward, jump onto the trash can, vault over the wall, land, keep running.

He looked back, wanting to see the person who had shouted, but there was nothing behind him.

Cheng Ke slowly scrolled with his phone, wanting to look up how to make strawberry wine.

There were quite a lot of tutorials, all kinds of homemade fruit wines were available, but for a useless person like him, the usual tutorials still weren’t enough. The best tutorial would need to be detailed enough to tell him what kind of strawberries to use.

But after scrolling for a while, he didn’t really look closely. He skimmed once and closed the page.

He was a little distracted.

Jiang Yuduo still hadn’t returned. Although he knew Jiang Yuduo was eating with Chen Qing, and two brothers who had known each other for ten years having a meal for a few hours wasn’t a problem, and Chen Qing probably had a stomach full of questions about their relationship, maybe his oddly wired brain would even take things a step beyond Jiang Yuduo’s old curious-cat phase, so it wouldn’t be strange if they ate until midnight, but for some reason he still felt uneasy.

Cheng Ke opened WeChat. There were no messages. He opened Da Sun’s name again, and after confirming that Jiang Yuduo really hadn’t sent him any messages, he put the phone back on the table, uneasy.

Thirty seconds later he picked it up again.

He wanted to call Jiang Yuduo, but he was afraid his concern would become a burden to Jiang Yuduo.

After hesitating for two seconds, he opened his contacts.

Just as he was about to dial, the phone suddenly rang.

An incoming call from Jiang, whose brain was not normal.

Not even a second passed before Cheng Ke answered. "Hello, Third Brother."

Jiang Yuduo didn’t speak on the other end. Only faint rustling sounds could be heard.

"Jiang Yuduo?" Cheng Ke felt like the sound was just a pocket-dial from a phone accidentally pressing against something. "Hello! Say something!"

Just as he was about to hang up and call Jiang Yuduo back, panting came through the receiver.

It was wrapped in the wind, making it hard to hear clearly, but Cheng Ke still recognized it instantly as Jiang Yuduo’s breathing.

"Jiang Yuduo! What’s wrong?" Cheng Ke shot to his feet and shouted, then used the plaster cast to hook up the coat thrown on the sofa and headed for the door.

"Cheng Ke." Jiang Yuduo’s voice came through.

The moment Cheng Ke heard it, his heart tightened violently. Jiang Yuduo’s throat sounded a little hoarse, but that wasn’t the point. What made him tense was the emotion in Jiang Yuduo’s voice.

"Cheng Ke, where are you?" Jiang Yuduo’s voice was faintly trembling.

"I’m at your place," Cheng Ke opened the door and rushed out. "You…"

"Save me," Jiang Yuduo said in a low voice, with despair and fear so clear even through the receiver. "Cheng Ke, save me."

Cheng Ke only felt a dull boom in his head. He dashed straight out into the street, one hand already reaching to hail a car while he shouted into the phone, "Where are you? I’m coming right now! Where are you!"

He had no idea where the address Jiang Yuduo gave him was. He only knew it was probably a small park about the same size as the little central square where they had gathered before, but Jiang Yuduo had already hung up. When Cheng Ke called back, Jiang Yuduo didn’t answer.

A taxi pulled up five meters away at the curb, and a couple was just opening the door to get in.

Cheng Ke had never known he could run this fast. By the time he reached the car door, the girl had only just bent down to get in.

"Sorry!" Cheng Ke grabbed her arm. "Move."

"What are you doing!" the girl shouted.

"What the hell!" her boyfriend immediately raised his hand.

Cheng Ke caught his hand, pulled it down, and twisted hard. "I said sorry, I need this car."

"Ahhh!" the boy cried out, his brows tightly knotted.

Cheng Ke let go, opened the front passenger door, and got in. "Please drive quickly."

The driver looked at him, somewhat hesitant. Cheng Ke gave him Jiang Yuduo’s address, then took out his wallet. It was hard to manage with one hand, so he simply grabbed the wallet and shook it. The two thousand yuan he had just withdrawn before leaving home fell out and spilled over the driver’s leg. "Drive fast. Really fast."

The driver stepped on the gas, and the car shot out.

"Is it far?" Cheng Ke struggled to put on his coat.

"Three minutes if we go straight there," the driver said. "If we take the back roads and run, it’s two minutes. Put the money away. You really don’t need to pay this much."

Cheng Ke said nothing. As soon as the car stopped, he jumped out.

By the roadside was a patch of flowerbeds. A little gravel path led in, and in the middle there was a dry circular fountain.

"Jiang Yuduo!" Cheng Ke rushed in along the path. Just as he was about to shout again, he saw someone leaning against the ground in front of a stone carved screen on the right. One leg was bent, one arm hanging by his side.

It was Jiang Yuduo.

Cheng Ke felt like he couldn’t even make a sound. He just rushed over and dropped to his knees beside Jiang Yuduo, left hand braced on the ground. The first thing he saw was the blood on Jiang Yuduo’s face.

"Where are you hurt?" Cheng Ke kept his voice under control. "Do we need an ambulance?"

"No." Jiang Yuduo answered.

Cheng Ke raised a hand, wanting to see where the blood on his face had come from. Jiang Yuduo lifted his head and looked at him. "Cheng Ke."

"I’m here." Cheng Ke answered, seeing the fear and tears brimming in Jiang Yuduo’s eyes. "What is it? Tell me, what happened?"

He gently wrapped an arm around Jiang Yuduo’s shoulder.

"They’re there," Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke’s heart sank hard. "Where?"

"Across from here," Jiang Yuduo said.

Cheng Ke turned his head and only saw the empty little park. There was a row of benches by the fountain, all of them empty. In weather like this, no one could possibly be sitting in a place like this.

"You can’t see them, right?" Jiang Yuduo asked. "Two people, just by the fountain."

Cheng Ke looked at the fountain, already dry, and only felt unbearably blocked up inside. In that instant, his nose burned so badly that even his forehead hurt.

"I can’t see them," he said softly.

"Why?" Jiang Yuduo’s voice was hoarse, and large tears slid from the corners of his eyes. "Why can’t you all see them?"

"I don’t know," Cheng Ke’s own tears spilled out as well, unable to stop. He held Jiang Yuduo tightly and rubbed hard at his back. "It’s okay, it’s okay. Whether we can see them or not, it doesn’t matter."

"It matters," Jiang Yuduo said. "I’m a crazy person."

"You’re not, you’re not," Cheng Ke said in a rush. "You’re Jiang Yuduo. You’re Third Brother. You’re my boyfriend. Everything else doesn’t matter."

"Save me," Jiang Yuduo said.

"Okay." Cheng Ke nodded hard.