You Qi and I grew up relying on each other. I can’t live without him.
After the college entrance exams, he finally agreed to take a job at Kaiyang Group. Everyone said Xiao Yi was a considerate boss. We all believed it, until a year later, when I saw him lying on the ground in the rain, covered in blood and repeating my name. I broke down.
Only then did I learn that the refined and gentle Xiao Yi had treated him like a plaything. You Qi had borne all the tenderness, restraint, and silence alone.
He sent me to the Central Academy of Fine Arts and said, “A Shu, focus on your studies.”
He sent himself to hell and said, “I’m willing.”
That rainy night, while I was asleep, he vanished without a trace.
Three years later, I saw him again at an art exchange event. Dressed in a suit, he stood at the center of the crowd, the golden boy in everyone’s eyes.
Only I noticed the old scar beneath his cuff, worn by an iron chain, and how his eyes instantly reddened when he saw me.
He lowered his head, his voice as rough as sandpaper. “A Shu, don’t come any closer. I’m dirty.”
But I had already taken another step toward him, then a second, then a third.
“A Qi, don’t you want me anymore?”
He wept in front of me like a child who had done something wrong, even though I was the one who had let him down.
