In the previous life, Qi Huaijin died at the age of twenty-three. On the day when the entire Qi family was executed, the Huai River was so red that he couldn't even see his enemy's face clearly.
When he opened his eyes again, he was seventeen years old again.
The Chu family was the culprit behind his whole family. Everyone in the family was evil, but Chu Yunzheng was clean. This man was an outlier in the Chu family, upright and as solid as stone. He wrote the only pleading document at that time. Three ribs were broken by his father in order to stop the imperial edict. The document could not be sent out and was kept under the pillow for fourteen years.
Qi Huaijin didn't believe that anyone in the Chu family was clean. So he approached Chu Yunzheng with a smile and became the gentlest person beside him. He held his clothes, poured wine for him, and watched him all night long when he was injured. The thin blade never left his body. For seven years, Chu Yunzheng gave his life to him.
Then the old case was overturned, and the truth emerged in Huai Shui.
Only then did Qi Huaijin realize that the man he had been plotting for seven years was the only one in the entire Chu family who wanted to save him. The thin blade that had been sharpened for seven years fell in the wrong direction. He dropped everything and walked away.
That night there was heavy fog in Huai River. When Chu Yunzheng arrived, there was only a blood-stained robe left on the shore. Everyone said Qi Huaijin was dead. Chu Yunzheng didn't believe it, so he kept the thin blade and traveled around the world to find an old friend.
But Qi Huaijin did not die. He changed his name and moved from the south to the capital in three years. The orphan of the Qi family back then is now a figure respected by everyone in the business world as "Boss Qi". Wearing the finest satin, drinking the most expensive tea, living in the largest house, the begonias in the mansion are blooming even better than before. Just don't smile.
In the late spring of the third year, he was chatting with people in the private room of his restaurant. A voice came from downstairs, asking for a pot of crude tea. He had heard that voice for seven years. He went to the window and looked down. Chu Yunzheng was sitting in the corner. His clothes were old, he was thinner, and the old scars on his palms were still there. He drank slowly from a bowl of coarse tea in front of him. Someone next to him asked him who he was looking for, and he said: "Looking for an old friend named Qi."
Qi Huaijin closed the window, sat back on the table, and clinked glasses with others without changing his expression.
Downstairs, Chu Yunzheng finished his tea, put down a few coins and got up to leave. When I looked up, I saw a figure turning away from the window on the second floor. He had been looking for that figure for three years, and he knew it even to death.
Chu Yunzheng rushed to the second floor. Pushing open the door of the private room, all the guests were astonished. Qi Huaijin held the wine glass without looking back, and only said to everyone: "Please be patient, the account will be put in my name."
The crowd was gone and only the two of them were left. Chu Yunzheng stood at the door, staring at the back of the figure he hadn't seen for three years, his voice hoarse: "You're not dead."
Qi Huaijin turned around. She is wearing a brocade robe, her hair is tied up with a golden crown, and her complexion is as usual. He glanced at Chu Yunzheng, his eyes swept from the patches on his old robe to the scars on his palms, paused for a moment, and then fell back on his face: "You have found the wrong person."
Chu Yunzheng stared at him, his eyes red, speechless. Qi Huaijin walked past him, and the material of her clothes brushed against Chu Yunzheng's cuffs without stopping. When I walked downstairs, I walked slowly and leisurely, as if I was just a stranger.
Chu Yunzheng chased him to the stairs and said to his back: "I'll keep that thin blade. I'll wait for you to fall on the one you missed."
Qi Huaijin paused. Only once. Then he continued walking downstairs, opened the door and went out.
That night when Qi Huaijin returned to his house, the servant brought hot tea. He took a sip and said, "Change it to another one. It's too hot." The servant changed it to a warm one, and he put it down after drinking half a cup. He didn't say another word all night.
Chu Yunzheng stood at the door of the restaurant until dark and did not catch up. He turned around and walked into the alley, finding the cheapest inn to stay at. That night he took out the thin blade he had carried with him for three years and looked at it. The blade had long been dull and had not been sharpened for three years.
Early the next morning, when Qi Huaijin went out, there was a knife on the doorstep. The scabbard is old and the blade is dull. Next to it was a note with six words: "I live at Yuelai Inn."
Qi Huaijin looked down for a long time, then bent down to pick it up, took it into the house, and placed it in a secret compartment in the study. That day he went out half an hour later than usual.
On the third day, the manager of Yuelai Inn said that the guest officer had checked out. When Qi Huaijin's housekeeper passed by, he asked: "Where are you going?" The shopkeeper shook his head: "I didn't say, I just said that if anyone is looking for him, he will be waiting at the old ferry in the west of the city."
Qi Huaijin didn't go that day. But he sat alone for a long time at night and refilled the oil in the lamp three times.
It rained on the fourth day. At the ferry in the west of the city, Chu Yunzheng was sitting on the abandoned stone steps, holding on to the only old clothes that were not torn to protect him from the rain. A man walked through the rain, holding an umbrella. He walked up to him and handed the umbrella over to him.
Qi Huaijin was wearing ordinary cloth without brocade or gold crown, just like the young man who approached him seven years ago. He stood in the rain and said, "Don't come tomorrow. I'll come the day after tomorrow."
Chu Yunzheng raised his head and looked at him. His face was covered with rain. He smiled and said, "Okay."
The umbrella rested on the stone steps. Qi Huaijin turned around and walked away. He walked to the alley and looked back. He saw Chu Yunzheng sitting in the rain, clutching the umbrella tightly without opening it.
Intention: Hating the wrong person is more painful than loving the wrong person.
