Back Before the Big Shot Turned Evil [1990s]

Tang Weining knew Cheng Yu only as the top student in their grade and the son of a convict.

Cheng Yu's father was on the run for some unknown crime. It had yet to be decided whether he would go to prison, but behind his back, everyone called Cheng Yu the convict's son.

All his classmates shunned him. He always sat in the corner of the last row, his hair forever hanging past his eyes, and he always came first in exams...

He was either bent over his homework or asleep with his head on his desk. Few people had ever gotten a clear look at his face, but Tang Weining had.

In the final month before the college entrance exam, evening study ended later and later each day. On a stormy night filled with lightning and thunder, several drunken men dragged Tang Weining into an alley. Cheng Yu appeared in the blink of an eye. He fought off all four men and sent them running. Rain streamed from the tips of his hair, revealing his sharp features. His voice was icy: "I was never here, and you don't know me."

In the flash of lightning, Tang Weining memorized that face, cold, ruthless, and resolute as the rainy night itself, dangerous and breathtaking.

Then came the day the college entrance exam results were posted. A red banner fluttered above the campus in the wind: Cheng Yu, top scorer in the province; Tang Weining, second place.

Cheng Yu never enrolled in college. Rumor had it that he had gone to the border to search for his father.

Tang Weining heard nothing more about Cheng Yu until she graduated and started working. Even in her dreams, she could never forget those cold, ruthless eyes from that rainy night. An inexpressible regret took root in her heart and, day after day, grew into a towering tree.

Then came the day she was hit by a car. Before Tang Weining fell, she heard the news scrolling across an electronic screen in the square across the road: "Here is a financial news report. GQ Group CEO Cheng Yu fell to his death from the roof of the GQ Tower in the early hours of this morning. The cause of death is unknown. GQ shares will be delisted from the X Stock Exchange as of today..."

Before Tang Weining sank into darkness, Cheng Yu's face grew clearer and clearer. They couldn't be born on the same day, but they could die on the same day. Somehow, that didn't seem so regrettable.

Time returned to the midsummer of 1995. That year, Tang Weining had just finished the college entrance exam. Overjoyed, she carried a basket of fruit in her trembling hands and went to Cheng Yu's door...

Theme: Justice may be late, but it will never be absent