While Shen Liu was still lost in memories, Qin Mu had already begun quietly maneuvering behind the scenes. He contacted his assistant to organize and send over copies of all the available documents. He then called Zhou Yi and asked for help reaching out to a few clients to supplement and verify materials.
When Zhou Yi heard that Qin Mu was physically restricted, he was shocked. “What happened?”
Qin Mu answered honestly, “I was locked up.”
Zhou Yi’s voice turned tense. “By who? Baolijian’s people?”
“If it were them, I wouldn’t be able to call you.”
“Oh, right.” Zhou Yi exhaled in relief. “Then who?”
“Shen Liu,” Qin Mu replied. He had no need to hide anything from his business partner, and Zhou Yi already knew the history between them.
“…What the fvck,” Zhou Yi said, stunned. “You two really are…fated to meet across a thousand miles?”
Qin Mu couldn’t be bothered to banter. “Did you get the contact info I sent?”
“Yeah, I got it.” But Zhou Yi was clearly more interested in the drama. “So what’s going on now? You walked right into the trap and Senior Shen keeping his lover hidden away in a golden house? Is he seeing anyone? Are you two—”
Qin Mu hung up before Zhou Yi could spit out more nonsense. He spent the entire afternoon in the gym instead.
Whenever something troubled him, Qin Mu liked to work out. It burned energy and helped clear his mind. But today, it backfired. The heavy breathing and sweat-drenched clothes didn’t drive out the chaos in his head. The past kept surfacing, no matter how he tried to push it down.
The feeling of losing control over the situation gnawed at him. Qin Mu lay flat on the floor exhausted and his eyes shut in resignation.
At some point, that person had silently taken up residence in his heart and never left.
Back then, Qin Mu had been so naive. He thought that if he were just strong enough, he could overcome anything. But returning to school wasn’t as simple as he had imagined.
The affiliated high school first insisted that only a parent could file the return from leave paperwork. Then, using the excuse that ‘many parents objected’, they dragged their feet on approval. It wasn’t until Shen Liu escalated the matter to the Education Bureau that the school reluctantly agreed to let him back in.
Qin Mu wanted to stay in the dorms, but when teachers asked for their opinions, none of the boys in his class were willing to room with him. Other classes also refused to accommodate him. In the end, he had no choice but to keep living at Shen Liu’s small apartment and commute.
His return was met with anything but a warm welcome. His classmates were cold, either treating him like he didn’t exist or gossiping about him like he was some rare specimen. Qin Mu had mentally prepared himself, but seeing even Han Zhang avoid him still stung.
Soon enough, word spread like wildfire throughout the school about ‘the gay kid that came back’. It was as if a shot of adrenaline had been injected into the otherwise dull campus life. To make things more scandalous and thrilling, students let their imaginations run wild, creating an ever-growing list of shocking rumors,
‘I heard he started that fire himself. He just got out after being locked up.’
‘A friend who lives near him said he beat his parents and got kicked out. Even pulled a knife.’
‘Hey, doesn’t he go to the hospital often? I heard he was r4p3d. Might even have AIDS.’
‘He’s living with a man now. I saw it myself.’
‘Ugh, gross. Is he just giving up on himself completely now?’
…
People were always full of malice towards those who were different from themselves.
Rumors and silent hostility blanketed the school like a snowstorm, turning it into a frozen lake. Malicious thoughts churned beneath the ice, and countless claws were sharp and restless. It scratched and screeched, as if the moment a crack appeared, they would break through and drag down the lone figure walking above.
It didn’t take long before someone began to test the waters.
One of Qin Mu’s worksheets came back with the words ‘disgusting pervert’ scrawled on it. His missing uniform was found shredded in a trash bin. On cleaning duty, someone intentionally kicked over a bucket of water, and passing students stepped through it, cursing and casting contemptuous glances his way.
The so-called ‘model students’ grew more brazen by the day under Qin Mu’s silence. Some boys catcalled him with vulgar whistles or gave him nicknames so filthy they were hard to repeat, such as ‘sissy’, ‘gigolo’, ‘double-ended plug’, ‘male toilet seat’. Someone spat in his water bottle. Someone else threw his schoolbag into the girls’ bathroom.
Qin Mu had fought back, but one person’s fists couldn’t win against many. When he reported the bullying to his homeroom teacher, all it earned him was a lukewarm lecture directed at the offenders, which only made the retaliation worse. Being singled out in a mob felt like being stranded on a lone island in the middle of the sea, with nowhere to run.
One day, a group of senior athletes cornered Qin Mu in the restroom. The ringleader was Li Xiaomo’s current boyfriend.
Li Xiaomo had cried to her new boyfriend, painting herself as a victim. She claimed Qin Mu had deceived her, taken advantage of her, and even conspired with Han Zhang to beat her. With no basis, the rumors fanned his male aggression into a frenzy. He led his gang to ambush Qin Mu, pinned him down, kicked him, doused him with urine, and even took photos. They posted them on the school bulletin board under the words: ‘Perverts don’t belong in the men’s room’.
Qin Mu had no choice but to return to Shen Liu’s apartment to change clothes. He didn’t want to worry Shen Liu, so he planned to clean up quickly and make it back in time for night study. But as he opened the door, he came face-to-face with Shen Liu, just out of the shower and clearly just back from a game.
There stood Qin Mu, reeking of sweat and urine, eyes flickering with shame and helplessness.
“What happened?” Shen Liu’s expression darkened. “Who did this?”
“It’s nothing. I just… had an accident…” Qin Mu tried to brush it off, but lying in front of Shen Liu had always been hard. His nose tingled, his eyes reddened, and he quickly lowered his head.
“Shower first, then talk,” Shen Liu said, draping his own bath towel over Qin Mu’s head, shielding the tears that had started to fall.
The water poured down, washing away filth and tears.
Qin Mu didn’t know why he would suddenly break down. Maybe it was the soft weight of that perfectly timed towel, maybe it was the worry in Shen Liu’s voice, or perhaps it was simply that one sentence, “Who did this?”
Life was so damn cruel. It cruelly piled bitterness and hardship on his shoulders, forbidding him from hiding, from running, and from even crying out. Just when he had forced himself to be strong and independent like a ‘real adult’, Shen Liu was the only one who still saw him as a kid, offering patience, acceptance, and care. It was like a drop of sweetness in a mouthful of bitterness. It was sweet enough to make him cry.
By the time Qin Mu finished his shower, he had pulled himself back together. Knowing he couldn’t hide this from Shen Liu, he simply told the essentials of what had happened.
Shen Liu was sprawled on the sofa in his usual careless posture, long legs propped up high, a lollipop dangling from his lips. His takeaway from the story went completely off-course, “You had a girlfriend? Was she pretty?”
Qin Mu: “…”
“Judging from your silence, not pretty,” Shen Liu said, shaking his head like a disappointed parent. “Log, when people date, they either go for a pretty face or a kind heart. How did you end up with someone ugly and mean? She crawled out of the trash can behind your school at midnight wearing sunglasses?”
Qin Mu’s face turned scarlet. He stood up and ignored him.
Shen Liu grabbed his arm.
Qin Mu muttered, “What?”
“My leg’s cramping…” Shen Liu hissed through his teeth. “Help me out, quick.”
“That’s what you get for playing basketball every day,” Qin Mu grumbled, but still took his foot and began stretching and massaging his calf. “Better now?”
“Nope. Still numb.”
Qin Mu kept massaging. “Now?”
“Still numb,” Shen Liu said, lounging even more comfortably with eyes closed in bliss.
Qin Mu saw through him at last. With narrowed eyes, he gave Shen Liu’s inner thigh a hard pinch. Shen Liu yelped, sprang up yelling “You little brat, you’re dead!” and lunged at him.
Qin Mu nimbly dodged around the coffee table. Shen Liu was limping slightly and couldn’t catch up. He instead pelted him with couch cushions.
“Come here!” Shen Liu growled through gritted teeth.
Qin Mu shook his head, laughing. “Do I look stupid to you?”
“You’re not stupid, you just go digging for women in the trash can.”
“Uh-oh, are you getting mad again?” Shen Liu grinned. “Oh no, I’m so scared. Our little log can actually get mad? Come on, show your brother what that looks like.”
That did it, Qin Mu pounced on him.
The two of them wrestled on the floor, tangled together, going back and forth. Qin Mu wasn’t as strong as Shen Liu and was also terribly ticklish. After getting pinned to the carpet and mercilessly tickled, he laughed and begged for mercy. “Stop… I give up…”
Shen Liu sat astride him, sneering playfully. “Still gonna throw a tantrum?”
Qin Mu answered obediently, “No more tantrums.”
“Call me good big brother. Let me hear it.”
“…Good big brother.”
“Good boy.” Shen Liu leaned down, bracing his arms on either side of Qin Mu’s head. “Little log…”
“What?”
“You realize it, don’t you? You don’t push me away anymore.” Shen Liu smiled with squinted eyes.
Qin Mu paused, then flushed slightly and pushed him. “You’re heavy. Get off.”
That afternoon, when Qin Mu left for evening study, Shen Liu put on a black jacket and went out too. By the time Qin Mu got home, Shen Liu hadn’t returned yet.
The next morning, just as Qin Mu entered the classroom, the group of jocks from the day before followed him in. Thinking they were about to beat him up again, Qin Mu clenched his fists and stood up nervously.
Unexpectedly, the group stood in a row, their eyes awkwardly darting around. They then bent at the waist and said in unison, “We’re sorry, Qin Mu.”
Qin Mu was stunned. Looking closer, he saw that they were all bruised, especially the leader—Li Xiaomo’s boyfriend—whose face was black and blue. That guy pulled out a crumpled note from his pocket and started reading it in a lisping and halting voice, likely due to a missing tooth, “We bullied the weak with numbers and strength. We are simply morally… degenerate and have no conscience. It’s as if all our education was eaten by dogs and we did things no decent human should do… We’ve let down our teachers’ guidance, our parents’ hopes, our motherland’s beautiful rivers and mountains, and the title of successors of the new era… We were wrong, and we will never do it again. Please, for the sake of being schoolmates, for the sake of building a great future together… forgive us.”
By this time, most of the class had arrived, and even students from the next class were crowding around the door to watch. The ridiculous speech had everyone trying not to laugh, and they were all struggling to hold it in.
As Qin Mu listened, he gradually pieced it together. This tone, this method… Who else could it be but Shen Liu? He took the apology note and gave them a way out. “Okay.”
When the group quickly shuffled away with lowered heads, Qin Mu sat back down. The more he thought about it, the funnier it became. He couldn’t help but cover his face with his English textbook and laugh.
Later, when Qin Mu went back, he asked Shen Liu, “Did you beat them up?”
Shen Liu, who was squeezing toothpaste onto his brush, put on an innocent face and replied seriously, “Beat who? Don’t go throwing baseless accusations at me. I’m a model citizen. I am pure, upright, and never a fan of violence. I always persuade people with reason.”
Qin Mu knew he wouldn’t get anything out of him.
In the mirror, Shen Liu stood in a tank top with toothpaste foam in his mouth, and a mischievous gleam in his eyes that was lazy and unruly as ever.
But to Qin Mu, he looked just like a superhero out of a Hollywood movie.
And in that moment, he heard the sound of his own heartbeat.
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