The basketball had shattered the frame of Ji Qian’ang’s glasses, and the broken pieces had pierced his left eye. Ji Qian’ang bent over, covering his eye with one hand. Blood seeped through his fingers and ran down along the bones of his wrist. The person across from him lifted his head and stared at Tang Yu with the eye that could still see.
“Then what face do you think I should have?”
Tang Yu’s breath caught.
It was the first time anyone had ever asked him a question that left him speechless.
The commotion in the room instantly alarmed everyone.
Butler Lin rushed in and grabbed Tang Yu’s arm.
“Young Master, Young Master, calm down!”
Tang Yu was dragged backward by the arm. He lowered his gaze to his empty hand. The basketball had already rolled into the corner.
“Call an ambulance!” Butler Lin shouted to the others. “Now!”
The ambulance arrived quickly and took Ji Qian’ang away. As he passed Tang Yu, his uncovered right eye glanced at him once, pale and still as dead water. By the time Grandmother hurried back from her studio, Tang Yu had already locked himself in his room.
She knocked several times. There was no answer.
With a sigh, she pushed up her glasses.
“What was it this time? And how is that child?”
Butler Lin lowered his head and stood two steps away, cautious and deferential.
“The new companion… bears some resemblance to the eldest young master. Young Master may have mistaken him for someone else for a moment.”
“He has already been sent to the hospital. His left eye is completely unusable.”
Grandmother’s brows tightened. She turned toward Butler Lin with rare reproach.
“Where did you find this companion?”
Butler Lin hesitated.
“It was… it was my son Juefei’s idea.”
Grandmother gave a cold snort and interrupted him.
“That isn’t what I asked.”
She removed her reading glasses and fixed her gaze on Butler Lin.
“Who told you he looked like Yifeng?”
Butler Lin held his breath.
“I saw it myself. That child really does resemble the eldest young master a little.”
Grandmother slowly ran her fingers over the prayer beads in her hand and sighed.
“Old Lin, you’ve been with me for thirty years. Since when did you learn to lie to me?”
Butler Lin remained silent.
“Treat him properly. As for the companion, arrange someone else.”
Grandmother looked away and gave the instruction coldly.
“Tell Lin Juefei that when he graduates and comes back, I have questions for him.”
Butler Lin quickly nodded and withdrew with his head lowered. Grandmother had always indulged Tang Yu’s temper to some degree. But this time, he had injured someone with his own hands. Her attitude was firm. Tang Yu had to go to the hospital and apologize to Ji Qian’ang in person. Tang Yu was not someone who knew how to apologize. In his entire life, he had lowered his head to very few people.
But because of his grandmother, he went anyway.
At the hospital, Tang Yu stood outside the ward for a long time. The smell of disinfectant in the corridor was sharp enough to sting. Ji Qian’ang was the only person inside the room. There were no flowers or fruit baskets on the bedside table. He leaned against the headboard. Beneath his Adam’s apple, there was still a fading bruise. His left eye was wrapped in gauze, leaving only his right eye exposed. Tang Yu drew a deep breath and stepped into the ward, clutching a bouquet of lisianthus behind his back.
He cast a superior glance at the person on the bed, his expression still cold, sharp, and disdainful. Then, with great reluctance, he said in a low voice, “I’m sorry.”
Ji Qian’ang lifted his head.
Tang Yu’s face was reflected in his dark pupil. There was no resentment in it. No anger. He only replied, “Mm.”
Tang Yu choked on that answer.
He had prepared himself for a long time.
If Ji Qian’ang cursed him, he would endure it.
If Ji Qian’ang cried, he would leave immediately.
But he had not prepared for this.
A perfunctory little “Mm.” His eye had been ruined, and he responded as if it did not matter at all.
As if he did not care.
“Tch. What are you pretending for?”
Tang Yu spoke with disgust, threw the lisianthus onto the foot of the bed, and ran. Ji Qian’ang stared for a while at the retreating figure, his eyes dark and unreadable. Every day, the butler traveled between the old house and the hospital. The medical bills had already been settled, but Ji Qian’ang’s family never appeared. When Tang Yu’s father learned about the companion arrangement, he flew back personally.
“No one showed up? What background does he have?”
Butler Lin lowered his head.
“They said his family was in shipping. They were once quite prosperous. Old Master Ji passed away the year before last, and the company has been losing money ever since.”
“The Ji family?”
Tang Yu’s father was so furious he slammed the newspaper onto the table.
“That family is an empty shell now. Letting someone from the Ji family come here as a companion? What does that look like?”
“You brought him into this house without knowing any of this beforehand?”
Butler Lin lowered his head in silence. Fine sweat gathered at his graying temples.
“The child is around Young Master’s age, and his grades are good. I… didn’t investigate too deeply.”
“Send him away,” Tang Yu’s father said, issuing the final order.
Grandmother sat to the side and slowly took a sip of tea.
“It won’t be too late to send him away after he recovers.”
Tang Yu’s father could barely sit still. His anger climbed higher.
“Do you know what state the Ji family is in now? His father is drowning in debt, his mother ran off, and a child from that kind of family—”
Anyone who got involved with the Ji family now would be taking a burning burden into their own hands.
Grandmother interrupted him.
“I said, it won’t be too late after he recovers.”
In the end, Tang Yu’s father said nothing more. He picked up his briefcase and left. From beginning to end, he did not say a word to Tang Yu.
He did not even look at him.
Grandmother was elderly, but her spirit was still strong. Recently, she had accepted several students in simultaneous interpreting. She had originally intended to properly discipline her grandson, but now it seemed she had little time to spare.
Ji Qian’ang was still lying in the hospital.
After thinking it over, Grandmother came up with a solution that served both purposes. The wind flipped the leaves of the jacaranda trees, revealing their silvery undersides. Grandmother asked, “What do you think about that child?”
“What do you mean?”
“You injured his eye. Aren’t you going to visit him?”
Grandmother intended for Tang Yu to personally go to the hospital and take care of Ji Qian’ang until he was discharged. The moment Tang Yu heard it, he frowned in disgust. He had been a young master for more than ten years. There was no reason for him to serve anyone. And now she wanted him to personally take care of a blind man?
Hearing this, Grandmother glared at him in warning.
“Who knows better than anyone how he lost sight in that eye?”
Then she lowered her gaze and sighed.
“I know what you were thinking when you saw him. But Xiao Yu, he isn’t him.”
“Your brother is gone. No matter how much you try to find him in someone else, he won’t come back.”
Tang Yu’s eyes flickered away. For a moment, he even stammered.
“I… wasn’t looking.”
“Then why haven’t you dared to go to the hospital these past few days?”
Tang Yu was left without a single word.
Fine.
Ji Qian’ang had ended up in the hospital because Tang Yu had lost his temper.
“Go,” Grandmother said. “Apologize. You owe him that. And you owe yourself an answer too.”
Tang Yu reluctantly picked up the lunch box the housekeeper had packed and resigned himself to going to the hospital. On the first day, he placed the lunch box on the floor, knocked twice, turned, and left. When he returned, Grandmother asked if he had delivered it.
He said he had.
Grandmother said, “I’m asking whether he ate it.” Tang Yu had left as soon as he put down the lunch box. How was he supposed to know whether Ji Qian’ang had eaten it?
But Grandmother’s meaning was clear.
He had to watch Ji Qian’ang finish the meal.
Tang Yu had nothing to say.
The next day, he entered the ward, raised the side table with swift efficiency, and slapped the lunch box down on it.
Ji Qian’ang was still asleep.
A sudden clatter erupted beside his ear, making him think someone had set off firecrackers next to him. Tang Yu gave him a cold glance and said impatiently, “Hurry up and eat. I need to report back.”
Ji Qian’ang listened until he finished speaking.
Then his shoulder shifted slightly, and he turned to the other side, continuing to sleep.
No.
Tang Yu stared at his movement and cursed inwardly.
Did this person not hear him?
Had the damage to his eyesight somehow dragged his hearing down with it?
He raised his voice.
“Hey. I told you to eat. Are you deaf?”
Ji Qian’ang turned his head and looked at him.
“I’m not hungry.”
Tang Yu stood there, tapping his fingers twice against the edge of the bedside table. Ji Qian’ang showed no intention of picking up the spoon. Tang Yu could only take a deep breath, pull out a chair, and sit down. He opened the lunch box and pushed it forward.
The two of them sat there in silence.
The only sound in the ward was the steady beeping of the monitor.
“You think I poisoned the food?” Tang Yu asked.
Ji Qian’ang finally turned his head to look at him.
“No.”
“Then eat.”
After a few seconds, Ji Qian’ang picked up the spoon, scooped up a mouthful, and held it out toward Tang Yu.
“Have you tasted it? How do you know it isn’t poisoned?”
Tang Yu instinctively leaned back. A flicker of disbelief crossed his face.
“If I poisoned it, would I personally bring it here?”
The person across from him gave a cold little smirk, withdrew the spoon, and drank that mouthful of porridge himself. While Ji Qian’ang was eating, Tang Yu brought up another matter.
“About the medical expenses…”
Ji Qian’ang interrupted him.
“The butler already told me.”
Tang Yu took a card from his pocket.
“This is extra compensation. Your family—”
Ji Qian’ang remained as cold as ever.
“The medical bills have already been paid. We’re even. I don’t need you currying favor.”
Tang Yu clenched his fist hard.
When had he ever tried to curry favor with anyone? He could not even be bothered to do such a thing for his own parents. Now here he was, standing with a thermos like a servant, only to be accused of sucking up.
For a brief moment, their eyes met.
Ji Qian’ang’s gaze remained infuriatingly calm.
Tang Yu’s expression changed.
He snapped coldly, “If it weren’t for Grandmother, do you think I’d be willing to come?” Then he stormed out and slammed the door behind him.
Ji Qian’ang ignored it.
He only stared meaningfully at Tang Yu’s retreating back. Not long after, he received a call from an unfamiliar number. When the call ended, the crease between his brows remained for a long time. Because of Grandmother’s order, Tang Yu still came to the ward every day after that.
The soup changed daily.
Neither of them mentioned the out-of-control conflict again.
The attending doctor came in for rounds and said the wound was healing well. Ji Qian’ang could be discharged the next day. When Tang Yu entered, he saw Ji Qian’ang packing his things.
There was not much to pack.
Just a small travel bag, likely containing one or two changes of clothes and a few books. Tang Yu leaned against the door and asked, “You’re being discharged tomorrow. Have you decided where you’re going?” From the conversation between his grandmother and father, Tang Yu knew a little about Ji Qian’ang’s family situation.
His family’s shipping company had gone bankrupt.
His father was nowhere to be found.
The so-called home he had left was nothing more than an apartment whose mortgage payments had already stopped, ready to be taken by the bank at any moment. Ji Qian’ang placed the travel bag by the bed and lifted his eyes to Tang Yu.
“I’m not leaving.”
Tang Yu thought he had misheard.
“What?”
The person across from him answered as if it were perfectly natural.
“Don’t you need a companion?”
Grandmother had said that if someone his own age stayed with him, went to school with him, lived with him, maybe he would not be so closed off. But Tang Yu did not want to admit that.
“Who told you I need a companion?”
Ji Qian’ang did not answer.
Instead, he stood and walked toward Tang Yu.
That deep brown eye fixed directly on him.
“I want to stay. Will you let me?”
He was nearly a head taller than Tang Yu. Tang Yu raised his face and saw the wound on Ji Qian’ang’s face, still not yet free of stitches. And that face, so similar to Tang Yifeng’s and yet not the same at all. Tang Yu did not want to let him stay.
He knew it too clearly.
If this person stayed, Tang Yu would never be able to wake from the dream. Every day, seeing this face would make him think of Tang Yifeng. The memories he had barely managed to bury deep inside would be dug up again and left exposed in the wilderness. Tang Yu withdrew the darkness from his eyes and snapped at him.
“Stay? In your dreams.”
With that, he turned and ran out of the ward in anger.
Ji Qian’ang watched Tang Yu leave.
That retreating figure overlapped with the image of the boy who had run into the house that day carrying a basketball. He slipped a hand into his trouser pocket and touched the square piece of paper inside.
Staying here was his only way to survive.
He had to find a way to make Tang Yu agree. The next day, Butler Lin handled Ji Qian’ang’s discharge paperwork. Wearing an old jacket and carrying a small bag of luggage, Ji Qian’ang was brought back to the old house. Seeing that he had recovered well, Grandmother instructed the butler, “Send him away. Find another companion.”
Tang Yu stood in the corridor.
When he heard those words, he silently let out a breath of relief.
But Ji Qian’ang spoke again.
He stood at the doorway, his gaze falling on Grandmother.
“I want to stay.”
The hand Grandmother used to hold her teacup paused. Her assessing gaze moved toward the person at the door. Ji Qian’ang repeated, “I want to stay. As his companion.”
Grandmother set down the cup.
“Reason.”
“What the Ji family owes the Tang family, I’ll repay.”
Grandmother did not answer immediately.
Instead, she turned her gaze toward Tang Yu.
“Xiao Yu, what do you say?”
Grandmother was asking for his opinion.
For some reason, Tang Yu found himself hesitating.
The spacious old house fell silent for several moments.
Ji Qian’ang slowly turned around.
His figure, carrying that small bag, gradually disappeared down the end of the corridor.
Tang Yu should have felt relieved.
If Ji Qian’ang left, he would not have to see that face anymore. He could continue drowning in the pain of losing his brother.
But his fists tightened.
In the end, he still shouted after that retreating back.
“Stop!”
If Ji Qian’ang walked out through that door, Tang Yu would be even emptier than he was now.
He needed a reason.
A reason that made him seem less pathetic.
“I’m short one person to carry my bag and hold my coat.”
“You.”
His voice was cold and arrogant.
“Can you do that or not?”