15

Fumbling with his seatbelt, Wen Ran realized they were being tailed. Showing themselves on a mountain switchback road—probably not for kidnapping. More likely to ram them off the cliff. Showing themselves meant the action had started.

Bang—Wen Ran looked back through the rear window. Sure enough, one of the bodyguard cars had been slammed hard from the side-rear. A screech of brakes, then it crashed into the guardrail and barely stopped, almost flipping off the cliff.

"Don't go too fast. Watch the front." Gu Yunchi looked at Wen Ran. "Grab the handle."

Wen Ran didn't look tense or scared. He nodded and reached up for the grab handle.

Half a minute later, sure enough a van appeared at the curve ahead. The lead bodyguard car sped up and rammed it at an angle. The driver seized the moment, spun the wheel hard left through the gap, the body scraping the guardrail with a sharp screech. Wen Ran was thrown almost airborne, barely held in his seat by the seatbelt and the handle.

Nothing blocking them ahead now. Next hit would be on them. A fork in the road appeared beside them. Gu Yunchi said, "Take it."

Wen Ran looked back. The other bodyguard car had single-handedly cut off two vans, but several SUVs had appeared up ahead, following them onto the side road.

"You jump out." Wen Ran gripped the handle. "Before they catch up—you jump, I'll stay in the car and pretend to be you. There's Forest ahead. Slow down a little, you jump out, they won't see."

Gu Yunchi, pulling a handgun from the storage compartment, glanced at him. Wen Ran went on, "Or leave me alone in the car. I can drive, right? Just keep going straight."

"Straight ahead is a cliff." Gu Yunchi said. "If you want to die, I can put a bullet in you right now."

Click. The driver forced the door locks open, slowed the car. Gu Yunchi calmly unbuckled his own seatbelt, popped Wen Ran's, grabbed his school uniform, pulled him close, opened the door, and threw them both out.

They tumbled together through the brush on the slope, rolling over and over, bodies grinding against rocks. Pain beyond words. Vision spinning black. In the panic Wen Ran threw one arm up over Gu Yunchi's head. When a tree finally stopped them, that arm had gone numb. But Wen Ran only scrambled up out of Gu Yunchi's arms. "What about the driver?"

"Jumped out the window. They're trained for it." Gu Yunchi sat up. "Quiet."

Wen Ran held his breath. The SUVs roared past one after another, close but not spotting them.

Rustling. Footsteps. Wen Ran half-crawled forward and put himself in front of Gu Yunchi. It didn't matter what happened to him—his life wasn't worth much—but Gu Yunchi couldn't be hurt. Otherwise even if he made it back safe, things wouldn't end well for him.

"Young master?"

The driver. Gu Yunchi glanced at Wen Ran, picked up the Backpack beside him, tossed it into his arms. Wen Ran clutched it. His hands met and he felt something wet.

"Mr. Lin's been notified. Support's on the way. We head down."

They crawled down the slope. Soon, lights swept down from above—those people had figured out the car was empty and doubled back to look. Gu Yunchi signaled Wen Ran to stop. The three of them froze in the shadows.

Faint sirens in the distance. Wen Ran heard the group above curse a few times, then the lights vanished.

Back on flat ground, Wen Ran still wasn't really panicking. Gu Yunchi led him into a car that pulled into the Garden of a villa halfway up the mountain. An omega in a button-down was waiting at the door.

"Uncle Lin." Gu Yunchi got out and called to the omega.

"Are you okay? Anything serious? The doctor's already here. Let him check you both first."

Gu Yunchi nodded and headed for the living room. Wen Ran followed, then was suddenly grabbed. Lin Yumian looked at his hand. "Why is it bleeding so much?"

It hit him late. Wen Ran looked down at his left hand. Back of the hand, knuckles, fingers—a mangled mess. Grit and weeds stuck in the wounds, still seeping blood. He'd trailed blood almost the whole way. His school pants were stained dark red in big patches.

He looked up, dazed. Gu Yunchi had turned around, eyes lowered, gaze fixed on the wrecked hand.

"Get that treated right away." Lin Yumian pulled Wen Ran over to the sofa. The doctor stepped up to clean the wound.

"The rest of him looks fine. How did his hand get this bad?" Lin Yumian frowned.

When he'd shielded Gu Yunchi's head, he thought he felt a few impacts—probably against rocks. Wen Ran looked at Gu Yunchi's head. Just some weeds in his hair, otherwise clean, no blood. He was fine.

His gaze dropped and suddenly met Gu Yunchi's eyes. Wen Ran turned away. "It's nothing. Not that bad."

The doctor cleaned his hand, confirmed no bone damage, applied some medicine. Throughout, Wen Ran just watched his own hand quietly, expression blank. No crying out, no flinching. Only a slight frown when the medicine stung the wound.

It actually hurt a lot. But he was good at taking pain.

Bandaged up, the doctor checked them both over. Just some scrapes and bruises, all treated carefully.

"Luan Mountain's a bit chaotic tonight. Don't go out. Stay here tonight, head back to the city tomorrow once things settle." Lin Yumian poured them each a glass of water. "Heyang already heard and wanted to come over. I was worried it wasn't safe, so I told him not to."

"We were supposed to hang out with him and He Wei tonight." Gu Yunchi said. "Sorry to trouble you, Uncle Lin."

"Don't be silly. Rest a bit, I'll have someone get a room ready."

After Lin Yumian left, Gu Yunchi's phone rang. He picked up. "Grandpa."

"Yeah, at Uncle Lin's. I'm fine, just some bumps. Don't come out, the road's not safe." He glanced at Wen Ran as he spoke. "Hand's scraped, already bandaged. Tomorrow when we're back in the city, I'll have someone take him to the Hospital for a proper check."

Wen Ran wasn't really listening to Gu Yunchi's call. He picked up the dirty Backpack at his feet, opened it, pulled out his Mobile Phone. Bad luck—the screen was shattered into a hundred and eighty pieces. After unlocking it, the display was a mess of colors, the liquid leaking badly. Pretty much totaled.

The phone was old, used for years, already super laggy. Often took forever just to pull up a transit code or make a payment, more than once leaving Wen Ran publicly embarrassed. But it was a New Year's gift from Wen Ningyuan, and the gallery had a lot of treasured photos. Most were backed up, but recent ones weren't—like the shots of Gu Yunchi's model and the portraits he'd taken for BDH-339.

He could only hope it still connected to a Computer for backup. The screen was probably beyond repair, and even if it could be fixed, it'd cost a lot. Better to just buy a new one. If Chen Shuhui knew how it broke, she probably wouldn't blame him too much.

Still, Wen Ran felt a pang—like watching an old friend die in front of him.

"I'll get you a new one." Gu Yunchi said suddenly.

Wen Ran straightened up, tense, eyes on the floor between them. "You don't have to. It was time for a new one anyway."

The housekeeper came to take them upstairs. The two guest bedrooms were right next to each other, doors barely a meter apart. Before going in, Wen Ran thought about saying something polite like "rest well," but in the end didn't open his mouth.

What they'd said before was under emergency conditions. Now that things were safe, the smart move was to stay quiet and keep his distance—avoid annoying Gu Yunchi again.

Inside the room, Lin Yumian was in the bathroom, sleeves of his shirt rolled up. "Let me wash your hair. It must be dirty."

A stranger, an elder, and clearly someone important—if he had to guess, Lu Heyang's father. He should have politely refused, but Wen Ran looked at the faint smile on his face and nodded without thinking. "Thank you, Uncle Lin."

After washing his hair, Lin Yumian blow-dried it for him, put down the dryer, wrung out a hot towel, and wiped his face clean. "Don't shower tonight. Just wipe down, avoiding the medicated spots. The housekeeper will come for your clothes later and bring them back dried in the morning."

Wen Ran stared at him, a little dazed, face flushed from the steam. "Mm."

"Alright, I'll let you rest." Lin Yumian hung up the towel, patted the back of Wen Ran's head. "I made some calming soup for you both. The housekeeper will bring it up later. Remember to drink it."

"Okay. You should rest early too."

After seeing Lin Yumian out, Wen Ran wiped himself down one-handed and changed into pajamas. Soon the housekeeper knocked with the soup. Wen Ran handed over his dirty clothes.

Holding up his bandaged left hand, Wen Ran took the calming soup out to the balcony. Once his mind settled, the wound on his hand started to throb. Wen Ran was actually really afraid of pain, but when it really hit, he was good at enduring it.

Halfway up the mountain, the view was different. Lin Yumian's villa wasn't as big as Gu Peiwen's mountaintop estate, but it was especially quiet and peaceful. Wen Ran sipped some soup, heard a small sound to his right, turned his head. Gu Yunchi was walking onto his balcony, phone to his ear, a cigarette between his lips. He stopped, lowered his head slightly, and lit it.

After taking a drag, he noticed Wen Ran on the other balcony. Their eyes met for a second; Wen Ran turned away. He stared at the distant trees for two seconds, then dropped his gaze, murmured "sorry," and went back inside.

His own old phone breaking made him sad—how much worse for a family photo Gu Yunchi treasured. Wen Ran completely understood his feelings, so he apologized again.

Actually he'd had questions he wanted to ask—whether Gu Yunchi really gave him the model to take apart because he hated him. But he was afraid of hearing "yes"—which was probably the only answer—so he didn't ask.

And that "second time"—what did it mean? What was the first time?

Wen Ran finished the soup, brushed his teeth, went to bed. The room was big and comfortable. He didn't close the curtains. Moonlight came in through the floor-to-ceiling window. Even though his hand and body still ached, Wen Ran felt at peace. He closed his eyes.

The next morning Wen Ran woke up early, his whole body aching like he'd been beaten. The bloodstains on his school uniform had been cleaned, neatly packed in a bag hanging outside the door.

Wen Ran changed and went downstairs, was led to breakfast by the housekeeper. After eating, he walked out to the living room. Lin Yumian was watering the Garden. Wen Ran thanked him, saw several cars waiting outside the Garden—probably the Gu Family's—and asked if he could leave now.

"Not waiting for Yunchi?"

"No. I haven't been home all night. My family will worry." Wen Ran used an excuse he didn't even believe himself. "I want to get back early."

"Alright. I'll let them know. Once we're back in the city, I'll have you taken for a checkup first. Just to be safe."

"Thank you, Uncle Lin."

He went back to the living room for his Backpack and ran into Gu Yunchi coming downstairs. Not sure if he'd seen him, Wen Ran hurried out the door.

Back in the city, Wen Ran was taken straight to the Hospital for a checkup. Nothing serious. The doctor changed his bandages and prescribed some medicine.

Home. Aunt Fang took one look at Wen Ran's hand and said, heart aching, "I asked the Madam this morning and only then found out about the accident coming down the mountain last night. How are you? Hurt anywhere else?"

"Nothing else. Doesn't really hurt." Wen Ran reassured her. "Just some scraped skin."

"Good, good. Go rest in your room. I'll make you something nice for lunch."

"Thanks, Aunt Fang."

No phone was inconvenient. He couldn't get notifications from the Preparatory School either. In the afternoon, Wen Ran used the landline to call Chen Shuhui and asked if she could give him some money to buy a new Mobile Phone.

"Go check the storage room. There might be an old phone." Chen Shuhui's end was noisy, busy. "A brand-new phone wouldn't do you much good anyway. We'll talk about it later."

"Okay." Wen Ran agreed without objection.

After hanging up, he went to the storage room and rummaged around. Found two old phones. He picked the one that looked less ancient, brought it to his room, charged it, put in a SIM card.

Less than two minutes after installing it, Wen Ran got a call from BDH-339, urgent: "I called you so many times and you didn't pick up! I was so worried!"

"Phone broke. Just found an old one to use."

"Good that you're okay! Was it really dangerous yesterday? How's your hand?"

"Not too bad. And it's my left hand, doesn't really affect things."

"Hope you get better soon." BDH-339's voice turned a little sad. "This house is so cold. Xiao Ran, I miss you."

Wen Ran asked, "Did you get the photos reinstalled?"

"Already done. Don't worry about it anymore. It's not your fault."

"I don't know." Wen Ran said quietly. "Maybe if I hadn't gone to look that day, the rope wouldn't have snapped... The photos are fine, but the original frame meant a lot. It's fair that he's still angry."

"You mean the young master's still angry?"

"Yeah. Probably hasn't cooled off yet."

"Maybe he's just..." BDH-339 paused, then changed the subject. "How's your Gland?"

"Still a bit swollen. It'll be fine in a few days. Thanks for asking."

"Good then. Rest well. Always looking forward to seeing you!"