Chapter 18

Once he'd recovered, Wen Ran went right back to being a loner buried in his books — except he never took that route to the Subway again. Song Shuangang, on the other hand, had it worse. He kept looking at Wen Ran like he wanted to say something and stopping himself, until one day he finally got it out, hesitant: 「How did you even end up with him…」

No idea what exactly Song Shuangang had misunderstood, or how far his imagination had run with it, but Wen Ran obviously couldn't lay the whole thing out for him. All he could manage was, 「It's a long story…」

「Okay.」 A flicker of sympathy crossed Song Shuangang's face. 「Stay safe out there.」

After the nerve-wracking final exams were over, he got two days off before he had to start packing for summer camp. Wen Ran's luggage was pitifully small — even maxed out it only filled a little under half the suitcase. He thought back to the day he'd come back to the country: he'd shown up with about this much, and it was everything he owned.

There was a noise downstairs. Wen Ran opened his door and went out — Chen Shuhui was back, just off some work dinner, and she seemed a little drunk. Wen Ran went down to help her, and Aunt Fang hurried off to make her a sobering-up soup.

He got Chen Shuhui back to her room, where she tossed her bag aside and went into the dressing room to change into pajamas. The bag landed on the sofa, and her Mobile Phone slid out and dropped onto the carpet. Wen Ran went to pick it up and saw it wasn't locked — a text was popping up in the notification bar. The sender was 'Manager Liu,' and the message was just two numbers: 10, 3

Without thinking too hard about it, Wen Ran shut the screen off. Chen Shuhui came out in her pajamas, then went into the bathroom, pinning up her hair in front of the mirror. 「How'd the exam go?」 she asked.

「Felt all right,」 Wen Ran said carefully.

「Just don't embarrass me. And the summer camp — since it was Director Gu who wanted you to go, make the most of it. Grab any chance you get, don't just curl up in a corner the whole time.」

Wen Ran nodded against his better judgment. 「Mm.」

Chen Shuhui smoothed on some cleansing balm. 「I heard the camp costs over two hundred thousand. But the Gu Family already covered it for you. No idea whether Gu Yunchi's going.」

Floored by the price, Wen Ran took a couple of seconds to recover before he said, 「He's not going.」

「How do you know?」 Chen Shuhui stopped and turned to look at him. 「You two talked?」

「Last time… I ran into him, so I asked.」

「Rare for him to bother with you out in public.」 Chen Shuhui wiped her face dry and tore open a sheet mask. 「Fine, let him skip it. Not like anyone can rein him in anyway.」

「Is the Company… still really busy?」

「That's not something you need to worry about.」 Chen Shuhui came out and sat on the sofa, shot Wen Ran a glance, then added, 「Still, you did your part. You didn't let me down too badly.」

Coming from her, that counted as praise, and it caught Wen Ran a little off guard. He'd carried a deeply tangled feeling about Chen Shuhui for as long as he could remember — careful, eager to please, hopeful. He couldn't quite forgive her for putting him through that brutal surgery, for treating him as a pawn; there were moments of resentment. And yet he still longed for her approval, her acknowledgment, because only then did he get to have a mother, however briefly.

Only then did he feel he'd created some worth, paid back something for the bread and the family-in-name-only that the Wen Family had given him.

「It's the least I can do… as long as Shengdian Group can get back on its feet.」

But Chen Shuhui looked at her phone and let out a soft scoff. 「Shengdian Group? It's just a broken shell. Let it fall.」

Wen Ran froze, stunned stiff. Shengdian Group was generations of the Wen Family's accumulated work — the legacy Wen Ningyuan had given up his own dreams to keep alive, the thing Chen Shuhui had cut short her own art career for, propping it up by sheer force. Wen Ran had always thought everything she did was so Shengdian Group could rise again.

「But you have to keep up the show for the Gu Family. If we want to squeeze something out of the Boqing Group, leaning on Shengdian Group's name is still the most aboveboard way to do it.」

So all Shengdian Group was now was a husk for extracting resources. Wen Ran opened his mouth, about to say something, when there was a knock at the door — Aunt Fang stood there with the sobering-up soup. 「Madam, have some soup before you sleep.」

「Sure, just leave it.」

If she hadn't been drunk, there was no way Chen Shuhui would've talked to him about any of this. It clicked for Wen Ran, and he said, 「I'll head back to my room, then.」

「Mm. Arrange the driver yourself tomorrow to take you to the airport.」

「Okay.」

Back in his room, Wen Ran closed up the suitcase. His Mobile Phone buzzed once, and he picked it up to look.

Teacher Zhou Chou: Wen Ran, I heard you're already back in the Capital City. Are you feeling any better?

It was Wen Ran's piano teacher — once a senior of Chen Shuhui's in the Capital Orchestra, who'd later left the orchestra for health reasons and gone abroad to recuperate. As it happened, she'd ended up in the same city, so Chen Shuhui had hired her to teach him piano.

Wen Ran hesitated, then worked up the nerve to reply: I'm doing really well now, Teacher. Can I call you on voice?

Zhou Chou: Of course.

He placed the voice call and it connected right away. 「Good evening, Teacher. How's your health these days?」 Wen Ran asked.

A kind woman's voice came through. 「Everything's fine. I was having dinner at a restaurant tonight and saw someone playing piano — from behind they looked like you, so I thought I'd check in.」

「Thank you for thinking of me. I've been back in the Capital City for a while now. I've settled in well.」

「You did grow up in the Capital City, after all.」 Zhou Chou laughed. 「You've had a rough road, too — got sick and taken abroad as a child, finally had a few peaceful years, then ended up hospitalized for ages in your teens. I hope it's all good health from here.」

The child who'd gotten sick and gone abroad was the real Wen Ran; the teenager hospitalized to have a Gland implanted was the fake one. Wen Ran held that secret tight and answered as evenly as he could, 「Yeah, I hope I don't get sick again.」 He paused, then asked, 「Teacher, do you still remember that piece, Nineteen Days of Polar Night?」

「Ah… I remember. The score I wrote. You learned it so fast, so well — and you told me you loved that piece.」

「Yes, it just came to mind suddenly, and I wanted to ask — does that piece have any special meaning?」

He didn't believe a coincidence that staggering could be real — a made-up title lining up so perfectly with where Gu Yunchi's name came from. The odds were just too small.

「Actually, it was a birthday gift — it just never got delivered in the end.」 Zhou Chou said. 「Originally it was a duet for piano and violin. Back when I was still in the Capital Orchestra, the concertmaster asked me to help write the score with him. He said he wanted to give it to a younger relative for the child's sixth birthday. But not long after, I fell ill and had to step away, going abroad to recover.」

「So the score was shelved. Later I heard the child's parents passed away that year. I thought a sixth birthday must have been a very sad one for him — and the piece's title comes from his birthday. Maybe it was a mercy from heaven that he never heard it back then, so as not to grieve him further.」 There was a wistful note in Zhou Chou's voice. 「The violin part was composed by the concertmaster himself. I never found out whether he had the child learn it.」

By now Wen Ran had guessed the answer. If anything, it was just another twist of fate.

He asked, 「Do you know what that child was named?」

「He'd be about your age. You'd surely have heard his name in the Capital City — you might even know him.」 Zhou Chou said. 「His name is Gu Yunchi.」

There were quite a few students going to the summer camp, and the Preparatory School chartered a private plane. After boarding, Wen Ran looked around and didn't see Gu Yunchi anywhere — not Lu Heyang or He Wei either. Maybe the three of them had agreed together to skip it.

Tao Susu hadn't come either. Apparently she'd gotten smacked by her family's kangaroo and had a nosebleed that wouldn't quit. When she sent Wen Ran a voice message she was still sniffling, crying that at this rate she might have to get a nose job while she was still this young, then bombarding him with all kinds of cosmetic-surgery templates, asking which one would look prettier on her.

Five-plus hours in the air, and Wen Ran kept drifting off and waking up. They landed in the afternoon; after collecting their luggage everyone took cars to the hotel. S City was a bit cooler than the Capital City — the seat of the League's highest government. As they neared the hotel Wen Ran looked out the window — Cloud Bay.

Nothing was scheduled for the day; everyone was on their own. Dinner could be sorted out individually or at one of Cloud Bay's restaurants. Broke as he was, Wen Ran couldn't do anything — he spent the afternoon in his room watching online classes about mechanics, then at mealtime took the elevator up, hoping to find a table to join.

Lucky for him, he found one. Song Shuangang spotted Wen Ran looking like an owl roused in broad daylight — standing in a corner, eyes wide, doing tiny little scans of the room, all nervous and anxious — and waved him over.

The owl was rescued. Wen Ran sat down in the chair next to Song Shuangang. The other three students at the table sat quietly, greeting his arrival with a smile or a nod.

A waiter set out a place setting for Wen Ran, and the food started coming. He'd barely taken a few bites when he looked up and there they were — Gu Yunchi, Lu Heyang, and He Wei walking into the restaurant. They didn't fuss over a spot, just grabbed a table by the window and sat down, and the restaurant manager came right over.

Song Shuangang saw it too. He looked at Gu Yunchi, then at Wen Ran, and asked under his breath, 「You want to eat somewhere else?」

「Huh? Don't worry, I promise it won't affect you.」

「Uh, I meant I figured you'd be scared.」 Song Shuangang said. 「I'm not worried about anything. My grandfather and Grandpa Gu get along fine, so he probably won't do anything to me.」

Wen Ran figured Song Shuangang had completely built Gu Yunchi up in his head into some bully-gege who'd fly into a rage at the sight of him sitting with another Alpha and then punish him viciously when no one was around — but the truth was, Gu Yunchi couldn't even be bothered to spare a glance.

「I didn't see them on the plane, though.」 Wen Ran changed the subject.

「I think they got in an hour or so later. Came on Gu Yunchi's private jet.」

「…All right.」 Wen Ran ate quietly.

After dinner everyone headed back to their rooms. Spotting a free dessert table in the restaurant, Wen Ran went over to take a look — sure enough, there was Croissant. He had no idea if it was as good as the kind that chef at Gu Yunchi's Residence made, so he asked a waiter to pack up two of them for a late-night snack.

Walking out of the restaurant to take the elevator, while he waited his stomach felt too full, so Wen Ran paced a few steps in a small loop to help it settle. Shifting to the left, he ran smack into Gu Yunchi standing behind the corner, looking at his phone.

Their eyes met. Wen Ran's first instinct was to slip away like nothing had happened, but he was afraid that'd look like he was ignoring him on purpose — and last time, Gu Yunchi had saved him. So, clumsily, Wen Ran tried to make conversation: 「I thought you weren't coming. You said before you didn't want to do the summer camp.」

Gu Yunchi: 「Don't come bother me.」

「…」 He'd only asked one question, and somehow it had been classified as bothering him. Wen Ran took the hint and exited the scene. 「Got it.」

He turned around, and to his surprise Lu Heyang was already standing right behind him. Wen Ran quickly ducked his head to go around him, but the other man called out: 「Wen Ran.」

So Lu Heyang not only remembered him, he knew his name. Wen Ran stopped dead in his tracks. 「Mm?」

Gu Yunchi looked up at Lu Heyang too, but his sworn brother just gave Wen Ran a faint smile. 「It's my birthday the day after tomorrow. I'd like to invite you. Free to come?」

「Me?」 Wen Ran practically pointed at his own nose to ask it. He couldn't figure out why Lu Heyang would invite someone he didn't know at all, someone so unremarkable — and Lu Heyang surely knew how much his good friend couldn't stand this person. Wen Ran started to doubt whether the friendship between Lu Heyang and Gu Yunchi was even real.

「Yes, I hope you'll come.」 Lu Heyang didn't look like he was joking.

Before Wen Ran could answer, Gu Yunchi said coldly, 「If he goes, I'm not going.」

「Either way's fine. It all depends on Young Master Gu's mood.」 Lu Heyang's tone was considerate, like a soft spring breeze.

Tormented, Wen Ran couldn't say yes and couldn't say no. Luckily, someone soon rescued him from the awkwardness — He Wei came strolling over, waxing poetic: 「Young Master Gu, the restroom in your hotel's restaurant here really is a winding little path to a secluded paradise.」

Nobody paid him any mind.

「Ow, why the pinch—」 As he got closer, He Wei froze, staring at Wen Ran. 「Hey, isn't this…」

Lu Heyang said, 「I want to invite Wen Ran to my birthday party.」

He Wei's crude lump of a brain suddenly turned frighteningly sharp, and he caught on at once. 「What a great idea! You've got to come, Wen Ran, you absolutely have to. Basically all the summer camp kids are coming — you should join too, the whole gang together, nice and complete.」

Hemmed in on all sides, Wen Ran was stuck. He kept glancing at Gu Yunchi — not to get his blessing, but hoping for some abuse. All Gu Yunchi had to do was say 'go and I'll kill you' and Wen Ran would be off the hook. But unfortunately, Gu Yunchi just watched his two insincere brothers with a blank face.

That move got completely misread by He Wei, too, who thought Wen Ran was silently begging Gu Yunchi to let him come, so he simpered at Gu Yunchi, 「Young Master, say something!」

「Don't hold the birthday party at Cloud Bay. Find another hotel.」 Gu Yunchi informed Lu Heyang, neither warm nor cold, then abandoned everyone and went to take the elevator.

「Seven p.m. the day after tomorrow, the top floor of Cloud Bay.」 Lu Heyang was still smiling mildly. 「You're welcome to come,」 he told Wen Ran.