Yesterday the police went to Yan Hang's home.

Chu Yi now knew for certain that the silhouette in the photo was indeed Uncle Yan.

So...Yan Hang must also know whose car that was, and who the third person at the scene was.

This made Chu Yi very afraid.

What he feared even more was that Yan Hang knew Uncle Yan may have been injured, while his dad was not.

Of the three people, one died, one was injured, and one was unharmed...

Standing behind the tree, whenever Chu Yi thought of this, he would feel a wave of panic, so much that he could barely stand and had to lean against the tree trunk.

The past few days had been torturous for him. He hadn't gone to school for two days. Things were a mess at home. There was no news of his dad, he couldn't be found, and he hadn't contacted home at all.

His mom sat dazed on the couch every day, while his grandma grumbled and cursed all day long, yelling at whoever she saw, getting into arguments every time she went out.

And compared to home, the rumors outside were even more terrifying.

His dad had become a real-life version of "don't provoke an honest man".

He seemed like a punching bag, but when pushed to the limit, he would directly stab you to death. Killing one person wasn't enough, he could still injure another.

While there had been no progress on the case, he had already become the son of a murderer.

His WeChat, which never received any messages besides Yan Hang's, suddenly became lively, with classmates adding him as a friend every day.

The feeling of being forcibly exposed under everyone's gaze made him feel like he was standing in a transparent sealed steamer every single second.

No one could hear what he said, and no one wanted to listen, there was only layer upon layer of suffocation.

He glanced at the window of Yan Hang's house across the street. After the police left, there had been no movement in Yan Hang's house.

In fact, the so-called movement was nothing more than whether the lights were on or not, and whether Yan Hang's shadow swayed on the curtains.

Today, until 9pm, the lights in Yan Hang's house had not been turned on at all.

This made Chu Yi very worried.

Yan Hang hadn't gone out for the past few days. Chu Yi couldn't figure out his situation, and didn't even know if he had eaten anything.

He could only judge from the lights turning on and off that Yan Hang was at home and moving around.

He knew nothing else.

But he didn't dare to contact Yan Hang either. He didn't know if Yan Hang also had the same thoughts as those people, about his dad having killed someone.

He pressed himself against the back of the tree, revealing only one eye, and continued to stare at the window of Yan Hang's house, his hands tucked in his pockets, gently pinching that little coin.

Like a perverted stalker.

Fortunately, there were few people around now, and no one discovered that he came here to stick around every day.

After sticking around until 10:30, Chu Yi couldn't hold it in anymore. He ran all the way to a 24-hour supermarket quite far from home, where no one knew him.

He hadn't used the two hundred yuan his aunt gave him the other day. Now he took it all out and bought a bunch of food, snacks, sausages, small snacks, and a few boxes of self-heating rice.

He originally wanted to buy the cigarettes that Yan Hang always smoked, but after asking the price, he found that the cigarettes were too high-end and he didn't have enough money. In the end, he only bought two packs, then carried these things and ran all the way back.

Taking advantage of the fact that there was no one around, he quickly crossed the street and stood at the door of Yan Hang's house.

There was no sound inside.

Of course, he didn't dare to get too close, for fear of being discovered.

He held his breath and carefully approached, ready to rush over, put the food at the door, knock once, and then turn around and run away.

After rehearsing this process in his mind a few times, he tiptoed over.

Just as he bent down to put down the bag, the door lock clicked.

Chu Yi only felt his mind explode with a buzz, his blood rushing from all over his body to his head. He threw down the bag, turned around and ran.

He had only run out for at most five steps when someone kicked him in the butt from behind.

He staggered a few steps, and before he could fall, someone grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"Why are you running?" Yan Hang's voice was a little hoarse.

"Don't know." Chu Yi turned his head and saw Yan Hang's haggard face, which could be seen even in the dim street light, and immediately felt his nose turn sour.

"With this reaction speed, I'm afraid you won't be able to make it as a thief in the future." Yan Hang let go of him.

"I can rob, rob on the road." Chu Yi said.

"Go collect protection fees at the kindergarten entrance." Yan Hang smiled.

"Mm." Chu Yi responded.

Yan Hang's smile was full of fatigue. With one glance, Chu Yi couldn't hold it in anymore, and tears instantly welled up.

Gushing, like a broken floodgate.

Yan Hang didn't make a sound or move, just stood there watching him cry.

He didn't want to cry, especially not in front of Yan Hang at a time like this, but crying was like silly laughter. Once it started, it wasn't easy to stop.

In the end, he clenched his teeth and finally stopped.

It felt like in order to suppress this bit of crying, all the muscles in his body were sore from being tensed.

He lowered his head and tugged at his clothes to wipe his eyes.

Yan Hang clicked his tongue.

"Sorry." He let go of his clothes, raised his hand and rubbed his eyes with his arm a few more times. As soon as he said this, tears welled up again.

He rarely cried. Even when he was beaten, scolded, or bullied, he never cried. At most, he would complain a few sentences to a tree hole, and many emotions would just pass like that.

At this moment, he didn't know what was going on. Grievance, depression, panic, uneasiness, all intertwined and surfaced at once.

"Come in and cry." Yan Hang patted him on the head, turned around, picked up the bag on the ground, and went back inside.

Chu Yi hesitated for a moment and followed him in.

In just a few days of not coming in, this small house that he always felt was particularly warm and reassuring seemed to have changed.

In fact, nothing had moved, everything was still in its original place, except for a bit of mess on the coffee table and dust everywhere. Everything was still the same, but it felt different.

Particularly gloomy and cold.

"What did you buy?" Yan Hang put the bag on the coffee table and opened it to take a look.

"Food," Chu Yi wiped his eyes and walked over to him, "Have you not been eating at all?"

"Not hungry." Yan Hang said.

"This is good to eat," Chu Yi took out a box of braised pork rice, "I've had it before, it's especially delicious."

"Is that so." Yan Hang took a look.

After turning on the lights in the room, Chu Yi realized that in just these few days, Yan Hang had lost a lot of weight, his chin had even become a bit pointy.

"Have some food," he said, head lowered as he studied the instructions on the meal box. The meal cost 18 yuan per box, very luxurious. He had never eaten such high-end stuff before. "Let me see how to eat it."

"Idiot." Yan Hang took the box from his hands.

After steam rose from the rice box, the chill in the room receded slightly, but the gray tone still remained.

Chu Yi sat silently on the stool next to the coffee table, watching Yan Hang eat.

Yan Hang ate very slowly, chewing each mouthful for a long time.

Chu Yi really liked braised pork rice. His aunt had taken him to eat it before, and he had two servings. Although this box wasn't freshly made, it still smelled very fragrant.

Yan Hang was eating such fragrant food with such difficulty, likely because he had no appetite.

Eating this box of rice was probably just to give him face.

"Want some water?" Chu Yi asked softly.

"Mm." Yan Hang glanced at him.

He took Yan Hang's cup, poured a glass of water and placed it on the coffee table, then sat back in his original spot.

Yan Hang rummaged through the bag, took out a pack of seaweed and looked at it. "It's obvious a kid bought this."

"No," Chu Yi smiled. "It's obvious this was bought for a kid."

Yan Hang opened the packaging, took two pieces and put them in his mouth, then handed the rest to him.

Chu Yi took it, put a piece between his lips, and slowly nibbled at it.

He wanted to talk to Yan Hang, but couldn't find anything to say. Yan Hang kept silently eating, very slowly, without saying a word.

Perhaps Yan Hang didn't want to talk to him.

When the last bite was finally finished, Yan Hang put down the meal box and pointed at him. "Don't move."

"Oh." Chu Yi, whose butt had already left the stool, sat back down.

"I'm fine," Yan Hang said. "You don't need to worry about me. Take care of things at home first."

Chu Yi's heart trembled.

"I... don't have anything to take care of," he sighed, lowering his head.

"Right," Yan Hang lit a cigarette. "No news at all."

"Yan Hang," Chu Yi called out to him. "I..."

Yan Hang turned his head.

"My dad... he, my dad, he, he, he..." The more difficult it was for Chu Yi to start speaking, the less fluently he could speak. "It's just, just, just my dad..."

"He doesn't have the guts," Yan Hang said.

"Huh?" Chu Yi was stunned for a moment.

"Go back," Yan Hang said. "Get some good sleep. Do what you need to do. Your dad ran off, but don't you still need to live your life?"

Chu Yi looked at him without speaking.

"This is for you." Yan Hang took out a card from his wallet. "It's an annual pass to that boxing gym. You can go play there when you have time."

Chu Yi didn't move.

"We usually don't stay in one place for long. My dad got an annual pass, so it was probably for you," Yan Hang said. "I won't use it either."

Chu Yi took the card and gripped it tightly in his hand, feeling his hand tremble.

After a long time, he put the card in his pocket and asked softly, "Y-you're leaving, aren't you?"

Yan Hang didn't say anything.

He secretly glanced at Yan Hang's ankle. The little black stone was still tied there.

This feeling, he couldn't say if it was relief or a sense of loss.

"I've discovered that although you're not very big, you think too much," Yan Hang patted his face. "You probably don't grow because you think too much."

"I plan to g-grow in the second half of the year," Chu Yi said.

"You even have a plan for growing?" Yan Hang chuckled.

"Mm," Chu Yi nodded. "Save up and g-grow to two meters all at once."

"I'll wait and see," Yan Hang said.

Chu Yi didn't know why, but hearing Yan Hang say this made his nose sour.

He didn't know if it was because "wait and see" implied some future connection, or because it felt more like "if one day".

"Go back," Yan Hang said. "Get some good sleep."

"Mm." Chu Yi responded. "What about you?"

"I'll also sleep for a bit. I just took medicine before you came to rob, so I'm a little sleepy now," Yan Hang said.

"Okay, sleep well then." Chu Yi stood up.

"Got it," Yan Hang also stood up and ruffled his hair. "Didn't you say you were going to get a haircut? Why is it still a bird's nest?"

"Forgot," Chu Yi smiled. "I'll go in a couple days."

"Don't cut it too short. If it's too short, you'll have to keep fixing it," Yan Hang said.

"Mm." Chu Yi scratched his head.

After watching Chu Yi slowly walk towards home from behind the curtain, Yan Hang turned off the lights.

He sat back down on the sofa.

These past few days, he had been sitting here, not knowing what he was thinking about or what he should do.

Waiting was the same, but the unease before had anticipation, while the unease now was filled with confusion.

And panic.

He had lied to Chu Yi. He hadn't taken any medicine, and he didn't want to sleep.

As soon as he closed his eyes, all he saw was puddles of blood.

The surveillance in this area was inadequate. Three people had entered the alley. The one who returned from the alley was Chu Yi's father. There was surveillance in the direction of the river where the deceased went, but it only captured the deceased.

Where did Dad go?

With that much blood, someone was going to die.

Would die.

Yan Hang interlocked his fingers tightly, wrapping his fingertips in his palms, trying to warm his hands a little.

It was already July, yet it could still be this cold.

He spent this night the same as the previous few nights, sitting on the sofa.

The only difference was that the fragrance of the self-heating rice added a touch of reality to the air.

The entire room also had sound because of Chu Yi.

When dawn was about to break, he breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't know why he felt relieved, as if only when light seeped in through the curtains could he breathe again.

The sunlight leaking through the curtain gap allowed him to feel the passage of time.

He stared at that thin beam of light, meaninglessly judging the current time in his heart.

Around 8:20 AM.

Very light footsteps sounded outside the door.

It wasn't Dad.

He was too familiar with Dad's footsteps, and he was very clear that Dad couldn't possibly appear at this time.

It wasn't Chu Yi either.

Chu Yi would pause when he reached the door.

Even less likely to be the police. The police wouldn't come alone. Yan Hang got up and quickly darted into the kitchen. He grabbed a knife and leaned against the doorframe, staring at the door to the living room.

The footsteps stopped at the door, and then there was a knock.

A knock?

Yan Hang felt he might have gotten a bit too nervous. It could be the landlord, the garbage collector, or even the neighborhood committee...

"Who is it?" He asked without moving from where he stood.

"Is Yan Hang there?" It was a man's voice outside.

"I'm asking who you are," Yan Hang said.

"Your dad's friend," the man replied.

Yan Hang didn't make a sound.

Dad had never mentioned having any friends.

He glanced at the kitchen window. There was a small door on the security bars, probably left by the landlord as a fire escape, with the key sitting on the cupboard.

"So vigilant..." the man outside sighed. "Yan Jidao, your dad sent me to find you."

Yan Hang was stunned.

"Take a look at this," the man added.

Then he saw something being pushed in through the crack under the door. As soon as a corner was revealed, Yan Hang recognized it.

It was his dad's envelope.

Without hesitating, he strode over and picked up the envelope.

It was that very envelope, the one that filled him with unease every time he saw it, the one he never dared to look inside despite desperately wanting to, and now the one he wanted to find at all times.

He tore open the envelope and saw there was only a very thin sheet of paper inside, just as he had always sensed - at most a single page whenever he held it.

As he pulled out the paper, his heart pounded so hard his whole body shook a little.

After all these years, he was finally going to see what was inside.

The current feeling was indescribable.

Excitement, anticipation, unease, fear - all grew vigorously as if fertilized.

He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

Then he unfolded the paper.

It wasn't really proper writing paper, just a page randomly torn out of some notebook, with ragged edges as if gnawed by a dog - very much his dad's style.

There was only one sentence on it.

-Dear Crown Prince the person outside can be trusted

???

What the hell.

Yan Hang stared at this line.

A total of 9 words, including the greeting.

Never mind the lack of a signature, even the punctuation had to be mentally added while reading.

This letter he had waited so many years to finally see the contents of, turned out to be like this?

"I haven't touched what's inside," the man said through the door. "I don't know what it is either. He said you'd understand after reading it."

Yan Hang couldn't be sure if this person had read the contents, but he could confirm the letter hadn't been tampered with.

This kind of crazily casual content.

This kind of crazily casual wording.

This kind of crazily casual brief message.

It was exactly the consistent style of his crazy casual dad.

And that practiced-looking handwriting, he was very familiar with it.

"You bastard," Yan Hang couldn't help but laugh as he looked at that line. "Fuck you, old Yan."

After studying the paper back and forth for a little while, Yan Hang sighed again.

The envelope was very old, but this sheet of paper was quite new, and the ink on it was also fresh.

It could only be said that the contents of this envelope he had always wanted to know, actually never had any fixed contents all along.

Dad probably wrote different things each time based on the situation.

He put away the letter and opened the door.

Outside stood a man who looked about the same age as his dad, but it was clear at a glance that this person was not the same kind as his dad.

Dad had a free and easy jianghu air about him, while this man's face practically had "I'm an upright person" written on it.

It was impossible to imagine someone like this claiming to be friends with his dad.

"My surname is Cui," the man walked in and frowned as he looked around. "You can just call me Old Cui."

"Full name?" Yan Hang insisted.

"Cui Shiyuan*," the man said.

*T/N: Likely a pun on Choi Siwon, from Super Junior. His Chinese name is also written the same way.

Yan Hang stared at him. The man still had that upright expression. In that instant, Yan Hang believed he really was friends with his dad.

"Do you have any news about my dad?" Yan Hang poured Old Cui a glass of water.

"No," Old Cui said. "He express mailed this envelope to me. Inside was this address, the date to come, and a card."

"Come for what?" Yan Hang asked.

"To give you money, and then take you away," Old Cui said.

Yan Hang looked at him.

"He called me about two months ago," Old Cui took a sip of water. "Didn't tell me anything else, just said he wanted you to live a normal life."

Yan Hang didn't speak. After a while, he asked, "Did you know something happened to him?"

"I guessed," Old Cui said. "If nothing happened, he wouldn't have contacted me."

"Before he reached out to you, you had no idea at all?" Yan Hang asked.

"I hadn't been in touch with him for five years, until that one phone call two months ago," Old Cui said. "You should know better than me what kind of person your dad is."

Yan Hang curled up on the sofa, feeling his mind starting to get a bit muddled again.

Maybe it was because he had been in a daze so much these days that his brain had gotten a little rusty.

"This is my business card," Old Cui handed over a card. "I'm staying at the hotel next door. Just give me a call when you've made up your mind."

Yan Hang took the card and glanced at it. Cui Yi. A lawyer?

"My personal advice," Cui Yi looked at him, "is that you should come with me."

"Why?" Yan Hang was still looking down at the card.

"In your current state, it might not be very suitable for you to stay here," Cui Yi said. "Otherwise your dad wouldn't have sent me."

Yan Hang remained silent.

His current state was indeed very poor, feeling trapped in something heavy every day.

But he didn't particularly want to leave. To him, this place was different from anywhere he had stayed before.

And it was only here that traces of his dad could still be felt. If he left, he might never sense it again.

"I'll head back to the hotel first," Cui Yi said. "Give me a call when you've decided. I'll be at the hotel the whole time."

"Mm," Yan Hang responded. "Thanks."

Before leaving, Cui Yi pulled open the curtains, letting the golden morning sunlight pour in.

Yan Hang closed his eyes, like a nocturnal animal thrown under the scorching sun.

He took out the 'letter' from his dad and read it for a while, then lay down on the sofa and covered his eyes with the paper.

The letter was given to Cui Yi by his dad in advance, it seemed to have been planned long ago.

He didn't know what to do.

He wanted to leave, but he also didn't want to leave.

He wanted to find his dad.

If dead, he wanted to find the body.

If alive, he wanted to see him in person.

No matter from which angle, he wanted to find his dad.

But his intuition told him that his dad would not return here again.

Things here had already ended.

Yan Hang opened the self-heating rice that Chu Yi bought yesterday, picked a box of fish-flavored shredded pork, and ate slowly.

He could imagine what fish-flavored shredded pork tasted like.

But he couldn't taste it.

It was the same with the braised pork rice yesterday.

He had experienced losing some senses before, touch, smell, taste, occasionally or continuously over days, which would gradually make him lose his sense of reality.

This was probably what his dad was most worried about.

He unscrewed a bottle of iced black tea and took a few gulps.

After finishing the meal, he went to take a shower, changed his clothes, put on a mask and went out.

The sun outside was fierce, and his eyes could feel a strong swelling pain.

He stood in the shade of the trees for a while, adapting before slowly crossing the street and walking towards the river.

The police cordon to the riverside had been removed, and there were no traces to be seen on the road. The passing crowds were the same as usual, as if they had forgotten what had happened before.

Yan Hang looked back. Behind him was the alley where his father had disappeared.

He stood at the intersection for a while, then turned and continued walking towards the river.

Along the river, there were still no people. Now that the temperature had risen, when the wind blew, one could smell the odor from the river, making him deeply understand why there was no one on this road.

He also deeply understood Chu Yi's extraordinary loneliness, which allowed him to endure this smell and find a tree hole in such a place.

The tree hole was not hard to find, just a short walk away.

Yan Hang walked behind the tree, bent down to look at the tree hole, and sniffed it. Surprisingly, there was a fragrance of wood.

He pressed his face against it.

"Chu Yi, you mutt," he said softly, "I don't know if you can hear what I'm saying here."

"I want to say that I've been to many places and met many people, but now if you let me name three names right away," Yan Hang lightly scratched the trunk, "probably besides Yan Zhiyuan and Yan Hang, there's only Chu Yi."