Chapter 134: The Bridge-Burning Little Menace Attacker Reborn

Chapter 134: The Bridge-Burning Little Menace Gong (Top/Dominant Partner) Is Reborn

"I really do have a way."

To convince him, Qiu Zhijian repeated himself.

"Okay. I understand. I believe you."

Yang Chi responded, placing another piece of food in his bowl. "Here, try this. I specially fried these eggplant pockets. Weren’t they your favorite when you were little…?"

His expression, however, clearly showed he didn’t believe it.

And rightly so—several million yuan was no small sum.

There was no way to raise that much in such a short time.

Yet Qiu Zhijian wasn’t exactly lying when he insisted he had a way, because at that moment, a method to repay the debt had indeed suddenly occurred to him.

"How is it, Xiao Jian? Good?" Yang Chi asked eagerly as he watched him eat. "I haven’t made these in so long, not sure if the taste is still the same…"

Qiu Zhijian didn’t answer, quietly taking a second bite. The flavor was still much the same as he remembered. After finishing one, he picked up a second, then a third, a fourth…

Seeing how much he enjoyed them, Yang Chi slid the entire plate over to Qiu Zhijian, smiling as he watched him take bite after bite, as if he could taste it too just by watching.

Without even looking up, Qiu Zhijian could feel the intense, almost palpable gaze fixed on him from beside.

Perhaps it was because they hadn’t seen each other in five years that, since their reunion, Yang Chi had been watching him so intently, his eyes lingering on everything from his newly changed hairstyle to the additional ring on his finger…

He truly enjoyed watching him.

"Xiao Jian…"

"Hmm?"

Seeing him hesitate, Qiu Zhijian wondered what he wanted to ask. After a soft "hmm?" from Qiu Zhijian, Yang Chi finally spoke up, asking about that girlfriend he’d run into last time he went to see him—were they still together?

Qiu Zhijian shook his head: "We broke up a long time ago."

A flash of joy crossed the man’s face, though he quickly suppressed it. "Then this time… you’re not leaving again?"

"……"

Qiu Zhijian didn’t know how to respond.

*

His total debt amounted to around six million yuan,

all from gambling on raw jadeite stones.

Gambling on stones refers to a method of trading unprocessed jadeite. When jadeite is mined, it’s covered by a weathered outer layer, making it impossible to determine the quality inside without cutting it open.

The uncertainty is extremely high, requiring a mix of luck, skill, and experience. If you win, the returns can be ten or even a hundredfold, making you rich overnight; if you lose, you could lose everything.

Qiu Zhijian remembered that the stone’s appearance and color clearly suggested high-quality jadeite. The first cut even revealed green—a very promising sign.

At the time, someone even offered a high price to buy it on the spot. If he’d sold it then, he could’ve made a modest profit. But he gambled, betting that there’d be more valuable material inside.

If it had turned out as he imagined, with the green extending deeper, its value would’ve multiplied several times over. He could’ve made tens of millions of yuan overnight. But… after the second cut, the color band suddenly disappeared.

He refused to believe it and made a third cut. The interior was still rough and fragmented, with only faint traces of green remaining… In the industry, this is called "cutting kua" (a loss).

It wasn’t completely worthless,

but compared to what he paid, it was practically nothing.

If he sold that batch of material along with a few other high-quality raw stones he’d previously cut successfully, he could probably recover close to two million yuan. As for the remaining four million…

Actually, this idea came to him thanks to Yang Chi. When he heard how worried Yang Chi was that he might be suicidal, and how he kept saying that death meant losing everything, Qiu Zhijian suddenly remembered—there was still insurance.

If he died, it wouldn’t mean nothing. He’d receive a five-million-yuan payout from the insurance company.

He’d held the policy for several years. The beneficiary had always been himself, but he could change it—probably to Yang Chi.

It didn’t necessarily have to be death; something like breaking a leg could also result in compensation. But death would yield a larger payout, and it was the fastest method he could think of.

Besides, he didn’t particularly want to live anymore.

For days after the loss, he kept thinking he’d misjudged the stone. He drifted through life in a daze, unable to muster any energy, until he accidentally overheard some inside information—that raw jadeite materials could be faked?

There were all sorts of tricks: transplanting sections, injecting color into the core, fake outer layers… The scams were numerous and sophisticated. Even experienced buyers might not detect them, let alone a newcomer like him.

Qiu Zhijian couldn’t accept Yang Chi paying for his mistake, taking on such a massive debt for him. He could almost imagine how, in every day of their future together, this would fester like a thorn buried deep in his heart.

Even if Yang Chi never said a word about it,

Qiu Zhijian’s pride couldn’t bear it.

The sense of debt and guilt would make him feel forever inferior, as if he’d always be looking up to Yang Chi. Just thinking about it felt like countless ants crawling under his skin, gnawing at his flesh.

This feeling was many times worse than when he first realized he’d been deceived.

*

Qiu Zhijian had everything planned out in his mind,

but he didn’t say a word to Yang Chi.

That day, he just chewed silently, ate silently, and finally leaned silently against the doorframe watching Yang Chi wash the dishes. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the marks he’d carved into the wall as a child.

Only when he saw such clear markers did Qiu Zhijian realize: Ah, so he’s grown this tall… and back then, I was so short.

After finishing the dishes, Yang Chi turned and noticed Qiu Zhijian’s gaze. He walked over, touched the marks, and looked nostalgic. "This was from the first time you came to find me…"

"That time you suddenly showed up without telling me beforehand, you really scared me. It’s so dangerous out there, with all those traffickers, and you were just a kid…"

Even after all this time, the thirty-five-year-old Yang Chi still seemed shaken recalling it. "Sigh, it’s a good thing nothing happened to you back then…"

Next to the marks was a date written in permanent marker:

"2013.7.20, Jian."

Qiu Zhijian was born in 1998, the Year of the Tiger, so next to it was a simple drawing of a little tiger, sketched by Yang Chi. After all this time, it had already faded somewhat.

But strangely, when Qiu Zhijian saw it, he could still vividly recall the moment it was drawn, how he’d made the first mark and declared he’d definitely grow taller than that one day.

What was Yang Chi’s expression back then? He’d been delighted. Instead of scolding him for damaging the wall, he carefully drew a little tiger next to the mark.

From then on, every time a new mark was added to the wall, he’d draw a little tiger with a different expression next to it, then laugh and praise him: "Aiya, our Xiao Jian has grown taller again."

*

Qiu Zhijian traced the gradually rising marks on the wall, as if touching the passage of time itself flowing through his fingertips.

The marks stopped abruptly in 2017, with no new ones after that. That year, he was nineteen, about to start university.

Legally, he was now an adult.

Perhaps it was due to a late-onset rebellious phase, or perhaps it was because he had been exposed to too many dazzling things after starting university. In any case, his relationship with Yang Chi became unstable.

In Qiu Zhijian’s heart, he had been the one holding their relationship together from the very beginning.

Starting from their first meeting, it was he who had carefully staked him out. Every interaction afterward, it was he who played the part of a well-behaved child, trying to please him.

Back then, he must have gotten tired of the act, right?

And it just so happened that around that time, Yang Chi’s factory was not doing well, profits were shrinking, and he could no longer provide as much financially.

“Xiao Jian?”

Having finished washing the dishes, tidying the kitchen, and even wiping down the dining table, Yang Chi probably noticed that Qiu Zhijian was still spacing out while staring at the marks on the wall, so he came over to guide him away.

“It’s only noon now. Once the sun lets up outside, do you want to go out for a walk? I’ll go with you,” he suggested. “Do you remember that park that was under renovation before? It’s been rebuilt now, and it’s much bigger than before...”

“......”

Seeing that Qiu Zhijian remained silent and didn’t respond, Yang Chi probably assumed he didn’t want to go out and dropped the subject. “What do you want to eat tonight? I’ll go to the market later to buy some food.”

“...Mm. Anything is fine.”

*

Changing the insurance beneficiary didn’t take much time—just a phone call, followed by a meeting to re-sign some paperwork. It was all settled within a day. He used the remaining day to plan his suicide.

Throughout this, Yang Chi was completely in the dark. Several times, Qiu Zhijian even noticed him sneaking off with his phone to take calls. Yang Chi probably thought Qiu Zhijian hadn’t seen, but he had.

He could also guess that the calls were from debt collectors.

At the same time, Yang Chi was also contacting real estate agents. As it was a property in a good school district, once he put it on the market, there were quite a few prospective buyers coming to look at the house.

One after another, different people came to see the property. Yang Chi was busy showing them around and didn’t get a break. After finally seeing the agent off, he turned around and realized Qiu Zhijian was gone.

He had been sitting on the sofa just moments before...

“Xiao Jian?”

He checked the bedroom—not there.

The bathroom door was open, and a quick glance showed it was empty. He wasn’t in the kitchen, nor in the small study from before...

For some reason, Yang Chi felt a sudden wave of panic. He immediately took out his phone to call Qiu Zhijian, but after hearing the familiar automated message, he suddenly remembered—he had been blocked by Qiu Zhijian a long time ago.

Yang Chi was frantic with worry, even considering filing a police report, when he noticed a note weighed down by a water glass on the table:

“I’ve gone out. I’ll be back soon.”

Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, he received a call from an unfamiliar number. The person on the other end first verified who he was, then urgently told him to go to the hospital.

“What?!”

After hearing what the person on the phone said, Yang Chi’s mind went blank. Suddenly, the world seemed to spin, and all he could hear was a sharp ringing in his ears.

*

On the fifth day after reuniting with Yang Chi after five years,

Qiu Zhijian died.

He remembered clearly that he was sure he'd died. Of course, he was a little curious about how Yang Chi would react when he found out, and he even ran the numbers for Yang Chi.

He had already repaid some of the debt. After receiving the five million in insurance payout and paying off the remaining debt, Yang Chi would still have at least a million left.

Not bad.

He was quite satisfied with this outcome.

In his dazed state, he seemed to hear some voice but didn’t pay attention to what it said before he completely slipped into unconsciousness. Then, then... he actually woke up again.

After calmly listening to everything the strange voice in his head said, Qiu Zhijian roughly understood his current situation. It seemed that, due to some kind of power, he had returned to the past?

The cold, monotonous mechanical voice referred to him as the user and told him that he could communicate with it in his mind if he had any questions. It also mentioned that it had signed an agreement and would never interfere with his actions, nor would it pry into his memories.

“Oh... I see.”

*

At that time, Qiu Zhijian was sitting in a moving van. The enclosed space was filled with an unidentifiable foul smell—a mix of sweat, cheap perfume, and engine oil.

It made him feel a bit nauseous.

A child in the front row was crying incessantly, and a middle-aged man was shouting into his phone, occasionally coughing up phlegm and spitting it out the window. Qiu Zhijian himself was sitting in the back row by the window, next to a large middle-aged man who was so large he was almost squeezing Qiu Zhijian against the edge.

Next to the man were a young man and a middle-aged woman, and what seemed to be the woman’s daughter.

Just the back row alone had four people.

Without a doubt, it was an overcrowded car.

Qiu Zhijian turned to look at his reflection in the window and, as expected, saw a face that was both familiar and unfamiliar.

The familiarity came from the fact that it was his own face, with traces of his former self still visible in the corners of his eyes and brows. The unfamiliarity stemmed from the fact that he hadn’t seen this face in many years.

Forcing aside the inexplicable discomfort in his heart, Qiu Zhijian began to recall his current situation. Actually, he didn’t need to recall much—just by looking at the vehicle, the red bag at his feet, and the backpack on his lap, he knew exactly when this was.

It was the first time he had run away from Shumu County to find Yang Chi. The year was 2013, he was fifteen years old, and it was the first time he had ever left the tiny, palm-sized Shumu County.

Back then, he didn’t have an ID card yet and couldn’t buy a ticket at the station, so he had to take this kind of illegal cab that solicited fares outside the station.

A lot happened along the way. Since Yang Chi lived far from Shumu County, he had to take several illegal cabs, and at one point, he even took the wrong one.

It was his fault—he had misheard the address, and the driver, in a hurry to pick up passengers, hadn’t carefully listened to where he was going. Halfway through the journey, the driver realized the kid wasn’t heading in the right direction and simply dropped him off on the side of the road.

When Yang Chi heard about what he'd been through back then, his face instantly changed, and he held Qiu Zhijian tightly. “Oh my god, you’re so brave, taking illegal cabs like that. What if you’d been trafficked? If you ever want to come see me again, you have to tell me in advance so I can come pick you up, understand?”

The reason Qiu Zhijian had gone to find him back then was that Yang Chi had been too busy and hadn’t been replying to his messages. Qiu Zhijian, thousands of miles away, thought Yang Chi no longer wanted to support him, so he...

After they met, Qiu Zhijian burst into tears, making Yang Chi’s heart melt. Seeing how shabbily dressed he was, Yang Chi immediately took him out to buy new clothes and let him stay at his place for the entire summer vacation.

It has to be said, the young Qiu Zhijian back then was really clever. Because after that, no matter how busy Yang Chi was, he always replied to his messages.

The frequency of their messages increased, starting with brief greetings and gradually shifting to concerns about his studies and his health...

*

“Listen to me first…”

The driver up front was still loudly instructing the passengers about what to do if they were stopped for an inspection—who should stay in the car, who should get off and walk a short distance before getting back on later.

Finally, he glanced at the youngest passenger in the car.

“Kid, if we get stopped for an inspection, just bend down a bit and hide. You’re small, so they won’t see you from outside…”

Qiu Zhijian: “…”

Though he wanted to argue, it was the truth—he really was thin and small at that time. If he bent over slightly, he'd be completely hidden from view outside.

The others probably assumed this child was with an adult on the bus, only now realizing he didn’t know anyone and was traveling alone.

The driver, with his booming voice, overheard the passengers' discussion and chimed in with a laugh, "Don’t let his size fool you—he says he’s heading to Huating, you know..."

His remark sparked a flurry of chatter among the other passengers.

"That's pretty far—over a thousand kilometers."

"We’re only going as far as Shaoshi. To get there, you’ll have to transfer a few times… Is anyone picking you up?"

"Oh, what are you going to Huating for? Do you have an address once you arrive?"

"Hey, how come he's not saying anything..."