Chapter 77 Xie Yun

Chapter 77: Xie Yun

Xie Fengshi was still tucked in Kaelen's arms, one hand clamped over his mouth, the other holding up his phone. On the screen was a message sent in the middle of the night. He glanced down, reading it, and his brows gradually knit together.

"What's wrong?" Kaelen mumbled, his voice muffled against Xie Fengshi's palm.

Xie Fengshi turned his phone toward Kaelen. It was an anonymous message—no profile picture, no username, just one line: "You're back. I know where you live. Let's meet. Some things are better said in person. I'm sending you the address. Ten o'clock. You'll come, won't you?"

Kaelen's gaze lingered on the screen for a moment. The laziness in his blue eyes faded slightly, but there was no strong emotional reaction. "Who do you think sent it?"

"Xie Yun." Xie Fengshi turned over in Kaelen's arms. "I've changed my phone and my number. Not many people know my new contact info, and even fewer know where I live. The fact he tracked me down means he went to some trouble. Since he went to all this trouble, the least I can do is show up."

Kaelen looked down at him, his blue eyes reflecting Xie Fengshi's face. "You want to go?"

"Yeah." Xie Fengshi didn't hesitate. "I'm curious. I want to know what he has to say."

Kaelen bent down and pressed a kiss to Xie Fengshi's brow, lingering for two seconds before pulling back. "I'll go with you."

Seeing that Kaelen's expression wasn't up for negotiation, Xie Fengshi knew he couldn't refuse. But he didn't want to anyway. "Okay."

Lu Shiyan was already downstairs. He was leaning against the car with his phone out, wearing a puffer jacket and a scarf wound several times around his neck. He looked up at the sound of footsteps, his round eyes lighting up—until they landed on Kaelen. Then the light died down. "We were supposed to hang out, just the two of us! Why are you stuck to your boyfriend again? I wanted to take you to that hotpot place!"

Xie Fengshi sighed, patting Lu Shiyan on the shoulder. "I have something to handle. Be back later. We'll do hotpot tonight—my treat."

"What's going on this early in the morning?" Lu Shiyan grumbled, his gaze bouncing between Xie Fengshi and Kaelen. He caught on quickly. "Wait, what do you have to do around here? Who's after you? What happened?"

Xie Fengshi didn't plan to hide it from him. He handed over his phone.

Lu Shiyan took it and looked at it. Confusion gave way to shock, then settled into something complex and hard to read. "How did he even know you're back? And he has the nerve to reach out?"

"So I have to go see him."

Lu Shiyan sighed in exasperation. "He says jump, you say how high? Don't you know the more you feed into it, the worse it gets?"

Xie Fengshi nodded. "I know. But I still want to."

Lu Shiyan's grin turned sly. "I don't buy that you're going in without some plan. You've got something up your sleeve. Fine, fine, go ahead. I'll wait for you outside. Wait..."

Lu Shiyan's gaze landed on Kaelen. "You're going too?"

"Yeah," Kaelen replied.

Lu Shiyan's expression turned knowing. "If he's there," Lu Shiyan said to Xie Fengshi, "will you be able to focus? You'll just end up staring at him instead of talking to Xie Yun."

Xie Fengshi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "That's why I was thinking he could wait outside while I go in alone."

Lu Shiyan's eyes lit up. "Yes! Exactly! That's the spirit!"

Lu Shiyan got so excited he half climbed out the car window. "People like him can't stand variables they can't control. He set this meeting up, so he came prepared—he's thought out exactly what to say, how to say it, probably even predicted your reactions. But you're not the same Xie Fengshi who left the country back then. That throws his whole script out the window."

"I'll stay in the car, obviously. Don't worry, I'll keep your man from barging in and messing it up. I get it. You want to face him alone."

Xie Fengshi's throat tightened slightly. Lu Shiyan usually seemed carefree and clueless, but when he talked, he always hit the nail on the head. "Thanks, Yanyan."

Lu Shiyan's ears went red. He yanked his scarf up to hide half his face. "Don't copy my brother! Don't call me that! I'm older than you!"

Xie Fengshi laughed out loud. He turned to look at Kaelen, who nodded. "I'll wait outside with him."

Kaelen got what Xie Fengshi wanted. Some things needed to be said in private, and some scores needed to be settled face-to-face.

Kaelen could shield Xie Fengshi from the wind and rain at any time, but this time, he chose to give Xie Fengshi the space to handle it himself.

Xie Fengshi looked up at Kaelen, his dark eyes reflecting the gray winter light and Kaelen's face. "Alright."

Lu Shiyan watched the scene from the side, his mouth twitching. He hesitated several times, then finally turned his face toward the other window, rolling his eyes at his own reflection on the glass.

He shouldn't have looked.

...

The meeting place was deep in a quiet alley, so low-key it almost blended into the gray-white walls.

When Xie Fengshi pushed open the door, a receptionist in a plain cheongsam looked up. "Hello, do you have a reservation?"

"Yes, under the surname Xie."

"Mr. Xie, this way, please."

She led Xie Fengshi down a short corridor, pushed open a door, and entered a small private room. By the window, there was a view of the old wall across the alley, where remnants of unmelted snow still clung to the top. Tea had already been brewed on the table, the liquid a pale gold—this year's new Longjing.

Xie Fengshi sat down, took off his scarf, draped it to the side, and picked up the teacup for a sip.

The tea leaves weren't bad, and the water temperature was just right, but it had been steeped too quickly—the bitterness hadn't fully dissolved before it was served.

The door opened, and a gust of cold air swept in, blowing away the last traces of warmth from the teacup.

Xie Fengshi looked up. Compared to the person in his memory, Xie Yun was much thinner and wearier. His features were still delicate, carrying an inherent sharpness. But those sharp lines had been dulled by exhaustion. The dark circles under his eyes were hard to hide, and his lips were chapped with fine flakes of dry skin.

He wore a dark gray coat with the collar turned up, and a black turtleneck underneath. On anyone else, the outfit might have looked dull, but on him, it accentuated a kind of pale, sickly beauty.

He was still handsome—after all, he was the True Young Master who had received the most attention in the book. But this handsomeness was now tinged with weathering and strain, like a delicate shell gnawed by time, the skeleton beneath already beginning to loosen.

As Xie Fengshi studied Xie Yun, Xie Yun was studying him in return.

His gaze swept over Xie Fengshi's face, taking in every detail. Xie Fengshi's skin was fair and glowing, not a sickly pallor, but pinkish-white. His black hair fell softly and loosely over his forehead. His eyes were dark and bright, the corners slightly upturned, like a well-cared-for cat lazily basking in the sun, every strand of fur radiating the luster of being pampered.

Xie Yun wasn't unaware that Xie Fengshi was good-looking. He had known it from the very first day he entered the Xie family.

But back then, Xie Fengshi was beautiful without substance, all surface and no depth. Now, though, Xie Fengshi had been transplanted from a greenhouse to the wilderness—and instead of withering, he had bloomed even more brilliantly than before.

Xie Yun picked up his teacup and took a sip. The tea had already gone cold, bitterness spreading across his tongue. "You seem to be doing well."

"Not bad. Eating well, dressing warmly. Someone to keep me company, someone to look after me."

Xie Fengshi's tone was exceptionally flat as he said this, and that very flatness stung more than any deliberate show-off ever could.

Xie Yun set his teacup down, the clink a bit too sharp from the force. "Do you know why I'm looking for you?"

"No, and I'm not particularly curious." Xie Fengshi answered honestly. "But since you went to the trouble of finding me, I figured I should come."

Xie Yun was silent for a moment. "You've probably heard about what's been going on at home."

"Home?" Xie Fengshi raised an eyebrow slightly. "Which home?"

Xie Yun's expression shifted. He stared at Xie Fengshi for several seconds, as if trying to confirm whether he really didn't care or was just pretending. But he couldn't find any flaw in Xie Fengshi's expression. "The Xie family. Things aren't going well for the Xie family right now. Father's idea is that if you're willing to come back, everything from before can be wiped clean."

Xie Fengshi was genuinely amused. He found it absolutely absurd. "I'm curious—how exactly does he plan to 'wipe' it, and how does he plan to 'clean' it?"

Xie Yun didn't answer immediately. He looked down at his own cold tea on the table. The warmth had long since evaporated from the cup's walls, leaving only the dark liquid and a few sunken leaves at the bottom. "I know you're not satisfied. But the Xie family's current situation isn't just about you—a lot of people's livelihoods depend on it. If you're willing to come back, at least on the surface, we can maintain appearances."

Xie Fengshi rolled the word "face" around on his tongue: "So you came to bring me back, not to apologize or make amends, but for the sake of face."

"That's not what I meant..."

"Then what did you mean?" Xie Fengshi interrupted him. "Xie Yun, you're sitting across from me, telling me the Xie family needs me back to keep up appearances. Do you think that's reasonable? When you threw me out back then, did you give me a choice? Everyone blocked me, didn't give me a cent, dumped me in a ramshackle house and left me to rot. Now you're in trouble and suddenly remember I exist?"

"The Xie family raised you for twenty years."

"Right, raised for twenty years. So when I was kicked out, I took nothing. Consider those twenty years paid off. What, you still think it's not enough? What else do you want me to pay back?"

Xie Fengshi looked at Xie Yun's current state and felt neither satisfaction nor pity—it was unexpectedly calm, like watching a play that had nothing to do with him. No matter how hard the actors on stage performed, he was just an audience member. "You didn't come looking for me just to say all this, did you?"

Xie Yun was silent for a long time. "Your biological parents... they've looked for you."

Xie Fengshi hesitated. Then Xie Yun continued, "They know you exist, and they know you grew up in the Xie family. They wanted to meet you, but you were already abroad by then, and you'd changed your number, so they couldn't find you. I didn't tell them where you were."

"Why didn't you tell them?"

Xie Yun didn't answer.

But the silence was answer enough.

Xie Fengshi looked at the face before him and found it utterly absurd—so absurd that he couldn't even muster the energy to be angry. "You've taken everything. And you hid news of my biological parents from me. You thought I'd go back to them and take away the love you've received?"

"Don't you think you've already gotten enough? When you were brought back, how did the Xie family treat you? You know damn well. How did Xie Hui treat you, and how did you treat him? You caused such a huge screw-up that he couldn't show his face in front of the shareholders, and you haven't even apologized?"

"I never said I wasn't apologizing!"

"You've never apologized, Xie Yun. You never do. You think everything you do is right. You think that since you came back, everything in the Xie family should be yours. You think I took your place, so I deserved to be thrown out. And now you see I'm doing well, and you can't stand it, right?"

Under the table, Xie Yun's hands clenched into fists, knuckles cracking.

Xie Fengshi said, "You came to me because you're not doing well. Seeing me do well makes you unbalanced. You want to drag me down. You even hope I end up just as miserable as you."

Xie Yun jerked his head up, gray-black eyes swirling with indescribable currents.

Xie Fengshi met that gaze. "So you asked me out today to see what I look like now, right? Well, now you've seen it. I'm doing great. I haven't needed the Xie family for a long time, Xie Yun."

Xie Yun's face went pale and red. Xie Fengshi could tell he was at a loss for words, so he continued, "You can't accept it. You're jealous. You think, why are you in such a mess while I can be so carefree? So you had to see me in person, to witness with your own eyes whether I'm really doing better than you. Now you've seen it. Are you satisfied now?"

Xie Yun remained silent. Xie Fengshi suddenly found the whole thing tiresome. He put the empty teacup back on the table. "My biological parents—did you tell them?"

After a long pause, Xie Yun spoke. "No."

"Then do you plan to tell them?"

Another long silence.

"Whatever." Xie Fengshi stood up, picked up the scarf draped beside him, and wrapped it around his neck. "Whether you tell them or not, that's your choice. But I'll say this, Xie Yun. From now on, you take the broad road, I'll take the narrow bridge. The Xie family's affairs have nothing to do with me. Your affairs have nothing to do with me either. If you come looking for me again, I can't guarantee I'll be this nice next time."

When Xie Fengshi reached the door, he turned back to take one last look at Xie Yun. That handsome face was etched with exhaustion.

As he walked out the door, a cold wind hit him. The alley air was cold and crisp. He stood at the entrance and took a deep breath. The chill rushed through his nasal passages, snapping him awake.