Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The flight from Yundong to Jiangcheng, a thousand kilometers away, took nearly two hours.

Xu Muchan dozed off, and when he woke, he heard the dull roar of the plane touching down.

Qiu Ze stood up and gave him a pat. "Second Young Master, we're here. Let's get ready to get off."

Xu Muchan opened his eyes and fumbled to his feet, reminding Qiu Ze that his backpack was still in the overhead bin.

Qiu Ze grunted an "Eh" and stepped into the aisle to grab the backpack. Being tall, he could see into the bin with a slight tilt of his head, and let out a puzzled "Huh? How did this zipper come open?"

He distinctly remembered the zipper had only been open a crack before, about half a palm wide, but now the backpack in the bin was unzipped all the way, revealing a dark red wooden object inside.

In the dim light of the bin, the dark red looked old and eerie, like a creepy prop from a horror movie.

Qiu Ze couldn't shake the feeling that the dark red wood looked vaguely familiar, whether it was his imagination or not, but for the life of him, he couldn't place it. Frowning, he reached for it and asked Xu Muchan, "Second Young Master, looks like someone opened your bag. Nothing valuable in there, right?"

Xu Muchan frowned slightly, fumbled a couple steps toward the aisle, and said, "Nothing valuable. I'll just take it myself."

There was no way Qiu Ze was letting a blind kid carry his own stuff. He quickly told him to sit tight, then grabbed the strap and hauled the bag down in one go.

But the bag felt weird in his hand—slippery, with a soft, springy give, not like fabric at all, more like some kind of supple leather. The weird texture made Qiu Ze queasy. He glanced down at the bag in confusion, only to lock eyes with an eye peering out through the zipper gap.

In that instant, Qiu Ze's mind went blank. He couldn't even muster a basic reaction. His throat closed up, his stomach churned violently, and his breathing turned labored, but he couldn't tear his gaze away.

That was definitely not a human eye—a human pupil wouldn't fill the whole socket like beans crammed in a pod.

Qiu Ze stood frozen, and in his sheer terror, all that came out of his throat was a hoarse "Hah... hah..."

The people behind him, clueless about what was happening, grew impatient and urged, "Hey, would you move it up there? Don't block the aisle."

The voice seemed to come from far, far away, muffled and distorted as if through a thick layer of water.

Qiu Ze's pupils dilated in shock, and he couldn't respond.

Xu Muchan seemed to sense something. He sighed faintly, fumbled for Qiu Ze's arm, and pulled him back into his seat.

Qiu Ze stumbled, his fingers stiff from tension loosening one by one. The bag dropped onto the seat with a dull thud.

Xu Muchan grabbed the bag, ran his fingers over the surface, and found the zipper pull without trouble. The zipper closing was clearly audible even over the cabin noise.

After zipping it up, he gave the bag a gentle pat, then turned to Qiu Ze and asked, "Assistant Qiu? Aren't we getting off?"

Qiu Ze finally snapped out of the terror, like a drowning man dragged onto shore. He couldn't speak, just gasping for air, staring in fear at the bag Xu Muchan clutched like a treasure.

After a long moment, he managed to force out, "You... what's in your bag?"

Xu Muchan hesitated, but said, "It's a shrine with my brother's memorial tablet inside. He's my only family, so I brought him along... Some people might find it off-putting, so I didn't mention it."

The boy grew timid, hunching his shoulders and hugging the bag to his chest, as if afraid Qiu Ze might object and make him leave it behind.

And Qiu Ze finally realized where the familiarity came from.

So it was a shrine.

His hometown had similar shrines, but bigger and fancier, usually holding statues of Guanyin, Guan Gong, or the Earth God, or ancestral tablets.

Every first and fifteenth of the lunar month, his grandmother would carefully wipe down the shrine and statues and pray. Years of incense smoke had left the shrine glossy and bright.

But the shrine he'd just seen was dull and faded, with a faint, rotting darkness seeping through.

And those eyes staring at him through the zipper gap...

Qiu Ze didn't dare think about it anymore.

Still shaken, he glanced at the bag, swallowed hard, and wanted to ask something but held back out of some unspoken unease. Finally, he looked away, no longer daring to look at the bag in the boy's arms, and said, gently taking his arm, "Let's head down first. Everyone else is gone."

The boy let out a soft "Oh" and didn't put up a fight as Qiu Ze led him off the plane.

They were in business class, so after landing they took the VIP passage and soon met Zhou Yang at the VIP building, who Xu Qingming had arranged to pick them up.

Qiu Ze finally saw the person taking over and breathed a huge sigh of relief. He helped Xu Muchan into the back seat but went around to the front passenger seat himself.

Zhou Yang glanced at the quiet boy in the back via the rearview mirror and said, "Word that the Second Young Master had been found got leaked by someone. There'll probably be a bunch of reporters camped out on the way back to the villa, but Second Young Master doesn't need to worry. When the time comes, don't say anything—just follow me and keep quiet, and once we're home, it'll be fine."

Qiu Ze asked, puzzled, "How did the news leak? Are there a lot of reporters coming?"

"No idea. Anyway, everyone who should be here and everyone who shouldn't has shown up."

Zhou Yang was Xu Qingming's special assistant. He shrugged helplessly, then glanced at the boy with downcast eyes in the rearview mirror: "What happened to Second Young Master's eyes?"

They only found out after Qiu Ze picked him up in Yundong that this Second Young Master was blind.

Qiu Ze pursed his lips at him and made a face that said "it's a long story": "I don't know the details either. I found him at the hospital. There was a sudden landslide in Leigong Village, and the whole village got buried. Quite a few casualties, but luckily Second Young Master only had some minor scrapes."

"Did his eyes get hurt in that incident?"

"Probably. I asked the other villagers—his eyes were fine before; he only went blind recently. The small-town hospital couldn't figure out the cause, so we'll have to run more tests back in Jiangcheng."

That eerie scene on the plane made Qiu Ze reluctant to discuss Xu Muchan's condition in front of him.

Though the boy sat silently in the back seat, Qiu Ze couldn't shake the feeling of a prickling sensation on his back, as if a pair of eyes were constantly fixed on him.

This unsettling feeling prompted Qiu Ze to change the subject: "How are we going to handle those reporters later?"

Zhou Yang said, "Mr. Xu said since we can't avoid them, we might as well let them take photos openly. The Second Young Master is finally back—that's a happy occasion, nothing to hide. Besides, this is also an opportunity..."

The rest wasn't something to say in front of Xu Muchan, so Zhou Yang didn't finish the sentence, only winking at Qiu Ze meaningfully.

Qiu Ze understood.

The Xu's Group had its fingers in many pies, including an entertainment company under it called Hengyue Media.

Hengyue was quite well-known in the industry, having produced plenty of popular idols and hit dramas. Because of the nature of the business, it always drew a lot of attention, and as the chairman of the Xu's Group, the largest shareholder of Hengyue Media, Xu Qingming naturally attracted plenty of scrutiny as well.

It was no secret that the Xu family's second son had been kidnapped as a child. To find him, the Xu's Group had kept a hefty reward posted, appealing to the public for leads.

When Xu Qingming first stepped into the public eye as a prominent entrepreneur, this matter had stirred up significant attention. Crowds of people flocked in with tips, but none of them panned out.

As time passed, the buzz gradually faded.

The Xu family, however, never gave up the search.

It wasn't until recently that police in Yundong suddenly contacted Xu Qingming, saying they'd found a DNA match and located the child who had been abducted all those years ago. That was when Xu Qingming hastily arranged for Qiu Ze to go pick him up.

The news had originally been kept under wraps, but somehow it leaked—not only reaching the media but also trending on social media several times.

So in recent days, the Jiangcheng airport and the area around the Xu family villa had been swarming with reporters from all outlets, and even countless self-media bloggers had caught wind and come flocking. Everyone wanted to get a look at the true face of the Xu family's second son, finally found after fifteen years.

If handled well, this could be a great opportunity for positive exposure—both for Xu Qingming personally and for the Xu Group as a whole.

What a feel-good happy ending for everyone!

But this was Zhou Yang's job as the special assistant, so Qiu Ze wasn't going to get involved.

The black Audi raced down the airport road, speeding toward the Xu family villa.

Sure enough, just as Zhou Yang had said, media were camped out near the villa, a wall of cameras and microphones lined up, flashbulbs popping in rapid succession.

The moment Xu Muchan stepped out of the car, microphones were shoved in his face, and a jumble of questions blended into an unbearable, piercing buzz.

The blind teenager, dressed in a faded blue school uniform, his face pale, hunched his shoulders inward and clutched the schoolbag to his chest, stumbling forward as Zhou Yang steadied him from behind.

The reporters snapped photos of the scene.

Amid the nonstop clicking of shutters, Xu Muchan was shielded by Zhou Yang as they pushed through the crowd, finally reaching the Xu family.

Xu Zhifei's eyes welled up at the sight of the thin boy in his faded school uniform. She rushed over and wrapped her arms around him, her voice choked with tears: "Muchan, Mom finally found you."

Xu Muchan stood stiffly in place, his small, delicate face mostly hidden by his overlong black hair, revealing only the straight bridge of his nose and his lips pressed together slightly beneath it.

The boy, newly reunited with his family, seemed at a loss, standing stiff and frozen.

Then Xu Qingming stepped forward, patting the boy firmly on the shoulder, his voice hoarse as he said, "You're back, that's all that matters."

Xu Wangchuan, pushed to the edge of the crowd, watched the reunited family from a distance. For a brief moment, his refined face was expressionless, but he quickly composed himself, parted the crowd, and stepped forward, wrapping his arms around his adoptive mother and his new brother, saying with a warm smile, "Achan, welcome home."

Xu Muchan tilted his head slightly toward him, and Xu Wangchuan leaned in close to his ear, whispering quickly: "Though this is our first meeting, I've known about you for a long time."

He paused, his smile unchanged, but his voice suddenly dropped with an unreadable undertone:

"You really are easy to like."