Chapter 62: Tortured to the point of being two completely different people, clearly in the same world, yet…

the scenes of those days lingered in Shen Huixing's memory like a damp, old film, too unreal to touch. Pei Jiqing's warmth pressed against his neck, his breath brushing against his collarbone. Tormented by estrus, he'd curled defenselessly in his arms, as if he were the last remaining piece of driftwood.

After Pei Jiqing fell asleep, Chen Huixing huddled in bed next to him. He suddenly wondered if he hadn't decided to get a vasectomy back then, would he be able to tie him down now with even more filthy means?

The thought, like a venomous snake's tongue, hissed through his chest.

Pei Jiqing, perhaps having slept poorly, kicked the covers aside and turned sideways, his waistline a porcelain-white arc in the morning light. Chen Huixing stared at the hollow, fascinated, imagining a life growing there.

How ridiculous! They didn't even have a tomorrow, and yet he was already fantasizing about tying Pei Jiqing with another umbilical cord.

Chen Huixing had sensed something was amiss with him long ago. Ever since he'd learned of Pei Jiqing's past, how he'd been devoured by his own blood relatives, how the Pei family had sold off their own flesh and blood by the pound—everything—he'd been wrong.

Chen Huixing wanted to make amends, to replace the flesh and blood that had been taken from Pei Jiqing over the years, bit by bit, but Pei Jiqing wouldn't even give him a chance. The first thing she did upon regaining consciousness was to push him away, leaving without a second glance.

They'd been entangled for so long, so long that Chen Huixing couldn't even count how many times he'd lost control in front of Pei Jiqing. Rage, pleading, embarrassment—every emotion, both necessary and unnecessary, was hurled at Pei Jiqing, like a prolonged torture.

But now, the man didn't even frown, simply looking at him calmly, as if any further madness would be futile.

Liang Yi once said: "You were too ruthless back then. Now you want to turn back, but sincerity alone is not enough."

But what is sincerity? Chen Huixing thought, he had already dug out his true heart and presented it to Pei Jiqing, but that man didn't even bother to look at it.

At first, Pei Jiqing approached him stubbornly like a planet orbiting a star, with the determination of a moth to a flame. Chen Huixing thought that he would always be the calm bystander.

After Pei Jiqing slammed the door and left, he sat in the driver's seat for a full forty minutes, lit a cigarette, dialed a number, and heard his daughter's excited voice from the other end of the phone.

"Dad! Are you on vacation?" Zhizhi cheered.

"Yes, Dad is on vacation." Pei Jiqing heard that his voice was unspeakably gentle. Zhizhi

on the other end of the phone recounted how well-behaved she had been in the past few days, and asked Chen Huixing: "Dad said he would take me horseback riding. When is it?"

"He's been very busy lately."

Pei Jiqing suddenly felt absurd after saying that. They were a terrible couple, one using work as an excuse to escape, the other using lies to maintain superficial peace, but their young daughter learned to be sensible early on.

Zhizhi responded obediently, saying that you should also eat and sleep well, and that Grandma Zhang and I are very good. The less the child cried or made a fuss, the more it reflected their negligence as a father.

Later, Chen Huixing suddenly disappeared.

Half a month passed, and there were no harassing messages on his phone.

Instead, there were brown paper envelopes neatly lying in the mailbox, with Zhizhi's name written on the recipient. When Pei Jiqing opened it, a dry sycamore leaf slipped out. There was also a rain flower stone in the envelope, its edges were rounded, and it shone with a warm and cool light in the palm of his hand.

Chen Huixing said in the letter that they had touched the rain flower stone when they were wading through waist-deep river water together during a mission.

The water was flowing fast at the time, and Chen Huixing's hand suddenly touched the stone in the turbid water, and for some reason, he clenched it tightly. As for the dead leaf, he said that one morning when he woke up, he found it had fallen on his forehead. At that moment, he vaguely thought that they were kissing him.

Pei Jiqing couldn't understand why an executive officer of Chen Huixing's level had to go to the front line in person - the man could have been sitting in the command room and making plans a long time ago, but now he chose to go to the most dangerous place. Who was he acting for? Or did he really think that he could atone for his sins by doing this kind of self-torture?

The penmanship on the letter paper was written with extreme care. Chen Huixing said in the letter that he remembered many years ago when Pei Jiqing always sent him handwritten letters, sometimes with dried flowers in the envelope, sometimes with movie ticket stubs. Chen Huixing was at a loss every time he received it, and finally could only put the letter as it was after reading it into the bottom of the drawer. Now it was his turn to do the same thing, and he realized how many unspeakable words were hidden in those letters.

Pei Jiqing thought that Shen Huixing had never even opened his letters, but he didn't expect that he had read them all.

In the letter, Chen Huixing said that during the days of heavy gunfire at the front, he always thought about how he climbed to this position step by step, how he almost lost his original intention, and how he pushed the most important people further and further away.

The closer he got to the battlefield, the more Chen Huixing suddenly felt that the fortress of power he had built over the years was a joke. All those deceitful officialdom tactics and scheming were not as good as living a good life.

- Jiqing, there are some things I can't tell others. I used to think it was an honor to die on the battlefield, but now I am afraid for no reason.

The man who used to be unwilling to say even a soft word, now actually learned to ask for peace in such a clumsy way.

Pei Jiqing suddenly felt ridiculous and a little breathless.

Love is really the cruelest grinding tool, which can grind people into two completely different people. Chen Huixing, who used to be so arrogant that he would not even look at anyone, now bends his back and asks carefully between the lines: Can you forgive me?

The crystal chandeliers dazzled the banquet hall, and the shimmering light from the champagne towers stung Pei Jiqing's eyes. He weaved among the suited crowd, listening to the upstarts discuss the battle situation on the front lines. Someone mentioned Chen Huixing's name, saying that the executive seemed to be trying to close the gap and had been very aggressive recently.

Amidst the elegantly dressed figures, the celebrities chatted and laughed, everything seemed exquisitely otherworldly.

"Executive Shen recently personally visited the most dangerous areas, did

n't he?" "Really? Is that so? Even at that level, he's still fighting so hard?"

"I heard they've stirred up a hornet's nest. Everyone knows it's a chaotic place. The flow of that kind of drug must have some hidden backing, even beyond the Asian Union. The executive is trying to swim against the tide."

The bloody battle reports spilled from their mouths like a discussion of the day's stock market. Pei Jiqing suddenly remembered the front-line photos he'd received last week: Chen Huixing standing on scorched earth, an armored vehicle burned to a frame behind him. Blood stains, whose blood was unknown, stained the corners of the photos.

The piano in the banquet hall suddenly grew cheerful. A waiter wheeled past, carrying a five-tiered cake. The sweet aroma of cream, mingled with the women's perfume, made one dizzy.

This extravagant banquet and the battlefield thousands of miles away, seemingly part of the same world, seemed to be separated by a rift between two completely unrelated parallel universes.

They discussed Chen Huixing's political aims and ulterior motives, as if they were there themselves, building momentum for next year's election.

But Pei Jiqing remembered that during Chen Huixing's first command, he had lost two men due to poor decision-making and had retreated to the bathroom to retch in the middle of the night. Now, these men were talking freely here, as if

they had witnessed something firsthand. They fell silent when they saw him.

Xu Ze had somehow stood beside Pei Jiqing, offering him a glass of warm water, his eyes etched with unconcealed attentiveness. To others, they seemed like a perfect match.

Mr. Xu of Chateau Margaux was visibly stunned as he passed by, his shrewd eyes flickering between the two men.

"Boss Xu," Pei Jiqing raised his glass. "We're in need of a title sponsor for our new show. We're all old acquaintances, so we'll give you a spot."

The old man, still arrogant, said he was looking for an assistant. After Xu Ze and his companions left, he asked, "Are you really divorcing the Shen kid?"

"Life's not going well," he said casually.

The old man suddenly spoke up, "That kid wasn't like this when he knocked on my door, begging me to fund your show. He said it was just an Omega, and it would only be a one-time favor."

Pei Jiqing paused as he shook his glass. It was true. All those years of the winery's constant sponsorship and perfectly tailored resources were, it turned out, the result of Shen Huixing's backing.

"You're just going to listen to him?" Pei Jiqing deliberately jabbed him.

The old man immediately blew his beard and glared: "Bullshit! Does he dare to use his official position to pressure me? That kid brought up his father, and I thought that this stinky boy has never asked me for anything since he was a child, so naturally I have to do it properly for him."

Old man Xu said: "Who would have thought that you would still be like this."

Pei Jiqing: "Uncle Xu, some things can't be forced."

Old man Xu really didn't know what to say, he just sighed and said: "I really don't understand the affairs of you young people."

Pei Jiqing's program has made several news in a row. When it comes to new topics.

Pei Jiqing suggested using the battle on the front line.