The Price of a Past Life

The group descended with surprising speed and ferocity. Before Su Yan could even register what was happening, they unceremoniously shoved him into a waiting vehicle, handling him as if he were nothing more than an inanimate object.

Su Yan bit down hard on his lip, on the verge of unleashing a scream, but as if anticipating his every move, the men swiftly stuffed a piece of cloth into his mouth.

Not only had his face gone ashen, but a wave of nausea also threatened to overwhelm him. ‘Where did this filthy rag even come from?’ he fumed inwardly, ‘To just shove it into my mouth so casually!’ He swore that once he was safely back, he would pen a ten-thousand-word complaint letter.

‘This was, by all accounts, a bustling metropolis, a first-tier city,’ he thought, incredulous. ‘Yet, people could still be snatched off the streets in broad daylight.’ A wry, self-aware thought then surfaced: ‘Though, I suppose this *is* a brain-damaging, mindless, melodramatic novel.’

‘Seriously, what kind of brain-damaging novel only dumbs down the protagonist uke and the cannon fodder side characters?’ he railed in his mind. ‘It’s absolutely outrageous!’

Had Su Yan bothered to survey the vehicle’s interior, he would have swiftly realized this was no ordinary kidnapping for ransom. No self-respecting abductors, after all, would use a sleek business van for such a deed.

Yet, he was far too consumed by panic to consider such nuances. All he knew was that he had been abducted. What if they truly did kill him? He hadn’t even had the chance to properly fulfill his filial duties to his parents.

The car sped relentlessly forward. Su Yan’s futile struggles only resulted in him being held more tightly, leaving him to lie there, utterly helpless, like a beached, salted fish.

His beautiful eyes soon filled with a shimmering film of moisture. His vision grew increasingly indistinct, and tears began to fall, soft, rhythmic drops.

‘I don’t want to be reincarnated,’ he thought miserably.

The men, seemingly having accomplished their primary objective, largely ignored Su Yan once he was inside the vehicle. Only the leader, displaying a touch of unsolicited familiarity, delivered a firm pat to his shoulder. “What’s with the tears, buddy?” he asked.

“It’s not like it’s a kidnapping for ransom,” Li Qiang declared, then burst into laughter at his own remark. He bent over, pounding the seat with his hand, a few tears even squeezing out from the sheer force of his mirth.

Su Yan felt a profound silence descend. ‘His sense of humor is certainly… vibrant,’ he mused dryly.

‘If only you had mentioned it wasn’t a kidnapping for ransom a little sooner.’

Su Yan promptly spat out the offending cloth, then reached up to wipe away his tears, his brow furrowed in a scowl. “Don’t touch me,” he snapped.

‘So, it turns out that cloth *could* be spat out the entire time,’ he thought with a fresh wave of annoyance.

Li Qiang, merely a man working for a paycheck, had no intention of actually carrying out a ransom kidnapping; he still had elderly parents to support and even hamsters to feed. He quirked a brow at Su Yan. “You really have no manners, kid,” he chided. “I’m your elder, after all.”

Su Yan could only stare, a silent question mark hanging in the air.

“Our chairman wishes to speak with you,” Li Qiang stated, crossing his arms. “When you go inside, it would be wise to speak as little as possible.” He cast a quick glance over Su Yan, his gaze softening slightly upon noticing the boy’s youth.

‘Chairman?’ Su Yan mused. ‘Why does this scenario feel suspiciously like something out of an old-school CEO romance novel?’

“Speak less?” Su Yan echoed.

“Mm-hm,” Li Qiang confirmed.

Fearing Su Yan’s skepticism, he let out another theatrically profound sigh, then quietly added, “You might receive fewer blows.”

Su Yan simply stared, a single period marking his internal exasperation.

Thereafter, no matter how relentlessly Su Yan questioned him, Li Qiang remained tight-lipped. He simply buried his head in a mobile game, his fingertips flying across the screen, punctuated by the occasional triumphant “Perfect!” chime.

The car swiftly left the city’s confines, venturing into a villa district in Hai City that felt utterly foreign to Su Yan. This particular enclave had initially been marketed to the blindly affluent, touted for its tranquil and picturesque surroundings.

In truth, it was nothing more than a secluded, desolate expanse.

Li Qiang led the way, while the others kept Su Yan firmly restrained, stopping before a villa that distinctly bore the mark of never having been lived in. He lifted his chin, signaling for someone to unlock the door.

Inside, the villa was undeniably pristine, devoid of any sign that it had ever been occupied. Su Yan’s heart clenched. ‘They wouldn’t actually kill me, would they? Who on earth have I provoked recently?’

Amidst his frantic thoughts, he failed to notice the snake-bone bracelet on his wrist begin to emit a faint, dark-red glow. In the oppressive gloom, it appeared unnervingly sinister, yet strangely apt for the dire circumstances.

Li Qiang escorted him to a particular room. There, he straightened his posture, meticulously adjusted his tie, and even used his phone’s camera to check for any imperfections on his face, before finally opening the door with a practiced smile.

A resounding crash—

The door slammed shut with a startling finality.

Freed from his restraints, Su Yan nearly stumbled, almost collapsing to his knees. His brow had been furrowed throughout the ordeal, his typically captivating eyes now steeped in a mixture of frustration and other turbulent emotions.

He slowly lifted his eyelids, his gaze falling upon the man seated within the room. A flicker of surprise crossed his face, causing him to raise an eyebrow. ‘This must be Lu Lin’s biological father,’ he surmised.

Lu Lin’s biological father had once been a prominent entrepreneur in Hai City, celebrated for his youthful achievements. Yet, Su Yan knew him to be far from a good man, especially in his treatment of Lu Lin, towards whom he was relentlessly harsh and strict. It was rumored he could beat someone half to death for the slightest offense.

‘He couldn’t fathom where this particular memory had originated,’ he thought, a familiar confusion stirring.

The two men shared a striking seventy to eighty percent resemblance in their facial features. This man, likely in his late thirties or early forties, still possessed a dignified, youthful bearing. His eyes held a chilling indifference, and when he finally spoke, his voice was equally devoid of warmth.

He seemed oblivious, or perhaps merely indifferent, to Su Yan’s brazen, appraising stare. He curled his fingers, tapping the tabletop with a rhythmic cadence. “So, you two are back together again?” he finally drawled.

Su Yan felt a familiar bewilderment. ‘What exactly does “again” imply?’ he wondered.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” Su Yan stated flatly.

Su Yan resolved to feign ignorance entirely. His family, after all, was not one to be easily pushed around. If they were to discover that Lu Ang had arranged for him to be ‘handled,’ the Su family would undoubtedly retaliate against the Lu family with full force. Lu Ang could not possibly be unaware of this crucial fact.

Lu Ang remained silent, a protracted pause stretching between them, before he finally spoke, a faint smile playing on his lips. “I hadn’t anticipated you two would get involved again. Let me calculate, how long has it been since you parted ways? Three years? No, it must be five, wouldn’t you say?”

“I never imagined Lu Lin possessed such unwavering devotion,” he continued, a hint of disdain in his tone. “That explains why he was willing to be beaten half to death rather than attend the school I had meticulously arranged for him.”

Su Yan found himself utterly bewildered by the man’s words, unable to grasp their meaning for a considerable time. ‘He must have mistaken me for someone else,’ he thought. ‘What “back together again”?’ He cast his gaze downwards, studying the tips of his shoes, before finally lifting his head to utter, with a detached air, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

As if his patience had finally snapped, Lu Ang snatched a vase from a nearby table and hurled it directly towards Su Yan. Su Yan’s reflexes were too slow, but Li Qiang, with surprising swiftness, reacted instantly.

Li Qiang, seemingly well-acquainted with such volatile displays, maintained an utterly impassive expression. Despite his lack of visible reaction, he still reached out, pulling the bewildered Su Yan out of harm’s way.

‘He now had every reason to suspect that the man before him was not merely unbalanced, but likely suffered from severe mood swings,’ Su Yan thought. ‘Had I known I was merely to meet this man, I wouldn’t have wasted a single moment being afraid. It seems this elaborate charade was nothing more than a crude attempt to threaten me into a breakup.’

‘And to think he went to such lengths, specially arranging for me to be snatched from the street,’ he mused, a fresh wave of indignation rising.

“Don’t understand?” Lu Ang sneered. With a sharp tug, he yanked open a drawer, retrieved a file folder, and after tearing it open, flung a stack of photographs towards Su Yan. “Who are these individuals in the pictures?” he demanded.

Su Yan had initially no intention of stooping so undignifiedly to retrieve the scattered photographs. Yet, the sight of the individuals depicted caused his eyes to widen abruptly. The images were all of him during his middle school years… alongside a middle school Lu Lin.

Lu Lin’s expression in the photos was one of a tenderness Su Yan had never witnessed. His own face, however, still wore its characteristic carefree, roguish grin. The shots were beautifully composed: under the warm glow of the setting sun, he was depicted leaning against Lu Lin’s shoulder, accepting a piece of bread offered by the other boy.

‘And that bread, it truly was his favorite flavor,’ he thought, a strange sense of familiarity washing over him.

He quirked an eyebrow, holding the photographs aloft, and with genuine admiration, declared, “These are incredibly well-Photoshopped.”

‘That bread, it truly was his favorite flavor from back then,’ he mused, a flicker of something he couldn’t quite place.

Su Yan’s fingers, slender and elegant, deftly held a few of the photographs. With an almost appreciative gesture, he tucked them into his clothing.

Lu Ang was utterly incensed, practically seething with rage at Su Yan’s audacious nonchalance. He leaned back, closing his eyes in an effort to regain his composure. If not for a crucial collaboration project with the Su family currently underway, he would have…

“Very well then,” Lu Ang finally uttered, his eyes still closed. “Name your price. The further you disappear, the better.”

As soon as the words left his lips, Su Yan felt an oppressive weight descend. The bodyguards positioned behind him all stiffened, standing rigidly at attention, conveying the unspoken threat that if he dared not name a price, he would be beaten within an inch of his life.

Just as the oppressive atmosphere began to rapidly escalate, the door burst open with a resounding kick. Lu Lin stood framed in the doorway, a deep red baseball bat clutched in his hand, his hair still damp, as if he had hastily pulled on a black hoodie and rushed straight there.

Seizing the fleeting moment of everyone’s stunned surprise, Su Yan yanked Lu Lin’s hand and sprinted towards the villa’s main entrance. ‘Is Lu Lin out of his mind?’ he thought frantically. ‘His hand isn’t even fully healed, and he wants to pick a fight? Does he think his title as the school’s 3000-meter champion was merely decorative?’

“Are you insane?” Su Yan yelled, seeing Lu Lin still rooted to the spot. “If we don’t run faster, today will surely be the day we both meet our end!”

Lu Lin, it turned out, had never even contemplated fleeing; his sole intention had been to fight those men to the bitter end. Upon hearing Su Yan’s desperate cry, he nodded, offering a soft, almost imperceptible “Mm.”

Ultimately, the two proved swifter than their pursuers. The men behind them, having received new instructions, abandoned the chase, for Lu Ang, it seemed, had already formulated a different strategy.

The two finally slumped onto the large lawn in the villa district, sitting lazily on the ground, and began to gasp for breath. “…What were you thinking, not running earlier? You weren’t actually planning to fight them head-on, were you?”

Su Yan assessed Lu Lin from head to toe, but Lu Lin seemed oblivious to his scrutiny, merely lowering his head. “Mm,” he murmured.

“…Then you’re truly foolish,” Su Yan retorted.

He now found Lu Lin to be incredibly kind, willing to risk a beating to protect his life, which significantly diminished his fear of the other boy, rendering it almost negligible.

He emptied his hoodie pocket, spilling iodine, band-aids, and cotton swabs onto the grass.

Lu Lin looked up at him, a flicker of surprise in his eyes, before turning his head to stare at Su Yan’s prominent ear stud. He spoke softly, “How do you know you’re always going to get beaten?”

Su Yan rolled his eyes. ‘Lu Lin is making cold jokes now, huh, haha.’

‘Who says carrying these things means you’re always getting beaten?’

With a resentful glance, he dipped a cotton swab into the iodine and dabbed it onto Lu Lin’s wounds, applying just enough pressure—a subtle retaliation for Lu Lin’s teasing remark.

Several bodyguards had been stationed at the entrance, so Lu Lin had naturally sustained some injuries forcing his way in. In his mind, Su Yan was probably already beaten, pitifully crying and begging for mercy.

After all, Su Yan couldn’t take a beating like he could.

Lu Lin’s lips were bleeding slightly, and his fingertips were scuffed, giving him the appearance of a battle-worn handsome man. “Does your dad often hit you?” he asked.

Su Yan, knowing he wouldn’t answer, continued to clean the wounds, then offered, “Your dad seems to have a severe temper. You should find a chance for his subordinates to take him to see a doctor one day.”

Seeing that Su Yan seemed genuinely serious with his advice, Lu Lin turned his head and chuckled softly.

Su Yan, thinking he was being mocked, glared with dissatisfaction. “I’m serious.”

“I used to study psychology, you know,” Su Yan declared with a hint of pride.

Before Lu Lin could respond, Su Yan glanced around, found no trash can, and tucked the cotton swab back into his pocket. Then, lowering his head, he idly spun the bracelet on his wrist, continuing, “By the way, how did you know where I was?” Su Yan’s gaze, scrutinizing him from bottom to top, narrowed. “You…”