These past few days, Guo Chengyu had been staying at the clinic. Normally, Jiang Xiaoshuai would go home at night, but now he was forcibly kept at the clinic by Guo to spend the nights there. However, they didn’t sleep in the same room — that was the only condition that allowed Guo to stay overnight. Jiang slept in the bedroom inside, while Guo lay stretched out on the sofa outside.
Every night, Jiang would get up to use the bathroom, and as soon as Guo heard the sound of running water from the bathroom, it was like ants crawling all over his heart — itchy and unbearable.
But every time he saw Jiang stumble out of the bathroom, bleary-eyed, with his messy little curls, slowly shuffling to the door, always pausing for a moment to glance at him before going back inside, Guo couldn’t bring himself to actually do anything to him.
That night, in the middle of the night, Jiang went to the bathroom again, the sound of water splashing echoing.
Guo’s lower abdomen ached with restlessness, so he got up from the sofa and stepped out onto the balcony to smoke.
But Jiang, noticing that Guo wasn’t there when he came back, suddenly panicked. Without turning on the light, he wandered around the dark room by himself, pacing back and forth, until he eventually drifted toward the balcony — and bumped into Guo just as he was turning to go back inside.
Jiang stared at him blankly, the panic in his eyes gradually fading, replaced by calm.
That clear transformation in his expression made Guo’s chest tighten, and he suddenly pulled Jiang into his arms.
“Shuaishuai, don’t be afraid. I’m here.”
Jiang had never imagined that one day he would feel so incredibly reassured just because Guo Chengyu was by his side.
Guo gently smoothed Jiang’s hair, and when his hand accidentally brushed the back of his neck, he realized it was covered in cold sweat. In that moment, Guo finally understood — the psychological shadow Meng Tao had left on Jiang was far more than just lies and betrayal.
Early the next morning, before Jiang Xiaoshuai even woke up, Wu Suowei’s car was already parked in front of the clinic.
Guo Chengyu didn’t let him come in and stopped him at the door.
“What the hell are you here for?” Guo Chengyu asked.
Wu Suowei said angrily, “I brought that dumbass to you — not only did he mess up my work, but he also pissed me off the whole time! That guy is such a pain to deal with — soft or hard doesn’t work on him. Sorry, I’m not capable enough, so I’ll leave him to you to handle!”
Guo Chengyu asked,”Where is he?”
“In the trunk,” Wu Suowei said, walking to the back.
Just as he was about to open the trunk, Guo Chengyu pressed it shut.”Don’t bother, I don’t even want to look at him.”
Wu Suowei was confused.“If you don’t open the trunk, how are you gonna get him out?”
“Why get him out?”
“If you don’t get him out, how are you supposed to keep him here?”
“Did I ever say I was gonna keep him here?” Guo Chengyu narrowed his eyes slightly.
Wu Suowei’s eyebrows shot up as he pointed at Guo Chengyu’s nose. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
Guo Chengyu grabbed Wu Suowei’s finger and chuckled softly. “You still don’t get what I mean? I’m not taking him, wherever you picked him up from, take him back there.”
“Hey!” Wu Suowei rolled up his sleeves. “You’re screwing me over, huh? I went through all this trouble to bring him to you, and now you’re rejecting him?! I don’t care, if you won’t take him, I’ll go find Xiaoshuai! Anyway, I’m done with him, whoever wants him can have him!”
He was about to barge in when Guo Chengyu grabbed him into his arms, pinning him so he couldn’t move. “You absolutely cannot say a word of this to Jiang Xiaoshuai!”
Wu Suowei glared at him, teeth clenched. “You’re really shameless! Just to make my master take your side, you keep him in the dark, making him worry and scared! No way, I’m telling him the truth—” and he started shouting toward the clinic, “Master! Xiaoshuai! Xiao—”
But Guo Chengyu clamped a hand over his mouth and dragged him dozens of meters away.
“If you dare let a single word slip, believe it or not, I’ll expose the fact that you’re Yue Yue’s ex-boyfriend.”
Hearing that, Wu Suowei’s face turned green. “You’re really sinister!” he ground his molars. “I see right through you now! After this nuisance is gone, even if you want to be with Xiaoshuai, I’ll get in the way and stir up trouble between you two!”
Guo Chengyu smiled indifferently. “You’d better get rid of the little nuisance in your own heart first. If you don’t, whether or not you can meddle is no longer up to you.”
Wu Suowei’s chest burned with anger, but he didn’t dare let it out. All he could do was swallow it down and leave, fuming.
143
By all rights, with how much effort Li Wang had put into this trip to Shanghai, pulling strings, calling in favors, he shouldn’t have come back with just this meaningless bit of information. But as soon as Guo Chengyu saw that hesitant, evasive look on Li Wang’s face, he knew it couldn’t be anything good.
“I heard that before Meng Tao got married, he and Jiang Xiaoshuai had a fierce falling-out. That conflict was the fuse that led to their breakup and Meng Tao’s rushed marriage,”
Guo said, staring at Li Wang. “Do you know what that fight was about?”
Li Wang’s face shifted slightly, but under Guo’s piercing gaze, he finally nodded.
“After they got together, Jiang Xiaoshuai went back to Shanghai to be with Meng Tao and stayed there for four years. Their relationship was really good the whole time. But on the eve of Meng Tao’s wedding, something happened — something that made Meng completely disillusioned with Jiang, so he dumped him on the spot and married his now ex-wife.”
“You’re just spewing useless crap!” Guo’s tone turned vicious.
“What the hell happened to Jiang Xiaoshuai that made Meng Tao kick him to the curb?”
Li Wang’s gaze darkened, and he opened his mouth with difficulty.
“He… was gang-raped.”
At that moment, Guo Chengyu’s face changed drastically. In all these years, Li Wang had only seen such a strong reaction from him once before, the day Guo and Chi Chen finally fell out. Every other time, he always wore that calm, detached expression.
The air in the room seemed to be sucked dry, leaving people suffocating.
After a long, heavy silence, Guo finally spoke quietly. “Who were the ones involved back then?”
Li Wang took a deep breath, pulled a stack of documents from his bag, and placed them on the table. “Every last one of them is here.”
Then he reached into a hidden compartment and took out a manila envelope, handing it to Guo.
Guo pulled out the photos inside — all of them showed Meng Tao with another man. The date stamps showed they were taken two years ago, not long after Meng Tao got married — proving he’d started messing around with someone other than Jiang Xiaoshuai soon after.
Li Wang spoke quietly. “This man was one of Jiang Xiaoshuai’s close buddies. They used to be really tight. But after Meng Tao broke up with Jiang, he also cut ties with Jiang. So I think… that gang rape was premeditated, and Jiang may have even known about it…”
“You mean it was orchestrated by this man?” Guo asked.
Li Wang cautiously replied, “Right now, I can’t think of another possibility. He must’ve inserted himself between Jiang and Meng before they split, and to destroy them completely, he came up with such a despicable scheme.”
Guo stayed silent. “You know Meng Tao has a serious obsession with cleanliness — if he witnessed something that filthy…”
Li Wang couldn’t finish the sentence. He hadn’t expected he’d one day use the word filthy to describe something in Guo’s world — just as Guo himself hadn’t expected that something so commonplace in his line of work could one day make his insides churn with rage and grief just imagining it.
Li Wang tentatively asked, “We should get Meng Tao out from Wu Suowei’s place by now, right?”
Guo showed incredible restraint. “No.”
“Why keep him there?” Li Wang sounded anxious.
Guo replied evenly, “Chi Chen hasn’t discovered him yet.”
Li Wang suddenly understood.
Guo added, “Once he comes to me, he’s already dead.”
