Chapter 23: Take Your Secrets with You to Death
But wishes remain wishes—if they were easily fulfilled, people wouldn’t resort to such unrealistic actions.
Therefore, the wishes people make are usually impossible to achieve.
For a long time afterward, the boy remained under Xiao An’s bullying.
Whenever Chi Qiulin tried to intervene, the boy stopped him.
The boy said, “If you really want to help me, don’t interfere with anything I do.”
Although he didn’t know what the boy was up to, fearing he would inadvertently hinder him, Chi Qiulin suppressed his urge to intervene, only applying medicine and bandaging his wounds after each instance of bullying.
One day, the boy seemed severely injured. Chi Qiulin looked at the numerous bruises and wounds on his body, his voice hoarse. “Xiao Zhou, can you tell me what you’re trying to do?”
The boy shook his head.
Chi Qiulin tried to reason with him. “They’re hitting you harder and harder. You’ll die if this continues, don’t you know?”
The boy smiled and nodded. “I know, Ge. This won’t happen again.”
Chi Qiulin couldn’t believe his ears. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah,” the boy continued smiling, a happier smile than ever before. “This is all coming to an end.”
Chi Qiulin’s heart finally eased, but his curiosity resurfaced. “Then can you tell me why you’ve endured all this bullying for so long?”
The boy leaned in and gently hugged Chi Qiulin’s neck. “You’ll know soon.”
Having received this answer, Chi Qiulin eagerly anticipated the moment.
But if he could go back, he wouldn’t have been so eager.
Because that was the last time Chi Qiulin saw the boy.
That evening, a cool breeze blew. Chi Qiulin was walking home when a crowd gathered on a nearby bridge caught his attention.
He subconsciously glanced that way—from a hundred meters away, he saw the boy standing precariously on the edge of the bustling bridge.
Kind-hearted people kept trying to dissuade him, warning him not to be so impulsive at such a young age, that there were no insurmountable difficulties.
The boy just smiled faintly, one eye shining brightly, almost as if reflecting the setting sun’s glow.
When Chi Qiulin pushed through the crowd to reach the boy, his voice trembled, almost unrecognizable, but he still strained to shout, “Xiao Zhou, come back, please.”
Please come back.
At this point, Chi Qiulin didn’t know how to console him; he just kept repeating, “Come back,” “Please,” and similar pleas.
The boy smiled with relief, his voice steady and light, “Ge, thank you, and… I’m sorry.”
Before he finished speaking, the boy tilted slightly and fell without hesitation into the murky river below.
“Zhou Xuan!” Chi Qiulin scrambled forward to grab the boy but couldn’t even catch a piece of his clothing.
He stood dumbfounded on the high bridge, watching the boy’s figure get smaller and smaller, finally swallowed by the rushing river.
Everything happened too suddenly; Chi Qiulin couldn’t believe it was real.
He didn’t know how he got home, nor did he remember who handed him the copied videotape.
The videotape showed Zhou Xuan being repeatedly bullied by Xiao An, but Chi Qiulin heard his own name in their conversation—
“Zhou Xuan, don’t think you’re fearless just because you’re not afraid of death. I hear you have a good friend recently, named Chi Qiulin, right?”
“What are you going to do? Don’t touch him!”
“Don’t want me to touch him? Then you die.”
“If I die, will you leave him alone?”
“Yeah, but you have to die, and you have to take those secrets you know with you to death.”
“…Okay.”
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