Chapter 44: The Silent Oath

String instruments and violins intertwined, the wedding march drifting from afar.

“Congratulations, may you have a hundred years of happiness.”

“You two make a perfect couple, so well-matched in background… be happy.”

The man standing beside her smiled and murmured his assent to each well-wisher.

He looked infinitely gentle, but she could clearly see the aloofness and coldness in his eyes. On such an important occasion, he seemed…

Bored.

Even though he had no one he loved, even though his heart wandered aimlessly in the air… it could never belong to her.

He was generous, yet so stingy.

He agreed to marry her for the sake of mutual interests, for the tireless persuasion and pressure from his family. But he never kissed her, never held her hand. The child was agreed to be surrogated, and the divorce date was set.

“I know you like me… I’m sorry.” He said gently and politely.

She gritted her teeth.

Something was brewing in her heart. It had started as just a small stain on her heart, but now that dark patch slowly expanded, becoming a patch of mold, a dark cloud… and finally, a tsunami that swept everything away.

She watched helplessly as he walked away, as he found his own happiness.

‘Why? What’s wrong with me?’

‘I’ll make them pay. I’ll make him realize. I’ll…’

By her own means, she set up many obstacles for his lover and created many misunderstandings between them, but they managed to overcome them all. She was unwilling.

In the midst of that emotion, she suddenly heard a voice from afar:

“Are you afraid of getting old? Because when you grow old and die, no one will remember you—”

That voice was somewhat like his, achingly familiar. And the words felt like a slap from the sky, instantly waking her up, but also leaving her dumbfounded.

Wang Yun gasped violently and woke up in bed.

The room was empty, the curtains rustling in the cool breeze. She had caught a cold just yesterday; the window was left open, and no one had bothered to close it.

She coughed violently, angrily calling for the servants.

But no one came.

****

“The photographer of this photo…”

“Is it her?”

The girl in the photo was very young. She had a high ponytail and stood upright, tall and slender. She looked at the camera without smiling, her expression somewhat gloomy.

The older man took a drag of his cigarette, squinted at the photo, and the ash trembled. He looked up at Xie Xu, paused for a moment, and asked in English, “Who are you?”

“I am—”

The older man coughed twice, suddenly grimacing in pain. He clutched his chest with a trembling hand, gasped a few times, and collapsed to his knees.

Xie Xu reacted immediately, stepping forward to support him, and asked, “Do you have medicine? Where is it?”

The older man waved his hand in pain, indicating he had no medicine.

So they laid him flat on the ground, called an ambulance, and performed some first aid.

When the ambulance arrived, Xie Xu helped the older man onto it and turned back to grab something. Guan Qing saw him take down the photo, fold it, and put it in his pocket.

Guan Qing was startled and asked, “What’s up?”

“The timing of this gentleman’s attack is too coincidental. I think—”

Xie Xu paused, not finishing his sentence.

He walked to Guan Qing’s left side, gently picked up his bandaged left hand, and checked to make sure it wasn’t bleeding.

Xie Xu’s expression, backlit by the streetlight, was… well, gentle, yet also as if his heart was shattered, as if he might cry the next second, like a stray abandoned dog on the roadside.

But that expression flickered and disappeared. He quickly averted his gaze and said, “Let’s go, get in the car.”

Xie Xu sat solemnly in the car, lost in thought.

The older man was pushed into the emergency room.

****

Soon, the older man’s daughter arrived.

She was a blonde woman in her thirties, simply dressed, rushing in with sweat on her nose and a flushed face. She first thanked the two of them, then completed various formalities, and finally paced anxiously in front of the hospital room.

After a while, she looked at them and asked, “What caused my father to fall ill? Did he hit something? Or was it too much drinking that triggered…?”

“It seems,” Guan Qing hesitated, “I can’t be sure, but it appears to be a heart condition.”

Guan Qing had seen heart attack patients before, so he recognized the symptoms immediately. But what surprised him was that the older man seemed to know he had this condition yet had no medication on hand—it was almost like suicide.

Unexpectedly, the woman was extremely shocked. She raised her eyebrows, her face pale, and shook her head in disbelief.

“Impossible, there’s no history of heart disease in our family… And if he had it, why wouldn’t he tell me? Why wouldn’t he carry medicine?”

She seemed deeply hurt, pacing back and forth in front of the room, nervously twisting her fingers, whispering, “Impossible.”

For a moment, Guan Qing was dazed.

He saw in her silhouette—praying and raging by the bedside—a reflection of his former self.

He had once thought he had crossed the threshold, but there was always some small detail reminding him that he hadn’t; he was still wandering outside, still unable to enter.

Stained by that memory, Guan Qing lowered his head, trembling slightly.

Suddenly, a hand touched his right arm. He froze. The person took his hand, held it, paused, then let go.

Guan Qing looked. Xie Xu was cradling his right hand, examining it for a moment, then lowering his head and looking up at him.

The hospital lights were cold white, and wind blew through the window.

Xie Xu’s eyes—how to describe them? As if apologetic, yet without regret. Soft and harmless, even devout—

Xie Xu stood up, knelt on one knee in the hospital corridor, lowered his head, and pressed a deep kiss to the back of Guan Qing’s hand.

Like a surrender, like an act of submission.

“You…”

Guan Qing was stunned. He didn’t know what to do, but his heart was shaken, as if Xie Xu were swearing something to him, entrusting something.

But the pledge was silent, accompanied only by the gentle falling of snow outside the window, a soft yet solemn accompaniment to the oath.

Guan Qing felt his cheeks grow hot.

“I tell you, I won’t hide anything from you. I will share with you…” Xie Xu looked up at him from below, his expression resolute:

“Share both hardships and joys alike.”

The hospital’s heating was on. The two stared at each other through the warm air, only centimeters apart. Guan Qing was speechless. Xie Xu gradually became embarrassed, averting his gaze—

Guan Qing lowered his head, cupped Xie Xu’s face with one hand, and kissed him.

When the kiss ended,

Guan Qing used his hand to cool Xie Xu’s face, almost laughing—it was burning crimson.

“Little girl, why so shy?” Guan Qing couldn’t resist teasing him.

“I-I’m just… because my elder brother is too handsome.” Xie Xu pretended to be a little girl, his voice coquettish, bowing his head shyly.

After saying that, both of them shuddered.

Xie Xu rubbed the goosebumps off his arms and reverted to normal. He sat next to Guan Qing, hesitated, and pointed to the wound on his abdomen. “This injury…”

He knew Guan Qing cared about it.

Just as he cared about Guan Qing’s injury. Every minute, he wanted to undo the bandage on Guan Qing’s left hand to see how much it had healed, but whenever he thought about the source of the wound and how much it must have hurt, he felt unbearable pain.

He knew that Guan Qing had been thinking about where his wound came from but didn’t dare ask, afraid of hearing an answer like “You don’t need to know.”

Even though Xie Xu had already unlocked the door, Guan Qing was still pacing outside.

Once bitten, twice shy.

Xie Xu’s heart felt constricted, both painful and weak, and his breathing became difficult.

He said, “From now on, I’ll tell you everything, no secrets. This wound…”

From the moment he arrived, he had been monitoring the situation with Guan Qing’s mother.

And at that time, the situation could only be described as dire. Wang Yun hadn’t specifically targeted them, but if she wanted, a large group of people were happy to help her.

On the very night he arrived, Xie Xu spotted a car following behind Ye Anxian and her husband.

The couple had attended a local banquet, and it was late. They couldn’t find a taxi, and since it wasn’t too far, they decided to take a shortcut. When he got there, the truck driver was smoking, and through the haze, he could vaguely see a pair of sinister eyes fixed on the slowly walking couple ahead.

He didn’t have time to think.

He called the people he knew locally and his own men, arranged some things, and quietly climbed into the open back of the truck. When the driver got in and started the engine, he engaged him in a fight.

Although he managed to take the wheel before the truck hit the couple, his abdomen was slashed.

Fortunately, the wound wasn’t deep. After it was stitched up, he insisted on leaving the hospital against the doctor’s advice.

“I,” Xie Xu hesitated, his head hanging low, looking guilty, “it was my fault to begin with. I’m just reaping what I sowed. So please don’t think…”

If it weren’t for him, Ye Anxian would never have been targeted by Wang Yun, and those dangerous things wouldn’t have happened.

“Of course, now my people and Wang Yun’s are at a stalemate. Currently, they still don’t dare to act rashly—”

Xie Xu paused.

He felt that Guan Qing’s hand was icy cold and trembling. Guan Qing had lowered his head, his expression unreadable. Xie Xu reached out to touch his face and felt cold water.

After a while, Guan Qing choked out, “Last time, during the landslide, I swore I would never let you go through that again…

“But I still can’t control it. I still… can’t protect you.”

He tried to smile.

So dangerous, alone in a truck grappling with a vicious criminal—too many variables. One misstep, and Xie Xu could have—

He wanted to protect Xie Xu, to hold his most precious, most beloved things carefully in his hands: Xie Xu, his mother…

But he couldn’t.

“My power is too small. I—”

Xie Xu used his thumb to wipe away the tears at the corners of Guan Qing’s eyes.

In the faint moonlight from the window, Xie Xu’s earnest features appeared soft and clear, but somehow unreal—this Xie Xu was both unfamiliar and familiar, making Guan Qing, through nearly ten years of time, once again feel that heart-pounding moment from eight years ago.

He said:

“Neither of us should blame ourselves. The world is so vast, and each person’s power is small. You, me, even the seemingly powerful Wang Yun.”

He kissed Guan Qing’s forehead solemnly and said:

“I love you like this… not so strong.”

“And thank you for being able to love me like this.”

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Special Supernatural Investigation Team

Modern FantasySupernaturalUrban Fantasy

Read Now →
Not interested