JingYuan grabbed YiHan, tucked him in, held tightly onto him and said, "HanHan, no matter when and where, please trust in me. You and I are one. From now on, tell me if anything is bothering you. Two heads are better than one. If you find that you're stuck on a problem, come to me. We can discuss it. Perhaps it'll lighten the load off your shoulders. HanHan, don't push me out of your world. I'd be miserable."
YiHan nodded and responded with a serious "mn". In his heart, he thought: I'll never keep anything a secret from you, apart from this.
"Also," JingYuan said, "promise me you wouldn't hurt yourself again. If you're unhappy, you can hit me. Please don't harm yourself. If this happens again, I won't speak to you for a we–no, three days."
YiHan nodded again, paused in contemplation and said, "I won't hit you."
JingYuan kissed the younger man on the top of his head. "That's a good boy," he said, satisfied. "HanHan, you might not understand but I'd rather you beat me up than for you to be harmed in any way. I don't want a single drop of your blood to flow."
YiHan chuckled in dopey glee, his head bopping up and down. A moment of silence later, he spoke, "There's nothing wrong with Tao Qi's mind at all. What she said was what she believed to be true."
JingYuan's mouth twisted as he let out a spine-chilling laugh. "Since she likes Wei Quan to the point of doing it with him, how could I bear to separate a pair of lovers? It doesn't matter if there's anything wrong with her at all. Her fate was to fly off together with Wei Quan. I'll fulfil their wish and let them be together forever."
***
As JingYuan expected, after further questioning of Tao Qi, Captain Chen Jing came to the same conclusion as the man did. Tao Qi was spouting nonsense from the bottom of her heart. She said she should be married to Mu JingYuan and be the great CEO's wife. She claimed that Bai YiHan should be dead, that he should die a horrific death, that the Bai YiHan they knew now was a dead man reborn, and so on.
Such a conclusion enraged the police. It rendered them speechless from laughter and tears. All they could do was forcefully admit her and Wei Quan into a mental hospital with a special warning to the staff that the two criminals had intense violence tendencies.
***
Separated by a pane of glass, JingYuan silently watched Tao Qi, tied to her bed, staring blankly up at the ceiling in exhaustion. She'd been struggling against her bonds and crying for the whole morning. Now, an endless stream of tears flowed down her cheeks as she thought back to what Bai YiHan said to her. She thought about how if she had stopped the moment she realised things weren't going the way she expected, she could've taken advantage of her knowledge. Perhaps she would've carved out a place for herself in this world. Perhaps she could live a life of luxury free from worries even without her parents' love. Perhaps she might have met an outstanding man who'd truly love her. Perhaps they'd live a life filled with love. Such a life was something she'd risk her life to attain before her transmigration. Why was she so obsessed with climbing up to the top of the world? Why was she so engrossed in becoming Mrs CEO, something out of her reach?
She's still so young. Would she really be spending the rest of her life with these four white walls among the insane? If so, she'd rather die! Could she go back to her original world after her death? If she could go back, she'd have her mother cook up a feast for her. She'd cry her heart out before her parents and tell them all the suffering she'd been through.
Her sore eyes vacantly roamed around the room. They swept across the white ceiling and the white walls. When they reached the white door, her pupils shrank while her eyes went wide. Mu JingYuan!
She didn't know how long he'd been standing there. There wasn't an ounce of emotion visible on his handsome face. He just coldly stared at her.
Tao Qi used her last remaining strength to begin struggling and shout, "Mu JingYuan! I hate you! I hate you… Why must you do this to me? I'd never thought of doing anything to you. Why must you do this?"
JingYuan turned and nodded to the hospital staff beside him. The staff member opened the door and thoroughly checked the woman's bindings before exiting and closing the door, leaving the man and woman alone in the room.
"You think everyone's like you," JingYuan said blandly as he walked towards the bed, "the mind only ever thinking about yourself? If you were merely going to do something to me, I would contemplate letting you go as you're just a girl. I wouldn't begrudge you. But…" He leaned down and stared into her eyes. His voice took on a frigid tone as he continued, "You dared to target HanHan. You even cursed him out before me. I've said before; if I can't make you wish you could die, then I'm not fit to be his man."
"That's not my fault!" she rebuked, eyes as wide as plates. "That was meant–"
"Don't mention that plot or fate of yours to me again," JingYuan interrupted, straightening up. "You insist on believing in the plot you speak of, but use your brain. Which incident, in reality, has gone exactly as your 'plot' said it would? It's just wishful thinking. Your greed far exceeds your capabilities. Your desire to climb further up was too strong. The 'plot' was just a lie you made up for yourself, yet you truly believe in it. It's ludicrous. It's tragic. It's laughable."
"It's not like that!" Tao Qi screamed. "Everything now is different all because Bai YiHan was reborn! He changed everything! He told me himself!"
"Did all the shows and books get to you?" JingYuan chuckled. "You actually believe that? When did HanHan tell you? Why don't I know?"
"It's on that night you two talked to me! He came down to the basement alone and interrogated me on what I know. He told me himself he's an evil ghost who'd crawled out of hell! You say I'm laughable but you're the laughable one! You're with a devil cloaked in a human's skin yet you don't know it! You even think of him as precious!"
"You really are a crazy woman," JingYuan said, frost in his eyes as he looked at her. "I was in his room that night. We were together the entire night. He never left the room. Who do you think you are to have deserved HanHan going down there to meet you all alone? As I've said, all of that was just delusional thinking caused by your endless greed."
"How could it be?" Tao Qi shrieked, mouth wide open. "He really did go into the basement! He was down there in the basement for a very long time. He interrogated me. He even said he would pull out all my teeth and cut my face up!"
"Oh?" JingYuan said, emotionless. "You sure have a rich imagination."
"No!" she said in disbelief. "It's absolutely true! Perhaps he snuck out while you were asleep! It might be so!��
He looked at her, pity in his eyes. "We didn't sleep for most of the night. When could he have snuck out?"
"Didn't sleep?" Tao Qi asked, confused. "How could you not sleep? What were you doing?"
"We're two lovers, passionately in love with each other." JingYuan looked at her as if she was an idiot. "What can we have done during a night all alone in the same room?"
Tao Qi's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish's. "It can't be," she croaked. "You're lying. You're lying to me…"
JingYuan shot her an impatient glare before turning for the exit. "Your illness is so very serious," he said, turning to look back at her from the door. "Just what are you to be worth my time coming here just to lie to you?"
"Then why did you come?" Tao Qi asked, disgruntled.
His lips perked up as he coldly said, "I came to make sure you and Wei Quan would be able to live out your dreams as a pair of happy lovebirds. I thought you were driven to act insane in an attempt to shirk your responsibility because you saw what happened to Wei Quan. I didn't think you were an actual delusional, hallucinating maniac."
Tao Qi dazedly watched as JingYuan strode out of the room, slamming the door behind him with a loud bang. Suddenly, a shriek tore through her throat, "I'm not crazy! Everything I saw is true! Bai YiHan really came to me!" She continued her piercing shouts for a while before finally drifting off into a faint mumble, "He came…I'm not crazy…Was it just a hallucination? No, no. He came to me. My memory is very clear…"
***
Far away in a restaurant sat YiHan and Jiang Hua. The two chatted as the air was filled with the tantalising scent of the dish Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. Jiang Hua was good-natured as ever but he looked rather ragged. Dark circles dominated the space under his almond eyes. They were a stark contrast to his fair skin.
"Jiang-ge, what happened to you?" YiHan worriedly asked. "You look exhausted."
Jiang Hua smiled, a hand reaching up to his face as he asked, "Is it that obvious? I am feeling a little fatigued lately."
"Has work been that busy?"
"It's fine but…"
"But what?"
Hua bitterly chuckled. "It should be fine to tell you. I don't know what I've done to have angered your brother. He has been intentionally giving me a lot of work."
"Why is he like this?" YiHan was angry. "He's usually quite mature. I didn't think he could be so childish as to punish you at work for something personal!"
"Honestly, I'm fine doing more work," the older man tiredly said, a hand massaging his brows. "It's just that he acts like he's starting to hate me. Now, he wouldn't even look at me. He'd give me more work to do because he doesn't want me to appear before his eyes. My usual work has all been delegated away to other people. YiHan, I think sooner or later, he'd chase me out of the Bai Group."
"How could it be?" YiHan gasped in shock. "My brother hasn't been in the best of moods recently. Maybe he's only acting like this because of that. Don't overthink it. He can't chase you away." This didn't happen at all in YiHan's last life.
"No matter his decision, I have no choice," Hua said, shaking his head. "I had only wanted to stand as close to him as I can. It's good enough that I can see him frequently. But from the look of things, I'm afraid that's no longer possible. Thankfully, he doesn't know of my feelings for him yet. Otherwise… I'm sorry for telling you such unhappy things, YiHan. I've made you upset as well."
"If you truly think of me as a younger brother then don't say something so formal," YiHan retorted, a frown on his face. "What we need to do now is find out just what Yan is thinking. Why is his mood swinging around like a weather crane? They say a woman's heart is as hard to know as it is to find a needle in the ocean. Surprisingly, it's harder to know what my brother's thinking."