Early in the morning, the lights at Guichen Studio came on earlier than usual.
It was not because Su Muchen could not sleep, but because the sky outside the window told him that, at last, it had stopped raining today.
Several consecutive days of gloomy rain had soaked the stone-paved road of Changning Alley until it was drenched. There was always a lingering dampness in the air, and even the old wood inside Guichen Studio seemed as though it had been soaked in water, giving off a stuffy, heavy atmosphere.
But this morning was different.
Su Muchen was awakened by the light.
It carried the warm gold of sunlight, slipping in through the gap between the curtains.
The sky outside had not completely brightened yet, but there was already enough light to make out the outline of the courtyard.
The several potted plants in the backyard had been watered by the rain for days. The droplets on their leaves had not yet completely dried, slowly sliding along the veins and reflecting tiny fragments of light in the morning sun.
When Su Muchen pushed open the back door, the air carried the scent of soil and wet leaves, but not that oppressive dampness.
Wearing that old T-shirt that had been washed until it had faded somewhat, he walked into the backyard.
He had brought several of the plants back from the market some time ago. At the time, he had merely been passing by and noticed them. Thinking that the backyard of Guichen Studio was too empty, he had casually picked out two pots of mint, one pot of rosemary, and a small shrub whose name he could not identify.
Now, all of them were still alive. Their leaves were a solid green, with no signs of yellowing or withering. This gave Su Muchen a small but definite sense of accomplishment.
The backyard was very quiet, with only the occasional sound of birdsong coming from the entrance of the alley.
After two days of clear weather, the sky still carried the pale blue of early morning. The tall buildings in the distance appeared less sharp in the morning mist, as though covered by a thin soft-focus filter.
The backyard of Guichen Studio was not large. A thin layer of moss grew along the corner of the wall. The surface of the water in the stone basin reflected the sky, with several fallen leaves floating upon it, slowly turning in the breeze.
This place was completely different from the pace of Yunjing City.
Outside were the intersecting sounds of traffic, subways, and drone air routes.
But here, time seemed to have its path blocked by the old walls and eaves, moving especially slowly.
Su Muchen stood up and stretched lazily, feeling that today might perhaps be a peaceful day.
No probing from the Sheng family.
No movement from the Door.
Nothing urgent that needed to be dealt with.
Just as he was thinking this, he heard the sound of a phone ringing from the front hall, continuing for quite a long time.
When he returned to the counter, he saw Xiao staring at the phone screen with an expression as if he had watched a cockroach crawl into his coffee cup.
“What happened?” Su Muchen asked. “Did the stock price crash?”
He had never seen such an ugly expression on Xiao’s face before.
Xiao did not answer immediately. Instead, he turned the phone face down on the table, as though looking at it for one more second would shorten his lifespan.
He was silent for three seconds before finally speaking slowly, his tone extremely grave.
“…Mu’an, we have big trouble.”
Xiao raised his eyes to look at him, his gaze complicated, as though looking at an idiot who had yet to realize that he was about to suffer a great disaster.
The last traces of sleepiness in Su Muchen instantly vanished by half.
“What kind of big trouble? What did Sheng Chengxiu do this time? Or did something happen with the gold?”
He thought, Could it be that there was a problem with Xiao’s gold-selling channels and they had finally been discovered?
Could it be that his life ultimately could not escape the criminal-investigation side quest?
“It’s more troublesome than Sheng Chengxiu.”
Xiao sighed and turned the phone around for him to see. On the screen was a formal notice. Its title read: “Notice of Emergency Su Family Meeting.” The time listed below was four o’clock this afternoon, and the location was “Jiyuan.”
“A family meeting.”
“…Huh?”
Xiao waved the phone in front of him. “Our side is holding a family meeting. An emergency one.” He paused. “Because of you.”
Su Muchen froze. “Because of me? What does this have to do with me? I’m not even from your collateral branch.”
“You’re not from the collateral branch, but you’re direct lineage.” Xiao’s tone carried the helplessness of someone thinking, How do you still not understand the situation by now? “There’s only one person left in the direct line now. So any movement on your part is a major matter to the collateral branches.”
“What major thing could I possibly have?”
Su Muchen’s mind worked quickly. His first thought even carried a hint of absurd anticipation—could it be that those collateral relatives who had never appeared all these years had finally developed a conscience and planned to help him settle that life-threatening debt?
He had even begun calculating in his heart: if they really had that much money, could he allocate a little more to buy new medical equipment and, while he was at it, repaint the signboard of Guichen Studio?
Xiao looked at the unmistakable hope on his face and silently swallowed the truth that had already reached the tip of his tongue.
“Take a guess,” he said.
“Could it be that they’re going to help me pay off my debt?”
Xiao glanced at him. A trace of guilt subtly flashed across his expression. Then, with a completely straight face, he said, “More or less.”
Su Muchen did not notice that trace of guilt and merely frowned. “Then what trouble do you have?”
“Because they think I’m closer to you, and you can’t go there by yourself.”
Xiao had already stood up. He quietly added, “Besides, I can’t let you go there alone.”
Su Muchen: “Why?”
Xiao did not answer. He simply walked toward the door.
“I’ll go bring the car around. Change your clothes.”
“Change my clothes? Where are we going?”
“Hailing City.”
The sound of the shop door closing was just as decisive as Xiao’s departing figure.
Su Muchen stood in front of the counter and was stunned for quite a while before finally reacting.
Hailing City was located next to Yunjing City. Only now did he learn that the Su family’s collateral branch—the family Xiao belonged to—lived there.
He lowered his head and looked at the white T-shirt and jeans he was wearing, both washed until they were slightly misshapen. Then he looked toward the direction Xiao had disappeared in and, utterly confused, went upstairs to change.
By the time he had changed and came downstairs, he still had not seen Xiao.
After waiting nearly twenty minutes, he walked out of Guichen Studio and stood on the stone-paved road of Changning Alley, looking around.
He did not see the black sedan Xiao usually drove.
Just as he was about to take out his phone and call him, a deep, resonant engine roar came from outside Changning Alley.
That sound was especially jarring in this old alley, like a ferocious beast that had barged into a chicken coop.
A dark-red Jaguar F-Type R two-door sports car slowly stopped in front of Guichen Studio.
Its low-slung body had sharp, aggressive lines, reflecting a restrained gleam beneath the morning sunlight. The streamlined body formed a powerful visual contrast with the mottled old walls of Changning Alley, like a dark-red bullet embedded in a gray-white background.
Su Muchen froze for a moment and instinctively thought, Could this be some wealthy customer who had accidentally driven into the alley?
Just as he was about to look elsewhere for Xiao, the car door flipped upward. The carbon-fiber pattern on the inner side of the door flashed briefly in the morning light.
Someone stepped out from the driver’s seat.
He took off his sunglasses.
The person who emerged from the car left Su Muchen standing there in a daze.
Xiao had changed his entire look.
The collar of his shirt was undone by one button, revealing a section of his collarbone in a casually relaxed manner.
It was paired with a sharply tailored dark-colored suit jacket. Fine, subtle patterns shimmered beneath the morning light. The material was understated, yet anyone could tell at a glance that it was expensive. The leather shoes on his feet were polished until they shone.
His long black hair, which he normally tied up casually, had been let down. It hung loosely around him. His bangs had been brushed slightly backward, with only a few strands falling over his forehead, exposing most of his forehead and brow ridge and leaving those eyes with nowhere to hide behind his hair. There was less of his usual languidness and more obvious sharpness.
His entire presence was completely different from his usual leisurely appearance.
Su Muchen’s hand holding his cheap phone stopped in midair. It took several seconds before he found his voice again.
“…Xiao?”
“Who else would it be?”
Xiao’s tone was as calm as though he dressed like this every day.
He casually hooked his sunglasses onto his collar and gave him a half-smiling, half-mocking look.
“Get in.”
Su Muchen remained where he was, spending several seconds digesting the overwhelming amount of information.
The person standing before him was actually the Xiao he knew—the Xiao who always wore black shirts, lazily leaned behind the counter, and played on his tablet; the Xiao who said, “I’m just an ordinary shop clerk.”
Yet the person standing before him now radiated an atmosphere completely different from Guichen Studio, from the tips of his hair to the toes of his shoes, like a celebrity who had walked out of some movie, only to be standing on the old stone road of Changning Alley telling him, “Get in.”
“You… this car…”
Su Muchen realized that he had completely lost the ability to organize his words because he was too shocked.
“Mine.”
Xiao had already walked to the passenger side and pulled open the door for him.
“Come on. It’s getting late.”
Only then did Su Muchen come back to his senses, countless questions popping into his mind.
But before he had time to ask any of them, he was stuffed into the passenger seat.
“Wait.” Su Muchen fastened his seat belt and still could not help speaking. “We’re just leaving like this? What about the shop? What if Sheng Chengxiu takes advantage of our absence—”
Xiao raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
The next second, two figures appeared almost soundlessly on the steps outside Guichen Studio.
Two young women, wearing well-tailored black business suits, their long hair neatly tied behind their heads. They stood perfectly straight, their expressions calm, as though they had emerged from some kind of high-standard training.
Su Muchen looked at the two young women who had suddenly appeared, feeling astonished inside—there were actually people hidden outside Guichen Studio?
“This is Su Ningning, and this is Su Qianqian.”
Xiao casually pointed at them, his tone as offhand as if he were introducing two potted plants.
Su Muchen: “…Say that again.”
Xiao pointed at the taller one. “Ningning, your distant female cousin.”
Then he pointed at the other. “Qianqian, your distant younger female cousin. They’ll guard Guichen Studio.”
“Ningning, Qianqian.”
Su Muchen muttered the names once.
“Is there something wrong with the way your Su family names people?”
Su Muchen felt utterly speechless. These names were far too casual. Could this be a naming tradition of the Su family?
“Ningning, Qianqian, I’ll leave this place to you two for now.”
“Yes.”
The two women gave Xiao a slight nod. Without any unnecessary pleasantries, they turned and returned to their respective “posts.”
He was silent for several seconds before finally speaking.
“Your Su family… exactly how many people are there?”
Xiao thought for a moment.
“There’s only you left in the direct line. As for the collateral branches… supposedly there are around three hundred people officially registered now. There may actually be more. These two are candidates for the guards who specialize in field operations. Ningning used to serve in the special forces. Qianqian is a cybersecurity expert.”
Su Muchen slowly turned his head toward him.
“So when you said before that one person guarded the Door…”
“The only shop clerk at Guichen Studio really is me. But I’m not the only one guarding this Door. There’s a team. Every generation in the collateral branches has several candidates. It’s just…”
He paused, his tone carrying a trace of indescribable weariness.
“I’m the one who’s relatively special.”
Xiao had already gotten into the driver’s seat and started the engine. The engine gave a low growl, as though venting something.
Su Muchen lowered his head and looked at the material of the seat, then at the sophisticated, high-quality design throughout the car.
“You said before that you were just an ordinary shop clerk.”
“I am. Can’t an ordinary shop clerk drive a sports car?”
Su Muchen still wanted to question him, but the acceleration that followed shoved him back against the seat.
“We’ll talk on the way. There’s still time if we drive over now.”
The engine rumbled to life, like an awakened beast.
After the car smoothly exited Changning Alley, it sped along the road. The wind was completely cut off by the body of the car.
The scenery outside gradually changed from the buildings of Yunjing City’s urban district to forests and fields in the suburbs, and then to a broader highway.
The car was practically traveling at twice the speed limit.
Su Muchen gripped the seat tightly.
“C-can you slow down a little…”
Xiao glanced at the dashboard.
“It’s fine. I’ve already slowed down.”
“That stretch of road just now had a speed limit of eighty. You were going one hundred and forty. That’s dangerous driving!”
Xiao steered with one hand, his posture as relaxed as though he were taking a stroll.
“Relax. The car has an intelligent system and collision avoidance, and I’m very good at driving. It’s just a few tickets. Besides, I’m not the one paying them anyway.”
“If you’re not paying, then who is—”
Su Muchen stopped halfway through his sentence, suddenly struck by inspiration, and closed his mouth.
He looked at the scenery rushing backward outside the window, then at the brand logo on the dashboard. The sophisticated intelligent equipment throughout the vehicle made an absurd truth slowly take shape in his mind.
“The group’s legal department will handle it.”
“Your family…”
He carefully considered his wording.
“What exactly does your family do?”
“Chenghui Group. Have you heard of it?”
“…No.”
“That’s normal. Our family never appears in the news.”
Xiao said it casually, as though introducing a small snack shop on a street corner.
“Logistics, warehousing, trade, construction, cultural assets, private security. We do a little of everything. Keeping a low profile is the only family rule we have.”
Su Muchen fell silent.
Calling driving a sports car “keeping a low profile”—who would believe that?
He thought of the way he had lived frugally in his rented room all these years, carefully calculating every expense. He thought of how, back then, he had hesitated over even a cup of convenience-store coffee because of his student loans.
Then he compared that with the car before him, Xiao’s understated yet expensive clothes, and the weight hidden behind the four words “Chenghui Group,” representing who knew how many assets.
An absurd sense of déjà vu surged through him.
“So when you were at Guichen Studio before…”
He slowly spoke.
“You were kind of like a cleaning lady at a hospital, except you drove a luxury car home after work?”
Xiao was amused by the analogy. For once, he laughed out loud for a while before slowly stopping.
“That’s a pretty good analogy.”
After his smile faded, his tone carried a rare weariness.
“But I really don’t want to go back there.”
Su Muchen looked at his profile.
Sunlight passed through the windshield and fell across Xiao’s face. In those eyes that usually carried three parts laziness and three parts teasing, there was now a heaviness Su Muchen had never seen before.
Xiao was silent for a moment, as though weighing how much he should say.
Then he spoke, his tone somewhat subdued.
“The Su family’s collateral branches… aren’t just a family. They’re also a corporation. During these past few months you’ve been at Guichen Studio, those supplies, the warehouses, the association’s review procedures, and the handling of the gold were all dealt with by people from the family.”
“If you want to stand against the Sheng Financial Group, relying solely on your own abilities isn’t enough.”
Su Muchen slowly straightened up, digesting this information.
He suddenly realized that he really had been too naïve, never once considering the complexity of these matters.
No wonder Xiao had once called him stupid and said he knew nothing.
How could Xiao possibly have done so many things alone? There must inevitably have been other people helping him handle matters behind the scenes.
He was always playing on his phone and tablet. He was probably using them to assign all this work to other people.
“You really thought your older cousin was omnipotent?”
“Then why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“Because you didn’t need to know.”
Xiao’s tone was very calm, as though stating something he had already considered countless times.
“You only need to take care of Guichen Studio and the Door. As for everything else…I don’t want you involved.”
Su Muchen looked at him.
The light outside the car window rapidly shifted across Xiao’s profile, dividing his features into alternating fragments of light and shadow.
Su Muchen remembered all the different expressions of Xiao he had seen during the time they had spent together.
At Guichen Studio, Xiao was the one who spent all day arguing with him, always playing on his phone, somewhat lazy and carefree.
The Xiao who, in order to save someone, was willing to pay with his own lifespan, yet when asked why, merely brushed it off with “I was just passing by.”
The Su Jinye who was now driving a luxury sports car, yet still kept countless secrets hidden.
The Xiao who, in the darkness of night, guarded a Door filled with unspeakable secrets all by himself, looking cold yet lonely.
Every one of those people was the real Xiao, yet none of them could truly make him understandable.
Su Muchen’s emotions became complicated from the sudden family meeting, the family corporation, the group of Door guardians, and all the other matters.
Thinking about it carefully, his life seemed to be filled with all kinds of “sudden” events.
A sudden debt.
A sudden shop.
A sudden Xiao Yuan.
Xiao’s finger lightly tapped the steering wheel.
“Don’t think too much. Today’s family meeting could have been ignored in the first place.”
“Then why go?”
“Mu’an.”
Xiao’s gaze darkened slightly.
“Actually, I also really wish I were just an ordinary shop clerk.”
Xiao suddenly said this.
Su Muchen looked at him and quietly waited for him to continue.
“You have no idea how much I hate going back to that ‘home.’”
Xiao’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel, his knuckles turning pale.
“You’ll understand naturally once you get there. Those people are like stubborn stones. No matter how hard you hammer them, they still refuse to move.”
Su Muchen did not ask who “those people” were.
Because he vaguely felt that the “those people” Xiao referred to were not the same kind of people as the two young women in suits from earlier.
The two remained quiet for a while. The only sounds inside the car were the low hum of the engine and the faint noise of the tires rolling over the road.
The car continued speeding forward. An icon on the dashboard quietly lit up—autonomous driving was ready, yet Xiao never pressed it. Both hands remained firmly on the steering wheel as he controlled the machine, drawing smooth arcs along the highway.
“You don’t use autonomous driving?”
“Don’t like it.”
Xiao said, “Things have to be in my own hands before I can feel at ease.”
The sentence sounded as though he were talking about the car, but for some reason, Su Muchen felt that he might not be referring only to the car.
“When we come back, can you tell me a little more?”
Su Muchen asked.
Xiao did not turn his head to look at him. The light outside the car window flowed across his lenses, hiding his eyes behind a layer of reflection.
“Okay.”
A moment later, Xiao gave him that answer.