Chapter 1
In front of the table, Liu Ke maintained the posture of handing over the book, his eyes widened.
Behind the table, Dong Yi raised his head in confusion, meeting his gaze.
Both of them had their faces covered with masks. The difference was that Liu Ke also wore large black-framed glasses, covering even his eyebrows and eyes. Dong Yi, having signed the last reader, was slightly more relaxed in his attitude. He half-removed his mask, revealing most of his face.
Assistant Gu Jin checked the time and approached, urging in a low voice, “Boss, the time is up, and there are other arrangements at the bookstore. What do you think?” He gestured towards the book in Liu Ke’s hands.
Dong Yi, initially indifferent, focused on the book Liu Ke handed over, slowly raising his hand. “What’s your name?”
A deep, resonant voice, perfect and profound eyes, and the thin lips revealed behind the mask formed a vaguely familiar arc. When Liu Ke looked at the eyes and brows, he felt a sense of familiarity. Now, taking a deep breath, he moved his gaze away and forcefully pulled back the book, feeling a sense of absurdity. “To think…” The person he thought he had forgotten long ago, the person whose face he believed had blurred over time, was recognized with just half of his face after a decade. It was ridiculous.
“To think what?” Dong Yi pressed the book, not letting him take it back, his gaze scanning Liu Ke’s eyes and brows inch by inch, his eyes deepening. “Tell me, what’s your name?”
“Tell me, what’s your name?”
Yellowed memories suddenly surged from the depths of Liu Ke’s mind. He looked back at Dong Yi, let go of the book, and raised an eyebrow. “What should I be called?”
Dong Yi’s pupils shrank suddenly. He stood up abruptly, reaching for Liu Ke’s wrist. “It’s you!”
“Surprised you still remember me.” Liu Ke shook off his hand, stepped forward, and grabbed his collar, staring at him with a terrifying expression. “Dong Yi, you scumbag, you’re still living well in this world. The heavens are truly blind.”
Dong Yi raised an eyebrow, grabbed his hand, and looked serious. “You’re not dead?”
“Why should I die if you’re still alive?”
Inside and outside the table, the two stared at each other with black faces, emitting a faint murderous intent. Gu Jin was bewildered by the development, so he went around the table, trying to pull Liu Ke away. “Sir, please let go. If you continue like this, I’ll have to call security.”
“Get out of the way!”
Both of them turned their heads simultaneously, spoke at the same time, saying the same thing. Gu Jin looked back and forth between them, silently withdrew his hand, and took a step back.
Liu Ke, displeased, averted his gaze, tightened his grip on Dong Yi’s collar, and approached. “Why are you imitating my way of speaking? Want a beating?”
“Why not resist? Want a beating?”
Same expression, same tone, same head-tilting angle; this time, it triggered Dong Yi’s memories of the past. His eyes flickered for a moment, then his expression became even more unpleasant. He reached out with the hand that was free and forcefully rubbed Liu Ke’s head, his voice ominously low. “Cheng Ke, you’re actually not dead!”
Hearing this, Gu Jin was stunned for a moment, then quickly summoned security to clear the scene.
“Haha!” Liu Ke was directly angered by this blatant display of height superiority. He suddenly raised his hand to throw a punch. “Hypocritical scum! Go to hell!”
Dong Yi blocked his fist, trying to restrain his hand. “Cheng Ke, we need to talk.”
“Talk your ass!” Liu Ke flexibly retracted his fist, lifted his leg, and kicked the table between the two.
Crash! The iron-framed table provided by the bookstore and the items on it all fell to the ground. Dong Yi retreated in time, narrowly avoiding the fate of having his legs crippled by the table.
Gu Jin stopped the security guards who wanted to check the situation, smiling. “They’re just playing around. Don’t worry; if the table is broken, our boss will compensate.” The security guards looked skeptical, but Gu Jin reassured them with a pat on the shoulder, then decisively closed the doors of the signing hall, keeping the readers who wanted to join the commotion outside.
As if a scene from years ago was replaying, both of them involuntarily lowered their heads to look at the mess in the middle.
Back then, they confronted each other across a pile of garbage—a silent and reserved honor student versus a delinquent who skipped classes and got into fights. Now, they were still facing each other, but the gap between them was no longer filled with garbage; instead, it was a whole decade of time and the scattered books, posters, and dolls on the ground, along with a pen crushed by the iron-framed table.
Liu Ke bent down to pick up the books around his feet, pointed at the cover, and looked at Dong Yi with a wry smile. “Death of First Love, what a good title.” He even took a plane to attend this signing event, and the result… hehe.
Dong Yi bent down to lift the iron-framed table and picked up the pen. Expressionless, he looked at Liu Ke. “Scott pen, custom edition, worth three hundred thousand.”
“…,” Liu Ke couldn’t laugh anymore.
“My new book is indeed titled ‘Death of First Love.'” Dong Yi stepped over the debris, walked up to him, and opened the cover of the book in his hands. “The preface explains the origin of this title.”
Liu Ke lowered his head, and the first sentence of the preface read, “Dedicated to my first love who died ten years ago.”
He became furious. “You scumbag really cheated on me back then!”
Dong Yi’s eyebrows twitched. “I think there’s a bit of a misunderstanding between us.”
“Misunderstanding my ass!” Liu Ke threw the book away, rolled up his sleeves, ready for another fight.
Dong Yi extended the pen to him. “Three hundred thousand, the one you broke.”
“…,” Liu Ke silently pulled down his sleeves. It was cold, especially in the middle of winter, to expose his arms.
Dong Yi stared at the marks on his nose bridge caused by the glasses, moved his fingers, and asked, “Can we talk now?”
“Why should I talk with—”
“Three hundred thousand.”
“Let’s talk!” Liu Ke raised his head and glared at him. He put on the black-framed glasses and mask again, feeling a chill in his heart. “Speak up, where do you want to talk.”
Ten minutes later, at a nearby café.
Gu Jin smiled friendly at Liu Ke, turned to face Dong Yi, and handed over the itinerary. “Boss, take a look…”
“Cancel it,” Dong Yi interrupted.
Gu Jin, feeling aggrieved, cursed him in his heart.
“You handle things at the bookstore, I don’t want to see news like ‘Bestselling author fakes death, engages in bookstore battle with rival’ tomorrow.”
How about the news of “Renowned author presumed dead suddenly resurfaces, engaging in a 300-round battle at the bookstore”? No?
Dong Yi looked at him coldly and knocked on the table.
Gu Jin, abandoning his internal small theater, turned his head and smiled at Liu Ke, then excused himself.
Five minutes later, the coffee they ordered was served.
Dong Yi looked at Liu Ke’s masked and glasses-covered face and squinted. “Take them off.”
Liu Ke remained unmoved.
Snap! The pen was placed on the table.
Damn capitalism! Clearly, he was the one abandoned, cheated on, and played with! He should be the one feeling righteous! The situation now was just damn #@¥%&… Cursing silently, he took off the mask and glasses, took a sip of coffee, and made a face at its bitterness.
Dong Yi swallowed the warning of “careful, it’s hot” and touched the cup’s wall. The tense expression on his face relaxed slightly. It was just the right temperature, not too hot. Thankfully.
Feeling uncomfortable under his direct gaze, Liu Ke pretended to be nonchalant. “So, what do you want to talk about? Don’t worry, I won’t beat you again. This time meeting is probably just a cruel joke from fate. Let’s just laugh it off.”
“I can’t laugh,” Dong Yi leaned forward slightly, carefully observing Liu Ke’s eyes and brows. He asked, “Cheng Ke, why didn’t you die?”
The anger that was suppressed by three hundred thousand surged up again in Liu Ke’s heart. He looked at Dong Yi with a stern expression. “Dong Yi, what do you mean? I don’t think I’ve done anything to betray you. After ten years, the first thing you say to me is asking why I didn’t die?”
Dong Yi didn’t like the look in his eyes now, not at all. So, he blackened his face again.
However, Liu Ke thought he was disgusted, hated, and denied the events of the past. Gradually, a hint of grievance and the pain and confusion from the past that he hadn’t vented out rose within him. He picked up the coffee, drank it in one gulp, took out a business card from his bag, pushed it over, and stood up. “There’s nothing for us to talk about. Please prepare the purchase invoice for the pen. After confirming the invoice, I will compensate according to the invoice amount. This is my contact information. Let’s not meet again in the future.”
“I thought you were dead.”
Liu Ke’s turning motion paused.
“I went to the village where you grew up and saw your grandfather’s tombstone… with your name on it.”
Liu Ke turned his head in shock.
Dong Yi looked up at him. Although his expression was still emotionless, his eyes were filled with complex emotions that were hard to decipher. “Cheng Ke, I haven’t cheated on you, and I haven’t written love letters to others. When I returned from vacation, I found out you had dropped out of school. I searched for you everywhere but only found your grandfather’s tombstone.”
Liu Ke’s mind started to tangle. “Wait, vacation? I thought you went abroad for studies?”
Dong Yi frowned. “I studied abroad after learning about your death.”
Liu Ke stared at him, silent for a moment, and then sat back down. “It seems there is indeed some misunderstanding between us.”
As the coffee slowly cooled down, Liu Ke’s emotions gradually calmed.
“Did you leave a message for me before your vacation?”
“I did, and I asked the class president to pass it on to you.”
“…The love letters I received were indeed from the class president.”
“I’ve never written love letters to anyone else,” Dong Yi stirred the cooled coffee and looked out the window. “They were for you.”
Liu Ke: “But I’m not called Little Cutie.”
Dong Yi paused in stirring the coffee, lowered his head, and spoke in a softer tone, “I wrote that when we just… You complained that my address to you was too distant.”
Liu Ke: “…”
“Because I thought that name was particularly affectionate—”
“No! Don’t say it!”
Dong Yi turned his head back, looked at him, and remained silent.
Teenage emotions were always poetic. No one could blame a teenager who, having just consummated a relationship with a lover and feeling particularly shy, chose to express their love through a love letter. Blame it on the fact that back then, Liu Ke was a poor student who couldn’t understand the subtle expressions of affection from an academic overachiever… and misunderstood it quite dramatically.
Feeling inexplicably guilty, Liu Ke glanced at the pen corpse on the table and mumbled, “What about the rumors in school after you left…?”
“What rumors?”
“Saying that I was a homosexual, shamelessly seducing and entangling you.”
“I haven’t heard anything like that after I returned to the country. Your classmates told me you were expelled because you got into a fight and hurt someone.”
There were fights, and there were injuries… Liu Ke lowered his head, feeling ashamed.
“Now.” Dong Yi picked up the business card on the table, facing the side with the printed name towards him. “It’s your turn to explain. Why is your name on your grandfather’s tombstone? And why does your business card say Liu Ke?”
The fear of being dominated by the top student returned, and Liu Ke quickly lifted his eyes to meet his gaze, offering a vague explanation, “I, uh, probably wanted to bury the past and welcome a new beginning…?”
Still, the same old saying, teenage emotions are always poetry. No one could blame a teenager who, having been dumped by a lover, expelled from school, and lost his grandfather, suffered from a severe case of second-year syndrome, and wanted to bury the terrible past, change his surname, and embrace a new future in a fit of childish stubbornness…
As the sun gradually set, the café lit up with warm yellow lights. Dong Yi, looking at Liu Ke’s embarrassed expression, took out his phone and called his assistant. “Gu Jin, go to the hotel and bring over the invoice for my pen, the one for fifty thousand.”
Liu Ke abruptly looked up. “Wasn’t it thirty thousand?!”
“In consideration of the past, I intended to give you a discount. But since you insist on compensating according to the invoice amount, then as this ‘scumbag,’ I’ll follow your wishes.” Dong Yi pointed to the pen, looked at him from top to bottom, and leaned back comfortably, revealing a pleasant smile. “Cheng Ke, long time no see. Liu Ke, please take care in the future.”
A sudden cold wind entered from the neck, and Liu Ke couldn’t help shivering.