Chapter Seventy-Three — The Lie Exposed

As they approached the doorway to the private room, Xu Shixi opened the door and stepped out.

Three people, a corridor both spacious and narrow, in that instant converged into a surging river. At either end of this river stood secrets, each unwilling to be easily uncovered by the other.

Xu Shixi took a large stride forward. Lu Xugao thought he couldn’t wait to help with the tray in his hands and was about to pass it over, but Xu Shixi brushed right past him. Behind, little Su was so startled she nearly stumbled, almost dropping her tray, and some broth spilled out.

Two pairs of frightened eyes widened in the mist.

Wasn’t he supposed to be studying in Jiangxi? Shixi remembered Yishu mentioning that he had been admitted to a university in Jiangxi and had explicitly said during the National Day that he would not be coming back. For him to appear here now was no accident—almost inevitable.

Had he returned early, lying in wait to spring a surprise, or had he simply taken root here, content to be a humble blade of grass?

The corridor was sparsely populated, long, and hushed—a stretched-out painting evoking the lingering charm of time.

Su Yihui stood frozen, as if weeds had sprouted under his feet, rooting him stubbornly to the ground. The tray in his hands suddenly felt weightless, his whole body light-headed, as if he might collapse at any moment, his head hitting the ground with a resounding crash—a fatal blow to the oppressive atmosphere around him.

Xu Shixi stared at Su Yihui, his gaze tangled with confusion, disbelief, and astonishment, all twisted into a knot in that fleeting moment.

"Yihui?" Xu Shixi’s lips moved uncertainly. "Are you working here?"

Su Yihui lost the ability to speak, hovering in a daze. He never thought, in such a vast yet small world, they would collide in this unremarkable tea house in Yundong. Words of explanation could not form a coherent river; perhaps they had dissolved into a vast ocean, becoming a diluted solution that could no longer be gathered.

"I... I... I..." His pale face flushed red in an instant. Perhaps he had never considered a strategy for such an exposure. Not being good with words, even if he had written a book, he could not have explained himself concisely.

Inside the private room, Yishu and Yan Lu noticed their absence. Their stomachs roiling with hunger, their tempers were like leaking gas tanks—one spark and it would be an explosive, catastrophic disaster.

"Why haven’t you all come in yet?" Yan Lu yelled from the doorway. "You think just looking will fill you up?"

Seeing Yan Lu appear in his field of vision was like a sudden burst of sparks, their sting pricking his skin.

Then, surely his sister Yishu would be next to appear. As expected, just a second after he imagined it, she was within sight.

Yihui would always remember that moment—the scene was like a wide-angle shot, drawing out every hidden detail and freezing them at the far end of the world into a perilously swaying tower. And he, trapped with no way to retreat, saw all his possible paths dissolve into an endless ocean. He could not swim. But even if he could, how could he cross such a sea? Retreat meant drowning, but moving forward was equally a dead end. His road in life was utterly blocked.

"Yihui?" Yishu asked, her voice trembling with uncertainty. "Is that you?" Or was it simply someone who looked alike?

"Yihui!" Yan Lu was closer to him than Yishu, and she saw clearly. "Are you working here?"

Yishu glanced sideways at Yan Lu. With such certainty in her voice, the thin youth in work clothes before her could only be Yihui.

A storm of questions, interrogations, and accusations rained down—hard as stones, pitilessly pelting him. The tray in his hands, deprived of his strength, seemed to shatter in an instant from his suspended heart, fragments falling into oblivion.

"You’ve mistaken me for someone else," Yihui said, mimicking the ancient dramas where, after a long separation, one avoids acknowledging an unexpected reunion.

But acting in real life only made the flaws in his performance more glaring.

Yihui turned to flee, regaining the strength he had lost, if only in that moment.

"Stop right there!" Yishu’s voice rang out, her sharp command freezing every note in the air. Xu Shixi, Yan Lu, Lu Xugao, Su Yihui, and even Yishu herself were all held fast to the glossy floor.

Lu Xugao was the only one among them who did not know Su Yihui. At the start of this sudden drama, he had no way to enter the scene. The tray in his hands pressed heavily, veins bulging, his dark skin turning red, steam rising from the bowls clouded his anxious eyes.

Behind Su Yihui, an invisible hand held him back, refusing to let him move even a centimeter.

It was time to face reality. Su Yihui had imagined this moment’s outcome countless times, always believing that in such a sprawling city, in a humble tea house beneath the skyscrapers of Yunbei, his secret—buried deep beneath the urban clamor—would be exposed at the worst possible time and place.

Yishu lifted her leaden legs, each step seeming to press deep dents into the floor. She had always thought her brother was devoted to his studies at university, never suspecting his deception. In past calls, she had vaguely caught the noise of the background, words like those used in restaurants or hotels—now, everything made sense.

She could not understand why he dropped out. Was it the lingering trauma from high school bullying? A loss of interest in study? Or some other unfathomable reason? Her eyes filled with tears. She had longed for university herself, but reality forced her to give up the dream, weaving pretty lies to comfort herself. Like a bird unable to fly, walking to the mountain’s edge, facing the roaring sea, she’d pretended she had soared over peaks and oceans—when in truth, one step forward would mean total destruction and being swallowed by the waves.

"Why are you here?" Yishu’s voice was icy, piercing like a shard of frost through the heart, freezing the blood in its wake. "Don’t tell me you’re only here for a week. Yuncheng and Jiangxi are hundreds of kilometers apart. If you’re planning a lie, think carefully before you speak. But I suppose you’ve already prepared an excuse, a speech perfect enough to shatter all my questions."

"No, it’s not that." Yihui, flustered by her barrage, felt his composure unravel. In truth, from the moment he saw her, all calm had deserted him. "I have nothing to say."

Because the truth was just as it appeared—I really did drop out, I never even set foot in Jiangxi, I truly... I can’t go on deceiving someone who’s already so wounded, especially my own sister. That would be too cruel.

"Why don’t we go inside and talk it over calmly?" Xu Shixi suggested, his eyes searching their faces. "I’m sure Yihui has his reasons." He added, "Yishu, don’t get too emotional. Anger clouds judgment."

"How can I not be emotional?" Yishu threw aside her composure. She didn’t want calm—she wanted truth and answers. "He’s my brother!"

Yan Lu, usually so full of opinions, was at a loss. She had never witnessed such a dramatic scene. Swallowing hard, she said, "I think, just as Xu Shixi said, let’s go inside and talk. Standing here, people are staring—it’s awkward." She took Yishu by the shoulders and steered her, shuffling, toward the private room.

Lu Xugao, knowing nothing of the backstory, thought it best to stay silent rather than risk offending anyone in this tense moment. He simply watched from the side.

Xu Shixi pressed his furrowed brow, his thick eyebrows weighing heavy above his eyes.

"Let’s go in," he said. "We’ll talk inside."

Su Yihui sensed a reassuring steadiness in Xu Shixi, reminiscent of Cheng Shuguang’s calming presence. He followed half a step behind him. "Let me clean up this mess first," he said, out of professional instinct and a sense of responsibility.

"I’ll help," Xu Shixi offered, turning back.

"No need, you all go ahead. I can handle it myself." Su Yihui bent down.

He didn’t need their help; this task he could do alone. Or perhaps, he wanted to use it as a way to escape, to pretend, even for a moment, that this was all just a dream.

"You all go, leave this to me," Lu Xugao finally found a chance to speak. Of the five, he was the most inconspicuous, the one who could remain outside the story.

Lu Xugao handed the tray to Xu Shixi.

After exchanging glances, the two silently agreed that such a small matter did not require a contest of courtesy, and Lu Xugao nudged Yihui toward the private room.