GBT Chapter 114

The room was very quiet.

A tall figure was using a rag to clean the stains on the floor.

Jiao Bai supported himself on the edge of the bed and stood up. After taking two steps, he held his head and gasped for breath. He felt dizzy and the world was spinning. All he could see were white spots. He was so damn dizzy.

A hand steadied him.

Jiao Bai grabbed the mask on the other person’s face and pulled it down.

A sallow and gaunt face appeared in the sunlight, with deeply sunken cheeks, a firm nose, chapped lips, and a grayish complexion. His features barely retained traces of his former handsomeness.

He looked different now than when he had appeared at Lanmo Mansion last year.

The spark of hatred was not burning in his eyes. It was not extinguished, but hidden, waiting for an opportunity to be released.

The air was filled with a sour and fishy smell.

If he were healthy, it should smell of chestnut blossoms.

Jiao Bai smelled the rotting odor of Liang Dong’s life. He didn’t immediately ask questions or stand in the sunlight to accuse him of his depravity. He simply said, “I need to pee.”

Liang Dong probably hadn’t expected Jiao Bai to say something like that. It took him a while to come back to his senses and carry him to the small toilet.

Jiao Bai was 179cm tall, and Liang Dong was at least 185cm. It was difficult for him to carry him.

He had been able to handle two thugs last time, but he was so weak this time. It was probably related to just having exercised.

The toilet was so small that it was difficult for two people to stand in it. The toilet bowl was very dirty, the kind of dirt that couldn’t be removed, with circles of brownish-yellow stains.

Jiao Bai didn’t care. He had been through a small dark room, so this really wasn’t anything.

After relieving himself, Jiao Bai said, “Talk.”

Liang Dong scooped water from a large white bucket and gave it to Jiao Bai to wash his hands. “This is where I found Old Pan back then.”

He had come back.

Because he needed drugs.

Jiao Bai took the towel Liang Dong gave him and wiped the water off his hands. After wiping, his hand was covered in lint.

Liang Dong wanted to wash them again for him, but he said indifferently, “No need. Keep talking. Start from when you left Lanmo Mansion, or jump to Changmin Island. Whatever you want.”

“There’s nothing to say. You can probably guess it all.” Liang Dong draped the towel back on the rusty rack. “The Cen family wedding, all the rich people went. That piece of fat was huge, attracting the attention of many bandit dens. They reached a cooperation.”

The so-called cooperation was fake. Everyone was thinking about finding an opportunity to swallow it all alone.

Liang Dong mentioned a person, Brother Cheng. He said he was working as a lackey for him, and if he performed well, he might get some drugs.

Drug addiction required a lot of money. Without money, he could only sell his riddled life.

Fortunately, he was lucky.

Jiao Bai could see that Liang Dong was much more affected by drugs than last year, and he had accepted this bloody fate.

“I was there for the entire island operation that day.” Liang Dong didn’t want to recall the riot at the time. He said briefly, “Siming Courtyard was blown up. Brother Cheng’s people found the Cen family’s escape route. When we got there, it was already in ruins. The unconscious Zhang Zhen was holding you, who was also unconscious, and others were also pressed under the ruins.”

He added, “I told Brother Cheng about your value, so Brother Cheng sent people to pull you out of the ruins and took you away.”

Hate me.

Liang Dong looked at Jiao Bai, but didn’t see the reaction he expected. He paused, “Brother Cheng has a brother who is a doctor. He said you have a mental illness that is incurable and can only be left to fate.”

“That Young Master is eccentric and not a normal person. He deliberately let us onto the island, probably because he was bored and wanted to watch the excitement.” Liang Dong wanted to carry Jiao Bai, but was rejected. He assumed it was because he smelled bad, so he tactfully lowered his hands and stepped back a bit.

Jiao Bai didn’t notice Liang Dong’s small gesture. He was thinking that Liang Dong had really grasped Cen Jingmo’s mentality.

“How long has it been since the incident?” Jiao Bai asked.

“Almost ten days.” Liang Dong said.

Jiao Bai leaned against the wall and shuffled forward. Liang Dong’s voice rang out behind him, “This is the border. It won’t be that easy for the Qi family to find you.”

“What about my phone and the Buddha Card?” Jiao Bai turned his head.

“Brother Cheng’s people will check your whole body. Anything on you will be thrown into the sea.” Liang Dong looked at the few strands of messy hair on the back of his head. “I thought the Buddha Card was important to you, so I secretly buried it on the island, along with your phone.”

Jiao Bai breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that it was buried. Zhang Zhen would find those two things based on the tracking signal, so they wouldn’t be damaged or lost. That was good.

“So, Brother Cheng put me here with you to test you. He still doesn’t trust you and thinks you have ulterior motives.” Jiao Bai’s fingers pressed against the rough and uneven cement wall, scratching it twice.

“I’ve been tested many times. Brother Cheng trusts me.” Liang Dong’s tone was light. “You being here is what I asked for. I told Brother Cheng that we were classmates, and I was afraid you would be depressed and wanted to live with you so it would be easier to keep an eye on you.”

Jiao Bai: “…”

Liang Dong grabbed Jiao Bai’s arm and helped him back to the room. “Those two people from a few days ago won’t be coming anymore. Brother Cheng has already killed them.”

“You’re a distinguished guest.” Liang Dong helped Jiao Bai onto the bed and turned on the electric fan to blow on him from the side, not daring to face him directly, for fear he would catch a cold.

“Brother Cheng is recovering from his injuries. Once he recovers, you can go back.” Liang Dong smoothed out the mat for Jiao Bai.

Jiao Bai said slowly, “Your Brother Cheng wants to use me to exchange for money. You have other plans in mind, don’t you?”

Liang Dong froze.

“You plan to wait until Brother Cheng is ready to make the trade, and see if you can find an opportunity to take me away, and secretly have Shen Er An do a swap. You want to use me to exchange for Tan Jun.” Jiao Bai said bluntly.

Liang Dong maintained the posture of patting the mat, not moving for a long time.

After a long time, Liang Dong uttered three words from his dry mouth: “I’m sorry.”

This was an admission.

Jiao Bai had no expression: “Liang Dong, don’t do that.” I don’t want to eat that disgusting dog blood, please.

“Are you afraid that Shen Er An will choose Tan Jun?” Liang Dong sneered.

Jiao Bai was silent.

Liang Dong laughed loudly, the laughter sounding harsh: “He will definitely do it, Jiao Bai, he will definitely!”

“He has changed. He is no longer the Shen Er An we knew. He is the young head of the Shen family.” Liang Dong’s breath was filled with corruption.

“Since you already know the answer, why are you still making him choose between two, aren’t you just wanting him to struggle and then watch me die?” Jiao Bai said coldly.

Liang Dong’s expression changed. He seemed like he wanted to explain, but couldn’t say anything, only staring at Jiao Bai with his two turbid and lusterless eyes.

“I’m telling you not to do that, because I only recently found out that Shen Er An had a car accident two years ago, and there are fragments in his brain. He has had several surgeries.” Jiao Bai said, “There is a fragment that cannot be removed. He has been in a foreign country for conservative treatment during this period of time. There is still a big mess in the country waiting for him, it just depends on how he can survive.”

“Tan Jun sees him as his only reliance and hope. If his body can’t get better, Tan Jun won’t be able to survive either.” Jiao Bai’s spirit was failing, and his consciousness sank.

Liang Dong kept pressing the lighter, but couldn’t get a flame no matter what. He threw the lighter on the ground and stomped it to pieces.

“He said he would pay me back with two lives, and told me to wait, but I don’t know how long to wait, and even if I do, what then? My family’s reputation, my parents being wronged, my life…”

Jiao Bai couldn’t hear the rest of Liang Dong’s words. He gradually lost consciousness.

He didn’t know that Liang Dong was squatting by the bed, hugging his head and crying bitterly.

After that conversation, Jiao Bai never saw Liang Dong again. He stayed in the small house from morning till night, confirming whether they were alive or dead through the avatars of his friends.

Jiao Bai finished all the food in the room. When he was extremely hungry, Liang Dong came back and brought him food.

Liang Dong smelled of blood. He was injured. Jiao Bai wanted to ask a question or two, but he didn’t give him a chance. He threw down the food and left again.

This year’s summer was hotter than usual. It was only June, and Jiao Bai was so hot that his body smelled sour. Since no one helped him, he wiped himself. Fortunately, the wound on his back was healing well. Although the medicine Liang Dong left behind didn’t even have a name, it was surprisingly effective.

The short, thin teenager pried the door open and came in while Jiao Bai was eating an apple.

“The apple was bought by our gang. He gave you all the good and big ones!” The teenager spat and cursed with a lack of vocabulary, “You have no shame!”

Jiao Bai ignored him.

The teenager didn’t leave even after being ignored. He came to Jiao Bai to ask about Liang Dong’s past life.

Jiao Bai finished the last few bites of the apple and felt a little better, so he talked about Liang Dong in high school.

The teenager was emaciated, and his eyes seemed extremely large, which was frightening. After listening, he couldn’t believe it: “A rich second generation, I can’t tell.”

“It’s good that he’s not anymore, otherwise I wouldn’t have met him.” The teenager muttered, and gave Jiao Bai the middle finger, who was staring at him, “Don’t even think about trying to win me over, in your dreams. I’m still counting on using you to make a lot of money, to buy white powder for me and him, a lot, so we can’t finish eating it in a lifetime.”

Jiao Bai Tsksaid: “Wouldn’t it be better to quit?”

The teenager had a strong emotional reaction, as if anyone who advised him to quit drugs was his mortal enemy: “Why quit! I can only live well with it! You don’t understand anything!”

“It can make people forget everything, and they don’t know how happy they are.” The teenager’s body under his empty clothes shook, and he left mumbling.

But that’s poison. Jiao Bai faced the Garnish tent and closed his eyes to fall asleep.

A earth-shattering noise dragged Jiao Bai back to reality. It was already dark, and the room was not lit, only a little halo of light spilled in from the window, illuminating the anxious and irritable figure.

“Bang–”

Liang Dong grabbed the small table and slammed it hard against the wall.

The daily necessities rattled and fell, and the broken pieces of wood bounced everywhere. One piece flew towards the bed, and Jiao Bai barely avoided it.

Jiao Bai’s heart sank. Liang Dong’s… drug addiction had flared up.

Liang Dong hadn’t slept for a few days, and was in a state of extreme mania. Jiao Bai climbed down from the bed to find a place to hide. His body was not well, and staying here wouldn’t help, only hurt him.

“I fuck your mother!”

Liang Dong grabbed Jiao Bai, who was going to the toilet, and roared at him, his expression terrifying, “Where are you going! You want to run, don’t you?”

Jiao Bai was thrown away by Liang Dong.

“Ah!” Liang Dong smashed everything he could smash. He shrank in a corner, convulsing all over, and vomiting incessantly.

This was the second time Jiao Bai had witnessed a drug addict having an attack, and the person involved was Liang Dong. His symptoms were many times more severe than last year.

At this time, Liang Dong’s eyes and heart were only filled with drugs. Persuasion was useless. Jiao Bai hid himself in the darkness, watching Liang Dong hit the wall again and again, and biting the iron sheet with his teeth, biting until his mouth was full of blood.

Too scary. Jiao Bai closed his eyes uncomfortably.

“Woo…” Liang Dong crawled out painfully, his thin body crushing over a mess, his throat making a longing gasp. He helplessly and eagerly pried open the door, his ten fingers grabbing into the ground, crawling forward with blood flowing.

“I got it!”

The teenager limped to the door, and the paper bag in his hand was madly ripped away by Liang Dong. His fingers were very sore from being ripped, and they were also stained with blood.

“Take it easy, take it easy.” The teenager’s clothes were ragged and he was covered in scars. He squatted beside him, greedily breathing in and out, convulsing, not daring to grab the paper bag.

The room suddenly lit up.

A small part of that light ran out, covering the two living skeletons by the door. That was a world that had been chewed up by drugs.

“He’s rotten, and I’m rotten too. We’re both rotten people, a match made in heaven.” The teenager walked in and showed off to Jiao Bai.

Jiao Bai looked at him.

“Want to try it?” The teenager took out another paper bag and licked a little.

Jiao Bai glanced at it: “This is flour.”

He didn’t know which word stimulated the teenager, but he threw all the small bag of flour at Jiao Bai, and dragged his throbbing body back to Liang Dong.

Jiao Bai wiped his face and looked down at the powder on his fingertips. This time it was flour, but he didn’t know about next time. He was even more afraid of poison being mixed into the food. This place was too unsafe.

The torture brought by drugs caused Jiao Bai’s senses to be bombarded. He had to leave as soon as possible, the sooner the better. He couldn’t slowly wait for the Qi family to find him, and he didn’t want to heal his body first. He had to leave, he had to find a way out for himself.

Jiao Bai’s eyes swept towards Liang Dong, calculating something.

Liang Dong didn’t mention anything about what happened that night, and he started coming back every day again.

But after Jiao Bai gave him psychological counseling classes for several days in a row, he became annoyed. One time, he couldn’t control his emotions and threw the washbasin at Jiao Bai with a flick of his hand.

The basin was plastic and had been used for a long time. It cracked when it hit Jiao Bai’s head, and the cracked part cut the outer corner of his left eye, leaving a slender bloody cut.

Liang Dong stood there blankly.

The outer corner of Jiao Bai’s eye sloped downwards, and the bloodstain was like the tears flowing out of him. His pale face twitched and turned cold.

“I’m sorry,” Liang Dong apologized in a flustered voice, his eyes full of shame.

Jiao Bai took the opportunity to say, “Liang Dong, I’m not a saint. I won’t reach out to a pitiful person when I see one. I will only follow my heart, and now I want to help you.”

“Help me?” A strange look burst out in Liang Dong’s eyes. “Then cooperate with me and let Shen Er An hand Tan Jun over to me for disposal.”

Jiao Bai didn’t wipe the blood from the outer corner of his eye, just letting it flow down: “Shen Er An is trapped in a vicious circle of hatred, I pulled him out,”

“I’m just asking you, do you still want to get rid of drugs.” Jiao Bai stared at Liang Dong, “Do you want to, or don’t you?”

Liang Dong looked at the bright red bloodstain streaking across his cheek, trembling on his thin, sharp chin, and dripping onto the bed with a “pop”.

“I don’t want to,” he said.

The next day, Jiao Bai met that Brother Cheng, the leader who had kidnapped Cen Jingmo back then. His injuries hadn’t healed yet, and he had a heavy bandit air.

Brother Cheng asked Jiao Bai how he was living here, and said that if he was lacking anything, he could say it, and that he would satisfy him as much as possible, given the limited conditions here. Brother Cheng also wanted him to never treat himself as an outsider.

Jiao Bai witnessed the way Brother Cheng and Liang Dong got along. He was treating him as a confidant.

In the evening, a heavy rain bombarded the border mountains. When Jiao Bai was thinking about things on the bed, Liang Dong came back, dripping wet all over.

Jiao Bai noticed that Liang Dong’s condition was not right: “Someone is trying to sow discord between you and Brother Cheng, framing you?”

Liang Dong raised his wet head, and streaks of water meandered across his pale face, it was difficult to tell whether it was rain, sweat, or something else.

A guess popped up in Jiao Bai’s mind, and he asked tentatively: “That kid…”

“He’s dead.” Liang Dong said numbly, “Overdose.”

Jiao Bai didn’t speak anymore.

“Boom”

A lightning bolt struck the window. The white light was like a sharp blade, cutting through Liang Dong’s shell. At the same time, a suppressed sob rang out in the room.

“Are you crying because he died young, or are you crying because you see what you’ll look like when you die?” Jiao Bai took a towel and threw it on Liang Dong’s head.

Liang Dong didn’t touch the towel, letting it fall to the ground.

Jiao Bai found a small mirror. He grabbed his clothes and wiped the mirror clean, then held the mirror up to Liang Dong: “You’re going to the underworld after taking revenge, are you going to see your parents looking like this?”

Liang Dong hadn’t looked in the mirror since he started taking drugs. This was still what he found for Jiao Bai.

Now he looked at himself in the mirror, unfamiliar and dazed.

“Get rid of the drugs.” Jiao Bai said.

Liang Dong was unmoved. It was easier said than done. It was a road with no end in sight, and perseverance and expectation were essential, but no one had any expectations for him.

“I’ll supervise you.”

A steady voice rang in his ears. Liang Dong raised his head in a daze and turned to the left, his red eyes still containing tears.

Jiao Bai hugged him, his eyes glancing out the window. No matter how heavy the rain fell, it would stop, and the sky would clear.

Liang Dong knew that Jiao Bai was going to escape, and even wanted to bring him along, and was sure that he would agree.

He really agreed.

Liang Dong told Jiao Bai the cruel reality, that there was no signal here and he couldn’t get in touch with the outside world.

But Jiao Bai was not discouraged. He said, let’s leave here first.

Liang Dong was infected by Jiao Bai’s determination and decisiveness. He entered the other party’s channel and began to think, first of all, he had to have a car.

Jiao Bai and Liang Dong made plans, eliminating and changing them one by one, waiting for the opportunity.

In the early morning of that month, at three or four o’clock, extremely weak light leaked out of the sky, and the people in the stronghold were snoring soundly. A car drove out of the forest and headed for the exit.

The guards stationed there were all drugged into a stupor.

The driver was Jiao Bai. He was driving without a license, which was illegal, but the situation was special, so he could only do this for now.

When Liang Dong’s hands stopped shaking, he would replace Jiao Bai.

The car smoothly drove out of the exit. Jiao Bai grabbed his T-shirt and wiped the sweat from his face and neck. Liang Dong on the passenger seat suddenly gasped in surprise: “Jiao Bai, I forgot to bring something.”

“What?” Jiao Bai was stunned.

Liang Dong didn’t answer. He opened the car door and went down: “You wait for me here.”

After saying that, Liang Dong didn’t leave. He reached in and rubbed Jiao Bai’s hair, “Little stir-fry, if you’re discovered, don’t wait, just go. You don’t have to worry about me.”

The light on the horizon was expanding and strengthening. Jiao Bai turned off the engine. He lay on the steering wheel, a cigarette in his mouth, his eyes fixed on the road ahead in the darkness through the car window, and his other senses were paying attention to the surroundings.

Two-thirds of a cigarette burned. Jiao Bai’s lips were stuck to the cigarette butt. He pinched the cigarette open, his palms slippery with cold sweat.

There was a figure in the rearview mirror, it was Liang Dong.

Jiao Bai hadn’t even exhaled when he choked on it. He stubbed out the cigarette and threw it away, yelling at Liang Dong, who was being chased by a group of people, “Hurry up!”

Liang Dong stopped running. He stopped three or five steps away from the car, panting heavily and looking at Jiao Bai. I’m going back, how are you going to be stuck between me and Shen Er An?

Gunshots rang out, those people were shooting.

Jiao Bai’s chest slammed into the car door. He lay there, reaching out his hand: “What the hell are you still hesitating about! Go!”

Liang Dong clutched the teenager’s family portrait tightly, it was the parents and family that he couldn’t find until his death.

Jiao Bai, I’m sorry, I want to be selfish once, regardless of your difficulties, I just want to grab your hand and climb up.

Liang Dong opened his sore and heavy legs and strode towards the car, grabbing Jiao Bai’s hand tightly.

The gunshots approached, and Liang Dong pounced into the car.

Jiao Bai slammed on the accelerator, carrying a body ruined by the remnants of drugs, and bravely rushed into the dawn of dawn.