Xiang Luan had actually planned countless times what he would do when he saw his brother again.

He had to be at least a little composed, right?

He had to let his brother see that he had made some progress during this time, become a bit more presentable, and was slowly learning to stand on his own two feet.

He didn’t need his brother to handle everything for him anymore. He could guide and protect newcomers, and he could confront the trash who spread rumors and twisted black and white.

When trouble arose, he knew how to use his brain to figure things out, unlike before when he needed protection for everything and just knew how to cry uselessly…

Xiang Luan had thought about it over and over again.

He’d have to walk over calmly and coolly. He would definitely have to straighten his clothes, and if he had the chance, immediately find a reflective surface to fix his hair.

The first thing would be to see if his brother remembered him.

If he didn’t remember, he would shake his hand and politely introduce himself. If he did remember, he would pounce on him and hug him, to hell with everything else.

…

Xiang Luan forcefully swallowed the heart that was leaping in his throat.

He watched as the person in front of him was helped to a seat on a rock, the cane placed aside, while he slowly rubbed his right leg and spoke gently to the others.

The rest of what was happening felt like a movie transition, barely leaving an impression.

The thugs were cleared away in the blink of an eye. The sound of a police siren came from a distance; they were probably taken there.

Someone came to ask if he was hurt. He quickly shook his head and added a thank you.

Someone went to talk to his brother.

His brother smiled, waved his hand, said a few words in a low voice, and then looked up towards him…

Xiang Luan’s hands instantly didn’t know where to go. He frantically looked for a place to fix his hair, found no reflective surface, and started tugging at his clothes instead.

…He probably doesn’t remember, right?

Although it was hard to explain, when faced with such a situation, there was just an inexplicable intuition.

His brother probably didn’t remember him, nor many other things.

That was definitely not a problem.

What problem could there be if he didn’t remember? It was for the best that he didn’t remember all that rotten stuff… The main thing was, since this was the case, he had to be composed.

He had to be composed.

He had to go over, shake his hand, and politely introduce himself.

Start by introducing himself as a die-hard fan.

Xiang Luan swallowed hard again. He slowly walked over, squatted down, and looked up. “Mr. Luo… Mr. Luo, hello.”

Xiang Luan completely forgot the self-introduction he had memorized so well. His face flushed red, and he stammered, “You… you now—”

“Ming Chi,” he heard the other person say. “You can still call me Mr. Luo, if you want.”

Xiang Luan immediately shook his head like a rattle-drum.

Changing a stage name in the industry was an extremely common practice—he had long heard that his brother’s real name was Chi, not Zhi. What did he need that family’s wretched surname for?

Besides, Ming Chi was bright and sounded good. It was just too cool!

On the spot, Xiang Luan voluntarily adopted this new name, deciding to inform everyone immediately upon his return. From now on, they would all uniformly call him CEO Ming.

“Not that one. This one is good, especially good,” Xiang Luan assured with extra seriousness, then said, “My name is—”

Ming Chi extended his hand. “Xiang Luan.”

Xiang Luan’s eyes went wide.

Ming Chi waited for a moment. Seeing that he wasn’t going to shake his hand, he gently placed his hand on his head.

“You can still call me brother,” Ming Chi said. “How did you become so amazing?”

He ruffled Xiang Luan’s hair, bent down to look into his eyes, and asked, “Were you wronged?”

The calmness and composure that Xiang Luan had built up with ten deep breaths were completely shattered within five seconds of that hand landing on his head.

He stared at the person in front of him, stunned and motionless for a long time. Before he could even open his mouth, tears streamed out.

His mouth didn’t hold back either.

He hadn’t even figured out if his brother remembered him or not. After all, the person before him was almost exactly like the Young CEO Luo of the past, chatting with and counseling these naive little brats who were just starting out and hadn’t seen the world’s storms… there was no time to worry about that for now.

No time to worry about that. The tears were flowing too fast; he had to open his mouth and wail.

Xiang Luan felt as if he had pounced on and hugged Ming Chi.

He pounced too eagerly and didn’t control his strength, nearly knocking Ming Chi off balance. Ming Chi reached out a hand to steady himself.

Xiang Luan frantically tried to look down, but Ming Chi patted him on the shoulder. “It’s alright.”

“I’m fine,” Ming Chi patted him. “It’s over now.”

Ming Chi’s speech was unhurried, the words spoken softly and slowly.

It was as if he were talking about almost losing his balance just now, or about the minor, not-so-dangerous incident he had just encountered.

…

Or perhaps, it was the most concise and gentle summary of a long and excruciatingly painful storm.

The pain and heat in Xiang Luan’s chest all flared up at once.

The plan was completely ruined. All he knew was to cling tightly to the person in front of him and cry, tears streaming down his face endlessly as if they were free.

Xiang Luan was crying so hard he couldn’t speak clearly. His arms were trembling from the force of his grip, and it took him several tries to squeeze out a broken sentence: “Why did it take you so long to come back…”

After forcing out that sentence, Xiang Luan could finally speak coherently.

He was sobbing too violently. He looked up at Ming Chi, gasping for breath between sobs as he rushed to speak: “Brother, were you sick, was it hard, did it hurt, are you better now, did someone bully you, we’ll go beat them up for you…”

Ming Chi was a little bewildered by his questions. He blinked lightly, then looked down and smiled.

Xiang Luan was rubbing his face red with his sleeve. The moment he saw him smile, he couldn’t hold back for even half a second, and a new flood of tears drowned Ming Chi on the spot.

Ming Chi steadied himself with his arm and let him cry his heart out, crying until he had completely and satisfyingly let it all out. Only then did he pat Xiang Luan’s back. “No, it wasn’t hard, and it didn’t hurt.”

“I’m fine. The sickness is all gone.” Ming Chi thought for a moment and added, “I walked too far today.”

He really had walked too far today.

Ming Chi had sent Director Xun out of the villa and didn’t immediately return to his room.

The weather tonight was very nice. A breeze came in from the sea, sweeping away the stuffiness of the past few days and making one want to go for a walk.

Ming Chi had originally just wanted to walk around the reef, trying to practice his sense of direction again, but he unexpectedly discovered some sneaky figures.

He followed them with his men, found Xiang Luan, and wanted to call out to him, but the person vanished in a second.

Xiang Luan was quite clever, and the path he took was winding, crooked, and hard to find. Ming Chi vaguely guessed what was happening and told his men not to worry about him and to follow quickly. He was thus led around in circles by Xiang Luan.

Ming Chi hadn’t walked this much since he started his rehabilitation. Coupled with the uneven and hard ground in this area, he had already done his best to keep up at a brisk pace.

…

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have let Xiang Luan see the problem with his right leg.

Xiang Luan, of course, could guess what had happened. He shrank his neck and obediently squatted down to rub his leg.

“Alright,” Ming Chi didn’t mean for him to do that and laughed. “It’s nothing, it’ll be fine after some rest.”

Ming Chi pulled Xiang Luan up and praised him seriously, “Brave and resourceful. You did very well.”

Xiang Luan’s face burned from the praise. “Really?”

“Really,” Ming Chi nodded in agreement. “You’ve become very reassuring.”

Xiang Luan was so happy he almost jumped up. After a moment’s thought, he suddenly realized something, circled around him, and stammered, “You… you can also be not so reassured… just a little.”

“Just a little is fine.” Xiang Luan squatted beside him, gathering his courage for a long time. “Brother, when you’re… when you’re all better, when you’re ready.”

Xiang Luan steeled himself, took a deep breath, and said in a small voice with his head down, “You can come back and see us occasionally… just being not so reassured by a tiny little bit is enough.”

Ming Chi was slightly taken aback, his gaze falling on him.

Xiang Luan grinned. He had calmed down now, and his brain started working again. “Brother, you don’t actually remember me, do you?”

Xiang Luan shuffled over bit by bit until he was squeezed next to Ming Chi. He whispered close to him, “When you looked at me just now, your eyes seemed to be thinking, ‘Ah, so that’s him. So this is what the little brat looks like.'”

He made Ming Chi laugh softly, who then gently self-criticized, “Am I that obvious?”

“No, no, not at all,” Xiang Luan quickly shook his head hard. “I’m bad with words, that’s not what I meant, I mean—”

…He meant to say, when his brother sat there and looked up at him.

Xiang Luan was actually fully prepared to be treated as a stranger, but from the first glance Ming Chi gave him, he wanted to cry. He was so weak. He was both happy and sad.

“It’s hard to explain,” Xiang Luan said. “When you looked at me just now, I knew you didn’t remember anything, but—”

He paused, then, as if afraid of startling something, quietly added, “But it also felt like… you never left.”

Had he changed? There were definitely places that had changed. Ming Chi had come back from so far away, walked such a long road, and encountered so many things. His temperament had actually changed quite noticeably.

…

But at that moment, Xiang Luan suddenly felt that the long time this person had been separated from them was like the blink of an eye.

Xiang Luan finished saying everything he wanted to say in one breath. Seeing Ming Chi sitting silently in thought, he closed his mouth and held his breath, waiting.

Ming Chi must have understood what he meant.

Xiang Luan clenched his fists tightly, swallowed, his heart pounding.

Ming Chi thought with his head down for a moment, then raised his gaze again, a smile in his eyes. He tapped him with his cane. “Coaxing me to soften up, coaxing me to go back.”

The tap from the cane was super light. Xiang Luan pretended to jump away, an irrepressible smile breaking out as he circled around him. “Come back and see, brother. Will you come back and see?”

Xiang Luan squatted beside him, chattering, “Brother Fang and the others miss you every day, so much that I can’t even stand to watch… Don’t worry, I guarantee 10,000 times over, they’ll be absolutely crazy happy to see you, not sad at all.”

Ming Chi turned his head and glanced at the large wet patch still on the shoulder of his trench coat.

Xiang Luan, as if his tail had been poked by the cane, blushed beet red and explained stubbornly, “Those are tears of joy, ecstatic tears.”

Ming Chi mimicked him, widening his eyes. “That ecstatic, huh?”

“That ecstatic, that ecstatic,” Xiang Luan nodded desperately. “So happy I could fly.”

“Brother, I know you’re just afraid we’ll be sad.”

Xiang Luan moved closer to him again. “You never want us to be sad, but brother, we’re friends, right?”

Seeing that Ming Chi didn’t deny it, Xiang Luan became even happier and pushed his luck. “Friends are supposed to share blessings and endure hardships together, right? Friends are also destined to meet even if they are a thousand miles apart, and this isn’t even a thousand miles…”

Ming Chi found a relatively flat rock and leaned back, listening with a smile as Xiang Luan wracked his brain to display his literary talents.

Coming out to see Xiang Luan, Ming Chi hadn’t planned on not seeing the others.

It was a very strange feeling. He had no memory of Xiang Luan, only an impression formed from the letters and the content he saw on Huaisheng’s official social media.

But when he saw the person standing in front of him, he realized that it wasn’t as unfamiliar as he had imagined.

He seemed to be very familiar with them—so familiar that in some past dream, he might have actually dreamed that they were very good friends who could play together for a lifetime.

…

It was just that he really couldn’t walk anymore.

Ming Chi had actually tried discreetly a few times. His right leg was too sore and tired to stand up for the time being, which was why he was hesitating whether to wait until tomorrow or the day after, after he had rested, to go find the others.

But some little brats weren’t content with just being happy themselves; they had to keep tempting him.

Ming Chi hid the smile in his eyes, motioned for Xiang Luan to pause his speech for a moment, and then looked at the phone in his pocket.

Only then did Xiang Luan remember, and his expression instantly changed. “Oh no.”

He slapped his forehead and fumbled to take out his phone and light up the screen. As expected, there was already a string of missed calls from his agent.

“Oh no, oh no.” Xiang Luan had gotten carried away and completely forgotten to report that he was safe. He was so flustered he almost dropped his phone as he tremblingly dialed the number back. “Brother Zhao…”

…The agent on the other end of the line nearly ate him alive.

After they had split up, the agent had quickly brought the two young guitarists to a safe place, only to find out from Fang Hang that Xiang Luan had never come back.

The police cars had come and gone with wailing sirens, taking away the thugs, but Xiang Luan was still unreachable.

The agent chased after the police and asked, learning that no one was injured this time, so he wasn’t completely terrified. But with Xiang Luan missing and unreachable by phone, it was inevitable that his mind would wander to increasingly worrying thoughts.

Fang Hang had told him not to make a scene and had taken a few managers and the agent to search for him, and they had been searching until now.

Xiang Luan was completely in the wrong. He held the phone with his head hanging, meekly taking the scolding as his agent bombarded him for five minutes. “I was wrong…”

“I’m transferring tomorrow! I’ll ask the company if they have any ninety-one-year-old artists!” The agent’s anger had not yet subsided. “Where are you?! Where did you run off to??”

“I don’t know either.” Xiang Luan instinctively looked at Ming Chi. Seeing that Ming Chi also shook his head, he looked around again. “We seem to be lost…”

“Is your brain lost too?” the agent roared. “Send your location!”

Xiang Luan immediately went to WeChat to send his location. When he put the phone back to his ear, he heard his agent ask in confusion, “We? Who are you with? There’s someone else?”

Xiang Luan’s mouth dropped open. He didn’t know if he could reveal Ming Chi’s presence and stammered, “A… a kind person who saved me. Brother Zhao, is Brother Fang with you? Um, this kind person’s trench coat is really cool…”

The agent had no idea what a handsome kind person had to do with Fang Hang, nor could he figure out why a kind person, a trench coat, and being handsome were important details to report over the phone.

He was more concerned about Xiang Luan’s safety, worried that he had run into someone strange. He pressed him with a few more questions, but the other end of the line went silent.

The agent was so worried he was about to go bald prematurely. “Xiang Luan? Xiang Luan?!”

“He’s with me,” the person on the other end answered. “Zhao Jing?”

The agent vaguely found the voice familiar but couldn’t recall who else besides company people in this area would know his name. “Yes, that’s me. Hello, hello… Thank you so much for saving our guy.”

The other person chuckled. “It’s nothing.”

The agent paused. The more he thought about it, the more confused he became. He was about to speak when he suddenly froze on the spot.

The person on the other end said, “Is Fang Hang there? Give him the phone.”

Still not having fully processed it, the agent obediently agreed and subconsciously reached out to tap Fang Hang.

Fang Hang already knew the agent had contacted Xiang Luan. They had seen the location Xiang Luan sent in the group chat and were about to go find him when the agent grabbed his clothes and pulled him twice.

Fang Hang stopped. “What’s wrong?”

The agent opened his mouth, then suddenly it all clicked. His expression became strange and a little incredulous as he shoved the phone into Fang Hang’s hand.

Fang Hang frowned and picked up the call that hadn’t been hung up. “Xiang Luan?”

“Not Xiang Luan!” The agent nearly jumped, frantically mouthing the words, “Kind person! The kind person is super handsome, the kind person is wearing a trench coat…”

Fang Hang had no idea what he meant, but since the person had saved Xiang Luan, his tone was still very polite. “Hello? Thank you so much—”

“You’re welcome,” the other person chuckled. “Is this Fang Hang?”

Fang Hang froze on the spot.

For a few seconds, it was as if he couldn’t move or speak. His chest heaved a few times before he managed to speak again, this time with extreme caution. “Yes, I…”

“Xiang Luan runs too much. I chased him all this way, my leg hurts a bit, and I can’t stand up right now.”

The voice on the other end was gentle. This time, he spoke long enough for the voice to be completely recognizable. “Are you coming to give me a pull?”

Fang Hang opened his mouth.

He wanted to speak, but for a moment, it seemed he only remembered how to smile.

The agent stopped the others and quickly whispered something. The group of people suddenly all turned back, their burning gazes fixed on him, urgency and anxiety almost bursting from their faces.

Fang Hang pressed his brow hard.

He took a deep breath, let it out forcefully, and repeated this a few times before he finally remembered how to speak.

The person on the other end of the line was waiting for him to speak.

“Wait,” Fang Hang said. “Wait. Just wait right there. Don’t go anywhere.”

“Don’t catch a cold. Rest. You’re not allowed to take off the trench coat. Have Xiang Luan rub your leg for you.”

Fang Hang said, “We’re coming to carry you.”