Chapter 246: KANG SIYING WAS STILL ALIVE

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Weeks.

It had been like this for weeks, and Moying was tired of pretending otherwise.

Calls went straight to voicemail. Texts sat unanswered for days before a short, clipped reply finally came through, if one came at all.

Limo was avoiding him, plain and simple, he couldn’t braimwash himself to believe otherwise.

At the company apartment building, word reached him almost by accident, one of the younger trainees mentioning offhand that the chairman had been working late all week, holed up in his office every night rather than heading home.

Moying didn’t believe that for a second.

Working late, sure. But every single night, right when calls somehow always failed to connect?

That felt like more than coincidence.

Still, if it meant Limo would actually be somewhere specific tonight, reachable in a way he hadn’t been in days, that was enough. He’d take it.

Grabbing his jacket off the hook, he cut through the courtyard fast, headed for the other building before he could talk himself out of it.

Near the smoking area, a familiar figure leaned against the wall, cigarette smoke curling upward into the evening air.

Xue Peng straightened the moment he spotted him, something sharp settling into his expression.

Moying muttered a quick ’excuse me’ and kept walking, attempting to sidestep him.

But that only seemed to provoke him further.

"Where are you rushing to?" Xue Peng pushed off the wall, falling into step just close enough to be irritating. "Let me guess. You’re going to meet the chairman. Liu Moying, his little boy toy." A short, ugly laugh followed. "Now I see why. You’ve been giving the chairman the dick, and that’s why you’re getting all the perks. Must be nice, having a rich brother and now the chairman’s backing too."

Moying scoffed and shoved past him, his shoulder knocking hard against Xue Peng’s arm.

"My brother has provided me with a lot of things, and I’m grateful for him." His voice came sharp, clipped. "If you had the resources, wouldn’t you use them? As for the chairman, I wish he would favor me. I wish he would. But you wouldn’t understand that, so don’t go around spreading rumors. That’s all you’re good at anyway."

Leaving him standing there, he broke into a run toward the other building, chest already tight with the fear that he was too late.

He arrived just in time to watch Limo step into the car waiting at the curb.

"Wait." The word tore out of him before he could stop it. "Wait, please don’t go. Hear what I have to say first."

Limo bit down on his lip and climbed into the car anyway, the door shutting with a soft, final click.

Moying dragged a hand through his hair, watching the car pull away, breath escaping him in a long, defeated sigh.

He had no right to make Limo stay.

He knew that.

Understanding it didn’t make the ache in his chest any smaller.

Not once had Limo spared him a glance on the way out.

Inside the car, Limo couldn’t tear his eyes from the window, watching Moying grow smaller in the side mirror until the tinted glass swallowed him from view entirely.

Moying couldn’t see him staring. Though the knowledge didn’t make it hurt any less.

Alphas paired with alphas rarely ended well.

He’d told himself that a hundred times this week alone, and still it didn’t stop the tightness building behind his ribs every time he thought about walking away for good.

Work had swallowed him whole lately, rumors circulating faster than he could manage them, every day bleeding into the next without a single moment to breathe.

Avoiding Moying’s calls had felt easier than explaining any of it out loud, though the guilt of it sat heavier each time he let the phone ring out.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, breaking his reverie.

Limo studied the unfamiliar number for a beat, narrowing his eyes at the screen before answering.

"Hello. Limo, can you hear me?"

-_-

"The fuck?" Limo sat up straighter, gripping the phone tighter. "Siying, is that you? How are you still alive? Your family told me you were dead."

He couldn’t believe his ears, how was Kang Siying still alive?

"Ha. Unfortunately for them, I’m still very much alive." Kong Siying’s voice came out thin, worn down at the edges. "Even though I’m barely living. Look, Limo, you’re the only one I can trust right now. Can you meet me at an address I’ll send you? Please."

"Oh, sure." Concern sharpened Limo’s voice immediately. "Where do you want to meet?"

"I’ll text you the address." A pause followed, heavy with something unspoken. "And please, don’t tell anyone I called. Thank you."

The line went dead before Limo could ask anything further.

He sat frozen for a long moment, phone still pressed to his ear, the city lights sliding past the window unnoticed.

Kong Siying’s family had told everyone he’d passed years ago, a quiet funeral, no body shown, the kind of story people accepted without asking too many questions because grief made people care less about details like that.

Limo had believed it, had grieved it too, in his own quiet way, back when they’d still been close before everything happened.

A text notification appeared seconds later, an address he didn’t recognize, somewhere on the outskirts of the city, far from anywhere Kong Siying should have any reason to be.

He typed out a reply to his driver, redirecting the route without offering an explanation.

The driver glanced at him once in the mirror, clearly curious, though he said nothing, simply adjusting course as instructed.

Limo’s grip on the phone tightened. Barely living. Those two words sat wrong in his chest, refusing to settle no matter how many times he turned them over.

Something had clearly happened to Kong Siying, something bad enough that resurfacing after years of presumed death felt like the safer option compared to whatever he’d been living through instead.

Whatever it was, Limo intended to find out tonight.

The rest of the drive passed in silence, his own reflection ghosting faintly against the window each time they passed beneath a streetlight.

He tried to recall the last time he’d actually spoken to Kong Siying, some hazy memory of a rooftop bar years ago.

Kang Siying had expressed moving abroad, away from his family.

Back then, none of them had understood what they were watching unfold. Kong Siying had seemed happy, or close enough to it that no one thought to question it too closely. Limo remembered feeling relieved for him, actually, glad someone from way back had found something steady.

He hadn’t known then how wrong that assumption would turn out to be.

The car slowed as it approached an unfamiliar stretch of road, buildings growing sparser, streetlights dimmer, the kind of neighborhood that made a person instinctively check that the doors were locked.

Limo sat forward slightly, scanning the passing storefronts for the address on his screen, his pulse ticking upward with every block that brought him closer.

Whatever waited for him there, he suspected it wouldn’t be an easy conversation.