Ye He Chapter 20

20. The Past

Ye He never expected Shen Yi to remember him.

It was like how people wouldn’t remember giving a steamed bun to a beggar on the street, even if that bun saved the beggar’s life. A beggar was a beggar, someone living in a completely different world from a noble young master who lived in the clouds.

But the beggar who didn’t starve to death because of that bun would remember the passerby for a lifetime.

Fifteen years ago, in an alley near the XX City Orphanage, Ye He huddled in a corner, clutching his head. He stared blankly at the pebbles by his feet, completely indifferent to the surrounding kicks, punches, and malicious insults.

Such curses and beatings were commonplace for Ye He. The orphanage had limited funds and severe food shortages. Most children lived hand-to-mouth, and the teachers often rewarded children who performed well with surplus food after the average distribution.

Ye He, who was exceptionally intelligent from a young age, especially gifted in memory, often became the recipient of these rewards. However, this also made him the target of jealousy, exclusion, and even slander from his peers.

After being caught a few times for the “misconduct” of stealing food, Ye He quickly incurred the teachers’ displeasure. Frequent hunger and “solitary confinement” began to make Ye He appear abnormally developed—pale skin, large, dark eyes, and a chin so sharp you could almost see the bone. The exclusion from his peers fostered a strange, withdrawn, and gloomy personality. He would always sit lifelessly in a corner, silent, which only increased the teachers’ aversion.

As a result, the teachers turned a blind eye to the escalating bullying from the other children, pretending not to see it.

The one-sided beating in the alley lasted for more than ten minutes before stopping. Ye He’s lack of resistance bored the other children. After muttering a few swear words they’d heard from adults, they scattered and left.

Ye He slowly wiped the corner of his mouth, his face devoid of expression. Suddenly, a shadow fell over him. Someone squatted down and extended a hand toward him. “Here, for you.”

In the clean palm lay a piece of candy.

Ye He looked up and saw a beautiful smiling face. For him, who seemed to have been abandoned by the world for too long, that smile was like a ray of light suddenly breaking through a sky thick with dark clouds.

From then on, in a place Shen Yi didn’t know, a pair of deep, dark eyes always hid in the shadows, silently watching him…

Ye He didn’t know why he was so frantically obsessed with everything related to Shen Yi. Seeing Shen Yi was like a dry sponge encountering water; he wanted to absorb the other person completely. The growth of this twisted emotion also caused Ye He to seal everyone outside of Shen Yi out of his world.

In his eyes, everyone was divided into two categories: Shen Yi, and everyone else.

Later, the orphanage closed down due to mismanagement. Ye He had nowhere to go and only knew to wander near Shen Yi’s house, nearly starving to death. Fortunately, when he was down to his last breath, he met the older girl who had also been at the orphanage.

In Ye He’s world, which was full of filth, a new category appeared: family.

The older girl patiently taught Ye He how to interact normally with people and helped him find an apprenticeship at a repair shop. Soon after, Ye He’s astonishing talent for mechanics was discovered. The master at the repair shop thought highly of Ye He and even offered to fund his continued studies, but Ye He refused.

Going to school meant less time to observe Shen Yi. Nothing unrelated to Shen Yi could pique his interest in the slightest.

Later, Shen Yi went abroad for his studies.

Ye He was lost and helpless, as if he had suddenly lost the center of his life. After half a year of drifting aimlessly, he began to shift his focus to building machines.

Before Ye He could follow him abroad, Shen Yi returned after completing his studies—but he had changed.

Although to outsiders Shen Yi appeared even more outstanding, refined, and gentle, Ye He discovered that the man was rotten to the core. He was hypocritical, cunning, cold, and willingly indulged in decadent pleasures.

But so what? He was still Shen Yi.

Liking Shen Yi and observing Shen Yi had long become a habit for Ye He.

The long period of suppressed waiting made Ye He’s behavior even more irrational. Soon after Shen Yi returned to the country, he began frantically assembling machines for money, his fingertips often covered in small, shocking cracks.

While Shen Yi was lost in drunken dreams among beautiful women, Ye He would often silently observe from the neighboring room just a wall away. He even disguised himself as a repairman to visit the homes of Shen Yi’s kept lovers, using his bandaged hands to install hidden surveillance equipment.

When Shen Yi was embracing his lovers, Ye He would be in his dark, quiet room, masturbating to the recordings on his computer, venting the years of suppressed, insane urges deep within his heart.

That was why, after Shen Yi was imprisoned, he was once very confused about Ye He’s past life, because the man seemed to have no hobbies whatsoever.

In fact, he did have one. His biggest, and only, hobby was Shen Yi.

However, these dark, unspeakable voyeuristic habits vanished after the woman with the gentle smile appeared by Shen Yi’s side. That woman, who filled Shen Yi’s eyes with love, was Ye He’s older girl—his only family.

If there were two people in the world who could stop Ye He from going mad, one was Shen Yi, and the other was Liang Wei.

The unsuspecting Liang Wei confided her affection to Ye He. She liked Shen Yi, wanted to build a warm family, and Shen Yi had promised to take care of her forever.

—The older girl fell in love with Shen Yi, and Shen Yi fell in love with the older girl…

When Ye He saw Liang Wei off, his face was as expressionless as ever, so Liang Wei didn’t notice anything amiss.

But after that, Ye He reverted to the mental state he was in before Shen Yi returned home—lost and distraught. He rapidly lost weight, becoming skin and bones in just half a month.

Although Liang Wei didn’t know what had happened, she was extremely worried about Ye He’s condition. She even left the passionately dating Shen Yi and moved in to focus on taking care of Ye He.

Ye He didn’t eat or drink for three days, thinking. It seemed he had figured things out. He reassured the older girl and told her to go back, while he found a job at a small, ordinary company, clocking in and out on time every day, repeating the same tasks to numb himself.

In this way, the emotions accumulated over the years were suppressed to the point where even he couldn’t feel them. Sometimes, in his dreams, he would naturally treat Shen Yi, who had become his brother-in-law.

But this wall of pretense, which had been so painstakingly built, was finally destroyed.

Liang Wei found Ye He, her face etched with exhaustion. She was pregnant with Shen Yi’s child. But when she excitedly told Shen Yi, the response was a casual, “Get rid of it.”

For the first time in his life, Ye He felt rage. He realized that the most beautiful thing in his heart was gradually being tainted with filth.

—So Shen Yi was this badly broken.

After Liang Wei had the abortion, accompanied by Ye He, she sadly left without saying goodbye, completely abandoning the city.

In the quiet workshop, Ye He stared blankly at the unfinished machine in his hand. The intricate parts gleamed with the cold luster unique to metal. Suddenly, he flicked his thumb, and a gear spun high into the air. When it fell, with a click, the teeth perfectly slotted into the corresponding groove.

Ye He smiled.

—Since Shen Yi was broken, he would fix him.

Shen Yi was fickle, loved the new and tired of the old, and was heartless to the point of coldness. No love or hate could last long in his heart. His greatest advantage was his astonishing adaptability when facing adversity.

—So, how to fix him?

Make Shen Yi get used to him, just as he had long been used to Shen Yi.

—Shen Yi won’t get used to it.

Then force him to get used to it. Shatter his pride, tie him up at home like a dog, and make him recognize his place.

—Too much force, he might break.

He won’t break. Even if everyone else breaks, Shen Yi won’t, because what he values most is always himself. A heartless person, like a machine, isn’t that easy to break.

—Then he’s easy to fix.

His nimble fingers skillfully tightened the screws and connected the wire board. The machine hummed and whirred happily. Ye He let out a soft breath, smiled, and stretched.

—Just avoid breaking him completely.

People abandoned by their parents in childhood all carry a scar that will never heal.

Ye He was like this, and Liang Wei was like this.

Shen Yi had ripped Liang Wei’s scar open and left it bloody, so Ye He would not give him that chance again. Because he didn’t know what kind of madness he would commit if he faced abandonment once more.

After deciding to fix Shen Yi, he bought a car, got a driver’s license, and prepared other items like potions, but he waited for a full six months before making a move.

The conditions were not yet ripe. He wasn’t confident he could make Shen Yi disappear from his original world without a trace.

He was like an experienced hunter, patiently lying in wait by the trap, waiting for the moment his prey relaxed its guard.

Finally, on that rainy day, he got his chance.

When the handsome young man, wearing a familiar smile, got into the car, Ye He knew he had finally captured his Shen Yi.