86: Chapter 86 Su Chen Agreed!

At 2:00 PM, Yan Yu proactively cut off the livestream signal.

She packed up the stand, and with A-Li and Brother Cai, retreated behind a dirt mound a hundred meters away.

Official letters from fifty Red Circle law firms had already been sent out, and the shackles of the fifty-billion joint-liability contract were shattered publicly.

All paths in the outside world had been paved smooth, and what remained required that man to walk out himself.

The livestream room plunged into complete blackness.

Right in the center of the screen was only a line of white text: "The anchor has temporarily left."

Usually, a livestream room that lost its picture like this would lose all its popularity within three minutes.

But tonight, a full 4.5 million online viewers were firmly nailed to the top right corner of the screen. Not only did the number not drop, but it continued to rise steadily at a terrifying rate.

The number of bullet comments didn't drop in the slightest either!

[We've waited for five years; we have plenty of patience.]

[Don't go disturb him. He's carried a burden for five years; it takes time to put it down.]

[Today I'm pulling an all-nighter guarding the black screen! If he doesn't answer for a second, I won't go offline for a second!]

[Brothers, latest battle report! SM's stock price just triggered the circuit breaker limit-down mechanism! What a relief!]

[Fifty law firms have already submitted counter-lawsuit materials; case filing is bound to succeed by dawn.]

[Brother Su, don't have any reservations anymore. This world is already yours.]

[Welcome KING home! We're staying up late here with you!]

[Yanjing fans checking in, the whole office is staying up all night guarding together.]

[Shanghai checking in! Not sleeping tonight!]

[...]

Shanghai.

Wang Wenjian sat in a chair, the ashtray in front of him piled high with cigarette butts.

He stared at the black-screened computer, his eye sockets completely red.

...

Yanjing high-end villa.

Huang Zitao sat on the floor, in front of him was a television with a smashed screen.

He clutched his mobile phone, staring motionlessly at the black screen of Yan Yu's livestream room.

...

Practice room.

Zhang Yixing lay on the wooden floor, looking at the dazzling incandescent lamp overhead, sweat from his forehead streaming into his temples.

Tens of millions of people fell silent in the dark night.

The wind from Napa Lake blew over from the snow mountain, carrying a bone-chilling cold.

Su Chen sat alone on the withered meadow.

A bonfire was burning in front of him, and the burning deadwood made crisp crackling sounds.

The firelight dyed his cheeks red and illuminated the old Android phone with a cracked screen corner in his hand.

He didn't look at the trending searches, didn't look at Weibo, and didn't look at the storm the entire internet had whipped up for him.

He opened WeChat.

This number was newly obtained after he returned to China.

There were only a mere dozen or so people in his contacts.

Apart from Lin Hao and a few parents of dance class students, at the very bottom of the list quietly lay a few profile pictures that he never actively clicked on.

Those profile pictures remained frozen in the winter of Seoul five years ago.

Returning to China for five years, he had carried cement at construction sites, adjusted gears at auto repair shops, and taught basic classes for 120 yuan a session on the second floor of a shopping mall.

He kept that fifty-billion joint-liability contract hidden close to his heart, sending everyone's contact information into cold storage.

He was afraid that even a single punctuation mark he sent would become leverage for South Korean capital to ruin his junior martial brothers.

The rainwater on the marble steps, the acoustic guitar with its snapped third string, the shoving of the bodyguards in black.

Those images churned within the firelight.

Time ticked away by the second.

01:00.

02:00.

The wind of Napa Lake grew stronger and stronger, blowing the bonfire swaying from side to side.

The phone screen remained constantly lit, emitting a cold white light.

Su Chen's thumb hovered above the screen, his fingertips bearing a thick layer of calluses.

He was waiting, waiting for the ball of tangled chaos in his heart to be burned clean.

03:00.

On the exact hour.

The old phone in his palm suddenly vibrated.

Short.

Dull.

It pierced through the sound of the wind over the grassland.

Su Chen's eyelashes fluttered.

His vision focused on the screen.

A new message popped up on the WeChat interface.

The sender's profile picture was pure white.

That was the protest white image someone had just changed to on their social media account with tens of millions of fans this afternoon.

Sender: Zhang Yixing.

Without any pleasantries.

Without any polite inquiries about how the past five years had been.

No accusations, no tears.

In the blank chat interface, there were only four words.

"Brother Chen, come back."

Four black square characters lay quietly inside the screen bubble.

Su Chen stared at these four words.

The white light of the screen was reflected in his pitch-black eyes, stirring up monstrous waves.

The rainy night in Seoul five years ago, the conference room corridor.

That junior martial brother with a flushed face was being dragged out by two security guards holding his arms tightly.

He roared at a room full of executives in his unproficient Korean: "He is better than all of us! What right do you have!"

Five years later, that little boy who couldn't even dance Popping properly in the practice room had become Asia's top star.

He posted a white image in front of the whole world, withstood the butcher knife of transnational capital, and across space and time at three o'clock in the morning, sent four words.

Welcome him home.

Su Chen's spine completely relaxed.

The freezing air poured into his lungs, yet it ignited the magma that had been suppressed in his bones and blood for a full five years.

The dust of the mason, the grease of the duck leg rice, the cowardice on the second floor of the mall were burned completely clean by these four words at this moment.

He opened his eyes, his gaze as sharp as a blade.

His fingers hovered above the full keyboard.

His movements were steady, without the slightest hesitation.

Press "H".

Press "D".

Add a period.

"Okay."

Click, send.

The green bubble popped up on the right side of the screen.

The prompt tone for a successfully sent message rang out across the empty Napa Lake grassland.

The sound was not loud, yet it proclaimed that the world-shaking storm that had suppressed the Chinese entertainment industry for five years was officially unleashed.

...

Jiangcheng practice room.

Zhang Yixing stared fixedly at the phone screen.

The moment he saw the two words "Okay" pop up, he sprang up abruptly from the floor.

He punched the door of the wardrobe next to him, producing a huge, muffled sound.

He didn't shout, didn't cry out, tears gushed out of his eyes, flowing wildly down his cheeks.

He squatted down, covered his face with both hands, and his shoulders trembled violently.

The guilt and unwillingness that had weighed on his heart for five years were completely released at this moment.

Dawn had broken.

A fish-belly white appeared in the east of Napa Lake.

The golden summit of Meili Snow Mountain pierced through the clouds, spilling sunlight all over the sea of Gesang flowers on the Yila Grassland.

Exactly 7:00 AM.

Yan Yu stood in front of the dirt mound, rubbed her hands frozen red, took a deep breath, and tapped the start button of the livestream software.

The black screen flickered.

The video feed connected.

For the five million people who had guarded the livestream room stubbornly all this time, the screen lit up instantly.

The snow mountain, the sea of flowers, and the embers of the bonfire in the distance rushed into everyone's line of sight.

[The broadcast has started!!!]

[It's dawn! Brothers, it's dawn!]

[Has God Su made up his mind? We've waited all night!]

[Front row check-in! Today I'm going to watch the god return to his throne!]

[My hands are shaking, will he give an answer today?]

[The lawyer team has already entered the court gates! Everything is ready!]

[Brother Su! Walk forward boldly!]

[Welcome KING home!!!]