Dazzling

Qing Ye had never witnessed such a scene in all her life—so many people, familiar and unfamiliar, carrying water bottles and basins, desperately throwing water at the flames. Yet it was nothing more than a futile effort. The fire leaped and danced wildly in the biting cold wind, soaring to terrifying heights in the blink of an eye, its blaze lighting up the sky.

People scattered in all directions, the sound of fire engines piercing the air. The surrounding bricks and tiles crackled and popped, as if countless hands were pounding the ground, creating a shrill, deafening noise.

Xing Wu abandoned his motorcycle without hesitation. Qing Ye watched, frozen, as he ignored all warnings and charged into the inferno alongside the firefighters.

In that moment, the world seemed to spin around her. She stood rooted to the spot, screaming Xing Wu's name at the top of her lungs, but he couldn't hear her—or perhaps she could no longer even hear her own voice. The air was filled with desperate cries, shouts, and weeping, an overwhelming assault of sound that struck straight at her soul.

His grandmother was still inside. Xing Wu would never abandon her, just as she had never abandoned him during all his reckless childhood mistakes.

Qing Ye's heart hammered violently in her chest, her breath coming in ragged gasps. The entire world whirled before her eyes. She spotted Li Lanfang, disheveled and weeping bitterly across from Dazzle Island, surrounded by her mahjong friends who kept trying to pull her up from the ground. Between sobs, she cried out, "Wu Zi, don't go in! Wu Zi, what will become of our family?"

Li Lanfang's heart-wrenching wails filled Qing Ye's ears, leaving her chilled to the bone, her teeth chattering uncontrollably. Mechanically, she moved toward the blaze, only to be stopped by firefighters who ordered her to retreat across the street—the building could collapse at any moment.

Thick smoke billowed from the structure, engulfing the street and stinging her face. With each labored breath, the terror she'd felt when her mother was covered with a white sheet resurfaced. Desperate, she screamed Xing Wu's name into the flames, tears streaming from her eyes like an unstoppable flood.

She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what else she could do. Her entire being trembled, the world around her growing blurred, unreal, hallucinatory.

Then came a thunderous crash. A firefighter suddenly shoved her aside, shouting, "Get across the street now! The beam collapsed!"

As she stumbled backward, she glanced back and saw the firefighters who had entered with Xing Wu all rushing out—but Xing Wu was nowhere in sight.

The roof had burned through, creating a gaping hole through which thick, black smoke surged into the sky. The last thread of hope in Qing Ye's heart snapped. She lunged forward, grabbing a firefighter and demanding, "The person who went in with you—where is he? Where is he?"

"He didn't come out!"

Qing Ye staggered. Another firefighter nearby asked, "What's your relation to him?"

"Family."

"We're preparing for a second rescue attempt. Brace yourself."

Qing Ye stared blankly at the firefighters until they forcibly pulled her away.

Standing across the street, she watched the raging flames, her entire body feeling as if it had plunged into an icy abyss. All surrounding sounds faded away; the fire before her transformed into a terrifying hell, slowly tearing Xing Wu away from her. A powerful force erupted within her, and she screamed with every ounce of her being: "Xing Wu, come out! Xing Wu, I'm scared! Please come out! I'm begging you! Just come out, please..."With a deafening "boom," the second floor collapsed—gone. Their home was gone. The place she had lived in for half a year vanished forever. As the roar echoed, the last ounce of strength seemed to drain from her body, and she slid to the ground, silently crying out, "Xing Wu... I can't live without you..." Never before had she realized so clearly that he had quietly taken root in her world. If he left, her world would crumble just as violently.

Just then, a voice called from the other end of the street: "Qing Ye!"

Tears blurring her vision, she turned her head and miraculously saw Xing Wu emerging from the alley near the small shop, carrying his grandmother on his back as he ran toward her, looking utterly disheveled.

Stumbling to her feet, she rushed to him and stopped in disbelief. "How did you get out?"

"Through Aunt Zhao's back door. Here, your computer—catch it. I can barely hold on anymore."

Qing Ye grabbed the laptop tucked under his arm and immediately threw her arms around him, sobbing uncontrollably. "You scared me to death!"

Li Lanfang ran over as well, and the three of them clung to each other, as if they had narrowly escaped the jaws of death. With his grandmother on his back and two women nearly choking him, Xing Wu gasped helplessly, "Let me go first. I need to put Grandma down."

Xing Wu set his grandmother down by the roadside. He explained that the fire hadn’t reached the kitchen yet, but there was a gas cylinder inside. Fearing the flames might spiral out of control, he forbade Qing Ye and Li Lanfang from approaching Dazzle Island again. Everyone around Dazzle Island had already been evacuated.

After settling his grandmother, Xing Wu ran to inform the firefighters about the fire in the backyard. Fortunately, they had all gone out after dinner—Li Lanfang was playing mahjong nearby and wasn’t home, while his grandmother’s room, located on the other side of the backyard, remained untouched by the flames. Xing Wu had rushed upstairs to grab the laptop, then carried his grandmother out by kicking open Aunt Zhao’s door.

Standing at the crossroads, Qing Ye trembled as she stared at the unrecognizable ruins of Dazzle Island. Even the familiar three-colored lamp cover at the entrance lay shattered. She had no idea how the fire had started, but the aftermath filled her with a lingering dread.

Thankfully, no one was injured in the blaze, but the two-story building of Dazzle Island was reduced to rubble. After Xing Wu rescued her, his grandmother sat by the roadside, rocking back and forth incessantly and murmuring strange, almost ancient-sounding incantations that weighed heavily on Qing Ye’s heart.

She was not a weak person. Once she knew Xing Wu was safe, she held back her tears—especially as Li Lanfang continued to weep uncontrollably. She couldn’t bear to add to Xing Wu’s burden, leaving him to handle three women on the verge of collapse alone.

Qing Ye took off her white faux-fur coat and draped it over the grandmother. She ran to the shop across the street to buy two bottles of water, handing one to Li Lanfang and helping the grandmother drink from the other. The coat kept slipping, so she held it firmly in place.

It took nearly an hour for the fire to be fully extinguished. The firefighters conducted a final inspection before leaving, and by then, it was almost midnight. The neighbors gradually dispersed, leaving the scene in silence.Across the empty street, Xing Wu turned back to look at them. Qing Ye didn't know what he was thinking at that moment—whether he felt his life had hit rock bottom, now without even a home, having to drag along three women.

But after only a brief pause, he strode toward them without hesitation, showing no emotion. It seemed that over the years, he had grown accustomed to hiding his feelings well—at least Qing Ye couldn't detect any cracks in his composure.

Yet she knew this was his home, the place where he had grown up. There was no way his heart remained untouched.

However, no matter how turbulent his emotions, Xing Wu couldn't afford to dwell on them now. The night was deep, and he had to get them settled first.

He said to Li Lanfang and Qing Ye, "I just went in to check. Grandma's room is still okay. Let's get her back there first."

Grandma remained sitting on the ground, wrapped in Qing Ye's coat, her expression vacant. Qing Ye said hesitantly, "Grandma might have... had an accident in her pants..."

She had noticed the smell earlier but didn't know how to handle it. She had never faced such an embarrassing situation and could only cover her with the coat for now.

Only then did Xing Wu lift the clothing to look. The ground where she sat was damp. Li Lanfang cried and cursed, "This old nuisance, always causing trouble! We're cursed with eight generations of poverty to be stuck with a wretched old woman like you—"

"Enough!" Xing Wu turned and roared at Li Lanfang with a ferocity Qing Ye had never seen before. She stared at him, stunned.

Xing Wu hoisted Grandma onto his back and headed toward the backyard. Li Lanfang continued muttering curses while helping support the old woman, and Qing Ye followed silently behind them.

When she stepped into Dazzle Island again, everything she had wiped clean days before—the familiar stools, the worn leather sofa, the checkout counter, the shampoo beds, the mahjong table—was now unrecognizable. Standing in the center of Dazzle Island, she looked up. Ironically, she could see the dark night sky through the damaged roof. In that moment, she suddenly realized that this last refuge from the wind and rain had vanished completely in the blaze.

She didn't know what she was feeling either—despair? Confusion? Collapse? Sorrow? All of it felt insignificant. It was like a dream; everything happening before her seemed unreal, as if it weren't her own life, growing more and more illusory.

She lowered her gaze to the darkness ahead. There was no back door anymore—just a few steps led directly to the backyard. The wooden table and awning where they usually ate hadn't been spared either. The wall outside the kitchen was charred black, and the glass had shattered. Peering through the window, she saw the area around the sink was a mess, but thankfully, the fire hadn't reached the gas cylinder.

Turning, she walked toward Grandma's room on the other side. She felt a sudden surge of relief that Grandma's room had been built separately on the opposite side of the backyard. Otherwise, she couldn't imagine what devastating blow this fire would have dealt to Xing Wu.

She quickened her pace to the room's entrance. Li Lanfang, carrying a basin, brushed past her, sobbing and cursing, "This wretched old woman, can't even die without causing trouble..."

Qing Ye had never seen Li Lanfang like this. Though she often grumbled and scowled, she had never appeared so fragile, as if on the verge of collapse.She entered her grandmother's room and saw the elderly woman laid on the bed. The room reeked unbearably, with Xing Wu rummaging through clean clothes for her. A large basin sat on the floor, likely prepared for washing the grandmother.

Li Lanfang soon returned, pouring hot water into the basin. Qing Ye rolled up her sleeves and said, "Let me do it."

Hearing her voice, Xing Wu abruptly looked up, his gaze sharp and terrifying. He suddenly stood, strode to the doorway, pulled Qing Ye out of the grandmother's room, and shut the door firmly.

Thick clouds obscured the moonlight, enveloping the silent night in complete darkness without a trace of light. Yet in the moment the door closed, Qing Ye still caught a fleeting glimpse of shame on Xing Wu's face.

He told her, "You... maybe wait in the kitchen for now. It's cold outside. I'll take you to rest somewhere after I've settled Grandma."

Soot smudged his sharply defined jawline, his taut features rigid with tension. Deep exhaustion clouded his eyes as he averted his gaze under Qing Ye's watchful stare.

Qing Ye understood his humiliation—he didn't want her to witness the scene inside the room anymore, refusing to expose such wretchedness before her.

In that moment, Qing Ye desperately wanted to cry, but she knew she couldn't—not now, not in front of him. He needed no sympathy or pity. Things were already bad enough; she couldn't make him feel worse. She had to preserve his last shred of dignity.

So she choked back tears and replied, "Alright."

Xing Wu turned and reentered the room, but Qing Ye didn't wait in the kitchen. She rushed outside, where tears felt like piercing knives in the biting wind. She never knew life could be this harsh—every step like sprinting on blades. A seemingly steady boat could capsize from one wave, with no telling where or when the next would strike.

About ten minutes later, Qing Ye knocked on the grandmother's door. Xing Wu opened it to find her breathlessly handing him a package: "Use this for Grandma. It might help."

Looking down at the feminine hygiene products Qing Ye extended, Xing Wu frowned deeply, wondering how she'd obtained them past midnight on deserted streets. His voice caught as he told her, "Go drink some water. I'll be done soon."

Qing Ye nodded but still didn't wait in the kitchen. Instead, she returned to the ruins. The night here mirrored her first arrival—so silent it felt like she was the only person left in the world.

Her restless heart suddenly calmed at this moment. Standing before the former Dazzle Island entrance, she silently surveyed the devastated street as countless questions surfaced.

Where would they live next? With the barbershop gone, how would they sustain themselves? Liu Nian and Du Qiyan would lose their jobs too. Problems piled up one after another, making Qing Ye feel an invisible mountain crushing down on her. She seemed to suddenly understand the profound exhaustion and helplessness in Xing Wu's eyes—what kind of pressure was this, that made it so unbearable to carry?She let out a long sigh, crouched down hugging her knees with tightly furrowed brows. Suddenly, something glinted, and Qing Ye's already shifting gaze returned to the ground, spotting a metal ring. She nudged it with her foot, uncovering a chibi-style Kamen Rider from the dark ashes, threaded through a deformed metal ring.

She paid it no mind and stood up. When her eyes fell upon the Kamen Rider again, an indescribable feeling washed over her. She felt as if she had seen this object before, and quite recently at that—somewhere she couldn't quite recall no matter how hard she tried.

Bending down once more, she picked up the Kamen Rider. Just then, Xing Wu called from the backyard, "Qing Ye, where are you?"

Qing Ye casually slipped the Kamen Rider into her pocket and turned to respond, "I'm here."