Let Me Meet You chapter 54

The Bird

After recording the first two episodes, the production team had originally planned to invite all the judges, contestants and host to dinner. The itinerary was already set, and the hotel arrangements were made. However, rumors about Qin Zhengchen’s scandal began to spread, growing increasingly alarming. Fearing the impact, the production team decided to cancel the dinner.

As they descended the stairs, Yang Xu tried a few times to gossip about what he had heard, but neither Li Xuan nor Sheng Min said a word, leaving him with nothing to continue.

“Ge.”

When they reached the parking lot, since they were heading different ways, Yang Xu had been going home alone for the past two days. But today, sensing the tension between them, his imagination ran wild, conjuring a drama of ex-lovers quarreling out of jealousy. Worried that they might argue on the way home, he hesitated for a while before nervously suggesting, “Uh, Ge, how about I take you home? I’ve got nothing to do anyway.”

Li Xuan said nothing. He stood silently by the car with his suit jacket draped over his arm, as if he hadn’t heard.

“No need,” Sheng Min spoke up. “Just head home.”

Yang Xu glanced at Li Xuan’s expression.

Li Xuan’s face remained cold and impassive as he opened the driver’s seat door and got in.

“It’s fine, really. Just go home,” Sheng Min reassured him with a smile before following Li Xuan into the car.

The day’s recording session hadn’t been particularly demanding. Despite some delays in the morning, it was the earliest they had finished work in three days. The summer evening stretched on, with street lights already lit against a backdrop of a fiery sunset. The horizon glowed like molten lava spilling from a volcano, with clouds stained deep red.

“What did you mean by that?” Two red lights later, as they exited the garage, Li Xuan pinched his brow and finally broke the silence. He kept his eyes on the road, not looking at Sheng Min.

“Nothing,” Sheng Min sighed, sounding exhausted. He turned his head to look out the window. “I was just rambling.”

“Liar.” Li Xuan glanced at the rearview mirror before overtaking a car ahead.

“Then what do you think I meant?” After a long pause, Sheng Min asked softly in return.

Li Xuan fell silent, his fingers tightening imperceptibly on the steering wheel.

“Let it go, Li Xuan,” Sheng Min muttered again, his voice low and tinged with a sense of release. “Don’t think about it anymore. Just take it as nonsense I spouted in a moment of delirium.”

Li Xuan’s lips moved as if to speak, but Sheng Min clearly didn’t want to hear it. Exhausted and resistant, he closed his eyes, cutting off the conversation. Li Xuan couldn’t get the words out, unsure himself whether he wanted to say, “I understand,” or “Just give me more time.”

The car radio played on automatically, the chatter of two hosts reporting traffic updates interspersed with exaggerated restaurant ads. Annoyed by the noise, Li Xuan randomly switched stations, from traffic news to variety talk shows to soothing instrumental music—but none of it helped.

“If it’s noisy, just turn it off,” Sheng Min finally said, unable to stand it anymore, reaching over to switch off the radio.

The rest of the drive was steeped in silence. The atmosphere in the car was tense and oppressive as they passed bustling shopping centers, crowded cinemas, and high school gates crammed with street vendors—yet neither spoke a word.

The recording location wasn’t far from Sheng Min’s apartment. Normally, taking the ring road would bring them there in half an hour. The route was familiar after so many trips, but that day, for some reason, Li Xuan made a wrong turn and ended up in an old district undergoing demolition.

By now, the sky had darkened. The old district was filled with crumbling houses, exuding a desolate and dilapidated atmosphere. Li Xuan reopened the GPS, which suggested a left turn and two bends to get back on the highway. But just as he turned into an alley, chaos erupted ahead.

“Stop! Stop the car!” panicked screams came from the crowd in front.

Before he could react, the blinding white headlights of a small bus suddenly pierced through the dim night. The vehicle was charging straight at them, closing the distance in an instant. For a fleeting moment, it felt like that rainy night of the crash all over again.

The bus driver’s panicked face loomed large, frantically stomping on the brake and yanking the handbrake, all to no avail. The bus, like a wild beast, showed no sign of stopping.

It was a one-way street. Narrow even on normal days, it barely fit one car, and now, other vehicles were piling up behind them.

There was no way to avoid it.

In the blink of an eye, the collision seemed inevitable. Li Xuan turned to Sheng Min, giving him a long, deliberate look. Without hesitation, he jerked the steering wheel to the left. As the car veered toward the wall, Sheng Min suddenly unbuckled his seatbelt and threw himself forward, wrapping Li Xuan in a protective embrace.

“Bang!”

The sound of the airbag deploying filled the air. Li Xuan’s vision went dark, and he lost consciousness completely.

….

When he came to, Li Xuan found himself lying in a bathtub filled with water.

The bathroom was vaguely familiar, yet he couldn’t recall where he had seen it before. He had no idea why he was there or what had happened. It was as if a chunk of his memory had been inexplicably erased, leaving only a void.

The humid, stifling air pressed down on him. Li Xuan stood up and noticed a mirror above the sink.

In the dim light, his own blurry reflection stared back at him. He wiped a cold sweat from his brow.

Something’s wrong, he thought. Something is definitely wrong.

But what was it? His head throbbed, his thoughts muddled. Suddenly, through the mirror’s reflection, he saw a figure appear in the bathtub behind him.

He turned around stiffly.

The water in the tub had turned a deep red, a faint metallic scent of blood filling the room. The walls were splattered with crimson streaks, and the showerhead dripped steadily, the sound eerily rhythmic: drip, drip, drip.

Drawn inexplicably closer, he approached the tub step by step.

Inside lay a man, motionless as if asleep. His face was pale, lips bloodless, with jet-black lashes casting delicate shadows on his closed eyelids.

I know him, Li Xuan thought. But who is he?

He had no memory of the man’s identity, yet just looking at his face sent waves of pain coursing through his heart.

Who is he?

Clutching his chest, Li Xuan crouched down and reached out to touch the blood-streaked hand dangling over the edge of the tub. But before he could, the man vanished.

At that moment, a white bird fell rapidly outside the window. Li Xuan scrambled toward it, his fingers just brushing against one of its feathers—a fleeting warmth that disappeared the moment he touched it.

At that moment, he remembered the name that had been forgotten.  

“Sheng Min!”  

Li Xuan abruptly opened his eyes.