Border Prisoner: The Mad Boss Seduces Her Every Night

Xu Jia's fingers trembled slightly as he clutched the crooked little cloth rabbit, as if he were holding a piece of evidence retrieved from the river of time.

Although that vague memory is already shaky and on the verge of falling apart.

Shi Luyu looked at the rabbit, at its ears of different lengths, and at how clumsy its crooked stitches were.

Those threads were sewn by her own hands when she was a child. They were sewn so tightly and haphazardly that there was even a loose thread hidden in the stitches.

Her fingers rose, hovering above the rabbit's ears, without falling.

"You..." Her voice seemed to drift back from a great distance, "Who... are you?"

Perhaps she already has the answer in her heart.

The question faded into a quiet silence; she didn't know who to ask this question to.

Xu Jia looked at her, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty, his voice even softer than usual:

"If you want to know, come with me, I'll show you."

He didn't say much, turned around and walked ahead, taking each step slowly to give her room to keep up.

Xu Jia took her back to the house he was living in. It wasn't particularly luxurious, but it was a small villa with a separate courtyard.

Shi Luyu stood at the doorway, the night wind blowing in through the gaps in the corridor, ruffling her hair. She was silent for a moment, then followed in his footsteps.

This Western-style building is hidden at the end of a quiet alley. Bougainvillea climbs all over the courtyard wall, and a few deep red petals are blown off by the night wind and fall onto the bluestone steps.

He pushed open the courtyard gate. Without turning on the lights, the moonlight shone into the courtyard, bathing the stone path and flower beds in a cold white light.

There is an old banyan tree at the deepest part of the courtyard.

The tree was very large, with aerial roots hanging down like dark brown curtains.

Under the banyan tree was a polished stone, and on the stone was a tin box, so rusted that its original color was no longer visible.

Xu Jia walked over, squatted down, and moved the tin box out from behind the rock.

His movements were very gentle, as if he were handling a fragile item.

He placed the box on the stone, pried open the lid, and a few rusty fragments fell out and into the moonlight.

The box contained a jumble of random things: a plastic dinosaur with a broken leg, a stack of yellowed comic books, a few faded glass marbles, a safety buckle made of old red string, and a piece of paper folded into a square.

Xu Jia unfolded the paper and handed it to her.

The paper was brittle and would crumble at the slightest touch, but the writing on it was still legible.

Written in pencil, crooked and heavy: "Brother Jiajia is the most amazing person. Lulu likes Brother Jiajia the most."

There was a flower drawn next to it, with seven petals because the count was miscounted.

Shi Luyu's pupils contracted slightly.

She wrote those words.

Although her handwriting is immature, her stroke habits haven't changed... When she writes the character "我" (I/me), the last stroke is always drawn out very long.

She crouched down and gently touched the petals of the flower with her fingers.

She couldn't remember the note, but the feel of it, the smoothness of the paper, the roughness of the pencil, and the dust of time all made her heart ache.

Xu Jia pulled something else out from the bottom of the box. It was a silver star folded from a candy wrapper, the wrapper itself faded and grayish, with frayed edges at the corners.

He held it in his palm, looked at it for a long time, and then said, "That year you were sick, with a fever of 40 degrees Celsius. Your parents weren't home, and you were crying alone at home."

"I climbed over the wall and cooked you porridge. After you finished the porridge, you folded a star for me. You said that Brother Jiajia is my best friend, and that you will still play with me when I grow up to be a hundred years old."

He lowered his head slightly, his voice a little hoarse, "Later you put that star in my schoolbag, and I lost it that same day. I searched for it for a long time, and finally found it under the radiator in the classroom. I've kept it ever since."

Shi Luyu squatted there, holding the note in her hand, her knees pressed against the cold stone slab.

Her eyes welled up, but no tears fell.

She could hear her heart pounding heavily in her chest.

Some blurry images floated into her mind: the shadow of the old banyan tree, a swaying swing, and someone lifting her up so she could reach the top branch.

The young man was a few years older than her. She couldn't remember his face, but she remembered his hands, which were dry and warm.

She looked up at Xu Jia.

The moonlight fell on his profile, making his gentle face appear pale.

His eyelashes drooped, his nose was straight, and his lips were slightly pursed. She suddenly felt that this face overlapped with the blurry face of the boy in her memory.

It was the same angle, the same silhouette, the same way he stood behind her, quietly waiting for her to turn around.

"That person is you," she said.

"No question" is a statement.

Xu Jia looked at her, a light flickering in his eyes, but he didn't reach out to touch her.

He placed the little cloth rabbit in her palm and said softly, "You were too young then, so it's normal that you might have misremembered what your brother looked like. It's my fault for not teaching you my name."

He paused, then said, "Lulu, now that things have come to this, I just don't want you to be kept in the dark anymore. You deserve to know the truth."

This secret little base was something Xu Jia dared not visit under any circumstances after realizing he was being monitored by Xu Yuanjia's men, for fear of being discovered by them.

They are just waiting for the right moment to reveal the truth.

And today is that time.

However, Xu Jia was unwilling to personally shatter the image of Xu Yuanjia in Lulu's heart; she believed that all right and wrong should be decided by herself.

Lulu is already under a lot of psychological pressure, and she has the right to make her own judgment. He just wants to tell the truth.

Shi Luyu held the cloth rabbit tightly in her palm, her fingers clenching.

An emotion surged up from the deepest part of her heart, like a tsunami that had been suppressed for a long time, finally breaking through the last dam.

She always thought Xu Yuanjia was the person in her memory, and she always used the name "Brother Jiajia" to define his kindness to her.

But now she discovers that even the name is fake.

From beginning to end.

From the very first day they reunited, he used a stolen identity to approach her, possess her, and control her.

That tenderness was fake, that intimacy was fake, and even the gentle tone in which he whispered "good girl" in her ear was fake.

A web woven from a stolen identity, every knot a lie.

Her breathing became rapid, and she gripped the cloth rabbit so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

She couldn't cry, but her whole body was trembling, the trembling seeping from her bones. The utter, overwhelming shock made it almost impossible for her to stand.

"I asked him to confirm it," Shi Luyu said softly, as if speaking to herself.

"He said he taught me how to use that Rolleiflex camera. He said I cried all afternoon because he scratched the focusing screen."

Xu Jia looked at her and remained silent for a long time.

Then he spoke, without anger or accusation against Xu Yuanjia; he was simply afraid of further provoking Lulu:

"The Rolleiflex is my dad's. I've never opened it. The afternoon you cried was because I lost your candy wrapper star."

To put it more bluntly: "You cried all afternoon, not because of the camera, but because of that star."

Shi Luyu stood there in a daze, the night wind ruffling her hair. She looked down at the crooked little cloth rabbit in her palm.

She finally understood.

Everything Xu Yuanjia fabricated, his so-called childhood memories, and those details he "remembered," were all Xu Jia's doing.

He stole Xu Jia's name, stole Xu Jia's past, and stole every soft and warm corner of her memory.

"Your parents want you to leave here as soon as possible," Xu Jia's voice came from behind her, tinged with a cautious uncertainty. "They're very worried about you. Lulu, I also think you should leave first. I'll find a way to get them out safely."

Shi Luyu suddenly turned around: "Where are my parents now?"

Xu Jia did not answer. His silence was the answer.

Shi Luyu's fingers tightened around the cloth rabbit: "It's in that person's hands, isn't it?"

Her voice began to tremble, filled with the resolute determination of someone pushed to their limit who had finally decided not to back down any longer: "I can't leave. I have to rescue my parents."

"Lulu," Xu Jia stepped forward, raising his hand to support her shoulder, then restrained himself and lowered it again, "You mustn't act rashly. They're definitely safe. You go first, I swear—"

"Teaching Assistant Xu," Shi Luyu interrupted him, paused for a second, and then changed her words, "No... Brother Jiajia."

Xu Jia was stunned. When those two words reached his ears, his heart pounded in his chest.

"This is my own fault." Shi Luyu said clearly, "I misjudged people. I mistook people for others from beginning to end. I should be the one to settle this matter."

She turned around, pushed open the courtyard gate, and walked out without looking back.

"Thank you, Jiajia brother."