Like a rusty robot, Li Xiu slowly looked around.

The inner walls of all elevators in the complex were made of stainless steel. Although they couldn’t reflect every detail of a person like a mirror would, a shadowy reflection could still be seen when a person walked in.

Li Xiu was currently standing in the middle of the elevator, watching shadows emerge around him.

The shadows reflected in the stainless steel plating were too blurry. No matter how Li Xiu kept his eyes wide open, he could only see distorted figures that were unlike living people, along with blank faces as pale as paper.

“Wu…..”

A short whimper escaped Li Xiu’s throat.

He knelt weakly on the floor. His body had no strength at all.

Accompanied by an ominous electrical sound, the incandescent lights on the ceiling suddenly flickered, then went out completely.

A deathly darkness completely filled the space around Li Xiu.

There was something there. Ice and moisture, dry skin wrapped around thin bones…..countless dead hands stretched out from this darkness, tightly grasping the youth where he was curled up in the elevator, shaking with fear.

“Save…..wu…..save me…..”

Someone was jostling Li Xiu’s shoulder.

“A-Xiu? A-Xiu, what’s wrong with you, ah?”

A hoarse, familiar voice sounded in his ears.

With great effort, Li Xiu opened his eyes with difficulty while sobbing, then saw his grandmother’s kind and worried face.

“Did our family’s A-Xiu have a nightmare today? Why are you still crying?”

Seeing Li Xiu wake up, the grandmother appeared relieved. She opened her lips and smiled at Li Xiu.

“I—”

Li Xiu sat up at once, gasping for air. He stared in shock at the old woman by his bedside. His head felt as heavy as stone, and his blood felt like it had been stuffed into a freezer and frozen, even now unable to pump adequately to his heart.

His entire body shivered with cold. His heart beat extremely fast.

“A nightmare…..”

Li Xiu stared at his grandmother and sluggishly repeated her words.

His grandmother gave him a look of understanding, and said half lovingly and half as if she had a headache:

“Sure enough, oh, you’ve been under too much pressure from studying, haven’t you? A-Xiu, ah, this isn’t what Grandmother told you to do. Your grades are good enough. In fact, you don’t have to work so hard.”

“Forget it, get up quickly. If you don’t get up, you won’t have time for breakfast. For students your age, ah, the most important thing is to ensure good nutrition. Otherwise, reading so many books every day, what will you do if your brain doesn’t have enough energy…..”

The old woman chattered habitually, patted the school uniform that had been prepared for Li Xiu beside the bed, and then walked out the door.

As his grandmother vanished, Li Xiu looked around and realized that he was lying in his room.

Tall floor-to-ceiling windows allowed the morning sun to pour into the luxurious bedroom. Li Xiu sat on the bed, looking around the octagonal room. The dressing table next to the bed gave him a slight feeling of unease. He stayed there for a long while, covering his head with a muffled groan.

His head hurt…..

How odd…..why did he feel like his room was unfamiliar?

“A-Xiu, ah, hurry up!”

While he was thinking hard, his grandmother called from outside the door again.

Li Xiu rubbed his temples. Then he staggered out of bed, donned his school uniform, and walked out.

When he went downstairs, Li Xiu saw breakfast neatly arranged on the dining table.

The runny yolk of a sun-cooked egg was placed on golden, crispy bread fried in butter. Smoked ham sizzled on the plate, emitting the enticing aroma of oil. 

His grandmother poured milk into a glass and pushed it toward Li Xiu’s plate. When she saw Li Xiu, she immediately waved and called for him to quickly come down and eat.

“What are you looking at, ah? A-Xiu, isn’t this your favorite breakfast?”

A gentle woman prompted Li Xiu from the dining table.

The woman was young and beautiful. When Li Xiu looked at her, he vaguely felt that she was somewhat familiar.

Beside the woman sat a middle-aged man in a suit and leather shoes. From Li Xiu’s perspective, the man’s face couldn’t be seen at all. He could only see that the man had his head lowered as he took big mouthfuls of the food in front of him.

Opposite the woman was a tall young man.

Following the woman’s gentle call, he also turned his head to look at Li Xiu, who was hesitating on the stairs.

“A-Xiu, why are you dawdling, ah? Come on, why are you always so muddle-headed when you wake up?”

Similar in age to Li Xiu but slightly larger in stature, the boy gave him a helpless look. Although he was scolding him, his tone was rather doting. He stood up as he spoke and walked straight to the stairs, then took Li Xiu’s hand and led him directly to the table.

“Eat quickly! Otherwise you won’t grow taller, ah.”

The boy pressed Li Xiu into a seat and rubbed his hair.

Li Xiu braced himself, and when he glimpsed the boy’s face, he finally returned to his senses and said automatically:

“Fang Qian’an……what are you doing…..wait…..”

“Fang who?” However, after hearing his words, the boy stared blankly for a moment and then looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Hey, A-Xiu, are you actually asleep?”

Lowering his head, he approached Li Xiu and gently touched the boy’s forehead.

He stared into Li Xiu’s face and said as if in jest: “You even called me by the wrong name?! Wait, are you trying to make me angry on purpose?”

But when Li Xiu heard what he said, he couldn’t help but shudder. Before his brain had time to function, his lips were moving automatically: “Li Yu…..”

“En?”

The boy still seemed dissatisfied. His cold hands directly grabbed Li Xiu’s face, forcing him to look at him awkwardly. 

Li Xiu’s eyelashes fluttered slightly, and when he spoke again, it was with a much crisper: “Yu-ge.”

At this moment, the nightmare that had been lingering in his mind when he woke up that morning instantly faded, and he finally woke up.

Damn, what was happening with him today? How could he feel like his home was so strange, and not even greet his family?

“Dad, Mom, good morning.”

Li Xiu struggled out of Li Yu’s arms and quickly greeted the other two people at the dining table.

“Good morning, A-Xiu. Aiya, really, Xiao Yu, you’re this old and still acting like a primary school student. Don’t bully A-Xiu.”

His Mom smiled as she lectured, looking at the two sitting closely together at the table.

“That’s right, ah. Yu-ge, you only know how to bully me!”

Li Xiu immediately seized the opportunity and stood up, leaning toward the boy as he continued his Mom’s scolding.

“I bully you? Hey, aren’t you mistaken? It’s obviously you who bullies me every time.” Li Yu turned his head to look directly at Li Xiu, his tone particularly aggrieved. “You’re just relying on my affection for you and becoming more and more lawless.”

In the midst of the quarrel, Grandmother appeared to helplessly smooth things over.

“Okay, okay, the two of you will sleep in the same bed from now on, bullying or no bullying.”

Sleep in the same bed? What was this?

Li Xiu subconsciously stared, and even such a movement didn’t escape Li Yu’s sight.

The boy stretched out his hand beneath the dining table and lightly touched Li Xiu’s palm. 

“Don’t be shy,” Li Xiu heard Li Yu whisper to him.

“It’s not time yet.”

What did that mean, “not time yet?”

Countless doubts ran through his mind, but like raindrops falling into a lake, they disappeared in an instant, leaving only hazy ripples.

Every time Li Xiu tried to think carefully, his thoughts would scatter uncontrollably.

“A-Xiu, eat quickly!”

His grandmother urged him at this time.

“Ah ah ah, I know, I know.”

Li Xiu instantly forgot what he was thinking about just then.

He spoke perfunctorily and then looked down at his breakfast.

It had to be said that just looking at today’s breakfast made a person excited. Li Xiu began to eat at once with no hesitation.

However, the moment the breakfast entered his mouth, Li Xiu grimaced.

Wu, it tasted terrible.

They looked so delicious, but now the sun-cooked eggs and toast in his mouth were completely tasteless, just like chewing scraps of paper. Li Xiu forced himself to chew for a long time, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t swallow the sun-cooked egg toast in his mouth.

Finally, Li Xiu gave up resisting the inexplicable instincts of his body and put a tissue to his mouth, spitting out all the food.

The happy laughter and chatter at the dining table stopped abruptly.

Along with the deathly silence came three extremely sharp gazes.

“A-Xiu? What’s wrong? Why aren’t you eating?”

“A-Xiu? What’s wrong? Why aren’t you eating?”

“A-Xiu? What’s wrong? Why aren’t you eating?”

Three identical inquiries came from the mouths of the mother, father, and grandmother respectively.

Li Xiu covered his mouth, his entire body stiffening.

“I…..I just…..ah, don’t have an appetite today.”

His heart beat wildly.

He began to break out in a cold sweat.

Li Xiu didn’t know why he would be afraid like this when his relatives were obviously just caring about him.

As he spoke, Li Xiu subconsciously looked at the dinner plates in front of his parents, and only then did he realize that they were completely different from his sumptuous breakfast. His mom, dad, and Yu-ge all had bowls filled with uncooked rice in front of them.

……Something was wrong…..no, wasn’t this just his parents’ daily meal? Why did he feel like something was wrong?

Li Xiu shivered. When he looked up again, he found that he had been in a daze for such a long time, but his mom, dad, and grandmother’s dark eyes had never moved away the whole time.

From beginning to end, they stared at Li Xiu.

“A-Xiu, why aren’t you eating?” they continued to ask.

“I-I’ll eat…..” Li Xiu stammered, and forced the remaining food on his plate into his mouth.

But this time, whether or not it was because he was so nervous, he found the food even more unpalatable.

The harder he tried to swallow, the stronger the inexplicable feeling of nausea and resistance became.

In the end, Li Xiu even accidentally retched.

He spat everything out. Li Xiu’s body was shaking slightly, physiological tears filling his eyes.

“S-sorry, I really…..can’t eat……” Li Xiu said softly.

Chills wracked his body one after another. Even though this was clearly just a small thing, his voice was filled with an involuntary sobbing tone.

Yu-ge stared at Li Xiu for a long moment, then let out a seemingly helpless sigh.

“Ai, forget it, forget it. It’s really not a big deal if you don’t eat.”

At the same time his voice fell, the other three people at the dining table also withdrew their deep, dark gazes. Just like before, they were still kind and gentle.

His mom feigned anger, scolding lightly: “You indulge him even when he won’t eat. Really, Xiao Yu, I don’t know where you got your subservient personality…..”

To the side, his dad lowered his head and complained softly in a voice everyone could hear: “He gets it from me.”

His grandmother sighed repeatedly and gave Li Xiu a look of great disapproval: “Really, how can he not eat? If he doesn’t eat, how will he endure you in the future…..Xiao Yu, you will regret this sooner or later.”

At this time, Li Xiu had already been drawn into Li Yu’s arms, cold hands stroking gently over his back.

As if shy, Li Xiu lowered his head, using Li Yu’s figure to avoid the eyes of his parents.

But only he himself knew how scared he was now.

Wasn’t there something wrong? 

Why couldn’t he hear Yu-ge’s heartbeat?

“What are you thinking about?”

A slightly hoarse whisper sounded.

Li Xiu huddled in Li Yu’s arms. He was startled, and when he looked up again, he forgot where his fear had come from.

“It’s nothing,” the youth murmured, his watery eyes becoming somewhat hollow.

“……I just woke up today feeling a little flustered and short of breath.”

Li Xiu rubbed his temples with a dazed appearance.

Li Yu stared greedily at Li Xiu in his arms, his bright red lips grinning wider and wider.

“Don’t be nervous, A-Xiu…..Gege has always liked A-Xiu the most…..” he said softly.

“Yu-ge won’t get angry if you’re a little bit willful.”

---

Consider donating via Kofi here.

Chapter 41 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 43