Part 9
His pupils shrank then dilated as he looked at Shen Yunqian. Nonsensical images flashed before his eyes—on a high-rise balcony, the wind howling past, a woman’s figure pushing someone off the edge amidst the faint lights of a fence.
With a massive thud, Lu Xunye suddenly realized he had shifted from an onlooker to someone looking up at the bright neon lights of the city.
With a shout of “Someone jumped!”, people began to gather, though they didn’t dare get too close. Lu Xunye’s consciousness couldn’t escape the body of this dying person.
Someone was whispering.
Lu Xunye’s vision was clouded with red.
“If you don’t learn your lesson, you deserve to suffer.”
The speaker squatted down and cupped his face.
“If I had broken your legs back then, would you have not run away and died so wretchedly?”
“If you don’t want to get lost, for the fourth time, you must break free from control.”
“I’m starting to… forget you…”
an incredibly light sigh faded into the sound of an approaching ambulance siren.
Lu Xunye fought to see the person’s face, until cold fingertips in reality touched his face.
Gradually, his consciousness returned. He saw the lower half of Shen Yunqian’s face.
The blurred face overlapped with the person before him. He snapped out of it, his back drenched in sweat.
After a moment of daze, he jerked away from Shen Yunqian’s wrist, turning his face to avoid the touch that terrified him.
After being thrown off, Shen Yunqian stared at his red, marked wrist, his gaze slowly turning cold.
Lu Xunye knew he had overreacted. He had just experienced a hallucination. He pounded his aching, numb head, trying to clear it.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it. I don’t know what happened, I… ugh.”
A sound of pain escaped him.
Shen Yunqian caught the hand he was using to hit himself. “What did you remember?”
Lu Xunye allowed him to hold it, not understanding. “What should I have remembered?”
Shen Yunqian was stunned by the question. He didn’t know why he’d asked either.
He didn’t know when it started, but his health had been getting worse. He was always sleepy and trapped in nightmares. In his dreams, the person he liked died because of a liar—died in a conspiracy.
Yet Shen Yunqian had no connection to him. That stuttering, foolish neighbor who had used a clumsy excuse about borrowing water to burst into his world had completely vanished from his memories.
His parents’ deaths were never solved. Shen Qizhao lived on. Shen Yunji died in an oil tanker explosion on the river-crossing bridge. No one had a happy ending, except for those who deserved to die.
These should have been dreams, or hallucinations from his illness—a sign of his condition worsening.
Until… reality merged with the dreams.
Once, he had intercepted Shen Yunji’s car before the bridge, even though the other didn’t admit his identity.
Once, he had seen that gender-disguised liar acting intimately with Lu Xunye on the trending searches.
Shen Yunqian began to panic. Why did Lu Xunye speak of love so easily? Why did he subconsciously reject his closeness, yet hold that liar by the waist in front of Lu Corporation, oblivious to the paparazzi?
The only difference from the dream was that he and Lu Xunye had an intersection.
From the first time he met Lu Xunye, he thought the man was strange. That person with the messy face—when he saw those eyes that tried to hide their embarrassment and awkwardness, he didn’t feel repulsed. Instead, he felt a sense of familiarity.
He thought that he, too, had become strange.
He was afraid the events of the dream would play out, so he controlled that “actress” and dealt with her villainous sponsor. He also wanted to keep Lu Xunye by his side.
This thought took root and grew wildly, like ivy clinging to his mind.
Even if doing so would tear the relationship between them—which was already as thin as paper.
Shen Yunqian’s face was filled with undisguised confusion. Lu Xunye frowned in bewilderment. He looked around and noticed someone was missing, murmuring, “Where’s Jian Luoqing?”
Without much thought, he used his core strength to stand up. He hadn’t expected to lose his footing and fall, landing right on top of Shen Yunqian and knocking him back against a protruding piece of rubble.
It’s over, exploded in his mind, but it couldn’t compare to the blunt pain from the anesthesia wearing off in his leg.
Similarly, the impact scattered Shen Yunqian’s chaotic thoughts. His lower back hit the stone beneath him hard. Tears instantly filled his eyes, and he had to bite the back of his hand to keep from screaming.
How is this more painful than having the bullet in my leg? Lu Xunye hissed for a moment before quickly pulling the man up. “Sorry, sorry! Did I hurt you?”
The wound, which had been bandaged, had already bled through the gauze due to his movement after being sutured. It was just that his leg had been numb before.
“Are you an idiot?”
Hearing these words from Shen Yunqian was as shocking as Mt. Everest being toppled by a fart.
Lu Xunye’s heart skipped a beat. He thought he’d misheard. He rubbed his ears, giving an uncertain smile. “What did you say?”
“Was a piece of your brain carved out along with your leg? You believe any random lie someone tells you, and you run off with anyone who deceives you. You have enough patience for everyone else, but you don’t have the patience to listen to a single word of mine. Weren’t you the one who provoked me first?”
The youth’s eyes were still wet as he scolded him. His eyes were red, and the dust from their escape was still on his cheek and nose.
Even though he was scolding, even though his tone was bad, and even though Lu Xunye felt the accusations were unfair, Lu Xunye could hear the worry. It was for him.
This made him feel—See? Someone does care about me, regardless of identity or anything else.
Even if he’d approached with a goal, he’d ended up falling in.
After speaking, Shen Yunqian didn’t feel much better. Instead, he felt stifled.
He didn’t understand what was wrong with him. This was too emotional, too raw—he didn’t want to be like this.
How could Lu Xunye understand anything? He didn’t even understand himself.
“Forget it.” Shen Yunqian lowered his eyes with a self-deprecating smile, only to have the back of his neck grabbed. A heavy, warm kiss was pressed onto his lips.
The faint scent of blood mingled between them. The spot on Lu Xunye’s lip he’d bitten earlier stung.
The youth, stunned by the kiss, seemed to just snap out of it and tried to push him away. Lu Xunye used the momentum to hold his arms.
After separating, he pressed his forehead against the youth’s shoulder and gave a muffled laugh. “Then I’ll believe you. I’ll only believe Shen Yunqian.”
He couldn’t help but defend himself a little: “I won’t run off with anyone. It was Fu Lan who kidnapped me, and she set that fire too. I was just surprised when you drugged me. If I hated you, I wouldn’t have saved you.”
“I’m not some innocent white rabbit; no one can fool me. I didn’t believe a single word that old man said.”
“You… saved me?”
Shen Yunqian’s voice came from above, so light it was easy to ignore.
Lu Xunye’s voice was steady, with a hint of total trust and a touch of acting spoiled.
“What? Thinking of backing out? I have evidence on my arm; you can’t deny it. If that crazy woman hadn’t locked me up while I was unconscious, I would have definitely extorted you for medical fees, burn treatments, and mental distress.”
Hearing this, Shen Yunqian grabbed Lu Xunye’s arm and pushed the long sleeve up to his elbow. There, at the crook of his arm, were several jagged burn scars.
Seeing those scars, Shen Yunqian’s hand on the sleeve trembled, his eyes stinging. “You truly are…”
Lu Xunye didn’t notice his emotion and continued, “If it makes you feel secure, you can keep locking me up.”
If this is a dream, let it continue. If this is a quest, I want to stay. I want to take you out of this script.
“Shen Yunqian…” Lu Xunye licked his lips. The sharp pain made him incredibly clear-headed. He tightened his grip around the other’s waist. “I like you. Did you hear me?”
“Can I trust you one more time?” Shen Yunqian heard himself ask.
Lu Xunye lifted his head and looked him in the eye.
In the silence, Shen Yunqian’s gaze flickered, and he’d already found a way out for himself: “It’s fine, I—” believe you.
Simultaneously, Lu Xunye’s firm voice rang out: “Trust me.”
“Actually…” Shen Yunqian pinched his chin, turning his face away. The burning gaze falling elsewhere allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief.
Lu Xunye turned the tables, tilting his head to kiss the other’s palm. “Hmm?”
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