Xu Yizhu did not know how he had managed to dial the phone and summon Zhou Yi.
By the time Zhou Yi arrived, he saw Xu Yizhu holding Ji Xie’s lifeless body, sitting on the ground in a daze.
Startled, Zhou Yi cautiously approached and stretched his hand out beneath Ji Xie’s nostrils. His legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the ground as well.
Cold sweat broke out across his back, and his voice trembled uncontrollably: “What, what happened?”
Clutching the body, Xu Yizhu muttered, “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
“Don’t panic, try not to panic,” Zhou Yi said, his own mind plunging into chaos. “Call an ambulance, contact his family.”
“Where is his phone!”
Stumbling up from the ground, Zhou Yi searched everywhere.
Xu Yizhu patted Ji Xie’s clothes, felt around, and fished out the phone. He swiped the lock screen, thankfully finding no passcode.
Zhou Yi urged, “Find his family’s number and call them.”
Xu Yizhu’s mind was completely blank. His fingers slipped twice before he managed to locate Ji Xie’s father’s phone number.
He had bitten his lower lip raw at some point, and a salty, metallic blood was seeping out, though he seemed completely unaware of it. His thumb hovered over the screen, paralyzed and too terrified to press down.
“Hurry up!”
Zhou Yi couldn’t help urging him again.
“I don’t dare.”
He was still in a trance, wandering like a lost soul. Just an hour ago, the man who had said he liked him was now lying cold and lifeless in his arms.
A living, breathing person…
Had collapsed without the slightest warning…
And would never wake up again.
Every breath Xu Yizhu pulled into his lungs felt like blades tearing him apart, aching fiercely.
His vision began to blur, and the digits on the screen danced together into a blurry shadow.
“Let me.” Zhou Yi snatched the phone and dialed Ji Xie’s father.
Those dozen seconds spent waiting for the call to connect felt like the agonizing, daily torture of water dripping through stone, full of panic and despair.
“Hello? Son?”
The call connected, and a warm, affectionate greeting came through from the other end.
“Uncle, hello. I, I am a friend of Ji Xie. He, he had an accident. I’m sorry, he has passed away.”
With just those few short sentences, Zhou Yi exhausted every ounce of strength and courage in his body.
Zhou Yi heard the sound of a teacup dropping to the floor and shattering into pieces. After a long silence, a trembling voice asked from the other side, “When did this happen?”
Zhou Yi: “An hour ago.”
Ji’s father asked with evident difficulty, “How… did he go?”
Zhou Yi glanced at Xu Yizhu, completely at a loss for how to answer.
Xu Yizhu raised his eyes and motioned for Zhou Yi to hand him the phone. Unsure, Zhou Yi asked, “Can you handle it?”
Nodding, Xu Yizhu took the phone. In a low, hoarse voice, he said, “Hello, Uncle. I am Ji Xie’s boyfriend.”
“I am so sorry. I didn’t mean for this…”
“What on earth happened?” Ji’s father demanded.
Xu Yizhu recounted the events of that morning. After listening in silence for a moment, Ji’s father said, “I will return as quickly as possible. Do not move his body until then. We will discuss everything when I arrive.”
“Alright…”
Hanging up, Xu Yizhu turned to Zhou Yi: “Zhou Zhou, help me carry him back to his room.”
Leaving him lying on the floor like this was out of the question.
Zhou Yi: “Alright.”
Working together, the two men moved Ji Xie back onto the bed. Xu Yizhu then asked Zhou Yi to run out and buy a clean set of clothes for him.
Patting his shoulder in reassurance, Zhou Yi said, “A-Zhu, my condolences.”
Only after listening to the conversation between Xu Yizhu and Ji’s father did Zhou Yi realize the nature of their relationship.
A storm of complex emotions surged in his chest.
It had been so difficult for him to finally meet someone like that.
Sighing…
The whims of fortune truly played with people.
Xu Yizhu had calmed down considerably by now. His expression looked normal once more, though a heavy, lifeless aura permeated his tone: “I am fine.”
Sighing again, Zhou Yi pulled the door closed and stepped outside.
Sitting by the bedside, Xu Yizhu gently stroked Ji’s face with one hand.
His thumb brushed across his brows, the bridge of his nose, and his bloodless lips.
Over and over again.
“I shouldn’t have provoked you,” Xu Yizhu whispered softly. “I shouldn’t have said let’s give it a try.”
Remorse, self-blame, and regret.
Every single emotion threatened to tear him into shreds.
“I’m sorry, Ji Xie.”
How could someone destined to walk through life entirely alone ever dare to wish for love?
In the vast, silent room, only Xu Yizhu’s low murmurs remained. The person on the bed looked peaceful, as though he had merely fallen asleep.
Leaning down, Xu Yizhu pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes, spilling over onto Ji Xie’s cheeks, pooling in the sockets, and finally slipping down past his temples into his hair.
His lips were icy cold, yet remarkably soft.
It was late in the evening on the third day when Ji’s father and mother arrived.
Xu Yizhu had asked Zhou Yi to drive to the airport to pick them up. The elderly couple had hurried back from abroad, looking travel-worn and utterly exhausted from the journey.
Seeing Ji Xie dressed neatly and lying quietly inside the casket Xu Yizhu had prepared, both of them instantly reddened their eyes. Hiding her face in her husband’s chest, Ji’s mother broke down in uncontrollable sobs.
Xu Yizhu had already arranged with a funeral parlor; they would arrive at eight o’clock the next morning to transport Ji Xie’s remains to the crematorium.
“Uncle, Auntie, I am truly sorry. I never expected him to suffer such an accident.”
Losing a child in old age, having white-haired parents bury black-haired children, Xu Yizhu deeply understood the agony tearing at their hearts.
“Xiao Zhu, get up first.”
The elderly man, well past sixty, possessed deep, steady eyes and still looked remarkably healthy.
He helped the kneeling Xu Yizhu to his feet and said, “Everyone has their own fate. When fate decrees it, one must accept it.”
Xu Yizhu refused to accept it. Those whom fate refused to favor still had to endure the torment gifted by that very same fate.
“You are a good child; do not blame yourself too much.” Wiping away her tears, Ji’s mother grasped Xu Yizhu’s hand, patted it gently, and straightened the wrinkled collar of his shirt.
Over the past three days and two nights, Xu Yizhu’s sleep had grown exceptionally fragmented, totaling no more than five hours combined.
He didn’t dare fall asleep for fear of unforeseen accidents, nor did he dare let himself stay idle for fear of feeling the crushing sorrow of seeing Ji Xie lying there.
“Leave the rest of the matters to us; we are here. Go take a proper bath and get some rest.” Seeing the dark circles under his eyes, Ji’s father sighed.
Thinking it over, Xu Yizhu realized he indeed needed a solid rest, with a mountain of arrangements waiting for him tomorrow morning. Without declining further, he nodded.
“Alright.”
That evening, Zhou Yi drove Ji’s parents back to their booked hotel.
“Uncle, Auntie, please accept my condolences,” Zhou Yi said after settling the couple in. “Get a good rest, and I’ll come pick you up tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you for your hard work, Xiao Zhou.”
“It’s nothing, please don’t be formal.”
Leaving the hotel, Zhou Yi dialed Xu Yizhu’s phone: “I’ve settled the uncle and auntie in. Get some rest early too, I’ll be over tomorrow morning.”
Exhaustion saturated Xu Yizhu’s voice: “Alright, thank you for all your hard work these past two days, Zhou Zhou.”
Hesitating for a long moment, Zhou Yi asked him, “Are you scared, sleeping alone?”
Xu Yizhu paused for a fraction of a second before offering a bitter smile: “How could I be? He is Ji Xie.”
Saying nothing more, Zhou Yi hung up the phone.
After taking a hot shower, Xu Yizhu returned to his bedroom, pulled open the bedside drawer, extracted two extra sleeping pills, and swallowed them dry.
Lying down in bed, he closed his eyes and waited for sleep to claim him.
Somewhere between wakefulness and slumber, blurred and surreal, he felt as though someone was sitting at the edge of his bed, a warm, broad palm stroking his cheek.
Xu Yizhu wanted to open his eyes, but under the influence of the medication, his consciousness began to blur beyond recognition.
Vaguely, he heard a familiar voice.
“Xu Yizhu, I like you so much.”
His brows locked tightly together as Xu Yizhu tried to force his eyes open to investigate.
Who was it?
Was it Ji Xie?
Had he come into his dream, or was he leaving, saying his final goodbye?
“Ge, I like you so much.”
Ji Xie, don’t leave!
Fighting against the pull of the medicine, Xu Yizhu’s entire body trembled involuntarily.
He wanted to open his mouth and plead with him to stay, but his lips felt sealed shut, unable to part.
“Xu Yizhu…”
As his consciousness was dragged completely into the abyss, he heard Ji Xie’s calling clear as day.
All of Xu Yizhu’s anxiety and reluctance transformed into a single teardrop that slipped down his face.
Xu Yizhu was shaken awake. Squinting, he rubbed his throbbing temples.
Weakly, Xu Yizhu muttered, “Stop shaking me.”
The moment he spoke, the movement of his body stopped instantly.
Pausing to steady himself, he opened his eyes.
A familiar, handsome face greeted his vision.
An illusion. It had to be an illusion.
He closed his eyes again, counted to three, and reopened them.
Mhm, very handsome, and still smiling at him.
Unconvinced, Xu Yizhu closed and opened his eyes once more.
Mhm, the corners of that face’s mouth were practically splitting back to his ears.
His consciousness snapped back into place, and Xu Yizhu’s mind cleared instantly.
Who was that just now?
Ji Xie.
Was he alive?
Mhm, alive.
Alive?!?!?
!!!!!
Xu Yizhu shot up from the bed like a spring, dumbfounded to the point of speechlessness…
Startled by his sudden movement, Ji Xie tipped backward and tumbled off the bed.
“You, you, you, you! Are you a corpse coming back to life?”
“Me, me, me, me, not a corpse.” Climbing back up from the floor, Ji Xie sat on the edge of the mattress and mimicked his tone.
Pressing a hand against his frantically pounding heart, Xu Yizhu swallowed hard, tentatively reached out a finger, and poked Ji’s cheek.
Warmth.
Then he felt for his heartbeat.
Still beating.
“Xu Yizhu, are you taking advantage of me?”
Huh?
Blankly, Xu Yizhu looked at him. Ji Xie didn’t look abnormal in the slightest as he smiled and said, “Knowing full well that I’m pursuing you, you still try to flirt with me like this?”
Xu Yizhu was thoroughly confused. Pursuing me?
Sensing his confusion, Ji Xie explained, “That’s right. How about it, want to make friends?”
Calming down, Xu Yizhu slipped back into his customary, detached indifference.
“Not interested.”
He stood up, got out of bed, and headed toward the bathroom.
His movements were crisp and decisive, leaving Ji Xie zero opportunity to react.
Splashing water on his face to clear his head further, Xu Yizhu began retracing the events of the past two days.
Cataleptic pseudo-death?
Exclusive secret arts?
How utterly ridiculous…
Yet stopping breathing, losing a pulse, and dropping body temperature, none of those could be faked.
So what on earth had happened?!
Xu Yizhu spun himself into a complete loop. This was even more absurd than the fantasy novels he wrote…
Could it be that he harbored some sort of bad omen and brought bad luck to Ji Xie?
Outside the bathroom, Ji Xie knocked on the door and asked, “Xu Yizhu, aren’t you going to come out and explain why I woke up inside a coffin?”
With an expressionless face, Xu Yizhu pulled the door open and replied flatly, “Oh. You confessed so hard you died from it.”
Excitement beaming across his face, Ji Xie asked, “Did the confession succeed then?”
Xu Yizhu tossed him a perfunctory, fake smile.
“Nope. I don’t make friends.”
Ji Xie wore a look of aggrieved sorrow.
“Don’t be like that, Ge, I like you so much!”
Xu Yizhu:
Heh.