Abandoned White Moonlight Chapter 29

Even after all this time, the memory of that day remains vivid, as if it happened just yesterday.

The end of their argument saw Huo Youqing conceding. He was half furious, half ashamed, gripping Dai Yixin’s hair. It was surprisingly soft, contrary to his temperament.

The wide French windows were half-draped with curtains, and they hid behind them on the leather sofa—not hiding really, but Huo Youqing had been trapped there.

Trapped by the serpent from Eden.

The lake view outside shimmered in the calm afternoon light. One of the mansion’s owners was a snake, cold, pale, and eerily beautiful. Huo Youqing turned his head and met the amber-like snake eyes, unsurprised to find an obsessive gaze concealed within.

Feeling irritated, he covered Dai Yixin’s eyes with his hand, but soon his palm felt damp, forcing him to let go.

“You…” Huo Youqing found Dai Yixin to be the most shameless person he’d ever met. “Stop looking at me with those eyes.”

When did he start acting like this?

He couldn’t remember. It didn’t happen suddenly, that’s for sure.

One afternoon, he woke up from a nap to find Dai Yixin sitting on his bed, looking at him with that same gaze.

Blatant, longing, with a flame seemingly trapped in those amber eyes.

Back then, when he met that gaze, all he could think was—

Here we go again.

The next second, he was stunned by how unsurprised he was.

***

Huo Youqing tried to reason, “We can take other kinds of pictures. I remember a classmate of mine has a picture of you fencing, looking really cool. I’d like to try wearing a fencing uniform too.”

Dai Yixin nodded but added, “Tomorrow.”

Meaning he still wanted to take the same photos that Dai Yuan had taken.

Huo Youqing was annoyed, scowling as he turned away from Dai Yixin. But his resolve quickly crumbled, as Dai Yixin, like a large dog, licked his face. Unable to break free, even his eyelids were licked several times.

Though both furious and humiliated, he didn’t want to wrestle with a patient. Years of upbringing made such behavior beneath him; occasionally kicking Dai Yixin was the most he could do.

But he didn’t want to kick him, because if he did, the blow would inevitably land on Dai Yixin’s face.

Pervert!

Huo Youqing gritted his teeth, a faint blush spreading across his snow-white face, as he helplessly admitted defeat. “Fine, take the photos, just don’t… my face!”

The word “lick” was automatically censored.

Once he agreed to the photos, Dai Yixin became instantly agreeable. Huo Youqing, still fuming, frowned and pushed him away. “My cousin has called me several times. I need to get back to him.”

No answer from his cousin.

Huo Youqing had a nagging sense of unease. He sent a message via social media, asking: “Cousin, what did you need?”

After waiting for more than ten minutes without a reply, Huo Youqing had no choice but to put down his phone for now. He wanted to finish the photos with Dai Yixin quickly so he could go home sooner.

Yesterday, his uncle said he would cook today and wanted him and his aunt to try his cooking.

***

Dai Yixin was something of a perfectionist, perhaps even obsessive-compulsive. Every tiny detail had to be just right, or the photos had to be retaken. If the shadow on the sofa wasn’t right, or the blanket draped over him wasn’t smooth, everything had to be perfect. He insisted on replicating every single detail from Dai Yuan’s photos—even using the same camera.

After hours of this, Huo Youqing was truly exhausted, especially since the photos all involved him pretending to sleep.

At some point, the sound of the shutter stopped. Without opening his eyes, he mumbled, “Are we done?”

But the voice that responded wasn’t Dai Yixin’s. It was Dai Yuan’s.

“Brother, is this camera still easy to use? He’s by your side, right… Don’t treat the camera too roughly. Once this video starts playing, it won’t stop. You won’t be able to turn it off, and you can’t bear to destroy the camera Mom gave you. So, you’ll just have to listen to what I have to say.

Brother, we both know the truth. I’ve hated you all my life. You’re the reason Mom had postpartum depression. If it weren’t for your birth, Dad wouldn’t have had an affair. If Dad hadn’t cheated, Mom wouldn’t have been so foolish, ignoring her illness to try and save this family.

Did you know? Mom had planned to divorce Dad. But because of you, because of your existence, everyone told her not to—for the sake of the child.

Our mother died trying to save this family. To give you a complete family, she died on the operating table. The one who survived was me.

I never even got to meet her, but you did. Before she died, she prepared eighteen gifts for your coming-of-age, but you said you couldn’t even remember her face.

Brother, I really hate you. And I hate how you always have to be better than me at everything. Dad always said I was his favorite son, but I knew the unspoken truth: you were his best son. Even when he intentionally tried to suppress you, allowing me to take everything you loved.

He wanted to toughen you up, but all he did was drive you mad. What a joke. This life is meaningless. I always felt like a loser in front of you, so this time I planned to be the ultimate winner. I prepared a gift for you—you must have guessed it by now. I didn’t accidentally fall into the sea.

I originally wanted to take him down with me, like I used to do—if I couldn’t win something you loved, I would destroy it right in front of you.”

“Later, I thought about it and decided to let it go. I’ll leave him behind to torment you. Brother, do you think that if he knew I didn’t accidentally fall into the sea, and even more so, that I didn’t die trying to save him, would he still care about our Dai family? Would he still care about you?”

The camera in Dai Yixin’s hand captured Dai Yuan’s laughter. His voice was pleasant, and his laugh even more so, but each word he spoke was crueler than the last.

“I actually hoped that you and father hadn’t done anything, but knowing your personalities, how could you hold back? At least, I know you couldn’t. Hmm… let me guess, when you saw the surveillance footage, you must have been so jealous of me—so jealous that you even impersonated me just to tie him down. Brother, you’re disgusting.”

His later words were much softer, losing their earlier smugness and laughter.

“Huo Youqing, run away, far away. My brother is a madman.”

Huo Youqing, lying on the couch, had already opened his eyes. He was stunned for a long time, unable to fully process the words he had just heard.

Not an accidental fall into the sea?

Then what was it?

And why was there this video that seemed like it had been pre-recorded?

“Youyou.”

Dai Yixin’s voice had just sounded when it was interrupted by another noise. Huo Youqing’s phone, sitting on the glass coffee table, started ringing.

“Cousin.” Huo Youqing extended a hand, gesturing for Dai Yixin not to approach him, while taking a deep breath to answer the call from his cousin.

He couldn’t stop thinking about what Dai Yuan meant in the video. Not an accidental fall into the sea… then… what had the past few years meant?

His guilt, self-blame, his misguided attempts to make amends, his decision to sacrifice himself to ensure his family’s safety—what had all of that become?

A joke.

Dai Yuan’s death had nothing to do with him. His uncle shouldn’t have been blamed by the Dai family, and he didn’t need to live in this chaotic mess with Dai Yixin for three years.

He had abandoned his life back home—his friends, the field of study he loved… he had given it all up.

Huo Youqing trembled with anger, but what he didn’t expect was that the voice on the other end of the phone would deliver the most devastating blow of the day.

His cousin’s pained voice came through the phone, “Why didn’t you answer your phone? What were you doing? A car accident… a car accident…” The sound coming from his throat was like the desperate cry of a trapped beast. “Youyou, I don’t have parents anymore, and you don’t have an uncle and aunt anymore.”

—

What happened after the call felt like a silent movie.

Huo Youqing stood in a hospital filled with the smell of disinfectant, watching the mouths of the people around him move, though he couldn’t hear a thing they were saying. He felt as if he were already dead. If he weren’t dead, why couldn’t he feel anything?

He didn’t want to move, didn’t cry, didn’t feel pain—he couldn’t do anything.

He was like a corpse, lively on the outside but dead on the inside, helplessly waiting at the hospital for his uncle and aunt to wake up. He clearly remembered that his uncle still owed him a home-cooked meal, and he had promised his aunt that he would accompany her to the salon to dye her hair on the weekend.

This state continued until the day of the funeral, when he suddenly seemed to come back to life, only to be overwhelmed by a pain so severe it made him collapse. He couldn’t stand the agony, and he fell straight to the ground.

The world in front of him turned into a kaleidoscopic tunnel. He watched as the colors gradually faded until all that was left was a cold, black void.

Trapped in the darkness, all he could do was cry.

Three days after the funeral, Huo Youqing embarked on a journey alone.

His cousin hadn’t spoken to him for the past few days, and had left right after the funeral. He knew his cousin was angry at him, and he deserved it.

If he hadn’t been arguing with Dai Yixin when his cousin called, he would have answered the phone and could have rushed to the hospital in time. Instead, he had waited for his cousin to fly all the way from China to M Country.

Neither of them had been able to see their uncle and aunt for the last time—what they saw were two cold, lifeless bodies.

—

“Let go,” Huo Youqing’s lips trembled as he bent down for what felt like the hundredth time to pry Dai Yixin’s hands off him.

Dai Yixin tilted his head to look at him, his usually beautiful face now gaunt and haggard, amber eyes glistening with tears. “Don’t go, don’t leave me. I promise I won’t stop you from answering your phone next time. I’ll change, just don’t abandon me.”

If, in the past, there had been sympathy and leniency, now there was nothing left. If he were to strictly categorize his feelings, there would be only one—hatred.

He didn’t want to waste words with Dai Yixin, who had gone from his home to the airport in a fit of madness. He thought he had controlled his emotions enough already, so why wouldn’t Dai Yixin just leave him alone?

He had no interest in Dai Yixin, Dai Yuan, or the entire Dai family.

That was their family’s business, but they had dragged him into it, as if he were some object without his own will. Dai Yixin liked him, so Dai Yuan came to steal him away. Then, when Dai Yuan tried to steal him, Dai Yixin went mad and pretended to be Dai Yuan.

As the crowd around them grew, Huo Youqing paled and took out his phone to call the Dai family’s butler.

In less than fifteen minutes, Father Dai arrived with his people. Father Dai, having raised two mad sons, knew exactly how to handle him. In less than five minutes, Dai Yixin was forcibly shoved into a car.

As Dai Yixin was taken away, Huo Youqing thought he heard him crying.

A low, rumbling cry from deep within his chest.

Even if he had really heard it, what did it matter? He didn’t care, just as the Dai family didn’t care that he was a person.

That day, Father Dai didn’t answer his question. He left with nothing more than a false expression of regret.

—

Six months later.

Huo Youqing saw Dai Yixin again.

He wasn’t surprised to find Dai Yixin standing outside his rented apartment; with the Dai family’s resources, it was easy to find his address.

Huo Youqing acted as if he didn’t see him and unlocked the door. The apartment was small, with little space for anything. He entered with his supermarket bags and tried to close the door behind him.

A large hand blocked the door from closing.

Through the crack, Huo Youqing saw Dai Yixin’s face, his amber eye staring back at him like a dying butterfly, fixated on Huo Youqing inside the door.