Huo Youqing hung up the phone directly.
He had no interest in “raising a dog,” especially one that was, at its core, a madman. Dai Yuan’s madness was no less than Dai Yixin’s. What kind of normal person would fake their own death as part of a grand scheme?
Before he returned to the hospital room, he saw Dai Yixin wandering around with his IV stand, looking anxious. His lips were pressed tightly together, his face rigid with tension. If not for the hint of panic in his amber eyes, he could have easily been mistaken for someone ready to kill.
The panic in Dai Yixin’s eyes vanished the moment he saw Huo Youqing, replaced instantly with another emotion. Huo Youqing couldn’t quite decipher it before Dai Yixin was striding toward him with long, purposeful steps.
Being embraced by a man in public was always awkward. Frowning, Huo Youqing tried to push him away, baffled as to why a simple phone call had turned into such a dramatic scene of life and death.
“Let go.” He couldn’t shove Dai Yixin off, so he had to rely on words. When there was no response, he added, “Are you disobeying me now?”
That did the trick. At twenty years old, Dai Yixin finally released him, though his large amber eyes still looked at Huo Youqing with hopeful longing, like a giant, eager dog.
Huo Youqing felt a headache coming on. With all the curious stares from onlookers, he had no choice but to pat Dai Yixin on the arm and say, “Come back to the room with me.”
Once inside the room, Huo Youqing closed the door and handed Dai Yixin his phone. “Your brother called earlier. I recorded it. You should listen.”
After listening to the recording, Dai Yixin remained silent, while Huo Youqing, feeling drained, collapsed onto the sofa. He couldn’t deal with Dai Yixin’s thoughts right now—he had already dealt with four people today and was utterly exhausted.
These four were all troublesome, but the most difficult to handle were the Dai brothers, Dai Yixin and Dai Yuan. It was as if they were cut from the same mold—two mad brothers. Even with his additional nine years of memory, Huo Youqing still wasn’t confident in fully controlling Dai Yixin. Bringing Dai Yuan into the mix would only complicate things further.
So, it might be better to let Dai Yixin handle Dai Yuan. If he couldn’t manage his own brother and ended up getting overpowered, well, that would just be his own incompetence.
Thinking this, Huo Youqing began to feel sleepy. He had woken up early that morning and hadn’t had a moment’s rest all day. Now that he was curled up on the sofa, he felt himself drifting off. He wasn’t sure how long had passed before he realized he was being picked up—by none other than Dai Yixin.
The needle in Dai Yixin’s hand had been removed. One glance told Huo Youqing that the IV bag wasn’t finished. He must have taken it out himself.
“What are you doing?” Huo Youqing’s face darkened. After being placed on the hospital bed, he understood Dai Yixin’s intent—he wanted him to sleep there. But Huo Youqing wasn’t feeling grateful and sat up immediately.
“I’m going back to school,” he said as he tried to leave, but Dai Yixin quickly pressed him down. This wasn’t the first time Huo Youqing had been stopped by him, but it was the first time the twenty-year-old had dared to pin him down on the bed.
Huo Youqing studied Dai Yixin’s face carefully. “Earlier, Gong Lang tried to touch me, then my former roommate Qiu Wenfei came to me with all kinds of dirty talk, and your brother even got involved. Now you’re trying to bully me too?”
Dai Yixin immediately shook his head. He pressed down gently on Huo Youqing, his hand softly brushing the corner of Huo Youqing’s eye. “You’re very tired. Get some rest. I’ll stay with you, and I promise I won’t do anything.”
Huo Youqing turned his head away. The sky outside had long darkened, and the streetlights opposite shone through the window. After a moment of silence, he reached up and wrapped his arms around Dai Yixin’s neck.
As soon as his arms touched Dai Yixin’s skin, he felt the body beneath him tremble. Huo Youqing hesitated but then said, “Today, you can kiss me.”
He had expected Dai Yixin to immediately act on his words, but instead, the other man shook his head. “You don’t want me to kiss you.”
Huo Youqing stared at him, slowly loosening his arms and actually closing his eyes. He wasn’t sleeping, and Dai Yixin knew it too. In the quiet hospital room, their breathing was the only sound.
After a long pause, Huo Youqing patted Dai Yixin’s arm. “I can’t sleep. Tell me about yourself. Last time you only mentioned that you returned to the country with your grandmother. Why did you come back with her?”
Huo Youqing realized that he needed to understand what Dai Yixin had gone through if he hoped to change the future. But Dai Yixin didn’t want to answer. No matter how many times Huo Youqing asked, he remained silent.
After a few attempts, Huo Youqing lost his patience. He pushed Dai Yixin away, sat up, and prepared to leave for school.
He made it to the door without hearing a sound from behind him. Finding it odd, he glanced back. Dai Yixin sat motionless on the bed. Earlier, he had turned off the main lights to help Huo Youqing sleep, and now the streetlights outlined his tall figure, with those amber eyes faintly glowing in the dark.
Huo Youqing hesitated, then walked back to the bed. The moment he reached it, he was pulled into a tight embrace. Pressing his lips together, he raised a hand to stroke Dai Yixin’s hair, then gently cupped his face.
His lips hovered just above Dai Yixin’s, close but not touching. He could hear Dai Yixin’s heavy breathing and see the tears forming in his amber eyes. Yet Huo Youqing remained eerily calm, almost to the point of cruelty.
“No,” Huo Youqing whispered. “I won’t kiss someone who keeps secrets from me.”
As he said this, he recognized his own cruelty—he was digging into Dai Yixin’s wounds, forcing him to reveal things he didn’t want to share, like reopening a scar that had already healed. But to understand why Dai Yixin would turn out the way he did in the future, Huo Youqing needed to uncover those secrets.
What had Dai Yixin gone through?
Unfortunately, the tactic of using a reward didn’t work. Even though Dai Yixin was practically burning with desire, he still refused to speak. Huo Youqing even teased him by running a finger across his lips, making him tremble, his beautiful amber eyes filled with barely restrained passion.
Fearing that he was going too far and might backfire, Huo Youqing decided to leave it for now and returned to school.
The next morning, Huo Youqing woke up back in the timeline where he was twenty-seven, in a hospital bed. He looked around the empty room, and before he could remember how he ended up in the hospital, he heard the door opening.
The person who entered was his cousin.
Seeing that he was awake, his cousin walked over with large strides, carrying congee in his hand. “How did you end up in the hospital all of a sudden? Are you still feeling unwell?”
Huo Youqing shook his head and asked, “Did you bring me to the hospital, cousin?”
“No, you called 120 yourself.”
His cousin’s words left him stunned. He turned to look at the bedside table, where his phone was placed. He quickly picked it up, unlocked it, and checked the call log.
There was a record of a 120 emergency call at midnight last night. Did he make that call himself? He had no recollection of it at all.
Huo Youqing looked up at his cousin. “Then how did you know I was in the hospital?”
“The property management told me. I tried calling you this morning but couldn’t reach you, so I went to your apartment complex to find you. The property said you were taken to the hospital by an ambulance last night, so I went to every department until I found you here. Why didn’t you call me after you dialed 120? I could have come to take care of you.”
Even after being discharged from the hospital, Huo Youqing couldn’t recall making the 120 call. Once he got home, he went straight to the bathroom. It was a mess, clearly left untidy. He stood there in thought when he heard his cousin’s voice from outside.
“There’s no sugar left in the kitchen. I’ll go to the supermarket downstairs to buy some, but I’m too lazy to take my keys. You can let me in when I’m back, okay?”
Hearing this, Huo Youqing suddenly walked out and looked at the front door.
He had no memory of calling 120, nor did he remember opening the door for the emergency responders. Was it really him who made the call and opened the door last night?
The doorbell rang suddenly.
