At the sound of the door, the man standing with his back to it turned slightly. The motion sensor light illuminated him from the door to the elevator, casting a sharp contrast between light and shadow. The light highlighted his long, dense lashes and the blue tattoo on the side of his neck, just above his collar. The tattoo read “You”—bright and clear.
His leather shoes made two sharp taps on the floor as he fully turned, revealing a bouquet of purple tulips in his arms.
Since they had started pretending to be fake friends in the twenty-seven-year-old timeline, Dai Yixin had rarely worn suits anymore, opting instead for a style similar to Dai Yuan’s. But today, he was back in a suit, with his hair slicked back, fully exposing his sharp brows and deep-set eyes.
His amber eyes locked onto the man in the room, and he offered a smile—a smirk, with one corner of his mouth higher than the other, exuding a subtle air of menace. He seemed completely unaware, though, as he gazed at Huo Youqing with clear eyes and handed him the bouquet of purple tulips.
Huo Youqing didn’t take them. His hand was still gripping the doorknob. “What are you doing here?”
“I missed you.” Dai Yixin’s tone was suggestive, as though his words carried a double meaning. He looked at Huo Youqing tenderly. “Didn’t you miss me?”
Huo Youqing’s response was to press his lips tightly together. He hated this version of Dai Yixin—yes, he hated the twenty-seven-year-old version of him. No matter what kind of mistreatment Dai Yixin had suffered, it had nothing to do with him. He wasn’t responsible for those things, yet Dai Yixin had become the source of his tragic life.
It was all because Dai Yixin loved him that he had destroyed his life.
Dai Yixin didn’t seem to react much to Huo Youqing’s silence, as if he was already accustomed to it. He took a step forward, forcing Huo Youqing to retreat behind the door. Huo Youqing realized he was subconsciously afraid of Dai Yixin. He took a deep breath and suddenly reached out, slamming the door shut.
A few seconds later, through the door, he heard Dai Yixin’s voice, calm and unhurried.
He called him, “Youyou, open the door.”
Huo Youqing didn’t move, not until he heard the sound of a key being inserted into the lock. He quickly stepped back, turned around, and ran to the living room to grab his phone. Just as he unlocked the screen, a warm breath fell on the back of his neck, accompanied by the scent of tulips.
Dai Yixin embraced him from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder. Due to their height difference, Dai Yixin seemed to fit perfectly against him, their bodies aligning seamlessly.
“Calling the police?” Dai Yixin asked softly.
Huo Youqing’s fingers froze. He abruptly elbowed backward. Over the years of their entanglement, Dai Yixin had personally taught him self-defense moves. He had said he was afraid that if he wasn’t around, Huo Youqing would be hurt, so he had taught him everything.
Every punch, every kick, taught with no reservations.
But even so, he still wasn’t as skilled as Dai Yixin.
When he found himself pinned on the couch, Huo Youqing’s hair was already soaked with sweat. He hadn’t fought like this in a long time, and combined with his lack of sleep, his body was at its limit, his chest heaving from the exertion. His face was pale, but his eyes blazed with unusual intensity, filled with hatred.
By this point, there was no need for pretense.
Dai Yixin, having subdued him, had only unbuttoned two buttons of his suit. The purple tulips he had brought were placed on the table.
Looking into those eyes filled with hatred, he chuckled softly. His lips moved from Huo Youqing’s ear down to his jaw, licking away the sweat on his pale face. His tongue left a faint red trail on his fair skin.
Holding Huo Youqing by the neck, his voice remained gentle. “Why aren’t you pretending to have amnesia anymore?”
Huo Youqing closed his eyes, as if falling asleep. But his furrowed brows and trembling lashes betrayed his endurance. He heard Dai Yixin’s hypocritical question and, with a raised brow, responded with a look of anger, his lips pressed tightly together in rage. “To keep playing this cat-and-mouse game with you?”
Dai Yixin’s goal was clearly not in getting a response from Huo Youqing; he was merely looking for an opportunity to force open Huo Youqing’s tightly clenched teeth. A deep kiss left Huo Youqing’s tongue feeling numb. He could never get used to Dai Yixin’s kisses, yet Dai Yixin enjoyed kissing immensely, often liking to kiss Huo Youqing in various places.
His tongue was like a dentist’s instrument, meticulously examining the condition of each healthy tooth. Like a snake, he slid his tongue into Huo Youqing’s mouth, pulling Huo Youqing’s tongue into his own lips, creating the illusion that Huo Youqing was the one initiating the kiss.
Huo Youqing was suffocating, trembling in Dai Yixin’s arms, his limbs weak and unresponsive. His pale skin flushed with waves of redness. Just one kiss, one deep kiss, left him in such a disheveled state.
Dai Yixin noticed that Huo Youqing was short of breath and paused the deep kiss, gently blowing air into his mouth, as if saving someone from drowning. He then pulled the person he had pinned beneath him into his arms, soothingly rubbing Huo Youqing’s back, only to kiss him again shortly after.
Huo Youqing’s fingers spasmed slightly as he furrowed his brow, finally gathering a bit of strength. He tried to push Dai Yixin away, but after two feeble attempts, Dai Yixin grabbed his arm and pulled him back into his embrace.
“Get lost!” Huo Youqing spat out through gritted teeth.
Dai Yixin, unfazed, gently stroked Huo Youqing’s cheek, his cold knuckles contrasting sharply with the burning heat of Huo Youqing’s skin.
***
By the time Dai Yixin sat up, Huo Youqing’s lips were swollen and red. He wiped his lips harshly with the back of his hand, not stopping until he felt like they might bleed. Only then did he begin to fix his clothes, all while Dai Yixin watched in silence.
When Huo Youqing raised his eyes and met Dai Yixin’s unabashed gaze, he suppressed the humiliation in his expression and asked calmly, “When did you find out?”
He wondered if it was before or after the musical. But more importantly, he wanted to know whether Dai Yixin also had two sets of memories.
Dai Yixin stood up. Though it was his first time visiting, he seemed quite familiar with the layout of the house, even aware of Huo Youqing’s personal items. He went to the bathroom, washed a towel, and returned to wipe Huo Youqing’s face, dabbing away the sweat on his temples.
He wiped from his temples down to his collarbone and said, “Before.”
Huo Youqing couldn’t help but taste defeat. He sat there stiffly, only speaking again when Dai Yixin returned with the towel to wipe his hands, “Then why didn’t you keep pretending you didn’t know?”
Dai Yixin didn’t pause his movements. His amber eyes gleamed with a subtle smile, “You’re so smart, Youyou. It’s impossible you wouldn’t have guessed.”
Huo Youqing’s eyes flickered, and he, too, smiled, “So you’ve got your memory as well. How does it feel to be a dog?” He patted Dai Yixin’s pretty face with his still dirty hand. “Are you scared?”
Dai Yixin caught Huo Youqing’s hand and gently wrapped it in the warm towel, wiping from his wrist to his fingertips. “What would I be scared of? As long as Youyou lets me stay close, I’m happy. Besides, I’ve always been your dog.”
Huo Youqing shook his head. “If you’re truly happy, then you should have kept pretending. Let me guess, did you recover your memory even earlier than Gong Lang? Not only that, but I bet you know a lot more.” He said this while watching Dai Yixin’s face closely.
Dai Yixin’s expression didn’t change at all. If not for his straightforward admission, Huo Youqing might have thought he was still the old Dai Yixin.
But Huo Youqing was no longer the old Huo Youqing either. He had a bigger advantage than Dai Yixin — the ability to travel through time.
He pulled his hand back, his eyes filled not only with hatred but also with the thrill of revenge, though his tone remained controlled, “It’s okay. You can keep pretending, act like nothing’s wrong, and watch as the past slowly changes. By then, the person sitting in front of me won’t be you anymore.”
That statement hit Dai Yixin’s weak spot. He stared at the towel in his hand for a brief moment, then tossed it onto the table. His eyes, now devoid of any humor, fixed on Huo Youqing. “If not me, then who?”
“A changed Dai Yixin will no longer be the Dai Yixin of today. You know that better than I do.”
As if their roles had suddenly switched, Huo Youqing was now the more relaxed of the two. He even leisurely sipped some water, though his tongue hurt, making him frown. He put the cup down and, word by word, said to Dai Yixin, “I’ll change the entire past, including your disgusting love.”
Both of them understood that once the memories were wiped clean, Dai Yixin would cease to be the person he was now.
And that was a result the current Dai Yixin could not accept.
At first, Huo Youqing had been unclear about the connection between the two timelines, but now he felt like he understood it well enough. Two timelines, one in the past and one in the future, with changes in the past affecting the future.
Take Dai Yixin, for example.
Once he changed the key events of the eighteen-year-old Dai Yixin, the Dai Yixin of the current timeline wouldn’t turn into who he was now at twenty-seven.
In simple terms, the Dai Yixin of this timeline would eventually be replaced by another version of himself.
That was why the twenty-seven-year-old Dai Yixin could no longer pretend — he was running out of time and didn’t want to be replaced.
Dai Yixin’s eyes were entirely void of warmth, even cold. But after a few seconds, his lips curled into a smile again. “How did you do it, Youyou? You… can go back to the past?”
Huo Youqing didn’t deny it. At this point, all he wanted was to stab a few more knives into Dai Yixin’s heart, to make him suffer more before his demise.
He even began to lay out his plan plainly.
“Do you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to have someone else save you, rescue you from the pain caused by your family, so you’ll fall in love with someone else.”
Huo Youqing had never smiled as happily in front of Dai Yixin as he did today. His phoenix eyes even glistened with tears of joy.
“Do you remember a junior named Christian from your college days? He expressed his love for you publicly more than once. He’s quite good-looking, and he seems caring and patient. When he learns about your tragic experiences, I’m sure he would gently hold you, comfort you, and be willing to stay by your side. You would likely be drawn into this great love.”
Although neither eighteen-year-old Dai Yixin nor Dai Yuan explicitly stated what Dai Yixin had endured, Huo Youqing had already begun to suspect.
The injuries on Dai Yixin’s body must have been inflicted by Father Dai, and his father likely did even worse things. Once he understood these things, he could rewrite his fate entirely.
Teaching a madman to love properly is not as effective as making the madman fall in love with someone willing to be loved by him.
That junior, Christian, had once witnessed him and Dai Yixin together. At that time, he had clearly seen the jealousy and hatred in Christian’s eyes.
A few months after leaving Dai Yixin at the airport, he received a scathing email full of insults. Christian didn’t hide his identity, even accusing him of being unworthy of Dai Yixin’s love.
The harsh words from the email flashed through Huo Youqing’s mind, yet his heart felt as though it were soaked in alcohol. He wasn’t drunk, yet he felt intoxicated. For the first time, he gently stroked Dai Yixin’s cheek and whispered, “I can finally leave you now; it’s truly a relief.”
Just then, a large hand gripped his lower back, pulling Huo Youqing into a suited embrace.
As his cheek was kissed fiercely, he caught a glimpse of the purple tulip on the table. The flower’s meaning is—
Noble, endless, and intense love.
