When Dai Yuan opened the door, a flicker of surprise crossed his face. Whether it was real or feigned was hard to tell. “I didn’t expect you to actually come. I was thinking of picking you up,” he said with a cheerful tone. He quickly stepped aside, inviting Huo Youqing in.
Huo Youqing hadn’t even removed the luggage tag from his suitcase yet. Dai Yuan noticed and smirked, “Came straight here after landing?”
Huo Youqing stepped into the Dai family home, replying lightly, “Mm.” He couldn’t help but recall the first time he came here in the other timeline, when it was Dai Yixin who had opened the door. Now, it was Dai Yuan.
He pulled his suitcase inside, noting that no one was on the first floor. Not only that, the whole house was eerily silent.
The sound of the door closing came from behind, followed by Dai Yuan’s voice, “You must be tired after such a long flight. Why not rest a bit? There’s a guest room ready.”
“No need,” Huo Youqing turned around. “I came to ask about Dai Yixin. Do you know where he is?”
Dai Yuan was wearing a light, thin white sweater that made him look refreshingly beautiful.
Although he had the same face as Dai Yixin, the feeling they gave off was different. Dai Yixin rarely smiled, and even when he did, there was always a shadow of gloom in his eyes. Dai Yuan, on the other hand, loved to smile, with his eyes curving in delight.
Dai Yuan shook his head, “I don’t know.”
Upon hearing those words, Huo Youqing lifted his leg to leave, but Dai Yuan quickly blocked the door, his smile fading slightly. “Is asking about my brother the only reason you’re here?” he asked.
This time, Huo Youqing couldn’t even be bothered to speak; his expression said it all.
What else could it be?
Dai Yuan stared at him for a long moment, then dropped his shoulders. “Fine, follow me.”
“Where to?” Huo Youqing asked.
Dai Yuan’s lips curved into a faint smile again, but he didn’t immediately answer. Instead, he led the way toward the indoor elevator, seemingly certain that Huo Youqing would follow him—and indeed, Huo Youqing did.
The elevator descended to the second basement level.
While they waited for the elevator to arrive, Dai Yuan didn’t look at the shiny glass doors; instead, he fixed his gaze solely on Huo Youqing. He had noticed the faint dark circles under Huo Youqing’s eyes the moment they met, a sign that the long flight had likely prevented him from resting properly.
Despite this direct stare, Huo Youqing didn’t return his gaze at all, which only worsened Dai Yuan’s mood, though his expression remained calm. “Can I ask why you like my brother?” he inquired.
This time, Huo Youqing finally spared him a glance, but his eyes were cold and indifferent. “I don’t like your brother.”
“If you don’t like him, then why rush here as soon as he goes missing?” Dai Yuan’s eyes filled with envy. “Why doesn’t anyone value me like that? It’s really unfair. My brother and I look exactly the same—what, is it just because I’m shorter?”
As he said this, the elevator doors opened, but Dai Yuan didn’t step out. Instead, he took a step closer to Huo Youqing. However, the space between them was quickly blocked by the luggage in front of them.
The look in Huo Youqing’s eyes shifted to one of disdain. This was the first time they had been alone in this timeline. Previously, with others around, Huo Youqing had shown Dai Yuan some courtesy. Now, his expression plainly said, “Are you stupid?”
The elevator doors slowly began to close. If Huo Youqing wanted to press the button, he would have to move toward Dai Yuan. But he didn’t move, instead using his gaze to signal Dai Yuan to open the door.
Dai Yuan played dumb, exaggerating his act by pretending to be hurt and pitiful. “Youyou…” he began.
He was immediately cut off.
“Don’t call me that. We’re not close,” Huo Youqing interrupted coldly.
Dai Yuan paused for a moment, then said, “But my brother, he…”
He was cut off again. “Your brother is your brother. What are you? If it weren’t for him, do you think I’d be here, meeting you, or even speaking to you?”
Each word was a sharp jab to Dai Yuan’s most vulnerable spots. The person Dai Yuan envied most in this world was his own brother. He had often fantasized that things would be better if his brother hadn’t been born—or if he hadn’t been born himself.
No one else could possibly understand him.
He was the one who survived at the cost of his mother’s life. Just this fact alone cast a shadow over his entire life. He didn’t want to bear the guilt, so he shifted the blame onto Dai Yixin.
As long as he convinced himself that Dai Yixin was the one who caused their mother’s death, his pain lessened, and he could shamelessly keep on living.
But his brother was truly a dark cloud over his life.
From a young age, he watched Dai Yixin endure beatings and punishments, but even so, his brother remained the best among his peers. His brother’s name was always first on the school’s honor wall, and his brother always won any competition he entered.
The most ridiculous part was that they looked exactly alike. People frequently mistook him for Dai Yixin and asked him if he was Dai Yixin.
But he wasn’t Dai Yixin.
He was Dai Yuan.
He had never seen his mother. He was born as an attempt by her to repair her relationship with his father. Yes, a product—that’s what he was. Even after his mother developed postpartum depression, she still lovingly prepared birthday gifts for Dai Yixin from his first birthday all the way until he became an adult. But for him… there was nothing.
When his mother was pregnant with him, his father didn’t stop cheating. He was a failed product.
After he was born, he did receive his father’s affection, but what kind of affection was that? It was merely guilt over his mother’s death, so his father treated him a bit better. The real heir to the family was his brother, Dai Yixin.
As a child, Dai Yuan even deliberately did things wrong, but his father never punished him. He knew it was because his father had no real expectations for him. No matter how many mistakes he made, his father wouldn’t get angry.
But things were different for his brother. If Dai Yixin made even the smallest mistake, it would provoke his father’s rage.
Their father held Dai Yixin to the highest standards, while he had none.
Even their grandparents favored Dai Yixin. The year their grandmother took Dai Yixin back to the country, Dai Yuan had stood by his father’s side, hoping to go with her as well. But the look of pity in her eyes when she looked at Dai Yixin was not the same as the complicated glance she gave him.
He knew why his grandmother looked at him that way. It was because he had caused his mother’s death, because he had silently stood by his cheating father.
He was a failed product, the overlooked member of the family, the younger brother who was always mistaken for someone else. How could he not hate Dai Yixin?
***
Dai Yuan’s hand, the one furthest from Huo Youqing, clenched tightly before slowly relaxing. His amber eyes dropped and then lifted again, as though he had suffered a heavy blow. He said nothing more and reached out to press the elevator button.
The elevator doors opened again, revealing a massive sculpture.
The sculpture stood in the atrium, a pure white figure of a half-human, half-snake being, holding a bow and arrow, its features cold and menacing. Even though sunlight poured down from the skylight onto the sculpture, it couldn’t wash away the eerie chill it emanated.
Huo Youqing didn’t step out of the elevator right away. “What’s the point of coming here?” he asked.
“Didn’t you want to know what my brother went through? You’ll find out soon enough.” Dai Yuan’s face was no longer smiling as he stepped out of the elevator and half-turned to look at Huo Youqing. “If you regret it, there’s still time to leave.”
His gaze moved from Huo Youqing’s face to the hand gripping the suitcase handle, the veins bulging from the strain. Noticing this, Dai Yuan chuckled lightly.
After a brief moment of silence, Huo Youqing followed him.
Their destination laid deep in the second basement, a place no one would expect to exist in such a luxurious home. Dai Yuan stopped at a door but didn’t immediately open it. “My brother used to come here all the time. Do you know why?”
Without waiting for Huo Youqing’s answer, he continued, “Every time my brother did something wrong, he was sent to this room.”
Dai Yuan opened the door, revealing an almost empty room. There wasn’t even a bed, just a seemingly endless darkness.
“My brother was locked up here frequently when he was just a child. Do you see that ventilation shaft in the room?”
It took a while for Huo Youqing to spot the ventilation shaft Dai Yuan was referring to.
“That’s also where food was delivered,” Dai Yuan said flatly. “And look at the left wall—notice how the color there looks newer? That’s because it used to be stained with a lot of my brother’s blood. Later, my father thought it looked unsightly, so he had it repainted.”
His tone was casual, but the meaning behind his words was chilling.
Locked in a dark room with no light as a child? Blood on the walls?
Huo Youqing had been punished by his uncle when he was young too, but it was just standing in the corner. He never stood for more than ten minutes before his aunt would come to comfort him, scolding his uncle for being too harsh. His uncle never stayed angry for long and would always apologize.
What kind of father would treat his own child like this?
He couldn’t even begin to imagine it.
Dai Yuan walked into the room as he continued, “It’s strange, really. The time my brother got beaten until he bled, it was because he insisted on skipping class to see a movie. I watched that movie too, and it was boring. I have no idea what my brother was thinking.”
He approached the side wall near the door and illuminated a section with a flashlight. There was a wooden board with many nails, and each nail held a small piece of white paper. Each piece had a date written on it, marking certain days.
Huo Youqing followed him into the room and, seeing the white papers, understood. “These are the dates he was locked up?”
“Yes,” Dai Yuan nodded.
Huo Youqing looked at the bottommost paper and realized the date on it coincided with the day he had returned from M Country. Oddly, though, this particular paper only had one date.
He recalled the horrific scars on Dai Yixin’s back and finally began to glimpse a small fraction of what Dai Yixin had endured. Dai Yixin had been abused by his own father from a young age. There were nearly a hundred white papers on the wall. No normal person could withstand such torment without breaking.
Dai Yuan’s voice interrupted his thoughts again, “My brother’s had over a dozen psychologists, all with one goal: to make sure he didn’t go insane. But in families like ours, how can you not go insane? You can’t find him because he’s with my father. I suspect he’s undergoing treatment.”
“Treatment?”
Dai Yuan turned to face Huo Youqing, the light from the flashlight casting an eerie blue-green glow on his face. “The first time my brother broke out of this room, he didn’t hesitate to deal with the two people around you. My father hates disobedient children who think for themselves.”
As he said this last sentence, his face lit up with a bright, almost radiant smile. “My brother really does like you.” He stepped closer to Huo Youqing, “And wouldn’t you know, I happen to like everything my brother likes.”
As he spoke, his lips moved closer to Huo Youqing’s face, and just as his tongue was about to graze Huo Youqing’s earlobe, Huo Youqing dodged.
Turning his head to avoid Dai Yuan’s advance, Huo Youqing grabbed the most recent paper from the wall and tore it off. “So what?” he asked coldly.
Dai Yuan’s amber eyes narrowed slightly, “I can tell you which hospital my brother is in, and even help you sneak in. But my condition is that you love me.”
In response, Huo Youqing gave a derisive laugh and turned his gaze to Dai Yuan. “How did I not realize how stupid you are? Someone like your brother, I wouldn’t even give a second glance. Why would I care about a low-quality knockoff like you?”
Dai Yuan wasn’t angered. In fact, he smiled, reaching to grab Huo Youqing’s shoulder. To him, winning Huo Youqing’s love was no big deal. If kindness didn’t work, force would. Huo Youqing clearly cared about his brother—he had noticed the evident reaction in his eyes earlier.
If Huo Youqing cared so much about his brother, then he’d just have to experience everything his brother went through.
Confident he would succeed, Dai Yuan had emptied the house, leaving no bodyguards, and had even disabled the surveillance cameras to avoid his father noticing.
His father’s attention was fully on his brother, so as long as he didn’t kill anyone, his father wouldn’t care why he had emptied the villa or turned off the cameras.
Yet, because he had underestimated him, Dai Yuan was shocked when he was knocked to the ground by an electric shock.
Huo Youqing crouched down, pressing the stun gun against Dai Yuan’s body. Although Huo Youqing hadn’t trained in combat, he had enough instinct to fend off Dai Yuan for a few moves.
Before coming here, he had bought a stun gun, and his watch had a GPS tracker. If he went missing, the location would be sent to his uncle’s phone.
When Dai Yuan was stuffed into the suitcase, he wasn’t fully unconscious. He stared in disbelief as Huo Youqing, expressionless, slowly zipped up the suitcase, the light giving way to complete darkness.
