Abandoned White Moonlight Chapter 7

The first thing he saw was a pair of eyes.

For a moment, it was difficult to describe. The eyes were amber, clear and bright, set in deep sockets with upturned corners.

Below the eyes were lips with an odd, seductive quality.

The man in front of him was very pale, almost bloodless, his blue veins visible beneath his skin, fading beneath the black suit that covered his long body.

He stood in the corner, where the lighting was dimmer than in the main hall. His half-hidden body was partially obscured in shadow, making one of his amber eyes appear darker than the other. For a brief moment, the darkness gave him a beast-like quality, but upon closer inspection, it didn’t quite fit.

He didn’t seem alive.

That was Huo Youqing’s first impression.

So tall.

That was his second impression.

Huo Youqing wasn’t short by any means, but the man before him was significantly taller.

He silently compared their heights and estimated the man was a head taller than him.

Perhaps because of the height difference, Huo Youqing suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of dislike toward the man.

As Huo Youqing stared at the man, the other was already watching him in return, his gaze completely unrestrained. In fact, it seemed the man had been observing him even earlier.

As they silently looked at each other, the man was the first to react—his eyelashes trembled, and he took a step back, a fragile demeanor quickly enveloping him. He suddenly looked pitiful, as if there was something or someone before him that he was terrified of.

But there was only Huo Youqing in front of him.

Huo Youqing furrowed his brow.

How strange. Even though the man was taller, this pitiful look didn’t seem out of place at all.

Before Huo Youqing could figure out why the man looked so frightened, someone rushed in front of him, blocking his view of the man.

It was someone he knew.

Huo Youqing looked at the person who had suddenly appeared—Qiu Wenfei—and then glanced back at the man Qiu Wenfei was shielding. In an instant, something clicked in his mind.

Qiu Wenfei stood as a barrier, like a mother hen protecting the man behind him. He glared at Huo Youqing, clearly displeased. “What do you want this time?”

Huo Youqing didn’t answer Qiu Wenfei’s question. Instead, he looked past Qiu Wenfei, fixing his gaze on the man again.

As if trying to memorize the face, he took one last serious look, said nothing, and then left. His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he guessed it was his cousin calling him.

He guessed right—his cousin, after using the restroom, had gone for a smoke. Knowing that Huo Youqing didn’t like the smell of smoke, he had gone outside to air out. When he came back and didn’t see him, he immediately called.

On the way home, sitting in the car, Huo Youqing suddenly said, “Cousin, I think I saw that guy called Dai Yuan.”

His cousin immediately looked over. “Youyou…”

“I’m fine. Keep your eyes on the road.” Huo Youqing paused before honestly adding, “Even though I don’t have any memories, I did feel an instant dislike toward him. But I won’t do anything rash like before.”

To confirm he hadn’t mistaken the person, he double-checked, “Does Dai Yuan have a tattoo on his neck?”

His cousin’s expression darkened as he nodded.

Curious, Huo Youqing asked, “Is it the character ‘You’?”

His cousin nodded again, his face growing even more grim.

“Why the character ‘You’? The writing style looks like mine.”

Cousin glanced at Huo Youqing and stammered, “That… the character is your… your writing… Youyou, forget it, I’ll be honest with you. That tattoo was done by you. You said you wanted Dai Yuan to be your dog for life.”

Huo Youqing never expected this answer. After all, he was only eighteen in actual age and was stunned by his cousin’s words.

After a long while, he finally asked, “Did I say that to you myself?”

Cousin sighed deeply. “Yes, you said it yourself. That’s why I…” Cousin swallowed a few words. “You said with that tattoo, Gong Lang and the others would have no choice but to think of you when they saw Dai Yuan.”

Huo Youqing didn’t know how to respond. The things his cousin mentioned were not something he had done, yet it was something his future self had done.

Is his future self really that terrifying and extreme?

No wonder Gong Lang and the others all hated him.

This was the first time since arriving in the world of his twenty-seven-year-old self that Huo Youqing sighed.

It was probably knowing that he would commit such a wicked act by getting a tattoo, which made Huo Youqing sleep restlessly that night. When he woke up, his cousin’s face was very close to his.

Soon, Huo Youqing realized that the cousin in front of him was the younger version. Seeing him awake, his cousin yawned and raised his hand to smooth down his messy hair, “Little ancestor, you finally woke up. How can you faint just from tripping?”

His cousin, in his twenties and just entering society, was in the midst of a late rebellious phase. During this phase, he developed a defiant streak, thinking that as a grown man, there was no way he should be reduced to acting like his younger cousin’s nanny. So, every time his parents asked him to take care of Huo Youqing, he did so reluctantly.

When Huo Youqing saw his cousin, he immediately understood that he had returned to being eighteen. From his cousin’s words, he recalled the memory of before his last time travel—he had been chasing a boy who had stuffed a note into his hand but accidentally tripped while holding onto the note.

“How long was I out? Also, did you see the note in my hand?” Huo Youqing asked.

“About five hours.” His cousin looked confused. “What note? Your university roommate called my parents. When I went to pick you up from the infirmary, I didn’t see any note in your hand. Did you lose it? Why don’t you ask your roommate?”

“My phone,” Huo Youqing extended his hand to his cousin.

His cousin instinctively obeyed and went to the bedside table to get the phone. Just as he was about to hand it over, he realized he was acting like a nanny again. His fingers tightened, but when he saw how much paler Huo Youqing looked compared to a few days ago, and how his elbows and knees were bandaged, he silently handed the phone over.

The fall hadn’t been serious, but both his elbows and knees had been scraped.

Huo Youqing called the dorm leader, only to learn that the person who took him to the infirmary was Qiu Wenfei.

He didn’t really want to contact Qiu Wenfei.

Forget it, it’s just a note.

Huo Youqing flipped his phone over onto the blanket.

***

Fainting for five hours after a fall caused great concern for his uncle and aunt, who even flew back from abroad to accompany him to the hospital for a check-up.

Knowing that his uncle and aunt would pass away a few years later, Huo Youqing became unusually clingy this time. Unfortunately, his uncle’s overseas business was at a critical point, and he couldn’t stay in the country for long. Once they were sure Huo Youqing was fine, they quickly flew back abroad.

Once his parents were gone, his cousin’s rebellious streak flared up again. He promptly left the Huo household, signaling with his actions that he wasn’t going to be a nanny anymore. Huo Youqing didn’t mind his cousin’s rebellion at this time. His uncle had arranged for a few days off from school, so he took the opportunity to rest at home.

What he didn’t expect was for Gong Lang to visit.

Standing at the front door of the Huo house, Gong Lang sent a message to Huo Youqing, saying he had heard about his fainting incident, had driven back to City A overnight, and wanted to see him.

At first, Huo Youqing didn’t know Gong Lang was at his doorstep—it was the housemaid who noticed. The maid recognized Gong Lang and invited him inside, but Gong Lang only smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying that he had angered Youyou.

When the maid relayed this to Huo Youqing, he was playing a video game.

He paused for a moment and said, “Ignore it.”

Late that night, while getting up to use the bathroom, his peripheral vision caught something near the curtains, and he hesitated. Then, he changed direction and walked toward the floor-to-ceiling windows. Pulling back a corner of the curtains, the figure standing under the streetlamp was exposed to his view.

Gong Lang was still standing there.

Huo Youqing closed the curtains tightly and returned to bed.

The next morning, while serving breakfast, the maid asked, “Youyou, that classmate of yours is still outside. Should I invite him in? He looks quite pitiful.”

Huo Youqing put down his glass of milk, stood up, and slowly walked to the door.

Almost as soon as he appeared, Gong Lang rushed to hug him.

Having stood in the wind all night, Gong Lang’s body was cold, causing Huo Youqing to momentarily pause in pushing him away.