Someone pulled at the car door from outside, but it did not open.
Fu Hui closed the documents in his hands and locked them in the safe. Turning his head, he saw Lan Xi outside.
He’s back already?
Fu Hui was surprised—he could even say pleasantly surprised.
He quickly opened the door. Before he could say anything, Lan Xi plopped down inside and even bumped Fu Hui farther to the side.
“What’s wrong?” Fu Hui studied his expression.
Lan Xi’s excessively exquisite face was drawn tight. He neither spoke nor looked at anyone.
Fu Hui’s brows immediately furrowed as well. He turned toward the outside of the car and questioned the bodyguard with his eyes.
The bodyguard looked somewhat dazed, as though he had suffered some kind of completely unexpected shock.
“Bro…” Cheng Yiran came running over just then. He looked as though he had seen a ghost—frightened, awkward, and at the same time as though he had a great deal he wanted to say.
“What happened?” Fu Hui asked.
For the moment, Cheng Yiran decided not to mention that business about “a kiss.” Lan Xi had probably only been joking, he thought.
Pulling his thoughts out of the memory, Cheng Yiran said quietly, “He seems angry.”
“Why?”
“Because…” Even Cheng Yiran found it absurd as he said it. “Apparently because… we… don’t have wings?”
Fu Hui: “…”
Now Lan Xi was no longer the only one who was unhappy.
“He asked whether you had wings?”
“He said he wanted to see my wings.” Cheng Yiran watched Fu Hui’s expression and lowered his voice even further.
“…………”
“Who else did he ask?”
“Um…”
“Wen Yue? Wen Ming?”
“…Mm.”
So he had asked all of them.
It felt as though Fu Hui had an inflated balloon stuffed inside his chest, on the verge of exploding.
Expressionless, he said, “Go have fun.”
How could Cheng Yiran possibly still be in the mood to have fun? Besides, he had never fit into this social circle in the first place.
He stiffly shook his head, the concern on his face undiminished.
Fu Hui said, “Then go sit in the car behind us.”
“Okay!”
Only after Cheng Yiran left did Fu Hui turn Lan Xi toward him. “Lan Xi.”
Staring intently into Lan Xi’s eyes, he asked, “In your mind, is everyone in this world an angel?”
Lan Xi was very unhappy.
But it was a completely different sort of unhappiness from his usual moods.
It contained agitation and gloom, and there was even a faint trace of despair…
“Forget it.” Fu Hui forcefully swallowed down the anger and bitterness in his chest. “Let’s go back.”
Lan Xi slowly raised his head. His eyes were unfocused as he softly answered Fu Hui, “Mm.”
It was impossible to tell whether he was responding to that sentence or the one before it.
The car fell into dead silence.
＊
Wen Ming finally recovered from the enormous shock and looked around. “Lan Xi’s gone.”
Wen Ming still did not understand. They genuinely did not have any wings to show Lan Xi, so how exactly had that hurt his feelings?
The only explanation Wen Ming could think of was, “Was I too much of an eyesore?”
Otherwise, why would Lan Xi have told them, “Don’t follow me,” when he left?
Wen Yue did not answer. He seemed distracted.
Before long, Wen Lan crept over furtively. “That Mr. Fu never showed up?”
Wen Ming pushed him aside. “No. You’d better stay hidden.”
Wen Lan looked shaken. “I only found out today… he’s actually that terrifying.” After coming to the banquet and hearing bits and pieces from different people, he had finally pieced together a complete picture of what kind of person Fu Hui was.
No wonder his father had wanted to jump off a building after hearing the rumor!
Wen Yue’s phone suddenly rang.
“Is that Lan Xi?” Wen Ming asked immediately.
Wen Lan chimed in too. “Where’s Lan Xi?”
Wen Ming spared the time to answer, “Gone.”
“You two actually managed to lose him?” Wen Lan raised his voice.
Wen Ming’s expression was ugly, but he could not refute it.
“…It’s Fu Hui.” Wen Yue picked up his phone.
At those words, Wen Ming immediately entered a state of battle readiness.
Wen Lan jolted as well. All the composure he had shown when coming up with the plan the other day vanished. He wondered whether perhaps he should go live outside the country again and immediately fled.
“Hello.” Wen Yue answered.
“Lan Xi isn’t in a very good mood. I’m taking him back first.” Fu Hui’s flat tone carried a note of indifference.
It sounded roughly like: I brought him out for you. If you couldn’t keep him here, that’s because you weren’t capable enough.
Wen Yue moved his lips. “Just now, Lan Xi asked Wen Ming and me…”
Fu Hui cut him off. “I know.”
Fu Hui had no desire to hear another vivid retelling of how Lan Xi had wanted to see someone else’s wings.
“…” Wen Yue fell silent briefly. “Please pay more attention to his psychological well-being, Mr. Fu.”
“That’s none of your concern.” Fu Hui’s tone became even colder. “What you should worry about is the mess that comes next. Is the Wen family prepared to clean it up?”
“We’ll clean it up.”
The call ended.
Wen Yue remained standing there, still somewhat dazed.
Wen Ming rarely saw his elder brother looking like this and hurriedly asked, “What did he say?”
“Lan Xi… went back.” A trace of lingering unease remained in Wen Yue’s chest.
Before Lan Xi walked out, he had looked back at them.
But at the time, Wen Ming had probably been completely absorbed in Lan Xi’s question, Want a kiss?, and had failed to notice—
At that moment, Lan Xi’s eyes had been filled with disappointment.
It was not the same sort of disappointment he had shown during their conflicts in the past.
That look seemed to negate Wen Yue’s entire existence in a single glance.
As though… as though from then on, there was nothing left about either of them that Lan Xi could look forward to.
Wen Yue tried hard to pull himself away from that thought, but could not.
He took a deep breath. “Let’s deal with those rumors first.”
It seemed they had ruined something…
But what exactly had they ruined?
Wen Ming did not know what his elder brother was thinking. At the mention of the rumors, his expression darkened. “Fu Hui wouldn’t even show his face. Does he really like Lan Xi?”
Wen Yue remained silent.
Wen Ming felt both stifled and irritable. After a long while, he muttered, “Lan Xi may still be angry with me. Next time you go see him, I won’t appear.”
Wen Yue thought about it and said, “All right.”
“…” Normally Wen Yue would probably have told him, “Don’t overthink it.” The unexpected agreement left Wen Ming choking on his own words.
Wen Ming awkwardly tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Will Fu Hui even let Lan Xi out again next time?”
Wen Yue remained dazed and did not answer.
＊
Fu Hui never got the chance to ask Lan Xi exactly how many angels he had been keeping in his heart.
That day’s banquet seemed to have been nothing more than an extremely brief interlude.
After returning to the residence, Lan Xi stopped caring about everything.
He did not finish the food brought to the bedroom. It sat there until it went cold before the bodyguards finally took it away.
He no longer turned on the computer to play games.
He stopped watching movies and television, and he stopped studying too.
He forgot to charge his phone again.
When Fu Hui took the phone and plugged it in, quite a few unread messages had already accumulated on it.
“Lan Xi.” Fu Hui pushed open the door and walked inside.
No one answered.
Fu Hui searched through the bedroom and courtyard but could not find him.
“Lan Xi!” He raised his voice slightly, but still received no response.
Fu Hui’s expression gradually darkened. He stared for a moment at the rings of ripples the koi were stirring across the middle of the pond, then suddenly found himself ridiculous.
Lan Xi obviously could not be in there.
Fu Hui calmed himself and had the bodyguards check the surveillance footage. Only then did they find Lan Xi inside a hollow in the artificial rockery.
Before this, Fu Hui had never even realized a person could squeeze inside.
The long robe Fu Hui had personally dressed Lan Xi in that morning was stained black here and green there. The robe had been specially made. Knowing that Lan Xi disliked wearing clothes, Fu Hui had wondered whether he disliked the feeling of being constricted by fabric and had instead ordered loose robes for him—rather like the bathrobe Lan Xi had enjoyed wearing when they met in the rain.
At the moment, two pale legs protruded beneath the robe, and one of his socks had disappeared as well.
Lan Xi sat curled inside the hollow, hugging his legs with his knees drawn up.
Only when Fu Hui placed a hand on the top of his foot did Lan Xi slowly lift his eyes and spare him a glance.
The muscles in Fu Hui’s face twitched. It took an enormous amount of effort for him to squeeze out a smile. “Lan Xi, it’s very narrow and cramped in here. Your skin will hurt, and insects and ants might crawl onto you…”
Hearing that, Lan Xi pinched the back of his own hand hard. A large red mark quickly appeared.
Fu Hui’s eyelid twitched at the sight.
Then he heard Lan Xi murmur, “It hurts… but why is it fake?”
Fu Hui bent down and tried to pull him out, but the space was far too narrow. It was so tight that he could not even fit his arm inside.
He could only crouch in front of Lan Xi for the moment and patiently ask, “What is fake?”
“This place.” Lan Xi paused. “Everything.”
Fu Hui’s heart abruptly sank.
He caught Lan Xi’s wrist and pressed Lan Xi’s palm against his own face so he could feel the warmth.
Then he drew Lan Xi’s hand downward and pressed it against his carotid artery.
The pulse was obvious.
Fu Hui asked, “Is that fake?”
Lan Xi frowned in distress. He stared at Fu Hui and carefully let his gaze travel over Fu Hui’s eyebrows, eyes, nose…
Fu Hui was very good-looking.
But he did not have wings.
And it was not only him. None of the “angels” here had wings.
No—because there were no angels here at all.
This was not Heaven.
This was a place completely unfamiliar to a demon.
Lan Xi could not understand it. Since ancient times, the rule had always been that demons went to Heaven after they died… So why had he come here?
Lan Xi began to feel lost and frightened.
Fu Hui silently waited for a long while.
Finally, Lan Xi looked at him and said, “Fu Hui, I shouldn’t have slept with you.”
The words nailed Fu Hui in place.
The pulse beneath Lan Xi’s hand became stronger and faster. Fu Hui’s grip on Lan Xi’s hand tightened slightly as well, yet his voice remained steady. “Why do you think that?”
“Because it was meaningless.”
Fu Hui’s throat tightened, and he nearly failed to keep his voice under control. “What do you mean, meaningless?”
Lan Xi could not explain.
Everything he had been doing all this time had suddenly become meaningless.
It left him deeply disappointed and dejected.
He could not defeat the angels, and he could not become Demon King.
The people and things here—every single one of them—were completely meaningless to him!
Lan Xi felt miserable. He had no idea what he was supposed to do in the future.
He wanted to return somewhere familiar…
He lightly curled his toes and pressed himself even closer against the wall of the hollow. His exquisite but pale cheek rested against the irregular edge of a rock. Tilting his head, he said sadly and softly, “I want to go back to Hell…”
For an instant, Fu Hui felt as though a basin of ice water had been poured over him.
He no longer had the capacity to worry about whether he was someone special in Lan Xi’s heart.
He could not even bring himself to ask what Lan Xi meant by saying he should never have slept with him.
“Come out first. We’ll talk afterward.” Fu Hui softened his voice.
Lan Xi noticed every minute change in his expression.
The corners of Fu Hui’s eyes were drawn tight and his lips were turned down. He was suppressing something ferocious. He was clearly unhappy, yet still forcing himself to pretend otherwise.
As a demon, I should be delighted to see someone else like this… But he isn’t an angel. Am I supposed to feel any sense of accomplishment?
Lan Xi turned his face away.
He isn’t an angel anyway. What does any of it matter anymore?
Seeing that Lan Xi ignored him and even seemed resistant, Fu Hui’s expression darkened further. He simply forced his hand into the narrow gap between the rocks.
He forcibly pulled Lan Xi out.
Long bloody scrapes appeared along his arm as well.
Lan Xi tilted his head and looked at the blood.
Want to lick it.
Other people’s blood was nourishment for demons.
But he isn’t an angel!
Lan Xi buried his face against Fu Hui’s shoulder and stopped moving.
After carrying Lan Xi back to the bedroom, Fu Hui bathed him, changed his clothes, and tended to the scrapes and cuts all over him.
Once Lan Xi was cleaned up, Fu Hui pretended to mention casually, “There’s a new chef at the house today who makes Hunan cuisine. You haven’t tried it before, have you?”
“…”
Fu Hui received no response.
Fu Hui had always thought Lan Xi was actually quite easy to coax. He had never imagined that one day Lan Xi would give up everything he liked…
Fu Hui painfully pinched the bridge of his nose. Suppressing himself, he suggested in as pleasant a voice as he could manage, “Then do you want to see Wen Yue? I can have someone bring him here.”
Only then did Lan Xi react slightly. “Don’t want to.”
After a pause, he added listlessly, “I never want to see him again.”
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