Xi Nian didn't speak. He was drugged and tricked by Jiang Lun yesterday. In his confusion, he didn't even know what he had done. But now that his thoughts were clearing up, he naturally remembered everything. His expression was hard to read, and certainly not good.

But Lu Xingzhe was still at his side, deliberately reminding him, "You forgot? Yesterday, you grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go, and even pushed me against the wall..."

Before he could finish, Xi Nian interrupted him in a deep voice, "That's enough."

Lu Xingzhe raised an eyebrow, meeting his icy gaze. He seemed to have glimpsed a certain disgust in them. He paused, then slowly broke into a smile. "Regret it? It's too late for regrets. We've already done everything we should and shouldn't have done."

His slender neck was covered in light red marks, silently testifying to how intense last night's battle had been. The collar of his shirt could barely cover them.

Xi Nian asked, "What do you want?"

"Nothing."

After saying this, Lu Xingzhe turned and left. There were no threats or difficulties as one might have imagined, only the messy state of the bed was left behind. Xi Nian noticed his walking posture was a bit unnatural, and frowned silently before getting out of bed, picking up his clothes, and quickly putting them on.

The System—who knows how long it had been watching—quietly materialized. The blue light on its body was more than twice as bright as usual, flickering on and off. "Are you going to chase him back?"

Xi Nian looked at it expressionlessly and retorted, "Why should I chase him back?"

The System's body turned red. "Because... because you two did... that..."

Xi Nian suddenly felt irritable, for no apparent reason. "What, do your interstellar rules state that you have to chase someone back after sleeping with them?"

System: "...There's no such rule."

Xi Nian said, "Then don't ask so many 'whys'."

System: "But you asked a lot yesterday."

Xi Nian was only half-dressed. Hearing this, his movements abruptly froze. It was as if someone had poked at some unspeakable, hidden secret in his heart. His body stiffened for a moment. When he finally relaxed, he grabbed a set of clean clothes and walked straight into the bathroom.

Hot water from the showerhead poured over his head, easily bringing to mind the warmth of a body pressed close. Xi Nian slicked his black hair back. His features were deep-set and handsome, and the corners of his eyes and brows held an imperceptible indifference, as if one could see the coldness in the man's very bones.

In short, this was not a warm person.

Xi Nian closed his eyes. Because of yesterday's drunken episode, memories from his past life that he was unwilling to touch poured out like a flood from an open sluice gate. He remembered Lu Xingzhe threatening him, he remembered Lu Xingzhe ruining his reputation, but before he died, Lu Xingzhe was the only one with him...

Why did he come?

Since he had already chosen to take revenge on him, why did he come?

Perhaps because it was the last scene before his death, Xi Nian's memory of it was profound. That empty, lonely feeling of standing on a high place once again swept through his entire body. He thought about how he had grabbed Lu Xingzhe's shoulders yesterday, not letting him leave, and silently opened his eyes.

Lu Xingzhe, Lu Xingzhe...

They had committed evil deeds together, ascended to the Divine Platform together, and in the end, fell into Hell together.

This bond was far deeper than Xi Nian had imagined. It couldn't be dismissed with just a few words, not even after being reborn. His mind was trying to force itself to forget this person, but his body still remembered him.

"..."

Xi Nian slowly calmed himself and turned off the shower. The System had been closely monitoring his movements. "What do you plan to do?"

Xi Nian thought, 'What else is there to do?' "Wait for news."

He had originally thought that Lu Xingzhe would use this as leverage to threaten him, but in fact, the other party had left crisply and cleanly, as if he couldn't care less. Xi Nian felt this wasn't like him at all, so he could only wait and see.

Or perhaps, he also needed time to think about some things.

It had been raining continuously for the past few days. Not long after Lu Xingzhe got home, the rain started outside. He was in no mood to care, sitting motionless on the sofa for a long time. His skin was pale, and his clothes were loose, giving him an unprovoked, sickly thin appearance.

A certain place behind him was still uncomfortable. When he inadvertently moved it, a layer of cold sweat broke out on his back. Lu Xingzhe didn't know how to deal with it, so he could only stumble into the bathroom to take a shower and then haphazardly clean himself up.

Steam filled the enclosed space, covering even the mirror with a layer of white fog. He casually wiped a clear patch, which happened to be right over his shoulder. There was a faint bite mark, a mix of blue and purple. One could imagine how Xi Nian had repeatedly ground against and kissed that spot yesterday.

But when he woke up, he was met with nothing but coldness and disgust.

This was Lu Xingzhe's first time.

He faced the mirror and brushed his fingertip over his swollen, broken lower lip. When they were kissing, it had been ambiguous and fiery, and he hadn't thought much of it. But now that he was sober, the one night of pleasure had left behind only pain.

Lu Xingzhe always smiled when he was with Xi Nian, but when he was alone, he didn't smile much. He walked out of the bathroom, the tips of his ink-black hair still dripping with water, and sat down lazily in front of the computer. He wanted to process yesterday's photos, but then he suddenly remembered that because he had run into Xi Nian unexpectedly, he hadn't had time to take any.

Another business deal had successfully gone down the drain.

"..."

After a long silence, Lu Xingzhe irritably cursed, "Damn it."