Chapter 4

Yu Huan woke up early. His childhood experiences had left his body alarmingly weak. Every winter, he felt like a walking block of ice. This was the first time he’d woken up feeling warm and cozy.

But after a moment, he realized he was being held in someone else’s arms.

Perhaps because he hadn’t felt this kind of warmth in so long, Yu Huan hesitated. He didn’t push the person away immediately. By the time he came to his senses, it was already too late.

He Chen gently kissed Yu Huan’s brow. His deep, slightly hoarse voice drifted into Yu Huan’s ear like a feather, “Good morning, Brother.”

The familiar kiss, the familiar words, the familiar embrace—they pulled Yu Huan, who had been lost in thought, back to years long past.

He Chen brought He Huan back to the He Family villa. He didn’t care how dirty He Huan was; he held his hand carefully the whole way, as if he were carrying a precious treasure.

In this family, whose happiness was only skin-deep, the members merely nodded at each other when they met before retreating to their separate rooms.

He Chen carefully cleaned the grime from He Huan’s body and dressed him in his own pajamas.

Sixteen-year-old He Huan was shockingly thin. He could wear He Chen’s clothes from when he was twelve without them being too big.

After He Chen finished drying He Huan’s hair and applying conditioner, he went to clean himself up.

Compared to the meticulous care he had given He Huan, he treated his own body with a simple, rough approach, washing quickly and getting out.

He Huan sat obediently on the bed, and when he saw He Chen emerge, he flashed a generous, unreserved smile.

He Chen felt that his long-empty heart had finally found its anchor, a sense of stability that made him feel drowsy.

He walked a few steps to the bedside, casually tossed his towel aside, and lay naked on the bed.

His wet head rested on He Huan’s lap, and the warm, unique fragrance of He Huan’s body, like a spring breeze, soothed every fiber of his being, causing his tense mind to relax involuntarily.

He Huan, without any instruction, turned on the hairdryer to its lowest setting and began to dry He Chen’s hair.

At first, He Chen carefully savored the nimble fingers weaving through his hair. But after a while, he felt nothing at all.

When his hair was nearly dry, He Huan put away the hairdryer.

He stared blankly at He Chen’s sleeping face, lost in thoughts of how such a beautiful person could exist in the world. Without realizing it, he drifted off to sleep.

I don’t know how they ended up like this during the night, but as they slept, they rolled together under the covers.

One had never slept on such a soft and warm bed before, while the other hadn’t felt this relaxed in ages. They slept soundly until the next morning.

When He Huan woke up, he found himself nestled in a warm embrace. It took him a moment to register what was happening, and he stared blankly at He Chen.

He Chen had woken up sometime earlier and pressed a kiss to He Huan’s brow. “Good morning, brother,” he murmured before closing his eyes again.

After a moment, He Chen opened his eyes and said, “That was a good morning kiss. I kissed you, so you should kiss me back.”

He Huan imitated He Chen’s gesture, pressing a tender kiss to his brow.

The young He Chen’s face gradually matured, mirroring the scene almost exactly as it had been back then.

He Chen pouted, feigning injustice. “I kissed you, so you should kiss me back, too.”

Yu Huan pushed He Chen away without hesitation and got out of bed to wash up.

He Chen propped his head up, a smug smile playing on his lips. In this world, no one understood He Huan better than he did. No matter how many times he fell, He Huan would always end up back in his hands.

Two more days passed, and there was still no progress on Liu Ying’s end. He had no idea what had happened to Yu Huan inside that house or why they had never come out.

As usual, Liu Ying sat by the window of his hotel room, a spot he had carefully chosen to keep an eye on the small building. With no immediate action he could take, he could only sit and stare for hours on end.

Soon, Liu Ying noticed something amiss.

A man with a camera was adjusting his lens and filming around the house, but without realizing it, he had captured almost the entire building in his shots.

Liu Ying immediately called Zhou Hua. “That suspicious cameraman near the house—follow him. He’s definitely up to something.”

 

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On the balcony, a rattan chair and a floor-length sofa sat side by side. On the small table in front of them, two mugs—one black, one white—were filled with steaming hot cocoa. White mist rose and dissipated, creating a warm, inviting atmosphere.

A slender young man lay in the rattan chair, covered by a thin wool blanket, a novel in his hands. He looked both warm and lazy.

The person on the sofa was also lounging lazily, but doing nothing but staring intently at Yu Huan.

“Brother? Are you asleep?”

Yu Huan didn’t answer. This was He Chen’s usual tactic, something he’d learned from past experience.

He Chen was always looking for a topic, and once you gave him an opening, he’d subtly draw you into a carefully constructed vortex of his own making.

He Chen slowly stood up and whispered, “Brother, are you really asleep?” as if genuinely afraid of waking Yu Huan.

Yu Huan stared coldly at He Chen, hoping his gaze would make him stop on his own.

But He Chen never looked up, as if he truly believed Yu Huan was asleep.

He had already lifted the edge of the wool blanket, and his warm fingertips sent a wave of heat.

Yu Huan slammed the spine of his book down on He Chen’s hand. He was too slow to dodge and took the full force of the blow, gasping in pain.

“Brother, why did you suddenly hit me?”

Yu Huan didn’t have time to watch He Chen’s performance. He knew that with He Chen’s skill, dodging the blow would have been effortless. This whole charade was just a ploy to get him to speak.

“It really hurts…” He Chen’s voice was already tinged with a sob, his eyes red and swollen like a puppy that had been badly bullied.

Yu Huan, however, completely ignored He Chen’s performance, simply covering his face with the book.

“Ah, little cabbage, yellow in the field, brother doesn’t care, doesn’t love…” He Chen hummed and whined for a long time, but Yu Huan didn’t respond at all.

He Chen’s eyes were still red-rimmed, his tear-washed pupils as clear as glass beads. Sadly, there was no one to appreciate this beauty at the moment.

The fresh scent of graphite wafted from the book covering his face, and Yu Huan drifted off to sleep without realizing it.

When he woke up, He Chen had already carried him to bed. The sky was beginning to darken, probably past five or six o’clock.

Yu Huan’s body still felt weak. Even lifting the blanket seemed lazy, making hardly a sound.

He Chen was in the living room, reviewing documents. It seemed he wasn’t as carefree as he appeared.

He must have seen something that irritated him. He tossed his pen onto the table, shook his hand, revealing a small section of his powerful wrist. The crisscrossing scars added a touch of wildness to his appearance.

 

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His snow boots left inch-deep footprints in the snow, the crunching sound like a beast chewing on bone, even more eerie in the night.

The man in the military green puffer jacket seemed to realize something and suddenly quickened his pace. The slow, deliberate footsteps behind him also began to quicken.

He realized he was indeed being followed and immediately sped up.

The person behind him stubbornly kept pace.

Two figures hurried across the snow-covered ground, the tense atmosphere stretched taut like a string on the verge of snapping.

Finally, they reached an intersection. The man accelerated around the corner, and the person behind him hastily followed, only to find that the man they were tracking had vanished into the bustling street.

The snowfall had intensified in the night. The biting wind felt like a thousand sharp blades against Zhou Hua’s skin, chilling him to the core.

Zhou Hua switched on his flashlight and followed the footprints forward. They eventually stopped at the roadside, where the person had simply disappeared.

Zhou Hua kicked the nearby steps in frustration and pulled out his phone to call Liu Ying.

“Where are you?”

“I’m at the intersection of Primary School Road. What’s wrong?”

“He’s gone. The footprints only went about a hundred meters before they suddenly vanished.”

“Let’s head towards the center and see if we can find anything.”

The wind howled through the phone, reaching the other person’s ears. One layer of wind whipped against their bodies, causing physical pain, while another struck their hearts, stirring feelings of despair.

This whole affair began when Liu Ying spotted the photographer. He had called Zhou Hua and asked him to keep an eye on the man.

The photographer had been circling the small building all day, clearly targeting someone inside.

Only after nightfall, when all the lights in the building went out, did the photographer finally leave.

Liu Ying decided to intercept him, hoping to glean some information.

They had planned it perfectly: the photographer was heading to the town’s only hotel, which meant he had to pass the elementary school intersection. Zhou Hua would tail him from behind, while Liu Ying would ambush him at the intersection.

But they never imagined that a living person could simply vanish into thin air on the road.

Liu Ying and Zhou Hua had already met in the middle of the road, having found nothing useful. Even the footprints they had been following were now buried under a fresh layer of snow. It was as if the photographer had truly evaporated.

“A living person can’t just vanish into thin air like this!” Liu Ying said, irritated. He pulled out a cigarette, stuck it in his mouth, but didn’t light it. “He must have had accomplices who took him away. Maybe they’re watching us right now from one of these houses.”

“But we already checked. All the houses here are built by the local residents themselves.”

“Money can move mountains. This time, we were truly played.”

They hadn’t gone unnoticed; the locals had simply chosen to ignore them.

First, there was He Chen, who drove a million-dollar luxury car and traveled with a phalanx of bodyguards. Now, there was someone so powerful they could disappear from a crowded street without a trace. What kind of monsters did Yu Huan attract?

The two men left the scene with their own thoughts, not exchanging a word.

As they reached the hotel entrance, Zhou Hua stopped abruptly. Liu Ying turned back. “What’s wrong?”

“I suddenly feel like checking on He Huan. You go ahead.”

Zhou Hua approached the small building. He Chen’s vigilance was truly remarkable; even on this frigid night, he had his bodyguards standing outside, enduring the cold.

Zhou Hua stood rooted to the spot, his consciousness drifting away without his realizing it.

In his memory, it was also a silent, frigid winter night like this. A muffled thud had jolted him awake from a dream. He sat up in bed, drenched in sweat, his heart pounding as if it might leap from his chest.

Zhou Hua opened the window. Pale moonlight spilled across the ground, illuminating a figure lying face down on the concrete floor. Dark red blood seeped from beneath her body, veiled in a hazy glow by the moonlight.

He opened his mouth, but something seemed to choke him, preventing him from uttering a word.

Scalding tears streamed down his face, instantly chilled to the core by the winter wind.

Zhou Hua raised a hand to touch his face, only then realizing he was crying.

He wiped away the tears, trying to clear his mind. Just as he turned to leave, he heard strange sounds.

They resembled the crunch of snow under the stealthy tread of a wild beast, or the rasp of a venomous snake slithering across the ground…