HOYSE CHAPTER 108

Chapter 108 —Warm Hands

The car was sinking, swallowed bit by bit by the river.

Darkness pressed in on all sides. Only the small lights on the dashboard still glowed with a weak, unsteady shine.

That flicker fell across Ji Jiongjie’s twisted face and made him look even more monstrous.

In six short months he had fallen from golden boy to despised convict. He had strutted on the glory of the Ji family, only to be abandoned the instant Wu Hanqi gave up on him and chose another heir. When Ji tried to plan a new way out, his parents had visited a week ago and “reminisced” about their first child, the Ji family’s eldest grandson, who had died under mysterious circumstances. It sounded like nostalgia, but it was a threat. The meaning beneath the words was simple: behave, or we will show you what merciless really looks like. The Ji family’s cold-blooded nature had never been so clear.

So Ji burned his last connections, hijacked a car, and broke out. There was only one person he wanted to see: Gu Xi. The Omega who had never spared him a glance. From the moment Ji had smelled Gu Xi’s pheromones in the Wu family lab when they were young, he had been obsessed. He had always believed that Gu Xi was born for him. Some voice in the dark whispered that this wish would come true.

Look at them now. How perfect. Gu Xi was finally looking at him. They would stare at each other until they both disappeared.

Ji took out the poison he had prepared, the liquid inside the vial a vivid blue. He looked at Gu Xi one last time, eyes lingering, then bit off the cap and filled his mouth. He unfastened his seat belt, crawled across the console, and tried to kiss Gu Xi to pass the poison into his mouth.

Gu Xi turned his head away. Ji would not relent. He gripped Gu Xi’s face in both hands and tried to force the kiss. Sloppy, frantic pecks landed on Gu Xi’s cheek and the side of his neck.

Gu Xi tightened his fists. He had been gathering strength since the moment he woke. He drove that strength into Ji’s stomach.

The blow forced Ji to swallow the poison himself. He had not expected Gu Xi to have any power left to fight. There would be no forced feeding now.

He clamped Gu Xi’s face hard enough to warp his features. “Do you really think you can get out?” he snarled. “If you drink this you will not feel the pain of dying. See how good I am to you? Huh?”

Gu Xi did not answer. In his mind there was nothing to say to trash. Speaking to him would only dirty his mouth.

Even with death approaching, Gu Xi still would not give Ji the time of day. It tore at him. He thought of how he had seen Gu Xi’s gaze follow that Alpha before, with a yearning that was careful and intense, as if terrified of being accepted. That was not the Gu Xi he knew.

Hate and rage surged. Ji decided he would at least take a parting kiss before the end and fill the greatest regret of his life. He lunged again.

Gu Xi did not give him the chance. The refusal enraged Ji, and he punched Gu Xi’s right cheek, trying to knock him out and make him compliant. An Alpha’s brute strength snapped Gu Xi’s head to the side. Color rose on his cheek almost at once.

Even dazed, Gu Xi felt the man crowd in again. He pressed his lips together and twisted away, refusing to let Ji force a kiss no matter how he tugged and pried.

Time bled away with their struggle. The poison started to work. Ji had no strength left to force anything and collapsed.

Gu Xi drifted in and out. He clenched his fists so hard his nails dug into his palms, desperate to stay awake. He tried to gather himself again, but the fight had drained him.

Ji lay half-conscious beside him, one hand still locked around Gu Xi’s wrist, as if terrified that Gu Xi would abandon him at the end.

Gu Xi stared into the surrounding blackness. Memories flickered past like lantern slides and finally stopped on moments with Rong Jing. Someone had once told him that just before death, people recall their happiest times.

The luckiest thing in his life had been meeting Rong Jing. Would he never see him again?

Rong Jing reached the underground garage first. Wu Fuyu had given him that starting point. As he searched, he spotted two feet sticking out behind the wheel of a business van. He ran over in long strides and found a pool of blood. A middle-aged man lay unconscious in it.

The man was not exactly a stranger. He knew him. It was Gu Xi’s driver. Pain throbbed behind Rong Jing’s eyes. The numbness that came with being screened from pain told him this was another “character” the story was trying to fold back in. The original plot was stitching itself together through bizarre means, as if the novel were throwing a last tantrum.

Rong Jing checked the man’s breathing. He was alive but fading. Rong Jing called an ambulance at once.

By then Xie Ling had also arrived. He saw Rong Jing, paused, and hesitated for a long second, just watching him. The words he eventually chose sounded plain, but inside them there was a special note of longing and reliance. Only that runaway brat of a little brother could pull that out of him.

He had waited half a year. Xie Ling had asked nothing. He went to work on time every day. He did not smile, not once. The only thing that had increased in his days was the number of photos he kept.

He rubbed a hand over his face and pushed the emotions back down.

“When this is over,” he said, “I am going to beat you up.”

Ge, are you serious?

More people trickled in. Zhou Xiang, Zhou You, Guan Hongyi.

Wu Fuyu could not make it. He had just gotten a call from home. His father had been rushed into emergency surgery ten minutes ago and might not make it. On the way he forwarded all the surveillance-traffic resources he could to Rong Jing. Zhou You started combing through suspicious plates at speed.

Rong Jing’s phone chimed. That sound. He snatched it up and saw a notification from the Mulberry app. His heart lifted. Gu Xi had turned on location sharing.

He did not know whether it was instinct or luck, but he opened the map. The pin flashed on the Jiang Crossing Bridge. The location read… the river. The yellow dot flickered as if the signal was failing and might vanish at any time.

“To the Jiang Crossing Bridge. We cannot waste a second!”

Gu Xi… hold on.

---

When Wu Fuyu reached the hospital, the emergency sign was pulsing red. The hallway’s dark-blue lights pressed down on the air.

“What happened? He was fine not long ago,” Wu Feiyu demanded. In recent weeks his father had ordered him to raise the company’s profit by fifteen percent before coming home. He realized now what that had been. His father had been pushing him out of the way.

“Sir would not let us inform you,” the house staff said. “His health has declined quickly.”

Blaming anyone would do nothing. His father had arranged everything and then kicked him to Europe. Wu Fuyu paced, eyes fixed on the closed doors.

Inside, Wu Hanqi lay with his eyes shut. On the monitor the heartbeat flattened. The line threatened to go straight.

His body lay quiet, but his mind boiled. The old and new heavens clashed.

In its final frenzy the old system even tried to kill the golden token, the piece that represented the protagonist’s destiny. It had no qualms about destroying the lead.

Wu Hanqi saw it then. After he unbound himself from the old system, it started stealing the golden token’s luck. The token dimmed but never fell.

In the set story there had always been a protagonist, a plot, and a path. Everything moved by its own rules.

Until one day the book’s protagonist awakened through endless loops. The pain of looping sharpened his consciousness. The written text began to become a real world.

The source of this real world was Gu Xi’s awakening.

At the very birth of this new plane, when it was weakest, the old rules stole Gu Xi’s energy and turned themselves into the heavens. The protagonist whose fate had been taken was locked back into the script. He had to act the lines and play the scenes as written, again and again, until he broke and was cast aside with no chance to turn the tables.

The heavens wanted to erase the bug. They also wanted to erase Gu Xi. They simply could not, for the moment.

When Rong Jing crossed over, Gu Xi had already looped countless times. It was the moment when the heavens were strongest and the protagonist was at his weakest. For Gu Xi, it was an endless hell. He would struggle until his soul scattered.

Wu Hanqi did not know the full origin, but he could see the old system siphoning the token’s light. This was his high-stakes gamble, paid for with his life. He chose his moment. Just as the token launched a desperate counterattack and the old system was about to succeed, Wu Hanqi stepped to the token’s side carrying the power he had stolen back over half a year.

The sky blackened. Thunder roared. Rain crashed down in sheets.

On the table, Wu Hanqi’s breath stopped. The monitor screamed one long note.

At the Jiang Crossing Bridge, Gu Xi felt himself sinking and let his body go slack.

Then, as if from very far away, he heard Rong Jing calling his name. He jerked his eyes open. He had not yet seen Rong Jing again. He did not know if Rong Jing loved him now. He had not gotten to hold him properly since half a year ago.

He did not want to die yet. He wanted to hold Rong Jing one more time. He wanted that man who had once put on a gas mask and fumbled through the world, lovable and clumsy, back in his arms.

This cake that had fallen from the sky had only been tasted a few times. He had not had time to tuck it safely away. How could he bear to die now?

A fierce will to live rose up in Gu Xi. A familiar voice sounded in his mind.

Gu Feng: Give me the body.

It was Gu Feng, who had been sleeping.

Gu Xi understood at once. He had heard that voice faintly in recent days and suspected this was coming, but when it truly arrived, the pain still took his breath.

Gu Xi: Are you leaving?

Gu Feng: I am not leaving. I will always be in your heart. I told you before. I am the shape your heart gave me. You can stand on your own now. I am happy. I have been waiting to see my Xiao Xi grow up.

He only existed because Gu Xi needed him. Gu Xi had needed someone to listen, someone to keep him company, someone to do what he could not. That need had given Gu Feng meaning. As Gu Xi became more independent and began to change because of Rong Jing, fear lost its hold on him. Gu Feng’s existence was no longer necessary.

Gu Xi cried like a lost child. Tears slipped from the corners of his eyes. Thinking back, it had started when he learned to resist. Gu Feng had appeared less and less.

Gu Feng had never forced a takeover before. This would be the first and probably the last.

When Gu Feng took over, Gu Xi sank into sleep. Gu Feng bit his tongue to keep his mind sharp. He yanked off the necklace Rong Jing had given him. Besides the locator, it had another function. A hidden button could turn the pendant into a blunt tool. He slammed it into Ji Jiongjie’s hand until the man’s grip loosened. Then Gu Feng reached across and hit the door unlock.

The poison had Ji almost paralyzed. His voice shredded and broke in his throat. “You… you…”

He could not even form the simplest words.

Gu Feng turned and punched him in the face. Once to the left, once to the right. “That is for earlier.”

Then he waited. The door could not be opened while the pressure outside was greater. Even if it opened, the river would slam it back. Only when the car filled almost to the ceiling and the pressure equalized would there be a chance.

He used the time to let the drug wear off and gather strength.

At last the water reached their heads. Gu Feng took a breath and dove. He pushed the door open and swam out.

Ji Jiongjie stared, eyes bulging, as Gu Feng drifted away. He could do nothing but watch the darkness close around him and the river swallow him whole.

Gu Feng dragged his heavy body through the water. The current tried to rip him away again and again. Even the smallest exertion threatened to empty him.

He held on to one belief. He had to see that person. Two lives’ worth of longing made his will unbreakable. Every time he sank he fought to rise again. In the end his hands and feet went numb. There was only forward.

He did not know how long it had been. The storm roared. Lightning split the sky as if to cut him in two.

He clutched the necklace tight and crawled onto the bank.

Rain hammered down. From a distance he almost vanished into the night.

The drops drummed on him. He was a fish dragged onto land, gulping for air.

A familiar force caught him and lifted him. Gu Xi’s body was icy cold. He cracked his eyes open.

A face brushed his chilled cheek. The voice trembled with the fear that comes after terror. “Found you.”

Sorry. I lost you.

Gu Feng wrapped his arms around the Alpha’s waist. No. I finally found you.

It was those warm hands that had pulled them out of the dark bog again and again.

Rain slid down his face. He could not tell tears from water. His mind blurred. He gathered what little strength he had left, cupped Rong Jing’s face, and pressed a light kiss to his lips.

In silence he gave voice to the feelings buried so deep they almost spilled over. All the desires Gu Xi had feared to show, he knew them.

He would love Rong Jing for both of them.

…

In the emergency room, the stopped heart began to beat again.

The doctors had been moments away from declaring time of death. Then the flat line on the monitor trembled, rose, and fell. The waves grew stronger, as if declaring a return.

---

Author’s Note:
Xi is the true “heaven.” The world was born because of him, and later it was stolen. Way back around chapter thirty, some of you guessed the false-versus-true heavens. You said something that sinister could not be a proper “heaven.” Hahaha, my readers are too cute and too smart. Mwah mwah!

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