HOYSE CHAPTER 94

Chapter 94 — God’s Wager

No one knew what was agreed that night between Wu Hanqi and Rong Jing.

The only witnesses were the people sitting inside that car.

Three months later.

Filming for “Sovereignty” wrapped, and there were no more headlines tying Gu Xi and Rong Jing together.

At public events they barely interacted. On the rare occasions they did, the exchanges were so restrained that they made people think even more. They looked more distant than strangers. They hardly spoke. Some fans even claimed they saw the two of them arguing backstage, although both sides later denied that there was any conflict.

Because the rumors around them had always been a tangle of guesses and hints, the media kept churning out coy, half-true stories. Traffic was king. Even if the two men stayed low-profile, their popularity was too high. There would always be an audience.

Reporters could point to only one clear overlap. They both loved the same fashion house.

A while back a journalist noticed the white tuxedo Gu Xi wore on an awards stage and traced it to XIE, a top-tier luxury brand.

The suit was bespoke. There was no official product photo online. Gu Xi’s white tuxedo look took the world by storm, yet no one could find the label behind it. It took relentless digging to unearth the very private XIE.

XIE was famous for being aloof. Its “spokesperson” was usually a digital figure.

This time XIE did something rare. It interacted with Gu Xi on its website. That single gesture lit the fuse on Gu Xi’s fashion cachet. The mid-contract cancellations that had burned him in the past did not happen again.

People looked closer and realized both Gu Xi and Rong Jing wore XIE off-duty as well. XIE still had no official ambassador, yet the two men, by sheer force of taste, turned the brand into a new-weather vane for high fashion.

One cash-strapped office worker wrote that she desperately wanted a piece from XIE but simply could not afford it. On a business trip, the client put her up at the Xielier and she discovered that guests could log in to XIE’s website and see select items with special pricing. She gritted her teeth and treated herself at last.

She posted the experience online. Jokes rolled in about “I guess I am not worthy,” and the Xielier’s occupancy rate climbed. It was exactly what Xie Ling had envisioned from the start. A tidy win-win.

Watching Xie Corporation’s stock tick higher every day delighted Zhou Xiang, yet their CEO, Xie Ling, kept a furrow between his brows.

He stared at his phone. The screen showed an entertainment headline. “Sovereignty” had cleared approvals months ago and had moved into the publicity phase. Out of more than ten roadshows, the two leads had almost never appeared together.

That odd pattern kicked the media into a frenzy, but the stars did as they pleased. If the plan was to appear separately, they appeared separately.

Most investors and producers were thrilled. The speculation made “Sovereignty” even hotter and saved the PR budget.

Xie Ling had assumed his little brother’s romance would sail smoothly. Instead the two seemed to have fallen out of touch. It was not his imagination. Over several visits to Yushui Bay, there were no traces that another person lived there.

He asked Gu Xi straight out if they had broken up. The answer was a calm no.

Was it because he had forbidden premarital sex and created friction?

Troubled, Xie Ling opened a cabinet and keyed in a code at the safe.

Inside was a thin, compact box.

It was protection he had bought a long time ago, too embarrassed to hand over. He hesitated constantly. If he gave it to his brother, it would undermine a principle he had held for years. If he did not give it, and the relationship soured over one careless sentence, he would blame himself.

A knock sounded.

Xie Ling tucked the box into his suit pocket, cleared his face, and said coldly, “Come in.”

Rong Jing had been summoned by phone. The receptionist lit up when he arrived. New hires who did not recognize him yet were promptly educated by their colleagues.

As for the newcomer who exploded online named Rong Jing? Oh, that is just our young master’s side gig.

[Rong Jing] greeted Zhou Xiang and walked into the CEO’s office.

He was the only person who could enter without an appointment.

“You are here.” In the seconds before he spoke, Xie Ling flipped open a proposal he had already read and pretended to be busy. He did not look up. He pushed a file across the desk. “If there is no problem, sign it.”

“What is this?” [Rong Jing] leafed through the pages. The number at the top was eye-widening, though he smoothed his expression to keep the persona intact.

“Grandfather’s charitable foundation. Your portion. Sign and the trustee will handle the rest,” Xie Ling said.

The old man had planned to split it three ways. After Xie Jisheng’s behavior broke his heart, he divided the estate in two and left it to the brothers, telling them to support one another in the years to come.

[Rong Jing] nodded, lifted the pen, and scrawled his name.

“Dinner together later,” Xie Ling said, checking the time. “That pit you dug for the senior board member was well set. We can start closing the net.”

His other hand hovered in indecision. Should he give the box now? How should he even bring it up?

[Rong Jing] paused, the way a person pauses when they are choosing their words.

He gave the safest answer. “Sure. Whatever you decide, ge.”

A female omega secretary knocked and entered with coffee.

She had a striking figure and an elegant gait. On her way out she brushed past Rong Jing’s sleeve with the lightest touch.

Temptation was everywhere for someone like Rong Jing. The question was whether his self-control held.

At that exact moment Xie Ling raised his head and noticed something that almost never happened. Rong Jing, who hardly glanced at anyone, was watching a stranger.

Xie Ling did not know that copying a soul did not make a perfect clone. Once “it” became a living thing, the original could no longer command it. “It” grew curious, formed its own thoughts and tastes, and gradually split from the man himself.

Xie Ling put the box back into his pocket. He hesitated. “You…”

He remembered something. Three months earlier Gu Xi had stopped him and asked if he had noticed anything off about Rong Jing.

He had brushed it aside at the time, chalking it up to a lovers’ quarrel. An outsider should not meddle. Besides, in the few meetings since, Rong Jing had seemed unchanged. He had not thought in other directions at all.

“What is it, ge?” [Rong Jing] looked puzzled, exactly as before.

“Nothing,” Xie Ling said without a ripple.

He watched [Rong Jing] pick up a Buzz Lightyear model from the desk and toy with it. “Ge, why would you keep something like this out where people can see it? It ruins your image.”

The toy had a history. When Rong Jing's bedroom full of pink lace was finally redecorated, he returned to the Xie family main residence to have dinner with Xie Ling and discovered a broken Buzz Lightyear model in the basement. The butler told Rong Jing that actually, Xie Ling as a child wasn't entirely the perfect model child. He would watch cartoons too and had times when he wanted to rest. He particularly loved this animation and secretly begged the butler to get him one, but it was still discovered by the tutor and smashed by grandfather. It was thrown into storage and left there to gather dust.

When Rong Jing learned the story, he tried to find a replacement. The film was decades old. The merchandise had long stopped production. He searched everywhere and finally posted a bounty on a secondhand marketplace.

He waited a long time before this one finally appeared, then gave it to Xie Ling in a seemingly casual manner.

Xie Ling had been quite disdainful when he received it. How old was he? How could he possibly still need such a childish toy?

But then he turned around and placed it on his desk, looking at it every day.

This model carried the memories of the two brothers. No matter what, his younger brother shouldn't speak of it in such a flippant tone.

[Rong Jing] had most of the body’s memories, but they weren't personally experienced. Many memories were just swallowed whole. Among so many memories, how could he possibly remember every insignificant detail?

He smoothed it over without missing a beat. “I meant I did not expect you would keep it out.”

Suspicion rose and faded like a flicker.

A strange fear pricked at Xie Ling’s heart.

Was there a possibility he had refused to consider, one that was terrifying precisely because it did not make sense?

Gu Xi drove himself to Woxue. He checked the room number from WeChat and followed a server to the private dining room.

Xie Ling had already ordered. It was the first time he had invited Gu Xi himself, this omega he had always assumed he would only meet when his brother formally introduced them.

“Sit,” Xie Ling said.

Gu Xi shed the disguise he wore for the public. Facing Rong Jing’s brother alone, he was still a little tense.

“President Xie, is there something you needed from me?” he asked.

As the time of Rong Jing's absence grew longer and longer, Gu Xi became increasingly afraid. To ensure he could be in the best state when facing Rong Jing again, he began numbing himself with high-intensity work. Exhausted enough to fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, he could briefly forget that in a corner of his heart, he was madly missing a man.

Xie Ling looked at Gu Xi, who appeared to be in very good condition. At first glance, he really seemed to be doing very well, but looking more carefully, one could discover Gu Xi was wearing makeup. He remembered that Gu Xi used to be famous for his bare face. What was he concealing?

He watched the tea leaves swirl and settle in the glass cup. “Last time you asked if I thought anything about him was off.”

Gu Xi’s distracted gaze snapped into focus.

He looked at Xie Ling, fingers curling in. He had been praying every day for someone else to notice. Now that someone had, he was afraid that the answer would not be the one he needed.

He had been watching [Rong Jing] quietly. The impostor had already slipped into every corner of daily life, while the real Rong Jing gave no sign he would return.

He worried that once more and more people accepted the fake, the real one might fade completely.

On sleepless nights his own guesses jolted him awake.

He had written the character “stay” on the back of Rong Jing’s hand, because he wanted the heart to stay.

Gu Xi’s eyes brightened. He asked carefully, “Did you notice something?”

Xie Ling nodded. “He is not quite the same.”

“His eyes,” Gu Xi said.

“The way he talks,” Xie Ling said.

“The mask he wears,” Gu Xi said.

“His memory,” Xie Ling said.

Their pace quickened. Each word felt like it could be expanded into an essay. They volleyed like the words were a coded exchange.

Gu Xi knew there were inexplicable things about Rong Jing, which was why he had connected the dots. He had not expected Xie Ling to do the same. In that moment, Xie Ling felt like the more remarkable one.

Xie Ling only accepted one younger brother because only one truly acknowledged him as an older brother. There was always a reason for kindness. There was no such thing as unconditional goodwill.

Some truths did not need to be said aloud. The one he recognized would always be his brother.

His brother was one of a kind.

Xie Ling’s expression darkened. “Is there any way to fix this?”

Gu Xi shook his head. “He is restricted. There is nothing we can do. He told me to wait for him.”

“He will come back,” Xie Ling said without hesitation. “With us here, he would not disappear without a word.”

The certainty in his eyes steadied Gu Xi’s scattered heart. He swallowed and said, “Yes.”

His brother had always known what he wanted. But because of what he was, would he feel no attachment to this world at all?

Xie Ling suspected the makeup hid exhaustion. Comfort would be useless. Gu Xi knew exactly what he was enduring. He felt protective toward the person who was, in every way, already family, waiting day after day for the same answer.

He was not good at comforting people. He had never been.

If even he felt fear at the thought, Gu Xi’s pressure after so many days alone hardly bore imagining.

His gaze softened. After thinking a long time, he pulled out a check.

He scribbled a number, set it on the lazy Susan, and spun it to Gu Xi.

“Take it.”

“…?”

Gu Xi picked it up and stared.

His hand trembled. The paper almost slipped between his fingers. The number was outrageous.

A five million check.

A scenario he had once joked about had become real.

There really was such a day when he received a 5 million yuan check from his boyfriend’s family.

Words tumbled out. “I actually have plenty of money and can support him and I do not need any conditions and I will treat him well so I do not want to leave—”

He blurted it in one breath. There were no commas in his head. It was probably something he had rehearsed in silence.

Xie Ling was baffled. “What are you talking about?”

Gu Xi froze like someone had pressed pause and sat obediently, ready to be corrected.

“Pocket money,” Xie Ling said. “Buy yourself something to eat. Try to rest more. Money never runs out. You do.”

So that was all? He exhaled.

Gu Xi shoved out the mental clutter and tried to hand the check back. “President Xie, I make enough to support myself. Snacks do not cost five million. You should—”

“Call me Big brother,” Xie Ling said in the same level voice. “A brother gives a younger brother an allowance.  Returning it means you don't acknowledge me.”

“B… Big brother?” He could call him that? Did he deserve it?

“Mm,” Xie Ling said.

Gu Xi’s heavy mood shot skyward. He felt dizzy with relief.

“I… I will step out for a moment.” He sprang to his feet and made a dignified exit.

In the corridor he clapped both hands to his face and screamed silently. Was this what being accepted by your partner’s family felt like?

Xie Ling was like a fast-acting heart pill. Now Gu Xi understood exactly why Rong Jing respected him so much. The man, like Rong Jing, steadied a room just by existing. He was the needle that calmed a stormy sea.

Gu Xi did a tiny hop-step outside the door. A server walking past stared, stunned and completely overturning their image of him. His vision had to be betraying him. How could that possibly be Gu Xi?

Xie Ling’s worries were many, but he had trained since childhood to keep his face still even if a mountain fell in front of him.

And if Gu Xi could bear it, he couldn't let his brother-in-law look down on him no matter what. He had to be even more composed.

Gu Xi still had a job that night. He had come because Xie Ling called last minute, which meant he arrived at the event late.

What he didn't know was that his daily intense longing was solidifying a certain unstable soul.

Now that Xie Ling had recognized what he did, Gu Xi would not be fighting alone. Their thoughts of the same person stirred something sleeping. The desire to return grew stronger.

That night’s appearance was at Maya City. It was, by chance, the place where he first met Rong Jing.

Memories surged. Gu Xi compressed them ruthlessly. He was there to stand for a jewelry brand. He kept up with the host and smiled for the cameras.

Then his gaze snagged on a corner of the hall where the crowd surged. There was a familiar back there.

He did not move. He only stared at the direction that figure slipped away. He nearly jumped off the stage to give chase before the host, sensing something off, caught his wrist.

“Gu Xi, it is not time for the display yet. Why so eager?” the host teased.

The hall filled with gentle laughter. Gu Xi remembered where he was, but his heart had already run far ahead.

He thought he had just seen Rong Jing.

The silhouette was too much like him.

He endured the segment and then hurried into the aisles.

He searched and brushed past dozens of people. He never found that familiar shape.

It was probably a trick of the eye.

Or maybe the impostor had pulled another stunt.

That one had not given up. He had pursued Gu Xi at work and confessed again.

Some fans saw them arguing backstage. Thus, it wasn't a groundless rumor. It had truly happened.

That day, after being rejected repeatedly, the impostor snapped at how differently Gu Xi treated him.

“What he can do, I can do. Exactly the same. Most importantly, he does not love you. He only pities you.”

If it were the old Gu Xi, he might have been crumbled by these words, because what the impostor said was something he knew in his heart.

The Gu Xi of now wanted to be better. He was changing for the man he held inside his heart.

“You are the pitiful one,” Gu Xi said, voice cool as ice. “You want to use the people around him to validate yourself.” He spoke each word slowly, giving each syllable its weight. “He is not going anywhere, because he is here.”

Gu Xi touched his chest. Even if he never loves me, I will still wait.

The impostor stared. For the first time he understood how strong the mind of an omega known for gentleness could be.

Feeling himself lose ground, he threw out one last move. “You won’t be able to wait for him. This is his wager with God, and he is destined to lose. His soul is dissipating. Soon, this body will completely belong to me.”

“God. Who is that?”

“The highest existence.”

“Gu Xi, he does not belong here. He must disappear. Choose me. That is the only right choice. Do not defy God.”

“I don’t believe in God. I only believe in him.”

He said he would come back. Therefore, he would.

Gu Xi searched several more rounds but found nothing.

He stood dazedly among the coming and going crowds and pressed at his dry eyes.

What are you thinking? According to the clues Rong Jing left on the calendar, if everything goes smoothly, he will return in a few months.

Gu Xi touched the chain at his neck. He forced his shoulders back, bought an iced drink, and drained it in one go.

He let the stale air out of his lungs and walked toward the restroom where they had first crossed paths. He thought of bumping into him that day and could not keep the smile off his mouth.

If he had known everything that would happen, if he could turn back time, he would have leapt into his arms in the very first second.

He had barely smiled when he saw a tall man crouched by the men’s entrance, staring at the floor, lost.

He was afraid this was a mirage. If he reached out too quickly, it might pop like a bubble.

He went closer in careful steps.

He stopped after only a few paces.

Home was too close to bear. He had wanted this too much and now he feared the truth.

“You…”

Rong Jing was wondering if this was where he had dropped his hat back then when he heard a familiar voice and looked up in surprise.

He had just stood up when he saw Gu Xi covering his mouth with both hands as tears pattered down.

Gu Xi had endured for three months. All his strength and pretense of normalcy crumbled in an instant.

While Rong Jing was at a loss, Gu Xi quickly pounced over, leaping up with both legs wrapped around Rong Jing's waist.

Let me meet you again at the place where it all began.

How wonderful.

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