"Axuan."

"Happy New Year."

We lay on the rooftop terrace of the residential complex, allowing the clear and biting cold wind to sweep through our bodies.

Gu Shian brought two deck chairs, saying he wanted to watch the New Year's fireworks with me.

I quietly watched the clusters of fireworks blooming above the night sky.

After their dazzling brilliance... nothing remained.

Gu Shian rested his head on his hand and then turned to look at me.

His skin was fair, and his eyes carried a gentle light.

At some point, he had taken off those glasses, no longer hiding the gaze behind them.

"Gu Shian..." I murmured, breaking the beautiful atmosphere of the moment.

"Let's date."

*

Gu Shian and I took a long leave from the company.

Like a pair of passionate and crazy lovers.

We urgently needed to understand this world, to deeply encompass each other.

We flew out from Haicheng together.

Went to Beijing to experience historical and cultural sites.

Stayed in Baotou and Chifeng in Inner Mongolia.

Galloped across the vast Hulunbuir Grassland where the sky meets the earth.

Walked under the scorching sun in Karamay and Turpan.

Lay by the icy-blue, cool Namtso Lake, looking up at the aerial view passing over us.

Finally, along Yunnan, we visited the starry dotted Bazis spread across the fields.

Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan.

We seemed to forget the hatred and pain under the dark swamps.

Making up for a lifetime of happiness in just over three months.

The whole world was left with only two lonely souls healing.

"Axuan." Gu Shian looked at the calm sea.

"Do you love me..."

After a long time, he lowered his gaze and softly asked.

I leaned on his shoulder, staring ahead absentmindedly.

Gu Shian tightened the coat draped over me.

He did not continue to insist on an answer to this question.

*

In mid-May 2023, we returned to Haicheng.

Life was not much different from before.

Our supervisor was still very tolerant of me.

There was no reaction to the sudden leave taken by me and Gu Shian.

I lowered my head and faintly smiled in a daze.

So that's how it is...

Gu Shian seemed immersed in the role of loving me, unable to extricate himself.

Even if I left him for a short while, the next moment I would receive his anxious call.

In a way, it was fine...

I walked into his room.

Saw his almost inseparable computer on the table.

Gu Shian had just been sent out by me to buy something, and now was undoubtedly the best opportunity.

I turned on his computer, entering that string of passwords.

Funny enough... the person he least guarded against now was actually me.

Time passed bit by bit.

I was immersed in those shocking and bizarre truths.

The beginning of all the evil turned out to be twenty years ago.

Fang Tianming and Li Mei accidentally ran over Gu Shian's father while driving at night.

And Gu's mother, who was in the passenger seat, was diagnosed as a vegetative state afterward.

To escape punishment, they paid a high price to have the only witness at the time, Zhou Zhiguo, change his testimony and shift all the blame onto Gu's father.

Twenty years had passed, Zhou Zhiguo had changed his residence several times.

And the most recent one.

Was at Building 8, Unit 301 of Chaoyang Community...

*

When Gu Shian came back, I hid under the covers without coming out.

A hand silently touched my hair.

"Axuan, what's wrong, are you feeling unwell?"

His deep and trembling voice sounded behind me.

I buried my head even lower.

Gu Shian suddenly turned me over forcefully.

I looked at his pale and sickly face, meeting his dark, ink-like eyes.

Goosebumps instantly rose.

"Axuan, tomorrow I'll take you to a place, okay..."

Gu Shian's voice was very gentle, as if afraid of scaring me.