5:00 p.m.
The sky before the storm was heavy with dark clouds.
At the end of November, A City’s temperature suddenly dropped, and the distant sky was shrouded by layers of piled clouds; the wind carried damp air that swept through, messing up the stray hairs on Lu Chi’s forehead.
The system in his mind stammered a little: [H-host… are you really going to tear this place down?!]
In front of Lu Chi, the four-story Lin family villa had already been demolished by more than half. From the second-floor rooms to the third-floor balcony, from the rooftop to the basement, the entire house looked as if it had been struck by an invisible hammer, battered into ruin.
Several excavators were parked on the garden lawn. The construction crew continued tearing down walls, dust and wood chips filling the air.
Lu Chi held a chainsaw in his hand, his expression calm, standing before a wooden wall.
[Tear it down.]
From October to November. Two whole months.
From the first tentative attempt at dismantling the second-floor room, to later fencing off the foundation and hiring a crew to smash the entire villa. No matter how Lu Chi went about it, the world remained as quiet as death. The protagonist group wasn’t disturbed. The strange phone showed no reaction. The search bar never responded to his questions.
Every day, Lu Chi left early and returned late, working himself to the bone, hacking away at walls.
At eight in the morning, Liang Jiashu called. Lu Chi was panting, carrying a chainsaw as he answered, “Jiashu, I’m still clubbing… I’ll be back soon.” At noon, Liang Jiashu called again. Lu Chi sprawled in a wrecked room, sipping milk tea and saying, “Brother Jiashu, I still want to dance. I’ll be back right away!”
At eight in the evening, Liang Jiashu called once more, and Lu Chi angrily tossed aside a wooden hammer. “Doctor Liang,” he almost screamed, “I’m back from clubbing! My heart hurts so much! Come listen to it when I get back!”
The system felt heartache for Lu Chi. It didn’t understand why he refused to wait four years and leave cleanly, spinning anxiously in circles.
[Host, just stay comfortably and wait! Four years later, tell Gong No.1 you’re leaving, and it’ll be done! Why torment yourself like this?!]
Lu Chi stared at the blank webpage on his phone and replied absentmindedly: [In four years, the grass on your grave might be taller than mine.]
[……]
The foolish system began twitching in his head, crying and apologizing to him.
Standing on the rooftop as wind and rain threatened, Lu Chi narrowed his eyes at the dark clouds, suddenly thinking of something. The system needed energy to bring him through worlds, but where did that energy come from?
This world line, which had originally been headed toward destruction, was stabilized through the system’s maintenance. Logically, the system’s energy should be drawn from the world’s will.
But in this world, the one who originally controlled everything…
Was Liang Jiashu.
He was genuinely curious about the world, and under his subtle pushing, the Protagonist Shou and Gong No.2 walked toward destruction.
Then Lu Chi appeared, and all of Liang Jiashu’s attention fell on this butterfly. His mind held nothing but Lu Chi; he had no interest in the so-called Lin family at all. And so, until now, under Lu Chi’s influence, the protagonist group returned to the proper path, and the world never derailed.
At its core, it was because Liang Jiashu was willing to listen to Lu Chi. He didn’t interfere. He allowed Lu Chi to act freely. And so, Gu Yanyan and Liang Zhiyu were able to change for the better.
Liang Jiashu was the true key to breaking the deadlock.
A thunderclap boomed as lightning suddenly tore across the sky, illuminating for an instant Lu Chi’s sharp, beautiful brows and eyes. Rain poured down violently, carrying the momentum of world-ending destruction, slamming down in rapid succession. The entire city was instantly drowned in the sound of rain.
The rain came fast and fierce. Lu Chi went downstairs, calmly dismissed the construction crew, and drove back home. When he opened the door, the young man was indeed waiting at the entrance. His figure loomed tall in the light, features handsome and gloomy.
Lu Chi lifted his head, feeling a hand reach out to touch his slightly damp hair. Liang Jiashu frowned, saying, “You’re soaked.”
Lu Chi hummed in response, put away his umbrella, and was herded step by step into the bathroom as a towel was placed over his head. Then, Liang Jiashu wiped and blow-dried his hair himself.
Only after it was dry did he let Lu Chi out, handing him a bowl of piping-hot ginger soup.
“Drink it, then shower immediately,” Liang Jiashu said.
Under the lights, the young man’s brows and eyes looked cold. His skin was pale to an alarming degree, and his handsome face rarely showed emotion. Accustomed to standing above others, he habitually viewed people with a dark, indifferent sidelong glance.
But Liang Jiashu was never like that with Lu Chi.
He always looked at him head-on or fixed his gaze on him, with the posture and perspective of someone courting. His eyes were deep and intense.
Lu Chi sat at the kitchen island, drank the repeatedly simmered ginger soup, his expression unreadable. Liang Jiashu returned to the kitchen, took ingredients from the fridge, turned on the stove, boiled water, and began making soup, preparing to feed him once he finished showering.
His back looked busy.
Lu Chi stared at that increasingly practiced figure. After a moment, he spoke:
“Liang Jiashu.”
Liang Jiashu turned around immediately. The young man walked over, then turned back midway, rummaged through the fridge, and… pulled out a mini ice cream. With a frown, he tore open the wrapper and handed it over, saying, “You got rained on. You can only eat this tonight.”
“…”
Lu Chi didn’t take it. Instead, he propped his head with one hand, stayed silent for several seconds, then said calmly:
“Let’s break up.”
The moment the words fell…
[Host! You…!]
The system’s scream was abruptly cut off, forcibly disconnected, plunging into a strange, dead silence, but Lu Chi’s expression didn’t change. The ice cream had melted from being held too long, and sticky-sweet liquid flowed over Liang Jiashu’s hand, dripping onto the floor.
Liang Jiashu silently looked at the mess for a moment, then turned toward the kitchen.
“I’ll get some paper.”
Lu Chi stood up and grabbed his wrist, joking lightly, “You sure you’re not going to get a knife?”
The man’s voice carried a smile, no different from usual. His fingers gently closed around Liang Jiashu’s wrist.
Liang Jiashu froze. After a few seconds, he also smiled faintly, asking, “Why would I take a knife? Lu Chi, I wouldn’t get angry over a joke that isn’t funny.”
Lu Chi hummed, his voice still smiling. “I’m not joking,” he said. “Liang Jiashu, we’re breaking up.”
This time, he used the tone of an inescapable notification.
Under the lights, the man’s fringe was soft and fine. Just ten minutes earlier, Liang Jiashu had dried his hair for him. Halfway through, he couldn’t help lowering his head, and Lu Chi hadn’t refused, turning back and accepting a very light kiss.
And now, Lu Chi was saying they were breaking up.
Liang Jiashu looked into his eyes. For the first time in his life, his mind refused to function. He had thought he would grab Lu Chi by the throat, expressionless, strangle that beautiful person to death, then chew the body up and swallow it whole, bones and all.
But Liang Jiashu only looked at Lu Chi. After a long while, he repeated flatly: “Breaking up.”
Lu Chi felt the veins on his forearm bulge unconsciously and nodded.
“Yes. Breaking up.”
With his hand held, Liang Jiashu seemed to be holding onto his collapsing sanity as well. He struggled for a moment, discovered he couldn’t think at all, and so calmly asked: “Why?”
“What did I do wrong?”
“What didn’t make you happy?”
“Tell me. I can change everything.”
Love wasn’t something that happened in an instant. It was something that passed through the body again and again, something that grew with every second.
The loved one has the right to stand above; the one who loves must bow their head. But no one ever told Liang Jiashu… if the person he loved simply walked away, how was he supposed to salvage it, to continue that exchange of feelings?
And he didn’t even know the reason.
Water boiled in the kitchen as the two stood facing each other. Neither spoke.
The ginger soup Lu Chi had just drunk flushed his face with warmth. His eyelashes were long, and even expressionless, he still looked gentle. Liang Jiashu realized, hopelessly, that even at a moment like that, he still wanted to lean in and kiss him.
So he did.
He kissed Lu Chi lightly. And Lu Chi didn’t refuse.
In the near-obliterating silence, Liang Jiashu sensed Lu Chi’s barely perceptible hesitation. Lu Chi seemed to be hesitating, hesitating over whether he should push him away.
Something ignited violently in Liang Jiashu’s mind as his hands began trembling uncontrollably. He didn’t know that he looked like a water ghost climbing out of a lake, but his reaction was swift. He pulled the suddenly softened Lu Chi into his arms and kissed him urgently and deeply, using every technique he knew.
His heart felt unbearably heavy, yet his body reacted on instinct. The moment he kneeled, Liang Jiashu didn’t breathe, but only stubbornly bit Lu Chi.
Lu Chi frowned and wanted to pull him up, but failed. In the end, he could only say in an unstable voice, “Liang Jiashu…”
Liang Jiashu’s knees turned bloody, dirtying the floor. It was the consequence of being too reckless. Lu Chi didn’t manage to stop him in time, and only then realized that Liang Jiashu had always been holding back with him. Once he lost control, unless Lu Chi hardened his heart, there was no way to force him off.
And yet, he instinctively ignored the question of why he couldn’t bring himself to harden his heart and push Liang Jiashu away.
The younger man leaned close, licking him messily. His voice, very soft, carried a warning: “Lu Chi, it’s fine like this.”
It was fine if he bled.
Otherwise, Liang Jiashu wouldn’t be able to stop himself, wouldn’t be able to stop himself from making Lu Chi bleed.
His heart and brain were screaming, tearing at his own trembling hands, coldly urging him to act immediately: lock Lu Chi up, strangle the butterfly that longed for freedom. Make him hurt until he cried and begged, until he promised never to say the word “break up” again.
Loving someone was very hard, but trapping them, on the other hand, seemed very…
Easy.
Under the lights, that silent, violent act continued in a grotesque way. Liang Jiashu stared up at Lu Chi’s expressionless face. After a long while, he lowered his head, gripped Lu Chi’s cold, pale hand tightly, and repeated in a daze: “Look. You’re interested in my body.”
“Lu Chi, behave a little, and we can be fine. In the future, you can go wherever you want. I won’t investigate you anymore. I won’t research a tracking chip again.”
“Lu Chi, behave, okay?”
“Baby, I love you.”
In the silence, broken only by rapid breathing, the man suddenly let out a very soft sigh. Moments later, Liang Jiashu felt Lu Chi lower his head and look at him. Cold fingers brushed his sweat-damp cheek, patting it gently.
Liang Jiashu froze as his numb heart stopped falling. Then the next second…
A sudden, violent pain exploded at the back of his neck.
Liang Jiashu’s pupils contracted. In the instant before darkness claimed him, he saw Lu Chi lower his eyes, push him away, pull his pants without hesitation, and leave.
……………..
Five hours later.
Liang Jiashu stood in a living room that had lost every trace of Lu Chi. After a long while, he turned his head and stared expressionlessly at the storm outside the window.
His butterfly had flown away.
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