Chapter 51

Chapter 51

The Frost family had always maintained a strict household discipline. The younger generation's coursework was packed, so even at a young age, they had little free time.

Thirteen-year-old Yue Xuanli had just finished his marksmanship training.

He stood silhouetted against the stained-glass window, his silver-gray uniform impeccably neat.

The boy's stern face still held traces of youthful angles, but his forest-green eyes had already settled into a resilient, unyielding hue.

Like a wolf cub on the tundra tasting blood for the first time, its fangs not yet fully grown, but the innocence in its gaze already gone.

Anyone who knew the Frosts knew the younger generation were all cold in temperament, especially the second young master, who, due to his blindness, lived a reclusive life and was often abroad.

As Yue Xuanli prepared to enter the building, he saw Meng Shiyan walking towards him from a distance, dangling a rabbit in his hand.

The boy stopped and waited for him.

At this time, Meng Shiyan's aura wasn't as oppressive as it would become. He hadn't fully developed the terrifying authority that would later inspire fear, but the sharpness of the alpha wolf was already apparent.

As he strode over, his steps were crisp and his pace unhurried, causing the surroundings to momentarily still.

"Brother," Yue Xuanli nodded faintly towards him.

Meng Shiyan didn't look at him. He gave a grunt of acknowledgment and handed the rabbit to the attendant beside Yue Xuanli, but his words were directed at the boy:

"Take this rabbit back for your second brother to play with. He's leaving again in a few days; let him take it with him."

Yue Xuanli's gaze swept over the rabbit.

It was a blue-gray Angora rabbit, clearly a prize specimen bred from strict bloodline selection. Its fluffy fur resembled a meticulously combed cloud, rising and falling slightly with its breath. Especially its coat color, shimmering with a satin-like sheen, beautiful like a dreamy blue nebula.

It gazed with bright black eyes, its temperament seeming very docile.

Yue Xuanli lowered his eyes.

...But Second Brother can't see.

Yue Xuanli lifted the rabbit, his handling somewhat careless and rough, pulling out a few tufts of fur.

The rabbit panicked, kicking its hind legs. Yue Xuanli paid no heed, his expression cold as he retorted: "—Why don't you go yourself?"

Hearing this, Meng Shiyan paused, his sharp gaze instantly snapping to Yue Xuanli.

The two looked at each other across the distance. After a long while, Meng Shiyan slowly spoke:

"Busy."

...

The backyard was overflowing with roses, freshly transplanted from the greenhouse. Their layered petals were like crushed clouds.

Placed out in this bitter freeze, they were bound to freeze to death before long.

Yue Xuanli entered the backyard and stopped about five meters away from Meng Shijiu, watching in silence.

In the courtyard was only a young boy, not dressed very warmly, a black silk ribbon tied over his eyes.

He wasn't in his wheelchair today, standing on the soft soil, gently running his hand over a snow-white rose.

The boy's silver-white short hair fell lightly over his forehead like scattered snowflakes. His delicate features seemed veiled in a thin mist, his back very straight.

If one didn't look closely, one wouldn't notice his lightly pursed lips, like an unpolished yet resilient line on porcelain.

His pale fingertips paused on a trembling white petal, and he suddenly spoke: "Uncle Lin?"

Meng Shijiu quickly realized the newcomer couldn't be Butler Lin.

After a moment, a hand reached over, gently pressing down the black silk ribbon at the back of his head, which had been lifted slightly by the breeze.

The action was meticulous, almost reverent, as if not adjusting an ordinary ribbon, but a faithful believer smoothing a page of a holy book.

Yue Xuanli said softly: "The wind is strong. Let's go inside."

No response.

Yue Xuanli watched as Meng Shijiu slowly turned around. His delicate face, because of the ribbon, showed a touch of defenseless vulnerability.

Meng Shijiu raised his hand.

The blue-gray Angora rabbit stirred uneasily in Yue Xuanli's arm. He handed the rabbit over, watching as Meng Shijiu gently took it.

The rabbit suddenly quieted during the handover, nuzzling against the silver-haired boy's soft palm.

Meng Shijiu tentatively stroked it, his slender hand sinking into the fluffy rabbit fur, the slightly protruding knuckles like magnolia branches: "Where did this come from?"

Yue Xuanli's gaze swept over the rabbit, which was tilting its head back under the strokes: "Brother gave it."

Silence was his response again.

The boy held the rabbit, stroking it over and over. The wind ruffled the hair on his forehead. His God-blessed face was gilded with a soft light, like a silhouette in an old photograph.

After a long while, his ink-drawn brows slowly furrowed. The silver-haired boy's lightly pursed lips parted slightly: "Why are you still not leaving?"

...

After a moment, the sound of departing footsteps finally arose.

Not long after, sounds came again from beside Meng Shijiu, as if someone had left and then turned back.

Like a cold wind rolling withered leaves back and forth.

Yue Xuanli suddenly asked seriously: "Don't you like them?"

"What?"

Yue Xuanli: "The roses."

"I like them."

This was actually a very Meng Shijiu-like answer.

The roses in the courtyard no longer had the lively charm of when they were first moved out, already showing signs of shrinking from the cold.

Yue Xuanli knew he couldn't see, but he still shook his head slightly in the air.

"You said you saw a white flower tinged with pink when you were little, and you liked it very much... There are many flowers like that. If you don't like these, then besides the ones you mentioned last time, are there any other conditions..."

Meng Shijiu interrupted: "A'Li."

The boy's voice drifted down like snow, light, yet so heavy it seemed to press down the bright sky—

"I was just saying it casually."

"Just go."

...

The dark-haired youth left in silence.

……

That was the end of the only conversation between the two after Meng Shijiu returned.

Later, the taciturn and indifferent Second Young Master Meng went to the Ye family and returned with an Omega.

Yue Xuanli caught a distant glimpse of that Omega.

—At that time, the person still had deep blue hair. Yue Xuanli didn't know yet that later, Ye Lingxi's hair color would eventually change to match the rabbit Meng Shijiu kept, becoming gray-blue.

And just like that rabbit, he would be kept by Meng Shijiu's side.

"

Boom—

The beam of a particle cannon tore through the air above the training ground. The Rongyun, piloted by the dark-haired Alpha, blew an alloy target a hundred meters away to pieces.

The precise force split the metal material, yet left the target base intact.

—Absolute, ice-cold calculation and control.

After Yue Xuanli exited the mecha, A-Y gave a couple of slow claps, raising an eyebrow as he said, "You called me over just to watch you perform?"

Yue Xuanli took a few steps closer.

The dark-haired Alpha's intensely aggressive brows and eyes were twisted into a cold, wild arc. His damp eyes burned as if with a violent fire as he took a casual sip of water:

"I need your help."

"Huh?" A-Y sounded surprised. "What do you need?"

Yue Xuanli: "Help me find a mecha, the Silver Cocoon."

A-Y narrowed his eyes and didn't respond.

Yue Xuanli didn't beat around the bush: "Name your price."

A-Y gave him a thoughtful once-over: "Fine. But I've got to ask..."

Yue Xuanli: "Ask."

A-Y leaned back against a nearby bench, arms folded as he looked over: "We've known each other for a while now, and you're so hell-bent on pushing your body to the limit, like you'd die if you went a day without a fight... NO3 has only been shut down for a few days, and you're already here looking for a thrill. Is all this... really just for fun?"

Yue Xuanli turned around to adjust the equipment. At that, his voice turned low and indifferent: "If you say so, then it is."

"Hey."

A-Y was exasperated: "Can't people be a little more sincere with each other?"

Yue Xuanli paused: "...Because when the moment comes that decides everything, I don't want to be left powerless, forced to just watch."

A-Y clicked his tongue: "What do you mean? Who could ever make you feel powerless?"

A faint smile touched Yue Xuanli's lips: "Don't all people have moments of powerlessness?"

A-Y thought for a moment: "That's true..."

The sky was beginning to darken.

As he worked, the mecha's running lights flickered off. Yue Xuanli said, his voice suddenly calm:

"There are people I want to protect but can't."

So I push myself to my absolute limit. Even if, in the end, I still can't protect anything, perhaps when I'm powerless, I won't feel the guilt is too heavy.

The afterglow of the setting sun streamed in. An orange ribbon hung on the horizon, the wall turned into a water surface, melting into a river of gold.

"So what?" A-Y said suddenly.

He folded his arms behind his head and lay back down on the bench, looking at the empty ceiling. He wasn't very familiar with St. Maria's school emblem, only thinking how pretty the irises on the wall were.

"Have you ever had such a moment? Watching the person you want to protect drift further and further away, then disappear forever from your world. After that, every place in the world is just... the same. Rather than worrying about these things, it's better to spend more time with the people you care about."

Yue Xuanli turned his head and saw the gentle colors of the sunset softly falling on A-Y's masked face. A-Y had already closed his eyes.

…

…

If only the moonlight that night hadn't been so good.

He might as well have been bathed in sunlight; all those swarming emotions had nowhere to hide.

"If you died, what would I, who loves you, do?" The silver-haired Alpha's voice was like a whisper as he withdrew his embrace.

If it were just this sentence, perhaps Yue Xuanli could have covered it up as before, could have pretended those abnormal fluctuations hadn't happened.

At most, this time it was more intense, harder to conceal.

If Meng Shijiu hadn't casually pressed against his chest.

With a fingertip.

Against his chest, carelessly, tapping out a drumbeat.

If he hadn't tapped so irresponsibly.

Once.

Twice.

…

There is no 'if'.

…

Once, twice.

A voice as soft as snow gasped beneath him, saying his hair was being pressed and it hurt a little.

Yue Xuanli glanced down instinctively. The silver hair meandered into one river after another, and the moonlight was like a cage.

The person trapped beneath had a black satin ribbon covering his eyes. His pale skin and crimson lips intertwined into a bewitching, dazzling hue. With each breath, the faint outline visible beneath the thin satin resembled mist-shrouded mountains, hazy and illusory, making one’s heart tremble.

The concealing ribbon seemed to let him pretend he didn’t know who it was.

Yue Xuanli gently swept up the silver hair beneath him, holding it softly in his palm, then lowered his head as if bewitched, with a pious devotion.

He wanted to muffle his voice.

That way, he could truly pretend he didn’t know who it was.

Yue Xuanli wanted to stop himself, but in this long-craved dream, he sank deeper and deeper, enchanted and obsessed.

Drinking poison to quench thirst.

A secret longing flooded the moonlit cage, making Yue Xuanli unable to resist binding him completely, watching as the person, as if begging for mercy in suffocation, uttered the words he wanted to hear.

Say it all.

…All of it.

Then, with pity, he pulled him into his embrace, using every trick to soothe him. Watching as his flushed face could only bury itself in his chest, sobbing.

Until the moonlight vanished.

“A-Li…” The enchantress-like man in his dream struggled unbearably, and the black satin ribbon on his face suddenly slipped off.

In the night, a pair of pale green lakes were abruptly revealed, dazedly half-open, pupils slightly upturned, the corners of his eyes watery red, damp eyelashes trembling like spring rain.

His swollen lips parted and closed, his tongue wet and protruding, his chin entirely slick with moisture.

The tip of his tongue trembled violently, teeth clinging to saliva, his lotus-like arms marked with deep red bruises from being gripped.

So beautiful, so soul-stealing.

…Yue Xuanli jolted awake.

The ceiling blurred into view. He turned his face away, looking out the window.

…That damned moonlight was still there.

Mockingly, it fell on his sweat-drenched neck.

“*”

A suppressed, low curse came from under the covers.

……

…

“……I’m sorry.”

As if somewhat unable to bear it any longer, Meng Shijiu, who had already patiently waited ten minutes for Yue Xuanli, slapped his cat paw onto Yue Xuanli’s shoulder with a “smack.”

“Are you done yet?”

“……”

Yue Xuanli slowly released him. The moment his embrace emptied, the reluctance on his face couldn’t be concealed.

Meng Shijiu: ?

Meng Shijiu: “You clingy thing, you’re stickier than my own shadow.”

He raised his hand, looking as if he were pressing down fiercely on Yue Xuanli’s shoulder.

“It’s fine.” The silver-haired Alpha said lazily, completing the words he hadn’t been able to say earlier.

It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine………

Hearing this, Yue Xuanli’s mind began to buzz. He closed his eyes: “Just shut up.”

Meng Shijiu: ??!

See: !!?

Meng Shijiu: “Who is he talking to?”

Meng Shijiu: “Is he talking to me?”

Meng Shijiu: “He’s talking to me?!”

See’s vocabulary emptied: “…Below… ah, no… not big… uh, no… he… he’s changed!!”

Meng Shijiu hesitated: “He’s talking to you, right?”

See half-believed it: “Huh? Talking to me?”

See tentatively meowed, only to receive a cold glare from Yue Xuanli.

……

……

The rain had long stopped, the night had deepened, but Meng Shijiu still hadn’t returned to District 16.

At the dormitory building entrance.

Butler Lin had been waiting quietly nearby for a long time. Seeing Yue Xuanli suddenly fall silent and stop moving, he glanced at the time and reminded him: “It’s almost time. Are we still waiting for the Second Young Master?”

Yue Xuanli snapped back to reality and slowly nodded: “Yes.”

He glanced at his terminal again—still no connection.

Yue Xuanli seemed uncharacteristically slow to react, instinctively dialing again.

Just as he dialed, he suddenly remembered that morning, when Jing Shu asked Meng Shijiu for his contact information, Meng Shijiu had said he didn’t have his terminal with him.

Yue Xuanli silently looked at the terminal and prepared to hang up.

A second before hanging up, the screen suddenly displayed the call connected.

“Beep—”

Before Yue Xuanli could react, he instinctively spoke: “Shijiu?”

Just then, a voice abruptly broke through the terminal—

“—Sh*t!”

Yue Xuanli was momentarily stunned by the curse before snapping back, her voice cold as she asked:

“Qian Chunyan?”

Qian Chunyan’s voice came through the terminal, muffled: “…stupid cat.”

“—Scratch me again and I’ll have Meng Shijiu sell you… I’m done with this…” “…I’m gonna kick you…”

A moment later.

Qian Chunyan’s voice finally cleared up, sounding somewhat irritated.

“Stop calling. He’s not here.”

Yue Xuanli didn’t say a word and hung up on him.

Butler Lin’s gaze shifted over once more.

Yue Xuanli seemed to finally come to her senses a little.

There was no moon tonight. The night after the rain was especially cold.

“Wait a little longer.”

If he doesn't come, just keep waiting. He’ll show up eventually.

Yue Xuanli: “I didn’t tell him.”

“Wait a little longer,” she added.

Butler Lin nodded, offering Yue Xuanli a gentle smile.