Chapter 73 Elope

Chapter 73: Elopement

The chimes hadn't even rung yet, but the party was already so lively it could have blown the roof off.

Xie Fengshi leaned against the railing on the second floor, looking down at the hall packed with people.

Ladies' skirts bloomed like flowers as they spun, jewelry sparkled like crushed diamonds under the lights. Gentlemen held champagne flutes, gathered in groups of two or three, their laughter carried across the room.

The crystal chandelier in the center illuminated every corner, and beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows lay the snow-covered garden. A few strings of fairy lights hung from the trees, and the band in the corner played upbeat jazz, the saxophone sounded lazy and lingering.

"Tired?" Kaelen stood beside him, one hand holding a champagne flute as he nodded to passing guests.

"No."

Xie Fengshi withdrew his gaze, having caught sight of several familiar faces in that brief instant.

Lilian and Ollie—their mother was leading them through the crowd. The little girl's skirt was like a moving flame, and the boy followed behind, still clutching half a cookie.

Someone below raised a glass to them, and Kaelen responded with a slight nod, poised and aloof.

He was like a fish in water on such occasions—no need to put on airs; just standing there made him someone no one would dare slight.

Xie Fengshi was much worse off in that regard. After a night in the crowd, his face felt stiff from smiling, yet he couldn't remember more than a few names.

After a few minutes, Kaelen placed his champagne flute on a passing server's tray and also took away Xie Fengshi's barely touched glass. He took Xie Fengshi's hand, interlaced their fingers, and led him away from the crowd, through the corridor, slipping out a side door.

The night wind carried snow into their faces, making Xie Fengshi squint. Before he could say anything, Kaelen pulled him toward the garage.

"Where are we going?" Xie Fengshi jogged to keep up.

Kaelen turned back, warm yellow light and a smile in his blue eyes: "We're eloping."

Those two words made Xie Fengshi's heart skip a beat, then start racing. When Kaelen said them, his pronunciation wasn't perfect—the first syllable was too heavy, and the final nasal of the second syllable wasn't quite right—but that very imperfection made the words sound more like a declaration of love than anything else.

The moment the car door closed, the party's uproar was completely shut out.

Kaelen started the engine, and Xie Fengshi leaned into his seat, watching the streetlights pass by one by one: "Won't your parents say anything?"

"No." Kaelen drove with one hand, the other hand extended, palm up, between their seats. Xie Fengshi placed his hand in it, and it was gently held.

"They're used to it. Every New Year's Eve, someone leaves early. We're not the main event tonight; no one will notice we're gone."

Xie Fengshi let him hold his hand: "So where are we going now?"

"Ahead."

The road was lined with tall trees, their branches casting dappled light from the streetlamps. Xie Fengshi chuckled: "That's supposed to be a destination?"

"No, I mean we just drive, wherever the road takes us."

Kaelen released his hand to shift gears and accelerate.

Xie Fengshi lowered the window a crack, letting cold air rush in. He took a deep breath, the chill filling his lungs, completely waking him from the party's haze.

He closed the window: "The air here is much better than inside the party."

"Why didn't you call me over?" Kaelen asked.

"You were tied up with people. You looked busy."

Kaelen didn't reply, but his face said it all.

Xie Fengshi felt exasperated and waved his hand in front of Kaelen's eyes: "Watch the road."

Kaelen averted his gaze: "I am looking at the road."

After about half an hour, the car stopped at the edge of a small town.

Calling it a town wasn't exact; it was more of a lakeside resort area. It would probably be bustling in summer, but now it was covered in snow, utterly quiet.

Kaelen parked the car but didn't get out. Xie Fengshi didn't rush him, and they sat in silence for a while. In the distance, someone playing music drifted over—faint and indistinct across the lake and through the snow.

Xie Fengshi leaned back: "You said 'eloping' earlier."

Kaelen turned to him: "Mm."

"So are we eloping?"

"Yes."

Xie Fengshi's lips curled. He leaned forward, getting closer to Kaelen: "You're really different tonight."

Kaelen didn't flinch or seize the chance to kiss him. They remained on the verge of a kiss that never came: "How so?"

Xie Fengshi sank back into his seat, staring at the sunroof. A thin layer of frost covered it, obscuring the view: "Tonight you seem especially eager to take me away from the crowd. You got an explanation for that?"

"I don't want to explain." Kaelen replied flatly, "I just want to hide you away."

Xie Fengshi felt his ears burn. He wanted to say something to hide his embarrassment, but when he looked up, he saw something falling beyond the frost on the sunroof.

He tapped the edge of the sunroof, and a small patch of frost fell away, revealing what was underneath.

Snowflakes, one after another, drifting down from the sky. They paused on the sunroof for a moment before being covered by the next.

"Have you noticed? It's been snowing nonstop since we came back."

Kaelen also looked up: "More snow than usual this year."

"Where I used to live, it would snow sometimes in winter, but it never stuck. Not like now—snow falls and stays all winter."

Kaelen took Xie Fengshi's hand: "Where's that place you used to live?"

A simple question, one Kaelen had asked several times. And Xie Fengshi had thought about how to answer many times.

He could name any city, and Kaelen wouldn't check, and even if he did, he wouldn't find anything. But he didn't want to lie to Kaelen. Lying was just too tiring—one lie needed a hundred more to cover it, and in the end, you couldn't tell what was real anymore.

Xie Fengshi said, "Somewhere you can't find."

A flicker crossed Kaelen's blue eyes, and he tightened his grip on Xie Fengshi's wrist.

Xie Fengshi knew how weird that sounded.

It sounded like a petty retort, or like a way of keeping him away from his past.

But that wasn't what he meant.

That place truly couldn't be found by Kaelen, because it didn't exist on this timeline, nor in the memories of this body.

Kaelen didn't push it. "Then whenever you want to go back, I'll take you there."

Xie Fengshi froze for two seconds before he let out a laugh. "No need, Kaelen. I can't go back either."

Ambiguous as the words were, Kaelen understood them. The things he had never been able to see or touch—he was finally starting to sense them.

"Feng Shi, are you Xie Fengshi?"

The question felt absurd even as he asked it. He had read countless business cases, handled countless intricate situations, but never had he felt so utterly lost in uncharted territory.

Yet he didn't let go of Xie Fengshi's hand. Instead, even as he asked, he kept soothingly rubbing his hand.

In Xie Fengshi's dark, bright eyes, he saw tears glistening, and beneath them, a hidden relief and faint anxiety. Then Xie Fengshi said, "I am Xie Fengshi."

Kaelen reached out and wiped the tears from the corner of Xie Fengshi's eye, his fingertip tasting salty and damp. "March 20th—that's his birthday."

Kaelen still remembered the night he got the file on Xie Fengshi. The young man in the photo wore an elegant shirt, a polite smile on his lips.

He also remembered what he'd thought at the time: Born at the spring equinox, named Feng Shi—this person should have had a good life.

It wasn't until later, on that small road, that he saw that face, caught off guard and illuminated by the headlights—alert, suspicious, curious, and alive.

Kaelen hadn't thought much of it at the time. He just felt the photo and the real person didn't match.

The person in the photo was like a plant raised in a greenhouse—refined but fragile. The person standing in the halo of the headlights had been blown by the wind and drenched by the rain, and that made him vibrant.

"What about your birthday?" Kaelen asked.

Xie Fengshi stared intently into Kaelen's eyes. Those eyes held only seriousness and nervousness. Before his tears had even dried, the corner of Xie Fengshi's mouth curled up. "July twenty-fifth."

His voice was much steadier now. "Summer. Super super hot. Cicadas buzzing from morning till night."

Kaelen leaned in, one hand cupping his cheek, the other braced on the back of the seat. Their foreheads touched, their breaths mingled. "July twenty-fifth. High summer."

Xie Fengshi rubbed against the tip of his nose. "Mm."

"You were born in high summer."

"Mm."

A slow smile spread across Kaelen's lips, his mouth almost touching Xie Fengshi's. "No wonder the information I found on you didn't match the real you. No wonder the you in that room was so different from the photo. I thought it was because of what happened with the Xie family, but it was more than that, Feng Shi. More than that."

Xie Fengshi didn't realize when he'd started crying again. By the time he noticed, Kaelen's lips were already pressed against his eyelids, kissing away the salty wetness, bit by bit.

"Feng Shi, my love was born in high summer, right?"

Xie Fengshi nodded, his eyelashes brushing against Kaelen's nose bridge.

Kaelen asked again, "What kind of person was he?"

Xie Fengshi met those beautiful blue eyes and curved his lips. "He used to be a very ordinary person. Went to work, clocked out, cooked meals, ate—life was uneventful. Then he got sick, spent most of a year in a hospital bed. Later he woke up, in a really run-down little room. Later he found out he had ended up in a completely unfamiliar place, with a new identity, a new life—starting from zero."

"Was he scared?" Kaelen asked.

"Scared." Xie Fengshi answered honestly. "Terrified at first. But he had no way back. He could only move forward, take it one step at a time. But he was very lucky—his boss was good, his neighbors were good, his friends were good. Then his neighbor's older brother appeared, helped him out the first time they met. He thought this man was so handsome at the time, never imagined this man would later become his..."

Kaelen's lips lifted, and he pressed, "Became his what?"

Xie Fengshi looped his arms around Kaelen's neck, pulling them close until their noses touched. "Became his cheat code."

The smile in Kaelen's eyes deepened. He understood what Xie Fengshi meant. "And how do you think that cheat code is doing?"

Xie Fengshi's voice, still a little nasal, softened. "Really, really, really good."

At that moment, the distant bell tolled.

A series of chimes echoed across the lake, filtered through the curtain of snow, turning distant and tender.

Then came cheers. Across the lake, voices shouting, laughing, embracing each other. Fireworks shot up, bursting in the night sky, painting the sky with flickering light and shadow.

Kaelen looked down at the person in his arms. Xie Fengshi's face was lit up in flashes by the fireworks, his dark eyes reflecting fragments of light. His lips still glistened from Kaelen's kisses.

Xie Fengshi leaned into Kaelen's arms. The car's heater wrapped around him, leaving him boneless. He had been crying moments ago, his lashes still wet with tears, the red at the corners of his eyes spreading all the way to his temples. His ears burning from Kaelen's gaze, he reached up to cover his eyes. "Don't look at me like that."

Kaelen held his wrist but didn't move it aside.

Xie Fengshi asked softly, "Are you scared?"

Kaelen nuzzled Xie Fengshi for a long moment before saying, "I'm scared."

Xie Fengshi froze. Then Kaelen said, "Feng Shi, every word you said tells me you used to be alone."

Xie Fengshi looked up and saw Kaelen's eyes rimmed red, the edges of his blue eyes tinged with red.

He never imagined Kaelen would cry. This man, even in his most out-of-control moments, only showed it through ragged breathing—he never lost his cool. But now, tears silently slipped from his eyes, landing on Xie Fengshi's hand.

Xie Fengshi's mind went blank for several seconds. When the second drop fell, he snapped back to reality, reaching up to cup Kaelen's face. "Why are you crying?"

Kaelen buried his face in Xie Fengshi's palm, his voice low and hoarse. "I don't know."

Xie Fengshi didn't know whether to laugh or cry, his nose tingling. "I didn't even cry. What are you crying for?"

"You were crying just now." Kaelen lifted his face from his palm, the corners of his eyes red, looking utterly pitiful.

Xie Fengshi wrapped his arms around Kaelen's back, patting him rhythmically to soothe him, comforting the giant dog now hiccupping with tears. "You brought me to meet your family, and they treated me so well. Kaelen, you've already brought me out of it."

A smile finally tugged at Kaelen's lips. Xie Fengshi sighed, reached up to wipe the tear at the corner of Kaelen's eye, then leaned in and kissed it. "Why are you crying and laughing at the same time?"

Kaelen's lashes trembled. "I don't know. I just... I'm so happy you trusted me with this. I'm so happy."

Xie Fengshi looked at that face lit by fireworks, his heart melting. He leaned in. "You look beautiful even when you cry."

Kaelen finally laughed at his words. "I think you're trying to collect my crying faces for memes."

"Yeah, I'm collecting your Twelve Ways of Crying." Xie Fengshi's eyes curved. "That's number one."