Chapter 67

Chapter 67

Cheng Gu froze. That answer caught him completely off guard.

He asked, curious. "What? Who am I in your memories?"

"Not sure," Yan Sui said. "I've seen you before, but I haven't figured out what we were to each other yet. Probably something like now, though."

It wasn't until he met the smile in Yan Sui's eyes that Cheng Gu felt the hand on his waist. He quickly pressed down on Yan Sui's arm. "I didn't twist it. You don't need to rub it."

The down jacket absorbed most of the pressure, but Cheng Gu's lower back still burned where Yan Sui's hand had been, and his legs felt a little weak.

He stepped back, and Yan Sui pulled his hand away at the same time, smiling. "Go on up."

Without a word, Cheng Gu walked out of the building, scooped up some snow, and quickly shaped a little snowman, setting it down at Yan Sui's feet.

"I'm heading up now. The snowman can watch the snow with you." He poked the snowman's cheeks, leaving a little dimple on each side.

Yan Sui let out a chuckle. "Alright."

The snowman was just a simple head and body. Yan Sui crouched down, grabbed a nearby branch, and gave it some arms.

Cheng Gu blinked, then couldn't help reaching out to ruffle Yan Sui's hair. "Wait for me to get off work."

Yan Sui said okay, his hair a total mess. All his usual aloofness was gone, replaced by something almost unbearably cute.

Cheng Gu smiled and got on the elevator.

As the elevator doors slid shut, he heard a faint cough.

His smile slowly faded, replaced by a serious look. Cheng Gu stared at his feet.

He had a feeling Yan Sui was hiding something.

Thinking back on what Yan Sui had said, Cheng Gu tilted his head. Could he have remembered more?

...

Back in the office, Cheng Gu sat down at his desk and shrugged off his coat.

"Finally." Yin Yu grabbed his head. "It's over. This month was so brutal I wanted to quit."

Even with overtime pay, they'd barely slept all month. The second something seemed off, they had to rush out, even if they were dead asleep.

Nobody in the whole company got a break. Everyone was buried in work—not just the imitation cases, but their regular assignments too.

Yin Yu felt like his brain was fried.

"Oh, right." He thought of something and turned to Cheng Gu. "How did you know where all those things were?"

Cheng Gu had been the one reporting most of the locations. At first, everyone was too busy to ask, but now that things had calmed down, it finally hit them.

"Secret." Cheng Gu brushed it off.

Yin Yu didn't push it. The others heard those two words and knew he didn't want to talk about it, so they dropped it.

"Getting together tonight?" He Jing set down the task summary, holding his swollen eyelids open to look at the others. "Reading all these reports has given me double vision."

Because of the massive workload, all the team's reports had to be reviewed by the team leads before going to the office.

Their group had over twenty reports, and He Jing was about to throw up from reading them all.

"Sure." Nobody had any objections.

He'd been at the job for almost three months now, and Cheng Gu didn't see any reason to keep hiding his relationship with Yan Sui. His eyes curved into a smile. "Can I bring a plus-one?"

"You're bringing your partner? Sure, absolutely." He Jing said. "We've been dying to meet them."

The others nodded eagerly.

Cheng Gu texted Yan Sui to ask, wondering if anyone would recognize him.

"Sure," Yan Sui replied right away. "They shouldn't be able to tell who I am."

Cheng Gu put his phone away. "Where are we going tonight?"

Night fell fast, and the heavy snow slowly let up.

As far as the eye could see, the world was nothing but white.

Cheng Gu walked into the restaurant, leaning into the wind.

The wind chime jingled, and He Jing and the others all looked up at once.

The first one through the door was Cheng Gu, who'd gone to pick up his partner.

He was wearing a white down jacket, his face flushed from just a few minutes outside. He stepped in with a slight shiver and a gentle smile.

The man behind him was tall and lean, head slightly bowed. As if sensing the stares, he looked up. His sharp, cold features caught the warm light, softening into something more approachable. The aloofness and distance melted away.

Everyone's eyes flicked back and forth between his jacket and Cheng Gu's.

It was obvious—they were wearing matching couple jackets.

"So Cheng Gu never said whether his partner was a guy or a girl." Zhu Yuan was the first to speak up, muttering.

Yin Yu scratched his head, still unsure. "Maybe we're wrong? What if that's not his partner?"

"No way." He Jing said. "Matching jackets—that's definitely his partner."

Seeing everyone's shocked expressions, Cheng Gu realized he'd never actually introduced him. He stepped back, grabbed Yan Sui's arm, and led him over to the table.

"This is my partner, Yan Sui." He said. "I forgot to mention he's a guy before, so that might've caused some confusion."

The man gave a soft smile. "Hi, everyone."

With that smile, his features seemed to thaw, like ice melting. Everyone froze for a second, then went around introducing themselves.

After the round of introductions, they expected Yan Sui to be overwhelmed and mix everyone up. But he called out every single name perfectly.

"You've got an amazing memory." Li Qianyue said.

Under the light, the man's skin looked almost too pale, like he hadn't seen sunlight in years. He Jing kept staring until Yan Sui looked up.

Their eyes met. Yan Sui's gaze was too calm, completely empty, and the smile at the corners of his lips never reached his eyes.

The second their eyes locked, an unnameable pressure hit him, and he instinctively looked away.

He Jing smiled. "Cheng Gu, what does your boyfriend do? He's got a unique vibe."

The probing questions didn't faze Yan Sui. He kept smiling: "My job's pretty much the same as A Gu's."

The others figured Cheng Gu hadn't explained his job well, so they didn't want to pry and just shot him a bunch of winks and raised eyebrows.

Cheng Gu nodded and changed the subject: "Have you all ordered? Let's see what to order—we're not picky about food."

"Already ordered," Zhou Zhusheng said. "I ordered stuff everyone can eat. Ask your boyfriend if he wants to add anything."

Cheng Gu scanned the QR code to open the menu and handed it to Yan Sui.

The man glanced at it and shook his head, signaling it was fine.

"How did you two meet?" The room fell quiet, and Luo Xing, unable to stand the awkward silence, broke it: "Your boyfriend seems really aloof, while Cheng Gu is more easygoing. So who made the first move?"

Cheng Gu hadn't talked about this with Yan Sui before they came, so he froze, his brain scrambling for an answer.

He definitely couldn't tell the truth about how they'd really met—if he did, the dinner would turn into one big awkward silence.

"I pursued him," Yan Sui spoke up first. "It was love at first sight for me. I just confessed straight up. He was taken aback at first, but after getting to know me, he said yes."

Everyone looked curious.

"Wow, I wouldn't have guessed."

"Same. I thought Cheng Gu was the one who made the first move."

"You two are perfect for each other. So when's the wedding? Don't forget to invite us."

Cheng Gu had never really thought about marriage.

After all, deep down, he figured marriage was something he and Yan Sui would do in the afterlife, after he died.

"In a few years," Yan Sui said, seeing right through Cheng Gu's thoughts, his voice warm. "Right now, A Gu and I want to focus on our careers first. When we do get married, we'll definitely invite everyone."

"Great."

The waiter wheeled over the food cart with dishes, and the group didn't start any new topics, eating quietly.

Yin Yu poked at his food for a couple of bites before complaining: "Why's it so quiet again? Keep talking. Aren't you guys curious? If not, I'll just ask. Cheng Gu, so are you two living together now?"

Li Qianyue knew about this. She spun the lazy Susan, motioning for Yin Yu to eat more and talk less: "Stop prying into their personal stuff. Just eat your food."

"What's so private about that?" Yin Yu protested. "The vibe's too weird. I'm just trying to liven things up."

"We're living together," Cheng Gu said, looking a little embarrassed.

Everyone except Yin Yu had already figured it out, so there wasn't much of a reaction—only he gaped, looking totally shocked: "So how long have you two been together?"

Cheng Gu looked down, weighing whether to tell the truth or a lie.

The truth was, they'd only been together for three months.

"A long time," Yan Sui answered vaguely.

Even as clueless as Yin Yu was, he could tell Yan Sui didn't want to keep talking about it, so he just looked down and ate without pushing it.

The get-together ended, and everyone went their separate ways. Cheng Gu and Yan Sui took the subway home.

"It'll be a lot easier for you to get to the company from now on," Cheng Gu said, tilting his head to rest on Yan Sui's shoulder, closing his eyes and mumbling, "I'm gonna sleep for a bit."

"Go to sleep," Yan Sui said, ruffling his hair.

Cheng Gu's mind slowly went fuzzy. Just as he was about to doze off, he suddenly felt the subway lights flicker.

He opened his eyes. The second the lights went out, a woman with a messed-up face was sitting across from him.

She was in a red dress with long, jet-black hair, staring hard at Cheng Gu, her eyeballs almost popping out of her head.

As she slowly curled her lips into a smile, the lights flickered faster and faster until—bang—the lights in this car went out completely, while the next car stayed normal.

Cheng Gu looked up at her, confused. This was the first time he'd ever seen a ghost on the subway.

Usually they were outside, mostly on the streets—those things liked to follow people or latch onto their backs.

The air turned freezing, so cold it stung his skin. Cheng Gu wasn't scared, though—way calmer than you'd expect. He even spoke up first: "Can I help you?"

Yan Sui stared at the woman with a blank face, saying nothing. His cold look was even scarier than the ghost's.

"You all deserve to die, every last one of you." Her hair flew up as her voice came out hoarse and grating, full of malice. "You're all coming with me!"

Her long hair shot at Cheng Gu like sharp silver needles. Just as it was about to reach him, before he could even grab something from his bag, the hair bounced off an invisible force and flopped limply against the ghost, going still.

The ghost froze, glanced at Yan Sui, and stopped.

She couldn't seem to get a read on Yan Sui, checking him out from every angle. Finally, she bared her claws, ready to go again, when the lights above flickered back on.

It was obvious she'd run into something way stronger than her.

The ghost shrank into the corner of her seat, eyes down, trying to make herself invisible.

Knowing Yan Sui had done that, Cheng Gu stared seriously at the ghost: "Do you need help with something?"

The gentle words caught the ghost off guard. She opened her mouth to say something, then suddenly clutched her head, going quiet with a scared look.

Cheng Gu frowned, about to say more, but the ghost slipped away.

He looked at Yan Sui, confused: "What does it want?"

"No idea," Yan Sui said with a smile. "Maybe it just wanted to scare someone."

The subway pulled into their stop, and the two got off one after the other. Cheng Gu immediately spotted the ghost waiting at the exit.

She looked exactly the same, standing there frozen, staring at Cheng Gu the whole time he approached, her eyes huge.

Just as Cheng Gu was about to walk past her, the ghost reached out and grabbed him.

"You can see me. What are you guys?" she asked quietly.

Cheng Gu faced her, thought for two seconds, and answered honestly: "Just ordinary people."

The ghost looked at the two of them with a complicated expression, hesitating like she wanted to say something.

Standing in the middle of the road talking to thin air was too weird. Cheng Gu stepped to the side, studying the ghost carefully. After a moment, he asked cautiously: "Are you going to hurt people?"

"No," the ghost said quickly, then slumped, hanging her head and speaking sadly, "Well, kind of. But it's not what I want—I'm being forced. If I don't hit my quota, something bad will happen to me."

"Quota?" This was the first time Cheng Gu had heard of ghosts having quotas. He immediately thought of that weird mission from before.

"Yeah," the ghost said, fidgeting with her fingers, looking sheepish.

"It's alright. If you're willing, you can come with me, and I'll take you down below," Cheng Gu reassured. "This is my line of work."

"Really?" the female ghost said, excitedly leaning closer to Cheng Gu. "If someone stronger than you shows up, can you still get me down there?"

"Stronger than me?" Cheng Gu was taken aback. "What kind?"

"One that ordered me to hurt people," the ghost explained. "If I don't comply, I'll be destroyed, with no chance of reincarnation. I don't want that, which is why I was scouting for people on the subway. I had my eye on the two of you... but I guess I was just unlucky."

Author's note:

No author's note.