Chapter 26
“Have you prepared for it?” Xiao Yang sat expressionlessly by the window, just staring outside.
The man on the other side of the phone was silent for a few seconds before asking, “Do you really want to do this? Once done, there is no turning back. He will be completely ruined.” This was more ruthless than all the previous times. There was nobody who could survive such a thing, even if the other party was arrogant and domineering, his self-esteem would be crushed.
Xiao Yang coldly sneered and said, “Chen Ming, he shouldn’t be ruined, so I should be ruined, right?” His voice lowered as he paused, “Chen Ming, I almost died at his hands back then. He was only twelve years old, but he hated me so much. I’m only doing this to protect myself, and anyways, even if something were to happen to him, the Lu family would still protect him. But me? I have nothing. Only brother Qin Gu, do you understand?”
There was further silence on the other side of the phone, and only after some time did the other man open his mouth to mumble, “When I was stranded in the mud, it was you who reached out towards me. I am in your debt, I will do it.”
“Good.” Xiao Yang’s lips finally curled up into a smile, and he said: “I have arranged someone in the hotel. He doesn’t know you, but he knows Lu Bai. He will go there as well and meet with you when the time comes.”
“Okay.” The man said in a hoarse voice.
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Although Ming Yan did not like to make too much fuss, since the first day of the exhibition was a charity event, a casual banquet was held at a hotel near the exhibition hall.
Lu Bai was wearing a comfortable dark suit and was accompanied by Lu Guanguan, who was dressed up in a modest cocktail dress and had applied some makeup.
“Brother, can I tell you a secret? But, don’t tell Mom or Dad yet.” On the terrace, Lu Guanguan smiled sweetly, her eyes sparkling.
Lu Bai curled his lips and spoke, “Guan Guan, please tell me.”
Lu Guanguan was a bright and beautiful person whose personality was usually fiery and bold. Yet, there was a blush in her cheeks and she continued, “Brother… I have a boyfriend!” After a pause, she added: “He is an actor who has just entered the circle. He is not famous, but he is very hard-working.”
Lu Bai blinked in surprise – suddenly, he remembered Ruan Jiangjiu. Recalling that this young man was waiting for him to come home. A smile spread across his face, and he gently asked, “Is he good to you?” After all, the most important thing is the individual’s personality.
“He’s been very good to me.” Lu Guanguan’s cheeks turned completely red, and even her voice was a little quieter, but the corners of her mouth could not be restrained from rising.
“Haha.” Lu Bai laughed as he reached out to rub Lu Guanguan’s hair, saying, “Guan Guan. No matter who the other party is, it is more important that you are happy.” After a brief pause, he casually asked, “What’s his name?” Their second uncle was better at doing background checks, so asking him to help look up someone was a good idea. Lu Guanguan looked like she had a flamboyant and outgoing personality, but in fact, she was quite simple.
“His name is Song Zhi’an.” Lu Guanguan said.
Lu Bai nodded and wrote down the name in his mind. At this time, a friend of Lu Guanguan’s had just come over to the terrace looking for her, so Lu Bai just waved her off, “Go ahead, I’ll stay up here for a while.”
Only then did Lu Guanguan depart with her friend.
By now, it was already well into the night. The hall was brightly lit and warm with wine and flowers, but the open terrace had an autumn chill. While a pale full moon hung high in the sky, there were no stars to admire as the city’s lights intermingled with the moonlight in the sky and blocked them.
As Lu Bai gazed at the moon, the shadow of a teenager appeared in his memory. He couldn’t remember the teenager’s face, but he knew that he must have really existed. When he was alone, huddling in the darkness, suffering in pain, and about to lose consciousness, that teenager and the moonlight had appeared together, pulling him out of the bottomless darkness and providing him warmth.
Today, for some reason, he looked at the moon and suddenly remembered him. But he doesn’t remember his face, nor does he know his name, not to mention whether he will ever be able to meet him again and say “thank you” to him.
There was an elegant cello playing in the hall behind him. Lu Bai turned to look at the lively banquet which was filled with lights and laughter. Perhaps the moonlight tonight was making him too melancholic, Lu Bai couldn’t help but look at the crowd in the hall and mutter to himself, “If only he was right there.” When he was very young, his mother told him a story about a good child wishing on the moon and his wish coming true.
That said, Lu Bai stopped for a moment and then laughed lightly; What kind of good boy is he? Even when he was really a child, he was still the wicked male foil.
A masked waiter then entered the terrace with a drink tray in hand, he bowed towards Lu Bai, his voice deep and hoarse: “Sir, would you like a drink?”
Lu Bai nodded, then picked up a glass flute of champagne. The man watched Lu Bai accept it and his eyes under the mask flashed with a shadow: “Please enjoy your drink, and have a pleasant evening.” After saying that, he turned around and left.
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“Xueyu, stay away from Lu Bai.” Qin Gu said with a blank face, cupping a wine glass in his hand.
Qu Xueyu gave a chuckle, only to leisurely look in the direction of the terrace—he had just seen the teenager heading out there and then asked, “Qin Gu, when you say this… what position are you taking?”
Qin Gu furrowed his brow, hostility filling his eyes, he spoke: “He is not a pleasant person. He is overbearing, selfish, and willful. At the age of twelve, he almost killed someone. Do you just fancy him for his looks? You may be able to get him, but when you recognize him for what he is one day, you will only hurt him.”
There was a moment of silence, and self-deprecation coursed through his eyes as he concluded, “But I can tolerate all of that in him.” No matter how reluctant he was to admit it, it was a fact that he had fallen for that teenager: “But you are different, Xueyu. You have a cleanliness obsession, even if you are temporarily charmed by his face, you could never fully accept him that way, so don’t go around teasing him.”
The smile on Qu Xueyu’s face had disappeared completely as he blankly stared at Qin Gu and stated, “Qin Gu. You don’t know him, nor do you know me. You also have no qualification to define him in this way. I’ll leave first. I have something to do.”
Taking a few steps, he stopped and turned around; not sure what he was thinking of, he looked directly into Qin Gu’s gloomy eyes and said faintly, “How do you think, on both occasions that we met, did Xiao Bai know when and where?”
When Qin Gu heard that, his pupils narrowed, but Qu Xueyu didn’t say more, just turned around again and left in stride.
~~~~~~
“Ah, Excuse me.”
The waiter, who came out from the terrace doorway accidentally, collided with Qu Xueyu, he stabilized his tray but accidentally dropped his mask on the ground. Qu Xueyu picked up the mask and handed it to the other. And when he saw the other person’s face, his movement slowed down, he said thoughtfully, “You…?” –Have you been to the Lu family’s banquet? – While he did not know this person, there was something familiar about him; he seemed to have seen him at the Lu family’s dinner party.
But before he finished asking, the waiter exclaimed ‘thank you’, took the mask, and stuck it back on his face before hurrying away. Qu Xueyu pondered the other man’s back, then continued towards the terrace.
As he entered the terrace, he spotted Lu Bai, leaning on the stone railing. A fresh flute of champagne was held loosely in one hand, while his other was playing with a shiny round marble1Originally changed from ‘Glass bead’ to ‘Marble’, check dropdown “Marble” for more info. The marble gleamed and shone under the moonlight.
Seeing that marble, Qu Xueyu’s eyes narrowed, then looked at him with a kind of inexplicable feeling for a few moments, before letting out a low laugh, smiling as his face relaxed, and the moonlight sparkled in his eyes.
After hearing the sound, Lu Bai flinched and put the marble away. Turning around, he saw Qu Xueyu. Subconsciously, he wanted to make a fierce expression but then remembered that this person had helped him. Furthermore, he had no intention of following the plot today, so he just relaxed.
He regarded Qu Xueyu and shrugged: “Qin Gu isn’t out here.” Then, he thought the other person had helped him but was unable to help the other person with even a small favor—it was too immoral, so he solemnly added: “I saw him earlier in the northern side in that corner, so, I’ve yet to even bother him.”
Qu Xueyu removed his smile, his face went dark and he said: “I really have no interest in Qin Gu.”
Lu Bai inwardly scoffed and said ‘Only a ghost would believe’, but on the surface, he just perfunctorily smiled—after all, the protagonist Gong and the protagonist Shou were born to be a pair in this world. It was simply like the existence of the truth.
Qu Xueyu stepped forward and quietly looked at the other without speaking. The eyes of the youth in the moonlight were incredibly beautiful. As his eyes were suffused with moonlight, they appeared to be just as clear as the glass marble.
Lu Bai’s throat moved while subconsciously taking a couple of steps back. The other party’s stare left him with a little fear for no apparent reason.
“Qu Xueyu? You, what is the matter with you?”
Qu Xueyu, however, was not sparing the teenager; he moved forward and trapped the youth against the stone railing. He watched the somewhat panicked face of the teenager with a smile, raised his eyebrow, and remarked, “I am not a person who extends kindness without expecting recompense.”
Lu Bai: “???” He only helped him out once! Does that require him to sell his body in return??
Qu Xueyu then continued, “The person you were thinking of is me.”
Lu Bai: “?!?!” Damn it, The main lead has gone crazy.
“The person you painted is also me.”
Lu Bai’s movements paused: “???” Painting? Suddenly, he had a very faint feeling of premonition…
“You should know that I also graduated from high school in Chunming, the same as Qin Gu-” Qu Xueyu said word for word: “the same school.”
Lu Bai’s subconsciously twitched head: “? …!” That premonition was getting stronger and stronger…
Seeing the vivid expression on the teenager’s face, Qu Xueyu curled the corners of his mouth in a rather good mood: “The glass marble you just had, was mine.” He paused before adding, “My family still has a jar; I can send you all of them if you want.”
Lu Bai’s eyebrows jumped: “You, what makes you say that is yours?”
“Because,” Qu Xueyu grinned. “I had picked out that marble, there’s a unique crack in it. It is very much like a snowflake, right?”
Lu Bai’s eyes widened: “!”
Qu Xueyu stepped back, watching the teenager’s dazed face, languidly stating, “When I was in high school, I inadvertently saved a child. He was locked up in a storage shed. When I found him, I carried him to the hospital.”
“All the way to the hospital, he was comatose. But when we reached the hospital, he held on to my sleeve and refused to let go. I removed his hand and felt that this poor kid was too sweet, so I gave him my favorite glass marble to hold instead.”
Back then, when he brought the child to the hospital, he had settled the boy but had to leave because there was something else. And when he went to leave the child was obviously unconscious, but he was clutching his sleeve and wouldn’t let go, so before he left, he stuffed a glass marble into the child’s hand.
When he returned to the hospital, he was told by the doctor that the child’s family had picked him up and left him some money, more than ten times the amount he had deposited for medical expenses.
Although he felt regret, he still treated it as just another episode in his life. Only, after that, he was never reunited with the child, nor did he have the opportunity to know the child’s name.
Lu Bai’s mouth twitched again, his whole appearance was dumbfounded. He felt that he was caught in some kind of weird and strange dream, like a colorful and whimsical whirlwind dream, which was strangely exciting and lively, but he couldn’t say that it wasn’t a good dream.
‘So, it turns out that mom’s story is true…’
‘It turns out that I’m a good boy?!’ Lu Bai thought in a daze as he looked at Qu Xueyu’s smiling, flushed face.
Mask?? When the waiter/Chen Ming first shows up
Shio: Unsure if (the waiter) it’s a face mask or a party mask
Krone: There’s covid there too. So they’re wearing facemasks as a precaution >:) lololol
When The waiter bumps into QXY, QXY picks up his mask
Shio: So…. probably not a face mask then
Literally one paragraph later
Shio: Why is he wearing a party mask as a waiter? I’m confused, I know sometimes they do that for fancy party’s but I feel like it’s a security issue… am I thinking to much about this?
Krone: No you’re not. I’m thinking the exact same thing. But this is a story xD and we should not be applying real world logic to this. XD So let’s just pretend that all the other waitstaff who saw didn’t care and treated it as completely normal. XD
Shio: lol oh good, I’m not the only one then.
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Marble So in the Raws what LB is holding is actually a (一枚剔透的琉璃珠子 ), It’s MTL into ‘a single glass/glazed bead’. Now while I don’t normally approve of just changing things, this singular thing held me back for a WEEK! I couldn’t get it to feel right, so I wasn’t able to work past it (I’m a bit weird like that). Looking into it further I realized that the same descriptor also applied to MARBLES!!!! Breakthrough! So I desperately scanned the entire rest of the novel and not once did this silly thing come up again… so I made the decision to revise it as a marble. To me, seeing a child carrying around an interesting marble /having a jar of them at home/able to recognize it years later across a patio…. makes more sense to me than a tiny bead.
So that was a fun little journey. My other option I was thinking about was revising it into a bracelet. Then it could have been QXY wearing a glass bead bracelet/putting it on the unconscious LB’s wrist at the hospital/ having a jewelry box at home of similar/see LB fiddling with it like prayer beads and recognize it. But me and Krone felt that would be changing too much to fit in just a singular prop item that never appears again. ( plus, I felt like if it was jewelry LB would have been wearing it constantly, and it would have turned into a continuity problem)
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Authors Note Self promotion
The author has something to say:
Interstellar abo article “I have fallen” please bookmark QAQ, click into the author’s column The first is it, ooh thank you little angels!
The text is as follows:
‘As I sink, I will drag you into the dust with me‘ – Rumi, a Persian Poet
Legend has it that the proud and dazzling second prince of the empire, Alan Scott, was 18 years old when he fell into the dust. At the age of eighteen, Scott beheaded the infamous leader of the Star Pirates amidst a sea of corpses and blood.
But in full view of the public turned into an Omega.
Legend has it that the second prince, who was supposed to be the crown prince, developed irregular bonding fever soon after the differentiation – he would go into heat anytime, anywhere, and would not stop until he died.
Legend has it that the second prince spent the entire night in the room of his political adversary when he first came into heat, and his right leg was humiliatingly tattooed with dazzling rose vines.
The blood-red roses flowered on the thigh and the genitals.
According to rumors, the day after the second prince was marked by his political adversary, he had a second heat and was unceremoniously thrown into the Empire’s No. 0 secret prison.
Legend has it that Imperial Prison No. 0 is a secret train that wanders the universe, filled with the Empire’s most vicious prisoners.
……
One day, the 2nd prince, who was believed to be dead and buried, once again set foot on imperial soil, and the army he led completely swept away the corrupt decaying empire’s vestiges.
The sun rose, and the new king in battle armor plunged a sharp blade into the heart of his political adversary Song Yisheng, who was riddled with wounds, his gold-rimmed glasses fell to the ground, and his lips were bleeding at the corners.
The man was a mess, his gold-rimmed glasses having broken on the ground, blood trickling out of the corners of his lips – but he was smiling with madness in his eyes.
He took off his white gloves for the first time, half-kneeling at the youth’s feet, and kissed the back of his hand reverently and fervently:
“My king, welcome back.”
“I crown you with my blood.”
“Even if I die, my rose will be engraved on you forever, please hate me as much as you want.”
The rose tattoo on the back of the golden-haired new king’s neck as well as his legs and genitals tingled as he gritted his teeth and cursed, “Bastard, don’t fucking pretend.”
Song Yisheng stood up without delay, wiped the fake blood from his mouth, pressed the new king on top of that throne, rubbed the back of his hot neck, and darkened his eyes
He answered, “As you wish.”
Note: Song Yisheng X Alan Scott Scott
The Gong has many vests (probably)
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TN Warning, story is unfinished as of now at 31 chapters and the Author hasn’t updated it since 11/30/2022. There is also no NU page for it. But the author promoted it in her end notes so I wanted to include it as well.
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I do want to thank all the readers for your comments! It’s always nice to know my footnotes are appreciated, I try to put them on things that I think others might not know and even things that I have to research myself. I wish I could figure out how to do pictures as well, but that might be a later achievement.
And also whoever bought me a Kofi, thanks so much! I will try my best to get out a double update for you soon.
Edit: Krone
Proof Nitta
