Chapter 167#

Hunting 18#

Yu Feichen still remembered his answer back then.

“It can be improved,” he told Mogros. “Can you increase the pay?”

The hand Mogros used to hold his teacup trembled slightly.

“Improvements are fine, but no price increases. The Goddess of Wisdom has already come to see me. If your pricing rises any further, it will be disrupting the economic laws of the Paradise! When that time comes, the one meeting you won’t be me, but the God of Discipline from the twelfth floor.”

Yu Feichen did not want to be taken away by Discipline.

So, he chose not to improve.

At that moment, Anfei’s breathing suddenly began to tremble softly. The hand gripping Yu Feichen also tightened abruptly.

“Anfei?” Yu Feichen called his name in a low voice, wanting to help him wake up.

Anfei did not respond.

A candle on the right side of the bed burned to its end; the flame vanished into the scalding wax oil with a “hiss.” The room suddenly grew twice as dim, and Anfei’s silhouette became increasingly hazy in the night.

What was he dreaming about?

——Anfei dreamed he was in a vast, nihilistic space.

The surroundings were immense, scattered with countless faint golden star-points. They were interconnected, forming an exquisitely structured whole.

His consciousness, transformed into a translucent humanoid shadow, fell into this place, facing another self-contained structure—it was his own origin.

Unlike the pure gold surrounding him, two colors were interwoven within his original power.

One was the same faint gold as the outside, while the other was a slightly dull, cold silver.

In that moment, he was mobilizing his own origin, stripping away the silver power bit by bit.

Anfei could not recall any specific knowledge regarding these structures; he only knew the meaning of this action by intuition.

The silver power being stripped away was indeed a part of his origin, yet it did not perform any function within it. Therefore, after it was stripped out, he remained himself.

The silver stardust gradually spread out. They also possessed a structure, but they were incomplete—merely large or small fragments. Those fragments surrounded him like a galaxy, motionless.

Once all the silver fragments had left the original structure, he gathered them together, like picking up stars from the Milky Way.

Then, he repeatedly, incessantly tried to piece those stars back together, changing the method of combination and adjusting the order of fusion. It was as if he were trying to restore a sheet of paper torn into ten thousand pieces, or as if he were trying to aggregate the star-points into a flawless full moon.

The structure of power is the most precise and vast thing in the world; thus, every time he gathered those star-points, it took a long time.

In the slow passage of time, the fragments gradually gathered into a flawless silver.

Only three fragments remained to be added. Just as all the fragments were about to merge into one, there was a faint sound, and an imperceptible crack appeared in the center.

The tiny crack spread rapidly, like lightning tearing through the sky. In just a few seconds, the nearly completed creation scattered back into its original form.

There was no great fluctuation in his heart.

He only thought: Once again.

Then, he tried to gather those things once more.

Another shattering.

And another.

He was used to the way the fragments scattered and drifted, but every time the moment neared perfection, expectation had risen within him.

Yet destruction always arrived as scheduled.

Like a colorful, translucent bubble, as soon as the wind blew, it gently popped.

He could no longer remember how many times it had been.

Finally, at the moment his fingers touched those silver fragments again, he began to tremble violently.

Why? he thought.

He knew he shouldn’t blame it.

But—why?

Why can’t you come back? Why am I still the only one here?

It has been… so long.

I have done everything I could.

Why haven’t you… come back yet?

A fragment floated silently in his hand. He looked at it, dazed.

He felt pain.

Not because he felt pained by his own powerlessness.

He was simply lost.

As if someone had made a promise time and time again, only to break it in the end.

There was no wind here, but the torrent of fate whistled past.

He closed his eyes.

He pulled the fragments back into his origin one by one. The two differently colored powers intertwined with each other; the process was very painful, but he seemed used to it.

The golden power accepted the silver fragments not to let them participate in its operation, but to seal them away so they would not continue to shatter.

After the last fragment was retracted into his origin, he left that place.

But he knew there would be a next time—

There would always be a next time. He was waiting for a promise that would never be fulfilled.

The gates of power slammed shut.

Anfei woke up abruptly.

He snapped his eyes open and saw the lamplight illuminating the strange patterns on the ceiling. For a moment, he did not know where he was; he only felt that he was death-gripping someone’s hand.

Anfei moved his gaze in that direction.

In the gloom, he stared blankly into Yu Feichen’s eyes.

Yu Feichen looked at him.

Within those slightly reddened eyes was nothing but hollow, dazed sorrow.

In that instant, Yu Feichen thought Anfei had lost his memory again.

Fortunately, in the next moment, Anfei seemed to recognize him. He didn’t pull his hand away, but sat up in bed, took a few soft breaths, and closed his eyes with a trace of exhaustion.

Yu Feichen slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

But the moment that expression appeared in Anfei’s eyes, it felt as if invisible fingers had gripped his heart.

Five minutes later, Anfei opened his eyes again, looking at the ceiling, seemingly restored to normal.

“A nightmare?” Yu Feichen said.

Anfei looked at him out of the corner of his eye. This person, usually proud and cold, was now dazed with reddened eyes; it almost looked as if he had done something wrong to make this person sad.

But Yu Feichen thought for a moment and didn’t feel he had bullied Anfei.

“Are you…” he asked hesitantly, “alright?”

After saying it, he realized in hindsight that he probably shouldn’t have asked that.

The slight redness in his eyes weakened the strength of his gaze, but Anfei’s tone was worse than when he was being overstepped.

Anfei said: “Get out.”

Yu Feichen stared straight at him.

“Say it again.”

Anfei fell silent. After a long while, his eyelashes trembled slightly. That momentary fragility almost made Yu Feichen’s breath hitch.

His voice was slightly hoarse, as if he were about to cry: “…Get out.”

Yu Feichen raised his hand—and also pulled up Anfei’s right hand. This person had said “get out” twice in a row, yet the hands they held remained joined.

He placed Anfei’s right hand near his lips and lowered his head to touch the back of it—an ancient hand-kissing rite.

The dim candlelight reflected in his pupils, making them dark and deep. Maintaining that posture, he said softly: “Say it again.”

This time, Anfei said nothing, allowing Yu Feichen to pull him into an embrace.

He did not resist, leaning against Yu Feichen. His half-closed lashes concealed emotions that were almost uncontrollable for a moment.

At such a close distance, he heard the breathing, felt the heartbeat, and touched the real existence of Yu Feichen’s entire being.

He reached out, his fingers touching Yu Feichen’s forehead, the corners of his eyes, then his face, and finally stopping on his shoulder.

Yu Feichen held him the entire time.

The whole time.

And so, after a long while, the illusory, hollow emotions from the dream finally dissipated. Like a nightmare that had only just truly ended.

Anfei lay back down and looked at the ceiling.

He had completely returned to normal, his expression indifferent as he scrutinized what had happened in the dream.

In the dim room, the presence of his “possession” was still very strong.

To be unable to recover after shattering was the fault of this possession itself; it was clear the quality was worrisome.

In the dream, trying over and over again to make him stand before himself once more—

Even though the dream scenario had already faded, the hollow fear still surfaced in his heart when he recalled it.

The possession appeared in his field of vision, interrupting his thoughts.

Yu Feichen looked at Anfei: “Can’t you sleep?”

Judging by Anfei’s performance tonight, he had remembered something bad. Someone with complete amnesia originally has nothing in their head to think about, so they can only fixate on things they just remembered. If he were allowed to keep overthinking, his emotions would fluctuate again.

But he didn’t know how to coax people.

Sure enough, Anfei turned his head away expressionlessly, not answering him.

Yu Feichen turned him back.

Anfei’s tone carried a hint of thin anger: “You—”

In the next second, Yu Feichen kissed him directly.

It wasn’t a cherished light kiss like the ones on the corner of the eye or the back of the hand, but a direct intrusion that left no room for retreat.

Even without any memory, Anfei knew he had never been subjected to anyone’s control. After a futile resistance, when he was finally released, his eyes looked like he wanted to kill someone.

Unfortunately, an elegant and solemn upbringing was etched into his bones. There were no violent words in his language. After a long while, he only spat out one sentence with reddened eyes: “What are you doing?”

“Me?” Yu Feichen slowly unbuttoned the first button. “Helping you find your memories.”