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Bai Yuesheng stroked his palm and sighed inwardly. The man was gone, but he would make good use of the family heirloom Gu Jiuque had given him. He would never let down Gu Jiuque's deep feelings and generosity...

What... was this?

Gu Jiuque had a dream. He dreamed that he had returned to the Gu Family Ancestral Residence. Outside his bedroom stood a camphor tree, and beneath it was a huanghuali rocking chair his grandfather had made himself.

In the height of summer, the greenery was lush and cicadas chirped incessantly. Golden sunlight filtered through the dense canopy, while dappled green shadows swayed in the breeze like flowing jade. He lay dozing in the gently rocking chair, a thread-bound ancient book covering his face. The enormous shade of the tree enveloped that small space. At the passing of a cool breeze, the summer heat vanished completely.

A clear voice, shy yet timid, rang out beside his ear. "Gu Jiuque, I like you."

A delicate-looking boy stood beneath the sun, his cheeks flushed as he gathered his courage. "Will you be my boyfriend?"

In that instant, Gu Jiuque seemed to see the river of time flowing backward. Endless years flashed before his eyes like scenes on a revolving lantern, time rapidly rewinding as the mottled cracks in his life slowly healed and disappeared, finally freezing on the summer he was eighteen.

Gu Jiuque abruptly opened his eyes.

Dazzling sunlight streamed through the gaps in the camphor tree's crown. The slender, handsome youth stood only a few steps away, bathed in brilliant summer sunlight. He smiled sweetly at Gu Jiuque. "Gu Jiuque, I like you so much. Can you like me too?"

Gu Jiuque blinked mechanically, his expression dazed as he surveyed his surroundings.

The chirping of midsummer cicadas and the flourishing flowers and plants in the courtyard entered his sight at once. Old houses with carved beams and painted rafters stood hidden amid tree shade and floral shadows, their white walls and dark tiles layered beneath overlapping eaves, while the brick carvings on the walls were intricate and elaborate. The latticed windows stood open, offering faint glimpses of the furnishings within. Summer sunlight poured down without restraint, draping everything before him in soft golden light.

Gu Jiuque held his breath. His memories from before death gradually returned, and he sluggishly recalled that he seemed to have already died—burned to death in a fire.

—Had he returned to the ancestral residence he longed for even after death?

When he thought of it that way, death did not seem quite so painful or frightening.

Thinking of the Gu Family Ancestral Residence, which had once again been reduced to ashes in a blaze, Gu Jiuque fell into gloomy silence. He had failed to protect the ancestral residence. His father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother must have been terribly disappointed in him.

Gu Jiuque closed his eyes in sorrow. How could someone as useless as him face his family in the underworld?

Watching Gu Jiuque remain silent without even sparing him a glance, a flicker of displeasure flashed through Bai Yuesheng's eyes. But he quickly hid the emotion away with care.

"Gu Jiuque, I really do like you." As Bai Yuesheng spoke, he shyly curled his fingers and looked at Gu Jiuque cautiously. "Will you be my boyfriend?"

Hearing those words, Gu Jiuque opened his eyes again. He remembered what the man had said before he died and could not help staring fixedly at Bai Yuesheng.

Hadn't Bai Yuesheng already married Jin Weixie? Why had he come to the ancestral residence to confess to him?

Noticing that Bai Yuesheng's face looked far more youthful, Gu Jiuque's heart stirred. Could it be that he had not died, but had returned ten years into the past? Returned to the day Bai Yuesheng confessed to him? Returned to the day the ancestral residence caught fire?

Seeing Gu Jiuque stand there like a block of wood without speaking for so long, Bai Yuesheng grew increasingly impatient. Yet when his gaze inadvertently swept over the ancient jade hanging on Gu Jiuque's chest, Bai Yuesheng forced himself to be patient again. Pouting, he wheedled, "Why aren't you saying anything? I already confessed to you. Are you going to say yes or not?"

The experience before his death and the book that had appeared out of nowhere in his mind left Gu Jiuque's thoughts in complete chaos. Hearing Bai Yuesheng's words, Gu Jiuque instinctively shook his head.

He could not accept Bai Yuesheng's confession. He needed to inspect the hidden dangers that had caused the ancestral residence to catch fire!

"You—" Bai Yuesheng stared at Gu Jiuque in disbelief, unable to understand what had gone wrong. Gu Jiuque had actually rejected his confession?

Why had he rejected him? What right did he have to reject him?

Bai Yuesheng took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his irritation and displeasure at having his confession rejected. He blinked gently and playfully, smiling as he asked, "Why did you reject me? Don't you like me?"

Gu Jiuque stood there blankly, unable to speak. The memories from before his death and the information that had appeared in his mind out of nowhere kept assaulting his understanding of reality. Gu Jiuque clearly remembered that he had already died once—on the day Bai Yuesheng married Jin Weixie, at the hands of one of Bai Yuesheng's extreme admirers.

And the reason he had needed to die was simply because that man believed his existence stood in the way of Bai Yuesheng's lifelong happiness.

The agony of being burned by the fire still lingered in his flesh and marrow. Yet what hurt Gu Jiuque even more was the book that had appeared out of nowhere in his mind—

It was a boys' love novel about a universally adored protagonist. The novel's beloved protagonist was Bai Yuesheng, a genius appraiser who had accidentally obtained a Gu family heirloom and awakened the ability to identify treasures. The official male lead was Jin Weixie, the man who had ruined his grandfather's reputation and driven him to die in depression.

And Gu Jiuque was nothing more than a useless ex-boyfriend meant to highlight the beloved protagonist's innocence, kindness, devotion, and unwavering love. At the very beginning of the story, he suffered the misfortune of losing his family, being disfigured, and becoming disabled. A proud son of heaven fell overnight into a mute cripple, yet he continued to burden Bai Yuesheng by relying on their childhood bond. As a result, Bai Yuesheng's admirers saw him as a thorn in their flesh. Then, on the day Bai Yuesheng married the official male lead, Jin Weixie, he was burned to death in the Gu Family Ancestral Residence by one of Bai Yuesheng's extreme admirers.

Even more laughably, the book claimed that Bai Yuesheng had married Jin Weixie under Jin Weixie's threats in order to clear Grandfather Gu's name. Yet after hearing news of Gu Jiuque's death, Bai Yuesheng was devastated and fell seriously ill. During that time, Jin Weixie stayed by his side, caring for him with meticulous devotion. Once Bai Yuesheng recovered, the two naturally resolved all their misunderstandings and emotional knots, and the lovers finally became a couple.

The book spent long passages describing how loving and sweet Bai Yuesheng and Jin Weixie were as newlyweds. Even when old friends and longtime associates of the Gu family came to confront them with the evidence Gu Jiuque had gathered, Bai Yuesheng actually stepped forward to defend Jin Weixie. He even said that Jin Weixie had framed Grandfather Gu only because of the grudges between the two families' previous generations.