The end

"For me?" Pei Yang scoffed. "Saying that with a mouth that still smells of someone else, Song Yixiao-don't you disgust yourself?"

"Pei Yang-" Song Yixiao's face turned livid with anger. "Can you talk to me properly?"

"Fine. Since you saw it, I'll admit it." He threw caution to the wind. "We weren't just getting a hotel room to talk about life last night. But do you know who she is?"

Only when he was cornered did he finally admit it. Pei Yang could no longer muster any expression. In that moment, he truly understood what it meant to lose all hope.

"You know the Lin Group, right? She's the Lin Group's heiress!" Song Yixiao's bloodshot eyes widened, his whole body trembling slightly. "I met her last month while I was choosing an office location. She stopped me and said she'd fallen in love with me at first sight. With an opportunity that good, how could I not take it, Pei Yang?"

"We're both ordinary people. We could work ourselves to the bone our entire lives and still not afford the car she uses to get around. If I want to move up in the world, I have to take shortcuts! I have to go through the back door! Yes, it's not exactly honorable. I understand if you look down on me. But Yangyang, you know you're the only one in my heart. Lin You and I are each getting what we need. It's just a transaction. Can't you treat it like entertaining clients over dinner and drinks? Look, it's only been a month, and she's already bought me a car. In a little while, she might even buy me a home! You don't want to keep living in a rental either, do you?"

"Song Yixiao." Pei Yang couldn't listen anymore. The delicate skin at the corners of his eyes tightened. "Back then, you said you wanted to give me a home, just for the two of us. I can't have children, and you said getting a dog would be just the same. Do you know how seriously I took those words? I even thought there was hope for the future."

"When we were planning our home, did I ever demand a mansion or a luxury car? Did I ever complain that our rental was uncomfortable? For that matter, what would be wrong with renting for the rest of our lives? You say you did it for me, but the house and the car-were they what you wanted, or what I wanted?"

"..."

In the six years Song Yixiao had known Pei Yang, this was the first time he had heard him say so much at once. He had always thought Pei Yang was too quiet, too cold, that he could turn a blind eye to anything, no matter how serious, without a care. It turned out he was wrong.

It turned out that a single sentence from him could fill Yangyang with hope, and stay with him until now.

Song Yixiao's eyes grew wet, a crack appearing in his handsome face. "Yangyang, as long as I could be with you, I'd be willing to live in a slum. But it was never going to be just the two of us. Have you forgotten that deranged father of yours?"

Pei Yang stiffened.

"He did all those vile things, and you're the one paying for them. Why do you think I gave up a stable job and spent all my savings to start a business? Could our salaries alone ever pay off the mess your father made?"

"I never asked you to help me pay it off!" Pei Yang hadn't expected Song Yixiao to use Pei Zhi against him. His legs went weak, his head swimming as though starved of oxygen. "I'll find a way to deal with his problems myself. I don't need you to, and I never intended to ask you."

"Right, you don't need me. Who are you, after all? You're Pei Yang. So proud, so strong, so independent. Independent enough to bear all that pressure alone, standing out on the balcony in the cold at three in the morning. Pei Yang, I'm your fucking boyfriend. How am I supposed to watch my boyfriend suffer like that and do nothing?"

"Then am I supposed to watch my boyfriend sell his body to pay off my debts?" Pei Yang roared, veins bulging in his neck.

He couldn't tell how much of what Song Yixiao had said was true and how much was a lie. But either way, he couldn't accept it. Last night had been a night of wrongdoing. He, too, had lost his head and done something irreversible. No matter what they said now, they could never go back to the way they had been.

This relationship was terminally ill. There was no saving it.

Song Yixiao froze where he stood, as though even his pulse had stopped. After a long while, he forced a single syllable through his teeth. "Yang..."

Pei Yang raised a hand, signaling him to stop.

He pulled a very old account book from a compartment in his suitcase. As its pages fluttered, countless receipts slipped loose. "...These are for you."

Song Yixiao hurriedly reached out with both hands. Pei Yang didn't want even the slightest contact with him anymore. He let go, and the receipts scattered across the floor.

"I'm leaving."

He took his suitcase and left the bedroom, brushing past Song Yixiao's shoulder.

Song Yixiao stood rooted to the spot, his eyes stinging. Only when he heard the front door close did he belatedly bend down to pick up the receipts.

He went through them one by one, tears welling in his eyes.

They were receipts for the servers Pei Yang had bought him to support his business, with money he had saved by commuting four hours every day.

"Yangyang!" Overwhelmed with regret, Song Yixiao stumbled after him, shouting as he ran. "Yangyang! I'll break it off with her, all right? I'll do it right now! Don't..."

He rushed out the front door into an empty corridor. The number on the elevator display kept dropping until it reached 1.

Pei Yang dragged his suitcase out of the residential complex. Standing at the corner of a bustling street, he suddenly realized he had nowhere to go.

After graduating from university, he had followed Song Yixiao to this unfamiliar city without hesitation. His personality made it difficult for him to make friends, while Song Yixiao was the opposite. Watching his career flourish, his circle of friends grow, and his returns home get later and later, Pei Yang hadn't known whether to feel happy or sad.

He should have guessed long ago. After all, he had been coming home to an empty apartment for far more than a day or two.

...After all, Song Yixiao's social circle was far beyond his own. With so many temptations surrounding him, of course he would no longer want a Pei Yang who waited at home for him.

A taxi stopped in front of him. Pei Yang motioned for the driver to open the trunk and put his suitcase inside.

After the car pulled away, a dark figure came running out of the complex. Through the window, Pei Yang saw the panic in Song Yixiao's eyes. The red light at the intersection began counting down. Beyond the glass, the figure shrank into a blot of ink, and it took a long time for Pei Yang to tear his gaze away from that tiny speck of light.

He didn't know how much time had passed. Only after the clock on the car's display had ticked past twelve did Pei Yang, who hadn't moved at all, murmur softly, "Happy birthday... to you."

It was over.

Because of his work, Pei Yang was no stranger to staying in hotels. But the hotels on his business trips were always booked by the company, so he knew nothing about their prices.

He found a hotel near the office and was a little dumbfounded.

Even the smallest single room cost two hundred a night.

...Then how much had that suite he'd stayed in that night cost?

Had the eight hundred he'd left really been enough to split the bill with Feng Wanting?

"..."

Forget it. It didn't matter... Feng Wanting didn't seem like someone who would quibble over that amount of money. He only hoped he would never run into him again.

Thinking back on that immature act of "revenge" that night, it was laughable.

Had it hurt Song Yixiao in the slightest?

No.

Pei Yang booked a single room. Once he stepped into a room with no one else in it, he could finally let his guard down. He let out a long breath and slid down the door until he was sitting on the floor.

Pei Yang was a tall man, standing at 180 centimeters, but curled up on the floor with his arms around his knees, he looked so small. He buried his head in his knees. Before long, his shoulders began to shake, and quiet, muffled sobs escaped between his teeth.