Qi Yu startled himself awake in the middle of the night and sat bolt upright. The quilt slipped from his chest to his waist, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat.
Beside him, Qi Xiao woke at the sudden movement. By the moonlight filtering through the window paper, he saw Qi Yu's deathly pale face. He did not ask, "What's wrong?" He simply reached out and pressed a hand over the back of Qi Yu's hand, which was clutching the quilt, and waited for him to speak.
Qi Yu took several gasping breaths before he found his voice. "I had a dream."
"What kind of dream?"
"I dreamed we both died."
Qi Xiao was silent for a moment. "And then?"
"Then we went to be reincarnated." Qi Yu turned to look at him, the moonlight leaving his face half lit and half in shadow, his expression complicated. "We were lining up in the Hall of the King of Hell, and you insisted on getting ahead of me."
Qi Xiao took his hand off Qi Yu's and leaned against the headboard, briefly closing his eyes. He had thought it was a nightmare. It turned out to be an argument.
"You said you were older than me, so you should go first." Qi Yu's voice began to regain its volume, returning to the tone he usually used when he was at odds with him. "I said older people should give way to younger ones.
"You said this was reincarnation, not giving up a seat. I said it was the same thing-you should respect the old and cherish the young, so you ought to cherish me." At this point, he slapped the quilt. "And you actually said you didn't cherish the young! You said it right in front of the King of