Honey, open the door!

"Honey, open the door-honey, open the door-"

The familiar ringtone rang out.

Qi Yu pulled out his phone as fast as he could.

When he saw Bai Luochuan's video call invitation, his smile brought even his usually lifeless features to life.

Beside him, his adjutant Lu Ran watched with mixed feelings and commented, "Qi Yu, can't you act normal? That ringtone is seriously deranged. Hurry up and change it."

Qi Yu replied coldly, "Jealous?"

His husband had recorded that ringtone just for him last Valentine's Day.

A ringtone exclusively his.

How could he possibly change it?

Qi Yu swiped a finger across the screen and accepted the call.

His expression had already slipped by habit into that tender, cloyingly sweet smile.

But Bai Luochuan's smiling face did not appear on the other side of the screen.

There was only a familiar beauty lying in blood, utterly devoid of life.

His eyes were still open.

All the light in them was gone.

The phone's camera was right before his eyes.

It seemed that, in his final moments, he had still wanted to see the person on the other side of the screen.

The call had connected too slowly.

In the end, it had failed to fulfill his wish.

This was a sight Qi Yu had never seen before.

A situation he had never even imagined.

Qi Yu stared blankly at the screen.

His eyes widened.

His pupils slowly contracted.

He felt as though someone had played an utterly cruel joke on him.

His heart clenched, and he began calling out toward the phone screen.

At first, he called him "ge."

Because Bai Luochuan liked being called that.

Later, he called his name instead.

But no matter what he called him, Bai Luochuan did not move.

Then came a soft snap.

The phone screen went black.

Even his chance to see him was gone.

The midday sun blazed.

But Qi Yu felt as though that tiny patch of darkness on his phone screen had swallowed him whole.

It spread from his fingertips to every corner of his body.

An oppressive, bone-piercing cold.

As though his heart, too, had stopped beating and pumping blood.

His vision began to flash white.

It was the despair of approaching death, something he had experienced once before.

Someone beside him gently patted his shoulder twice.

Qi Yu turned his head blankly and saw Lu Ran offering him a few tissues.

His mind was still completely blank.

Qi Yu stared back at him in confusion.

As though he did not understand what the gesture meant.

Lu Ran sighed and pointed at his cheek. "Wipe your tears. What happened?"

Qi Yu froze.

Only then did he realize that his cheeks were icy cold.

His tears had long since spilled out.

His lips parted, and he answered Lu Ran's question mechanically. "He..."

Qi Yu could not say the word "died."

He had spent the first part of his life fighting on battlefields and had seen death far too many times. Rationally, he knew that Bai Luochuan's appearance meant he was dead.

But he did not want to admit it, nor did he dare say it.

As though saying those words would make them come true.

He stubbornly believed that as long as he did not say it, his ge was still alive and well, and might even call him again before long.

He clutched his phone tightly.

It was his only means of contacting Bai Luochuan.

In five years of dating, contact had only ever come from one side.

Occasionally, he received strange text messages that, like Bai Luochuan's calls, came from an untraceable source, telling him what kind of date Bai Luochuan wanted to have with him.

At first, he had only tried it to see what would happen, but once he finished preparing, Bai Luochuan's video call would come through.

Bai Luochuan always seemed especially happy and eager.

So afterward, whenever he received a message like that, Qi Yu would put all his effort into preparing.

Like the shirt-and-sprawled-legs pose last time.

He could feel Bai Luochuan's happiness.

And that made him happy too.

At first, he had thought there was nothing wrong with keeping in touch by phone like this.

As long as he tried hard enough to melt the ice, the day would come when Bai Luochuan was willing to meet him.

But in fact, he had investigated for five years.

He had exhausted every bit of power and every means at his disposal, yet still failed to discover who Bai Luochuan was or where he was.

Only now did he suddenly realize just how tenuous their connection was.

Even when his lover died right before his eyes, he had no right to touch or embrace him, or even draw close.

His lips trembled.

He looked at the pitch-black screen before him.

Qi Yu murmured, "Bai-ge, you still owe me a kiss... Didn't we agree...?"

His eyes flew open.

Bai Luochuan was still dazed by death and had yet to recover his senses.

The agonizing pain had actually disappeared.

But his mind was still somewhat numb.

He sat on the bed and took deep breaths for a long time before finally recovering a little.

Then, the very next second, he took out his phone as fast as he could.

It was almost instinctive muscle memory.

By the time he realized what he was doing, he had already unlocked the screen, found the familiar game, and promptly logged in.

Thank goodness I'm not dead.

I have to tell Qi Yu.

Wait.

His finger paused.

Belatedly, Bai Luochuan realized the problem.

Not dead?

How could I not be dead?

Although it had been his first time dying, the sensation had been unmistakably clear.

His teammate's treacherous shot had been very well placed.

One bullet had pierced his heart.

After he fell, the teammate had even come over specifically to slash the major artery in his neck.

Even if an immortal had come to save him, he would still have been done for, wouldn't he?

Bai Luochuan felt his neck.

Never mind a wound.

He could not even find any sign of bandaging or treatment.

And the place he was in now was a completely unfamiliar room. It looked like a private home, only far more basic than where he had lived before.

No matter how he looked at it, something was seriously wrong here, wasn't it?

And thinking about it carefully, the phone did not seem to be his either.

Apart from that familiar game.

Even most of the apps had designs he had never seen before.

He temporarily abandoned the urge to log into the game.

Bai Luochuan hurried over to the mirror in the corner of the room.

What he saw in it was a body that did not belong to him.

Its appearance was eighty or ninety percent similar to his.

But its physique was far inferior to his original one.

Thin arms and legs, with little flesh to speak of.

As for the solid muscles he had possessed back in his mercenary days, there was no hope of finding those.

His skin was a shade lighter than before.

There was also a new beauty mark beneath his eye.

Although people had told him before that being beautiful was one thing, but with those alluring, peach-blossom eyes, he could enter the entertainment industry without any trouble at all.

Back then, Bai Luochuan had only thought they were exaggerating a little.

But now that he looked...

Bai Luochuan touched his beauty mark.

He clicked his tongue in admiration. "Really is pretty gorgeous, huh?"

He realized that this behavior was somewhat shameless.

Bai Luochuan felt a little embarrassed.

He looked away from the mirror and down at his phone again.

In the end, he decided to log back into the game.

Although he had changed a little, his game account had not. So Qi Yu in the game probably would not notice too much amiss, right?

The call connected very quickly.

Qi Yu's face appeared on the other side of the screen.

Bai Luochuan did not know what had happened, but unlike his usual beautifully groomed, flawless appearance, Qi Yu looked utterly haggard now. His golden eyes were bloodshot, and their rims were red.

The instant he saw Bai Luochuan, he froze, then abruptly frowned.

His tone was icy.

His expression was nothing like usual.

The words were practically forced out through clenched teeth.

He said, "Where's my ge? Who are you?"