Xia Zhile was reassured.
If Lin Hening said it, he believed it.
Walking home, he felt like a weight had finally lifted off his chest.
It had been months since he’d felt even a little at peace.
He opened his front door—and froze.
There, at the entrance, was a familiar pair of sneakers.
He stood there, blinking, then called into the house:
“An Nian?”
An Nian stepped out of the bedroom just then, holding a stack of folded clothes in her arms. She quietly placed them into her suitcase.
“I’m here to pack my things,” she said flatly.
Xia Zhile nodded without a word.
An Nian zipped the suitcase shut. With her back to him, her eyes turned red, but she kept her face hidden until she could collect herself.
Once her voice was steady again, she turned to face him.
“Xia Zhile, are you really sure about this?”
“I am,” he said. “We’re not right for each other.”
To Xia Zhile, this entire relationship had been a mistake.
His heart belonged to Lin Hening.
The privileged son of a powerful family…
An aloof, untouchable prosecutor…
And his unforgettable first love.
All of An Nian’s frustration and hurt disappeared in that moment—replaced by something harder and colder.
She reached into her pocket, pulled out the keys, and hurled them at Xia Zhile with all her strength.
“Don’t you dare regret this!”
Then she stormed out, slamming the door behind her.
Xia Zhile collapsed onto the couch, mentally and physically drained.
He sat alone in the silence, watching the room grow darker as night fell.
His thoughts spiraled out of control.
He found himself remembering the very first time he met Lin Hening—at that bookstore, when he was struck breathless by how stunning he was. A moment so beautiful, it was burned into his memory forever.
So many of his “firsts” were with Lin Hening.
So many unforgettable memories were tied to him.
Those once-sweet memories had now become a torment—relentless, invasive, impossible to shake.
He couldn’t run from them.
Didn’t want to, either.
Xia Zhile finally realized—he couldn’t keep hiding from the truth.
No matter how much it hurt, he had to face the heart of the problem.
But what exactly was the problem?
He racked his brain, going in circles, digging deeper and deeper into himself…
And then—like a lightning bolt—he froze.
His whole body trembled.
And in the next instant, Xia Zhile shot to his feet.
He knew.
He finally understood what had gone wrong.
Without waiting another second, Xia Zhile bolted out the door.
*
Lin Hening fussed with his bangs in the rearview mirror—first brushing them to the left, then deciding that didn’t look right. He pushed them to the right, but that wasn’t great either. After shifting them back and forth a few more times, he finally gave up and left them in the middle.
Then he turned to Gu Fei and asked, “Does this outfit look okay?”
Gu Fei gave him a once-over, taking in the clean, casual style and smiled. “You look great.”
Lin Hening rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t asking you. I meant—will your mom think I look okay?”
Gu Fei answered seriously, “You don’t need to dress up for her. You’d look good even in a potato sack.”
Lin Hening didn’t mind being sweet-talked—especially by his boyfriend—but clearly now wasn’t the time for jokes.
Gu Fei chuckled, a little helpless. “Relax. It’s just dinner at my place. And besides, my mom already knows.”
Lin Hening’s eyes widened. “You already came out to her?”
Gu Fei shrugged. “Didn’t have to. The closet door was loose—it just swung open on its own.”
Lin Hening: “……”
That was… unexpectedly elegant.
Gu Fei reached out and ruffled Lin Hening’s hair. “Don’t let her small-town vibe fool you. My mom picks up on everything. She’s known how I look at you for a long time.”
And just like Gu Fei said—he never actually told Xu Fenli about him and Lin Hening. But she just knew.
Dinner at home was a full spread—ten homemade dishes, all cooked by Xu Fenli herself. “Ten dishes for perfection,” she said with a grin.
Every time Lin Hening showed a preference for a dish and reached for seconds, Xu Fenli would immediately move the whole plate closer to him. She was bustling around like a whirlwind.
Gu Fei might’ve been a master chef, but his mom wasn’t far behind. Lin Hening ate so much he ended up waddling around with a hand on the wall for support.
Feeling guilty, Gu Fei headed downstairs to buy some digestive tablets. On his way back up, he ran into Xu Fenli taking out the trash.
“We’re out of soy sauce,” she said. “Meant to ask you to pick some up.”
“I’ll go now,” Gu Fei offered.
“No, no, I’ve got it. You go give the medicine to Xiao Lin.”
Gu Fei paused. “Mom—”
Xu Fenli looked up at him, immediately sensing he had something on his mind. “What is it?”
Gu Fei said it properly this time. “I’m in a relationship with Lin Hening. I love him very much.”
Even though she’d already guessed, hearing it stated that plainly made the usually unworldly Xu Fenli blush. “I know,” she said quietly.
Gu Fei stepped forward and gave her a hug. “Thanks, Mom.”
*
Lin Hening had a fast metabolism—especially with all the “intense physical activity” they’d been getting up to at night.
A week later, he was already craving Xu Fenli’s spicy kung pao chicken again.
But just as he was about to give in to temptation, a new murder case landed on his desk. One of the moms in the office, who was pregnant with her second kid, asked him in a mysterious tone, “Did you eat yet? What’d you have?”
Lin Hening replied, “Millet porridge and pickled cucumbers.”
“Oh, all vegetarian? Good. Then you’re fine.”
He frowned, confused, and turned back to the case file. Then the crime scene photos hit him like a truck.
The victim had been brutally dismembered. The killer had chopped the body into small pieces—and in a deranged effort to destroy DNA evidence, had deep-fried the remains in oil.
Later that day, Gu Fei messaged:
[Come to the restaurant tonight. My mom’s making kung pao chicken.]
Lin Hening replied, traumatized:
[Can we… maybe switch to something else?]
Long story short—he probably wouldn’t be eating fried meat again for the next three months. Maybe longer.
The case was under the jurisdiction of Jian Xiaoxi’s team. Lin Hening headed to the criminal investigation department to go over the details.
Once they wrapped up the meeting, Lin Hening was getting ready to leave when Jian Xiaoxi walked him out. As they reached the building entrance, she suddenly remembered something.
“Hening—I saw a certain someone yesterday.”
Lin Hening didn’t care. “Yeah? So?”
“He was looking for a cat,” Jian Xiaoxi said.
That made Lin Hening stop mid-step. “…What?”
“I saw him handing out missing cat flyers by the side of the road. At first, I thought he was just doing some part-time flyering work!” she laughed, pulling a crumpled paper from her pocket and handing it over.
It was a missing cat flyer.
A yellow-white-gray calico tomcat—Qiu Bi, the cat that had been missing for over half a year.
Jian Xiaoxi said, “The shopkeepers nearby told me he’s been posting lost cat flyers for nearly half a month. And not just in that area—he’s been putting them up all over. When the crowds are heavy, he asks everyone he can; when it’s quiet, he searches on foot. I mean… what is wrong with him?”
Lin Hening didn’t answer. He just stared at the photo of the cat on the flyer, lost in thought.
Two days later, on the weekend, Lin Hening was online shopping for clothes for Gu Fei when security called—Xia Zhile was downstairs, insisting he had to see him urgently.
The head of security, who’d clearly heard all the gossip about the drama between them, offered, “If you don’t want to see him, I’ll have someone escort him out.”
“No need,” Lin Hening said. “I’ll come down.”
Maybe Xia Zhile hadn’t expected Lin Hening would actually agree to see him. When Lin Hening appeared, he jumped to his feet, stunned and overjoyed.
From the elevator, Lin Hening could already see him waiting in the lobby.
And for a second—he almost didn’t recognize him.
Xia Zhile was wearing the same wrinkled clothes he’d probably had on for a week. His dress pants were stained with mud. He hadn’t shaved in days, and dark circles hung under his puffy, sleep-deprived eyes.
Just as Lin Hening was trying to process the sight, Xia Zhile lit up and ran toward him, beaming. “Hening! Hening! I found him!”
Xia Zhile grabbed his wrist and dragged him to a nearby bench, where a soft carrier bag sat.
Lin Hening felt a heavy sensation settle in his chest.
Xia Zhile unzipped the cat carrier with trembling hands and gently lifted out a yellow-white-gray calico tomcat. “Look—it’s Qiu Bi. Our Qiu Bi!”
He’d gone over it all a thousand times—where things had gone wrong, how the cracks had started. And finally, he’d found the root of it all.
It was Qiu Bi’s disappearance. That’s when everything had begun to fall apart.
This cat had been a witness to their love. A blessing from the heavens. Now that he’d found it, surely everything could go back to how it was.
Look! He’d found it!
Qiu Bi had come home!
Lin Hening felt dizzy from the intensity of the moment.
He looked at Xia Zhile, whose eyes were full of elation at recovering something he thought was lost. His smile overflowed with joy and hope, with desperate need for approval, and a pitiful, trembling kind of humility.
“Meow~”
Lin Hening lowered his gaze and slowly reached out to take the cat.
Xia Zhile was so overwhelmed with emotion he nearly cried on the spot.
Lin Hening gently stroked the soft fur down its back and said quietly, “Xia Zhile… this isn’t Qiu Bi.”
Xia Zhile’s smile froze on his face.
His shoulders collapsed as if all his strength had been drained. He looked like a shadow of himself. “I… I…”
“I really tried,” Xia Zhile said, his voice breaking. He covered his face with both hands, shaking all over.
“Hening, I really tried. I tried so hard. But I couldn’t find him. No matter what I did—I just couldn’t find him.”
