The dim light shone on the thin shirt, Making Wang Dian’s profile appear particularly aloof and cold. His shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing slightly thin wrists and forearms, against a strange and dark background where light and shadow intermingled.

His movements as he packed up his things were casual and languid. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the city lights blazed and traffic flowed, but Liang Ye felt as if he had returned to a rainy day from long ago, when he was holding an umbrella and returning to the mansion, only to see Wang Dian leaning lazily against a pillar watching the rain.

Casual and indifferent, with an out-of-place aloofness.

Back then, he had merely thought Wang Dian was from another world, with no sense of belonging in Northern Liang, but now that they had returned to the world where he grew up, this feeling became even stronger.

Like a ghost floating outside the mortal world.

Just as Wang Dian had taken him to live in houses throughout the city, yet couldn’t find a single room where they could truly settle down.

Liang Ye walked over and sat cross-legged opposite him, leaning against the soft sofa, poking the dry nose of the wolf head, and bending down to help him collect the scattered tools and liquids on the floor.

He handed them to Wang Dian, who then put them in the toolbox beside him. After a moment, he finally spoke. “Don’t overthink things by yourself.”

Liang Ye looked up at the mirror on the ceiling, “Why did you install this?”

Wang Dian followed his gaze upward, and saw Wang Dian and Liang Ye in the mirror, “Don’t you think that the mirror is like another world?”

What’s in the mirror is illusory, and what’s outside the mirror is real.

“Every move is perfectly replicated.” Wang Dian stared at himself in the mirror and tugged at the corner of his mouth, “The Wang Dian in the mirror is completely under my control. Look, when I smile, he can’t cry; when I’m alive, he can’t die. He completely belongs to me.”

A warm palm suddenly covered his eyes, and Liang Ye used a bit of force to make him lower his head. He cupped Wang Dian’s face with both hands and stared into his eyes, his gaze filled with anger and burning jealousy, “Zhen is the one who completely belongs to you. Both Wang Dian and the Wang Dian in the mirror belong to Zhen.”

Wang Dian silently stared at him for a while, “Damn, you actually understood.”

Some people who heard his theory either didn’t understand or thought he was a pervert, avoiding him at all costs.

“Zhen is not a fool.” Liang Ye said angrily, “Tomorrow Zhen will have all the mirrors in the house removed. If you want to look in a mirror, you can look at Zhen.”

Wang Dian, with his face still held in Liang Ye’s hands, began to smile genuinely.

Liang Ye rarely saw him smile so sincerely, yet he wasn’t happy. He dared not imagine how lonely and depressed a person must be to find comfort in “controlling” themselves in the mirror as a form of self-deception.

“When did you install the mirror?” Liang Ye pressed his finger against the upturned corner of Wang Dian’s mouth.

Wang Dian thought carefully, “When I was fifteen.”

The jealousy in Liang Ye’s eyes was about to burst into flames, “So you’ve been staring at yourself in the mirror for over ten years?”

Wang Dian never expected that Liang Ye’s jealousy could extend even to himself. He twitched the corner of his mouth and said, “I’m not allowed to look at myself?”

“No,” Liang Ye said with a strange tone, “Zhen looks exactly like you. Do you like yourself more or Zhen more?”

Wang Dian felt that his brain must be filled with water, and even had the strange illusion that Liang Ye was treating him as a love rival, “…What kind of ridiculous question is that?”

Crazy person.

Perhaps only a crazy person would fall in love with another crazy person.

“Zhen hates mirrors the most.” Liang Ye concluded domineeringly, “Now that you have Zhen, you don’t need mirrors anymore.”

Wang Dian looked at him with amusement, “You’re such an idiot.”

Liang Ye kicked the wolf head, “Throw this away too, and those skulls as well. Zhen doesn’t like them.”

He equally despised anything that could attract Wang Dian’s attention other than himself.

“Fine, I’ll throw them away. I’ll have someone move them right now.” Wang Dian reached for his phone, “What else do you find displeasing? Say it quickly.”

“This, this, and that… remove all the mirrors.” Liang Ye raised his head, glaring fiercely at Wang Dian in the mirror, “Smash them and throw them away.”

“Why don’t you throw me away too?” Wang Dian raised his eyelids and glared at him.

“…” Liang Ye stared at him for a while, let out a cold laugh, “You’re only this bold because Zhen dotes on you.”

Wang Dian very much wanted to pick up the long wrench from the ground and hit him with it, but in the end humanity prevailed. He pulled Liang Ye over and kissed him a couple of times, albeit not in the best mood, then called someone to move the things.

While he helped take things downstairs, Liang Ye had already found his way to Wang Dian’s bedroom, accurately located Wang Dian’s most frequently worn pajamas and changed into them. Then he wandered into the study and used Wang Dian’s most commonly used password to open the computer, but couldn’t find any fun games. It was all filled with documents and foreign squiggly letters. He yawned and idly pulled at the drawer below.

The things in Wang Dian’s drawer were also unremarkable: documents, contracts, seals, glasses, USB drives… He then turned to the open bookshelf nearby. Most of the books there didn’t interest him, and many compartments were filled with Wang Dian’s own photos. Finally, he pulled out a thick album, and the first page showed Wang Dian as a child. He began to look through it with interest.

As he looked, it seemed that Wang Dian’s life was quite rich. The photos encompassed almost every scenario, but as he flipped through, he noticed a problem—the album contained only solo photos.

From childhood to adulthood, the only person in the photos was Wang Dian himself. There wasn’t even a shadow of Zhong Qianyan or Wang Huainan, let alone others. Even when it was clear that other people had been present, they had been cleanly and neatly cropped out.

Wang Dian’s world had no room for anyone else.

Liang Ye lowered his eyes and touched the slightly smiling Wang Dian in the photo. When in Northern Liang, Wang Dian had mostly kept silent about his past. After returning here, he still didn’t mention anyone other than himself. If not for being mistakenly identified as Wang Dian, Zhong Qianyan and Wang Huainan would probably just be generic terms like “mom and dad” in Wang Dian’s mouth.

Parents in Wang Dian’s eyes were like symbols, only needing to exist.

“What are you looking at?” Wang Dian’s voice suddenly came from above.

“Photos.” Liang Ye didn’t raise his head and flipped another page, saying in a muffled voice. “Did you bring Zhen here to make Zhen pity you?”

“I don’t need anyone’s pity.” Wang Dian sat down opposite him, took the album, closed it, and casually tossed it aside. “I’ve never lacked love or companionship, I just don’t need them. You are an exception for me.”

Liang Ye’s expression was displeased, seemingly very dissatisfied with his words.

“The things that are coming back to my mind now even I find bizarre… I need some time to process them.” Wang Dian’s eyes looked slightly forlorn. “I know you don’t like being restrained, and neither do I, but sometimes I can’t control myself. I’m afraid I might hurt you.”

Liang Ye held his hand, “I won’t run around anymore. I’ll stay at home and keep you company.”

Wang Dian raised his eyes to stare at him.

Liang Ye’s gentle smile on his face gradually expanded and distorted into smugness, “You thought Zhen would say that? Dream on.”

Wang Dian grabbed the back of his neck and pressed his head down on his thigh, gritting his teeth. “What the hell are you so pleased about all day?”

“Zhen truly likes you more and more now,” Liang Ye said, grabbing his shirt sleeve while struggling and laughing so hard his body shook.

Wang Dian picked up the thick album from beside him and slammed it onto Liang Ye, who nimbly twisted his waist to dodge the attack, then flipped over to grab the bookshelf to get up. Wang Dian suddenly panicked. “Wait—”

But it was clearly too late. An entire wooden shelf filled with books leaning against the wall visibly tilted and heavily crashed down toward the two of them. Wang Dian instinctively raised his hand to prop it up, but in the next second, Liang Ye, who had come to his senses, suddenly turned around and pulled him into his arms, taking several steps to fly to the bay window ledge far away.

Boom.

The chandelier above the study shook for several seconds from the impact. Under the bright light, tiny dust particles danced joyfully in the air.

Wang Dian turned his head to look at Liang Ye with a wooden expression.

“Zhen habitually used internal energy.” Liang Ye blinked slowly, “This bookshelf was so unstable, keeping it would have been a hidden danger. It’s good that it fell.”

Wang Dian couldn’t help but laugh at his shameless justification.

Liang Ye poked his cheek and sincerely suggested, “We might as well build a new bookshelf and fill it with Zhen’s photos.”

“…You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” Wang Dian belatedly realized.

The previous bookshelf had been full of his own photos.

Liang Ye pretended not to hear and reluctantly compromised, “Photos of you and Zhen together would also work.”

Wang Dian, being held in his arms, stared at him expressionlessly for a long time. The smile on his face gradually widened, and eventually he let out a laugh. The laughter grew louder and echoed in the empty, messy study, both manic and satisfying, heartfelt and unrestrained.

Liang Ye lowered his eyes to watch him laugh, his expression strangely calm. He picked up the laughing man in his arms, stepped over the messy wood and books on the floor, then placed Wang Dian on the sofa. He took a wet towel, sat on the carpet, and wiped the dust and wood chips from Wang Dian’s feet.

Wang Dian lay back on the sofa, staring at his own smiling face and the top of Liang Ye’s head in the mirror on the ceiling. He placed his foot on Liang Ye’s thigh.

The moment Liang Ye looked up at him, a small tool knife that had been hidden suddenly appeared in his hand, fiercely penetrating the entire glass panel on the ceiling. The complete and smooth mirror instantly made a cracking sound and shattered into pieces. The reflections of Wang Dian and Liang Ye also split into countless distorted, unclear images with the fragments.

Wang Dian slowly withdrew his gaze from the mirror and met Liang Ye’s dark and sharp eyes, saying sincerely, “I haven’t been this happy for a very long time.”

Liang Ye, completely unreasonable, had forcefully destroyed the solitude and eccentricity that Wang Dian had maintained for many years, refusing to let others in, then tyrannically and forcefully invaded his personal space.

He should have felt disgust and anger.

But at this moment, he felt an unprecedented lightness and joy.

Liang Ye’s gaze clung tightly to his face as he moved closer, enveloping him completely in his embrace, leaving no room for escape, and said grimly, “You never needed any love or companionship.”

“You only need Zhen.”

Countless broken mirror pieces fell from the ceiling with cracking sounds. The sharp, irregular mirror fragments reflected innumerable identical faces belonging to Wang Dian and Liang Ye, but from beginning to end, Wang Dian’s gaze remained fixed on Liang Ye’s face before him.

Bloodiness and intimacy floated and intertwined amidst the rain of mirrors. The lonely soul that had wandered for many years finally cut through the illusion, took root, and saw its true self.

“Of course.”