Shen Yi sat alone on the couch, his back slightly hunched and his gaze fixed on nothing in particular, while the faint sound of running water from the bathroom filled the otherwise quiet room.
After a while, Shen Yi stood up slowly, pressing a hand to his forehead as though trying to clear his mind, and in the silence of the room, a question echoed in his heart—' What am I doing?'
Just because someone had shown him a little care, he had allowed himself to drift, to forget, to almost abandon the one thing that mattered most in his life.
Not that he had chosen this life, not really.
His thoughts pulled him back, dragging him nine years into the past, to a time when he had been just a fifteen-year-old boy, with grief and lost in the darkness that had swallowed his world whole the moment his parents died in that terrible car crash.
He locked himself in his room, refusing to eat or speak to anyone, curled up in bed for days, wishing it had been him instead.
Then one day, someone had come. It was his father's old friend—his uncle, Huang Kai.
The man hadn't come to offer mere sympathy, but something that changed Shen Yi's life forever.
He could still hear his uncle's voice clearly, saying the words that shook the very ground beneath him.
"Shen Yi, it wasn't an accident."
The moment he had heard that, his breath had caught, and he had stared at his uncle with wide eyes.
"What... what do you mean?" he had asked in a trembling voice.
"Your parents," Huang Kai had said slowly, watching him carefully, "they were murdered."
Shen Yi had frozen, his hands curling into fists as his heart pounded painfully against his ribs.
"Who killed them?" he had asked, his voice sharp with sudden fury. But his uncle hadn't answered right away.
Instead, he had looked at Shen Yi for a long time and asked, "What would you do even if I told you?"
Young Shen Yi had not hesitated.
"I'll kill him," he had said, his voice shaking but determined.
Huang Kai had raised an eyebrow and then asked, "And how will you do that? Have you ever killed someone before? Do you think it's that easy?"
Shen Yi had lowered his head but clenched his fists harder.
"Then teach me," he had said quietly.
His uncle had studied him in silence for a while, before saying, "The person who did this is powerful. If you really want revenge, you need to become capable enough first. Otherwise, you'll die without even seeing their face."
Young Shen Yi had looked him in the eyes and asked, "Will you help me?"
Huang Kai had nodded. "Yes. But I won't tell you who it is until you prove you're strong enough. You have ten years, Shen Yi. If you make it, I'll tell you everything."
So began his long and brutal journey.
His uncle had taken him in and trained him. Every day had been filled with pain, sweat, blood, and every night with nightmares. He had endured it all because of that one promise.
Nine years later, he had become what the world called a ghost, a black-market assassin whose name no one knew.
Now, there was only one month left before those ten years were over.
One more month, and he would finally get the name of the person who had taken everything from him.
That knowledge was what had kept him alive all this time, what gave him strength when the weight of what he did became too much to bear.
And now, here he was, standing in someone else's apartment, caught up in something he didn't understand. He had let himself get distracted and that was dangerous. He couldn't afford to fail now.
So whatever he was starting to feel around Jiang Qi, it had to end. Yes, he would stay for two days for the sake that they had a past friendship that he couldn't recall, and then leave.
He would report the mission as a failure and forget all of this ever happened.
The bathroom door opened pulling him from his thoughts. Jiang Qi stepped out, a towel wrapped around his waist and another in his hand as he rubbed his wet hair.
Shen Yi instantly turned his gaze away, trying to maintain the cold expression he had always worn, but a slight flush crept up his ears, betraying him.
Jiang Qi noticed it and smirked to himself, the mischievous light in his eyes growing brighter.
He walked slowly toward the couch, standing right in front of Shen Yi.
"Little Black," he called, his tone light but teasing.
Shen Yi looked up despite himself, and his eyes landed on the very image he had been trying to avoid.
He swallowed hard, unable to stop his eyes from trailing along the defined lines of Jiang Qi's chest and arms, before quickly looking away again, his embarrassment clear.
"What is it?" he asked, his voice low
.
Jiang Qi tilted his head. "You want to take a bath?" He stepped a little to the side, exactly the side Shen Yi had turned to avoid him, and continued, "I left a towel for you in there. You can wear some of my clothes. I've got extras."
Shen Yi said nothing as he stood up abruptly and made his way toward the bathroom without so much as a glance.
Jiang Qi chuckled to himself, watching Shen Yi disappear behind the door. Then he picked up his phone from the table, quickly typing out a message to Xu Bo.
"I'll be staying here tonight."
He then enters the other room that is beside the bathroom, which is the bedroom.
Back in the bathroom, Shen Yi stood in front of the mirror, staring at his reflection.
His mind, however, was far from the image in front of him.
That body... those abs... The picture replayed again and again, no matter how much he tried to push it away.
He shut his eyes and sighed, then shook his head hard. "What's wrong with me..." he muttered.
He undressed slowly, placing his clothes neatly on the stool, then removed the chain around his neck and placed it on the counter. He stepped into the shower and turned the water on.
It ran down his body, but no matter how long he stood there, it didn't wash away the thoughts he wanted to forget.
And no matter how hard he tried to fight it, the image of Jiang Qi smiling, teasing, standing half-naked before him, remained carved into his mind.