8:00 p.m., Shen City.
Hu Xiaoyu lingered in the hallway outside the Supreme VIP lounge on the eighth floor of Nightfall, hemmed in by a cluster of MBs—male escorts draped in practiced charm.Running low on spiritual energy, he carefully loosened the seal on his sense of smell.
At once, a tidal wave of odors assaulted him—perfume, sweat, pressed fabrics, the tang of leather coin pouches strapped to narrow waists. To a fox's sharpened senses, it was almost suffocating.
A head of soft, coffee-colored hair leaned toward him.
"You okay? You look pale. Low blood sugar?"
The boy rummaged through his small pouch, unwrapped a fruit candy, and held it out with casual kindness."Tonight we've got some of Shen City's top heirs. If you can reel in even one of them—just for a few days—it'll be worth more than a year's work here. Don't blow it."
Hu Xiaoyu steadied himself against the haze of smells. His head still swam faintly, but at least he could stand. He accepted the candy with a faint smile for the fair, gentle face beneath that fall of coffee-brown hair.
"Thank you."
A few words later, he learned the boy's name—Jin Bao, one of Nightfall's highest-ranked escorts.
As for himself, Hu Xiaoyu had slipped inside barely half an hour ago, charming the manager with a trick. He was here to find someone. He couldn't tell Jin Bao that, so he answered vaguely.
Other escorts, noticing their exchange—especially when they got a good look at Hu Xiaoyu's face—reacted with envy, awe, or disdainful snorts. Jin Bao, long accustomed to such reactions, barely blinked. In this business, rivalry was inevitable. Anyone pretending otherwise was lying.
Hu Xiaoyu simply blinked back, unbothered. Human emotions, so layered and contradictory, fascinated him.
By the time the clock neared half past eight, Jin Bao gathered his courage and asked to exchange contacts. He assumed Hu Xiaoyu was new—fresh blood. With that face, it wouldn't be long before the fox outshone them all. Best to connect early, before it became impossible.
It wasn't only strategy, though. Jin Bao genuinely liked him. It was the kind of inexplicable attraction where being near someone made the air feel lighter.
Hu Xiaoyu fumbled clumsily with his phone. He hadn't fully absorbed the host body's memories yet; each attempt to draw them left him drowsy and drained.
Ten minutes later, a group of young men—no older than twenty-two—filed into the private lounge. The room was spacious, dimmer than the hall outside.
Not that dimness bothered Hu Xiaoyu. His pupils glowed faintly green, granting him perfect clarity in the dark.
Then he saw him.
Sitting alone on a velvet sofa by the window, a cigarette balanced between long fingers—Yu Tan.
Found you.
Hu Xiaoyu's breath caught. His gaze locked, unblinking, until Yu Tan looked back.
The man's eyes were sharp as a blade, slicing through smoke and shadows to land on him.
For a heartbeat, time froze.
Then light blazed across the lounge. Someone had flicked on the overheads.
"Shi Jingyang, are you out of your mind? That light's blinding!" someone complained, half-laughing.
Another voice jeered, "Better blind you than let you keep stealing my picks!"
Hu Xiaoyu winced, eyes squeezed shut. When he opened them again, Yu Tan had already snuffed out his cigarette and was absently fingering a string of prayer beads on his left wrist.
The other escorts adapted quickly, forming a neat line in the center of the room like saplings on display. By contrast, Hu Xiaoyu remained by the door, utterly still, eyes fixed only on Yu Tan.
Jin Bao tried to signal him, but it went unnoticed.
Shi Jingyang was the first to notice. His eyes lit up."Damn, he's gorgeous… Nobody fight me for this one tonight!"
The man beside him, more inclined toward women, still muttered in disbelief, "You've got an eye for beauties, but… he's not even looking at you. Look at how he's staring at Yu-ge."
Shi Jingyang followed the gaze and cursed inwardly. Sure enough, those fox-like eyes were fastened on Yu Tan. Still, Yu Tan was notoriously untouchable. Maybe luck was on his side.
He called out shamelessly, "Yu-ge, what about that one by the door? If you don't want him, I'll take him. That face is unreal—I need to touch it to believe he's real."
The room hushed.
All eyes turned.
White T-shirt, black shorts, long legs tapering into a narrow waist—just standing there, the youth radiated an aura that made men instinctively stub out their cigarettes, afraid of staining him.
And that was before the face.
Fox eyes, sharp yet enticing. A straight nose. Soft rose lips. Porcelain skin too flawless to be human.
Hu Xiaoyu had endured stares all his life. He offered a polite nod, a faint, aristocratic smile—like a young noble of some ancient clan—while his gaze drifted inevitably back to Yu Tan.
He didn't even realize he was playing no role at all. He wasn't an escort. He had simply tricked his way in to see Yu Tan.
The others gaped. Jin Bao's stomach clenched with dread. Was this boy seriously trying to outshine them in front of Shen City's heirs? One wrong step here could ruin him.
The manager, sweating bullets, panicked. He'd already forgotten he'd been charmed earlier. This stranger was breaking all protocol. He reached out to shove Hu Xiaoyu—only to yelp in pain when static shocked his palm.
Hu Xiaoyu didn't even glance at him. A fox spirit could not attack humans in the mortal world, but if provoked, he could defend himself. That much was fair.
The silence thickened.
Shi Jingyang, restless, looked at Yu Tan again. "Yu-ge, do you want him?"
If Yu Tan said yes, he'd back down. Nobody fought Yu-ge, not when he rarely showed interest.
The man in question sat with the detached authority of someone who didn't need to claim it. White shirt, dark slacks, a sharp aura that filled the space even as he reclined against the sofa. His complexion was pale, almost fragile at first glance, yet undeniably commanding. His dark eyes, bottomless and cold, made hearts stumble.
He rolled the prayer beads again. The moment he had seen Hu Xiaoyu, they had seared his wrist, scalding-hot.
In a tone edged with languid indifference, Yu Tan spoke:
"Put tonight's tab on me."
Everyone understood. Shi Jingyang's party, Shi Jingyang's bill—until Yu Tan claimed it.
Shi Jingyang scratched his head, disappointed but compliant. He waved at Hu Xiaoyu. "Come here."
Under the weight of ten heirs' gazes, most would have faltered.
But Hu Xiaoyu?
He walked as though crossing a neighbor's threshold. Calm. Certain. Fox eyes gleaming, radiating warmth, even joy, as they fell on Yu Tan.
Then something else—an echo of disappointment. Guilt.
Yu Tan's face and name were the same, but he no longer remembered him.
Once, Hu Xiaoyu had promised he'd return soon. But when his tail was severed, pain dragged him into unconsciousness. He had woken a century later.
The world unchanged—yet utterly different.
He bit his lip.
Yu Tan didn't know him. And he looked frightening.
Yu Tan, whose IQ surpassed 150, could read through most men with ease. He twisted the beads, eyes unreadable, and asked:
"What do you want?"
What Hu Xiaoyu wanted was irrelevant.
What mattered was whether Yu Tan would let him stay.
And Yu Tan intended to keep him.