Chapter 191

Chapter 191

Opera performers took the stage one after another, acting out a story. Perhaps because these moments meant little to Huo Lanxu, the faceless figures moved at tremendous speed in Xiao Huai and Lu Yuanshi’s eyes and quickly left the stage.

But when Yang Nanqing stepped onstage in costume, everything slowed. The entire world focused on him.

Every frown and subtle gesture was graceful beyond compare. When he sang in an operatic voice, not the slightest trace of a man’s register could be heard.

If the shape of his Adam’s apple had not been visible when he raised his head, the audience might never have known that the performer onstage was a man.

Xiao Huai noticed a young man on the second-floor balcony leaning against the railing, his chin propped on his left hand as he silently watched Yang Nanqing with a smile.

His eyes never left Yang Nanqing for even an instant.

That man was Huo Lanxu.

Huo Dieyi suddenly poked her head out from behind him. “Brother, you’re back! Was it fun abroad?”

“It was all right,” Huo Lanxu answered perfunctorily, his gaze still fixed on Yang Nanqing.

Huo Dieyi knew he was brushing her off, but since the person he was staring at was Yang Nanqing, she could hardly blame him. She would have been equally unable to look away.

She sighed and leaned over the railing like her brother, watching the performance below.

“Oh, right, Brother. Father says he’s found an excellent marriage for you. The daughter of the Lin family.”

Huo Lanxu’s fingers curled slightly, and a faint crease appeared between his brows. “I already have someone I love.”

“What? Wow! You’re in love with someone?” Huo Dieyi laughed. She turned toward her brother and whispered, “I’ll tell you a secret. I have someone I love too, and you even know him.”

Huo Lanxu finally turned his gaze toward her.

At her age, Huo Dieyi was incapable of keeping a secret.

She poured out the entire story in one breath.

“It’s Brother Nanqing. I’ve already discussed it with Father. Even though he’s an opera performer, at least he has a respectable name and reputation. Father has agreed to let me marry him!”

For an instant, Huo Lanxu’s pupils contracted. He fell silent.

But at some point, the fingers of his left hand had begun to tremble.

Onstage, Yang Nanqing’s gaze met the young man’s below. Huo Dieyi became excited first. “Brother Nanqing is looking at me! I knew he liked me a little. Hehe.”

Huo Lanxu turned his head and met Yang Nanqing’s eyes.

As Yang Nanqing spun, his lips swiftly formed four words. “It’s been a while.”

*It’s been a while, Huo Lanxu.*

He had never been looking at Huo Dieyi. He was looking at Huo Lanxu.

Their story was one the world could never accept, a story hidden in darkness.

Perhaps Huo Lanxu knew that Xiao Huai could not remain here long.

The scene gradually dissolved, replaced by a lavish Western-style mansion.

Yet its golden exterior concealed rot within.

The Huo family’s rules were strict. When Huo Lanxu confessed his feelings, the entire family vehemently opposed him and inflicted a nightmarish punishment.

They beat him all night. He could no longer straighten his back, and both legs were nearly broken.

His face was swollen beyond recognition.

“Reflect on what you’ve done!” The furious roar of the head of the Huo family was followed by the slam of a door, and Huo Lanxu was locked inside his room.

Huo Dieyi was his younger sister. After everything that happened that night, how could she fail to understand?

Yet her expression remained utterly bewildered. She could not comprehend what any of it meant.

Her brother liked Yang Nanqing?

It was unreasonable. It was wrong. It was a mistake!
Everyone would laugh at them.

Huo Dieyi gritted her teeth and finally pulled back the medical kit she carried.

But when she passed Huo Lanxu’s room and heard her brother moaning unconsciously in pain, she could not harden her heart.

She quietly slid the medicine through the gap beneath the door.

“Brother, I’m sure you’ve misunderstood yourself somehow. A man and another man… Ha, how could that work? Why don’t you consider some other woman?”

Huo Lanxu did not speak for a long time. Huo Dieyi remained leaning against his door until she heard him fall heavily from the bed.

The muffled thud of flesh striking the floor made her heart ache.

Huo Dieyi cried out to her brother and tried to open the door, but their father had locked it. Without his order, no one could get inside.

She heard Huo Lanxu walking toward the door, every step slow and heavy.

His fist seemed to tap the wood softly.

“I love him. Gender has nothing to do with it. I love him, and in this life, there can be no one else.”

“Brother… you…”

At some point, enormous tears began streaming from Huo Dieyi’s eyes and splashing onto the floor.

Her heart had broken.

Why was something so melodramatic happening to her?

Did stories like this not exist only in fiction?

Only now, when it happened to her, did she discover how devastating it could be, as though her heart itself were being torn apart.

She wiped her tears, smearing her runny nose across her face.

She was normally so composed, but she truly could not hold it in. With a wail, she sobbed,

“Brother, why… Why did it have to be Yang Nanqing?”

Why did the two of them have to fall in love with the same person?

Huo Lanxu heard his sister crying, and his entire body trembled. She was in pain.

But so was he.

He had fallen in love with someone.

Yet loving that person meant betraying the entire world.

No one was willing to speak for him.

Everyone stared at him as though he were a freak or a monster.

He prayed to the gods. He begged them to help him.

But no god heard.

Eventually, Huo Dieyi cried herself to sleep and was carried away by the nanny.

On that summer night, Huo Lanxu huddled in a corner with both arms around his knees. His head hung low, and he could barely open his eyes.

Tap, tap.

He suddenly heard something: the crisp sound of a glass pane being struck.

Huo Lanxu’s room was on the second floor. He jerked his head up and looked out the window.

Yang Nanqing wore a long blue-green robe that looked entirely incongruous on someone secretly climbing through another person’s window.

He smiled softly and mouthed, “Open the window.”

Huo Lanxu hurried over. The instant he opened it, Yang Nanqing jumped inside. His foot caught, and just before he could twist his ankle, Huo Lanxu reacted quickly, catching him around the waist and pulling him close.

They hit the floor with a thud.

“Hiss…” Huo Lanxu clutched at his eye in pain.

Yang Nanqing landed in his arms, while Huo Lanxu bore their combined weight and slammed his injured back hard against the floor.

“Ah! Lanxu, are you all right?” Yang Nanqing immediately got up.

“I’b… fide.” Huo Lanxu’s face was already swollen like a pig’s. In his haste to speak, he bit his mouth, making him sound exceptionally foolish.

Yang Nanqing had looked worried, but at that response, he could not hold back his laughter.