Days bled softly into weeks. The mansion, once echoing and strange, began to breathe with life again. Ren woke each morning to the scent of congee simmering, soy milk steaming, and the faint clatter of porcelain in the kitchen. At first, he thought it was a dream... the kind of dream poor kids have when they imagine being cared for. But then he'd pad into the dining room, barefoot, hair a mess, and there it was again... that long table filled with light.
Warm mantou buns, delicate jiaozi glistening with sesame oil, fried dough sticks arranged in perfect symmetry beside a bowl of fresh fruit. Sweet red bean soup for mornings when the air was cold; rice porridge laced with scallions and ginger when the rain fell softly against the windows.
And at the center of it all... Lian Zhen.
No longer a phantom lingering in corners, he appeared more often now, his presence woven into the rhythm of the house. Sometimes he looked solid, as if made of flesh and sun and old memory; sometimes, he was half-shadow, half-light. But to Ren, the distinction had begun to blur.
At first, fear had been a steady hum inside him... the trembling uncertainty of being haunted by something that looked human but wasn't. Yet that fear had slowly changed shape, softening into something else. A quiet dependence. A warmth that filled the hollow spaces in him he hadn't realized were there.
"Eat," Lian Zhen would say, his voice low, steady... no riddles this time, no cryptic poetry... just a simple word that grounded Ren.
Ren would sit down and obey, chopsticks shaking a little.
"You'll get sick if you don't eat properly," Lian Zhen said one morning, watching him blow on his hot dumpling. "You've been surviving on instant noodles and sorrow for too long."
Ren laughed... a fragile sound, like glass almost cracking but holding together. "How do you even know that?"
A small smile tugged at Lian Zhen's lips. "I've been watching you longer than you think."
Ren's chopsticks froze midair. "What do you mean?"
Lian Zhen didn't answer. He only looked at Ren for a long moment, eyes calm but full of something ancient... grief, devotion, maybe love. Then he turned back to the steaming pot. "Drink your soup before it cools."
Ren's side
The days became strange in their gentleness.
He'd wake up to find the sheets tucked around him, the curtains drawn back just enough for the morning light to kiss his face. He'd go to wash his face, and there would already be a towel hung neatly, the mirror wiped clean of fog.
At first, he'd been suspicious... was Lian Zhen reading his thoughts? Moving things when he slept? But the more it happened, the less he cared. The care itself was intoxicating.
No one had ever taken care of him like this. Not his parents. Not anyone.
He'd sit by the window at noon, the smell of mapo tofu filling the air, and Lian Zhen would appear silently beside him, his shadow overlapping Ren's. They'd talk a little... about the food, the garden, the weather outside that Ren hadn't stepped into for days.
Sometimes Ren would catch Lian Zhen looking at him in a way that made his chest tighten... not lustful, but tethered, as though every part of the man's soul was anchored to his existence.
Ren's birthmark began to change too.
The once-rough edges of it glowed faintly in the evening light, shifting hues... deep violet threaded with blood red, now flecked with faint gold. When he asked Lian Zhen about it, the man only said quietly, "It's remembering."
"Remembering what?"
"Our promise," Lian Zhen said, his voice barely audible.
Lian Zhen's side
He had waited lifetimes for this.
To watch Ren laugh again, to see the curve of his smile unguarded, was like hearing a song he thought had died with him.
Every dish he prepared... lotus root soup, twice-cooked pork, spicy Sichuan noodles... was an offering, a prayer in disguise. He cooked because it was one of the few ways he could touch the world again. And maybe, if he was lucky, Ren could taste the memory in it... the life they once had.
He never told him everything. Not yet. The memories that Ren had glimpsed in nightmares were shards of a truth too sharp to touch. But he would, soon.
Tonight, maybe.
That night, the house was quiet.
Ren fell asleep early, curled under the blanket, soft breaths fogging the cold air. Lian Zhen sat nearby, watching the boy's chest rise and fall. He felt something stir... an ache, a pull.
The candlelight flickered once, then went out.
Ren's side
He woke to the sound of whispering.
At first, he thought it was the wind brushing through the cracks in the window, but the sound was clearer, heavier... voices, layered over one another like a thousand murmurs trying to say his name.
"Ren…"
His heartbeat stumbled.
He sat up slowly, eyes adjusting to the dim light. The room was darker than usual. The air was cold enough to sting his throat.
Then came the chill... a cold so sharp it felt like hands pressing against his skin. His birthmark pulsed, glowing faintly through his shirt.
And then, beside him... movement.
A shadow shifted.
Ren's breath hitched. "Lian…?"
At first, the figure was just darkness. Then the shape grew clearer... a tall silhouette, broad-shouldered, cloaked in black. And then, for the first time since Ren had met him, Lian Zhen looked fully alive.
The same face Ren had seen in dreams.
The same armor glinting faintly beneath his cloak.
The same eyes... filled with sorrow and devotion that cut right through him.
Ren couldn't mode. His throat was tight, his chest trembling.
"Why are you here?" he whispered. "You're not supposed to..."
Lian Zhen took one slow step closer. The floor didn't creak. The air didn't move.
"I told you once," he said quietly, "you are not alone here."
Something flickered behind him... a shape, not human, crawling out of the darkness like it had been waiting for centuries. The air warped around it, its outline shifting and wrong.
Ren's fear broke, replaced by instinct.
He ran toward Lian Zhen... and for the first time, his arms didn't pass through him.
He touched him. Solid. Warm. Real.
Lian Zhen's eyes widened, a storm of disbelief and wonder flashing through them...
and then Ren saw the thing behind him open its eyes.
The world went black.
to be continued...
END OF THE CHAPTER.