[Capital City Airport]
By late August, the heat in the capital was almost suffocating.
Beneath the massive glass dome of the terminal, waves of scorching heat collided with the biting cold of the air-conditioning. The air carried a damp, slightly salty scent that pressed heavily on the chest.
The crowd surged like a tide.
Business travelers in tailored suits hurried past with determined strides, while students returning to school laughed and wove through the throng. Overhead announcements repeated flight information in a mechanical loop.
Xia Muyan moved slowly through the crowd.
He wore a faded light-colored T-shirt, pushing an old suitcase whose wheels occasionally screeched with a harsh grinding sound. In this modern, bustling terminal, he looked strangely out of place.
Through his earphones, his mother's voice came softly, warm with the gentle tone of home.
"Yanyan, have you arrived?"
"I just got off the plane."
He wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead. His voice sounded slightly hoarse.
"The capital is very dry and hot. Remember to drink plenty of water. Don't get heatstroke."
"Okay, Mom. The airport's too noisy. I'll call you again when I reach the dorm."
The moment he hung up, Xia Muyan stopped mid-step as he was about to head toward the taxi stand.
Deep inside his chest, his heart suddenly twitched.
There had been no warning.
It felt like a thin, icy needle stabbing straight into the tip of his heart. Instinctively he pressed a hand to his chest, his brows knitting together.
Then he froze.
He didn't know what he was waiting for.
Yet his feet refused to move, as if something hadn't finished yet.
…
On the other side of the arrival gate, the air seemed to freeze.
Gu Yaocheng walked with swift, decisive strides. His dark gray suit was cut with razor-sharp precision. Frost seemed to gather between his brows, and the pressure he radiated made nearby pedestrians instinctively step aside.
His secretary and assistant followed close behind, holding their breath, barely daring to let their leather shoes make a sound.
He was on the phone, handling an international acquisition deal. His speech was fast, his voice cold.
"Scrap the proposal and rewrite it. Send it to my email before eight tomorrow morning. Exchange rate fluctuations are your field of expertise. If you can't even evaluate risks like this, there's no need for this team to stay."
The voice on the other end stammered nervously.
Gu Yaocheng showed no expression as he prepared to end the call, his gaze sweeping past the bulletproof glass doors.
Then—
The moment he stepped around the corner—
All the sounds of the world vanished.
The noisy airport, the reports from his subordinates, the distant announcements—
everything was swallowed by a vast silence.
In its place came the thunderous sound of a heartbeat roaring in his ears.
He stopped abruptly.
Among the shifting crowd and blurred background, he locked onto that figure instantly.
Even though it was only a back view.
Even though it was separated by several meters of people.
Gu Yaocheng's pupils contracted violently. His fingers tightened around the phone until the knuckles turned white.
At first he merely walked faster.
Then he began to run.
"Mr. Gu? Mr. Gu!"
The phone slipped from his hand and shattered against the floor. The client's desperate voice continued calling from the receiver, but he paid it no attention.
He shoved aside a luggage cart blocking his way.
He pushed through the crowd.
A passerby's bag snagged his expensive suit and left an ugly crease, yet he didn't even notice.
The secretary stopped short, his heart leaping into his throat.
He had followed Gu Yaocheng for five years. Never had he seen his decisive, composed boss show such an expression.
It was a terrifying mixture—
of extreme fear,
fanatical hope,
and an obsession on the brink of collapse.
That figure was about to step into a taxi.
Gu Yaocheng lunged forward and seized the person's wrist.
The force made Xia Muyan stumble. His phone nearly slipped from his hand as he looked up in shock.
He collided with a pair of bloodshot eyes—almost mad.
The man before him was sharply handsome, yet completely devoid of composure at this moment. He was bent slightly forward, breathing heavily, as if he had crossed mountains and seas just to chase down a dream that was about to shatter.
Xia Muyan's wrist hurt under the tight grip.
"Ah—"
At that instant of eye contact, Xia Muyan's heart lurched violently again.
Stronger than before.
It felt as if some long-buried illness within him had been forcefully awakened.
Fear crawled up his spine.
But mixed with it was something else.
His eyes suddenly felt hot, as if someone had pressed on a place where he had cried long ago.
A wild instinct screamed in his mind:
Stay away from him.
"…Found you."
Gu Yaocheng spoke.
His voice was hoarse, like it had been scraped raw by sandpaper, filled with a twisted sense of satisfaction.
Xia Muyan tried to pull his hand back, but the man's grip was astonishingly strong.
Suppressing the strange trembling in his chest, he spoke politely yet distantly.
"Sir… I think you've mistaken me for someone else."
Gu Yaocheng's expression froze instantly.
He didn't let go.
Instead he stared at Xia Muyan as if his gaze were burning flames, trying to carve that face into his bones.
There was too much emotion in those eyes—
ecstatic relief at something lost and found again,
bottomless pain,
and a desperate plea so humble it was almost unbearable.
"Mr. Gu! Mr. Gu, are you alright?!"
The secretary rushed over, sweating heavily. The sight before him nearly scared him out of his wits.
The most powerful man in the capital was grabbing a stranger at the airport in full public view?
He quickly stepped forward and tried to smooth things over.
"I'm so sorry, really sorry! My boss has been working nonstop lately and is exhausted. His mental state isn't very stable—please forgive us!"
Xia Muyan lowered his eyes, avoiding the man's gaze that made his heart uneasy.
He nodded slightly to the secretary.
"I understand. But could you ask him to let go? I'm in a hurry to report to school."
The words "let go" stabbed into Gu Yaocheng's ears like icy spikes.
His fingers trembled slightly, as if all strength had suddenly drained from them.
"Mr. Gu… please let go first. Everyone's watching…" the secretary urged cautiously, holding his arm.
One finger after another loosened.
The moment he released him, Xia Muyan immediately pulled his hand back.
He slipped into the taxi and shut the door neatly.
Bang.
The car merged into traffic.
Through the rearview mirror, Xia Muyan saw the man still standing there—like a lonely monument on the verge of shattering, motionless amid the exhaust fumes and the roar of the airport.
He lowered his head and looked at his wrist, now bruised from the tight grip.
"Just a madman," he told himself.
Yet the dull, lingering pain in his chest refused to fade.
…
Outside the airport, the secretary looked at Gu Yaocheng with lingering fear.
"Mr. Gu… do you know him?"
Gu Yaocheng didn't answer.
He stared in the direction where the taxi had disappeared, unmoving for a long time. The noise around him seemed separated by an invisible glass wall.
Everything sounded distant.
After waiting for a while, the secretary asked cautiously again,
"Then… what is he to you?"
Silence stretched so long that the secretary thought there would be no answer.
Finally, Gu Yaocheng spoke softly.
"My lover."
He lowered his head and looked at his palm.
As if only in this moment did the world return to him—
while the person he loved had already vanished inside that departing car, completely unaware.