Xiao Cheng was visiting Bai Yiheng’s house in S City for the first time. However, he had fallen asleep during the car ride and kept yawning as he exited the car. He didn’t even get a chance to properly look around Bai Yiheng’s home.
As expected, he slept until 10 a.m. the next morning. With the curtains drawn, the room was dark and gloomy. Xiao Cheng had no sense of time. When he finally woke up and reached for his phone on the bedside table, he realized it was already mid-morning.
As usual, he opened WeChat first to check if anyone had messaged him while he was asleep.
Most of the messages were unimportant, and Xiao Cheng skimmed through them. However, one particular message left him puzzled.
The sender’s name was [Missing a Z-Axis]
Xiao Cheng thought, ‘This person doesn’t even have a note in my contacts. They’re probably not a close friend.’
However, the tone of their message was strange enough to catch his attention. The person had sent:
[Did you miss me? Did you miss me?]
[Aren’t you excited to see me?]
Xiao Cheng: …
This was ridiculous. He didn’t even know who this person was—how could he possibly be excited to see them?
Initially, Xiao Cheng didn’t plan on replying, but the overly familiar tone piqued his curiosity. So, he responded:
[Sorry, who are you?]
He clicked on the person’s Moments, but they had restricted their posts to the past three days. There was nothing to see.
Since the person hadn’t replied, Xiao Cheng set aside the matter and forgot about it.
Xiao Cheng prepared breakfast. Bai Yiheng was only staying at this house for the night. Since it was the Lunar New Year, he had to return to spend time with his family.
“Mr. Bai, you can head back first. I’ll just take a taxi home,” Xiao Cheng suggested.
Bai Yiheng initially wanted to personally drive him back, but Xiao Cheng declined.
After a moment of thought, Bai Yiheng handed him a set of car keys.
“You can drive yourself. The car is in the garage.”
Xiao Cheng was a bit surprised. “You trust my driving skills that much?”
Bai Yiheng smiled. “Drive safely.”
Xiao Cheng didn’t hesitate and drove away in one of Bai Yiheng’s cars. It was only around 10 a.m. when he arrived home, but he noticed two unfamiliar cars parked in the garage.
Could Uncle be back?
With car keys dangling in his hand, Xiao Cheng was just approaching the door when he suddenly heard someone let out a faint hum.
Startled, he blurted out, “Who’s there?!”
Who’s hiding here trying to scare me?
A young man with handsome features stepped out from the shadows. His eyes were not brown but tinged with a light blue. His brows and eyes were deeper set than usual, and his tea-colored curly hair added to his striking appearance.
It was a mixed-race youth.
“Heartless jerk, you still remember to come home?” the youth remarked.
Xiao Cheng: ??
What nonsense are you talking about?
“Heartless jerk? Me?”
Confused, Xiao Cheng glanced toward the living room. He thought he could hear some faint voices but couldn’t make out the conversation.
“If it’s not you, then who?”
The young man walked up to Xiao Cheng in just a few steps and hooked his arm around Xiao Cheng’s.
“I sent you messages, and you actually asked who I was!”
Suddenly, Xiao Cheng remembered the mysterious person on WeChat. So it was him.
With a slightly awkward expression, Xiao Cheng gave the youth a once-over. After hesitating for a moment, he finally asked, “So… who are you?”
‘Must be one of Uncle’s kids’, he figured. ‘But which one?’
Uncle had two sons—twins.
The youth’s face flushed with anger at Xiao Cheng’s response, and he gritted his teeth. “You used to be able to tell me apart from my brother!”
Oh, so it’s the older brother then.
“Xiao Yinan?” Xiao Cheng forced a calm smile. “Of course, I can tell you apart. I was just messing with you.”
The youth shot him a faint look. “Actually, I’m the younger brother.”
Xiao Cheng: …
Grinding his teeth, Xiao Cheng admitted, “Alright, fine. I’ll admit I can’t tell you two apart anymore.”
The twins were at least 90% alike, with only minor differences in appearance. This was Xiao Cheng’s first time seeing them since childhood, so it was perfectly reasonable to be confused.
Xiao Yixi huffed. “See? I was right to call you heartless. You used to say I was your favorite.”
The brothers were younger than Xiao Cheng by a few years. The three of them had lived together for a while during childhood, but the twins had moved abroad with their parents. They only returned home for the Lunar New Year.
“How about I apologize to you?” Xiao Cheng suggested tentatively. He studied the young man’s face, determined to memorize every feature.
“Who needs your apology?” Xiao Yixi tightened his grip on Xiao Cheng’s arm. He was a few centimeters shorter and had to stand on tiptoes when he leaned in to try and kiss Xiao Cheng.
Shocked by this sudden display of enthusiasm, Xiao Cheng immediately pushed him away. “Don’t get so close!”
Having failed to kiss Xiao Cheng, Xiao Yixi frowned slightly and gave him an odd look.
Xiao Cheng deeply regretted losing his memory. He had no idea how to interact with Xiao Yixi. Why hadn’t anyone warned him that this kid was so affectionate?
Xiao Yixi stared at him briefly before suddenly blurting out, “Do you have a boyfriend?”
Xiao Cheng was momentarily surprised. Wasn’t his sexual orientation an open secret in this family?
How did Xiao Yixi figure that out?
“No, I don’t have one,” he replied.
“Did you break up?” Xiao Yixi stared into his eyes with an increasingly strange expression.
It was hard to describe the look in Xiao Yixi’s eyes—it was a mix of unwillingness and anger.
Xiao Cheng, feeling awkward, guided Xiao Yixi into the house while casually replying, “Yeah.”
Hearing his response, Xiao Yixi suddenly tightened his grip on Xiao Cheng’s arm. The smile on his face faded, and his light blue eyes turned slightly cold.
“Why are you lying to me?”
Xiao Cheng was even more confused. “What did I lie to you about?”
Xiao Yixi looked as though he’d been dealt a great injustice, his eyes slowly turning red. “Didn’t you tell me you were straight?”
Xiao Cheng: …
Wait, did I actually discuss something like this with him before?
“People change,” he muttered vaguely.
It wasn’t like he had lied to Xiao Yixi in the past. Before meeting Luo Jingshu, Xiao Cheng truly thought he was straight.
“Who’s the person that changed your sexual orientation?”
Xiao Yixi stopped hiding his emotions. His gaze turned fierce and cold, filled with unwillingness and anger, but when he looked at Xiao Cheng, there was also a fiery obsession.
“How are you speaking to your elder like that?” Xiao Cheng felt a growing sense of unease. There was something very odd about how Xiao Yixi looked at him.
Deliberately patting Xiao Yixi’s shoulder, Xiao Cheng adopted a tone of authority. “Don’t be so disrespectful to your older cousin.”
“Bah…” Xiao Yixi muttered a quiet curse, then persistently asked, “You still haven’t told me—who was your ex-boyfriend?”
“Stop being so curious.” The more insistent Xiao Yixi became, the more Xiao Cheng felt he couldn’t reveal anything. “Haven’t you ever heard the saying ‘Curiosity killed the cat’?”
“I’m not a cat! Just tell me—what’s the harm in that?” Xiao Yixi was practically clinging to him, refusing to let go until he got an answer.
Xiao Cheng felt a bit helpless. Since Xiao Yixi was his younger cousin, he couldn’t just shake him off. So he kept dodging the question, refusing to answer no matter how much Xiao Yixi pressed.
By the time they reached the living room, their clingy interactions had drawn a chuckle from He An, who teased, “Looks like Cheng Cheng and Xiao Xi missed each other terribly, huh?”
Xiao Cheng managed a polite smile. “Yeah.”
He turned to the other boy sitting on the sofa and greeted him, “Yinan, long time no see.”
Xiao Yinan looked up at the handsome young man. His gaze briefly swept over Xiao Cheng’s red lips and pale neck before exchanging a glance with his brother.
“Brother Cheng, it’s been a while,” Xiao Yinan said, his tone gentle and polite, carrying the air of an educated youth. Compared to Xiao Yixi, he came across as a more well-mannered younger sibling.
“Xiao Xi, don’t cling to your cousin,” Xiao Yinan added.
The twins’ mother, a British woman named Feng Yi, spoke fluent Mandarin and was extremely gentle. Her presence quickly put Xiao Cheng at ease, and he relaxed considerably.
Xiao Yixi, however, remained glued to Xiao Cheng’s side, playing with his hand—pinching his fingers, squeezing them, and occasionally holding his hand in his palm.
The unsettling feeling in Xiao Cheng’s heart grew stronger. Yet everyone around them acted as if this behavior was completely normal, as though it had happened countless times before.
Could it really just be me overthinking?
Feeling restless, Xiao Cheng shifted in his seat, increasingly uncomfortable, as though he were being roasted over a fire. Sitting there felt like pure torture.
Fortunately, He An seemed to notice his discomfort. “Cheng Cheng, are you feeling unwell?”
Everyone in the room turned their attention to Xiao Cheng, especially Xiao Yixi, whose reaction was particularly telling. Rather than letting go, he smiled knowingly.
Xiao Cheng deliberately pulled his hand away and pretended to yawn. “Maybe I didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Then go rest in your room,” Feng Yi suggested. She then gently scolded the twins, “Let your cousin rest—don’t bother him.”
While Xiao Yixi sulked a little, Xiao Yinan gave a polite smile. “Don’t worry, Mom. We know how to behave.”
The supposedly well-behaved twins stopped Xiao Cheng at the staircase.
Xiao Cheng regretted not moving faster.
As he faced the two boys, their identical faces and identical heights were striking, but their personalities were completely different.
The older brother, Xiao Yinan, gave off the vibe of a good-natured academic—gentle and polite. The younger brother, Xiao Yixi, was a mischievous brat, clingy and relentless when he wanted something.
“Do you two need something?” Xiao Cheng asked.
Xiao Yixi moved faster than his brother, sidling up to Xiao Cheng. “Brother Cheng, I’m feeling a little tired too. Can I sleep with you?”
???
Xiao Cheng’s lips twitched. “How about I take you to the guest room?”
Xiao Yixi pouted unhappily. “We used to sleep together all the time.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Twelve years ago!” Yixi said confidently.
Wasn’t that when he was six?
Kids sleeping together was no big deal, but now they were adults.
“That’s not appropriate,” Xiao Cheng replied firmly.
Xiao Yinan chimed in, “Why not?”
Since it was Xiao Yinan questioning him, Xiao Cheng softened his tone. “We’re not kids anymore.”
“Brother Cheng, you’re so biased! Why are you harsh to me but gentle with my brother?” Xiao Yixi grumbled in dissatisfaction. “And you still haven’t told me who your ex-boyfriend is.”
Hearing this, Xiao Yinan’s previously smiling face turned serious. “Brother Cheng had a boyfriend?”
They both looked at Xiao Cheng with a complex gaze, sending chills down his spine.
“Kids shouldn’t meddle in adult matters,” Xiao Cheng said dismissively, though their piercing stares made it hard for him to meet their eyes. After all, these two were his cousins, so he couldn’t use the usual tactics he would with others.
“Why can’t we meddle?” Xiao Yixi’s eyes turned red again, and his expression even showed a hint of sadness. “I’m supposed to be your boyfriend!”
What?!
Xiao Cheng was so startled by this statement that he almost fell off the stairs. Grabbing the handrail, he exclaimed, “Don’t say nonsense!”
Aren’t these my cousins?! This must be a joke!
“I’m not saying nonsense! You were the one who admitted it yourself.” Xiao Yixi’s expression was serious, showing no awareness of how shocking his words were.
“When we were playing house, you said both my brother and I were your brides.”
Xiao Cheng’s heart, which had leaped to his throat, sank back down. He was so frightened by Xiao Yixi’s earlier words that his face had gone pale, only to realize it was yet another incident from twelve years ago.
“Yixi, we were just kids back then.”
Xiao Cheng realized this particular cousin seemed to take childhood events far too seriously. While most things could be brushed off, that one statement surely wasn’t meant to be real, right?
“Are you denying your own words?”
“Scumbag!”
Xiao Cheng rubbed his temples. “I really have a headache. Can we talk about this later?”
Xiao Yixi was about to say more, but Xiao Yinan pulled him back. “Alright, Brother Cheng, take a good rest.”
Xiao Cheng took the opportunity to escape. After he left, Xiao Yixi’s face darkened. “Didn’t Brother Cheng say he was straight?”
The last time Xiao Yixi had confessed to Xiao Cheng, he’d been harshly scolded. After that, Xiao Cheng stopped replying to his messages.
And yet, not long after, Xiao Cheng had apparently bent?
Xiao Yinan shook his head. “If Brother Cheng doesn’t want to talk about it, we’ll find another way.”
It seemed the twins shared similar tastes. They had feelings for the same person and were rejected in the same way.
Xiao Cheng’s reason for rejecting them? He was straight—unbendable, he claimed.
But it was all a lie.
–
After locking his door, Xiao Cheng gulped down a large glass of water to suppress the shock in his heart.
So, his gut feeling that Xiao Yixi’s strange attitude wasn’t just his imagination.
The twins’ overly calm expressions had made his own reaction seem exaggerated.
Still, anyone would find it hard to stay calm if a blood-related cousin suddenly confessed to them.
Xiao Cheng couldn’t help but let out an internal scream. The headache he mentioned earlier wasn’t a lie; the twins entirely caused it.
It’s all because I have no memory! Damn it.
Seething with frustration, Xiao Cheng opened WeChat and clicked on Luo Jingshu’s profile.
[Is there any progress with the necklace?]
For the first time ever, Xiao Cheng felt such urgency to recover his memories.
If something like this happened again, he might really lose his mind.
[Luo Jingshu: What happened?]
Xiao Cheng steadied his breathing. Luo Jingshu had always been sharp. Even though Xiao Cheng hadn’t said anything, the other party already seemed to suspect something.
[Nothing. Just checking the progress.]
It wasn’t clear if Luo Jingshu believed him, but he sent over two screenshots from their conversation. Xiao Cheng opened them and, after carefully reading, realized he couldn’t rush things.
[That’s all for now.]
[Luo Jingshu: Has your uncle returned?]
Why was he asking about that?
Xiao Cheng frowned instinctively. Suddenly, he remembered that Luo Jingshu had five years of additional memories. Could he also know about Xiao Yixi and Xiao Yinan’s feelings for him?
No way.
Based on what Xiao Cheng knew about Luo Jingshu, someone as dedicated as him would probably never share such things with his white moonlight.
[Yes, he’s back.]
Luo Jingshu replied quickly: [Be careful around those twins.]
!!
He knew?!
Xiao Cheng’s expression grew increasingly colorful. He had no idea how to respond.
After a few minutes of silence, Luo Jingshu seemed to guess what was happening and asked: [Did they bully you?]
Xiao Cheng hurriedly replied: [No.]
Luo Jingshu knew far too much!
Afraid that delaying his response might lead Luo Jingshu to uncover everything, Xiao Cheng quickly typed his reply.
On the other side of the screen, Luo Jingshu couldn’t help but frown, his expression a mix of cold detachment and gritted-teeth frustration.
Why were there so many people coveting Brother Cheng?
Luo Jingshu didn’t know much about the twins, but the reason he was aware of their feelings for Xiao Cheng was because he had once seen them frantically searching for him.
At the time, Luo Jingshu had been standing behind a door, overhearing their conversation loud and clear.
What’s more, he remembered that these twins weren’t actually the biological sons of Xiao Cheng’s uncle.
But that was a secret the twins likely didn’t know yet.
Lowering his gaze, Luo Jingshu quickly typed:
[I’ll get to the bottom of the necklace issue as soon as possible. Brother Cheng, I might need to visit your apartment again.]
Maybe the problem wasn’t with the necklace itself, but rather the apartment.
Xiao Cheng thought the same.
Although he wasn’t thrilled about seeing Luo Jingshu, it seemed that only the two of them had been reborn. He had no choice but to rely on Luo Jingshu’s help to uncover the truth.
[Alright.]
Xiao Cheng’s claim about going upstairs to rest was just an excuse, but after what had just happened, he really didn’t want to go back down.
The twins’ words from earlier still made his scalp tingle.
How was he supposed to make them understand that they were siblings and couldn’t be together? Let alone the idea of all three of them being involved—it was unthinkable.
Or maybe the twins were just joking. After all, the idea was so outrageous that it bordered on absurdity.
Xiao Cheng stayed in his room for a long time until a knock on the door startled him.
“Who is it?” he asked warily.
When he opened the door, Xiao Ziyue stood outside.
“Brother, come down for dinner.”
Xiao Cheng let out a sigh of relief. “I’ll be down in a minute.”
Xiao Ziyue didn’t leave, lingering by the door. “By the way, I need to tell you something.”
“Just now, Xiao Yixi and Xiao Yinan suddenly asked me who your ex-boyfriend was.”
Xiao Cheng froze, his hand stilling mid-motion as he reached for his jacket.
“You told them?”
Xiao Ziyue scratched the back of her head awkwardly. “They wouldn’t stop pestering me…”
Those two were incredibly persistent—Xiao Cheng had experienced it firsthand earlier.
“Why were they asking about that?” Xiao Ziyue frowned. “It’s strange.”
“They looked like they were ready to fight someone.”
Xiao Cheng couldn’t help but seriously consider who would win in a fight between the twins and Luo Jingshu.
Luo Jingshu was pretty good at fighting.
But there were two of the twins.
After imagining the scenario for a while, Xiao Cheng snapped out of it. What did it matter to him who won or lost?
All three of them were troublemakers anyway.
