Pure White: Angel or Demon?

On a rainy night, the back seat of a Maybach glowed with cold neon. Gu Yuchuan ran his finger across his phone screen and unexpectedly landed in a livestream. The streamer wore exaggerated clown makeup, a ridiculous red nose, and an ill-fitting, oversized costume. Bowing and scraping before the camera, he begged for the occasional gift in a hoarse voice and performed clumsy, goofy antics. In an instant, Gu Yuchuan stopped breathing. Because he recognized those eyes. Five years ago, Shen Xing had been full of youthful passion, starlight shining in his eyes as he promised to love Gu Yuchuan for the rest of his life. Those eyes, so clear they could reflect the whole world, were now behind a cheap phone screen, veiled by exhaustion and numbness that would not lift. The man Gu Yuchuan had hated for five years, the man he had searched for for five years before forcing himself to let go, hadn’t climbed the social ladder and left for greener pastures. He hadn’t grown tired of Gu Yuchuan and walked away. Instead, out of sight, he had fallen from the clouds into the mud and turned himself into a clown for others’ amusement. His overwhelming hatred shattered in an instant, replaced by shock and heartache so intense they threatened to drown him. He used every resource at his disposal and pried open the cracks in five years of time before finally uncovering the truth behind that sudden disappearance. When he kicked open the door to the leaking rental room and pulled Shen Xing, now so thin he was little more than skin and bones, into his arms, he realized that the person he had tried so desperately to win back had been waiting for him for such a long, long time.