Ren Xiyi first met Huo Linchuan at his boyfriend's funeral.
He didn't know this powerful head of the Huo family.
At the time, he'd only just managed to untangle his boyfriend's complicated family ties: a wealthy family, an illegitimate son, and someone who was practically invisible in the Huo household.
So Huo Zhenxi fled the capital, Jing City, and became a teacher in this small town. After meeting Ren Xiyi, his life, stagnant as a pool of dead water, finally came alive.
But fate was unkind. He died in a filthy river. According to the people who saw him in his final moments, he had been holding a child above the water the whole time.
Ren Xiyi saw that child at the funeral.
An orphan.
The reason he'd lost his beloved.
After the funeral, a lawyer read out the will. Huo Zhenxi was to be buried in the Huo family's ancestral tomb, and the few things he owned were all left to Ren Xiyi. Then the lawyer hesitated: Huo Zhenxi had wanted to adopt that child, and before his death, only one final step remained.
Mr. Ren, Mr. Huo, which of you will raise the child?
"I don't want your stinking money!"
But in reality, Ren Xiyi was steadily defeated by the Huo family's massive team of elite lawyers.
Just as he decided to let the matter go, the head of the Huo family said, "We can raise him together."
The child was the last memento of his beloved. Gritting his teeth, Ren Xiyi headed to the capital and moved into the Huo family mansion.
He didn't know how the Huo family described his relationship to them in public. The housekeeper and servants called him "Madam," though never quite clearly.
Then one day, Huo Linchuan got drunk at a business event. His business partner called him and asked Madam Huo to come pick him up.
Huo Linchuan first met Ren Xiyi at his younger brother's funeral. Young and free, he stood in the funeral hall like a bird with rain-soaked wings.
He was his younger brother's widower.
Huo Linchuan's sense of responsibility kicked in.
Later, things went as he wished: he lived with the young man. Sometimes in the afternoon, he would drink coffee while Ren Xiyi knelt on the carpet, playing with blocks with the child, his head bowed to reveal the pale nape of his neck.
Huo Linchuan looked away, only to meet the gaze of the person in the black-and-white photograph.
A trace of guilt stirred in Huo Linchuan.
Later still, one morning, Huo Linchuan looked at the sleeping person beside him. His thin eyelids were closed, and the bridge of his nose, seen in profile, was the most beautiful straight line in the world.
Huo Linchuan felt a sense of contentment unlike anything he'd ever experienced.
Huo Zhenxi did one last thing for the Huo family, in exchange for being allowed to leave them.
Before setting out, he had someone he couldn't stop worrying about. Huo Linchuan told him, "The Huo family will look after him."
But after everything was over, Huo Zhenxi tried to open the door to his own home and found the locks had been changed.
His beloved was very security-conscious.
Huo Zhenxi knocked.
The person who opened the door was his dear older brother. The man who was always so aloof had a smile on his face and an apron tied around him. Warm yellow light made him look right at home.
A child's voice rang out: "Dad, who's there?"
Then came Ren Xiyi's voice: "The child's dad, who's here?"
Huo Linchuan closed the door. "Wrong door."
Theme: After many twists and turns, fate makes the best arrangements
