The ones who should leave and the ones who shouldn't leave have all left. Yan Shu laid alone upon the cold floor of the Devil's Hall. Tears streamed from his eyes and slid down his cheeks before hitting the ground with a distinct noise.

The heart that was supposed to be joyous, cramped in pain. He curled up uneasily, holding tightly onto that small scented sachet. In his mind, appeared the sorrowful look on that youth's face as he left that night five years ago. His mouth kept on chanting: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…". There was nothing more conclusive than death. From that point on, Yan Shu knew that he would never be able to find another person who could love him with as much sincerity and intensity as that youth. cmf754

Xing Yan dressed Bu Bai in the same clothes as him. He looked at his striking lover and said, “I'd always thought that you would look good in these clothes. Sure enough, you really do look lovely in it”

Bu Bai's inky hair was scattered. It flowed like water down his back and settled gently onto his fiery red robes. He rested quietly in Xing Yan's arms, eyes peacefully closed. Xing Yan interlocked his hands with Bu Bai, all ten fingers joined together. His hands were smooth, soft and flexible. It made Xin Yan unable let go of the hand and leave. Although he knew that once Bu Bai's body entered the ice chamber, it would become stiff and rigid – never again as delicate as it is now, he had no choice. He couldn't think of any other way to preserve his body. His Master had always hated being lonely, how could he allow him to quietly fade away confined underground? He couldn't endure it.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Xing Yan could no longer remember the weather on the day that he'd placed the man inside the ice chamber. The environment outside could not affect the conditions within the ice chamber anyway – there was fundamentally no differentiation between warm and cold in the chamber. His only recollection of that day was how he had personally delivered that man step by step into the room full of ice and snow. That man who used to be so afraid of the cold did not so much as twitch throughout the entire journey.

Bu Bai was still wearing the scarlet robe when Xing Yan carefully combed his ink-like hair. It was strikingly bright in this field of ice and snow, like a flame, leaping out of the ice. The scene warmed Xing Yan's heart despite the lack of heat. 2ndyjS

I will keep you company from now on. It'll only be me by your side, devoted entirely to you, forever.

It was deep into autumn the day that Bu Bai died. Only bare branches remained in the field of peach blossoms inside the courtyard (1) of the Demonic Sect's manor, making the scene appear particularly colorless and desolate. The death of his lover melded together with the barren branches of the peach blossoms to become an unmentionable wound in Xing Yan's heart.

He uprooted the original field of peach blossom in the residence in favor of the bright red plums. They were flowers that bloomed brighter the colder it was. Perhaps that fire-like color would make his winter a little less bleak.

Finally, a year of death had been fulfilled, and Bu Bai slowly drifted out from the heavy darkness. The first thing he saw was the blindingly white ice chamber and the vibrant red plums blooming outside. d9JwVL

There was no one in the courtyard. If not for the carefully organized residence, Bu Bai feared that he would have mistaken the place for a long-abandoned manor. He frowned slightly, lightly touched his thin red clothes, and involuntarily s.h.i.+vered.

“Boss, under normal circ.u.mstances, shouldn't I be buried 6 feet under already? I had even mentally prepared myself to claw my way out of my grave, but look at this, I've been preserved so well.” Bu Bai felt that the entire situation was odd. He'd already pa.s.sed away for so long, yet mild warmth lingered on his fingertips – warmth that belonged to a living being.