How To Polish A Pearl

Chapter 100 - The Assassin (2)

Author's Notes:

Warning for triggers around drowning. Also, this chapter contains violence, self-destructive behavior and some references to sex.

Remember to keep your arms and legs inside the rollercoaster at all times.

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By the time his ears registered the voice again, the man was facing away from him talking to a beautiful young woman with long black hair and purple hanfu robes. Is he married? Is that his wife? She looks awfully young. After what felt like an eternity, he finally turned around. Zhou Zi Shu stared at the face, examining each of the strong but delicate features, but wasn't sure if it really was him. His heart, however, was beating so fast that it blurred his vision. Had the boy from his memory grown into this tall and strong man, who walked with confidence and had the air of someone noble? The crown on his head was as exquisite as the silver robes that he was wearing. His face was pale and devoid of any emotions and his hair was perfect, not a single strand out of place.

He watched them pay the patron and head out the door. Now fully sober, he quickly followed, making sure that he wasn't noticed. The couple headed to the local jeweler and basically forced the poor man to open early. After they left, Zhou Zi Shu bribed one of the shop assistants into disclosing that they were making pearl necklaces for the man, to be picked up the next day. Are they for his wife?

He followed them the entire day, his heart in a lurch and his mind a big mess. Could this be him? What if it's him? Who is he now? And the one that squeezed his heart cold—Does he remember me?

He watched them go back to their place of accommodation and spent the evening observing them eat a banquet size meal. The way that the man was shamelessly flirting with other men around him, made Zhou Zi Shu quickly dismiss the wife thoughts. This was also confirmed when this Wen Ke Xing picked out a few male powdered beauties.

He watched Wen Ke Xing caress their faces, their arms and their legs, basically anything that was available. Wen Ke Xing was not even trying to be subtle about it. His own palms tingled from old and foreign memories of when they used to hold hands. His eyes teared up, when Wen Ke Xing turned on his charm, laughing and staring without shame at those other men. When he blinked them away, memories of how he used to wake up with Wen Ke Xing looking shyly into his eyes. It had felt like he stared right into his heart. He was surprised that his black heart could, not only remember but still feel all these emotions. Maybe it isn't dead after all? Maybe a small part of my youth is still beating somewhere in there?

He tried to tell himself that what Wen Ke Xing did was normal—they were after all staying in a flower house. When Wen Ke Xing brought them up to his room, Zhou Zi Shu realized that it had been him that he had listened to the previous night. The jealousy wrapped around his heart and squeezed so hard that he almost passed out for the second time that day.

It's not like I haven't slept with people in the past ten years. So why should I care? Do I have a right to care? I don't even know if it is him. But who was he fooling? The more he had observed them throughout the day, the feelings that had started to seep out of his heart made him sure that this was his Ah-Xing. It was like his soul ached to hold this man.

After a horrendous night with absolutely no sleep, his ears were buzzing and he had no appetite for any type of breakfast. He watched them check out and pick up the necklaces on their way out of town. It took every drop of that self-control Zhou Zi Shu had engrained within his core throughout all of his life, to not snatch the man off the street and take him somewhere far, far away. For some reason, he had a feeling that this man wouldn't go easily and he wasn't actually sure that he was the Wen Ke Xing. Not that some random man would make a difference if he got injured or killed, but with even the smallest of chances that this actually was him, then he couldn't risk it.