Caught you, Little Fish

World Two: Fake Campus Romance

Main mission: Change Zhang Guanting's fate. 100% completion rate. Calculating...

Calculation error. Warning, unknown entity discovered in the mission world. Requesting permission to terminate.

Failure to contact the Creator. Access to permission denied. Proceed to recalculation.

Recalculating...

'Congratulations host: Guanting and system: 748. You have succeeded in completing your assigned mission. Your service to the Bureau of Investigation is greatly appreciated.'

Guanting carefully read the message that had suddenly appeared on 748's watch body. He traced over the last sentence with his thumb, expression ponderous, then turned to Han Liwei, who was standing by his side patiently.

"Are you alright?" His husband asked. His hand had already reached out to gently touch Guanting's furrowed eyebrows.

Touching the warm hand on his forehead, Guanting smiled, his entire being radiating a subtle sexiness. Han Liwei sucked in a hurried breath. Unable to stop himself, he placed a shy kiss on Guanting's hair, then joined their hands together tightly.

Twenty years later, and he was still unable to extricate himself from Guanting's charm. With a hopeless smile on his face, Han Liwei sighed. Very well, so be it.

Slowly, sweetly, the years past by. The rusty wheels of time churned and rattled, forcing people to continue to live, to thrive and grow, or wilt and fade into nothingness.

Zhang Yahui stood silently outside the dingy convenience store. He was older and wearier, but still had a trace of his younger self. He took a long drag of his cigarette, breathing out the bitter smoke softly. It swirled and spiralled in the sky, dancing carefreely, before disappearing altogether.

Your only mistake was going against me. We could've been good brother's you know?

Every single day he would recall Zhang Guanting's words. At first, there was a boiling fury in his bones, clouding his mind and his judgement. He screamed, cursed, and refused to believe that his privileged life was over.

Decades later, he no longer hated. Indignation, anger, what use did these feelings have when all he had now was himself?

Hard, living like this was hard. It was hard to wake up at five in the morning, to have to grit his teeth when his boss yelled at him, to have to keep a smile on his face when drunk bastards swaggered into the store and spat in his face. At times when he has a night shift, in the early hours of the morning, he thinks he can see his younger self standing outside the rain-covered windows. Next to him stand Lady Zhang and Zhang Fu. They have gentle smiles on their faces, and always listen to his ridiculous words with the utmost attention.

As he stares and stares, a feeling of loss overwhelms him, swallows him whole and eats at his heart. He misses them.

It is not enough.

He says goodbye to his youthful self by mouthing the unheard words. Then with a jarring mechanical ring, the door opens and scatters the warm illusion. He chokes as he holds back the tears, but smiles at the regular customer that walks in.

After everything they had done, he knows they are finally getting retribution. Zhang Ming and Zhang An suffered a thousand times more than he. They didn't have the face to leave their houses, and it was only through sheer will that they survived these long, bitter years. Li Fang left him for a wealthy heiress, yet they divorced months after. Li Corporations went down with him, falling high from the heavens to the pits of hell.