"They say the Gu heir lost his mind the night the river swallowed that boy." The wind carried the whisper across the courtyard. "Lower your voice. Do you want him to hear?"
"Hear?" The other man said. "He doesn't react to anything anymore.
Gu Yancheng heard every word. He had been hearing the same words since 10 years. He didn't care anymore.
The courtyard was loud with whispers, but none of them were louder than the silence he carried inside him. Ten years had passed, and yet the name they refused to speak still echoed beneath his ribs like an unfinished prayer.
Jiang Yue.
He walked past them without any expressions, fingers hidden within his sleeves so no one would see how tightly they were clenched.
People thought he was cold, heartless. They were right perhaps..atleast after the incident 10 years ago. Well, but they didn't know that something inside him had drowned that night as well.
The only place that didn't suffocate him was the eastern garden. There, the wind did not whisper accusations. The koi in the pond did not stare at him with pity. The trees did not ask why he survived when another did not.
Nature, atleast, did not blame him.
He stood beneath the moonlight, observing the moon like he always would.
He had not gone near the river in years.
Not since —
His breath stilled.
There was someone standing near the waters edge. White robes, familiar posture.
The moonlight resting on his profile like it used to.
Gu Yancheng's heart stopped beating for a moment. That was impossible.
The dead does not return.
Was he..truly dead?
"Jiang… Yue?" Gu Yancheng whispered to himself, unsure if he was just seeing things. Before he could say or do anything else, the stranger turned towards him. "I noticed you've been looking at me for quite a moment now." The stranger smiled.
The stranger continued, "Have we met before?"
Gu Yancheng's fingers trembled beneath his sleeves, he stood there in silence.
The moonlight fell between them, pale and cold, as if drawing a silent line neither dared to cross.
The stranger's eyes held no trace of familiarity— only quite confusion.
Gu Yancheng's throat tightened. He wanted to reach out— tell him how he yearned for him all these years— but his body refused to move.
Was he dreaming?
This was impossible.
The dead do not return.
Jiang Yue was..dead.
The night's cold air blew through them, but none of them was affected by it, atleast not Gu Yancheng.
"Your name." Gu Yancheng asked, as cold as ever, though the turmoil in his inside was unbearable.
"Lin Xuan." The stranger replied politely, a faint smile playing on his lips.
"Lin Xuan?" Gu Yancheng repeated the name— his voice barely a whisper.
"Yes, and you are?" Lin Xuan asked him, still smiling politely.
Gu Yancheng did not answer immediately.
The question should not have mattered. It was simple. Courteous. Ordinary.
Yet, the name lodged in his throat like a shard of glass.
He had rehearsed this moment a thousand times in the past year— in sleepless nights, in silent courtyards, beneath the sound of rushing water that would not leave his dreams.
But, in every version, Jiang Yue had remembered him.
"Gu Yancheng." he finally said.
His voice was cold, distant— yet, he knew what was going on inside him.
Lin Xuan inclined his head slightly. "Young master Gu."
Polite, distant— the way one addresses a stranger.
Gu Yancheng's hand slowly clenched into a fist beneath his sleeves, his nails pressing into his palm until pain steadied his breath.
Jiang Yue had never called him that. Not once. It had always been "Yancheng" dragged lazily from smiling lips, or said in laughter when he was being scolded.
"Young master Gu?" Lin Xuan spoke again.
"Stop calling me that." Gu Yancheng snapped. Gu Yancheng could not understand what was going on, he couldn't understand why Jiang Yue's name was Lin Xuan.
Gu Yancheng stared at him. At the familiar slope of his nose. The beautiful angelic eyes he had, the faint mole beneath his left eye. The curve of his lips he had seen a thousand times beneath summer light.
"Forgive me, what should I call you?" Lin Xuan asked, a hint of sadness on his face. He was the same, polite and kind but his eyes held no familiarity. The pair of eyes which once brimmed with warmth now reflected only distant indifference.
Gu Yancheng stepped closer.
Close enough to confirm the warmth of his breath. Close enough to see that this was not an illusion conjured by grief.
"You're from the Lin clan?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Born there?"
There was the smallest pause.
"I was raised there."
Raised.
Gu Yancheng's gaze sharpened.
"And before that?"
Lin Xuan's brows drew together faintly, as if the question required effort. "I do not remember much from my childhood. I fell ill when I was younger. The physicians said it affected my memory."
Affected.
As though an entire life could be misplaced like a book.
Gu Yancheng felt something dark rise in his chest— not sorrow, not relief.
Anger.
He had carried Jiang yue's death like a brand on his soul for a year. He had stood at that riverbank until dawn broke, until servants dragged him away. He had searched downstream for days. Weeks.
"Is something wrong?" Lin Xuan asked softly
Gu Yancheng's expression hardened. "You." He grabbed Lin Xuan's wrist and pulled him closer. "You are wrong." His voice was dangerously low, each syllable forced through clenched teeth.
Gu Yancheng did not raise his voice. That made it worse.
The sudden grip sent a strange, unfamiliar tightness through his chest. "Please...let go."
Gu Yancheng let go of his hand as if burned and stepped back, and turned his back. "Of all the ways to lose a person, death is the kindest— Jiang Yue, still, seeing your eyes looking at me like that, hurts more." Gu Yancheng chuckled, a pained chuckle.
"Why are you calling me Jiang Yue..? And what..what do you mean by that..?" Lin Xuan stood still, his eyes fixed on Gu Yancheng's back.
"Yue." Gu Yancheng stepped closer.
Lin Xuan felt something stirring up in his chest as he heard Gu Yancheng call him that.
Gu Yancheng used to call him that 10 years ago.
"Enough. You've mistook me for someone else." Lin Xuan said, his face down.
"Someone else?" Gu Yancheng tilted his chin up, forcing him to look into his intense gaze. "I know those eyes— it's just, they're looking at me differently right now." Gu Yancheng looked into Lin Xuan's eyes intently, their faces dangerously close to eachother.
Lin Xuan stepped back and looked down. He couldn't understand these feelings, he felt like his mind was filled with multiple emotions. "I..I'll leave now." Lin Xuan looked at Gu Yancheng one last time before walking away.
Gu Yancheng crossed his arms and smirked, looking at Lin Xuan's departing figure intently.
"Shen."
"Yes, young master Gu."
"Investigate the Lin clan," Gu Yancheng ordered quietly.
His subordinate hesitated. "Young master Gu… .why?"
Gu Yancheng's gaze darkened.
"Because the dead do not return without a reason."
His subordinate nodded and left.
"You may forget me, Jiang Yue.
But I will make you remember.
Even if I have to become the nightmare in your dreams."
Gu Yancheng said while looking at the path which Lin Xuan had just taken.