LFIA -Chapter 1

After receiving a call from his boyfriend telling him that he was going on another mission, Du Qing broke into a cold sweat despite the air conditioner blowing directly at him.

It was exactly the same as the memory in his dream.

That real and terrible dream.

It was as though he had personally experienced everything in it.

Without exception, everything he had seen in the dream had happened—including his boyfriend going on a mission today. Even the words his boyfriend said were exactly the same as in the dream.

So, had he seen the future, or had it merely been a dream?

But whether it was a dream or the future, he did not want to have such a tragic memory.

Listening to his boyfriend tell him to wait for him and promise that he would definitely return safe and sound, Du Qing stared out the window, his thoughts wandering.

“A-Qing? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Let’s break up.” Du Qing bit his lower lip, his hand at his side clenching tightly as he spoke each word slowly.

Between his lover and his family, he chose his family.

“What did you say?!” A loud crash came from the other end, followed by his boyfriend’s furious voice through the phone.

“Let’s break up.” Du Qing covered his heart, forcibly enduring the pain as he clearly expressed his decision.

He did not know whether the man had died during this particular mission or whether something else had happened. He only knew that he had waited for him for ten years in the apocalypse, waiting until the day he died, and still he had never seen the person he loved again.

“I don’t agree! I absolutely refuse!” The man’s voice on the other end was hoarse. “Why?”

“I don’t want to wait anymore.” Du Qing was silent for a while before answering calmly.

Whether it was that he himself no longer wanted to wait, or the Du Qing in his dream who no longer wanted to wait, even he could no longer distinguish between the two.

Even though life had been so difficult, he had gritted his teeth and persevered, waiting for the man to come find him.

But in the end, he still died—starving to death inside his own home.

“A-Qing, can you wait a little longer for me?”

Du Qing wiped away the tears on his face and replied in a voice that sounded completely normal, “No.”

He was merely a clerical worker at a small company. His salary was neither high nor low. In their third-tier city, three or four thousand yuan a month, with food provided but no accommodation, was already considered pretty good.

With money his parents had saved over the years, his family had bought an apartment in the city. It was fairly spacious, and after more than ten years of appreciation, the apartment that had originally cost a little over five hundred thousand yuan was now worth two or three million.

He was the only son in the family, and his name was on the property deed.

His parents were not at home at the moment, which was why Du Qing had dared to take his boyfriend’s call at home.

He and his boyfriend had been together for three years, yet he had never dared to tell his family.

On one hand, his lover was simply too outstanding, giving Du Qing a sense of unreality, as though someone like that could not truly belong to him.

On the other hand, his boyfriend was always too busy. Every time Du Qing finally made up his mind to bring him home and come clean with his family, his boyfriend was never available.

And so it had been dragged on and on.

If not for that dream of his, perhaps the two of them would have lived happily together in the near future.

“Brother Xia, let’s part on good terms. I’m not like you. I don’t need some earth-shattering romance. What I want is for my lover to be able to stay by my side often, to hold him in my arms when we fall asleep at night, and to be able to see him whenever I miss him just by making a phone call. I want us to live an ordinary life together, raise a dog at home, and when we’re a little older, adopt a child. Then the two of us can slowly grow old together.”

Du Qing squatted down in misery.

“I don’t want a lover whom I can count the number of times I’ve seen in a year on one hand. I don’t want to call him only to hear that he can never be reached…”

The apocalypse was about to arrive.

It didn’t matter that they would have to live without each other.

They were clearly the two people closest to one another in the entire world, yet they were always spending more time apart than together.

It was fine.

Du Qing wiped away the tears at the corners of his eyes, but no matter how much he wiped, he could not get them dry.

He ended the call, stared at the number displayed on the screen, ruthlessly added it to his blacklist, and then collapsed weakly onto the bed.

After a while, his phone rang again.

Du Qing stared at the number that had somehow appeared outside the blacklist and simply removed the battery. Then he tossed the phone aside.

Covering his chest, he curled up on the bed.

He had no idea how much time passed outside.

When Du Qing finally stood before the mirror, he confirmed that his eyes were only slightly red and that there was no obvious sign he had been crying. He did not want his parents to see and worry.

He was merely a selfish, insignificant person.

The only people he was capable of protecting were his parents.

He turned around and entered his parents’ bedroom. After finding the family’s property deed, he held it in his hand, his eyes filled with uncertainty.

What if the dream was fake?

This apartment represented his parents’ life’s worth of hard-earned money!

He remembered that, according to his dream, a meteor shower would appear in neighboring B City tonight.

He decided to wait one more day.

If it really happened, he would sell the family’s apartment and return to their hometown to farm.

After putting the property deed back, Du Qing returned to his room with an unchanged expression. He picked through the extra memories in his mind and recorded the important parts in a notebook in case he forgot them.

Then he thought that if the apocalypse really was coming, he took out another brand-new notebook.

The most important things would be food, water, and clothing.

After writing down those few words, Du Qing became restless.

That ominous premonition in his heart simply would not disappear. His entire body seemed to radiate an aura that screamed, I’m incredibly irritated. Don’t bother me.

He paced back and forth around the room, going around so many times that his head began to spin, yet he still couldn’t come up with any sort of plan.

His parents had gone out to dance in the public square and had not returned yet.

With nothing else to do, Du Qing turned on the computer and browsed the forums he usually visited.

As he idly scrolled through the posts, he thought expressionlessly that if he had known this would happen, he wouldn’t have taken so many days off work.

He still had three more days before he had to return to work.

While playing around on the computer, sleepiness suddenly swept over him.

Du Qing walked unsteadily toward the bed with his eyes half closed, climbed onto it, and entered dreamland not long afterward.

This time, however, he didn’t have any strange dreams.

He slept soundly without dreaming at all.

When he woke up, he felt refreshed and full of energy.

A delicious aroma wafted in from the living room.

Du Qing twitched his nose.

Tonight’s dinner was his favorite—mushroom and pork rib soup.

“You’re up? Go wash your hands and get ready to eat.” Father Du folded his newspaper and went into the kitchen to help bring the dishes out.

“Mhm, mhm.”

After washing his hands, Du Qing immediately served three bowls of rice and sat down at the table with his father.

They just had to wait for Mother Du to finish stir-frying the last vegetable, and then they could eat.

After dinner, Du Qing’s belly was round and full. He sprawled across the sofa like a salted fish, completely stuffed.

So what if he’d been dumped?

It wasn’t the end of the world.

Even if they weren’t together, the Earth would keep turning.

As Mother Du cleared away the dishes and chopsticks, she asked, “Xiao Du, do you have anything to do over the next couple of days?”

“No.” Du Qing watched Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf on television. “Is there something you need me to do?”

“It’s actually nothing much. Auntie Chen’s daughter has come back and says she’s going to stay here for a few days. I thought you two were about the same age, so I wanted you to take her around and show her the city.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that his mother had arranged another blind date for him.

The problem was, he liked men.

What was the point of sending him off to ruin some innocent girl’s life?

But he couldn’t tell his family that.

He wasn’t in a hurry about marriage, but his parents certainly were.

He had already refused two or three times. If he rejected another one, his parents might start wondering whether there was something wrong with him…

Du Qing decided to make one last desperate struggle.

“Mom—can’t I not go?”

Mother Du smiled gently.

“No.”

“All right, I’ll go tomorrow.”

When they met tomorrow, he would simply explain everything to Auntie Chen’s daughter. He already had someone he liked.

Although they had broken up, she was still the person he loved.

Once the meteor shower appeared in B City, he would tell his parents about his sexual orientation and then take them back to their hometown.

He still vaguely remembered Auntie Chen’s daughter.

In his memories, he had gone on this blind date back then too. But before he could tell her that he already had someone he liked, she had already spoken first: “I’m not interested in men, and I already have someone I like.”

Naturally, that blind date had ended without going anywhere.

The next day, Du Qing changed into something more casual.

“Mom—my phone broke. I’ll take your phone with me for now.”

“Take it. Remember to take yours out to get repaired,” Mother Du called from the back balcony.

After finishing hanging up the laundry, she went out too.

She would spend the day chatting about gossip with the elderly women from the neighborhood, drinking tea, and going shopping. She basically didn’t need to bring a phone with her.

Du Qing took the phone he had bought for his mother along with his wallet and headed toward the agreed meeting place.

When he arrived, he checked the time.

He was exactly five minutes early.

He had barely sat down when the other person arrived as well.

“Du Qing?”

“Chen Yi?”

It would have been great if the two of them could have swapped names.

Chen Yi’s name sounded rather masculine, but she herself looked like the delicate, petite type who seemed almost birdlike and dependent.

“Have a seat. I’m Du Qing. What would you like to eat?”

Du Qing had met her once before, so things weren’t quite as awkward.

“I’ll have a mousse cake.”

Chen Yi ordered a slice of cake and then asked for a cup of hot milk tea.

Du Qing liked desserts too, so he immediately ordered two portions.

He had eaten the cakes at this shop before, and they tasted very good.

“Mr. Du, I’m not interested in men. And I already have someone I like.”

Chen Yi got straight to the point.

If her family hadn’t discovered what was going on between her and her senior female schoolmate, she wouldn’t have been forcibly brought back to the country overnight.

She had left without saying goodbye and had no idea how angry her senior must be.

But she’d been locked up at home, with all her communication devices confiscated. She had been completely cut off from the outside world.

This time, she had only been allowed out because she agreed to come on this blind date.

“What a coincidence. I’m gay too.”

Du Qing said it mischievously, and, just as he’d expected, he saw the astonishment on her face.

“The world really is a small place.”

After her initial surprise, Chen Yi became excited.

This person was different from the men she’d met on previous blind dates. He should be able to lend her a phone so she could contact her senior.

“Did you bring a phone?”

“To contact your girlfriend?”

“That’s right. Thanks! I disappeared so suddenly. She might be worried sick.”

“Go ahead.”

Du Qing handed the phone to her.

“Click—”

Du Qing looked around.

Had he just heard some kind of sound?