FRGL chapter 56

Luo Hai went home as usual.

He never really thought of his apartment as home, even though he had lived there through countless springs, summers, autumns, and winters.

As he pulled out his keys to unlock the door, he ran into Mrs. Parsifal. She was wrapped in a thick, cream-colored coat, her plump figure resembling an overstuffed dumpling. Her bulldog, regal as ever, trailed behind her, baring its teeth at Luo Hai the moment it saw him.

Luo Hai ignored both the dog and its owner, heading straight upstairs and shutting the front door behind him.

The apartment was quiet, completely dark. Besides him, there was no other living soul inside.

He stood in place for a while before finally reaching out to switch on the lights and change his shoes.

What was he even thinking?

…..

The night was still, the moonlight bright—the fullest, roundest moon of the month.

Luo Hai sat at his desk, finishing up the last of his casework. The curtains were half-open, and outside, the shadows of tree branches swayed in the wind. The silver moonlight, shifting between the leaves, kept drawing his attention away.

If the night was a veil over the day, then moonlight was the shadow of the sun.

And shadows revealed what the sunlight could not. All the misery, sorrow, cowardice, and filth that were hidden beneath daylight were laid bare under the moon’s cold glow.

The world had always been this way, for as long as Luo Hai had been alive. But he knew there had been a time when the moon wasn’t white, a time before some great catastrophe, when a person’s gender didn’t determine their fate.

As a child, he used to imagine a world like that.

A world where all people were born free and equal. Where there was no oppression, no snitching, no predetermined roles of master and slave. In that world, no matter what gender you were born as, no matter what kind of family raised you, you could choose the life you wanted for yourself.

Back then, he had been the most naïve child in the Oddis Orphanage.

And it was that very naïveté that had cast him from paradise into hell.

Now, even if he tried to recall it, he could no longer picture what that world had looked like.

Luo Hai rarely felt this restless. He stared at the same sentence for ten minutes without grasping its meaning, until finally, with a sigh of frustration, he set down his pen and switched off the desk lamp.

Moonlight streamed through the window. Luo Hai stood up, about to leave, when he heard a sound against the glass.

At first, he thought it was just the wind shaking the tree branches. But as he turned away, he heard two more deliberate taps.

He looked up.

A tall figure was perched on a tree branch outside his window, one arm draped casually over the window frame.

Under the moonlight, blond curls gleamed, and a pair of amber eyes gazed at him, lips curled in a faint, unreadable smile.

Luo Hai stared.

The glass was soundproof. The man’s lips moved, but his words were lost.

Seeing this, he gave up on speaking. Instead, he reached out a hand toward the window. His empty palm suddenly flicked open—a fan of playing cards appeared in his grasp.

Then, with a swift motion, he snapped the cards shut. And in the same hand where there had been nothing before, a single rose had appeared.

The petals trembled slightly in the night breeze.

He tilted his head, holding the flower close to the window, and said something again.

Luo Hai rarely found himself so restless. He stared at a line of text for ten minutes but still couldn’t grasp its meaning. Frustrated, he finally put down his pen and turned off the desk lamp.

Moonlight streamed through the window. As Luo Hai stood up from his desk, about to leave, he heard a light tap on the glass.

At first, he thought it was just the wind swaying the branches against the window and paid no attention. But just as he turned away, he heard two more consecutive knocks.

He looked up. A tall figure was perched on the treetop, one arm resting against the window frame. Golden curls shimmered under the moonlight, and a pair of amber eyes gazed inside with a teasing smile.

Luo Hai stared at him.

The window’s soundproofing was excellent, so he couldn’t hear what the man was saying as his lips moved. Realizing this, the man gave up on speaking and instead stretched out his hand through the glass. From his empty palm, a fan of playing cards suddenly unfolded.

Then, with a quick flick, the cards snapped shut, and a rose materialized in his palm out of nowhere. Through the glass, the night breeze gently brushed against the petals. The man curled his lips into a smirk, brought the flower closer to the window, and said something again.

This time, Luo Hai caught the words: “You still haven’t accepted my flower.”

The night wind lifted the hem of his coat, and under the cold, silvery moonlight, the blond-haired man’s profile looked almost too perfect to be real.

Luo Hai gazed at him expressionlessly for a moment, then, right in front of Eugene’s face, shhfft—he yanked the curtain shut.

“Hey!” Eugene, who had just been flatly rejected, instinctively called out. Then, realizing that Luo Hai couldn’t hear him, he angrily pounded on the glass. “Luo Hai! Get back here!”

A moment later, the curtain was pulled open again. Luo Hai unhurriedly opened the window and looked at him. “If you’re done playing around, go home. I don’t have time for this.”

Eugene shamelessly squeezed through the window, grinning. “Why so cold? You were all over me during the day, and now you’re pretending not to know me?”

I was never ‘all over’ you.

Luo Hai was speechless.

“You really don’t like my roses, huh? This is the second time you’ve refused one.” Eugene clicked his tongue. “Guess romance isn’t your thing. Maybe something more practical?”

With a flick of his hands, the rose vanished, replaced by a bottle of alcohol.

“…I saw you hiding that behind your arm.” Luo Hai stared at him, unimpressed.

“Oh, come on, does that really matter?” Eugene casually jumped down from the desk, shut the window behind him, and—like he owned the place—sat right down on the wooden floor. He set a plastic bag on the ground, and when it opened, several bottles of liquor and a pile of snacks spilled out.

“Have you eaten? Even if you have, who cares? Just think of this as a late-night snack. Xiao Feng said I was getting fat the other day, but life is short, you gotta indulge once in a while…”

Luo Hai frowned and interrupted him sharply. “Why are you here? I’ve told you countless times—stop approaching me, and don’t try to convince me. I will never take your side.”

Eugene sighed. “You’re impossible. Do I always have to have some hidden agenda? Can’t I just miss you and want to have a drink with you?”

“We literally saw each other this afternoon,” Luo Hai said coldly.

“Yeah,” Eugene’s eyes softened, “and that’s exactly why I started missing you so soon.”

His words were like a delicate thread, lightly tugging at the strings of Luo Hai’s heart.

“I promise, tonight, it’s just you, me, and the drinks.” Eugene lifted the bottle with an innocent expression. “Not a single extra word. That still not okay?”

Luo Hai stood there, frowning as if struggling with himself. After a long pause, he turned away.

When he returned, he had two glasses in his hands. Sitting down in front of Eugene, his face was still calm. “Just drinking.”

Eugene chuckled, twisted off the cap with one hand, and poured them both a full glass.

The aroma of the alcohol quickly spread through the room, momentarily making Luo Hai lose focus.

“…You did this on purpose,” Luo Hai murmured.

The liquor in the glass was a gin-based cocktail.

“What do you mean?” Eugene grinned. “It’s just a good drink, that’s all.”

Luo Hai didn’t bother arguing. He picked up his glass and clinked it against Eugene’s. The cold liquid disappeared into the transparent glass, transforming into warmth as it coursed through his body.

Annoying tricks aside, the drink was actually quite good.

Then, Eugene started rummaging through his “treasure bag” of snacks—candies, chocolates, cupcakes, duck neck, chicken feet, peas… practically everything. Luo Hai couldn’t help but wonder if he had just swiped one of every snack from the supermarket shelf.

“I worked at a chain supermarket in college. Pretty much taste-tested every snack out there. I swear on my life, these are the best ones—especially with alcohol.” Eugene spread the snacks between them, tossed a pack of chicken feet to Luo Hai, and tore open a small bag of peas for himself.

“Is there any job in the world you haven’t done?” Luo Hai asked.

“There is.” Eugene grinned. “I’ve never been a midwife.”

Luo Hai rolled his eyes.

“Just drinking is boring. Wanna play a game?” Eugene refilled both glasses.

“What game?” Luo Hai asked.

“Two Truths and a Lie. Too bad there’s only two of us—otherwise, we could play King’s Game or ‘Never Have I Ever.’ I really like the second one.”

Luo Hai frowned. He had no idea what Eugene was rambling about. “How do you play?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never played drinking games before?” Eugene raised a brow, amused.

Eugene always had a way of annoying him within two sentences.

“Sorry I don’t have your rich nightlife experience,” Luo Hai said icily. “You’re free to find someone else to play with.”

“But then how would I show off my excellent teaching skills?” Eugene said as if it were obvious. “It’s simple. You take turns saying three things about yourself—two true, one false. The other person has to guess which one is the lie. If they guess wrong, they drink. If they guess right, you drink.”

The rules were easy enough. Luo Hai nodded.

“Alright, let’s start with rock-paper-scissors. Loser goes first.” Eugene eagerly reached out his hand, almost too fast for Luo Hai to react.

“Rock, paper, scissors!”

Luo Hai played scissors, and Eugene played paper.

“That means I go first,” Eugene said, rubbing his chin in thought for a moment. “I have a professional radio technician certification, I’ve jumped into a volcano, and I’ve had eight exes.”

Should he have expected anything less from Eugene Oddis? The options were absurd right from the start.

Absurd, but not exactly difficult. Luo Hai blinked and answered without hesitation, “The volcano one.”

Eugene snapped his fingers with a smile, as if he’d been expecting that response. “Wrong.”

Luo Hai was taken aback. “That one’s real?”

“I never said it was an active volcano,” Eugene said with a sly grin. “It was just a skydiving trip—the crater was the designated landing spot.”

Luo Hai was momentarily speechless. “Then which one is the lie?”

“Now, that’s something I have no obligation to tell you,” Eugene said with a mischievous wink. “A bet is a bet, Prosecutor Luo Hai.”

Luo Hai had no choice. With a frown, he picked up his glass, ready to down his drink. But just as the glass touched his lips, Eugene grabbed his wrist.

Eugene slowly lowered the glass from Luo Hai’s lips, a teasing smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “Hey, I only said you had to drink as a penalty—but I never said how you had to drink it.”