ITC Chapter 18

“Wake up, we’ve arrived.”

Wen Ruqing woke up to Bai Xizhou’s voice, his neck a little sore.

The bus had already reached the stop. Other than the two of them, there was no one else on board. The compartment was empty and quiet. The driver was a short distance away, standing outside a shop, chatting with the shopkeeper while holding a bottle of water.

At some point, the sky had darkened. The sun was hidden behind thick clouds, and the gray sky was brewing a storm.

“Wen Ruqing,” Bai Xizhou called out to him, “you drooled on my shirt.”

Wen Ruqing snapped back to reality and sat up. He remembered that he had been leaning against the window when he fell asleep. But judging from his current posture, he had probably been resting on Bai Xizhou’s shoulder the whole way.

Today, Bai Xizhou was wearing a grey-blue top—a color that easily shows water stains. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Wen Ruqing glanced at his shoulder, but saw no sign of any drool.

He’d been tricked.

To joke about something like that… how childish.

“Come on, time to go.”

Wen Ruqing rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. He grabbed his things and got off the bus. Bai Xizhou followed him. Wen Ruqing walked quickly, as if deliberately trying to put some distance between them.

Bai Xizhou felt wrongly accused—he hadn’t made Wen Ruqing lean on him.

At first, Wen Ruqing really had been sleeping against the window. But the bus’s jolts made his head bump into the glass again and again, making soft “thump-thump” sounds. They were quiet, but Bai Xizhou, sitting close, heard them clearly.

People subconsciously seek comfort in their sleep. After hitting his head a few too many times, Wen Ruqing eventually leaned toward Bai Xizhou. If Bai Xizhou hadn’t caught him, he probably would’ve ended up sleeping on his lap.

But Wen Ruqing clearly didn’t want to hear any explanations and firmly believed Bai Xizhou was messing with him. Bai Xizhou shook his head helplessly. Watching Wen Ruqing walk ahead without looking back, he couldn’t help but wonder who was acting more childish.

There was still a medicated patch on the back of Wen Ruqing’s neck, its pale color contrasting sharply with his skin. Bai Xizhou’s gaze lingered there. The scent of the medicine still seemed to hover in his nose. He reached out, rubbing his fingers together, as if trying to wipe something away.

It was this very hand that had held Wen Ruqing’s chin on the bus, gently guiding him to rest on his shoulder. It felt like some warmth still remained on his palm. Bai Xizhou rubbed his hand awkwardly, then hurried a few steps to catch up. He took some of Wen Ruqing’s luggage, and under Wen Ruqing’s speechless gaze, the two walked toward the inn together.

The sky grew darker. In the distance, a few rumbles of thunder rolled in—but still, no raindrops fell.

---

This kind of weather lasted for several days. The sky remained overcast, with thick clouds blocking out the sunlight. Occasionally, thunder would rumble from the horizon, but no rain ever fell.

At Bai Xizhou’s request, Wen Ruqing moved out of that small room and brought all his tools to the table where they had first met. While Wen Ruqing worked, he would sit across from Bai Xizhou.

Each of them went about their own tasks—Bai Xizhou would sometimes be in meetings, other times reading documents. The atmosphere was sometimes quiet, sometimes lively. At first, Wen Ruqing wasn’t used to having someone watch him work, but over time, he found that even the background noise was rather comforting.

Bai Xizhou kept to a strict meal schedule. Wen Ruqing, who used to forget to eat because he was so focused on work, began to develop a regular eating routine by following Bai Xizhou’s lead.

“Lawyer Bai, what’s for lunch?” Wen Ruqing asked casually as he smoothed a small patch over a damaged spot.

There was no response. Wen Ruqing looked up at the person across from him—Bai Xizhou was staring at his phone with a grim expression.

“I’m going out for a bit,” Bai Xizhou suddenly said, standing up. The chair scraped loudly against the floor. Without even looking back, he turned and walked out the door.

A low rumble of thunder echoed in the distance. Wen Ruqing turned to gaze out the window at the sky.

Bai Xizhou seemed to be in a hurry, though Wen Ruqing didn’t know what had happened. Judging by the sky, it would definitely rain today. Bai Xizhou hadn’t brought an umbrella—hopefully, he’d be back before the rain started.

Feeling a bit hungry, Wen Ruqing made himself a bowl of instant noodles. Just as he sat down and hadn’t even taken a bite, his phone rang.

It was an unfamiliar number from Xincheng.

Wen Ruqing hesitated before answering.

“Ruqing,” a male voice came through with a hint of a smile. “You really haven’t changed your number.”

“I’m about to. What do you want?” Wen Ruqing put down the noodles, leaned back in his chair, and found a comfortable position.

“I just got back from abroad. Can’t I catch up with you?” The other person chuckled lightly, the meaning behind his words unclear. “I mean, I am your ex-boyfriend.”

“There’s no such thing as catching up with an ex, Song Yang. You’re the one who said not to contact each other anymore.”

When they broke up, everything had already been said, and the scene wasn’t pretty. Wen Ruqing couldn’t see what there was to ‘catch up’ on.

“Ruqing, I told you long ago that what you were studying had no future. Back then, you insisted on graduate school and exams, but didn’t you still fail? I heard you’re currently unemployed and staying in your hometown. If you’d gone abroad with me, you wouldn’t be in this mess now.” Song Yang’s voice was laced with sarcasm.

Some people are just like that—after three years apart, they still make the effort to call just to mock you if they see you’re not doing well.

“But if you change your mind now, I can still take you with me. After all, I still have some feelings for you.” Song Yang went on. Wen Ruqing found him unbearably noisy. “With your personality—so dull, always tinkering with junk—I doubt anyone else would like you besides me.”

He’d been saying things like that since they started dating. Fortunately, Wen Ruqing had never cared much about other people’s likes or dislikes. Back in university, his mind had been entirely focused on his studies.

Now, years after the breakup, Song Yang was still using this kind of rhetoric to puff himself up. Clearly, he hadn’t grown at all.

It was irritating.

If it weren’t for the fact that he found it troublesome to change numbers earlier, he wouldn’t have gotten this call today. Sometimes Wen Ruqing wondered why he ever dated Song Yang in the first place.

The rain that had been brewing for days finally began to fall—chaotic drops hitting the ground and hitting Wen Ruqing’s heart as well.

Bai Xizhou still hadn’t come back.

A breeze blew in some rain through the window. Wen Ruqing stood up, shut the window, and shut out the sound of the rain. Inside, Song Yang’s voice kept going, more irritating than the storm outside.

“Are you done?” Wen Ruqing frowned and interrupted, “If you’re done, I’m hanging up.”

“You hate me that much you won’t even let me speak? If you hated me so much, why did you ever date me?”

“Must’ve been blind,” Wen Ruqing replied softly and hung up. He blocked the number, too.

The main reason he dated Song Yang back then was because Song Yang had helped him when he was once surrounded by stray dogs. When Song Yang later confessed, Wen Ruqing accepted. Whether it was true love or not, he wasn’t sure—maybe gratitude outweighed love.

Wen Ruqing shook his head, no longer wanting to dwell on the unpleasant. He called Bai Xizhou—no answer. He sent a message—no reply.

Bai Xizhou’s face hadn’t looked good when he left. Now it was raining heavily, and still no word from him. Wen Ruqing started to worry.

He called several more times, still no answer. The rain didn’t seem like it would stop anytime soon. Wen Ruqing frowned, grabbed an umbrella, and headed out.

---

Bai Xizhou sat at the bus stop, his phone dead just moments ago. He was sheltering from the rain, watching buses come and go. The rain hadn’t let up. He couldn’t go back, and for now, he didn’t really want to.

Sometimes, one person was enough to ruin an entire day.

He’d been in talks with his law firm about becoming a senior partner when he got a call—from an unfamiliar number. For some reason, he had a bad feeling—it seemed like it might be from family.

The moment he picked up, the voice on the other end said, “Brother.”

Bai Xizhou instantly knew who it was.

It was his half-brother—someone he’d only learned about a month ago.

“Don’t call me that. I’m not your brother.” Bai Xizhou reached into his pocket for cigarettes, then remembered—he was wearing Wen Ruqing’s jacket today. No cigarettes inside.

“Even if you don’t acknowledge me, we’re related by blood. We’re family,” the voice on the other end said cheerfully, not bothered by Bai Xizhou’s cold tone. “Brother, Dad wants me to intern at your law firm. He’s hoping you can mentor me or at least put in a word.”

Family?

Bai Xizhou sat at the bus stop bench and looked up at the overcast sky, feeling even more frustrated.

Hearing those words from that person’s mouth felt strange—almost nauseating.

He didn’t even feel like he and his parents were a family, let alone the son born from his father’s affair. No matter how you looked at it, he wasn’t part of his family. The way he got along with Wen Ruqing or his aunt—that was what real family looked like. This wasn’t it.

“Let Bai and Song assign you work. Don’t come to me. If you want into the firm, interview like everyone else. Asking me is useless,” Bai Xizhou said, itching for a cigarette. “We’re not that close.”

All of this—he was just a bystander. Whatever happened in his father’s other household had nothing to do with him.

What annoyed him most was that his father kept trying to force a bond between them—as if brotherhood could be manufactured. But the man didn’t realize that even he didn’t have much of a relationship with Bai Xizhou.

He had only learned about this younger brother a few days before coming to Cloud Town. The kid was about to graduate from university, was apparently his schoolmate, and had also studied law.

Maybe he’d always suspected something like this would happen. He wasn’t surprised. With the open marriage his parents had for years, an illegitimate child was almost expected. He didn’t care to comment on their personal lives—it had nothing to do with him.

If he had ever hoped for a “normal” family, that hope had long been buried. Now, he preferred to remain an outsider. It was much easier.

Let them mess around as they pleased—just don’t bother him. Better yet, never show up in his life.

“It’s fine, bro. We’ll see each other eventually. Even if I don’t intern at Xinze, I’ll study abroad, go to the same school you did, and one day I’ll join Xinze as a lawyer. You won’t be able to avoid me forever.”

The other person was still speaking when Bai Xizhou’s phone finally died. He looked at the black screen and cursed softly.

The rain fell harder, a chaotic downpour matching his tangled mood.

This brother’s existence truly made him uncomfortable.

Back when Bai Xizhou studied law, his father disapproved. They’d had a huge fight, and he never went home again.

But now—now they were perfectly fine with their other son studying law, following Bai Xizhou’s exact path, even paving the way for him.

Same university, same major, same school abroad, same future workplace.

It felt like someone was deliberately duplicating his entire life.

A second version of Bai Xizhou. A more obedient one.

He sat there, staring into the rain, not sure what he was looking at or what he should be looking for. He knew he should head back—some things needed to be seen with his own eyes.

But he was reluctant to leave. Yundaun Town felt like a hidden paradise, a rare escape. Here, he could let everything go. Only here did he feel any real peace.

“Bai Xizhou!” Wen Ruqing’s voice came through the curtain of rain. He ran over with an umbrella and stood beside him. “Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

His pants were soaked, his face damp with rain. Even with the umbrella, drops had blown onto him, but he didn’t seem to mind. His face softened with relief at finding Bai Xizhou.

“You came just to find me?” Bai Xizhou looked at him, almost in disbelief.

“Of course. You didn’t answer my calls or messages. It’s pouring, and you didn’t even bring an umbrella. You’re not that familiar with this place—it’s worrying, you know.” Wen Ruqing was a little upset, but seeing Bai Xizhou safe took the edge off.

“Phone died. I was planning to head back once the rain stopped,” Bai Xizhou explained, holding up his dead phone to prove it.

“Come on, let’s go home.” Wen Ruqing tilted the umbrella toward him a bit. It was big enough for two. “This is the only umbrella we have at the inn. We’ll have to make do.”

All the frustration stirred up by his family’s nonsense suddenly vanished. Bai Xizhou stood up and walked into the rain with Wen Ruqing.

No one could replace him. There would only ever be one Bai Xizhou.

With Wen Ruqing’s arrival, his mood lightened. He suddenly lifted his right hand, wrapped it around Wen Ruqing’s shoulder, pulling him a bit more under the umbrella.

“Come closer. Don’t get wet.”

With just those few words, Bai Xizhou gently eased any awkwardness, making the intimate gesture seem perfectly natural.

“Let’s go home.”

His voice was soft—almost drowned out by the sound of rain.