Sylas kept talking.
At first, his voice was firm, controlled but slowly, cracks began to show. He spoke about pressure, about expectations, about a name that felt more like a chain than an inheritance. About being watched every second of his life, about never being allowed to fail.
But Yuan wasn't listening.
His gaze had drifted elsewhere out the window, to the endless white streets, to the way the cold blurred everything into silence. Sylas's words faded into meaningless noise. To Yuan, it all sounded self centered. Complaints from a man who had everything.
Yuan let out a quiet sigh, clearly bored.
Sylas noticed.
"…You're not listening to me, are you?" he said, his tone sharpening. "Did you hear anything I just said?"
Yuan glanced at him lazily.
"Honestly? It was painfully boring. I almost fell asleep. The only surprising part was your family lineage."
Sylas frowned, his expression darkening. His pride clearly took a hit.
"What you call 'boring' is my reality," he said coldly. "My drama. Anyway… I don't even know how to address you. Tell me your name already."
There was a brief pause.
"You can call me Yuzi," Yuan replied flatly.
Sylas tilted his head, then smirked.
"Hm. Strange name. Mine's Sylas."
Yuan showed no reaction.
Sylas studied his face, then suddenly reached out, his fingers hovering near Yuan's cheek. Yuan instantly leaned back.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Sylas raised an eyebrow.
"Your expression is… unnervingly blank."
Yuan rolled his eyes.
"That doesn't give you permission to touch my face."
Yuan reached for the door, clearly done with this interaction. But Sylas spoke again, stopping him.
"Wait. I can drop you off wherever you're going."
"No. I'm suffocating in this car," Yuan replied sharply, stepping out into the freezing air.
He hadn't taken more than a few steps when Sylas got out as well.
Yuan turned around, annoyed.
"Why are you following me? Just go already shoo shoo!"
Sylas crossed his arms.
"No. Right now, you're the only person I can talk to."
Yuan stared at him for a second, then bent down, scooped up a handful of snow, and casually popped some into his mouth.
Sylas blinked.
"…What are you doing?"
Without warning, Sylas grabbed snow from the ground and threw it straight at Yuan's face.
Yuan froze for half a second then his eyes narrowed.
"Oh, you're dead."
He immediately retaliated, launching a snowball right back at Sylas. Snow hit his coat. Sylas laughed under his breath and fired another. Within seconds, the tension shattered into chaos as the two engaged in a ridiculous snowball fight, slipping slightly on the ice, throwing snow like children in the middle of a war zone.
But then
Yuan froze.
Something was wrong.
His instincts screamed.
He looked past Sylas toward the shadows.
There.
A man was hidden between buildings. His posture was stiff. His hands steady.
A gun.
Aimed directly at Sylas.
The trigger was about to be pulled.
Yuan didn't think.
He sprinted forward, grabbed Sylas by the collar, and yanked him down hard. They crashed into the snow as a gunshot echoed through the air. The bullet flew past where Sylas's head had been seconds earlier.
Sylas blinked, stunned, lying beneath Yuan.
"…What?"
Yuan didn't answer.
He grabbed Sylas again, dragged him up, shoved him toward the car, and pushed him inside. Yuan slid into the driver's seat and slammed the door shut, already turning the engine on.
The car took off.
Sylas stared at him in disbelief.
"What the hell was that? Why did you pull me like that? What just happened?"
Yuan's hands were steady on the wheel, his voice ice cold.
"Shut the fuck up. You're distracting me."
Sylas went silent.
He's driving my car… and telling me to shut up, Sylas thought. This man is insane.
He glanced at Yuan again this strange, unreadable person who had just saved his life without hesitation.
The snowstorm outside swallowed the road ahead.
And neither of them realized it yet but this moment had changed everything