Archive of Our Own ^beta

Away from the blazing summer sun and the cry of cicadas, Yu Hao sat in the corner of the university gym’s stuffy storage room. He wiped whatever tears remained on his face as he listened to the echo of a basketball bouncing from the floor followed by a familiar chuckle. “No way,” Yu Hao whispered, “not him.”

Not knowing whether to cry or laugh, Yu Hao sat still, wondering if there was a way he could exit the storage room without being noticed by the guys playing basketball outside, or if there was some way he could just bury himself right there.

In hindsight, he shouldn’t have run away to this place to avoid his, er, mean roommates. It wasn’t normally occupied unless there were classes so it should’ve been fine, but he forgot that the heavens never did like bestowing him with fortune.

From long ago, he had known that his life could be best described as Heavenly Misfortunes: The Endless Saga, and sitting there, he thought that this moment had the potential to be one of the most catastrophic arcs in the series.

“Ugh, who spilled this juice on the floor? It’s so damn sticky.” It was a woman’s voice, clear and pretty.

“Don’t know, I think it’s been here the whole time.”

The woman spoke again, “Can you guys be a little more sensitive… I’m asking one of you to mop it.”

That chuckle from earlier reappeared. Shit. “Yes, sis-in-law, I’ll get the mop.”

“Good job, redhead. It’s in the storage room I think.”

“I know, be right back.”

As the sound of footsteps got louder, Yu Hao began planning for his lonely funeral while scooting closer to the corner of the room.

The door of the storage room slid open with an unpleasant screech sound, causing the person who opened it to let out an audible wince in response. Yu Hao trembled as the other got closer to where he was sitting and belatedly realized that the mop was leaning against the cabinet next to him.

“Where’s the mop…”

Yu Hao decided to give up and awkwardly rose from his position and grabbed the stick of the mop, offering it to the boy without making eye contact. “Here. The mop,” he said, stammering just slightly.

He was too scared to see what kind of expression the boy had on his face, but he heard a gentle “thanks a lot” and saw a firm big hand take the mop away. “I’ll be off, then,” the boy said.

And just like that, Yu Hao watched the boy walk out the door, taking the string connected to Yu Hao’s pinky along with him.

Zhou Sheng—that was the boy’s name.

Yu Hao first saw him during military training. Sunkissed toned body under a sweat-soaked white shirt that accentuated his lean build, topped off with an aura of delinquency and a face so strikingly handsome everybody around him looked like mere NPCs. And… a string on his pinky whose other end was tied to Yu Hao’s own. “Crap,” Yu Hao had thought.

The first time he learned about strings and soulmates, he was five. He had been sitting next to his grandma in the cramped dining slash living area in his childhood home. At that time, his grandma had been knitting a scarf for Yu Hao—a red one, she said—performing what Yu Hao thought was witchcraft with her wrinkled yet nimble fingers holding the knitting needles and swiftly transforming the ball of yarn resting on her lap into a strip of cloth.

At some point, his grandma had run out of yarn and had been a little annoyed about it. Not wanting to see his grandma fret, he said, “Grandma, I have an idea. There are these, things, on my fingers that, that kinda look like the stuff you use!! Since I have, um, let me check.” He counted the strings on his fingers. “I have three strings! So maybe we can use one of them to keep making the scarf?”

His grandma had laughed fondly and said, “Haohao, the things on your fingers are your strings of fate. Green strings lead to friendships that will last a lifetime, while red leads to your soulmate, the person destined to spend life with you for a long time. For example, your mom and dad have red strings, and they’re tied to each other.”

“Woah,” he had replied.

“If we used your red string, wouldn’t your future soulmate be sad?”

“Hng, that’s true, but what about your scarf?”

“It’s alright, it’ll just have to be a little shorter. Hopefully, you’ll like it nonetheless”

Yu Hao had hugged his new scarf to sleep and dreamt of a life with people who were just meant for him.

Unfortunately, this colored string ordeal was where his problems started, shattering that old dream of his.

Yuelao, help me, couldn't the strings be in different colors.

Yu Hao had deuteranopia, as in, he couldn’t tell the damn difference between red and green if his life depended on it.

And then this hot guy just suddenly showed up in his life with his string attached to Yu Hao’s and Yu Hao, who probably had a crush on him, had no idea whether the string in question represented friendship or love. Worst of all, judging by his reaction when he grabbed the mop from Yu Hao, he acted like he couldn’t see the string!

Yu Hao was going to collapse. He panicked inside as he ran through the events that just occurred in his head, why was he so awkward would Zhou Sheng think he was weird maybe it’s time for him to say goodbye to the mortal world and say hi to his dad.

With a single shred of sanity left within him, he slapped himself weakly and walked back to the dorms a little pathetically.

Yu Hao figured that it really was worthy of being called the string of fate. Or the string of coincidence, maybe, because he ran into Zhou Sheng again just a day after the whole gym ordeal. This time, it was at Yu Hao’s part-time job handing out flyers in the sweltering summer heat.

As he offered a flyer to a passerby, the passerby swatted Yu Hao’s hand away and shoved him slightly, scattering the flyers onto the street. “This is the fifth time I’ve seen you this week, can’t you get a proper fucking job? Ruining laozi’s day.”

Yu Hao muttered an apology and bent down to pick up the flyers when the passerby shoved at his arm. “Even your apology is insincere. Sure enough, poor people lack manners.”

It was true that Yu Hao’s apology was a little insincere, but before he could apologize again, a stranger’s hand came up to loosen Yu Hao’s arm from the passerby and put a distance between the two. “And you think yelling at people on the street is the pinnacle of manners?” the “stranger” said. Of course, he wasn’t a stranger at all.

Zhou Sheng spoke again, “Keep this up and laozi will show you what having no manners really looks like.”

The rude passerby grunted “weirdo” and walked away, obviously quite intimidated by Zhou Sheng.

After the stranger left, Zhou Sheng helped Yu Hao pick up the flyers. “No, you don’t need to,” Yu Hao said, not wanting to trouble Zhou Sheng.

“It’s fine,” he replied. “That guy really pissed me off just now. Why did you apologize to him?”

Yu Hao was quiet for a bit. “He would’ve scolded me nonetheless.”

“Which is exactly why you shouldn’t have apologized,” Zhou Sheng said, sighing.

“I’m really sorry,” Yu Hao said quietly, picking up the last of the flyers.

“Ai, why are you apologizing to me now?” Zhou Sheng asked helplessly. “That was wrong of me. I wasn’t trying to judge your response, I’m sorry.”

“Ah? No, it’s fine though,” Yu Hao replied, confused. He looked around and realized that they were away from the middle of the street now, meaning Zhou Sheng must’ve led Yu Hao away without Yu Hao even noticing.

“It’s not really fine. Tell you what, are you free today?”

Yu Hao didn’t know where this conversation was going, but nodded nonetheless. “I end work in half an hour.”

“Got it, I’ll wait for you in that cafe down the street, and we’ll grab some dinner after you’re done. Seeya,” he said, slipping away without even letting Yu Hao accept or decline his offer.

Yu Hao speechlessly continued his work with flushed cheeks. It was because of the weather, he convinced himself.

Contrary to what people say about him, Yu Hao was actually not an ungrateful person and wasn’t rude enough to ignore people who lent him a hand. So as he said, half an hour later, he opened the door to the cafe Zhou Sheng said he would wait for him in. As expected, Zhou Sheng really was in there, sitting on the chair next to the window while scrolling through his phone. Hearing the sound of the door opening, he looked up from his screen and greeted Yu Hao. “Yo, you’re here.”

“Did you wait long? Sorry,” Yu Hao apologized, awkwardly standing in front of Zhou Sheng.

“This is the third time I’ve heard you apologize today,” Zhou Sheng replied.

“Um.” Yu Hao tried, not sure what to say in response.

Zhou Sheng huffs with the corner of his lips quirked up just slightly. “It’s fine. I said I’d wait.” He got off his seat and gestured to the door. “Let’s go out first.”

Yu Hao followed Zhou Sheng out, looking at his wide back, tall build, and his hair that was supposed to be red, according to the guy that called him redhead the other day. Yu Hao tried not to let his eyes wander to the string between them, because then he’d wonder if it was the same color as Zhou Sheng’s hair and wonder why Zhou Sheng hadn’t said a single thing. Was that why Zhou Sheng wanted to eat lunch with him? To ask about it?

Yu Hao’s heartbeat rapidly sped up, deafening in his ears to the point he almost missed the car honking on his right. Thankfully, Zhou Sheng easily grabbed his hand and pulled him to safety.

“Pay attention to the road, will you?” Zhou Sheng scolded. He sounded a little angry, so Yu Hao was going to apologize again because he couldn’t believe he troubled Zhou Sheng again, but Zhou Sheng quickly gestured “shh” to him with his finger over his lips. “Don’t apologize.”

“Okay,” Yu Hao said, still feeling somewhat guilty.

“You like hotpot?” Zhou Sheng asked, pointing towards the restaurant behind him. “This one’s really good.”

“I do.”

During the meal, Yu Hao learned a few things about Zhou Sheng.

First, he didn’t talk very much but the silence when Yu Hao was with him wasn’t exactly uncomfortable. When he did, he would tell Yu Hao about how good the hotpot place was and which ingredients were the best while constantly putting things into Yu Hao’s bowl, which brings him to the second thing: he was really generous about how much food he dumped into the pot and didn’t seem particularly thoughtful of how much money he would have to spend.

Third, he was handsome even when he ate.

Truly leagues away from Yu Hao.

By the end of it, Yu Hao was so stuffed he almost couldn’t move.

“You full?” Zhou Sheng asked, getting up from his seat. He rested a hand on the back of his chair while looking at Yu Hao, who was lying back on his chair with a hand on his stomach.

“Ugh,” Yu Hao managed. He was worried that Zhou Sheng would be offended, but he heard a laugh instead.

“Wait here, I’ll pay. We can walk to campus after.” Again, Zhou Sheng left him with no room for rejection and strode off to the boss, asking for a discount “for being a loyal customer”. Perhaps it was because he had a natural charm, but the boss only jokingly reprimanded him before shaking her head. Hearing Zhou Sheng chirp out a “thank you”, Yu Hao assumed it worked out.

“C’mon, let’s go.”

In contrast to the afternoon, it was a little cooler when the sun had already set. The quiet walk to the campus wasn’t awkward, rather pleasant. Zhou Sheng asked how the dinner was, and Yu Hao answered, “It was really great. Thanks for today, I really owe you one.”

“No biggie, bros have to take care of each other. You can treat me some other day if you want, though.”

Yu Hao hadn’t even taken a step forward and he already got bro-zoned. Nonetheless, Yu Hao hummed in agreement and somewhat stiffly said, “Yup. Bros.”

Zhou Sheng asked, “Which room are you in, by the way?”

“Hm? 405,” Yu Hao answered.

“I see.” The conversation stopped there.

The walk from the hotpot place to the dorms surprisingly didn’t take very long. In the blink of an eye, Yu Hao was already in front of his dorm room with Zhou Sheng next to him.

“Thanks for today,” Yu Hao repeated, truly making eye contact with Zhou Sheng for the first time. Yu Hao had probably never seen anyone who shined brighter than the boy in front of him. How frustrating.

“No problem. Since I did it on the account that I’ve recognized you as a good bro, how about you do this one thing for me.”

“What is it?”

Zhou Sheng looked around the hallway and bent down, whispering into Yu Hao’s ear. “If your roommates give you any trouble, let me know.”

Zhou Sheng’s low whisper tickled his ear, his breath warm against Yu Hao’s neck. He patted Yu Hao’s shoulder and walked away, leaving Yu Hao all flustered alone in front of his door. Belatedly, he realized that despite his lack of popularity, it was probably not unknown that Yu Hao didn’t have any friends and that his roommates weren’t the nicest people on campus. Paired with the fact that he talked to Zhou Sheng yesterday with still-puffy eyes, Zhou Sheng probably deduced the situation pretty easily.

One truly should not compare oneself to male gods.

Unfortunately, Yu Hao didn’t get a chance to treat Zhou Sheng to a meal for a long while, because he had to juggle his part-time jobs, schoolwork, and crippling mental health. When he actually had free time, he didn't run into Zhou Sheng even once! So much for a string of fate. Even if they weren't romantic soulmates, shouldn't he run into him more? Maybe it was just the string of coincidence after all.

Before Yu Hao could get any free time to run into Zhou Sheng, he ran into a predicament first. Maybe one of his strings was connected to misfortune. Just another episode of Yu Hao's Pathetic Existence, he thought emptily, walking out from his counselor's office after getting a scolding.

This wasn't the first time he was framed for stealing. A boy in middle school had done the same, years ago. He wasn't surprised that it happened again. He just didn't expect the person who framed him to be Shi Ni, the well-behaving student he had been tutoring for.

They were going to expel him.

Tired and feeling devoid of anything but exhaustion, Yu Hao lied down in the small abandoned house with its stove lit, and waited for sleep to come over him.

It would've been nice if Zhou Sheng was his soulmate, whether he was a friend or a lover.

If only, he thought, losing consciousness as the things around him faded away.

All of a sudden, his surroundings became clear. Colors, he could see different colors. A city wall, mountains lining up under the sun, and green trees with red apples livelier than ones he saw in real life. Or the mortal world. Was he dead?

Standing on the city wall, he tried to look down to get a better look at his surroundings, only to see darkness. He nearly fell down until a cold metal arm grabbed him from behind and pulled him up.

"What are you doing here?" A voice came from behind him.

Yu Hao turned around to see a person clad in metal armor with a silver helmet that covered his face. He had a cape that was either red or green and—

A string wrapped around his metal pinky, its other end tied to Yu Hao's pinky, the same color as that cape.

The knight seemed to realize that as well. "You…"

"Is," Yu Hao started, his throat dry. "Is your cape red or green?" Then, he added, "Am I dead?"

The knight asked, "What?"

"Answer me, please."

"It's red. And no, you aren't. Not yet." He answered.

Yu Hao nearly fell off the wall again.

"It's, I, look, we can talk about this later," the knight said, hoisting Yu Hao back up. "You're not dead. This isn't the afterlife, this is your dreamscape, and I'm the guardian here. You can call me General."

"And you're real? You're my—"

"We don't have time," General said, grabbing Yu Hao's hand. He very briefly explained to Yu Hao how dreamscapes worked. It was too short for Yu Hao's liking, though, so he prodded even further until General got irritated and ended up explaining what they needed to do, why parts of Yu Hao's dreamscape seemed depressingly dark, and its relation to Yu Hao's attempt.

"This is all so crazy," Yu Hao said.

"You can process this when you wake up, just follow me first."

The next events happened like a blur, not because his dream wasn't vivid, but because he couldn't quite comprehend the fact that dreams could look and work like this, and the fact that the guardian of his dreams was his romantic soulmate.

By the time he was about to wake up again, General held him in his arms.

"Go back and live your life to the fullest. When you feel like giving up all hope, don't forget that you still have me."

Yu Hao awoke to the sound of his breath echoing in the oxygen mask and found that he was in the school infirmary, with Xue Long and someone else—which he recognized as Fu Liqun, who hung around Zhou Sheng a lot.

Yu Hao listened to Xue Long lecture him while he stared at the string connecting him and Fu Liqun.

When Xue Long left, Fu Liqun asked, "Do you feel better now?"

It hit Yu Hao that Fu Liqun was the one who carried him to the infirmary. "I do, thank you," he said quietly, unsure if Fu Liqun was going to bring the string deal up.

"Green string, huh," Fu Liqun finally said. "Maybe that's how I found you."

Green string. So this person isn't General after all. Yu Hao is half-glad that he finally found one of his soulmates, and half-panicked because he made a horrible first impression. Suddenly, anxiety settled in his stomach. What if even people fated to be with him grew sick of him and leave him in the end?

He was never someone who could make his loved ones stick around for very long.

He didn't say that, though. He decided to apologize to Fu Liqun for troubling him, unsure of how to respond regarding the soulmate situation.

Fu Liqun didn't push it, saying, "It's really no big deal. I'm just glad I made it in time."

Before things got awkwardly silent, a familiar person with red hair walked in. "Yo, you're here."

"Redhead!" Fu Liqun called.

"Are you okay?" Zhou Sheng asked, looking at Yu Hao.

"He's sick," Fu Liqun answered, beckoning Zhou Sheng to sit next to him. "We're waiting for his form teacher to come here."

"Alright." Zhou Sheng shrugged and walked over. He started to talk and lighten the mood in the infirmary just enough to distract Yu Hao without doing so much that it felt like he was taking Yu Hao's situation lightly.

Yu Hao smiled a little when Zhou Sheng cracked some jokes. He even laughed quite a bit once and started coughing, so the nurse had to take off his oxygen mask.

"Oh right, did you already know Zhou Sheng? He's my platonic soulmate, a good bro, and my roommate too." Fu Liqun told Yu Hao. "It's actually thanks to him that I found you. He said that he saw you walking in that direction. I had a bad feeling, so I caught up."

"You saw me?" Yu Hao asked, fidgeting with his fingers in embarrassment.

"Yeah." Zhou Sheng said casually. He then patted Yu Hao's shoulder like the other night and said, "You need to eat more. Go out for hotpot again?"

"I… ran out of money."

"No worries," Fu Liqun chimed in. "Our young master can treat us to a meal."

"Get lost." Zhou Sheng swatted the arm Fu Liqun put around his shoulder. "For Yu Hao."

"Hear that? No big deal." Fu Liqun smiled at Yu Hao.

They chatted a bit more until someone walked in—a handsome man neatly dressed in a refined style that made the college students in the ward look pathetic in comparison.

And would you look at that.

Another string connected to Yu Hao's pinky.

The handsome man looked up at Yu Hao in surprise and smiled at him politely. "My name is Chen Yekai. I'm your form teacher."

"Nice to meet you, laoshi," Fu Liqun said. They exchanged greetings for a bit and started chatting.

Chen Yekai asked Yu Hao some questions about his life. He asked him about his current issue and let Yu Hao vent about his past experiences, from his childhood to his roommates bullying him. They listened, from beginning to end.

"Laozi's gonna teach them a lesson!" Zhou Sheng said, clearly angry.

Chen Yekai reprimanded him, telling him it would do more harm than good to Yu Hao.

Fu Liqun kindly said that they would be Yu Hao's friends from now on.

Yu Hao had been feeling like it was just him against the world for as long as he could remember. With no one to turn to, he was never able to get his feelings off his chest.

Unexpectedly, in this school infirmary, he was surrounded by three people bound to him, they listened as he talked about his feelings, and expressed their care towards him like they were on Yu Hao's side—like he wasn't alone anymore.

Yu Hao was going to ignore the guilt in his heart for now, choosing to focus on the comfortable feeling in his chest.

They headed to the same hotpot place he visited with Zhou Sheng last time. Chen Yekai couldn't stay for long though, got a call after he had just taken a few bites of his meal.

"Got a call from college, I'm gonna have to leave earlier. Let's exchange QQs?" Chen Yekai offered. When the contact-exchanging was done, he stood up and gestured farewell to the others. "I'll pay now, see you guys later."

"Wait wait wait, I'll come! What if you get lost?" Fu Liqun said. "Two fried rice packets for takeout, please!"

And so, it was just Zhou Sheng and Yu Hao again, just like the other day.

Everything else went pretty much the same like last time, except Zhou Sheng talked a bit more, telling Yu Hao to tell his roommates that he would be backing Yu Hao. "If anybody dares to bully you, I'll show them who's boss."

Yu Hao nodded awkwardly, "Okay."

"Eat up," Zhou Sheng said, adding more food onto Yu Hao's plate.

In the end, Yu Hao was just as full as the last time he came here with Zhou Sheng.

"Walk back again?" Zhou Sheng offered.

"Okay."

After they arrived at the student dorms and Zhou Sheng stressed that Yu Hao should tell him if anybody bullied him (again), Yu Hao finally got some alone time. Thankfully his roommates weren't home at the moment.

He had two strings to think about now, excluding the one connecting him to Fu Liqun because he knew what color it was already. If two of his strings were connected to Zhou Sheng and Chen Yekai in real life, and in his dreamscape, he was connected to General, then that meant General had to be one of them.

But who?

He covered his face with a pillow to muffle his groaning. Due to how much he ate during dinner, it didn't take long for him to fall asleep.

Again, the scene of his dreamscape unfolded in his presence.

"You're here, good."

Yu Hao shouted in surprise. "What in the world?! You're here again!"

General shook his head helplessly. "I told you, I'm the guardian of your dreamscape."

Yu Hao was at a loss. "I thought it was a dream."

"Well, it is," General said. "Doesn't mean it isn't legit."

"Well, I guess that's true…" Yu Hao scratched his head. "What do we do now then?"

"Retrieve your totem, of course."

"My totem?"

"Gah, it's easier to show than tell." General offered his hand to Yu Hao. "Come on."

General roughly showed Yu Hao the ropes, guiding Yu Hao through his dreamscape although he got frustrated by the knowledge gap between them at times. Either way, they finally got to the point where they were going to truly start fighting until—

—"You set an alarm?!"

Another dreamscape adventure cut short, Yu Hao thought. Come to think of it, he forgot to ask General about the soulmate thing again.

Oh well, at least he knew that General was there for him.

From that day onwards, it seemed like the things dangling from his finger remembered its name (first name String, last name of Fate), because he saw Zhou Sheng almost every single day.

In class, Zhou Sheng would sit next to him. During lunch, Zhou Sheng would be nearby and ask him to sit together with him and Fu Liqun. He even got involved with Shi Ni's case for Yu Hao, punching her dad for everyone to see. At that time, Chen Yekai had scolded him for being too reckless and causing more problems. But for some reason, Yu Hao felt like Zhou Sheng wasn’t a reckless person.

At first glance, he did seem like a good-for-nothing but handsome delinquent who was hotheaded and jumped headfirst into situations without a care for any consequences. However, something in Yu Hao’s heart told him that he wasn’t really like that. He felt that Zhou Sheng was reliable, but maybe he was biased.

As for General…

At some point in his journey in seizing his totem, he and General had to confront Liu Pengxuan, the guy he had a crush on in middle school. It seemed that his hatred towards Yu Hao had left a mark in Yu Hao’s dreamscape because he was quite the strong enemy. Had it not been for the fact General reminded him that he was Yu Hao’s soulmate, it would’ve been difficult for them to beat Liu Pengxuan.

After the chaos, when the sun in his dreams had risen, Yu Hao stood in front of General.

General had taken off his helmet, and instead of a human face, there was… nothing. "I'm not human," he said. "I have nothing to do with your real world."

"What… what about the string?" Yu Hao asked with a shaky voice, tears trickling down his face.

"I… it shouldn't be real either."

Yu Hao cried a bit more. Normally, he would hold back his tears and suck it up, but it seemed like it wasn't possible in this dreamscape, where his feelings were laid out for General to see.

"Don't be sad," General said, pulling Yu Hao into his arms. "Everything will be okay. You'll definitely find love in the real world—red string or not."

How could Yu Hao not catch feelings for him when he did stuff like that…

Yu Hao wiped his tears away, pushing General away just slightly. "Thank you for helping me, General."

"It was my pleasure."

"Can I give you something?"

General put his helmet back on. "You want to give me something?"

Yu Hao nodded. In a split second, the totem in his hand transformed into a shield. "For you. The strongest shield in my heart."

It took some more persuading to convince General, but he accepted it in the end.

Yu Hao hugged him, crawling into General's arms once again. "Thank you."

"Good night, Yu Hao."

He didn't see General for many nights after that. It seemed like he really was merely a figment of his imagination. Yu Hao was a little sad, but he found that after he woke up, he had almost forgotten most bits of his dream and he wasn't too sad about General. After all, he still had a soulmate in real life.

Thinking back to one of his introductory psychology courses, it was possible that he had inserted Zhou Sheng into his dreams unconsciously. Because he viewed Zhou Sheng as a reliable figure who helped him out and also hoped that Zhou Sheng was his romantic soulmate, those details projected onto General.

In any case, life went on, so he thought that he wouldn't meet General again. That is until he popped up in Yu Hao’s dream again. This time, as Sun Wukong.

"General?!"

The monkey grunted in acknowledgment, and Yu Hao cheerfully gave him a big hug. "This is so great! I get to see you again!"

It turned out that they had landed in Shi Ni's dreamscape. For such a young girl, the sight of her dreamscape was mortifying.

General and Yu Hao took some time to chat. Yu Hao hugged General, pleased with his furry appearance. General told him to keep his furry hands to himself, which Yu Hao thought was quite funny. You're the furry one here, haha.

"Did you find a real boyfriend in the real world?"

Yu Hao replied, "It's only been a few days. Besides, my soulmates… ah, forget it."

"What's wrong?"

"It's not a big deal. I just, I think one of them is ignoring our string. It's clearly there, but I feel like he can't see it at all," Yu Hao said sadly.

"Oh…" General said, his voice sounding a little weird, "Maybe they're shy."

"Maybe," Yu Hao replied. "Is it because I'm not very good…"

"Don't overthink it." General ruffled his hair gently and patted his cheek. "Sometimes, people have their own problems to deal with. It could be that it has nothing to do with you."

"Argh," Yu Hao made a noise of frustration. "Whatever, let's just solve Nini's problem first."

"Alright."

For the next few days, Yu Hao would spend the daytime helping Shi Ni with Zhou Sheng and the nighttime helping Shi Ni still, except it was with General. He didn’t bring up the string issue with either of them, successfully convincing himself that there were no such strings to speak of in the first place.

Even so, it didn’t stop Yu Hao from liking them any less. God knows how many times he had searched up “what do I do if I like two people at the same time” on Baidu. The answers weren't particularly helpful to him, so he just left it alone. It was just liking people, it was fine.

His time with General didn't last very long, though.

When they were done fighting Shi Ni's father, General bid him farewell.

"We really won't meet again this time," General said.

Yu Hao begged him to not part with him like that, that he wanted to say his goodbyes properly. For a second, he could feel General's hesitation, which was why he persisted. But in the end, General said, "I exist in the sunlight, in the winds, between the heavens and the earth, and also in dreams; I've always been around, and have never been separated from you."

"Good night."

And that was it.

After he woke up from that dream, he had to fight Shi Ni's father. The latter locked the door from the inside and left Zhou Sheng no way to enter through the door. Recklessly, Zhou Sheng risked his life by entering the apartment by jumping from the neighbor's balcony to Shi Ni's unit's balcony, and made it just in time to save Yu Hao.

The matter ended after Shi Ni revealed solid evidence against her father, and Yu Hao's life turned back to normal.

But General still did not show up in his dreams, leaving Yu Hao to ponder before bed, caressing his little finger hoping General would come to him.

With the return of normalcy to his life, Yu Hao started to tutor Zhou Sheng and Fu Liqun. During their tutor sessions, they would try to rope Yu Hao into playing the game so he would have too much fun, get distracted, and forget about teaching them entirely. Unfortunately, Yu Hao was quite single-minded about that mission of his to improve their English scores, so their plan ended up failing pathetically.

And unfortunately for Yu Hao, he also had his own tutoring sessions to attend. Mathematics with Chen Yekai—a crazy hard subject being taught by a male god. There was a huge gap between them in so many ways, Yu Hao thought, head spinning while solving math problems.

Speaking of Chen Yekai…

The string.

Yu Hao still doesn't have a clue what color it is, and Chen Yekai won't drop any hints! Unlike with Zhou Sheng, Yu Hao felt like Chen Yekai could clearly see it, but he just never said anything about it. "Not all of us can see the strings properly, please." Yu Hao would complain to nobody while he was alone.

After the other students left, Chen Yekai told Yu Hao to stay behind for a while to talk.

Is this finally it? Is he going to ask me about the string?!

It was not finally it, Chen Yekai did not ask him about the string.

He did, however, ask Yu Hao, "Could you do me a favor?"

Naturally, Yu Hao immediately agreed.

"There will be a literary arts performance for our college's anniversary. I remember seeing on your form that you can sing?"

Yu Hao: "..."

He did agree to it, although he regretted it a little, discussing it with Zhou Sheng and Fu Liqun while they were eating out for New Years.

They even went beyond discussing Yu Hao's upcoming performance and started talking about Chen Yekai in general. After hearing Yu Hao constantly praising Chen Yekai, Zhou Sheng asked, "Do you really idolize him that much?"

“No, I idolize you the most." Yu Hao answered. It was sincere. He didn't want to treat his soulmates unfairly, he just really felt that way in his heart and wasn't someone who could lie about his feelings.

The clock eventually turned to 00:00, a new year.

"Happy new year!" The three of them said in unison, welcoming another year hand-in-hand.

Happy new year, General. No matter where you are.

Before their last exam, Zhou Sheng told Yu Hao that he wanted to talk to him. Yu Hao was a little excited during the exam, wondering what Zhou Sheng was going to say to him.

However, Chen Yekai texted Yu Hao after the exam, telling him to come over to his dormitory. Zhou Sheng was annoyed and said, "You're going to Kaikai's dormitory? Can't you guys just talk at his office? Is he going to take advantage of you?!"

Yu Hao went there anyway, waiting for Chen Yekai to come back. When he did, he opened the door and told Yu Hao, "Let's talk inside."

Yu Hao thought about it, he wouldn't talk about something he could discuss in the office at his dorm right? It would probably be a personal thing. Maybe it was finally that!

"Have you selected a song?" Chen Yekai asked after chatting with him a little.

"I did! I chose it before exams started."

Nope, it wasn't that. Yu Hao said, "So you wanted to talk about this. I thought you were going to talk about…"

"About what?"

Yu Hao dumbly said, "Uh."

Chen Yekai's eyes crinkled for a moment, saying, "Ah, us?"

Yu Hao nodded, gulping nervously.

"Hm, well, I'm not the type to particularly care about fate, but I'm glad we're friends." Chen Yekai said casually.

Wait. Hold on. That means...

It seemed like Yu Hao's sound of confusion and dumbfounded nod got interpreted as him tacitly reciprocating Chen Yekai's statement, because Chen Yekai pat his shoulder and moved onto talking about the song again. He even lent Yu Hao clothes to wear for the performance.

By the time Yu Hao came back to his senses, he was already too busy at his job refilling a claw machine. He was even in a daze when Zhou Sheng called him. After that, he had to convince his complaining customers not to file a complaint to him, and by the time he was free from work, he was already dead tired on his bed.

He got a call from Zhou Sheng. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you?!”

Yu Hao was confused. “Why were you waiting for me? We weren’t supposed to meet up today, right?”

Zhou Sheng stopped talking on the phone. Instead, Yu Hao heard his voice from outside his door. “Open the door!”

When Yu Hao opened the door, Zhou Sheng threw a packed dinner on his table and exited the dorm immediately, not even letting Yu Hao catch up to him to apologize. Yu Hao decided to text him an apology, but he didn’t receive a reply either.

Until the next day, Zhou Sheng still didn’t reply to his text, while Fu Liqun turned down his offer to go out for a meal after Yu Hao’s performance.

Yu Hao should’ve seen it coming. Truth be told, he did see it coming. From the day Fu Liqun saved him, he knew that they would come to hate him after getting to know him better. He just didn’t expect the day to arrive so quickly.

Eventually, Zhou Sheng did reply to Yu Hao while he was preparing for his performance backstage.

Yu Hao went on stage and suddenly felt nervous, thinking he probably looked stupid. Even so, he started to sing. “I heard the pitter-patter of raindrops on the meadow and the ringing of the school bell not far away, but I didn’t hear your voice sincerely calling my name.”

“Looks like you’re the happiness that I wanted to hold onto the most, looks like we were actually so close to love.”

“I hope that in a place I can’t see, you would open up your wings and meet your destiny.”

“She would be so fortunate.”

During the whole song, the audience went crazy several times. Yu Hao looked at Zhou Sheng a few times and saw him applaud exaggeratedly from where he was watching, waving a glow stick like he was at a concert.

Yu Hao hastily finished it by welcoming Professor Lin to the college and saying, “This song is dedicated to a friend of mine, who has always been around me and has never been separated from me. Thank you, everyone.”

When he went backstage, Zhou Sheng was already waiting there for him. “That was really great,” he said. He had a smile on his face, but his voice didn’t sound all too excited. A little sad, maybe.

If Yu Hao’s suspicions were right, then there should be a tacit understanding between them. If Zhou Sheng was General, there was no way he would’ve missed Yu Hao’s closing line.

“To my dorm?” Zhou Sheng asked.

“Okay.”

After they arrived at the dorms, Zhou Sheng cooked something up for Yu Hao, the aroma of savory broth wafting through the room. During the entire meal, they didn’t talk at all, leaving Yu Hao confused. Where did the tacit understanding from earlier go?!

“Does it taste good?” Zhou Sheng finally spoke up, slurping his noodles somewhat messily.

“Yesh.” Yu Hao replied, still chewing.

Zhou Sheng nodded while facing the bowl. “Of course it does. It’s my cooking after all.”

Yu Hao: “...”

After dinner, Yu Hao found himself getting tucked into bed. “Sleep,” Zhou Sheng said, patting his head.

Yu Hao was baffled. “What? I thought we were gonna talk?”

“Aren’t you tired?”

“No, I’m not.” Yes, he was. Zhou Sheng’s food made him feel really drowsy. “Is it because you don’t want Gege to hear?”

“Nah, he’s out with sis-in-law right now.” Zhou Sheng left Yu Hao alone on his bed and jumped into a vacant bed to sleep. “Nighty night, sleep tight.”

Despite being utterly confused, his exhaustion from days of work and being nervous about the performance was powerful enough to knock him out within a few minutes.

Then, the scenery of the city wall and the mountains revealed itself slowly until Yu Hao was lucid enough to realize he was in a proper dreamscape again, which meant…

“Over here.”

Yu Hao had never turned around so quickly in his life. As expected, General was standing behind him, his helmet in his hands. This time, Yu Hao got to see his real face. Red hair framing his face, a scar near the eyebrows—the same handsome face that just said good night to him. The red string between them seemed to shine in the sunlight.

Yu Hao already knew, but the confirmation left him speechless. “You’re…”

General, no, Zhou Sheng smiled at him, taking Yu Hao’s hand into his. “Oh, archangel, would you mind following me into my dreamscape?”

With a single touch, Yu Hao instantly turned red from head to toe. “You… okay. Lead the way.”

Zhou Sheng summoned his jindouyun and jumped onto it before he pulled Yu Hao up. Yu Hao couldn’t balance himself on it and nearly fell off. Luckily, Zhou Sheng had quick reflexes and pulled Yu Hao’s waist towards him until they were in an embrace. Yu Hao keenly felt how close Zhou Sheng’s lips were—too close. He pushed weakly at Zhou Sheng’s chest, hands lingering there. “Hurry up.”

Zhou Sheng was a little red too. “Yes, sir.”

Then, his jindouyun flew towards the sun in Yu Hao’s dreamscape. “Aren’t we flying too close to the sun?”

“It’s fine.” Zhou Sheng reassured him, patting his back.

As they got closer to the sun, Yu Hao discovered that the shape of the sun resembled that of a golden, hollowed-out ring. He felt like he had seen the shape before.

“Next station is… General’s dreamscape!”

They rushed into the oddly shaped sun and in the blink of an eye, they had crossed through it, entering another dreamscape that Yu Hao had never seen before. It must be Zhou Sheng’s dream!

Zhou Sheng took him straight to an island that had a colosseum. After the jindouyun landed, Yu Hao realized that Zhou Sheng wasn’t in medieval armor anymore. Instead, he donned the armor of an ancient Roman gladiator. Yu Hao tried his very best not to ogle at the sight of his muscles, looking around the dreamscape instead.

“What is this?”

“This is where I fight.” Zhou Sheng answered plainly. “You can go up there and watch.”

Yu Hao did as Zhou Sheng told him to do. As he entered the colosseum, he noticed the loud cheer coming from the spectators. He walked up to the seating area, incredibly puzzled, and took a random seat that he thought seemed strategic enough to watch a battle. Then, Zhou Sheng’s figure entered his view. On the opposite side of the arena stood a tall woman whose eyes were blindfolded. Even with the blindfold on, her beauty wasn’t the least bit obscured. But what surprised Yu Hao wasn’t her beauty or her blindfold, it was the moving snakes on her scalp in place of hair. This was Medusa!

As soon as the battle began, she ripped off the blindfold and began fighting Zhou Sheng!

Zhou Sheng’s moves in his dreams were even no less impressive than when Yu Hao saw him fight in the real world, but he seemed a bit more hesitant, prioritizing defense over offense.

Meanwhile, Medusa unleashed her attacks, swinging her arms as she brandishing her claws. The snakes on her head were even able to elongate, extending their tongues to slash Zhou Sheng. When Yu Hao squinted, he found that the snakes' tongues resembled red strings. "Could it be?" Yu Hao wondered, concerned for Zhou Sheng.

Medusa was about to let out a fatal attack when Yu Hao had a bad premonition and followed his impulse to get Zhou Sheng out of there.

He unfolded his wings and flew into the arena right before Medusa was going to attack his exposed back, arriving at the nick of time.

"You broke the rules!" a voice roared.

"Shit." Zhou Sheng grabbed Yu Hao and made a run for the colosseum's exit where a black dragon roared in the arena's direction.

Quickly, Zhou Sheng hoisted Yu Hao up the dragon's back and jumped onto it as well. Immediately, the dragon carried them away from the colosseum. From way up in the sky, Yu Hao saw that the colosseum was located on a large island. As they kept flying, he didn't see other islands, just the vast ocean that seemed to stretch across the whole dreamscape.

"Where are we going?"

Zhou Sheng ignored him, probably angry that he interrupted the fight.

Eventually, a very small and secluded island showed up, and the black dragon lowered itself onto the island, flying away after Yu Hao and Zhou Sheng set foot on the island.

The island was blanketed with long blades of golden grass, four beds placed in the center just like in Zhou Sheng's dormitory. The surroundings felt tranquil and peaceful, a huge contrast to the aura of chaos at the colosseum just now.

"I'm sorry," Zhou Sheng unexpectedly spoke up first.

Yu Hao didn't ask what he was apologizing for, he just let Zhou Sheng continue speaking.

"I was mad at you just now because you put yourself in danger to save me."

Yu Hao interrupted this time. "Not because I ruined your fight?"

Zhou Sheng raised his eyebrows in surprise. "No way! It wasn't really a winning fight in the first place."

"Why did you show that to me?" Yu Hao asked, voice gentle.

"For a while, I didn't really believe in soulmates, or love, or starting families," Zhou Sheng said. "No, it was more than not believing. I was scared."

"I didn't grow up in the… most loving family. My parents were extremely rough on me as a kid. I wasn't a child who lacked beatings. They didn't love each other either."

Yu Hao reached out his hand and Zhou Sheng accepted it. "And it left a mark?"

"It did." Zhou Sheng answered. "When I was young, I often tried to cut my red string, to no avail. It never worked. But then I found an artifact, something called the golden crow wheel. It let me enter dreams, and when I tried to cut my red string in my dreams… it worked. I couldn't see my string even in reality."

Yu Hao's grip on his hand grew tight. He caressed Zhou Sheng's hand with his thumb. Zhou Sheng continued speaking, "I thought my red string was gone just like that. Later on, I started to feel bad for whoever was my soulmate, but I couldn't do anything about it."

"And then I entered your dreams." Zhou Sheng smiled sadly. "I'm sorry."

Yu Hao was silent for a bit before he replied. "I haven't told you this, but I'm actually colorblind."

"What?!" Zhou Sheng felt like Yu Hao's revelation should be more shocking than his.

"I can't tell the difference between green and red. I knew you, Kaikai, and Gege were my soulmates, but for you and Kaikai, I couldn't figure out what kind of soulmate connection I had with you guys." Yu Hao said awkwardly. "Then I met General in my dreams, the only place I could see color properly."

"That was why you asked me if my cape was red?

"Yeah," Yu Hao answered. "And I noticed we were romantic soulmates. I only have three strings, so General had to be either you or Kaikai."

"You thought General could've been Kaikai?!" Zhou Sheng shouted.

"Well, no! I mean, I thought General was more similar to you than Kaikai!" Yu Hao panicked. "Don't be mad!"

Zhou Sheng changed his tone. "Ah, why would I be mad? You didn't hurt me at all, while I…"

Yu Hao looked at Zhou Sheng expectantly.

Zhou Sheng pulled Yu Hao closer to him. "I like you. I'm scared to be with you, I don't know if I'll do well. You saw how terribly I fought Medusa. I don't… I'm not that good of a person. I have a bad temper. I'm not very good at loving people—well, I don't really have experience. But I like you, so…"

"Do you want to try? I didn't believe in love and I've always been skeptical of the concept of a so-called fated person that the heavens personally assigned to me. But… If it's you, I'm willing to work hard." Zhou Sheng said, his voice trembling slightly. "I can believe."

Yu Hao burst into tears, circling his arms around Zhou Sheng's neck for a hug. "You're so mean," Yu Hao cried, slapping Zhou Sheng's back with the strength of a kitten's paw.

"I like you, Yu Hao." Zhou Sheng gently cradled the back of Yu Hao's head with his arm. "My destiny. My soulmate."

"I like you, too. I've been waiting for so long." Yu Hao sniffled.

Zhou Sheng brought their faces closer together until their lips were practically touching. "I'll make up for it."

In the safe haven that was the little island, away from the chaos in the colosseum that represented the inner turmoil in Zhou Sheng's psyche, away from the sadness and cruel bitterness of reality, where only the shining sun in the dreamscape could become witness, Yu Hao tasted sweetness and love from Zhou Sheng's lips.

Yuelao, yuelao, I've met my love.