RKNDL chapter 1

“Xiao Xie, your cup is about to overflow!”

A colleague’s reminder snapped Xie Zhinan out of his daze. He hurriedly turned off the hot water but was a moment too late. The boiling water overflowed, scalding his fingertips. He hissed in pain, instinctively releasing the cup and pulling his hand back.

“Are you okay?”

Turning, he saw his coworker, Li Mo, entering the break room with her own cup in hand, her eyes glancing at his scalded fingers.

It was just a small burn, leaving his skin a bit red. Xie Zhinan didn’t think it was serious and said, “I’m fine.”

Li Mo ripped open a packet of freeze-dried fruit tea, pouring it into her pink cartoon bear mug. As she did, she asked, “What’s up with you today? You seem distracted.”

Xie Zhinan poured out a bit of the hot water and added some cold water to his cup. Smiling faintly, he replied, “Didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Insomnia?”

He shook his head, paused briefly, then sighed softly as if to himself, “…Had a dream.”

A strange dream. He had dreamed of Wen Yun.

It had been a long time since Xie Zhinan last thought about him, yet last night, for some reason, Wen Yun had suddenly appeared in his dream.

With his usual stoic demeanor, his dark, steady eyes bore into Xie Zhinan, coldly asking, “Xie Zhinan, why did you abandon me?”

Every word was like ice, piercing Xie Zhinan’s heart, leaving him feeling both pained and aggrieved.

Xie Zhinan woke up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat.

What a bizarre dream, he thought. Wen Yun would never say such words—certainly not to him.

But even so, Xie Zhinan couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night. His heart raced uncontrollably, heavy and uncomfortable. By the time he dragged himself to work, he felt dizzy and light-headed, with his eyelids twitching incessantly. His condition was awful.

Fortunately, he didn’t make any mistakes at work.

“Sounds like a nightmare,” Li Mo commented.

Was it a nightmare? Xie Zhinan forced a weak smile but said nothing.

Li Mo pulled out her phone, scrolling through messages as she sipped her tea. Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she put her mug down. “Our new boss is almost here!”

The previous boss had resigned, and the headquarters had sent a new boss. Rumor had it he was a top-tier graduate who had just returned from studying abroad, the eldest son of a board member, parachuted into the role for experience.

Xie Zhinan wasn’t particularly interested in office gossip. As an ordinary employee, the leadership shuffle had little impact on him—his work would remain the same regardless. However, he didn’t want to seem rude, so he casually asked, “How close are they?”

“According to the grapevine, they’re almost at the office,” Li Mo replied, scanning through various group chats. Dissatisfied with the lack of concrete information, she frowned and clicked her tongue. “This new boss is way too mysterious. They’re practically here, and we still don’t know a thing about them—not their age, appearance, or personality. Are they planning to sneak in undercover?”

“Maybe,” Xie Zhinan said with a slight tilt of his head.

The action was a bit clumsy, like a naive goose trying to mimic human behavior. But Xie Zhinan’s good looks kept it from seeming silly; instead, it came across as endearing.

Li Mo stared at him and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Xiao Xie, with how cute you are, I bet a lot of people had crushes on you back in school!”

Although Xie Zhinan was twenty-seven, he looked much younger, like a fresh college graduate.

He had fair skin, with a soft palette of light features—pale hair, light eyebrows, and even light-colored eyes. His small face, round eyes, and softly contoured features gave him a gentle, unassuming air.

But Xie Zhinan didn’t think he was particularly good-looking, nor did he consider himself “cute.” Back in school, his presence had always been minimal. So he replied honestly, “Thank you for saying that, but I wasn’t very popular back then.”

Not only was he unpopular, but he had also faced a subtle form of isolation. There were many reasons for this, one of which was that he rarely talked to others.

Over the past couple of years, he had made a conscious effort to change his reserved nature, which had made social interactions a bit easier.

“Why not?”

After a moment’s thought, Xie Zhinan answered, “Maybe because I didn’t like talking.”

“Really?” Li Mo said. “But if you’d been in my class, even if you didn’t talk, lots of people would’ve wanted to be friends with you.”

Xie Zhinan gave a shy smile.

Li Mo noticed his flushed face and laughed heartily, winking at him. “Xiao Xie, you’re way too easy to tease. If your skin is this thin, you’ll get bullied when you start dating in the future.”

In the future.

Hearing those words, Xie Zhinan lowered his lashes, staring at the water in his cup. The small rim reflected his eyes faintly.

Perhaps human emotions were like this cup of water—finite. Giving a little meant having less, and once it was all given to one person, there would be none left.

He didn’t want to settle for anything less than genuine, so he thought there might never be a “future dating” scenario for him.

Without explaining this, he simply smiled gently and replied to Li Mo, “I know, Mo Jie.”

Li Mo noticed he still seemed a bit distracted and asked, “Still not feeling well?”

Xie Zhinan hesitated briefly before admitting, “My eyelid has been twitching since this morning.”

Li Mo asked, “They say if your left eyelid twitches, it’s good fortune. If it’s the right, it’s bad luck. Which one is it?”

“Right.”

Li Mo fell silent for a moment, then said, “It’s probably just a normal muscle spasm. Nothing to worry about.”

Xie Zhinan smiled lightly. “Got it. Thanks, Mo Jie.”

Li Mo took a sip of her tea—an unpleasantly flavored instant fruit tea—and suddenly leaned in conspiratorially. “Want me to do a reading for you? I just got a new set of tarot cards. They’re super accurate!”

Seeing her enthusiasm, Xie Zhinan, who didn’t particularly believe in such things, nodded anyway out of politeness.

“What do you want to know? Work? Love? Wealth? Or just a general reading?”

After some thought, Xie Zhinan said, “Work, I guess.”

Li Mo made an OK gesture.

During lunch break, most colleagues had gone to eat. Xie Zhinan, feeling unwell, wasn’t hungry, and Li Mo, on a diet, had already finished her measly salad. Dissatisfied, she made another cup of her unpopular fruit tea, grumbling about the taste.

At her desk, Li Mo spread out a velvet cloth adorned with white arcane patterns, shuffled her deck, and laid all 78 cards face down in a row. She then asked Xie Zhinan to pick three.

The setup felt unexpectedly mysterious. Xie Zhinan focused and carefully chose three cards.

“Huh?” Li Mo flipped the cards over, her expression puzzled.

“What’s wrong?” Xie Zhinan glanced at the cards, noting the Roman numerals and English words: WHEEL of FORTUNE, THE LOVERS, and JUDGEMENT.

Li Mo wasn’t formally trained in tarot reading and relied on intuition. Her first instinct was that the cards conveyed a strong emotional connection, though the question had been about work.

While they could be interpreted professionally, the Lovers card in particular exuded an undeniable sense of personal relationships.

After staring at the cards for a moment, Li Mo awkwardly said, “Uh… maybe I’m not very accurate.”

Xie Zhinan smiled to reassure her. “Or maybe you are? What do they mean?”

Li Mo thought for a moment before summarizing, “An old acquaintance returns, and past feelings are rekindled.”

This interpretation felt eerily strange to Xie Zhinan. Remembering his dream last night, his heart inexplicably tightened. Trying to avoid the reading’s implications, he asked, “Anything else it could mean?”

Li Mo frowned slightly, pondering for a moment before offering, “Well… another way to see it is that you should focus on communication at work. Do your best, and there could even be a chance for a promotion.”

Xie Zhinan smiled, his eyes crinkling softly. “Got it.”

They chatted a bit more before Li Mo glanced at her phone, suddenly excited. “Breaking news! Our new boss is here!”

“Already?”

“Yes, just arrived downstairs,” Li Mo said, scrolling through group messages, her voice tinged with anticipation. “Rumor has it he’s a total heartthrob. Someone overheard the manager calling him ‘Young Master Wen.’”

Young Master Wen.

The nickname made Xie Zhinan’s brow twitch, his heart skipping a beat. The string of coincidences unsettled him, sparking a faint urge to escape.

His stomach churned uncomfortably, as though a bottle of carbonated soda had been poured into it. Tiny bubbles expanded, leaving him both bloated and hollow.

It could’ve been because he hadn’t eaten breakfast and had delayed lunch. His stomach protested fiercely.

Avoiding the topic, Xie Zhinan didn’t respond to Li Mo’s comments. When she noticed his silence, she looked up and saw him clutching his stomach, his expression strained. Concerned, she asked, “Xiao Xie, is your stomach upset?”

Xie Zhinan forced a faint smile. “It’s fine. I’m just hungry.”

Li Mo nodded. “Go eat quickly. Don’t let yourself get too hungry; it’s bad for your stomach.”

Xie Zhinan agreed and headed toward the elevator.

Their company cafeteria was known for its decent food, and Xie Zhinan typically ate there. As he reached the elevator and pressed the button, the doors slowly opened.

Lowering his gaze, he prepared to step inside when suddenly, he felt his entire body stiffen with an inexplicable sense of dread.

He sensed that something was off and slowly lifted his head.

Then, he met a pair of familiar, jet-black eyes.

The man’s features were dark and intense, with sharp eyebrows pressed low and tightly pursed lips. His expression was cold, yet those eyes—dark and deep—seemed to suppress a blazing fire within.

They were staring straight at him.

Xie Zhinan’s heart rate skyrocketed, and he was frozen in place, unable to move.

In an instant, he felt as though he were falling, with the cold wind howling past him. He fell into an endless darkness, into those years filled with a thousand mixed emotions.

All the memories shattered into fragments, rushing at him like the wind.

It was strange, Xie Zhinan thought.

In this moment of reunion, what he remembered first was not the sweetness they once shared, but the embarrassment.

He knew full well the moon did not belong to him, yet he still tried, stumbling along, chasing after that sliver of moonlight, stealing a moment of time.

But the moon would never stop for him.

Wen Yun was really a very good person, but Xie Zhinan only felt like a dusty little thief.

He shouldn’t have overestimated himself.

Xie Zhinan’s heart ached, and intense emotions washed over his nostrils and eyes, but he forced himself to suppress them, maintaining an outward composure.

Wen Yun didn’t say anything for a moment, and showed no reaction. Xie Zhinan even started to doubt whether he was imagining things—if it was just a hallucination, maybe it would be better.

But the next second, his illusion was shattered.

As the elevator doors were about to close, Wen Yun stared at Xie Zhinan, using his palm to stop the doors from closing, stepping forward a little.

Xie Zhinan unconsciously took a step back.

It was this step back that created an atmosphere on the verge of exploding, as if something burning hot and intense was about to burst from Wen Yun’s calm, rational exterior, and scorch Xie Zhinan.

But nothing happened.

Wen Yun just quietly watched Xie Zhinan, taking a step forward and then stopping, controlled, before speaking to him in a calm, even cold tone: “Excuse me.”

Excuse me.

Xie Zhinan snapped out of his daze, as if his wandering soul had returned to his body, reclaiming control over himself.

He stepped aside, like an old robot responding to a command—silent, slow, dull, and stiff, yet determined. He made way for Wen Yun to pass by him.

And pass by his life as well.

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  [Author’s Note]
  
  Here are some reading guidelines:
  
  Neither the “top” nor the “bottom” characters are perfect, and both had issues during their breakup. Therefore, I don’t recommend reading this if you’re overly fixated on strict top/bottom dynamics!
  
  Also, there is no “cremation” in this story. The reunion is a process of solving problems and resolving misunderstandings. At its core, it’s just a story of two people stumbling through a relationship. From start to finish, it’s a 1v1, dual perspective story with no third parties involved.
  
  The tarot cards in this chapter are just nonsense, meant to hint at their eventual reunion. Please don’t take them seriously.
  
  Lastly, thank you all for your support! I hope you enjoy reading!