Umbrella Tilted to My Knight

An Mi Xiu didn't realize how deep the trap had been laid until the weekend he was dragged to Lei Shi's apartment across the hall.

The door clicked shut behind him the second he stepped over the threshold. The whole apartment was almost empty, no extra decorations, only a stack of unopened sketchbooks piled on the coffee table, the edges of the top one slightly crumpled as if someone had flipped through it countless times.

Lei Shi locked the door with his back to him, the sound of the key turning in the lock clear and unhurried. When he turned around, the usual cold mask on his face had almost completely melted away, replaced by a quiet, heavy obsession that made the air feel thick.

"I've been waiting for this day for three months." He walked over, his purple eyes fixed firmly on An Mi Xiu's face, not letting him dodge even half a glance, "The day you transferred to this class, the first time I saw you standing at the classroom door smiling and saying your name, I knew you were different."

An Mi Xiu's breath caught. The system had never told him that the target had noticed him long before the mission officially started. He reached for the sketchbook on the coffee table, flipped it open, and every page was filled with the same figure: the boy standing by the flower bed feeding stray cats, the boy sitting by the window taking notes seriously, the boy frowning slightly when he corrected the discipline violation form. Every line of the sketch was drawn with a care that could not be hidden, as if the person holding the pen was trying to engrave every detail of that face into his bones.

[Ding! Target Favorability +80. Current Favorability: 175]

[Warning: The target's awareness of the world's abnormalities is rising. Please host pay attention to your words and behavior.]

"You know nothing." Lei Shi leaned over, his fingertips brushing past An Mi Xiu's cheek, the temperature of his skin scalding hot, "I saw you talking to the air in the infirmary that day, the way you frowned when the system voice sounded in your head. I don't know where you came from, and I don't care what so-called 'return mission' you have to complete."

He took An Mi Xiu's wrist, pressed the cold black key into the center of his palm, and wrapped his fingers around it forcefully, not allowing him to loosen it even a little.

"This key is not just for you to come over casually. It's for you to lock your own door, move all your things here, and never go back to that empty apartment alone." Lei Shi's voice was low, with a faint tremor hidden in it, "Last week I saw you talking to that new male classmate at the stairwell, you smiled so brightly at him. I almost couldn't help but go over and tear that classmate's transfer form up."

An Mi Xiu's whole body froze. He had thought that Lei Shi's possessiveness was only a faint sign before, but now he realized that this man had secretly watched every detail of his daily life for a long time, even the tiny interactions he had forgotten were all firmly remembered by him.

He tried to explain softly: "That classmate just asked me about the homework, I have no other relationship with him..."

"I don't care." Lei Shi interrupted him directly, pressing him gently against the edge of the sofa, the distance between their faces less than a few centimeters, "You are not allowed to smile like that at anyone except me. You are not allowed to walk home with anyone else after class. You are not allowed to hide any small thing from me. All your time, all your attention, can only belong to me."

His lips brushed past An Mi Xiu's ear, the warm breath making the latter's ear instantly burn red.

"Last month you said you wanted to go to the new planetarium exhibition with your roommate. I told your roommate that I had a sudden stomachache and you had to accompany me to the hospital. You didn't go in the end, did you?"

An Mi Xiu's eyes widened. He had always wondered why his roommate suddenly refused to go to the exhibition that day, and it turned out that all of this was arranged by Lei Shi behind his back. This seemingly indifferent boy had already quietly woven a dense net around him, trapping all his traces in the range that only he could see.

[Ding! Target Favorability +75. Current Favorability: 250]

[Urgent Warning: The target has modified the world line privately. The original "return channel" related plot has been completely erased. The mission progress has been forcibly locked to favorability mode.]

The system's alarm kept ringing in his head, but An Mi Xiu could no longer care about it. Lei Shi held his hand, led him to the bedroom, and opened the wardrobe door. Half of the empty wardrobe had already been filled with brand new clothes, all in the style he usually liked to wear. On the bedside table, there was a new toothbrush, a cup with a little knight pattern printed on it, and even the lavender laundry detergent he usually used was neatly placed by the balcony.

"I have prepared all of these for a long time." Lei Shi hugged him from behind, his chin resting lightly on his shoulder, his voice soft but with an unshakable possessiveness, "From the first day you appeared, I have been looking forward to the day you move in. You don't need to think about that so-called other world anymore. Stay here, stay with me, okay?"

An Mi Xiu lowered his head, looking at the hands that were wrapped around his waist. The favorability value that was rising rapidly in his head was no longer a cold mission number. He could feel the real, hot heartbeat of the person behind him, beating against his back, full of paranoid and sincere love that had been hidden for too long.

He didn't see that the moment he nodded slightly, the corner of Lei Shi's mouth raised a faint, victorious smile. The sketchbook on the coffee table was turned to the last page, on which a line of words was written in very light ink:

You will never leave here. The 500 points of favorability, I will fill them all with the rest of my life.1