Mason Nightshade lowered his eyes to look at Aurelia Shaw's sleeping face, and couldn't make sense of it.

Was it because he had been reborn? Did he use the wrong method, making her want to leave him? Or maybe this world wasn't the one he used to live in, and the Aurelia in his arms wasn't actually his Aurelia at all.

Mason closed his eyes, taking a deep, weary breath.

He didn't want to think about it anymore.

He was starting to feel a little tired.

In his previous life, he'd plotted so much, but in the end, he still lost her.

Now, all he wanted was to hold her like this, to hold her forever. As long as he could see her still by his side, that was enough to fill his heart.

"Do you really want to leave me?" Mason gazed at Aurelia's face, murmuring in a whisper tinged with a grief he never showed anyone, "Do you know how cruel those words are to me? Letting you go means I have no heart left—and how am I supposed to go on living without my heart?"

"Aurelia, you are my life."

This life, he lived just to chase after you.

And now, you ask me to let go.

How could I let you go?

How could I ever let you go.

...

That night, some people were sorrowful, some slept soundly, while others suffered unspeakable misery.

Grayson Quinn stood at the mouth of an alleyway near the Stardust Bar, shivering in the chilly wind.

In the middle of the night, Mason called and told him to come clean up the scene. When he got there and took a look, he was livid.

Three men had been messed with so badly they were half-crippled and barely clinging to life, blood everywhere—and Mason wanted him to clean this up?

Wasn't Mason just treating him like free labor?

He shouldn't have chosen to vacation here in the first place.

He must have owed these two in a past life!

He pulled out his phone and made another call.

The tone in his voice was mischievous.

"Hey, little Gustavo, sleeping? Don't sleep, your boss just made a mess and you better get over here and clean it up for him. He actually dumped this mess on me alone—believe it or not, I'll storm into your home right now and drag you out of bed. Forget about sleeping tonight."

On the other end, Gustavo Yates was wailing.

"Chief Quinn, no, no, no, I… (yawning) …I'll come help you right away."

Grayson's lips curled into a triumphant smile. "You've got twenty minutes. If you're late, run a lap around Q City for me—you haven't exercised in a while, have you?"

He wanted me to eat shit alone?

No way—he'd drag someone else down with him, no matter what.

Q City?

Gustavo Yates silently let two lines of tears run down his face.

When will this living plague finally go home!

——

At five in the morning, Mason Nightshade slipped quietly out of the bedroom again.

When Aurelia woke, even the lingering traces of his presence had vanished from the room. She stared at the empty half of the bed, a faint sense of strangeness stirring in her chest. Her fingers touched the cold side of the mattress, and suspicion pricked at her heart.

Strange. She could've sworn she'd dreamed of hugging a giant heater all night, but when she woke up, the quilt was icy cold.

And, oddly, she hadn't kicked off the covers at all.

This was not normal.

The door creaked and Mrs. Rong came in.

"Mrs. Rong, did you come into my room last night?" Aurelia asked.

If it wasn't Mrs. Rong… could it be that Mason had come into her room last night?

Aurelia's heart leaped in alarm.

But then Mrs. Rong's words cut off her guesswork.

"Young Master told me before that you, Young Madam, like to kick off the covers at night, so he asked me to check on you from time to time. Last night when I went to the bathroom, I popped in to have a look—your duvet was all kicked onto the floor, and with the air conditioner turned so low, it would be easy to catch a chill. I covered you up and adjusted the temperature a bit."