Henry Cooper did not answer.

He felt as if he had been forcibly pressed into a terrifying dream. Countless black lines twisted through the distorted space, his vision blurred, and Eric Wright kept running and running, suddenly falling into a bottomless pit. He stood up, disheveled and in pain, and discovered a faintly glowing blue cocoon inside. Eric Wright slowly approached and saw the person hiding within.

It had been a long time since he last dreamed of him.

As if compelled by some mysterious force, his dream self carefully reached out a hand.

The moment he was within reach, the person turned into countless butterflies and flew away.

·

Edward Harris listened as his assistant reminded him of tomorrow’s agenda, glancing down at his watch.

His assistant, Carl, was a sharp person and immediately asked, “Do you need me to book a flight home for tomorrow? I checked, and there are still some early flights with business class seats available.”

“Okay.” Edward Harris took the room card from the receptionist and nodded slightly.

Carl glanced at the room card in his hand and added, “Sorry, this is the best business hotel I could book on short notice. With Christmas coming up, rooms are hard to get.”

“It’s fine, go have dinner.” Edward Harris showed little expression and walked alone toward the elevator.

As soon as he entered the elevator, he received a call from the company about a private fundraising dinner that an investor had asked him to attend at the last minute. It was crucial for the company’s upcoming financing plans, scheduled for seven o’clock that evening.

On the other end, his partner repeatedly emphasized the importance of this round of financing, saying it was their most critical turning point.

“Understood, I’ll be there on time.” The elevator doors opened, and Edward Harris stepped out. The intermittent signal gradually returned to normal as he listened to the partner’s secretary introduce the dinner, walking deeper into the corridor.

There weren’t many rooms on this floor, and he quickly found the one matching the number on his room card—2208.

For some reason, these numbers made him feel slightly irritable, so Edward Harris paused, quietly stared for a few seconds, then swiped the card and opened the door.

The air in the room was cold, faintly tinged with a light woody scent. Edward Harris gently closed the door and walked inside, suddenly noticing a faint light coming from the suite.

Perhaps it was the accumulated work stress of the day, combined with his obsession with cleanliness, but he couldn’t tolerate such a mistake.

Sensing something was off, the person on the phone asked, “Shaw, are you still listening?”

“One moment, something’s come up here, I’ll hang up for now.” Edward Harris checked the number on the room card and dialed the front desk.

“Hello, has my room been cleaned?”

Suddenly, a voice came from inside the room.

“Henry Cooper, you’re back?”

A voice he would never forget in his life.

For a moment, Edward Harris’s heartbeat nearly stopped. He froze in place, the blood that had been flowing through his body seemed to instantly solidify, turning into a thick, swelling heaviness that threatened to burst his capillaries.

That voice still echoed in his mind.

Back...

Edward Harris forced himself to take a step forward. After the first step, his pace became quick and unsteady, as if desperately chasing an answer.

Eric Wright found it odd—he didn’t remember giving the room card to Henry Cooper. No matter how forgetful he was, he wouldn’t forget something like that.

Could it be that Henry Cooper hadn’t closed the door properly? That seemed even less likely.

Just as he was puzzled, suddenly, a cold hand grabbed his eye mask and rather roughly pulled it off.

His blurry vision gradually cleared.

Standing before him was unmistakably the Edward Harris who had disappeared from his dreams.

Eric Wright didn’t know whether this was his own hallucination or reality. He couldn’t find the boundary, and just quietly stared at Edward Harris’s face until his eyes turned red.

Edward Harris’s hand gripped the eye mask tightly, the skin at his knuckles turning white.

What frightened Eric Wright was that he couldn’t speak at all, as if thousands of words were stuck in his chest, and in the end, he couldn’t utter even a single sound.

The two of them stood there in awkward, silent confrontation for a long time, until a hotel staff member entered, a string of apologies breaking the tension between them.

“I’m really sorry, truly very sorry.” At the front desk, the hotel’s lobby manager bowed repeatedly in apology.

“It’s like this, Mr. Ning, we’re very sorry. There was a problem with our back-end system, which mixed up the access rights for high-end credit card customers and large business reservations, resulting in this double booking. We sincerely apologize and will resolve this as soon as possible. We’ll upgrade you to the presidential suite free of charge, please wait a moment.”

Edward Harris didn’t hear a single word the manager said. His gaze remained fixed on Eric Wright not far away. He had only thrown on a coat in a hurry, one hand gripping the handle of his suitcase tightly, his head turned to the side, listening to the receptionist explain the situation.

Eric Wright’s back looked thin and fragile, lacking any sense of security, like a plant on the verge of withering.

For a moment, a flood of memories that Edward Harris thought he had almost forgotten surged up, overwhelming him like a tide, leaving him breathless.

He couldn’t help but look at Eric Wright, following the line of his slender shoulders and arms, and saw Eric Wright’s trembling hand.