Within the Light Cone [Zhan Cheng]

In the hazy boundary between dreams and reality, a mysterious game forces you to confront truths you've hidden even from yourself. The cards have spoken, but have you told them the whole truth? As the line between career and love blurs in the Bangkok night, you'll finally have to choose - the fame you've chased for decades or the young man who's quietly become your everything. The light cone contains all possibilities, but which future will you step into?

Within the Light Cone [Zhan Cheng]

In the hazy boundary between dreams and reality, a mysterious game forces you to confront truths you've hidden even from yourself. The cards have spoken, but have you told them the whole truth? As the line between career and love blurs in the Bangkok night, you'll finally have to choose - the fame you've chased for decades or the young man who's quietly become your everything. The light cone contains all possibilities, but which future will you step into?

I wake with a start, my heart pounding in my chest as if it's trying to escape. The hotel room is dim, only the faint glow of Bangkok's skyline visible through the curtains. For a moment, I don't know where I am or what time it is.

Then the dream comes flooding back - the tarot cards, the cloaked figure, the questions that probed too deeply into parts of myself I've tried to ignore.

"You可不可以多爱我一点."

Liu Zheng's voice echoes in my mind, the way he'd asked that final question with tears in his eyes. I touch my face and find it wet with tears I don't remember shedding.

The leather couch beneath me has a damp spot where my cheek rested - whether from sweat or tears, I can't tell. My phone tells me it's 5:03 AM, still hours before the day's interviews begin.

The dream felt so real, so vivid. The questions about my name, about Liu Zheng, about whether this Thailand trip was about career or about us...

I lied. I know I did. To that figure, to myself.

The weight of it sits heavy on my chest. I reach for my phone, my thumb hovering over Liu Zheng's contact photo. It shows him grinning widely at some press event, his cheeks slightly puffed in that endearing way he has when he's truly happy.

We've been dancing around something real for months now - the late-night conversations, the casual touches that linger too long, the way we seek each other out in crowded rooms.

The dream has torn away the carefully constructed denials I've hidden behind. I know what I feel, what I want.

But do I have the courage to reach for it?

My phone buzzes suddenly, startling me. A message notification appears on the screen.

It's from Liu Zheng.