Snow fluttered softly down the festive city, casting the towering buildings in white. On a certain roof, a snow-covered figure sat hunched down with binoculars in hand, observing the passing festive crowd with interest.
"It's going to happen..." Tian Shi silently watched his target through a set of binoculars. He observed a beautiful lady approaching the target, casually talking on her phone with a cup of cold coffee in hand.
"Yes, that's it!" His binoculars moved silently, focusing on a tall, handsome man in a black trench coat walking on the sidewalk. 'Right on a collision course!'
He was hopeful; his meticulous plan would work. Excitedly, he rubbed his hands and took a big bite of the cream cheese bagel. 'It will be finally over. It will be over soon...'
His eyes twitched oddly. 'It's okay. It will happen... He will fall in love, and I can finally leave,' he smiled, dreaming of his future.
His smile fell. 'Wait, I can't eat human food if my mission is over.' He hugged the bag of bagels close. 'Maybe I should buy a bulk of these and stuff them in a space button. I need to start shopping for my ascent son. Agh, it's melancholic... I will miss the human world.'
Sighing with a smile, he watched the humans happily singing Christmas carols. Tian Shi's eyes focused on the tall, handsome man and the young woman with a smile. 'They are made for each other. What a perfect pair.'
The look was picture-perfect, so perfect that even photos could be framed together and hung over the mantle kind of perfection. 'Wow, Tian Shi, you did an awesome job. Hui Long deserves nothing less,' he mentally applauded himself.
Soon, the two protagonists moved exceptionally close, only separated by a few people. 'Yes! Yes, come on. Let it happen...' he had already foreseen it. The young man would trip on her heels, and her cold coffee would spill all over Hui. The young woman would offer to clean it up for him with a guilty smile. That was how they would fall in love. His eyes shone a slight shade of blue. 'This feels so good. After twenty-five years, my ward is finally going to have the love of his life.'
As he predicted, the woman spilled the coffee all over Hui, and awkwardly wiped it off his trench coat. "I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to. I'm so sorry."
Tian Shi excitedly shook in his spot. "Yes! Love at first sight! Let it happen!"
To his dismay, Hui coldly glared at the woman and pushed her intrusive hands away. "Where are your manners? Why are you touching others' people indiscriminately?" He patted his coat clean and walked away without a single second of hesitation.
'Ehh... ehhhhh!!!!!!' Tian collapsed on the cold ground, hugging his knees. "No! No! Why is he walking away? Stop walking away!"
But the young handsome guy did not stop. He continued on, coldly with a frown on his face. "Ahhhh!!! The plan was perfect!! Why did it fail again?!"
Tian Shi had made extensive planning for their 'fateful' meeting, even going to the extent of making Hui's car break down. He rolled around until he was at the edge of the ceiling. "I just want to ascend!!!!"
It had been exactly twenty-five years ago when he was assigned his first-ever target, Hui Long. His only task was to make the young man happy in love. It was more than a normal task because it was his first test as an angel. If he completed the task successfully, he would be able to ascend and continue with even more complex cases.
A team of ten angels came down to earth, but when he descended, his target, Hui Long, was just a five-year-old child! Even so, he worked hard, finding him childhood crushes, thinking his puppy love would progress into adult passionate love.
Hui Long splashed the young girl's face with a bucket full of sand and ran away. Sniffing loudly, Tian Shi chomped down on the bagel. "Hui Long!!! I hate you, you runt!!!" Sobbing, he hugged the armful of bagels. "At least I can eat my favorite bagels..."
His phone dinged softly. Sniffling, he took it out and answered the video call. {'How did it go? Did it happen finally?'}
Tian Shi rolled his eyes. "No! That guy actually called her mannerless and ran! Ahh!! Hui Long is annoying! What is wrong with that kid! Why doesn't he accept the love match I've found for him? This is the tenth girl he had pushed away in a month! I found so many types for him from innocent to sexy to girl next door, but he refused them all! What is wrong with him! Ahhhhh!!!!" He screamed, tossing the phone to the side.
His best friend chuckled. {'Don't be disheartened. Hui is still young. When he hits his thirties, he would want to settle down. It will get easier for you to find him a match.'}
"Tsk, that cold bastard. He would end up an eunuch, and I would end up a winless angel! For what kind of sin did I commit to be assigned such a target? This is my exam; if I fail, I'll be an earth-bound angel..." He grumbled, chewing on the bagels with tears in his eyes.
Fai, like him, was a newborn angel sent to finish his first assignment. Unlike him, Fai had come to earth only two years ago. Other angels who descended twenty years ago had already completed their tasks and left for heaven. Tian Shi had met Fai by chance two years ago, and they instantly formed a friendship in their hardship.
But Fai's situation was different. He was quickly able to make his target fall in love, and his target was on the verge of proposing to his lover. When they married, Fai would ascend to heaven as an official angel.
"Hui Long, the bane of my existence. Why do you torture me so much?" He picked up the phone close to his face. "Fai, I will miss you... Can you smuggle me to heaven in your space bag?"
{"I can try to do that, but I believe you will be tossed back to earth again."} Fai said with a chuckle. Suddenly, he looked hesitant, as if holding back his words.
"What is it?" Tian wiped the cream cheese off his lips.
{'Tian... have you thought that maybe... maybe your target is not into women?'}
"Impossible. I saw him grow up. I know he liked young, slender women with little breasts and long hair." He mumbled, tugging at his waist-length hair.
{'Maybe his preference changed. Have you tried matching him up with a young man?'}
Tian paused. "I can try... It's my last-ditch effort. If I can't complete this, I'm gonna have to resort to living on Earth as a human... Ugh, I have to work and earn money..."
{'Just try it.'}
Tian pulled his phone close and checked every single person close by. Hui Long is a vigilant person. He did not know why, but the kid was always on the top of his feet. If an unknown person approached him like right now, he would just frown and push them away.
In order to check if he was crooked, he needed to find a person who was into men in Hui's close circle. There were many handsome men around Hui, but none of them were into men, so he had to do a deep search.
"Why can't I find a single crooked man around him?"
Not a single one.
Every single person associated with Hui were straight as a rod.
Letting out a sigh, he laid back down on the snowy ceiling. "I'm cold..."
After what seemed like hours, he searched into Hui's distant friend circle and found a gay guy who lived in close vicinity. "I've got it! I've found the gay guy! How am I going to make them meet?"