The car stopped at the entrance to the neighbourhood. The car doors slammed shut twice, and Yi Zhe also got down after that.

There was a supermarket beside the neighbourhood. In front of the supermarket was a food truck selling candied hawthorns that was looping the song Bing Tanghulu. Yi Zhe looked in the direction where the music was coming from and saw two boys wearing No. 1 High's uniform sitting on the brick curb, each of them holding a packet in their hands. White puffs of breaths shrouded the candied hawthorns that were similarly encased in white sugar.

He withdrew his gaze. He didn't walk to the back of the car and instead, just stood silently at the side, looking at the two people talking there.

Suddenly, someone patted his shoulder. Yi Zhe turned his head and noticed that it was Xu Tangxi, wrapped up very securely.

"Yi Zhe-ge, who's that girl?" Xu Tangxi had just seen him but was too occupied to talk to him. Hiding herself beside him, she stared at the two people behind the car, her eyes overflowing with excitement.

"Tangcheng-ge's former schoolmate."

He explained briefly.

His words were still in the air when the person who was talking to Wan Zhi the whole time seemed to sense something and looked over suddenly. When he saw the half a head poking out, Xu Tangcheng was initially stunned. Then, he very quickly tilted his head and laughed.

He beckoned towards them, then turned to the front and called out. Only then did Yi Zhe see Zhou Hui standing not far away.

Xu Tangcheng walked over. Wan Zhi hadn't had the time to say goodbye yet, and followed behind him. Xu Tangxi thrusted her hands into her pockets and turned to wink at Zhou Hui, then smiled and turned back as though nothing had happened.

"You guys are shopping here?"

"Yeah." Xu Tangxi lifted the plastic bag in her hands to show him. "You guys are coming back. Mum felt that there's too little food in the house and wanted to buy more."

Zhou Hui had also walked over. She was rather curious, yet she did not reveal anything as she studied the girl behind Xu Tangcheng.

Wan Zhi gave her a sweet smile. She bowed slightly and said, "Hello, Auntie."

Their meeting this time was brief and they only exchanged greetings and made small talk. Logically speaking, it shouldn't have left a deep impression. However, on the way home that day, every other word Zhou Hui spoke in the car was about Wan Zhi. Her meaning, both explicit and implicit, was that she felt that this girl Wan Zhi was very good and she could also tell that Wan Zhi had a good impression of Xu Tangcheng. Xu Tangcheng must seize the chance, be more proactive and interact more with the girl. Meanwhile, Xu Tangcheng stubbornly insisted that they were only ordinary friends and that they were not in frequent contact. Despite that, Zhou Hui still closed in on him and rebuked him for not knowing how to be friends with a girl.

"If you don't interact much with her, then you should interact more. No one knows another person well right off the bat. Everyone comes to understand each other slowly, don't they? When you're free, you should ask her out for a meal or something. If you ask me, when it's a festive occasion or when you're on holiday in the future, don't keep coming home. Nothing's going on at home now anyway. You're usually busy and don't have time to go out with others, and then you keep coming home during the holidays. How are you going to have a relationship?"

After saying that, Zhou Hui felt like she had suddenly found the reason why Xu Tangcheng was still not in a relationship after so long. She mulled over it further and the more she thought, the more she felt that this main reason that she had deduced made a lot of sense. Otherwise, given how excellent her son was, how could he still not find a girl to be the joy of each other's life with?

She slapped her own thigh and repeated confidently, "Yes, it's because you don't have time. In the future, don't keep coming home."

Even the decree forbidding him from going home had been announced. Xu Tangcheng knew that Zhou Hui was truly anxious this time. There was nothing he could do but to verbally pacify her for now, promising again and again that he would consider it seriously.

Xu Tangxi sat at the side and hid her laughter. Her brother was good in every aspect but when it came to chasing girls, he was stubborn and unyielding. The moment the topic of conversation changed, she noticed Yi Zhe who was sitting in silence in the front seat the whole time and suddenly sat up straight and leaned forward, asking craftily, "Yi Zhe-ge, what about you?"

Yi Zhe was listening to their conversation and spacing out. For a moment, his thoughts could not follow this question.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Seeing that he was not responding, Xu Tangxi made her question clearer and even said jokingly, "If you do, hurry up and give my brother some pointers."

The car entered their neighbourhood. Xu Tangcheng stepped on the brakes, bringing the car to a stop and waiting for the oncoming car to pass.

Because he was thinking about the question, Yi Zhe turned to look at Xu Tangcheng without realising it. But when he turned his head, he saw that Xu Tangcheng was also looking at him.

"I don't."

On one side of the road, there was again a car blocking the front of someone's garage. The garage owner had no way to park their car and was sitting inside the car, pressing on the horn impatiently, reminding that person to hurry up and move their car.

The noise filled their surroundings. His reply was drowned out by this long and pressing blaring.

The large dark circles under the pair of eyes on the replacement I.D. was a testimonial to the owner's night of restless tossing and turning.

Moreover, after that day, there were quite a few times when scenes related to it appeared in Yi Zhe's dreams.

His dreams were mostly blurry, and also tender. But they had nothing to do with him. There was once when the main characters in his dream were suddenly no longer Xu Tangcheng and another girl; instead, he was riding his bike and ferrying Xu Tangcheng, and diving down that slope he often went to. The scene in the dream was very clear, so clear that he could see himself in the dream letting go of the handlebar and raising his hands to cover Xu Tangcheng's eyes. Xu Tangcheng was in his arms and shouting, the wind lifting his hair to wrap around Yi Zhe's jaw, so intimately close that nothing could come between them.

The wind whistled madly past his ears. A round of stimulation, shaking his world.

Up to this moment, it was still a good dream.

But when the bike stopped and their panting breaths calmed down, the Xu Tangcheng in the dream suddenly jumped off the bike and turned around to look at him. His eyes were ink-black, all at once making Yi Zhe think of the abyss of death where no sound could be heard, and also of the Heaven spoken about in stories where all living creatures could have eternal bliss. It seemed as though no matter how contradictory those things were, they could all exist harmoniously in those eyes.

He called his name. Then, he said that he wanted to tell him a piece of good news.

"I'm going to…"

The instant he helplessly watched him open his mouth, his emotions that had accumulated through so many years turned the ending of that scene into a tear-jerking slow-motion scene. And he too, in the end, became a coward who was unwilling to watch the ending.

He could not last until what came after. He hurt so much that he suddenly startled awake.

And following that, was a long period of gazing at the air-conditioner.

Music played beside his ear. It was his phone's ringtone. He picked up the phone that was next to his pillow with a rather stiff hand and saw that it was Xu Tangcheng.

"Are you awake?"

Yi Zhe cleared his dry throat and replied, "Just about to."

"Mm, I was afraid that you would oversleep. You should get up and get ready. I'll be at the south gate in about twenty minutes. We'll have breakfast before going to the Beijing North Station."

Even though he had been to Shanghai by himself before, this was the first time his departure point was Beijing. Xu Tangcheng was likely truly taking care of him the way he would take care of a younger brother, and had insisted yesterday on sending him to the station.

After hanging up, a long time passed, yet Yi Zhe still could not muster his spirits. In the phone call just now, Xu Tangcheng's voice could not be any clearer, making him suddenly realise that no matter what intentions he had in his heart, no matter what fantasies he held in his mind, the day would come when Xu Tangcheng would be in a relationship with a girl, get married and then have a very happy family.

On top of that, he thought rather pessimistically, on the day of his wedding, Xu Tangcheng might ask him to be his best man.

The ceiling was covered in layers of dust, the many passing years leaving their mark in those mottled spots.

Breakfast was at a dumpling stall. After asking Yi Zhe, Xu Tangcheng ordered two trays of dumplings, the difference being their fillings. At first, Yi Zhe ate very slowly. It was only when Xu Tangcheng said that he was full that he quickly stuffed all the remaining dumplings into his stomach.

On the way there, Xu Tangcheng had already yawned a few times. While waiting for Yi Zhe to finish eating, he yawned again, covering his mouth with his fist.

After they got into the car, Yi Zhe suddenly said something out of the blue, "When I'm eighteen, I'll learn how to drive. Then, I can be the one driving."

Xu Tangcheng smiled. "Sure. It works out great. My back is always aching and driving for a long time is really tiring."

"What happened to your back?" Yi Zhe was frowning at Xu Tangcheng, a rare occasion. "If there's something wrong with your back, maybe you should get it checked at the hospital."

"I did, they didn't find anything. Maybe my body is just weaker, it might be inherited."

"Oh." Yi Zhe responded hesitatingly, still worried. He thought, when he had the time, he should still accompany Xu Tangcheng to the hospital for a checkup after all. Who on earth had a bad back in their twenties?

Again, it was New Year's. Yi Zhe looked at the many red decorations festooning the streets flying past and suddenly remembered the time during senior high when he had gone to the train station to pick Xu Tangcheng up before New Year's Day.

"Why are you smiling?" Xu Tangcheng asked.

"Hmm?" Yi Zhe withdrew his gaze from the window. "Nothing."

Suppressing the overly obvious smile on his lips, he asked, "Are you going home afterwards?"

"Yeah," Xu Tangcheng nodded. "But I'll have to come back tomorrow. Day after tomorrow, I'm going to Happy Valley with my school friends."

School friends? Yi Zhe immediately thought of Wan Zhi.

His hands that had been lying idly suddenly twisted together. Feigning nonchalance, he asked, "With your university friends?"

"No. With a few friends from junior high."

In actual fact, Xu Tangcheng was aware of Wan Zhi's intention. She invited him to the amusement park and even purposely told him that there would be another two school friends coming along. Everyone would have a partner so it would be even more fun. And coincidentally, the other two school friends were the only class couple who had remained together until now.

Initially, he wanted to refuse but because of Wan Zhi's overly cautious manner in the phone call, he didn't have the heart to. His feelings for Wan Zhi couldn't be said to be the kind that made his heart suddenly beat faster, but he didn't have any aversion to her either and even felt that she was a very nice girl.

After hanging up, he leaned against the windowsill and wondered if it was really because he did not have any experience in being in love that he didn't know how to determine whether this positive feeling he had was due to friendship or due to some other kind of reason. Furthermore, he was even doubtful of the "suddenly" that people spoke of, the "head over heels" that they described—did such things really exist?

If they did, then why had he never experienced them?

"Happy Valley…" Yi Zhe mumbled the name, then smiled. "I've never been there."

The disappointment only flashed across his face for an instant, yet Xu Tangcheng saw it clearly in a glance.

"Actually, I've never been there either," he said. "I'll go and scout out the place this time, then bring you there next time."

The station was crowded and bustling, so much so that even any concept of directions could be rendered blurry. Xu Tangcheng not only sent Yi Zhe there, he also brought him to the ticketing hall to get his ticket and confirmed that he had brought his I.D. along before finally letting him go.

"After you have your ticket checked and go in, remember to check the large screen when you go up the escalator and find the waiting room for your train."

He was still giving instructions. Yi Zhe nodded and said that he understood.

He lined up to have his ticket checked.

When it was almost his turn to go in, Yi Zhe couldn't hold back and finally turned his head around amidst the moving crowd.

And Xu Tangcheng was still there. When he saw Yi Zhe looking over, he smiled at him from where he was standing next to the end of the line.

The wind in the North Square was very strong. Yi Zhe waved at him. He wanted to mouth at him to go back but accidentally gave voice to the words that Xu Tangcheng could not hear at all.

"You should go back."

Xu Tangcheng seemed to understand what he was saying. He nodded silently at Yi Zhe and also raised his hand to wave.

When he was completely inside the large hall, he finally could not see him anymore. Yi Zhe gripped the red-coloured ticket in his hand. All of a sudden, he had a rather emotional thought that there would probably be a day when Xu Tangcheng would wave at him just like he had now, and then walk ahead on his own.

In that New Year's in the past, he was the one who cycled his way to his side. At that time, he had been confused and ignorant, still completely unaware of the worries that could plague a teenager's heart. All he knew was that he was coming back, and that he wanted to see him. Even if the way he had barged to his side was almost rude and impetuous, he hadn't felt that there was anything wrong with that.

Now that he thought about it, that seemed to be the best time of his life.

With no knowledge of how deep his feelings were, there had been no need for fear.