When he got on the bike, Xu Tangcheng was afraid he would block Yi Zhe's line of sight so he took off the hood.

"Don't remove it, keep it on," Yi Zhe suddenly said from above his head. "It's cold, your ears will freeze."

"No need." Xu Tangcheng placed both arms on the handlebar and exerted strength to hold himself up. He shuffled closer to the front. "I'll block your sight."

"You won't," Yi Zhe said quickly. After saying that, he also added an explanation. "You aren't that tall. Even with the hood up, you won't block me."

Xu Tangcheng had already pulled his sleeves down to cover his hands and was waiting to get moving. When he heard those words, he was stunned for a second. His eyes widened slightly and he turned his head around. Yi Zhe didn't understand why and locked gazes with him in bewilderment.

"Are you calling me short?" Xu Tangcheng blinked and tilted his head as he asked.

Yi Zhe finally understood Xu Tangcheng's silence. He bit his tongue in his mouth and quickly shook his head and tried to remedy the situation. "You're not short, you're normal height."

Normal height?

He didn't reach 1.8 meters and was indeed not considered tall. But as long as he wasn't standing next to a tall person like Yi Zhe, he felt that his height was still sufficient. What kind of evaluation was "normal height"?

Xu Tangcheng was no longer crossed. He shot a look at Yi Zhe who was looking at him with a solemn expression, then brought his hand up decisively and pulled the hood over his head again.

He wasn't blocking his sight anyway. And it was warmer this way.

"Let's go," Xu Tangcheng gave his orders.

One side of the hood wasn't properly up. Yi Zhe looked at Xu Tangcheng who was looking ahead and not moving, and furtively extended two fingers to pinch the edge of the hood and tug it into place for him. It was just a very small movement, quiet and hidden, but it seemed to have pulled the corners of his own mouth up as well.

The advantage of being tall was having long arms and long legs. Sitting in front of Yi Zhe, Xu Tangcheng didn't feel cramped at all. Despite that, they had just exited the courtyard when Xu Tangcheng started to regret. Sitting on a slanted crossbar was really uncomfortable. The hard bar making his butt hurt was one thing, his body also kept sliding backwards. All he could do was use every ounce of strength to hold on to the handlebar to keep his body in place. But he was afraid of obstructing Yi Zhe when changing directions so he didn't dare put all his weight on the handlebar. Throughout the ride, Xu Tangcheng fought against the annoying slant of the crossbar in that manner, desperately trying to find his balance and remain stable. On the other hand, Yi Zhe was very relaxed. He was smiling all the while and cycled very steadily.

"Look at your hands. And you say you aren't cold?" Xu Tangcheng couldn't bear the sight anymore. His brows furrowed and he covered Yi Zhe's hand that was already red from the cold with his left hand.

"Hey!"

The bike's handlebar rocked, swaying not an insignificant amount. Xu Tangcheng was caught off guard; amidst the swaying, he fell forward onto the handlebar. The hand that was holding Yi Zhe's tightened its grip in the tumult.

After Yi Zhe steadied the bike in a fluster, his gaze moved away hastily but was pulled back again. Then, as though lead had been poured into it, it remained sunken and heavy on that hand that was laying right above his skin.

It was in that moment that the temperature became something tangible, along with the desire that was beginning to stir in his heart—the desire to touch him.

The pounding of his heart did not slow back down. When Yi Zhe stopped the bike and freed a hand, Xu Tangcheng seemed to have turned around and said something to him but Yi Zhe did not hear him clearly. All he saw was Xu Tangcheng smiling at him. In a daze, he still had the wits to reach out a hand to help Xu Tangcheng hop off the bike.

The noodle shop had long since been renovated. Compared to Xu Tangcheng's memories of it, it was much neater and brighter. They had just entered the main dining area when the delicious aroma filling the space warmed their bodies. At this hour, there weren't many customers, just a few of them scattered around the place. They picked a table for two and sat down, and ordered two bowls of beef noodles on the recommendation of the server. One was in the shop's signature flavour, the other in mala flavour.

"Don't put coriander in the signature one."

Xu Tangcheng was looking down and carefully wiping the table top with a tissue when he heard Yi Zhe say those words.

His movements paused. He looked up, coincidentally meeting Yi Zhe's eyes.

"Right?" Yi Zhe met his eyes and asked.

The server beside them was also patiently waiting for his answer. Under the gazes of the two people, Xu Tangcheng gave a light nod. From start to end, his eyes never left Yi Zhe's face.

He waited until the server had left. Xu Tangcheng threw the used tissue in his hand into a trash can at the side before finally asking Yi Zhe, "How did you know that I don't eat coriander?"

As far as he could remember, he had never told anyone about his preference and furthermore, he didn't completely not eat it now. When he was younger, he had been picky with his food and would insist on not eating certain foods. But when he had grown older, every time he went out to eat with his family, he had to carefully ask about the ingredients used in every dish, check whether they contained any allergens, and also make all sorts of requests such as asking for it to be not spicy and asking for no garlic to be added. He felt that it was really too troublesome and there was also just too much for the servers to remember. Gradually, he omitted his part to save the effort. He was not allergic to coriander anyway, it was just a matter of whether he liked it or not. It wasn't something he could not eat.

"When you brought me here in the past, you didn't want coriander."

Yi Zhe poured water into a glass until it was more than half full and swirled the cup to rinse it. Then, he poured the water into the other glass. He put two pairs of chopsticks into the water and slowly swished them around.

The sequence of his actions was very familiar. Xu Tangcheng watched him quietly, his brows furrowed as he searched his memories. Finally, he remembered the time when he had brought Yi Zhe here and in that moment, a strange feeling suddenly bubbled up in Xu Tangcheng's heart. He himself had clean forgotten about the matter but Yi Zhe remembered it so clearly.

The last time was not the same as this time, it had been a summer's day. Xu Tangcheng remembered that he had just finished the end-of-term exams in Year 2 of senior high. He didn't ride his bike and had walked his way home. At the courtyard entrance, there was a group of aunties who gathered there all year round to chat. That day, it was very strange. The topic of their conversation wasn't about which supermarket had eggs on discounts and had instead changed to "The man didn't want a single cent" and "The older one chose his mum." They were heaving sighs of sorrow and regret, saying that the kid was not sensible and was very shallow, how could he just look at the money?

The jumbled voices reached his ears. Xu Tangcheng's good mood accumulated from his exams vanished without a trace. While he was mulling over it, a spotless black car passed by him. In the car was a man and a child holding a cup of ice-cream, the child's mouth stained all over from the ice-cream.

Xu Tangcheng stared blankly for a while. He looked in the direction of the leaving car, finding it rather hard to believe.

The one taken away was the younger brother, then the one left behind was…

In the height of summer, sunlight stroked along the lines of the car, turning from warm to cold, then melting away into nothing, becoming the last thing to touch that car in this small town.

Yi Zhe pushed a glass of water over to him while the glass on his side still contained the water used to rinse the chopsticks just now. There wasn't anywhere near the table to pour the water away.

The server brought a steaming bowl of noodles to them. It didn't have chili oil. It was placed in front of Xu Tangcheng. Xu Tangcheng said softly to the server, "Can we get another glass?"

When the new glass was brought to them, Xu Tangcheng rinsed it, filled it with water, and passed it to Yi Zhe. Then, because of the memory he had just recalled, he spaced out for a while.

Yi Zhe was very quiet when eating. It wasn't that he made no noise at all; rather, it was because he did not say anything from start to end. Xu Tangcheng would occasionally ask him, "Is it spicy?"or "Do you want a drink?" but he only replied very briefly with just one or two words, or with just a nod or a shake of his head, all the way until Xu Tangcheng brought up the matter of university independent admissions and asked him about his recent academic results.

"I was in 109th place in the year in the last exam."

When Xu Tangcheng heard his ranking, he was rather surprised. Yi Zhe's results were far better than he had expected.

"What about your total score?"

"607."

City C was just a county-level city. Even if it was the No. 1 High School of this city, as a whole, the quality of teaching there was not very high. Meanwhile, Province B was a "major gaokao province." There were many exam candidates and their marks high. For comparison with the rest of the province, the year ranking in No. 1 was not much use as a reference but his total score did have some use. Xu Tangcheng gripped his chopsticks and mulled over it, helping Yi Zhe analyse. "With this result, if you want to go to a school in Shanghai, it's still possible. But you won't be able to attend a very good one. Actually, you can consider applying through independent admissions. No. 1 has a quota for student recommendations or you can apply yourself too. If you plan to try, I can help you prepare the materials."

But Yi Zhe very quickly shook his head.

Steam rose from the noodles hanging from the chopsticks, rising into a mist separating the two of them.

"I won't take part in that." After saying that, he put down his chopsticks and pulled a tissue and wiped his mouth before continuing to explain, "I once got into a fight and it was put on my record. There's no point in applying."

Yi Zhe spoke in an indifferent manner but Xu Tangcheng did not feel reassured hearing that and even felt his head aching a little. And, now that things had come to this point, there was no need for him to say motivational words like "If you had known this would happen, why did you do that at that time." He only quietly thought about whether the incident recorded would affect Yi Zhe in any way.

"Was it recorded in your file?"

Yi Zhe shook his head and said that he didn't know.

"If it was recorded in your file, it would be quite troublesome because your file would always follow you." After saying that, Xu Tangcheng felt that it might not be so serious after all. Since it was a high school in a small town, the supervisors for the various departments wouldn't follow the regulations very strictly. Even if they said that it was recorded, they might not necessarily put it down in a student's file.

"Why don't you ask your class teacher what's the situation? Check and see how many marks they deduct and if there is any way to make it less severe."

Yi Zhe looked at him. After a period of silence, he still shook his head.

"It was very long ago. At that time, the person I beat up, his dad was somebody in the education department. The fault was entirely pushed to me. There's nothing to be done about it."

Once Xu Tangcheng heard those words, he understood the situation. On one side was an "insider" with some sort of powerful background; on the other side was a problematic student whose parents wouldn't even come to school when asked to. As the saying went, if one wanted to frame the other, they would not worry about the person being blameless. What was more, this was only about judging the cause of an incident and assigning blame. Yi Zhe was still wolfing down his noodles like he was not at all worried about this matter, and also not at all worried about his own future.

Xu Tangcheng sighed. He stirred the noodles in his bowl and worried on Yi Zhe's behalf while the true owner of those worries hurried him heartlessly. "Hurry up and eat, don't let it get cold."

After the two of them were done eating, Xu Tangcheng said he wanted to get a cab to his uncle's house but Yi Zhe said he would send him there. Recalling their journey to the noodle shop, all Xu Tangcheng could say was that it was full of bumps. He looked at that bike and fell into a long silence. Finally, he yielded under the force of the teenager's brightly burning gaze. "All right."

The road was darker than it had been just now. When they turned into a small street, the streetlights above their heads had turned into a dim yellow colour, the Tyndall effect creating beams of light that shone quietly under the pitch darkness of the night sky. It had been a very long time since Xu Tangcheng last passed through this street at night. He lifted his head and looked around, and said with a smile, "The lights on this street are still like this."

Yi Zhe didn't understand. "Like what?"

"In the past, when I cycled, I took this way as a shortcut home every day. I don't know how it is for you guys now but back then—probably because this place is pretty much empty and the atmosphere is nice—I always bumped into two couples. One couple would be busy at the eastern side while the other would be at the western side. It was like they had agreed beforehand to divide this street." As Xu Tangcheng spoke, he let out a laugh. "Every day, I cycled here and watched them be lovey-dovey. Sometimes, the guy would be carrying his girlfriend on his back and running about; other times, they would be hugging under the streetlight. It was almost a different scene every day. Later on, when it was nearly gaokao and I bumped into them for the last time, the guy from one of the couples even greeted me very happily."

Perhaps it was because he was right before a teenager who was at the moment going through the years of senior high that he had once experienced himself, Xu Tangcheng couldn't help but feel sentimental and suddenly recalled the interesting events from those years. Yi Zhe listened to him laugh and his lips also quirked upwards as he asked, "What did he say?"

Xu Tangcheng made his voice rougher and imitated the young man's tone from that time, "Bro! You've worked hard for so long! Good luck for your gaokao!"

Yi Zhe let out a snort of laughter.

In front of him, Xu Tangcheng heard him make a sound and immediately took off his hood and turned around to look at him curiously.

"What's the matter?" Yi Zhe didn't understand.

"Nothing. So it turns out that you have such a low bar for jokes?"

Yi Zhe laughed and didn't say anything. In actual fact, he was just continuously imagining in his head how Xu Tangcheng must have looked like back then. When he thought about it, he felt that the Xu Tangcheng who had cycled through this little street, who saw the two couples being lovey-dovey in different ways every day, who replied to the last greeting from that man, must have been very cute.

Xu Tangcheng also didn't know why Yi Zhe was smiling but looking at him smiling so foolishly, it made him feel like smiling too. He turned back around and pulled his hood on, bundling himself up even tighter.

In the following Year 3 days, every day, Yi Zhe dragged his body that was weary after a day of battle to cycle through this street. Sometimes, he flew through it and listened to the wind playing chords beside his ears. Sometimes, he took his time, twisting and turning to run over different parts of the street. Regardless of whether he was going fast or slow, it always made him remember Xu Tangcheng who had once sat encircled in his arms, passing through the street with him.

Many more years later, he would occasionally hear someone hum the line "How beautiful the moon is tonight" and the picture that would suddenly appear before his eyes was none other than the curve of the moon that night.

The streetlights then were very beautiful and so was the new moon. Light leaped around in a dance and climbed up Xu Tangcheng's fingertips, filling Yi Zhe's eyes together with the lustre of that night that was unlike any other.

And, when he recalled those wonderful times, all the wind and snow covering his body would melt into warmth, leaving him with a sweet aftertaste.