As much as Yi Zhe hurried, he still reached home at an awkward hour. He opened the door carefully. tThen, with his body tense and trying his best not to make any sound, he closed the door. Finally, he picked his way into the apartment. The bedroom door was closed. Yi Zhe thought for a while; in the end, he lightly pushed the door open a crack, wanting to take a look at Xu Tangcheng.

He was afraid of waking up the sleeping person so he stood at the door, not daring to enter. But right at the moment when he pushed the door open, the person on the bed turned over and called out to him in a mumble.

Did he wake up from the noise? Or did he not fall asleep?

Yi Zhe quickly walked in. He heard Xu Tangcheng say, "You're finally back. Hurry up and come to bed."

"Mm." Yi Zhe propped his arm on the bed and bent down close to him. He said softly, "I'll take a shower first."

The control room was permeated with the smell of metal. After staying there for so long, Yi Zhe was afraid that the smell lingered on his body.

"Don't." Right now, Xu Tangcheng wasn't fussy about cleanliness. He held Yi Zhe's wrist, not letting him leave. "What time is it already, hurry up and sleep. The bed covers should be changed soon anyway. We'll wash them tomorrow."

Since he said that, Yi Zhe only went to wash his face.

While waiting for him, Xu Tangcheng switched on the bedside lamp. When Yi Zhe came back, he saw Xu Tangcheng lying on the bed, turning the knob on the lamp, controlling the brightening and dimming of the light. Probably because he had been lying in bed for a long while, Xu Tangcheng's hair was rather messy and the collar of his light yellow pyjamas was also askew, exposing a small section of the curve between his neck and his shoulder.

When it came to pyjamas, Xu Tangcheng liked wearing the ones made of pure cotton without any other kind of material mixed in. Not only was it soft to the touch, it also had a warm and dry feeling to it.

Yi Zhe's day had been very hectic. Seeing this scene now, his heart suddenly settled down completely.

"You didn't sleep the whole time?" He quickly took off his clothes and got into bed. Xu Tangcheng shared the blanket with him and after both of them had laid down, he switched off the lamp.

"Nope."

Even though the lights were off and he couldn't see, Xu Tangcheng felt like he could sense Yi Zhe's brows swiftly furrowing.

"Let's go to the hospital tomorrow."

After saying that, Yi Zhe didn't get a response even after a long while. It was only when he was about to open his mouth to persuade again that he heard a very soft, "Okay."

"But," Xu Tangcheng turned over to face Yi Zhe, "we'll go to the hospital in the morning. In the afternoon, you'll listen to me."

There was nothing hard about that. To Yi Zhe, this wasn't even something that had to be asked. Thus, he agreed readily and also hurried Xu Tangcheng to sleep.

Earlier on, Xu Tangcheng was waiting for Yi Zhe earlier and couldn't fall asleep as a result; now, that person was back but he still couldn't fall asleep.

"Yu An came back to the lab today," Xu Tangcheng said. "I don't know what's wrong with him, he suddenly gave me the USB drive and also said something about how he never wanted to harm me."

For a very long period of time before this, the two of them had not lay down quietly like this and talked. During that time, they seemed to have been constantly worrying about the other person's feelings and there were also too many things that they were fully aware of yet had no way to speak about openly. But this early hour of the morning was clearly different. Xu Tangcheng couldn't say for sure which of them was the first to change but in any case, he felt very relaxed, very comfortable, like they were being frank with each other soundlessly. He shouldn't bring up a topic that spoiled the atmosphere at this time but there were some words that he should say, that he should explain, and he would say them today.

Only after talking it out can they really turn the page on this matter.

"He's quite ridiculous, don't you think?"

On this topic, Yi Zhe had barely any words to spare. He only made a noise in response, an exhaled breath that sounded like it took so much strength to trickle miserly out his nose.

"Actually, I still want to know what made you hit him." Xu Tangcheng had already decided to make everything clear today so even though Yi Zhe was avoiding it, he still continued to ask without letting him off. The hand he rested on Yi Zhe's arm tapped lightly a couple of times. "C'mon, just tell me."

But Yi Zhe tucked the blanket around him, then said, "I won't tell you. Hurry up and sleep."

"He said that he showed you a few photos. I don't believe that you'll get angry just because of some ambiguous angles or something like that. You know that I'm not like that. As for other reasons, I wondered for a long while why a few photos could make you so angry. In the end, I thought of something…"

"Go to sleep."

"He had dirty thoughts about me?"

The arm around him tightened, confirming Xu Tangcheng's guess.

Like he said, Yi Zhe wasn't the half-grown kid he was in the past who couldn't handle being angered. What kind of large waves could a few photos start?

"He's disgusting."

After a long silence, Yi Zhe suddenly spoke.

Now, Xu Tangcheng understood why Yi Zhe had been unwilling to tell him all this while. He didn't know if he should be happy. There were times when he felt that Yi Zhe gave him the treatment one would give the princess in the story of The Princess and the Pea, bringing only the good things to him, as though the bad things, the things that made people disgusted, were not things Xu Tangcheng should know.

"Yi Zhe." Xu Tangcheng patted his arm and said slowly. "In this world, there are all kinds of people. We can't do anything about what other people do and say, and we can do even less about what they think. He has a problem. If you get serious with someone who has a problem, the one who will be at a disadvantage in the end is you-"

"No." Yi Zhe interrupted him at that moment. His voice was not loud, but it was decisive.

Xu Tangcheng was briefly stunned. "What?"

"I don't care about other people," Yi Zhe said. "But when it comes to you, no."

After knowing him for so long, Xu Tangcheng easily understood Yi Zhe's logic: he didn't care about what others did or said, but if it involved Xu Tangcheng, then it was not just "other people's business" and instead, fell under Yi Zhe's jurisdiction.

"But he did not cause me any material harm. There's no need for us to get into direct conflict with him. It's not worth it, is it?"

The surroundings were quiet for a few seconds, making Xu Tangcheng feel that Yi Zhe was mulling over it. He hoped that Yi Zhe could understand, could figure it out, but Yi Zhe did not cooperate at all and said stubbornly, "Not true."

Xu Tangcheng smacked his arm. A crisp sound, but there actually wasn't much force behind it.

"How is it not true? If he wants to have dirty thoughts, then let him, it's not like I'll lose any skin or flesh from it. Just yell and curse him to vent your anger and that's enough, isn't it?" he asked, rather resigned. "Who knows how many people dislike me or have bad intentions for me, whether in the past or in the future. How many more times do you want to go to the police station?"

After being smacked, Yi Zhe gripped the person in his arms even tighter. He buried his head in Xu Tangcheng's shoulder, not saying anything.

Xu Tangcheng spent a long time thinking but failed to come up with anything in the end. Yi Zhe threw out a final line. "Fine. I don't care what others do as long as they don't let me know about it."

Xu Tangcheng was thinking that it was a good thing that Yi Zhe would not have children in the future. If he produced a child that was just as stubborn as him, then the two of them would have lots to fight over.

His words failed to sway Yi Zhe and his anger also failed to rise. In the end, he let out a heavy sigh and patted Yi Zhe's belly, saying in a half-joking and half-serious tone, "You need to grow up."

When the person lying down quietly beside him heard that, he immediately flipped over and lay on top of him.

"What's this?"

The thick curtains did not allow even the tiniest bit of light from the street outside to enter. Yi Zhe didn't move and also didn't speak. Xu Tangcheng could not see at all what state he was in at the moment. He lifted a hand and touched Yi Zhe's jaw; as he thought, he discovered that the muscle there was slightly tense.

With this, he could imagine Yi Zhe's expression. He let out a laugh and pinched Yi Zhe's chin, shaking it a couple of times. "Not happy now?"

His reply was a kiss. It started very fiercely, then slowly turned gentle towards the end, crushing against his slightly dry lips again and again.

"It won't happen again."

This sudden change surprised Xu Tangcheng but before he could be happy, while his mind was dizzy, he heard Yi Zhe continue to say, "Next time, I'll find a place where there are no people and no CCTVs so that he can't accuse me. I won't be taken to the police station again."

Without giving Xu Tangcheng the time to react, Yi Zhe touched his lips again, then lay back down.

Were it not because he had just been kissed until his heart softened, Xu Tangcheng thought that he would probably smack him again.

With a thin blanket covering them, the two of them chatted for too long and neither one could wake up the next day. Yi Zhe had the matter of going to the hospital in his mind so he woke up earlier; meanwhile Xu Tangcheng was still covering his face with the blanket at ten o' clock, saying that he wanted to sleep for a while more.

Xu Tangcheng's recent sleeping patterns had made Yi Zhe too worried, so seeing that he could really sleep, Yi Zhe didn't wake him again, thinking that they could go to the hospital in the afternoon. But when Xu Tangcheng woke up, he smiled and said, "I said yesterday that we will go to the hospital in the morning and that you will listen to me in the afternoon. You also agreed."

Yi Zhe stood at the side, looking down from above at the person still lying in bed, a little unsure whether this counted as cheating to get out of a promise. Before he could come to a conclusion, Xu Tangcheng got out of bed and went to the wardrobe at the side to choose his outfit.

"I'm on leave today. We haven't gone out together for fun in a long while." He turned his head to look out the window. "The weather today is really good."

In this state of befuddlement, Yi Zhe was dragged out the door by Xu Tangcheng. Even when they reached the shopping center, he still hadn't figured out how the matter of going to the hospital was brushed away just like that.

When they came out of a shop for a brand they often went to and got on the escalator, Xu Tangcheng pulled open the shopping bag in his hand for a look and thought of something.

On the escalator, they usually stood one ahead of the other. Xu Tangcheng sometimes brooded over their height difference and hence would look for a higher viewpoint on the escalator. He placed a hand on Yi Zhe's shoulder, lifted four fingers and patted him a couple of times, asking, "Why are you always getting me to buy dress shirts?"

Other reasons aside, the amount of white and light blue dress shirts he had at home already made up a large pile.

"You look good wearing them."

"Doesn't mean that I can wear them every day."

Yi Zhe maintained the straightforward and sticking-stubbornly-to-the-end way of thinking he had always had and after thinking for a while, he turned around to ask, "Why not?"

It wasn't as though there were any explicit rules forbidding it. For a moment, Xu Tangcheng really couldn't come up with an answer. He yielded once more, "Seems like there is indeed no reason why I can't."

Before they reached the bottom of the escalator, Xu Tangcheng already saw a young lady wearing a pink uniform standing there and beaming at them. Hence, when they got off the escalator, well aware of her intentions, he paused for a while. As he thought, the young lady immediately came over and said that her company had just invested in a photography machine in the shopping center. She invited them to try it out for free, saying that they could take two photos.

Xu Tangcheng glanced at the sample photos and realised that it was actually an upgraded version of a photo sticker booth. They could pick a frame and a background, and after taking the photos, they could even add all sorts of decorations to them.

The machines were the same pastel pink colour as the young lady's uniform. Xu Tangcheng inadvertently lifted his head and saw the expression on Yi Zhe's face.

He had a feeling of déjà vu.

Very quickly, Xu Tangcheng mapped it to that Hello Kitty lamp.

When he saw Xu Tangcheng looking at himself, Yi Zhe immediately met his gaze warily. "I'm not doing it."

Xu Tangcheng naturally didn't have any interest in this kind of cute photography, but Yi Zhe's expression of wanting to run away made him couldn't help but want to tease him.

"Why don't we give it a try?"

Yi Zhe glanced at those photos of kitties and bears, and maintained his silence.

The young lady felt that she had a chance and began recommending it even more fervently. She flipped through the pages of the album, putting it right before Yi Zhe's eyes, letting him see the ample contents page by page. Yi Zhe wanted to dodge but didn't feel like he could interrupt the young lady in front of him, so he had no choice but to stand there blankly and listen to her speak.

Xu Tangcheng turned his head to the side and held back his laughter, waiting for Yi Zhe's response. Unexpectedly, under the force of the young lady's recommendation that didn't even contain a single pause, Yi Zhe agreed.

Slightly surprised, Xu Tangcheng raised his brows and looked at Yi Zhe, and saw that he was staring at a certain spot in the album. He inclined his head towards it and was just following Yi Zhe's gaze to take a look when a hand slammed the album shut. When he lifted his head again, within his line of sight was the slightly upturned corner of a mouth.

They had been uncomfortable outside but after they entered this small space, the two of them relaxed a lot more. No one could see them anyway.

The grown-up guys with no prior dating experience; naturally, neither of them had played this thing before. Xu Tangcheng had a younger sister so his experience was at the very least a little wider, so he was the one responsible for operating it the whole time.

Unlike his initial rejection of it, when he saw the first completed photo, Yi Zhe showed a great interest in this thing. The girl had said that they could take two photos for free but he lowered his head to discuss with Xu Tangcheng, "Let's take a few more?"

Xu Tangcheng looked at the two pink hearts Yi Zhe added on his face and wanted to refuse but couldn't bring himself to.

"All right. You're paying for it."

Yi Zhe patted his pocket. "I've got enough."

It had been too long since they were so relaxed. Right now, they were in this hidden space and the feeling of being on a date suffused the surroundings, making the two of them at least a little excited. They took quite a few photos in different poses. When adding decorations, Xu Tangcheng tugged Yi Zhe's hand, forcing him to stop, and asked, "Can you stop sticking hearts on my face? Be more creative, all right?"

As he spoke, he added a pair of kitty ears on Yi Zhe's head, shocking Yi Zhe into immediately getting goosebumps.

Yi Zhe didn't disappoint the anticipation filling Xu Tangcheng's eyes. This time, he didn't add hearts on Xu Tangcheng's face and instead, arranged a halo of hearts around his head. Amidst the sound of Xu Tangcheng's objections, he seemed to even think it was insufficient, and filled the space inside with more hearts.

To be honest, the arrangement was extremely ugly.

"Hey, you put too many." As someone with a normal sense of aesthetics, Xu Tangcheng naturally did not like it. However, his dislike was limited to his words; in the end, Xu Tangcheng didn't delete even a single heart and saved the photo.

The last photo. This time, before they took the photo, Yi Zhe took the initiative to put his hand on the control button and even said to Xu Tangcheng, "I won't add hearts to you in this one."

Xu Tangcheng thought that he was finally repenting. What he did not expect was that when the shutter was pressed, Yi Zhe suddenly bent down and kissed his face.

His movement was too quick. When Xu Tangcheng realised what had happened and looked at him, all he saw was a tiny dimple curled up securely on that face.

It was only later on that Xu Tangcheng found out that this pose and this photo was the reason why Yi Zhe walked into this pink photobooth.

The photos from the day were divided equally between the two of them. And this photo that he had been the most proud of, Yi Zhe gave it to Xu Tangcheng.

Xu Tangcheng kept insisting that he didn't want it but his smile was just like in the past and his head was even slightly tilted, letting Yi Zhe put his arm around him like a hug and push a small packet of photos into his pocket.

A large pile of shopping bags collided against each other beside him, the liveliness culminating in sweetness.

The sunshine was too beautiful, their enjoyment too wild. The good mood lingered, yet to dissipate even after a long while. Xu Tangcheng and Yi Zhe returned home the next day. Coincidentally, it was nearly the Mid-Autumn Festival, so Xu Tangcheng bought some Dao Xiang Chun mooncake to bring home. Yi Zhe had never paid attention to this festival. It was only when they entered the supermarket and his eyes were filled with the sight of mooncake gift boxes that he muttered softly, "It's almost the Mid-Autumn Festival already."

Yi Zhe drove on the way back. Halfway through the journey, he received a call from Zhao Weifan. She asked Yi Zhe what time he would be back, saying that she wanted to meet him.

"When we have time, let's treat her to a meal." Earlier on, he had been so busy his head was spinning and Xu Tangcheng only now recalled that they had yet to properly thank Zhao Weifan after that business with the fight. He thought for a while; then, unable to remember clearly, he asked, "Hm? She and that, that boy, what's his name? We ate together after your gaokao, the one who was pretty good at talking."

"You Fang."

"Ah, that's right. Is he and Zhao Weifan together now?"

"Yeah." Yi Zhe nodded. "They have been together since before university. It's been quite a while now."

Xu Tangcheng calculated in his heart. From that time until now, it had been more than four years.

"It's indeed quite long."

He sighed feelingly at someone else's long-lasting relationship. Meanwhile, Yi Zhe suddenly said, "Longer than us."

Those words sounded a little jealous but Xu Tangcheng could hear the regret in them.

Thinking of the past, he couldn't help reaching out, patting Yi Zhe's head comfortingly. "My fault, my fault."

This action led Yi Zhe to feel a slight dissatisfaction. He spared Xu Tangcheng a glance. "Coaxing a small kid?"

"Coaxing you," Xu Tangcheng said.

These words were Xu Tangcheng's immediate response and had come out of his mouth practically without going through his mind. It was only when the words had faded away that Xu Tangcheng realised that this response sounded rather not like him. Instead, it was more like the way Yi Zhe usually spoke—no adjectives, no subject, blunt and direct, but hitting the target in one strike.

Yi Zhe was also rather surprised that Xu Tangcheng would say that. At the red light, he turned to stare at Xu Tangcheng for a long while, until Xu Tangcheng coughed and lowered his head to play with his phone. On his own, Yi Zhe laughed in delight.

The two of them parted at their doors. Just a simple goodbye had to be said numerous times, in whispers.

After entering his home, Xu Tangcheng threw his jacket to the side and called out to Xu Tangxi to come over and have something good to eat. Zhou Hui heard that he had again bought something sweet and quickly admonished, "Tangxi can't eat too much of that."

"Why?" Xu Tangcheng was very sensitive and when he heard her tone, he quickly asked, "You're not feeling well?"

Xu Tangxi stuck her tongue out and picked up a mooncake that contained egg yolk, tearing the packaging open. "Just a little bit, a while ago. I'm fine already. That time it was because I went out to play with my friends and forgot to bring my medication…"

"How could you forget-"

Xu Tangcheng had just drawn in a breath to remind her when Xu Tangxi cut him off. "Okay, I know, I won't forget in the future. It was purely an accident the last time."

After saying that, she hurried to hide in her room. Zhou Hui signalled Xu Tangcheng with her eyes, hinting that the girl already knew her mistake and had also blamed herself heavily, so he shouldn't chide her further.

Xu Tangcheng returned to his room to rest for a while. Before it was time to eat, he suddenly received a message from Yi Zhe saying that he wanted to come over to give him mooncakes.

Zhou Hui called him from the living room, saying that she was going to wash his jacket.

"Okay," Xu Tangcheng called out in response, then replied to Yi Zhe, saying that he had already bought a lot, as Yi Zhe knew.

Zhao Weifan brought them back from a trip. She just opened one. I tried it, it's quite good. It's not the same as the ones we have here.

Xu Tangcheng replied: Okay.

After thinking about it, he composed a very long message and sent it. The gist of it was that Yi Zhe should speak nicely later and just say that his friend had given him a few mooncakes, that he thought they tasted good so he was giving them some to try.

Xu Tangcheng was making some plans of his own. He was thinking that when Yi Zhe came over to give them mooncakes later, he could take advantage to make him stay for dinner.

After a period of tension, the relaxation that came after was close to a person's psychological state becoming slack and lax. Having sunk into a pool of soft bubbles, after lying there for a long time, a person could forget that the ground outside was hard. So when they took their first step on the ground of reality, they would forget their strength, forget the height of the ground.

After discussing with Yi Zhe, Xu Tangcheng wanted to learn how to cook a couple of dishes from Zhou Hui, so he went out holding his phone.

"Mum, can you make stewed eggplants later? I…"

The moment he saw Zhou Hui, Xu Tangcheng cut his words off abruptly. Right after that, something exploded in his head, the splinters attacking him until even his fingers felt weak.

Zhou Hui was holding his jacket, standing in a daze by the coffee table. In one hand, she was holding a very small paper packet, a few small square photos between her fingertips.

"What are these?" Zhou Hui turned around to look at him.

Shock, disappointment, disbelief. Xu Tangcheng had never seen these emotions in Zhou Hui's eyes before.

He tightened his grip on his phone, looking at her, at her hand that couldn't stop trembling.

"Huh?" Zhou Hui's feet shifted, her entire body turning to face him directly. Xu Tangcheng saw his own mother suddenly having red-rimmed eyes. Her voice was piercing, yet it seemed like a blunt knife had forced open a gap, stuffing it with hoarseness. "I'm asking you, what are these!"

A few photos were thrown at him. In an instant, Xu Tangcheng felt as though he could see their poses in every one of those photos and the decorations they had used.

The pieces of paper were too small and could not withstand the resistance of the air, drawing dismal trajectories as they fell towards the ground. Not a gentle drift, but a direct fall—a sudden change of direction at the peak, an abrupt stop halfway through a flight.