On Friday evening, Xu Ze received a call from Lu Heyang.
“Hello?”
Lu Heyang, however, unusually remained silent.
Xu Ze asked with some concern, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Lu Heyang’s voice sounded as usual. “Are you free this weekend?”
“I’m free,” Xu Ze answered without even thinking.
“I’ll come pick you up tomorrow afternoon.”
Xu Ze didn’t ask where they were going or what they would be doing. What concerned him was something else.
“Are you back in the country?”
“Mm. I arrived in the early hours of the morning.”
“Okay.” Xu Ze thought for a moment before asking, “Is there anything I need to prepare?”
“No. I’ll have them deliver your dinner a little earlier tomorrow. After you eat, take a shower and wait for me at home.”
“Okay.”
On Saturday morning, Xu Ze went to the nursing home to visit Ye Yunhua.
When Zhou Zhen learned that Xu Ze planned to sell the house, he looked as though he wanted to say something but couldn’t bring himself to. In the end, he only said, “It’s okay. There’s no rush.”
Xu Ze took it as nothing more than an attempt to comfort him.
After returning from the nursing home, Xu Ze followed his usual schedule, studying and doing practice questions. However, he was in an unusually good mood. He was simply happy because he would get to see Lu Heyang.
Besides, today happened to be his birthday.
Xu Ze didn’t think Lu Heyang would remember his birthday, so he regarded their meeting as a coincidence. To him, it was a coincidence that felt like a gift.
As evening approached, Xu Ze finished dinner and took a shower. He waited for Lu Heyang while working on a practice paper. This was probably the least seriously he had ever studied.
A little after five, it was still quite bright outside.
Ding!
A message arrived from an unfamiliar number.
[Come downstairs.]
Xu Ze immediately stood up, unplugged his phone from the charging cable, grabbed his keys, and hurried out.
Lu Heyang’s car was parked beneath a tree across from the entrance to his building. The passenger-side window was open, and Lu Heyang was looking at Xu Ze from the driver’s seat. He wasn’t smiling, nor did he have any other expression on his face. He simply looked at him.
Xu Ze suddenly stopped in his tracks, standing at the bottom of the stairs.
Everything around them was quiet. Only the birds chirping and the rustling of leaves could be heard.
Several seconds passed before Lu Heyang finally gave a faint smile.
“Stop standing there in a daze.”
Xu Ze hadn’t been dazing. He had been thinking—about things he couldn’t quite make sense of, things for which he had no answers or explanations.
He walked over and got into the car, fastening his seat belt.
Lu Heyang said nothing more and started driving.
After passing one street, Lu Heyang glanced at the rearview mirror. Suddenly, he turned the steering wheel and made a left into a narrow road, driving deeper into the residential area.
Xu Ze wasn’t even particularly familiar with the roads in the old town. Rather than wondering why Lu Heyang was doing this, he was more worried about the car getting scratched.
After weaving through a maze of narrow, winding alleyways for more than twenty minutes, Lu Heyang parked beside the rear entrance of a residential complex.
He unfastened his seat belt, briefly touched the side of Xu Ze’s neck with the back of his hand, and said, “Get out.”
Xu Ze got out of the car. Just as he closed the door, Lu Heyang took his hand and pulled him into the alley beside them, running.
The wind rushed past their ears, making their T-shirts billow.
Xu Ze suddenly remembered the first time he had met Lu Heyang at the club. After knocking down those few Alphas who had tried to rob them, the two of them had run through an alley just like this.
Back then, he had still been Number 17.
They ran through an entire long alley. At the intersection stood a convenience store, with a black SUV parked in front of it. An Alpha was leaning against the vehicle.
It was actually He Wei.
Seeing the surprise on Xu Ze’s face, He Wei, who was visibly thinner than before, gave him a composed smile.
“It’s nothing. I only went on a hunger strike for three days a while back.”
“Is everything in the car?” Lu Heyang released Xu Ze’s hand and asked.
“It’s all packed inside.” He Wei suddenly looked troubled. “If my dad and Uncle Lu find out about this, I’ll be dead, won’t I?”
“Then you’re very noble,” Lu Heyang said.
“Our little Xu Ze.” He Wei reached out and gave Xu Ze a hug. “I’m not going back to school anymore, so we probably won’t have many chances to see each other. Make sure you think of me often, darling.”
Then, like a pathetic loser whose wife had been stolen by Lu Heyang, he asked miserably, “Where exactly are you taking my wife? Why does this feel like you’re eloping? Are you two ever coming back?”
Lu Heyang opened the front passenger door for Xu Ze. After Xu Ze got in, he closed the door and walked around the front of the car to the driver’s seat. Before closing his own door, Lu Heyang looked at He Wei, suddenly smiled, and said, “Who knows?”
The car started and drove out from between the residential buildings in the old town. It headed toward the outskirts, traveling along a wide suburban road with the setting sun ahead of them.
Xu Ze watched Lu Heyang’s profile. He noticed a faint smile playing at the corners of Lu Heyang’s mouth. It was just like the smile he had seen when he was seven years old—the kind of smile that had first stirred his heart. A little mischievous, a little childish.
Xu Ze couldn’t help smiling too.
The wind from the open countryside swept into the car. He felt happy, the kind of happiness that would still make him smile whenever he looked back on this moment, this very scene, years later.
By the time they reached the winding mountain road, the sun had not yet set. The car climbed along the mountainside, with forest on one side and the sea on the other.
Xu Ze leaned against the car window, gazing at the half-sunken sun disappearing into the distant horizon over the sea. He tried to commit every passing scene along the way to memory.
When only a final streak of sunlight remained on the horizon, Lu Heyang drove the car onto a narrow path beside the mountain peak. They passed through the woods and stopped beneath a tree.
He got out, and Xu Ze followed.
Lu Heyang opened the trunk and began taking out the things inside. At the same time, he said to Xu Ze, “Go take a look up ahead.”
Xu Ze withdrew the hand he had been about to use to help and followed his instructions. Pushing aside the branches in front of him, he stepped out of the bushes and saw a flat stretch of grass.
At the far end of the grass was a cliff, and below it lay the sea. On the other side of the water was the capital, its countless lights stretching into the distance and twinkling brightly. He could hear the crashing waves and the long, resonant blasts of ships’ horns from the harbor.
“A few years ago, He Wei, Yunchi, and I came here to camp,” Lu Heyang said as he emerged from the woods and dropped the equipment onto the ground.
Xu Ze went over to help him unpack the things. After thinking for a moment, he said, “It must have been fun.”
“It was.” Lu Heyang took out the tent poles. “Until we discovered that there were at least a dozen bodyguards hiding in the surrounding woods.”
Xu Ze froze and turned to look at the forest behind them.
Lu Heyang set up a camping light and switched it on. Its warm glow illuminated the faint smile on his face. He hung the light from a freestanding stand and said, “Don’t be scared. Didn’t we shake them off last time?”
Xu Ze wasn’t afraid. He had simply remembered that Lu Heyang rarely talked about his family. In a sense, he actually knew almost nothing about Lu Heyang. All he could do was make vague assumptions based on the experiences of He Wei and Gu Yunchi.
The tent was quickly set up. The mountain air was quite cool after nightfall. Lu Heyang carried two folding reclining chairs to the front of the tent and handed Xu Ze a shirt.
“There might be bugs.”
They sat down in the chairs, with the sea and the city spread out below their feet. The lighthouse at the distant harbor shone brightly.
Xu Ze buried his nose in the collar of the shirt. He couldn’t smell Lu Heyang’s pheromones, only a very faint fragrance.
“The shirt belongs to He Wei,” Lu Heyang said.
Xu Ze froze, straightened up, and looked at him in surprise.
“Huh?”
Lu Heyang smiled again. He opened a bottle of mineral water and handed it to Xu Ze.
“I’m kidding. It’s mine.”
“Okay.”
Xu Ze showed no sign of realizing he had been fooled. Instead, he felt reassured and leaned back in his chair again.
“The scenery here is even better after it snows. We can come here to see the snow in winter.” Lu Heyang pointed toward the mountain on their left. “There’s an outdoor ski resort over there. We can go skiing too.”
“I’ve never skied before.” Xu Ze fell silent for a moment before answering.
What he had actually wanted to ask was, Will we spend the winter together?
But the answer was too obvious. There was no need to ask.
“I’ll teach you.”
Xu Ze tried to imagine it, but scenes that had never happened—and might never happen—were impossible to picture.
He slipped his left hand out of his sleeve and reached across the armrest, lightly touching the back of Lu Heyang’s hand.
Lu Heyang turned his palm upward, pressed it against Xu Ze’s palm, and intertwined their fingers.
They sat quietly, listening to the wind and the waves.
Xu Ze’s head tilted slightly to one side, his eyes half-closed in relaxation. He rarely had moments when he could breathe so freely. Even though there were still so many problems waiting to be resolved, and even if this was the only night he would ever have like this, he wanted to cherish it.
Eventually, he closed his eyes completely and drifted into a drowsy sleep.
Xu Ze had noticed that he always fell asleep very quickly whenever he was beside Lu Heyang. And this time, Lu Heyang probably wouldn’t leave while he was asleep, abandoning him alone on the mountain.
But actually, even if Lu Heyang really did leave him behind, Xu Ze wouldn’t have complained.
In that hazy state between sleep and wakefulness, he felt something gently touch his forehead. Xu Ze instinctively tightened his grip on Lu Heyang’s hand.
He opened his eyes and saw that the moon had risen at some point. It was round and bright, illuminating the vast, distant night sky.
“Awake?” Lu Heyang turned his head toward him. They were sitting very close.
Xu Ze stared blankly for two seconds before nodding.
“How long was I asleep?”
“A little over an hour.”
“…”
Xu Ze looked slightly regretful. He straightened his head and said quietly, “I only meant to rest for a little while.”
“You’ve been sitting in the car for so long. Of course you’d be tired,” Lu Heyang said. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Stop constantly blaming yourself.”
Those words successfully prompted Xu Ze to begin a new round of self-reflection—wondering whether he really did constantly blame himself.
Lu Heyang watched him for a moment, then gently scratched his thumb against Xu Ze’s palm.
“Stop.”
Xu Ze stopped and simply looked at Lu Heyang without thinking about anything.
Lu Heyang stood up and took Xu Ze’s hand, leading him in another direction.
As they passed the tent, he bent down and picked something up from the equipment bag. Xu Ze couldn’t see clearly what it was.
They followed a narrow path for more than ten minutes. After emerging from the woods, Xu Ze saw a lake. The bright moonlight reflected off its surface, creating countless shimmering ripples.
On the sandy shore beside the lake, Lu Heyang put the object down and unpacked it.
“It’s wrong to make a fire in the mountains. Don’t ever imitate this.” Lu Heyang pressed down on the lighter. “But by the lake, if anything happens, we can put it out immediately.”
Xu Ze didn’t really hear what he said. All he heard was the crisp click of the lighter being struck, followed by the sizzling sound of the fuse burning.
Silvery-white sparks burst upward from the ground to about chest height, like a bouquet of shimmering flowers. They illuminated Xu Ze’s face beneath the deep blue night sky.
He seemed both unresponsive and completely absorbed, standing perfectly still as he watched the fireworks, his eyes exceptionally bright.
After a long while, Xu Ze raised his eyes. His gaze passed through the fireworks and landed on Lu Heyang’s face.
At that moment, he was certain that Lu Heyang remembered his birthday.
He hadn’t celebrated his birthday since he was seven. He had never imagined that someone would take him away from all prying eyes, escape the city with him, and elope into a quiet mountain forest to set off fireworks for him beside a moonlit lake.
And that someone was Lu Heyang.
How could this be possible?
Xu Ze suddenly closed his eyes. He had a wish to make.
Actually, there wasn’t anything in particular he wanted. He only hoped that his grandmother would get better, and that Lu Heyang—
He opened his eyes and met Lu Heyang’s gaze. The fireworks were slowly dying out.
Lu Heyang smiled at him but said nothing.
After soaking the spent fireworks in the lake to make sure they were extinguished, Lu Heyang packed them back into the bag and carried everything to the campsite.
He washed his hands with bottled water, then lay down inside the tent with Xu Ze.
Moonlight filtered through the mesh at the top of the tent. Xu Ze gazed at the sky. As he watched, a streak of pale golden light glided across the tent.
“Was that a shooting star?” Xu Ze asked.
“Probably a firefly,” Lu Heyang replied.
As soon as he finished speaking, another tiny light drifted lazily past.
It was a firefly.
“A firefly,” Xu Ze repeated, correcting himself.
Lu Heyang asked, “Did you make a wish just now?”
“I did.”
“What did you wish for?”
Compared to the superstition that wishes wouldn’t come true if spoken aloud, Xu Ze clearly had more faith in Lu Heyang. He blinked and answered honestly, “I wished for my grandmother to stay healthy.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
“I wish you freedom.” Xu Ze turned his head. The frosty moonlight fell across the profiles of both him and Lu Heyang. Looking into Lu Heyang’s eyes, which were only inches away, Xu Ze said, “I wish you freedom.”
The next morning, Xu Ze woke up surprisingly late. There was no one beside him.
He abruptly sat up.
Lu Heyang had just finished packing the toiletries. When he turned around, Xu Ze’s head was poking out of the tent. His hair was messy, and the remnants of sleep still lingered on his face, but his eyes were fully alert. The moment their gazes met, it was obvious that Xu Ze had breathed a sigh of relief.
“I just got up too.” Lu Heyang handed him a travel-sized toiletry kit.
Xu Ze took it but continued looking at him.
Lu Heyang smiled, reached out, and ruffled Xu Ze’s hair even more before saying, “Happy eighteenth birthday.”
Some people began growing up when they reached adulthood, while others did so when they graduated. But Xu Ze’s growing up had certainly begun much earlier. Perhaps it was the day he lost his father at the age of seven, or perhaps it was the night he first stepped into a boxing ring.
There had been no sense of ceremony, no warning. Fate had simply given him a brutal shove when he least expected it.
Xu Ze looked a little dazed before saying, “Thank you.”
On the first day of his eighteenth year, Xu Ze spent his time doing absolutely nothing, something he had never experienced before.
After packing up the tent in the morning, Lu Heyang took him to a house halfway up the mountain with a view of the sea. Xu Ze didn’t see anyone there, but breakfast had already been prepared on the dining table.
After breakfast, Lu Heyang answered a phone call. Xu Ze stood in the living room, gazing at the black clock with white hands on the wall. By the time the second hand had completed three full rotations, he heard Lu Heyang walking back in.
“There’s a pool table over there. Do you want to play pool, or watch a movie?”
Having already played pool with Lu Heyang before, Xu Ze chose something they hadn’t done together.
“Can we watch a movie?”
“Mm.”
Fresh fruit and drinks had already been arranged on the coffee table in the private screening room. The sofa was large and soft.
Lu Heyang handed Xu Ze the tablet.
“What do you want to watch? Pick something.”
Xu Ze had very little entertainment in his life. He didn’t know which movies were box-office hits or which actors were currently popular. After browsing aimlessly for a while, he asked, “Can we watch this one?”
Lu Heyang had already put on a U-shaped neck pillow. He looked at the documentary about polar bears on the screen, wondering which obscure corner Xu Ze had found it in.
“If you want to watch it, then watch it. You don’t need my permission.”
Xu Ze nodded and pressed play.
As the movie began, the lights in the room gradually dimmed. Xu Ze felt Lu Heyang lean against his shoulder.
The screen was filled with endless white, so pristine that it seemed almost cold enough to emit a chill. Lu Heyang’s breathing gradually became long and even.
Xu Ze turned his head. The changing light from the screen fell across Lu Heyang’s face, alternately illuminating and shadowing his features.
Xu Ze watched him, his gaze slowly tracing every contour of his face.
He thought that perhaps this was what Lu Heyang’s life would look like someday if he lived with someone else.
That would be nice.
Xu Ze lowered his head. He had originally wanted to kiss Lu Heyang on the forehead, but afraid of waking him, he settled for gently kissing his hair.
They didn’t have lunch until very late, almost two o’clock. It was the hottest time of the day. Through the restaurant’s glass walls, they could see the sea shining so brightly that it was almost blinding.
Xu Ze gazed at it for a long time before turning back to look at the clock on the wall.
Lu Heyang remained calm throughout.
After lunch, he took Xu Ze to sit on the living room carpet and handed him a game controller. The two of them played video games together.
Xu Ze lost again and again. His gaze seemed unfocused, and throughout the game, he repeatedly looked up at the clock.
When they finally completed the last level, Xu Ze stared blankly at the second hand, which continued moving without pause amid the game’s music.
He heard Lu Heyang say, “Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
Just like on the way there, they didn’t speak during the drive back. With their backs to the setting sun, they headed toward the city they had left a day earlier.
The wind rushed into the car, making Xu Ze feel a little breathless. He rolled up the window.
Halfway through the journey, Lu Heyang slowed down. Xu Ze saw a bodyguard vehicle parked not far ahead. The Alpha standing beside it was one of the bodyguards who had been assigned to protect him during this period.
“Get out,” Lu Heyang said.
Xu Ze nodded and opened the door.
The wind was so strong that it made his clothes flap loudly. Xu Ze walked a few steps before turning around.
He saw that Lu Heyang had gotten out of the car too.
“I originally wanted to take you paragliding, but the people at the club told me the wind was too strong today, so it wouldn’t be suitable.” Lu Heyang smiled faintly. “We’ll have to wait until next time.”
Xu Ze nodded again. It seemed that nodding was all he knew how to do now.
Summer was already nearing its end, but the afternoon temperature was still extremely high. Xu Ze felt weak all over. He clenched his fist and realized that his fingertips were icy cold.
“Will you be gone for a long time this time?” he finally asked.
“Possibly a little longer.”
“Okay.” Xu Ze nodded for the third time. Then he said, “I’ll wait for you.”
Lu Heyang was still standing about a meter away, looking at Xu Ze.
“It’s okay if you don’t wait.”
Xu Ze’s Adam’s apple bobbed. For once, he stubbornly insisted, “I will wait.”
It didn’t matter if they couldn’t go skiing together in winter. It didn’t matter if they never got to go paragliding next time. As long as he could wait until they met again, that was enough.
No matter how long it took, he was willing to wait.
“Mm.” Lu Heyang smiled again. “Get in the car.”
Xu Ze curled his fingers tightly and said, “Okay.”
Then he turned and walked toward the bodyguard’s car. Before getting in, he held onto the car door and looked back at Lu Heyang for several seconds before finally taking the passenger seat.
As the car started moving, Xu Ze stared motionlessly at the rearview mirror.
After they had driven some distance, he suddenly turned around, braced one hand against the window, and leaned out to look behind them.
Lu Heyang was still standing where he had been, beside the black SUV. Behind him, the setting sun blazed like a torch, burning half the sky red above the vast, empty countryside.
There was no waving goodbye, no shouting their farewells. They simply exchanged one last look across the great distance between them.
Xu Ze slowly settled back into his seat and looked toward the center console.
The time displayed on the screen was exactly the time Lu Heyang had come to pick him up yesterday.