Half an hour later, Yu Nian returned to his room, but he lay on the spacious bed, sinking into the soft mattress, the bedroom filled with relaxing incense, yet he couldn’t calm down at all.

His brother’s words continued to swirl in his mind.

Indeed, as Pei Zhao said, he couldn’t really continue living like this outside.

He was only eighteen.

There were still many plans unfinished.

He should go back to school, apply to the university he wanted to go to, study the major he liked, complain about the professors’ assignments on the grass with friends during breaks, get a helicopter pilot’s license during his free time, and overlook the vast snow-capped mountains.

Instead of staying in a small restaurant, his life stuck in one place.

These two months were just his first escape since he turned eighteen.

It was a long study trip, allowing him a brief rest from his oppressive life to regain his strength and continue on his way.

And now, the rest was over, the conflicts with his family were not as acute, and he really should return to his original life trajectory.

That was his original plan.

When he rented that small single room and dozed off by the window while reading books on fashion design, he had planned it like this.

But now, at this moment, Yu Nian found himself feeling reluctant.

He remembered one afternoon, when he carried a tray back to the kitchen, Xiao Gu gently bumped into him, slipping a piece of chocolate into his pocket. During the lunch break, Chu Hejun, sleepy-headed, told him to remember to play games together that night, although he was half asleep. The head chef sister had just developed a new flavor of milk tea, knowing he liked salty flavors, she deliberately added a thick layer of sea salt cream, and even gave him two tickets to a play, saying they were a gift from a friend, and asked him to invite a friend to watch with him.

Boss Song Yunchun was also very kind to him, with a shrewd and glamorous face, but a laid-back and a bit absent-minded personality. She was good to every employee in the restaurant, especially him, because he was young and she took extra care of him.

…

And then… Qi Wang.

Yu Nian pursed his lips, picturing Qi Wang working by the window.

With his handsome and aloof face, his smooth and sharp profile, standing in front of the counter, his black work clothes outlining his narrow and sturdy waist, his fingers long and fair, slender with bones, concentrating on extracting coffee.

The faint bitter coffee aroma filled the restaurant, mixing with the warm cake scent.

And Qi Wang stood there casually, like a quiet, flourishing towering tree.

He appeared calm and indifferent, as if keeping everyone at a distance.

But once you got to know him, you would feel at ease seeing him.

Thinking of this person, Yu Nian felt a mixture of sourness and sweetness.

Although he grew up in the bustling world of fame and fortune, he had always been clueless about love. When he discovered his sexual orientation, he was already sixteen or seventeen.

Although he had no trouble accepting it himself, perhaps because his school life was too miserable, just being on guard against idiots causing trouble in school was already painful enough, he simply didn’t have the energy to develop a green campus romance.

So the first time he developed feelings in these many years, he gave them to Qi Wang.

Even though it started off so badly, with Qi Wang’s cold rejection and avoidance in his body language, and him cursing Qi Wang in his heart and silently swearing to never bother with him.

But in the end…

He still fell for him.

This little bit of liking wasn’t earth-shattering; it was just a tender sapling.

When not noticed, it was fine, just quietly buried in the soil.

But once noticed by Yu Nian, it immediately trembled and crawled out of the soil, swaying in the breeze, teasing and itching his heart.

Full of presence.

Yu Nian couldn’t help but sigh.

He buried his face in the pillow in frustration.

He thought, it’s also his luck that he randomly stumbled upon a decent group of people when he was wandering around the streets like a headless fly and found a random restaurant.

If at that time he accidentally entered some shady restaurant, working day and night, perhaps even before his brother and sister called him back home, he would have cried and returned on his own.

Maybe then he wouldn’t be as distressed as he is now.

Yu Nian couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

He pulled out his phone and instinctively opened the chat with Qi Wang.

Their conversation was still stuck to the morning when he was attending class with Zhang Yunyao, sneakily messaging Qi Wang to make him a mocha without ice.

He had smiled so brightly at the time that Zhang Yunyao looked at him strangely.

Looking back at his chat history with Qi Wang, most of the time, he was the only one blabbering.

Saw a cute little cat, sent it to Qi Wang.

Stumbled upon a funny video, sent it to Qi Wang.

Wanted to drink some new type of milk tea or coffee, sent it to Qi Wang.

Qi Wang, of course, wouldn’t chatter like him. Most of the time, he would just reply with a simple “Yeah.”

But Qi Wang had never found him annoying or told him to shut up.

As Yu Nian looked through the messages, his heart felt even more complicated.

If he really quit his job, his connection with Qi Wang would probably end here.

Their only remaining intersection might be many years later when he nostalgically mentions to someone that his first love happened at eighteen, with a handsome but cold guy, but he never had the courage to confess, so it ended like this.

Like most unrequited loves in this world.

But even if he did muster up the courage to tell Qi Wang his feelings.

Their ending might still be the same.

Yu Nian was well aware of this.

Not everyone is as accepting of same-sex relationships, and some people even repel and detest them.

Restrained and calm like his sister, although she might inwardly reject it, as long as it doesn’t happen in her own home, she wouldn’t care and her attitude would be quite ordinary, not meddling in other people’s business.

But encountering someone irrational or even homophobic, they might find it disgusting and use it as an excuse to bully him.

Just like those people at his school.

He didn’t know which category Qi Wang belonged to, even though Qi Wang seemed so reliable and composed now, he also showed a bit of imperceptible tenderness towards him.

But he still didn’t dare to bet.

Perhaps an unrequited love ending silently would be the best outcome between them.

Like the maple leaf picked from the window in his youth, forever pressed between the pages of a book, years later when opened again, although already dry and yellowed, he could still recall the joy when touching it with his fingertips.

The phone screen dimmed.

Yu Nian lay motionless on the bed, just now he was in agony with a bit of excitement, but in an instant, he felt low.

His face, with a bit of childishness, appeared on the dark screen. Clearly, no one had wronged him, yet he seemed as if someone had offended him, pursing his lips, puffing his cheeks, with a hint of moisture in his eyes.

But as if deliberately not letting him feel good, just when he was almost giving up thinking and preparing to crawl under the covers to sleep.

His phone lit up again.

A WeChat message lay in the notification bar.

Yu Nian absentmindedly opened it, thinking it was the usual nonsense from Ying Quanshen.

But as he opened it, he was dumbfounded.

It wasn’t Ying Quanshen, the big fool.

The sender was Qi Wang.

Rarely seen, even rarer than getting an A in his elective Italian class, Qi Wang took the initiative to send him a message.

Simple words lay on the screen – “Are you asleep?”

Yu Nian was stunned for a moment, almost unable to believe his eyes.

But his body was far more honest than his brain.

He almost jumped out of bed, sitting cross-legged, biting his lip, looking conflicted, he quickly replied with two words.

“Not yet.”

Not asleep.

Half-annoyed, he thought, yes, I’m thinking about you, feeling restless, unable to sleep.

But this latter sentence, he absolutely couldn’t send it out.