Life seemed to return to normal.

The memories of the internet and the public were always short-lived. Every day, there were new events happening, and nothing would be held onto forever. There would always be new things uncovered to cover up the old. Public opinion was also an indescribable thing; perhaps people would think this public figure was heinous in the morning, but after a bit of manipulation, their opinion might change in the next moment.

Shi Ye didn’t feel any change in his life. He was busy and didn’t have time to deal with the various judgments on the internet.

He arrived early at the rehearsal room that day. As soon as he walked in, he saw Zhong Zheng and Xiao Xiang sitting next to the drum set, gnawing on duck necks. Zhong Zheng had dyed his hair grandma gray a few days ago, and these days happened to be when the color looked best. He looked quite handsome when you didn’t look at his face directly.

After taking a sip of his cold beer, Xiao Xiang loudly recited from his phone as soon as he saw Shi Ye come in, “Renowned guitarist Shi Ye believes that, from the perspective of the overall environment, there exists a very strange hierarchy in the music market. However, no music genre can satisfy the tastes of all audiences. We can conclude that this is an extremely irresponsible excuse made by Aviator for the decline in the quality of the band’s albums…”

Shi Ye fell silent for a moment, interrupting, “I never said anything about a hierarchy.”

Zhong Zheng chuckled, “Every day, Xiao Xiang and I search for dirt on you just for fun, and there are tons of things you’ve never said up there!”

“They’re just marketing based on Shi Ye’s personality traits, it’s understandable from a professional perspective,” Xiao Xiang looked quite pleased, picking up a drumstick and tapping it, “But this is really nonsense! Our Shi Ye has never looked down on folk songs! Nor has he looked down on TikTok hits!”

“You sound like you truly look down on other songs, cut it out,” Shi Ye took out a pick from his pocket and started tuning his guitar, “No song, no genre, is superior to another. Feeling superior when listening to a song, and writing songs with an air of sophistication, are both unnecessary self-deception.”

Zhong Zheng adjusted his bass guitar and clapped his hands, “Shi Ye has become more and more peaceful these years. You didn’t used to say things like this! The previous Shi Ye was hostile to all popular music genres outside of rock!”

The rehearsal room didn’t have air conditioning, and Shi Ye felt hot and annoyed. He just wanted to swing his guitar at Zhong Zheng’s mouth to make him shut up, “If you used that mouth to play the bass, we might have already won platinum records by now.”

Since not everyone was present, they rehearsed casually for a while. However, even after waiting until the agreed-upon time of three-thirty, Sheng Xia was still nowhere to be seen.

He was late for the first rehearsal, and Shi Ye felt like he couldn’t control his temper.

Furrowing his brows, he reached for his phone in his bag and immediately saw four or five missed calls from Sheng Xia, along with a bunch of text messages, all revolving around him being late, admitting his fault, and apologizing. The rehearsal was too noisy just now, and no one heard.

Shi Ye set the guitar aside and immediately called back.

Sheng Xia answered quickly, his voice sounding a bit anxious, “Shi Ye ge… I might have to wait another half hour, I… have a situation here.”

“What situation?”

“I…” Sheng Xia paused, “I got lost, and now I’m trying to find my way.”

Shi Ye noticed that whenever he contacted Sheng Xia, he sighed a lot.

Holding the phone, he watched Xiao Xiang smiling as he poured the leftover beer on the drum, starting to beat it forcefully. With each beat, the beer made a sound that belonged to summer, but it also knocked out Shi Ye’s calm.

It was too noisy, and hot too. The voice coming from Sheng Xia’s end was also chaotic, and he couldn’t tell where he was.

The season of summer always brought trouble, and also Sheng Xia himself.

Because no one had spoken for a long time, Sheng Xia tentatively called out, “ge?”

Shi Ye sighed in resignation, pulled out the car keys, and asked the person on the phone, “Where are you?”

“…Taikoo Li.”

“Stay where you are and don’t wander around, I’ll come pick you up. Describe everything you can see to me… Forget it, send me your location, take a photo, hurry up.”

Following the location, Shi Ye found his way into the mall and finally found Sheng Xia after climbing three floors.

Sheng Xia was holding a paper bag, standing by a shop door, wearing earphones and looking at a family eating ice cream in the shop window.

Shi Ye took a deep breath, walked over, and abruptly pulled off his earphones, unable to resist scolding him as soon as he opened his mouth, “Everyone’s waiting for you to rehearse, and you’re standing here watching people eat ice cream in the mall?”

What are you standing here for?! If you want to eat, why don’t you just go buy one yourself!

Sheng Xia was startled by Shi Ye’s action, but he calmed down and started speaking in his usual slow manner, “I couldn’t see clearly, and I couldn’t find the exit. This mall is so confusing, I couldn’t find the right way out, and I couldn’t understand the navigation on my phone.”

Shi Ye thought to himself, this is something only you can do, I’m not surprised at all, “Where are your glasses? You went out without wearing glasses again??”

Sheng Xia glanced at Shi Ye’s expression and lowered his voice, “I brought a pair with me, but I took them off a few times absent-mindedly and probably didn’t notice… they just fell off. I looked for them when I went back but couldn’t find them…”

“Do you know you’re careless and still don’t pay attention?” Shi Ye couldn’t help but sound coercive, “Couldn’t find the exit, didn’t you think to ask someone?”

Looking at the sweat on Shi Ye’s neck, Sheng Xia started his trademark evasion, “Shi Ye ge, are you feeling hot?”

Shi Ye also knew how his mind worked, enduring his patience and asked again, “Didn’t you ask anyone when you couldn’t find the exit? Why didn’t you call me when I didn’t answer? Why didn’t you call Zhong Zheng and the others?”

Sheng Xia blinked, seeming to contemplate for a moment, then slowly answered, “I didn’t want to ask anyone. I thought telling you would be enough, so I didn’t call anyone else.”

Shi Ye was speechless for a moment, and began to feel a little overwhelmed by this kid’s straightforwardness.

Shi Ye was completely speechless and didn’t want to say anything more. He rubbed his forehead to calm himself down, then forced out a more gentle tone, “I said yesterday that we had rehearsal this afternoon. If you wanted to go shopping, you should have arranged your time properly. Why did you choose to come at this time?”

“No,” Sheng Xia still tried to justify himself, “I came at nine in the morning.”

Shi Ye was speechless for two seconds, then immediately made a decision, “…Let’s forget about today’s matter. I’ll take you to get new glasses now, but there better not be a next time.” But then he remembered and asked, “What were you doing alone in the mall?”

Sheng Xia paused for a moment before leisurely picking up the bag in his hand, “Buying clothes for you. I stained your shirt last week, so I want to give you a new one.”

When he raised his hand, the curve of his wrist was very beautiful. Sheng Xia was particularly fair-skinned, his skin very tender, probably not many girls had skin as good as his. Shi Ye’s eyes hurt from being dazzled by his white wrist, and he felt like sighing again.

While speaking, Sheng Xia began to gesture, “That shop can embroider things on clothes. I asked them to embroider a pattern on the cuff, a…”

Shi Ye closed his eyes and directly interrupted him, “—Sheng Xia.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s talk.” Shi Ye sent a message to Zhong Zheng saying that that day’s rehearsal was canceled, then stood aside, planning to resolve this troubling matter quickly, “Come here.”

Sheng Xia responded with an “oh” and followed behind him.

When they reached a deserted area in the mall, Shi Ye leaned against the wall, crossed his arms, and stared at the person in front of him with furrowed brows.

Sheng Xia stood obediently, and at first glance, his posture seemed no different from when he was being scolded. The mall was bustling, but they were quiet, and when they finally faced each other, neither spoke first.

Suddenly, the mall started playing Muse’s “Unintended.”

Sheng Xia recognized the intro, and his fingers moved along with the melody for a few beats. But obviously, this song wasn’t suitable for the atmosphere of the mall, and the song changed the next second to a popular hit with a simple but familiar melody.

He lowered his hand, sighed a bit disappointedly, “I still prefer the previous one.”

Shi Ye’s face showed no expression, and he asked coldly, “Do you like it?”

Sheng Xia was taken aback for a moment, then nodded, “Yes.”

“Which line?” Shi Ye’s tone remained unchanged, “You could be my unintended choice to live my life extended. Do you like this line?”

Feeling embarrassed, Sheng Xia avoided Shi Ye’s gaze and didn’t answer.

“If you don’t like this line, then how about this one: You could be the one I will always love, you could be the one who listens to my deepest inquisitions. Do you like this line?”

In the midst of the scorching summer, despite his sluggishness, Sheng Xia had a bad premonition. Sensing the atmosphere, he knew he couldn’t act rashly, so he kept his head down, staring at his own toes, not daring to speak.

Shi Ye didn’t let him off, holding his hands coolly and asking, “You just said you liked it. Tell me, which part did you like? Or is it that your English hasn’t improved and you couldn’t understand, so you want me to translate for you?”

His tone was sharp, “Speak.”

Sheng Xia hesitated for a long time before cautiously and reservedly saying, “Nothing, I didn’t like it that much.”

Shi Ye lowered his head slightly to look into Sheng Xia’s eyes, his voice raising a bit, “I don’t know what your purpose is for joining the band, and I don’t care to ask. The past is the past. I promised Niu Xiaojun that I would get along peacefully with you. I don’t want to trouble you. Don’t make me uncomfortable anymore. Those ambiguous actions from before, as well as today’s behavior, I hope there won’t be a next time.”

Sheng Xia still didn’t dare to look at him, just staring at Shi Ye’s shoes.

“Now that you’re an adult, you should take responsibility for your actions.” Shi Ye thought he would explode in anger, but unexpectedly, as he spoke, he became calmer. “I’ll pretend that segment from four years ago never happened. In the future, let’s get along peacefully. Apart from matters related to work and the band, let’s not have much interaction. Understand?”

After Shi Ye finished speaking, Sheng Xia finally said slowly, “I came to Beijing because of you.”

His tone sounded somewhat lost.

Shi Ye sneered, “Oh? Four years ago, you didn’t have enough of playing me, and now you want to come to Beijing to mess with me again?”

“No,” Sheng Xia strained his neck, “I don’t like Beijing at all. I came because I wanted to find you.”

“Well, you’ve achieved your goal now,” Shi Ye said expressionlessly, “If you want fame, to release an album, to have a chance on a bigger stage, coming to Aviator gives you that opportunity.You can continue to annoy me, right?”

As he finished speaking, Sheng Xia’s eyes seemed to redden a bit. It wasn’t instantaneous, but a slow reddening, even his ears. His pace of life was slower than usual, and so were his emotions. He always seemed a bit sluggish.

In the gap while Sheng Xia was brewing his emotions, Shi Ye felt exhausted and conflicted in his heart. He had been holding onto this anger for four years, unable to communicate with this kid in a gentle manner.

Sheng Xia knew no matter how he explained himself, he couldn’t make it clear. And in this current situation… no matter how he explained, it would only make things messier.

He couldn’t help it and started to shed tears, almost trembling as he said, “I don’t want fame. I just… want you.”

Seeing Sheng Xia’s eyes getting redder and his nose turning red… that’s how he always cried. This time, Shi Ye was truly speechless. This seemed like he bullied this kid into tears in this corner, and he wasn’t even right… What a mess.

Watching Sheng Xia’s eyes turning red, Shi Ye felt like he was done for.

He knew he had a bad temper and didn’t like to back down. Whenever someone, be it a man or a woman, cried in front of him, he would just turn away. But he always had more patience when facing Sheng Xia. He could repeat a sentence twice, and now he had to stare at his tears, regretting if he had been too harsh just now.

In practice, it turned out that getting angry at this kid was torturing himself.

After a minute of introspection, Shi Ye calmed down his tangled emotions.

With an extremely impatient tone, he said to Sheng Xia, “Enough, I won’t bring it up again. Do whatever you want, just don’t bother me.”

Sheng Xia didn’t seem comforted. His eyes were still red, not saying anything, just shaking his head.

Shi Ye completely surrendered.

A voice in his ear confusingly told him: Forget it.

You’ve spent 29 weary years, won and lost, been drunk in Sheng Xia’s nights, been vain and bored, burned yourself excessively… don’t think your life is hopeless just because you fell once. Anyway, the person is in front of you now, those past mistakes and irrational impulses, just… forgive them once more, consider them as materials for a rekindling flame.

Just burn again.

Shi Ye deeply exhaled, pointing to the nearby GODIVA, “I’ll buy you ice cream, stop crying.”