Shi Sheng and Lu Lin didn’t return until after dinner. He had originally planned to go home and check on things, but when he remembered that the studio members would come for tutoring exercises in the evening, he had to abandon that plan.

“Do you usually stay in the dormitory?” Shi Sheng asked, half squinting his eyes as he raised his hand to take a picture of the sunset in the west. “The commissar said you are a Captain, you have fixed working hours every day, and you can go home.”

“My parents’ house is quite far from the headquarters.”

“Do you not have your own house?” Shi Sheng looked at Lu Lin in surprise.

“…This kid,” Lu Lin’s face darkened, “thinks everyone has a monthly allowance of a hundred thousand like him.”

“Oh,” Shi Sheng propped up his head. Why did he vaguely remember attending a prestigious school in high school? Lu Lin shouldn’t be poor. “How much is your monthly salary?”

“Over ten thousand. Why? Worried I can’t support you?”

Shi Sheng met Lu Lin’s scrutinizing gaze and awkwardly scratched his head. “Just checking, a simple inquiry.”

The sunset that day was particularly beautiful, with the setting sun shining brilliantly golden, casting a hazy golden light over the surrounding tall buildings. Lu Lin walked alongside Shi Sheng at an unhurried pace.

At this moment, Shi Sheng still held potato chips, soft candies, and octopus balls in his arms, while the back seat was full of assorted jelly and chocolates. Lu Lin watched as he took selfies while feeding himself potato chips, never seeming to have a moment of rest.

“Do you have two stomachs?”

“How did you know? One is for regular meals, and the other is for milk tea.” Shi Sheng pointed to a teahouse in the distance. “Cheese black tea, medium cup, 70% sugar, hot.”

“I’m impressed by you.” Lu Lin shook his head, then went to buy milk tea for him.

“Hey, hey,”

Lu Lin turned back and saw Shi Sheng holding out an octopus ball, his hand raised high in front of him. Lu Lin, feeling helpless, bent down to take a bite, wiping away the tomato sauce from the corner of Shi Sheng’s lips with his fingertip.

“Off you go.”

Satisfied, Shi Sheng put down the skewer, watching Lin walk away. He then massaged his neck.

There were many people in front of the milk tea shop. Shi Sheng waited at the door playing with his phone. Passersby couldn’t help but glance at him, and the girls covered their mouths and chatted, discussing his handsome appearance, and some even came up to ask for his WeChat.

Shi Sheng saw Lin finishing his order and turning back, deliberately raising his eyebrows at him with his phone. As expected, Lin’s expression darkened in the next moment.

He then chuckled as he explained to the girls that he was already taken. Suddenly, a figure flashed by and snatched Shi Sheng’s phone from his hand, then bumped into those girls and ran away.

“Hey hey!” Shi Sheng was stunned for a few seconds, looking at his empty hand. “…Catch the thief! Shameless, stealing from a disabled person!”

The thief was wearing a denim jacket and ran across the road.

“You son of a bitch, stop right there!” Shi Sheng quickly twisted the throttle to catch up.

Lu Lin, seeing this, hurriedly opened the door and rushed out. “Shi Sheng!”

The pedestrian light on the sidewalk flashed a few times and turned red, but for someone like Shi Sheng, who would crawl out of a crematorium just to format his phone, he didn’t care.

The thief darted through the constant traffic, and Shi Sheng followed closely behind on his wheelchair scooter. A taxi honked its horn as it approached, and the wheelchair was suddenly pulled back with a strong tug.

“Shi Sheng, are you trying to get yourself killed?”

The screeching of tires brought Shi Sheng back to his senses. The car owner rolled down the window and cursed loudly, and Shi Sheng looked at Lu Lin with a pale face and spat out a word.

“Phone…”

Lu Lin pushed Shi Sheng across the road, told him to stay still, and went after the thief.

Shi Sheng sat dazedly under the traffic light, the familiar sounds of cursing and tires screeching. The blurred memory of the out-of-control car that hit him suddenly rushed back, accompanied by a heavy impact, and he flew into the air—

He covered his head, trying hard to control his breathing.

Lu Lin chased after the thief, tripped him with a sweep of his leg, and then pinned him down, snatching back the phone and dialing 110. He glanced towards Shi Sheng not far away.

Shi Sheng had already put down his hand from covering his head. Now he realized how foolish he had been. Indeed, his character was not without reason for getting hit by a car.

After dealing with the thief, Lu Lin walked over. Shi Sheng had already raised his hands, his eyes sincere. “I was wrong.”

“…”

He handed all the remaining octopus balls to Lu Lin. “I was really wrong, please have some!”

Lu Lin couldn’t help but chuckle in exasperation, pushing his hand away. “Let’s go back, forget about it.”

“What about my 70% sugar hot medium cup cheese milk tea —”

Lu Lin paused mid-step, remembering the real purpose why they stopped here. “….Fine, I’ll get it for you now.”

Shi Sheng just smirked, not telling him what he had remembered.

·

Suddenly, at that moment beneath the traffic lights, a wave of memories flooded back, as if Shi Sheng had been drowning in endless darkness and someone had opened the door, pulling him out of the darkness.

“Who allowed you to touch him? Get lost!”

Muscles tensed up suddenly, and with a kick, the person was knocked down to the ground. The baton rolled away, and Shi Sheng in the corner lifted his head, meeting the other’s eyes.

Countless days and nights later, they waited for the bus together by the bustling sidewalk, strolled under the neon lights at night, and he would laugh and jump around the person, always being pushed away.

Flying papers and endless exercises, the honking of cars outside the window, and in a daze, he came out of the train station, dragging his luggage towards him.

“We’re attending the same university! What a coincidence!”

“Lin, Lin!”

And when he gasped and opened his eyes, still under the traffic lights, Lu Lin had already subdued the thief. The light in his eyes, under the neon lights, was particularly comforting amidst the bustling traffic.

…………..

Soon Lu Lin returned with the milk tea. Swinging it in front of him, Shi Sheng snapped back to reality, tilting his head to look at Lu Lin, with red marks at the corners of his eyes and a hint of moisture in them, as if he had almost shed involuntary tears just now.

“Did the car scare you?”

“Yeah…” Shi Sheng pouted, taking a sip of the milk tea.

“Serves you right.”

“Lu Lin, where’s your empathy?”

“If you don’t learn your lesson, next year your milk tea might be placed at your tombstone,” Lu Lin joked, without a hint of a smile in his eyes. “Can you please take care of yourself in everything you do?”

Shi Sheng was stunned, not knowing how anxious Lu Lin must have been when he heard about his accident.

Seeing him remain silent, Lu Lin thought he had spoken too harshly and awkwardly patted his head. “Alright, just take care.”

Under the dim streetlights, he pushed Shi Sheng through the quiet alley. However, Shi Sheng kept tilting his head back to stare at him, and Lu Lin laughed as he adjusted his head back, walking calmly ahead.

“Aren’t you afraid of getting a neck sprain?”

“Not at all.”

Shi Sheng tilted his head against Lu Lin’s hand, slightly lifting the corners of his lips, as if everything that had happened before was worth it.

Alright, he unilaterally declared that Lu Lin was officially his boyfriend.