They stayed on the mountaintop until the shadow of the sun completely disappeared, even the afterglow losing its luster, leaving the mountain forest under the half-blue, half-purple sky, quiet and peaceful.

When Du Yunyan stood up, he sighed lightly, seemingly nostalgic for the bygone day.

On the way back, Gu Wenxi still followed behind him. The darkening sky made the path underfoot seem a bit daunting compared to when they came, especially with the dense clusters of trees, appearing eerie.

Gu Wenxi slowed down a few steps, and Du Yunyan turned back. “Hurry up, there might be snakes on the mountain.” As if in response to his words, the bushes rustled.

Gu Wenxi was most afraid of crawling animals. Hearing this, a chill ran down his spine. But then he realized something was amiss, took a few quick steps forward, and caught up with him. “Where would snakes come from in winter?”

The person in front stopped, smiling mischievously. “I thought you didn’t know!”

“You—” Gu Wenxi’s footsteps quickened. “When did you learn to tease people?”

“From you.” Du Yunyan said without hesitation, pushing aside the branches in front of him and returning to the village road from the small path. “But, in summer, there are indeed snakes here.”

The last time he mentioned summer was about plum wine. Gu Wenxi casually asked, “Do you think—I’ll still be here in the summer?” His inquiry carried a hint of testing, but it turned into a completely negative tone in Du Yunyan’s ears.

“Right,” Du Yunyan said as he walked, “you won’t be here by then.”

Gu Wenxi’s unfinished words were all swallowed, and he frowned unhappily, keeping silent as he followed along. Du Yunyan also stopped chatting. They walked back, one in front and one behind, maintaining a distance of no more than three or four steps, until they reached the inn.

Gu Wenxi hadn’t brought his phone when he left, so he checked it when he returned to his room and found more than a dozen new messages, all expressing the same thing: “Happy birthday.” Even Gu Yuching, whom he hadn’t contacted for a long time, sent him an e-card.

He was stunned, opened the calendar to check—December 16th, indeed his twenty-sixth birthday, but he had completely forgotten.

Gu Wenxi didn’t care much about birthdays. In previous years, it was just an excuse for relatives and friends to have some fun. Even now, when he wasn’t there, he was still remembered, which touched him somewhat.

He replied to each message one by one, from Zeng Bo Nian, Jiang Chen, Gu Yuching… until he hesitated for a long time at Gu Yuching’s message box. He didn’t type a single word until Du Yunyan called him to dinner.

“I’ll be down soon.” Gu Wenxi said to the person at the door, bowing his head to type “thank you” on his phone and then clicking send.

Usually, dinner for the two of them was not complicated. That day, Du Yunyan had already prepared almost everything before they left, and coming back only required a bit of finishing touches. But when Gu Wenxi came downstairs, he found the meal unusually abundant: besides the usual vegetarian dishes, there were also sweet potato balls that he had praised before; besides the leftover braised pork from lunch, Du Yunyan had also stewed radish and pork rib soup.

“Why did you make so much?” Gu Wenxi wondered aloud, just coming out with it.

“After walking so much this afternoon, it doesn’t matter if we eat a bit more,” Du Yunyan said, ladling out the soup in advance and letting it cool. “Don’t you like eating meat?”

“Yeah, but…” Although it was rare to have two meat dishes in a meal with Du Yunyan, Gu Wenxi still expressed his gratitude. “Thank you.”

Midway through the meal, Du Yunyan answered a phone call. He didn’t avoid it, still sitting at the table, putting down his chopsticks, and speaking to the person on the other end of the phone, saying, “… The day after tomorrow? Okay, I’ll come to see you.”

Gu Wenxi didn’t need to deliberately listen, but he could guess that it was Yun Han calling. When Du Yunyan hung up the phone, Gu Wenxi also raised his head, meeting the other’s gaze. “Was it Yun Han?”

“Yeah.”

“Is he going to S City?”

“How did you know?”

“That…” Gu Wenxi stumbled over his words. He had completely forgotten that he had overheard this news himself.

“Last time…” Du Yunyan caught on first. “Were you nearby?”

“Yeah,” Gu Wenxi admitted straightforwardly. “I went to take out the trash and happened to overhear it.”

“I see. I felt like there was someone around,” Du Yunyan said calmly. “So, did you hear everything I said to him too?”

“I overheard by accident,” Gu Wenxi shrugged slightly, since it had come to this point, there was no harm in being honest. “Are you really okay?”

“What do you think could be wrong with me?”

What could possibly be wrong with him, Gu Wenxi thought, isn’t it you who’s feeling lovesick?

“You said you liked—liked him, if he leaves—will you feel sad?”

Du Yunyan didn’t seem like a playboy who indulged in worldly pleasures at all; he approached everything with utmost seriousness, especially emotions. If that was the case, his indifferent attitude seemed too contradictory.

“I admit, I can’t bear to see him go, and I will miss him,” Du Yunyan nodded slightly. “But there are some things that can’t be forced, and complaining won’t change anything.”

Gu Wenxi carefully chewed over his words, feeling powerless to comment, “Is that really how you feel?”

“How else should I feel?”

Gu Wenxi was caught off guard.

Indeed, what else could this person do besides this? Hysterics? Frantic pursuit? None of those seemed like behaviors that Du Yunyan could display.

Recalling what he had said on the mountaintop, maybe he didn’t not care about Yun Han, but rather, he didn’t care about his own feelings.

“Nothing else,” Gu Wenxi thought about changing the subject, but couldn’t help asking, “Do you really like men?”

“Yeah,” Du Yunyan still answered quickly. “I realized I might prefer boys when I was in my early teens.”

Gu Wenxi didn’t say anything for a while, staring at him blankly. Du Yunyan misunderstood his silence, “You don’t need to worry. Even if I’m gay, I’m not interested in just any man.”

“What are you… What are you saying?” Gu Wenxi snapped back to reality, was he implying that he had no appeal to him? “Why would I worry?”

“Oh,” Du Yunyan put down his spoon after taking a sip of soup. “I just don’t want you to feel burdened.”

“I’m not.” Gu Wenxi denied immediately.

Regarding Du Yunyan liking men, he had never felt disgusted from start to finish; instead, it was the reminder not to harbor any romantic feelings that made him uncomfortable. He was at least a talented and handsome guy, right? How could he just be “any man”?

These little thoughts bothered Gu Wenxi, and he didn’t feel quite comfortable for the rest of the meal.

Du Yunyan still had a way of provoking people’s anger.