Voices came from the yard, guests discussing their travel plans. The low floors made it easy to hear every word.

Gu Wenxi woke up amid the constant chatter, turning over and instinctively reaching out—only to grab a pillow. He opened his eyes to find himself alone in bed; Du Yunyan hadn’t called him to help with breakfast.

Still naked, the memories of last night were vivid, and the slight discomfort in his butt reminded him. Unashamed, Gu Wenxi savored the memory for a moment before getting up and dressing.

The chatting downstairs finally stopped, followed by the sound of a car engine starting, likely the guests driving away.

Since moving into Du Yunyan’s room, they had shared the wardrobe. Gu Wenxi grabbed a T-shirt from the closet and threw on a black knit cardigan. He didn’t bring many clothes from home, so he had started buying clothes online, like the one he was wearing now.

However, just as he closed the wardrobe door, the second button of his cardigan fell off, rolling to the foot of the bed.

The quality of this clothing is terrible… Gu Wenxi frowned, staring at the missing button. He had a bit of a compulsion about his attire—not that it had to be branded, but he couldn’t stand missing buttons. Since he didn’t know how to sew it back on, he changed into another cardigan and tossed the fallen button onto the bedside table.

After washing up, he went downstairs. The closer he got to the kitchen, the more he smelled a faintly sweet aroma, but there was no such food in the dining room. He looked around; it was past the guesthouse’s breakfast time, and there were no guests in the hall. Du Yunyan was sitting behind the counter, doing the accounts. Seeing him, he looked up. “You’re up?”

“Yeah,” it was already past nine, and if he didn’t get up soon, the whole morning would be gone. “What’s that smell?”

“I made some porridge. Would you like some?” Du Yunyan put down the calculator and stood up to get the porridge.

“Porridge?” Gu Wenxi found it odd. Except for the first day when he tried everything out of curiosity, he rarely had porridge for breakfast. “What kind of porridge?”

“With Chinese yam, goji berries, and red dates,” Du Yunyan replied calmly. “It’s best for you to eat something easy to digest today.”

Gu Wenxi realized the implication of his words and was a bit shocked: “So after gay sex… you need to recover like postpartum care?”

Before he could finish his sentence, Du Yunyan reached out again to cover his mouth, making sure no one was around before slightly relaxing his grip. “Can you not say such things?”

“Why do you always cover my mouth!” Gu Wenxi, dissatisfied, pushed his arm away. “Making such a nourishing porridge in the morning, how can anyone not think about it?”

“Ungrateful,” Du Yunyan’s mouth curled up slightly. “It’s not like I haven’t cooked special things for you before.”

“Not recently.” Gu Wenxi cheerfully followed him into the kitchen.

“Well, I’ve been too busy lately,” Du Yunyan’s expression showed a hint of guilt. “I haven’t taken care of you properly and even made you help so much.”

What he had intended as a casual joke elicited an apology, making Gu Wenxi feel uncomfortable. He almost forgot that Du Yunyan had a personality inclined towards taking care of those around him, naturally assuming such responsibilities without feeling it was a burden.

“I don’t need you to take care of me,” Gu Wenxi didn’t want him to carry such a notion, circling to face him and speaking earnestly, “Yunyan, even if something really happened, it should be mutual care. You don’t need to feel guilty about it.”

“I…” Du Yunyan lowered his head slightly under Gu Wenxi’s intense gaze. “Alright.”

While serving the porridge, with his back to Gu Wenxi, he continued, “But I’ve always enjoyed doing these things since I was young. It doesn’t feel like a chore,” he placed two bowls of porridge on a tray and handed it to Gu Wenxi to carry out. “Let’s eat together. I haven’t had sweet porridge in a long time.”

“Okay.”

It was another sunny day, with the wooden table by the window gleaming brightly in the reflection.

While standing, Gu Wenxi almost ignored the discomfort, but as soon as he pulled out a chair and sat down, the tingling and swelling sensation hit him again, causing him to grimace and recall those embarrassing yet sweet memories last night.

“Still uncomfortable?” Du Yunyan glanced at him.

“It’s not that bad,” Gu Wenxi blushed, adjusting his sitting position slightly. “I just sat down too quickly.”

The sweetness of the porridge came from the boiled red dates, mixing with the steam and lingering between them.

Du Yunyan laughed out loud at Gu Wenxi’s uneasy appearance. Before Gu Wenxi could react, he changed the subject, “Do you want to go up the mountain with me to pick wild vegetables tomorrow?”

“Pick wild vegetables?” His attention was quickly diverted.

“Yes, didn’t you want to go with me last year?”

Gu Wenxi vaguely remembered, and at that time, Du Yunyan had joked about him possibly picking poisonous ones. It was also the same day he took Du Yunyan for a fast ride on his bike, leading to a half-day cold war.

In just a few months, so much had changed.

He was certainly happy to go out with him: “When?”

“Tomorrow morning,” Du Yunyan gently blew on the porridge in his spoon. “I’ll have Du Hong and the others come over early.”

“Actually, we could go today too. They should be coming over soon, right?” Gu Wenxi said enthusiastically, “Or we could go in the afternoon.”

“Today—” Du Yunyan’s gaze lingered on Gu Wenxi’s fidgety posture for a couple of seconds, “You should rest today.”

Gu Wenxi bit into a piece of Chinese yam, chewed it, and swallowed, suddenly realizing what Du Yunyan meant. He stared at him with wide eyes. Du Yunyan, head down, drank his porridge, not noticing Gu Wenxi’s embarrassed and angry face.

—

The next day, although they said they were going to pick wild vegetables, it was more like an outing. Du Yunyan had agreed with Gu Wenxi to get up early. However, Gu Wenxi had not been woken up early for days, except for when Beibei was sick. He had been waking up naturally every day, so getting up early was still a bit difficult.

After several roosters crowed and the birds in the woods started chirping, Du Yunyan, leaning against his pillow, called Gu Wenxi’s name three or four times to no avail. He raised his left hand, using his thumb and forefinger to gently pinch Gu Wenxi’s proud, handsome face.

Gu Wenxi, still dreaming, frowned slightly and finally woke up. Squinting his eyes and rubbing his face, he realized what Du Yunyan had done. “Why are you so rough?”

“I didn’t use much force,” Du Yunyan laughed. “You asked me to wake you up yesterday. If you don’t get up, it’ll be too late.”

“I didn’t ask you to pinch me!”

Realizing he had gone too far, Du Yunyan leaned over and kissed him on the lips. “How about I go by myself? You can keep sleeping.”

“No way.” Gu Wenxi stretched lazily and insisted on getting out of bed.

He jumped down.

Du Yunyan had found a coat for him in advance, draped over the back of the chair at the end of the bed. Gu Wenxi took a look and saw it was the cardigan he hadn’t managed to put on properly yesterday. He knew the buttons were missing, so he still didn’t intend to wear it. As he was about to put it back, he caught sight of the second button that had fallen off yesterday, perfectly intact and still attached to the coat, with no signs of it having fallen off.

Thinking he might be seeing things, he picked up the coat and examined it closely, even counting the buttons from top to bottom. None were missing. He then checked the bedside table where he had left the buttons yesterday, but they were nowhere to be found.

“What’s wrong?” Du Yunyan came out of the bathroom and noticed he hadn’t changed his clothes yet. “This one suits you for now. It’s going to get warmer later.”

Gu Wenxi couldn’t discern any emotion from his expression, so he had to ask, “Can you sew buttons?”

“Of course,” Du Yunyan replied proudly. “What, surprised to see your button back?”

“Did you really sew it?”

“Who else would come into our room?”

Gu Wenxi turned the coat around to examine the stitches on the back of the buttons. Although they were slightly different from the others, they were sewn very neatly, with no visible difference from the front.

As he changed his clothes, he said with a serious tone, “You remind me of someone.”

“Who?”

“Snail Girl.”

“Get lost!”

Suddenly, the birds outside became unusually restless, chirping loudly. Du Yunyan checked the time and urged, “Hurry up, let’s eat something first.”

There were many deserted paths on the mountainside. When Gu Wenxi used to wander alone, he didn’t dare to choose too remote paths, but he didn’t mind following Du Yunyan. He was familiar with the terrain around here.

The path they took was similar to the one they took when watching the sunset last time, winding and meandering. Although they were going uphill, Gu Wenxi felt like they weren’t heading in one direction. With little rain recently, the vegetation only had a slight moisture from the morning dew, giving it a dry and fresh feeling.

When they reached an area where houses were almost invisible, Du Yunyan pointed to the rows of slender, stem-like plants at their feet and asked, “Do you recognize this vegetable?”

“No impression,” Gu Wenxi thought to himself, even if he had eaten it before, it would have been on the dining table.

“This is fern,” Du Yunyan explained patiently, carrying a bag he used to collect wild fruits before. “We can pick some to take back.”

“I’ve never seen you pick these before.” Gu Wenxi also squatted down beside him.

“These are spring and summer vegetables,” Du Yunyan explained patiently, “They taste good in dishes, but you shouldn’t eat too much as they have a risk of causing cancer.”

Gu Wenxi had been to many places, but as someone who grew up in the city, he probably hadn’t seriously observed inconspicuous plants in the mountains before: green, long stems with curled young leaves at the top. Like Du Yunyan, he put the picked vegetables into the bag.

After squatting for a while, he felt his legs numb and stood up to find a new spot. After moving a bit, he walked a few steps along the slope and circled to a position slightly above Du Yunyan. Just as he was about to squat down again, he saw a dark, rope-like object moving through the grass in front of him, indistinct and accompanied by faint rustling sounds.

Gu Wenxi froze for a moment, sensing what it was, a chill ran down his spine, his hair stood on end, and he suddenly turned around. His movement was too abrupt, and with his feet not stable, his body tilted, and he fell towards the slope below.

“Wenxi!”