A small figure in a mask, wearing a hooded cloak, hopped around scaring people with a bag of candy in hand. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, he wasn’t very frightening. His round eyes, visible beneath the mask, were bright and shiny like a deer’s, and his small frame, hidden under the cloak, only made him look more adorable. His attempts to scare people, flailing his arms and growling, were met with more laughter than fear.

However, the boy behind him had a different effect. With a stern expression and icy blue eyes narrowed into a menacing glare, he was truly intimidating. Every time he tried to scare someone, it worked without fail.

The little masked figure wandered around, collecting candy, and soon had a large handful. Content with his loot, he returned to sit beside the knight at his side, swinging his legs and fiddling with his mask.

Arno, the knight, helped Jiang Yi take off his mask. Jiang Yi shook his head, then suddenly stuck out his tongue and rolled his eyes before dramatically collapsing into Arno’s arms.

Arno: “…”

With no emotion in his voice, he remarked, “Oh, how terrifying.”

Jiang Yi perked up happily, his tousled black hair falling across his forehead. He excitedly told Arno that his ghost costume wasn’t scary at all and suggested that next time they should dress up as faceless ghosts together.

Arno fell silent, hesitating to explain that, maybe, he just wanted them to play the roles of a knight and a fairy from their kindergarten play instead.

But Jiang Yi had already darted off, still in his ghostly cloak, joyfully joining the other classmates in strange and quirky costumes. Along the way, he made a new friend dressed as a mushroom and quickly became part of their odd little group.

Arno, in his more formal and normal knight costume, stood out too much to join the mushroom squad. All he could do was watch helplessly as Jiang Yi, led by the teacher, wandered around with the group, posing for photos.

Fortunately, he wasn’t the only unlucky one.

Ying Zhuohan, also in a knight’s costume: “…”

That evening, after the Halloween party ended, Arno stuffed his custom-made knight costume into the storage room and immediately called his mother across the ocean. He firmly requested that next Halloween, he wanted the scariest witch hat and a jack-o’-lantern mask.

Meanwhile, after Halloween, Jiang Yi stashed his ghost mask and cloak into his toy box and told his father that Arno didn’t seem to enjoy playing the role of a ghost, perhaps because he was a bit scared. Jiang’s father, remembering how Arno had spent the day chasing people around with Jiang Yi, hesitated before keeping quiet.

The following year, Arno was filled with confidence. He declared that he had a big surprise for Jiang Yi, and Jiang Yi, equally excited, promised a surprise for Arno.

At the next year’s Halloween party, Arno, donning his witch hat and jack-o’-lantern mask, arrived at school, eagerly searching for Jiang Yi.

It wasn’t long before he saw a wobbly reindeer trotting happily toward him.

A sudden feeling of foreboding hit Arno.

Two minutes later, Arno stared silently at the reindeer in front of him. Jiang Yi tilted his head and exclaimed in surprise, “Arno, so you’re not afraid of ghosts after all?”

Yes, this year Jiang Yi had chosen to dress up as a reindeer.

A wobbly, wide-eyed reindeer with antlers that stuck out awkwardly.

The two sat down side by side—one ghost, one reindeer. Jiang Yi patted Arno on the head and comforted him, “Don’t worry, next Halloween we’ll both be ghosts.”

But in the third year, due to growing calls to stop celebrating Western holidays, the school canceled the Halloween party altogether.

As a result, Jiang Yi’s room only had two photos: one of a knight and a little ghost, and the other of a reindeer and a ghost. There was no picture of two ghosts together.

Arno never quite got over it. He often lay on Jiang Yi’s bed, criticizing the mushroom that appeared in Jiang Yi’s class photo as ugly while Jiang Yi did his homework.

Back then, they were only in third grade, and Arno was such a frequent guest in Jiang Yi’s room that Jiang’s father often joked that Arno spent more time there than he did.

By the fourth grade, Lu Ting became even busier with frequent overseas trips that lasted for weeks. Jiang’s father, now promoted, also started joining him on business trips, often leaving home for long stretches.

Arno invited Jiang Yi to sleep over at his house, but Jiang Yi initially refused. Without hesitation, Arno grabbed his pajamas and pillow and climbed through Jiang Yi’s window, stubbornly camping out in his room.

However, Jiang Yi’s bed was much smaller than Arno’s, and every morning Arno had to retrieve the blanket he had kicked off during the night. Once, he even caught a cold and spent the whole day keeping his distance from Jiang Yi.

Feeling sorry for him, Jiang Yi finally agreed to switch to sleeping at Arno’s house.

From then on, Arno’s bedroom had two closets—one for his clothes and one for Jiang Yi’s. A thick carpet was laid on the floor.

When asked, Arno explained that he disliked noise and preferred a quiet room. But in truth, the carpet was for Jiang Yi, who loved to sit on the floor and work on jigsaw puzzles, often for hours at a time.

One time, after returning from a business trip, Jiang’s father dragged his suitcase to his son’s room, only to be stunned at the sight. He thought he had entered the wrong house.

Jiang Yi’s room was almost empty. Even the broken-legged toy horse from his childhood had been taken—Arno had moved everything into his own room.

With trembling hands, Jiang’s father called Jiang Yi. He knew his son often stayed over at Arno’s, but he never imagined that, over time, the entire room would be emptied out.

Anyone unaware would think a thief had broken in.

However, as time passed, Jiang’s father gradually relaxed. Jiang Yi had always been responsible, apart from his somewhat peculiar taste in friends. In all other areas, he was the kind of son a father could be proud of.

When it was time for Jiang Yi to move on to middle school, not only did he stand out in the highly competitive environment of the elementary school, but he also transitioned smoothly into middle school’s elite class without needing any connections, purely through his exceptional competition scores.

The elementary and middle schools were part of a prestigious nine-year program. Both were renowned throughout the city, with the elite “Rocket Class” at the middle school being the crown jewel. Students from this class regularly participated in various competitions, consistently bringing home numerous awards.

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In June, the sun blazed fiercely, and the cicadas chirped relentlessly on the camphor trees beside the school building, making everyone’s head spin.

The door to Class 1 of the middle school was half open, with pieces of chalk scattered across the podium. The blackboard eraser hung crookedly on the board.

Bright sunlight streamed through the spotless windows, casting harsh glares on the desks.

Jiang Yi, wearing his blue and white school uniform, sat quietly at his desk. From the distant playground, he could faintly hear the sound of whistles and muffled cheers.

His pen paused, his long lashes casting shadows as he furrowed his brows and rubbed his temple, feeling like he had forgotten something important.

The whistle outside blew a few more times before fading into the background, leaving only the faint sound of cheers.

Jiang Yi suddenly turned his head, hesitating as he asked his deskmate, “Is there a basketball game today?”

His deskmate, a boy with glasses, was surprised. It was rare for Jiang Yi, who was usually quiet, to ask about anything other than academic questions, let alone about something as trivial as a basketball game.

Stammering, the boy replied, “Y-Yes, I think it’s a match between Class 2 and Class 8.”

Jiang Yi massaged his temple and leaned back in his chair, his mind racing. He had forgotten something important.

Ah, now he remembered—he had completely forgotten about Lu Li’s (Arno) basketball game.