The grapes in the yard were too sour to eat, leaving Zhong Mao and the others disappointed. As their eyes wandered around the courtyard, they spotted some rice wine brewing in the cool shade of the corner.

Rice wine was something every household brewed, not exactly a rare delicacy. But for Zhong Mao and his group, it was something magical. Excited, they pestered Jiang Yi’s Grandma to let them try some.

Grandma couldn’t resist the persistence of these kids and eventually agreed, allowing them to have a taste, but she warned them not to drink too much and only try a little.

It wasn’t that she was being stingy; she was just worried they wouldn’t know their limits once they started drinking.

The group nodded obediently, but as soon as the old lady went to her room to nap, they turned wild like untamed horses. Each of them grabbed a large bowl, and in no time, they finished all the rice wine.

Jiang Yi led the group as they squatted under the grape trellis, digging up the remaining rice wine.

Qin Lan hesitated as he dug, saying, “This doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

Zhong Mao, striking the ground with a shovel, echoed, “Yeah, not a good idea.”

Ying Zhuohan, brushing dirt off the wine jar, chimed in, “Exactly, not a good idea.”

Jiang Yi buried the soil back, saying confidently, “Don’t worry.”

“Grandma said as long as it’s not the wine reserved for my wedding, we can drink the rest.”

“Wine for your wedding?” Lu Li, who had been squatting nearby, looked puzzled. “How come I didn’t know about this?”

Zhong Mao laughed heartily, “Brother Lu, how could you possibly know about the wine for his wedding?”

Lu Li glared at him, thinking to himself, “Why wouldn’t I know? After all, Jiang Yi used to say he’d marry me.”

Qin Lan, assuming Lu Li, who grew up abroad, didn’t understand what Jiang Yi meant by “wedding wine,” explained, “The wine Jiang Yi mentioned is called ‘Nuer Hong,’ which was probably buried when he was born. Once he gets married, it’s dug up and served.”

Lu Li asked, “Why don’t I have any?”

Ying Zhuohan replied, “Go ask your dad, why ask Jiang Yi?”

Zhong Mao added, “Brother Lu, they don’t bury that kind of wine abroad.”

Jiang Yi thought for a moment, then reassured him, “When the time comes, I’ll share half of my wedding wine with you.”

Cheng Chao muttered, “…”

Sharing wedding wine? No wonder he once mistook Jiang Yi for Lu Li’s illegitimate brother.

The group hauled the wine they dug up to the table and started playing a spinning bottle game. Whoever the bottle landed on had to either drink or eat a bunch of grapes.

No one wanted to eat the teeth-numbingly sour grapes.

As a result, the rice wine on the table disappeared at an alarming speed.

Jiang Yi sat in the middle, eagerly hoping the bottle would land on him so he could get a taste of the wine. But after seven or eight rounds, the bottle never pointed his way.

Feeling a little disappointed, Jiang Yi sat there, while Lu Li, without changing his expression, tilted the table with his knee and said, “How about I dip a chopstick in the wine and let you have a taste?”

Jiang Yi shook his head, determined to wait until the bottle landed on him for a proper taste.

Zhong Mao spun the bottle again, and it began to turn in circles on the table, gradually slowing down.

Jiang Yi’s eyes were wide open, staring intently at the bottle in the center of the table, his black pupils filled with anticipation.

The bottle wobbled and seemed like it was about to point directly at Jiang Yi, but in the next second, it tilted slightly and stopped in front of Lu Li.

Lu Li had quietly used his knee to tilt the table, ensuring the bottle stopped in front of him, then slowly leveled the table again.

Jiang Yi felt disappointed and muttered, “That’s strange…”

Cheng Chao raised an eyebrow, feeling something was off. He glanced at Lu Li and noticed him lounging lazily in his chair, with his long legs stretched beneath the table, out of sight.

While sipping his rice wine, Cheng Chao tried to cheer up Jiang Yi, saying seriously that maybe rubbing some of his good luck on Jiang Yi would help. Who knows, the bottle might just land on him next.

But Jiang Yi, a bit stubborn, refused and said that he had already calculated the probability—the bottle was bound to land on him sooner or later.

Lu Li retorted, “Probability means nothing. You might as well rub some of my luck.”

Jiang Yi responded earnestly, “Superstition is bad. Science is the only force for progress.”

Cheng Chao sighed, “…”

Before long, the cool night breeze blew, creating a pleasant atmosphere. The scent of alcohol filled the courtyard, and several people lay sprawled across the rattan chairs, their wine nearly half-finished, and nearly everyone was drunk, making the place lively and chaotic.

A tipsy Ying Zhuohan tugged at his curly hair, lamenting that he didn’t like his curls because they puffed up in the morning and made his head look big.

Zhong Mao, with a flushed face, laughed foolishly and tugged on Ying Zhuohan’s curls, saying, “Big heads are good. Big heads make you look smart.”

Qin Lan, cradling a pair of slippers, earnestly taught the slippers how to recite the alphabet.

The slippers, of course, said nothing, which infuriated Qin Lan, who scolded them for half an hour.

Lu Li’s face was also a bit flushed, his light blond hair gently blowing in the night breeze. He hugged Jiang Yi close and pointed to the grapevines in the yard, muttering, “I planted those.”

Then he pointed to a small straw hat hanging on the wall, “I made that.”

Jiang Yi, who had secretly had a sip of wine, pretended nothing was amiss and nodded seriously, “Got it.”

Lu Li nuzzled him and suddenly looked up at Jiang Yi. He fell quiet for a moment before earnestly saying, “Mine.”

Jiang Yi.

Jiang Yi thought for a moment, somewhat confused, and then earnestly replied, “Right.”

Qin Lan turned his head, angrily pointing at the slipper. “Wrong!”

“Not a single letter was pronounced correctly!”

Lu Li was also angry. From childhood to adulthood, not even a chicken had dared to say Jiang Yi was wrong in front of him.

He clenched his fist in frustration and angrily threw Qin Lan’s slipper onto the grape trellis.

Qin Lan, holding his one remaining slipper, sat down sadly and began teaching it the multiplication table.

Cheng Chao, leaning on a rattan chair and enjoying the night breeze, was probably the only one among them who still had some clarity of mind.

Although he, too, was a bit muddled, to the point where he wanted to catch the chickens outside the yard and wipe their butts.

After all, chickens poop every day but never wipe their butts.

Cheng Chao found this extremely hard to bear.

He squinted and thought slowly, if he had to wipe a chicken’s butt, he’d first use a wet wipe twice, then dry tissue three times, and finally use a dryer to completely dry the chicken’s butt.

That way, the chicken’s butt would be much cleaner.

Cheng Chao, feeling comfortable just thinking about it, turned his head and saw, Lu Li holding Jiang Yi in his arms. Jiang Yi sat obediently, his moist eyes wide open, and his lips were slightly tinged with red.

His cheeks had a faint pink flush, almost unnoticeable unless you looked closely, and under the soft moonlight, his skin had a porcelain-like glow. His head was slightly tilted, making him look both serious and a bit lost.

Lu Li lowered his head, seemingly nibbling on Jiang Yi’s earlobe. His hands were wrapped around Jiang Yi’s shoulders, leaning almost entirely on him. His usually rebellious expression had softened.

It was an intimate posture—so intimate that even the slightly tipsy Cheng Chao furrowed his brows, sensing something off.

It felt a bit too intimate.

He wondered if the dim lighting in the yard was playing tricks on him, or perhaps Lu Li was simply drunk and resting his head on Jiang Yi’s shoulder.

After all, anyone could tell that Lu Li had been particularly fond of sticking close to Jiang Yi lately, as if there was some special bond between them, and being near each other made them both more comfortable.

But the night breeze grew stronger, scattering the clouds that had been obscuring the moon, and the bright moonlight stretched their shadows long across the ground.

Under the clear light, Cheng Chao saw Lu Li release Jiang Yi’s ear, leaving a faint bite mark, then murmuring as he buried his head in Jiang Yi’s neck, playfully nipping at it.

Jiang Yi sat upright, staring straight ahead as if fully focused on a lesson, completely unaware that he had been bitten again.

In a daze, Cheng Chao called Jiang Yi’s name. Jiang Yi turned, shushed him seriously, and said, “We’ll talk after class.”

Cheng Chao felt even more confused. Just as he was about to get up, he saw Ying Zhuohan sit next to Jiang Yi, abandoning his own hair to tug on Jiang Yi’s instead.

While tugging, Ying Zhuohan mumbled enviously, “Your hair is so nice, it doesn’t make your head look big at all…”

Then Cheng Chao saw Ying Zhuohan sneakily bite a strand of Jiang Yi’s hair, muttering, “Give me some…”

Lu Li noticed and yanked Ying Zhuohan’s hair, cursing him to leave.

Jiang Yi was furious. He couldn’t understand why people kept interrupting his class.

Teacher Liu said this lesson was very important, that he had to listen carefully, but people just kept bothering him.

Jiang Yi pushed Lu Li’s head away, grabbed a small stool, and moved over to the grape trellis. He straightened his back and devoutly continued attending his imaginary class.

Cheng Chao: “…”

He leaned his head back on the rattan chair, suddenly feeling like he might be overthinking things.

By the second half of the night, the group was stumbling back to their rooms, helping each other as they went, and collapsed into bed, immediately falling into a deep sleep.

The next morning, the neighbor stood at the gate with a hoe, calling for the kids. But Jiang Yi’s grandmother waved them off with a smile, offering them some homemade pancakes, and explained that the kids had overindulged in alcohol last night.

The neighbor smiled and shook their head, saying, “Youth is great.”

By eleven in the morning, the group of drunks began to wake up. Qin Lan emerge from his room, hopping on one foot and asking Jiang Yi’s grandmother if she had any new slippers.

Cheng Chao had been the first to wake up, already washed and dressed, and followed Zhong Mao to Jiang Yi’s room to wake the others for lunch.

Zhong Mao, his hair a wild mess, burst into Jiang Yi’s room, took a deep breath, and yelled, “Time to get up—”

The birds in the trees outside fluttered away in fright.

The next second, a pillow flew at Zhong Mao, accompanied by a hoarse voice, “Get lost.”

Cheng Chao paused for a moment, upon entering the room, he realized that there were two people in the bed, both under the same blanket.

Lu Li, wearing a tank top, had one arm wrapped around Jiang Yi, sitting up slightly. The movement seemed to have woken Jiang Yi as well. His eyelashes fluttered, and he opened his eyes, still half-asleep.

Groggily, Jiang Yi tilted his head back and asked Lu Li, “What’s wrong?”

Lu Li patted his back and whispered, “Nothing, go back to sleep.”

Cheng Chao watched as the two lay under the same blanket, hands intertwined, and that strange feeling of discomfort surged in his heart again, even stronger this time.

He narrowed his eyes, just about to say something when he saw the blanket behind them stir. A messy-haired Ying Zhuohan crawled out from the foot of the bed, grinning.

Cheng Chao: “…”

He must really be out of his mind to feel unsettled.

Lu Li kicked Ying Zhuohan, frustrated. “Why the hell are you in our bed?”

Jiang Yi mumbled to himself, “So it wasn’t the wall I kicked last night…”

Ying Zhuohan, now on the floor, clutched his backside in pain and complained, “I came back with Jiang Yi last night!”

He raised his head defiantly, “If you can sleep in the same bed as Jiang Yi, then I can too!”

Last night, after both got drunk, neither would let go of the other, so they ended up sharing the bed, all three of them.

Lu Li cursed under his breath, his face dark, and ripped the sheets off to throw them into the washing machine.

Meanwhile, Qin Lan, hopping on one leg in the yard, yelled, “Lu, where did you throw my slippers last night?”

Lu Li, still in a bad mood, shouted back, “Threw them at your damn head!”

On their last night in the village before returning to the city, Jiang Yi’s grandmother slaughtered a goose, two chickens, and even asked the village chief to catch two fat fish from the pond.

Zhong Mao and the others tried to stop the old lady, telling her not to prepare so much and to save some for herself. But Jiang Yi’s grandmother just smiled, plucking feathers as she shook her head. “I raised them for you all to eat.”

“The more you eat, the happier I am.”

Because of the heavy drinking last time, Jiang Yi’s grandmother didn’t bring out any rice wine. After dinner, the group sat in the courtyard chatting about everything. Jiang Yi sat next to his grandmother, watching her embroider insoles for him.

The sky was filled with stars, and one by one, the others went off to shower and pack their things. Eventually, only Cheng Chao and Jiang Yi remained in the courtyard.

Cheng Chao turned his head, looking at Jiang Yi who was reclining in the bamboo chair, gazing at the stars. Suddenly, he said, “Jiang Yi.”

Jiang Yi turned his head, “What is it?”

Cheng Chao, arms behind his head and eyes closed, said, “Next time you come back, remember to call me.”

Jiang Yi smiled, “Alright.”

Lu Li, fresh from his shower and drying his hair, walked over, pretending to be nonchalant. “What are you two talking about?”

Jiang Yi immediately became cautious, worried that Lu Li would say something embarrassing in front of Cheng Chao. He quickly grabbed Lu Li’s arm. “I think I forgot to pack all my clothes. Come help me check.”

Lu Li looked confused. “I thought I packed everything except for the underwear you wouldn’t let me touch?”

Jiang Yi: “…”

His ears reddened, and he tugged Lu Li along. “I said I forgot something, so just come and check.”

The next day, as they were getting ready to leave, the village chief came to see them off, especially since at first, the villagers, including Jiang Yi’s grandmother, didn’t really believe these boys could handle the tough work. They just thought the boys could lend a hand when things got busy, but these young men had actually done a great job.

Luxury cars pulled into the village one after another, and the drivers almost didn’t recognize their young masters.

Especially Cheng Chao’s driver, who was dumbfounded to see the usually neat freak Cheng Chao wearing brightly colored shorts, pulling a suitcase, and noticeably more tanned.

Ying Zhuohan’s driver was about to help him lift his suitcase into the trunk when Ying proudly waved him off, demonstrating the skill he had honed over the past few days throwing hay bales.

With a swift motion, Ying Zhuohan swung the suitcase into the trunk in a perfect arc, landing precisely inside.

Among the group, Jiang Yi looked the least changed. He was just as pale as he was when they first arrived, unaffected by the sun no matter how much it shone.

The others spent an entire summer trying to get their original complexion back, no longer charcoal-black.

Throughout the whole summer, Zhong Mao and the others had little contact with their social circle, spending their days hanging out with Jiang Yi and following Lu Li around.

Rumors began circulating again within their circle.

During the first week of school, one morning, Lu Li asked Jiang Yi for all his awards and trophies from childhood.

Jiang Yi didn’t think much of it. Lu Li had always had random requests, so he handed over the certificates and trophies.

That afternoon, Jiang Yi noticed Cheng Chao wasn’t in class. He had taken a bathroom break and didn’t return for the entire period.

In the bathroom on the top floor of the school, Lu Li, with a group of guys, sat on a chair facing the upperclassmen who had spread rumors. He wore a pleasant expression but smiled menacingly, “Keep reading.”

Several upperclassmen stood in the corner, nervously reading off Lu Li’s copies of Jiang Yi’s certificates. “Jiang Yi, for outstanding performance in the English competition…”

Cheng Chao corrected, “Don’t skip the competition’s name.”

Ying Zhuohan, leaning against the door, nodded, “Exactly.”

The upperclassmen: “…”

For an hour, they had to read aloud every award Jiang Yi had ever received, from kindergarten to middle school, even the “Good Baby” certificate, word by word, forced by Lu Li’s group.

When they finally finished, Lu Li couldn’t help himself. He threw the thick stack of certificates at the upperclassmen’s heads. “You insulted him?”

“How many awards do you have? Are you worthy? Are you?”

“His trophies alone could kill you if I threw them at you. Who the hell do you think you are?”