Yu Guang actually didn’t like sweets.

But who doesn’t love sweets when they’re young? Yu Guang loved sweets when he was young too.

But the woman named Mother didn’t let him eat.

Mother said your brother doesn’t like sweets, so how could you like them? Mother also said that eating too much candy would grow centipedes in your teeth, so don’t eat them.

But Grandpa always had lots and lots of sweet candy in his pocket.

When Mother worked the night shift, Grandpa would pat his pockets, rustling the candy wrappers, making a rustling sound, like boots stepping on snow or the roar of a dark monster.

The candy was so bitter.

It had a smell of moldy moss in the corner, like the foul odor from the mop in the toilet.

Later, Mother stopped working the night shift, but she became even stricter, scolding him more severely, slapping his face and saying, “No candy allowed,” and that he should be obedient like his brother.

But the candy given by Senior Ye Si was so sweet.

Even though Yu Guang still felt physically nauseous, he held back the urge to retch, used his tongue to push the candy to the back of his molars, and crunched it down, swallowing the hard candy.

The sweetness spread from the tip of his tongue to the bottom of his heart.

He stared at the candy wrapper in Ye Si’s hand. Yu Guang had good eyesight, so he could even see the tiny floral logo clearly.

On his way back to the dormitory, he started searching online. After several attempts, he finally found out that the candy in Ye Si’s hand was a French export strawberry candy.

It was niche and expensive, and there was no sales channel for it on the entire internet. There were only some candies with similar packaging.

Better than nothing, Yu Guang still ordered a bag of bootleg strawberry candies.

The sun was still scorching, walking on the road felt like being roasted, and Yu Guang didn’t understand why the early summer weather was so abnormal.

He walked along the cool narrow path next to the wall and took the opportunity to open WeChat and send a leave request to the teacher of the afternoon professional class.

He didn’t want to go to class in the afternoon.

Even being a good student for too long would be tiring.

It was always easier for the person with the highest comprehensive scores to take a leave. The teacher approved his leave without asking for a reason, and even said that he would be graded based on attendance for the final and regular grades.

With a vague smile, Yu Guang self-mockingly thought, was this considered an extra reward for pretending to be a good student?

Although he didn’t care about credits or professional grades, others thought he did.

---

Leaning on the handrail, slowly climbing up to the fourth floor of the dormitory building, Yu Guang looked down the dormitory corridor and stopped when he reached for the keys—

There was a gold-embossed airplane box at the entrance of room 407.

Yu Guang walked closer, the airplane box was beautifully packaged, with fine sparkles on the pure white paper shell, a ribbon tied into a bow, and the note on the beige card was written in a scrawl saying ‘To Yu Guang’.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated, the frequency of vibration transmitted directly to the skin of his thigh through the thin fabric of his pants.

His heart skipped a beat, and he quickly looked at the screen—

Sure enough, it was a text message from that unfamiliar number.

[Unknown Number]: Why does your complexion look a bit off?

[Unknown Number]: I still prefer seeing you in a white shirt.

Two unrelated messages almost simultaneously sent, and Yu Guang’s back felt cold. He looked around sharply.

The corridor was empty, with only the harsh sunlight shining through the window at the end of the corridor, glaringly bright.

Yu Guang squinted, vaguely seeing the black and lovely silhouette of a black cat on the windowsill, its hook-like black tail swaying.

The exposure was too strong, and even the shadow of the black cat was blurred, distant as if it were a phantom from a time-space tunnel.

The black cat also seemed to look at him absent-mindedly, playfully tilting its head and scratching its ear with its claws.

Yu Guang didn’t find it cute at all, but instead, it gave him goosebumps all over his body.

He quickly picked up the airplane box at the door and stepped into the dormitory, closing the door with a bang.

The dormitory was empty, with only him. After the door closed, the whole dormitory became quiet, with tiny dust floating in the air, fluttering under the sunlight.

Yu Guang placed the box on the table.

He rarely received gifts, even though he had already celebrated twenty birthdays, he had never eaten cake or received birthday presents on his birthday.

His taciturn and solitary personality since childhood had never brought him any friends, and the last gift he received was the sketch of the peach blossom tree from the senior, and then it was the airplane box in front of him.

The sketch he received last time was probably drawn by the senior casually, but this time it was different—

The box was meticulously packaged, and even extra newspaper was used to cushion the bottom to prevent it from getting dirty.

A faint anticipation rose in his heart.

Yu Guang gently untied the ribbon bow, slowly opened it—

A faint fragrance wafted out, and there was a white shirt in the box.

Except for the V-neck collar, the rest of the details were very similar to the white shirt he had dirtied.

But underneath the white shirt, there was also a pair of black A-line shorts, the length was probably just above the middle of the thigh.

Like a summer version of the school uniform for boys in certain areas.

Yu Guang paused his movements of taking the shirt, his gaze lingering on the shirt and shorts for a while, then he chuckled.

He opened the messaging app, and the highlighted [Unknown Number] caught his eye.

He quickly typed and sent a message.

Yu Guang: Pervert.

Even so, he still neatly folded the shirt and shorts back into the box, closed the lid, tied the ribbon, and returned it to its original state step by step.

The phone vibrated, the screen lit up, and another text message came. Yu Guang glanced at it.

[Unknown Number]: Do you like it?

“Do you like it?” That was indeed a good question.

He stared at the scrawled handwriting on the beige card, feeling it somewhat familiar. After thinking for a moment, he still typed and replied.

Yu Guang: Want to see me wearing it?

There was a hint of flirtation in his tone.

Without waiting for the other party to reply, Yu Guang grabbed his pajamas and went straight to the bathroom to take a shower.

The water temperature was still scalding hot, and the mist rolled on the tiled walls, leaving damp watermarks.

He buried his head in the scalding hot water from the shower, holding his breath and letting the water soak him all over.

He liked to think about things in the shower, bizarre and unmentionable things—most of the time, he was thinking about Ye Si.

But today was unexpected.

He was thinking about the gift he had just received, the person chatting with him through the phone screen, and the drunken night last time…

Yu Guang slightly turned his body to look at his lower back.

The terrifying bruises had disappeared, but he knew that something must have happened that night.

How about going to BLUE again this weekend?

It just happened that he spent a lot of money on ink for the senior and the candies he bought earlier. His balance was not much left, so he could go to BLUE to earn some money on the weekend.

The person behind the unknown number would definitely follow him to BLUE—baseless speculation, but Yu Guang always believed in his sixth sense.

He scrubbed himself with shower gel three or four times until the skin on his fingers wrinkled before turning off the water.

The sticky and nauseating feeling on his back finally diminished.

He thought of Chen Zhongguo’s wrinkled old face and the possibility of not attending Chen Zhongguo’s calligraphy class in the future.

But Ye Si was the mentor for this semester’s calligraphy class—

He really couldn’t bear it.

After changing into his pajamas, Yu Guang went out of the steaming hot bathroom.

Estimating that his roommates wouldn’t be back from class for a few hours, he pulled the curtains of the balcony glass door, turned off the lights, and climbed into bed with his phone.

The comfort brought by the cool and dim environment was irreplaceable by anything else.

Letting out a sigh, Yu Guang buried himself under the blanket.

After a moment, he remembered something and lit up the screen of his phone.

Half an hour ago, an unknown number had sent him a message.

[Unknown Number]: Want to see.

[Unknown Number]: Take a picture and show me.