Cheng Shuo was eating barbecue and sent a message to Cen Zeng, saying he was done on his end and asking if he wanted him to come pick him up on the way. Anyway, it was just a matter of adding a stop to his taxi ride.

The person on the other end typed, saying it wasn't necessary.

Cen Zeng was just that kind of person, so Cheng Shuo didn't say any more.

Only after getting home, he couldn't help but ask one more question, "So late?"

Cen Zeng nodded, calmly chewing on toast.

"If I had known, I would have packed some late-night snacks for you. The chicken cartilage and squid from that place were really good."

"Is that so?" Cen Zeng replied, "That's nice."

He wasn't quite sure what Cen Zeng meant by 'that's nice.'

If only he were just trying to pursue Cen Zeng. When pursuing someone, you can shower them with concern, be incredibly dramatic, and rush to their side. You can say, "Tell me whatever grievances you have, I can't bear to see you wronged."

Not like this, being choked up by a single sentence.

In the end, he could only give a cowardly smile and say, "Um, so how long will you be busy?"

"Just for these two days," Cen Zeng said. "I'll make more food on the weekend. If you're tired of eating out, you can have what I make."

He thought for a moment, then surprisingly added, "If you want."

'How could I not want?' Cheng Shuo, in the end, only dared to feign indifference and reply, "Then I'll have to trouble you."

Cen Zeng nodded.

Zheng Yi moved quickly. He and the Senior Sister got in touch the very next day.

He followed the persona Zheng Yi had given him, pretending to have a friend who was about to choose their specialization, and asking questions on behalf of this shy and quiet "friend."

After chatting casually for a few days, Cheng Shuo learned about all the majors in the School of Medicine.

The topics were nearly exhausted, but they still hadn't talked about her. She was enthusiastic enough, kind enough, but also extremely restrained.

On the other end, he was considering how to ask in a natural way.

Then, after a few lulls in the conversation, she surprisingly asked very directly one day, "Is it because Zheng Yi is worried about me that she's being so roundabout, asking her friend to inquire?"

"And you said it's for a junior who's about to choose a specialization, wanting to ask about the Clinical Medicine advisors..." she typed. "You didn't even check, the timing doesn't even line up."

Looking at this line of text, Cheng Shuo almost laughed out loud again.

"Yeah," he went along with it. "If Zheng Yi knew, she'd scold me for not acting well enough."

"She... sigh..."

The Senior Sister's unspoken words were contained in that ellipsis.

"Then, Senior Sister, are you willing to talk to me? If you feel it's inconvenient for me to hear, you can just tell Zheng Yi directly."

The "typing..." indicator on the other end stayed on for a long time.

"Let's talk then..." she finally replied. "Making a junior worry about me... being a Senior Sister to this extent is really quite laughable."

"Is everyone like this?" Perhaps it was because the Senior Sister was genuinely too friendly that he found himself blurting out what was on his mind.

"What do you mean?"

"It's always hard to speak your true feelings to the people you're closer to."

"Junior Brother, you've been acting with me for so many days. You must have someone you care about too, right?"

She was so sharp. He was at a loss and let out a laugh, staring at the line of text for a long time. 'Someone I care about?' He didn't even know himself. He just couldn't stop.

Finally, he typed, "Yeah, sorry, I don't dare tell you who it is."

She replied, "It's okay, everyone is like this."

They arranged to meet a day later. The Senior Sister said she was really busy, so she'd have to trouble him to accommodate her schedule.

"Is a coffee shop near the hospital okay? It might have to be in the evening, during a half-hour break."

Such a good, gentle person. Cheng Shuo sighed and typed his reply, "No problem. I'm already very grateful that you're willing to talk to me."

He turned around, and the gradually brightening sunlight from outside the floor-to-ceiling window fell on his forehead.

Cen Zeng, who had been busy for a few days, rarely initiated a message. He said he was free today and asked what he wanted to eat.

"Can we have hotpot today?" Cheng Shuo asked. "I'm craving it."

Hotpot was simple, no need for laborious cooking. Just buy the ingredients from the supermarket and boil them. Plus, he could invite some people over.

He wanted to, just a little, bring some liveliness to Cen Zeng.

"Just the two of us?"

"Four people." He planned to invite both Chen Ziheng and Zhang Yijie to his place.

"Then you guys go ahead, I'll go to the library."

"You're not coming?" Cheng Shuo furiously typed. "The four people includes you. I originally thought just the two of us would be fine, but for hotpot, it's livelier with two more people. Not many people can come to my place anyway, they're all people we know, you don't have to talk much."

In his fuzzy memory, the last time he had asked Cen Zeng to the bar, he was already half-drunk and had forgotten what he said.

But he could imagine it even with his eyes closed—Cen Zeng wouldn't say a thing.

He sent the message in a hurry, then had a bad feeling about it.

Cen Zeng was silent for a long time on the other end, finally asking, "Do you have a pot at home?"

He actually agreed.

So he went to invite Chen Ziheng and Zhang Yijie to his place to have hotpot with Cen Zeng.

His childhood friend teased, "What are you up to now?"

He said, "I'm introducing you to a friend."

Zhang Yijie sent a string of question marks in reply.

Chen Ziheng, however, replied briskly, "A good meal is hotpot?"

"Come if you want, if not, get lost."

Chen Ziheng sent him a food list.

"What for?" He clicked open the long list in the screenshot.

"The things I like to eat. Remember to buy them."

He picked up Cen Zeng to go grocery shopping. Zhang Yijie preferred strong flavors, so Cheng Shuo decided on a yuanyang pot.

On the way back, he wanted to speak up several times, but looking at his beautiful face, he couldn't say anything.

"What did you want to say?" It was Cen Zeng who asked him instead.

"The two friends tonight are people I've known for a long time..." Cheng Shuo explained. "We grew up together. One is my idiot childhood friend, you've seen him before, he comes to my place sometimes. The other is a pretentious top student, so."

He paused, "Don't feel constrained. If you don't want to talk, then don't. They won't mind."

Cen Zeng nodded and said, "I feel like you're the one who's more constrained."

Caught off guard by the sudden joke, Cheng Shuo almost didn't react. Finally, he blinked his eyes, "Is that so?"

Then Chen Ziheng finally met Cen Zeng in person, not through an ID photo or a posthumous portrait.

He was stunned for a few seconds. After greeting him, he shot Cheng Shuo a fierce glare from a blind spot.

'Damn, I completely forgot.' As Xing Ji's best friend, Chen Ziheng would of course be like him, a little dazed upon first glance.

Fortunately, this guy had always been good at pretending. Throughout the meal, he and Zhang Yijie listened to the two top students discussing their respective majors, talking calmly, and then frantically fighting over the last piece of yellow throat in the spicy pot.

Zhang Yijie's function of livening up the atmosphere wasn't used at all. Chen Ziheng and Cen Zeng could surprisingly be considered to be having a pleasant conversation, although they didn't talk much. They had already gotten to the topic of how competitive their respective majors were. They even exchanged WeChat contacts.

Before leaving, Chen Ziheng pulled Cheng Shuo aside, insisting that he see him off.

Zhang Yijie slipped away quickly, giving him an 'you're on your own' look, and swaggered off.

They got into Chen Ziheng's car. The man asked him, "What the hell are you doing? Are you crazy? Is something wrong with you?"

"It's not what you think."

"Are you out of your mind?" Chen Ziheng asked him. "Cen Zeng is already under a lot of pressure. According to you, he doesn't have many friends, maybe just you. When he finds out he looks like Xing Ji, how do you expect him to view your relationship? Do you think he'll still be willing to accept our help?"

For some reason, for the first time, being scolded actually made him want to laugh.

"I already told you it's not like that," Cheng Shuo replied. "The first time we met, I told him he looked like my White Moonlight and asked if he wanted to have a situationship. He knows."

"You're seriously sick."

"We're not fuck buddies anymore. And now I don't even think they look alike," Cheng Shuo answered. "If you hadn't glared at me, I would've forgotten all about it."

"Then what's your motive for helping him?" Chen Ziheng asked. "Won't he misunderstand?"

He couldn't very well say it was because Cen Zeng had first died at his house, and then died at school.

But there were other reasons, of course there were other reasons.

"Because I think he deserves it, is that not okay?" Cheng Shuo replied. "I can't stand to watch it, I don't think he should suffer like this, is that not okay?"

Chen Ziheng was completely speechless in the face of someone like Cheng Shuo. Yet, the person opposite him showed no shame at all, so self-righteous you'd think he was running for office.

"You're insane."

"Mhm..." Cheng Shuo accepted it calmly. "And then what?"

"You want to be scolded some more? Are you really a masochist?"

"I mean, and then what? Did you get any new, useful information out of him?"

"I don't want to talk to you."

"Mhm..." Cheng Shuo replied. "Then you should talk more with Cen Zeng. I see you two get along quite well."

"I get along with all normal people."

"Then I'm counting on you," Cheng Shuo said. "Good luck."

"Go find a grave and bury yourself in it."

With nothing more to say to each other, Chen Ziheng cursed and told Cheng Shuo to get out of the car. So he casually pressed the elevator button to go home.

Cen Zeng was cleaning the dining table. When he saw him, he asked calmly, "Does Chen Ziheng know your White Moonlight?"

People really are strange. Facing Chen Ziheng, he felt he had done nothing wrong. But looking at Cen Zeng, he was suddenly speechless.

"Oh..." he stood frozen, swallowing hard. "You two don't even look that much alike. He's just overreacting."

Cen Zeng wasn't Chen Ziheng. He always let him off the hook, and this time was no exception. He nodded, turned around, and continued wiping the table.