He actually repeated what he had said to Cotton Candy last night.

Yue Zhishi felt conflicted. Was he being mocked? He must be.

But Song Yu wasn't wrong. He really wasn't someone you could stop worrying about.

Thinking of this, Yue Zhishi's expression became a little dejected. When Song Yu extended the alcohol-soaked cotton swab, he shrank back and apologized to him in a small voice, "I'm sorry."

Song Yu didn't respond to his apology. Instead, he reached out with his other hand to hold his chin. "Don't move."

The moment he said it, Yue Zhishi really didn't move. But his thoughts began to wander. He thought about how back in school, whether he won a speech competition or was knocked down playing basketball, Song Yu, who was always present, would never take the initiative to come forward. They were very serious about playing the role of strangers.

So now, Yue Zhishi was even a little grateful for the sudden asthma attack on the first day of school. It had forced them to make their complicated relationship public, making it seem perfectly open and proper for them to be seen together.

Seeing him dazed, Song Yu spoke in a seemingly casual tone, "Was it tasty?"

Yue Zhishi pulled himself out of his thoughts. After hearing this, he was absolutely certain that Song Yu was mocking him now.

"I sucked it in by accident." He frowned.

This scene reminded Song Yu of the time they went to the dentist together as children. Yue Zhishi had eaten so much candy he had a mouthful of cavities. Lin Rong took them to the dentist's clinic, and the moment Yue Zhishi heard the sound of the drill, he opened his mouth and wailed, grabbing Song Yu's hand and refusing to let go.

Song Yu continued wiping, his tone unhurried. "What flavor?"

"Honeydew melon flavor." Yue Zhishi described truthfully. "It was sweet at first, but then it became a bit nauseating, like fever-reducing syrup."

Incredible, to be able to describe it in such detail.

After speaking, Yue Zhishi spat a little out and wrapped it in a piece of paper. "Could it be because the person who made the pen refill guessed someone would suck on it, so they deliberately made it sweet?"

Song Yu glanced at him. "If I had let you know earlier that pen refills were sweet, would you not have had to go to the dentist? Eating this as candy wouldn't give you cavities either.

He was being teased again, but Yue Zhishi completely missed the point. "Did I go to the dentist when I was little?"

Incredible. How could he forget after crying like that? Shouldn't that be something one remembers for a lifetime?

"Your childhood memories are really blurry," Song Yu said.

Yue Zhishi was noncommittal about this. He gripped Song Yu's wrist, his voice muffled by the saliva in his mouth. "So what? You remember everything, don't you?"

"Besides, my childhood is your childhood."

Song Yu was slightly stunned.

Yue Zhishi didn't think he had said anything important. His feet were still moving, his whole body restless. Song Yu fell silent again, pressed down on his fidgeting knee with a hand, and meticulously wiped the ink staining the gaps between his teeth with the damp cotton swab.

With his knee held down, Yue Zhishi lowered his head and glimpsed Song Yu's bare wrist. The watch he had given him wasn't there.

"You're not wearing the watch?"

Song Yu didn't answer immediately. Yue Zhishi asked again, "Why aren't you wearing it?"

This manner of questioning, so righteous and insistent, couldn't help but remind Song Yu of the first time Yue Zhishi had given him this watch. When he was rejected, he had asked him with the same direct expression.

"Why don't you want it?"

"Brother Xiao Yu, don't you like it?"

Yue Zhishi was even more naive as a child. He held the watch's gift box, glanced at it himself, and seemed quite satisfied. Then he looked up and asked him, "Isn't it nice? I asked the lady at the counter to help me pick it out. She promised me you would definitely like it."

It wasn't that Song Yu disliked it, but he knew that this sum of money was very substantial for an elementary school student. He could have used it to buy many things for himself; there was no need to spend it on a watch for someone else. At the same time, he also knew very well that it was useless to tell Yue Zhishi this. He was a silly and stubborn kid.

So he decided to speak directly with the saleslady.

"Hello, I'd like to make a return. I haven't used this watch, and the packaging and receipt are all here. According to the mall's policy, it should be returnable."

A cute, mixed-race child coming to buy a watch by himself had already left a deep impression on the saleslady. Now, his older brother was here to return it with a maturity that surpassed his peers. It was hard not to find it peculiar.

"Yes, you can." The saleslady maintained her smile. "Please show me..."

But Yue Zhishi, in front of the counter, shouted "No!" and then plopped down on the floor, clinging tightly to Song Yu's leg, crying and begging him. At first, Song Yu remained impartial, taking out the receipt he had already put away and handing it to the saleslady. But Yue Zhishi was crying so miserably that even the saleslady couldn't help but persuade him, "Why don't you have a good talk with your little brother first?"

Song Yu thought for a moment and finally squatted down, took a pack of tissues from his schoolbag, and stuffed it into his hand. "What are you crying about?"

"Y-you don't want my gift." Yue Zhishi sobbed, growing more and more aggrieved as he spoke. "I haven't even finished saying happy birthday, and y-you..."

Seeing that he was about to start crying again, Song Yu immediately said, "It's not that I don't want your gift."

Yue Zhishi choked up at once, his big eyes brimming with tears as he listened to him speak.

"It's that this gift is too expensive. This kind of spending is irrational."

Perhaps one day he would look back and regret the first major expense of his life.

The tear that had been welling up finally plopped down. Yue Zhishi wiped it with the back of his hand. "But I looked at it for a long time. It's not like I don't know anything. You all think I don't understand."

Hearing this, the saleslady standing to the side couldn't help but speak up. "It's true. The first day the little brother came, I also thought he was just playing around. But he came three times in a row, spent a long time choosing, and only paid on the last day."

When he took the money out of his schoolbag, he counted it carefully three times.

The saleslady looked at Song Yu. "He was very careful."

Song Yu fell silent. He could never bring himself to watch Yue Zhishi cry his eyes out while stubbornly making what he believed was the right decision. So, he didn't return it for the time being. Yue Zhishi took this as his willingness to accept the gift and went home with him, content.

That night in his room, Song Yu sat at his desk. Under the desk lamp, the watch face glowed with a soft luster. He held the price tag and studied it for a long time, preparing to return it by himself the next day.

Before bed, he wanted to get a glass of water. Halfway downstairs, Song Yu saw Yue Zhishi nestled in his mother's arms watching cartoons, a lollipop in his mouth. He pointed at a "Little Genius" watch commercial on TV. "That little watch isn't as nice as the one I gave my brother, right, Auntie Rong?"

"Of course not. The one you bought is the most beautiful. Ten of these couldn't compare." Lin Rong stroked his head and asked, "Lele, why did you want to buy your brother a watch?"

Song Yu stopped in his tracks.

Yue Zhishi took the candy out of his mouth, his tone very serious, like a little adult. "We used to be together every day. I could just go down two floors to find my brother to play. Now that my brother is in junior high and at a different school, I miss him a lot, so I'm letting my little watch go accompany him." He held up his own empty wrist, his voice filled with a smile. "When Brother Xiao Yu looks at the time, he'll think of me."

"Our Lele is so smart."

He had never imagined that behind those loud wails lay such sentiments. Song Yu silently turned back, sat down, and put the watch on himself.

He was clearly always the one who acted indifferent, yet every second of their childhood was etched into his mind. When asked, only he still remembered.

Song Yu could no longer tell, between him and Yue Zhishi, who needed whose company more.

Lost in his memories, Song Yu was a bit distracted. The cotton swab accidentally brushed against Yue Zhishi's gums, making him frown and shrink back instinctively. Song Yu came back to his senses and once again held his chin, pulling him forward. Yue Zhishi didn't dare to move, like a lamb to the slaughter. Just before his doom, he repeated his question one more time: "Why aren't you wearing it?"

"You ask too many questions," Song Yu said.

If you had answered me from the start, there would only be one question, Yue Zhishi said to himself.

Song Yu's expression was excessively calm, his gaze fixed on a single point. This reminded him of a horror movie he had seen before, where the cannibal was just this elegant.

No, this analogy is too weird. Yue Zhishi mentally forced his imagination to a halt and simply closed his eyes as well.

The loss of sight led to the enhancement of his other senses.

He could clearly feel the touch of the damp cotton swab brushing past bit by bit—very light, a little itchy. The evaporating alcohol brought a cool sensation. Perhaps it was because he knew clearly that the person sitting across from him wasn't a doctor that Yue Zhishi felt it was different.

They were very close. He could smell the scent of lemon laundry detergent wafting from Song Yu's collar, the same as his own, which made him feel reassured subconsciously.

But the smell of alcohol was really unpleasant. Yue Zhishi kept his mouth open, and the saliva that had been stimulated to accumulate in his mouth mixed with the rubbing alcohol.

So bitter.

The movement of Song Yu's hand suddenly stopped.

With his eyes closed, Yue Zhishi obediently waited for him to continue. But after waiting for a while with no movement, he opened his eyes in confusion and called out "Brother," his voice muffled and questioning.

Song Yu pushed the alcohol and cotton swabs into his hand and stood up. "There's a mirror over there. Face it and wipe it clean yourself."

Yue Zhishi grabbed some paper, spat out the bitter saliva in his mouth, and said, "Oh." He knew this was indeed a troublesome matter; he should have done it himself sooner.

Taking the tools to the mirror stuck on the wall by the window, Yue Zhishi observed for a moment and found that it was actually almost clean.

How magical. So even such stubborn ink could be dissolved.

Yue Zhishi was a child who couldn't hide his emotions. His admiration for Song Yu was always fully displayed on his face.

"That's amazing. I often get marks from pen refills on my school uniform. Can I also use alcohol to wipe them off?" He turned to look at Song Yu, looking as if he had discovered a new continent.

Song Yu's right hand was originally resting on his left wrist. The moment Yue Zhishi turned around, he moved it away, grunted in affirmation, and turned to leave first. "I'm going."

"Hey... wait for me." Yue Zhishi wanted to go with Song Yu, but after glancing at the used items, he hesitated for a moment. He still turned back to clean up, and by the time he went out again, Song Yu had already walked far ahead.

Gazing at his back, Yue Zhishi felt a little disappointed.

He touched his chin, then pinched it, and finally kicked a small pebble, his steps heavy. He didn't go straight back to the field but instead turned and went to the small supermarket in the cafeteria and bought a bottle of Yakult.

The alcohol was really too bitter.

Yue Zhishi stood in the open space in front of the small supermarket, holding the small bottle in his hand. He tilted his head back and took a big gulp, with the air of an adult making a toast. He drank it too fast, as if he hadn't drunk anything at all, so he turned back and bought another bottle. He stuck a straw in it and walked toward the field while sipping.

When he got back, he found that Jiang Yufan wasn't playing basketball as he had imagined. Instead, he was looking around everywhere. Just as their eyes met, Yue Zhishi, holding the small milk bottle, tilted his head and widened his eyes, indicating that he saw him too.

Jiang Yufan immediately ran over, looking very anxious. He mysteriously put an arm around him. "I've been looking for you for ages. Are you okay?"

Yue Zhishi, biting his straw, shook his head. He felt Jiang Yufan's expression was very strange, so he released the straw from his teeth. "Why do you ask?"

Jiang Yufan glanced elsewhere. "Just now, the girls from our class said they saw Song Yu drag you aside to beat you up. They described it very vividly."

Beat me up?

Before Yue Zhishi could react, Jiang Yufan reached out to pry his mouth open. "They said he beat you until your mouth bled. Let me see? You didn't lose any teeth, did you?"

What? Yue Zhishi struggled out of his hands and slurped up the last bit of Yakult. "I didn't get beaten up by him."

Bleeding? A flash of inspiration hit Yue Zhishi. He remembered that when they were pulling at each other on the field just now, his mouth seemed to be open. The girls who saw it had most likely mistaken the red ink in his mouth for blood.

Their ability to jump to conclusions is way too strong.

"I'm fine. How could my brother hit me? They must have been mistaken." Yue Zhishi was afraid that Jiang Yufan would continue to gossip and bring up the embarrassing incident of him sucking on ink, so he quickly changed the subject. "Are we still playing ball? Let's play together."

"That's good. I knew it couldn't be true." Jiang Yufan was relieved. He shouted to the boys from their class not far away, "You guys wanna play ball?!"

"Yeah, yeah, three-on-three." A male classmate waved at Yue Zhishi. "Lele, hurry up and come!"

Yue Zhishi tossed the small Yakult bottle into the trash can. He said, "I'll drag you guys down," but still ran over happily.

"No, you won't! What drag?"

"Are we making teams? I'm with Lele!"

"Lele, I'll carry you!"

The youthful energy of the fourteen and fifteen-year-old boys was like soda bursting through a bottle cap, rushing upwards, unable to be contained. More than ten meters away, Qin Yan, who had a bad cold, sneezed, rubbed his nose with a smile, and looked over with a sigh. "Your family's Lele is really the group's favorite."

The basketball went through the hoop.

Song Yu landed on the balls of his feet and lowered the hand he had raised for the shot. His gaze swept over the noisy area, finally landing back on Qin Yan. His tone was not very polite. "You talk too much."

"Yo, who pissed you off?" Qin Yan cheekily hooked an arm around his neck. "It couldn't be Lele, could it?"

"Give me the watch," Song Yu said.

Qin Yan looked baffled. "Didn't you tell me to hold it for you?" He took it out of his pocket and handed it to him. "I was wondering, you take it off every time you play ball. I thought it must be some big-name luxury watch, but it's just alright. Who gave it to you? You treasure it so much."

"A treasure gave it to me." Song Yu, with a deadpan face, took the watch and put it on.

Qin Yan burst out laughing. "Little Song, you're hilarious!"