“Hey! Bro, who were you again... You're Le... He Le...”

“He Lezhi.”

“Right! Brother Lezhi! You're Brother Yang's friend, we've met!”

“Which Yang?”

“Huanyang!”

The boy wearing a baseball cap had a huge suitcase next to him, a stack of various flyers in his hand, and a sheen of sweat on his forehead.

The sophomore across from him, wearing a white orientation T-shirt, handed him a bottle of water and shook his head with a smile, “I know Huanyang, but not that well.”

“Hmm? Not close with Huanyang?” The boy blinked, then looked as if he'd had a sudden realization, and smiled again. “I remember now, it's Xingjian! Bro, you're Xingjian's friend! We went out together for his birthday.”

The boy in the white T-shirt stood under a large sun umbrella, wearing thin-framed glasses. He smiled refreshingly and shook his head again.

“Huh?” The boy in the baseball cap was stumped. There was no embarrassment in his eyes, but rather a straightforward apology. He said with a smile, “I really remember us hanging out together.”

The senior in the white T-shirt obviously didn't mind. He walked out from behind the orientation desk, still smiling gently and kindly. He started walking and said, “I'm Fangchi and Xiao Yao's friend. Let's go, Xiao Hei.”

“Haha, right, right, right, right, it's Brother Chi and Yaoyao!” The boy in the baseball cap pulled his suitcase and stepped forward to follow. “The three of you are in the same class, I remember now.”

He Lezhi, wearing the white T-shirt, turned his head and saw a handsome, tanned face smiling, revealing a set of white teeth.

Zhou Muyao had naturally dark skin, so his friends called him Xiao Hei. After running wild outside for over two months that summer, he was tanned like a black German Shepherd. Plus, he was carrying a lot of things and sweating quite a bit, making him look slightly disheveled.

But it still couldn't hide the young man's handsome features and high spirits.

That day, He Lezhi, as a senior welcoming the new students, led Zhou Muyao across the entire campus to the dormitory building.

Zhou Muyao didn't have any parents with him. He called He Lezhi “Bro” with every other word. Coaxed by his constant “Bro” this and “Bro” that, He Lezhi ended up helping him for the better part of the day, taking him to claim his dorm, buy daily necessities, and get his campus card.

As the sun began to set and the evening glow appeared, He Lezhi took him to dinner. Zhou Muyao walked beside him, sweet-talking and chatty, making He Lezhi laugh the entire time.

After half a day together, Zhou Muyao stopped calling him “Bro” and started affectionately calling him by his name.

“Lezhi!”

He Lezhi turned his head to the side, the smile still on his face, and subconsciously looked at Zhou Muyao's raised hand.

Zhou Muyao's finger deftly tapped, and the screen froze.

The campus's tree-lined path, the white lines on the asphalt road, and half a bicycle wheel just about to intrude from the corner.

In the middle of the picture was Zhou Muyao, tilting his head close, eyes wide in a goofy expression, making a peace sign, and He Lezhi with a smile in his eyes. They were unrestrained and triumphant then, in the prime of their youth.

The old photograph was carefully kept in a frame, placed on Zhou Muyao's bedside table.

Zhou Muyao had specially printed it out after they got together, saying it was the starting point of their love. The frame had traveled with Zhou Muyao to many places: his university dorm, his master's dorm, the apartment he rented in Beijing after graduating, and finally, it was placed on the bedside table of the home he now shared with He Lezhi.

Zhou Muyao was a year and a half younger than He Lezhi, playful and boisterous, with a cheerful personality, and he never hid his affection and attachment to He Lezhi. During the winter break of his senior year, when he had been with He Lezhi for a year, his family insisted on setting him up on a date. After his refusals failed, Zhou Muyao acted on impulse and came out to his family. He was kicked out of the house by his dad, wearing just a sweater and slippers.

Zhou Muyao was stubborn too. He didn't look back and went to find He Lezhi dressed just like that.

He Lezhi was with his friends that day; they had gathered early in the morning. Zhou Muyao had originally said he would come in the afternoon, but he surprisingly showed up in the morning.

The tall young man came in from outside wearing only a sweater, stunning everyone.

Zhou Muyao looked for He Lezhi as soon as he came in. After finding him, he walked over with his lips pressed together, plopped his head onto He Lezhi's shoulder, bringing a chill with him, and said sullenly, “My dad hit me.”

He Lezhi was stunned. He asked him, “Why!”

Zhou Muyao said with a frown, “My mom insisted on introducing me to her colleague's daughter. I kept refusing to meet her, but she said she was going to have the girl over. I got angry and just said I like men.”

The surrounding friends couldn't help but widen their eyes and let out an exclamation of “Fuck.”

“Are you crazy, Xiao Hei?” Xiao Yao thought it was insane just thinking about it. “With your dad's temper?”

“I am crazy.” Zhou Muyao's head felt like it was about to explode. It was probably from the cold outside; he just felt a stabbing pain inside.

He leaned against He Lezhi dependently and said firmly in front of all their friends, “He Lezhi, I'll never let you go.”

In recent years, their friends had started to get married one after another. Aside from one couple who had been together since high school, He Lezhi and he had been together the longest.

The two of them never caused any drama over the years and rarely argued. Zhou Muyao had a childish personality, while He Lezhi was more composed but could play along with Zhou Muyao's occasional bouts of craziness.

During their time in a long-distance relationship, Zhou Muyao would throw a fit from time to time. He would occasionally get particularly dejected and say he missed He Lezhi. Although not every time, He Lezhi often squeezed out time to fly over and see him.

He Lezhi was exceptionally good to him, Zhou Muyao knew that.

Sunlight brazenly squeezed through the gap between the two curtains, a beam of light hitting the photo frame holding their picture, as well as the phone, remote control, and Zhou Muyao's face beside it.

“Ugh.” Zhou Muyao found it glaring and mumbled as he rolled over. He pressed his face into He Lezhi's pillow next to him and took a deep sniff. The pillow had He Lezhi's scent, the smell of lime-scented shampoo.

“Lezhi—” Zhou Muyao called out in a drawn-out voice while lying there.

He Lezhi answered from the study in the distance.

“What are you doing?” Zhou Muyao whined. “Come hug me.”

“Busy,” He Lezhi said.

Zhou Muyao would call out “Lezhi” every ten seconds or so. He Lezhi, whose eyes were aching from looking at blueprints on two computers, found him annoying and eventually stopped responding.

Zhou Muyao rolled off the bed. His feet landed on the floor, and he saw the photo on the bedside table, picked it up, gave it two smacking kisses, and put it back.

“Lezhi—” Zhou Muyao walked barefoot into the study, came over, and sat cross-legged on the floor by He Lezhi's leg. The tall young man looked huge even when curled up, and he rested his head against He Lezhi's leg. “Still sleepy.”

“Then go back to sleep.” He Lezhi was wearing glasses, his gaze fixed on the screen, with no time to look up.

Zhou Muyao shook his head petulantly, “I can't sleep if you're not with me. The bed is so cold.”

He Lezhi freed a hand to pat his face and said perfunctorily, “Then just sleep like this.”

It had been almost two months since Zhou Muyao transferred back from Beijing. Before, during their long-distance relationship, his emotions would often collapse, making the relationship quite painful. Now that he finally got his wish to live with He Lezhi, he was clingy every day, like a big, affectionate dog.

“Do you have to work overtime all day today? What about tomorrow?” Zhou Muyao asked plaintively.

“Definitely all day today. Tomorrow depends on the situation.” A phone vibrated nearby. He Lezhi said, “Shh.”

Zhou Muyao turned his head and pressed his mouth against He Lezhi's leg, signaling that he had shut up.

He Lezhi was on the phone for over half an hour, and his voice became hoarse. Zhou Muyao went to pour him a glass of water and held it to his lips for him to drink.

“Forget it, I'll go over on Monday. It's too much trouble to explain it like this,” He Lezhi said helplessly to the person on the phone.

Zhou Muyao's eyes widened, his expression immediately turning unwilling.

Seeing He Lezhi hang up, he immediately protested, “A business trip again!”

“I'll be back soon.” He Lezhi put down his phone and stood up to take a break.

He had eaten a slice of bread in the morning and started working overtime. Several projects had piled up recently, keeping He Lezhi so busy his tooth ached. A wisdom tooth was showing signs of inflammation from time to time, and he was thinking of getting it pulled after this busy period.

Zhou Muyao followed closely behind him, whining constantly.

He particularly hated it when He Lezhi went on business trips, and in the two months since he'd been back, He Lezhi had already been on four. The trips varied in length, and when he wasn't on a trip, he was always working overtime.

“Why don't you change jobs? What kind of crappy company is this?” Zhou Muyao said resentfully.

“It's just for this period. It'll get better after this is over.” He Lezhi smiled. “In this line of work, it's the same everywhere.”

“I've never seen you this busy before,” Zhou Muyao said with a frown, crouching next to He Lezhi.

He Lezhi patted his short hair and said, “Be good.”

He Lezhi wasn't naturally that ambitious or a workaholic. In school, getting passing grades was enough for him; he never stayed up late or got up early to study. His mother, He Qi, didn't have high expectations for him either. The mother and son's life motto was to just get by. The most hardworking periods in He Lezhi's life were before the college entrance exams and the half-year he spent studying for his certification.

He had originally resigned from a large design institute because he often had to stay up all night drawing blueprints, and he disliked some of the social rules in state-owned enterprises, so he quit just like that. While everyone else wanted to jump to bigger places, he alone took his Registered Electrical Engineer (Power Transmission) Certificate to a private design institute, precisely because it had fewer projects, and the project bonuses he earned were decent enough.

His current job involved being intensely busy for a period when there was a project, and when there wasn't, he would just review drawings every day without needing to clock in or out. It was just unfortunate that he had been busy ever since Zhou Muyao came back.

“Then can you still make it to Mingyang's wedding?” Zhou Muyao asked.

“I should be able to. I'll do my best,” He Lezhi said after thinking for a moment.

Zhou Muyao was still not very happy. He nudged his head against He Lezhi, needing to be coaxed for a long time.

“I'm supposed to play ball this afternoon, are you going?” Zhou Muyao asked.

“Overtime.” He Lezhi said with an apologetic smile. His eyes were beautiful when he smiled, always looking gentle. “You go by yourself. I'm sorry, Xiao Hei.”

Half of the sunlight filtered modestly through the sheer curtains, landing on He Lezhi's face and making him look warm and gentle.

Zhou Muyao looked at him, and the bit of moodiness he felt just now because of the overtime inexplicably dissipated. He snuggled closer, took off He Lezhi's glasses, and kissed his eyes.

“You're forgiven,” Zhou Muyao said softly, looking at him from a very close distance.

He Lezhi was already thirty years old. But time didn't seem to have left any obvious marks on him. Zhou Muyao often dreamt of their university days. He Lezhi looked just like that back then, with a small bump on the bridge of his nose, which sometimes held a pair of glasses. He rarely lost his temper and always had a smile on his face. Whenever he smiled, Zhou Muyao just wanted to hug him.

They had spent nearly eight years together. Those eight years were happy and soft, long and slow.

Zhou Muyao touched his eyelashes, then stroked the small, raised bump on the bridge of his nose, and let out a sigh of contentment.

He liked He Lezhi's eyes. He liked them with glasses, and he liked them without.

He also liked his nose, his lips, his chin.

He liked him so much.