He Lezhi said speechlessly, "If we two weren't sober, who would pay the bill? Who would take you all home instead of letting you sleep on the street?"

"We can pay," Xiao Yao disagreed. "Besides, we don't drink that much! We can still find our way home."

"Yes, yes, yes, you're amazing," He Lezhi said.

Han Fangchi came back with two beer mugs, opened two bottles of beer and poured them into the mugs; you couldn't just drink it in small sips.

"Can't you get one for me too?" Xiao Yao looked at his own bottle and asked them, "Can you two stop with this exclusionary act?"

"There are no more, only two in the house." Han Fangchi picked up the large bowl of watermelon from the table. There were two pieces left, which he speared with a fork and ate. He gave the bowl to Xiao Yao. "You use this to drink."

Xiao Yao looked at him, confused. "Even if I have to use a big bowl, couldn't you get me a clean one?"

Han Fangchi said, "I'd have to wash it."

"Your hospitality is really something else," Xiao Yao praised sarcastically.

Usually, when it was just Han Fangchi, He Lezhi's feelings weren't so obvious, because neither of them talked much or fooled around. Now, with the addition of the exceptionally lively Xiao Yao, who never stopped running his mouth, with the three of them together, He Lezhi clearly felt a dazed sense of familiarity, and an indescribable sense of belonging.

It was as if this was how it was always meant to be, and everything had fallen back into place.

Before they knew it, they had all had a bit too much to drink. When drunk, they were no longer the men in their early thirties they were now, but the twenty-year-olds, the fifteen and sixteen-year-olds they used to be.

After drinking, their conversations no longer deliberately avoided certain topics like at the beginning; their words lost all sense of propriety. Even though Xiao Yao hadn't intended to bring him up, once his thoughts became muddled, Zhou Muyao was, after all, an unavoidable presence among them. No matter what they reminisced about, he was stuck in the middle.

Xiao Yao began to mention Zhou Muyao frequently. He Lezhi didn't stop him, nor did he avoid the topic of Zhou Muyao. A hazy light began to swirl in He Lezhi's eyes. He looked a bit sluggish, as if he couldn't quite grasp the situation.

"I haven't really dared to see you for the past six months or so, as if I was the one who did the dirty deed." Xiao Yao frowned, looking quite conflicted. "I didn't know what I should do. This wasn't right, and that wasn't right either."

He Lezhi smiled faintly and said, "It must have been hard on you."

"And what the hell was he thinking, telling me of all people? He made me into a bad guy no matter what I did, and I became the one with a guilty conscience." Xiao Yao nudged He Lezhi's arm and said pitifully, "You don't blame me, do you, Lezhi?"

"I don't blame you," He Lezhi said.

As Xiao Yao spoke, he turned to Han Fangchi, his face full of resentment. "Why didn't he tell you? He only dared to tell me."

Han Fangchi didn't participate in this topic and remained silent.

"You didn't know, so you had the confidence to be the good guy. You two hang out together, without me, leaving me as the big bad guy." Xiao Yao pouted.

"That's enough," He Lezhi said with a smile, pushing him lightly. "Don't take it out on Fangchi."

"Ahhh, here we go again!" Xiao Yao said, exasperated. "I'm so speechless. You two will be like this for a lifetime!"

He Lezhi's reaction was slow, and for a moment he didn't understand what he was saying.

Xiao Yao mumbled to himself for a while, then the topic shifted back to Zhou Muyao. He said with a frown, "I get annoyed just looking at him. He's the one who messed around, but he acts pitiful all day long!"

He Lezhi glanced back. Han Fangchi asked him, "Cold?"

"A little," He Lezhi said.

Han Fangchi stood up to close the window and, while he was at it, cut up some fruit and brought it over.

Xiao Yao was still talking. "Everyone knows eight years is a long time, so what the fuck was he thinking back then?"

As Han Fangchi put the fruit down, he pressed his other hand on Xiao Yao's head. Xiao Yao didn't understand and looked up. "Huh?"

Han Fangchi shot him a look and returned to his seat across from them.

He Lezhi never brought these things up with others; he hated discussing his private affairs. But perhaps because he was so familiar with the two people in front of him, that faint sense of intimacy and belonging made He Lezhi lower his defenses and, for once, reveal a bit of his "true self."

"Who wasn't it eight years for?" He Lezhi blinked and said slowly, "Wasn't it eight years for me too?"

"Exactly," Xiao Yao scoffed. "Eight worthless years."

He Lezhi waved his hand and said vaguely, "They were still pretty valuable."

He Lezhi and Zhou Muyao's separation hadn't gone through a process of wearing down. For He Lezhi, it was a sudden break, like a bolt from the blue. From the moment he found out to their breakup, it took less than a day and a night. So, ignoring that final day of separation, the time they spent together before that was, for him, complete and happy. The existence of those eight years was innocent.

"Can you two still get back together?" Xiao Yao asked directly.

He Lezhi shook his head lightly and said, "No, we can't."

"I knew it," Xiao Yao said. "I've told him a hundred times."

Xiao Yao propped his cheek on his arm, looking at He Lezhi. "It makes me sad to see it too, but he deserves it. Who told him to be such an asshole? He fucking deserved it all."

Later, the conversation turned to Zhou Muyao's job transfer. He was seconded to another company and might stay there permanently, even getting a small promotion.

He Lezhi nodded and said, "He can do it."

Xiao Yao then mentioned that Zhou Muyao was living quite close to him now, and they would sometimes run into each other on the way to work in the morning. Then he asked He Lezhi where he was living now.

He Lezhi said self-deprecatingly, "Of no fixed abode."

"Huh?" Xiao Yao looked at him.

"I haven't found a place yet," He Lezhi explained.

Xiao Yao said as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "Just live here at Fangchi's place. It's so close to your work."

He Lezhi hadn't expected him to say something like that and shook his head with a smile.

Xiao Yao didn't know that this was the reason for today's meal. He asked, "What's wrong? What are you smiling about? Isn't it perfect?"

He Lezhi gestured to him. "Shh."

"What's there to shush about? Or I could move in too, and the three of us could live together," Xiao Yao said with a straight face, followed by a "hehe."

Han Fangchi hadn't expressed an opinion on this, simply watching the two of them in silence.

He Lezhi shook his head and said, "No, no."

"You're really stubborn. That annoying sense of distance," Xiao Yao said.

He Lezhi's eyes widened as he looked at him. He asked with a bit of surprise, "I'm annoying? I have a sense of distance?"

"It's you, who else could it be," Xiao Yao told him. "You're not cute at all like you used to be."

He Lezhi was baffled by what he said and gave a laugh of exasperation. "Xiao Hei has no sense of distance. He's cute. Go play with him."

He looked at the two of them, looking at Han Fangchi, then at Xiao Yao, and said with a laugh, "One of you is his brother, the other is his good buddy. The moment he cries, you'll both take his side. Then I won't even have a place to run to."

"Hey, I—" Xiao Yao was about to retort but was interrupted.

Han Fangchi, who had been silent across from them, suddenly threw a lychee over. It hit He Lezhi on the forehead with a soft thud. He had been drinking, after all, so he wasn't acting like his usual self.

"I've been putting up with you for a long time, He Lezhi."

He Lezhi was dazed from being hit. He fumbled to catch the lychee and stared dumbly at Han Fangchi.

"Did fucking dating make you stupid? You love-sick fool." Han Fangchi stared at He Lezhi, his expression clearly that of his teenage self, frowning and looking fierce. He had rarely cursed before.

He Lezhi's eyes widened. "Han Fangchi, did you hit me?"

"I did hit you." Han Fangchi's expression looked angry, but also like he had reached his limit.

"He Lezhi, have you forgotten?"

He frowned, staring straight at He Lezhi, enunciating every word clearly: "I was the one who met you first."