Qin Fang heard Xing Yan's words clearly, but felt like he might not have truly heard them. He looked at Xing Yan, the two of them gazing at each other from an extremely close distance, even able to feel each other's breath.

Qin Fang slowly raised his eyebrows, looking over with a questioning gaze.

Xing Yan lightly curled his lips, not saying anything, only leaving Qin Fang with this smile.

-- Only a few words, half true and half false.

Qin Fang became even more intoxicated.

Having had so much fun, no one wanted to leave, so they stayed there for the night. The group made merry until late at night, only dispersing to their respective rooms after 2am. After an entire evening of revelry, Qin Fang's voice was a bit hoarse.

During dinner, he had been sitting together with Xing Yan the whole time. Later when they went to sing, the two of them sat together, in the innermost spot of the sofa against the wall. Qin Fang even took a short nap, with Xing Yan always sitting beside him, creating a relatively peaceful corner for him to briefly rest.

Every time Qin Fang opened his eyes, it was Xing Yan, so whether his eyes were open or closed, it was him.

When they disbanded, Qin Fang had mostly sobered up from the alcohol, but was not yet completely clear-headed.

Hua Tong had gotten sleepy midway and slipped back to the room early to sleep. Qin Fang and Xing Yan randomly found an empty room. The two of them had stayed in one room for the summer break, so staying together now was no pressure at all.

When Qin Fang went to take a shower, Xing Yan asked him: "Can you manage by yourself?"

"I've sobered up," Qin Fang said with a laugh, "No problem."

"Then you shower." Xing Yan said, "I'll go downstairs for a bit."

After he finished speaking, he opened the door and left. Qin Fang didn't even have time to ask him what he was going to do, and didn't think too much of it.

A while later when Xing Yan returned, Qin Fang had already finished showering and was lying under the covers ready to sleep. With no pajamas to wear, Qin Fang was only wearing underwear, his upper body bare.

Xing Yan dragged over a chair, pulling it to the side of Qin Fang's bed, the chair scraping the floor and making a muffled, dull sound. Qin Fang looked at him and asked: "What are you doing?"

Xing Yan positioned the chair right up against the bed and sat down, saying to Qin Fang: "Get up."

Qin Fang was puzzled, but felt like laughing. He directly sat up with his upper body still bare. The scene was a little comical.

Xing Yan unzipped his backpack and took out a box from inside. It looked quite heavy.

Qin Fang looked at the box and asked: "What's that?"

Xing Yan casually put the backpack on the floor, the box in his hands, and said: "I haven't given you your gift yet."

Qin Fang laughed and said: "Giving it to me tomorrow is the same."

"No." Xing Yan placed his hands on the box, looking into Qin Fang's eyes and said: "It's not worth much money, but I didn't skimp on you."

After the aftereffects of dinner earlier, Qin Fang didn't quite dare to look directly into Xing Yan's eyes, didn't dare to see himself in Xing Yan's eyes again. He lowered his gaze, looking at Xing Yan's hands, and nodded: "Thanks Yan-ge, I don't need anything expensive, anything is fine."

"Mm." Xing Yan took a breath, then lightly flicked his fingers and opened the box.

Qin Fang's gaze was completely captivated, from the moment Xing Yan opened it, he didn't move his eyes away.

The item was indeed a bit heavy, Xing Yan had to hold it with both hands.

Qin Fang blinked and asked: "...What is this?"

"Twin stone." Xing Yan took the item out from inside, holding it in his two hands, placing it before Qin Fang's eyes.

"It's also..." Qin Fang's Adam's apple slid lightly, "...too beautiful."

What Xing Yan was holding in both hands, Qin Fang indeed had never seen before. It was like a stone, yet not that smooth, the surface very coarse, even with holes. At first glance it was pure blue, a blue that made one feel intoxicated with just one look. But within this pure color, there were speckles of impurities mixed in, making the pure no longer pure, making the beauty flawed.

The room's lights were already off, the only illumination in the entire room was the night light beside the bed, dim and soft. Under this kind of lighting, that kind of blue and the speckles of cyan looked even more mesmerizing, like a starry sky, like the Milky Way.

So the flaws were no longer flaws. Without the impurities it was pure blue, with the impurities it became the vast universe.

It was in the shape of a heart.

Not two rounded arcs of a love heart -- but an anatomical heart.

It rested in Xing Yan's two hands, Xing Yan's fair palms and its deep blue forming an extremely striking visual contrast, stunning to the soul.

"The blue is azurite, the cyan is malachite." Xing Yan pointed with his thumb at a cyan spot, "It can't be separated, on here the two of them can't be split apart."

"I like chemistry, chemistry is very romantic, the realm of atoms and particles in the universe, all of this is very romantic."

"Air, plants, water, even fleeting meteors, the Pharaoh's scepter, mottled city walls, from the perspective of the atomic realm, we all inherit a common atomic legacy. These atoms may come from BC, from the Jurassic period, from the era of the Big Bang." Xing Yan's eyes were still always fixed on Qin Fang's face, his gaze again beginning to hold a bewitching power.

"I won't give you a chemistry lecture, even if I did you wouldn't understand. I just want to tell you, even if atoms also disappear, also transform into other energy, I still believe it is eternal."

Xing Yan retracted his finger, loosely grasping that ore: "It takes an immensely long time for a stone to form, in a lonely and endless time, they congregate together for a long, long duration. Atoms come from the universe, find a landing point on a planet, moving, transforming, to now what you see, this supremely beautiful and romantic color."

"They traversed the long, long river of time together, to arrive here. In my hands, before your eyes."

He used his low voice to slowly say these words in the depths of night, like an ancient sorcerer chanting incantations beside one's ear, entrancing the human heart and soul.

"I ground it into this shape to give to you. What I'm giving you is a stone, and also eternal companionship and permanence in the long river of time."

Xing Yan handed it to Qin Fang, stood up, and with both hands passed it over and placed it in Qin Fang's hands, softly saying: "I believe you understand everything I said, right?"

Qin Fang received that stone -- a heart containing the universe.

Right now, he was that child whose soul had been ensnared by the sorcerer, his fingers trembling slightly, his chest heaving wanting to say something, or do something regardless of everything.

This still wasn't enough. Xing Yan bent down, his lips very, very lightly brushing Qin Fang's bare shoulder. Then his gaze stopped level with Qin Fang's, the distance between their eyes no more than ten centimeters, sharing each other's breath and heartbeats at this distance, Xing Yan softly said: "Happy birthday... I'm grateful atoms formed you."