"Bring the slingshot down too," Jiang Cheng said.

"Okay," Gu Fei responded.

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Cheng leaned back against the lamppost, letting out a soft sigh of relief. He was in a good mood these past few days, which were an unprecedented experience for him. Standing below Gu Fei's building now, he still felt like he hadn't fully come back to his senses.

It wasn't just Gu Fei's first birthday that they would spend together, but also all the things he had done to prepare for this birthday that he would have never imagined doing before.

Puzzle beans, supposedly a children's educational toy, but Jiang Cheng felt no child would have the patience to complete a full pattern, nor would a child's hands be steady and accurate enough to neatly place each little "bean" into the mold.

Of course, it was also probably related to the fact he had never done any handiwork since he was little. In elementary school when they did handicrafts, it was just following patterns, cutting and pasting.

Anyway, when he held the tweezers and placed the beans onto the mold, he felt like his hands belonged to someone else. Putting down one bean would knock over the two next to it. The owner of the puzzle bean shop told him the pattern he picked was small and simple, it would be quick even for a beginner, just a couple hours.

A couple hours my ass!

On his first attempt, he shakily worked for nearly two hours, and overheated it when ironing so the beans were pressed into a pancake.

The second one also took over an hour, and at least three times he wanted to flip the mold and all the beans.

On the third, his speed increased quite a bit with some experience, but after ironing he discovered one of the little people was missing an eye.

"Contestant Jiang Cheng's feelings in this moment are unimaginable, but it's probably anxious yet resigned," he stared at the blind little person. "People of different trades are as disconnected as those divided by mountains and seas. For a contestant who has never undertaken such a delicate challenge... He can hit two objects less than a centimeter apart, yet is unable to... Damn it, I'm not doing this anymore!"

That's what he said, but the gift still had to be made. The birthday was right around the corner, he had to finish this gift, and after that he still had other preparations to make.

So in the end, he spent two hours and used up all the patience he had accumulated over 18 years of life on this small flat surface covered in little beads.

He finally produced a bean cake with complete features and no colour mistakes.

The only downside was in his excitement at how pleased he was with this work when ironing the beans, he grabbed the iron and burned two blisters onto his right thumb and index finger.

He soaked his hand in cold water for a bit, bandaged the wounds, and persisted in attaching the final keychain.

The gift box was a black transparent lidded tin lunchbox he had searched three gift shops to find, and lacking proper foam to pad it, he crumpled some brown packing paper to stuff inside before placing in the keychain. After closing the lid, he admired it for half a day, taking it from every angle and snapping at least ten photos before ending this task.

Next, he had to go do something embarrassing.

He couldn't go to the little black shop on the corner, he had "passed by" the door eight times in three days, and couldn't make out exactly what was being sold, but with his top student vision that wasn't nearsighted, he could see that besides the standard condoms and erectile dysfunction medicine, there were also many products with packaging that made one's thoughts run wild.

Even if they were going to do something for this birthday... For a teenager whose only knowledge came from adult videos, such high end tools weren't necessary.

So using his top student wisdom, he chose to go to an over-the-counter pharmacy, buying condoms, personal lubricant, and after using up 18 years of patience on puzzle beans, he used up 18 years of shamelessness at the pharmacy.

When he put the things on the checkout counter, the cashier had the cold, experienced expression of someone who had seen all too many things. And when she put the things into an opaque white plastic bag, he was extremely moved.  

In the days before the birthday, he and Gu Fei met up just two or three times, ate a meal, chatted a bit, then after Gu Fei left, he continued his various preparations.

Sometimes he even wondered if he was being neurotic, it was just a birthday, but his actions made it seem like he was about to blow up the earth.

While waiting for Gu Fei to come down from upstairs, he mentally reviewed what he was going to do, making sure there were no flaws before taking out a cigarette and lighting up.

Gu Fei came down quite quickly. Jiang Cheng had just made out a shadow emerging from the stairwell when Gu Fei was already in front of him. Reaching out, Gu Fei took the cigarette from his mouth, then moved in to kiss him. "Happy birthday, Brother Cheng."

At this time of night there was no one around, most of the upstairs lights were already off, but even if someone had been passing by, Jiang Cheng felt he wouldn't have cared at that moment. He reached out and hugged Gu Fei tightly, tilting his head to plant a loud smack on his face. "Happy birthday."

"Are you taking me to celebrate your birthday?" Gu Fei asked with a smile.

"Mm," Jiang Cheng let him go with a wave of his hand. "Let's go."

"Where to?" Gu Fei asked.

"A place," Jiang Cheng said, glancing at him again. "Uh, Gu Miao's asleep right?"

"She's been asleep for a while," Gu Fei's mouth quirked up at the corner. "I'll spend the night at your place tonight."

"Okay," Jiang Cheng nodded.

The two were completely serious, it felt as natural as when they normally discussed hanging out together for a bit. But in reality... Jiang Cheng snuck another glance at Gu Fei, this guy was probably thinking the same thing he was.

Simply indecent!

"Is that to give me?" Jiang Cheng noticed Gu Fei was holding a paper bag that looked rather heavy.

"Yes," Gu Fei smiled. "I'll give it to you in a bit."

"You'll only give me mine after I give you your gift?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Yup, we're exchanging," Gu Fei said.

"Fine," Jiang Cheng laughed. "Brother Cheng will take you to get your gift right now, after getting the gift we'll go back to my place to eat cake."

"You bought a cake too?" Gu Fei asked.

"Mm, I originally wanted to make a cake myself, but I'm not familiar with this area and couldn't find a DIY shop, so I just bought a small one," Jiang Cheng said. "What, did you buy one too?"

"I...made one, it's in the freezer at the shop," Gu Fei said.  

"Where did you make it?" Jiang Cheng raised an eyebrow.

"There's a baking studio behind Wang Er Xian Bing on that street," Gu Fei said, then sighed as he recalled. "I took Er Miao there to play before, she threw a tantrum and broke their scale there, I had to pay 50 yuan in compensation. A ready-made cake is only 20 yuan."

Jiang Cheng listened with mixed feelings, but after a pause he still felt like laughing.

"I..." He held it in for a long time before turning to look at Gu Fei. "I really want to laugh, do you mind?"

"...Don't mind, go ahead and laugh," Gu Fei said.

Jiang Cheng bent over laughing wildly at the ground, Gu Fei walked alongside him chuckling for a while. After they finished laughing, Gu Fei noticed they weren't on the road back to Jiang Cheng's rental.  

"Where are we going?" Gu Fei asked. "Did you get lost?"

"No," Jiang Cheng pointed ahead. "Keep going, I've been circling this area the past couple days before finding this place, flat ground, no trash, and not much foot traffic."

Gu Fei looked in the direction he was pointing.

After the steel factory shut down, there were many vacant lots and abandoned buildings in this area, but going that way, there was a market on the left and a factory daycare on the right, there really wasn't any deserted flat ground.

Jiang Cheng very resolutely led him straight ahead, taking a right turn once, then two left turns, back onto the original road to keep going forward.

Gu Fei held back from speaking out, following along for almost half an hour. He could confirm Jiang Cheng was lost, but he had a very odd way of getting lost. Whenever he took a turn out, he was able to turn back and continue forward again.

Finally, when they reached the empty yet not fully closed down market, Jiang Cheng stopped and stood there for a good ten seconds before asking: "This is the vegetable market right?"

"Yeah," Gu Fei nodded. "If you hadn't taken all those random turns, we could've been here ten minutes ago."

"Sh*t," Jiang Cheng looked all around, then spun in place twice. "F*ck?"

"You got lost right?" Gu Fei asked.

"Ah," Jiang Cheng looked at him. "You jinxed me."  

"How's it my fault?" Gu Fei said, suppressing his laughter.

"Who else!" Jiang Cheng glared at him, glared for a bit then seemed a little anxious. "I really forgot how I got there! Your gift is still hidden there! I'm just f*cking lost...I need a damn compass..."

"What kind of place was it?" Gu Fei sighed. "Describe it to me."

Jiang Cheng furrowed his brow to describe it. A rather large sandy area, some damaged sports equipment, and a half-demolished cement children's slide...

Luckily Jiang Cheng's observation skills were decent even if his sense of direction was awful. Gu Fei immediately knew where it was after hearing the description. It wasn't too far, but quite off the beaten track. One of the two daycares by the old steel factory. There was one right up ahead, and one that got torn down when the factory closed, where Jiang Cheng had found.

"Let's go, I know where it is now," Gu Fei put an arm around his shoulders. "Next time we need to go somewhere I'll lead the way okay?"

"Shut up and move your legs," Jiang Cheng said.

"But it's pretty impressive you were able to find that place," Gu Fei said. "I haven't gone over there in years."

"Actually," Jiang Cheng sighed. "I had just left that place before going to your house, I was quite impressed with myself too, my ability to get lost is probably top student-level."  

Gu Fei just smiled without responding.

After walking for over ten minutes, the buildings ahead thinned out until even the streetlights disappeared, leaving only the moon's reflection around them.

"Close your eyes," Jiang Cheng suddenly said.

"Hm?" Gu Fei hesitated for a moment before closing his eyes.

"Come on," Jiang Cheng took his hand to lead him forward.

He followed along for about a hundred meters or so before Jiang Cheng stopped. "Where's the slingshot? Keep your eyes closed."

Gu Fei kept his eyes closed as he took out the slingshot from the paper bag. Jiang Cheng took it from him and let go of his hand, his voice moving away. "Okay, open your eyes now."

Gu Fei opened his eyes.

Keeping his eyes closed for that long, seeing the patch of colorful spots of light at first made him freeze up, then he rubbed his eyes to clear the double images into proper spots of light.

"This is..." Gu Fei looked at the two twisting bands of colored spots extending about ten meters ahead.

The spots were rectangular, alternating between red, yellow, green and blue.

"Layman, if I don't tell you, you probably can't make out this is the infinity symbol right," Jiang Cheng said from beside him as he pulled back the slingshot to take aim ahead. "Follow the lights to get your gift."

The slingshot in Jiang Cheng's hand made a pop, and the yellow light at the front tipped over forward.

Then the two strings of colored lights began cascading like waves, slowly connecting into two lines spreading forward.

Although Gu Fei could already tell what kind of changes these spots of light would undergo, when this scene actually appeared before his eyes, he was still stunned.

The light in front of him stretched forward, expanding from dots to lines. In that instant, he still felt shocked.

In the deep of the night, in the slightly cool wind, the person beside him had shown him a colorful painting.

Those flickering lights gradually became blurred, gradually filling his field of vision, his eyes full of jumping, colorful rays of light.

He did not walk forward, and Jiang Cheng did not move either. The two of them just stood there in the dark night, watching this stretch of colorful light, until the colored lines in front stopped, and the continuous infinite symbols quietly spread at their feet.

"Huh?" Jiang Cheng made a sound.

"Ah?" Gu Fei was pulled back to reality by this sound, "Brother Cheng, you really..."

"Something's not right!" Jiang Cheng clicked his tongue, "It's not over yet!"

"Over what?" Gu Fei was stunned for a moment.

"The show..." Jiang Cheng ran over there, turning his head back and pointing at him as he ran, "Stand there and watch!"

"Oh." Gu Fei responded, standing still without moving.

Jiang Cheng ran over there, bent over to take a look, reached out to lift up a block of green light, pushed it down again. As the spot of light fell, a very small flame sprang up next to it, then sparks popped.

Jiang Cheng took a step back. After a burst of small sparks, something on the ground bloomed open like a flower, and a circle of small flames lit up.

"Did you hear that--", Jiang Cheng yelled from over there.

"Hear what?" Gu Fei also shouted.

"The birthday song! Can't you hear it?" Jiang Cheng continued shouting.

Gu Fei walked over. As he walked, he could hear the faint squeaking sound carried by the night wind. After listening carefully for a while, he finally recognized that it was the happy birthday song.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you...

He also saw clearly that there was an automatic birthday candle that would pop open when lit, with a few small candles that would start singing.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.

"Did you hear it?!" Jiang Cheng yelled.

"I heard it!" Gu Fei smiled and nodded vigorously.

"Come here!" Jiang Cheng beckoned.

Gu Fei walked over to him, whistling along the way to the music coming from the candle that sounded a bit like the chirping of cicadas, which made him want to laugh a little.

Happy birthday Brother Cheng.

I hope you'll always be this happy.

Happy birthday Brother Cheng.

I hope you'll always smile like a ray of sunshine.

Happy birthday Brother Cheng.

I hope when you think back on these days in the future, you'll have no regrets.

Happy birthday.

"This is for you," Jiang Cheng squatted down and pointed at the small box next to the candle, "I made it myself, see if you like it... Even if you don't like it, just pretend for me."

Gu Fei also squatted down and picked up the small box on the ground. Through the glass lid, he immediately saw what was inside at first glance - two kissing figurines.

"I like it," he smiled and opened the lid to see a very delicate keychain, "How did you make this?"

"Ironing beads," Jiang Cheng took out the keychain and put it in his hand, "Have you played with them before?"

"What happened to your hand?" Gu Fei grabbed his fingers.

"Got two blisters," Jiang Cheng clicked his tongue, "I didn't know this thing would be so annoying to make, and it's supposed to be an educational puzzle toy for kids, what kid would play with an iron?!"

Gu Fei laughed, pinching his fingers and kissing them lightly: "Thank you."

"Do you know how to use it?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"I do," Gu Fei took out his own keys from his pocket and attached the keychain to it, "I just happened to not have a keychain."

"Where's my gift?" Jiang Cheng looked at him.

"This gift..." Gu Fei put the paper bag in front of him, "I also made it myself, but it's not as exquisite as yours, mine is more wild."

Jiang Cheng felt his heart beating a little faster. His hands shook even more than when he was making the bean cake. When he reached into the paper bag to take out the item, he actually failed to grab it at once.

"F*ck, so heavy?" He was stunned for a moment, "What is it?"

"So delicate," Gu Fei said. "Weren't you quite strong when shooting three-pointers?"

"Damn," Jiang Cheng laughed and took the thing out of the paper bag. It was a flat box shaped like a pizza box. When he opened it, he was stunned for at least ten seconds, staring at it for a long time before looking up, "A maze?"

"Yeah," Gu Fei nodded. From his pocket he took out a metal ball the size of a quail egg, shining silver, and placed it on top, making a bell-like, faint sound. "This is me."

"Then what about me?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"There." Gu Fei pointed to a corner of the maze.

This was a maze made by welding together pieces of iron sheet. The bottom was a one-foot square piece of iron, and on top were passages made by welding together long and short strips of iron bars.

Jiang Cheng would never have imagined Gu Fei to have this kind of skill. Looking at the heavy maze in his hand, the delicacy that shone through the rough and wild workmanship, each corner, each joint, was polished smooth and even, it must have been carefully burnished after completion.

The little steel ball "Gu Fei" could roll around, while the little steel ball "Jiang Cheng" was fixed at the exit of the maze by some method. When the ball "Gu Fei" reached the exit, it would collide with the ball "Jiang Cheng".

"Damn, Gu Fei," Jiang Cheng looked at Gu Fei, "You can even do this?"

"Yeah," Gu Fei smiled, "I also thought for a long time about what gift to get you. In the end I thought I'd make something myself. Here, these materials and tools are easy to find..."

"Thank you." Jiang Cheng leaned his hand on Gu Fei's knee and leaned in to kiss him.

Gu Fei responded without any hesitation.

Although at this moment, he should close his eyes and enjoy this moment of silence, he couldn't bear to close his eyes. In the corner of his eye was a stretch of colorful light, and in front of him was Gu Fei's profile illuminated by the light, and eyelashes with a double shadow... Jiang Cheng tried his best to focus his eyes, but obviously it was not possible at this distance, so he gave up and looked at Gu Fei face to face.

"Are those bricks?" Gu Fei asked as the two walked back together.

"Yeah," Jiang Cheng nodded, head lowered playing with the maze, and the little steel ball inside was hollow, with some mechanism that made a very nice jingle when rolling, "There's someone building a house behind the steel plant, I went and bought them from him."

"Sprayed with fluorescent paint?" Gu Fei asked with a smile, patting him on the back.

"Yeah," Jiang Cheng followed him with lowered head, "Bought it, I wanted to buy it online at first, but was afraid it wouldn't arrive in time. In the end I ran around for several days before finding a store that sold this stuff. How is it, pretty?"

"Very pretty, very creative." Gu Fei said.

"How many routes in the maze?" Jiang Cheng asked.  

"One," Gu Fei replied, "It should be very easy for you, top student."

"That's right," Jiang Cheng held up the maze in front of his eyes, lightly shaking his hand, the little steel ball "Gu Fei" rolled through two corners with a crisp ding sound colliding with the ball "Jiang Cheng", "Smooched one."

Gu Fei laughed for a long time: "Actually, I originally picked a more advanced maze that I wanted to make, but the area wasn't big enough."

"I like this one." Jiang Cheng said.

Back at the rental apartment, it was already past two o'clock. Jiang Cheng glanced at his phone. Usually at this time he'd already be asleep, but today he didn't feel a shred of sleepiness at all, just felt wide awake and spirited.

As soon as he entered the room and put his things down, he pounced over to hug Gu Fei, passionately pushing him into the room with kisses and touches.

"Brother Cheng," Gu Fei was pushed onto the bed, smiling as he asked, "What ideas do you have in mind?"

"Wicked ideas," Jiang Cheng nuzzled at his neck, "Rogue ideas... Many, surging waves..."

"What a coincidence," Gu Fei's hand reached into his clothes, gently kneading his back, "I'm just as wicked and roguish, with surging waves too."

"Gu Fei," Jiang Cheng nibbled his neck lightly and licked the bite mark on his collarbone, "I feel that, I need to have some kind of different relationship with you, for me to really feel at ease. Otherwise I'd get jealous."

"Then let's..." Gu Fei's hand slid to his leg, "Get up to something."

"Yeah," Jiang Cheng laughed and after laughing struggled to open his mouth for quite a while, "It's just, I never asked you before... about this, do you want to... that, or... still... that?"

"What that and what that?" Gu Fei laughed.

"That is...don't fucking laugh," Jiang Cheng grabbed his waist, propped himself up to look at him, "Do you want to top me?"

Dammit!

Contestant Jiang Cheng!

Contestant Jiang Cheng's shamelessness has reached a new level!

He actually uttered such a shameless sentence!

After saying it, Jiang Cheng felt fire rush from his soles to the crown of his head, his whole body burning from his own shamelessness. Luckily there was just a dim little yellow light in the room, he had his back to it, Gu Fei probably couldn't see the color on his face.

Gu Fei was clearly stunned, taking a good while to react. He hooked the corner of his mouth: "Are you very eager to top me?"

"Ah," Jiang Cheng replied, then quickly followed up, "No, I don't really care, however you want...uh, anything's fine."

"Is that so?" Gu Fei pillowed his arm looking at him, his fingers lightly drew a line on his stomach over his clothes, "If you want, I really can cooperate..."

These words were like a ball of fire pressed right onto Jiang Cheng's face. His breathing even paused for an instant, panting for a good several seconds before he spoke again: "I was afraid of hurting you, so..."

He reached back under his own pillow and took out a piece of paper: "After all, since we were young, our education has always been to respect elders and care for children, so I, looked up some information."

"What?" Gu Fei was stunned.

Gu Fei's stunned reaction made Jiang Cheng feel a little unhappy, as if he was some starving old rogue: "Can't understand? Failing student, I looked up online specifically on how to do it to minimize pain!"

After being stunned for a moment, Gu Fei was stunned again for a while, then turned his head aside and laughed, laughing so hard he could barely stop: "Brother Cheng don't be like this, when you're like this at a time like this, I'll laugh until I go soft."

"Piss off," Jiang Cheng pinched his chin to turn his face towards himself, "Forget it if you don't want to look, do as you like."

"Can we not be so studious about this?" Gu Fei stopped laughing, staring at him, "If you love the young I want to respect elders too."

Jiang Cheng didn't speak, just stared at him too.

"So?" Gu Fei raised his arm to hook his neck.

Jiang Cheng pondered for two seconds, sat up and took off his own shirt in one move, pounced on him, grabbing his pants waist and fiercely tugging them down.

Author's note: Resting tomorrow, continuing on Friday.

Who will top and who will bottom should be clear now「_「, also, just to clarify, they switch. But knowing this doesn't quench thirst ah⊙▽⊙.

- Oh! Cheng x Fei is the combi!

- Ah ah ah! I knew my Brother Cheng would be the top!

- The Fei x Cheng fans are heartbroken...

- The Fei x Cheng fans stand with Cheng x Fei for now, but Da Fei will still be top most of the time in the future!

- I, Fei, have conceded!

- Hahaha as expected, they modestly let each other take the lead!

- Ah, they're stirring things up, stirring things up! No matter what, they've stirred things up!

...

Please feel free to add anything else! But let me just say, although I've been reading the comments, I haven't actually kept count of the Fei x Cheng and Cheng x Fei ratios. This is Brother Cheng's first time topping, that was decided beforehand, not changed intentionally ⊙▽⊙, I hope everyone can accept it ⊙▽⊙.