Just as Jiang Cheng was about to reach down into Gu Fei's pants, Gu Fei's mom suddenly called from outside: "Da Fei, I'm going out!"

The door had already been closed by Gu Fei, but he still jerked his hand back in fright, nearly slapping himself in the face.

Gu Fei didn't respond, or go open the door, but directly flipped the curtains open.  

The window in the back room faced the street. As soon as the curtain was opened, Jiang Cheng saw a motorcycle parked at the door, and Gu Fei's mom in an instant had already jumped onto the back seat, putting her arms around the driver's waist, and the bike immediately sped off.

Although it was very quick, Jiang Cheng still clearly saw that the one driving the motorcycle had shaved his hair on both sides, leaving a strip down the middle which was grown quite long, tied in a ponytail at the back of his head.

"Is this...your mom's new boyfriend?" Jiang Cheng was a little surprised.  

"Yeah," Gu Fei let down the curtains, "She's lucky, after all these years she hasn't been sold off to the mountains, probably because she's over the required age."

This made Jiang Cheng want to laugh a little, but then he felt a little depressed. Looking at Gu Fei's profile, he could almost empathize with Gu Fei's current mood.

Perhaps he could also empathize with some of his long-term emotions.

Jiang Cheng's phone was ringing, and it took him a long time to take out his phone and glance at it.

Wang Xu.

"Hello?" Jiang Cheng answered the call.

"Jiang Cheng!" An excited voice came from Wang Xu's side, "Look at me, what do you think?"

Jiang Cheng was confused by this abrupt question, and after a pause, answered sincerely: "Not great."

"Fuck, don't be like this!" Wang Xu was a little anxious, "I play the guitar pretty well! If you don't believe me, let me play you a piece......wait, let me get my guitar..."

"No need, no need," Jiang Cheng finally realized what Wang Xu was talking about. He glanced at Gu Fei and said, "Go if you want to go."

"You don't need to consider our friendship either, I'll send you a video later," Wang Xu said solemnly, "Listen to my skill level first!"

"...Okay." Jiang Cheng responded.

"Oh," Wang Xu lowered his voice again, "What song should we do?"

"Let's talk about it at school tomorrow," Jiang Cheng said, "I haven't decided yet."

"Alright, listen to my skill level first!" Wang Xu said, "But I have a suggestion, let's not do songs that are too mainstream, it's meaningless. Anyway you're awesome at the piano, just pick something no one has heard before..."

"Let's talk tomorrow." Jiang Cheng hung up the phone.

He didn't know why, but even though Gu Fei didn't want to participate, he didn't want to discuss it in front of Gu Fei.

After all, this was something he had originally wanted to do with Gu Fei, and now not only were they not doing it together, Wang Xu was wedged in between them, which left a bad taste in his mouth.

"Are you...going to perform with Wang Xu?" Gu Fei asked.

"Ah, yes," Jiang Cheng said, "You did say he can play the guitar, right?"

"He can," Gu Fei nodded, "But you'll have to transcribe the sheet music for him, he can only play by following."

"Oh." Jiang Cheng responded.

Gu Fei's words made him even more upset. If he worked with Wang Xu, the guitar part would probably just be some chords. But if it were Gu Fei...with Gu Fei's ability to compose music...

Gu Fei's songs.

Gu Fei's songs?

Jiang Cheng felt like his eyes definitely lit up for a moment, maybe a light bulb even popped up next to his head.

He looked up at Gu Fei and smiled.

"Hm?" Gu Fei looked at him.

"Let's cook some frozen dumplings to eat, I have to go back and do homework after eating." Jiang Cheng said.

"Okay," Gu Fei said as he opened the door to go out, "What filling do you want?"

"Fennel." Jiang Cheng said.

"Don't have any." Gu Fei stopped.

"Then..." Jiang Cheng thought about switching to another flavor.

"I'll go buy some," Gu Fei said, "The market has them, wait for me for a bit."

Jiang Cheng was about to say don't bother running around, but Gu Fei had already gone out the door.

Tsk.

He got up and went to the door to take a look. Gu Fei was already riding his bike towards the market. He raised his arm to stretch lazily, then sat down behind the cash register, tsk tsk tsk.

Just as he sat down, a message from Wang Xu came through, it was a short video.

It showed a very serious looking Wang Xu playing the guitar.

Before he even opened it, Wang Xu sent a few more short videos over.

-Here's some I recorded before, have a listen!

Jiang Cheng smiled and opened the video.

He was a little surprised that Wang Xu's skill level was decent. He didn't know how it compared to Gu Fei's...Gu Fei was probably better since he had been in a band and composed songs before, but he refused to participate now so there was no point in comparison. Among people who played guitar to pick up girls, Wang Xu was above average.

The video had both singing and instrumentals. The singing wasn't great, but the guitar playing was good.

Gu Fei rode his bike swiftly all the way to the market, bought dumplings, then swiftly rode back to the shop.

Jiang Cheng hadn't actually insisted on fennel filling. But he still wanted to make a trip.

He didn't want to participate in the show, Jiang Cheng hadn't said another word about it, and hadn't brought it up with him proactively these past few days either. He couldn't quite guess what Jiang Cheng was thinking, but Jiang Cheng definitely wasn't very happy about it in his heart.

In this case, nevermind going to buy some dumplings, even if Jiang Cheng wanted to eat barbecue from the mall's food court, he would go buy it without any hesitation.

He had no way to explain himself clearly, he could only try his best to keep Jiang Cheng in a good mood.

He could guess Jiang Cheng's reasons for wanting them to participate in this show together. Jiang Cheng wasn't the type of person who liked to show off in these kinds of settings, it was only because it was the two of them going together, and only because....

"You're clearly very outstanding." Jiang Cheng had said this before.

You're clearly very outstanding.

He would be proud of Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Cheng would likewise be proud of him.

But the more that was the case, the more he wanted to avoid it.

Some persistence couldn't withstand even a glimmer of hope, even a ray of light would cause pain.

When he returned to the shop, Jiang Cheng had his legs propped up on the cash register counter, writing something in a notebook. He didn't even notice when Gu Fei came in.

When Gu Fei walked over to Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng suddenly jerked his head up and closed the notebook: "Damn, how'd you come in without making a sound?"

"What kind of sound qualifies as making a sound?" Gu Fei saw that he was writing sheet music in the notebook, and couldn't help but be amazed that even with sheet music, ace student Jiang Cheng could write so horribly, "If someone came in and hauled all the goods away, would that count as making a sound?"

"Wanna try hauling a load and let me hear it?" Jiang Cheng said with a laugh.

Gu Fei felt that Jiang Cheng seemed to be in a pretty good mood. He reached out and flicked Jiang Cheng's face, then went to the back kitchen to cook dumplings.

"How does Gu Miao eat?" Jiang Cheng followed along.

"She'll come over when she's hungry later, just save some for her." Gu Fei said.

"Oh." Jiang Cheng responded, then turned around and went back to the store front, stepping quite lightly.

Gu Fei was suddenly a bit curious what sheet music Jiang Cheng was writing that put him in such a good mood...or was it Wang Xu that put him in a good mood?

...That was probably impossible.

If that was the case he'd have to have a chat with Wang Xu.

After eating the dumplings, Jiang Cheng tidied up his things and got ready to head back to the rental apartment: "You coming over tonight?"

"Yeah," Gu Fei nodded, "I'll come over after Gu Miao's asleep."

"No," Jiang Cheng lowered his voice, "Aren't you sneaking out every day like this? Doesn't she notice at all?"

"She doesn't notice," Gu Fei said, "And I don't go every day either...though I do want to go every day."

Jiang Cheng smiled and leaned in to lightly nuzzle his face against Gu Fei's. Then he went to grab his backpack: "Then bring me a midnight snack when you come over tonight."

"Mm," Gu Fei grabbed his arm and pulled him over, "Kiss me before you go."

"Hey hey hey," Jiang Cheng looked nervously towards the door, "Watch the occasion."

Gu Fei glanced back, no one outside the door. So he lowered his head and bit Jiang Cheng's neck.

"Really, every day," Jiang Cheng rubbed his neck, "Left a bite, right a bite, next time I'll smear on some sauce, it's tasty."

"Good idea," Gu Fei narrowed his eyes, looking him up and down, his gaze finally stopping below Jiang Cheng's belly, "Chocolate sauce, peanut butter, salad dressing..."

"Get out!" Jiang Cheng reacted, pointing at him, "And you were scolding me?"

"I'll do what I said after I finish saying it," Gu Fei had a cigarette dangling from his mouth, "No better day than today, let's do it tonight."