Ning Zhu admired Dou Changxiao’s dazed expression. It was a rare sight, and he studied it intently for a while, even the shivering in his body subsiding somewhat.

“How come you…” Dou Changxiao managed to blurt out half a sentence after a long pause, but before he could finish, he shut his mouth.

His expression turned cautious, his face tense and strained, with only his eyes wide open, as if he were struggling to think clearly. His handsome face looked utterly dazed.

As Ning Zhu watched him, he felt an urge to rub the other man’s cheeks, but since his palms were covered in a thin layer of sweat, he ultimately refrained from doing so.

Maintaining his composure, he said, “That’s it, then.”

Dou Changxiao took a step forward, his breathing unusually rapid. He grabbed Ning Zhu’s wrist and pulled her slightly to the left.

Ning Zhu raised an eyebrow, catching a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of the maple grove to the left, blanketed in frost and snow—a spot where school couples often hung out at night.

He asked, “You’re not trying to drag me in there, are you? In broad daylight.”

Dou Changxiao paused suspiciously for a moment before saying, “…No.”

He asked again, “Is your car parked out front?”

Ning Zhu hummed in acknowledgment and said, “What’s the matter? You aren’t planning to do something in my car, are you? In broad daylight.”  

“……”

The grip on his wrist suddenly tightened, and Ning Zhu heard Dou Changxiao’s strained voice: “No, I’m not.” Ning Zhu felt he truly deserved Dou Changxiao’s assessment.

He really was that bad.

Before walking away, Ning Zhu took a close look at Dou Changxiao’s face.

The desire he’d been forced to suppress manifested in a different way; a thick, terrifying emotion was brewing in Dou Changxiao’s dark eyes, and Ning Zhu actually felt a chill run down his spine under his gaze.

When he got back into the car, Ning Zhu leaned against the window for two minutes, letting his physical reactions gradually subside. He pulled out a tissue and wiped the sweat from his palms.

It should get easier with more practice. Thinking this, he rolled down the window and glanced toward the school grounds.

From this angle, he couldn’t see where Dou Changxiao was. But the expression on the other boy’s face—that dazed, almost foolish look he’d had when Ning Zhu kissed him—kept replaying in Ning Zhu’s mind.

He smiled involuntarily and slowly started the car. When he arrived at the building where he lived, Ning Zhu closed the door and locked the car.

As he entered the building, he had a vague feeling that someone was watching him. He paused and glanced around.

It was the weekend, and residents in the neighborhood were out in the shared garden with their children, the air filled with the sounds of playful chatter. No one was looking at him. Ning Zhu withdrew his gaze and went upstairs.

Upon entering, he saw Aunt Lin working in the living room; she greeted him.

Ning Zhu tossed his car keys onto a nearby shelf and said, “Aunt Lin, I’m going on a business trip to Haicheng in a couple of days and won’t be back until just before the New Year. Please come back after the New Year.”

Ning Zhu would continue to pay Aunt Lin her base salary while he was away, but she always felt uneasy about not working, so she said, “Then I’ll do a deep clean on the day you leave, and I’ll handle the regular cleaning after that.”

Ning Zhu casually replied, “Sure,” then walked over to the living room window and looked down at the street below, furrowing his brow.

His phone vibrated. He’d received a message from Dou Changxiao; the kid seemed to have finally snapped out of it and sent several messages in a row.

【Changxiao:】 When are you leaving?

【Changxiao:】 Do you want me to drive you?

【Changxiao:】 I’ll come pick you up.

Ning Zhu replied: The 3rd. No. Can’t.

After thinking for a moment, he sent “We’ll see” instead of “No.” The other end immediately called him.

When he answered, Ning Zhu heard Dou Changxiao’s voice: “So when can I see you?” Ning Zhu said, “I’m not free for the next couple of days. Let’s wait until I’m back in Beicheng.”

“Ning Zhu.”

Ning Zhu tapped his finger against the windowpane as he said, “It really won’t work. I’ve got some stuff going on here—work-related.”  

“Boss,” the voice on the other end said softly, with a hint of distant pleading in his tone.

But Ning Zhu knew exactly how impassive Dou Changxiao’s expression would be as he said that. This kid was getting better and better at playing the victim. He chuckled, “Even calling me ‘Daddy’ won’t help.”

There was silence on the other end.

Ning Zhu’s gaze swept over the crowd below, scanning each person one by one.

“Gege.”

“……” Ning Zhu’s darting eyes came to a halt, and his mind froze at the same moment.

After about ten seconds of silence, he spoke slowly: “…No.”

On the other end: “…”

Ning Zhu: “Ahem, what did you just say? Gege…”

“It’s nothing. Goodbye.” Dou Changxiao’s voice had returned to its usual cold tone.

Two beeps. The call ended. Ning Zhu: “……”

January 3rd was a workday. Dou Changxiao was still interning, and unfortunately, he was assigned to a particularly busy department. He had asked Ning Zhu for his flight number in advance, but in the end, he couldn’t find the time to see him off.

The flight was in the afternoon. Ning Zhu had already checked his luggage in advance, so he left directly from the office with Xiao Tao, and Old Zhao picked them up.

With Xiao Tao by his side, Ning Zhu actually felt relieved that Dou Changxiao couldn’t make it—it spared Xiao Tao from seeing him and letting his imagination run wild.

Ning Zhu boarded the plane early. Before takeoff, he scrolled through his phone and tapped into his chat history with Dou Changxiao, reading through the brief messages several times.

Dou Changxiao wasn’t the type to chat online; every time he messaged Ning Zhu, it was to ask if he could come over. After looking at them for a while, Ning Zhu casually tapped into Dou Changxiao’s Moments.

It had been a long time since he’d last looked at it. Back then, he hadn’t felt there was much need to know, so he’d just given it a quick scan before exiting.

Dou Changxiao’s Moments were just like him: at first glance, cold and detached. He updated them only once every few months, and most posts seemed like spontaneous, last-minute uploads—mostly pictures, rarely accompanied by text.

The most recent post was from a few days ago; Dou Changxiao had uploaded a photo of a snowy scene taken on campus.

The moment Ning Zhu saw the photo, he started coughing violently, causing a passenger boarding the plane to glance at him. He quickly fished a mask out of his pocket and put it on.

Ignoring all that, Ning Zhu stared wide-eyed at the photo.

Compared to Dou Changxiao’s other casual snapshots, the composition of this photo was nothing short of perfect. The snowy ground was split in two by light and shadow—one half hidden in the shade of the trees, the other glistening with a beautiful golden glow in the sunlight.

At the edge of the frame, Ning Zhu spotted himself—just a silhouette turned sideways, captured at the exact moment he’d turned around while walking from the school gate toward the parking lot.

He saw a few comments.

Cheng Yang: ???

Cheng Yang: Dude, did you go from the bathroom all the way to the East Gate? 

Cheng Yang: I’ve been waiting for you at the basketball court for ages!

Ning Zhu curled the corners of his lips and scrolled down.

Scattered photos, fleeting backgrounds—Ning Zhu spotted a few that looked like they’d been taken at home. The other person’s family was far wealthier than he’d imagined.

He furrowed his brow.

Dou Changxiao wasn’t short on money—Ning Zhu had always been clear on that point—and his motivation for agreeing to the deal had always puzzled him. But since he really needed to swallow this bitter pill, his subconscious refused to dig too deeply into it.

Ning Zhu lowered his eyes and pondered for a few minutes, but he couldn’t recall anything particularly significant happening on the day Dou Changxiao agreed to the deal. That guy was often hard to figure out, and Ning Zhu felt that he wouldn’t find the answer by guessing on his own.

He could only continue reading, still puzzled.

It was actually hard to catch glimpses of Dou Changxiao’s daily life from his social media posts. But the more Ning Zhu looked, the more he felt that those moments he’d captured were just like Dou Changxiao himself: outwardly aloof and impassive, yet his joy and sadness were always distinct and easy to pick up on.

Ning Zhu found a post from several years ago, when Dou Changxiao had been accepted into college. It was accompanied by nothing more than a photo of the acceptance letter, yet he felt, as if through the screen and across time, the joy Dou Changxiao must have felt in that moment, and he couldn’t help but smile along with him.

He even felt a twinge of regret. Regret that he hadn’t gone to see Dou Changxiao these past two days; otherwise, he could have seen that pure joy shining in the other’s eyes with his own eyes.

Back to the chat screen.

【Changxiao:】 Have you boarded yet? 

Ning Zhu replied with a “Mm-hmm.”

Then an announcement came over the intercom, instructing passengers to turn off their phones or switch to airplane mode. Ning Zhu complied.

He closed his eyes and rested in his seat. The flight from Beicheng to Haicheng was nearly three hours, but Ning Zhu never fell asleep. Much later, the announcement sounded again, informing passengers that the plane had reached the destination’s airspace.

Ning Zhu opened his eyes.

He wasn’t one to shy away from what he had to face, so he forced himself to turn and look out the airplane window.

He had never looked down on Haicheng from such a height before, so as he gazed at the model-like buildings below, he felt surprisingly little emotion.

It wasn’t until the moment the plane touched down that his heart seemed to lurch along with the landing gear. When he turned off airplane mode and restarted his phone, a barrage of messages popped up before his eyes.

Ning Zhu only noticed the one from Dou Changxiao, sent before the plane took off, to which he hadn’t replied in time.

【Changxiao:】 Let me know when you arrive.

Ning Zhu blinked.

Just then, several voice messages from Aunt Lin popped up. Ning Zhu tapped on them and listened directly without converting them to text.

Aunt Lin’s voice sounded hesitant: “Mr. Ning, I was cleaning the house today and found a bank card under the shoe cabinet. Is this yours?”

Attached to the message was a photo. Ning Zhu tapped to open it and took a look.

Aunt Lin had taken the photo from a very straightforward angle: a black card was resting on top of the white shoe cabinet. It was the very one Ning Zhu had used not long ago to pay Dou Changxiao his “reward.” He wondered how long it had been sitting there.

Ning Zhu stared at it for a moment before replying, “I must have dropped it there by accident. It’s fine—just put it in the cabinet in the study.” He swiped back to his chat with Dou Changxiao, and as he typed in the message box, he felt his palms start to sweat again.

【Ning Huochong:】 I’m here 【smile】