After Laoba (Dad) disappeared, not a single relative’s family was willing to take Fan Jun in. His grandfather also refused the neighborhood committee’s request to let him take Fan Jun home for temporary care, citing an inability to provide support.

In the end, it was Uncle Lü and Aunt Li who ran around handling all the paperwork and brought Fan Jun into their own home.

From then on, whatever Lü Ze had, he would also have; and whatever Lü Ze didn’t have, he would occasionally have too.

Fan Jun was very aware that to this “adopted son” who wasn’t legally adopted, the couple was even a little biased in his favor.

Lü Ze hated him and bullied him when they were kids, and Fan Jun felt that was entirely normal.

He was the bad person who had stolen another child’s parents’ love.

Uncle Lü’s family moved back to Nanzhouping half a year after taking him in. Firstly, the couple wanted to return to the place where they grew up; secondly, they were afraid that Fan Gang would come back seeking revenge.

That stay lasted for over a decade.

Besides Lü Ze, Uncle Lü, his wife, and Fan Jun basically never left Nanzhouping again.

To say it was entirely because of him might not be completely accurate, but a very large part of the reason was indeed because of him.

That nightmarish terror, which had once brought him immense physical and mental suffering, could never be dispelled or shaken off. Staying in Nanzhouping was the only choice that made him feel safe.

And as Lü Ze went to competitions, went to school, wanting time and again to leave Nanzhouping only to return time and again—he could equally understand that kind of helplessness.

He and Lü Ze could be considered to have grown up together, but they had never been able to get along. The total number of words they spoke to each other in a year didn’t even add up to what he would say in a few classes with a student.

Sitting together today, preparing to “talk,” was the first time they had ever done so in all these years.

But aside from a single “I’m sorry,” he couldn’t say anything else.

Lü Ze glanced at him without speaking, picked up the yogurt in front of him, and took a sip.

Fan Jun could only remain silent as well.

“The old gym has been slated for demolition for two years now. It’ll be torn down sooner or later. I simply wanted my dad to prepare in advance so he wouldn’t be caught off guard when the time comes. Honestly, if I really want to leave, I’ll just leave…” Lü Ze said. “It’s no big deal. Plenty of people don’t stay by their parents’ side their whole lives.”

Fan Jun held the yogurt in his hand, still not speaking.

He didn’t know much about the demolition, nor did he want to figure it out. Over the past two years, he’d occasionally hear Big-head Yu and the others mention it, but he never chimed in, treating it merely as some sort of emotional crutch for the residents of Nanzhouping.

Once it’s demolished, things will be better. Once it’s demolished, things will change.

“But I just…” Lü Ze took another swig of yogurt and turned to look at him. “Since you said we should talk today, I’ll just say what’s on my mind. Whether you think I’m ridiculous or making a fuss over nothing…”

“I won’t,” Fan Jun said.

“I don’t care either way. You and I never had a relationship that needed maintaining to begin with,” Lü Ze said.

“Mm,” Fan Jun replied.

“At first, I thought you were very pitiful. When my parents wanted to bring you back, I was willing,” Lü Ze stared at a tree by the sidewalk. “But later, I started hating you. I had to share everything with you, be treated exactly the same as you… Even later, I felt you were very good at faking it—faking being pitiful, faking being sensible, faking being enduring, almost never getting angry…”

Lü Ze turned to glance at him as he said this.

Fan Jun didn’t speak, looking back at him.

“And then even later, I realized you weren’t faking,” Lü Ze’s speech gradually sped up, as if the words he’d held back for a long time could finally be spoken, and if he slowed down even a step, they’d be swallowed back down. “You really are just like this. And then I started hating myself a little. Especially after my mom passed away, my dad seemed to prefer a son like you even more. Me returning to Nanzhouping, staying at the old gym, fussing over the new gym—it was all because I wanted to show him that I am his biological son. I’m not a burden like Fan Jun, I don’t need him to constantly pay attention to me…”

Lü Ze paused here.

“It’s okay.” Fan Jun knew what he meant.

“Since putting in all that effort was useless anyway, I gave up. So be it,” Lü Ze said. “If my dad is willing to stay here with you, then he can stay. Actually, after my mom passed away, I was always a bit worried about his health… But anyway, it’s not like he has no one by his side. There will always be two sons; one leaves, another arrives. Anyone is better than the biological one.”

Lü Ze was probably genuinely emotional today. Aside from when he argued with Uncle Lü, he almost never spoke this much in one breath.

If he hadn’t said so much, Fan Jun might have been able to squeeze in a sentence or two. But now, he couldn’t say a single word.

His mind was completely filled with “I’m sorry.”

He knew that what Lü Ze wanted to hear wasn’t an “I’m sorry,” but right now, aside from this phrase, he seemed unable to say anything else.

“Just say whatever you want to say,” Lü Ze said. “For the new gym, I’ll find a place and reopen it before the lease expires in August. But the location definitely won’t be Nanzhouping. At that point, whichever coaches want to come can come. For those who don’t, we probably won’t have many chances to see each other in the future.”

“Uncle Lü isn’t as detail-oriented as Aunt Li was,” Fan Jun said with great difficulty, “but he always tells me: Lü Ze’s personality is just like that. Don’t be angry with him, don’t hold it against him. To me…”

Fan Jun glanced at Lü Ze: “He’s just afraid that if I have conflicts with you, you’ll get angry and unhappy. No one will ever be closer to him than his own son.”

Lü Ze didn’t speak. He just drank his yogurt. It was a fairly large bottle, but he finished it in a few gulps.

Fan Jun looked at the condensation-covered yogurt bottle in his hand and said softly, “I really envy you.”

Lü Ze put down the yogurt bottle and stood up. After a moment, he turned back to look at him: “Did Old Liu bring people to the new gym today?”

“Mm,” Fan Jun replied. “He told me to pass on a message to you: expires in August.”

“He just went there to be disgusting. With those two storefronts of his, only someone like me who didn’t know anything would rent them,” Lü Ze said. “Once I leave, he won’t be able to rent them out at all.”

“Ask around more when you go rent a space somewhere else,” Fan Jun said.

Lü Ze didn’t say anything more. He turned and started walking back.

“Hey!” Boss Yu came out of the shop. “Are you taking my bottle?”

Lü Ze turned back around and handed the bottle to her.

“Put it on the table.” Boss Yu dropped this sentence and went back inside.

Lü Ze placed the bottle on the table and looked at Fan Jun.

“I’ll head back to the old gym to eat in a bit,” Fan Jun said.

After Lü Ze left, Fan Jun didn’t get up. Holding his half-empty bottle of yogurt, he continued sitting in front of the milk station.

Even though it was a bit awkward.

Boss Yu knew he and Lü Ze didn’t have a good relationship, so she could naturally guess that the two of them sitting here for so long wasn’t just for a casual chat. Now that Lü Ze had left and he was still sitting there, Boss Yu felt it was inappropriate to come out, so she just stayed sitting inside her shop.

But Fan Jun didn’t want to move. He didn’t know if it was because of his fever or because he had slept for too long, but his whole body felt a bit weak. He didn’t want to move, and he didn’t want to think. He just wanted to sit there in a daze.

He had been in Nanzhouping for fourteen years. Xiaobai had grown from a puppy into a medium-sized dog, yet he hadn’t changed at all. He was still that little boy who had been taken from his home by Uncle Lü and Aunt Li all those years ago.

It was just that… even in a corner like Nanzhouping, which felt as if it had been forgotten by the entire city, things wouldn’t remain unchanged forever.

The people here—perhaps with the exception of him—no one would truly be willing to stay forever.

Lao Si’s family had bought an apartment in the Central District; who knows when they would leave too. Big-head Yu and Juan’er were planning to have a child next year; for the child’s schooling, they would probably have to leave as well.

Even Monkey, who would take his high school entrance exams next year—his family was also trying to figure something out, because he absolutely couldn’t just attend the local No. 21 Middle School.

In his world, the people he was familiar with were becoming fewer and fewer…

This day was bound to come sooner or later.

As his familiar world grew more unfamiliar day by day, no matter how afraid he was, he would still be pushed toward a new, unfamiliar reality.

---

“I’ve uploaded all the photos to the cloud drive and sent you the link. I categorized them into folders by name,” Rongrong sat in the armchair in the dance studio, holding her phone in one hand and rubbing Xiaobai’s head back and forth with the other. “I also saved your and Zou Yang’s photos in a separate folder.”

“Mm,” Fan Jun clicked the link, saved all the photos to his own drive, then opened the folder for Liu Wenrui and the others, slowly looking through them. “When they finish their exams, I’ll treat you to a meal.”

“Don’t be so polite. Forget the meal, I’m trying to lose weight. Just treat me to afternoon tea instead,” Rongrong said.

“The calories in your afternoon tea pastries are no less than a full meal, and they don’t even fill you up.” Fan Jun looked at the photos of these guys. Even though they didn’t look like they had a single athletic cell in their bodies, the photos actually turned out pretty good.

“You! Stop learning from Lü Ze!” Rongrong said, swinging her legs. “Hey, the photos of you two turned out really amazing. The vibe is incredible.”

“Mm,” Fan Jun nodded.

“What do you mean ‘mm’? Did you even look at them!” Rongrong said.

“…I looked,” Fan Jun said.

“You looked my ass. If you looked, you definitely wouldn’t have this reaction,” Rongrong said.

Fan Jun shot her a glance, then lowered his head and tapped open the folder with his and Zou Yang’s photos.

The first photo was of the two of them with Xiaobai. His finger, which had been ready to swipe to the next one, paused.

He couldn’t help but zoom in to look closer.

It really was…

He couldn’t quite describe it; it couldn’t be described with a simple “cool” or “handsome.”

It could probably only be described as the “vibe” Rongrong mentioned.

He looked up at Rongrong again.

“Exactly, now you’ve really looked,” Rongrong started laughing. “How is it? Even though you two are handsome and look like a great match, isn’t my photography skills also super awesome?”

Match?

Fan Jun was taken aback.

“Hey, I was just making a comparison. It’s like… how should I put it, I can’t describe it, you know?” Rongrong gestured somewhat awkwardly.

“I know,” Fan Jun smiled. He slowly flipped through a few more photos before closing the folder.

---

In the past, whenever he reviewed for exams, the days felt very hollow. It felt like he hadn’t memorized anything, hadn’t learned anything, and was just going into the exam with a head full of air.

This time, reviewing was a bit different. Time passed very concretely. A minute was a minute, a day was a day. The only thing that remained unchanged was the air in his head.

He glanced at the calendar. There was still half a month until the exam.

He hadn’t gone home last weekend, and he didn’t plan to go back this weekend either.

Laoma was in Nanzhouping, seeming quite busy. He didn’t know what she was busy with, and going back alone was boring.

It used to be like this often before—it wasn’t like Laoma was home every single weekend—but now, for some reason, he was especially afraid of being lonely.

Maybe it was because he realized Laoma and Uncle Lü really were quite a good fit. She genuinely seemed comfortable and happy with Uncle Lü. Laoma might truly… never come back home in the future.

“Going out for Children’s Day?” Liu Wenrui walked into the dorm biting a popsicle. Since Zou Yang wasn’t going home, he wasn’t going either; it was too lonely taking the trip without a companion.

“Where to?” Zou Yang asked. “I still have to go visit my esteemed father this afternoon.”

“Since it’s about time, we can accompany you there,” Liu Wenrui said. “We’ll wait for you outside.”

“Mm, but I’m not going to the arcade,” Zou Yang said.

“We won’t go there. We’ll hit the mall. Haven’t been there in a long time,” Liu Wenrui said. “We can’t just stay trapped in this ivory tower of a school forever. We need to experience the atmosphere of the city outside the ivory tower.”

“…Let’s go,” Zou Yang sighed.

---

The several youths stepping out of the ivory tower for some fresh air had a very clear destination: the largest commercial plaza in the city for some shopping.

“Are we really shopping?” Zou Yang asked.

“Can shopping be fake?” Li Zhiyue said.

Exiting the subway station, Zhang Chuanlong pointed at the milk tea shop across the street: “Let’s go, time to shop.”

“…It would be so much better if you just said we’re going to the food court to shop,” Zou Yang said.

“Who said that,” Li Zhiyue said. “I genuinely need to buy something. My mom’s birthday is this month, and I plan to buy a beaded bracelet like yours to give her.”

Zou Yang’s beaded bracelet was indeed bought here.

He looked down at his wrist. Fan Jun’s birthday was at the end of June. He had originally planned to come buy a bracelet as a birthday gift for Fan Jun after finishing his exams.

“Then let’s go,” Liu Wenrui said.

The shop selling beaded bracelets was on the fourth floor of the commercial plaza. From the first floor to the fourth floor, including the commercial street outside, there were many things to browse. But when this group of guys had a specific goal in their itinerary, it often turned into the only goal of the trip.

“Oh, is there some kind of event going on in this area?” Liu Wenrui glanced at the plaza, his feet not stopping as he rushed toward the mall. “So many people.”

“Seems like there’s some kind of market over there,” Li Zhiyue looked toward the other side, his steps also hurried. “Seems like…”

“There’s an auto show too,” Zhang Chuanlong said.

“Fellow colleagues of the ivory tower, are you guys really in that much of a rush?” Zou Yang finally couldn’t hold back anymore. “This event, that market, the auto show… we could totally browse those too…”

“Right, let’s go check out the auto show.” Liu Wenrui casually latched onto the last noun, pivoted his feet, and walked toward the auto show.

Zou Yang couldn’t even sigh anymore, just following him over.

But right as they neared the exhibition booths, he spotted a figure in the crowd with a single glance—the figure he saw once every month.

He abruptly stopped in his tracks.

His dad’s family of three.

“What’s wrong?” Li Zhiyue asked.

“…My dad,” Zou Yang said in a low voice.

Li Zhiyue grabbed the fast-walking Liu Wenrui: “His dad.”

“What’s wrong, the mother of his child?” Liu Wenrui turned back around.

“His dad!” Li Zhiyue gritted his teeth. “Zou Yang’s dad!”

“Holy shit,” Liu Wenrui looked over. “Where?”

“Stop looking! Stop looking!” Zhang Chuanlong wrenched his face back. “Are you afraid they won’t see us? Hurry up, cover Zou Yang, let’s get into the mall.”

“What are you guys doing?” Zou Yang felt utterly helpless.

“Not going to the auto show anymore,” Liu Wenrui said. “Too annoying.”

Zou Yang didn’t speak. Even though he didn’t want to hide, he also genuinely didn’t plan on walking over there anymore.

In that single sweeping glance, he had seen a lot.

They were picking out a car, and it looked like they were picking it out for that woman. She was sitting in the driver’s seat, smiling very happily, and Zou Tianrui was standing next to Laoba, hugging his arm…

Laoba already had a car at home. This car was probably an apology gift for their previous argument.

Thinking of this, Zou Yang instantly felt so stifled in his chest that he wanted to throw up.

The group didn’t browse around outside anymore, directly heading to the fourth floor of the mall.

Li Zhiyue didn’t want a pre-made beaded bracelet; he started picking out beads to string himself, with Liu Wenrui and Zhang Chuanlong huddled together helping him choose.

Zou Yang sat off to the side. After a while, he called the salesperson over and waved his wrist: “Help me get this one.”

Liu Wenrui looked back at him: “You want another one? Buying two of the same kind?”

“It’s a gift,” Zou Yang said.

Liu Wenrui walked over, sat down next to him, and leaned in closer: “A gift for me?”

Zou Yang looked at him without speaking.

“I was being presumptuous,” Liu Wenrui whispered. “So, who is it for?”

Zou Yang was silent for a moment before speaking: “Fan Jun.”

“A gift for Fan Jun?” Liu Wenrui was taken aback. “Why?”

“His birthday is at the end of the month,” Zou Yang said.

“Oh,” Liu Wenrui nodded, thought about it, then turned his head back to look at him. “Giving him the exact same bracelet?”