Liu Wenrui’s cousin.

For a moment, Fan Jun didn’t even know what reaction he should make to play along with Zou Yang’s nonsense. After a pause, he could only continue setting up the canopy.

Zou Yang didn’t speak anymore either. He just lay down on the ground, pillowed his head on his arms, and closed his eyes.

While connecting the frame for the canopy, Fan Jun glanced over at the others who had already set up the table and were arranging the skewers. He had this feeling that Liu Wenrui was intentionally or unintentionally looking their way…

He quickly finished setting up the frame, adjusted the roof, and secured the guy line on one side. Holding a ground peg, he felt somewhat speechless; Zou Yang had picked a truly impeccable spot to lie down—right on the fixing point for the last guy line.

Fan Jun didn’t know if Zou Yang had slept well the night before. Because Zou Yang normally seemed to fall asleep very quickly, so in just the short time it took to set up the canopy, he already looked dead to the world.

Fan Jun hesitated, preparing to pull out the few pegs on the other side and shift the canopy over a bit…

“You sure know how to pick a spot to sleep! The birthday boy is working and you’re sleeping!” Liu Wenrui swung his arms as he walked over, scooped Zou Yang up from under his arms, and dragged him over a meter away.

…Sure enough, he had been watching them this whole time.

“Screw you!” Zou Yang cursed loudly.

“If I didn’t drag you away, the peg would have been hammered right into you!” Liu Wenrui threw him back onto the ground.

“Ask him if he’d dare!” Zou Yang said. “I’m a shareholder!”

“…I wouldn’t dare,” Fan Jun said. “I’ve never even invested money in the gym.”

“If I don’t drag you back I’ll take your last name!” Liu Wenrui bent down, scooping Zou Yang up again to drag him back to his original spot.

“Hey!” Zou Yang couldn’t help but laugh. “Let go, psycho.”

“Who knows which one is!” Liu Wenrui clicked his tongue, turned, and walked away.

Fan Jun smiled, pulled the last guy line tight, and hammered in the peg.

“I just fell asleep,” Zou Yang pillowed his head on his arms, turned his head, and looked at him.

“I could tell,” Fan Jun said. “Yesterday…”

After saying that word, he felt he shouldn’t have brought up yesterday, as it was already awkward enough.

But since he had started, he could only continue: “…Didn’t you sleep well?”

“I slept fine, didn’t even have a single dream,” Zou Yang said, touching his own arm. “But Da Hei probably did parkour in the middle of the night, I have a cut on my arm.”

“Forgot to clip his nails,” Fan Jun said, leaning closer to him. “Is the cut deep?”

Zou Yang pulled up his sleeve to show him.

There was a rather long, bloody cut on the inner side of his arm. Fan Jun was startled: “Does it hurt?”

“No,” Zou Yang shook his head. “I didn’t even feel it. I only noticed it… when I took a shower this morning.”

“I didn’t even know he scratched people this hard,” Fan Jun said.

“You’ve never been scratched by him?” Zou Yang looked at him.

“No,” Fan Jun looked at his own hands.

Seeing the beaded bracelet on his wrist, his gaze couldn’t help but linger for a moment. These peridot beads truly looked beautiful under the sunlight.

“I’ll get you an even better birthday gift next year,” Zou Yang raised his arm, also looking at the bracelet on his wrist. “It was too rushed this time, I didn’t have time to carefully think it over.”

“It’s already very good,” Fan Jun looked at him. “When is your birthday?”

“What,” Zou Yang smiled, sat up, and supported himself on the ground with his arms. “What are you going to get me?”

“Haven’t thought of it yet,” Fan Jun said.

“It’s still early,” Zou Yang said. “My birthday is in October, you can take your time preparing.”

Fan Jun had never given anyone a gift before and had absolutely no experience. Especially for someone like Zou Yang, he couldn’t imagine what kind of gift would suit him.

Zou Yang was different from him. He was handsome, popular, and definitely received a lot of gifts normally. It would probably be very difficult to find a gift that would make him feel surprised.

“We’re grilling!” Zhang Chuanlong yelled from over there.

“Coming!” Zou Yang yelled back.

Fan Jun withdrew his thoughts, stood up, and casually pulled Zou Yang up.

---

“Let’s try to eat it all,” Zou Yang sat down next to the grill, grabbed a few meat skewers, and placed them on the grilling grate. “We’re not taking any back.”

“If we can’t finish it, we can share it with others,” Li Zhiyue said. “There’s a group of college students picnicking in the woods, they’ve come over to peek several times.”

“They wouldn’t happen to be from our school, would they?” Zou Yang looked toward the woods.

“People might not even want leftovers,” Liu Wenrui said.

“Leftovers aren’t the same as licked-overs, why wouldn’t they want it,” Zou Yang clicked his tongue. “Ask Zhang Chuanlong if he’d take ten free meat skewers.”

“I would,” Zhang Chuanlong answered.

This group of guys was useless at setting up a canopy, but they were very skilled at grilling meat skewers. After all, they ate them often enough to learn just by watching.

It didn’t take long for a large plate of meat to be grilled. They sat under the canopy, poured their drinks, and prepared to start eating.

“Brother Fan, hold on a sec,” Li Zhiyue moved the food and drinks on the table to make some space.

“What’s up?” Fan Jun asked.

“We have something for you,” Li Zhiyue said as he turned and went over to the camping cart.

“Didn’t you guys buy a cake?” Fan Jun suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. For one birthday, a group of people spending so much…

“That doesn’t count, the cake and the meat were all bought by Zou Yang,” Zhang Chuanlong said. “We’re just eating for free.”

“Ah, yes,” Zou Yang leaned back in his chair and swung his plastered leg. “That’s not wrong, you are just freeloaders.” (Note: the Chinese word for ‘freeloading’ sounds identical to the word for ‘idiot/fool’.)

Fan Jun couldn’t help but laugh.

“Zou Yang, you’re just asking for a kicking,” Zhang Chuanlong pointed at Zou Yang. “You really annoy me to death.”

“I’ll buy you a coffee later,” Zou Yang said with a smile.

“Cheese latte, thanks,” Zhang Chuanlong immediately said.

“You’ll drink whatever is available, and you’re even making an order,” Zou Yang said.

Li Zhiyue came over carrying a black gift box and placed it on the table.

“Here, Brother Fan, this is a gift from the three of us,” Liu Wenrui said. “We didn’t know what you liked, so we just went with what we thought of.”

“Thank you,” Fan Jun looked at the gift box, not knowing what else to say.

It was a black gift box, adorned with bright pink ribbon and a flower. It was very beautiful.

“I’ll… take a picture first,” Fan Jun took out his phone.

“I’ll take it for you,” Zou Yang took out his own phone. “You hold the box.”

“Okay,” Fan Jun nodded, put his phone away, and took the box, holding it in his hands.

“Smile,” Zou Yang pushed up his glasses and held the phone up to him.

Fan Jun smiled.

“Handsome,” Zou Yang said.

“Handsome,” Liu Wenrui chimed in.

Zhang Chuanlong and Li Zhiyue immediately yelled as well: “Handsome!”

When the box was opened, inside was a pair of boxing gloves.

This was something Fan Jun hadn’t expected. He looked at the guys with some surprise.

“We noticed your boxing gloves were getting a bit old last time,” Li Zhiyue said. “We don’t know if these fit well, if they don’t, we can take them back to exchange.”

Fan Jun put them on to try: “They fit perfectly, thank you.”

“That’s good then,” Zhang Chuanlong clapped his hands together. “Let’s eat!”

---

This birthday felt a bit hazy.

Sunlight, grass, woods, lake water, the coffee cart in the distance…

The noisy friends beside him, and the mingled scent of charcoal fire and roasting meat.

Tranquil yet boisterous, it had a dreamlike unreality, and the only real thing was his feeling of not wanting to wake up.

After eating and drinking their fill, the group sprawled out under the canopy, staring blankly at the lake water. The sunlight was strong, but the wind sweeping across the lake through the woods carried a chill, making it quite comfortable.

Over by the coffee cart—which was part of the scenery—the boss had set up a parasol and was sitting next to the cart, glancing over at them from time to time. Fan Jun could feel the anticipation in his eyes from this far away.

He glanced at the one genuine and three fake paralyzed guys sprawling under the canopy, and asked: “Do you guys want coffee? I’ll go buy some.”

“Yes!” the guys replied loudly without moving a muscle.

Only the genuinely paralyzed Zou Yang waved his hand: “Let’s go, let’s go patronize the coffee cart.”

“I can just go, I’ll take a picture of the menu for you to see.” Fan Jun glanced at his leg; the makeshift cane he had found right after getting out of the car had broken at some point.

Zou Yang looked at him without speaking.

Fan Jun suddenly felt a bit awkward. It seemed as if he didn’t want to go with Zou Yang, but in front of so many people, he didn’t know what else to say.

“Let him go. If he can’t walk, you carry him,” Liu Wenrui tilted his head back, looking at the roof of the canopy. “Even if he can’t walk he needs a change of scenery. He has ADHD to begin with, being crippled this long is about to suffocate him to death.”

“I’ll carry you on my back.” Fan Jun turned around. Zou Yang’s chair was low, so he had to kneel on one leg to make it easier for Zou Yang to get on.

“Thanks.” Zou Yang’s arms wrapped over his shoulders as he leaned onto his back.

Just as Fan Jun stood up with Zou Yang on his back and was about to leave, Zhang Chuanlong suddenly said: “Should we also…”

“I’m not going, I’m so comfortable right now I feel like I could shed my skin.” Li Zhiyue leaned against his chair without moving, his eyes closed.

“Massage my legs for me, bro,” Liu Wenrui rested his legs on Zhang Chuanlong. “Front of the thigh, quads. Yeah, quads are a bit sore.”

“Do you have no shame, what did your quads do to be sore? You don’t even use any force when you walk!” Zhang Chuanlong got angry and slapped his leg.

“Give him a massage, he made his quads sore from squatting on the toilet.” Li Zhiyue laughed uncontrollably.

Fan Jun stood there, not knowing whether he should leave or wait for Zhang Chuanlong.

“Let’s go,” Zou Yang whispered in his ear.

His voice carried a hoarseness deeply baked by the sun. As it slid past the back of Fan Jun’s ear, it possessed a pleasingly textured quality. When Fan Jun took his first step, he almost lost his footing.

Behind him, Liu Wenrui and Zhang Chuanlong had started wrestling on the grass over whether to massage the quads and whether Liu Wenrui’s quads could possibly be sore.

Fan Jun didn’t know the situation with Liu Wenrui’s quads, but he knew Liu Wenrui definitely knew about it. Over the better half of the day, the guy had been acting even less normal than Zou Yang.

Li Zhiyue, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice anything…

“This lake is pretty big,” Zou Yang said.

“Yeah,” Fan Jun turned his head to look at the lake. “Want to go over and take a look?”

“Never mind,” Zou Yang said. “The ground is uneven, hard to walk on.”

“It’s fine.” Fan Jun carried him toward the lakeside.

The grass by the lake was very sparse, mostly mud and rocks. He followed a small path trodden out by people along the lake.

Zou Yang held his phone up in front of his face and took a few photos. From the screen, Fan Jun could see the distant mountains and the flowers blooming on them, as well as the nearby trees, grass, and the lake reflecting the blue sky and white clouds.

“It’s truly beautiful,” he couldn’t help but sigh.

“Yeah,” Zou Yang responded, and murmured in a low voice, “Pine flowers half-fallen, the spring mountain darkens; clouds fill a stream, the spring water idle… though this one is ‘clouds fill a lake, the spring water idle’…”

Fan Jun didn’t speak. He just felt as if musical notes were gently dancing through his mind. Zou Yang was as beautiful as this birthday today, like something out of a dream.

In this moment, he was overwhelmingly afraid of waking up from this dream…

---

By the time they drove away from the campsite, the sun had started slanting. As they were leaving, they saw quite a few cars pulling in to camp overnight.

Fan Jun hadn’t expected this birthday to be celebrated all day long. He initially thought it would be a complete success after they went back and had dinner. However, Zou Yang merely said they should go back first to pick up the cake and the wheelchair.

Bringing the cake and Zou Yang’s wheelchair, Zou Yang directed him to drive the car toward the bar street.

“Go to that… let me check,” Zou Yang took out his phone. “What was it called, Nanzhouping Number what…”

“Number Eight,” Fan Jun said.

“Right, Number Eight, Nanzhouping Number Eight,” Zou Yang looked at him. “You know it?”

“That’s where I…” Fan Jun cleared his throat. “Watched the floor.”

“Holy shit!” Liu Wenrui suddenly sat up straight in the back seat. “You actually worked such a badass job?”

At past eight in the evening, there weren’t many people in the bar yet. When they walked in, the floor manager standing behind the bar, Brother Lu, spotted Fan Jun instantly: “Jun’er?”

“Brother Lu.” Fan Jun greeted him.

“I wouldn’t have recognized you without your hat, what is this…” Brother Lu quickly walked over, looked at Zou Yang sitting in the wheelchair, and leaned into Fan Jun’s right side, lowering his voice. “A new gig?”

“…Huh?” Fan Jun didn’t understand right away.

“Understood,” Brother Lu patted his shoulder. “Understood.”

“What do you under…” Fan Jun didn’t understand at all.

“I booked a table yesterday,” Zou Yang interrupted their conversation and glanced at Brother Lu.

“I know, I know,” Brother Lu immediately made a gesture. “Young Master Zou, please follow me.”

Hearing this title, Zou Yang raised his eyebrows and glanced at Fan Jun.

Fan Jun didn’t say anything, finally realizing that in Brother Lu’s eyes, he was probably currently acting as a bodyguard for this “Young Master Zou.”

Taking advantage of the sparse crowd, the group decided to get the birthday cake and blowing out candles routine out of the way first.

“I’m recording,” Liu Wenrui held up his phone.

Fan Jun carefully pulled open the bow on the white cake box and slowly lifted the lid.

It was a pure white two-tiered cake, with a red border encircling the bottom tier.

On the top tier, four characters were written in chocolate.

A smooth path ahead. (从此坦途)

Fan Jun looked at these four characters, remained silent for a long time, then lowered his head, covered his face with his hands, and rubbed it. He felt his fingers trembling.

“This red part is a belt,” Zou Yang said. “Li Zhiyue said you have to have one in your zodiac birth year.”

“Thank you,” Fan Jun raised his head and smiled. “Thank you.”

Putting in the candles, lighting them, singing the birthday song, making a wish, blowing out the candles.

The entire routine was completed without missing a single step.

Zou Yang raised a hand and waved; Brother Lu jogged over.

“Help us cut it.”

“Right away, Young Master Zou,” Brother Lu said.

Zou Yang took a breath, wanting to say something, but finally gave up. He leaned back against the sofa and pushed up his glasses with his index finger knuckle.

“These words… leave them whole,” Fan Jun said.

“Put them in a takeout box?” Brother Lu asked.

“Okay,” Fan Jun nodded.

After Brother Lu took the cake away, the waiters started bringing out fruit platters and snacks.

It was all pre-ordered by Zou Yang, who even paid extra for them to prepare a roast chicken and other filling foods…

It would take a little while to cut and distribute the cake. Fan Jun turned to glance over at the bar area, leaned close to Zou Yang, and whispered: “I’ll go mix a drink for you.”

“Oh?” Zou Yang raised an eyebrow again. “Can I go over and watch?”

“…Okay,” Fan Jun nodded.

While Liu Wenrui and the others were busy eating snacks and watching the video they just recorded, Fan Jun helped Zou Yang over to sit at the bar.

“Brother Lu, I need to borrow some tools,” Fan Jun said to Brother Lu behind the bar.

“Making what?” Brother Lu asked.

“Spumoni,” Fan Jun said.

Brother Lu nodded, brought over the liquor, mixers, and tools he would need, placed them on the bar counter, and walked away.

Zou Yang leaned sideways, propping his arm on the bar counter, watching him with great interest.

In the past, Fan Jun had always mixed drinks just for himself to drink for fun; he had never made one for anyone else. Being stared at by Zou Yang like this suddenly made him feel a bit nervous.

“This is… very simple, no fancy tricks,” he grabbed a glass. “I don’t know any anyway.”

“Mm,” Zou Yang smiled. “What ingredients do you need?”

“Campari, grapefruit juice, and tonic water,” Fan Jun used tongs to put ice cubes into the glass, stirring rapidly. “It would taste better with freshly squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice, but…”

He lowered his voice: “They don’t have it here.”

Zou Yang smiled and didn’t say anything.

A layer of frost quickly formed on the outside of the glass. He took the Campari, poured a shot into the jigger, then into the shaker. Next came the grapefruit juice, and then he added some ice cubes to the shaker.

His hands were trembling slightly from nervousness the entire time.

When he put the lid on and started shaking, he turned sideways, afraid his hand would slip and smash the shaker into Zou Yang’s face.

Once the drink was shaken, he poured it into the glass, and finally slowly topped it off with tonic water over the ice…

“Done,” Fan Jun pointed at the rim of the glass and placed it in front of Zou Yang. “Pretend there’s a slice of grapefruit here…”

Just as his hand was about to leave the glass, Zou Yang grabbed it.

Along with his right hand.

Fan Jun froze, looking at Zou Yang.

Zou Yang didn’t speak, not even looking at him; he just stared at the glass.

“Zou Yang?” he called out his name.

Zou Yang remained silent. He merely tightened his grip; his fingertips pressing against the back of Fan Jun’s hand were trembling slightly.

In his palm was the coldness of the glass, and on the back of his hand was the scorching heat of Zou Yang’s palm. Fan Jun felt his breathing become somewhat obstructed, ready to stop if he wasn’t careful.

He looked at Zou Yang. After a moment, he reached out his left hand, grabbed Zou Yang’s wrist, and slowly pulled his right hand out.