After finishing the dumplings, the old lady completely calmed down.

The old house couldn’t accommodate many people. Grandmother and grandson shared one room. Dai You slept alone on a single bed, Yu Fei ran to sleep in the rocking chair, while Xie Lan and Dou Sheng were assigned bunk beds—the beds Che Ziming and his cousin had slept in as children.

Time seemed to move slowly around old objects and elderly people. The night was long. Xie Lan curled up in the narrow children’s bed on the upper bunk. Though exhausted and sleepy, he kept waking up, then immediately falling back asleep upon waking.

The old alley was extremely quiet in the deep night—so quiet that each time he woke, he could hear Dou Sheng’s steady, even breathing from the bed below.

Xie Lan woke again and checked his phone: 01:15.

But the breathing below had stopped. He suddenly felt a bit insecure and groggily peered over the edge of the bed.

Dou Sheng lay on the bed with his hands pillowed under his head, staring absently at the courtyard wall outside the window.

As soon as Xie Lan’s head appeared, Dou Sheng snapped back to attention. “What’s wrong?”

“Can’t you sleep?” Xie Lan asked quietly.

Dou Sheng said softly, “I can sleep, just woke up for a bit. Remembered some things from the past and wasn’t so tired anymore.”

“Mm.” Xie Lan rested his chin on the railing, eyes closed, struggling to make his brain work for a moment. “How old were you?”

Dou Sheng’s lips curved. “Not that old. Have you woken up several times?”

Xie Lan hummed in agreement. “But I’m very sleepy.”

“I can tell.” Dou Sheng’s tone was somewhat gentle. “Sleep soundly. Tomorrow we’ll find a place to do homework. In the afternoon, I need to go home and record a video. In the evening, we’ll return to school together to move dorms. Your stuff…”

Xie Lan’s head disappeared from the railing. He collapsed directly onto the pillow, mumbling, “Stop talking, can’t understand anymore.”

In his sleep, he seemed to hear Dou Sheng’s low laughter.

The next morning, all the boys looked haggard.

Yu Fei wasn’t any more haggard than usual—probably didn’t have much room for further decline.

Che Ziming’s grandmother was so lucid it was almost absurd, as if she’d been playing with them yesterday. Bright and early, she energetically ran out to buy tofu pudding, steamed buns, and tea eggs. She barely ate any herself, instead sitting in the courtyard turning over drying sweet potato slices while watching the kids eat inside.

An old-style phone sat beside her, noisily playing news bulletins.

“Multi-vehicle pileup on Rangdong South Road, drivers please take caution.”

“Oil prices rise slightly today. No. 92 at 6.62 yuan per liter, No. 95 at 7.17 yuan per liter.”

“Pork prices have significantly dropped recently.”

Grandma paused it and turned toward the house. “Mingming, we haven’t made a big dish in quite a while. Want to eat hong shao rou (red-braised pork)?”

Che Ziming’s eyes lit up. “I want to eat hong shao beef tendon.”

“Forget it then.” The old lady waved her hand and continued listening to the news, muttering, “Beef prices are up. After they drop, I’ll buy more and stock up.”

Che Ziming: “…”

Dai You laughed while drinking his tofu pudding, nearly plunging headfirst into the bowl.

After a quick bite, everyone retreated. Che Ziming insisted on hypocritically seeing them off for ten meters to the courtyard gate. Passing the old lady who was sitting in her chair doing leg exercises, the broadcast happened to be saying, “Alzheimer’s disease prevalence is rising yearly. We call on everyone to care for community’s elderly.”

The old lady clicked her tongue and stopped the broadcast. “You definitely can’t get Alzheimer’s. Once you get it, you’re like an idiot.”

The five males in the courtyard were silent as chickens.

The old lady grabbed Che Ziming. “Our community seems to have quite a few cases. Later, you help me get in touch—I’ll participate in community charity work and bring them warmth.”

Che Ziming looked at her gloomily. “Are you serious?”

“I can even chat with them.” The old lady sighed. “Help them calculate vegetable and meat prices, exercise their brains, and have them learn from me.”

“…”

After a long while, Xie Lan vigorously shook his head. “Grandma, we’re leaving.”

“Bye-bye.” The old lady waved at them, then looked at Xie Lan and said, “Come play again next time. Grandma likes you.”

Xie Lan was stunned. “Okay.”

Dou Sheng came from behind and casually draped an arm over Xie Lan’s shoulder, half-pushing, half-supporting him to turn his head back. The two crossed the threshold together.

“We’re leaving, Grandma.” Dou Sheng called out.

Only after walking a few steps did Xie Lan hear him explain in a low voice: “When with elderly people, don’t show your emotions so obviously. It’s best if she forgets yesterday’s episode. Next time when she’s lucid, we’ll come visit her again.”

Xie Lan nodded.

The morning alley was lively and bustling with people coming and going. After walking a few steps, Xie Lan felt a bit crowded.

He glanced at Dou Sheng. “Can you not… what’s that verb?”

Yu Fei reminded from behind: “Drape.”

Xie Lan completed the sentence. “Can you not drape yourself on me?”

Dou Sheng didn’t move. “I’m playing my character.”

The wayward youth had struggled all night on the small bed. His hair was even more disheveled, those streaks of honey-gold practically gleaming in the sunlight, plus the ear stud stuck on his ear—eye-catching as hell.

Xie Lan irritably shifted his shoulder but didn’t shake him off. He said expressionlessly, “What does it have to do with me?”

“You’re the underling I recruited.” As Dou Sheng spoke, he pulled out his GoPro with his other hand.

Xie Lan wanted to hit someone, but seeing the camera raised, he hesitated and held back, maintaining a cold expression while letting him drape.

Dai You muttered from behind, “Xie Lan doesn’t like having an arm around him like that.”

“Really?” Dou Sheng asked quietly.

Xie Lan thought he would withdraw, but unexpectedly the arm on his shoulder pressed down even more.

Dou Sheng said softly, “Bear with it, young hero. If I don’t even have an underling, what kind of wayward youth am I?”

Xie Lan said expressionlessly, “Why choose me?”

“Dai You has the face of a study committee member, Yu Fei looks like he’s about to collapse any moment—I had no other choice.” Dou Sheng sighed. “Original content UP host—is it easy to stand out? Content production is hard.”

Xie Lan: “…”

Fair enough.

From South Alley through the winding lanes, turning a corner to the snack street at West Gate and walking to the end, there was a bookstore called “Honest Bookstore.”

“Let’s do homework here.” Yu Fei sighed. “Can’t walk anymore, I’m so tired.”

This shop mainly sold teaching materials and practice problems, with some comics and miscellaneous books too. Behind the bookshelves and on the second floor were spacious reading areas. It was Sunday now, and there were quite a few people studying, working, and chatting. The shop was noisy, with everyone immersed in their own business.

Dou Sheng and the others went to order drinks while Xie Lan went to find seats first.

All the individual four-person tables were occupied. At the long wooden table in the back, there were still a few scattered seats, but at most three people could sit together—one person would have to sit separately.

Just as Xie Lan was about to take his things to sit in a separate seat, a male student occupying a corner of the four-person table happened to look up. Seeing what was behind Xie Lan, his face showed shock, and he silently lifted his practice book and moved two seats over.

Xie Lan turned around to see Dou Sheng and Yu Fei approaching.

Dou Sheng scrolled through his phone expressionlessly, walking slowly, his expression carrying the irritability of not sleeping well. Yu Fei wore his usual droopy face. The two walking toward them, combined with Dou Sheng’s ripped jeans outfit, looked like they’d come to wreck the place.

Xie Lan was also stunned for a moment, then immediately realized he was with them and relaxed.

The four sat down. Dai You gave coffee to himself and Xie Lan, while the remaining milk teas were for Dou Sheng and Yu Fei.

Xie Lan opened his math practice problems and heard Yu Fei mutter, “Why even live? Might as well die.”

The passerby male student couldn’t help stealing another glance at him with horrified eyes.

Dou Sheng looked up. “What’s wrong?”

Yu Fei said with a droopy face, “Can’t figure out a problem.”

The passerby male student was stunned.

Yu Fei sighed and turned over the test paper printed with “Math Competition Sprint Problems – Mathematical Physics A,” facing it toward Dou Sheng and Xie Lan. He tapped his pen on the problem. “Only six problems assigned, can’t solve two. I’m really a waste.”

Dou Sheng glanced at it and cracked his neck. He hummed. “This problem really doesn’t seem difficult at all.”

Yu Fei: “…”

The passerby male student withdrew his gaze in confusion and stared somewhat absently at his own “Sophomore Math Foundation Reinforcement Set B.”

“Yesterday we were so busy with Grandma, our class group discussed this test paper for thousands of messages.” Dai You sighed. “Teacher Ma is really something. The homework seems like only six problems, but you might not finish them even in twenty hours.”

Xie Lan hadn’t started on math yet. He glanced at the problem statement—

[Given a positive integer n, exactly 36 different prime numbers divide n. For k=1, 2, …, 5, let… Prove that among 1<n₁<n₂<…<n₃₆, there exist…]

---

Author’s Note:

The keyboard typer went looking for Bean Egg with phone in hand.

At that moment, Bean Egg was passionately gaming and expressed great displeasure at being disturbed.

What? it asked.

The keyboard typer pointed at its egg-friends-circle profile picture: Why did you turn pink?

What’s wrong with being pink?

Bean Egg looked at her strangely: Didn’t I say? Love has budded—I need to give Lazy Egg a little hint.

The keyboard typer was silent for a moment: It might just think you’re a pervert.

How is that possible? Bean Egg went back to hammering at the game: Lazy Egg and I have a spiritual connection.