five years ago.

S city, old town.

The night when Shen Zhong secretly left his aunt's house for the last time.

On the bridge.

A dark river flows under the bridge.

Shen Zhan stood on the river, wearing the blue and white uniform of his middle school. The street lights were lonely, and he felt creepy and cold.

"If you jump from here..." he said softly.

"...If you jump from here, your bones will be shattered and nothing will be left behind."

Shen finally looked back.

The young man dressed in black had been standing here for who knows how long. He was wearing sunglasses, only revealing his jade-white chin.

Pursing his lips.

Lips pursed into a thin line.

"Really."

"Um."

"...but some people don't." Shen Zhong said.

Shen finally thought that the young people didn't understand anything. But they all fell silent.

The river flowed quietly. Shen finally remembered that he seemed to have been here five years ago. That day he watched life disappear under Gu Ruochao's light sign. He held Gu Ruochao's hand and ran through the streets and alleys of the old city. He forced himself to Calmly send Gu Ruochao away.

Then he also came here.

Shen Zhong didn't know why, but wanted to talk.

"...I have a friend." He said, "He died by jumping off a building."

It's Gu Ruochao.

"I also have a friend. He jumped off a building and died." The young man said, "He was a reporter."

It's the order of the pool.

They all have friends. It's just that one of them wants to die, and the other wants to live.

"...But he didn't regard me as a friend." The young man continued.

"Why?"

"If he regarded me as a friend, he would not die." The young man said, "He should have trusted me, but..."

——If he regarded me as a friend, he would not die. Shen Zhong also thought.

Gu Ruochao...

Shen Zhong suddenly felt that this feeling was very strange. Although he and the young man were strangers to each other, they seemed to be standing on the front and back of the city in the shadow. Asking questions to that person was like asking questions to himself.

"Did you do something?" Shen finally asked.

Just like he still couldn't let go of Gu Ruochao's "death".

After a long time, the young man spoke.

"I have done everything, but I have accomplished nothing." He said softly. Shen finally felt something in his heart.

"Me too." He said, "But why."

"..."

"...Because he and I will never be the same person."

The sound of the river flows like a sigh.

The two of them were sitting by the bridge, holding hot milk that the young man bought from a convenience store.

"Are you an actor?" Shen Zhong said suddenly.

"How did you guess it?"

"Only actors would wear sunglasses on such a dark day."

"Pfft." The young man smiled, "Maybe so. What about you, what do you want to do when you grow up?"

Shen Zhong didn't know that this was the young man's first laugh in a while.

"...Go to a place where no one will notice." Shen Zhong said dullly.

"People in places where no one notices them attract more attention..."

The young man actually did not deny him, nor did he ask why.

"so what should I do now?"

Then go to the most lively place in the world.

Replace the old name with a new name. Cover the old footprints with new ones. Cut off the old bonds with a new future.

"What if you just want to stand here...and don't want to go any further?"

"Then there will be no new future. But if you don't want to leave, that's okay."

If you want to do anything, you can.

Not all chance encounters will be remembered. Not all faces will be engraved in memory.

Whether it was five years ago or ten years ago.

It was only after returning home that Shen finally realized that he had dropped something on the bridge.

But it's not something important.

…

"My brother's house has four rooms and two living rooms. One room belongs to him, one room belongs to his parents, one room is the study room, and the other room is the guest room... Um, there is no bed in the study room. Which room do you live in?"

As soon as Yu Qichen turned around, he saw...

Yi Wan naturally started to move around the room.

Yu Qichen:......

Should I say that I am Asperger's?

"I..." Yu Qichen continued.

"Do you want to sleep in the guest room?" Yi Wan said.

The tone was very calm.

Yu Qichen: ...Although I want to sleep in the guest room, don’t you have any selfish desire to sleep in my brother’s room?

"Okay, my brother's room is this one..."

Then he turned around and saw Yi Wan lying on the floor-to-ceiling window of the balcony of the living room.

"There is no moon." Yi Wan said.

Yu Qichen: "...I say, this is the first time you come to someone else's home, at least you should show a little politeness and shyness!!"

Yi Wan: "There is no moon."

...Not this change of tone! And what’s wrong with the moon?

Seeing Yi Wan looking up attentively on the balcony, Yu Qichen was speechless: "I really don't know how you and Yu Rongshi get along, two weirdos..."

I feel like Yi Wan is the kind of person he can't stand up to at all.

Yi Wan answered quickly this time: "Yu Rongshi doesn't want to care about me."

Yu Qichen: "I'm not asking you to answer this kind of question quickly!"

"This room on the left is Yu Rongshi's room. You can go in and sleep. Changes of sheets are in the closet." Yu Qichen took out the key.

Just as he was about to enter, Yi Wan stood beside him without blinking: "But why did you go into the study?"

Yu Qichen:???

With the doors closed, how did Yi Wan determine that this room was a study.

Yi Wan said: "Based on the direction of the room and the size of the room..."

Yu Qichen was dumbfounded.

Yi Wan: "Well, it's because I just saw the inside of this room from the balcony..."

Yu Qichen:......

"I kind of understand why you and Yu Rongshi...hehe." Yu Qichen said to himself, "Yu Rongshi usually doesn't let me in. But this time I went in to get documents. I got documents to prove that Yu Rongshi didn't evade taxes. Tax evasion..."

The study door opened.

Yu Qichen went to open the safe. Yi Wan followed him into the study. Things in the study were neatly arranged.
To be continued...