Therefore, even if he did not show up at the shop all day, no one dared to cause trouble here.
Around seven or eight in the evening, just as the sky was turning dark, Chen Hui sent his location to Song Feng. Boss Song gave his underlings a couple of instructions and headed out.
It was only two blocks away, not too far at all. The evening breeze felt pleasant, so he strolled leisurely toward the place.
.
There were no tables left inside the restaurant, so Shu Dong was sitting at an outdoor food stall. Yu Zhiyi did not like drinking beverages, so she poured two cups of warm water first, using her own cup to rinse the cutlery clean.
They had been together for two months. At this thought, Shu Dong's usually expressionless face softened somewhat.
Never in her life had she imagined she could be with someone as wonderful, as pristine, and as impossibly out of reach as him.
A small city's tolerance for women was very low. Shu Dong liked wearing spaghetti-strap tops simply because they were cool in the summer; she liked smoking simply to pass the time when she had nothing to do, much like a child who couldn't help eating candy despite knowing too much of it was bad.
Yet among everyone who knew her—or didn't know her at all, mere strangers passing by in the alley—anyone who saw her leaning against the old willow tree would cast strange looks her way.
Sometimes, the world's way of distinguishing between good and evil was thoroughly warped.
But Shu Dong didn't care. Growing up, there were very few things she cared about. It wasn't that she was cold, just somewhat quietly dull-witted.
Yet now she was with Yu Zhiyi. Knowing what he liked, Shu Dong had worn a dress today.
A white floral one.
After ten minutes or so, a young man peeked into the restaurant from the entrance. From five meters away, Shu Dong looked up and caught sight of that familiar back.
A white shirt and jeans.
In Shu Dong's cognitive world, there was not a second person in this city who wore a white shirt. He looked like the gentle upperclassman who always topped the grade rankings, and in truth, he really was just like that.
"Zhiyi, over here." Amidst the surrounding chatter and drinking, right next to the noisy street, Shu Dong waved at him.
Yu Zhiyi was about to step onto the threshold to go inside when he heard the familiar voice. He turned around, paused for two seconds after seeing where Shu Dong was sitting, and then walked over to her. "Why are you sitting out here?"
Shu Dong smiled and placed the menu in front of him. "There are no tables inside. Take a look and see what you'd like to order."
Standing by the table, Yu Zhiyi peered through the glass door into the restaurant and, seeing that it was indeed full, sat down opposite Shu Dong with a gentle smile. "Sorry, I got held up a bit just now."
In front of Yu Zhiyi, Shu Dong always felt somewhat unnatural, carrying a trace of an admiration she dared not touch. "It's fine, I just got here too."
At the thought of having dinner with him tonight, a subtle, elusive smile—so faint it seemed almost imperceptible—touched Shu Dong's face, more than usual.
They had only been together for two months, and the time they actually spent together was even shorter. To Shu Dong, this boyfriend still felt very unfamiliar.
"I had a lot of classes at school recently and couldn't come back to see you." As Yu Zhiyi looked over the menu, he glanced up at Shu Dong and suddenly felt a teasing urge. He leaned forward slightly. "Did you miss me?"
The hand holding Shu Dong's cup suddenly froze, and she stared blankly at Yu Zhiyi.
There were many ways to express panic and fluster—some people descended into chaos and turmoil, while others reacted like Shu Dong: a non-reaction, quietly dull-witted, freezing in place while her heart raced wildly, her face remaining entirely serene.
Yet in the eyes of others, she was simply aloof and unapproachable.
Yu Zhiyi's gaze remained fixed on her face, finding no shyness, blushing, panic, or even a hint of a smile. The smile at the corners of his lips remained gentle, though his gaze slowly withdrew.
In a relationship, while one person was still filled with naive anticipation, the other seemed already nearing the end.
"Studying comes first." Noticing his slowly withdrawing gaze, Shu Dong hastily smiled, the corners of her mouth turning up in a wide arc.
She knew there was something wrong with her: slow to warm up, emotionally deficient and unable to empathize with others.
Sometimes, she desperately wanted to change, but no one gave her the chance.
In the few months since they had met, this was the brightest smile Yu Zhiyi had ever seen from her. Glancing down past her neck, he realized for the first time how pretty the dress she wore today was.
Shu Dong hadn't finished what she wanted to say, yet didn't know how to continue, so she paused for a long time. Finally, lifting her lowered gaze, Shu Dong looked at him. "Anyway, I... my work is quite relaxed, so I can take time off to go see you in the future."
Yu Zhiyi attended university in the provincial capital, at one of the top-ranked schools in the country. He was a junior this year, and when the semester started again after the summer break, he would be a senior. As for Shu Dong, she had stopped studying after finishing middle school, which made her deeply envious of people who went to school. She always held an inexplicable reverence for those with good grades, coupled with a constant fear of disturbing him.
All sorts of people came in for tattoos, and she had seen every kind. But on that afternoon in early April, as she finished packing up her tools and looked up, she saw a poised, clean-cut young man walk into the shop.
She had never seen a young man wearing a white shirt before.
In her world, there had never been anyone so pristine; she didn't even have the basis to imagine it.
Hearing Shu Dong's words, Yu Zhiyi's lowered gaze froze for a few seconds before he looked up again with his familiar, gentle expression. "I'm starting my internship in a week. I'm afraid I won't have time to go out with you."
"An internship?" Shu Dong had never heard him mention it.
Yu Zhiyi beckoned a waiter over and ordered a few dishes. After ordering, he pulled out a tissue and wiped down the table. "Yeah, there are no classes for seniors. The school arranged an internship at the provincial television station."
Shu Dong nodded. She didn't understand these things, then asked softly, "Will you still be living at school?"
The water in the cup had hit rock bottom. Yu Zhiyi poured a cup for Shu Dong, then refilled his own. "The school is a bit far from the television station, so I might need to rent a place."
Shu Dong fell silent for a few seconds. "If you need money, I have..."
"So my girlfriend is quite wealthy, huh?" Yu Zhiyi interrupted before she could finish, teasing her while subtly refusing.
Shu Dong felt a bit embarrassed, a faint smile hanging at the corners of her lips. "Even though it's not much, I've been working for a while, so I can still help you out."
The ordered dishes were served one after another. Yu Zhiyi picked up a pair of disposable chopsticks, split them apart, and handed them to Shu Dong. "Don't overthink it. I'll figure something out in a couple of days."
.
Chen Hui's fair-weather friends had plans today, so in the end, it was just the two of them. Song Feng and Chen Hui ran into each other at the street corner. Just around the bend, barely ten meters away, Song Feng spotted her at a glance.
It felt as though he had never seen her smile before.
Yet right now, she was smiling.
Though it was very faint, almost invisible.
It looked somewhat awkward, just like the white dress she wore—awkward.
"...steamed bread slices, grilled gluten skewers, tendon crisps, mutton skewers, vegetable rolls..." Chen Hui rattled off a string of dishes, then looked up at Boss Song. "Is this enough?"
Song Feng: "Enough."
"Enough your head! You clearly weren't paying attention to a single word I said, acting like a lovesick dog all day!" Seeming to have found Song Feng's weak spot, Chen Hui poked relentlessly. "I'm telling you, if you don't eat the mutton skewers later, I..."
Flustered, Chen Hui choked on his words.
Song Feng's eardrum ached slightly, and he cast a sideways glance. "You, what?"
"I'll... beat you to death." Lacking in momentum.
While they were talking, the two of them had already arrived.
Seeing an empty table on the right, Chen Hui tugged Song Feng toward it. "Come on, Brother Feng, hurry up."
This barbecue joint was extremely busy, especially during the summer hours, so landing a table was a rare stroke of luck.
Chen Hui saved a seat for Song Feng, but Song Feng walked right past him to the opposite side and sat down. Chen Hui was stunned for just a second before following suit and sitting down, because thinking too hard about things always left him baffled.
Yet no sooner had Chen Hui sat down than his peripheral vision swept to the side, and he was instantly jolted with shock!
Sitting at the diagonal adjacent table was Yu Zhiyi.
Chen Hui looked up and frantically exchanged frantic winks with Song Feng. An older uncle sitting nearby glanced over, thinking Chen Hui was having eye spasms. But no matter how hard Chen Hui batted his eyelashes, Song Feng simply held the menu with serene detachment, calmly flipping through the pages.
Chen Hui gave up.
Yet he suddenly realized—did Boss Song know about this already? Otherwise, how could he remain completely immune to the mere mention of mutton skewers?
Chen Hui called over the waiter and reeled off a string of items like reciting a menu, but ultimately didn't dare utter the words "mutton skewers." Once he finished ordering, the waiter left.
Across the table, Boss Song was still flipping through the menu, having yet to finish reading it.
Shu Dong didn't turn her head, though the two fingers holding her cigarette rubbed against each other involuntarily. She picked up her cup, took a sip of water, and cast her gaze toward Yu Zhiyi.
Yet in her peripheral vision, that black stud earring occasionally caught the light.
The tables at the outdoor food stall were all rather low, with grown men drinking and chatting idly. In such a setting, plenty of people held cigarettes between their fingers.
As it happened, the person sitting right next to Yu Zhiyi had just lit a cigarette, and the smoke drifted on the breeze right toward his nose. Yu Zhiyi frowned and coughed twice, turning his head slightly.
Shu Dong saw his frown. She knew he hated smoke, even though she had never told him.
When Yu Zhiyi looked up, he suddenly found the person across the aisle somewhat familiar. "Chen Hui?"
The award-winning actor Chen Hui looked up in confusion, followed by pleasant surprise. "Yu Zhiyi! What are you doing here? What a coincidence, we haven't seen each other since graduation. It's been three years, and you haven't changed a bit. We should grab a meal together sometime!"
Song Feng's long, restless legs lashed out and kicked Chen Hui under the table.
"It really is a coincidence." Yu Zhiyi smiled and turned his head to look to his right. Since Chen Hui was sitting opposite him, the person over here had to be Song Feng.
Sure enough.
"I saw you when I came home back in April." Yu Zhiyi looked at Song Feng with his usual polite and gentle smile for everyone. "What have you been up to lately?"
The hand holding Shu Dong's chopsticks tightened gradually. Her gaze remained lowered, her face expressionless.
She hadn't expected them to know each other.
Her exhaled breath was long and steady. Ah, it had been a long time—Shu Dong didn't know what anger felt like... No, she had tasted it this afternoon.
She felt angry, guilty, and afraid.
Yet all these tiny movements were swallowed up by the chatter, the roar of cars speeding past on the street, and the protective shroud of the night.
It was just two people harboring guilty secrets, nothing more.
"Idling around, doing nothing." The heavens themselves couldn't perceive anything amiss with Shu Dong, but Song Feng could. He brazenly let his gaze fall upon her, a cynical, mocking smile still on his face as he played the loafer to the absolute hilt.
He was betting that Yu Zhiyi wouldn't want to admit it—at least not in front of him.
Sure enough, the atmosphere fell abruptly silent, though it was very brief.
"My girlfriend." After a two-second pause, Yu Zhiyi said with a smile, though the warmth didn't reach his eyes.
"Sister-in-law is gorgeous!" declared the award-winning actor Chen Hui.
Shu Dong froze for a moment, her lips curving unnaturally. "Thank you."
Song Feng poured himself a drink, paying the price of losing the bet.
"Brother Feng, what happened to your shirt?" Chen Hui leaned forward, thinking the lighting was too dim and he was seeing things. "How did that happen?"
Song Feng was still wearing the black T-shirt from the afternoon, and the scorched little hole on the chest was clearly visible.
A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he cast a casual, indifferent glance at Shu Dong. "Scratched by a stray cat."
Shu Dong slowly tightened her five fingers, her gaze turning slightly chilly.
Chen Hui wore the metro-uncle-reading-on-his-phone face. "...How come I didn't know? When did you get a cat?"
"Today."
Shu Dong picked at her food, tasting nothing.
"Are you done eating?" She put down her chopsticks and asked Yu Zhiyi.
Normally when the two of them went out, as long as Yu Zhiyi didn't stand up, Shu Dong would always sit quietly listening to him talk, smiling softly without making a fuss.
"Let's sit a bit longer, let me introduce you." Unaware of Shu Dong's strangeness—though to be fair, in everyone's eyes she looked no different than usual, always wearing that slightly aloof expression—Yu Zhiyi reached his hand out to the right and said to Shu Dong, "This is Chen Hui, and this is Song Feng. They're both high school classmates of mine."
They were actually classmates? Shu Dong had assumed he, like her, had stopped studying early on.
Following the direction of Yu Zhiyi's outstretched hand, she looked over. To be precise, this was the first time Shu Dong had really looked at him this evening.
"Hello, I'm Shu Dong."
Song Feng set down his wine glass, his Adam's apple bobbing prominently. He swept a glance over Shu Dong and said with a smile, "We've met."
In an instant, both Shu Dong and Yu Zhiyi froze slightly.
Chen Hui also glanced at Boss Song, unsure what he was trying to pull. He simply felt a surge of secret excitement, but unable to show it, he buried his head and ate voraciously. Before long, a pile of skewers had stacked up beside his hand.
Shu Dong had thought he would pretend not to know her.
As for Yu Zhiyi, his fingers involuntarily clenched in a blind spot where nobody could see. They knew each other? It felt as though someone had suddenly ripped away the white cloth concealing something he desperately wanted to keep hidden.
"Is that so? What a coincidence." Yu Zhiyi remained plastered in smiles.
Song Feng caught every subtle micro-expression on his face, the smile at the corner of his mouth tinged with mockery as he drawled unhurriedly, "My internet cafe is right next to her tattoo shop."
If that piece of white cloth had only been lifted halfway just now, at this moment it was stripped away entirely, without a shred of cover remaining.
Yu Zhiyi's smile grew even more genial, as if using it to mask his guilty conscience.
Song Feng suddenly felt that his bet hadn't been wrong. Yu Zhiyi daring to acknowledge her was one thing—after all, she wasn't bad-looking, so what was there not to acknowledge?
However, if the good-looking girl happened to be an uneducated little tattoo artist, that was an entirely different story.
Yu Zhiyi didn't want others to know, especially Song Feng.
"You opened an internet cafe?" Yu Zhiyi asked, genuinely surprised.
Whether the surprise was real or put on, at any rate, the topic he wished to avoid had been bypassed. Of course Song Feng couldn't care less.
"Yeah."
The reply was utterly casual. Between him and Yu Zhiyi, there was no need to put on a show of brotherly affection; they were the kind of people who would gladly grind each other into the dirt and rub salt in the wound. But Yu Zhiyi was different—he always loved wearing that mask of a smile, acting like that with everyone.
And everyone firmly believed that he really was like that: so polite, so sensible.
Song Feng desperately wanted to tear off that hypocritical skin of his.
Feeling the palpable stiffness in the air, Shu Dong glanced diagonally across, listening in silence while occasionally sipping her water.
The mountain of barbecue on the plate was shrinking at a visible rate, while the pile of skewers beside Chen Hui was growing at an equally visible rate. Despite being so thin, his stomach could hold three fat men.
"When did that happen? I never heard any of our classmates mention it." Yu Zhiyi didn't turn around, chatting as he ate.
The two tables were squeezed so close together they were practically connected without even needing to be pushed up against each other. The two men chatted back and forth like this. Although Boss Song's attitude was somewhat perfunctory, neither of them suggested pushing the tables together; that half-meter-wide gap was their final shred of stubborn pride.
"Half a year ago." Seeing Chen Hui eating with such single-minded devotion across from him, Song Feng couldn't help laughing. "Slow down, Daddy isn't going to steal it from you."
As he was biting down to strip the meat off a skewer, Chen Hui froze. "...Fuck!"
"Weren't you attending a junior college? Why did you quit?" Yu Zhiyi's expression was unreadable when he asked this.
Sometimes, when a person wanted to understand your situation, it wasn't out of concern, but rather because watching you live a mediocre, wasting-your-life existence gave them peace of mind.
"We're all just drifting along, no difference." Perhaps stimulated by Chen Hui's appetite, Song Feng picked up a skewer of some unknown meat and ate leisurely.
Yu Zhiyi frowned. After a two-second pause, he turned his body to face Song Feng. "You only had half a year left. Even if Hecheng's junior colleges are mediocre, having a diploma is still better than..."
A sharp metallic clatter rang out as Song Feng shoved an iron skewer straight into the tabletop.
For a moment, absolute silence fell.
Shu Dong looked at the two of them, wanting to pull Yu Zhiyi away. Chen Hui also dropped the tendon skewer in his hand, staring fixedly at Yu Zhiyi, ready to pounce at the slightest signal from Boss Song.
"Yu Zhiyi." Song Feng also canted his body sideways, though his gaze landed directly on Yu Zhiyi's arm, carrying undisguised, mocking contempt.
Song Feng didn't care to watch this performance of righteous concern.
Following his gaze, Shu Dong looked over and saw the long scar on Yu Zhiyi's arm. She had seen it when he came in for a tattoo earlier, but she had never asked about it.
That scar was Song Feng's handiwork, inflicted on the very first day after the college entrance exams. If Chen Hui hadn't stepped in to stop them, it wouldn't have been just a simple scar.
Some things didn't need to be spelled out; they were all sensible adults. Yu Zhiyi glanced at the scar, showing no anger or fury, but rather a hint of grim satisfaction. "Let's catch up another time."
The food had grown cold, and the atmosphere had stiffened.
"Let's go." Without waiting for Yu Zhiyi's reply, Shu Dong walked away from the table.
Throwing one last glance at Song Feng, Yu Zhiyi hurried after Shu Dong. "Wait a second, I'll go pay the bill."
Two meters away, Shu Dong turned around. "I already paid."
Yu Zhiyi stared at her for a moment, then smiled. "I said I was treating you to dinner."
The two of them walked side by side, their voices fading into the distance.
The streetlamps cast a dim, yellowish glow, and the gentle breeze swayed the hanging lights back and forth. Song Feng watched the elongated pair of shadows cast on the ground, seemingly looking at neither of them, before raising a hand to pour himself another drink.
Yu Zhiyi had things on his mind, and Shu Dong didn't bother him, so the two walked on in silence. As they rounded the street corner, Shu Dong said, "You'll be interning and renting a place soon... try to spend less elsewhere."
The "elsewhere" Shu Dong was referring to was none other than herself, which was why she had sneaked off to pay the bill while he wasn't paying attention. Naturally, Yu Zhiyi understood.
distracted for the entire walk, Yu Zhiyi finally snapped back to reality and gently pulled Shu Dong into his hand. "Thank you."
She was a good girl, and for a split second just now, he had been genuinely touched, but... let nature take its course.
The streetlamps along this road were spaced far apart, plunging the path into dim light. The roadside trees cast crisscrossing shadows under the illumination of the lamps and the moon. Hand in hand, walking silently beside him, the corners of Shu Dong's eyes lifted slightly.
She had never been in a relationship before, so she didn't know what state two people together should be in, nor whether she was doing a good job. But being with him, she wanted to treat him well and also wanted to become a better version of herself.
"Is your place this way? I'll walk you home." Reaching a crossroad, Yu Zhiyi asked somewhat uncertainly.
"It's just up ahead, we'll be there in a few minutes." Shu Dong knew he wasn't in a great mood today, even though she had no idea what had transpired between them. "Hurry home and get some rest."
Yu Zhiyi didn't insist, reaching out to stroke her hair. "Can you manage by yourself?"
Shu Dong smiled. "Mhm, I can."
"Give me a call when you get home."
"Okay."
At the crossroad, the two of them parted ways, heading in opposite directions.