After eating the cake, the two nestled on the sofa watching an old movie. Cheng Lele had played wildly all day. After eating sweets, she was already starting to get sleepy. Chen An told her to go to bed, but she refused, sitting cross-legged there dozing. Chen An had to leave early the next morning. She couldn’t bear to part with him and vowed to persist until the last moment.

But her eyelids were too heavy. Before long she was dozing off again. Her head tilted crookedly, raven-feather lashes resting on her eyelids, catching the blue light from the TV, quiet as a little angel.

Chen An gently pulled her in, and Cheng Lele fell onto his lap.

She woke for a moment but didn’t open her eyelids. Before, once she fell asleep, no amount of jostling would wake her. But ever since sleeping with Mom, she had become much more alert—the slightest sound could startle her.

She wanted to struggle up, but her body craved the familiar scent on little brother. She curled up lazily, thinking she’d get up after lying here one more minute, then her consciousness became fuzzy again.

Half dreaming, half awake, she felt skin brush across her face, as if little brother’s hand was touching her face. She thought it was a dream and ignored it, just turned over and continued sleeping.

After a while, her body began swaying up and down. She opened her eyes slightly and found herself being carried by little brother toward her room.

So earlier really was a dream.

After that little nap, she was now somewhat more awake. Just as she was about to get down, her body had already touched the soft bed. The room light wasn’t on—the thin moonlight from outside the window was the only light source. Little brother walked over to draw the curtains. There were soft footsteps in the room, but they only sounded a few times, and she didn’t hear the door closing.

Cheng Lele closed her eyes again. Drowsiness struck once more. She vaguely wondered, did little brother leave?

At that moment, a mint scent suddenly came to her nose. That was the shampoo scent little brother commonly used.

That fragrance lingered above her face for a few seconds. Suddenly, a soft, dry sensation came to her lips. That sensation stayed for probably less than a second, then suddenly swept away. She heard little brother softly say by her ear: “Darling treasure, happy birthday.”

Footsteps sounded again, and the door closed too.

Her head exploded with a “boom.” Cheng Lele sat up rigidly from the bed, touching her lips and thinking: Hallucination???

She was completely not okay. She stayed motionless on the bed as if someone had pressed her acupuncture points for quite a while, then suddenly threw off the blanket and got out of bed.

Little brother kissed her?!

Why?!

She paced back and forth by the bed endlessly.

Was little brother drunk?

No, they didn’t drink today!

Didn’t traffic drugs, but took drugs?

She wanted to run upstairs and get to the bottom of it, but didn’t dare. She had a rough guess in her heart, but didn’t want to face it or believe it. She wanted to ask someone else, but Chen Xiaomu didn’t even know that Chen An wasn’t her biological brother—how could she bring it up?

Thinking this way, a mohawk head floated into her mind.

She took out her phone and called Zhong Ming.

The phone rang many times before being answered.

“Brother Zhong, today is my birthday.”

Zhong Ming at this time was already asleep at school. Hearing the voice, he said unclearly: “Happy birthday, bye-bye.”

“Not bye-bye. Brother Zhong, I have a friend with an urgent matter who wants to ask you something.”

Zhong Ming squinted at the time on his phone: “Middle of the night—is a ghost knocking on the door, so urgent?”

Cheng Lele was afraid Zhong Ming would hang up and quickly said: “Scarier than a ghost knocking.”

Zhong Ming sat up, walked outside the dorm and lit a cigarette to wake himself up: “Speak.”

Cheng Lele said urgently: “Brother Zhong, I have this friend. She has a really, really close brother, and then suddenly this brother while she was sleeping—”

“Holy crap, what did he do to you?” Zhong Ming was startled by Cheng Lele’s description.

Cheng Lele said: “Just, kissed once.”

Zhong Ming: “…”

Cheng Lele didn’t hear any movement from the other side: “Aren’t you shocked? A brother kissing his sister, mouth to mouth!”

Zhong Ming asked: “But aren’t those two not blood-related?”

“But he’s her brother.”

“Aren’t they not blood-related?”

“But he’s her brother.”

“Aren’t they not blood-related?!”

Cheng Lele was furious: “How do you know my friend and her brother aren’t blood-related?”

Zhong Ming was about to roll his eyes. In the middle of the night, he was actually having such a moronic conversation with an idiot—it was simply an insult to his intelligence.

He took a fierce drag on his cigarette and said: “Then ask your friend—after her brother kissed her, what did she feel?”

“Oh my god, the sky is about to fall. Why? Tell me why?”

Zhong Ming asked back: “A man kisses a woman—you tell me why?”

Cheng Lele started repeating again: “But he’s her brother!”

Zhong Ming: “Do you have anything else? If not, I’m hanging up.”

Cheng Lele shouted: “No no no. I just don’t really understand how it suddenly, ah, went bad?”

“Maybe it didn’t just go bad now. You, have your friend think back carefully. Feelings can’t be completely airtight—there must be traces to follow. Were there any clues left before?”

Cheng Lele thought for a long time: “What kind counts as clues?”

“Things you think siblings generally wouldn’t do.”

Cheng Lele pondered for a long time and asked: “Does it count that today he gave me an apartment?”

Zhong Ming: “Fuck.” Didn’t want to deal with this anymore. “What else?”

“Nothing else. We, I mean, my friend and her brother have always been very close, not that kind of close—you know, like twins? The two have understanding, are familiar with each other’s preferences, think of each other first for everything, like playing together, want to be better people for each other…”

Zhong Ming: “Siblings generally aren’t like that.”

“You and your non-blood-related sister don’t count.”

Zhong Ming: “If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”

Cheng Lele: “Brother Zhong, Brother Zhong, what should I do?”

“If you can’t figure it out for now, just play dead—pretend this didn’t happen.”

“But it already happened.”

“That’s why I said pretend.”

“Brother Zhong, why are you so fierce today?”

“Try being woken up in the middle of the night?”

“Oh, then how do I play dead?”

“You don’t even know how to play dead? Just keep getting along with your little brother like before. Hey Lele, your college entrance exam is coming up soon. If you can’t figure it out, don’t think about it—talk about it after the exam. In our country, all major life events must cross the hurdle of the college entrance exam. On this side of the hurdle is puppy love, on that side is romance between men and women. Your little brother just didn’t understand this point, thinking at eighteen there are no taboos. He seems pretty smart, so how come he couldn’t hold back and wait one more month for you? Turns out he’s also a fool.”

“How could my little brother be a fool? You Z University people are all his PLAN B that he looks down on.”

“Hanging up.”

The other end of the phone was left with only beeping sounds.

Cheng Lele hugged her phone and knelt by the bed, burying her head in the blanket. From far away, she looked like a confused ostrich.