“Looks like she’s not interested in you,” Zhu Yangqi continued to stir the pot.
“Yeah, she’s not interested in me,” Chen Luzhou tossed his phone back onto the bed and continued replacing the battery of his drone to charge it. He spoke without emotion, “So, use your eyes and stop bringing up nonsense in front of her in the future.”
Zhu Yangqi nodded, thinking to himself: I thought you had an irresistible charm, your dog. Being able to eat alone together is somewhat ambiguous, isn’t it? Fine, fine, I won’t tease you about it anymore. How pitiful.
Chen Luzhou finished tidying up his things. He sat hunched over, both elbows resting on his knees, in a posture of indifference. He stared at the shoes he had just pulled out of his suitcase, seemingly hesitating whether to wear them or not.
Zhu Yangqi noticed and said, “Wow, that color is nice, quite flashy. Is it the pair you bought last time? I’ve rarely seen you wear them. Didn’t you always dislike these colorful, contrasting styles?”
“Are you annoying on purpose?” he said, lowering his head and enunciating each word, “Mind. Your. Own. Business.”
Okay then. Young Master Chen was not in a good mood. Zhu Yangqi, being a man who knew when to back off, still hoped Chen would take photos for him to post on WeChat and show off later that night. So he made a zipping motion across his lips.
At ten o’clock, the two of them carried their equipment downstairs. Chen Luzhou was still dressed all in black, with a messenger bag slung loosely across his back. He hadn’t changed his shoes, still wearing the same black pair—clean and efficient. In contrast, Zhu Yangqi, perhaps inspired by Chen Luzhou, was dressed in a riot of colors, looking like a cheerful Christmas tree. So when Xu Zhi and her friends came down, they first noticed Zhu Yangqi: “So bright, Brother Zhu.”
Zhu Yangqi had repeated a year, making him older than the rest of them. When Cai Yingying called him that, it didn’t seem out of place.
Xu Zhi had borrowed a car from Fu Yuqing. There was still a stretch of mountain road to drive before reaching the spot to watch the meteor shower. Chen Luzhou put the equipment in the trunk and was about to open the driver’s door when he saw Xu Zhi hesitating to get in.
“What’s up? Want to drive?” he asked lazily, glancing at her from behind. You’re quite the daredevil, always testing the limits of the law.
Xu Zhi turned to look at him, “No, I’m wondering if there’s enough gas. Did you fill up for Uncle Fu last time we came back?”
Chen Luzhou opened the car door, leaned in to press the start button, then got out, “It’s enough. I’m going down tomorrow, I’ll fill it up for him then.”
“You’re going down again tomorrow? What for?” Xu Zhi asked as she opened the car door. If you’re not interested in me, don’t ask so many questions.
Chen Luzhou didn’t answer. He fastened his seatbelt, and Zhu Yangqi in the passenger seat also asked curiously, “You’re going down again tomorrow?”
As the car slowly started, Chen Luzhou turned the steering wheel and gave a noncommittal “Mm,” before adding, “My mom wants to see me.”
Seeing Xu Zhi’s eyes light up in the rearview mirror, he quickly cleared his throat and said preemptively, “Not this time. I’ll introduce you guys some other time.”
Chen Luzhou was just fucking speechless, introducing his mother to others.
Xu Zhi gave an “Oh” and didn’t say anything more. Chen Luzhou glanced at her slowly through the rearview mirror, also not wanting to speak anymore.
What are you sulking about?
Driving at night was quite thrilling, especially on mountain roads. It was pitch black, with only faint moonlight. The car’s high beams couldn’t reach the end of the road, and the mountain path kept getting narrower. Even a wild cat darting out could make one’s heart race. It was more exciting than an adventure. Chen Luzhou was probably driving at night for the first time too. Everyone in the car was quite tense. Zhu Yangqi and Cai Yingying each had one hand tightly gripping the overhead handles, trembling with fear. Xu Zhi, on the other hand, looked relatively calm.
It wasn’t that scary, but Zhu Yangqi and Cai Yingying, being the mood-makers they were, would cry out at the slightest rustle from the roadside. Xu Zhi couldn’t stand it anymore and used her trump card: “How about this, Chen Luzhou, you get out and I’ll drive.”
Zhu Yangqi and Cai Yingying were horrified and spoke in unison, “No way! You don’t even have a license!”
Xu Zhi looked at them sideways with a composed expression, “Then you two be quiet. It’s noisy.”
Chen Luzhou carelessly turned a corner and said, “Zhu Yangqi, go sit in the back. You’re affecting my driving.”
Zhu Yangqi held onto the handle with a face that said, “Am I interfering with your flirting?” But he still had enough self-awareness to say, “Xu Zhi, let’s switch. Someone thinks I’m noisy.”
Xu Zhi glanced at Chen Luzhou, but he wasn’t looking at her, focused on driving. “Oh, okay,” she said.
The second half of the journey was indeed much quieter. However, the atmosphere in the car was somewhat fractured. The two in the front didn’t say a word, quiet as mice. The two in the back, on the other hand, bickered passionately the whole way, from celebrity gossip to school gossip, with clear opposing viewpoints.
“I just like her, okay? What’s wrong with that? She’s been in the industry for so many years without any scandals. Her acting might be a bit lacking, but can’t we give her some room to grow? Speaking of which, there’s a girl at our school who looks just like her.”
“Is Gu Yan from your school?”
“That’s who I’m talking about. She’s my classmate.”
“Wow, she’s really beautiful. But I heard her private life is a bit messy?”
“Messy my ass.”
Cai Yingying was furious, “Zhu Yangqi, how dare you curse? Do you have a secret crush on her or something?”
“Half the guys in our school have a secret crush on her. So what? Besides, don’t believe everything you hear. She’s not that bad, and she’s quite hardworking for a girl.”
In front of outsiders, Zhu Yangqi still defended the girls from his school. Indeed, many people who didn’t know Gu Yan had labeled her, not just Cai Yingying. To add persuasiveness, he even brought Chen Luzhou into it. This seemed to be a unique solidarity among the boys from No. 1 High School, perhaps out of some sense of collective honor. They were indeed quite protective of the girls from their school. “Isn’t that right? Gu Yan is hardworking.”
Chen Luzhou was almost at the observation point, which had a slope. He slowly pressed the brake to slow down and only gave an “Mm” before asking Xu Zhi, “Can you check if we can go up that way? There’s a rock on this side. I can’t see clearly.”
Cai Yingying couldn’t be bothered to argue with him anymore. It wasn’t her business anyway. She was just curious and gossiping earlier, but she got snubbed, so she decided not to pay attention to Zhu Yangqi anymore.
Xu Zhi lowered the car window and looked out, “You can. Turn the steering wheel to the right first, then back out a bit.”
“Mm.”
“Chen Luzhou, I said turn to the right.”
“I know. Can’t you see there’s a rock on my side?” He gave her a cold glance.
Xu Zhi said “Oh,” and Cai Yingying angrily burst out, “Why are you being mean to her?”
Before Chen Luzhou could say anything, Xu Zhi turned back to look at Cai Yingying, puzzled, “He’s not being mean to me. Isn’t this how he always talks?”
What do you mean, how I always talk? I was being mean.
Chen Luzhou turned off the engine, pulled up the handbrake with a sense of defeat, and leaned back lazily in the driver’s seat, saying, “We’re here.”
You really can’t tell that I’m a bit upset, can you?
Mingling Mountain had several meteor shower observation points, and this place was just one of them. Although there weren’t many people on the mountain now, most high school seniors were on vacation, and there were still many people escaping the summer heat. The other observation points would be packed. Chen Luzhou had checked several points and chose this one based on overall conditions. This point had everything going for it—fewer people, good positioning—except it was a bit small, and surrounded by messy undergrowth, rarely visited. Probably not many people came here regularly.
As soon as Cai Yingying got out of the car, she forgot about the earlier unpleasantness. She hugged herself, shivering, “It’s so cold! It’s so desolate here, will there be snakes?”
Xu Zhi asked Chen Luzhou, who was setting up equipment nearby, “Can you two catch snakes?”
Chen Luzhou fixed the tripod, took out the camera from his bag, and casually pressed the shutter a few times to check the light. “Are you scared?” he asked.
Xu Zhi looked around, “Yeah, I am.”
Chen Luzhou lowered his head, focusing intently on adjusting the wide-angle lens: “What a coincidence, I’m scared too.”
Xu Zhi let out an “Ah,” hearing the rustling of leaves all around, “Then what should we do?”
Chen Luzhou glanced at her and said, “Run. Can’t you? Snakes move slowly when they crawl. I can’t catch up with you. Worst case, I’ll cover for you later.”
To his surprise, Xu Zhi sighed, “If I’d known, I would have asked Uncle Fu to come too.”
Near the observation point was a pool of clear spring water, so clear you could see the bottom. The color was even greener than jade. The spring was gurgling steadily. Chen Luzhou took a photo of the spring, which gave off a mysterious green glow. He deleted it and asked coldly while deleting, still looking down, “Do you regret coming with me?”
“Not really,” Xu Zhi said, “Uncle Fu knows how to catch snakes. Do you know how much a snake from these mountains can sell for? Tell me, if five thousand yuan were lying on the ground, would you pick it up?”
Chen Luzhou: “…”
Is there anything else in your eyes besides money?
“If you got bitten by five thousand yuan, do you think it would be worth it?” Chen Luzhou said.
“That’s why I asked if you know how to catch them,” Xu Zhi said, while carelessly fiddling with a long-abandoned barbecue grill. “Are you hungry? I feel like this grill could still be used if we clean it. There are fish by the spring, we could catch some and grill them.”
As she finished speaking, she was about to dismantle the grill. Chen Luzhou, quick as lightning, grabbed her wrist and pulled her away with disgust, “Don’t you know how dirty that is?”
Xu Zhi stumbled from his pull, her head bumping into his chest. But since he had a camera hanging from his neck, her chin directly hit the camera lens, knocking the lens cap off. Xu Zhi remained silent after the collision.
Chen Luzhou didn’t let go of her hand. Her wrist was very thin, easily encompassed by his grip. He lowered his head, wanting to see where she had hit herself. Xu Zhi, probably feeling this gesture was too intimate, retreated a step. Chen Luzhou, completely unaware that he was still holding her wrist, only knew that this impact must have been quite hard and likely caused bleeding. The last time Chen Xingqi fought with him over the camera, he even knocked out a tooth, leaving blood on the lens cap. At this moment, he couldn’t care less about holding hands or not.
“Let me see,” he said, for the first time with a coaxing tone. “Where did you hit? You even knocked my lens cap off.”
Xu Zhi glanced at him, one hand still caught in his grip, the other covering her chin, asking somewhat embarrassedly, “Is it expensive?”
Chen Luzhou: “…”
It was Zhu Yangqi who came to smooth things over, “Why are you still holding her hand? If you’ve taken enough advantage, let go quickly.”
Only then did Chen Luzhou realize. He looked down, and as if touching a hot potato, he flung her hand away. Once again, he put on an aloof expression and shoved his hands back into his pockets, then bent down to pick up the lens cap that had been knocked off earlier.
In the quiet forest, the mountain wind seemed to howl. The rustling of leaves and the gurgling of the spring could not cover the sound of his frantically beating heart.
Zhu Yangqi, still fearless, leaned in and whispered in his ear, “Your ears are red.”
Cai Yingying had just spread out the picnic tablecloth. Chen Luzhou moved the bags off it, sat down cross-legged, and picked up the camera hanging from his neck. He flipped through the photos he had just taken and readjusted the wide-angle lens. “It’s cold,” he said.
Zhu Yangqi: “Coward.”
Chen Luzhou: “Mm, I’m a coward.”
The meteor shower arrived as promised. The originally quiet mountaintop suddenly became lively. Mingling Mountain wasn’t very big and had several observation points. Chen Luzhou had chosen the one with the fewest people, but the observation points weren’t far apart. The wind carried various bursts of screams and cheers from all directions, echoing in their ears.
Cai Yingying and Xu Zhi stood in front of them. Cai Yingying was excited, clasping her hands together, “Quick, quick! Make a wish! Get rich! I want to get rich! I want to be beautiful!”
Chen Luzhou missed the first shot, and the next few he captured were a bit blurry. He lowered his camera. Zhu Yangqi saw him intently checking something on his phone and anxiously said, “Bro! Hurry up and take photos, okay? Don’t think about other stuff now! It’s so spectacular!”
Tonight was estimated to have about thirty meteors, with four or five having already passed, averaging one every 5 seconds.
When the tenth meteor streaked by, Chen Luzhou checked his watch. He took a step back, leaned back slightly, and then slowly aimed his lens at the vast starry sky, framing both the people and the expected meteor points in the night sky. Amidst the fervent cheers, Zhu Yangqi heard him call out softly—
“Xu Zhi, turn and look at me.”