Before Xie Yichen could respond, the server arrived at that moment and brought everything out at once — the fried chicken and the steak together.

The topic was interrupted. Zhang Yuge took the opportunity to ask the server: “Can we use discount vouchers here? I think you gave some out last time I came.”

The server asked him to show them, so Zhang Yuge pulled out his phone to find the screenshots.

Server: “This voucher requires you to share a link in a group chat and have friends help activate it before it takes effect.”

Zhang Yuge: “Oh? Can I still do that now in time?”

The server replied: “It’s too late — vouchers can’t be used on the same day they’re activated.”

Xie Yichen checked his phone briefly. Ning Sui had just sent him a message: 【How’s it going? They’re not upset, are they?】

Only she would think to consider that. Xie Yichen smiled a little and replied: 【Haven’t told them yet】

Suisui Suisui Suisui: 【Oh】

Suisui Suisui Suisui: 【I just noticed the photo you sent — there are quite a few pretty girls in it.】

Xie Yichen genuinely hadn’t paid any attention. He’d snapped the photo casually to one side, not noticing anyone in frame. He pulled it back up to look — and indeed, along the edge, two blurry, indistinct figures had been caught on the periphery.

This girl’s talent for turning things around was always impressive. Xie Yichen replied with perfectly unruffled composure: 【Where? I don’t see anyone】

Suisui Suisui Suisui: 【Right in the corner — really obvious】

Xie Yichen went through his photo album and found two individual photos of Ning Sui — one where she was holding balloons, and one she’d posted on WeChat Moments during military training. Using the lasso tool in his phone’s editing app, he carefully cut out her figure from each and pasted both of them into the corners of the bar photo, then sent it to her.

Oreo: 【Oh】

Oreo: 【Found them】

He said, with a tone of ambiguous meaning: 【Pretty obvious, isn’t it】

No reply from her end.

Xie Yichen looked down and smiled again. Zhang Yuge was still too preoccupied to notice his expression — he was busy arguing with the server over why the voucher couldn’t be used today, and if it was restaurant policy, why hadn’t they said so upfront last time.

Someone had gone quiet on him.

Xie Yichen tapped her: 【What are you up to?】

Two minutes passed.

Suisui Suisui Suisui: 【Reviewing Mathematical Analysis】

Suisui Suisui Suisui: 【Aren’t you busy? Aren’t Zhang Yuge and the others talking to you?】

Oreo: 【Those two are still arguing with the server】

Oreo: 【Why? Are you trying to chase me away?】

“Other party is typing…”

Ning Sui replied earnestly: 【No, I’m testing the waters】

Suisui Suisui Suisui: 【[Dangling one foot over the edge of danger, probing wildly.jpg]】

Xie Yichen felt something stir in his chest — utterly charmed: 【Hm?】

Suisui Suisui Suisui: 【If you’re bored, could you help me do a math problem?】

Suisui Suisui Suisui: 【There’s one in Demidovich that I really can’t figure out】

“…”

The colored lights were dazzling all around him, hazy with smoke. Truly an ideal environment for doing math problems.

Xie Yichen held back a twitch of his jaw, the hint of a smirk on his face: 【Send it over】

Suisui Suisui Suisui: 【Really? Are you sure?】

Oreo: 【Sure】

She made a show of being very polite: 【Actually, never mind — I don’t want to bother you】

Before Xie Yichen could reply, the problem arrived from the other end, brisk as anything: 【Problem six. Thank you】

“…”

Meanwhile, Zhang Yuge had made his case on the voucher and managed, through persistent reasoning, to get a discount — leaving him feeling suddenly refreshed and invigorated.

To be fair, not entirely his fault. He’d recently joined the school debate team, and since training began, he felt restless if he went a day without an argument.

Zhang Yuge looked up to see the man across from him writing out equations in his phone’s notes app by hand, and found it so absurd he laughed in disbelief: “Bro, are you okay? Writing math problems in a bar? Are you trying to grind us into the ground?”

The table was a glass-topped low design, and with his long legs, Xie Yichen had nowhere comfortable to put them. He sat with his knees spread apart.

His expression, however, remained entirely unchanged — unhurried, at ease. He’d already typed out the answer and worked through the solution for Ning Sui in WeChat, then replied with a low, resonant hum.

Zhang Yuge: “?”

Before he could say more, a girl suddenly appeared beside them, cradling her phone, and asked timidly and shyly: “Um — hi — could I possibly get your contact info?”

As she spoke, she kept glancing back — someone was clearly coaching her from behind.

There was another girl back there, wearing the expression of someone thoroughly invested in stirring up romantic prospects and goading someone on. Xie Yichen looked up and recognized them as having been seated exactly where he’d taken his photo earlier.

Lin Shuyu and Zhang Yuge stayed silent. In situations like this, whenever Xie Yichen was present, these things had happened too many times for them to even react. They simply switched into amused spectator mode.

Xie Yichen glanced at the two of them, then looked at the girl: “Sorry.”

That much was no surprise. Zhang Yuge lowered his head, about to take a drink — then heard the man add casually: “My heart belongs to someone.”

“…”

He nearly spat out a mouthful.

Once the girl had hurried off, flustered and embarrassed, Zhang Yuge stared at Xie Yichen with a distinctly peculiar look, up and down: “Mate, are you feeling alright tonight? Too much coding fried your brain?”

“What’s with all this? Are you seriously going to talk like this the whole night?” Zhang Yuge continued, then thought back: “And you said there was something you wanted to tell us — what is it, exactly?”

Xie Yichen looked at him and said, lips curving: “Didn’t I just say it?”

Zhang Yuge was thoroughly at a loss, and hadn’t taken it seriously at all: “Said what?”

Xie Yichen didn’t keep him in suspense. He said offhandedly: “Alright, let me say it properly then.”

Zhang Yuge: “?”

Xie Yichen spoke seriously: “I have a girlfriend. You both know her.”

“…”

“You’re messing with me. Tell me you’re messing with me.”

Zhang Yuge set down his glass with an audible clunk against the table, his drink forgotten, eyes boring into Xie Yichen’s face as if trying to stare a hole through him. Xie Yichen sat there openly and let him look. Zhang Yuge was beyond bewildered and, laughing in disbelief, turned to Lin Shuyu to find some agreement — then suddenly felt something was off.

Lin Shuyu wasn’t looking at him. He was staring at Xie Yichen intently, full of focus: “Really?”

Zhang Yuge’s laughter died: “What the — you knew?”

Lin Shuyu: “I only just found out too.”

“Oh my god.” This reaction clearly meant Lin Shuyu knew a thing or two more. Your closest friend suddenly has a girlfriend and you had absolutely no idea how it happened — Zhang Yuge’s composure cracked entirely: “What is going on? The two of you, and I’m the only one being kept in the dark? Xie Yichen. You’d better explain everything to me — who is it, how did it happen, and when did it start?!”

Xie Yichen said: “She’s in that group chat you just sent.”

A moment earlier, Zhang Yuge had needed three friends to help activate his voucher and had sent the request straight to their Huai’an group of five, with a: 【Friends, please come help activate this [hearts]】

Apart from the three of them, this group only had Hu Ke’er and Ning Sui.

Ning Sui had been first to reply: 【Sure [Bouncing Cat.jpg]】

Then Hu Ke’er chimed in: 【Done — now say thank you to your daddy!】

Zhang Yuge stared at the group member list several times over, his eyes going blank.

He immediately ruled out the one whose profile picture didn’t fit — which left only one possibility.

Zhang Yuge looked at Lin Shuyu, barely believing it: “Ning Sui?”

Lin Shuyu gave a soft sound of agreement, confirming his guess.

Zhang Yuge was completely at a loss for words. He’d been so focused watching this clueless guy chase after his childhood sweetheart that he’d never even considered another possibility. A miscalculation. A real miscalculation. But then he thought of that whole situation, and his gaze started darting back and forth between Lin Shuyu and Xie Yichen, unspoken thoughts fighting to get out, too stunned even by the gossip to speak: “You two…”

Lin Shuyu promptly raised his hand with righteous calm: “Don’t worry. I already fought him over it on your behalf.”

Zhang Yuge had, in truth, been wanting to hit him. Now, thrown off by this interruption, he couldn’t even follow along. His emotions were a complete tangle: “You two — fought?”

Technically that wasn’t quite the right word. Lin Shuyu sprawled over and slung an arm around his shoulders: “Relax — we’re fine. There’s no way A’Chen would ever have that kind of problem. He told me on his birthday — but there were reasons he didn’t tell anyone else at the time.”

He paused, finally able to ask the question he’d been wondering about: “Actually, I’m really curious too — what exactly happened between you and Ning Sui back in second year of high school?”

Second year of high school too? Zhang Yuge was thoroughly lost: “No wait — what’s actually going on here? When was all this?”

The whole story was genuinely a bit complicated. Xie Yichen ordered an extra bottle of whisky and looked at the two of them without any attempt to conceal it: “It’s a long story. Let me get tonight.”

…

Over the next hour, Xie Yichen told them everything — from the training camp to the pen pal correspondence. He briefly touched on Ning Sui’s emotional state in second year and her family situation, keeping it concise without going into too much detail.

All three men had a glass of straight whisky. Zhang Yuge took a heavy sip; the burn spun sharp on his tongue. The amount of information tonight was staggering: “What the — that first night in Yunnan, you still told me you didn’t know her.”

He could really put on a show.

When he thought about it now, so many details came back: “True confessions that night — you said ‘a romantic season’ and I wondered why you said winter. And the whole ‘snow is romantic’ thing — god.”

“And that phone wallpaper of yours — I thought you’d found it somewhere online. Turns out it was a photo you took yourself at the time.”

Xie Yichen said nothing, just lowered his eyes and drank.

Zhang Yuge asked: “You’d had feelings for her since third year of high school, when you were pen pals that long?”

Xie Yichen’s dark eyes were half-lidded. He gave a soft sound of confirmation.

Zhang Yuge had never seen him like this before.

He could roughly understand why Xie Yichen never told Ning Sui who he really was during high school. She’d been in an unstable state back then, and bringing up Nanjing again might have reopened wounds she didn’t need reopened. So he’d kept quiet and gone on being Nathan, never once changing his approach.

But still — “You liked her, and you still didn’t ask for her WeChat? You lost contact on the forum, so what? You’d both already talked enough that you knew she was from Huai’an. With your connections, tracking down a girl’s contact info couldn’t have been hard.”

Xie Yichen looked up plainly: “It was third year. What was I supposed to do?”

Zhang Yuge: “Weren’t you fast-tracked to university? Guaranteed admission?”

“She still had to sit the exam.”

Fair enough. Zhang Yuge didn’t quite know why he suddenly felt like he’d been shown up: “Fair play to you.”

In truth, after the university entrance exams were over, Xie Yichen had gone and tracked down Ning Sui’s contact information — but he’d kept it there untouched, without adding her.

One reason was that he wasn’t sure whether reaching out so abruptly would put her off. There would likely be a better moment to enter her life. The other reason: he’d heard she’d done well on the exams and gotten exactly what she’d hoped for.

So either way, they would meet again.

As it turned out, not long after he’d gotten her contact information, they ran into each other in Yunnan. Just like that.

A remarkably special kind of fate.

“Sorry — for only telling you both now.” Xie Yichen smiled briefly and refilled his glass. “Don’t be angry with me. Penalty: three drinks, on me.”

He and Zhang Yuge had always known each other inside out. Zhang Yuge understood there had to have been many things Xie Yichen was weighing up before he said anything — he always thought more carefully than anyone else.

Zhang Yuge suddenly felt that nobody had it easy. People always assumed A’Chen was fortune’s favourite, that everything had come effortlessly to him. And yet — even something as ordinary as having his parents around was a luxury he’d never quite been given.

Zhang Yuge’s personality was such that once he’d vented, he was fine — there was no lingering resentment: “It’s nothing. What’s there to be upset about between brothers? I know. You were trying to protect Ning Sui too.”

After all, the fewer people who knew about what had happened at the time, the better.

Zhang Yuge paused, then exchanged a look with Lin Shuyu: “Don’t worry — we won’t say anything to anyone.”

Xie Yichen looked at them both: “Thank you.”

Zhang Yuge: “Since when do you thank us for things like this? Come on — cheers!”

The three of them drank through an entire bottle of whisky, then ordered a few more beers.

Zhang Yuge and Lin Shuyu clinked their glasses together. The love story had stirred something deep in their chests, and as they sat there with feelings swelling and surging, Xie Yichen pulled out his phone, grinned lazily: “You two drink first.”

“?”

Xie Yichen said: “Let me check what my adorable girlfriend has been sending me.”

Zhang Yuge: “…”

Lin Shuyu: “…”