Da Zhuang: But why are you suddenly asking this?

Lin Zhexia: …

Lin Zhexia: Because

She nervously typed random characters and finally sent: Because I’m also worried he might not find a partner in his lifetime.

…

What was she saying?

Fortunately, Da Zhuang was used to privately criticizing Chi Yao with her: Brother, I completely understand your concern.

Lin Zhexia: Good, that you understand.

After chatting with He Yang, she couldn’t stay awake any longer, and her eyes gradually closed.

Since her and Chi Yao’s birthdays were approaching.

In the last second before losing consciousness, she wondered: Eighteen years old, what would her and Chi Yao’s eighteenth year be like?

In both the adult and children’s worlds, eighteen was considered a very special age.

But why eighteen was special, and what difference existed between adulthood and being underage, Lin Zhexia, about to turn eighteen, couldn’t yet answer this question—

The next day was Saturday.

Lin Zhexia planned to go directly to Chi Yao’s home to investigate, see if there was anything he needed. Also, she was a bit curious about what gift Chi Yao would buy for her.

“What’s this?” After entering, Lin Zhexia noticed something new on Chi Yao’s table.

“VR headset, He Yang’s.”

“Oh.”

Lin Zhexia then casually asked: “Do you think it’s fun?”

Chi Yao was in the bedroom, his voice coming from inside: “It’s okay, why?”

“Just asking.”

Lin Zhexia considered her small savings from New Year’s money, thinking to herself that she couldn’t afford this anyway.

Lin Zhexia wandered around the living room without finding anything useful, so she asked again: “What are you doing in your room?”

“Changing clothes,” as he spoke, the bedroom door finally opened, Chi Yao leaned against the doorframe, “I’m not in the room, did you expect me to change in the living room?”

This spontaneous, unfiltered comment from Chi Yao made them both freeze for a moment.

The atmosphere became strange and awkward.

Although she and Chi Yao often joked with each other when talking.

This joke was a bit too intimate.

It seemed that at some point, the topics between them were no longer like they were in childhood.

Sometimes they lost their boundaries.

Lin Zhexia pretended to be unbothered and said: “It’s not like I haven’t seen before, what’s there to see?”

Chi Yao also returned to normal, saying coldly, “I have abs.”

“…”

After a while, the two sat on the sofa watching a movie.

The living room lights were off, only the projector’s light shining on both of them.

Lin Zhexia suddenly said, “Lend me your phone, I want to order orange juice.”

Chi Yao: “Where’s your phone?”

“My phone is out of battery.”

“Then go charge it.”

“My charging cable is broken.”

“…”

Having known each other for so long, Chi Yao understood Lin Zhexia’s intentions perfectly.

“You want to see my shopping cart?” Chi Yao turned his head and said, “Why don’t you just directly ask what birthday gift I bought for you this year?”

Lin Zhexia followed his lead and asked: “…Since you put it that way, I’ll ask directly, what gift did you buy me?”

Chi Yao: “Not telling you.”

Lin Zhexia mentally rolled her eyes.

The two spent the entire morning careful not to let each other see their phones, afraid of revealing the gifts they had bought for each other, and also preventing the other from secretly checking search engines. Lin Zhexia had once secretly checked because she was too impatient to know her gift when she was younger.

Halfway through the movie, Lin Zhexia thought Chi Yao had forgotten about the earlier incident.

She looked down and noticed Chi Yao’s phone was right next to him on the sofa.

Just taking a quick peek shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Besides, this was for buying him a gift.

…

Thinking this way, her hand had already moved ahead; her fingers carefully crept to the edge of Chi Yao’s phone, then applied force to slowly pull it toward her.

Between her and Chi Yao, except for her secret of liking him, there were no other secrets.

They knew each other’s phone passwords, even payment passwords.

The first time Chi Yao told her his phone password was when they had just entered middle school, and Lin He refused to buy her a phone. At that time, a popular mobile game was trending in their class. Chi Yao found the game childish but still downloaded it and lent it to her on weekends.

From Monday to Friday, Lin Zhexia would remind him: “Don’t forget to claim my energy, check in, and if you have time, please complete the daily tasks for me.”

Back then, Chi Yao looked at the cute pet-raising game with disgust: “Come claim it yourself.”

Lin Zhexia: “I can’t. If I keep running to your house instead of doing homework, my mom will scold me.”

“You ask me to help you, aren’t you afraid I’ll scold you?”

“You won’t scold me,” Lin Zhexia of that time said with a smile, “Even if you do scold me, you’ll still end up helping me claim it.”

Chi Yao walked ahead of her, not saying a word.

Later, when Lin Zhexia’s enthusiasm for the game faded, the account was managed by Chi Yao.

He claimed energy for her for a long time, only to discover that Lin Zhexia had already forgotten about the game.

…

Recalling this memory, Lin Zhexia pulled the phone over and tentatively pressed that familiar string of numbers she knew by heart.

The next second, the screen successfully unlocked.

Lin Zhexia was about to click on a certain orange shopping app when her hand was suddenly pressed down.

In the dim light of the living room, with the projection momentarily darkening, Chi Yao’s voice and the warm palm pressing on the back of her hand were briefly amplified: “You coward, your courage seems quite big today.”

“…”

Lin Zhexia pulled her hand back as if burned, while moving slightly away, saying: “Weren’t you watching the movie?”

“Besides, you don’t even change your password?”

“Too lazy to change it.”

Chi Yao put the phone on the other side and added, “And with your brain, you wouldn’t remember if I changed it.”

That strange atmosphere between her and Chi Yao had unwittingly returned.

Was it because of liking him?

Because she liked him, she tended to overthink.

“Why?” Lin Zhexia suddenly asked.

Under the guidance of that strange atmosphere, she had no room to think and impulsively wanted to ask, “Why do you want me to remember?”

“I mean, why do you think I’m that stupid?” But she couldn’t bring herself to not think, and diverted the conversation, “It’s just a string of numbers, you’re the one who can’t remember.”

Lin Zhexia finally returned home and, after thinking for a long time, found a handmade cake shop online and decided to give Chi Yao a personally made cake.

She booked a production time online.

May 6th.

The day before Chi Yao’s birthday—

, spring passed, entering early summer, the weather imperceptibly began to turn hot.

Lin Zhexia spent an entire afternoon making the cake by hand, progress was slow, but fortunately the result turned out well.

She planned to take the cake to Chi Yao’s home at exactly midnight tonight to give him a “surprise.”

The bakery owner helped her pack the cake in a gift box. She asked for an additional card, with some cream staining her clothes, and she leaned on the counter to write birthday wishes.

She wrote Chi Yao’s name stroke by stroke, then wrote: Wishing you success in all your endeavors and happiness every day. I hope that in everything you do in the future, you’ll have endless courage.

Before leaving, the bakery owner ran to the door: “Young lady, I’m sorry, I forgot to give you the candles and lighter.”

Lin Zhexia looked at the cake box tied with a red ribbon in her hand, unable to find a place to put it, and feeling a bit troubled.

Fortunately, she was wearing a jacket today with large pockets.

And the candles and lighter were in a small packaging bag that could just fit.

“It’s fine,” she said, “I’ll put them in my pocket.”

On the way back to the complex, Lin Zhexia noticed while crossing the road that there seemed to be people gathered across from the complex again.

She glanced over, finding it inexplicably familiar—

Before turning eighteen, she thought life was a simple straight line.

She would continue growing up quietly in this carefree, simple straight line.

Even though within this straight line, some small accidents would happen, such as her awkward “liking” of Chi Yao.

But at that time, she thought she would continue living like this with the group of friends from Nanxiang Street, and with Chi Yao—

When Lin Zhexia arrived home with the cake, Lin He was startled: “Where did you go without saying a word?”

“It’s Chi Yao’s birthday, I went to make him a cake.”

“Mom, just pretend you didn’t see,” Lin Zhexia added, “I want to give him a surprise.”

Lin He: “Oh right, I almost forgot until you mentioned it. Uncle Wei and I also bought him a gift, wait, I’ll get it for you.”

Lin Zhexia accepted the gift box.

She thought to herself that Chi Yao’s treatment in their family was sometimes better than her own.

Lin He couldn’t help adding: “I’m afraid if we give it to him in person, he might feel embarrassed. This child is something, such an important day as his eighteenth birthday, and his parents haven’t even said they’ll come back to celebrate with him…”

After speaking, Lin He went back to cleaning.

But Lin He’s casual words gave Lin Zhexia an idea.

Perhaps…

For Chi Yao, the best birthday gift isn’t anything else.

But seeing his parents.

Thinking this way, a certain thought grew increasingly intense in her heart.

But she didn’t have Chi Yao’s parents’ contact information; Lin He had it in her contact list.

Lin Zhexia would never casually use Lin He’s phone, but on this day, she still took advantage of Lin He’s inattention to secretly check her phone and find Chi Yao’s parents’ phone numbers.

Doing this kind of “bad thing” for the first time, she was a bit uneasy.

After noting down the phone numbers, she hid in the bathroom to make the call.

She was a bit afraid; she wasn’t familiar with Chi Yao’s parents, and those two people couldn’t exactly be described as easy to get along with.

The first call she made was to Chi Yao’s mother.

But Chi Yao’s mother didn’t answer.

After the busy tone disappeared, she dialed the other number.

“Ring—”

Lin Zhexia waited for a long time, the ring frequency almost synchronizing with her heartbeat.

After more than ten seconds, the phone was answered by Chi Hanshan.

Lin Zhexia was about to call out “Uncle Chi” when the voice on the other end was very chaotic, he shouted as if in collapse: “Stop calling! It’s useless even if you keep pressuring me!”

“We didn’t expect this kind of thing to happen either, You have to give us some time to handle it.”

“Yes, we’re still short some, we know, we’ll pay it back this time.”

“…”

Lin Zhexia was stunned, afraid to speak.

The “Uncle Chi” stuck in her throat, and she couldn’t say it even until Chi Hanshan hung up.

She didn’t know exactly what had happened.

But she knew it must be something not good.

Her hands and feet felt a bit cold, and her right eyelid involuntarily twitched twice.

For a moment, it seemed like she couldn’t hear anything, and after a while, some fragmented sounds slowly came in from outside the bathroom.

It was Lin He talking with Wei Ping outside: “The weather forecast says it might rain tonight, and the rain could be heavy. Remember to bring an umbrella when you go out later.”

“The meteorological station continues to issue a blue rainstorm warning—”

“The public needs to be aware of a series of problems that heavy rainfall may cause, pay attention to weather changes promptly, and arrange travel reasonably.”

Chi Yao came out of the kitchen, one hand carrying a black plastic bag, bending slightly to press the TV remote on the sofa.

After a faint “click” sound, the TV sound abruptly stopped.

He held his phone, with a birthday plan on the screen.

A birthday plan was prepared for Lin Zhexia.

He didn’t care much about his birthday. Compared to his birthday, he cared more about that date in June.

Chi Yao looked down at his phone and went out carrying the black garbage bag. After disposing of the trash, his path forward was suddenly blocked.

Several people entered his vision.

At this hour, there was almost no one at the garbage station.

Because of the impending rain, the sky had grown darker.

The person blocking him had several others standing behind him. But that group didn’t come forward, just standing in the back.

Chi Yao raised his eyes to meet the man’s face.

“Chi Yao, that’s your name, right? You should have seen me,” the man said, “After all, I’ve been hanging around your complex for quite some time.”

A loud “boom.”

It started thundering outside.

Lin Zhexia was startled by the thunder, feeling a bit distracted.

Although she was no longer afraid of being abandoned or concerned about past events, due to years of habit, she still had an instinctive fear of thunder.

“What’s wrong, Xiaxia?” Lin He was busy collecting clothes and said to her, “Come give me a hand.”

Lin Zhexia responded.

While helping Lin He collect clothes, Lin Zhexia couldn’t help asking: “Mom.”

Lin He: “What is it?”

Lin Zhexia: “I have a question.”

“If you have a friend, and you accidentally learn from elsewhere that your friend’s family might have some issues. But you don’t know if this friend knows or not, should you tell them?”

Lin He asked: “Who is it, which friend of yours?”

Lin Zhexia was afraid she would guess randomly, so she said: “Just a classmate, I accidentally overheard it in the teacher’s office, don’t ask so much.”

“Oh.” Lin He didn’t suspect anything. She thought for a moment, finished folding the clothes in her hand, and said, “Better not to say anything. It’s their family matter, why should you get involved? Besides, what if your classmate doesn’t want others to know? If they find out you know, it might be awkward for them too.”

Lin He’s words made a lot of sense.

So after careful consideration, Lin Zhexia decided to pretend not to know first and probe the situation indirectly.

She sent Chi Yao several messages—

Chi Yao Chi Yao—

I’m too poor, so I didn’t prepare a birthday gift for you—

You won’t blame me, right?—

Or you can send me 50, I can still go buy something now

She planned to say she hadn’t prepared anything first, so when she suddenly appeared with a cake tonight, Chi Yao would be shocked.

But after sending these messages, she waited for a long time, and Chi Yao didn’t reply.

This was very unusual; Chi Yao wouldn’t normally go so long without responding to her messages—

You haven’t replied to my messages for two hours—

What are you doing?

Still no reply.

Lin Zhexia sent another message:—

Are you home?

The thunder outside grew louder.

Lin Zhexia said a word to Lin He, then took the cake out of the refrigerator in advance, planning to go to his house directly to check.

“Got it,” Lin He said, “And don’t forget to take the gift from me and your Uncle Wei.”

Lin Zhexia opened the door directly with her key. After entering, she turned on the living room light and found that Chi Yao was indeed not home.

Rumble—

With the thunder, torrential rain poured down.