Wu Man took a general tour of the courtyard house where she would be staying for a week. The furniture all looked like it was from the last century, emanating a musty smell. The wall paint was mottled, with old posters covering up some of the dismal state.

The poster read “Night Shanghai” in three large characters.

Wu Man couldn’t help but want to laugh. The resident who posted this perfectly demonstrated what it meant to be physically in one place but mentally in another.

However, if she had to choose between a Beijing courtyard house and a Shanghai villa, she felt both had their charm.

…Until she saw the courtyard house’s bathroom. Wu Man decided to retract her previous statement and firmly support the villa!

Why did the bathroom have to be built separately outside? That meant she had to cross the courtyard to take a bath with great difficulty.

Wu Man stood at the bathroom entrance with a dark expression when Zhui Ye’s voice came from behind her.

“Sister, are you contemplating life at the toilet door?”

Wu Man jumped, turning to see Zhui Ye with a bath towel draped over his shoulder, wearing baggy shorts and an old-man undershirt, quite disheveled. Yet because of his beautiful physique, the simpler the clothing, the less it became a burden—like how the most lush plants need excess branches pruned away.

“You’re going to shower?”

He nodded. “If you want to go first, you go ahead.”

“You go first.”

Wu Man hadn’t used such a primitive bathroom in quite a while and needed more time for mental preparation.

While waiting for him to shower, she suddenly realized she didn’t know what to do.

Her daily schedule was usually packed full with appearances, either filming or on the way to filming. During rest periods she habitually picked up her phone to check trending topics and voyeuristically read comments about herself. Time would just disappear like that.

Now suddenly she didn’t need to film and had no phone—regressed to a primitive era with nothing at all.

Wu Man sat in the courtyard rocking chair in a daze. Perhaps because this was an old district, there were no towering skyscrapers blocking out the sky, and the surrounding light pollution wasn’t too severe. The night sky was cleanly black, and she could see half a moon.

Clang clatter—

As she was looking up at the night sky, a huge noise came from the bathroom.

What happened?

Wu Man hesitated, then walked to the door and tentatively asked, “Did you fall or something?”

Inside came rustling sounds of someone getting dressed. In a moment, Zhui Ye pulled open the door. Dim yellow light spilled out, falling on his bare upper body. Undried water droplets flowed in the light, running down his lean waist and abs into his hastily pulled-on pants.

His face was still covered in steam as he trembled and said, “Inside there’s…”

Wu Man followed the direction of his pointing finger and saw a cockroach half the size of a thumb arrogantly perched on the wall.

She was stunned. “…You’re afraid of cockroaches?”

Zhui Ye grabbed Wu Man’s arm—his arm nearly as thick as her thigh, yet at this moment he clung to her like a small bird, nodding solemnly. “I’m scared!”

“Get out.”

Wu Man rolled her eyes, pulled her arm back from his hand, and with a reverse push, charged into the bathroom alone.

Zhui Ye only heard the door slam shut, a slipper slap against the wall, two crunching sounds, and Wu Man was already emerging with a packet of tissues.

Zhui Ye stared at the tissues in her hand and backed up three feet. “It’s in there?”

“Already in pieces. Want to see?”

He shook his head like a rattle drum.

“They say if you find one cockroach, there’s a whole nest in the house.” Wu Man said with ill intent. “Be careful sleeping tonight. Some cockroaches can fly—might just fly into your mouth.”

Zhui Ye’s face went pale.

Wu Man held back so hard her stomach was cramping. She’d been desperately wanting to laugh from the start. Zhui Ye, who always dared to challenge heaven and earth, was defeated by a small cockroach.

She even mentally pictured a younger Zhui Ye covering his face and crying at a cockroach—what a stupid look that would be.

“Then I’ll just come sleep with you.” Having calmed down and seeing she was deliberately scaring him, Zhui Ye said with equal malice, “When cockroaches come, Sister can help me kill them.”

“…Dream on.”

Wu Man’s tone faltered—once again outmaneuvered by Zhui Ye.

After that, Zhui Ye refused to enter the bathroom again no matter what, carrying out a bucket of water to wash in the courtyard.

Wu Man found this absurd. “This is outside though…”

“This is clearly our home courtyard.” Zhui Ye’s hand rested on his waistband as he said lazily, “If you’re not going in, does that mean you want to watch me wash?”

Wu Man, carrying her toiletries, shut the bathroom door with a snap.

Outside, Zhui Ye still wouldn’t let her off, laughing: “Sexy young man outdoor bathing show, ten yuan per show, very cheap!”

Wu Man shouted back loudly from inside: “You forgot one modifier—sexy young man who’s afraid of cockroaches!”

Outside, Zhui Ye went silent, quiet as a chicken.

*

When Wu Man came out after her shower, the courtyard was already empty, a large wet patch on the ground like it had just rained.

She figured Zhui Ye had probably returned to his room. Passing through the center of the courtyard, a wisteria blossom fell at her feet.

Looking up, Zhui Ye was sitting on the roof waving at her.

“Sister, come up and look at the moon.”

Wu Man frowned. “Are you crazy, running up on the roof to look at the moon in the middle of the night?”

“There’s nothing else to do anyway.”

“Come down right now—sitting up there is dangerous!”

“It’s not! You’ll know once you come up and sit.”

She ignored Zhui Ye’s impromptu invitation, shook her head, and entered her room. Since there was nothing to do anyway, she might as well get a healthy beauty sleep.

As she blow-dried her hair, amid the noisy buzzing of the dryer, she heard the melodious sound of a harmonica.

Wu Man turned off the power, and the harmonica sound gradually became clearer.

The room was very dark. She sat at the vanity, listening to that sound drift hazily through the window to her ears, remarkably similar to that scene in “Spring Night” of their first kiss—she sat on the balcony, able to hear someone playing the harmonica in the distance.

This time, the person playing the harmonica had become Zhui Ye.

In the harmonica’s melody, Wu Man seriously reflected—wasn’t her purpose for coming here to cultivate feelings with Zhui Ye for the movie?

If he wanted to be crazy, she could only be crazy with him. If they remained peacefully separate, living here for a year would be useless.

Wu Man sighed, unplugged the hair dryer, and came to the courtyard with wet hair.

She looked up and shouted, “How do I get up there?”

The harmonica sound stopped. Zhui Ye stuck out his head and pointed to a ladder on the side. “Climb that. Be careful.”

Wu Man resignedly grabbed the ladder and slowly climbed up. Zhui Ye held it steady from above so the ladder wouldn’t shake.

As she was about to reach the top, Zhui Ye grasped her hand. Having been in the wind on the roof for so long, his palm carried the coolness of night’s chill. Yet the edges were scorching hot.

After being pulled onto the roof, Wu Man had no leisure to appreciate the so-called scenery. She sat down tremulously gripping the tiles. Zhui Ye saw her like that and suddenly laughed, saying, “Standing like a bell, sitting like a pine—that’s exactly how you look right now.”

Wu Man rolled her eyes at him again. “Only children get so happy just from going up on a roof.”

“Then when does this adult feel happy?”

Zhui Ye’s counter-question left Wu Man speechless.

If this were just an ordinary interview asking what her top joyful moment in life was, her management team would prepare the script in advance, and she would tell the reporter grandly that it was definitely the moment of winning some award.

Yet ridiculously, in her heart, this answer was the moment she least wanted to recall.

She knew her means of winning awards had never been clean.

Those awards were more like shackles binding her conscience. Yet they were indispensable—necessary bricks for her status, and the cement building up her thick skin.

At this moment in front of Zhui Ye, she couldn’t blurt out this answer.

She feigned a very troubled expression and said, “There are too many happy moments. It’s hard to pick out the best one.”

“Oh, is that so?” Zhui Ye didn’t pursue it further, changing the subject. “Didn’t you recognize what tune I was just playing?”

“No.”

“Listen again.”

“You and I aren’t from the same generation. I might not know the songs you listen to.”

“You definitely know this one.”

He said it with certainty, lying back on the roof and playing the harmonica again.

He started from the beginning. Wu Man felt dazed for a moment as a nursery rhyme from deep in her memory gradually awakened.

“Are you playing Little Jasmine?”

He curved his eyes, turning his head to look at her. “I told you you’d definitely know it.”

“How do you know such an old song?” Wu Man said somewhat nostalgically. “That’s a song I heard when I was little.”

“It’s also a song I heard when I was little.” Zhui Ye toyed with the harmonica, his expression gentle. “Someone sang it to me.”

Wu Man looked at him like that and raised an eyebrow. “A girl, right?”

He didn’t answer, instead beginning to sing Little Jasmine.

“The sunset shines on my little jasmine, little jasmine

The sea breeze blows through her hair, her hair 

She and I run on the beach, she says she wants to find little shells.”

Zhui Ye’s voice was clear, yet his emotions were rich, making her think of spring afternoons after the cold had passed, new flowers on branches, gentle wind—perfect for a spring-drowsy sleep.

Halfway through, he gestured for Wu Man to continue.

She hugged her knees and shook her head. “I don’t know it.”

“You don’t know it?”

“Mm.” Wu Man urged him. “Keep singing. You’re doing alright.”

Zhui Ye stopped. “Not singing anymore.”

“?”

He turned his head away. “Forgot the rest of the lyrics.”

…Was he sulking because she didn’t say it sounded good?

“Then tonight’s rooftop nostalgic concert ends here.”

Wu Man carefully prepared to get up and leave. Zhui Ye propped himself up halfway, supporting his head to call out to her.

“Where are we going already? The second half of the night is just beginning.” He looked quite cynical.

However…

Wu Man mercilessly exposed him. “Are you really too scared to sleep because of the cockroach?”

“…”

Their eyes met in a sheet of silence.

Wu Man tried to salvage his dignity. “Alright then, what do you want to do, go clubbing?”

“I don’t like clubbing.” Zhui Ye followed Wu Man down from the roof, grasping her wrist the moment she turned around.

“Sister, let’s go night roaming.”

“What’s night roaming…?”

He paused. “You’ve never been night roaming?”

Wu Man had a headache. She could barely keep up with young people’s thinking.

“At night I’m either at this studio or that studio. Where would I have time for such random stuff?”

He was silent for a moment, then explained: “This isn’t random stuff. It’s a nighttime city adventure. No set route—go wherever you want, ending at dawn.”

It sounded quite absurd… Wu Man really wanted to crack open his skull to see what was hidden inside.

Zhui Ye looked down somewhat dejectedly. “Never mind. Good night, Sister. Rest well.”

He turned to walk toward his room but was stopped by Wu Man from behind.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t go.”

Zhui Ye’s footsteps halted. When he turned around, the smile spreading across his face surpassed the gentleness of an entire tree of wisteria.

He walked over joyfully with large strides, pulling out two face masks from his pocket like a magic trick. He gently hooked one over her ears first, then put one on himself.

“Ready?” he said with curved eyes. “Three, two, one—let’s go~”

Just like that, she was pulled by him, running out of the alley, crossing the corner, tumbling into the boundless spring night.