Sheng Renxing sat inside a spicy dry-pot restaurant. It was a little past three in the afternoon, so the place was nearly empty. The bored employee behind the counter kept staring openly at their table.
Sheng Renxing endured it for a while, then turned and stared straight back.
The employee froze, hurriedly lowered his head to cover himself, and pretended to be doing the accounts. His acting was terrible—deliberately theatrical, like he was performing onstage.
After keeping his head down for a while, he apparently thought enough time had passed. Unable to resist, he quietly looked up at the two customers again.
Only to find Sheng Renxing staring at him expressionlessly.
Employee: “…”
“What are you looking at?” Wei Huan, seated across from him, asked.
Sheng Renxing turned back and answered automatically, “Looking at an idi—”
Idiot.
Then he remembered this was his uncle.
“…at biological diversity.”
“?” Wei Huan glanced over there, did not care, and asked, “Does the food suit you?”
There was a smile in his eyes. “I remember your mom saying you like spicy food.”
Wei Huan had arrived in a casual suit. He had taken off the jacket and set it aside. The sleeves of the pink shirt underneath were folded up several times, and two buttons at the collar were undone.
There was a touch of flamboyance beneath his mature air, as though static electricity followed every movement he made.
He was rather different from how he had sounded on the phone.
Sheng Renxing, by contrast, wore yesterday’s clothes: a hooded T-shirt and jeans. He had thought he looked pretty cool, but next to Wei Huan he suddenly looked like a little kid.
Out of some inexplicable burst of male hormones, he silently rolled his sleeves up.
That made him look more mature.
He actually owned a suit from the same brand himself. He had bought it specifically to look impressive.
But he had only worn it once. Standing in front of the mirror, he had looked left and right and felt that everything was wrong. In the end, he reached a conclusion: the clothes were not worthy of him.
He had immediately stripped them off.
On Wei Huan, however, the suit looked unexpectedly appropriate.
Sheng Renxing moved his gaze away from the clothes and looked into his eyes. “It’s pretty good.”
“…Thanks, Little Uncle.”
“As long as you like it.” Wei Huan’s eyes curved slightly as he watched Sheng Renxing for a while. Sheng Renxing had lowered his head and was eating rice cakes with great concentration.
Wei Huan suddenly laughed. “Besides telling me you liked spicy food, your mother also said you don’t like scallions or cilantro, hate carrots, rabbit meat, onions…”
Sheng Renxing suddenly choked. The spice hit his throat and he began coughing violently.
Wei Huan suppressed his laughter and poured him water, then handed him tissues.
Sheng Renxing coughed for a long while, his cheeks turning red. He wiped his mouth and tried to salvage a little dignity. “…Carrots are okay.”
Wei Huan could no longer hold it in and burst out laughing.
Sheng Renxing’s ears reddened under the laughter. After feeling awkward for a while, he could not resist asking, “Why did she tell you all that?”
Wei Huan caught his breath. “When you were little, one summer vacation I wanted to bring you to Xuancheng to stay for a while.”
“Your mother was worried you wouldn’t be used to living here, so she spent half an hour telling me every little thing I needed to pay attention to.” Seeing Sheng Renxing’s expression turn slightly blank, he complained with a smile, “That was the list. She was afraid I’d forget and even made me recite it back to her.”
Sheng Renxing thought for a moment. “Was that… when I was in fourth grade?”
“You remember?” Wei Huan looked surprised.
“Mm.” He lowered his eyes and tapped his chopsticks against the underside of the table. “She asked if I wanted to spend summer vacation at Uncle’s… here for a while.”
That had also been when the fighting at home was at its worst.
He had agreed, but in the end he never came.
Wei Huan asked, “What did you say back then?”
“I said yes,” Sheng Renxing answered.
Wei Huan raised his brows slightly, surprised. “I thought she had been forcing you to come.”
“No.” Sheng Renxing shook his head and picked a shrimp out of the pot. “She never forced me to do anything.”
Wei Huan smiled, then sighed regretfully. “Too bad you still didn’t come in the end.”
Sheng Renxing did not want to dirty his hands, so he bit off the shrimp’s head and pulled away its shell with his teeth, peeling and eating it section by section. At Wei Huan’s words, he nodded and gave a nasal “Mm.”
Because his father had refused.
Wei Huan asked, “What did you do that summer instead?”
Sheng Renxing lowered his head and spat out the shrimp tail. “Extra classes.”
Wei Huan considered that. “I remember your grades were already very good, weren’t they?”
Whenever he talked with his sister, she could spend ages talking about her son’s certificates and awards.
“No.” Sheng Renxing shook his head. “Extra piano, violin, calligraphy… I spent every day running from one class to another.”
“!” Wei Huan took a moment to digest that. “Then wasn’t that summer miserable?”
“It was fine,” Sheng Renxing answered crisply. “I skipped half the classes.”
“?” Wei Huan froze, then burst into another round of wild laughter and gave him a thumbs-up. “Your dad didn’t know?”
Sheng Renxing shrugged. His tone was careless with a faint edge of mockery. “As long as the results met his standards, he had nothing to say.”
…
The two chatted for a while, and Sheng Renxing gradually relaxed. Wei Huan was very good at conversation.
The meal lasted almost two hours. The restaurant slowly began filling with customers.
Wei Huan glanced around and asked Sheng Renxing, “Ready to go?”
“Sure.” He had been full for ages.
“Do you have plans later? Going back to the hotel?” Wei Huan stood and straightened his clothes.
To his surprise, Sheng Renxing shook his head. “Going to buy clothes.”
Wei Huan openly looked him up and down, then complimented, “Those shoes look good.”
He left the table and walked toward the exit.
Sheng Renxing followed with his hands in his pockets, chin raised and expression bright with a hint of pride. “There are only eighty-seven pairs in the world.”
Wei Huan nodded. He did not know much about shoes. “Where are you going to buy clothes? Want me to drive you?”
Sheng Renxing said, “I’ll look around on the way back to the hotel.”
Considering how unfamiliar Sheng Renxing was with Xuancheng, Wei Huan asked, “Need me to take you?”
Before Sheng Renxing could answer, Wei Huan’s phone suddenly rang.
Wei Huan glanced at the screen and smiled apologetically at him. “I need to take this.”
Sheng Renxing nodded and watched him answer in a low voice, “I’m busy right now.”
He did not know what was said on the other end, but Wei Huan frowned and his expression darkened.
When his little uncle was not smiling, he looked rather frightening.
That face did not belong to someone easy to deal with.
Sheng Renxing watched him, thoughts drifting aimlessly through his head.
Wei Huan noticed immediately. He softened his expression, gestured to Sheng Renxing, then walked a few steps away and turned his back.
Sheng Renxing stared at his back for several seconds.
He had almost no memories of this little uncle. His old impression consisted only of the various holiday gifts Wei Huan sent every year.
After spending some time together today, Sheng Renxing thought he was pretty decent.
A little like his mother.
He pressed his lips together, lowered his head, stopped watching Wei Huan, and boredly pulled out his phone.
As he entered the passcode, he wondered whether Xing Ye had replied.
He had not had time to check his phone since waking up.
When he opened it, it happened to be on Xing Ye’s text-message screen.
[Up to you.]
Sheng Renxing checked the time. A little after two in the morning.
His eyes curved.
He had thought Xing Ye would reply, No need.
At that moment, Wei Huan finished his call and came back.
Not a trace of his previous mood remained. He smiled and asked, “What are you smiling about?”
“Hm?” Sheng Renxing immediately turned off the screen and flattened the corners of his mouth into the angle appropriate for a cool guy. “Chatting.”
Wei Huan nodded. He clearly looked a little troubled and thought for a moment. “Something suddenly came up at my shop, so I can’t take you to buy clothes.”
Sheng Renxing actually thought that was better. In his heart, only primary-school kids needed adults to take them clothes shopping.
So he nodded coolly and asked, “It’s fine. Your shop is more important. Anything I can help with?”
Wei Huan laughed. “What would I need you to help with? Don’t underestimate your uncle. When I’m done, come by my place sometime?”
“Sure.” Sheng Renxing agreed, then thought about it. “What kind of shop do you run?”
Wei Huan winked. “A nightclub.”
Sheng Renxing: “…”
He fell silent.
It was not as though Sheng Renxing had never gone clubbing before, but no matter how young Wei Huan looked, he was still an elder.
Dancing in his elder’s nightclub?
Just imagining it made Sheng Renxing uncomfortable all over.
“Hahahahaha.” Wei Huan laughed. “I’m messing with you.”
Before Sheng Renxing could relax, he added, “It’s a bar.”
Sheng Renxing: “…”
Fine. A bar was better than a nightclub.
They stood on the pavement outside the restaurant. The sky was gloomy and looked ready to rain at any moment.
Pedestrians hurried past. Some might have been drawn by their looks and glanced twice, but that was as far as it went.
Everyone was merely a passerby in everyone else’s life.
Then one passerby suddenly turned around. “Uncle?”
Both of them looked over.
They stood on the side of the pavement closer to the storefront. A boy and girl stood nearer the road.
Most of the pavement separated them.
The moment the boy called out, he immediately released the arm he had around the girl beside him. Reacting extremely quickly, he even shoved her a step away before walking over.
Girl: “?”
Sheng Renxing’s gaze traveled between them once. Uninterested, he lowered his eyes again.
He had kept his phone in his hand, still thinking about when he should arrange to return the umbrella.
Wei Huan asked, “What are you doing here?”
His tone was quite familiar.
“Ah.” The boy stumbled over his words. “I’m here with a classmate to buy study guides!” 999 Novel Network
Wei Huan gave him a mild, noncommittal smile, then looked across the pavement at the girl who had been glaring at the boy and nodded to her with a smile.
The girl immediately recovered her demure appearance and smiled in greeting, then hesitated over whether she should come over.
Wei Huan introduced the boy to Sheng Renxing. “This is Chen Ying. He’s my friend’s son, so he’s sort of my nephew too.”
Then he looked at Chen Ying. “And this is…”
Before he could finish, Chen Ying cut in excitedly, “I know you! Sheng Renxing!”
Sheng Renxing’s brow lifted slightly as he studied him.
Chen Ying looked very excited. “Last time you went mountain racing at Longshan with Brother Xiang and the others, I was watching! I even took a picture with your bike!”
Seeing the other boy expectantly raising his brows and signaling at him, Sheng Renxing dug through his memory for a long while.
That night run at Longshan had been organized by one of Big-Head Qiu’s friends. Sheng Renxing had not known any of them.
Every one of those people had modified their bikes so that one twist of the throttle could roar for half a kilometer. They had looked extremely confident.
The moment they arrived, they said they wanted to see Sheng Renxing’s skills and have their own Fast and Furious race.
The result was an amateur brawl in his rearview mirror.
Afterward Big-Head Qiu had asked him how he felt. Sheng Renxing had taken off his helmet and snorted. “The night view was nice.”
As for the faces of those amateurs, he had not remembered a single one, much less who had come over to pose with his bike.
While Sheng Renxing remained silently blank, Chen Ying laughed awkwardly a few times. “It’s okay. So many people take pictures with your bike, of course you wouldn’t remember! But you guys all ride amazingly!”
“…” Remove the word guys.
Sheng Renxing frowned. “How come I didn’t know so many people take pictures with my bike?”
Chen Ying: “…”
“Oh!” The girl had apparently walked over at some point. She exclaimed in sudden realization. “So that picture you posted in Moments back then was somebody else’s bike!”
Chen Ying instantly panicked, embarrassed that his showing off had been exposed right in front of the actual owner. “No! Don’t talk nonsense!”
Wei Huan had been smiling as he watched them and did not ask what mountain racing was or what was going on with the bike. Instead, when the girl came over, he turned to Chen Ying. “Aren’t you going to introduce your classmate?”
The girl was outgoing and did not wait for Chen Ying. “Hello, Uncle! I’m Cui Xiaoxiao, Chen Ying’s classmate!”
“Hello.” Wei Huan put on a parent-like smile. “Were you two buying study guides?”
“We already bought them!” Cui Xiaoxiao said. “I’m just about to go home!”
“Want me to drive you?”
“That works.” Chen Ying pouted. “You take her home!”
The girl pinched him, making him grimace in pain.
Wei Huan asked, “What about you?”
“I—I’m going somewhere else in a bit!” His eyes wandered.
Wei Huan could not be bothered with him and looked at Sheng Renxing. “Want me to drive you somewhere that sells clothes?”
“No,” Sheng Renxing said. “I can get there myself.”
After they said goodbye, Sheng Renxing walked while opening his phone and typing one-handed:
[Tomorrow?]
He pressed Send.
