“Why do you stand here alone?” Zhao Yuan asked Lin Wenxi. He reached out his hand to wipe away the snowflakes from Lin Wenxi’s hat. He noticed that there was a thin layer of snow on his hat and knew that Lin Wenxi must have stayed here for quite a long time.

Zhao Yuan still acted cordially as if nothing had happened between Lin Wenxi and him.

Lin Wenxi looked at Zhao Yuan and felt deeply touched.

“You guys leave first. Excuse me for staying here for a while.” Zhao Yuan waved to his friends and said. His friends slowly walked away while humming some tune.

“Do you have some trouble? It’s getting late. Why don’t you go home?” Zhao Yuan asked while putting an arm around Lin Wenxi’s shoulders. They stood on the bridge and looked at the river together.

Lin Wenxi told him that he had left his keys at home and could not get into his home now. He also told him that his parents had gone to their village for the Chinese New Year. Upon hearing that, Zhao Yuan grabbed Lin Wenxi and slowly walked forward.

“Where are you taking me?” asked Lin Wenxi.

“I’ll take you to my home,” Zhao Yuan said smilingly. Lin Wenxi was a little embarrassed but still followed Zhao Yuan quietly.

When they reached Zhao Yuan’s home, Lin Wenxi saw a red lantern illuminating the whole courtyard. He felt warm upon seeing this lantern and said with a smile, “This lantern is really bright.”

Zhao Yuan smiled thoughtfully without saying a word. He opened the door and invited Lin Wenxi to come into his home.

The room was dimly illuminated, but Lin Wenxin clearly saw a picture on the wall which faced the door. An old-fashioned square table, which was wiped clean, was placed under the picture, and an incense burner filled with ashes was placed in the center of the table. Apart from the incense burner, there were an abacus and an old book on the table. Lin Wenxi felt curious.

He went to the table and flattened the ashes in the incense burner. After that, he was intrigued by the shiny black beads of the abacus and played the abacus for a while. He pointed at the picture and asked, “Who is this man?”

“Try to guess,” Zhao Yuan replied, his chin cupped in his hand.

“I guess that this is probably a portrait of Fan Li, the founding father of Chinese commercial business,” replied Lin Wenxi.

Zhao Yuan was impressed and threw a tin of beer to Lin Wenxi as a reward.

Lin Wenxi frowned and said, “I thought that you would at least pour me a glass of water.”

Zhao Yuan opened the tin, quickly gulped down half a tin of beer, and then give it to Lin Wenxi. Lin Wenxi could tell that Zhao Yuan was tipsy. He stopped talking about the picture and asked Zhao Yuan about his family. Zhao Yuan grumbled something, and Lin Wenxi sat quietly beside him. After a while, Zhao Yuan seemed to sober up and told Lin Wenxi where the bathroom and the bedroom were. Lin Wenxi went to the bathroom to wash up. When he returned to the living room, he saw Zhao Yuan watching a basketball game on TV. After a while, Zhao Yuan looked up at Lin Wenxi in a daze.

After quite a long time, they finally went into Zhao Yuan’s bedroom together. Zhao Yuan swiftly took off his clothes and got into his bed. Lin Wenxi felt somewhat awkward. He sat on the edge of the bed, tightly grabbed the quilt cover and looked at it in a daze. It seemed that he did not plan to take off his clothes and sleep here.

“What’s so interesting about the quilt?”

“Nothing. I just want to say that the carp embroidery on your quilt cover looks really nice. Your mother must have clever hands and good taste.” Lin Wenxi kept looking at the embroidery and added, “Why don’t you sleep?”

“You’re always talkative when you’re nervous,” said Zhao Yuan.

“Why don’t you turn off the light?” Lin Wenxi continued to ask.

“Can you take off your clothes and put them away if I turn off the light now?” Zhao Yuan suddenly clapped his hands and asked, “Are you shy?” A moment later, when he saw Lin Wenxi’s cheeks flushed red with embarrassment and anger, he felt naughty. He sprang up from his bed, put an arm around Lin Wenxi’s neck to pull him down on the bed and then quickly ripped off Lin Wenxi’s down jacket, Lin Wenxi struggled to sit up, and his chest heaved up and down. Although he wore a thick sweater under his jacket, he still looked slender. Zhao Yuan was excited and came at Lin Wenxi again, trying to rip off his sweater.

Lin Wenxi glared at Zhao Yuan and thought, “Is he so forgetful? I bit him and broke his heart not long ago!”

Zhao Yuan seemed tipsy. He crossed his arms over his chest and squinted at Lin Wenxi.

Lin Wenxi felt somewhat anxious and shouted, “Turn off the light. You should at least respect my habits.” Before he finished his sentence, the light was turned off. It was pitch-dark in the room now, since the window was too small to let enough light come in. Zhao Yuan remained silent, and Lin Wenxi could not feel his existence anymore.

Lin Wenxi had never experienced such darkness. After a long time, he still failed to see his own fingers clearly.

“Hey?” He said, but Zhao Yuan did not reply. He could only hear his own voice inside the room now.

His heart began to race, as he crawled to the place where Zhao Yuan had been. When he touched it, he was surprised to find out that it was empty. He could not help but scream. Suddenly, the door was opened and slowly closed. The next moment, the door was opened again. Lin Wenxi could not help but think of some scenes in horror movies.

When he fumbled for the light switch on the wall, he touched a cold thing. It seemed to be a cold hand. He shrilled. Suddenly, the light was on, and a weird-looking mask appeared about 30 centimeters in front of his face. He was too frightened to cry out. He hid under the quilt and shivered.

“Humphy, you coward, do you dare to shout at me gain?” Zhao Yuan said and wanted to get under the quilt. To his surprised, he could not uncover the quilt, as Lin Wenxi tightly wrapped it around himself.

“I’m freezing to death!” Zhao Yuan could not help but cry out. He had stayed outside for quite a long time. If it had not been for this good health, he would’ve had a running nose now.

Lin Wenxi continued to wrap the quilt tightly around himself. He gritted his teeth and remained silent.

Zhao Yuan grabbed the quilt with both hands and lifted it up. Lin Wenxi was lifted up together with the quilt but he still tried his best to grab the quilt. Suddenly, the quilt cover tore. Zhao Yuan lost balance and fell beside Lin Wenxi. They looked at each other, their faces less than 10 centimeters apart.

At the moment, both of them were exhausted and panted heavily. They kept looking at each other for several seconds. Lin Wenxi’s face and ears all turned red.

Blue vines stood out on Zhao Yuan’s forehead, and his head was soaked with sweats. He looked into Lin Wenxi’s eyes, but Lin Wenxi still kept a straight face.

When their eyes met, Zhao Yuan was deeply impressed by the clear and bright eyes of Lin Wenxi. He found it hard to control himself and reached out a hand to grab Lin Wenxi, as he thought of what Zhang Dong had told him back in the cafe.

“No,” He thought and quickly came back to his senses. He looked at something behind Lin Wenxi and shouted, “Look, what’s that?” Lin Wenxi was surprised and looked back. Zhao Yuan took this chance to rip off Lin Wenxi’s sweater.

“You jerk!” Lin Wenxi shouted while wearing an undershirt. Zhao Yuan pointed a finger at him and laughed. Lin Wenxi felt that something was wrong, but he still lay prone on the bed without covering himself with a quilt. He felt quite uneasy.

“What’s the big deal? We slept together during the wilderness training,” Zhao Yuan grumbled. Somehow, he thought of Zhang Dong’s words again and really wanted to do something to Lin Wenxi. Suddenly, he felt sad. He felt as if his Lin Wenxi had been taken away by someone else.

He looked at Lin Wenxi’s slender neck, clearly visible shoulder blades, white skin and red lips. He felt increasingly excited. After a while, he sighed heavily and said, “Let’s sleep. It’s almost 1 o’clock.” He gradually calmed down and felt tired. He picked up the broken quilt cover and said, “It’s alright if you want to sleep with your pants on. But you have to mend my quilt cover tomorrow. Otherwise, I won’t let you leave this place.”

As Lin Wenxi remained silent, he continued, “This is my only quilt cover. If you don’t mend it, we can only sleep without a quilt!”

Lin Wenxi swiftly took off his outer trousers and woollen trousers under the quilt, folded them and placed them beside himself. He said, “I’ll try my best to mend it, but I can’t promise you that I’ll mend it well. If your mother scolds you for ruining the quilt cover, you can’t put the blame on me.”

Zhao Yuan did not reply. He had fallen asleep with his head resting on his hands.

Upon seeing that, Lin Wenxi slept as well. Shortly afterwards, he felt that Zhao Yuan put an arm around his waist. He remained silent.

He struggled a little and then calmed down. He looked at the black sky and the falling snowflakes through the window and thought, “It still snows. Tomorrow, everything will be covered with snow. Will such a scene make me forget about everything?” Gradually, he fell asleep.

It was a cold and windy night, but he felt warm.