Behind Dou Xun was a large expanse of still brilliant sunset. He looked at the familiar car downstairs, then at the person lying on the roof of the car wearing a pair of sunglasses and smiling at him, and blurted out: "You are not..."

Do you have to wait until at least 9pm to get off work?

Dou Xun swallowed the second half of the sentence with all his rationality, otherwise he really couldn't explain how he knew what time people got off work. He dragged a long shadow, standing there a little stiffly.

"Nothing?" Xu Xilin listened to half of his words, looked at Dou Xun strangely, and opened the trunk of his car.

"...Aren't you busy with affairs of state?" Dou Xun stared at him, wanting to take off the sunglasses that were in the way, and pretended to be calm and said to him, "Why are you here so early? Don't you have to attend court today?"

"Today, the Black-faced Wild Donkey of Liao returned the illegally occupied land. The whole country celebrated and stopped court for a day." Xu Xilin waved at him, "Come quickly, Lao Cheng got you a pot of orchids. Let me bring it to you."

Lao Cheng's kebab shop went bankrupt, but he always took his old classmates who had invested in the "grandfather's" kebab shop as shareholders. Although the business was not good and there was no dividend, he could get flowers from him all year round. Xu Xilin, the major shareholder at that time, never said anything polite to him. Whenever he needed flowers for customers during festivals, he would ask him for them. However, the second largest shareholder never even touched a leaf and could never find an opportunity to show his filial piety.

In addition to the mature flowers, Xu Xilin, the child emperor who had humiliated the country, also brought a bunch of things like offering tributes - everything from food to drinks to daily necessities... Even including two sofa cushions - he forgot to buy cushions when he moved for Dou Xun last time, and he had been thinking about it for a whole month.

The two of them moved their things back to Dou Xun's rental house with great effort, and there was no room left in the small entrance for changing shoes.

"Where should I put the flowers?" Xu Xilin asked, "In the bedroom?"

Dou Xun was startled. There was nothing shameful in his bedroom, just a pile of books. After graduation, Dou Xun's roommate, the "second brother", betrayed the revolution, studied hard at home for a year, passed the postgraduate entrance examination of the neighboring school, changed his major, and now strives to stay in school. Dou Xun went to eat at their place on weekends when he had nothing to do. He looked at Xu Xilin who was "studying" there from a distance. He had originally thought of something good, such as pretending to bump into him by chance and staying with him for a while.

As a result, Dou Xun discovered that Xu Xilin probably never knew what "being alone" meant in his life!

When he was a kid in school, he was surrounded by a bunch of bad friends. He spent all day playing around and his grades were terrible.

When he grew up and spent a lot of money to go to school, he was still surrounded by a bunch of strange people, but the daily activity of "playing basketball" was replaced by "eating together" and "exchanging business cards".

Xu Xilin behaved like a decent social person, so Dou Xun didn't dare to disturb him. He would just look at him from a distance and walk away. Then he would ask about the recommended reading list for their "money-burning class" and buy some of the books to read - although he himself didn't know what the point of reading these things was.

This behavior is really stupid.

Dou Xun didn't even think twice: "Put it on the balcony."

Xu Xilin thought for a moment and said, "Lao Cheng said this flower seems to like shade."

"I know," Dou Xun said calmly, "Just put it on the balcony. Plants that like shade also need photosynthesis. These things usually grew in the valleys. It's just right for them to get some sun in the morning and evening in spring and autumn."

Xu Xilin felt that this theory seemed to be wrong, but he was poisoned by all kinds of pseudoscience spread in the circle of friends every day. He often learned something three days later and it was debunked in two days. He no longer dared to trust his common sense. He had already packed up his high school biology knowledge, which was not solid to begin with, and returned it to Dou Xun. He moved the flowers to the balcony as he was told.

As soon as he turned around, Dou Xun immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and then, as if he had just learned the Lingbo Weibu, he quickly slipped to the bedroom door without anyone noticing and closed the door quietly.

By the time Xu Xilin had put the flowers out, Dou Xun had already returned to pack his things as if nothing had happened.

"Why has your brother been here for so long?" Dou Xun asked casually, "Did something happen to you guys?"

"We don't need him to save the situation if something goes wrong." Xu Xilin said with a bit of nonchalant arrogance and show-off, "It's better for him to ask me to settle the problem over there - he was a little worried about me, so he stayed for a few more days."

Dou Xun was stunned, and immediately thought of a lot of reasons why Song Lianyuan was "worried". His thoughts immediately went astray: "So did you go to the hospital later? What were the results of the examination?"

"...Oh, it's not because of that little problem." Xu Xilin was opening a cardboard box with his head down, and the paper cutter left a long scratch on the sealing tape. "I just sold out my business to him."

The bottom of the fruit box that Dou Xun was holding leaked, and the plump oranges rolled all over the floor.

Xu Xilin sighed and said, "You should hold this kind of paper box with your hands firmly on the bottom. Why are you so clumsy?"

As he was about to squat down to pick it up, Dou Xun grabbed his arm.

Dou Xun is not familiar with Song Lianyuan.

Back then, they were still young children immersed in the trivialities of adolescence, while Song Lianyuan had been working for many years and was now a manager in Yuebanwan. They were too different and had little in common. Except for festivals or family events, Song Lianyuan would not go to play with Xu Xilin for no reason. The two brothers only really got together after Grandma Xu passed away.

When Dou Xun learned about the existence of "Song Lianyun" from Lao Cheng and others, he actually felt very uncomfortable for a while. It was not until he heard Xu Xilin mocking Song Heilian as a "married old man" all day long that he reluctantly accepted Song Lianyuan's identity as "elder brother like father", and felt a little less uncomfortable.

Dou Xun: "You..."

"He knew a little bit before, yes..." Xu Xilin took a deep breath, and finally hesitantly brought up the old things he didn't want to touch for the first time, "He heard us arguing outside Yuebanwan."

With a good start, the rest of the conversation will flow much more smoothly.

"He has never been able to accept it. He thought I had broken off all ties with you and returned to what he called the 'right path'. However..." Xu Xilin looked at Dou Xun's expression and couldn't help but laugh, "What's that expression on your face? My eldest brother won't come to you with a check and ask you to 'leave his brother' - if he is really that stupid, then you can take it. It's just the right time to get back the red envelope I gave him when he got married."

Dusk came quickly, and the light that was dazzling just now had dimmed. Xu Xilin took off his annoying sunglasses, casually pinned them on his collar, and looked at Dou Xun with his unobstructed eyes.

Dou Xun was filled with mixed emotions and spoke incoherently, "He is not...how could you..."

After all, the older people are just classmates. If classmates get along well with each other, they can be childhood sweethearts. If they don’t get along well, it is common for them not to see each other for the rest of their lives.

But Song Lianyuan is Xu Xilin's most important partner. All their wealth is tied up in the shares of a company. If they go their separate ways, they will all be hurt... Besides, Song Lianyuan just came in and put something down that day, but Dou Xun could tell that he and Xu Xilin must be very close, so close that he could probably replace all the relatives Xu Xilin had lost or were still absent.

Xu Xilin was very slick and ruthless, but at this point, he couldn't even utter a word of "I'm serious, you have to believe me this time", so he could only say jokingly in the midst of the bright oranges, "I came out to him".

Xu Xilin gradually stopped smiling and looked at Dou Xun calmly. He gently pulled his arm out of his hand, then pressed Dou Xun's chest unceremoniously and pushed him aside: "If you don't want to work, get out of the way. Don't get in the way here."

Dou Xun was dumbfounded as he watched him pick up the oranges that had rolled all over the place, fold the leaky box skillfully, pick out a large, round one and bring it to the kitchen, cut it neatly into six pieces, and hand it back to him: "Eat it."

Dou Xun seemed to have all his hair smoothed down from head to toe as he followed him in and out. However, he found that the other party had no intention of touching him and even stuffed food into his mouth for no reason. He took the plate of oranges in frustration and threw it aside, then hugged Xu Xilin from behind.

It was still cold, and Xu Xilin had changed his sweater early. Under the thin coat, he only had a shirt as thin as garlic peel. A light touch could reach his thin chest. This time, there was no thick sweater and hard back in between, and it was not Dou Xun's own illusion. He could clearly feel Xu Xilin's heartbeat. He tried to hold the beating in his hands, and his ten fingers subconsciously shrank.

He was like a child who had made a mistake and was afraid to enter the house. He looked at Xu Xilin longingly, but was a little hesitant and did not dare to move.

After a long while, Dou Xun finally explained unsteadily: "That was not what I meant that day. I actually...actually..."

He was at a loss for words, lowered his head and buried his face in Xu Xilin's neck for a while, then he finally remembered his lines.

Dou Xun said: "...I'm not forcing you."

Once bitten by a snake, he became afraid of ropes for ten years.

Xu Xilin gently held his hand and turned around: "Dounianer, look at this."

Dou Xun looked up at him quickly, then quickly lowered her gaze behind her thick eyelashes, seeming a little at a loss.

He had never looked people in the eye since he was young, but he had never been beaten for it, probably because of the good looks given to him by Zhu Xiaocheng. Even though he looked rebellious when he drooped his eyelids, his handsome calmness concealed it, making it hard for people to blame him.

Xu Xilin leaned on the balcony filled with afterglow and kissed him gently. There was no meaning in it, it was just a kiss that came out immediately.

Dou Xun was motionless, and suddenly he felt like crying, feeling a mixed bag of grievances.

It's the kind of grievance a spoiled child feels when he does something wrong and begs for forgiveness as usual, but doesn't get it.

Xu Xilin was a little nervous at first, but when facing Dou Xun, he suddenly relaxed because he found that after stripping off the exquisite packaging, this person's much more mature body was still filled with the same unreasonable stick in their family. This stick once sailed across the oceans and swam to a very far place, and was almost lost in the endlessly connected continents and the stormy oceans.

Whenever Xu Xilin thought of this, his heart ached.

Strangely enough, during the years when Dou Xun was away, he didn't seem to notice anything. He just lived his life as usual and didn't seem to be any more miserable than others.

But from the moment Dou Xunru miraculously opened his car door, the gears in his body that had been stagnant for many years seemed to have worn off the long-standing rust, and all the past joys, sorrows, anger, and separations turned around one by one.

It's even more painful.

Xu Xilin finally asked the question that was on his mind.

"Can you do it again?" he said. "I brought you a case of iced tea."

It turned out to be that year that Zhu Xiaocheng and Dou Junliang gave up their mutually destructive war and strangled their lingering marriage together. The little boy had just found a place to live in this vast world, but he curled himself up stubbornly and refused to move forward.

He showed his claws to a circle of teachers and parents, and his second-year cancer broke out. He thought that the college entrance examination meant nothing, and his future was worthless. He heartlessly went to the chaotic Moonlight Pavilion with a bunch of unlucky kids, wanting to use "adult" entertainment to prove that he was about to become an adult... Although he later found out that adults didn't like that kind of crappy entertainment. They still had to support their families, earn money for their children's milk powder, and work hard to climb up - occasionally when they had some free time from social activities, they would rather lie on the sofa at home with an empty mind.

And then... then, under the malicious instigation of his friends, he got a kiss that tasted like iced tea.

Xu Xilin has a unique skill of forgetting things as soon as he leaves his hands. If it is not a very important matter or a very important person, he will not take it to heart and will format his hard drive from time to time. The advantage of this kind of person is that he always talks about the matter at hand during an argument, so there is no need to worry that he will "bring up small arguments". However, for someone like Dou Xun who can remember the time, place, characters and lines of a small matter several years ago, sometimes when talking about something, seeing his confused face as if "there seems to be such a thing", it is inevitable to think that he is a bit heartless.

I wonder whether they were in their second or third year of high school when they went to Yuebanwan, why they went there, which private room they went to, who was making trouble at the table, and who joined in the fun... Xu Xilin probably had no recollection of it, and it might be too difficult for him to find the old site of Yuebanwan now.

Dou Xun always thought that Xu Xilin treated that incident as a game to compete with Wu Tao, and he always thought that he was the only one who was tormented and unforgettable about it.

He didn't expect that Xu Xilin actually had that cup of iced black tea in his mind.

Dou Xun's dodging gaze was flattened by his slap, and he rushed forward and clung to Xu Xilin tightly: "Why did you bring me iced black tea? Don't you want to leave tonight?"

There was a hint of teasing in this sentence that was not in line with Dou Xun's personal style. Sparks should have flown, but Xu Xilin leaned against the balcony windowsill in frustration and said, "I have to go. I have to go on a business trip tomorrow, and my luggage is still at home."

There was a plan behind Song Heimian's easy departure.

Dou Xun was like a human-shaped tail, following wherever Xu Xilin went. He walked without making any sound and appeared behind others without anyone noticing. Xu Xilin almost scalded him several times when he turned back in the kitchen. Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore and kicked the troublemaker Dou Xun out.

The unfortunate Phalaenopsis orchid enjoyed the sunset for a whole afternoon, but its petals were all wilted in the sun. Dou Xun had no choice but to spray some water on it. He was bored and wanted to find something to do at home, but he couldn't concentrate on anything he did. He always had to look up at Xu Xilin, and it seemed unreal.

Xu Xilin asked as if he had eyes behind his back: "What are you daydreaming about?"

Dou Xun said nothing.

Then after a while, he suddenly spoke a lot in one breath like a repeater, without even a punctuation mark: "I have a scholarship there, but the rent and daily expenses are still too expensive. At the beginning, my roommates were secretly working the kind of illegal labor that would get them deported if caught. I wanted to join them, but a teacher didn't let me go. He looked a lot like Mr. Huang in our class back then... Forget it, you don't remember who Mr. Huang was - he allowed me to work for him, and gradually let me join his laboratory, and I worked under him for a few years - I moved twice in those years, the first time because the rent was too expensive, and the second time because the environment was too messy... I made some friends, some of whom I even thought of being more than friends..."

Xu Xilin paused.

But before he could turn around to ask, Dou Xun continued without leaving any suspense: "But I couldn't get out of your shadow in the first one or two years, and then I just saved money and time to go back to China to find you. I didn't come back until the beginning of this year... I plan to stay here to work for a long time. I'm currently renting a house and want to buy a car. I just participated in a lottery, but... I didn't win. My biggest goal is to buy back the house you sold. I conservatively estimated the market value of the house there is about 20 to 30 million. Considering the expected market increase, I don't think I need to set a second goal in my life. Maybe I'll end it here."

Dou Xun mocked himself, then quickly recalled everything and felt that there were no omissions: "I have finished reporting."

After he finished speaking, he didn't urge him. He just looked at Xu Xilin, using body language to express "it's your turn".

Xu Xilin didn't know whether to brag about himself or pretend to be pitiful. He hesitated for a moment and said, "After so many years, the house I bought is not the same as before. I'll just have to make do with the new one."

Dou Xun's eyes suddenly dimmed.

Xu Xilin: "When will you come home with me?"