Across from the pedestrian street was a lakeside promenade that still had quite a bit of foot traffic in the evening. The dark green lake water was dotted with patches of lotus flowers and leaves, and life rings were placed at intervals along the shore in case of emergencies.
Lin Xing and Chi Tong walked along the lake.
Perhaps because of what the little girl had said earlier, Lin Xing himself felt that walking side by side like this didn’t feel very “straight-guy” at all.
Although he did have his own ulterior motives, he was also worried that Chi Tong might find it strange for two boys to walk together like this, and grow guarded because of it.
To break the silence, Lin Xing cast about for a topic. “If we go a bit further and turn that way, there’s a night market. I went once with a friend during the summer break before I started university. The food there is really good, and it’s pretty interesting too.”
Chi Tong nodded. “Mm.”
Lin Xing once again ran out of things to say.
Then Chi Tong suddenly asked, “Do you think I’m very boring?”
“Huh?” Lin Xing was caught off guard by the question, but instinctively shook his head. “No, I don’t.”
On one hand, someone with less-than-pure intentions ought to be more proactive. On the other, seriously, how could someone with a face like that say something like that? Just looking at his face was already interesting enough.
It was just that Lin Xing was too embarrassed to stare openly, and he couldn’t exactly say out loud what he was really thinking.
“Actually, I was worried you might not like wandering around like this,” Lin Xing said. “Have you ever been recognized by people outside before?”
“By fans, like me and my roommates,” Lin Xing added.
By framing himself as a “fan,” Lin Xing felt a little more secure, this way, I’m definitely not a creep, just a fan.
Chi Tong shook his head. “Maybe there have been, but you’re the first one who came up to say hello.”
“I see.” Lin Xing couldn’t help letting the corners of his mouth lift into a slightly silly smile.
“I thought I might have given you a bad first impression,” Chi Tong said. “Or made you wary of me.”
The first time they’d met, Chi Tong had been surrounded by a crowd, like a trapped beast in a cage baring its fangs, frenzied, pathological, and almost feral.
He spoke clearly and unhurriedly, his gaze falling on Lin Xing as he did. The words themselves carried a negative meaning, but his voice was too clear and calm, like piano keys being lightly struck, leaving no room for defensiveness.
If Lin Xing had thought about it a little more carefully, he might have realized that what Chi Tong was really saying was closer to a warning for him to be careful.
“My first impression of you wasn’t bad,” Lin Xing said after thinking for a moment. “They were the ones bullying you.”
In fact, Lin Xing still remembered the confusion in Chi Tong’s eyes when he looked back at him after Lin Xing grabbed his hand. Lin Xing didn’t know the full story, but for some reason he’d felt at that moment that Chi Tong looked a little pitiful.
“Did anything happen afterward?” Chi Tong took the initiative to raise the topic, and Lin Xing followed up appropriately. “Did that person pursue the matter further?”
Chi Tong shook his head. “That person is my cousin.”
So it was a family dispute. Lin Xing let out a small sigh of relief, but he increasingly felt it must have been them bullying Chi Tong to the point where he couldn’t take it anymore.
“My first impression of you was really good. I think you’re a good person,” Lin Xing added. However, the “first impression” he meant wasn’t the earlier incident Chi Tong had mentioned.
Lin Xing had actually started thinking Chi Tong was a good person back when he helped clear up that online misunderstanding, but he couldn’t tell Chi Tong that he was actually “Seasonal Little Xingxing,” so he held it back and vaguely brushed past it.
Chi Tong seemed not to have expected Lin Xing to say something like this, and looked at him with slight surprise.
To drive his point home, Lin Xing tried to give an example. “You immediately agreed to have dinner with me. Not many people are that nice to fans, and I also feel like you’re very approachable.”
These were all his genuine thoughts, so they came out very naturally. But precisely because his expression was so sincere and his tone so natural, it made Chi Tong laugh softly.
“What’s wrong?” Lin Xing didn’t understand what he’d said wrong.
“Just… it’s the first time anyone has told me I’m approachable.”
“That’s exactly how I feel,” Lin Xing insisted.
Chi Tong didn’t argue the point further, but he found Lin Xing even more endearing. So endearing that he looked like an ordinary human standing innocently in front of a bloodthirsty demon, tilting his head up and baring his fragile throat without any awareness of the danger.
Lin Xing had completely failed to notice Chi Tong’s underlying intentions. The positive emotions he carried were bright, pure, and easy to grasp, extremely appealing to someone like Chi Tong.
The sky hadn’t yet fully darkened, but the night market was already open.
Lin Xing stood at its entrance and gestured toward it. “This is it. There are lots of different kinds of snacks inside, we can try them one by one.”
Inside, there was a constant flow of people: men and women, old and young, parents and children. All kinds of everyday scenes blended together, bringing a strong sense of human warmth.
Lin Xing spoke cautiously. He’d originally planned to take Chi Tong to a proper restaurant. But deep down, he felt that strolling through a night market would be more fun, almost like being on a date.
However, precisely because it felt a bit too much like a date, he was also afraid of coming on too strong and scaring Chi Tong off, so he spoke with some nervousness.
This night market really had everything. In recent years, with more tourists coming in, the authorities had tightened their regulation of the stalls. The food options ranged not only across the country but even internationally. In a sense, there were far more choices here than at any single restaurant.
“Boss, ten skewers of grilled squid,” Lin Xing said, flashing a “ten” with his fingers. Then he turned to Chi Tong. “Do you eat spicy food?”
Chi Tong shook his head.
“Then five medium spicy and five not spicy,” Lin Xing added to the vendor.
There was nowhere to sit, so Lin Xing and Chi Tong, like everyone else, stood by the roadside to eat. Lin Xing hadn’t even finished his squid skewers when his eyes were already drawn to the fried yogurt at another stall.
“I feel like this portion is enough for the two of us to share,” Lin Xing said to him. “That way we can save some room and eat our way from one end to the other.”
Chi Tong nodded. “Okay.”
When Chi Tong ate the grilled squid, he was unhurried and meticulous, not even getting a trace of oil at the corners of his mouth. After watching him, Lin Xing tried to take smaller bites too, but he couldn’t hold out for even a full skewer before giving up and reverting to his usual reckless eating style.
After placing the order, Lin Xing came back and ate face-to-face with Chi Tong, not forgetting to ask his opinion. “Is it good?”
“It’s good,” Chi Tong said.
In fact, with so many seasonings added, it was already hard to make out the original taste of the food, but Chi Tong genuinely found the experience itself interesting. He’d never had anything like this growing up, no one had ever taken him to places like this.
The closest he’d ever come to experiencing this kind of thing was either now, with Lin Xing bringing him here, or through the countless late-night food videos tagged by “Seasonal Little Xingxing” on D in the past.
But watching videos was still very different from experiencing it in person.
Chi Tong watched Lin Xing run off to get the fried yogurt. It felt as if, as long as they were “stars,” they would naturally give off light.
The fried yogurt came with several forks. Lin Xing held it up to show him. “It’s pineapple flavor.”
As they continued deeper into the night market, Lin Xing ended up carrying more and more snacks, one portion for the big items and two for the small ones.
“I’ve wanted to try this ever since I saw it on D last time!” Lin Xing stood in front of a roasted sweet-potato-skin stall, his eyes sparkling with excitement. But by now his hands were already full, barely able to hold anything else, and he still wanted to take photos with his phone.
Seeing his dilemma, Chi Tong reached out. “I’ll take the photo for you.”
“Thanks!” Lin Xing immediately handed his phone over without hesitation.
The camera app was still open.
Chi Tong aimed the lens at Lin Xing, and Lin Xing immediately broke into a bright smile.
The moment was captured: Lin Xing’s smile together with the little stall behind him, the sizzling, oily roasted sweet-potato skin also looking irresistibly appetizing.
Everything was filled with a natural, lively sense of everyday life. But what the image alone couldn’t convey was something that, with Lin Xing as the medium, made Chi Tong feel as if he were truly immersed in the liveliness and warmth of the scene.
Chi Tong turned the camera back around so Lin Xing could check the photo.
“You take really good photos!” Lin Xing said sincerely. “Much better than me.” Both his framing and his handling of light were excellent, once Chi Tong had taken them, the photos were almost at a level where they didn’t even need editing.
“Do you want me to take a few more?” Chi Tong asked.
“You’re too nice,” Lin Xing said. He’d felt a bit embarrassed at first, but seeing how proactive Chi Tong was, he dropped his hesitation and simply let him keep taking photos. Before long, his phone had ended up in Chi Tong’s hands, and because Lin Xing was busy eating, he almost forgot to take it back.
During a break in the photos, a message suddenly popped up at the top of the screen.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: Wanna play games?
The notification flashed and disappeared, but Chi Tong froze slightly, thinking he’d seen it wrong.
Soon after, though, the same person sent another message.
Jiajia Eats Watermelon: 【stare】
Chi Tong recognized this ID. He immediately remembered where he’d seen it before, it was the friend that “Seasonal Little Xingxing” had actually meant to tag when mentioning that account.
Chi Tong’s eyes widened slightly as he looked at Lin Xing.
Lin Xing was eating a bowl of hot-and-sour lemon shrimp, his cheeks slightly puffed. He casually ate one and even offered one to Chi Tong. “It’s so good, the shrimp is really fresh.”
He didn’t notice Chi Tong’s change in expression at all.
The name “Xingxing” or nicknames like it might exist in countless variations across the world, but what were the chances of it being paired with an ID like “Jiajia Eats Watermelon”?
“Seasonal Little Xingxing” was Lin Xing, it was the same “Xingxing.”
The truth suddenly unfolded before Chi Tong’s eyes. If he’d still been uncertain before, at this moment he had truly made up his mind.
The two left the night market and walked back along the lakeside path they’d come from. On the way there, some awkward unfamiliarity had still hung between them, but on the way back, Lin Xing was already very relaxed, holding a cup of fruit tea.
There were boats and lights on the lake, drifting slowly across the water.
A sudden splash broke the calm surface. Lin Xing startled and turned toward the sound, instinctively starting to take off his backpack. “What was that? Someone didn’t fall in, did they?”
An elderly man nearby heard him and kindly explained, “Probably just fish in the lake. They’re big, sometimes they jump out and make that sound.”
“Oh, I thought someone fell in the water,” Lin Xing said, putting his backpack back on.
Chi Tong asked, “Were you about to go save them just now?”
“I just figured that if someone really did fall in, the sooner you notice, the sooner you can help,” Lin Xing replied.
They walked into a darker stretch with less lighting, and Chi Tong said again, “When people are drowning, their survival instinct often makes them cling desperately to whoever’s rescuing them, and they might even drag the rescuer underwater and drown them too. It’s very dangerous.”
His tone didn’t sound like simple general knowledge, it carried a warning.
It isn’t only in water that people drown, and it isn’t only the person in the water who can drag the rescuer down.
“If I were to cling to you, we might both end up drowning,” Chi Tong said. His words carried an implication, but an outsider wouldn’t have been able to detect it.
Lin Xing couldn’t see his expression. He just took a big sip of his milk tea and said, “But I’m actually really good at swimming. I almost got picked for the swimming team, you know.”
Up ahead, the streetlights finally lit their faces again. Lin Xing’s face was bright with confidence and energy.
“Even if you were clinging to me, I could still save you.”