Waking up the next morning, Du Jinchen felt a warm heat in his arms, with a fluffy head pressed against his chest. In a daze, he momentarily thought he was still at home. Half-closing his eyes, he raised a hand and patted it: “Stop messing around, Feifei.”
Feifei was the cat Du Jinchen kept, a British Shorthair Silver Shaded with a perpetually world-weary expression. It walked with an air of elegance and noble aloofness, looking utterly cold and distant. However, the moment someone picked it up, its true nature was exposed; it wasn’t afraid of people at all, and loved nothing more than clinging to people and kneading paws.
After stroking it a couple of times, Du Jinchen finally realized the texture felt wrong. He squinted his eyes open and instantly snapped back to full alertness.
What he was touching in his arms was clearly pink hair, with a few soft strands tucked between his fingers, completely different from a cat’s fur.
A small section of a slender, graceful neck slipped out from under the blanket, the delicate earlobes tinged with pink. Even without seeing the person’s face, Du Jinchen knew it was Jiang Chu.
Du Jinchen hurriedly propped himself up with his arms. As he moved, Jiang Chu began to slide down from his body. With quick reflexes, Du Jinchen shielded Jiang Chu’s head, cupping his long palm over Jiang Chu’s hair to carefully make sure he wasn’t awakened.
Du Jinchen furrowed his brow, thinking to himself that last night he actually had the nerve to shamelessly shift all the way over to Jiang Chu’s side.
Did he do anything to Jiang Chu?
Du Jinchen quickly lowered his head to check. Thankfully, both of them were fully and neatly dressed, and there were no weird marks anywhere on their bodies.
After that false alarm, Du Jinchen looked up and found his phone right beside his pillow. Glancing over to the other side of the tent, Jiang Chu’s bag and pillow were slightly rumpled in the corner.
Du Jinchen let out a breath of relief, and upon realizing something, let out a quiet, muffled chuckle.
This situation seemed to be a case of Jiang Chu taking the initiative to move closer to him.
In the middle of the night, the temperature at the summit had plummeted. Jiang Chu was naturally sensitive to the cold; he must have felt the drop and unconsciously shifted around to search for a heat source.
Du Jinchen was like a walking furnace, naturally attracting Jiang Chu. Jiang Chu had wandered across half the tent to find Du Jinchen, and once he settled in against him comfortably, he didn’t want to go back.
In his sleep, Jiang Chu seemed to sense the heat source moving away and let out an involuntary murmur. The faint breath sounded like he was acting spoiled toward Du Jinchen. With his brows furrowed tightly, he wrapped himself tighter in the blanket and leaned in close to Du Jinchen once more.
Du Jinchen’s heart melted into a puddle, but dawn was approaching. If Jiang Chu woke up and found himself curled up in the arms of an Alpha, he would definitely die of embarrassment.
Du Jinchen steadied his nerves, reached out to pull the blanket fully over Jiang Chu, and meticulously tucked in the edges. Once he made sure no surrounding cold air could get in, he withdrew his hand.
At this moment, the sky wasn’t fully bright yet. The mountain peak was draped in a sea of clouds, and the light of dawn pierced through the dark cloud layers, like a silent, solemn declaration.
Du Jinchen stepped out of the tent, casually picked a boulder to stand on, and quietly waited for the sunrise.
The sea of clouds surged unpredictably. The youth stood between heaven and earth, fearless and undaunted, resembling a surging and magnificent mountain range that was serene yet arrogantly striking.
As the sunrise drew closer, everyone else successively emerged from their tents. Camera angles were set up in all directions, and the mountain peak was instantly flooded by a sea of people. The bustling crowd surged, all eagerly anticipating the exact same sunrise.
When Jiang Chu woke up, he found himself covered in two layers of blankets, the soft and warm scent of Alpha pheromones seemingly still lingering on them.
Overnight, Jiang Chu’s entire body seemed infused with Du Jinchen’s scent, making it impossible to tell whether the fragrance came from the blanket or remained naturally on his own skin.
Blushing, Jiang Chu folded the blanket, pulled up his collar to sniff the scent on himself, but couldn’t bear to change his clothes. Instead, he simply slipped on a jacket and stepped out of the tent.
Spotting Du Jinchen’s figure, Jiang Chu walked against the flow of the crowd right up to Du Jinchen’s side, quite naturally standing together with him.
The wind at the mountaintop was still strong. After standing out for just a few minutes, Jiang Chu’s pretty face had been blown icy cold and drained of color.
Jiang Chu buried almost his entire head inside his collar, leaving only a pair of beautiful eyes and wind-reddened earlobes exposed.
“You’re awake?” Du Jinchen glanced back at Jiang Chu. His sharp eyes were hidden behind sunglasses, concealing the emotions within, but the thin lips curled into a faint smile. “Did you sleep well last night?”
Dizzily, Jiang Chu nodded, his voice muffled inside his clothes, “In the middle of the night, it felt like there was a furnace next to me. It wasn’t cold at all.”
“Hahaha.” Du Jinchen laughed out loud, his tone melodic and breezy. “How can you be so cute?”
Du Jinchen looked into Jiang Chu’s earnest eyes, the smile at the corner of his mouth deepening. The mountain wind blew, making that fluffy pink hair flutter in the air, lightly veering across those gorgeous eyes before being tucked behind his ear by a smooth, jade-like hand. Du Jinchen’s gaze involuntarily fell upon the few butterflies on the back of Jiang Chu’s hand, a faint curiosity rising in his heart, though it quickly dissipated amidst the cheers of the crowd.
The very first ray of sunlight slowly shone through as the sea of clouds dispersed. Golden light emerged amid the churning clouds, and the newborn morning sun bestowed itself upon the waiting crowd in an immensely generous manner, delivering the most breathtaking sunrise right before everyone’s eyes.
Du Jinchen raised a hand to shield his eyes, surveyed his surroundings, and patted Jiang Chu’s shoulder, “That boulder over there should offer an even better view. Want to go?”
Following the direction of Du Jinchen’s finger, Jiang Chu saw that there was indeed a natural viewing platform made of bare rock. He pressed down his wind-chilled collar and nodded.
Du Jinchen let Jiang Chu walk in front while he followed closely behind.
To get from their current spot to that viewing platform, they needed to cross a gap between some large rocks. The morning mountaintop temperature was chilly, and the rocks were covered with a thin layer of misty frost, making them quite slippery to walk on.
Jiang Chu tried a few times but couldn’t make the leap, almost slipping in the process. Fortunately, Du Jinchen caught him from behind, steadying his footing.
Jiang Chu was held in Du Jinchen’s arms in an almost full embrace. Before he could even steady himself, Du Jinchen’s deep voice sounded right above his head, “Hold my hand, I’ll get you across.”
With a long stride, Du Jinchen easily crossed to the other side of the rock, turned around, and extended a hand toward Jiang Chu. His distinct, well-knotted fingers looked even more striking under the sunlight, nails neatly trimmed. He curled his fingertips upward toward Jiang Chu, teasing him like a cat.
Jiang Chu’s amber pupils flickered for a moment. Placing his hand into that soft, warm palm, he felt a gentle tug from the other side. Taking a step across, Jiang Chu stood securely on the rock.
Du Jinchen kept a half-protective posture around Jiang Chu and said seemingly offhand, “Your hands are so cold.”
Embarrassed, Jiang Chu tried to pull his hand back from Du Jinchen’s grip. Before an apology could leave his lips, he heard Du Jinchen say, “You better stay right behind me, be careful now.”
With that, as if performing a magic trick, he pulled a hand warmer out of his pocket and tossed it into Jiang Chu’s hand.
Jiang Chu caught the hand warmer, replacing his intended apology with a soft thank you.
Seeing the subtle changes in expression on Jiang Chu’s face, Du Jinchen couldn’t help curving his lips into a smile. He zipped up his windbreaker and continued forward.
The spot Du Jinchen picked truly was a prime location. The rock they stood on was the highest point of the summit. Looking down from here, one could see the boundless sea of people, and looking up, the freshest sunrise.
The moment sunlight completely burst forth from the sea of clouds, the surroundings instantly fell quiet. The bustling, chattering human voices all vanished, and everyone was conquered by this natural beauty. No one wanted to speak and break this immersive stillness, as if everything in the mortal world had found its rightful place, and all they needed to do right now was quietly admire the magnificent scenery.
Du Jinchen raised a hand to remove his sunglasses. His dark eyes reflected the unquenchable morning sun, and his black hair fluttered slightly in the morning breeze, with flecks of gold caught within it that dyed the tips the color of dawn, making him seem to blend into the sunrise itself, symbolizing rebirth and hope.
A youth and the morning sun will always make an enduringly breathtaking scene.
After half a minute, the surrounding area finally erupted into a chorus of camera shutter sounds.
Du Jinchen withdrew his gaze and turned his head to look at Jiang Chu. He could see those long eyelashes fluttering lightly like a butterfly’s wings, his straight bridge of nose reddened by the cold, and both hands tucked deep inside his windbreaker pockets. The young boy looked like a straight, growing sapling, bathing in the sunlight as he shot upward.
Playing with the sunglasses in his slender fingers, Du Jinchen seemed to think of something and called out aloud, “Jiang Chu.”
Jiang Chu instinctively turned his head back, but only caught sight of the smile hanging on Du Jinchen’s lips before his vision was enveloped in deep black.
Du Jinchen pinched the sides of the sunglasses with one hand and placed them onto Jiang Chu’s face. The oversized sunglasses covered almost Jiang Chu’s entire face, revealing only his exquisite lip shape and smooth jawline.
Through the sunglasses, he saw Du Jinchen hook the corner of his lips, “Looking good.”
Jiang Chu had always known that he was good-looking. When he was little, his schoolmates were always eager to be friends with him, and various teachers frequently praised him as pretty. During school stage plays, he was forever the Snow White lying in the glass coffin, never lacking in suitors. Yet, being bluntly praised as good-looking by a direct Alpha still made Jiang Chu involuntarily blush.
Fortunately, the sunglasses provided a layer of cover, giving Jiang Chu a bit of shielding for his modesty. His earlobes, whether reddened by the wind or by shyness, began to burn.
Jiang Chu lowered his head and dropped his gaze before turning back to watch the sunrise.
At this moment, the slowly rising sun was breaking through the cloud layers, casting golden light upon everyone and blanketing the earth with selfless generosity.
In this very instant, Jiang Chu seemed to witness a new beginning and brilliant radiance.
The meaning of travel lies in seeing many wonderful landscapes along the way, meeting people of all walks of life, experiencing freedom, and feeling hope.
Standing behind them was an older Alpha wearing a rented military-green trench coat. Du Jinchen handed his camera to the man and asked, “Could you help us take a photo together?”
The man took the camera and readily agreed.
Du Jinchen tugged at Jiang Chu’s sleeve and pointed at the camera in the man’s hands. Catching on, Jiang Chu turned around and stood side-by-side with him.
The two youths stood tall and straight upon the rock, with the newly opened dawn skies and billowing clouds behind them. The morning sun pierced through thousands of clouds and towering mountains, loosely spilling over the two of them, adding an aura of untamed freedom.
With the click of the shutter, two dashing figures were frozen in this very second.
One looked calm and composed; the other wore a smile at the corner of his lips.
Two youths, oh so beautiful.