In the center of the walnut dining table sat a delicate white ceramic vase holding a few half-bloomed hibiscus flowers. Their hearts were pink, gradually diffusing outward into a sweet, pale blush tone.
These were just a few stems from the large bouquet that had just arrived.
The rest had been sorted and re-arranged into various containers—glass cups, small ceramic jars, frosted soda bottles—scattered as accents in every corner.
The aroma of food wafted out from the kitchen, drawing everyone in. They swarmed through the doorway, chattering noisily as they jostled to carry dishes out, quickly covering the entire table.
Spicy diced chicken—the chicken cut into neat squares, fried until crispy on the outside and tender within, tossed with dried chili peppers snipped into segments and golden peanuts. Sweet-and-sour spare ribs glazed in a translucent amber sauce, sprinkled with fragrant toasted white sesame seeds. Steamed grouper topped with finely shredded ginger and scallion, the hot oil just drizzled over still sizzling audibly, with steamed fish soy sauce served separately in a small white porcelain dish. Blanched okra meant for dipping in wasabi soy sauce. Chilled jellyfish head tossed with cucumber strips and minced garlic. Stir-fried asparagus with just a touch of salt and olive oil, preserving the natural sweetness of the ingredient…
Before each person sat a steaming rustic clay pot.
As the lids were lifted, a rich aroma of shrimp and crab burst forth. The congee was thick and silky, cradling a whole green crab split in half, its golden roe glistening with oil, along with over a dozen shelled shrimp. A scattering of chopped scallions and cilantro created a green-and-white contrast that was instantly appetite-inducing.
The bags of cooked food were also torn open by everyone working together, plated, and set out until the whole table was full.
Outside the window, the sky had deepened into dusk—the most beautiful blue hour of the day.
The sky was a deep, pure blue, like velvet steeped in seawater. In the distance, the sea shimmered with dark blue ripples, merging seamlessly with the sky until it was impossible to tell where the water ended and the heavens began.
A sea breeze drifted through the half-open floor-to-ceiling windows, gently stirring the white sheer curtains and causing the flower petals on the table to tremble slightly.
"This is way too atmospheric—don't anyone move, let me take a couple of photos first!"
Chen Anke quickly whipped out her phone and started snapping pictures, making sure to capture the blue-hour seascape beyond the glass doors.
"Wow," Bao Chenggong couldn't help but exclaim, "This… this is practically my family chef's level."
Aili gripped her chopsticks with barely contained patience: "Done yet?"
Chen Anke wrapped up in a flash: "Done, done! Thanks, Chef!"
Everyone followed suit in perfect sync: "Thanks, Chef—"
Shen Lizhou: "You're welcome."
"That spicy diced chicken looks absolutely incredible."
"The sweet-and-sour ribs smell amazing!"
"Who did you learn to cook from?"
They were all seasoned adults, trading pleasantries and polite remarks without pause. All eyes were fixed on him. Though well-intentioned, the attention felt like countless fine needles piercing through skin and into bone. Shen Lizhou's shoulders and back unconsciously tensed, until he heard Shi Ran say: "You all go ahead and keep being polite. I'm eating first."
Her chopsticks dove toward the spicy diced chicken. The others took the cue and immediately began eating as well.
Then the compliments grew even more fervent.
"We can't just drink on empty stomachs," Aili suddenly remembered something and stood up to rummage through the bags they'd brought up. "Where's the wine I bought? Everyone's so sneaky—buying flowers and gifts—while Bao Chenggong and I are the only ones who brought food and drinks…"
Shen Lizhou's movements paused slightly.
The flowers were from Chen Anke.
So what was the gift?
And who was it from?
Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Shi Ran beside him, focused on her meal, then looked further off toward the unpacked bags.
Aili returned with the two bottles of imported liquor, pouring shallow half-glasses into several tumblers. The amber liquid caught the light in fine glimmers against the glass. When she slid the last glass in front of Shen Lizhou, she raised an eyebrow: "You can hold your liquor, right?"
Shi Ran had already raised her own glass, and Shen Lizhou, without a word, simply picked his up and gently clinked it against hers.
Then everyone raised their glasses together: "Cheers—!"
The glasses met with a crisp ring, and they all tipped their heads back for a sip. The fiery liquid slid down their throats, leaving a warm afterglow.
Shi Ran could hold her liquor like a champion, and she had a good sense of everyone else's tolerance too. She simply turned her head to glance at Shen Lizhou beside her.
His thin lips, touched by the alcohol, had become moist and glossy—a hue like honey-soaked cherries. His drinking motion was clean and decisive, and when he set the glass down, there was no visible change—except perhaps the faint flush creeping to the corners of his eyes. His pale, light-colored pupils, warmed by the liquor, looked slightly dewy, as if veiled in a thin mist, yet still clear and bright.
He could probably hold his liquor pretty well too.
Shi Ran relaxed.
After a few rounds, the atmosphere grew even livelier.
Bao Chenggong had the lowest alcohol tolerance, and soon his words began to slur as he waxed nostalgic: "This is the first time we've had a gathering at someone else's place, right? Back in high school, we always hung out at Shi Ran's house. Remember that one time we played Werewolf until the middle of the night? Man, so many of our old friends have drifted out of touch. Here we are, scattered across the world, la…"
Chen Anke discreetly nudged Bao Chenggong under the table and said, "I don't remember. Stop singing."
He really had a knack for bringing up the wrong topic.
Mentioning Werewolf was practically the same as mentioning Cheng Zimiao.
Back then, Shi Ran and Cheng Zimiao had both gotten obsessed with Werewolf for a while, becoming avid enthusiasts. Whenever they had a bit of free time, they'd round up friends to play at home. One would do an Aggressive Claim, the other a Reverse Hook, working together flawlessly like the perfect duo.
"You don't remember that? We played all the time back then." Aili's tolerance wasn't great either, and she was clearly getting tipsy. She looked at Shen Lizhou. "Hey, I remember you came to play once too! Maybe only a couple of times, but I still remember you were really good at it…"
Shi Ran looked at the quiet man beside her with some confusion.
Really?
He'd played with everyone too?
She didn't really remember that.
"Once or twice." Shen Lizhou's voice carried a hint of post-drinking hoarseness. "A long time ago."
Bao Chenggong, jogged by Aili's comment, suddenly remembered something and got excited: "I remember now—you were the Hunter, and you shot Cheng Zimiao in one shot!"
Ah. Shi Ran blinked.
That Hunter? She actually did remember that Hunter.
So it had been Shen Lizhou all along.
The man before her slowly matched up with her hazy memories.
Shi Ran recalled what Shen Lizhou had looked like in high school.
It was a Friday in their sophomore year, it seemed.
Ms. Meng had suddenly gotten the idea to go on a trip to another city with Old Shi. With the cats away, Shi Ran immediately got the urge to set up a Werewolf game.
But she couldn't scrape together enough people on short notice, and she really wanted to play, so she scanned the classroom for a target. Spotting Shen Lizhou sitting alone in the back row looking like he had nothing to do, she went up and asked if he knew how to play Werewolf. He said he didn't, so she confidently patted her chest and said she could teach him—guaranteed results.
He seemed to hesitate for a few seconds, but eventually agreed, and Shi Ran's game was set. After school, the whole crew trooped over to her house in high spirits.
Since he was her guest, she naturally had to look after him. Shi Ran had him sit next to her, carefully explained the rules, and planned to go easy on him for his first game.
But to her surprise, she drew the Seer card in the very first round, while her toughest opponent, Cheng Zimiao, drew a Wolf. He opened with an Aggressive Claim as the Seer and issued an Investigative Kill on her. Cheng Zimiao had always had a way of making people believe him, and his speech was airtight. Her position was too far back, and her counter-claim was weak, so in the end, almost everyone voted her out.
Only Shen Lizhou didn't vote for her.
Shi Ran had given him an apologetic look at the time, thinking he just hadn't learned the game yet.
But that night, Shen Lizhou used his Hunter shot to take out Cheng Zimiao. During the daytime discussion, in a flat tone, he pointed out the remaining Wolves one by one. (Note)
His logic was razor-sharp, his identification of the Wolves flawless. He laid out all the work for both day and night phases, and the whole table erupted. They voted one out that day, the Witch poisoned another, and the last one self-destructed. The game was over just like that.
Shi Ran was thrilled. Because a normal game took about an hour, and getting killed on the first night meant losing the game experience entirely—you'd have to wait around bored for a full hour. She never expected such a stroke of luck.
She clearly remembered that outstanding Hunter. She remembered his terrifyingly precise logic, the presence that stunned the whole room with a few casual words, and the smile frozen on Cheng Zimiao's face…
She just hadn't remembered that the person had been Shen Lizhou.
He was too quiet.
And he still was. The whole table was filled with lively chatter and laughter—Bao Chenggong was animatedly recounting embarrassing high school stories, Chen Anke was laughing so hard she was rocking back and forth, and Aili occasionally chimed in to tease him. Only Shen Lizhou sat there, his expression calm and detached, as if separated by a pane of transparent glass.
He didn't talk much, rarely smiled, and occasionally took a bite of food or raised his glass for a sip of wine. His fingertips held the side of the glass, knuckles defined, fingers long and clean. The wound from before had healed, leaving no visible scar.
As if he'd never been hurt at all.
"Let's play a game or something!" Aili swirled her glass, complaining, "We're going through the drinks way too slowly."
Chen Anke rolled her eyes. "Play with your head. You're already half gone, if you ask me."
"Who's gone? The more I drink, the more sober I get," Aili retorted. "At least I don't hold back on my drinks. What about Bao Chenggong? He's just been nursing his glass like a fish."
"I'm done for. What kind of foreign liquor did you buy? It's way too strong—I feel like throwing up. You can't let me come here for the first time and puke in someone's house…" Bao Chenggong got even more talkative when drunk. "Who's going to pay for it if I puke inside? Everything here is worth a fortune. Do you know how much this carpet costs? I saw this exact carpet when I interviewed an Italian CEO before. Do you know how much I make a month as a journalist?"
"I'll pay, I'll pay!" Aili said. "Your big sister here has money to burn—drink up!"
"Fine then. Why didn't you say so earlier?" Bao Chenggong raised his glass without hesitation, and everyone clinked their glasses together with a crisp sound.
"There's only five of us—what can we play?" Aili propped up her muddled head and thought. "How about 'Never Have I Ever'?"
"No way. You three are such cheaters—you always say things guys can't do, so only I end up drinking," Bao Chenggong said. "Let's change the rules. If we play, anyone who's actually done it has to drink!"
"Fine, fine, fine. You have a low tolerance, so I'll go easy on you…" Before Aili could finish, Bao Chenggong jumped in first—
"Never have I ever been in a relationship!" Bao Chenggong declared proudly.
The three women simultaneously shot him a massive eye roll and picked up their glasses one by one. As Bao Chenggong gloated, he glanced at Shen Lizhou and was a bit surprised: "You're not drinking? If you've been in a relationship, you have to drink."
"I've never been in a relationship," Shen Lizhou said.
"No way! You're so handsome!" Bao Chenggong had envied handsome guys more than anything since childhood, and now Shen Lizhou had completely overturned his impression of every handsome guy in the world. He was genuinely stunned.
Next was Aili's turn. She looked at Bao Chenggong's envious face and quickly got an idea: "Never have I ever envied someone else."
Bao Chenggong tipped his head back and drank: "You're seriously toxic."
Chen Anke didn't drink, and neither did Shi Ran. But Shen Lizhou beside her paused, then suddenly moved—he picked up his glass and drank one too.
"Whoa," Bao Chenggong was shocked again. "So even a rich, handsome guy like you envies people?"
Shi Ran also looked over curiously.
She watched Shen Lizhou's Adam's apple bob as he cleanly tipped his head back and downed the drink, then fell silent with no intention of explaining.
It was as if he sensed her gaze, because he took the initiative to turn his head toward her. His eyes seemed softened by the alcohol, his lashes blinking a beat slower than usual. She couldn't tell what he was thinking—they looked somewhat vacant, yet deep, staring straight ahead like the deep sea, like a black hole. Beautiful, as if they might swallow a person whole.
…He seemed a bit drunk.
Shi Ran turned her head away.
It was Chen Anke's turn.
She blinked slyly. "Never have I ever gone more than three consecutive months without being in a relationship—after adulthood, that is!"
Who could possibly pull that off?
So everyone raised their glasses together: "Cheers—"
Finally, it was Shi Ran's turn.
She looked around the circle and felt that only she and Chen Anke were still sober. The others she couldn't even be bothered to keep plying with drinks, and the two bottles of liquor were already nearly empty. So she simply said, "Let's drink this last one and head home! Never have I ever had a crazy secret crush in high school."
"Are you even human, Shi Ran?" Chen Anke raised her glass with resentment. She knew that the only person in the world who knew about her youthful crush was Shi Ran, and she threatened, "Don't ever bring up the past again."
Shi Ran also raised her glass, grinning: "I'll keep you company, isn't that enough?"
Her glass was suddenly clinked by the one beside her.
A very crisp sound.
Shi Ran lifted her eyes and met Shen Lizhou's.
Their gazes locked.
At this moment, in this place, she was absolutely certain—Shen Lizhou was drunk.
Because he gave her an extraordinarily beautiful smile. The smile was faint, yet he looked even more unguarded and more obedient than in that dream she'd had.
"A crush…" A faint blush crept onto Shen Lizhou's cheeks, his clear eyes tinged with alcohol, carrying an unconscious allure. He gently tapped her glass and said softly, "I have one."