Chapter 18

At six in the morning, the snow in the alleyway crunched underfoot. Wu Ye wrapped half of his scarf around Li Ruiyuan's neck: "The douzhi shop opens at seven."

"I'm so sleepy..." Li Ruiyuan exhaled white mist, his hair sticking up in his sleep. "You guys got up so early before?"

Turning around Cinder Alley, a bustling noise washed over them. Steamy breakfast stalls filled the alley, and doughnuts sizzled in frying pans. Wu Ye suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into the crowd: "This way!"

There was a long line at the time-honored douzhi shop. Li Ruiyuan frowned and sniffed the sour smell in the air: "Is this drinkable?"

"Experience life." Wu Ye pressed him onto a plastic stool. "You said you wanted to try it."

As the boss scooped up the gray-green liquid, Li Ruiyuan's Adam's apple rolled. Wu Ye held back a smile and handed over the fried dough ring: "Eat it with this." "You drink first." Li Ruiyuan pushed the bowl over.

Wu Ye drank most of the bowl without changing his expression, leaving a sticky mess at the corner of his mouth. Li Ruiyuan took a sip with suspicion, his face wrinkled like a walnut: "Ugh... What the hell is this slop smell!"

The old man at the next table laughed out loud: "Is this your first time drinking, young man?" Wu Ye finally couldn't help laughing and fell on his shoulder, his eyelashes sparkling with snow foam.

At this moment, the old stereo suddenly started to play old songs:

"Love should be honest and don't pretend forever—"

Li Ruiyuan was rinsing his mouth with soy milk when he choked and coughed. Wu Ye patted his back lightly, his fingertips accidentally brushing against his red earlobe.

"Change the channel, change the channel!" an old lady shouted, "They play this song every day!" The shop owner happily turned up the volume: "How appropriate!"

Sunlight shone through the steam, tinting the golden color of the fried dough sticks stall into amber. Wu Ye suddenly hummed along, quite off-tune:

"Please be honest. There is no such thing as perfect romance in this world—"

Li Ruiyuan stuffed the fried dough sticks into his mouth and said, "It's so ugly." But he couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth.

In the bustling crowd, they were like two fish swimming upstream. Wu Ye naturally took his wrist and walked through the candied haws stalls and pancake carts. The scorching aroma of roasted sweet potatoes drifted away with the sound of singing:

"Love should be honest and don't pretend forever—"

In front of the dough figurine stall, Li Ruiyuan suddenly stopped and asked: "Does it look like you?" A grinning little wolfdog was stuck on the straw.

Wu Ye raised his eyebrows and picked up the lazy cat next to him: "This one looks like you."

The old artist smiled and said, "It's cheaper if you buy two together!" In the end, the two dough figurines were inserted side by side on the backpack, swaying with the footsteps.

As they reached the end of the alley, the singing faded away. Looking at the frozen Houhai Lake, Wu Ye suddenly said, "How about calling the supermarket 'September Supermarket'?"

Li Ruiyuan was stunned: "Why?"

"It's the month we first met." The boy kicked away the snow. "And... September is perfect for everything."

The sun suddenly pierced through the clouds, and the ice surface reflected a light like broken diamonds. Li Ruiyuan pulled off the scarf and wrapped it around his neck: "So rustic!"

On the way back, I took a shortcut through Yandaixie Street. The second-hand audio shop was playing that song again, the broken speakers making snowflakes fall:

"Please be honest. There is no such thing as perfect romance in this world—"

Wu Ye suddenly pulled him under the eaves. Shadows descended, and his breath mingled like white mist. "Li Ruiyuan," the boy's voice was lighter than the snow. "I..."

I like you

Firecrackers suddenly exploded next door, drowning out the rest of the sentence. Li Ruiyuan frowned: "What?"

"It's okay." Wu Ye took a step back and stuffed a candied haws into his mouth: "Is it sweet?"

The sour and sweet mixture explodes on the tip of the tongue. The song passes through the falling snow, like a footnote that transcends time and space.

"Love should be honest and don't pretend forever—"

By the time we got back to Tsinghua's west gate, the dough figurines on my backpack had frozen solid. Wu Ye stood downstairs in the dormitory, waving, his scarf still wrapped around Li Ruiyuan's neck.

A sea of ​​clouds rolled outside the plane window. Li Ruiyuan fished out something from his pocket—the remaining candied haws, carefully wrapped in a tissue, the candy shell shattered into tiny bits.

He turned on his phone and played the song he'd been arguing about all morning on repeat through his headphones. The flight attendant chuckled as she passed by: "Sir, do you like this old song too?"

Beneath the clouds, Beijing shrank into a glowing chessboard. And in a certain alley, a song continued to sing tirelessly:

"I want you to be kind, even if you lie to me, you should still be warm—"

As the filming began in Guangzhou, dozens of messages poured in. The latest came from Wu Ye: "When will the supermarket sign be ready?"

The Pearl River remained gentle in the twilight. Li Ruiyuan stood in front of the shipping container and suddenly hummed a strange tune.

Lin Lixin turned back in horror: "Are you possessed?" He just smiled and took a photo of the September Supermarket's plan and sent it to the number with the note "Classmate Xiaoye".

That night, Beijing was covered in heavy snow. Wu Ye said on the phone, "The dough figurine has melted." In the background, the same melody could be heard faintly:

"Love should be honest and don't pretend forever—"

It turns out that some songs have been sung for them thousands of times.

It was three in the morning in Beijing, and the radiator was humming softly. Wu Ye stared at his phone screen, the fluorescent light illuminating his burning cheeks. In the chat box, an unsent "I like you" lay, the cursor flickering like a heartbeat.

My thumb hovered over the send button, my sweaty fingertips sliding across the screen. A light snowflake fell outside the window, and the dormitory building was so quiet that I could hear my own pulse.

"Send failed - network connection interrupted"

A red exclamation point pierced his pupils. Wu Ye sat up abruptly, repeatedly switching to airplane mode. The campus network disconnection icon was like a silent mockery.

"Fuck." He buried himself in the quilt, the fabric muffling his rapid breaths. The duvet still smelled of laundry detergent from Guangzhou, the same scent as Li Ruiyuan's.

In the darkness, the phone suddenly vibrated.

Li Ruiyuan: "Come and see the new store next month." Attached is a design drawing of September Supermarket, where the shelves are arranged in a heart shape.

Wu Ye stared at the words "next month" and suddenly threw back the covers. The cold air made his skin shiver, and he trembled as he pressed the voice button:

"Li Ruiyuan..." His voice was so hoarse that it didn't sound like his own. "I like you."

The moment the green "successful" icon lit up, the phone slipped from his palm. He collapsed as if his bones had been pulled out, pressing the pillow tightly against his burning ears.

At 3:30 a.m. in Guangzhou, shelves clanked and clattered. Li Ruiyuan was carrying a box of drinks when his phone vibrated in his pocket.

"Brother Yuan! There's no room here!" Lin Lixin yelled. He opened the box, cigarette in hand, freeing his hand to swipe the screen.

The voice message ended, and cigarette ash fell onto the cardboard box. In the distance, the whistle of a night boat sailing on the Pearl River rang out, long and drawn-out, like a sigh.

Wu Ye curled up in bed and counted his heartbeats. At the 180th beat, his phone screen suddenly lit up.

Baby: “Yeah”

Baby: "Me too"