Chapter 60: To the future: Because I like you, I am afraid of losing you.

"It's not important. Okay, okay, stop gathering around me. I need to do my homework!" Yu Xiang evaded the question casually and started to chase people away.

The group of people then reluctantly dispersed and returned to their seats.

Everything returned to calm, and Jiang Ci picked up the red pen again - he promised to help Yu Xiang correct the test paper.

Yu Xiang had nothing to do, so he simply held his face with one hand and admired Jiang Ci's focused profile.

Hmm... Although I never liked this face before, now it's different.

Are you addicted to it?

Can’t get enough of it.

"But this age is the age when love begins to blossom..."

Zhang Miao’s words were still echoing in his mind, making him fall into deep thought.

Before, he always felt that he had no one he liked, but now it seemed that something had quietly changed.

Since when did his feelings towards Jiang Ci become less serious, even going beyond the boundaries of "friends"?

Although he has been struggling with his inner self during this period - because he doesn't want to admit that he has fallen in love with someone, and a boy at that.

The person I like is still a good friend who grew up with me.

This is more or less immoral, and one day, he won't know how to face Jiang Ci.

"It's finished."

At some point, Jiang Ci had stopped writing, picked up the test paper and turned to think about him.

Yu Xiang was brought back to his senses by this voice: "So fast, how many multiple-choice questions did you get wrong?"

"You got two single-choice questions wrong. Look at the multiple-choice questions yourself." Jiang Ci returned the paper to him. "I've marked some mistakes you shouldn't have made."

"good."

Yu Xiang devoted the rest of his time to studying and had no time to think about those things until he got home from evening self-study and had the chance to continue thinking about them.

Although it is September, the summer heat has not yet dissipated and it is still a bit stuffy at night.

"By the way, why are you so determined to stop Jiang Yuting from coming to see us?" Taking advantage of the fact that there was no one around, Yu Xiang was finally able to ask the question that he had been wanting to ask since daytime.

"Just because she acts like a fool, I have to allow her to act like a fool?" Jiang Ci replied calmly, "Or was it because she didn't bully you enough when you were a kid?"

Yu Xiang awkwardly raised his hand and touched his neck: "...I can't say it was plastic surgery, it's just that she was too enthusiastic, and I couldn't handle it."

"Are you sure you're not scared?" Jiang Ci turned his head and looked at him with interest.

Yu Xiang opened his mouth and said, "Are you kidding me? Why would I be afraid of a little girl who is two years younger than me?"

"Really? But when she said loudly in front of so many parents that she would marry you in the future, the fear on your face didn't seem fake." Jiang Ci teased.

"Don't mention the dark history of childhood nonsense!" Yu Xiang was so angry that he wanted to cover Jiang Ci's mouth, but unfortunately the latter reacted quickly and easily avoided it by tilting his head.

"Stop it." Jiang Ci suppressed his laughter and grabbed Yu Xiang's waving hand. "I was just helping you recall. Why are you so angry?"

Yu Xiang glared at him angrily: "That's not a memory, that's a corpse whipping."

Jiang Ci laughed softly.

"You're still laughing!"

"I don't."

"Do you think I'm blind—"

The two of them argued back and forth all the way home, and when they were almost home, Yu Xiang asked seriously, "By the way, are you going to be an adult in a few days?"

"Um."

"So, do you have any plans for your birthday?"

"No."

"No?" Yu Xiang was stunned. "But you're 18, shouldn't you be serious? Why don't you just give up?"

"I don't really care about these things. Besides—" He said, lowering his eyes to look at Yu Xiang, who looked gentle as water under the moonlight. "Do you think I have time to celebrate my birthday?"

"It can be postponed or deferred."

“It’s too much trouble.”

"Then why didn't you find it troublesome to celebrate my birthday?" Yu Xiang blurted out without thinking much.

"You're different."

"Why is it different?"

"you guess."

Yu Xiang: “…” He used the “guess” trick to brush me off again.

"Do you think I'm just trying to fool you?" Jiang Ci said another sentence as if he knew what he was thinking.

Yu Xiang: "? You can read minds?"

"I'm just guessing based on my understanding of you," Jiang Ci explained. "I want to tell you the reason, but now is not the time."

An answer popped up in his mind, making Yu Xiang anxious: "Is there anything I can't say now?"

"a lot of."

"you--"

"Okay, it's time for you to go home." Jiang Ci stopped and looked away, then raised his hand and pointed in the direction of Yu's house, obviously trying to forcibly interrupt the topic.

"Oh." Yu Xiang couldn't insist any longer and could only walk towards the door. "Good night then."

"good evening."

Yu Xiang walked into the house without looking back.

Jiang Ci stood there and watched him open and close the door, without moving for a long time, his fists clenched and then unclenched.

After a moment, he closed his eyes, exhaled, and murmured, "Because I like you."

Because I like you, I am afraid of losing you.

He didn't dare gamble, at least not now.

Five days later.

"Don't worry. After my last car accident, I'm being incredibly cautious this time." Zhang Miao, holding his schoolbag, sneaked over to Yu Xiang's table with Fang Chengyu while everyone else was busy packing up to go home after evening study. "How's it going, Old Fang? Isn't it discreet enough? No one saw us?"

Fang Chengyu looked at him speechlessly: "Then you don't have to act like a thief, right?"

"You know shit. This is called ensuring that nothing goes wrong." Zhang Miao immediately retorted.

"What are you two doing here?" Yu Xiang zipped up his schoolbag and looked up to meet the eyes of these two funny guys.

"We're here to give gifts, hahahaha—" Zhang Miao said, rummaging in his schoolbag for a while, pulling out a gift bag, and without a word, stuffed it into Jiang Ci's hand as he was still finishing his last question. "Happy birthday, Brother Jiang!"

"And mine." Fang Chengyu signaled Zhang Miao with his eyes, "Why are you only taking out your own?"

"Oh oh oh! Don't rush, don't rush, do it right away!" Zhang Miao shuddered and hurriedly reached into his bag again. This time, he took out an exquisite little box and stuffed it into Fang Chengyu's hand with great disgust. "Old Fang, you are too stingy. You bought such a small box. You can give it to him yourself."

"It's small, but it's not cheaper than yours." Fang Chengyu skillfully retorted to Zhang Miao while placing the small box on Jiang Ci's desk. "Happy birthday, Brother Jiang!"

Zhang Miao: "Why are you calling me brother too?"

Fang Chengyu said as a matter of course: "I still know whose notes I usually copy. It must be my brother."

Zhang Miao sighed, "Tsk. Hindsight."

"Thank you." Jiang Ci thanked them politely, "But how did you know my birthday?"

"Don't underestimate my intelligence network, Brother Jiang. I'm the best at finding out these things." Zhang Miao said with a proud raised eyebrow.

"Okay." Jiang Ci didn't ask any more questions.

This was not what Zhang Miao expected. He was about to tell a long and eloquent story about how he found out, but the word "Jiang Ci" stopped him in his tracks.

"So this is what you two have been discussing secretly recently?" Yu Xiang suddenly thought of something and asked.

"Yes." Zhang Miao answered reflexively.

Yu Xiang narrowed his eyes: "Then why are you hiding from me too?"

"Don't you understand, Brother Yu?" Zhang Miao said bitterly, "Ever since we started senior year, you two have been inseparable like conjoined twins. To maintain some secrecy, we've had no choice but to avoid you as well."

Yu Xiang frowned, "Is it really that exaggerated?"

"Of course. If you don't believe me, go ask Lu Ziyang and the others. They'll definitely say the same thing."

"Students inside, please don't stay in the classroom. The corridor door will be locked soon." The teacher on duty poked his head out of the door and urged them.

"Okay, teacher—" Fang Chengyu responded loudly.

In order to prevent the tragedy of being locked in the teaching building, the few people did not dare to continue chatting and each took their own things and left the classroom.

As usual, they said goodbye to Zhang Miao and Fang Chengyu at the school gate and each went home.

"Wait for me here." However, Yu Xiang acted contrary to his usual behavior and asked Jiang Ci to wait where he was, while he quickly walked to the convenience store at the school gate.

He didn't let Jiang Ci wait too long. Two minutes later, he came back with a bag: "Let's go."

"What did you buy?" Jiang Ci asked.

"Two bottles of Coke," Yu Xiang answered without hesitation. "Let's take the long way home today."

"Why?"

"Celebrating your birthday."

Jiang Ci lowered his eyes, his gaze landing on the plastic bag in Yu Xiang's hand, and said with a smile, "Two bottles of Coke?"

"That's right." Yu Xiang said confidently, "The conditions are limited, so you have to make do with it. What's important is the sense of ceremony."

Jiang Ci: "There's a sense of ceremony? Then can I look forward to it?"

"Hmm." Yu Xiang thought about it seriously, then said, "Then don't expect anything. There might not be a reversal, because I really only bought two bottles of Coke."

"It's okay, you're—"

As Jiang Ci said this, a rather uncivilized car happened to pass by, honking its horn. As a result, Yu Xiang didn't hear the rest of his sentence clearly: "What did you just say? I didn't hear you clearly."

"Nothing, I said you lead the way." Jiang Ci stretched out a hand to him, "Do you want me to help you carry it?"

Yu Xiang lowered his head with a puzzled look on his face. After realizing that he was referring to the bag in his hand, he shook his head and refused: "It's such a trivial matter, so don't bother the birthday god."

He didn't delay any longer after he finished speaking, and raised his chin to signal Jiang Ci that it was time to leave: "Let's go."

"good."

The detour Yu Xiang mentioned actually meant taking the main road instead of the side streets. The main road was close to the river, with a long riverside pedestrian path that offered beautiful views and was often visited by many people.

However, at this time, most of the night runners had already gone home, so when they arrived and looked around, they could not see anyone on the entire trail.

Yu Xiang pulled Jiang Ci to sit on a viewing platform, took out two bottles of Coke, and handed one of them to Jiang Ci.

The moonlight tonight is very good, and you can see some sparse stars. The slightly moist wind blowing from the river brushes on my face, mixed with the faint fragrance of osmanthus around, which is very pleasant.

The two of them watched the night view in silence for a while. Finally, Jiang Ci turned around and asked gently, "So the sense of ritual you're talking about is just enjoying the scenery while feeling the breeze?"

"Isn't it good?" Yu Xiang also turned around, a smile on his face, "Don't you feel relaxed?"

"I didn't say it was bad."

"That's all." Yu Xiang said, turning back and suddenly raising the Coke in his hand towards the moon, "I'm raising my glass to the bright moon—no, I'm raising my bottle to the bright moon."

"The birthday star is sitting next to you. Did you invite Mingyue?" Jiang Ci said softly.

"Then invite the birthday boy." Yu Xiang smiled and moved the Coke towards Jiang Ci, "To Jiang Ci, who has just reached adulthood."

Jiang Ci clinked glasses with him, smiling: "Cheers to Yu Xiang, who is about to become an adult."

And to our future.