An hour later.

Inside a moving car.

The great actor Song's outstanding acting skills had previously allowed him to hold his own against He Jingsheng. However, on the way back, when it was just him and Jiang Que in the car, he didn't hesitate to slap himself in the face.

"Well," Song Yecheng said seriously, his hands on the steering wheel, his eyes fixed nonchalantly on the road ahead. "The password you designed... shouldn't be particularly difficult, right?"

Jiang Que, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was slightly taken aback. He hadn't expected him to still be thinking about this. He couldn't help but glance at him and said with a chuckle, "Are you afraid you can't figure it out?"

Song Yecheng felt guilty yet confident: "...Yeah."

Jiang Que suppressed a smile and stared at his profile for a moment, then finally turned back to look ahead: "No, if there is only one person in this world who can solve it, that person must be you."

Hearing this, Song Yecheng couldn't help but feel a little elated, as if even his tail was raised. He raised his eyebrows cunningly and said, "Oh, you have so much confidence in me?"

Jiang Que didn't directly confirm it. His half-smile expression seemed to be teasing people's appetite: "Because it wasn't me who set the question, it was you."

These words sounded as if they were hinting at something, but they were said in an ambiguous and unclear way, so that Song Yecheng's curiosity, which was not too strong to begin with, was instantly piqued.

He really wanted to ask what this meant, but that would inevitably involve the question itself. Thinking of what Jiang Que said in the private room, "cheating", he swallowed the words back when they were on the tip of his tongue.

Since he couldn't ask, he could only figure it out on his own.

Song Yecheng couldn't help licking his lips, squinting his eyes and thinking hard: Was I the one who set the question?

At this moment, his cell phone rang.

Song Yecheng tilted his head to glance at the screen, then put the Bluetooth headset into his ears: "Hello?"

"Hello? Brother Cheng," Douzi's voice rang out through the headset. "Director Chi just sent me the electronic filing process. He said the recording location is quite large this time, and some parts might require you to drive to another location. So, we need to register your driving information with the traffic control system and file it in advance."

"How to register?" Song Yecheng asked.

"Let me take a look," Douzi said after a moment, seemingly still studying the form. "Oh, just fill in your personal information and driver's license number and stuff."

"Isn't the driver's license number the same as the ID number?" Song Yecheng asked, "Aren't all the contracts with you?"

After hearing what he said, Douzi suddenly realized: "Oh - right?"

Nowadays, the driver’s license number is consistent with the ID card number. The personal information was filled in when signing the contract, and the program contracts of Song Yecheng and Jiang Que are kept by Douzi.

"Well, then I'll fill it out for you two directly?" said Douzi.

Song Yecheng said "hmm" and was about to hang up when he heard Douzi say "hey hey hey" several times: "Wait a minute, wait a minute!"

"What's wrong?"

"Aren't we leaving tomorrow afternoon? Do you want me to help you pack your luggage?"

The recording time of "Infinite N+N" was actually scheduled for the day after tomorrow, but Chi Jinan said that the recording would start in the early morning of the day after tomorrow, so everyone was required to gather tomorrow night. There was no need to stay in a hotel, and they could just stay directly at the recording venue.

"Brother, it's only two days and one night, right?" Song Yecheng said with a smile, "What's there to pack? I didn't even bring a suitcase."

"No," Douzi explained, "Didn't you say that Mr. Bai's hometown is in Sucheng? This time we're so close to Sucheng, aren't you going to accompany him back to take a look?"

The recording location of this program is in the suburbs of Shanghai, only a few dozen kilometers away from Suzhou, so it is very convenient to get there.

Song Yecheng had not failed to think of this.

In fact, he had already thought about this issue on the day he learned about the recording location, but he was different from Douzi after all. He knew that Jiang Que's parents had gone abroad, and their residence in Sucheng was not so much a "home" to Jiang Que as it was just an empty room. Not only was it deserted, it might also bring back some not-so-pleasant memories.

"Let's talk about it later," Song Yecheng said vaguely, "It's not certain."

Hearing him say this, Douzi didn't try to persuade him any further: "Okay, then I'll pick you up after lunch tomorrow?"

"Okay, see you tomorrow."

Song Yecheng hung up the phone and threw the headphones aside.

"Beans?" Jiang Que asked.

"Well," Song Yecheng said, "He will come to pick us up at the airport tomorrow afternoon."

Jiang Que nodded.

It was just after nine o'clock when the two returned home.

Although the variety show shooting only lasted two days and one night, and there was no need to pack too much luggage, Jiang Que did not let Song Yecheng go to the shooting empty-handed. After feeding Baimao downstairs, he pulled Song Yecheng to the cloakroom on the third floor.

"Is this one okay?" Jiang Que, holding a set of summer clothes he had just picked out, turned around and looked at Song Yecheng.

Song Yecheng sat cross-legged on the lazy sofa that looked like a cucumber, and nodded with a smile without any objection: "Okay."

Jiang Que continued to pick and choose, and took out another set: "What about this one?"

"That's fine." Song Yecheng continued to nod.

Jiang Que seemed unsatisfied. He put the two sets of clothes together in his left hand and rummaged through them with his right hand, pulling out another set. "What about this one?"

"Okay—anything is fine," Song Yecheng drawled. "Anyway, I'll wear whatever you choose. You have the final say."

Jiang Quexiao glanced at him, but then retracted his gaze and looked carefully at the three sets of clothes in his hand. He compared them and touched their materials: "But the pants of this set are a bit thick. I don't know how good the air conditioning is at the recording venue. If it's not good, it will definitely be a bit stuffy..."

He muttered, then curled his lips and hung up the suit as if eliminating the wrong option. He picked up the remaining two suits and looked at them again: "This suit has no pockets. If there are props or something during the show, there will be no place to put them..."

As he said that, he hung up that set as well, and finally examined the remaining set in his hand. After a long while, he finally nodded with satisfaction: "This set should be okay, what do you think?"

Song Yecheng was still sitting there. He smiled at him for a moment, then suddenly hooked his finger at him.

Jiang Que approached, confused, and was stopped by Song Yecheng. He looked up at him and said with a smile, "You've been picking for me for so long, what about you?"

Jiang Que was stunned for a moment. He hadn't really considered what he would wear. However, he changed his mind and chuckled, "There won't be many behind-the-scenes shots. It won't matter what I wear."

Song Yecheng raised his eyebrows noncommittally: "Then let me pick one too?"

Jiang Que said with a smile: "I only have a few pieces. You've seen them all, haven't you? What else is there to pick?"

"Pick one—" Song Yecheng refused, shaking his waist and saying, "Can you let me have some fun?"

Jiang Que was helpless and could only sneer and nod, "...Okay, let's go downstairs then?"

Song Yecheng responded, lowered his head to put on his slippers, stood up, took the clothes from his hand and put it over his shoulder, turned off the light in the cloakroom, came out, and took him down to the second floor.

When Jiang Que reached the door of the guest bedroom, he was about to turn around and go in, but unexpectedly Song Yecheng's hand on his shoulder did not loosen at all, and he insisted on leading him forward.

"Hey," Jiang Que raised his hand and pointed at the guest bedroom he had just passed by, "My clothes are over there..."

Song Yecheng ignored him and took him straight into the master bedroom. He walked to the bed and threw the clothes on his shoulders aside. He sat down on the edge of the bed and nodded towards the wardrobe.

Jiang Que walked to the wardrobe without knowing what was going on. He raised his hand and pulled it in confusion. Then, as the door opened and the contents of the wardrobe came into view, he froze in his tracks.

Because there was a dedicated dressing room, the master bedroom closet originally only contained a few of Song Yecheng's pajamas, sportswear and other simple daily clothes. However, at this moment, the originally empty closet was filled with two rows of brand new summer and autumn clothes, and various styles of shirts and trousers were neatly stacked on the storage rack below, and there were even a few unopened boxes of underwear and socks.

Song Yecheng stood up and walked forward, wrapping his arms around Jiang Que's waist from behind. He whispered in his ear, "I bought everything according to your size, and the styles are based on the ones you usually wear. But for now, I've only bought summer and autumn clothes. I haven't had time to buy winter clothes yet. How about we pick them out together when the time comes?"

A warm air flow brushed past his ears, and the warmth in his heart spread out. Jiang Que stared at the pile of clothes in front of him for a long time, then turned his head slightly and met the smiling eyes of the person beside him.

However, Song Yecheng didn't give him the chance to be sentimental. He immediately raised his chin, smiled at the clothes and asked, "Is there anything you like?"

Jiang Que turned back, his eyes carefully scanning the clothes one by one, and then slightly narrowed his eyes: "I like them all."

This was not just a casual response, because as Song Yecheng said himself, the clothes he prepared were all based on the styles that Jiang Que usually liked to wear. Even if Jiang Que went into the store to choose by himself, these would be the ones he would choose.

"Then do you know which one I want to see you wear the most?"

"Hmm?" Jiang Que gestured for him to answer.

Song Yecheng stretched out his hand and picked up the hanging clothes one by one. Jiang Que's eyes could not help but follow his fingertips. He picked up one piece after another, and never stopped at any one piece from beginning to end. Until he had picked up the last piece, he suddenly turned his finger and pointed downwards to a box of... unopened underwear.

Jiang Que: “…”

Only then did he realize that Song Yecheng was teasing him. His cheeks suddenly turned red, and he clapped his hands in anger and amusement, but he couldn't curse for a long time.

Song Yecheng stuck to his back and laughed so hard that he couldn't stop laughing, but he still said, "Although I think you look good in anything, you definitely look best without any clothes."

Jiang Que's face flushed red with shame, and he tried to twist and run away. Song Yecheng quickly used his hands and feet to hold him tightly, and said with a smile, "Alright, alright, alright, stop making trouble."

I told him to stop laughing, but he kept on laughing. It took him a long time to stop laughing. He finally reached out and pulled out a piece of clothing from the hanging clothes. "How about wearing this tomorrow? It's the same color as the one you picked out for me. How about we wear matching outfits?"

Jiang Que's face was still flushed, but after hearing that, he still looked at the color matching of the dress carefully, then stretched his head to look at the one he had picked out on the bed. As if he had finally confirmed that they were really similar, he nodded gently: "Okay."

Song Yecheng let go of him, turned around and got a small suitcase. The two of them squatted down, folded the clothes they had picked and put them in, then stood up and went back and forth, adding some daily necessities that might be needed, until the suitcase was mostly full. Then they closed it, zipped it up, and leaned it against the wall.

When he stood up, Song Yecheng clapped his hands, and suddenly seemed to remember something: "By the way, have you sold your house in Sucheng?"

This topic came up a bit abruptly, and Jiang Que didn't quite understand it for a moment: "No, what's wrong?"

Song Yecheng said: "This time the recording of the show is quite close to Sucheng. If you want to go back and take a look, I will accompany you?"

Jiang Que was a little surprised and blinked slightly, but soon said softly: "No need."

He paused, then added, "That's not necessary."

Song Yecheng originally just wanted to remind him whether to go or not, but when he heard him say that, he thought it was just as expected, so he nodded: "Okay, then we won't go. We'll come back directly after the recording, and we can save some trouble."

Jiang Que nodded slightly and said "hmm".

Song Yecheng looked at his watch and found that it was only nine forty. He asked, "Are you sleepy?"

Jiang Que shook his head, thought for a moment, and pointed in the direction of the study: "I want to go write something."

The study room in Song Yecheng's house was originally just a decoration, but it was unexpectedly favored because of Jiang Que's arrival and was promoted to a precious place for him to write.

Song Yecheng was happy to see him "establish his own territory" at home, and he also knew that writing required a quiet atmosphere, so he nodded happily and said, "Okay, I ate too much tonight, I'll go for a run to help me digest it."

Jiang Que nodded, and the two of them walked out of the bedroom side by side. One turned to the study, and the other went straight to the gym upstairs.

Half an hour later.

Song Yecheng walked down the stairs with sweat all over his body, and wiped the sweat from his cheek with his hand with great satisfaction.

Turning into the corridor, he stretched his head to look in the direction of the study and found that the light under the door was still on. He did not rush him to go to bed, but went back to the master bedroom alone to get his pajamas, turned around and went into the bathroom first.

At the same time, in the study.

Jiang Que had already opened the document of his new book when he sat in front of the computer. However, after writing for a while, his hands stopped typing on the keyboard, and then he let the cursor flicker on the page without adding a single word.

He is distracted.

I was thinking about Song Yecheng's issue about the "Sucheng house", and what Jiang Bei said during dinner, "He hasn't passed the test of my brother's parents yet."

For a long time, he deliberately avoided thinking about his parents going abroad. Whether he was escaping or not wanting to face it, he had to admit that this incident made him feel deeply abandoned.

This feeling is different from the feeling of being "abandoned" when you are sent to an orphanage in your childhood and have no memory of who your parents are. It is a feeling that you know where they are, but you seem to be completely disconnected from their world.

Jiang Que could no longer remember the last time he contacted them. Perhaps it was when they had just arrived on the other side of the earth, or perhaps it was during a festival suitable for reunion, or perhaps it was during the first and second 2020s that he had experienced but had already forgotten.

During the previous few months on the crew, he had repeatedly become the focus of online attention for various reasons.

At that time, he secretly wondered whether Jiang Di and Ye Ying had already learned about the news and whether they were curious about the details behind those hot searches - just like Qiu Mingyue, who was also on the other side of the ocean but knew everything about her son.

But the fact is, they didn't respond at all and never sent a single word of inquiry from beginning to end.

But this is actually not unexpected.

After all, all those hot searches were related to Song Yecheng, and Ye Ying... didn't like Song Yecheng.

Yes, I don’t like it.

It wouldn't even be an exaggeration to say it's disgust.

Just as there are so many people in this world who love someone and everything in him, there will also be people who will eventually hate him and everything in him.

Ye Ying hated Jiang Que, so she also hated Song Yecheng, whom he liked. It even developed to the point where she felt that he was a thorn in her eyes and a thorn in her flesh. She even wanted to destroy his peripheral products or endorsement products with her own hands when she saw them.

As for Jiang Di...

He had been caught in a dilemma since more than ten years ago. Even if he wanted to take both sides into consideration and treat everyone equally, he had to gradually exhaust his energy in the day-to-day struggle and finally made a choice between the two.

The current situation is the result of his choice——

Across mountains and seas, there is no peace without seeing each other.

Jiang Que sat quietly in front of the computer, blinking thoughtfully. After a long time, he lowered his head, took out his mobile phone and opened WeChat.

Most of the messages on WeChat had long since disappeared due to his habit of deleting them after reading them, but he still hadn't been willing to delete the chat box with Song Yecheng.

He stared at the dialog box for a while, and finally switched to the address book and scrolled down to the line containing Jiang Di.

In fact, he knew clearly in his heart that since Jiang Di had made that choice, he should not continue to pester her out of ignorance.

However, whenever he thought of what Qiu Mingyue had asked about his adoptive parents a few days ago, he couldn't help but waver.

——Qiu Mingyue hopes that Song Yecheng, like him, can be accepted and recognized by their parents.

This is the simplest and purest wish a mother has for her son. Jiang Que not only understands it, but also shares the same expectation with her from the bottom of his heart.

Therefore, no matter how embarrassed he was or how unwilling he was to face it, he still wanted to do his best to let Song Yecheng hear the blessing that he deserved.

Even if the blessing only came from Jiang Di.

It's better than no word at all.

Jiang Que looked at the familiar avatar, his thumb hovered for a moment, and then he gently clicked on it. He then opened the keyboard in the dialog box and carefully typed out a string of messages that he had already edited in his mind countless times.

Click and send.

Meanwhile, in the master bedroom.

After taking a shower, Song Yecheng walked out of the bathroom while rubbing his hair with a towel. Just as he was about to drink some water, he saw the screen of his mobile phone thrown on the bed light up.

He walked to the bedside and picked it up. He saw two voice messages from Douzi, so he sat on the edge of the bed, unlocked it, and clicked on the voice message bar.

"Brother Cheng, it turns out that Mr. Bai doesn't have a driver's license?"

"You didn't tell me earlier, so I filled it out several times, and every time it said 'There is no corresponding driving information for this ID number'. I thought I filled it out wrong."

Song Yecheng was stunned for a moment, and his first reaction was: How is this possible?

However, he quickly recalled for a moment and soon realized with surprise that Jiang Que seemed to have neither driven in front of him nor said that he had a driver's license.

But...then why did I take it for granted that he could drive?

Song Yecheng was almost confused, blinking in disbelief, and even almost suspected that it was his habitual thinking that was causing him trouble.

However, a few seconds later, when his eyes inadvertently swept across the carpet under his feet, suddenly, a certain image emerged from his mind like being unraveled -

That was the thunderstorm night when there was a power outage not long ago.

Right here on the carpet.

Jiang Que knelt in the darkness, his eyes reflecting the flickering lightning outside the window, and recounted his experience of rebirth.

"...both were accidents," he said. "The first was when I was driving on the highway and encountered a pileup..."