Zhou Sheng strode up to them, his eyes falling on Lin Sitian.

The light and shadows were sparse, and he couldn't see Lin Sitian clearly in the shade of the trees. Lin Sitian subconsciously hid behind Meng Qiaoyu, avoiding his gaze, not wanting him to notice that she was crying.

"Lin Sitian, why are you crying?"

But it was of no avail. He had noticed her sobbing in front of Meng Qiaoyu from a distance, so he asked directly.

"What are you doing here?" Meng Qiaoyu also noticed Lin Sitian's embarrassment. He frowned slightly, helped her change the subject, and turned sideways to stand between her and Zhou Sheng.

"Come find her." Zhou Sheng said.

"She helped me get the wine back. Is there anything wrong with you?"

"Yes," Zhou Sheng said coldly, "Why is she crying?"

"Her crying has nothing to do with you..." Meng Qiaoyu had just said a few words when he heard a faint crying sound behind him.

The two boys looked at her at the same time. Lin Sitian's eyes were vague. She sniffed and said in a drunken voice, "I drank too much... I feel so uncomfortable... I want to cry..."

Zhou Sheng paused, "Drunk?"

Meng Qiaoyu hesitated for a second and cooperated, "Yes, she was complaining just now. This guy doesn't drink well. It seems that he will cry when he drinks too much."

"Did you drink with her again?"

Meng Qiaoyu looked innocent.

Zhou Sheng didn't ask any more questions. He bent down and took the beer basket from her hand. "I'll take her back."

"I'm already here." Meng Qiaoyu sneered. Besides, it was only two steps away, why should he see her off?

"I have something to say to her."

Lin Sitian's weak crying voice gradually subsided.

Meng Qiaoyu's expression froze slightly, and he subconsciously looked at Lin Sitian, "She's already drunk...what's the point of you talking to her?"

"You won't know whether it's useful or not until you tell me." Zhou Sheng said calmly.

"I advise you to say less," Meng Qiaoyu heard his calm tone and didn't know where the anger came from, "It might be better for her to say less."

If you are someone who understands, you will understand.

"Lin Sitian." However, Zhou Sheng didn't understand. He used a more direct method. He wanted to find Lin Sitian, not Meng Qiaoyu.

Lin Sitian, who was called, raised her head and met his eyes with a bit of confusion.

"Shall we go?" Zhou Sheng held out his hand to her.

The drunken look on her face could not conceal the panic in her heart. Lin Sitian's gaze fell on the hand that seemed white and transparent in the shadow. It was as if there was a wind chime in her heart, making a hollow sound.

I don’t want to and I don’t want to.

She didn't move, and her drunkenness became the best excuse for this brief struggle.

But he came over and held her hand.

One hot and one cool, two in one.

Something in her heart suddenly broke and scattered all over the floor.

He pulled her back from behind Meng Qiaoyu.

Lin Sitian widened her eyes in the dim light.

"You..." Meng Qiaoyu didn't expect that someone like Zhou Sheng would do such a self-willed thing. He was speechless for a moment. When he noticed Lin Sitian's acquiescence, the words he wanted to accuse suddenly turned in his throat and changed.

"They're still waiting for the wine." This was his final reason.

"Got it," Zhou Sheng stuffed the beer basket in his hand into Meng Qiaoyu's hand without hesitation, "Thank you for your help."

“…”

The shadows of the trees danced under the moon, rustling with the mountain breeze.

Lin Sitian was led silently by Zhou Sheng all the way, and the two figures disappeared into the woods beside the mountain path.

Her disordered heartbeat was beating wildly. She didn't know what Zhou Sheng wanted to say to her this time. She couldn't bear to hear any consolation, and it would be better if she didn't want it. But knowing this, she still followed him.

She had no choice but to follow him, that was Zhou Sheng, and she liked him.

"Are you still drunk?"

The footsteps finally stopped in the quiet woods.

The forest was quiet, with only the chirping of katydids at footsteps.

Oh, yes, she was still drunk.

Lin Sitian raised her hand to support her forehead and staggered at the right moment.

She just wanted to pretend, but as soon as she leaned forward, Zhou Sheng held her waist.

"careful."

He came closer, temporarily acting as her fulcrum. At that moment, the shirt he had just changed in the evening smelled pleasant and fragrant, like a faint ebony scent after the rain, the fragrance was restrained and quiet, and one could associate it with Zhou Sheng's scent at first glance.

Lin Sitian leaned her back against the tree trunk, put her hands on his shoulders, and slowly raised her head lazily.

"...It's Zhou Sheng." She called out his name softly and drunkenly.

She didn't know how to act facing this secret crush who had made her cry not long ago.

Zhou Sheng's throat tightened, and he froze in front of her. After a long while, he whispered, "It's me."

Then he slowly moved closer until his cheek was against her ear. He didn't say a word and just leaned against her ear without moving.

Very close.

His breathing was long and deep, as if he was asleep.

It would be fine if she was really drunk, but the problem was that she was not drunk. Zhou Sheng was sticking to her like this, and although he didn't do anything inappropriate, it still made her heart numb and itchy, and she was so nervous that she couldn't control herself.

"What did I do to upset you?"

After a long while, he lowered his voice and asked in a low voice.

Lin Sitian didn't react for a moment, and it took her a long time to remember that when she left, she did say to him: You are so annoying.

Does he remember it now?

The fingers on his shoulders moved unconsciously.

Zhou Sheng's voice was hoarse, without the usual openness of a young boy, and it was unusually low, as if there were bubbles in his voice, and every word he spoke was like a bubble bursting - she thought to herself, Zhou Sheng really should listen to his own voice now, when would he talk like this, the restrained tremor in her ears when he spoke, as if the suppressed clouds that were about to rain, would burst out with disturbing thunder at some point.

"What did he do..."

Her voice was no longer calm, and she thought of the wildfire in the prairie again.

"Can it make you willing to cry to him?"

Before the thunder sounds, the first thing that arrives is the young man’s voice of falling rain.

Lin Sitian was now standing in front of Zhou Sheng, stiff as a log, not daring to move.

The basic quality of a drunk person is to ignore Zhou Sheng's words, or to respond with a few illogical remarks, but Lin Sitian couldn't do it. She could tell that Zhou Sheng was in a state of self-contradiction, and he mustered up the courage to ask her. She couldn't just brush off his feelings like dust from her shoulders.

Lin Sitian, you are so silly. You cried more miserably than him just now.

"I didn't..." She hesitantly raised her right hand from behind him and held his head, as if comforting a wounded animal.

As if he had never expected to get her response at this moment, Zhou Sheng was stunned for a moment, and his body froze. After a moment, his hot face rubbed against Lin Sitian's cheek gently - she had been exposed to the wind for too long, and her face was very cold.

"Nothing?" he asked tentatively.

Didn't bother him? Or didn't cry in front of others? In his opinion, both were true.

The hot breath from his words blew behind her ears. Lin Sitian tilted her head and shuddered slightly, "Zhou Sheng...itchy."

Zhou Sheng stepped back, but his right hand was still on the tree trunk behind her, trapping her in his arms. The two of them were suddenly face to face, and Lin Sitian was more nervous than before.

"Nothing?" He had to look at her and say.

But when the conversation came to this point, she stopped talking, turned her eyes away, turned her face to the side, and pursed her lips stubbornly.

"He's athletic." He said it without any context.

What is he talking about?

“Very funny.”

What?

"I know how to be romantic."

…

"I have the same hobby as you."

Lin Sitian finally remembered.

——That is the “standard” of her ideal boyfriend.

"So... do you regret it?" Zhou Sheng lowered his head and stared at the toes of the two people touching each other on the ground in the darkness.

The color of his pupils was dull, and there was not a single ray of light in his dark pupils.

"Lin Sitian," he called her name, trying hard but reserved, wanting to get her response but afraid to hear her response, "Do you regret rejecting him?"

She finally turned her head, but what she saw was his head leaning forward and lowering. "Why are you asking this?" There was a hint of coldness in his tone.

It was really strange. What did she regret it or not have to do with him? He would not fall in love with her. Did he want her to only look at him? So what did Zhou Sheng want?

He lowered his head and opened his mouth, but no sound came out of his dry throat. Only the hot breath, like his life force, flowed away from his lips bit by bit. But he knew that there was no way out at this moment. If he kept keeping some words buried deep in his heart, he might never have the chance to say them again.

His teeth trembled slightly, and he said, "I..."

My heart was clenched tightly in my own hands, and I felt a suffocating silence.

“Uncomfortable.”

"I feel very uncomfortable, Lin Sitian."

His voice was a little choked and his breathing was intermittent.

"I saw you standing with him, I saw them all making noises, I saw you crying in front of him... I felt so bad, I have never felt so bad before."

Like a flood that had accumulated to the extreme and burst its banks, Zhou Sheng spoke several words one after another without any warning. Lin Sitian in front of him gradually stiffened and became silent.

"……sorry."

He still didn't look up, but just covered his eyes with his hands.

"Don't bore me."

The slender fingertips touched the corner of his chin, gently stroking along the smooth lines.

It was like scratching the chin of a little animal, tickling it and rubbing it.

Lin Sitian looked at the black hair on his head in a daze, licked her dry lips with the movement of her fingertips, and finally found the strength to speak.

"That's... standard."

Zhou Sheng in his hand held his breath because of her voice.

"Just like Prince Charming, that template is the ideal type that girls of our age like." Her heart was beating like crazy, but she forced herself to slow down her speech, calmly making every word clear, "But..."

Her lips were dry again, and she pursed them helplessly, "Later I found out that if I really like someone, there is no standard to follow."

Like is like.

Because he likes it.

"I have no regrets, Zhou Sheng." Lin Sitian said seriously and firmly, "I always know what I want."

The forest was deep and quiet. The moonlight was bright that night, shining through the lush branches and leaves like falling snow, melting in the corners of her eyes and eyebrows.

Zhou Sheng, who was half-bent over, finally raised his head and looked at her. Under the dim blue night sky, his eyelashes were cast into a dark shadow, and a few strands of fine bangs divided his eyes. However, the clean and bright moonlight was reflected in the boy's ignorant eyes.

There, a hint of clarity fell.

Her finger still lingered on his chin, like a knight swearing loyalty to his monarch, and only then did he raise his pious head for her.

Hers. Zhou Sheng.

The love she had for him probably reached its peak at this moment, surging to the point where it was unavoidable. Her heart was beating wildly, her breathing was short of oxygen, and something in her mind was stirring layer by layer. She felt like she was beyond help.

It's impossible to just let go, isn't it?

Liking this kind of thing is like a tangled entanglement that is hard to cut off and sort out.

"Lin Sitian."

"I..." He took a deep breath nervously, "I like-"

Suddenly, the sound of a couple flirting and laughing came from not far away, which immediately shattered the courage Zhou Sheng had finally mustered.

Hearing this noise, Lin Sitian sighed and leaned against his chest, "Hateful."

The footsteps gradually approached their direction. Zhou Sheng touched her head and said, "Let's go back."

"You made me cry today." Lin Sitian snorted sullenly.

Zhou Sheng suddenly paused after realizing it, "...It's me?"

"Who else could it be if not you, a bastard?" Lin Sitian pushed him and walked out of the woods first.