When Huo Ran walked downstairs in the moonlight, it was almost ten o'clock in the evening.
He washed the dishes for half an hour, but the news on TV had already finished and the evening drama began.
Then they sat on the sofa and started watching a TV series without realizing it. Even though they had no idea about the beginning or the end of the series, they still enjoyed it very much.
The two of them chatted idly, and time passed by like flowing water.
Finally, at half past nine, the alarm on Huo Ran's cell phone rang, breaking the warm atmosphere.
"Why did you set an alarm for 9:30? Are you busy?" Tao Zhiyue asked him curiously.
Huo Ran stammered, "Because you said before that you go to bed at 10 o'clock every day, so at 9:30 I reminded you to stop chatting and take a shower."
"But sometimes I forget the time, so I have to set an alarm."
Tao Zhiyue was stunned for a moment, then he smiled happily, "As a result, I went to bed at almost twelve o'clock every day in the past two weeks."
Huo Ran nodded with great emotion.
The self-control that had served him well since childhood disappeared completely during the magical voice call.
The moonlight shone brightly as Tao Zhiyue followed behind him. His footsteps made soft sounds on the hard stone slabs, and the shadows of the trees around him swayed in the wind.
Huo Ran remembered something and looked up at the street lamp. "The light here is really dim at night. I think I can complain to the property management. It's very unsafe."
"How do you know the street lights are dim?" Tao Zhiyue asked in surprise.
"You told me that day when you were walking home drunk."
"… How much did he tell you that night?" Tao Zhiyue asked doubtfully, "I think he didn't tell you the password of his bank card."
"Although you have said a lot to me, this is definitely not the case."
"Why do you sound so regretful?"
"Really?" Huo Ran suppressed his smile and said seriously, "Actually, you just described the things you saw on the way home, and told me what you like and dislike. There are no sensitive topics."
"Although you were drunk, you were sober. When I asked you why there was Cupid in your house, you refused to tell me."
Tao Zhiyue seemed relieved.
"So why is there Cupid anyway?"
Huo Ran's curiosity is often very long-lasting.
"I won't tell you. You can ask me next time you are drunk."
"No, there won't be a next time. Drinking is harmful to your health."
"What about drinking Coke?"
“… I’ll go running when I get back to the hotel!”
Tao Zhiyue laughed: "You're just kidding. You must not have slept well yesterday. Go back to the hotel and get some rest. You still have to work tomorrow."
When talking about work, Huo Ran sighed.
"My dad will be here tomorrow morning, and he should start the scheduled itinerary in the morning. This week will probably be full of sightseeing, driving, meeting people, and eating. I hope everything goes well."
As he spoke, he suddenly thought of someone, "Oh, by the way, the man I met yesterday, Jin Shaoyuan, if you meet him alone in the future, don't pay attention to him."
"What's wrong? He looked quite normal yesterday, not like a playboy at all."
"It was normal yesterday. When I went to see him that day..."
Huo Ran thought about it and decided to tell everything.
He always remembered Jin Shaoyuan's description of Tao Zhiyue: he was quite good-looking.
Jin Shaoyuan is a pervert who can send roses to straight men for two months in a row. Who knows what he can do.
Therefore, Huo Ran extinguished all possible sparks in the cradle, not being afraid of a thousand things, but being prepared for the one that happened.
"He has no respect at all. Once he's interested in someone, he'll do whatever he wants. For example, he found out the address of my new home secretly, so he sent me flowers for no apparent reason."
"We were playing in Yanping that weekend, and he hired someone to follow us and check on you."
He glanced at Tao Zhiyue nervously and said, "I know you must be very angry. I warned him that day, but I can go and warn him sternly tomorrow and tell him to stay away from you."
Tao Zhiyue stopped.
"… What did he check?"
"I guess it's probably some basic information. He just told me that you are my junior." Huo Ran said casually, "Actually, I don't really believe what he said, so I didn't mention it to you a few days ago. Are you also a graduate of Yan University? I am from the School of Life Sciences, Class of 21."
Tao Zhiyue was silent for a while. Huo Ran understood that he might be angry now, so he didn't dare to say anything. He just quietly moved closer to his hand. It was a little cold, so he tried to warm it up.
After a while, Tao Zhiyue, whose palms were still cold, replied, "He was in the 23rd grade, but he dropped out."
Huo Ran was very surprised.
Tao Zhiyue asked him: "Isn't it strange that you dropped out of Yanda after attending it?"
"That's not it." Huo Ran immediately shook his head and quickly organized his words. "I don't believe what Jin Shaoyuan said because... you are two years older than me, so you should be my senior, right? But it turns out that you are actually my junior."
This time it was Tao Zhiyue's turn to be surprised: "How do you know... I think he is two years older than you?"
"It says on your profile that you're 26 years old." Huo Ran said as a matter of course, "I saw you the second day after I met you. At that time, I always thought you were a doctor. I also thought you were very impressive to be the director at such a young age."
As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he quickly patched it up: "Of course, making games is also great now!"
The cicadas chirped even louder at night, whispering quietly among the trees. The entrance to the community was right in front of him, but Tao Zhiyue could no longer move.
"So, up until that moment, you thought I was a 26-year-old programmer?"
Tao Zhiyue looked at him steadily, with some very complicated emotions surging in his eyes.
The clear pupils seemed to be filled with translucent moonlight.
Huo Ran nodded, and then he began to seriously reflect on himself, "Is this another item added to my list of stupid things? This shouldn't be the case. This time I have a reason."
"Although my sister randomly filled in a fifteen-year-old age, when we were chatting before, I felt that you were indeed more mature than me, and 26 was a reasonable age. Of course, after meeting you, you look younger than me, but it's normal to look younger with good genes. For example, my mother looks much younger than her age, so..."
He was suddenly hugged tightly by someone, and his unfinished words disappeared in the warm breath.
It was a long kiss.
Oxygen was running low, and the softness of the exchange swallowed up all sounds.
On this deserted night, it even seems a little lonely.
When the person in front of him let go of his hand, Huo Ran was unable to come back to his senses for a long time.
After a long while, he whispered, "Was it drizzling just now? It seemed like some raindrops fell on my face."
"No, you're hallucinating again."
"Oh... Then when can I have such an illusion for the first time?" Huo Ran gave an example seriously, "It's like a watermelon taking the initiative to kiss me, such an illusion."
"This is a random mutation with a very small probability. Under normal circumstances, how can watermelon be friendly? It doesn't move."
"Then I can kiss the watermelon." Huo Ran said, "Today's watermelon is really delicious, especially sweet."
Tao Zhiyue couldn't bear to listen to the ambiguous double meaning and kicked him: "That's enough, stop it now, otherwise there will be no next time."
Huo Ran decided to stop while he was ahead: "Okay, there will be a next time. I understand."
No one brought up the topic from a few minutes ago.
After leaving the community, Tao Zhiyue accompanied him to the bus stop.
"Why don't you ask the driver to pick you up?"
"No, don't ruin this wonderful atmosphere." Huo Ran insisted, "We must see it through to the end and leave a complete memory of today."
“Experience a normal day in the life of an average person?”
"I'm just an ordinary person. You didn't break any dishes today when you were washing them." He explained, "It's because I took the bus back home. I felt I could savor the whole day more leisurely. It's quieter without being alone on the bus, and I don't have to keep a calm expression in front of the driver."
"Well, we can still catch the last bus now."
The street lights on the road were much brighter. Tao Zhiyue lowered his head and looked at his elongated shadow. Huo Ran looked at him, and then looked at his shadow that was swaying with their footsteps.
"That day I imagined you walking home alone, with only your shadow to accompany you."
"But now there are two shadows." Huo Ran tried hard to find a topic. "By the way, why don't you ask me what the School of Life Sciences does?"
"Life sciences? Biological sciences?"
"You actually knew that." Huo Ran raised his voice. "When I was chatting with those who had business dealings with my father before, some people always liked to ask me what I studied in college, finance or history. When I said biological science, some people were very surprised and even came over to ask me if I was working on biological weapons..."
"At first, I explained it to them very seriously. Later, as we met more and more times, I just nodded and said yes. Then their expressions were very shocked, but I didn't dare to show it too obviously, so I could only pick up the cup and pretend to drink."
"Usually at this time, I would raise my glass, pretend to be mysterious, and clink glasses with them."
In his peripheral vision, Tao Zhiyue, who had been listening to his mumblings carefully, finally smiled.
Huo Ran felt as if his heart, which had been lifted up, had fallen back to its original place.
"Many people thought it was strange for me to study this and thought my father was going to go into the field of biology. In fact, I chose it myself because I thought the most interesting thing at that time was to travel around and explore the world. I thought the essence of the world is life, so of course I chose life sciences."
"However, after entering the university, what I actually learned was somewhat different from what I imagined. I studied very hard in the first three years, going between the dormitory, classroom and cafeteria every day. Fortunately, I finished my thesis ahead of time and was able to go out and play again."
"I forget all that professional knowledge very quickly. If I don't touch it for a while, it will all be forgotten by the teacher. But when I encounter new scenery, I occasionally remember the few words I learned in the textbook."
Huo Ran's voice was tinged with vivid memories.
"Once I was snorkeling in the sea. The water was transparent blue-green. Looking up, I could vaguely see the sun shining through, and there was an oval shadow that looked like the bottom of a boat, slowly drifting away in the distance."
"There are colorful tropical fish all around, dark-colored seaweed on the rocks and corals, and the water is so quiet that you can even hear the sound of blood flowing in your body."
"At that moment, the Navicula that I had observed under a microscope before suddenly appeared in my mind. Its shape was very symmetrical, like a boat and a leaf. I saw it once and it left a deep impression on me."
"I paddled my hand, and all the fish swam past me. The broken sunlight flickered like ripples. I was in the sea, but it felt like there were countless leaves from the land growing around me, and countless boats floating on the waves."
Tao Zhiyue was so fascinated by what he heard that he almost forgot to breathe.
"Life is fragile yet tenacious, so the world it creates is also wonderful and mysterious. This is the most important thing I have learned over the past few years." Huo Ran concluded softly, "Most of the time, I feel that this world is romantic."
“For example, the world is so big, but we met twice.”
"The other day you asked me if I believed in fate. I want to answer you again." Huo Ran said solemnly, "For beautiful things, I believe that this world has written a romance in advance, like the leaves on the seabed and the ship under the microscope."
“Those other sad things are not fate, but just ripples caused by waving hands. They will eventually disappear in the vast ocean and will not become eternal.”
At the end, Huo Ran said a little embarrassedly: "If the plot in the movie is really useful, and hugs and kisses can make people forget their unhappiness, then it can happen at any time."
Tao Zhiyue didn't say anything, just looked at him and smiled.
The red lights in the distance gradually became clearer, and the last bus was heading towards here, like a ship sailing onto land.
At the moment of parting, he whispered: "I have a secret that I may not be able to tell you for a long time."
"But I will always remember what you said today, and I hope you can remember it too."
Tao Zhiyue stood by the road, watched Huo Ran get into the car, and finally waved to him.
"Thank you, Huo Ran."
This was the first time he called this name so formally.
Huo Ran was sitting in the window seat. He looked back and saw him standing there, staring quietly at the bus going away.
The isolated figure turned into a tiny dot and eventually disappeared.
He looked away, feeling lost.
The thought of getting off the car and going back immediately flashed through his mind again and again, but Huo Ran held himself back.
At a certain moment, he felt that Tao Zhiyue looked very sad.
He was keenly aware that although they were very close, there seemed to be thousands of mountains and rivers between them. It was an emotion that no outsider could share.
Huo Ran knew that he was crying, but it was not rain water, but salty tears.
Dropping out of school unexpectedly in the eyes of others, age being taken very seriously, friends who have suffered misfortunes, families without relatives, regular and stable life...
Everything is like pieces of a puzzle scattered on the ground, and behind them lies a secret that may be beyond imagination.
Huo Ran, who is always curious, took the test for a long time and decided not to try.
He thought that everyone should respect the secrets they wanted to keep.
On the last bus with few passengers, an electronic female voice softly announced the name of the next stop. Huo Ran was recalling the document he had just received in the morning. The design department had issued the latest schematic diagram of the Yanping City TOD project.
The project in Jinbei City has not been finalized yet, but Huo Ran feels that the probability of it being finalized is very high. Once it is really done, he plans to discuss with Huo Zhendong and let him stay here permanently.
There were a few hastily written lines in the dark brown leather notebook he carried with his luggage.
Tao Zhiyue likes writing code because he can complete it by himself, and it is a building made up of virtual and cold symbols.
In the future, Jinbei City will build a large complex of the most magnificent buildings. They are buildings built by countless people with bricks and wisdom, which can accommodate real people to walk and live in them.
From gray and disorder to shining and bright, they can witness it together.
The street lights and the night outside the window cast shadows in the past direction, and tall buildings were constantly left behind.
Huo Ran leaned against the window, his eyes calmly sweeping over everything that passed by.
It seemed as if an illusion appeared before my eyes that the building had been completed, overlapping with the thick dark blue night sky.
So he smiled.