Chapter 60

Waiting for the traffic light to change, the car came to a stop. Only then did Lin Sheng turn his head and ask, "Why?"

Xu Xieyi blinked.

"Why did you want to eat KFC?"

After giving him a shy, sidelong glance, Xu Xieyi lowered her fair eyelids: "...No reason at all." She bit her lip and added, "I just... like it..."

That was the earliest and sweetest memory between them... Lin Sheng holding her hand and buying treats for her.

The young girl's little secrets could never escape Lin Sheng's eyes.

His lazy gaze slanted toward Xu Xieyi, the corners of his mouth curving up slowly, though he chose not to expose her.

The red light entered its countdown.

After shifting gears, Lin Sheng placed his hands on the steering wheel, his gaze falling upon the bustling urban street ahead. His voice was low and hoarse, sounding as casual as an offhand remark: "From now on, whatever you like, I'll give it to you. If I don't have it, I'll go get it for you."

The fingers resting on Xu Xieyi's lap slowly curled inward. The streetscape outside the car window flew by in a blur.

Yet she had no mood to look; lowering her face, she could not suppress the smile pulling at the corners of her lips. A secret joy burned her chest with a scalding heat...

Parents, Dujuan, reason—none of it mattered anymore.

Would she die?

she thought.

To die happily, consumed by this feeling...

--

The KFC at Panda Plaza was very spacious.

Xu Xieyi had a slight fever, so Lin Sheng told her to wait at a table while he went to buy the food. The holiday queues were still long, and after waiting for a while, he took his phone out of his pocket.

It was a call from Chu Yuefei.

The moment he answered, a wave of commotion and noise mixed with human voices came through the earpiece. Chu Yuefei's voice carried a somewhat meaningful chuckle: "How is it, Brother Sheng, did you have a good time last night?"

Chu Yuefei and a group of friends were out playing shooting games.

Lin Sheng let out a cold laugh into the phone, his gaze sweeping over to the table by the window, where the young girl was cupping her face in her hands, waiting for him.

Their eyes met. Xu Xieyi looked slightly startled, and then offered him a gentle smile.

Lin Sheng smiled back.

Now, she seemed even more prone to shyness around him.

"I've marked this score down." Lin Sheng said into the phone.

"Oh come on, my heart goes out to my big bro, heaven and earth as my witness," Chu Yuefei said, resting a gun on his shoulder. "It's rare to see you genuinely like someone. Since you couldn't bring yourself to make a move, I played the bad guy and gave you a push."

Of course, Lin Sheng understood what he meant. "Thanks."

"Hey, don't rush to thank me yet. To be honest, I don't even know if what I did was right. Tsk, who knows, maybe it'll turn out to be wrong in the future."

Pausing briefly, Chu Yuefei changed the subject, "Flight at eight tonight, where are you now?"

"KFC."

Xu Xieyi pursed her lips. Feeling hot-faced under Lin Sheng's calm yet direct gaze, she straightened her back and placed both hands flat on her knees.

With the phone in his hand, Lin Sheng could hear that Chu Yuefei still had people around him through the earpiece. Amidst the sounds of gunfire, Xiao Youfeng's voice asked, "What is Brother Sheng doing?"

Chu Yuefei replied, "KFC."

Chen Xia chimed in out of nowhere, "Booking a room to fuck."

Xiao Youfeng's voice pitched higher: "Holy crap..."

--

Before Lin Sheng even walked over, Xu Xieyi hurriedly went forward to take the food from him.

She diligently arranged all the items and laid out the cutlery, not letting him lift a finger.

As Xu Xieyi placed Lin Sheng's napkin neatly on the table, she looked up to see him resting one arm on the tabletop, gazing at her with a deep, gentle, and calm expression.

This look made Xu Xieyi feel a sense of awe, leaving her momentarily dazed. Everything that had happened that morning felt like a dream. The person before her was still just the older brother she had previously respected like an elder...

Xu Xieyi shook her head, banishing her wild thoughts, and withdrew the hand she had been using to tidy the food, sitting down. "Older Brother Lin, you should eat a little too..."

Lin Sheng smiled. "Alright."

There was a subtle gentleness in his voice. Xu Xieyi felt a tight squeeze in her chest, and the heat that had just faded brushed against her skin once more. She didn't dare raise her head.

Lin Sheng disliked mass-produced food, finding it crude.

Yet a student like Xu Xieyi, accustomed to eating mass cafeteria meals at school, thought KFC tasted quite good. She ate quietly, lifting her eyes from time to time to steal a glance at Lin Sheng.

Whenever their gazes accidentally met, she would quickly lower her eyes and evade.

Lin Sheng smiled, looking at Xu Xieyi's flushed cheeks and the shy smile she still revealed to him.

Scanning the food on the table, he picked out what looked like the least unpalatable option—the orange juice—and took a sip. He immediately frowned.

The orange juice was not freshly squeezed; it was just as unpalatable as he had anticipated.

He pushed the plastic cup further away and didn't touch it again.

"I'll take you back up the mountain in a bit, and then I have to leave."

Xu Xieyi paused, staring at Lin Sheng with a blank look for a full two seconds. "Leave?"

"Mhm."

"..Where to?"

"France." Lin Sheng glanced at his watch. "My flight is at eight; dropping you off and heading straight there will be just right."

"..Going abroad."

"Mhm."

Outside the glass windows, the sunlight was pale. On the pedestrian street, various promotional booths were set up, with pedestrians coming and going. A vendor selling colorful balloons walked past, dragging a massive cluster of them behind him.

Outside was bright and harmonious, yet inside Xu Xieyi's heart, a cold rain had begun to fall.

—Ah, that's right, she had almost forgotten. Lin Sheng had mentioned that he was leaving. First going abroad, and then developing his career in Ningxi; he wouldn't be staying in Xindu anymore.

She lowered her gaze and silently continued eating. But the food tasted like nothing, and her heart ached so bitterly.

Just how happy she had been earlier... was just how painful it was now...

Why?

Loving someone could make you so instantly happy, yet bring such heartbreak...

Xu Xieyi's movements grew slower and slower until she stopped eating altogether, holding the food in her hands as she buried her face in silence.

Lin Sheng reached out, cupped her cheeks, and lifted her face.

Her full, youthful cheeks could not hide her sorrow, and tears swirled in her reddened eye sockets as she looked right at him.

Lin Sheng's heart rippled slightly: "Silly girl, why are you crying? I'll handle things over there and come right back."

Using the pad of his thumb, he wiped away Xu Xieyi's tears from a face so young and innocent.

"Be good."

--

It was like a sliver of light parting the dark clouds. Stepping out of KFC, Xu Xieyi still felt somewhat dazed.

Lin Sheng's words were often subtle and implicit, quite unlike the loud and straightforward boys in her class.

Sometimes she had to puzzle things out to understand his meaning.

In the parking lot, Xu Xieyi fastened her seatbelt, her gaze naturally falling upon the person beside her.

Lin Sheng was closing the car door, his right arm resting on the steering wheel, his fingers clean and well-shaped as they gripped the rim.

"Older Brother Lin..."

Lin Sheng turned his head. "Mhm."

"How long... until you come back?"

The corners of Lin Sheng's mouth lifted. "Fast, three to five days; slow, maybe a month."

"Then." Twisting her seatbelt in inner conflict for a moment, Xu Xieyi asked in a tiny voice, "Are you going to Ningxi after you come back?"

Lin Sheng's eyelashes fluttered as he watched Xu Xieyi for a moment.

Actually, he had assumed she understood.

But it seemed she hadn't.

And he was partly to blame for overlooking her situation.

After all, he was probably the first man she had ever truly interacted with.

She didn't yet understand the rules of human hearts and romance.

"Silly girl, what do you think?"

Xu Xieyi let out an "Huh?"

Lin Sheng lowered his gaze and smiled. Before Xu Xieyi could react, she found herself completely enveloped within the space of his arm against the backrest.

The garage was somewhat dim, and inside the car even more so.

The distance between them closed in once again.

Fever forgotten, Xu Xieyi felt her breathing and heartbeat freeze into numbness, surrounded by Lin Sheng's faint scent of cologne and tobacco.

He tilted his head, drawing close to her face until the bridge of his straight nose nearly brushed hers.

"O-Older Brother Lin..."

Responding with patient gentleness, his gaze intertwined with hers. "Mhm."

The sudden intimacy and closeness left Xu Xieyi flustered and at a loss. In all their past interactions, the two of them had never been like this.

Clearly, Lin Sheng was also harboring some unnatural tension.

He remained silent for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the young girl's pure brows and eyes, her pale pink lips, and the stray wisps of hair by her ears...

When his rough palm came to rest upon her delicate neck, he immediately caught the sound of the girl's nervous breath.

"Let me tell you something." Lin Sheng's voice was deeply hoarse.

"Mhm..."

Staring at her lips, he slowly leaned down, capturing her upper lip with his cool, pristine teeth. Amidst her soft, whimpering sigh, he kissed her and then released her.

Xu Xieyi melted into the crook of his arm, losing all strength, like a tiny speck of dust looking up at a deity with reddened eyes.

Lin Sheng crooked the corner of his mouth in a sidelong smirk:

"An older brother's kiss isn't something given away casually."

"Do you understand?"