"Hey, buddy, what's so funny?"

  He looked at me without saying a word. His gaze was a bit intimidating, and then his hand suddenly pressed on the edge of the bed, his body slightly leaning forward. I was already leaning against the bedside, feeling his breath approaching. It was the warm, muscular scent of a man. My heart was racing extremely fast, that kind of dangerous breath that made it impossible to sit still easily. However, he didn't say anything, and I couldn't hold back anymore, pretending to be calm as I turned my face away.

  A rustling sound came from behind me. I caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye, putting on a T-shirt and then standing up to say: "I'll go wash my face first."

  "Oh."

  He opened the side door of the hut, and it was already bright outside. He took a cup for rinsing his mouth and a towel, squatted beside the faucet at the door, and started washing up. I looked at the sunlight shining on him, shining on his dark gray T-shirt. Now he really lived like a rough grassroots man, most of the time when I looked at him, I couldn't remember the elite scholar boy on the boat at all. But sometimes when I looked into his eyes, looking at his low smile, it seemed that I saw the shadow of that gentle and bright man again.

  He washed his face, then put his head under the faucet and rinsed his hair on top of his head, barely avoiding the bandaged wound. Finally, he wiped himself with a towel a few times, walked back to the room, looked at me and said, "Alright, have you had breakfast?"

  "I replied: 'Not yet, I came as soon as I received the call.'"

  He smiled again and said, "Let's go have breakfast first, we can talk while eating."

  Under the ambiguous and dying gaze of the crowd, I walked out of the repair shop with a scorching face, asking: "You skipped work again today, is everything okay?"

  Wu Yu answered: "I worked all night yesterday, today I need to rest for a while, nothing's wrong."

  I stopped in my tracks, looking at his face, and indeed there were faint dark circles under his eyes. I felt a pang of tenderness. I said: "Why don't you stop eating, go back to bed and sleep some more, we can talk later."

  He said: "It doesn't matter, I don't want to keep you waiting."

  A surge of subtle sadness and swelling emotions rose in my heart, I don't know what I was thinking, but the words slipped out: "Then I won't let you wait either, not sleeping that long."

  He smiled, but only faintly said: "You're a girl, sleep as long as you want, I don't care."

  I think he should have gotten over his temper by now.

  ——

  We found a small eatery nearby, but I had this strange craving for street food. We've had it many times before, yet every time I see the dazzling array of steaming dishes, I couldn't help but order many, and each one seemed like something I wanted to try.

  Today I have Wu Yu in, my desire can finally be released. I ordered six or seven dishes and said, "Can you finish them?"

  He just raised his eyes and seemed to see through what I was thinking in my heart, saying: "You can order whatever you want, I'll try to finish it all."

  There is a kind of satisfying joy in my heart.

  Later on, it was indeed swept clean by us two.

  We walked out of the small store and strolled along the road. It was almost noon, the sun was strong, I opened my umbrella and said: "Do you want to stand over here?" He said: "No need." I took a closer look at him and said: "You really got much darker than last year." He said: "Really? Nothing wrong with that."

  I muttered: "White spots look good."

  He said: "When I was a young and inexperienced guy, you didn't like me either."

  There's a unique sense of emptiness on the road, with floating clouds above and few passersby. My heart feels like it's been gently grasped by someone. I don't know why he said those words, and he remains silent too. Suddenly, I want to say: How do you know I don't like it? But I realize that this sentence absolutely cannot be spoken out loud. When did I think this man was straightforward and nice? Only now do I discover that he's not an easy person to deal with at all - one sentence can make you completely caught off guard, your mind in a daze. Yet you have no idea whether he's being deliberate or unintentional.

  A man's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the ocean. A clever and wounded man is even more so.