Melancholy

Li Yu sighed and lay back down on the bed.

He did not dare send it, afraid he had misunderstood and would only leave them both embarrassed in the end.

But he could not keep bottling it up forever. He did not like this feeling.

Maybe... he could test the waters when they met again?

Li Yu felt that this was a workable idea.

Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night for Li Yu.

Beijing C9 Supercar Club.

Shen Zhonglou sat in a spectator chair beside the track, a cigarette between his lips. The roar of supercar engines kept slicing past his ears, but his expression remained indifferent.

"Brother Shen, why aren't you taking a few laps today?"

The man speaking sat beside Shen Zhonglou, pulled out a lighter, and lit a cigarette as well.

"Not in the mood."

Shen Zhonglou frowned. Thinking of how the message he had sent Xie Jingming had gone unanswered for two days irritated him.

Nothing had seemed to go his way these past few days. First, Li Yu had said something unpleasant and blocked him; then Xie Jingming had suddenly started ignoring him...

"That little celebrity you were chasing before, didn't work out?" the man beside Shen Zhonglou asked again.

Shen Zhonglou said nothing, merely exhaling a puff of smoke. From the look of it, things had indeed fallen through.

"I thought the previous one was better. He was pretty famous around our area back in high school. Why did you suddenly break up?"

"He brought it up," Shen Zhonglou said.

"Is that so? I never would've guessed... He seemed pretty good to you before, Brother Shen. He often came to the club with you. But don't be too depressed. This one doesn't have much money at home, and he's trying to make it in that kind of circle. Sooner or later, he'll need something from you. Just wait..."

Before he could finish, another man climbed out of a blazing red F8. "Yo, Brother Shen, feeling emo again? Come on, tell your brothers what's up."

"Brother Shen's thinking about that little celebrity of his."

"What little celebrity? I was only gone for a few months, and Brother Shen has already changed targets?" Zhou Rang removed his helmet, casually tossed it into the car, and sat down beside Shen Zhonglou. "Wasn't the previous one pretty good? We put in a lot of effort to help you reel him in. If Brother Shen hadn't liked him back then, I would've made my move."

"So... Brother Shen being able to get together with the previous one had something to do with you too, Brother Zhou?"

Zhou Rang wore a sinister grin. "You could say that. But don't ask questions you shouldn't."

Realizing he had asked too much, the man shut his mouth awkwardly.

Zhou Rang did not say anything else. He took out his phone and casually opened Weibo.

"Oh, Li Yu's been pretty popular lately. He's everywhere."

The moment Zhou Rang said that, Shen Zhonglou's gaze instinctively drifted toward his phone.

"Why did they break up? He's so cute. Even I like him," Zhou Rang murmured faintly.

Shen Zhonglou did not deny it. Li Yu's looks really were exactly his type.

But after getting together with Li Yu, he had found Li Yu a little boring. He would not even let him kiss him. Whenever Shen Zhonglou wanted any kind of intimate contact, Li Yu would turn him down with all sorts of excuses.

Put nicely, it was innocence. Put bluntly, it was... an act.

Thinking of this, Shen Zhonglou stubbed out his cigarette and opened Weibo as well.

He was surprised by Li Yu's sudden popularity. More than half the trending topics were related to Li Yu.

Shen Zhonglou instinctively clicked in. The pinned post was the slow-motion clip of Li Yu beneath the ginkgo tree.

For some reason, Shen Zhonglou felt that Li Yu's eyes possessed a kind of magic. They shimmered with light, pure and innocent.

Though he had turned to look at the person taking the photo, it felt as if he were staring straight at Shen Zhonglou through the screen.

He suddenly recalled the first time he had seen Li Yu. It had been at Rose Bridge. He had been riding in the family car when he happened to glance outside and spotted the boy by the roadside.

Rose Bridge lived up to its name. Roses lined both sides of the road, pink, red, yellow, and white blossoms covering the branches. Yet none of those vivid colors could capture Shen Zhonglou's attention, because all of it was fixed on that boy.

Everyone who saw Li Yu for the first time was drawn in by his striking appearance and unique aura. Shen Zhonglou had been no exception.

Then Li Yu seemed to glance in his direction. In that instant, Shen Zhonglou's heartbeat sped up, only for him to gradually fall into the depths of Li Yu's aloof gaze.

He immediately told the driver to follow Li Yu. Only after watching him enter the school gates did he learn that Li Yu attended the school next to his.

Li Yu had been rather well-known among the nearby schools. Shen Zhonglou had not needed much effort to find out his name and class, and only then did he realize just how ignorant he had been in the past.

And yet the Li Yu in this GIF gave Shen Zhonglou a long-lost flutter of the heart, just like when he had first seen him.

His feelings were somewhat complicated, and all the moments he had shared with Li Yu involuntarily resurfaced in his mind.

But the more he thought about it, the more frightened Shen Zhonglou became.

What was he doing?

He was thinking about someone who had already blocked him?

Shen Zhonglou felt stifled. He had said that he would not look for Li Yu again.

Shen Zhonglou abruptly stood up and picked up the car keys from the table beside him.

Zhou Rang looked up at Shen Zhonglou. Seeing that he was about to leave, he said, "Brother Shen, are you coming tomorrow? If you are, I'll get Little Zhao and the others together."

"We'll see."

Shen Zhonglou got into his car, somewhat absent-minded.

Listening to the engine, Zhou Rang watched Shen Zhonglou drive away before letting out a derisive laugh. "Our Brother Shen really knows how to play. As for me, I bow in admiration~"

The person sitting nearby looked increasingly unsettled, feeling that he really should not have come over just now.

After Shen Zhonglou got home, he turned on the television. On the surface, he used watching Xie Jingming as an excuse to open the A Day to See All the Flowers program, but he knew perfectly well whom he truly wanted to see. He simply refused to admit it.

It was obvious that Li Yu was very happy on the show. He often wore a smile, and he interacted with Chi Yan frequently as well.

Chi Yan...

Naturally, Shen Zhonglou knew of Chi Yan. Li Yu had occasionally mentioned him in front of him before.

But at the time, he had only known that Chi Yan had a powerful background and was not someone he could afford to provoke. He had not known that Chi Yan had feelings for Li Yu too.

After watching for only a few dozen minutes, he could already see how differently Chi Yan treated Li Yu, and an inexplicable sense of crisis rose within him.

Only after finishing the entire show did Shen Zhonglou realize that perhaps he did not understand Li Yu at all.

He had never known Li Yu could do so many things, nor had he ever asked what Li Yu liked...

Shen Zhonglou felt inexplicably empty inside. It was an emotion he had never experienced before.