[Bro, are you acting out some melodramatic TV show for us?]
[Wen Yanyu should be younger than Lu Mingxu, right? Going by the timeline, Lu Mingxu should've been in his second year of high school when Wen Yanyu was about to finish middle school. Why is Lu Mingxu calling him big brother?]
[L-little bunny? Isn't that what Wen Yanyu's fans call him? It went back that far?]
[Maybe it's some little secret between the two of them?]
[Is this some novel about getting back together?]
[That look in Lu Mingxu's eyes, tsk tsk. The atmosphere is off the charts. No wonder he got his start in bittersweet youth dramas.]
[Help, I feel like Lu Mingxu's eyes are shining when he looks at my wife. I'm shipping them first.]
[?]
[Stop! Bro Lu already has Xiao Yu! Don't ship random couples in the comments!]
"You still remember something from so many years ago. I thought, since it was only a month or two, you'd probably forgotten me."
Wen Yanyu took the peanut candy Lu Mingxu handed him and, as he leaned to the side, rubbed his increasingly painful waist and abdomen.
"How could I forget?" Lu Mingxu's gaze softened. "I got into the Film Academy through the college entrance exams and became an actor without a hitch."
Listening to him, Wen Yanyu unwrapped the peanut candy and popped it into his mouth, asking casually, "Then do you still remember the other people from back then?"
The woman who mended your scarf-my mother.
The police officer who helped you catch those thugs-my father.
And the girl who played in the snow with us-my little sister.
The one you called Little Bunny Sister.
Lu Mingxu froze, looking dazed for a moment before shaking his head. "Wasn't it just the two of us?"
"Do you mean the old lady selling sweet potatoes?"
Wen Yanyu looked at him for a long moment, then smiled helplessly. "Yes, her."
He hadn't understood what had happened.
But Lu Mingxu still got talking, chattering away to him about everything that had happened over the years.
On set, at school, in his life-all sorts of major events, his earliest achievements, the award that had made him happiest. Lu Mingxu talked nonstop, wishing he could tell the person before him about every honor he had earned over the years.
"But then, to my surprise, that movie became a huge hit. I won Best Supporting Actor for it, too, and its director invited me to be in his next film."
Lu Mingxu sighed with feeling.
"Something I said offhand back then actually came true. Now there really are so, so many people who like me. Even now, I still feel like I'm dreaming."
Lu Mingxu frantically searched his mind, recounting his achievements over the years bit by bit as everything along the way flashed through his head.
His words came to an end.
Wen Yanyu leaned against the window without saying a word.
Thinking the other man was bored, Lu Mingxu hesitated for a moment and wanted to go on to other things.
But when he opened his mouth, he realized that, aside from what he had just said, he didn't even know what else he could talk about.
Suddenly, he couldn't say anything at all. He didn't know what else to share with the person before him, and somehow, everything had taken on a different flavor.
A wave of irritation rose in his heart. Lu Mingxu fell silent, closing his eyes and rubbing between his brows.
Swallowing down the metallic-sweet liquid that the pain had nearly sent surging up his throat, Wen Yanyu forced himself to lift his eyes.
He looked at the little lamb who had once cried alone on a snowy night, holding the little scarf his mother had left him, his eyes full of Xingxing—the little lamb with so many grievances and no one to tell them to.
He looked at the Lu Mingxu before him now, talking about his good fortune, talking about how he had fulfilled his old dream, only to fall silent in the end.
As a background presence never mentioned in the book, one who didn't even count as a backdrop, he was the only person in Lu Mingxu's past whose memories hadn't been erased, who still remembered him.
Perhaps it was a feeling of sympathy between fellow sufferers.
Wen Yanyu moved a little closer to him and said softly, "It's been hard, hasn't it?"
He hadn't expected the other man to say that at all.
Lu Mingxu froze abruptly, instinctively turning his head toward him.
Wen Yanyu said no more about it, naturally picking up the conversation that had abruptly broken off.
"I still remember you telling me you wanted to have a cat and a dog someday, and prepare a bedroom just for them at home. I also remember you saying you'd take them traveling with you. You said you wanted lots and lots of family."
Wen Yanyu paused, then continued in a joking tone, "Little Lamb has already fulfilled his career dream. How's the other dream coming along?"
"Oh, and do you still like roasted sweet potatoes? I remember there seemed to be a few sweet potatoes in the kitchen."
"I want to hear about the other things that have happened to Little Lamb over the years, too. How about telling me slowly tonight while we eat sweet potatoes?"
Wen Yanyu smiled at him, his eyes and brows taking on a little more tender warmth.
Lu Mingxu stared at those beautiful, gentle eyes before him, eyes that also held an inexplicable touch of heartache.
His lips moved involuntarily.
The heart beating in his chest suddenly skipped a beat, then began pounding fiercely. An unprecedented flutter swiftly spread through his chest.
The seed planted long ago finally sprouted branches and leaves at that moment.
He suddenly realized something.
Something that made him both happy and sad.
His eyes growing wet, Lu Mingxu curved his lips into a smile. "You're still just like you were back then."
Wen Yanyu gave him a somewhat puzzled look.
Lu Mingxu merely smiled.
The blazing sun outside the car window was scorching, yet for a moment, he seemed to have returned to that snowy night.
That cold yet warm snowy night.
Along the way, the little lamb from back then had changed completely with the passage of time. He was rich and famous, and the people around him praised him and loved him. But what they loved was the changed little lamb. What they loved was the crown on his head.
They constantly demanded things of the little lamb, as though any further achievements were only natural, as though the little lamb ought to be that way, as though he had been born that way.
Even the little lamb himself had become someone the little lamb of the past would have disliked a little.
Yet the person before him was still someone who would rush out without hesitation for a stranger, still the little bunny who had asked him whether he was happy on that snowy night.
A subtle emotion sent ripples through his heart.
As they began talking again, warmth filled the car.
"Sang Yu is that mischievous little sister you mentioned back then?"
"Yes, her. The Sang family is the family that adopted me back then. Let's not talk about them. You've changed so much, big brother. I remember how cheerful you used to be. I didn't even dare recognize you at first. And big brother, why did you suddenly move away afterward? I asked so many people, but they all said they hadn't seen you."
There was a silence.
"People change. Also, I'm younger than you, so don't call me big brother! And don't call me Little Bunny either! It's so weird!"
"Then what should I call you?" Lu Mingxu pouted.
"Um... just use my name. Call me Yanyu like everyone else. Isn't that what you've been calling me all along? Just keep calling me that."
"...Do you have a nickname?"
"A nickname? Um... Little Fish."
"Little Fish? Because it sounds like the 'Yu' in your name?"
"I don't know either."
It was a name his mother had given him. He no longer had the chance to ask.
"Little Fish? Little fish, little fish, swim, swim fast, freedom in every direction!"
Freedom in every direction?
Wen Yanyu turned his eyes toward the sky, bitterness surfacing in his gaze. "...Maybe."
"Little Fish." Changing the subject, Lu Mingxu grew serious. "Stay away from Duan Mufeng."
Wen Yanyu said, "What's wrong with Duan?"
Lu Mingxu lowered his eyes, struggling to speak. "...Anyway, stay away from him. He's, um, not very nice. He bullies people."
"?" Wen Yanyu said, "He's never bullied me."
Lu Mingxu: "..."
[Aww, as one of Bro Lu's mom fans, I'm so glad. It's been ages since I've seen him this happy.]
[This is the first time Young Master Lu has smiled at anyone in all these years. (Not really.) Hahaha, wrong show, but Lu Mingxu really has hahaha, a total makeover from a veteran cadre to a sweet puppy of a younger guy. I'm dying.]
[Okay, okay, okay. The first thing he does after recognizing an old acquaintance is tell him to stay away from Duan Mufeng. Lu Mingxu, you rascal.]
[I'm laughing so hard I'm crawling all over my bed. Lu Mingxu looks like he wants to say something but keeps holding back.]
[Uh, uh, uh, is there really any need to hint at it so vaguely? Isn't Wen Yanyu gay too? Just say it outright. You're making him seem so innocent.]
[Xiao Yu? Bro Lu was already talking to other people about Xiao Yu all those years ago? True love, sure enough.]
[By the way, has nobody noticed that baby's complexion looks off? He seems ridiculously pale.]
The car traveled along the road back.
Before you continue