Duan Qizhao's phone finally found a signal, and his Moments post went through, accompanied by a photo of the Milky Way so blurry even its own mother wouldn't have recognized it.
The caption read: [Celebrating my buddy's birthday. Freezing my ass off on a mountaintop, but worth it!]
After posting it, he lowered his head to check the time.
23:59.
"Holy shit!" Duan Qizhao sprang to his feet, grabbed the wine bottle, and poured three full glasses. He shoved one into Jiang Xun's hand. "Less than a minute left! Quick, quick, quick, get ready-"
"Ready for what?"
"For your birthday! Midnight! Eighteen! Legally an adult! If you get in trouble from now on, the cops won't blur your face anymore!"
Holding a glass of red wine so astringent it made him frown, Jiang Xun sat cross-legged on a picnic blanket covered in snack wrappers. Beside him were Blue Hair, bouncing all over the place, and Shen Wangjing, quietly gazing at him.
At that moment, the mountain wind suddenly stopped, and the rustling pines fell silent.
Overhead, the Milky Way spanned the entire sky from south to north. The scattered lights of the town below looked like another Milky Way reflected on the ground.
Duan Qizhao stared at the numbers on his phone screen and began counting down. "Ten, nine, eight, seven-"
"Six, five, four, three-"
Jiang Xun raised his glass. Just as the rim touched his lips, before the wine's astringency reached his tongue, a voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.
"Happy birthday."
The words were incredibly soft and incredibly close, spoken almost right against his ear.
The mountain wind surged up again that very second, the sound of the pines rolling overhead. After shouting the final "one," Duan Qizhao let out a deafening whoop, wine sloshing over the rim