He pushed the door open, and warm air rushed toward him, instantly dispelling February’s chill.
It was peak evening hour; the restaurant buzzed with noise.
He ordered a cup of hot milk tea and chose a corner seat by the window.
The place felt like an isolated observation post.
His slightly haggard reflection appeared in the glass.
Beyond it, through the reflection, he could see all kinds of customers inside.
At this hour, nearby private high schools had just finished evening study sessions.
A group of uniformed students poured in, their chirping laughter filling the space at once.
“Hey, hey, look at that!”
“So expensive!
Should we pool money and get a family bucket?”
The clamor of youth.
Luo Shaotian’s gaze drifted involuntarily to their uniforms.
They were of a typical modern design—
Exquisite Western-style blazers paired with tailored plaid short skirts.
Or modified sailor uniforms.
Ever since that geological disaster years ago that swept across East Asia, large numbers of Japanese designers had flooded into Xinhai City, subtly reshaping the city’s aesthetic sensibilities.
These uniforms—blending Japanese refinement with practical functionality—had long become the standard of private elite schools.
As he watched the youthful lines swaying beneath those skirts, watched the bows at their collars rising and falling gently with their breathing…
He found himself, in a daze, reminiscing about his own youth.
He had not always been alone.
The high school cheer captain with a side ponytail, her hairclip glittering in the sunlight.
After a basketball game, to thank her for cheering, Luo Shaotian had once taken her to the aquarium.
Blue waterlight reflected across her face as she pressed against the glass, pointing at the fish and asking him to read their species descriptions.
The junior from the university dance club who had put on meticulous full makeup just to invite him to the movies.
In the dark theater, her sweet perfume kept drifting into his nose.
She had leaned over pretending to be scared several times, while he sat rigidly upright because the screen was too dark for him to see the subtitles clearly.
There was also that bold, rumor-shrouded senior from the modeling team who had used photography as an excuse to invite him to an amusement park.
When the Ferris wheel reached its highest point, the tiny cabin brimmed with ambiguous tension.
She had looked at him with those moist eyes—
And he…
Had been busy flipping through the photo album?
In the end, they all drifted away.
Perhaps because he had not been proactive enough.
Or perhaps because he simply did not understand what it meant to “respond.”
Should he change a little?
If he could just act like a normal man and reach out first…
“Um… handsome?”
A shy whisper interrupted his thoughts.
Two uniformed girls had somehow approached the table, holding up phones with QR codes displayed, cheeks slightly flushed.
“Um… c-could we add you?”
Expand the list.
Youth slang for adding a new contact.
“…”
Luo Shaotian froze briefly.
Refuse?
Like before?
His gaze lingered briefly on the two girls.
They were at a beautiful age.
One had short hair and faint baby fat, shallow dimples appearing when she smiled—innocently adorable.
The other had streaks of purple in her hair, tall and upright, clearly trained in dance.
Fresh, vibrant youth—
The kind boys would secretly write about in diaries.
Strike up conversation, accept, chat, eat together, and then naturally…
Begin a normal life?
Wasn’t that the change he wanted to attempt?
“…Okay.”
As if possessed, Luo Shaotian took out his phone and opened the QR code he rarely used for socializing.
“Yay!”
The girls exchanged delighted glances.
After adding him, they did not leave immediately, but pulled out chairs beside him and began chattering away.
They were students from the nearby Lily Flower Girls’ Academy.
“Lily Flower Girls’ Academy?”
The name sounded unfamiliar to him.
“Oh!
It’s right next to Holy Trinity Academy!”
The baby-faced girl named Jiaran mumbled around her straw as she explained.
At the mention of “Holy Trinity,” Luo Shaotian’s heart skipped violently.
“Sigh, I really envy those girls from Holy Trinity,”
The tall girl, Nailin, propped her chin on her hand and complained enviously.
“I heard their management’s way looser than ours.
I always see their students roaming around during school hours.
Is it really that easy to get leave?”
Luo Shaotian narrowed his eyes and interjected casually,
“…Maybe for part-time jobs?”
“Part-time?
No way!”
Jiaran waved her hand as if he had told a joke.
“Anyone who can get into Holy Trinity—how could they be poor?”
“A noble school?”
“Pretty much.
Most people have to go through asset verification like we did.
Though a few can enter through special approval.
But their scholarships are generous enough anyway.”
“And—”
Nailin took over, a trace of sourness in her tone.
“After graduation, their treatment’s amazing.
I heard they can enter top institutions or universities directly through special internal referrals.”
She sighed, idly stirring the ice in her cup.
“Unlike us.
We have to grind for IELTS and TOEFL…
Mess up, and we’ll probably end up wasting away at some mediocre school.”
“Uncle, you don’t look that old.
Did you just graduate from university?”
“I graduated many years ago.”
“Eh?
Then what do you do?
You have such a cold temperament.”
Luo Shaotian thought for a moment.
“…Police officer.”
His personnel file was still with the force; he was merely seconded to Dawn Company.
Strictly speaking, he was still a policeman.
“Wow!
Really?
Police uncle?!”
The girls’ eyes lit up instantly.
They leaned closer, asking about scenes they had only seen in TV dramas, their expressions filled with inexperienced curiosity and admiration.
Luo Shaotian responded patiently.
Yet gradually, his gaze lost focus.
The swaying pleated skirts before him.
The bows tied at their fair necks…
The surrounding noise faded.
That figure in a blue sailor uniform overlapped across his retina—
“Uncle?”
A hand waved before his eyes.
“Uh—”
He snapped back abruptly, his body jolting as if electrocuted.
Crash—
In his fluster, his arm knocked over the milk tea.
Brown liquid splashed out, blooming into a glaring stain across the girl’s skirt and stockings.
“Ah!”
She jumped up in alarm.
“S-sorry…”
He fumbled for tissues, reaching out to wipe it, but his hand froze midway in the air.
“Um… I’ll cover the cleaning fee.
Or buy you a new one…”
“It’s okay, it’s okay!”
Seeing his embarrassment, the two girls waved politely despite their disappointment.
“We were about to head home anyway.
We’ll just wash it.
Uncle, you look really pale…
Are you too tired?
Get some rest.”
Watching them leave in a hurry, Luo Shaotian slumped back into his chair.
What was he doing?
What was he thinking?
To hallucinate…
While facing two high school girls he had just met?
“Am I really… beyond saving?”
He covered his face with trembling hands, heavy breaths escaping through his fingers.
He already knew the truth.
He knew that beneath that shell was his best brother of over twenty years.
“Why won’t that fluttering feeling go away no matter how I shake it off?”
“No… no.”
He clenched his fist violently, nails digging into flesh.
“It’s because… I never made a clean break.”
“It’s because that bastard keeps avoiding me, leaving me spinning inside those illusory memories!”
“If… if I rush in front of him now, look at that scruffy face, hear him speak in a man’s voice—”
“This damned illusion will disappear, right?”
“Right… I just need to confirm it once.
Confirm that he’s a man.”
Once the thought surfaced, it could no longer be suppressed.
Luo Shaotian sprang to his feet, rushed out of the restaurant, and hailed a taxi.
“To the university town!”
Along the way, he rehearsed countless opening lines in his head.
No matter what, he had to pull this thorn from his heart.
“We’re here.”
He paid and strode toward the apartment building Lin Yu was renting.
Yet when he stood before the door, his steps halted.
On the doormat lay a solitary blue paper bag—the kind used for medicine delivery.
The opening was stapled shut, a “Privacy Delivery” slip affixed on top.
Nothing inside could be seen.
“Sick?”
He frowned.
“If the delivery arrived and wasn’t brought inside… could it be so bad he can’t even get out of bed?”
A wave of inexplicable worry suppressed his earlier agitation.
He took a deep breath and pressed the doorbell.
“Ding-dong—”
The crisp chime echoed down the corridor.
No response.
“Ding-dong— ding-dong—”
He pressed twice more, even leaning his ear against the door.
After a long while,
At last, dragging footsteps sounded from within.
Then a weak voice drifted out through the door, broken and faint—
“Why… are you here?”
Luo Shaotian’s pupils contracted violently…
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂
Bonding time
Indeed.