26 : Permisson

 Song Shi walked over and saw the two facing each other. Neither of them spoke, and he put his phone down.

The two people standing in front of him were about the same height, so he couldn't see the expression on the person's back or the expression on the person standing outside facing him.

Song Shi didn't care about that and just said, "Come in yourself," before walking inside. He had only booked one night yesterday because he thought it was too expensive

. He had originally planned to ask Tan Xiuyuan to come back today and extend the stay for a few more nights.

But now it seemed that he didn't need to.

Chen Zhoumu watched as the person who was about to leave suddenly reached out and braced himself against the door. He looked at the person in front of him who was carrying a suitcase. Then he looked up at

the person's black hair.

Well, this is his childhood friend. No need to verify with his hair.

Now he gripped the doorknob a little harder, and he knew without looking in a mirror that his smile was rather forced and stiff.

The person raised an eyebrow and looked at Chen Zhoumu: "Excuse me."

Chen Zhoumu then returned to normal, smiled like a good brother, and opened the door wide to let the other person in.

After the other person put their luggage in the entryway and went inside, he was left alone.

From the moment he saw the other person's face, Chen Zhoumu felt a sense of crisis. For the first time, he felt that a face was perhaps the most useless thing.

What's more, that childhood friend had a close relationship with Song Shi, although he didn't know what had happened between the two of them in the past.

But he was still much more familiar with them than he, a newcomer.

Today's outfit was not only to win Song Shi's favor, but also partly because of that childhood friend who had returned from abroad.

Chen Zhoumu admitted that he cared about him a lot.

Song Shi had already finished packing and was tidying up his things. He had to check out of the room before 2 PM, or he would be charged extra.

This was unacceptable for Song Shi, who was currently struggling financially.

Tan Xiuyuan sat down on the sofa as soon as he approached and watched Song Shi tidy up his clothes.

Seeing the other person give him a speechless look, he asked, "What are you doing?"

The person sitting on the sofa then smiled brightly: "Shizi, I haven't been back for so long, don't you miss me?"

Song Shi, who was tidying up, paused. He hadn't heard this name in a long time. Apart from his family and Tan Xiuyuan, no one else knew it.

Even Tang Ze didn't know his nickname.

It was the name his mother gave him. Song Shi liked to eat persimmons when he was little, and "Shi" and "Persimmon" sound the same, so he used "Persimmon" as his nickname.

"It's best if you don't come back."

Tan Xiuyuan pretended to be very sad, but the corners of his mouth never turned down: "I only came back because of you."

Chen Zhoumu happened to hear this when he walked in and glanced at the person sitting on the sofa.

Song Shi raised his hand and casually threw the buns on the table into his arms: "Can't you be quiet?"

"Okay, if you say quiet, then I will definitely be quiet. By the way, how did you know I haven't had breakfast yet?" He said, stuffing the buns into his mouth.

The person who threw the buns ignored him and didn't intend to. He didn't stop what he was doing.

"How is Auntie doing lately? Should I go see her this time?" Tan Xiuyuan said vaguely.

"It's none of your concern..."

Before he could finish speaking, the phone placed to the side rang. The caller ID showed Auntie.

Song Shi took the phone and went to the balcony.

Tan Xiuyuan watched his departing figure, his smile fading as he spat out the half-eaten bun, its slightly damp skin still clinging to his bag. He

turned to look at the silent man sitting beside him; he'd seen this man buy all the items downstairs.

Their eyes met, the exchange anything but friendly.

"He'll come back to the South with me sooner or later," Tan Xiuyuan said, staring at the man's face.

"So?" Chen Zhoumu also abandoned his usual lazy demeanor; he didn't have the masochistic tendency to be friendly to his rival.

"I know you, the good student from No. 1 High School. Shizi has mentioned you to me a few times."

"Really? Song Shi doesn't seem to have mentioned you to me."

Chen Zhoumu smiled indifferently, but his hand, hidden in his trench coat pocket, slowly clenched. It wasn't that he hadn't mentioned her; he'd only mentioned her twice, and he'd annoyed her twice already.

"Whether you mentioned it or not doesn't matter, you're not exactly a very important person anyway, are you?"

"I've known Shizi for almost 20 years, we were even born in the same hospital."

"Also, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm his childhood friend and boyfriend."

The last few words were enunciated slowly and heavily, the meaning extremely clear.

With a 'clang,' Tan Xiuyuan threw the plastic-wrapped bun in his hand into the nearby trash can.

Chen Zhoumu, sitting to the side, seemed to be frozen on the sofa as if a pause button had been pressed.

He didn't hear anything, only the last three words of the other person slammed into his brain.

Like fine silver needles, they pierced his heart, making even breathing feel a little painful.

He should have known, he had searched for the meaning of that profile picture that night.

But he didn't want to accept it, he thought that this would deceive himself, at least make him feel a little better.

But now, hearing the other person say it like this, he still found it hard to accept.

The air between them seemed almost suffocating.

Song Shi stepped out to answer the phone, casually closing the balcony door behind him.

Zhang Wenwan's voice was gentle on the other end, but the surrounding noise was quite loud: "Xiao Shi, I heard they said Xiao Yuan is back?"

"Yes, he's in Xia City."

"I was thinking of seeing him and also visiting you, but something came up here and I can't get away. You should take Xiao Yuan to see Xia City properly."

"Okay, don't worry, he should leave in a few days. Yangcheng is so far from here, don't bother traveling."

"Alright, are you settling in well over there? The money is deposited into the card on time, don't worry about anything else."

"I don't need the money."

"Hmm, I know you well. By the way, next month... you're coming back, right?"

Song Shi's hand unconsciously brushed aside the weeds growing from the crack in the wall: "I'm coming back."

After hanging up, Song Shi opened the calendar. The beginning of next month was his mother's death anniversary. Song Shi's relationship with his mother wasn't very deep.

He rarely saw the beautiful and elegant eldest daughter of the Zhang family, whom they talked about, when he was very young.

She was always busy and neglected Song Shi, but he had long been used to it.

At that time, the place he spent most of his time was not at home, but in his mother Zhang Shu's office. Even in the place closest to her, young Song Shi rarely saw her.

Then came the house of their neighbor, Tan Xiuyuan.

It was because Song Shi had once developed a very high fever in the office, and his assistant had to find him and take him to the hospital.

That was the most Song Shi had ever seen Zhang Shu; Song Shi was only in sixth grade then.

He lay in the hospital bed watching the person they said could do everything make a mess of the medicine.

She nearly dropped and broke the thermometer.

She took off Song Shi's sweat-soaked clothes and changed him into new ones, making a mess of everything.

Finally, she hastily dressed him again, the medicine was ready, and the thermometer was tucked under his arm.

Song Shi looked at the liquid—more water than medicine—and drank it all without expression.

That night, Song Shi didn't sleep. He didn't know why he couldn't sleep.

Was it because he couldn't sleep, or because he was afraid to sleep?

Looking back now, it was probably the latter; he was afraid to sleep, afraid that if he fell asleep, the person in front of him would disappear.

Little Song Shi lay there with his eyes open, watching that person frantically tidy up the table and then take out a fairy tale book.

Sitting beside Song Shi, she smiled gently, "Little Shizi, Mommy will read you a bedtime story."

She reached out and gently stroked his head.

Eventually, the person sitting next to him fell asleep first. Song Shi looked at her sleeping face and wondered why, despite her clumsiness, she was said to be capable of everything.

Little Song Shi climbed down from under the bed, took a blanket from the sofa beside him, and covered her with it.

Then he lay back down.

He stared at Zhang Shu's face for a long time until birds began to chirp outside the window, then he slowly closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, she was gone. He felt something was wrong with his body and realized the thermometer under his arm hadn't been removed.

The sound of the door opening interrupted his reverie. Song Shi put his phone away.

The person who came in was Tan Xiuyuan: "Was it your aunt who called? I knew she missed me."

"How long are you staying this time?"

"It depends. Do you want me to go back to Guangzhou with you next month?"

Song Shi looked at the other person suspiciously: "Are you going to stay here for so long?"

"Anyway, No. 3 Middle School prepared a place for me to stay, so I'll just treat it as a vacation."

The two walked in from the balcony, talking as they went. Song Shi looked at the sofa, but Chen Zhoumu was gone.

He turned his head and asked: "Where is he?"

Tan Xiuyuan, who was standing to the side, smiled and then sat down on the sofa: "How should I know? Besides, why do you always care about him? He can go wherever he wants. And I just got back, don't you want to spend more time with me?"

Song Shi slung his bag over his shoulder: "I'm leaving."

The other person stood up, dragged his suitcase, and followed him.

Song Shi lowered his head, opened his phone, and unblocked the person on his blacklist who had only been there for one night, opening that person's chat window.

S: [Where did you go?]

M: [Goed back to school first. I feel a bit superfluous.]

S: [? What's wrong with you?] M

: [Anyway, you'll be back tonight, right? Hmm?]

Song Shi looked at the new message and replied after a while. The other person had already accumulated over a dozen messages.

M: [?]

M: [Why aren't you answering? Is this question so hard to answer?]

M: [Where are you?]

M: [If you don't come back, it'll just be me and my brother alone in this empty house.] M

: [Even if you're not coming back, give me some news...]

S: [I'm coming back.]

The other person quickly replied: [Oh, by the way, your nickname is Persimmon?]

S: [Yeah.]

After the chat ended, Song Shi opened Chen Zhoumu's profile and changed his nickname to: Extremely Sensitive Person.

Then he noticed that the other person had changed his profile picture. Song Shi moved his finger and clicked on the picture.

The picture wasn't of cats, dogs, or cartoons.

It was a bag.

On it were several large characters: Kitten Food.

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