“—Old classmate, I’m guessing you’ve already fallen for him?”
When Qin Zaozao said these words, he fanned himself with the tarot cards spread out like a fan, deliberately putting on an air of profundity. He stared at Sheng Lin with curiosity, hoping to catch a flicker of emotion on his old friend’s face. But all he saw was calm.
Sheng Lin looked back at Qin Zaozao openly, neither embarrassed at having his thoughts exposed nor irritated by the wild guess. His expression was as usual—steady as a precision machine, running smoothly without a single stutter.
Qin Zaozao felt a chill run down his spine under that gaze. “Brother, don’t stare at me like that! At least give me some kind of reaction!”
“What kind of reaction do you want me to give?”
“Anything! If you think I’m talking nonsense, you could at least curse me out!”
Sheng Lin found it pointless. He turned to leave with his motorcycle helmet under his arm. “I don’t have the time to curse you out.”
Unwilling to give up, Qin Zaozao began forming hand seals as if divining celestial secrets, muttering incomprehensible incantations under his breath. Finally, it coalesced into a puzzled mutter: “Strange. I shouldn’t have miscalculated—it’s clearly the Red Luan Star moving…”
It was precisely these words that made Sheng Lin stop in his tracks. “Qin Zaozao, do you know how old Xia Yiyang is?”
Qin Zaozao: “Yeah, eighteen.”
“He’s eighteen, from Beijing. He just finished his college entrance exams. This is the longest summer he can enjoy to the fullest.”
“He came to Rongcheng to travel alone, and his family is worried about him—they video call him at least three times a week. When the calls connect, his parents both call him ‘baby Yiyi.’ His sister came to Rongcheng on a business trip and made a special point to come see him and bring him things.”
“He’s a treasure held in the palms of all his family members, yet he can handle pressure better than anyone imagines.”
“When he was scammed by telecom fraud, he went to the police station alone. When all his money was gone, he went door to door asking which bosses were hiring, never once thinking to ask his family for money. When he got into conflicts with others, he wasn’t afraid at all—even if it landed him in the police station, he still held his head high. It wasn’t until he got home at night that he silently shed tears and processed those negative emotions.”
Qin Zaozao had no idea Xia Yiyang had been through all that. He clicked his tongue in amazement. “You really can’t tell—little Xia is pretty tough…”
“I used to wonder why, after going through so much, Xia Yiyang could still maintain his pride and innocence. Later, I understood.” Sheng Lin spoke slowly, from the heart. “Because he’s only eighteen. He’s just stepped into the adult world. He packed his bags, left home for the first time, and came to a city thousands of kilometers away. Everything he encounters is new. Whether it’s good or bad, it’s all part of this journey. He experiences it all, feels it all, and hones himself through it all.”
“But this journey has an endpoint.”
“This summer is about to end.”
Sheng Lin paused and looked at his friend. “Qin Zaozao, can you still remember what you did the summer after your college entrance exams?”
“The summer after the gaokao?” Qin Zaozao thought hard. Though it was only a few years ago, the memories had already faded. “Got my driver’s license. Hiked Mount Hua at night. Took a hard-seat train straight to Lhasa. Played games day and night. Oh, and I confessed to the girl I liked in high school—got brutally rejected. Anyway, I did a bunch of things that felt super youthful, super grand, super meaningful back then, but now just seem super stupid.”
Sheng Lin gave a wry smile. “Then what do you think—when this summer ends, when Xia Yiyi goes back to Beijing, how will he remember this summer?”
Will it be a painful experience of working to support his studies? An interesting adventure from a life gone off the rails? Or a summer camp of good food and travel?
—And among those recollections of all different colors, what kind of presence will Sheng Lin be?
“…” Qin Zaozao’s hand relaxed, and his tarot cards clattered to the ground.
He cursed under his breath and hurriedly crouched down to pick them up. Sheng Lin walked over to help.
While picking up the cards, Qin Zaozao muttered: “Brother, don’t be so pessimistic! I don’t think little Xia is that kind of person. There’s no way he’ll forget about you just because he goes back to Beijing!”
“This isn’t pessimism. This is a practical reality that needs to be considered.” Sheng Lin said quietly. “He just turned eighteen. There are still so many things waiting for him in this world. He’ll go through many more summers.”
Qin Zaozao pondered his words. “Wait a minute—you’re already considering practical realities. So you really do have feelings for little Xia—”
“Here.” Sheng Lin shoved the last few tarot cards into Qin Zaozao’s hand, cutting off his unfinished sentence.
Qin Zaozao clicked his tongue and was about to say something else when his eyes suddenly froze, fixed on something behind Sheng Lin—as if he’d seen something as unbelievable as a panda riding a bicycle.
“Sheng Lin, behind you!” Qin Zaozao’s expression was shocked.
Sheng Lin frowned. “What are you playing at now?”
“This isn’t a trick—turn around, quick!”
The man turned around and looked behind him—
They were now in the main hall area of the convention center. The building featured 360-degree floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Since the event hadn’t started yet, fans preparing to enter were taking photos outside the glass walls.
As luck would have it, a lavishly dressed female fan was asking her male companion to take photos of her. The young boy looked well-behaved, with a sweet smile, and took countless photos for her without a single complaint. The female fan was overjoyed when she saw the photos and couldn’t help giving him a big hug!
If strangers saw them, they would surely think they were a young couple, and praise the boy for accompanying his girlfriend to follow her idol. But as it happened, Qin Zaozao recognized that teenager—it was Xia Yiyang!
Qin Zaozao somewhat regretted making Sheng Lin turn around.
Before he could say anything, Sheng Lin suddenly stood up and strode toward the glass wall.
As if by some unseen force, the young man with the dreadlocks looked down at the tarot cards clutched in his hand.
The cards had fallen to the ground earlier, and he’d scrambled to pick them up while Sheng Lin helped. Among that scattered set of tarot cards, the very last one was exactly what Sheng Lin had shoved into his hand—the King of Cups.
In traditional tarot systems, the “King of Cups” represents calmness, restraint, and wisdom—maintaining composure amid turbulent emotions.
But few people knew that in the Victorian Fairy Tarot system, the “King of Cups” had another name.
—The “Summer King.”
“Who said summer is ending?” Qin Zaozao toyed with the card in his hand, watching his friend’s back as he hurried toward the teenager, almost laughing out loud. “Rongcheng’s summer is clearly still long.”
…
At twelve o’clock, Xia Yiyang arrived on time at the coffee shop across from Building B of the Convention Center. Unexpectedly, it had turned into a fan headquarters. The moment he stepped into the coffee shop, it was filled with the laughter and chatter of girls everywhere. Some were swapping fan-made merchandise, others were exchanging gossip, and still others were frantically applying makeup, hoping to leave a deep impression on their idol.
The moment Xia Yiyang walked in, all the fans’ eyes were glued to him. Someone whispered: “I heard the company signed several new trainees. This kid is so young and has such bright eyes—could he be a trainee here to observe the signing event?”
The young master was so flattered he almost floated off the ground. He couldn’t help puffing out his chest and raising his head, unable to suppress the corners of his mouth from curling up. He thought to himself—wow, my good looks really are universally recognized!
“Yiyi! Turn around, over here!” His sister’s voice sounded from behind him. Xia Yiyang followed the sound and finally spotted his cousin in the corner, who had just finished getting her makeup done.
Jian Yun had only landed in Rongcheng that morning, too travel-worn to do her makeup, so she’d simply hired a makeup artist to give her a complete “head transformation” right there in the coffee shop.
She was wearing a dress in her idol’s fan color, with her makeup and hair ties all in the same color scheme. She looked radiant, completely unlike someone who’d had to wake up at five in the morning to catch a flight.
“Sis, I missed you so much!” Xia Yiyang said sweetly, scurrying over to her.
The last time they’d met was after Xia Yiyang’s college entrance exams, when the family had gathered at Jingzhaoyin for a vegetarian meal. There was plenty of fancy presentation, but vegetarian food never quite filled you up. So after the meal, the two cousins had slipped off to the nearby KFC for a bucket of fried chicken, and Xia Yiyang had told his sister about his plan to go to Rongcheng without telling their parents first, asking her to keep it a secret.
Jian Yun looked over her younger brother, whom she hadn’t seen in two months. His skin had tanned a bit, his hair had grown longer, and he seemed more lively and spirited—clearly, he hadn’t been mistreated.
She let out a sigh of relief: “I was worried you wouldn’t adjust to being alone in Rongcheng, but you look great. Rongcheng’s food really agrees with you—you’ve gained weight, haven’t you?”
“How come every single one of you keeps saying I’ve gained weight?” The young master didn’t like hearing that. “I’m still thin.”
Jian Yun: “Besides me, who else said you gained weight?”
Xia Yiyang: “My friend.”
“Which friend?”
“It’s… ahh, you wouldn’t know them anyway!” Xia Yiyang didn’t know how to explain his relationship with Sheng Lin, so he could only say vaguely, “It’s a good friend I met locally in Rongcheng. He takes really good care of me.”
Jian Yun’s eyes narrowed when she heard that: “Male or female?”
“Don’t worry, sis.” Xia Yiyang quickly said, “He’s a guy, a few years older than me, and he’s super good to me. He takes me out to play, treats me to good food, and gives me spending money every week.”
Jian Yun: “…???”
Wait, was this a legitimate friend?
Their family had always held Xia Yiyi in the palm of their hands, raising him with a certain innocent naivety about the world.
This was his first time traveling alone, without even a friend to look out for him. Xia Dad and Xia Mom were so anxious they’d wanted to drop everything and fly over to be with him. Jian Yun had advised them to relax: “Traveling alone is the best way to build independence. He’s about to start school in Rongcheng anyway—isn’t it better for him to get some practice now? Besides, my cousin has such a great personality—everyone likes him. If he wants to make friends, he’ll definitely make good ones in Rongcheng!”
…She never expected that the new friend her cousin had made would treat him this “well.”
She suddenly remembered a photo Xia Yiyang had posted on his Moments. In it, he was sitting side by side with a well-built man by a stream on Mount Qingcheng, both leisurely munching on cucumbers. But the man’s face had been covered with a sticker.
Now that she thought about it, that sticker seemed rather suspicious—like trying to hide something only made it more obvious.
Wait a minute. Her little cousin had never had many close male friends growing up. And he’d insisted on coming to Rongcheng for college—could it be that—
Just as Jian Yun was about to press further, Xia Yiyang suddenly opened his cross-body bag and pulled out a beautiful little gift box: “Sis, this is for you.”
This diversion successfully caught Jian Yun’s attention. She took the box and found a lovely silk scarf inside, printed with a panda pattern—round-headed and round-bodied, absolutely adorable.
She was both surprised and delighted: “You’ve really grown up—you even prepared a gift for your sister.”
Saying this, she immediately took it out and tied it onto her bag.
Seeing how much she liked it, Xia Yiyang, sitting across from her, started grinning goofily for no apparent reason.
Jian Yun’s trip to Rongcheng this time, besides attending the signing event, had one most important task—to play messenger pigeon. She handed the tote bag beside her to Xia Yiyang. Inside was a square red box, its cover printed with Rongda’s most iconic antique-style school gate and Mingde Building, with a phoenix soaring overhead scattering specks of golden light that formed the words “Admission Letter.”
The boy ran his fingers over the embossed Rongda school emblem again and again, unable to suppress the joy radiating from his eyes and brows.
“Do you want to open it here?” Jian Yun offered. “I can film it for you.”
“No.” Xia Yiyang carefully put away the admission letter, containing his excitement. “It’s too noisy here. I want to take it back and open it in a quiet room.”
Jian Yun nodded. “Good idea. This is an important thing—better to be cautious.”
After that, the cousins chatted about their lives. Jian Yun tried several times to ask about Xia Yiyang’s mysterious “male friend,” but was interrupted each time.
First, someone came to swap fan merchandise with her. Then someone wanted to add her as a friend. Then a well-known fan artist appeared, and Jian Yun had to queue up to get a sketch…
By the time everything was done, it was one thirty—almost time for the signing event to start.
Jian Yun had been so busy she hadn’t even had a proper lunch, only a cup of coffee. Worried about her, Xia Yiyang asked if she wanted to grab a sandwich to tide her over.
“It’s fine!” Jian Yun waved it off. “I saw the fan club announcement—the entertainment company prepared Rongcheng-style refreshments for attending fans. There’s ice jelly, tofu pudding, chilled rice jelly—I’ll grab a bowl once I’m in!”
Xia Yiyang froze: “…Ice jelly, tofu pudding, chilled rice jelly?”
Jian Yun: “Yeah. You’ve been in Rongcheng this long—you haven’t tried them yet?”
“O-of course I have.”
He really didn’t dare admit that he not only ate them every day, but also made the ice jelly and cut the watermelon every day too.
The venue was right across from the coffee shop. Xia Yiyang decided to walk his sister to the ticket checkpoint so they could chat a bit more.
Jian Yun: “Yiyi, how exactly did you meet this male friend? I’m not saying I have stereotypes about Rongcheng, but it really is—ahh!” Jian Yun’s eyes lit up as she stared at the large posters on the glass wall, and her topic did a complete 180-degree turn. “They have fan support displays here! Take a picture for me, quick!”
“Huh? Oh, oh, okay.” Xia Yiyang dutifully raised his phone to capture his sister’s joy.
“And here—”
“Sis, don’t be shy. Hold up your banner!”
“This angle—”
“Sis, turn sideways a bit, straighten your back, tuck your chin in.”
“This support flower basket—”
“Get closer to the basket. Look at it, or touch it—interact with it.”
And so, Xia Yiyang took dozens of photos of his sister in one go, every single one a masterpiece.
Jian Yun was absolutely thrilled with the photos. Her wonderful cousin was such a good photographer—he’d captured so many “photo of a lifetime” shots, all straight out of camera, with a skill level that was anything but straight-guy typical.
Overjoyed, she couldn’t help but give him a big hug. Xia Yiyang, beaming with pride, wrapped one arm around his sister’s shoulder while the other hand went to his hip, throwing his head back and cackling with laughter.
Just as the cousins were hugging warmly, suddenly, a series of “thump, thump, thump” knocking sounds came from beside them.
It sounded like… someone was knocking on the glass wall behind them.
The teenager instinctively turned his head to look behind him—
—Through the clear, transparent glass wall, the man stood holding his motorcycle helmet in his left hand, his raised right hand gently tapping against the glass barrier. He looked down at the boy separated by just one wall, a soft, gentle smile playing at the corners of his lips.
Xia Yiyang: “???”
Was he seeing things? Why was Brother Lin here of all places?!
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