On the day the college entrance exam scores were released, Ye Sheng received numerous phone calls. From classmates, the principal, the education bureau, admissions offices of different universities, and his mother, Ms. Huang.
Ms. Huang, who had abandoned her young son to marry into a wealthy family, was now basking in glory and prestige. Affecting a strange Huai City accent, she spoke in a high-pitched voice, “Sheng Sheng, I heard you’re planning to attend university in Huai City. That’s wonderful! Mom lives in Huai City too. Come live with me. I’ll have the butler pick you up at the station.”
“Treat this as your new home. Your stepfather saw your photo and kept praising how well-behaved you are. You also have a few siblings, they’ll all adore you.”
“Once you arrive, don’t rush. I’ll take you shopping for some new clothes first, so you can get used to the new environment. We wouldn’t want you to embarrass yourself by looking too rustic when you come home.”
“Hello? Shengsheng, are you listening?”
Ye Sheng took off his earphones, his gaze fixed out the window, ignoring her.
The bus traveled from the countryside to the county town, mountains and rivers receding along the way. The window reflected the handsome face of the young man.
Ye Sheng had a cold, sharp appearance; almond-shaped eyes deep and icy, lips pale red. His slightly long, pitch-black bangs covered his glass-like eyes, while his faded black T-shirt clung to his slender frame. He lacked the youthful vigor typical of his age; instead, an eerie blend of world-weariness and impatience made him seem like an aloof, unapproachable oddball.
At least on the surface. Not that anyone cared to understand what lay beneath.
Arriving at the county bus station, Ye Sheng dragged a suitcase nearly half his height toward the train station. He glanced down at the ticket in his hand. The train’s starting point was Yinshan, its destination Huai City. Rubbing his fingers over the characters “Huai City,” Ye Sheng curled his lips slightly, his eyes darkening as he recalled the scene of his mother returning in glory with his younger brother.
Yinshan was one of the poorest places in the country. Back then, the arrival of a million-dollar black luxury car had drawn crowds to the village entrance. The glamorous woman had pinched her nose as she approached him, holding the hand of a spoiled child, and said, “Come, Sheng Sheng, this is your little brother.”
He had carefully offered a cup of water to his young brother, only for the child to push it away, splashing hot water onto his face. The little brother screamed, “Get away! Stay away from me! You’re disgusting!”
That time, his mother hadn’t come to take him with her—she had come to flaunt her success. After leaving him thirty thousand yuan, she stepped on the gas and drove off. The old man, with his shifty eyes, had suggested he stubbornly go to Huai City to find his mother. The old man said that wealthy families cared about face, they’d surely give him a hefty sum to send him away.
Ye Sheng refused without even looking up. He never wanted anything to do with his mother again in this lifetime. So when he received this call, Ye Sheng was utterly bewildered. had Huang Yiyue been possessed by a ghost?
After all, back then, to prevent her “burden” from disturbing her comfortable life in a wealthy family, she had almost knelt before him in tears. Pleading earnestly with her eight-year-old son.
“Sheng Sheng, I was only in my twenties when your father died. Was I supposed to spend my whole life guarding you in these remote mountains?”
“I’m a woman first, and only then your mother. If you love me, you’ll understand, won’t you?”
Ye Sheng blocked the number and walked into the train station without looking back.
*At the same time, in a private villa in Huai City.
The noblewoman sitting on the sofa discovered that Ye Sheng had blocked her, and her face instantly turned livid with rage. She cursed angrily, “That ungrateful wretch!”
Beside her sat a boy of about seventeen or eighteen, with delicate features and a slender build, the son from her husband’s previous marriage.
Xie Wenci, usually known for his erratic temperament, now nervously gripped her hand, anxiously asking, “Mom, how did it go? Did he agree?”
Huang Yiyue hesitated. “He hung up the phone.”
“What?! He hung up?!” Xie Wenci roared in fury. “Didn’t you say he always listens to you? If he doesn’t come, am I really going to be married off to that fifty-year-old disgusting old man for a so-called ‘auspicious match’?”
Huang Yiyue hurriedly reassured him. “No, Wenci, Mom will never let you fall into that pit of fire. Never.”
Xie Wenci gritted his teeth in anger. He had always despised this gold-digging mistress, but now he had no choice but to swallow his pride and plead with her, his eyes reddening. “Mom, I don’t want to marry him. I’m only seventeen. I haven’t even started college yet…my life is just beginning. Do I really have to be tied to a perverted old man at such a young age? My dad doesn’t dare offend the Qin family, so you’re the only one who can help me now. The Qin family specifically wants a boy from the Xie family born on a yin moon and yin day. Ye Sheng and I share the same birth date. Go bring Ye Sheng back and make him part of our family. Let him marry in my place. Please, Mom, I’m begging you.”
Huang Yiyue had always faced nothing but scorn and mockery from Xie Wenci, so his sudden plea caught her off guard. Clenching her teeth, she said, “Alright, Wenci, Mom will definitely help you.” If she wanted to secure her place in the Xie family in the future, she needed the approval of her husband’s children from his first marriage.
Xie Wenci rested his chin on her shoulder, sniffled, and worriedly asked, “Mom, what if Ye Sheng refuses?”
Huang Yiyue replied darkly, “He won’t refuse.”
***
[Dear passengers, Train 1444 from Yinshan to Huai City is now boarding. Passengers taking Train 1444, please gather your belongings and proceed to the ticket gate for boarding.]
Yinshan was a backward and impoverished place, still without direct access to planes or high-speed trains. The only connections to the north and south were two outdated green slow trains, long abandoned by modern times.
Security on the trains was poor, with thieves and perverts running rampant, and incidents of murder and robbery frequently making headlines.
As Ye Sheng passed through the ticket gate and made his way to the platform with his suitcase, he caught a strange scent.
In the height of summer, human odors were amplified—sweat, body odor, the stench of poultry like chickens, ducks, and geese. But what caught Ye Sheng’s attention was none of these. He detected a peculiar smell tinged with a hint of blood—pungent and foul, like pickled cabbage rotting in a jar.
While climbing the stairs, Ye Sheng noticed a middle-aged man struggling to carry a burlap sack up the steps.
The man had dark skin and a thin, small frame, with a sleeping infant strapped to his back in a swaddle. Bent over, he strained with all his might to lift the sack, sweating profusely and panting heavily.
Seeing this, Ye Sheng politely asked, “Do you need help?”
Unexpectedly, the man jolted at the sound of his voice, trembling like a startled bird. His eyes filled with fear, he shook his head warily at Ye Sheng.Ye Sheng nodded without saying anything more, carrying his suitcase onto the platform. This little incident didn’t linger in his mind. While waiting for the train, he began planning where to look for part-time work in Huai City.
Now that his father was dead, his mother had remarried, and the money-grubbing old man had abandoned him and vanished. Ye Sheng was alone, with only a few clothes and two hundred yuan in his suitcase; his entire worldly possessions.
He had given up universities in the capital and chosen Huaian University largely because the conditions they offered were exceptionally favorable. Not only were tuition and miscellaneous fees fully waived, but he was also granted the privilege of moving into the dormitory as early as June.
With a place to stay settled, everything else would fall into place.
Ye Sheng had no intention of seeking out Huang Yiyue.
He didn’t lack maternal love, nor did he yearn for it.
As a child, he had already shown restraint by not holding his younger brother’s head underwater after the boy splashed him—considering their fragile mother-son bond, that was more than enough courtesy.
In this lifetime, it was best they never met again.
The train station in Yinshan was chaotic, the carriages packed with people, requiring constant pushing and shoving to find a seat. In the jostling crowd, Ye Sheng had no idea how many times his pockets were picked or his suitcase snatched. Without a word, he stomped hard on a thief’s foot and then snapped the hand the thief had placed on his suitcase. The thief, tears welling in his eyes from the pain, glared at him resentfully but dared not speak, slinking away with a venomous look.
The carriage was noisy, filled with a cacophony of dialects.
Ye Sheng’s expression remained cold. Just as he was nearing his seat, a pair of hands suddenly touched his shoulders. Thinking it was another reckless thief, he was taken aback when the hands lingered, tracing his shoulders and back in an ambiguous manner before giving them a light pat.
“?”
Ye Sheng froze. Having never left Yinshan in his life, he had never encountered anything like homosexuality. His first thought was simply: What is this?
The wandering hands seemed intent on moving lower, but before Ye Sheng could turn around in astonishment, someone else intervened.
A young, amused voice sounded beside him: “Excuse me, make way.”
Immediately after, a pale, slender hand pressed against the thin young man behind Ye Sheng, gripping his shoulder and pushing him aside with undeniable force.
“Ah!” The young man’s arm twisted, and he staggered a few steps, letting out a sharp cry. Guilty and flustered, he shot them a fierce glare before quickly bending over and disappearing into the crowd.
Turning around, Ye Sheng saw a youth whose appearance and demeanor stood out starkly in the carriage. Ye Sheng himself was 1,8 meters tall (5’9), but this youth was clearly a bit taller.
His legs were straight and sharp, and he stood out like a crane among chickens in the crowded carriage. The youth lowered his hand, his fingers pale and cool, clearly belonging to someone accustomed to a life of ease. The cuffs of his white shirt were rolled up, revealing his wrist bone adorned with a dark bloodstone bracelet.
Beyond his height, his looks were equally striking.
When Ye Sheng looked over, the first thing he noticed was a pair of naturally charming peach-blossom eyes. As Ye Sheng sized him up, the youth returned the gaze without restraint, a faint, enigmatic smile playing on his lips.
Ye Sheng rarely encountered such bold and unabashed scrutiny.
He paused, thinking the earlier incident was too absurd and suspecting the youth might simply have found him in the way. Without a word, he turned around, stowed his suitcase, and took his seat with his ticket in hand.
Unexpectedly, the youth glanced down at his own ticket.He actually let out a light laugh and calmly sat down beside him.
“…”
What a coincidence?
Ye Sheng froze.
This slow train would take at least three days and three nights to travel from Yinshan to Huai City. He would rather have an old man who “knows everything under the sun” sitting next to him than a peer whose presence was so strong it couldn’t be ignored.
He began looking out the window, but after the boy sat down, he stared at Ye Sheng with a smile in his eyes, not blinking once. The gaze wasn’t particularly intrusive, yet Ye Sheng still felt uncomfortable.
He turned his head expressionlessly.
Seeing him turn, the boy instantly perked up, his pupils brightening as the corners of his lips curved upward. “Can we get to know each other?”
Ye Sheng had never imagined he’d have a romantic encounter on a train, let alone with another guy.
The boy held his ticket between his fingers and handed it to Ye Sheng as if presenting a business card. His peach-blossom eyes were smiling, and his voice was as clear as spring water. “Hello, my name is Ning Weichen.”
Ye Sheng lowered his gaze to look at the name on the ticket. After a moment of silence, he finally spoke. “My name is Ye Sheng. The ‘Sheng’ from ‘shengge’ (singing and music).”
Ning Weichen said apologetically, “Did I scare you earlier?”
Ye Sheng: “What?” The topic shifted too quickly, and he didn’t react in time.
Ning Weichen explained, “I didn’t mean to hurt that person. It’s just that as soon as I got on the train, I saw him doing something inappropriate to you, so I couldn’t help but push him away.”
Ye Sheng: “…”
For a straight guy like him who was homophobic, even mentioning “being groped by a guy” was a mental torture, especially when Ning Weichen, another guy, was now expressing concern about it.
Along with his embarrassment, Ye Sheng felt a flicker of annoyance—after all, he could have handled it himself without Ning Weichen’s help. But he wouldn’t actually take it out on someone who had kindly helped him. After a few seconds of stunned silence, Ye Sheng suppressed his discomfort, turned his head away, and nodded vaguely. “No, thank you for earlier.” He averted his gaze, turned to stare out the window, and fell silent again.
Ning Weichen was taken aback. Seeing that Ye Sheng didn’t want to engage with him, he pursed his lips. Resting his chin on his hand and tilting his head, he cautiously watched Ye Sheng for a moment before suddenly whispering, “Do you really not want to talk to me?” There was even a hint of sadness in his tone.
To be fair, with a face like Ning Weichen’s, a simple smile would have the entire carriage rushing to chat with him.
Ye Sheng didn’t dislike him; he was just embarrassed.
Still, having someone to talk to during a long journey wasn’t a bad thing, especially since this person had just helped him.
Ye Sheng took a deep breath and turned back. “No, it’s just that I’m a bit tired now. I woke up too early today.”
“When did you wake up?”
“Five in the morning. It takes three hours to get from my home to the train station.”
Ning Weichen’s eyes showed just the right amount of concern. “Are you going to Huai City?”
“Yes.”
“It’ll take at least three days to get from here to Huai City. Why didn’t you book a sleeper berth?”
Ye Sheng said, “Sleeper berths are too expensive.”
“I see.” Ning Weichen’s clothing and appearance clearly indicated he came from a wealthy family, yet he showed no reaction to this awkward answer. He asked, “Are you going to sleep now?”
Ye Sheng wasn’t tired at all, but he had to stick to his own lie. He nodded seriously.
Ning Weichen rested his chin on his hand and suddenly smiled.”Then you should sleep. There are many bad people on this train, but I can keep an eye on your things for you. Don’t worry.”
Ning Weichen had sharp, well-defined features, but his peach blossom eyes, brimming with a smile, softened his otherwise aggressive aura, making him appear exceptionally sincere and earnest when he looked at others.
On such a chaotic train, encountering a good companion was indeed a stroke of luck.
Ye Sheng’s favorable impression of him rose a few notches. He let out a soft “Mm” and leaned against the window, closing his eyes.
Sunlight poured in.
The skin on Ye Sheng’s neck was thin, and now, backlit, it appeared especially fragile. With his eyes closed, his eyelashes cast a faint shadow.
Ning Weichen’s gaze lingered deeply on his neck for a moment before he straightened up. Leaning back in his seat, he idly played with his fingers. The young man wore a finely tailored white shirt that clearly looked expensive. No one noticed that beneath the slightly rolled-up cuffs, a black chicken blood vine bracelet was stained with fresh, cold, and sinister blood.
Ye Sheng had originally intended to just rest his eyes, but he ended up falling asleep. When he woke up, it was already dark outside.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he heard a pleasant voice beside him. “Would you like some water?”
Ye Sheng turned his head and met those always smiling, gentle peach blossom eyes.
Ning Weichen held a plastic paper cup filled with hot water, offering it to him. “The dining car just passed by. I didn’t know you’d wake up now, otherwise I would have bought something for you. Are you hungry?”
When he spoke the last three words, he lowered his voice.
Ye Sheng: “…”
If Ning Weichen weren’t so good-looking, such thoughtfulness would have been suspicious. But the young man beside him looked so sincere that Ye Sheng began to doubt himself.
Could it be that outside the Yin Mountains, everyone was this harmonious, friendly, kind, and considerate?
He reflected self-critically: Perhaps I’m just too cynical inside.
While drinking water, they began to talk properly.
Although most of the conversation consisted of Ning Weichen asking questions and Ye Sheng giving brief answers.
Upon learning that Ye Sheng was heading to Huai’an University to study, Ning Weichen smiled. “Huai’an University is an excellent century-old institution. Congratulations.”
Ye Sheng: “Thank you.”
Ning Weichen asked casually, “If you’re just starting university, you must be seventeen this year? Which month?”
“February.”
Ning Weichen curled his lips into a smile. “Then you’re older than me, gege. I was born in October.”
Ye Sheng automatically ignored the “gege” and reciprocated the question. “What are you going to Huai City for?”
Ning Weichen replied nonchalantly, “To attend a distant relative’s wedding.”
As they continued talking, Ye Sheng also learned that Ning Weichen was indeed not from the Yin Mountains. He was from the capital and had boarded the train in the Yin Mountains only because he had been exploring the deep forests alone there before.
Having lived deep in the mountains, Ye Sheng had no idea what there was to explore.
Ning Weichen was an excellent listener and skilled at finding topics to discuss. When he looked at someone, his gaze was always tender and attentive, making even someone as reserved as Ye Sheng say a few more words.
As they chatted, the dining cart passed by again. Ning Weichen ordered a box of fruit, a serving of sushi, and a bottle of hot milk.Ye Sheng had slept for so long that he was past the point of hunger, feeling no appetite at all. Skipping a meal would also save him some money. Fortunately, Ning Weichen didn’t turn to ask him what he wanted to eat. Otherwise, he would have had to expose his poverty to this wealthy young man once again.
Unexpectedly, Ning Weichen turned around and placed those three items in front of Ye Sheng.
“Gege, for you.”
“…”
Ye Sheng was glad he hadn’t been drinking water, or he might have actually choked.
Ye Sheng waved his hand. “No, thank you.”
Ning Weichen tapped the table with his slender fingers, his voice tinged with laughter. “Don’t refuse me. I genuinely want to be friends with you, and I genuinely want to treat you well.”
Ye Sheng replied stiffly, “Thank you, but I’m really not hungry.”
Ning Weichen sounded a little disappointed. “Alright.”
He left the items on the table and didn’t touch them again.
Ning Weichen tilted his head and studied Ye Sheng carefully for a moment. Noticing the faint shadows under Ye Sheng’s eyes, he spoke up again with concern. “This train might be delayed. There are still nearly fifty hours to go. Are you sure you don’t want to switch to a sleeper berth?”
Ye Sheng hesitated. He had just experienced the true meaning of backaches and sore muscles from sleeping sitting up on the train and was beginning to regret his choice.
Ning Weichen spoke up. “I’ll cover it for now..” He took a pen from his pocket and wrote a string of elegant numbers smoothly on the train ticket, handing it to Ye Sheng with a smile. “This is my phone number. You can pay me back once you arrive in Huai City.”
Ye Sheng finally looked up, raising an eyebrow as his dark eyes met Ning Weichen’s. Previously, he had treated Ning Weichen with a dismissive attitude, but now he was truly scrutinizing him.
This overly intimate “friendliness” had felt off to him from the start.
Ning Weichen’s smile remained unchanged. He even leaned in slightly, resting his chin on his hand and lowering his voice as if coaxing. “I’m not comfortable sitting here at all. I want to switch to a sleeper berth, but I’d miss having someone to talk to. If you don’t mind, we could share a bed.”
He leaned in so close that his breath seemed to brush against Ye Sheng’s face. His peach-blossom eyes held a dark, almost mesmerizing intensity as he whispered regretfully, “It would save some money too. But I know you definitely wouldn’t agree.”
His demeanor was so natural and composed that Ye Sheng was taken aback, once again questioning whether he was being overly suspicious. He took the ticket with the contact information, lowered his gaze, and said, “Let’s switch. But I still have some money on my phone, so there’s no need to trouble you.”
“Great!”
A bright light shone in Ning Weichen’s eyes as he stood up and eagerly helped Ye Sheng with his luggage.
Both were strikingly handsome young men, and standing together in the carriage, they drew countless glances.
Ye Sheng frowned, unaccustomed to the attention, and strode ahead with long steps.
The train attendant switched them to Carriage 44.
When Ye Sheng entered the compartment, he found someone already inside.
As luck would have it, it was the man with the baby he had encountered earlier on the stairs. At the same time, he caught that familiar scent of decay, tinged with a sour note.
The man had placed the baby to one side, curling up to sleep on the outer edge of the berth. The large green bag was stuffed deep under the bed.
While Ye Sheng was taking this in, Ning Weichen had already put away the luggage and brought over the blankets and pillows. He asked with a cheerful smile, “Do you prefer the upper or lower bunk?”
“Either is fine.”Ye Sheng withdrew his gaze and took the blanket.
Under the lamplight, Ning Weichen watched him thoughtfully for a moment before breaking into a smile. “I’ll take the top bunk then. I’ve left the sushi and milk I just bought on the table. If you get hungry at night, feel free to have some.”
Ye Sheng was taken aback, still unaccustomed to accepting kindness from others.
“Thank you.”
