Weizhou felt Jingyu’s chest on his back as he was being hugged by him. Even though he should be weirded out by this, all he could do was to accept this man’s hug as repayment for the one he did the other time when he was in need of a hug.

No matter what, it was still him who comforted Weizhou when he felt down. So this time, Weizhou felt like he could make up for that time by letting Jingyu hug him as if it’s nothing.

After a few moments, Jingyu removed his embrace but still held one of Weizhou’s hands.

“Come with me. I need to show you something.” Jingyu said.

Weizhou followed quietly. As if he had a choice.

Jingyu leads Weizhou out of the villa and then walked towards the sitting bench by the outer garden. It was nighttime so the lights outside the villa was lit. But Weizhou knew that during 10PM, only the lights of the porch will be left on and all these lights by the garden would be turned off.

“Sit here. I’ll take care of something. Wait for me.” Jingyu said to Weizhou and then ran off.

Weizhou did not know where Jingyu went but maybe he went off to get them something to drink.

A few minutes later, all of the lights by the garden went out. The only light left was by the front door which was a few hundred steps from where he was sitting.

As Weizhou’s eyes adjusted from the sudden darkness, he noticed that the stars above him was shining brightly as ever. This is not the first time he saw a night sky but it was the first time for him to see so many stars at once, and it’s shining brightly than he ever saw them before.

“My god, this is beautiful!” Weizhou exclaimed.

Weizhou has never seen the night sky this beautiful before. Back in Shanghai, maybe the night clouds are too thick or maybe it’s because of pollution, he has never seen so many stars before but right now, maybe, is one of those nights you could clearly see what’s above.

“I heard from the radio earlier that tonight will be a good night for star gazing. Because there’s no thick clouds and where we are happen to be a good spot for it.” Jingyu said while slowly walking towards the direction of the sitting bench with a flash light on his hands.

Jingyu took a seat besides Weizhou and then looked up.

“It’s surreal.” Weizhou said, looked at Jingyu and smiled.

Jingyu was still looking up and then looked back at Weizhou that is now looking up.

“Look at the moon,” Weizhou said and then pointed his fingers towards the direction of the full moon. “It’s a full moon tonight. It looks like it’s staring down on us. But it’s still beautiful.”

“Yeah, like staring at the most beautiful eyes in the world.” Jingyu said while looking at Weizhou. But when Weizhou was about to look back at him, Jingyu averted his eyes and looked back up.

Weizhou just smiled and agreed to what Jingyu said. But he didn’t get the full message of what Jingyu means.

“When are you going back?” Weizhou asked Jingyu while still looking up.

“I’m never going back.”

Without facing Weizhou, Jingyu replied.

“What do you mean?” Weizhou asked.

“It means I’m not going back to Shanghai. I want to live here now.” Jingyu answered.

“What about your life there? Your career? I mean your parents still live in Shanghai. You want to leave it all just like that?” Weizhou said to Jingyu.

“I don’t have a life there anymore.” Jingyu started. “I don’t care about my career back there because I’m sick of those people anyway. I’m sure my parents will understand my situation right now. They know I’m here anyway.”

“What do you plan to do now?” Weizhou asked while looking Jingyu directly in the eyes.

“My plan?” Jingyu paused for a while and then thought to himself of the plan he had. But he really didn’t planned anything out anyway. “I don’t have a plan. Maybe I’ll stick to the orphanage for now until I found myself again.”

“Are you serious?” Weizhou asked. “You ran away just like that and you don’t even have a plan?”

Weizhou laughed for a good while and then Jingyu also laughed by the Weizhou made fun of what’s happening to him right now.

Truthfully, he knows that he can’t stay in this orphanage forever. It’s inappropriate for a grown man to leech lodging and food forever at an institution that also relies on donations.

“What about you,” Jingyu said and paused for a while. This is the question that has been eating him out ever since Weizhou started living with him a few days ago.  “When are you going to go back?”

“In two days.” Weizhou answered.

“Why so early?” Jingyu asked.

“Because my editor has been bugging me to go back already. He said that my little ‘soul searching’ has to end sooner or later and we have to publish a book in a few months’ time and we’re kind of running out of time.” Weizhou answered.

“They need their brightest poet back.” Jingyu said while smiling.

“Says who, you?” Weizhou retorted.

“Well, if you’re not the brightest then your editor would not be on your all of the time.” Jingyu said.

In the morning, as Weizhou woke up, he noticed that Jingyu was not there. Which is weird for him because of all the days that he’s here, he always woke first and then Jingyu would follow about one hour later.

Maybe he went somewhere far that he has to get up early. He mumbled to himself.

Weizhou proceeded with his morning routine which includes taking a quick bath, grabbing a quick breakfast and then doing his volunteer work for the morning which is watering the plants at the outside garden. Today was a little bit different because every three days, he have to weed the garden first before watering them but he noticed that the outside garden was already weeded out and the soil is wet which means it has already been watered.

So he went back to the gardening shed to return the items he got earlier. Upon returning the gardening equipment, another volunteer entered to also return some things. Seeing this, Weizhou came to ask.

“Excuse me Brother Yang Meng, may I ask a question?” Weizhou said.

“You’re already asking a question.” Yang Meng said in a straight face but then suddenly smirked. “Just kidding, what is it?”

“Err… do you know who took over weeding and watering the outside garden earlier this morning?” Weizhou asked.

“Oh that?” Yang Meng paused and then made a serious thinking face. “I think I saw Brother Johnny doing that earlier before I weeded out the flower garden by the porch earlier.”

“He did? Thank you Brother Yang Meng.”

“Your welcome cutie. I mean Brother Weizhou”

With that, Brother Yang Mend hurriedly went out the gardening shed and entered the villa. But Weizhou didn’t pay attention to it because he was more interested about why Jingyu did his work for him. So he went to look at him but he never saw him anywhere in the villa or nearby places.

“Where could he be?” Weizhou asked in the air.

“Looking for me?” Jingyu popped out of nowhere and then said this.

Weizhou, on the other hand was spooked by what Jingyu did and then made a fighting stance.

“Whoa” Weizhou said. “I never saw you coming.

“Yeah, and what what’s with that pose?” Jingyu asked looking at Weizhou that is still in fighting stance.

Weizhou hurriedly returned to normal and then asked Jingyu.

“Where were you?”

“Oh, I did all your work for you.” Jingyu replied.

“That’s my work. You did not have to do it for me.” Weizhou said as if he’s pissed.

“Why does it matter? You’re going to Shanghai tomorrow anyway. And besides, you are not to do any volunteer work anyway because you’re our guest.”

“But I’m still here and I chose to do volunteer work because I wanted to.” Weizhou replied.

“After tomorrow, you’re not going to be here anyway so I’m just doing you a favor.” Jingyu said.

“But…”

“No buts. You go back to Shanghai, and I will still continue my life here. I did your work today so that you can take the day off.” Jingyu gently said.

“I don’t need a day off.” Weizhou said.

“Six days here, and you haven’t went to your parent’s grave. Now you tell me you don’t need a day off.” Jingyu said.