Upon hearing Su Jinning's words, Shen Moyu paused in his steps. He was so sleepy that he could barely keep his eyes open, and he yawned as he said, "It's almost eleven o'clock. If you don't go to sleep, I'll go to sleep."
Su Jinning glanced at Shen Moyu standing under the streetlight. He was only wearing a shirt, and the night wind was a bit biting, blowing up the corner of his shirt, making it easy to see Shen Moyu's thin figure.
Su Jinning paused, then looked at his flushed cheeks. He was probably still a little drunk; the blush had spread from his cheeks to his ears. Under the light, his skin appeared pink, looking tender, like a ripe peach ready to burst with sweet juice. Perhaps he was sleepy; his eyes were misty and hazy, his light-colored pupils fixed on him.
Pretty, like a girl...
Su Jinning reached out and, by a twist of fate, pinched Shen Moyu's cheek.
“…?” Shen Moyu.
"Huh?" Su Jinning realized what was happening.
"You're just asking for trouble!" The next second, Shen Moyu threw a punch at him.
"Ouch!" He hit her a little too hard, and Su Jinning staggered back two steps before finally sitting down on the ground.
My lips suddenly felt a burning pain.
Shen Moyu stared blankly at Su Jinning lying on the ground. He hadn't meant to hit her so hard; he didn't like it when people pinched his face, especially when he wasn't aware of it.
"Aren't you supposed to react quickly? Why didn't you dodge?" Shen Moyu said jokingly, but still squatted down to check Su Jinning's wound.
Su Jinning looked up and met Shen Moyu's worried gaze.
"puff!"
"Laugh at your sister!" Shen Moyu angrily punched Su Jinning on the shoulder again, but this time it was very light.
Su Jinning licked the sweet, metallic taste from the corner of his mouth. Instead of being angry, he smiled brightly, his two little tiger teeth playfully peeking out. Looking at the boy against the backdrop of a starry sky, he laughed from the bottom of his heart: "Laughing at how good-looking you are, like a girl."
"Damn it! Get lost!" Shen Moyu felt burned by his words and jumped up instantly.
Then her face was enveloped in intense heat.
He turned his head away from Su Jinning, afraid that he would say something strange again, and said in a soft voice, "It's just a walk, don't be so weird, okay?"
Su Jinning got up from the ground, patted the dust off her bottom, and said, "So you agree, you academic genius."
"Too much nonsense." Shen Moyu glanced at him sideways and walked forward on her own.
Su Jinning hopped on the motorcycle and, as usual, tossed a helmet to Shen Moyu. He watched Shen Moyu get on and chuckled nonchalantly, "I've been drinking, and you actually dared to ride with me."
"Shut up, we'll die together." Shen Moyu pinched his shoulder hard.
It was just a drive, nothing more. The two of them didn't say a word the whole way, just listening to the wind as they cruised through the city, until finally they came to an arched bridge.
Shen Moyu was walking ahead when he suddenly noticed that the person behind him had stopped moving. He turned around and asked, "What are you doing?" The cool breeze by the river made him more alert.
Su Jinning didn't say anything, but looked at him excitedly and beckoned him over with her finger.
Shen Moyu walked over helplessly, only to see Su Jinning pointing at the shimmering river surface and saying, "Look."
"What is it?" Shen Moyu looked over curiously.
"Look how clearly the reflection of people is in the river!"
Shen Moyu looked at him like he was a brat: "If you have nothing to say, then don't say anything. Are you out of your mind or have you had too much to drink?"
"When I was little, my mom brought me here, and I just kept staring at my reflection in the river." Su Jinning seemed not to have heard him and skipped over his topic. Staring at her reflection in the river, it was as if she was reminiscing.
Shen Moyu looked at Su Jinning, who was leaning on the railing, with a puzzled expression: "What?"
"I want to chat with you." Su Jinning turned to look at him, then changed the subject, leaning against the railing, her hand supporting her cheek. Her phoenix eyes were filled with starlight, blinking as if she were pleading with him.
Shen Moyu pursed his lips and silently agreed.
Seeing that he turned his head away and didn't speak again, Su Jinning knew that he had agreed. So she looked into the distance and said softly, "My mom and I often came to this river to play. We used to look at the moon and ourselves in the river like this, and I even fell in once! Hahahaha."
Seeing him suddenly laugh, Shen Moyu thought he might have drunk too much, since he had drunk the most.
"Well, and then?" In the end, Shen Moyu decided to coax this drunk "kid".
"And then, haha!" He laughed hoarsely, coughed, and continued, "Then an uncle pulled me up here, it was so embarrassing!"
Shen Moyu turned to look at Su Jinning's profile. In the night, Su Jinning's handsome face softened slightly. The way he spoke made him seem more like a naive fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy.
"Don't you come here as often now?" Shen Moyu asked casually.
"No..." His smile suddenly froze, his gaze shifting from the distant neon lights, and from his lingering memories. His voice held a hint of sadness as he said, "My mother's not here, and I haven't been here much lately." He continued to look at his reflection in the river.
Shen Moyu was a little confused. Before he could ask, he said the next sentence.
"Thank you so much for coming here with me. I... haven't been here for years." His voice grew softer and softer until he couldn't even hear it himself. His head started throbbing again, probably from drinking too much, and he frowned.
"Then, where is Auntie now?" Shen Moyu mustered up her courage to ask, her gaze lingering on Su Jinning's profile.
"My mom? She's abroad, I think? I don't know... She's been gone for a long time." Su Jinning sounded like she was drunk and talking nonsense, but what she said was the truth.
"Don't you know where your mother went?" Shen Moyu asked, completely bewildered.
“My mother, she, is sick…” He paused frequently, stammering as if making a decision: “Three years ago, she was diagnosed with malignant glioma, and the chances of survival in China are too slim.”
He would never forget his mother lying in the hospital bed with an oxygen tube in her arms. Her thin body was dressed in a hospital gown, her face was frighteningly pale, and she lay there quietly, as if she would never wake up again.
He took a deep breath, his voice trembling. "My dad has a friend abroad, a good neurosurgeon. So he sent my mom abroad for treatment." Su Jinning cupped his face in his hands, his voice tinged with sadness. His memory suddenly flashed back to the day of his competition.
"My mom suddenly had a medical emergency that day, but I was playing a competition in another city and couldn't go back... I didn't even get to say my last words to her before she was taken away."
What should have been the joy of winning the championship turned into an irreparable tragedy.
Shen Moyu was startled, suddenly remembering the day she swept the playground, when Su Jinning said with a calm yet somewhat evasive expression, "Later, something happened at home and I stopped participating in the competition."
He had thought more than once that if he didn't know anything about basketball and didn't participate in any competitions, he could have gone to see his mother that day, seen her off, and talked to her more...
Shen Moyu lowered his head, unable to think of any words to comfort him, and simply gently rubbed his shoulders, trying to offer him some solace.
Su Jinning's words reminded him of his mother, who was fast asleep. He asked regretfully, "So... she didn't come back to see you?"
Su Jinning's eyes were slightly red: "She would write to me, two or three letters a year, and every time, she would say she was coming back soon..." His voice trembled more and more, and he didn't have the courage to continue.
"But he still hasn't come back..." Shen Moyu was also a little sad and muttered this sentence for him.
“That jade pendant was given to me by her before she went abroad… I don’t know why she didn’t contact me by phone. I asked my dad, and he said it was my mom’s quirk. I don’t understand…” Su Jinning rubbed his face a couple of times, his voice no longer trembling. He didn’t understand, he didn’t understand his mother’s love.