After midnight

"You are back."

"Qiqi? Why aren't you going to bed yet so late? Is Xiaosu asleep?" An Yan said in surprise.

"She's asleep. An Yan and Su Ziling, please sit down and let's talk."

Su Ziling heard the voice and looked at An Yan. An Yan paused while unzipping his down jacket, then pulled it all the way down, revealing the navy blue sweater underneath. "Qiqi, it's a little too late today..."

Before An Yan finished explaining his reasons, Qi Qi interrupted him. "No, right now. I have something very important to say."

An Yan and Su Ziling looked at each other and sat down together. They sat down next to each other, leaving Qi Qi alone on the sofa.

"I've been here for quite some time, Anyan, do you still remember our three-month agreement?" Qiqi looked at Anyan.

"remember."

"Now it seems that you may have to get that thing in advance."

"I can't stay that long." Qiqi continued.

What happened? Su Ziling looked at An Yan in astonishment, but he kept his head tilted to stare at Qiqi seriously, listening to Qiqi continue to talk. "Eleven deserved the death, but I shouldn't have told you that his death happened too quickly for me."

"No." An Yan said softly.

Qiqi nodded slightly. "But this is not important. What is important is that after Eleven died, Lingyi sent me a letter, but I did not reply to him."

"I know that." An Yan said.

"May 4th also did not respond."

"is it?"

"Well, I wrote him today. He told me he was fine. I had hardly contacted him since we broke up, and I had no idea what he was doing, but he got back to me pretty quickly."

An Yan did not reply. He remembered that Wu Si was living a stable life with a reversed day and night life in Xu Xing's bar, and he did not know what to say for a moment.

"An Yan, I want him to live a good life forever." Qi Qi looked determined.

"An Yan..." This sentence contained so much information that Su Ziling couldn't help but shout it out.

An Yan stood up, gave Su Ziling a soothing look, and went straight to the kitchen. After a moment, he brought out a cup of warm boiled water and placed it in front of Qi Qi. "Go on, I'm listening."

How gentle, Qiqi thought absentmindedly. She blinked, trying not to stare at the wisps of white smoke rising from the boiled water. She continued, "Wu Si is a different person from me and them. Anyan, I'm sorry for rejecting your conversation before. I have to protect him."

"This is the real reason why you came to see me."

"Yes." Qiqi admitted. "An Yan, I beg you not to hurt him. You can kill us all, but only him, I beg you to let him go."

"I'll think about it." An Yan said and stood up. "I'll give you an answer within three days."

An Yan took two steps towards the stairs and turned his head. Qi Qi and Su Zi Ling were staring at him. An Yan's eyes quickly passed over their faces and said, "It's too late now, go to bed."

Su Ziling looked back at Qiqi, but he couldn't see what expression was on her face. He thought about it and quickly caught up with An Yan. He stepped on the stairs and ran two steps. He seemed to feel something was wrong, so he tiptoed up quickly.

As I stepped onto the last step of the second floor, An Yan's back was right in front of me. At this moment, with a snap, the lights in the living room went out. Downstairs, there was a slight noise at the door of Qi Qi's room, and she closed the door.

An Yan was still standing at the door, seemingly waiting for him. Su Ziling took a steady breath and walked over. He stood only one step away from An Yan, and could touch him with just a stretch of his hand. The lights downstairs had been turned off, leaving only the dim light in the corridor. Su Ziling lowered his voice and said, "An Yan, I don't quite understand."

Su Ziling actually understood a lot of things. He was a very smart person who could quickly grasp the message that others wanted him to understand from simple words. He just didn't understand why An Yan agreed to let Qiqi consider this matter.

"I'll tell you tomorrow."

"Okay, I get it." Su Ziling turned the door handle unhappily.

"Tomorrow..." An Yan called him again. "Come with me to the bar."

Su Ziling turned around in surprise, and An Yan turned off the light in the corridor. An Yan went into the room and closed the door. Su Ziling was still standing at the door, with his head down, his face unclear. How could An Yan still consider this?

The next morning went on in an orderly manner as before. At seven o'clock, An Yan prepared the meal, Su Ziling asked Xiao Su to get up, and then at about seven-thirty, everyone went out to do their own things. But today, at the last stage, just before leaving, Su Ziling suddenly announced: "I wrote a letter to Master last night, telling him that I will not go today."

"So An Yan, you have to take me with you wherever you go today." When Su Ziling said this, An Yan was stunned. Then he realized that Su Ziling was sulking, but why?

"Brother Ling, you are so cunning." An Xiaosu didn't understand the undercurrents between the adults. She just thought that Su Ziling was being lazy and acting like a spoiled child.

"What's so cunning about that? Hurry up, you're going to be late for class."

Su Ziling took Xiao Su's hand and walked forward, and An Yan followed silently behind him. When they arrived at the school gate, after waving goodbye to Xiao Su, Su Ziling asked An Yan, "Where are you going?"

An Yan lowered his eyes and hid his face in his scarf. He asked in a muffled voice, "Why are you angry?"

An Yan looked confused and puzzled. Didn’t he say last night that they would go to the bar tonight?

Su Ziling was getting angry as he watched, but he couldn't really get angry. "Nothing, I'm a little cold. Wusi is on break during the day and the bar is closed. If you don't plan to go home, we'd better find a place to stay for a while."

"Let's find a cafe or a cinema?" An Yan stuck out his nose and took a breath of the cold east wind.

"Let's go to the cinema." Su Ziling had never been to the cinema in Xindu, so he followed An Yan in a daze.

Su Ziling didn't expect that they would actually spend a whole day in the cinema. Movie after movie, all the questions he wanted to ask An Yan were swallowed and turned into nothing. He was very angry. Why did An Yan put him in a dilemma? He wanted to ask An Yan what he thought, but in the end, after a whole day, he didn't have the chance to ask.

At 11 o'clock in the evening, An Yan dragged Su Ziling to the door of the "Black and White" bar. Su Ziling had watched movies all day, and his brain was not only a little confused but also had a headache. He didn't realize that he just walked in with An Yan.

The Black and White Bar was unusually quiet, with even the lights dimmed. Su Ziling shook his head and found a man with his back to them, bent over and mopping the floor diligently from inside to outside.

It's May Fourth! Su Ziling shook his body, and his eyes suddenly became clear.

Xu Xing stood behind An Yan and Su Ziling and closed the half-open door. Wu Si raised his head when he heard the sound.

"Sorry, we're closing early today."

When Wu Si saw them, he stood there in a daze, unable to react for a moment.

"Xiao Wu." Xu Xing walked towards An Yan from behind. Wu Si understood the situation as soon as he saw Xu Xing's serious expression. He walked over and patted Wu Si on the shoulder and said, "Xiao Wu, believe me, it won't hurt to talk to them."

Wu Si clenched the mop in his hand tightly without saying a word, but the mop was soon taken away by Xu Xing.

"Please sit down, everyone." Xu Xing took the mop and walked to the bar, leaning the mop against the bar.

An Yan chose a table for four and sat there first, and Su Ziling followed and sat outside him. The table for four that An Yan chose was right next to Wu Si, and Wu Si only needed to move a step to sit face to face with An Yan, but he didn't.

"Xiaowu." Xu Xing called again.

"Wu Si, we really have no ill will towards you." Su Ziling looked up at him.

At the junction of light and darkness, Su Ziling's eyes were too innocent and too deceptive. Wu Si couldn't help but look at An Yan after taking a look. An Yan sat there as steady as a rock. Wu Si couldn't see any malice in his eyes, and he hadn't said a word since he came in. So, Wu Si sat down.

"Did you guys know I was here a long time ago?" Wu Si glanced at Xu Xing with a hint of meaning. He was a little silly but not stupid at all.

"Not very early, just yesterday. You accidentally stumbled into the bar opened by the revolutionary army, but Bai Ming is not as smart as Xu Xing." An Yan said.

"What do you want to talk to me about?" Wu Si had a complicated expression on his face, and he decided to get straight to the point.

"Qiqi."

"What happened to Qiqi?" Wu Si stood up and slapped the table with his hands. His hot palms suddenly became cold.

"Qiqi is very good. She has lived with us for nearly a month. How could we hurt her? Wusi, do you want to sit down first?" Su Ziling laughed. He didn't understand what was going on with An Yan at all. Talk to Qiqi about Wusi, and talk to Wusi about Qiqi.

Wu Si sat down, but he was restless. He didn't dare to look at An Yan's eyes, as An Yan seemed to be able to see through him easily.

"Qiqi is fine, just as you told her." An Yan spoke again.

"She told you?" Wu Si showed a look of surprise.

"She actually told you." Wu Si murmured again. He was distracted for a moment, as if he began to fall into his own world. He seemed to be conflicted and entangled, and for a long time he stopped looking at An Yan and Su Zi Ling.

Su Ziling noticed that even so, An Yan's attention was still all on Wu Si.

He is fully focused and never slacks off at any moment.

"Once you enter my shop, you have to entertain people." Xu Xing interrupted at the right time. Su Ziling turned his head and saw him walking slowly with a tray, and then placed a glass of wine on the table in front of the three people. The colors of these wines were different, and he couldn't recognize what they were, but he knew that the glass in front of him was a martini, and he had drunk it here before.

"Su Ziling, yours hasn't changed." Sure enough, he heard Xu Xing say this the next second. He nodded, took a sip from the wine glass, and then secretly looked at the other two glasses of brightly colored wine.

"Xiao Wu, your Long Island Iced Tea."

"An Yan, you are much luckier. Here, this cup is my latest creation, and it doesn't have a name yet." After saying this, Xu Xing tactfully left the scene and stood back behind his bar.

"Tell me, An Yan, why did you come to me?"

"You look ready for it."

"Yes."

Su Ziling listened to their conversation silently and continued to drink it in small sips.

“Why do you want to work?”

"How can I live without working?" Wu Si didn't understand why An Yan asked such a question.

"Why did you choose to work here?" An Yan continued to ask.

"No one here cares who you are, and I need to stay awake at night."

An Yan nodded and continued to ask: "Why did you choose to work here?"

Su Ziling looked at Anyan in confusion. Why did Anyan ask the same question again? He looked at Wu Si again. Wu Si was also confused, but Anyan repeated the question for the third time. "I'm asking you why you have to work here."

Su Ziling smacked his lips, as if he had figured out something different.

Wu Si was silent. He glanced at Xu Xing in the distance, picked up the wine glass and took a sip.

“This place makes me feel at ease.”

"I understand." An Yan nodded and finally picked up the wine glass. He took a sip and quickly frowned, then turned to Su Ziling and said, "Do you want to try it?"

Just as Su Ziling was about to reach out, An Yan put down his glass and protected it on his left side. He had already seen that the glass of martini in front of Su Ziling had been drunk by Su Ziling. "Forget it, drink less."

"Nothing else for me?"

Wu Si was very confused. The things An Yan asked were not something that made him feel nervous.

"May Fourth, I have never been the one who decides your life or death. Life will let you live."

After An Yan finished speaking, he stood up, walked past Su Ziling and walked towards the bar. Su Ziling glanced at his back and quickly picked up An Yan's glass of wine and swallowed it. After drinking it in one big gulp, he began to cough violently, frowned and stuck out his tongue.

Wu Si witnessed Su Ziling's actions and his eyes widened unconsciously. He just felt funny and a little bit unbelievable.

"I'm just curious." Su Ziling defended himself.

As he was talking, he suddenly fell silent, put the cup on the table, and followed An Yan to the bar.

"You heard everything here," said An Yan.

"Yes, I heard it, but so what. Anyan, I advise you not to think of being a good person. Their fate is naturally determined by the people who created their fate."

"Xu Xing."

"Oh, alright, alright. As long as Xiaowu works at my bar for one day, he'll be my employee. Bai Ming and I like him pretty well anyway."

"Well, your cocktail smells fresh, but it tastes bitter and bland. Only people who like bitterness like it. Why not call it Rainy Night?"

"Haha." Xu Xing wiped the glass with a look of disgust. An Yan really said one thing and meant another. He really liked it. Otherwise, why did he give it a name? Did he ask him to give it a name?

"What are you talking about?" Su Ziling came over.

"I'm talking about that glass of wine you just stole."

"Damn it! An Yan, do you have eyes behind your back?"

"Your cough is so loud, no one can hear you. All right, you two, let's go, our shop is about to close."

"It's really late, bye then." An Yan was about to leave when Su Ziling rolled his eyes and drank the glass of wine on the bar. That was the drink Xu Xing had just prepared for him, and he hadn't had time to drink it yet.

"Zi Ling?" An Yan was very surprised.

Su Ziling knew An Yan was calling him, but he just silently put the wine glass on the bar and walked towards the door.

An Yan was stunned for a moment and then chased after him.