After midnight

On the third day after arriving in Qingdao, they moved into a private house on Qidong Road.

The house is located at the foot of Signal Hill. I heard that you can overlook the entire Qingdao from there.

After entering the vertical iron gate and climbing the stone stairs on the side, An Yan and Su Ziling walked onto the courtyard paved with stone slabs. There were shade trees and small flowers whose names were unknown in the courtyard, as well as wooden tables and chairs placed under the trees so that people could enjoy the coolness at night.

The building has two floors, but the first and second floors are separated. The second floor needs to be reached by spiraling stairs outside. The landlord locked the second floor and rented the first floor to An Yan and Su Ziling. Walking in from the entrance, the kitchen is on the right and An Yan's room is on the left. Across the living room, Xiao Su's bedroom is directly opposite An Yan's room, and Xiao Su's room is side by side with Su Ziling's.

The dining table is in front of the kitchen. If you open the window next to the dining table and look up, you can see the green Signal Mountain. Similarly, if you open the window on the left side of the living room, next to An Yan and Xiao Su's room, you can see the flowers blooming on the rock wall on the other side of the road.

Su Ziling was now standing contentedly by the window of the living room, placing the cactus that An Yan bought after coming to Qingdao on the windowsill. This residence was found by An Yan, he was really amazing, he could make him live in a city that he casually mentioned.

"Brother Ziling, do you want the cactus to bloom? I can make it bloom now~" Seeing Su Ziling staring at the cactus, Xiao Su said curiously.

"I really want to see the cactus bloom. But Xiao Su, this kind of thing will only be meaningful if you wait with anticipation," Su Ziling explained to her.

Xiao Su nodded, not quite understanding, and then quickly ran to An Yan's side to hang out. An Yan was cleaning the kitchen at the moment.

After they had packed up the house, it was past lunchtime. So the three of them went down Longshan Road to find a restaurant and ordered pork ribs with rice, which was recommended in the travel guide. After dinner, they walked slowly along the street to Badaguan, as they had planned to visit Badaguan a long time ago.

They turned from Longshan Road to Fushan Road and walked along the streets.

Su Ziling stretched himself and walked on the streets of Qingdao. It was really comfortable to walk around. The cool breeze made people feel peaceful. He couldn't help but look at An Yan.

An Yan was walking slowly, holding Xiao Su's hand in one hand and her coat in the other. He walked so calmly, so independent and detached from the world. Su Ziling found that An Yan was different now. The cold and unapproachable air in him seemed to have disappeared all of a sudden. He walked slowly, smiling and looking down at Xiao Su from time to time, his eyes drifting casually, as warm as a thousand-year-old jade.

The image of An Yan, wearing a light grey cotton T-shirt and blue jeans, slowly walking with Xiao Su, went from Su Ziling's eyes to his heart.

Su Ziling smiled and took Xiao Su's other hand. They walked through Zhongshan Park and came to the Badaguan Scenic Area. There were many couples taking wedding photos and preparing to get married, as well as many backpackers traveling together or alone. They walked past independent villas, and the unique records next to each house made Su Ziling a little dazed. Has there really been a generation of people living here? What will it look like in a hundred years?

"Brother Su Ziling, what's written on it?" Xiao Su asked curiously, staring at the nameplate.

"It's history." Su Ziling picked her up and read it to her sentence by sentence.

"Ah, that." After a while, Xiao Su was suddenly attracted by another brightly colored building.

"It's the Princess Building. Let's go, my little princess." An Yan stretched out his hand to Xiao Su, who decisively abandoned Su Zi Ling and threw herself into An Yan's arms. Su Zi Ling glanced at An Yan with resentment.

After buying the ticket and entering the Princess Building, Su Ziling suddenly felt bored. He looked at the sculptures in the fairy tale world in the courtyard and suddenly remembered that Xiao Su was different from other girls. She probably had not read these fairy tales. He looked at Xiao Su, who was obviously very happy. She jumped up and down, and also had the romance in the nature of girls.

"Did you bring your cell phone?" An Yan nudged Su Ziling with his arm, and Su Ziling took it out and handed it to An Yan.

"Xiao Su, look here."

With a click, Xiao Su's childish smile was forever frozen in Su Ziling's mobile phone.

"Let me do it. My photography skills are much better than yours. Come on, Xiao Su, make a scissors hand gesture." Su Ziling quickly pulled the phone out of An Yan's hand and said. An Yan nodded without noticing Su Ziling's bad intentions.

The first photo in Su Ziling's phone was of Xiao Su taken by An Yan, and the second photo was of An Yan taken by Su Ziling. Su Ziling later secretly took many photos, of An Yan, of Xiao Su, and of the three of them, and An Yan didn't know about all these photos.

More and more tourists came to the small villa. They didn't stay long and went down the path. They walked to the beach. Xiao Su had never seen the sea before, so she stepped on the beach excitedly. Su Ziling stood by and held her shoes. Seeing her smile so happily, he suddenly realized that Xiao Su also had the innocence of a little girl.

"It's great to come to Qingdao, right? An Yan." Su Ziling stood on the beach, watching the sea water rise and fall.

Although the sea water looked very blue from a distance, there was only algae and mud floating on the coast, and there were also exposed pebbles and broken shells everywhere.

"Yeah, we can go to Golden Beach tomorrow."

"Okay."

"Then let's go for a walk over there." An Yan pointed to the long dam extending into the sea.

"Xiao Su." Su Ziling called her, and Xiao Su rushed over.

After washing Xiao Su's feet and putting on shoes, they walked towards the dam together. When they reached the end of the dam, the view was indeed much wider, and the endless sea in front of them was blue.

"Brother Su Ziling, what are those people doing?" Xiao Su pulled at the corner of Su Ziling's clothes.

The people Xiao Su was talking about were not the ones who were sitting at the end of the dam and fishing, but the ones who were lying on the slope supporting the dam, looking for something. They looked younger than the ones who were fishing.

"Looking for crabs," An Yan explained.

Su Ziling suddenly understood.

The left side of the protective stone facing the seawater was covered with mottled green moss due to years of erosion by the seawater. After the tide receded, the ocean left some precious little things in the cracks of these protective stones. Listening to the crash of waves, Su Ziling walked down the slope and stepped on the protective stone.

If he wasn't careful, the water from the waves would splash onto his clothes. The sea was cold.

"Xiao Su, be careful, it's slippery."

An Xiaosu also wanted to climb up with her butt sticking out, but An Yan stood on the shore and instructed her but did not stop her.

The seawater would rise to the top layer of the protective stone and then slowly recede, because only that layer of the protective stone had a clean cross section. Su Ziling took Xiao Su's hand, and after they stood firm, they went to see An Yan together.

An Yan wanted to refuse with a smile, but faced with the gazes of the two people, he walked down unconsciously. They sat down together, just like the others sitting here.

"Come on, Xiao Su. Let's take a photo together." Su Ziling childishly pulled Xiao Su to make a scissors hand gesture in front of the camera. After taking the photo, they both looked disgusted.

An Yan did not make a scene with them. He sat quietly aside, looking out at the sea. His gaze had no clear focus, and a look that Su Ziling had never seen before appeared on his face. He switched the front camera to the rear camera, and with a click, Su Ziling succeeded quietly again. He lowered his head to look through the photos, and Xiao Su came over. They both smiled knowingly at the same time.

After sitting for a while, An Yan pointed at the vaguely visible villa on the beach and said, "That should be the Huashilou. Let's go over and take a look."

They went over together again.

Huashilou has a more old-fashioned feel. Su Ziling likes it more, whether it is the texture, structure or the balcony that overlooks the sea. The courtyard of Huashilou is square, with big trees blocking the blue sky and casting shade all over the courtyard. When you step on the stone floor anywhere in the courtyard, you can smell the fragrance of the tree branches and leaves.

Outside the Huashilou, large stretches of exposed white rocks stretched endlessly, and across the bay, the shadows of tall buildings on the other side could be vaguely seen. There was nothing else to see, so they walked along the plank road back to the beach. On the beach at sunset, an old man was selling candied haws, the traditional kind, with small gourds wrapped in a cheap film and inserted diagonally on the walking stick in the old man's hand.

An Yan walked forward and bought a string for each person.

Su Ziling hesitated when he took it in his hand. In his impression, this kind of thing could only be seen when he was a child. The taste of this thing was really not good in his childhood. He hated the sour taste. However, he looked at An Yan and Xiao Su and put the small candied haws into his mouth.

It was fragrant and sweet, Su Ziling couldn't help but admire it. Perhaps because it was sprinkled with sesame seeds, Su Ziling could immediately feel that the sweet icing was made by the old man himself. Among the few strings of candied haws, the old man picked the best for them.

"Is it delicious?" An Yan asked.

“Delicious, the best I’ve ever had.”

An Yan smiled and turned to Xiao Su. "Xiao Su, here's some paper. You need to spit out the core, but don't spit it on the ground."

Xiao Su obediently took the paper, spit the fruit core into the paper and wrapped it up.

"It's cold, come here and put on your coat." An Yan said again.

The golden edge of the white clouds at dusk stretched longer and longer. It was a bit cold at the beach at night, especially in early June when the temperature in Qingdao was only over 6 degrees. Su Ziling threw away the wooden stick and they decided to go back.

Qingdao was still beautiful as it was getting dark. The colors on the horizon seemed to have been stained for a long time, hanging there with the ink color of a thousand years, exuding a deep flavor. Su Ziling was sitting on the bus, and this beauty flashed into his eyes.

It was beautiful but unsettling. Su Ziling asked An Yan: "Is it really okay for us to still be like this in Shanghai?"

"fine."

An Yan looked at him in the ink-black space.

These two words miraculously calmed Su Ziling down, and Su Ziling chose to believe him, because An Yan always seemed to know everything. In fact, An Yan did know something, but this was back to the afternoon three days ago when they had not yet arrived in Qingdao.

"Ah Ming, what do you want from me? I still need to go to the library to study."

"It's about the 'Son of God'." The man called A Ming by Xu Xing stopped him.

"Whose order? Ours or that side?"

"Over there. The letter said that the 'Son of God' might have come to this new world with the 'Guardian', and asked everyone to go find them."

"I won't go. Final exams are coming up soon."

"Okay." Bai Ming shrugged, "I knew nothing could stop you from getting the scholarship."

"Not only that, we must not get involved in this mess. We haven't found any information yet. What should we do after we find it? We must remember the real purpose of our coming here. You and I are the revolutionary army."

"You're right, but what about the others? Will they follow orders?"

"Amin, can you contact the few people here? Do they all know your identity?"

"Not many, only four or five. They are all from that side. Of course they don't know who I am."

"Well, I'll write a letter and you mail it to each of them. I'll also send it to everyone I can contact here."

"No problem, but what are you going to do?"

"I'll reluctantly help our 'Son of God'."

"Do you... know him?" Bai Ming stared at Xu Xing seriously. Xu Xing seemed very strange when it came to the matter of the 'Son of God'.

"How is that possible? Okay, it's settled. I'll contact you after I finish writing it."

"I understand. Let's go to your library. I have classes in the afternoon." After Bai Ming said this, he left first.

Xu Xing stood under the willow trees by the artificial lake, watching Bai Ming blend into the crowd of students going to class, and found that he was no different from the others. They should have lived an upright life like ordinary people, and studied as hard as they could in the field they loved. But they couldn't.

Everyone who comes to the new world hides their own information, and everyone is a single-line commander fighting alone. However, the world's circles are intertwined and complex, and although they have different positions, they have already had another survival rule behind the scenes.

Xu Xing thought and walked quickly towards the library. Now it was time for him to use these rules.

Two days later, he sent a text message to An Yan, but after a long time, An Yan did not reply. Xu Xing looked down at the lonely text message in his phone and deleted it. He put away his phone and smiled, he was used to it.