The name that came out of the naughty kid's mouth was like a spell dropped from the sky, hitting Shi Tian's head directly.

　　The crying of the little boy echoed throughout the lobby. The man and woman at the door were attracted and looked over there.

　　…

　　"Master Zhou!"

　　Fourteen-year-old Shi Tian, wearing slippers, climbed up the vine-covered backyard wall in two or three steps, and half of his head peeked out from the top of the wall: "Keep your voice down, my dad and mom are still at home!"

　　There was a big locust tree with lush branches and leaves planted outside the backyard wall of his house. A boy in a school uniform was lying on his back on the thickest branch of the tree, with his schoolbag hanging between the branches, swaying slightly in the afternoon breeze.

　　The thick tree canopy not only blocked the scorching sun but also blocked most of the boy's face. Standing on top of the trash can and looking up, Shi Tian could only see half of the boy's ankles exposed outside his trouser legs.

　　The boy's skin color is half a degree whiter than that of ordinary people as if he had not been exposed to sunlight for many years, or as if he was born that way.

　　Seeing Shi Tian making a "hush" gesture to him from the other side of the wall, the boy leaning against the tree trunk rested his head on his arm and looked up at the sky expressionlessly, "It's not Master Zhou."

　　"Repeat after me, Zhou-Si-Fu."

　　Shi Tian clenched his fists and repeated word by word with all his strength: "Master Zhou."

　　“…”　Zhou Sifu finally gave up.

　　He changed his posture on the tree and crossed his legs: "I'm telling you, after ten days, your front tooth problem hasn't healed yet?"

　　Just a few days after the start of the second year of junior high school, Shi Tian fell flat on the steps of the teaching building while helping the teacher carry homework back to the classroom.

　　The guy named Zhou happened to be passing by at that time. The class bell had been ringing for a long time and all the students were running to the classroom, but this guy was leaning against the stairs with a small pudding in his mouth, watching the show leisurely.

　　He and Zhou Sifu were neighbors and grew up together. However, one of them was ranked second in the grade and the other was ranked last in the class. They were top students and the other was a poor student. They didn't like each other. Zhou Sifu was naturally happy to see him make a fool of himself in public.

　　Although Zhou Sifu helped him to the school infirmary to treat his scraped knee in the end, he still didn't have a good impression of this man.

　　The reason was simple, he knocked out half of his front teeth when he fell, and every time Zhou Sifu met him, he would laugh at him for his lisp.

　　But recently, due to some special reasons, the two of them reluctantly became temporary allies.

　　Shi Tian's parents are getting a divorce recently, and Zhou Sifu's adoptive father is a well-known local civil lawyer. He wants Zhou Sifu to help and see if he can ask Lawyer Zhou to appear in court and award his custody to his mother.

　　Zhou Sifu said that it was not impossible to do him a favor, but Shi Tian had to do his homework for him every day.

　　Shi Tian thought that compared to his parents' problem, this was no big deal, so he gritted his teeth and agreed.

　　To rewrite Zhou Sifu's homework, he also practiced handwriting with his left hand to be similar to Zhou Sifu's. He did the homework with his right hand and copied it with his left hand every day, which doubled his efficiency.

　　To ensure that he would not be discovered by the teacher, he had to deliberately make a few mistakes every time to lower his level to the same level as Zhou Sifu.

　　Taking the test paper that Shi Tian rolled up and handed over from the wall, Zhou Sifu waved his hand and said, "Ten days, come here."

　　When Tian was in the second grade of junior high school, he had not grown taller yet. After trying for a long time, he stood on tiptoes and pushed up little by little, and finally, he managed to stick half of his body out.

　　Meeting the eyes of the man leaning against the tree trunk, Shi Tian asked unhappily, "What are you doing?"

　　As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Zhou Sifu take out a paper sports car model from the schoolbag that was dangling precariously on the branch.

　　"This is for you. I made it by myself. I didn't look for any references online." Zhou Sifu's tone suddenly became serious, and his eyes quickly moved away from Shi Tian's face. "Ten Days, give it a name."

　　“…For me?”

　　Shi Tian was a little surprised.

　　The paper model made by Zhou Sifu was both delicate and three-dimensional, but the material looked very fragile. Shi Tian reached out to take it, carefully holding it in his palm, not knowing where to put it for a moment.

　　"It doesn't matter if you haven't thought of it yet." He heard Zhou Sifu say lightly, "Whenever you think of it, tell me at any time. That will be its name."

　　--

　　The little boy stood there crying alone for a while and found that no one had come to rescue him.

　　Especially Master Zhou, who heard my call for help but did nothing at this time.

　　Only two waiters from the restaurant hurried over, one was busy handing a towel to the uncle who was hit to clean his clothes, and the other was squatting in front of him, asking in a low voice if he was okay.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

　　Shi Tian saw that person just froze in place.

　　The little boy's sobbing gradually weakened, and his crying mixed with the passionate cello music in the restaurant, unexpectedly adding a touch of atmosphere.

　　His eyes slowly moved away from the couple not far away. Shi Tian wiped the chili oil off his palms with a towel and nodded politely to the waiter who was cleaning him up: "I'm going to the bathroom."

　　Under the gazes of the people around him, he turned decisively and walked towards the bathroom.

　　Passing by the little boy, Shi Tian saw that the little boy was blinking his big eyes and looking at him with tears in his eyes with guilt. Finally, he couldn't help it and turned back to the waiter and added: "Please send the little brother back to his parents."

　　The little boy walked away holding the waiter's hand, looking back at him every few steps, and he seemed a little reluctant to leave.

　　The waiter relayed Shi Tian's instructions to the couple, and the man's expression suddenly became complicated and strange.

　　Just before Shi Tian pushed open the door to the corridor, the waiter from before hurried over to him again and called out to him from behind: "Mr. Shi!"

　　"Mr. Zhou asked me to tell you that you may have misunderstood." The waiter repeated Mr. Zhou's words verbatim, "The child is his nephew, and the lady is not his wife, but his brother's wife."

　　Shi Tian paused as he pushed open the corridor door: "..."

　　This is even weirder, okay?

　　The company had just gone public, but Zhou Sifu did not stay in New York to attend the celebration banquet of the New York Stock Exchange but returned to China to have dinner alone with his sister-in-law.

　　He didn't have the heart to meddle in other people's family affairs, especially those of Zhou. But when he recalled the moment he saw the two men coming in, the woman's eyes were slightly red, as if she had just cried.

　　Thinking of this, Shi Tian turned his head slightly and looked at Zhou Sifu with a meaningful expression.

　　Seeing Shi Tian in the distance looking at him with a pitying look that said "I understand, I understand", the perfect expression on Zhou Sifu's face cracked.

　　He could see that Shi Tian was once again enjoying playing out the family ethics drama he had written and directed in his mind.

　　This person has been like this since he was a child. When he is daydreaming, the micro-expressions on his face are very rich. He thinks that others can't tell what he is thinking, but in fact, they can guess it at a glance.

　　"That's my old friend." Zhou Sifu said to the woman beside him, "Let's go over and say hello. And by the way, let this guy apologize to him."

　　Zhou Sifu deliberately emphasized the word "before".

　　Holding her son's hand, Zheng Ying smiled gently at Zhou Sifu: "Okay, I just returned to China not long ago, I should get to know more of Sifu's friends."Led by the restaurant manager, the three of them walked into the lobby and came to Shi Tian. Zhou Sifu stretched out his hand and said, "Long time no see."

　　Counting the two years when Zhou Sifu went to Singapore to serve as the president of Danofi Asia Pacific, the two had not seen each other for several years. The last time they met was two or three years ago, at a large social gathering held by the local business community. The two looked at each other for a moment among the guests, but eventually passed each other by.

　　Shi Tian didn't expect Zhou to walk towards him like this. He subconsciously pressed his back against the door behind him and pressed down the door handle with his hand, but it didn't open.

　　Now nearly thirty years old, neither of them is a child anymore, so Shi Tian naturally can no longer turn around and run away as he did before.

　　In front of the waiters and guests, he also extended a hand and smiled generously: "Mr. Zhou, it's rare to see you."

　　When he held Zhou Sifu's hand, he felt the rough calluses on the man's fingertips, which made his palm slightly painful.

　　Zhou Sifu has loved tinkering with models since he was a child, studying the precise structure inside the models. He suffered countless injuries from bumps and bruises when he was a child. This is why he chose vehicle system engineering as his major in college.

　　Zhou Sifu was different from himself. His family was relatively well-off, and he used the first pot of money given by his parents to start a business. Zhou Sifu entered the car factory right after graduation and worked hard in the workshop for several years before he gradually moved up to the company's management position.

　　When Shi Tian realized that he was distracted again, he found that Zhou Sifu had let go of his hand.

　　"Hello, I'm Zheng Ying."

　　The woman handed Shi Tian a business card with an apologetic smile on her face. "My son ran too fast just now and accidentally bumped into Mr. Shi. I apologize to you on his behalf."

　　The little boy hid behind his mother, with only a pair of bright eyes showing.

　　Shi Tian took the business card handed to him by Zheng Ying and found that she had the same background as Ji Yuanlin. She was an assistant professor studying applied materials at a local university.

　　Shi Tian also handed over a business card: "Hello, I am Mr. Zhou's high school classmate."

　　When handing over his business card, he saw Zhou Sifu's eyes linger on the couple ring on his left hand for a second, but he quickly retracted his gaze. Time passed so quickly that it seemed like an illusion.

　　He knew that there was once a ring tattoo on Zhou Sifu's unextended hand, but it was washed off after they broke up.

　　I heard that the process of removing a tattoo is much more painful than the process of tattooing it, but Zhou Sifu still washed it clean without leaving any trace. He treated his hands so preciously, and he was as reckless when he tattooed them as he was when he washed them.

　　According to their mutual tattoo artist friend, Zhou Sifu went to see him six or seven times just to completely remove the italic English words "Ten Days" on the ring.

　　But he had only heard it. He didn't have Zhou Sifu's contact information at that time, so naturally, he didn't know whether it was true or not.

　　After introducing themselves to Zheng Ying, Shi Tian, and Zhou Sifu stood in the corridor looking at each other, and no one spoke.

　　There was a moment of silence.

　　Just as Zheng Ying was about to say something to try to break the stagnant atmosphere between the two, she suddenly heard Zhou Sifu say: "Let's go and order food."

　　Zhou Sifu raised his wrist to check the time, put one hand in his suit pocket, turned around, and walked forward without looking back.

　　His leather shoes made a dull sound as they stepped on the carpet. His profile was hidden in the backlight, so it was difficult to see his expression.

　　--

　　A few minutes later.

　　Amid the sound of running water, Shi Tian slowly raised his eyes from the sink.

　　The phone was buzzing on the sink, and several messages popped up on the screen, all from Ji Yuanlin asking why he had been in the bathroom for so long and hadn't come back yet.

　　After replying "right away" to Ji Yuanlin, Shi Tian shook off the water droplets on his hair on his forehead and stared at himself in the mirror in a daze.

　　The red wine he drank had begun to take effect, and a faint blush appeared on his cheeks.

　　His reaction speed seemed to be affected by this. The corridor door could be opened by just pushing it forward, but he failed after trying several times in front of that person.

　　The shirt is stained and cannot be worn anymore.

　　Thinking dazedly, Shi Tian picked up his phone and prepared to ask the waiter to get a change of clothes from the car, but when he was about to send a message, he found that someone had @ed him on WeChat Moments.

　　When he opened the Moments, he saw that just five minutes ago, Ji Yuanlin had posted a new update on his work Moments.

　　Under the candlelight, there are two custom-made Harry Winston wedding ring boxes, with the caption: He agreed. 　　

This post was almost drowned out by the likes of their mutual friends. Among the dozens of blessings, Shi Tian found a familiar name - Milton Zhou, Greater China, Danofi.

　　He and Zhou Sifu had no private contact information. They only added this company's work number in the past few years and had never had any contact in normal times.

　　After standing motionless in front of the sink for a while, he somehow lowered his eyes and clicked on the man's avatar, opening the chat box that he had never opened before.

　　: [Congratulations on the listing, and I hope the stock price will soar [scatter flowers][scatter flowers]]

　　Soon, the other party's status changed to "typing".

　　@Danofi Greater China-Milton Zhou: [Thank you]

　　Shi Tian exhaled slowly, and just as he was about to turn off his phone and straighten up from the sink, he heard his phone vibrate again.

　　@Danofi Greater China-Milton. Zhou: [I also wish you a happy wedding]