It's really normal to like Shen Ke.

The events of that day were never mentioned again. Lin Jian would not take the initiative to say anything, and Shen Ke would not force himself to ask what happened. He just thought that the teenager's sudden vulnerability and collapse was caused by too much pressure from suddenly entering the stage of full-scale revision.

The test of a thousand horses crossing a log bridge is the first watershed in life, but Shen Ke just said to Lin Jian the next day, after he quickly adjusted his state, "What others have endured, you must endure."

Lin Jian certainly appreciates his good intentions. In real life, there are bound to be obscurantisms that are difficult to break through, and as a speck of dust in the world, embedded in the world order, one is bound to accept the constraints brought about by the rules, and everyone is equal, without exception.

Lin Jian nodded his head very lightly and said, "I understand."

He had always been like that, not needing much guidance from others, always finding the right path.

Shen Ke knows that he can t wade through the thorns and thistles in front of him, just like he can t take the first step to take the college entrance exam for him, but ...... it is not possible to take the exam for him, and it is still possible to share the pressure.

So, Shen Ke invited Lin Jian to take a few days off from school with a commanding tone, and she herself put off all the laborious chores and went out with her child to de-stress.

Lin Jian was a bit surprised and even thought it was unnecessary, after all, his flashes of weakness and frustration had little to do with the college entrance exams and academics, but Shen Ke already had such a preconceived notion, and with his unspeakable heart, he couldn't turn down such an invitation.

What he didn't realize was that Shen Ke was actually taking him to the sky and the sea.

Shen Ke's private pilot's license and navigational qualifications were acquired in his early years as a pastime, but he never imagined that one day they would be used to comfort adolescents.

He made arrangements to submit his flight and sailing applications in advance, and when the approvals came through, he first took Lin Jian into the windy, snowy, powerful waves.

Shen Ke is piloting a medium-sized high-speed boat that breaks through the waves. With two 1800 hp transmissions and 4600 hp gas turbines, plus a water-piercing propeller drive, the powerful kinetic energy supply is enough to make Lin Jian experience the real sense of riding through the waves. After three hours at sea, Lin Jian felt that his heart rate had spiked to the limit.

The next day, while Lin Jian was still immersed in the unbalanced heartbeat of the ocean's breakneck speeds, he was taken on a private flight by Shen Ke. With the propellers humming and a hurricane in his face, Lin Jian sat in the co-pilot's seat with aviation noise-canceling headphones and goggles on, and watched as Shen Ke skillfully maneuvered the plane and flew him over mountains and hills and through pines and dense forests, and then made curves and bends towards the infinite blue sky. The boundless blue sky.

The teenager looked through the goggle lenses to the vast expanse outside the porthole, then to the calm and dignified youth beside him, a heart rustling at 10,000 meters.

It really is a normal thing, he thought, that I would fall for someone like that.

After all, it's really hard to be reserved around Shen Ke and not be touched.

Even through the difficult noise and equipment, Shen Ke could still feel the line of sight around him, he curved the corner of his mouth and turned on the on-board communication equipment, the next second, Lin Jian's headset came from Shen Ke's voice, after the radio transmission, the original low texture of the tone added a few more grains of feeling, clearly cut and grinded Lin Jian's eardrums.

Shen Ke asked, "Are you happier?"

Lin Jian was quiet for a moment and gave a soft "hmm".

Shen Ke's lips curled up, feeling that it was worth the trip, and he asked, "Is there anything else you want to do?"

Lin Jian glanced out the window at the vast, pale earth and said in a faint voice, "Jump."

"......" Shen Ke unexpectedly paused for a few moments, then chuckled, "Is this madness without bounds."

In the wind in the sky, Lin Jian only felt that his body and mind were completely relaxed, even the original stubborn soul was soothed by the people around him, he curved the corner of his mouth and admitted in disguise: "Is it okay?"

Shen Ke thought about it and only agreed with a broken smile, "Alright, then after the college entrance exams are over."

So there was one more agreement between them.

*

May, the end of spring and summer, the grass grows and flies, the whole city completely faded away from the coldness of the depression, into a colorful purple streets.

Due to the tight schedule of the courses, Lin Jian eventually became a member of the cafeteria army, and after the last class in the afternoon, he went to the cafeteria with Xu Yang Qin Le to have dinner, fill up his organs and prepare for the fierce battle of the study hall in the evening.

Walking to the entrance of the cafeteria, the cell phone in his pocket vibrated without warning, Lin Jian unlocked to see, the temperature in his eyes slowly faded.

"You guys go ahead, I have something to do." He said to the others and turned to head out the school gates.

"You're in such a hurry, why don't you eat?" The others are used to God Lin's solitary behavior, so they don't mind. Xu Yang asks from behind, "Can I bring you one?"

Lin Jian just said no.

After leaving the school gate and bypassing a residential building, Lin Jian came to the door of the restaurant where he met Wen Ning for the last time. Unlike the last time, Wen Ning waited outside the door this time, and when she saw him coming, her face looked mixed with apprehension and joy.

Lin Jian stopped in front of the restaurant, the wind chimes hanging under the window edge tinkling crisply, Lin Jian stood a meter away and asked, "What's the matter?"

Such an indifferent tone is the most piercing, but Wen Ning knew that he had no position to blame, so he only forced a smile and said, "I sent you a message and you didn't reply, and I didn't answer the phone call, so I don't know how you've been doing lately, so I came to take a look."

Lin Jian says, "So see now? I'm fine, okay?"

Wen Ning nearly forty years all the demeanor all show to the biological son, at this time also no longer care about decency or not, only with a pleading tone, said: "can ...... can accompany mom to eat a dinner?"

"Not available." Lin Jian said bluntly, "And it's not okay because I don't want to."

"Jane--"

"Don't call me that." Lin Jian frowned and interrupted, the boredom evident on his face, "Don't call and message me again, and the next time you come over, I won't see you." After saying that, he turned around and left.

Wen Ning stood on top of the long street where people were coming and going, facing the teenager's rejection and resistance without any help, he could only watch the upright and thin back walking farther and farther away, and didn't even dare to chase after him: "I will come to see you again, no matter whether you are willing to see me or not, I will come!"

Lin Jian turned a deaf ear and walked into the late spring sunset.

Saturday, the school routine monthly vacation, residential students have to pack up too late to wash the dirty clothes back to the nest, Lin Jian declined the Qin Le a few people to play ball invitation, take the bus to the city book building.

During the holidays, the bookstore is overcrowded, and even though digital reading is becoming more and more popular these days, there are still people who are attracted to the smell of ink on paper and lead.

Lin Jian walked through the open counters arranged horizontally and horizontally, found a few specialized exercise books he wanted in the culture and education section, and was just about to go to the cashier to settle the bill when he suddenly stopped again.

He looked at the social science book area not far away, and after a long pause, he lifted his foot and walked over.

He browsed between the counters of the Humanities category and finally landed on the "Gender" bookcase.

Unlike the other areas, few people come here to read or pick up books, and Lin Jian gazes at the shelves, his face at ease, his heart in a rare state of turmoil.

He has always been tough-minded, and does not need any academic assertions to confirm or support his feelings, like is like, his feelings know best.

Only one thing, he wanted to understand the science and universality of this feeling, even the historical and cultural values, and wanted to know where this unspeakable throbbing and chaotic blurring of his love actually originated.

Lin Jian, cool-headed and warm-hearted, picks a few books from the shelves and heads to the cash register.

The specialized books were placed underneath the workbooks, the front ones were scanned and set aside, the one on Queer Studies History, Experience, and Theory showed its cover, and the cashier's staff gave him a quick glance.

Lin Jian did not change his face and let him look at him.

Lin Jian has always been a god of learning in every aspect, since childhood he almost never experienced the "sea of learning without the end of the bitter do boat" sadness and helplessness, the so-called knowledge or skills, as far as he is concerned, only want to learn the difference, and there is no difference between learning to learn and learning not to learn.

In the past two days, Shen Ke was out of town, so he had plenty of time to read through the research books, and even though he had a glimpse of the books, he was able to get a general idea of the various aspects of genetic medicine, psychology, ethics, and so on.

By the time I closed that last copy of The History of Homosexuality in Europe, the sun was already slanting outside the window, and it was time to return to school at the end of the monthly vacation.

Lin Jian exhaled deeply, although he considered himself to be calm and collected, but in such a short period of time, when such a huge, even in the eyes of outsiders, such a twisted and deformed world was completely spread out in front of him, the teenager was still unable to hold himself back from being shocked.

Lin Jian was in a slight trance, thinking that he needed time to slowly digest what he had absorbed, he blankly stretched a paper towel to dry the thin sweat on his palms, and then walked out of the study, went back to his own room to pack his bag, and took the bus back to the school on time to go to the evening study.

Shen Ke came home very early this evening.

The driver dropped him off at the entrance of the compound, and when he got out of the car he glanced habitually toward the villa's floor-to-ceiling windows; the lights in the center hall were dimmed, and Lin Jian hadn't yet returned from school.

He fingerprinted his way into the house, the usual routine of showering and changing first, comfortable loungewear for a tailored leisure suit, Shen Ke brushed his hair and emerged from the bathroom, thinking to go to the kitchen and fix something random for dinner, but a certain thought flashed by, and a slight pause in his footsteps, followed by a turn towards the study.

It's rare to be back so early today, why don't we wait for Lin Jian to come back and have dinner together.

Pushing open the door to the inner room of the study, Shen Ke walked confidently to the long case, originally wanting to see what calligraphy Lin Jian had recently copied, but as his eyes fell, he was attracted by a few books on the side.

After reading the cover, Shen Ke's face changed slightly in the next second.

He frowned and picked the books up, flipping through them casually to make sure that no such absurdity as other tutorials tucked into their spines existed, and that the books in his hands were in their original, pristine condition.

I guess I was confused, even if I wanted to cover my tracks, it should have been the cover of the counseling book wrapped around this book "Their World" to cover it up, how could anyone put the cart before the horse.

For a moment, Shen Ke's expression became grave.

If Lin Jian had been reading any kind of miscellaneous books, even the forbidden ones colored with strange tricks, Shen Ke would not have been so worried. If Lin Jian had been reading any kind of book, even a colorful banned book with strange skills, Shen Ke would not have been so worried.

Boys, adolescents, ignorant and restless, hot-blooded hunting age, occasionally out of line is normal.

However, these books are all studies of same-sex cultures and cover a wide range of topics, so that if they were listed, it would be obvious that they are the product of careful selection.

So, why did Lin Jian pick these books to read?

Was it simply a quest to solve a puzzle, or was it inspired ...... or stimulated by some other alternative?

Shen Ke sighed inaudibly, thinking, "Well--

It's a good thing Lin Jian didn't hide the fact that these books were just laid out in a big way, like a teenager's frank and straightforward attitude, just looking at them.

Hopefully, he was overthinking it. Shen Ke leaned over and grouped the few books on the long case together, ready to put them back on the shelves according to their categories.

He walked to the innermost part of the stacks and stopped in front of the last row of shelves.

The sensor light on the wooden bookshelf lit up at the right time, Shen Ke followed the nameplate catalog on the bookshelf to find the location of the first corresponding book, and the moment he raised his eyes, his gaze stiffened again.

The book, A History of Homosexuality in Europe, sat peacefully on the shelf, identical even in edition to the one he held.

Shen Ke's hand paused with the book, then followed the table of contents to find the placement of several other books in turn, all with the same result.

These are not the books that are hidden in his study.

Rather, Lin Jian bought it specifically to study.

Throughout the evening study hall, Xu Yang felt that Lin Jian was a bit out of his mind. According to God Lin's past habit of brushing up the questions, a set of test papers from the beginning to the end will not have a gap of pause, certainly from the beginning to the end of a breath, but today is very unusual.

Lin Jian would occasionally stop and look at the tip of his pen in the middle of a problem, and it was obvious that he wasn't thinking about the problem because he was too far away from it, and then after a few seconds of reaction, he would come back to his senses and continue.

Besides, he looked at the time at least five or six times during an evening study session, with a visible annoyance on his brow, as if ...... he were waiting anxiously for school to end.

Sure enough, as soon as the bell rang for the last session of the evening study, Lin Jian quickly put down his pen, did not collect the workbook and notebook on the desktop, and scraped out of the classroom like a gust of wind.

"Holy shit ......" Qin Le looked at the silhouette that flashed past the doorway and muttered, "What the hell just flew past?"

Xu Yang gave a secret "tsk" and thoughtfully explained to him, "It's probably a teenage boy's heart."

It was only at the beginning of the second night study session that Lin Jian realized what a serious mistake he had made.

He actually forgot those books in Shen Ke's study.

He didn't dare to imagine Shen Ke's reaction and expression if he saw it, and could only pray in the bottom of his heart, hoping that Shen Ke hadn't gone back yet, or simply was busy with his business and didn't return all night.

But if it was not to be, he saw the words ...... Lin Jian Daring not to think further, he beckoned a cab and sped away.

Lin Jian felt that his brain has never been so wonderful, this way the good and bad possible scenarios he guessed all over, and wait until from the car down, running all the way to the villa courtyard door, across the large courtyard to see the lights of the hall on the first floor, the back of the spine ran out of the hot sweat all of a sudden become ice cold piece.

Shen Ke is at home.

Lin Jian stood outside the courtyard door for a moment, but finally raised his hand and pushed it open.

Shen Ke said to him a little over two months ago, "What others have endured, you will endure.

And now that it was over, whatever he was going to face when he walked through the door next, whether it was a shock or a question, he was going to take it.

With this mental construction, his entire body calmed down instead.

What's to be afraid of, he thought, almost self-absorbed, what's the big deal, what's the big deal if he just tells the truth and admits he likes the same sex?

--didn't say who it was anyway.

The power support of the spirit of Q is immediate, Lin Jian calmed his rapid breathing, unlocked the door, and the imaginary image did not appear.

Instead of a cold face on the couch waiting to cross-examine him, there was a bright light on in the least used kitchen.

Lin Jian changed his shoes and entered the house, and when he reached the kitchen door, Shen Ke turned around when he heard the footsteps, and naturally greeted him, "You're back, so early today?"

Of course I'm early, I took a flying car and rushed back. Lin Jian terse, rhetorical question, "You're not earlier?"

Shen Ke tall and long legs blocked in front of the kitchen counter, the people behind him can not see what he is fiddling with, listening to him ask, did not turn back, just very light smile, said: "afternoon to attend a trade association symposium, the end of the direct back, just right, together to eat a late-night snack?"

Whether it is the tone or demeanor, Shen Ke everything as usual. At this point, Lin Jian's heart, which had been beating chaotically all night, finally returned to its place, and he silently exhaled and said, "Good ...... By the way, what are you doing?"

Shen Ke turned around with the bottom of a bowl in one hand and replied rather innocently with the truth, "What else is there to do, dinner."

Lin Jian It's hard not to black out when you see the ingredients in the bowl and the delivery box in the trash can.

Well, if pouring takeout from a top restaurant into a bowl at home barely qualifies as "dinner," then he has nothing to say.

"I'll go wash my hands." Lin Jian said and left the kitchen, after washing his hands, he saw Shen Ke carrying dishes to the dining room, hesitated for a moment, but ran straight to the second floor.

The entire second floor is dark, Lin Jian lighted a wall lamp, quickly walked into the study, saw the books on the long case is still in place, the tense nerves of the night finally completely relaxed.

Fortunately, it looks like Shen Ke hasn't been up here yet.

But such a thrilling experience was not something he wanted to have another time.

Lin Jian walked over with very light steps, stacked up the books and picked them up, ready to take them back to his room.

Suddenly, a hard object choked his palm and a blue corner appeared in his vision, a bookmark from one of the books slipped off.

Lin Jian flipped the pages of the book offhand, to put the bookmark away, and in the next second, his originally light eyes abruptly froze.

Powerful memory manifests itself in moments when it should least come into play -

This is not the page number where this bookmark was originally laminated.