'He smells good.' Jiang Yue thought and instinctively wanted to take another deep breath of the cold scent, but before he could, he realised what he was about to do and immediately pushed Yu Nianzhen away.
Yu Nianzhen hadn't expected the sudden push and he staggered back a few steps before he managed to stabilise himself.
"What are you…" He began, but then stopped himself when he realised the situation.
Yu Nianzhen looked at the red-faced Jiang Yue and then stared at his own hands in disbelief.
He could still feel Jiang Yue's soft hair in his hands and for a moment, he was at a loss of what to do as memories from their previous life flooded into his mind.
At that time, they had gone out for a class reunion and after several rounds of drink, someone had suggested playing games and inevitably, king's game was one of them.
Yu Nianzhen wasn't much for games or socialising for that matter, but he still played because Jiang Yue wanted to play. Looking back at that moment, Yu Nianzhen still wondered if he would have chosen to play if he knew what would happen.
…...............
"I am the king." A classmate shouted as he brandished the king chopstick around.
"Yes…, yes…., you are king!" Another classmate retorted causing everyone else to burst out in laughter as they looked at the drunk fellow.
"YueYue…., what's your number?" The classmate asked as he looked at Jiang Yue, a suspicious glint in his eyes.
He was clearly up to something, but everyone was drunk and Jiang Yue couldn't be bothered to care about so much so he immediately answered the person.
"Two, what are you planning?"
The person giggled drunkenly and instead of answering Jiang Yue's question, he turned his attention to Yu Nianzhen.
"What about Nianzhen?" He asked as he looked at Yu Nianzhen expectantly.
They weren't friends and he normally wouldn't dare to be so familiar with Yu Nianzhen but he was drunk and had already been injected with a huge dose of liquid courage.
"What about those cold eyes that have always made me shiver in fright? I am drunk and I can't see them!" The classmate thought loudly and then giggled stupidly at his own thoughts.
"Does he think that he isn't speaking loudly? Someone asked in shock.
"Is he okay?" Another asked.
"He is always like this when he drinks." Another answered and everyone chose to ignore the person's stupidity. They were more interested in what he planned for Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue.
Yu Nianzhen looked at the person suspiciously, but in the end, he chose to cooperate so he answered straightforwardly, "three".
The person laughed loudly when he received the answer he wanted and then looked at the two as if he was looking at a huge pile of gold.
"What?" Jiang Yue asked as his body shivered in fright. He could detect a bit of schadenfreude in the classmate's demeanour and he had a feeling that he was about to regret revealing his number.
"Number two and number three shall kiss for one minute." The classmate said and the other classmates burst out in laughter as if this was the most hilarious thing that they had ever heard.
Yu Nianzhen rolled his eyes and reached for his glass to take the punishment but who would have thought that the classmates would erupt in boos?
"What's the big deal about a kiss?" Someone shouted.
"Is young master Yu scared?" Another shouted.
"Who is scared?" Jiang Yue shouted back and immediately grabbed Yu Nianzhen's wrist to stop him from taking the drink.
"What are you doing"' Yu Nianzhen frowned as he looked at Jiang Yue.
They had been friends for a long time and he knew that Jiang Yue had not drunk enough to be drunk so what was he trying to do?
"Are you really scared?" Jiang Yue asked as a mocking smile appeared on his handsome face.
He then leaned towards Yu Nianzhen causing the classmates to cheer in encouragement and without giving the other a chance to escape, Jiang Yue kissed him.
Yu Nianzhen had never kissed anyone before, but he wasn't a saint and after watching certain videos, he had some expectations of what a kiss should be like, but his imagination was limited and could never have prepared him for the feel of Jiang Yue's lips on his own.
The lips were soft and the moment they touched his own, Yu Nianzhen felt like he had been electrocuted.
The current started from where their lips touched and spread throughout his entire body, causing his hair to stand on end and his heart that had always been calm began to beat incredibly fast.
He heard Jiang Yue gasp in shock and Yu Nianzhen couldn't take it at all! He immediately changed from passive to active and desperately devoured the delicacy that had been placed in front of him.
Jiang Yue didn't resist and his trembling hands grabbed Yu Nianzhen's shirt, wanting an anchor to prevent him from being swept away in the sudden storm.
All that mattered was each other and even after a minute had passed, neither Jiang Yue nor Yu Nianzhen stopped kissing which caused several classmates to cheer in delight.
When they eventually came to and let go of each other, the other classmates continued the game as usual, but the involved two couldn't act as if nothing had happened.
There was absolutely no way to ignore the pounding heart or the urgency that had started in their stomachs and ended as a throbbing discomfort between their legs.
"Excuse me." Jiang Yue said and urgently rushed from the room.
Yu Nianzhen didn't need to be told what was happening because his body was experiencing the same reactions but more than his body, his mind was the most uncomfortable.
He wasn't dense enough not to realise what this meant and he knew that Jiang Yue had also realised it but this wasn't good news.
He was the heir of the Yu family and Jiang Yue was the heir of the Jiang family; even though society had become more tolerant, people like them weren't allowed to like people of the same sex.
Soon after, the class reunion ended and Jiang Yue chose to take a taxi back instead of driving back with Yu Nianzhen.
Yu Nianzhen didn't argue because he also felt that they needed some time apart to think about things, but he later discovered that no amount of thinking or compromising could return things to how they used to be.
There was no way to unknow what they already knew and unfortunately, their choices were different.
…...............
"Yu Nianzhen?" Jiang Yue called, yanking Yu Nianzhen from the memory.
"Let's clean up and rest." Yu Nianzhen said without acknowledging the questions he saw on the other's face.
Yu Nianzhen would be lying if he said that he was not shaken after taking a trip down memory lane but after thinking about it, he chose not to dwell on it.
They were the same people who hadn't managed to find a way in their previous life, but this was a different life in a different place.
There were no Yu or Jiang families in this life and there was no third party between them.
Yu Nianzhen didn't know if things would turn out differently in this life, but they were only thirteen and he didn't need to think too much just because of a hug.
After making that decision, Yu Nianzhen left the house to look for the village chief to fetch their supper while Jiang Yue remained in the room.
What Yu Nianzhen didn't know is that Jiang Yue breathed a huge sigh of relief as soon as the door closed behind him.
He had also recalled their past life, but unlike Yu Nianzhen, he remembered it with a lot more regrets.
Back then, he had allowed a lot of things to distract him from what was important and by the time he realised it, it was already too late because Yu Nianzhen had already left.
"It will be different this time around." He said aloud and then started to tidy up the room.
The following day, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue found the Stone village chief to pay for the broken bed and when that was done, they borrowed a table and set up a stall at the edge of the village.
For the next several hours, they helped several children check their origins while trading with villagers simultaneously.
As travelling merchants, trade wasn't just about selling wares but also buying things that people had in plenty and had no use for or things that were available in certain places but not in others. Stone village had a lot of minerals and stone related products, but in the end, the two chose not to purchase any since there were no more stops before Fengying city.
When the sun was at its hottest, two boys who didn't want to spend another night in Stone village rode their bullock cart and left the village for Fengying city.