Xia Lin stopped and turned to look at him, with a calm and peaceful expression: "Song Yan, based on our good friendship of more than ten years, let me tell you a few truthful things. I hope you can listen to me carefully."

"?" Although Song Yan looked confused, he nodded in cooperation.

"A few days ago, my attitude toward you was a bit sharp. I thought about it carefully. You are still young now and it is normal for you to act impulsively without thinking about it."

Song Yan pursed his lips slightly and the subtle sense of being preached came up again. It was clear that Xia Lin was a few months younger than him but recently he always had the illusion of being looked down on by Xia Lin which makes him very uncomfortable.

But in order not to interrupt Xia Lin, he forced himself to suppress this sense of discomfort.

"Now that you have identified this way," Xia Lin's voice continues, "Presumably you have also gone through some inner struggles. Maybe you like someone and you like him so much that you can muster the courage to break the world. But Song Yan, the resistance in the future is far more than these. The more you move forward, the more problems you will encounter. These problems will come from family members, friends, colleagues, and society. If you just go forward blindly, overcoming all obstacles, in the end, you will find that you have become unaccompanied, isolated, and helpless. Even the lover you want to protect can not be protected. By that time, you'd want to turn back, but there is no turning back. So Song Yan, from now on, you have to make yourself stronger, you have to learn to forbear, learn to hide your light, wrap your edges and corners, hide your most cherished emotions, until one day, you become powerful. Powerful enough to guard your love without relying on external forces, powerful enough that those who stand on the moral commanding heights, even if they can't understand you, are helpless to you, you can take everything you have without reservation. Show it and be yourself. Do you understand what I mean?"

Song Yan looked at Xia Lin blankly for a long time.

Although he couldn't fully understand that remark just now, he could vaguely appreciate Xia Lin's good intentions.

The orange street lamp light shone from behind Xia Lin. Soft warm light was cast around him, polishing Xia Lin's outline to perfection.

Song Yan looked at it and felt a little heartbeat.

A vague idea suddenly came up in his mind--even though the road was as difficult and dangerous as Xia Lin said, but if it was Xia Lin. . . if the person next to him is Xia Lin, no matter how difficult it is to walk, he has nothing to fear.

They have been with each other inseparably for more than ten years and if they can continue to be with each other in such an inseparable way until they are old, it should be a great thing.

Thinking this way, he couldn't help blurting out: "Xia Lin, not as good as us..."

"That's it," Xia Lin suddenly ended the conversation. "This may be the last time I'd have a long face-to-face conversation with you."

Song Yan's expression changed: "What do you mean?"

"I just received a notice from the class teacher in the morning. In order to increase our key undergraduate enrollment rate this year, the school has selected all the top 30 students in our monthly test scores to enter the top 30 grades and integrated them into a key class. So from tomorrow on, we will no longer be in the same class and there should be very few opportunities to meet in the future."

Song Yan's heart suddenly became empty but he was still struggling: "Even if we are not in the same class, we can still do the same as before..."

"Song Yan, since you decided to take this path, we were destined to not get along as before. Tonight is my last piece of advice to you. From now on, we will go different ways and take care of ourselves."

After Xia Lin finished speaking, before Song Yan could react, he got on his bicycle and left.

Song Yan wanted to stop him but his throat was dry and he couldn't make a sound.

He stood alone under the dim street lamp for a long time and suddenly angrily threw his beloved mountain bike to the ground.

"You are the one who divides people into groups, and you are the one who walks in different ways. What do you want me to do?"