After the breakup, I was taken in by a group of trendy young women.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the tree canopy, casting a bright patch of light in a depression on the mountainside.

Liu Tianxian walked ahead, a small patch of her white shirt soaked with sweat on the back. The fabric clung to her skin, revealing the outline of her shoulder blades underneath, like two slightly fluttering wings.

Her ponytail swayed wildly in the wind, the ends occasionally brushing against the back of her neck. She reached out to brush it away, but missed, and it swayed back again.

She walked for a while, then slowed down and stopped next to an old camphor tree, bending over and supporting herself on her knees to catch her breath.

"This mountain... doesn't look very high... but it's actually quite difficult to climb..."

Lin Ye followed and stood beside her, his breathing even as if he had just taken a stroll.

He glanced around; the tree canopies blocked out most of the sky, and the dirt road beneath his feet was getting narrower and narrower. A few more steps and he wouldn't be able to see the parking spot by the stream.

Liu Tianxian straightened up, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and pointed to a depression on the side that was half-hidden by bushes: "Isn't there a platform over there? Let's go take a look."

Following her direction, Lin Ye parted a few clumps of overgrown ferns and found a depression of about three or four square meters, neither too deep nor too shallow. The ground was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves and moss, and the area was surrounded on three sides by shrubs and vines. Above was a natural canopy formed by the intertwined branches and leaves of several large trees.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, scattering golden fragments across the ground.

Liu Tianxian bent down and crawled in, her footsteps making a rustling sound on the fallen leaves.

She turned around like a cat that had found its place, and then plopped down on her seat.

The fallen leaves were thick, and when she sat down, she sank in quite a bit. So she simply leaned back and half-lay on the mat woven from the dead leaves and moss, looking up at the blue sky above that was fragmented by the branches and leaves.

"This is a good place."

She said, her voice slightly breathless, but her tone was one of satisfaction.

"Nobody can find it."

Lin Ye stood at the opening of the depression, watching her half-lying on the fallen leaves.

The hem of the white shirt peeked out from the waistband of the jeans, revealing a small section of sun-tanned, honey-colored skin on the waist. The legs, encased in light blue jeans, were exposed from the knees down, with water stains still clinging to the calves from playing in the stream.

Her hair was scattered on the fallen leaves, the dark black strands blending with the withered yellow leaves, glistening with a moist sheen in the dappled sunlight.

She raised her arm and beckoned to him with her finger in mid-air.

"Why are you standing? Come and sit down."

Lin Ye walked over and sat down on the fallen leaves next to her.

The fallen leaves beneath him rustled as they were squeezed, and the entire depression echoed with the soft, snapping sounds of withered leaves breaking.

Liu Tianxian turned her head to look at him, her face half-lit and half-shadowed in the dappled light.

Her ponytail had come undone halfway when she lay down, with a few stray hairs sticking to the corner of her mouth. She raised her hand to brush them away, her fingertips brushing against the curve of his chin. Then, she didn't put her hand back down; it just stayed in mid-air, her fingertips resting on his cheek.

Her fingertips slid down his cheekbone, across his jawline, and stopped on his chin, her thumb gently brushing against the stubble that had just sprouted on his chin.

"Linye."

"Um."

Four hours.

"Um."

"Hurry up."

After she finished speaking those three words, she withdrew her fingers from his chin and propped herself up to sit up.

The fallen leaves rustled beneath her. She went from half-lying down to kneeling, her knees sinking into the withered leaves. She leaned forward, her hands resting on the fallen leaves on either side of his thighs, and looked up at him.

From this angle, she needed to raise her gaze slightly to meet his eyes.

The afternoon light filtered through the gaps in the branches and leaves overhead, cutting thin strips of light across her face, falling on her forehead, the bridge of her nose, and her slightly parted lips.

"What are you laughing at?" she asked.

Lin Ye then realized that the corners of his mouth were curved.

He slightly reduced the curve, but not completely, and it curved back again.

"I wasn't laughing at anything."

You were clearly smiling.

"I was thinking, did you plan this out in advance? Today is a holiday, tomorrow there are no announcements, and the day after tomorrow you have to leave, leaving a whole day in between, which is just enough to climb a mountain."

Liu Tianxian tilted her head, a few stray hairs at her temples blown away by the wind from her side: "What's the big deal?"

"They planned to lure me up a mountain, into a place no one could find, and then tell me to 'hurry up'."

Her lips curved slightly; she neither denied nor admitted it.

She simply lifted her hands from the fallen leaves on either side of his thighs and placed them on the front of his T-shirt, her fingers gripping the thin cotton fabric, pulling him an inch closer to her.

"So, are you going to go or not?"

Lin Ye did not answer.

He raised his hand and placed it over the hand that was clutching his shirt, his palm against the back of her hand, his fingers threading through hers, and removed her hand from his shirt. Then, without letting go, he held her hand tightly with his.

With his other hand, he reached behind her neck, gathered her hair that was loose over her shoulders, ran his fingers through the wet strands of hair, and pressed his palm against the warm skin of the back of her neck.

Her neck was still damp and warm from the sweat she had produced while climbing the mountain.

He pulled her towards him.

She did not resist.

Her body gently swayed forward with the pull, her knees sliding across the fallen leaves, and then she nestled into his arms, her nose touching his. Their breaths mingled.

Her lips were still slightly parted, and you could see a line of moist pink on the inside of her lips.

Her eyelashes trembled, one flutter after another, like blades of grass swaying in the wind. From this distance, the smile lines at the corners of her eyes were clearly visible in the dappled sunlight, bearing the marks of time, but those marks didn't make her look old at all; instead, they made her appear even more vibrant.

"What are you waiting for?"

Her voice was so soft it was almost a whisper.

Lin Ye lowered his head and kissed her lips.

Her lips were warm, carrying the warmth of her body from the climb and slightly rough from being dried by the wind.

Her lips parted slightly the moment he pressed against hers, then closed, capturing his lower lip.

The fallen leaves rustled softly beneath them.

Her kneeling posture became unsteady due to the kiss, her body leaned back slightly, and her knees slid on the withered leaves. She braced herself with her elbows, which sank into the fallen leaves, crushing a few dry leaves.

She did not back away.

There was only a very short gap between her lips and his, and in that gap their breaths mingled together, one hot, the other even hotter.

Her tongue peeked out from the edge of his lower lip, touched it lightly as if testing the water temperature, then withdrew and touched his tongue again.

Lin Ye's hand slid from the back of her neck forward, his fingers running through her loose hair, pressing against the side of her face, his thumb pressing on the small patch of sun-reddened skin above her cheekbone.

Her skin was very hot; I don't know if it was from the sun or something else.

She pulled her hand out of his palm, raised both hands at the same time to cup his face, and ran her fingers through his ears and into the hair at the back of his head.

Her fingertips gently brushed across his scalp, combing from root to tip like a comb.

She stepped back a little, her lips leaving his, but her hands still cupped his face.

Her gaze swept over his face, from his eyebrows to his nose to his lips, and finally met his eyes.

Her breathing was still erratic, her chest rising and falling through the thin white shirt, revealing the outline of the nude-colored underwear beneath the shirt's front.

"you……"

Her voice was terribly hoarse; she said one word and then stopped, clearing her throat before continuing.

"You're quite good at kissing."

"You're not bad either."

She chuckled, the sound catching in her throat before escaping through her nose: "I've filmed kissing scenes for so many years, I must have some skills."

"Then now,

Lin Ye looked into her eyes,

"Is it acting or real?"