"There is no reason for many things."

I said to Old Xia,

"Just like how it snowed on this day twenty-two years ago, but now the temperature is thirty-five degrees. If you insist on asking me why, I can't answer you either; I can only tell you that it might be global warming."

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Is it hard to like someone for five years as if it were one day? Old Xia said to me, it's hard, too hard, and it's not worth it. He took another gulp of alcohol. I opened my mouth, but in the end, I still picked up the bottle to keep him company and finished another one.

Old Xia said: If being with her was a quest in a game—fighting monsters to level up, fetching water, and cooking—what part did I fail to complete? It just had to be some young punk who popped out of nowhere, picked up a flower from the side of the road, and turned in the quest.

I didn't speak, just drank. Old Xia said the bridge was so high, and the water was so rapid. I said he was drunk.

Two years later, when he invited us to dinner to celebrate finally being with Miss Su,

I asked him, "Since it wasn't worth it, how did you manage to persist for seven years?"

"It's definitely not cost-effective to spend seven years just to get a girlfriend, but if seven years can secure someone to spend the rest of your life with, then it's a huge win. From the very first confession, I decided: I am going to marry her!"

Miss Su knocked down Old Xia's hand, which he had raised high, saying that he always talked nonsense whenever he drank. Old Xia suddenly turned his head and said to her seriously, "I have never lied to you about that sentence."

Then he laughed and told us that he just loved the way she blushed.

Seeing them together, I was probably the happiest person besides the two of them. I met Miss Su on the same day I met Old Xia. Over those seven years, starting from the first month we met, Old Xia confessed his feelings almost every month. After failing, he would come to me to complain; within half an hour, Miss Su would also come to tell me how childish Old Xia was. Occasionally, she would also call him crazy, helpless, or childish.

So, I found myself advising Old Xia to give up, while also advising Miss Su to agree.

Seven years!

My mother once told me that if you haven't managed to be with a girl after a year or two, yet you still maintain a very good relationship, you basically have no chance. When I relayed this word-for-word to Old Xia, he pointed at his call logs and said to me, "See that? Four in the morning. Would you call me at four in the morning if you woke up from a nightmare?"

There were so many things to retort that I simply asked him how he could possibly have answered a call at four in the morning. Then he played his ringtone for me; it was that song most loved by the aunties doing square dancing downstairs.

Occasionally, he would run out of ideas and ask me if I had any new confession tactics. He said that when he took Miss Su to the movies the month before last, he leaned into her ear and said "I like you," and she only replied with an "Oh." Last month, while playing a game, I told her, "If you become my girlfriend, this blue buff is yours," and she didn't even say "Oh."

What movie did you guys watch? Iron Man, why? Oh

The next evening, Miss Su asked me why I was teaching Old Xia such flashy, useless tricks again. From the excitement in her message, I knew she was moved; Old Xia must have felt that this meal he treated me to was well worth it.

"Have you heard of the suspension bridge effect?" I asked Old Xia.

"I sort of know it, but where would you find a suspension bridge in Suzhou?"

"It doesn't have to be a real suspension bridge. A while ago, that old residential area next to the school was under maintenance, and the streetlights weren't on. There's a claw machine shop in the back. Isn't that thing she likes so much out recently? Ask her out, walk that path on the way back, and casually tell a few ghost stories—don't make them too long, just one-sentence ones to set the mood. Then, when she's scared, hold her hand to show off your masculinity."

"That's doable. And then? Do I confess as soon as we walk out?"

"No, no, no, don't rush the confession. The important thing is the atmosphere; once the atmosphere is right, you're good to go. You know what 'atmosphere' means, right?"

I recalled my plan; it was simply perfect, so it was no wonder Miss Su was moved.

So I called Old Xia to ask how the atmosphere was today.

It didn't go through. A while later, he replied to me on QQ with six dots. Then he said there was a small mishap.

"Everything was fine at first, and she didn't suggest taking another route, so we walked with flashlights. Although the ghost stories weren't well-chosen and she laughed at me, and although she didn't really show much fear, I felt the atmosphere was right."

"Then suddenly, a pack of stray dogs appeared behind us, barking wildly and running toward us. Although I remembered what the old man said about not being afraid when encountering a mad dog—to stand still and stare it down—they wouldn't stop at all. In the end, we had to run for our lives. Luckily, we met someone who shouted and scared them away... My phone even fell and broke while I was running."

I looked at the chat window and suddenly understood what "flashy and useless" meant.

Miss Su also sent a few messages:

"Don't give him these kinds of ideas with his level of courage... At the beginning, a faucet had a problem and suddenly sprayed water, and it scared him." "The ghost stories he told were antiques from ten years ago, and he was sweating all over while telling them."

"It's good you're both okay, otherwise I would have had to live on with the guilt."

"Pfft."

Over seven years, from the casual "be my girlfriend" during class breaks at the beginning, to the elaborate preparations later, and then back to casual confessions and my excellent guidance.

Old Xia said he could clearly feel that after this confession, his relationship with Miss Su had become a little closer. After seven years, it seemed they had been quite far apart before. But anyone who had experienced such a seven-year journey like I had would be genuinely happy for them. At least in the future, I wouldn't have to accompany him to get dead drunk by the bridge and listen to him say, "The bridge is so high, the water is so rapid."

He never told Miss Su about these things, and neither did I. That was the first time Miss Su had been in a relationship since we met. She openly brought her boyfriend to meet us. After dinner, Miss Su's boyfriend suggested we go singing together. There were four of us in the private room; the two of them sang Karen Mok's "Slowly Loving You" together. Then Old Xia pulled me to sing "Good Heart Breakup." That was the day Old Xia sang most out of tune.

Miss Su's boyfriend told us, "Thank you for taking care of Little Xia all these years." Old Xia told him, "Miss Su doesn't like cilantro or green onions. If you encounter a dog, don't let her walk on the side near the dog. She has no sense of direction, so hold her hand when you go out so she doesn't get lost..." I hugged Old Xia and said, "This guy just loves to talk nonsense when he's drunk."

Old Xia struggled while shouting, "Screw you, I'm drinking orange juice."

Then he leaned on my shoulder and whispered to me, "San'er, I feel like crying."

I browsed through all our chat history. In my records with Old Xia, if you search for "give up," there are about twenty results. Every time he said he would fight anyone who mentioned Miss Su, and every time, he was the first one to bring her up again.

On the night Miss Su broke up, Old Xia called and begged me to help him propose to her. After I asked three times to make sure he wasn't joking, I called Miss Su.

"It's rare to be in a relationship, why not make it last longer?"

"I used to think that men and women in the city were like an ecological chain—who is whose natural enemy, and who is whose prey. You remember that senior I really liked in my sophomore year? I thought I had met my destiny back then, but he didn't even know my name."

"Are you drunk?"

"San, don't interrupt me yet. Now I know that no one is bound to another person. In the past, if a wolf couldn't catch a sheep, it would starve to death; now, it can eat mice or vegetables. Sheep don't just eat grass either; they can eat frogs or little squirrels. Maybe grass is the tastiest, but there's no such thing as being 'suitable' or not—as long as you're full, that's enough. Actually, we just spend a small amount of time waiting and most of our time foraging."

"Is the breakup hitting you hard?"

"Actually, no. I just feel that this kind of relationship is super simple: if you like each other, you're together; if you don't love each other, you separate. Instead, it's the way Old Xia was, always carefully following behind and asking if he could be 'eaten' by me. I couldn't make up my mind. It's like something was always missing on both sides of the scale. It felt like it had been plain and simple from the start, and it would continue to be plain and simple in the future."

I heard the sound of a bottle clattering on the phone and asked where she was. When I arrived at the bar, she was almost at her limit. It wasn't until I was taking her home and walking downstairs that I remembered what Old Xia had asked me to do. So I sent another WeChat message:

"When did you give up on Old Xia?"

There was about a ten-minute interval.

"Maybe from the day I realized that being like this with him was better than being lovers."

"Or maybe it was over from the very beginning. If he had been serious from the start, maybe it would have been different."

Most deep affection is unserious; how can you love someone if you're too rational?

In the end, when we graduated from university, it was Miss Su who spoke up. While we were taking photos all over campus in our graduation gowns, Miss Su winked at me, then turned to Old Xia and said, "If you don't hold my hand properly after graduation, I'll be taken away by someone else."

Old Xia teased Miss Su for still not knowing her way around after all these years, calling her a typical person with no sense of direction. I told Old Xia he was a typical idiot. Then I pushed Old Xia forward. In the end, it was Miss Su who took the initiative to hold his hand.

In the first month of school seven years ago, Old Xia sat next to Miss Su, and I sat behind Old Xia. Old Xia had a lollipop in his mouth and said to Miss Su, "Why don't you just be my girlfriend? Although I'm very handsome, you're not bad either."

Miss Su might not have paid much attention because of the sudden surprise and Old Xia's joking tone, but I saw Old Xia's sweaty palms and his red ears, even though he could drink a catty of white liquor without changing his expression.

After school, he asked me why Miss Su seemed unmoved—was his confession not perfect? Actually, I didn't quite understand either, but I told him, "Many things have no reason."

I am the photographer who has been running along in the marathon.