"Mint Debt"/"Twenty Yuan Heartbeat Debt"
In the summer of 2016, the scorching sun burned the asphalt road at the military training ground. Lu Zhuo's Adam's apple was rolling with sweat and he ran into Zhuo Yuan's sight: "Friend, can you borrow 20 yuan to buy water?" Zhuo Yuan silently handed over the money, and her fingertips brushed against his calloused palm - this wrinkled note became a seven-year entangled contract.
Overlapping figures are reflected in the mirror in the late night practice room. Lu Zhuoxu helped Zhuoyuan's lower back to correct his wave movements, and breathed across the tips of his red ears: "The tuition is twenty, and there is still forty left." Zhuo Yuan laughed and scolded "teaching is not as good as my self-study", but hid the mint ointment that Lu Zhuo left in his locker, and the remaining warmth of the tube burned his fingertips.
The epidemic lockdown has fragmented time and space. Lu Zhuo was trapped in a different place, and Zhuo Yuan stayed alone in the shared house watching old live broadcast recordings - when corn kernels stuck to the corners of his lips in June 2022, Lu Zhuo's thumb once brushed across his lips. On the night of Chinese Valentine's Day, Lu Zhuo pressed Zhuo Yuan between the poles while monitoring a blind spot: "They call you husband?" The drum beat shattered the unfinished words, and when the overhead light suddenly turned on, only the manager's cold warning remained.
In the wheat field, the rotary tiller got stuck in the mud after heavy rain. Lu Zhuo carried Zhuo Yuan who had an injured waist on his back and waded through the mud: "The profit is enough to buy your life." Zhuo Yuan bit his bleeding shoulder: "Lu Zhuohao, you owe me more than this." The moonlight saw two lottery tickets in the same trouser pocket - they were betting the rest of their lives on a love they dare not name.
