Under the starry sky, surrounded by fire, with food and friends, Yu Xiaochun thought that he could finally find the answer to his question.

"So Yiming, why the hell did you want to go up and push Griffin's hand?"

His friend Yang Yiming, who is 2.08 meters tall and has a strong figure, has a rare broad silhouette among Asians. But his temper and personality are not as angular as his appearance, and even sometimes, Yu Xiaochun feels that his personality is too gentle and decent. Yang Yiming is almost more mature than his age, he always knows when to speak and when to silence, and he will take care of all the audience when he speaks, except for English, he is not proficient, but he is already a master of mediation and negotiation in all aspects.

Such a precocious "Buddhist" youth was the first to make a move on the court of Stamps' enemies among the Rockets players who were already full of anger, which really impressed Yu Xiaochun.

So will Yang Yiming use tonight to reveal the motive behind this push?

1/

“… Actually, I can't tell you clearly, I was a little impulsive at that time, my blood was surging, my mind was confused, and my hand kept calling and pushed it out. After thinking for a long time, Yang Yiming, who swallowed the third taco, finally spoke, his tone was calm, as if he was chewing on the last few minutes of the Stamp Arena.

"Young man, a little bloody and completely understand, I understand you." The driver, Jose Rodriguez, absentmindedly expressed his support for Yang Yiming while rubbing his hands against the pile of food. Exploring the subtle fluctuations in the player's heart is obviously not something that he, a five-year-old Mexican man, cares about.

"So it's just a spur of the moment?" Yu Xiaochun was skeptical.

"It's never going to be that simple." José's wife, Maria, interjected into small talk. Although she doesn't care about sports, and she chats about a match, she often talks about the sore spots, "You men don't all fight like this, just like uncivilized animals... For the sake of territory, for power, for reproductive rights, for women, in order to prove that they are stronger than others. ”

"Probably..."

"Oh?" Yu Xiaochun looked at Yang Yiming inquiringly, and the latter sighed and looked up at the sky:

"Actually, I don't know why... Maybe I want to find an outlet, catharsis, an outburst... There was such an opportunity..."

"Yiming, are you okay?" Meritis noticed Yang Yiming's sudden distraction, put his hand on his back, and asked softly.

"Well, Meritis, tell me, have you ever had this kind of trouble?"

"Oh? I..."

2/

When Yang Yiming asked this question, his voice was so low that only he and Meritis could hear it. His troubles? Before Yu Xiaochun could figure out his head, his arm was touched. He turned his head to look and found that it was Rodriguez and his wife who were staring at him, and at the end of his eyes was Yang Yiming and Meritis who were looking up at the starry sky together as if there was no one around. Well, it seems that in order not to make light bulbs, the final answer to this question will not be heard. Yu Xiaochun grabbed a few baked marshmallows and stuffed them in his pocket, and Jose had already gotten up over there, "Let's go to the river for a walk, you guys talk slowly", and pulled him away.

"It's just the two of us."

"yes, what was your question?" Meritis is a young and sunny cheerful girl after all, and when she saw Koharu and Jose Maria walking away along the riverbank, she couldn't help but speak much faster, as if she was adjusting the atmosphere.

"Ah, forget it, it's nothing..."Yang Yiming stopped when he wanted to speak.

"Hmm—" Meritis stood up from the fire, the shadow of the leaping flame far out of her eyes, and the night seemed to be bigger, "It's really nice tonight, if only I brought the telescope you sent me." ”

"Haha, that gift, if you like it."

"Of course, my dream since I was a kid was to be quite an astronaut, a female astronaut — and I guess I was called by that dream when I finally came to Houston. To be honest, you're going to give me a telescope, I'm pretty surprised. ”

"Well, actually, I was also wandering around Portland at the time, that city is quite literary, and there is a store that sells all kinds of astronomical telescopes, so I bought one, I didn't expect you to like it." Driven by Meritis's topic, Yang Yiming finally seemed much more relaxed.

"So you just asked me... Actually, I have that kind of trouble, sometimes..."

"Oh?" Yang Yiming was a little surprised that the other party actually remembered his question.

"Hmm." Meritis took another step in the direction of the river beach, the green land, the green river, the gray city, the dark night, the starry sky, her blonde hair dotted the sky and the earth, and it was particularly dazzling: "Every time I look up at this sky, I can't help but be confused. You see, that's Venus, and in the distance it's Polaris. They are all visible to the naked eye, but we can't even reach the nearest one. Sometimes I think..."

"Will wonder what all this is for." Yang Yiming grabbed the white, and seemed to find resonance in the other party's words.

"Yes, if the world is already so big, and our world is still a drop in the ocean compared to this starry sky, and we will never reach the end of it, then all these efforts are not for nothing?"

"Probably not, but I don't know..."

"Well, no one knows, the confusion of all of us is actually the same..."Meritis turned around, but a smile was already on her face, and her eyes reflected the fire, as deep and agile as the stars. Looking at her, Yang Yiming finally confided in his heart.

3/

"Actually, the moment I pushed people, now that I think about it, my self-awareness (EGO) is a little inflated."

Ego is a psychological name, translated into Chinese to refer to the self of a person, the spiritual understanding of oneself.

"Inflated?"

"Hmm. I didn't understand it at the time, I saw the coach and teammates clashing with Griffin... In fact, I know very well that I should be restrained and calm. My credo has always been that all basketball problems should be left to basketball itself, and even if I want to protect my comrades, I can completely change the form. But at the time, I didn't think about that, I just wanted to stand up, to be there, to be in front of Blake Griffin, to be in front of the Staples fans and the broadcast machine..."

"You want to be in the spotlight."

"No, I feel like I should be in the spotlight." Yang Yiming deliberately accented the word "should", and his tone was full of regret, "Xiaochun told me that he could strive to become the all-star ticket king." He helped me sign up for social media accounts, and I found myself adding hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of followers overnight. For the first time, I felt... It turns out that I am so charismatic, and I don't lose compared with superstars. I think I'm out of balance, I was playing in the NBA, but I always felt like a dream, I was like a spectator of a dream, like a fan of a gamer watching the gamer's controller, but suddenly..."

"Suddenly the dream was thrown into reality."

"Yes, it dawned on me that it wasn't a dream anymore. I am in a dream, and the dream is reality, and the dream that used to be like a star that can be picked by hand. ”

"yes, I see." At this time, Yang Yiming in Meritis's eyes, like a confused and confused child, she stepped forward and hugged his head in her arms, "It's okay." Thank you for confiding in me. ”

"That's why I felt like I was so inflated, as if I was going to jump up and let everyone see how good I was. I..."

"I think you're that good."

"Huh?"

Yang Yiming wanted to ask in surprise, but Meritis gagged. With her lips. The look of surprise and consternation in his eyes slowly faded and turned into tenderness. He had imagined the first kiss between the two, but none of them were as wonderful as this one. He felt his body swell and his blood surge. The feelings of that night in Stamp were felt all over the body, but they were quickly soothed by Meritis's soft, sweet lips. Warm and slightly damp, the conversation of growth and confusion had been forgotten for a second, and only the smell of marshmallows seemed to have been roasted in the mouth, creeping up the base of the tongue and pouring into the heart.

The stars in the sky seemed to be spinning at high speed, and Yang Yiming felt a little dizzy, so he closed his eyes, hugged each other, and kissed passionately desperately.