“Tomorrow will make it half a month.” Eric Bennett snapped his fingers.

“You’ve only talked to one stranger in the past half month, and that’s me, right?” Edward Clark said.

“Yeah,” Eric Bennett glanced at him, “You? Peach blossom luck? At best, you’re a watermelon.”

Edward Clark decided to go eat at Dog Come and Go.

When he stood up, he hesitated for a moment and didn’t invite Eric Bennett.

After all, they weren’t close, and Eric Bennett had already eaten and turned him down in advance.

“The ice cream there is pretty good,” Eric Bennett said, “You should try it, just the vanilla one, a huge cup.”

“Okay.” Edward Clark nodded, jumped down the steps, and walked over.

As he was about to leave the small park, he looked back and saw that Eric Bennett was no longer sitting there. A few kids with mini bikes had taken his place on the steps, bouncing up and down.

He kept walking, but after a few steps, he stopped and looked back again, staring at the kids on the mini bikes for a while. To his surprise, the shirtless one was actually Eric Bennett. The T-shirt he’d been wearing was casually taken off and tucked into his waistband.

So careless—just taking off his shirt in public like that?

Edward Clark took out his phone, opened the camera, and zoomed in.

Eric Bennett was very skilled, and a few of his moves looked like he was about to flip down from the highest step, but he’d spin around and land right back where he started the next second.

Edward Clark actually liked this kind of thing. Back in middle school, he and a few classmates were into skateboarding for a while, but it didn’t last long. His mom thought it was a waste of time, a distraction from studying, a waste of everything, and that he’d get hurt. Most importantly, she thought Edward Clark could never be any good at it.

“You’re not your brother.”

Edward Clark didn’t care much about comments like that. He thought maybe he really didn’t care—he had his own judgment about himself. Or maybe he was just used to it, since he’d heard it so many times growing up.

But honestly, sometimes words like that really could be a buzzkill.

They’d make you start doubting yourself without even realizing it.

After starting high school, he barely played anymore.

Watching Eric Bennett now, he kind of wanted to go over and borrow the bike for a try.

Even though he didn’t know how.

While he was hesitating, Eric Bennett over there stopped, looked up, and casually glanced his way.

He probably saw him and waved.

Good eyesight.

Edward Clark waved back.

Eric Bennett waved again.

Edward Clark kept responding, starting to feel like Eric Bennett was nuts.

After three rounds, he finally noticed Eric Bennett’s gesture wasn’t a wave, but a point in his direction.

“Huh?” Edward Clark lowered his arm and looked beside him. Then he couldn’t help it and blurted out his first swear word of the year, “Shit!”

To his right, at some point, a baby stroller had appeared.

The scariest part was, there was a baby sleeping in it, looking no longer than his forearm.

He quickly looked around, but saw no one.

It was already past the after-work and after-school rush, and not yet dinner time, so there were only a few people out walking. Within twenty meters of him, there wasn’t a soul—not even a shoe.

He had no idea how the stroller got next to him.

Looking around, there was no one to ask.

“I’ll go check it out.” Eric Bennett hopped on his bike, lifted the handlebars, and jumped down three steps on the back wheel.

“Are you sure it wasn’t him who pushed the stroller over?” Big Tom also jumped down, following behind and pedaling over. “A lot of aunties use these strollers to buy groceries these days…”

“Is he an auntie?!” Eric Bennett pedaled hard, and when he was still twenty or thirty meters away from Edward Clark, he let go of the handlebars, pulled his T-shirt back on, and shouted to Edward Clark, “Is there a kid inside—”

Edward Clark nodded.

“Where did it come from?” Eric Bennett rushed to the stroller, and when he saw the sleeping baby inside, he instinctively lowered his voice, “This baby’s only a few months old, right?”

“Not even a few months,” Big Tom leaned in for a look, “My little nephew was bigger than this at three months.”

“Where did it come from?” Eric Bennett looked at Edward Clark.

“I don’t know,” Edward Clark said, “You saw the stroller before I did.”

Eric Bennett stared at the child in the stroller for a while, then looked up: “So this is… an abandoned baby?”

“Probably,” Edward Clark lightly tapped the stroller handle with his finger, “Better call the police.”

“The kid looks fine to me,” Big Tom carefully lifted the blanket covering the baby, “Damn, it’s a boy. So it’s not a case of abandoning girls for boys…”

“Don’t wake the baby! If he starts crying, how are we supposed to calm him down? Call the police first,” Eric Bennett took out his phone, “Let the police officers handle it.”

“I’m good at calming babies.” Big Tom was confident, but still pulled his hand back.

Edward Clark walked a couple of steps and sat on the edge of the flowerbed, watching Eric Bennett call the police.

After the call, two middle-aged women noticed what was going on and walked over.