Chapter 25

To be precise, it wasn't during third period, but right after it ended.

Fei Baolin helped the class rep collect the equipment and return it to the storage room. He was walking last, so naturally he was also the one responsible for locking up.

The equipment room was the classroom at the very end of the first floor of the gymnasium. After Fei Baolin finished counting and tidying all the equipment, signed the logbook, and was about to close the door and leave, he caught sight of someone standing at the far end of the corridor out of the corner of his eye.

The single window in the wall let in the afternoon sun, stretching the other person's shadow long. Fei Baolin stopped and looked toward Wen Fu.

Wen Fu was under the window, originally leaning against the wall with his head down, as if he'd been waiting specifically for Fei Baolin outside the door. Now he lifted his head, and as he turned, his expression vanished into the shadows.

Fei Baolin stood his ground, watching Wen Fu walk toward him step by step. Wen Fu didn't stop when he reached him, so Fei Baolin backed up until his back hit the equipment room door.

Wen Fu was very close to him, his forehead almost touching the gauze on Fei Baolin's chin.

Fei Baolin looked down and noticed Wen Fu's bangs were a bit long, almost covering his eyebrows.

He caught the distinct scent of laundry detergent on Wen Fu, and incidentally noticed some old, inconspicuous stains on the other's gray sweatshirt. They were clearly stains that hadn't come out after many washes. It wasn't hard to tell the person doing the laundry had little experience—didn't even know how to get clothes properly clean, couldn't remove stains, and couldn't rinse out all the detergent.

At the same time, Fei Baolin also saw the folding knife pressed against his waist.

He heard Wen Fu's lowered voice sound right below his ear: "Don't let anyone know about last night."

After Wen Fu spoke, he didn't hear Fei Baolin's reply for a long moment.

He frowned, looked up, and realized Fei Baolin was gazing down at him with calm eyes.

Fei Baolin suddenly raised his hand and grabbed Wen Fu's arm.

Wen Fu instinctively tried to pull away, but couldn't break Fei Baolin's grip.

Today he was wearing a plain sweatshirt without any pattern, probably a looser cut. On his already slender frame, it looked slightly oversized. Through the fabric, Fei Baolin grabbed Wen Fu's forearm and judged he wasn't wearing anything else underneath.

Chinese New Year had come early this year, so the seasonal change came earlier too. A typhoon passed through the south in mid-October, and Rongzhou experienced a big temperature drop. It had been raining these past few days, each day colder than the last. Even someone with relatively good physical fitness like Fei Baolin needed a jacket over his sweatshirt.

Wen Fu had a delicate bone structure and was naturally on the thin side. He looked like a wisp of a person, yet he was resistant enough to the cold to wear just a sweatshirt on a ten-degree day.

Fei Baolin completely encircled Wen Fu's forearm with one hand, ignoring the small knife at his waist, and said with a half-smile, "Wearing so little?"

Wen Fu was caught off guard and froze slightly.

In those two seconds of his daze, Fei Baolin dropped the smile, turned, and walked away.

So he was just a stray cat who only knew how to bluff with a knife. Give him a little tease and he goes blank.

Fei Baolin even felt like he could lift the guy with one hand.

He suddenly felt that cut on his chin last night had been a real injustice.

The two of them were heading back to the classroom the same way. After Wen Fu finished his daze on the spot, looked at the knife, then looked at Fei Baolin, he finally tucked the knife back into his sleeve. He followed behind Fei Baolin, sinking into an eerie silence.

Fei Baolin wasn't afraid of his knife at all, or his threats.

The way he'd squeezed his arm just now even felt like he was treating him like a toy.

Wen Fu had no friends and rarely communicated with people. You could say years of silence and doing as he pleased had nearly robbed him of that ability. So, when faced with danger, pulling out a knife had almost become his default playbook for dealing with others.

For Wen Fu, if Fei Baolin talked about what he'd seen last night, it could very likely lead to him getting expelled again. So, in his mind, Fei Baolin was categorized as a danger zone.

His solution for this was the same as before.

Encounter danger, pull out the knife.

But today, that move didn't seem to work on Fei Baolin.

Realizing this, Wen Fu fell into a moment of self-doubt.

He decided to try again.

-

That night, Fei Baolin was sitting in the Neighborhood Convenience Store in Longtan Residential Area, head down as he worked through a practice book.

At 11:55, someone pushed open the convenience store door and stepped inside.

Fei Baolin looked up from his pen, and a bad feeling rose in his heart the moment he saw who it was.

Sure enough, before Fei Baolin could react, Wen Fu walked straight toward the shelves without a glance, grabbed a bag of Taoli bread, then walked directly back out—without paying, as if the person watching the shop behind the counter didn't exist at all.

Cat enters.

Cat takes goods.

Cat leaves.

Like it was some kind of blatant provocation and declaration of war.

Fei Baolin watched Wen Fu walk in, then watched Wen Fu walk out the door without changing expression. He shook his head helplessly. Just as he was about to lower his head and continue with his problems, he thought of something. His eyes flicked to the shelves, he suddenly smiled, stood up, casually grabbed a bottle of Jule Milk, and followed out, closing the door behind him.

The side road outside the residential complex was deserted late at night, not a trace of any pedestrian. Wen Fu passed under one streetlamp after another. Just as he was about to reach the end of the road, he finally heard footsteps behind him.

As he'd expected, Fei Baolin had caught up.

Would Fei Baolin ask him for money?

Thinking of this, Wen Fu turned around and slowly pulled that knife from his pocket.

The blade was thin, narrow, only as long as a middle finger. The streetlamp cast a dim yellow light on the knife, the blade gleaming like twilight gold.

Wen Fu said, "I don't have money."

His voice was very low, spoken quickly. Fei Baolin didn't catch it: "What?"

Wen Fu lowered his lashes and didn't speak.

When a person goes too long without doing something, they start avoiding doing it. Like communicating with people, like making eye contact. Even actions that should be easy become incredibly difficult for someone like Wen Fu, who hadn't interacted with others for so long.

So when he spoke, he always kept his eyes slightly lowered, his voice light and small. He'd be stingy with his words, say what he needed to say quickly, then sink back into silence, never repeating himself a second time.

Fei Baolin stood at the edge of the streetlamp's glow, a long street of alternating light and dark behind him. Seeing Wen Fu wasn't speaking, he extended a hand from the darkness.

In his hand was a bottle of pink-packaged Jule Milk. Fei Baolin asked, "Want some milk?"

Starting to tease the cat.

Wen Fu froze slightly.

He slowly focused his gaze on the other's face and finally made eye contact with Fei Baolin.

Hook, line, and sinker.

Fei Baolin's expression was calm, while Wen Fu's remained wary. But even after watching Fei Baolin warily for a long time, he couldn't decipher any other meaning from the other's eyes.

Then he heard Fei Baolin say, "It's clean. Not expired."

Wen Fu looked at the milk bottle again.

At that moment, Fei Baolin keenly noticed Wen Fu purse his lips, then silently swallow.

Holding back a laugh, he tried moving his hand forward a little more.

Wen Fu immediately took half a step back and said in a low voice, "Put it on the ground."

Fei Baolin gave a silent, wry smile, unsure whether to call Wen Fu highly guarded or not—craving the milk but not daring to reach out and take it.

But he still cooperatively placed that bottle of Jule Milk on the ground, even thoughtfully putting it right under the streetlamp so the light illuminated the packaging box clearly, to show it was safe.

Then Fei Baolin retreated outside the circle of light, leaned against the lamppost with his arms crossed, and quietly watched Wen Fu. Like so many times before when he'd placed food on the roadside and waited for the stray cat to slowly approach.

Wen Fu's behavior wasn't much different from the stray cats he'd fed. First a tentative step forward, then a quick bend to grab it, then a retreat to the original spot. Wen Fu still held the knife in his hand as he unwrapped the straw. After inserting the straw into the bottle, he lowered his eyes and took two sips, then his breathing hitched—

Fei Baolin saw, for the first time, a person embody the phrase "eyes lighting up."

A ripple appeared on Wen Fu's pale face. He held the milk carton away with great seriousness, examined it carefully, then took another sip. After pursing his lips, he hesitated no longer. He directly tore open the folded corner on the side of the carton, tilted his head back, and poured the milk into his mouth through the torn opening.

The empty street echoed only with the gulp-gulp-gulp of his Adam's apple sliding up and down. In less than ten seconds, he'd drunk the entire bottle of Jule Milk clean.

Finally, he tipped the empty milk carton toward his mouth again, shook it, found not a single drop left, then quickly, almost regretfully, licked his upper lip. After secretly smoothing away the milk on his lips, he resumed his expressionless demeanor and said to Fei Baolin, "I don't have money."

His attitude toward reneging was quite frank.

Drink the milk first, then say you have no money. He laid it out plainly. Fei Baolin couldn't very well grab him by the ankles and shake the milk out of his stomach.

Fei Baolin lowered his head and chuckled.

Wen Fu didn't understand what he was laughing at. Holding the empty, crumpled milk carton, he tilted his head and looked at Fei Baolin inquisitively.

Fei Baolin noticed the gaze from across the way, rubbed the tip of his nose, composed his expression, and asked, "Didn't you eat?"

Wen Fu averted his eyes again and didn't speak.

Fei Baolin glanced at the bag of Taoli bread in Wen Fu's other hand. Even if he hadn't eaten, that bread should be enough. So he asked again, "Aren't you going home?"

Only then did Wen Fu seem reminded. Without even a goodbye, he turned and walked away, his steps seeming rootless as he quickly crossed the street toward another block.

Only after Wen Fu disappeared from sight did Fei Baolin slowly turn and head home.

Wen Fu was a strange person.

Recalling the rough way Wen Fu had drunk the milk just now, and the abrupt way he'd turned and left without warning, Fei Baolin intuitively sensed a kind of uncivilized, untamed wildness about Wen Fu that felt completely out of place among their peers.

In short, rude.

The next day, Fei Baolin went to the classroom as usual after buying breakfast for others. Wen Fu was already sitting in his seat early, holding a pen to work on problems with one hand and nibbling on the bread he'd swiped from Fei Baolin's shop last night with the other. He was wearing the school uniform he'd received yesterday. The length looked like the right size, but it seemed a bit loose on him, probably because he only had a thin layer underneath again.

While Fei Baolin was handing out breakfasts, Xie Yining took advantage of everyone gathering around and shot a glance toward Wen Fu's seat, lowering her voice: "From yesterday when he transferred till now, hasn't said a single word."

Su Haoran followed her gaze and glanced back, also whispering, "More than that. Zhang Chengfeng told me he came to the classroom at 6:30 this morning, thought that was plenty early, but—"

He paused, also subtly indicating with a backward glance toward Wen Fu: "He came even earlier."

Lu Yuqiu, holding her noodles, chimed in from the side: "I heard he's a day student too. What time does he have to get up to come that early?"

Fei Baolin didn't speak, just glanced at Wen Fu in passing, and happened to see the other eating that Taoli bread from last night.

Wen Fu had a face like a porcelain doll, you could straight-up call it exquisite and pretty, but his eating manners were nothing short of savage.

In his hand was a long, forearm-sized loaf of bread. A minute ago, it had been a whole loaf in his palm; now only three-quarters remained. The next second, Wen Fu opened his mouth wide, took a bite, and when he looked up again, only a quarter of the bread was left.

Fei Baolin: "..."

Xie Yining: "..."

Su Haoran: "..."

What kind of black hole for food was this.

Xie Yining withdrew her gaze and muttered to herself, "What a waste of such a pretty face, eats like a caveman."

Wen Fu's cheeks moved as he chewed, stuffed full, completely unaware of the gazes directed at him from around.

Even if he noticed, he probably wouldn't care.

Luckily, Fei Baolin had already witnessed him finish a box of milk in five seconds last night. Seeing Wen Fu finish a loaf of bread in three bites now left him utterly unfazed.

"Hey," Su Haoran said, picking at his bowl of spicy noodles, raising an eyebrow as he leaned in to tell the group, "but I heard from Zhang Chengfeng that when he passed by him this morning, he saw all the multiple-choice questions on his practice science test were correct."

"No way?" Xie Yining's eyes went wide. "All correct? Who could do that?"

She pointed at Fei Baolin: "You only got them all right on last semester's final, right? And that was a Jiangsu practice test..."

Fei Baolin smiled and shook his head.

Su Haoran gave a noncommittal pout of his lips, eating his noodles as he walked toward the balcony: "Looks like Department A's getting a second top scorer."

No.1 High School's upper grades were divided into the General Department and Hanyang Class, abbreviated as Department A and Department B. The General Department, or Department A, had 5 humanities classes and 20 science classes per grade. Hanyang Class, commonly called the key class, had only 1 humanities class and 3 science classes. Just from the names and numbers, you could tell which department was considered superior. And their Class 6 happened to be the first science class in Department A.

Typically, a class like theirs had an average undergraduate admission rate of only seventy percent, with the rate for top-tier universities not even reaching twenty percent. The best-performing student in their class would be at the bottom if placed in Hanyang Class. Yet, the 12th grade of Department A had produced Fei Baolin. From freshman year till now, he'd never fallen out of the top ten in the grade. For the past year and a half, he'd firmly held the top spot in Department A. At the end of the first semester of sophomore year, last semester, Fei Baolin directly took first place in the grade with a science score of 291.

Not just in the 12th grade, but in the past ten years, Department A had never produced a student with grades like his.

Ever since Fei Baolin entered the school and got his first monthly exam results, more than one teacher in the class had asked him if his middle school entrance exam score had been miscalculated, or if he'd underperformed. Fei Baolin would just shake his head and smile, saying, "No." and offer no further explanation.

Now here came Wen Fu, quiet and unassuming, sitting at his desk casually doing a practice test and getting all the multiple-choice questions right. No one in any class in Department A would believe that, especially since the class already had Fei Baolin.

"Hard to say," Lu Yuqiu said, also holding her noodles as she headed to the balcony to eat, walking as she spoke. "Where there's a Sleeping Dragon, there's a Young Phoenix."