Chapter 33

After that bread feast, Fei Bolin realized Wen Fu never went to the cafeteria for dinner either, all the way through evening study hall.

So that desperate bread-stuffing on the field that morning had been to save the cost of both lunch and dinner.

Fei Bolin didn't know how much money Wen Fu still had on him, and he wasn't totally sure where his day-to-day living expenses came from either. But ever since he saw with his own eyes outside the School Gate last time how Wen Fu made money off a bunch of middle school kids, he could more or less guess what kind of life Wen Fu was living.

That night in study hall, the two of them again waited until most of the class had left before packing up to go. Wen Fu had now completely lost the backpack, so naturally his practice papers and pens were all in Fei Bolin's bag.

Fei Bolin had the bag slung over one shoulder. Inside were not just the textbooks and homework he was taking home, but also the power bank he needed to charge for Xie Yining and Lu Yuqiu, plus a whole stack of breakfast orders for tomorrow morning.

He stretched a leg out from under the desk and stepped straight over the aisle, ending up in front of Wen Fu.

A few steps later, he reached the door. Hearing Wen Fu follow, he lifted an arm and flicked off the light with a smack.

Just as one of his feet was about to step out of the classroom, Wen Fu's stomach growled right by his ear.

Fei Bolin lowered his head and smiled to himself, thinking tonight's noodles needed an extra egg for Wen Fu.

Who knew that just as one of his legs went out the door, Wen Fu, standing in the pitch-black classroom, would suddenly grab his School Uniform sleeve.

The fall uniform for No.1 High School's twelfth class year was pure cotton in blue and gray, with a stand collar, cuffed sleeves, and a loose dropped-shoulder cut. The color and style went with everything and looked good, so in spring and fall you could wear it straight as a jacket, and in winter it didn't look out of place under a padded coat or down jacket either.

It was warm today, and Fei Bolin had layered up underneath, so he'd just used the School Uniform as his jacket.

Wen Fu held onto the two blue stripes at his cuff and stood behind him without saying a word.

Fei Bolin was just about to turn and ask what was wrong when a wad of crumpled bills got stuffed into his palm.

After stuffing them in, Wen Fu even pressed a hand over the back of his and pushed it toward him.

Fei Bolin glanced down. Curled in his hand was thirty yuan, all of it gone soft from being clenched. The edges of the bills still held a trace of warmth from Wen Fu's palm. He must've been holding onto them through all of study hall.

Fei Bolin pictured Wen Fu in class agonizing over those thirty yuan, going back and forth on whether to hand over all of it. Holding back a laugh, he put on a cold face and asked, 'What's this supposed to mean?'

Wen Fu stood there in the dark and said nothing.

Really, Wen Fu's thinking was simple, and Fei Bolin had already guessed it. He was just trying to pay for the meals from these past few days that Fei Bolin had taken him in.

But Wen Fu had a little scheme tucked into it too. He was trying to use those thirty yuan to buy a little more time and keep mooching off Fei Bolin for a while longer.

He wouldn't say it, and Fei Bolin wouldn't ask. As long as Fei Bolin took the money, that meant he'd accepted it, and that meant he'd agreed to let him keep staying.

Because he didn't want to leave.

Anywhere else, there wasn't hot water he could use whenever he wanted, no bed that turned warm the second he lay down, and definitely no meat-sauce noodles with a fried egg waiting just by sitting in the living room.

But he didn't have enough money.

Other than the seventeen yuan and six jiao left on his meal card and the two coins in his pocket, this thirty yuan was everything he had.

So Wen Fu kept his mouth shut.

Seeing him stay silent, Fei Bolin moved to hand the money back.

Wen Fu blocked him, then shoved Fei Bolin's outstretched hand right back again.

He stubbornly decided on his own that if Fei Bolin didn't take the money, then that meant he wasn't agreeing to let him stay a few more days.

How long could thirty yuan buy him? Wen Fu didn't know either.

The cheapest inn he'd ever seen was forty yuan a day. And that didn't even include breakfast or dinner.

Still, Wen Fu figured that if he said that out loud, Fei Bolin would probably grab him and throw him out the second he heard the words 'cheap inn.'

Cats might not know much, but their instincts are dead-on.

The two of them stood there in a stubborn silence. After a while, Wen Fu swallowed and said, 'About tonight's noodles... I want one more egg.'

-

On the way back, Fei Bolin stopped by Bifengtang near the School Gate and bought Wen Fu a grilled sausage.

He didn't even like that kind of thing himself, but Wen Fu's stomach had growled so loudly outside the shop that, before he knew it, he'd dragged him inside.

Wen Fu's first reaction when he took the sausage was still to twitch his nose and smell it first. He just held it in the shop without eating, then the second they stepped outside, he stuffed the whole thing into his mouth in one go when no one was looking.

Getting something good out of nowhere and only daring to hide in a corner and eat it in secret had become a habit. Even after coming to Fei Bolin's side, he still couldn't fully shake it yet.

And then Wen Fu successfully burned his tongue.

By the time Fei Bolin noticed, his mouth was practically smoking.

And even like that, he still wouldn't spit it out.

Standing in the alley, Fei Bolin grabbed both sides of Wen Fu's jaw and forced his mouth open. 'Spit it out!'

Wen Fu's mouth got pinched into a round little o. Under Fei Bolin's pressure, he actually kept that shape and chewed the sausage at lightning speed like he was stir-frying with his tongue, then swallowed it all in one gulp.

Fei Bolin frowned hard and turned on his phone flashlight, shining it straight into Wen Fu's throat.

He remembered seeing a news story before that said swallowing food that was too hot could blister your throat and make you suffocate to death.

Once the food was down, Wen Fu behaved. He tipped his head back, opened his mouth wide, and stayed perfectly still, letting Fei Bolin look however he wanted.

Only after a few minutes passed and Fei Bolin confirmed he really was fine did he snap off the phone and turn away without a word.

Wen Fu stood there dumbly for a moment, then noticed Fei Bolin was walking fast. He wiped the chili powder from the corner of his mouth and jogged after him.

The more he followed, the faster Fei Bolin walked.

Wen Fu sped up too, caught up until they were side by side, and even deliberately turned his head to lean in and check Fei Bolin's expression.

Fei Bolin's face was cold as hell. Every time Wen Fu leaned over, he dodged the other way. Then Wen Fu took a big step, turned around, and blocked his path, willing to walk backward if that was what it took to see the look on his face.

Fei Bolin couldn't take it anymore and stopped. 'What are you doing?!'

Wen Fu looked completely baffled.

He couldn't figure out what Fei Bolin was mad about, so after thinking it over, he asked, 'Do you want one too?'

Was he mad because Wen Fu had eaten the sausage too fast and not shared?

But Fei Bolin had very obviously shown no interest in eating it just now.

...

Fei Bolin kept a dark face and stayed silent for a long moment. He understood on a deep level now that patient advice was useless with Wen Fu. The guy's ears went straight to his brain, and the second any warning went in one ear, it flew right out the other. So he adjusted his mindset, steadied his temper, and threatened coldly, 'If you can't learn to eat slowly, then from now on your noodles don't get fried eggs.'

After saying that, he went right around Wen Fu and strode off.

Wen Fu twisted half around and watched him go.

Fei Bolin got farther and farther away. He'd reached the Alley Entrance, and Wen Fu still showed no sign of moving.

Suddenly, the figure at the alley mouth stopped short, too annoyed to keep going, and turned back. 'Are you coming or not?'

Wen Fu sprinted over like a shot.

Only after he saw him catch up did Fei Bolin keep heading home.

The two of them walked in silence for a few minutes before Wen Fu finally asked the question he'd been bottling up the whole time. 'Then if I eat slowly from now on, do I get eggs every time?'

...

Fei Bolin's face didn't change, but inside he let out a cold laugh. So now he knew how to draw inferences too?

He said lightly, 'Depends how I'm feeling.'

When they got home, Wen Fu's noodles had two eggs in them.

On his way back after Lin's Convenience Store closed, Fei Bolin also brought home the Space Heater from the shop.

The Space Heater was the cheapest kind of little radiant heater. It used heating coils, and the second you flipped the switch, it'd warm up in a few seconds.

Wen Fu had his head down over the bowl and ate until he was full. While he was holding the bowl and drinking the soup, he caught, out of the corner of his eye, Fei Bolin squatting in front of the Space Heater and fiddling with it nonstop.

Still hugging his bowl, he squatted over too. As he drank his soup, he watched Fei Bolin use stainless steel wire to make a simple cover. After putting it over the Space Heater, he draped two tablecloths over it, then went to the balcony and set Wen Fu's canvas sneakers inside, the pair Wen Fu had scrubbed spotless last night. Left like that overnight, the shoes would dry inside the cover.

Since Wen Fu had the thousand-meter run tomorrow, and there weren't any suitable shoes at home and no money for a dryer, and with the weather getting colder by the day so canvas shoes would freeze his feet, Fei Bolin came up with this fix on the spot.

The only thing to watch out for was that leaving the heater on all night might make it malfunction. But Fei Bolin planned to get up once in the middle of the night and switch it off, then wake up a little earlier tomorrow and dry them another hour. That should do it.

The glow from the Space Heater painted both their eyes red. After setting the shoes in place, Fei Bolin turned and saw Wen Fu staring at the covered setup with his eyes wide, like Fei Bolin had just done some kind of magic trick.

'Done eating?' He took the bowl from Wen Fu, pulling his attention away. 'If you are, go wash up. The practice papers are in the outer pocket of the backpack. There's a desk lamp on the desk. Finish the papers and get to sleep early.'

Wen Fu licked his lips, grabbed his bath towel and hand towel, and ducked into the bathroom.

As Fei Bolin headed for the kitchen, he called after him, 'Don't stay in there too long. Be out in half an hour.'

'Okay—'

Wen Fu might never remember things for long, but for the moment, he could still listen. After Fei Bolin reminded him, he washed up fast tonight and came right out. He neatly put his dirty clothes in the washing machine just like Fei Bolin told him to, then hung his clean underwear out on the balcony.

There were only a few plastic stools in the house and one chair in the room. Fei Bolin had moved a stool into the room ahead of time. When he finished blow-drying his hair and walked in, he saw that Wen Fu had left the chair for him and was sitting barefoot, cross-legged on the plastic stool, head down at the desk grinding through problems.

Fei Bolin rummaged through the wardrobe, found a pair of thick winter socks, and told Wen Fu to put them on himself.

Wen Fu put one foot on the stool and one on a slipper, rested his chin on his knee, and looked down as he pulled on the socks.

It was obvious he really liked the socks Fei Bolin gave him. He slowly worked one onto his foot with a serious, almost fascinated expression, while the white-pink toes on the other foot spread and curled upward, waiting their turn.

Arms folded, Fei Bolin leaned against the wardrobe. Watching Wen Fu put on a sock with this much ceremony while his hair, under the desk lamp, was a messy explosion like a black cat that had been electrocuted, he couldn't help saying, half joking and half serious, 'You eat my food and wear my stuff. Calling me gege wouldn't even be too much.'

Who knew if Wen Fu had heard him clearly. In between pulling on the sock, he turned his face and glanced at him, then switched feet and kept going without a word.

The next morning, when Wen Fu opened his eyes, that pair of sneakers was sitting by the bed.

He slid his feet into them. They were warm all the way through.

The blanket, the clothes, the shoes, all of it carried that clean, fresh scent of laundry detergent.

Wen Fu had gone from a filthy stray cat to a freshly cleaned house cat.