44

After prepping the New Year's Eve dinner ingredients, Fei Bolin used the leftover meat and flour to make two steaming bowls of dough-drop soup. He added sesame oil and his own fried chili oil to it, and the layer of fried minced meat and scallions on top was crispy and fragrant. Wen Fu swallowed hard at the smell, so Fei Bolin gave him a huge portion — straight into a big bowl.

Just in case Wen Fu still wasn't full, he left some in the pot on purpose.

Surprisingly, once Wen Fu finished his bowl tonight, he put his chopsticks down. No sign of going for seconds.

Fei Bolin asked, "Done?"

Wen Fu shook his head. "Done."

Then he ran off to fiddle with his new phone.

Fei Bolin figured he'd definitely stuffed himself silly on those strawberries.

He snorted coldly. What was it he'd said before?

So he scooped up the remaining dough drops from the kitchen and ate them himself.

Meanwhile, Wen Fu was tapping open app after app on his phone. Most of them weren't worth looking at, but he swiped to a few Fei Bolin had downloaded for him specifically — besides the video app and browser, there was QQ.

Wen Fu stared at the QQ penguin icon for a while, then suddenly remembered how Xie Yining had tried to add him as a friend back in the classroom.

At the time, Xie Yining had even reminded him to accept the friend request.

And his QQ hadn't been logged into once since Fei Bolin had created the account for him.

Wen Fu tapped the penguin icon, typed in his account and password, and logged in — only to find that Xie Yining's friend request had expired.

And his friend list had only one account sitting quietly in it: Fei Bolin's.

Fei Bolin had added himself on the day he made the account. The moment he finished and stepped out of the bathroom, that whole scene he'd rather not remember had happened.

Right now he was standing at the sink, finished washing dishes and drying his hands, when his phone buzzed in his pocket.

Fei Bolin pulled out his phone and saw that Wen Fu's QQ had sent him a [/smile] emoji.

It was the first emoji in the chat list. Fei Bolin smiled — he knew Wen Fu had finally figured his way to QQ.

"I got your message." He walked out with his phone, replying as he asked, "Did you send one to anyone else?"

Wen Fu lay sprawled on the couch, looking up at him. "There's no one else."

"No one else?" Fei Bolin held his phone screen up to Wen Fu to show him what the message-received interface looked like. "Didn't Xie Yining say she was adding you?"

"She did," Wen Fu sat up and scooted over on the narrow couch to make room for Fei Bolin. "It expired."

"And then?" Fei Bolin asked.

Wen Fu sat cross-legged and tilted his head at Fei Bolin, clearly not getting what "and then" meant.

What was there to "and then" after it expired?

Fei Bolin felt a headache coming on. The road to civilizing Wen Fu was long and arduous.

He took Wen Fu's phone and opened Xie Yining's QQ profile. "If it expired, you add them back yourself. You have to respond to other people's requests. Like how you say thank you when you get something."

He hit "Friend Request" as he spoke.

Wen Fu sat cross-legged beside him, watching him work. "Oh."

Xie Yining accepted the request almost immediately. Fei Bolin handed the phone back to Wen Fu.

Tomorrow was New Year's Eve. There was still a lot to do tonight.

Fei Bolin, as usual, was busy cleaning and tidying up. He had no plans to rest just yet.

Wen Fu took the phone and, as Fei Bolin stood up, craned his neck. "Bo ge?"

Fei Bolin glanced down warily. "What?"

After all this time living together, he'd already figured it out — when Wen Fu called out "Bo ge," there was an eighty percent chance he was up to no good. Though the cat himself probably didn't see it that way.

Wen Fu watched him hesitantly, blinked slowly once, then blinked again. His long lashes cast shadows under the ceiling light. "Are you going to sleep?"

"No," Fei Bolin headed for the balcony. "I'm about to mop the floor."

"Oh."

"Something you need?"

Wen Fu shook his head. "No."

Good that there wasn't.

Fei Bolin didn't want to press.

Whatever the cat was scheming, if he could hold it in, let him hold it in. If he couldn't, it'd come out eventually anyway.

He gave Wen Fu one last casual glance, then went to the balcony for the broom and mop.

Wen Fu twisted his head to watch him go. His phone buzzed — a message from Xie Yining.

[@shiyibushiling: Yo, you actually remembered to add me back. Remembered QQ exists, huh?]

Fei Bolin had set Wen Fu's keyboard to the 26-key layout, and Wen Fu typed very slowly — he had to learn it on the fly.

[@Wen Fu: Mm.]

[@shiyibushiling: Quit pretending]

[@shiyibushiling: I don't buy that anyone goes two whole months without logging into QQ]

Wen Fu pecked at the keyboard like a turtle.

He'd just typed out [Really] when Xie Yining sent another message.

[@shiyibushiling: Why aren't you talking?]

Wen Fu saw it and immediately deleted the [Really] he'd just typed, then slowly pieced together [I'm typing].

Before he could finish, another message from Xie Yining popped up.

[@shiyibushiling: You're not mad, are you?]

Wen Fu thought for a moment, deleted the [I'm typ] he'd just typed, and was about to type [No] when Xie Yining's messages came flooding in one after another.

[@shiyibushiling: Really mad?]

[@shiyibushiling: I was just kidding. If you really didn't log in for two months, I'll reluctantly believe you this once]

[@shiyibushiling: Anyway, you definitely didn't do it on purpose]

After finally piecing together a reply he thought he could send, Wen Fu saw this string of messages and fell into a brief silence.

In the end, he deleted the [No] he'd typed, and as fast as he could, pieced together [Okay] and sent it.

[@shiyibushiling: So cold]

[@shiyibushiling: I said all that and you only gave me two words]

Wen Fu: "..."

Fei Bolin, sweeping nearby, glanced over by accident and saw — for the first time — a thoroughly stumped expression on Wen Fu's face.

That look of grievances with nowhere to air them, complaints with no one to hear — had to be from chatting with Xie Yining.

The little cat finally had someone to put him in his place.

Fei Bolin grinned, secretly delighted.

Wen Fu's phone kept buzzing.

[@shiyibushiling: Wanna add you to the class group?]

Wen Fu prepared to type [Sure].

[@shiyibushiling: You probably haven't joined yet, right]

Wen Fu deleted the [Su] he'd just typed and prepared to type [No].

[@shiyibushiling: Hold on, I'll add you]

[@shiyibushiling: Wait]

Wen Fu's finger hovered over the "Send" button, waiting for her next message.

[@shiyibushiling: You really not gonna change your username?]

Wen Fu backed out to look at his own nickname, then went back to the chat and prepared to type [Not planning to.]

[@shiyibushiling: Who uses their real name as a username]

Wen Fu deleted [Not p] and prepared to type [Me].

[@shiyibushiling: Let me think of one for you]

Wen Fu's typing fingers paused again.

[@shiyibushiling: How about Do-Re-Mi?]

[@shiyibushiling: Why'd you stop talking again]

[@shiyibushiling: Don't like it?]

[@shiyibushiling: Do-Re-Mi is so nice, sounds so cute]

[@shiyibushiling: Where'd you go?]

[@shiyibushiling: Huh? You changed it?]

[@shiyibushiling: Didn't expect that, you're a man of action]

Wen Fu really wanted to say, "I'm not a man of action, you just type too fast and I type too slow, my replies can't keep up with your questions, so I decided to just go change my name directly." But by the time it reached the keyboard, it condensed into just one line:

[Mm]

Which he hurriedly sent.

[@shiyibushiling: So cold. From the start till now, you've only said three words to me total]

Wen Fu: "..."

Fei Bolin, mopping the floor, saw Wen Fu sigh.

Fei Bolin grinned again and again, his inner satisfaction compounding.

[@shiyibushiling: Then I'll invite you to the group]

[@shiyibushiling invited you to group [Class 6 Smooth Sailing]]

Nearly three months after transferring, Wen Fu finally made it into the Class 6 group chat.

The group was drowning in a relay of red packets — whoever grabbed the most from the last one had to send the next. Wen Fu had no money, so he didn't grab any. He looked up at Fei Bolin and noticed the guy was quietly mopping with a strange, secretive smile on his face.

"Bo ge?"

Fei Bolin's smile vanished instantly.

"What's up?" He looked up, dead serious.

Wen Fu: "When are you going to sleep?"

Fei Bolin looked around. Honestly, he'd been tidying up the place bit by bit over the past few days, and with his mild OCD, he was constantly cleaning every corner. He'd said they needed to do a big pre-New-Year's-Eve clean, but tonight, like always, once he mopped the floor there was nothing left to do.

He answered, "Soon. Something you need?"

Wen Fu shook his head again. "No."

"Then go take a shower."

"Oh."

Wen Fu obediently went to shower.

After the shower, Fei Bolin was hanging laundry on the balcony. Wen Fu, in his pajamas, leaned against the doorframe. "Bo ge?"

Fei Bolin: "Talk."

"After you hang the clothes, are you going to sleep?"

Fei Bolin turned back, eyes slightly narrowed, studying him. "What exactly do you want?"

Wen Fu: "Nothing."

He turned and walked back to the room after saying that.

The more Fei Bolin thought about it, the more something felt off. The more he mulled, the more uneasy he got. That unease lasted until he lay down in bed, turned off the lights, and fell asleep with Wen Fu.

Not long after falling asleep, Fei Bolin drifted in and out of dreams and felt the person beside him pull back the covers and start to climb out.

Fei Bolin asked groggily, "What're you doing?"

Wen Fu said, "Bathroom."

Fei Bolin fumbled around and found the pajamas lying on the blanket. "Put these on so you don't catch cold."

Wen Fu took them from his hand without a word.

The footsteps heading to the bathroom grew distant. Fei Bolin quickly sank back into sleep.

After an indeterminate amount of time — maybe two or three minutes, maybe ten or fifteen, time was impossible to gauge in dreams — Fei Bolin had a vague, half-formed dream and somehow remembered that Wen Fu didn't seem to have come back from the bathroom. He reached over to feel beside him. The bed was empty.

Two seconds later, he jolted awake and sat up—

Crap!

-

In the kitchen, Wen Fu was squatting in front of the plate of candied strawberries, eating in the dark, one bite per berry, having the time of his life.

The sugar syrup he'd boiled and poured over the strawberries earlier had hardened — crispy and sweet, crunching loudly between his teeth.

Because he was eating candy, even the loud crunching filling his ears sounded lovely and sweet, making him lose himself in it, oblivious to everything else.

The instant Fei Bolin's voice rose softly behind his ear, Wen Fu's hand trembled, his spine went rigid, every hair on his body stood on end.

The whole world went quiet.

Fei Bolin leaned in close behind Wen Fu's head, his breath lightly stirring Wen Fu's messy hair. His tone sounded calm, but his face was darker than the night.

"Do you know what happens when you sneak New Year's Eve dinner food?"

"..."

A dejected cat was carried out of the kitchen by the scruff.