Chapter 15

Chen Jingshen turned and went back to the counter to buy something; when he returned, the schoolbag lying on the table buzzed.

Yu Fan raised an eyebrow, surprised that a student like Chen Jingshen would bring his phone to school.

Chen Jingshen took out his phone; the caller ID on the screen read 'Mom'.

Yu Fan felt his shoulder tense for a split second. Chen Jingshen lowered his eyelids without expression, staring at the screen, not answering for a long time.

Yu Fan chalked it up to the guilt a good student feels right after acting out, just before picking up a call from a parent.

But Chen Jingshen's guilty reaction seemed a little different from everyone else's.

Actually, Hu Pang probably hadn't recognized that the person he'd dragged along was Chen Jingshen, but Yu Fan still wanted to scare him.

'Answer it. Worst case, you get a beating.' He stood up, his tone lazy. 'I'm leaving.'

He turned and had just taken a step when someone grabbed the back of his school uniform jacket.

Yu Fan looked back, frowning. 'What now...'

A plastic bag was handed to him — the one Chen Jingshen had just brought back from the counter.

'Eat it when you get home,' Chen Jingshen said.

Yu Fan took it on reflex and was about to say he didn't want it when Chen Jingshen had already answered the phone, turning his head slightly and giving a flat 'Mm.'

Yu Fan: '...'

-

When Yu Fan got home, no one was there.

This was already the norm. Half the month Yu Kaiming spent out looking for odd jobs with his unreliable friends; the other half he spent either drinking at the bar or playing cards and betting on games, and even when he did come home it was always in the middle of the night.

If they were lucky, they wouldn't run into each other once a month.

The living room table was a mess — empty beer bottles and leftover takeout boxes covered the tabletop and floor, and the whole room reeked of a pungent, unpleasant smell.

Yu Fan was used to it. He casually grabbed a trash bag, stuffed all the bottles in, and took them out to the dumpster at the entrance of the complex.

When he came back, the phone on the table was ringing.

[S: Are you home yet?]

Yu Fan stared at the profile picture for a few seconds before it clicked who it was.

Chen Jingshen had changed his avatar.

Yu Fan tapped his finger, opened the full image, and took a look.

It was a photo of an adult Doberman. The dog had solid muscles, smooth and glossy fur, and wore a collar and a metal muzzle — if it were taken to the neighboring school and barked a couple of times, it would probably scare off quite a few people.

Someone so gentle, yet he keeps a dog like that?

Wasn't he afraid the dog would drag him along when he walked it?

Yu Fan opened the keyboard to reply, but stopped after typing two characters.

Since when did coming home require checking in? Were they that close?

Yu Fan tossed his phone onto the bed and turned into the bathroom.

He took off his clothes and instinctively reached to tear off the band-aid on his hand, but his fingers paused as soon as they touched it.

How could Chen Jingshen be so delicate, carrying band-aids around with him?

They even seemed to be waterproof.

A moment later, the hand wrapped in the band-aid gave a gentle tug, and hot water poured down from above.

After coming out, Yu Fan rubbed his hair dry with a towel in one hand while using the other to open the plastic bag and glance inside casually.

Inside lay two sandwiches and a carton of Shuhua milk.

He tore open one sandwich, bit into it, swiped around on his phone a couple of times, then tapped open the dog avatar.

[-: I'm home. What do you want?]

[S: College Entrance Exam Sprint, pages 3-4; Physics Helper, page 13; memorize the essay 'Chen Qing Biao'; and Chinese workbook page 27, ancient poetry reading...]

[-: ?]

[S: Weekend homework.]

'...'

If I reply to you again, I'm an idiot.

-

Monday, after the flag-raising ceremony, they returned to the classroom. The first period was supposed to be physics, but the physics teacher had something come up and swapped it with the afternoon self-study period.

Zhuang Fangqin sat at the front supervising their self-study; Hu Pang, hands clasped behind his back, walked to the door of their classroom.

The two teachers' eyes met, and they nodded at each other.

Hu Pang leaned in and scanned the classroom.

The class changed seats every week; this time Yu Fan was sitting by the wall.

Yu Fan leaned half his body lazily against the wall, met Hu Pang's gaze, and nodded at him too.

'Who told you to nod? Was I greeting you?' Hu Pang said. 'Get out here!'

'...'

Yu Fan poked Chen Jingshen. 'Move, I need to get out.'

Chen Jingshen glanced at him and stood up to make room.

Yu Fan brushed past him, dropping a low sentence before he left: 'If Fatty Hu calls you out later to ask anything, don't admit a single thing.'

In the hallway, Hu Pang rubbed his own hair. 'Last Friday, in that black Internet Cafe behind the school — the one running at the front, that was you, right?'

Zhuang Fangqin followed out worriedly; upon hearing this, she couldn't help frowning and shooting a glare at the person beside her.

Yu Fan: 'I...'

'Don't you try to deny it!' Hu Pang said excitedly. 'I didn't get a clear look at the others, but I recognized you! I've chased that back of yours too many times! Don't say ten years from now, or twenty years, or when I'm old and can't run anymore and have dementia — if you so much as flash in front of me, I'll recognize you at a glance!'

Yu Fan: 'That's a bit much...'

'You think running helps? The monk can run but not the temple — no matter how fast or far you run, you still have to come back to school on Monday! I even went to confirm with a few classmates who were at the Internet Cafe at the time—'

'I'm not denying it. It was me,' Yu Fan said. 'Dean, catch your breath. Don't get yourself all worked up.'

Hu Pang: '...'

Hu Pang unscrewed his thermos, took a sip of water, then said, 'Do you realize that if you get one more demerit now, you'll be put on probation?'

Yu Fan leaned against the wall. 'Is that so.'

'What kind of attitude is that! Be serious! Stand up straight!' Zhuang Fangqin barked.

She then turned to Hu Pang and said, 'Dean, what he did was wrong, but I don't think it warrants a demerit, does it? Probation goes into a student's file and follows them for life. I think we should give him a chance to reform.'

'Haven't I given him enough chances?' Hu Pang said. 'Yu Fan, you tell me yourself — that night, didn't I give you a chance? I told you to stop and not run! And you? You almost broke the world record for long-distance running!'

Hu Pang's voice kept rising, and fragments of it drifted into the classroom, making the students inside can't help looking out.

Yu Fan told the truth: 'Too far away. I didn't hear you.'

'...'

Hu Pang didn't actually want to give him a demerit.

After issuing a warning that the other party didn't care about at all, Hu Pang cleared his throat. 'Fine. You tell me who it was you were holding hands with that night, then write a three-thousand-word self-criticism, and we'll let it slide this time.'

Yu Fan: 'I wasn't holding anyone. You saw wrong.'

'Don't play dumb. I saw it clearly that night.' Hu Pang started bluffing. 'If I remember right, it was Wang Lu'an.'

Wang Lu'an: '???'

Yu Fan frowned. 'I told you, there's no one.'

Hu Pang nodded. 'Fine. You've got ten minutes until class ends. Think it over carefully. If you really want to be put on probation, then keep being stubborn...'

'It was me.' A voice came from behind.

'I knew I hadn't seen wrong,' Hu Pang said, turning around satisfied. 'Wang Lu'an, you come out too—'

Hu Pang: '...'

Hu Pang: '?'

Two minutes later, Hu Pang looked at the boy standing beside him and felt his head ache even more than after running that marathon that night.

Hu Pang: 'Jingshen, you... what's going on?'

Chen Jingshen glanced at the person leaning against the wall.

Yu Fan looked away and ignored him.

So all his words just now had been for nothing.

Hu Pang caught that exchange of looks. 'Did someone threaten you to take the fall?'

'No,' Chen Jingshen said. 'Dean, the one holding hands with him that night was me.'

Yu Fan turned his head back. 'Who the hell was holding hands with you?'

Chen Jingshen corrected himself: 'You were holding me.'

'Grabbing,' Yu Fan ground his teeth. 'It's called grabbing.'

Hu Pang: '...'

Zhuang Fangqin: '?'

'Alright,' Hu Pang interrupted them with a complicated expression. 'Jingshen, what were you doing at the black Internet Cafe?'

Chen Jingshen said, 'Watching online lessons.'

'...'

Before Hu Pang could recover, Chen Jingshen added, 'Actually, classmate Yu was also watching online lessons.'

Hu Pang: '...'

Yu Fan: '?'

Yu Fan turned his head to look at Chen Jingshen; the other party was as expressionless as usual, without a single crack.

Lying is the advantage you poker-faced people have, isn't it?

Hu Pang wasn't convinced. 'Yu Fan, what online lessons were you watching?'

'The concept of the Law of Sines and the concept of the Law of Cosines,' Yu Fan said woodenly. 'The lecturer was you, wearing a dashing suit.'

Hu Pang left.

Before he went, he rubbed his own little snub nose with a mix of pride and shyness. 'I recorded those lessons many years ago. I didn't expect anyone was still watching them. That basic course is indeed suitable for you... It's good to make up for your academic shortcomings in your spare time, but you have to choose the right way. If you want to watch online lessons again in the future, come use the computer in my office. No more going to the black Internet Cafe. Consider this a one-time exception, understand?'

Yu Fan watched his back and felt an inexplicable guilt, like he'd tricked a kid.

He turned to go back to the classroom, but Zhuang Fangqin called him back.

'Hold on,' Zhuang Fangqin's gaze swept across both their faces. 'After school this afternoon, you two wait for me on the track field.'

Chen Jingshen stopped walking; Yu Fan paused. 'Why?'

'Practice. The school sports meet is at the end of this month, and the 4x400 relay is short two people,' Zhuang Fangqin said. 'You two can run, can't you? Fill in.'

'...'

-

'You two get caught and run the 4x400, while I didn't get caught and have to fucking run the 3000 meters — where the hell is the justice in that!'

On the track field, after venting at the sky, Wang Lu'an suddenly remembered there was someone else beside him. '...Study god, I hope my swearing didn't scare you.'

Chen Jingshen said, 'It didn't.'

'Fang Qin's here,' Yu Fan said flatly. 'Keep your voice up, see if you can get her to hear.'

'Forget it, forget it.'

More than half the class was participating in the sports meet. Everyone gathered loosely, and students from other classes were also assembling nearby — the scene was quite spectacular.

Their class had come in last place in the grade at last year's sports meet, and Zhuang Fangqin had lost face completely. This time she was determined to turn things around and absolutely not finish at the bottom.

So her first measure was to drag back all the boys who had skipped the last sports meet and assign them events.

Zhuang Fangqin picked a relay starting point and called the relay runners over to practice baton passes.

Yu Fan swept a sidelong glance at the person beside him.

Chen Jingshen was half-kneeling, tying his shoelaces. He had taken off his jacket, and the school T-shirt clung to his back, outlining the contour of his shoulder blades.

This guy gets winded after two steps — can he even run a relay?

The moment Chen Jingshen looked up and stood, Yu Fan quickly averted his gaze.

Whatever, none of my business. He asked for it.

Their class had the fewest athletes in the grade — just one, a boy.

Zhuang Fangqin gave him the responsibility of the first leg, the class monitor the second, Chen Jingshen the third, and Yu Fan the anchor leg.

After Chen Jingshen received the baton, Wang Lu'an's head followed him as he ran. 'Hey, Chen Jingshen's speed is actually not bad — not slow... but then again, he could keep up with Yu Fan's pace that night.'

Having just watched the other boys' big foreheads and nostrils flaring in the wind, Zhang Xianjing remarked, 'The main thing is, he doesn't look ugly when he runs.'

'Yu Fan doesn't look ugly when he runs either.'

'Mm, so have you noticed?' Zhang Xianjing's eyes darted. 'How many girls have passed by our class area?'

Yu Fan didn't say anything. He walked onto the track, jogged forward, and reached his hand back.

Taking the baton from Chen Jingshen's hand, he pushed off and ran out like the wind.

'Not bad, study god.' Wang Lu'an put his arm around Chen Jingshen's shoulder. 'You run fast.'

Chen Jingshen frowned slightly but didn't shake him off. 'Thanks.'

Wang Lu'an: 'Want some water?'

Chen Jingshen looked at the other side of the track. 'No thanks.'

Wang Lu'an followed the study god's gaze and saw his own good buddy running with his hair flying everywhere, his exposed face devastatingly handsome.

'Wang Lu'an, see that girl over there? The one standing by the finish line.' Zhang Xianjing nudged Wang Lu'an's arm.

Chen Jingshen heard this and unconsciously glanced over as well.

Wang Lu'an: 'I see her. She's from Class 4, I've heard of her. Pretty good-looking.'

Zhang Xianjing glared at him. 'Am I prettier or is she prettier?!'

'You, you, you,' Wang Lu'an said. 'So what about her?'

'Just watch,' Zhang Xianjing said confidently. 'That bottle of water in her hand is definitely for Yu Fan.'

Yu Fan stopped at the finish line, and sure enough, the girl walked toward him holding the water.

But Yu Fan didn't see her. He raised the back of his hand to wipe his nose and walked straight toward them.

'Holy shit, Yu Fan, you're something else.' Seeing him approach, Wang Lu'an was stunned and gave a thumbs-up. 'But wait, behind you—'

Yu Fan frowned. 'If you can't run, then don't run.'

Wang Lu'an: '?'

'To be honest, the 3000 meters is a bit tough, but there's no way around it — Fang Qin said if I don't run, I have to be the water boy for the athletes... Where are you going?' Wang Lu'an watched blankly as Yu Fan walked past him, heading behind him.

Wang Lu'an turned around and froze.

The person who hadn't even breathed heavily after finishing his run was now sitting on the grass, exhausted as if he'd just taken down ten oxen.

'I can run, just my legs are weak,' Chen Jingshen said. 'Can you help me up?'

Wang Lu'an: '...'

Huh?

Isn't your body's reflex arc a little too long?