'I'm Not Going to Hit You'

Yu Fan hadn't spoken to Chen Jingshen for two days straight.

Of course, he hadn't slept either.

He hadn't played on his Mobile Phone either.

Wang Luan'an had been observing him for two days straight, couldn't help shaking his head and sighing: "Even Yu Fan's started paying attention in class—what right do we have not to work hard?"

It was break time, and Yu Fan was staring at the birds outside the window.

Sensitively noticing the person beside him turn a page, Yu Fan immediately turned his head back: "Who said I was paying attention in class?"

Wang Luan'an leaned on the back of Zhang Xianjing's chair: "You haven't touched your phone or slept these two days—if you're not in class, what are you doing?"

"Meditating."

"..."

Zhang Xianjing turned her head: "Wang Luan'an, didn't you say you'd turn over a new leaf these two weeks? How are you still looking for people to play games in the group every night?"

"I do want to turn over a new leaf, but math won't give me that chance. In the workbook, ten problems, ten I can't solve, the solution steps are impossible to understand—maybe I should just drop out."

"That's not impossible."

"..."

After chatting for a bit, Wang Luan'an's gaze drifted toward Chen Jingshen again, for who knows how many times.

Finally, the person who'd been working on problems put down his pen, reaching for the water on the desk.

Wang Luan'an snatched the water bottle! Then, under the puzzled gazes of several people, he unscrewed the cap and, like a sycophant, handed it to Chen Jingshen with both hands.

"Study god, you drink!"

Yu Fan: "?"

Zhang Xianjing: "..."

Chen Jingshen also paused for a moment, only reaching for the water after two seconds.

"Thanks," he said. "What's up?"

Wang Luan'an: "Actually nothing major, but since you asked, I might as well say it."

Chen Jingshen: "."

"Here's the thing, study god—my dad plays baseball, you know the hand strength... If I bomb my midterms again, the parent-teacher meeting will be the day I leave this world. Not only will I get beaten, but I'll have no pocket money, and I might even get kicked out of the house."

Wang Luan'an paused, then tested: "So I was thinking, I heard someone say before that... those top-scoring exam rooms, the proctors aren't very strict?"

Zhang Xianjing: "What are you thinking, Wang Luan'an? You want the study god to help you cheat? Is that possible—though if it really could work, could you send me a copy too?"

Yu Fan: "..."

Dream on.

Someone like Chen Jingshen, even if the person he liked tried to peek at his test paper, he'd probably want to cover it with ten bricks. You really think he'd help you guys cheat?

"No," Chen Jingshen said.

There it is.

Yu Fan twirled his pen and snorted coldly.

Wang Luan'an wilted back: "Fine, I was just trying my luck..."

"But I can help you mark the key points."

"Huh?" Wang Luan'an was stunned.

"You can't understand the questions, probably because you chose the wrong workbook." Chen Jingshen said indifferently. "What was your math score last time?"

Wang Luan'an: "Hehe, I exceeded expectations last finals—got a full 61 points!"

"...What workbook are you using?"

"Higher and More Wonderful High School Math Thinking and Methods."

"..."

Even Ke Ting, who'd been silently listening, couldn't help turning around to quietly say: "Most of those are competition problems."

Zhang Xianjing: "How did you think you deserved a workbook with a name like that?"

Yu Fan wanted to ask the same thing.

"How was I supposed to know? I was browsing the bookstore, thought the title sounded cool, so I bought it." Wang Luan'an said. "Study god, what kind of workbook do you think is right for me?"

Chen Jingshen: "Did you bring last finals paper?"

"Hehe, I was scared my dad would see and beat me again, so I didn't bring it home. I've been hiding it at school since winter break."

"Bring it for me to look at."

Chen Jingshen roughly flipped through the test paper, then tore off a sticky note and wrote a few workbook titles for him.

Wang Luan'an took it and read aloud: "Damn, study god your handwriting is so pretty. Let me see... 2017 High School Must-Do Questions, High School Math Knowledge Summary, Stupid Bird Flies First Evolution Edition 2017..."

Yu Fan: "?"

What's that supposed to mean?

Why does he get the evolution edition?

Yu Fan's lips moved, but in the end he said nothing and turned back to watch the birds outside the window.

"Okay, I'll go buy those when I get back." Wang Luan'an said. "Study god, how do you even know about these workbooks?"

"Researched."

"You researched this? Was your math bad before?"

Ke Ting thought, if you just paid more attention to the grade ranking, you wouldn't ask such a question.

"No." After a long while, Chen Jingshen said lightly, "I researched it for someone else."

The bird circled and flew away. Yu Fan stared at the bare branch and clicked his tongue very softly.

-

On the way back from school, Yu Fan bought a bowl of wonton soup.

The temperature had been rising lately, and he couldn't be bothered to cook.

When he got back to the residential area, he heard the sound of mahjong coming from inside the house. His expression slightly changed, and his hand paused while taking out his key.

After a moment, sensing a gaze on him, Yu Fan turned his head and met eyes with a small head poking out from the stairwell corner.

The little girl sat on the step, just her head visible, blinking at him.

Seeing Yu Fan suddenly walk over, she looked a bit at a loss.

Yu Fan walked up the steps in two or three steps, then squatted down like last time.

"What are you doing here?" He glanced at the backpack behind her and asked.

"Mommy and daddy haven't... come home yet." The little girl's stomach suddenly let out a soft gurgle.

She covered her stomach, a bit flushed.

Yu Fan made a sound of acknowledgment, hooked his finger, and put the wonton soup beside her: "Eat."

After saying that, he stood up to go downstairs, but his coat corner was suddenly grabbed.

The little girl looked up at him, then turned her head to look at Yu Fan's house door.

Before she could speak, Yu Fan suddenly raised his hand and casually ruffled her hair twice.

Then he pulled away, went downstairs, unlocked the door with his key, and entered.

Several grown men were gathered around a table playing mahjong inside. They turned their heads when they heard the noise, and seeing Yu Fan's cold face, their movements and voices couldn't help but lighten a bit.

Only Yu Kaiming, upon seeing him, deliberately raised his volume.

Yu Fan ignored him and went back to his room, locking the door. There was no exchange between father and son.

"Ming-ge, that's your son? He's quite handsome, but why does he look a bit fierce? He didn't even greet anyone when coming in. Are they fighting or what?"

"First time meeting his son?" Another person said habitually, "He and his son have always been like this—never been close."

"Don't bother with him. He's spoiled." Yu Kaiming pushed his mahjong tiles. "Hu le!"

Soon after, the door opened again.

Yu Fan came out from inside. He changed his clothes, clearly just having showered.

Yu Kaiming, cigarette in mouth, glanced at him: "Where are you going at night?"

Yu Fan ignored him, walking to the entrance to put on his shoes.

"I'm goddamn talking to you." Yu Kaiming slapped the table.

Yu Fan opened the front door and walked out.

Yu Kaiming was so angry he was about to curse, when he saw Yu Fan's movement suddenly stop, then he turned back coldly——

"Yu Kaiming, I'm reminding you."

He said icily, "You touch my door again, and I'll knock out your teeth."

Yu Fan finished speaking and closed the door to leave.

The room fell silent for about ten seconds.

Yu Kaiming crushed out his cigarette, suddenly exploding: " goddamn it, today I'm gonna cut off his——"

"No no no no!" The person beside him immediately pulled him back. "It's just a kid talking nonsense—no need to argue with him..."

"Yeah yeah, no need for that. Come on, continue playing cards."

Yu Kaiming wasn't really brave enough to chase after him either. After someone stopped him, he put on a pretense for a bit before sitting back down.

"I'm telling you, Ming-ge, there are plenty of ways to deal with kids. I'll teach you—just cut off his living expenses for ten days or half a month, and after a while he'll definitely listen obediently."

Yu Kaiming sneered, throwing out a mahjong tile: "Only an idiot would give him living expenses."

"Huh?" That person was stunned. "You don't give him money? Where does he get his living expenses then?"

Yu Kaiming exhaled smoke: "His grandpa and his mom both left him some when they left."

"Sister-in-law... left so early? Was she sick, or what?"

At the mention of this, Yu Kaiming's expression instantly turned icy.

The person beside him quietly told him: "No, she ran off with someone way back——"

"Ptooey!" Yu Kaiming turned and spat, cursing loudly, "Bitch! Talking about her brings bad luck, son of a——"

"Okay okay, stop talking about that stuff. Are we playing cards or not?"

-

Yu Fan went to the usual run-down Internet Café.

There weren't many people this time. He found a relatively comfortable couch and lay down to play games for a while.

He chose a shooting game. A four-person team game, but he insisted on solo queuing, jumping to the most crowded spots on the map, landing with a gun and killing people. When surrounded and killed, he'd start a new round, playing like he was venting for an hour.

The character in the game died countless times. His phone on the table rang.

It was Wang Luan'an @-ing him in a discussion group.

This group didn't have many people—just those who usually hung out together to smoke and play cards.

【Wang Luan'an: @- 　Brother, you're at the Internet Café? Cool Boy or where? I can see you're online in the game.】

【Wang Luan'an: goddamn it, I sent you ten messages in the game and you didn't reply to any? @-】

Yu Fan moved his fingers to reply "didn't see," then directly threw a location into the group.

While waiting, he lay on the couch and casually scrolled up through the chat history.

Then he spotted an abrupt group invitation message——

[Wang Luan'an invited s to join the group chat.]

?

What did he invite Chen Jingshen into the group for? To play cards or to smoke?

Yu Fan frowned but couldn't be bothered to type and ask.

After Chen Jingshen joined the group, he hadn't said anything. Probably after joining, he saw Zuo Kuan and the others discussing where to skip class tomorrow, so he just muted the group.

【Wang Luan'an: Oh, I'm just asking, not going over. I just bought the workbooks the study god recommended, about to try my best.】

Yu Fan didn't reply. He threw his phone back on the table and continued solo queuing into the game.

After another hour of battling in the game, Yu Fan was about to start the next round when he noticed a group of people at the front desk.

These people looked like they came in a group to play games. There were many of them and they were loud. Hearing there weren't any connected computer seats, they were about to switch shops.

Yu Fan glanced at the empty seats around him and got up to log off.

The night breeze was cool. There were more pedestrians in this area in the evening. Many late-night food stalls had been set up along the street, white mist rising, making this small street feel even more crowded.

Yu Fan walked out of the Internet Café entrance, took out a cigarette in the nearby corner, and was about to light it——

"Woof——"

A suppressed low whine.

The sound was too close. Yu Fan still had the lighter in his hand, instinctively turned his head, and saw a Doberman rushing toward him at full speed.

The Doberman had a metal muzzle, a leather collar, and a dog leash was trailing behind it. Yu Fan thought this dog looked somewhat familiar, but before he could react, the dog had already rushed to his side, and then vigorously——

Rubbed against his leg.

The posture looked like it was about to bite him. The people beside him screamed in fright.

The person involved didn't move at all, instead lowering his head to stare at the dog for a while.

Yu Fan was rubbed back to reality. He bit the unlit cigarette, stared blankly upward along the leash.

Then he saw Chen Jingshen, whose face was calm, but who was holding the leash with both hands and had been dragged along by the dog for most of the road.

They stared at each other for a long moment.

Chen Jingshen: "Can you help me?"

Yu Fan: "..."

"I can't hold onto it."