'Just let me lean here for a bit'

Yu Fan wanted to pull his hand back, but he felt that if he did, Chen Jingshen would fall to the ground.

So he could only hold the person with one hand and grip the water cup with the other.

The plastic cup crackled under his grip, the liquid inside swaying helplessly left and right.

It wasn't until a new customer walked into the Convenience Store and looked at them with surprise and confusion that Yu Fan belatedly called himself an idiot.

Yu Fan propped up Chen Jingshen's face with his hand, sat down next to him, and then picked up his schoolbag and put it on the table.

'Get up.' He shook the person in his arms and pointed at the schoolbag. 'Sleep on this.'

Chen Jingshen half-lifted his eyelids and said okay.

Before Chen Jingshen lay down, his collar was lightly tugged again.

Yu Fan's voice was displeased: 'Drink this before you sleep.'

Chen Jingshen took the cup.

Like the cup of sugar-salt water before, this honey water was sickeningly sweet.

Whether before or now, Yu Fan always liked to fill things to the brim.

Forcing himself to finish the honey water, Chen Jingshen rested his elbow on the schoolbag and lay quietly on his side.

His eyelids drooped slightly, and with drunken, hazy eyes, he stared at the mole on Yu Fan's cheek.

Yu Fan casually opened a mobile game to kill time. A few seconds later, he said coldly, 'Turn your head away and sleep.'

Chen Jingshen said, 'Afraid you'll leave.'

'...' Too lazy to argue with a drunk, Yu Fan opened Snake Game. 'If I were going to leave, I'd have left already.'

Chen Jingshen was silent for two seconds, as if thinking.

After thinking, he decided that made sense, so he closed his eyes and fell asleep in the same position.

After one round of the game ended, Yu Fan stared at the score screen. He released and clenched his right hand, then pressed hard with his finger on the spot where his lips had touched earlier, leaving a faint crescent mark.

He glanced to the side.

The red on Chen Jingshen's face had faded. The wet hair on his forehead was scattered messily, his fingers curled and resting on the edge of the schoolbag, his hunched shoulders and back rising and falling steadily with his breath.

He was tall, and sleeping between the Convenience Store tables and chairs made him look a bit awkward.

Every day during the long break after second period, the whole class would be lying on their desks catching up on sleep, but Chen Jingshen would sit steadily, occasionally twirling his pen idly. Even at his most relaxed, he would only prop up his arm and press it against his temple.

And now this kind of person was curled up in the Convenience Store, sleeping on his schoolbag.

His mobile phone buzzed a few times, snapping Yu Fan back to reality.

[Wang Luan'an: How's the top student? Holy shit, I just took a look, several of the drinks he had were hard liquor, the lights were too dim so I didn't see clearly.]

[-: Not bad.]

[-: Probably.]

[Wang Luan'an: ...Don't scare me.]

[Wang Luan'an: Why aren't you back yet? Haven't you dropped him off yet? Zuo Kuan and those assholes took advantage of your absence and teamed up with a few guys from their class to drink me under the table. Come back quick and save me!]

The person next to him stirred, probably uncomfortable sleeping, and moved his arm very lightly.

Yu Fan's fingers paused on the screen for two seconds, then typed.

[-: Not coming back.]

[-: You're on your own.]

Chen Jingshen woke up after lying down for about ten minutes.

He first glanced around him, as if to confirm whether the person was still there. Then he slowly sat up straight, leisurely adjusted his collar, and reached out to open the schoolbag he had been using as a pillow.

Hearing the movement, Yu Fan didn't look up: 'Not feeling bad anymore?'

'A little bit,' Chen Jingshen said, then coughed softly.

'...'

How come sleeping makes him even more delicate?

Yu Fan said stiffly, 'Then keep sleeping.'

'I won't sleep anymore,' Chen Jingshen said. 'If I sleep more, it'll be too late.'

How could it be too late? Wasn't there still over half an hour left?

Yu Fan specifically glanced at the clock, turned his head in confusion, and just happened to see Chen Jingshen pulling out a math test paper from his schoolbag.

Yu Fan frowned: 'What are you doing?'

'Today's homework.'

'...'

Outside the floor-to-ceiling window, people were coming and going. Those near the nightclub, dressed in bright colors, couldn't help but look at the test paper in surprise as they passed.

Yu Fan, like that PE student from Class Eight, never wanted to come to this KTV Lounge again in his life.

He was considering whether to move to another seat when Chen Jingshen suddenly stopped writing and raised his hand to rub his eyes.

The light in the corner of the Convenience Store was a bit dim. Chen Jingshen sat lazily, his handwriting on the scratch paper much messier than usual.

If Chen Jingshen hadn't come tonight, he would have finished these simple assignments long ago. At this moment, he might be sitting at a desk with a lamp, working on those competition problems that make people dizzy just by looking at them.

So why did he come?

'Chen Jingshen,' Yu Fan said lazily.

'Mm.'

'I'm not the same as I was in first year of middle school, am I?'

Chen Jingshen's fingers paused, and he turned his head to look at him.

Their eyes met. Yu Fan's expression was blank as he continued.

'I don't know what kind of special hobby you have, that you would like... notice a person who can't even do a long jump well. But now, whether it's personality, appearance, or anything else, I'm pretty far from who I was back then.'

Chen Jingshen looked at him silently, seeming to ponder his words.

'I'm pretty lousy now, and I'll only get lousier. Remember that time at the Bubble Tea Shop at the start of the semester? To be honest, the moment you looked at me, I wanted to punch you.'

'I'm not the person you liked back then. Do you understand?'

The person next to him still didn't make a sound.

Yu Fan thought his words must have worked. A normal person hearing this would probably be pretty scared.

If he were Chen Jingshen, he would have already picked up his schoolbag and left, and also called the teacher to change seats or even classes.

Yu Fan curled his fingers. Somehow, he suddenly felt like smoking.

He was just about to get up and buy some at the counter.

'At that time, so many people at the School Gate were looking at you,' Chen Jingshen said calmly. 'Why did you only want to punch me?'

'...'

What a strange point of focus?

'Maybe because you have the most punchable face,' Yu Fan said expressionlessly.

Chen Jingshen turned his face away and spun his pen.

For a moment, Yu Fan thought he saw the corner of his mouth twitch upward.

?

Before he could see clearly, Chen Jingshen had already turned back.

'Have you ever been to the fifth floor?' he suddenly asked.

Yu Fan was startled: 'Wha...'

'From the railing outside the Class One door, looking down, you can see the entrance to the bathroom on the third floor,' Chen Jingshen said. 'You often smoke there.'

'...'

'I don't like speeches. But during the first flag-raising ceremony in first year of high school, you stood up there with a blank piece of paper and made up a self-criticism letter. You laughed three times while making it up.'

'...' With your writing level, you really don't deserve to like speeches.

'Later, every time the teacher called me, I agreed.'

'...'

'In the second semester of first year, you played basketball with people from other classes. I stood outside the Classroom and watched the whole game. After you won, because someone played dirty and hurt Wang Luan'an's foot, you called that person to the bathroom and had another fight.'

'...??'

Chen Jingshen said calmly, 'You're not lousy. Even in high school, I still like—'

Before he could finish, his mouth was covered by someone.

Yu Fan's skin visibly began to redden, spreading from the roots of his ears to his cheeks. He frowned and glared: 'The fuck... don't say anymore.'

More people outside the window were looking in. Yu Fan's heart was beating faster than when he fought. His shoulders rose and fell rapidly, and he loosened his hand slightly.

Chen Jingshen's lips had just moved when Yu Fan covered his mouth again with the back of his hand.

This time he covered too hastily, and his palm just barely touched Chen Jingshen's lips. The image of someone holding his hand and kissing it in the private room flashed through his mind, and he immediately pulled his hand away as if electrocuted.

'If you dare say another word,' Yu Fan's breath trembled as he blurted out, 'I won't talk to you for the rest of my life.'

After saying that, Yu Fan was stunned for a moment.

What the hell am I saying?

Isn't that the kind of line only elementary school kids use?

He coldly, with a red face, gritted his teeth and corrected himself word by word: 'I mean I'll beat you until you can't speak.'

Chen Jingshen didn't make a sound.

Yu Fan: 'Nod.'

Chen Jingshen twisted the pen in his hand and nodded silently.

Yu Fan stared at him. After confirming that Chen Jingshen wasn't going to say anything more, he forcefully tapped the test paper on the table: 'Shut up and write.'

For the next half hour, Yu Fan was like a snail shrinking into its shell, not lifting his head once.

He had never played Snake Game so badly.

The snake on the screen was led by him in twists and turns, hitting other big snakes wherever it went, and dying within two minutes.

After barely making it to the end of Chen Jingshen's tutoring time, he irritably turned off the game.

'Pack up,' he said. 'Let's go.'

Chen Jingshen glanced at him, wrote a line on the paper, and then moved the scratch paper in front of him.

-Can I talk now?

Both are childish.

Yu Fan put his hands in his pockets: 'No.'

Yu Fan threw both the person and the schoolbag into the taxi.

Before closing the car door, he hesitated for a moment, then leaned down again and said coldly, 'Driver, he's drunk. Drive slowly.'

-

The scenery outside the car window receded rapidly like a revolving lantern.

The taxi drove all the way to the most expensive luxury mansion district in Nancheng City.

When they arrived at the destination, the driver couldn't help but look inside. This area was extremely expensive, and every household inside was a single-family villa with its own courtyard.

The driver turned around and said, 'Young man, we're here...'

The person behind him sat upright, his eyes clear. There was no sign of drunkenness at all.

Chen Jingshen glanced at the meter, paid and got out of the car under the driver's stunned gaze: 'Thanks.'

At ten o'clock at night, the pitch-black luxury villa, surrounded by dense greenery, showed no sign of life, as if it had been uninhabited for a long time.

The black iron gate slowly opened like a bloody maw.

Chen Jingshen had just closed the door when the Dog House on the right side of the Garden immediately let out a few excited barks: 'Woof woof woof——'

Chen Jingshen casually threw his schoolbag onto a stone bench, walked to the doghouse, and untied the leash.

Fanfan immediately pounced on him.

'Woof woof woo—'

'Keep your voice down,' Chen Jingshen patted him lightly twice. 'Sit.'

'Woof!'

Chen Jingshen rested one hand on the dog's head and took out his mobile phone from his pocket with the other, turning it on.

The phone screen instantly popped up with more than thirty messages—

[Mom: Why aren't you home yet?]

[Mom: Where are you?]

[Mom: Auntie left dinner for you in the fridge.]

[Mom: Are you home? I didn't see you on the surveillance camera.]

[Mom: I checked the surveillance from the past few days. You've been coming home later than before recently.]

...

Chen Jingshen coldly curled his fingers and closed the message notifications one by one.

He didn't turn on the lights. The Garden was pitch black. He sat silently in the darkness, and no matter how Fanfan rubbed against him, he didn't say a word.

After who knows how long, he took out his phone again, opened an app he had only recently downloaded, and sent a message to his top friend.

[s: I'm home.]

The nickname '-' instantly disappeared and became 'typing...'

Two minutes later, it was still 'typing...'

Chen Jingshen was petting Fanfan's fur, his movements a bit perfunctory. Fanfan immediately whined in dissatisfaction.

Five minutes later, 'typing...' disappeared, and a cold word was spat out from the other end of the chat box—

[-: Fuck off.]

Chen Jingshen stared at this word for a few seconds, then suddenly lowered his head and lifted the corner of his mouth in a faint smile.