Chapter 35

On the ride home. Chen Jingshen estimated the time, took out his phone and sent a message to Yu Fan.

[s: Can we still video call tonight?]

Sent successfully.

Not blocked.

When he got home, the auntie had already made dinner. The middle-aged woman wiped her hands on her apron and gave a dry smile. 'You're back... I've made dinner. Eat it while it's hot?'

Even though she'd been cooking for this family for over a year, the kid in this family—or rather, the whole family was pretty cold, and their way of interacting was strange. So she still felt a bit awkward every time she talked to them.

After all, she'd been doing this job for so many years, and this was the first time she'd seen a house with so many monitors—almost everywhere except the bathroom. It made her nervous the whole time she was working.

Maybe this was just what rich families were like.

'Mm.' The boy glanced at her as usual, and said, 'Just leave it on the table. You can go back.'

After eating, Chen Jingshen took a shower. When he came out, his phone still had no messages.

But the group chat was lively with conversation.

[-: A few of us, come play games at nine.]

[Wang Luan'an: ?]

[Zuo Kuan: Am I seeing this right? Is Nancheng No.7 Middle School's future top-of-the-year personally inviting us to game? I'm in.]

[Wang Luan'an: Then I'll reluctantly play a bit too.]

[Zuo Kuan: @- Where are you? Five minutes to nine and you're missing from your own game session?]

...

Yu Fan had dropped a line and never surfaced again. It seemed like he wasn't really planning to play games, but had found a way to tell someone: I'm not coming at nine.

Chen Jingshen stared at that sentence a few times, opened the drawer to get a notebook, and his peripheral vision caught the notebook that had been placed at the very back.

His motion of drying his hair paused. After a moment, he stood up, picked up the black cloth beside him, and tossed it easily over the door, skillfully covering the camera above.

Chen Jingshen returned to the desk, pulled out that black-covered notebook, and flipped through it casually.

A few folded slips of paper tucked inside were revealed.

Rectangular, the edges cut very roughly, and two of them had torn corners.

But compared to the writing on them, everything else seemed less damaged.

Because the handwriting was really ugly.

The writing was in pencil, crooked and wobbly, with characters and pinyin mixed together, like spring earthworms and autumn snakes—among elementary school kids, it was the messiest batch. If you showed it to others, probably ten out of ten wouldn't understand what was written.

But Chen Jingshen could understand it.

Because the person who gave him this paper was kneeling on the ground at the time, muttering as he wrote—

'Strength charm, awesome charm, no-cry charm, brave charm... How do you spell "brave"? Chen Jingshen?'

Chen Jingshen told him, then said the pinyin for the other word was also wrong—it was "li hai", not "ni hai".

'You're wrong, it's "ni hai". The teacher taught me.'

The little boy, fresh from a fight and covered in dirt, seriously corrected his mistake, then stuffed these papers into his hand, rubbed his nose, and said with his head held high.

'Don't cry anymore. So what if they tore up your Safety Charm? Take these Charms. From now on, I'll protect you.'

It was a long time before Chen Jingshen moved. He gently rubbed the 'Charms' with his fingers, then silently tucked them back in and put them away.

-

Yu Fan sat on the balcony leaning against the iron railing, drinking two cans of ice-cold beer in the wind, but his heart was still pounding heavily.

Chen Jingshen's surprise attacks weren't the first time...

Why the hell does each one piss me off more than the last?!

He took another sip, staring at the yellow light next door, feeling it looked like the sunset behind Chen Jingshen.

'Gege.' A clear call came from downstairs.

Yu Fan tilted his head to look down. 'What?'

It was the little girl who lived upstairs from him. She was at the stairwell on the first floor, looking up to meet his eyes.

After eating his wontons last time, she wasn't as scared of him anymore.

She asked, 'Gege, your face is really red. Are you drunk?'

'...'

Yu Fan said expressionlessly, 'Yeah, when I'm drunk I like to hit kids. Wait for me down there.'

The little girl's eyes widened in shock, then she turned and ran away with a clatter.

In the end, Yu Fan went to play games anyway.

Spilled water can't be taken back. He was planning to flake at nine, but his three buddies were already waiting for him online.

And he figured, instead of sitting on the balcony cooling off, he might as well go online and kill some people to vent.

He played absentmindedly lying in bed, dying as soon as he landed, and immediately regretted it.

Might as well have just sat in the wind.

The second he became a crate, he swiped the screen to exit, checked the time, and then looked at WeChat.

No messages.

He stared at a certain profile picture and cursed through gritted teeth.

What does that mean? I just gave a hint, and he really won't call?

Then why didn't you listen when I told you not to confess?!

Selective obedience, huh?

Asking for a punch.

Yu Fan tensed his eyelids, raised his fist at that dog profile picture in annoyance, and was about to go back to the game—

The profile picture suddenly jumped to the top of the list, and a '1' appeared above the Doberman's right ear.

Chen Jingshen had sent a video explaining problems.

When Yu Fan switched back to the game, the other three buddies were still fighting.

Seeing him return, Wang Luan'an said, 'Holy shit, Yu Fan, why'd you leave just now? You didn't see me go god-mode and massacre everyone...'

'You guys play, I'm out.'

'??' Zuo Kuan said, 'You called us here, played one round and you're leaving? What are you doing?!'

Yu Fan: 'Going to look at a dog.'

Yu Fan quit the game, sat at the desk, and opened that video.

The moment Chen Jingshen's voice sounded, Yu Fan instinctively lifted his phone a little higher.

'...'

Realizing his own face wouldn't appear on the screen, Yu Fan rubbed his nose hard, his ears reddening in embarrassment, and buried his head in the problems.

-

Saturday morning at 7:30, a group of slouching boys gathered at the entrance of the Bubble Tea Shop.

The shop owner checked her phone repeatedly to confirm it was indeed a day off.

Zuo Kuan chain-smoked to stay awake. 'You sure you don't want one? Not tired?'

Yu Fan played on his phone lazily. 'No. Hurry up, finish that one and we're going in.'

'Got it...' Zuo Kuan glanced to the side, let out an 'ay', and nudged the person next to him with his elbow. 'The study god is here.'

Yu Fan abruptly looked up.

Nancheng City was hot in summer and cold in winter; by May, the temperature was already higher than many other cities.

Chen Jingshen had finally taken off his school uniform jacket completely. With his long arms and legs, the summer uniform made him look even more striking and sharp than before.

Before Chen Jingshen heard the noise and looked over, Yu Fan had already quickly lowered his head again.

Zuo Kuan's impression of the study god had improved a lot these past two days. He asked, 'Study god, can I copy off you later?'

Chen Jingshen glanced at the person beside him and said flatly, 'No.'

'...'

You could at least pretend and say 'I'll try'.

No reaction from the side. Zuo Kuan turned his head and said again, 'Hey, your deskmate is here.'

Yu Fan: 'So what if he's here? What's that got to do with me? Why are you reporting to me?'

'...'

Weren't you getting along fine with him before? How did it become nothing overnight?!

After saying that, Yu Fan lowered his head again, not looking at Chen Jingshen once.

He had said before that if Chen Jingshen dared to say those two words again, he would never speak to him for the rest of his life.

The most important thing for a man is to keep his word.

'Holy shit!' Someone beside him suddenly yelled. 'Hu Pang is coming!'

A few boys quickly put out their cigarettes!

Hu Pang wasn't wearing his glasses at the moment, so he didn't see clearly what they were doing.

So he stood at the School Gate, squinting and shouting, 'The exam starts in twenty minutes! What are you still standing here for?! Get the hell over here—Jingshen, you too, hurry up.'

The group followed Hu Pang toward the Experimental Building. Seeing Chen Jingshen walking at the front, Yu Fan deliberately lagged behind at the very back.

So when he entered the Classroom, the only seat left was the one right in front of Hu Pang.

Next to it was Chen Jingshen.

He clicked his tongue inwardly and sat down expressionlessly.

In the exam room sat a dozen or so bottom-of-the-year students and one top-of-the-year.

Hu Pang swept his gaze around, feeling quite emotional inside.

With ten minutes until the exam started, he held the test papers in both hands, straightened them against the desk, and said, 'This Make-up Exam's papers are different from the other students'. The difficulty is a bit higher—no choice, that's how it has to be for a last-minute make-up. Let me make this clear: during the exam, don't even think about sleeping, don't think about cheating with your Mobile Phone, and definitely don't think about peeking at classmate Chen Jingshen's paper.'

As he said this, his gaze circled around the two classmates on either side of Chen Jingshen.

Yu Fan propped his chin on his hand, playing with his pen, with a sour face thinking who the hell wants to copy.

'Director, isn't Ding Xiao coming for the make-up exam today?' Zuo Kuan sat in the back, asking with a malicious look.

'Spit out your gum!' Hu Pang said. 'His family asked for leave from me... Alright, I said I'll handle this. When school starts on Monday, I'll have a proper talk with him. I'm warning you all—don't think about causing any trouble. Leave everything to the School to handle.'

The last few sentences Hu Pang directed at Yu Fan.

He had approved too many disciplinary slips for Yu Fan, so he roughly knew what kind of person he was.

If people didn't mess with him, he wouldn't mess with them. But if someone did mess with him, he probably wouldn't sleep well until he got back at them.

The person in question indeed hadn't slept well last night.

But not because of Ding Xiao.

Yu Fan himself didn't understand what was going on this time. When he got cornered, he was actually pretty pissed, but then he suddenly put it out of his mind. If Wang Luan'an and the others hadn't kept bringing it up, he would have forgotten about that guy.

Hu Pang was still talking above him. Yu Fan yawned, then unconsciously glanced to the side.

After looking over, he was startled himself.

Why am I looking at him?

Just as Yu Fan was about to look away, he saw Chen Jingshen suddenly reach out, grab the Mineral Water Bottle on the desk, and try to twist it open.

First try, couldn't open it.

Chen Jingshen was wearing the short-sleeved school uniform today, exposing the injury on his hand. The bruising had mostly faded, and there was no band-aid on the wound—just a dark red scab.

Maybe because he pulled at the injury or something, Chen Jingshen frowned slightly.

Second try, still couldn't open it.

Just as Chen Jingshen was about to try a third time, the bottle was snatched away.

He looked up and saw his deskmate staring expressionlessly in another direction, holding his Mineral Water Bottle and twisting it open with ease.

Then his deskmate screwed it back on, placed it on his desk with a 'thump', and turned back to his seat.

Hu Pang, startled mid-sentence by the person who suddenly stood up: '...'

He was about to say 'What kind of attitude is that!' when he saw Chen Jingshen calmly pick up the water and take a sip.

The Make-up Exam began.

Yu Fan had to admit, Chen Jingshen really was a master at predicting questions.

Problems he couldn't even understand before—this time he actually recognized a lot of them. Of course, there were still more he didn't know, but to reach this level in just over a week was already extremely rare.

Thirty minutes into the exam, the others in the Classroom had started looking at the scenery and playing with their pens.

Only two people were still working.

Hu Pang watched in stunned amazement, walking past Yu Fan several times with his hands behind his back, completely incredulous.

The bell rang to collect the papers. Hu Pang gave the order, and the papers were passed forward from the back.

Zuo Kuan was sitting right behind Yu Fan. As he handed the paper forward, he quietly asked if he wanted to swing by the neighboring school to catch someone.

The neighboring technical school had dorms; most of the students were from the counties or other places, and many lived at school all semester without going home.

On weekends, with no one watching, those thugs actually preferred to come out and hang around.

Yu Fan capped his pen and was about to say something when he heard the sound of a chair being pulled out beside him.

Chen Jingshen stood up and handed his paper to Hu Pang.

'How did you do? Was the paper difficult?' Hu Pang took the opportunity to ask.

'It was okay.' Chen Jingshen paused, then suddenly said, 'Thank you, Director, for giving us this Make-up Exam opportunity.'

'This time is also an exception—it's because of the unexpected incident. You need to remember this lesson; life doesn't give you that many chances to start over,' Hu Pang said, then thought of something and raised an eyebrow sarcastically. 'But for this make-up exam, you should also thank Yu—'

Thump!

A stack of test papers was thrown in front of him, cutting off Hu Pang's words.

Hu Pang's eyes widened. Before he could say 'Yu Fan, you're getting bold, huh', he saw Yu Fan raise his arm—

And hook it around Chen Jingshen's neck.

'Director, see you.'

Dropping that coldly, Yu Fan directly clamped onto Chen Jingshen and walked out of the Classroom.

Chen Jingshen was a bit taller than Yu Fan; he bent his head and let himself be led.

Yu Fan walked fast, only stopping when he felt that even if Hu Pang had eight legs, he couldn't catch up.

Tch, why is Hu Pang's mouth so big? Is it such a rare thing that he has to bring it up even after a whole night?

That was close...

Yu Fan, still shaken, realized he had brought the person under the School's Centenary Banyan Tree.

'Yu Fan.' Chen Jingshen's voice came down.

Yu Fan cursed him twice in his heart, thinking: you hand in your paper properly and then leave quickly, why stay there and waste words with Hu Pang? But he didn't intend to talk to Chen Jingshen, so he shot him a cold glare, looking up to let Chen Jingshen figure it out himself—

He turned his head and stopped just a few centimeters from Chen Jingshen's cheek.

Their faces were close, almost touching.

Sunlight was cut into fragments by the layered leaves, scattering sporadically on top of Chen Jingshen's head.

Yu Fan forgot he still had his arm around the other, and hadn't expected them to be this close.

He looked at Chen Jingshen's cool brows and eyes, slightly stunned, and was about to let go.

'Back then, when I found out I could take the make-up exam, I was really happy. I couldn't hold it in. That's why I said I like you.'

Chen Jingshen's eyelids drooped, his voice low as he negotiated, 'Don't ignore me, okay?'

Wind brushed from behind, leaves rustling.

Yu Fan held his breath. The heartbeat that had only calmed down after drinking two bottles of beer, playing one game, doing three hours of problems, and sleeping it off last night suddenly rushed back to his ears.