Chapter 61

Yu Fan carrying a schoolbag to school actually caused quite a stir at the School Gate.

Hu Pang, who caught students' appearance or tardiness at the School Gate three days a week, was the first one startled. Though the bag looked old and wilted, clearly not holding any books, slung over one shoulder it still looked careless, but compared to before it already had a bit more of a student vibe.

For this, Hu Pang specifically praised Zhuang Fangqin at a teachers' meeting.

At first Zhuang Fangqin thought it was too exaggerated — a student carrying a schoolbag is only natural, what was there to praise? But when the final monthly exam total scores came out this semester, Zhuang Fangqin wished Hu Pang would go to the school radio station and praise her again.

'You did well in this monthly exam, but don't get arrogant, keep improving, and maintain this level at the final exam, got it?'

Just after finishing the score ranking table, Zhuang Fangqin called him to her office. She meant to give him some praise, but after seeing his posture — unchanged after all these years — she couldn't help but frown. 'Stand straight!'

Yu Fan was so sleepy he said nothing, lazily straightening his back a bit.

Zhuang Fangqin still wasn't satisfied. Just as she was about to use a ruler to slap his waist straight, the Class Eight Counselor came in from outside and, passing by, set a cup of soy milk on her desk: 'Zhuang Teacher, are you lecturing or praising? Here, I just came from the cafeteria and brought you one.'

'Oh, thank you, Gu Teacher.' Zhuang Fangqin said. 'Lecturing him.'

'Lecturing what? I heard he's made big improvements in these monthly exams.'

'It's okay, average, still far behind,' Zhuang Fangqin smiled. 'He just went from ranking 1128 in the grade on the first monthly exam to 499 now, barely squeezing into the top five hundred. How is that any big improvement?'

Yu Fan: '...'

Gu Teacher also smiled speechlessly for a moment: 'That's already impressive. You have to share your secrets with me, Zhuang Teacher. How did you get his grades up?'

'I don't have any secrets. He himself got interested in studying, and has some talent, otherwise he couldn't have improved this fast.' Zhuang Fangqin thought for a moment. 'If I had to say... I moved the grade topper next to him. You can try that.'

Gu Teacher: '...'

What, am I supposed to magically produce a grade topper out of thin air?

Zhuang Fangqin checked the time and said to Yu Fan: 'Alright, class is about to start. Go back to the Classroom. Remember what I said — keep it up, don't get arrogant.'

Say that last part to yourself.

Yu Fan said 'oh' and turned toward the door.

Gu Teacher was holding her class's monthly exam ranking sheet and sighed: 'Ugh, our class's average score dropped two spots this time. And there's a student who was in the top thirty before, this time he suddenly dropped to over a hundredth place.'

Zhuang Fangqin said: 'Didn't regulate their emotions well? A lot of students are like that. You need to pay attention — in senior year this kind of emotional issue gets worse.'

'Not entirely.' Gu Teacher hesitated, then lowered her voice. 'It's that early romance thing, you know? With a sports student in our class. I need to talk to their parents. They're about to enter senior year — I can't let these fleeting feelings affect their scores.'

Zhuang Fangqin nodded in agreement and was about to say something when the person who was just leaving suddenly turned back.

Yu Fan shoved one hand in his pocket and asked indifferently: 'So... what rank did that person get this exam?'

'Who??'

'Chen Jingshen.'

'First.'

Yu Fan's eyebrows barely loosened. He coldly said 'oh' and turned to leave again.

After responding, Zhuang Fangqin felt confused — why did Yu Fan suddenly care about someone else's score?

'They're pretty close,' Gu Teacher smiled. 'Looks like Chen Jingshen has been a big motivation for him.'

Zhuang Fangqin came back to her senses, and after a few seconds nodded blankly: '...Right?'

As soon as Yu Fan got back to the Classroom, Wang Luan'an came over: 'What did Zhuang Fangqin want? I've been waiting for you.'

'Nothing.' Yu Fan instinctively glanced at his deskmate's neat back of the head before pulling out his chair to sit. 'What is it?'

We几个约好这周六去新开的一家室内游乐场玩，一起去？ - We're planning to go to a newly opened indoor amusement park this Saturday. Want to come?

'No.' Yu Fan didn't think. 'Got stuff to do.'

Wang Luan'an: 'What stuff can you have on a weekend? Isn't your one-on-one tutoring only in the evening?'

'A date?' Zhang Xianjing half-turned in her chair, leg crossed, said.

Two minutes until class. Yu Fan was bent over rummaging through his messy drawer for a book. He paused at that, then gave a short, dull hum: 'Yeah.'

'...Damn, how can falling in love make you ditch your buddies?' Wang Luan'an clicked his tongue, his peripheral vision sliding to the other person. 'So, top student, want to come with us?'

Chen Jingshen still had his eyes down on the problem: 'No.'

'What are you thinking, it's almost finals — when does the top student have time to go out?' Zhang Xianjing laughed.

'Oh,' Wang Luan'an said. 'So the top student also needs to do pre-exam cramming?'

'Not really.' Chen Jingshen said calmly. 'Got other stuff.'

Wang Luan'an was pretty curious about the top student's weekend life and asked casually: 'What stuff?'

'Same as him.' Chen Jingshen pointed at the person next to him with his pen.

Slap!

Yu Fan's hand slipped, and the textbook he finally found fell to the floor.

He bent down to pick it up, dawdled under the desk for a long time, then slowly raised his head and propped the textbook up to cover his face.

Wang Luan'an found his voice: 'The top student is also in a...'

'Don't know.' Yu Fan cut him off coldly. 'Don't know anything, don't fucking ask me.'

Everyone else had shocked, startled, curious expressions.

Only Zhang Xianjing — she turned around with her elbow on the back of her chair, her exploratory gaze circling between him and Chen Jingshen again and again, one eyebrow furrowed and one raised, full of suspicion.

-

Saturday. As soon as Chen Jingshen arrived at the Cinema, he saw the guy standing at the Concession Stand.

'Two cups of Cola? Or you can add five yuan and get an extra small popcorn,' the cashier pointed at the menu. 'This is our Couple's Combo here.'

Yu Fan was texting on his Mobile Phone, was about to say no, but paused at the last part.

He looked up, his tone hesitant: '...Couple's Combo?'

'Yeah, I saw you bought tickets for the couple's theater. The Couple's Combo has a discount.' The cashier smiled. 'Do you want to ask the other person if they want popcorn?'

Yu Fan frowned, considered for two seconds, then lowered his head to type: 'Let me ask.'

'No thanks.'

Replied so fast? He hadn't even sent it yet...

Yu Fan paused, then turned his head expressionlessly: 'Who asked you?'

Chen Jingshen said: 'Then who are you asking.'

Mobile Phone wallet.

The cashier: '...'

She was hesitating whether to push another combo, when the guy with longer hair turned back, put his phone in his pocket, rubbed his nose and said to her, '...Two Colas, no combo.'

The number of times Yu Fan came to the Cinema could be counted on one hand. Someone used to bring him, but after that person left, he stopped going. He couldn't sit still, had no patience, and didn't like sitting with strangers.

So it was his first time knowing cinemas had seats like this.

The Cinema Hall was tiny, with gray double couches, and a small partition in the middle of the couch to prevent people around from seeing what was going on on the seats.

He sat side by side with Chen Jingshen, thinking this was basically no different from class.

Later he found out there was a difference. At least in class he could listen to the lecture and do problems to pass the time, but facing a two-hour trash movie, he really wanted to leave.

The movie started with setting up the background: the female lead had a crush on the male lead for fourteen years without meeting him, all because he gave her a candy when she was four.

Was that possible? Who remembers someone they met at four? And besides, weren't they worried the male lead would become ugly or bad over those ten-plus years?

Yu Fan could still bear with it until he saw the two leads meet again, both sprain their ankles at the same first sight, roll around on the ground together, and then — at the final position — still manage to kiss. His fist really tightened.

Weird sounds came from beside him. Yu Fan, tolerating the discomfort of the plot, turned to look without防备.

Though there was a partition between the seats, he was tall and could immediately see the couple next door who had started kissing along with the movie's leads.

...

Damn.

Did these two forget there was someone next to them? Do they not know the Cinema has surveillance?

Yu Fan had been resting his arm on the armrest, dozing off. Upon hearing the sounds, he couldn't help but look up to find the surveillance camera in the Cinema, but it was pitch black — he couldn't see anything.

He restrained his urge to leave, sat up straight, and his shoulder bumped into Chen Jingshen's.

It was the same in the Classroom. The two of them silently pressed shoulders, and every time Zhuang Fangqin came to patrol outside the Classroom, Yu Fan would instinctively lean forward to shift away — just like when playing phone and seeing the teacher coming, immediately stuffing the phone into the drawer.

Then after a while he'd realize again — two guys sitting shoulder to shoulder in their seats is totally normal, lots of people sit like that.

But every time he figured it out, next time he'd make the same mistake again.

But not here.

His arm was touching Chen Jingshen's. The Cinema's AC was cranked up high, but the spot where the two of them pressed together was warm.

Chen Jingshen felt the pressure from the person beside him getting heavier, like he was drowsy but forcing himself to stay awake.

So he shifted his body to let Yu Fan lean more comfortably —

'Chen Jingshen.'

Chen Jingshen stopped: 'What?'

'There's surveillance here.' Yu Fan stared at the movie screen with a cold face, not sure if he was reminding him or himself. 'Can't kiss.'

...

The word 'date' had actually been刺激ing Yu Fan for a few days.

He had been drifting along for a long time — to him, what day of the week just meant getting up early or not. But this week he checked the date once a day, and it did feel kind of slow.

Who knew in the end it'd still be the two of them sitting side by side, can't do anything, and have to listen to others doing it — what a dumbass...

His fingers were pried open, pressed together, closed. The curses in Yu Fan's head stopped abruptly.

'Hmm,' Chen Jingshen said. 'Then let's hold hands.'

...

Chen Jingshen's body temperature was a bit higher than his, and his fingers were long — holding hands was pretty comfortable.

The sounds from next door stopped, and Yu Fan suddenly felt he could endure a bit more.

By the end, he realized the movie plot was烂, but ignoring the leads, every frame was beautifully shot — the kind where you could pick any single one and use it as a wallpaper.

The green avenue where the male lead had the car accident was enveloped by lush branches, with dappled light and shadow.

The female lead learned she had cancer, collapsed sitting in the snow — the goose-down snow was pure and heartbreaking.

After going through countless difficulties, the leads discovered they were biological siblings and decided to break up. Before parting, they went back to the campus where they first met again, embracing, holding hands, and saying goodbye in the swirling autumn leaves.

Forget it, just consider it as coming to see the scenery.

The person who wanted to smash the movie screen during the first half thought to himself.

The movie ended, and the two of them walked out of the Cinema among the first batch.

Three PM, full sunlight. After spending two hours in the dark environment, Yu Fan was blinded when he came out the Cinema's back door.

He hadn't even看清 the surroundings when he heard the person beside him say quietly: 'Your place?'

Yu Fan curled his finger — that muffled 'mm' was already at his lips —

'Yu Fan? Top student??'

A surprised voice came from the right. 'What are you two doing together? Aren't you on a date??'