62

Yu Fan turned his head stiffly, spotting a whole crowd of familiar faces on his right. It took him a good while to come back to his senses.

"You guys..." After staring at each other for ages, Yu Fan finally found his voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Twenty people splitting a group deal at that indoor amusement park gets you sixty percent off! Hahaha!" Wang Luan'an repeated. "What are you doing here? Weren't you two going on a date?"

Twenty pairs of eyes locked onto them, and among them were quite a few faces that looked familiar but nobody could place. Yu Fan's expression went completely blank. He kinda wanted to grab Chen Jingshen and go watch that烂片 again.

How the hell was he supposed to explain this??

Yu Fan's brain ran through a million scenarios, and finally he decided to dodge: "Is the amusement park fun?"

"Hell yeah, they even have real laser tag, it's super sick!" Zuo Kuan looked around on the side. "Yo, where's your boyfriend, Yu Fan? I've been wanting to see them for so long!"

Yu Fan: "Who won the laser tag?"

"Me." Zhang Xianjing glanced at the sign hanging in the nearby mall, raising her eyebrows. "You and the study ace went to watch a movie?"

Topic change failed. Before Yu Fan could come up with anything, the person beside him said lightly: "Yeah. Just bumped into each other after the date."

Yu Fan: "..."

These dozen or so guys were each dumber than the last. When they realized they couldn't see their girlfriends, all they had on their faces was disappointment. The only girl present was the only one who keenly caught the weird vibe between the two of them.

Some kind of unbelievable question circled on the tip of Zhang Xianjing's tongue. She glanced at the people around her, but ultimately swallowed the words back.

"It's only three in the afternoon, already done with your date?" Wang Luan'an blinked a couple times. "So, study ace, what did you and your date do?"

Chen Jingshen said: "Had lunch."

"...And after that?"

"Went back to do practice problems."

Wang Luan'an asked uncertainly: "Doesn't your date feel a little weird..."

"You talk too much shit." Yu Fan frowned and cut him off.

"Aw, I'm just curious." Wang Luan'an turned to ask Yu Fan, "Your date's over too?"

Yu Fan grunted unhappily from his nose: "Yeah."

Wang Luan'an clapped his hands: "Perfect timing! Come to Cheng'an Temple with us? Since we're about to be third-years, we're planning to go pray and get some academic charms."

"That's not me." Zuo Kuan immediately clarified. "Who the hell wants academic blessings? I'm going to ask the gods not to make me so handsome—dealing with love letters every day is exhausting."

Wang Luan'an: "You're really fucking shameless."

Cheng'an Temple is the most famous temple in Nancheng City. It's said to be incredibly effective, so it's always had thriving incense, and a lot of people come to worship when they're traveling or on business trips.

Yu Fan didn't think: "Not going."

"Why not? Didn't you just finish your date?" Zhang Xianjing looked at him. "You two have something else to do?"

Thinking about what he and Chen Jingshen had originally been about to do, Yu Fan's eyelid twitched. He instinctively denied: "No."

"Then come with us. Help me take some photos, I'll buy you a popsicle." Zhang Xianjing asked without waiting for Yu Fan's answer, then looked at the other person. "Study ace, you too?"

Yu Fan was about to refuse again when he heard Chen Jingshen casually throw out: "Sure."

"..."

Not everyone in this group of twenty was familiar with each other. They were just coming out of the indoor amusement park together and heading to the bus stop. In the end, about a dozen people left, and only a few familiar ones remained, splitting into two taxis to Cheng'an Temple.

Outside the temple is a slightly rugged mountain path, with stalls selling jade, incense, and candles on both sides, squeezing the already narrow road even tighter.

Chen Jingshen walked at the very end of the group. He glanced at the distant temple with its curling white smoke, then turned to look at the person beside him.

His boyfriend had his hands in his pockets, looking impatient. He was the least sincere-looking worshipper on this path.

For a moment, Chen Jingshen felt dazed.

The person in front of him overlapped with a certain small figure from his memory—the annoyed expression, the mole on his cheek, even the scenery behind him was almost identical to the image in his head.

"Chen Jingshen." The first words out of his mouth were exactly the same.

Except this time there was an extra harsh line after it: "Stop fucking looking at me."

Chen Jingshen asked after a few seconds: "Why?"

Yu Fan: "It's annoying."

It made him think about how today was supposed to be a date but got dragged into worshipping gods—how ridiculous.

Chen Jingshen withdrew his gaze. Looking at the noisy group ahead, he suddenly asked: "Have you been here before?"

Yu Fan hadn't expected him to ask this. He answered casually: "Yeah."

"When?"

Yu Fan thought for a moment: "Summer camp."

The summer camp location was right nearby. Their teacher brought them for a round of the area. The kids couldn't handle the temple incense—they left within ten minutes of going in.

"Summer camp? You actually went to one of those?" Wang Luan'an, walking ahead, heard and turned around curiously. "When was that?"

Yu Fan: "Elementary school."

"Was it fun?"

"Who remembers after so long?" Yu Fan said lazily. "Probably wasn't interesting."

The higher up the mountain, the fewer the stalls. Only when they reached the temple entrance did things finally quiet down around them.

Lush branches coiled around the temple's red walls, occasionally drifting wisps of white smoke. Zhang Xianjing held them up outside the temple for a long time, taking tons of scenic photos, then shoved her phone into Yu Fan's hands and asked him to take some full-body shots.

After flipping through the photos, Zhang Xianjing couldn't help but invite: "Yu Fan, my family's going to a beach island for summer vacation. Want to come along—"

"Stop talking nonsense." Yu Fan's patience was pretty much spent. "Are you going in or not?"

The group had just entered the temple when they were drawn to the prayer corridor on both sides and the red plaques hanging from the banyan tree's branches.

A staff member was explaining to tourists that these red plaques cost thirty yuan each—that career, love, family, and such had to be bought separately. The full set for good luck was one hundred fifty yuan, and they could be hung anywhere in the temple. There were also Lotus Lantern, incense, and charms. Sincere hearts would bring everything smoothly.

One hundred fifty yuan wasn't much, and since they'd come all this way, the people ahead discussed it and decided to buy the full good luck set.

Zhu Xu scratched his head: "Can I buy one for someone else?"

"Who are you buying for?" Wang Luan'an asked.

"His girlfriend, apparently. She bombed this monthly exam. Since the scores came out, she hasn't really talked to him much." Zuo Kuan walked up to the wish plaques and looked at the words on them.

"Wish plaques can only be hung for family, but you can buy something else to give her," the staff member immediately said. "Want to look at our academic charms? Bring one back—definitely helps with studies and climbing higher."

The staff member was well-practiced, packing three or four auspicious words into one sentence, leaving the group a bit dazed.

In the end, even Zuo Kuan pulled out his money. He glanced at Zhang Xianjing and said very quietly to the staff member: "Get me one of those... peach blossom ones..."

When they got everything in hand, they realized the two people behind hadn't moved at all, barely saying a word.

"Yu Fan, study ace, aren't you buying?" Wang Luan'an held up his family's charms. "I heard these things are really effective."

Yu Fan: "Who told you that?"

"Just now, that staff member."

"..."

Yu Fan gave a disgusted look at the thing in his hand: "Not buying."

"Better to believe than not, right?"

Yu Fan didn't respond. Watching Wang Luan'an fiddle with those charms, he suddenly remembered the last time he came here with the summer camp—there was a superstitious little kid beside him then too.

He'd participated in a quality development summer camp at the time. Many activities were group competitions, though "competition" just meant some outdoor mini-games.

But some kids were super competitive—even wanting to win at dodgeball. So when the teacher grouped them, they intentionally balanced the teams.

In Yu Fan's group back then, there was a skinny little dummy.

The dummy was a boy, same age as Yu Fan, but his height only reached Yu Fan's neck. He was usually quiet and didn't talk, with a dull, blank expression, and his reactions were half a beat slower than the other kids.

Because of this, their group's competitions always ended up last because of him. Once or twice was fine, but this dummy dragged them down for seven straight days. Soon, the kids in the group started ostracizing him.

Some kids are just mean. At first it was just isolation and mean words. After a few days they'd intentionally trip or shove the dummy around, and finally they actually started fighting—tearing up the safety charm the dummy had gotten from Cheng'an Temple and stepping on it.

At that time, the teacher was in the bathroom, and the adults around didn't intervene. Only Yu Fan, having bitten his lollipop into pieces, clenched his little fist and charged forward.

Originally only the dummy was crying, but then those few little boys started crying along with him. In the end, their whole group got kicked out of the temple.

The teacher was furious, scolding Yu Fan severely. When waiting for the bus, she intentionally left him to cool off alone.

After a while, the other little boys had all quieted down. Only the biggest crier was still holding that broken safety charm, sniffling and crying beside him—

"What are you thinking about?" The person beside him suddenly asked.

"Nothing," Yu Fan came back to himself. After a long moment, he said, "...Thinking about the last time I came here, I brought a crybaby along."

Chen Jingshen was slightly stunned: "Crybaby?"

"Yeah, so annoying. Never seen anyone cry so much in my life."

Chen Jingshen was quiet for two seconds: "Why was he crying?"

"Got into a fight, lost, and his safety charm got broken. He just sat here crying for half a day." Yu Fan pointed at the ground in front of them with his chin. "Took forever to calm him down."

"How did you calm him?"

Yu Fan answered absentmindedly: "I took the paper I was supposed to write a weekly journal on and wrote him over ten charms, telling him..." Recalling to this point, Yu Fan suddenly paused.

Chen Jingshen waited a moment: "What did you say?"

"..."

He told that dummy to stop crying, that he'd protect him from now on—something like that. Yu Fan couldn't quite remember the specifics.

It was way too cheesy and cringey. He couldn't say it now.

So he cleared his throat coldly: "I just said, stop fucking crying, or I'll throw you down the mountain."

"..." Chen Jingshen tilted his head to look at him.

"And then he stopped crying."

"..." He was holding it in too hard. On the way back, he kept hiccuping, and every time he hiccuped, he'd look at me. Pretty dumb." Feeling Chen Jingshen's gaze, Yu Fan raised his eyes to meet his. Just as he was about to ask what he was looking at, he suddenly paused.

Yu Fan raised his hand and compared it to Chen Jingshen's eyes. "Oh, that crybaby had the same single eyelids as you—really ugly. Back then I couldn't even find his eyes, just saw tears."

His intention was to annoy Chen Jingshen a bit too. But Chen Jingshen pressed his hand down and held it, turning his face away with a short, muffled laugh.

Yu Fan was stunned. He tried to pull his hand back but couldn't. Chen Jingshen held his hand, asking amusedly in a low voice: "What else is similar?"

"The vibe of someone who deserves a beating." Yu Fan said. "Probably cries the same way too. Chen Jingshen, cry for me to see."

"Hard."

"Let go of my hand and I'll make you cry right now."

His hand was released. Yu Fan raised his arm to strangle Chen Jingshen's neck, his other hand just about to rub Chen Jingshen's face—

"Yu Fan, study ace, we're done."

First hearing the voice, then seeing the person. Upon hearing Wang Luan'an's voice, Yu Fan immediately loosened Chen Jingshen's neck.

A group of people came back from releasing lanterns by the river. The staff member who had walked ahead of them was already laughing happily.

Turning past the cave entrance, seeing his two friends, Wang Luan'an said: "We're going to the main hall to pray. Want to come together?"

"No." Yu Fan leaned lazily against the stone railing. "I don't believe in this stuff."

Wang Luan'an had guessed this, so he asked the other person instead: "Study ace, you're not going either?"

"I've prayed before. Not going." Chen Jingshen said calmly.

"Tch. So many people come to pray every day, how could the gods remember everyone?" Zhu Xu said. "Since we're here anyway, might as well go in and show our faces, so they don't forget you."

They dawdled for over half an hour, plus the travel time. By now it was already dusk.

Cheng'an Temple was on the mountainside. From outside the temple, looking out into the distance, one could see the orange-red sunset sinking into the mountains, dyeing the mountain trees red.

Yu Fan stared blankly upward, looking like he was appreciating the scenery. The afterglow of the setting sun drew a bright, curved line across his face.

"No." Chen Jingshen said.

The god didn't need to remember him.

His god would protect him.

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