Chapter 64

Summer in Nancheng City was like being trapped in a steamer. Even with a few big fans whirring overhead, the barbecue place couldn't drive the heat out of the air.

Yu Fan sat there, feeling like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over him. Everything around him suddenly went cold.

Yu Kaiming was back. Yu Kaiming was nearby. Yu Kaiming was watching him.

Every realization hit Yu Fan's nerves like a shock. His shoulders and neck tensed involuntarily, his eyes scanning the surroundings warily, but he never found that familiar, hateful face.

Why did he order something for him? What had Yu Kaiming seen? Him and Chen Jingshen... had they done anything just now?

Yu Fan didn't know how bad his expression looked right now.

Chen Jingshen watched him silently for a moment, then reached out to touch his tense fingertips. But the moment his fingers made contact, Yu Fan jerked his hand back like he'd been electrocuted.

Yu Fan's reflexes were faster than his brain. He froze for a second, then looked up to meet Chen Jingshen's eyes.

"...My hands are greasy," Yu Fan managed, his voice returning. His expression quickly smoothed back to normal as he looked away. "You full?"

"Mm."

"Then let's go." Yu Fan picked up the iron tray the owner's wife had brought over last, held it over the trash can, and tipped it gently. The skewers of chicken wings slid into the black plastic bag with a rustle.

Back at the Rundown Neighborhood, Yu Fan looked up. The light was on, just as he'd expected. The living room lamp was old—good enough for lighting, but staying under it too long would ruin your eyes. Its feeble glow gave off a stifling, oppressive discomfort.

When they reached the gate of the neighborhood, Chen Jingshen felt his shirt tugged from behind.

"Don't come up," Yu Fan said, eyes down, not looking at him. "Wait here. I'll grab your test papers and come down."

"Together," Chen Jingshen said.

"Just wait when I tell you to wait."

Yu Fan turned to leave. Chen Jingshen reached out to take his hand, hesitated after remembering his reaction earlier, and instead grabbed his arm.

"I'll go up with you," Chen Jingshen said. "I'll wait outside the door."

Even though Yu Fan had never talked about his relationship with his family, Chen Jingshen could roughly guess the situation.

Chen Jingshen didn't spell it out, but Yu Fan turned back to look at him bluntly. "No need. I scared him off last time. He won't mess with me lately. Just wait here. Don't wander off."

When Yu Fan pushed the door open and walked in, Yu Kaiming was sitting on the couch, smoking and talking on the phone.

Yu Kaiming glanced at him, then turned his head back to the TV, chatting cheerfully into the phone. "Yeah, just got home. Fuck! I told you to bet on that match with me, but you wouldn't listen! Now you're blaming me—fine, fine, next time I'll definitely cut you in on the money..."

Yu Fan didn't even look at him. He walked straight into his own room.

Their dynamic seemed to have settled into a pattern. Every time they fought, Yu Kaiming would leave for a short while, giving them both time to cool down and recover. When he came back, they'd go back to ignoring each other like usual. They waited in silence, lifelessly, for the next bomb to go off.

His relationship with Yu Kaiming was like a scar that never healed—it would scab over, then split open again, bloody and raw, before closing up once more. Yu Fan had always chosen to ignore it before. He'd waited, self-destructively, for that scar to rot away and die completely one day.

But now he didn't want to rot away with that scar anymore.

From the moment he left the barbecue place until he entered his room, Yu Fan's face had been expressionless. But the whole time, his heart had been beating faster than usual.

At least Yu Kaiming probably hadn't seen anything he shouldn't have. Otherwise, there's no way he'd be this calm.

He braced his hands on the desk for two minutes to steady himself, carefully hid a few things, then grabbed Chen Jingshen's test papers and headed downstairs.

Yu Kaiming had his feet propped up on the coffee table, chatting on the phone with a careless air. The moment the door closed, his eyes darted over and fixed on the shut door for a long time.

Only when a voice came through the phone did he look away and slowly stand up from the couch.

"Yeah, that cheap son of mine went out... No fight. I can't be bothered to argue with him. That bastard hits fucking hard. One of these days he'll beat me to death. I need to get more money from that bitch this month for medical bills."

Yu Kaiming walked to the living room window and looked down. The streetlights in the Rundown Neighborhood were dim. He saw his son walk up to the boy from the barbecue place and hand him the test papers.

"You should rein in your temper too. If you talk to him less, you'll get hurt less, right? Careful, if you piss your son off too much, he won't take care of you when you're old," the person on the phone said. "It's just a rebellious phase. Bear with it. He'll behave in a few years."

"Haven't I been good enough to him? When he was seven, I took him to eat KFC. Just now I ordered him and his friend two skewers of chicken wings. I don't think it's a rebellious phase thing—this bastard is wild... But he has been a bit better lately. I think he's actually studying. And he made a friend who seems pretty well-behaved."

Yu Kaiming's gaze fixed on the tall, skinny boy downstairs. He was quiet for a moment before continuing, "That friend of his looks pretty rich."

-

Downstairs in the Rundown Neighborhood, Yu Fan shoved the test papers into Chen Jingshen's hands and told him not to come over for a while.

After Chen Jingshen confirmed that Yu Fan hadn't gotten into a fight upstairs, he said, "Come to my place."

"No."

"Then where do we meet?"

Yu Fan was silent for a moment, then forced out, "See you when school starts."

"..."

That's what he said, but after Yu Fan went home and slept, he completely shook off the mood. The first thing he did when he woke up was still fight through his drowsiness and pull out his Mobile Phone to search for places he could take Chen Jingshen.

Just as he'd ruled out the Cinema, amusement park, KTV Lounge, and arcade, a message from Chen Jingshen came through.

[S: I'm downstairs at your place. Come down when you're awake.]

Yu Fan squinted at the line of text for a long moment, then jolted fully awake! He jumped out of bed, typing as he changed clothes.

[-: Didn't I fucking tell you not to come over!!]

[-: Wait, I just woke up]

[S: So I didn't go inside.]

[S: Bring the test papers.]

The moment Yu Fan was pulled into the taxi by Chen Jingshen, a breakfast was shoved into his hands. A sandwich and milk.

Chen Jingshen said, "Try it. If you don't like it, I'll take you somewhere else to eat."

Yu Fan tore open the bag and took a bite. He noticed Chen Jingshen was still watching him and frowned. "What are you looking at?"

Chen Jingshen asked, "Is it good?"

"It's okay."

"Oh. I made it myself."

"It's terrible."

Chen Jingshen laughed and turned his face away.

Yu Fan took another bite of the sandwich, his head still foggy with sleep. Was this a date? At ten in the morning? And what was with bringing test papers? Finish the date and then do a set of practice problems?

It wasn't beyond Chen Jingshen to do something like that.

The car stopped. Yu Fan stood in front of the grand, imposing Provincial Library, was silent for two seconds, then turned around to get back in the car.

Chen Jingshen grabbed him and pulled him back. "Where are you going?"

"Home to sleep," Yu Fan said flatly, his eyes still a little puffy from sleep beneath his messy hair. "Chen Jingshen, do you think I belong in a place like this?"

"Why wouldn't you?" Chen Jingshen said. "You're in the top five hundred of your grade."

"Get lost."

Chen Jingshen raised his arm and ruffled his hair. "You're the boyfriend of the number one in your grade."

"..."

Ten minutes later, Yu Fan was sitting in the sunlight streaming through the glass walls of the library's study room, wearing a black T-shirt with a skull print and two band-aids on his neck covering hickeys, looking thoroughly pissed off.

The study room Chen Jingshen had picked was nearly empty—just a few people, all in pairs, sitting to their left and right.

They sat in the back row. Yu Fan smoothed out the crumpled test papers he'd stuffed in his pocket, and Chen Jingshen casually took a pen from his pencil case and placed it on Yu Fan's paper.

"Start working," Chen Jingshen said. "If it gets too noisy, we'll switch to another study room."

Yu Fan looked at the four other people besides them, a little confused. Wasn't the library supposed to be quiet? Why would it be noisy?

He found out soon enough.

Not long after they sat down, the boy and girl on his left started touching each other's hands and heads, their faces practically pressed together.

Soon, the pair on his right started making noises too. The conversation went something like, "Baby, are you hungry? Are you cold?" "Babe, that guy behind us looks really scary." "Don't be scared, baby, I'm here."

Yu Fan stared blankly at his test paper, thinking, Screw you guys, I'm way more proper than you.

More people trickled in, and the two couples finally quieted down.

The library was eerily silent. Even someone like Yu Fan, who couldn't sit still for long, managed to silently grind through two test papers without a word. He only snapped out of it when his phone buzzed in his pocket a few times.

[Wang Luan'an: Where are you? Come out to the Internet Café. We're all at Bad Boy Lounge. Then we'll hit up KTV tonight. Zuo Kuan and I already decided—you're singing 'Lovelorn Alliance' for Zhu Xu tonight.]

Was he crazy? Yu Fan wasn't lovelorn. Alliance my ass.

Yu Fan was about to reply "library," but typing it out felt way too out of character for him. So he hit backspace and retyped: [On a date.]

[Wang Luan'an: Holy shit. Zhu Xu saw your reply on my computer screen and already covered his face and ran to the bathroom!!]

[-: ...]

Was that his fault?

Yu Fan put his phone away and looked up. The two couples in front had somehow already left.

Yeah, what couple could last that long in a library without being able to talk?

Chen Jingshen had already finished today's homework ahead of schedule and was now flipping through some thick book. Yu Fan glanced at him and thought, You bastard, I'm definitely not falling for this tomorrow.

The next moment, Chen Jingshen pressed his thumb between the pages, lifted the book with one hand, and suddenly leaned toward him.

Yu Fan was lazily spinning a pen on the table with one hand. "What the—"

Everyone in front had their backs to them, reading. The thick book rose in the air, blocking their faces.

They kissed briefly. The minty scent came close and then pulled away. Chen Jingshen murmured, "Finish this paper, and I'll go with you to find Wang Luan'an and the others."

Yu Fan's pen-spinning hand froze. "How did you know?"

"They said it in the group chat."

Yu Fan rubbed his nose. After a long moment, he squeezed out a quiet "Oh."

-

In late July, Nancheng City officially entered the scorching dog days of summer. Staying on the street for even a little while felt like you'd melt.

They'd be officially starting their senior year next semester, and this summer break was brutally short—barely twenty days at most. But the teachers hadn't cut back on the workload at all.

The class group chat was buzzing because of it. Every day someone asked who'd finished their test papers and could lend them out to copy.

The break was already half over in the middle of all those questions. One morning, Wang Luan'an messaged Yu Fan early, suggesting they skip homework together.

Yu Fan typed back while brushing his teeth, telling him he only had a few more papers left to finish.

[Wang Luan'an: Holy shit? You traitor!!]

Wang Luan'an: Yu Fan, just tell me straight, are you dating a top student girlfriend?

Yu Fan paused mid-brush, spat out the foam, and then typed.

[-: Get lost. Don't guess shit.]

He grabbed the unfinished test papers and was about to head to the library. As he passed the TV, he caught a foul smell—the leftover luosifen Yu Kaiming had ordered last night. It was already stinking up the place, surrounded by a bunch of empty beer bottles.

Yu Kaiming was lying on the couch asleep. Yu Fan wrinkled his nose in disgust and was about to kick him awake. Just as he walked over, Yu Kaiming's phone, left on the table, lit up with a ding.

[Your Alipay friend Yun Shan (bitch) transferred 5000 yuan to you. Note: Fanfan's living expenses for August.]