Yu Xun moved his face closer to the camera to confirm it was his.
“Where did it fall?” he asked.
“In the car,” Yun Ci said.
Yu Xun responded with an “oh” again: “The pocket was shallow, didn’t notice.”
Yun Ci: “Where should I put the key?”
Yu Xun: “On my bed or on the table, either is fine.”
“……”
At this point in the conversation, Yun Ci had been waiting for that urge to hang up the phone to arise.
The same feeling he got when video calling Li Yan—that complete reluctance to see the other person, the urge to yank their face out of the video and give them a beating if the call lasted more than three seconds.
But after waiting for a long time, that feeling never appeared.
The next moment.
Yu Xun moved closer to the camera again, his eyes enlarged, looking at him with a glint in his eyes, just like when he was looking at the cat in the hallway earlier: “So.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly, “Why did you video call?”
For a set of keys, did it really warrant a video call?
Not just a photo, not waiting until he came back to ask, but a video call.
But Yu Xun didn’t ask this out loud.
Liking someone means every little change in that person is magnified in one’s own perception, making it hard to tell if it’s just being overly sensitive and making it hard to confirm the answer.
“My phone broke,” Yun Ci, out of habit, gave a far-fetched reason, saying expressionlessly, “I couldn’t take a photo earlier.”
He carefully patched up all the holes: “As for why not wait until you come back?”
“If it wasn’t yours, I’d need to contact the driver as soon as possible.”
Very reasonable.
It made sense.
After explaining, Yun Ci lowered his hand, the keyring lightly spinning around his finger, but the hand holding the keyring was unconsciously tense. The silver ring pressed into his knuckles, leaving a mark.
Yun Ci’s video wasn’t aimed directly at his own face, but it wasn’t completely off to the side like last time either; a bit of fuzzy hair and ear could be seen: “If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”
But Yu Xun said: “There is something.”
“?”
Yun Ci’s hand paused.
Yu Xun just said it casually.
He just didn’t want Yun Ci to hang up so quickly.
It was his first time video calling him; he didn’t want it to end so soon.
Even though it was because of the keyring.
But at least he was a bit more accepting of him than before, even if just as an ordinary friend.
Yu Xun casually flipped open a book: “There’s a question I’m unsure about.”
Yun Ci responded promptly: “With your skills, you still want to compete for first place.”
“……” Yu Xun said, “Yes, with my excellent quality of being willing to ask for help.”
Yun Ci: “……”
The camera flipped, focusing on Yu Xun’s hand holding a pen, an angle similar to the photos he took for reports before. But this time it wasn’t a photo; the hand was moving.
In the background, Liu Zi’s voice could be heard from the door, as if shooing away a guest: “You, come in and take a look?”
Probably some passerby said something to him.
“My tone was harsh?” Liu Zi exploded, “Are you crazy, how was my tone harsh——”
Then Yu Xun’s voice: “How far have you reviewed?”
Yun Ci: “Faster than you.”
Yu Xun: “How do you know you’re faster than me?”
Yun Ci: “The page you’re on, I memorized last week.”
Yu Xun: “Oh, but how do you know if this is my first round of review or my second?”
“……”
Crazy.
Who would be on their second round of review for finals already?
“Yu-ge,” Liu Zi suddenly crouched down and called out, “Come and take a look, damn, is this lock broken again?” He had already learned some survival skills from society, “Can we get the boss to cover the lock repair cost?”
So the camera shook.
Yu Xun said “Wait a moment,” put his phone on the table, and went over to help.
The call time kept increasing, second by second.
Yun Ci silently waited for almost a minute, and the moment the call time jumped from “15:59” to “16:00,” he snapped back to reality and hung up the phone.
He felt like he had done something bad, holding the keyring and scratching his head.
……
Why was he waiting?
He didn’t even want to video call this person.
Before entering the dorm, Yun Ci, with a blank expression, sent two messages to Yu Xun.
yc: [Hung up]
The next message, he emphasized.
yc: [Didn’t wait even a second.]
After returning to the dorm, finding the bathroom empty, Yun Ci washed up first, then came out to continue studying.
But in front of his book, his mind was filled with scenes from the video call with Yu Xun and those glaring sixteen minutes.
Yun Ci placed his phone on the book, staring at the call duration in silence.
Then he exited the chat, entered Li Yan’s chat, hesitated for a moment, and directly made another video call.
After a few beeps, the call was answered.
Li Yan’s big face appeared on the screen; he had just finished washing up too and even had a face mask on; his whole face was the pale color of the mask, only his eyes blinking: “……Damn, why are you video calling me?”
Li Yan was so shocked that the mask almost fell off: “Don’t you hate video calling me???”
Yun Ci resisted the urge to hang up: “I was joking before.”
Li Yan: “?”
Yun Ci forced a very unconvincing smile: “You’re my dear nephew, how could I not want to video call you.”
“……”
Li Yan: “Do you want to see your expression right now?”
“What expression.”
“An expression that says you want to hang up.”
Yun Ci thought, was he that obvious?
Even though he really wanted to hang up, he forced himself to continue the conversation: “What are you doing?”
Li Yan pressed down the edge of his peeling mask: “As you can see, putting on a face mask.”
He added, “Zhou Wenyu’s. He’s been doing micro-business recently, do you want to buy a few boxes?”
“?”
Yun Ci: “Why is everyone developing these inexplicable side businesses?”
Li Yan: “Who else has started one?”
Yun Ci: “Liu Zi.”
“……”
Great, he heard a name he didn’t want to hear.
The two quickly ran out of things to say. Li Yan glanced at the video call time and found that his uncle had been quietly staring at him for nearly ten minutes.
Li Yan said, “Although you calling me is three parts surprising and two parts delightful, I agree with you. You were right; it’s really weird for bros to video call like this. Can we hang up?”
Yun Ci refused, “No.”
Li Yan: “……”
A few more minutes passed, and Li Yan couldn’t hold on anymore.
Li Yan: “How much longer until we can hang up?”
Yun Ci kept an eye on the call time. When it finally crossed fifteen minutes and headed into the sixteenth, he said, “Soon.”
Li Yan was baffled, having no idea how long “soon” would be.
Yun Ci’s sudden display of brotherly affection was something he couldn’t handle.
Call duration: 17:00.
When the call duration finally exceeded sixteen minutes, Yun Ci hung up without a word, leaving Li Yan bewildered: ???
Li Yan: [You started it suddenly and hung up just as suddenly?]
Li Yan: [Does the video call have to be seventeen minutes, not a second less?]
Yun Ci, looking at the call duration, finally felt his unstable emotions settle.
He raised his hand to reply.
yc: [Yes]
yc: [Seventeen minutes. Your mask should be removed now.]
Li Yan: [……]
Seventeen minutes.
One minute more than sixteen.
……
As Yun Ci put away his phone, he thought, this is how he usually video calls people.
Yu Xun wasn’t the only one, nor was he the one with the longest call duration.
Nothing special.
He had video-called Li Yan for a whole seventeen minutes.
He selectively ignored the fact that during those seventeen minutes, he had wanted to hang up a thousand and twenty times, enduring it purely through sheer willpower.
*
During the final exam month, everyone started to get busy.
A few days later, even Luo Sifang, who always played games and claimed not to need to study, turned off his computer.
Luo Sifang struggled with quitting the internet. When he finally decided to turn off his computer, he sincerely asked, “Is there any way to stop me from turning on my computer before the exams?”
His roommates enthusiastically responded: “I’ll supervise you.”
Roommate number two: “Fined every time you turn it on.”
Roommate number three, the one with the surname Yu, sitting at his desk, twirled a pen and said, “Buy a metal box and lock it up.”
Wang Zhuang: “Locking it up is quite a constructive suggestion.”
Luo Sifang imagined his computer being locked in a metal box: “……Does it have to be metal?”
Yu Xun casually said, “Wooden ones might be broken open if your internet addiction kicks in.”
“Metal’s fine,” he said, “If you start breaking it now, you can keep breaking it until the exams are over.”
Across from him, Yun Ci forgot where he had left off in his studies: “……”
“Thanks,” Luo Sifang was convinced, “Going to jail would be no different.”
So the 608 dorm room got a locked metal box.
When the student council came for an inspection, they insisted on opening it, thinking there were prohibited items inside. Such a big metal box standing there couldn’t be ignored.
After that, the “jail study method” became popular in the boys’ dormitory, and several locked computers appeared throughout the building.
Yun Ci thought such foolishness wouldn’t be widespread until he went to Li Yan’s dorm and saw a familiar metal box: “……”
Li Yan introduced it: “‘Jail study method.’ In ancient times, people tied their hair to the beam and stabbed their thighs with an awl to stay awake. Now I, Li Yan, lock my computer. I don’t know who thought of it, but it’s quite effective. I haven’t played games for three days.”
Yun Ci couldn’t bear to tell him who came up with the tactic.
Then he thought, Yu Xun, this person, always seemed to do these grand and inexplicable things, just like buying instant noodles during military training at the start of school.
When Yun Ci returned to the 608 dorm after visiting Li Yan, everyone was studying for exams, and it was unusually quiet.
He had just put his things down when it suddenly began to thunder and rain heavily outside.
Without warning, rain poured down in torrents.
“Raining so hard?” Luo Sifang looked up and asked.
“So suddenly, even though the weather forecast said there’d be rain today, it didn’t look like it would rain.”
Yun Ci remained unmoved.
Until Liu Sheng suddenly said, “Did Yu-ge go out? Did he take an umbrella?”
Luo Sifang: “No, I saw him go out, and his umbrella is still hanging behind the door.”
Yun Ci’s steps halted.
“Where did he go?” Yun Ci asked.
Liu Sheng: “?”
Yun Ci’s face was cold, looking as if he wanted to settle a score with someone: “Him.” He added, “The one who went out.”
Liu Sheng thought that the relationship between these two roommates was still fluctuating. Today, it seemed not so good again: “Yu-ge went to the study room. He’s been gone quite a while.”
After saying that, he asked, “Do you have a score to settle today?”
Yun Ci casually grabbed a book and took an umbrella. As he left, he said, “Not just that, there’s also a fight to pick.”
Liu Sheng: “……”
On the other side, at the entrance of the study room.
The rain was still pouring, and the ground was soaked.
Many students were crowded at the entrance without umbrellas, some waiting for the rain to stop, others waiting for friends to pick them up. Among the crowd, a few girls held umbrellas but were still huddled at the entrance, pushing each other: “He doesn’t have an umbrella, you go.”
“I’m too scared, you go.”
“……”
They were talking about “him,” the guy leaning against the wall in the corner, whose striking appearance made him stand out in the crowd, looking down at his phone.
Amid their pushing and shoving, someone suddenly went over.
That person walked through the pouring rain toward the study room, with an umbrella covering half his face, revealing only his chin. After stepping up the stairs, he closed his long-handled umbrella, tapped it on the ground, and then threw the other umbrella in his hand to the guy leaning against the wall.
Yu Xun looked up and saw Yun Ci, whose clothes were a bit wet. After a moment, he said, “Coming to fight and bringing two umbrellas?”
Yun Ci’s right eye twitched.
He knew Liu Sheng had tipped him off.
Sure enough. Yu Xun turned his phone screen toward him.
Liu Sheng: [What’s up with you and Ci-ge?]
Liu Sheng: [He said he’s coming to fight you.]
[……]
Yu Xun turned his head, thought for a moment, and said, “We haven’t really had any issues lately, have we?”
As he spoke, he began to list the special events that had happened between them recently: “Except for the time we video called for sixteen minutes…”
Sixteen minutes.
With the duration mentioned again, Yun Ci really felt like fighting.
The rain continued, making the already dim sky even more obscure.
Under the light from the study room, Yun Ci met Yu Xun’s inquisitive gaze.
“I’m here to study,” he finally said, lifting the book in his hand, emphasizing, “The umbrella is just incidental.”
Our Xiao Ci is such a classic tsundere hahaha