Yun Ci was wearing too many clothes, so he unzipped his jacket and sat at the back of the bus.
Last night, after Yu Xun found out he was tutoring Liu Jiayu, he hadn’t disturbed him.
In the morning, Yun Ci took the initiative to make a call.
“Have you had breakfast?” he asked when the call connected.
Yu Xun had just woken up and was holding his phone in one hand while making his bed. His voice sounded a bit sleepy, and in the background, Luo Sifang and the others could be heard: “Done with your date? That little brat is gone?”
Yun Ci: “……”
He hadn’t expected Yu Xun to remember that: “Who was on a date? It was just tutoring.”
Yu Xun immediately shot back: “You still remembered to call me.”
Yun Ci: “You were sleeping last night.”
He didn’t want to disturb him while he was sleeping. It made perfect sense.
Yu Xun always found unique angles. He finished making his bed, brought the phone closer, and his clear voice came through: “So, not disturbing me is your final act of kindness?”
“……”
Yu Xun finished joking, and before Yun Ci could respond, Luo Sifang chimed in, “Damn, who are you talking to so flirtatiously? Got a special someone?”
Yu Xun retorted, “What do you think?”
Luo Sifang: “……”
It wasn’t appropriate for him to interrupt someone else’s call. Given Yu Xun’s looks, it wouldn’t be surprising if he had ten different romantic interests in a day. Luo Sifang kept speculating silently, wondering when this relationship started and whether he knew the person on the other end of the call.
Luo Sifang couldn’t have guessed that he not only knew the person on the other end but was very familiar with them.
Yu Xun opened the balcony door and continued the call outside.
On the other end, Yun Ci clumsily “coaxed” him: “I didn’t want you to sleep badly.”
Yu Xun was easy to coax this time, and they chatted about everyday things for a while.
Yu Xun asked, “Why did he go to the internet cafe?”
Yun Ci replied, “Idiot, teenage angst.”
Yu Xun: “No money for internet; where were his friends?”
Yun Ci: “His phone got confiscated by the headmaster, couldn’t reach them.”
“? Headmaster,” Yu Xun repeated.
Yun Ci responded with a “Hmm”: “Yan Yue.”
“……”
Yun Ci added, “By the way, the internet cafe owner asked about you.”
He didn’t specify what the question was, but Yu Xun still responded in his usual nonchalant tone, “It’s normal for him to ask about me. High school boys as handsome as me, and frequenting his place, are indeed rare.”
“……”
In the past, Yun Ci would have hung up the phone at this point.
But after hearing what the internet cafe owner said last night, he sensed that beneath Yu Xun’s nonchalant tone, there were other hidden, little-known truths.
“See you at the cafeteria,” Yun Ci said before hanging up, “boyfriend.”
—
Nanyang University Cafeteria.
There weren’t many windows open for breakfast; most of them were closed. On the first floor, only a few stalls were open, selling buns, soy milk, and things like whole grain pancakes.
Yu Xun noticed a subtle change in Yun Ci’s attitude toward him after Yun Ci spent the night out and came back in the morning.
Not only did Yun Ci patiently coax him over the phone.
He also asked him out for a meal.
And now, even in person, Yun Ci was using a towel to wipe his hands and peeling an egg for him, as if Yu Xun were someone who couldn’t take care of himself.
Yun Ci peeled the eggshell, placed the boiled egg in Yu Xun’s tray.
But Yu Xun didn’t pick up his chopsticks.
He looked at Yun Ci for a while, then suddenly leaned back, half-jokingly said, “My wrist feels a bit uncomfortable, suddenly can’t hold the chopsticks.”
Yun Ci didn’t hesitate for a second.
He scooped a spoonful of porridge from Yu Xun’s bowl and brought it to his mouth.
Yu Xun: “……”
Yun Ci calmly urged, “Eat.”
Yu Xun raised an eyebrow slowly, “Did you do something to wrong me last night?”
“?
Yu Xun: “For example, did that little brat confess to you last night? Or was it too cold in the internet cafe and he leaned on you to sleep?”
What kind of nonsense is this?
Yun Ci put down the spoon and looked at him.
He wanted to say, “I just feel really sorry for you.”
But words like that were hard to say.
Yu Xun had never specifically talked about his high school days, perhaps out of some sense of pride, or simply not wanting to mention it.
Yun Ci’s thought of “feeling sorry” turned over in his mind a few times, and finally, he said, “It’s nothing.”
“Just thought,” he continued, “I could have been nicer to you back then.”
Like saying fewer confrontational words.
Doing fewer foolish things aimed at this person.
Yu Xun, however, felt that his words weren’t quite right and countered, “What nonsense.”
The cafeteria was noisy, and in the midst of the clamor, Yu Xun’s casual voice rang out, “You weren’t bad to me back then.”
From the moment he met Yun Ci, his existence had been the best for him.
He paused and then added, “Don’t get me wrong, not just anyone can be my ‘opponent.'”
The two were having a date in the cafeteria.
Meanwhile, Liu Zi and Li Yan were carrying their just-served meal trays, and both groups halted in their tracks: “……”
Three seconds later, they simultaneously turned and walked in the opposite direction, pretending they hadn’t seen their “big brothers” sitting there and had no intention of greeting them. They even dragged their brothers along: “Let’s go eat over there.”
One of the brothers weakly protested, “But it’s crowded over there, no seats, Liu-ge.”
“A crowded place is lively for eating. If there’s no space, we’ll split up!” Liu Zi pretended to kick the air to indicate urgency, “Are you a man or not? Do you have to sit together to eat?”
“……”
On Li Yan’s side, a brother asked him, “Yan-ge, why aren’t we sitting in the front? Liu Zi and his guys went to the back too. Aren’t we just bumping into them?”
Li Yan knocked the guy on the head, “Exactly because they went there, we need to go too. Otherwise, it’ll look like we’re afraid of them.”
“Makes sense.”
“……”
During the meal, Yu Xun’s phone rang twice.
After he finished eating and put down his chopsticks, he glanced at it.
The contact was marked as [Teacher Yan].
Since Yu Xun accidentally answered Yun Ci’s call, Yan Yue might have felt that he hadn’t been paying enough attention to this student recently, so he increased the frequency of his messages.
Teacher Yan: [How have you been lately?]
Teacher Yan: [As always, if you have any problems with your studies or life, feel free to reach out to me anytime.]
Meanwhile, in Xi High School’s office.
The high school and university environments were vastly different. During breaks, students chatted in the hallways, and boys carrying basketballs went downstairs to the snack shop.
Everyone was still wearing their school uniforms.
Yan Yue had been in this environment for nearly twenty years, seeing off countless students, including his own son.
He put on his glasses and buried himself in grading assignments.
After finishing one class’s assignments, he took off his glasses to check his phone.
Yu Xun: [Thank you, teacher.]
It had been a while since Yan Yue last contacted Yu Xun.
Thinking back to their previous conversation, Yan Yue’s thoughts drifted to a few years ago.
When Yu Xun was still at Xi High School, he initially gave Yan Yue a headache for a long time.
Skipping classes, missing exams.
For the flag-raising ceremony, he was appointed as the flag bearer, and the next morning, the entire school watched in confusion as the flag failed to rise on time.
He aced the make-up exam, getting the highest score in the grade, and was asked to say a few words in front of the whole school. He arrived late and climbed onto the stage at the last second, saying only four words: “Good luck, everyone.”
In the office.
Yan Yue couldn’t help but slam the desk: “I told you to say something, and that’s what you said?!”
Yu Xun, indifferent, replied, “It’s encouragement.”
“……”
In the entire first year of high school, Yan Yue couldn’t find a single fault in Yu Xun.
He had no idea what was happening with him, why he was like that, until the end of the first year when he had to conduct his first home visit. This usually nonchalant, tight-lipped student finally sought him out.
“Teacher,” Yu Xun said at the time, dressed in his school uniform and standing in front of his desk with an uncharacteristically serious expression, “don’t come to my house for the home visit, it’s not convenient.”
“What’s inconvenient about it?”
“Demolition. Just got demolished. Now living under a bridge.”
Yan Yue put away his joking expression and asked seriously, “Is there something going on at your home?”
At that time, Yu Xun was only fifteen or sixteen years old. No matter how much he pretended normally, deep down, his teenage stubbornness and pride prevented him from showing any weakness or letting anyone know about his family’s situation.
“There’s no one at my house,” he finally said, “so there’s no point in you coming.”
The second slip-up happened at the internet cafe.
The internet cafe owner couldn’t handle it himself anymore and proactively contacted him, “There’s a student from your school who sleeps here every day. It’s been almost a month. Is something wrong? I can’t take responsibility if something really happens.”
“But I can’t reveal the location of my internet cafe. Your school might target me, so let’s be considerate of each other.”
“He goes to a bathhouse around six or seven in the evening, but not every day. Sometimes he goes to a friend’s house, a guy named Liu Zi. Anyway, if you want to catch him, go there.”
Yan Yue: “……”
Yan Yue waited downstairs at the internet cafe and sure enough, saw Yu Xun coming out of Liu Zi’s house, ready to go back to the internet cafe to sleep.
At the same time, there was another man waiting for him.
That man had been hiding in the corner of the alley for a long time, so long that even Yan Yue hadn’t noticed him. This area had many makeshift iron staircases attached to the sides of buildings, all rusty.
As Yu Xun appeared, the man jumped out from the corner, cursing, “Damn it—hiding from me, huh? Moved out and thought I couldn’t find you? I can’t get into the school, but outside, I can still catch you. Where are you living now? Huh? Damn it, answer me, where’s she now?”
As the man walked closer, Yan Yue saw that he was holding a knife.
Yan Yue, who usually worked at school and rarely encountered such people, still stepped in front of Yu Xun and tried to stay calm, “Sir, he’s my student. If there’s something you need, you can talk to me. Calm down and put the knife down.”
“Get out of the way,” the man said in a highly agitated state, “what student? Move it.”
Standing behind Yan Yue, Yu Xun spoke calmly, as if he were used to it, “Teacher, I can handle this.”
Yan Yue: “Handle what? We can call the police. This unidentified person…”
Yu Xun interrupted Yan Yue, “I know him.”
“Although I don’t want to admit it,” Yu Xun said, “he is indeed my uncle. I can handle it. Leave it to me.”
In such a situation, Yan Yue certainly couldn’t let his student stand in front.
But Yu Xun didn’t give him time to react. He pulled an iron rod from a pile of junk nearby and spoke in a low voice to the man, “Want to talk?”
“Better find another place,” he added, “if I hit you here, it might disturb the neighbors.”
His eyes held a shadow of something that didn’t belong to a boy his age, a bit indifferent, as if he was ready to go down with this man, “Just a reminder, there’s a dead end behind you. If you want to escape later, it might be inconvenient.”
Yu Xun even managed to smile at a time like this, “Of course, I might not be able to beat you.”
“But even if I can’t, it’ll be enough to get you sent away.”
He pointed to his heart, “If you dare, you can stab me here.”
“……”
Thinking back on these events, Yan Yue’s heart raced for some reason.
He already had a weak heart, worsened by age and heavy work stress. He quickly opened his drawer and took two heart pills.
Just then, a weak voice came from outside the door, “Reporting.”
At the door stood Liu Jiayu, who had spent the night at the internet cafe and now had dark circles under his eyes.
After knocking, Liu Jiayu swaggered into the office, “Mr. Yan.”
“Uh, my phone,” Liu Jiayu said, “it’s almost the weekend, can I have it back?”
He added, “It’s not that I want to play with it, I’m just worried my tutor won’t be able to reach me. I’m doing this for my studies.”
“……”
Yan Yue had only confiscated his phone as a warning, and since it was almost the weekend, he had no reason to keep it any longer. So he said, “Did you write your reflection?”
Liu Jiayu cursed silently.
He had been sleeping at the internet cafe last night and forgot to ask his handsome tutor to write a reflection for him.
“……No.”
But then, remembering something, he quickly pulled a stack of papers from his pocket.
The paper was wrinkled, and Yan Yue had to look closely to see it was an answer sheet.
Liu Jiayu straightened up slightly, “Although I didn’t write a reflection, I did some problems. Look, extra homework I gave myself. I think this is more sincere than a useless reflection.”
“……”
Yan Yue glanced at the paper.
Yan Yue scanned it briefly, “Only two questions are correct, and you call this sincerity?”
Liu Jiayu wasn’t discouraged, “Teacher, this doesn’t negate my effort.”
Yan Yue felt a headache coming on.
He put down the paper and rubbed his temples.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed some comments on the paper. Although there were only a few words, they felt familiar.
The handwriting looked a lot like Yun Ci’s.
But there weren’t enough words to be sure; it might just be a coincidence.
Liu Jiayu noticed Yan Yue’s gaze and said, “This was written by my tutor.”
He emphasized, “We usually communicate via phone. I study on my phone. My phone is my study tool.”
The more Liu Jiayu spoke, the more Yan Yue’s head hurt.
He waved his hand and took out the phone, “Be careful next time. Don’t let me catch you using it in school again. If I see it one more time, you’ll get it back at the end of the semester.”
Liu Jiayu quickly stuffed his phone into the pocket of his school pants, fearing that Yan Yue would change his mind, and silently thanked the tutor who showed up with the test paper.
“My tutor,” Liu Jiayu said, feeling grateful and praising him, “is good at studying and very handsome.”
Since he had his phone back, he relaxed and lingered in the teacher’s office, chatting, “Is it true that many people date in college? In college, no one will control your dating, right? Just like my tutor, he has a partner.”
Yan Yue responded with a firm five words, “Go back to the classroom.”
As Liu Jiayu walked out, he was reluctant to let go of the topic, “Is it true, teacher? Is it? When I get to college, if I date ten or eight people, no one will catch me, right—”
“……”
He muttered this as he left, leaving only the test paper with handwriting that resembled Yun Ci’s.
Yan Yue couldn’t help but glance at it a few more times before setting it aside.
