The busy life of junior year continued.
Living off-campus with Yu Xun was much like Yun Ci had imagined. This house became their two-person “dormitory,” where they went to class and the cafeteria together every day.
After each class, Yu Xun would wait for him outside their classroom to walk back together.
Yun Ci would often finish taking notes after class and then look up to see someone surrounded in the hallway.
Their building housed many freshmen and sophomores, and there were several freshman classrooms on the same floor. The younger students were very enthusiastic, often approaching them with various excuses.
Yu Xun was very noticeable, and every time he appeared, students from nearby classes would gather around.
After Yun Ci packed up his things and walked to the back door, he heard Yu Xun saying, “I have a boyfriend.”
“Yeah, the kind we won’t break up,” he drawled, but this time he sounded a bit impatient, “…anything else? If not, please move aside, I need to pick up my boyfriend from class.”
It wasn’t the first day Yun Ci knew how popular Yu Xun was.
After Yun Ci was led out of the crowd by Yu Xun, he suddenly wanted to ask if anyone had approached him like this during the year they were apart.
But before he could ask, Yu Xun spoke first, “There are quite a few freshmen and sophomores in your building.”
“?”
Yu Xun turned his head slightly, showing some concern, “Do they surround you like that too?”
“……”
Even though the one being surrounded was him, how did it end up being about Yun Ci? But thinking about it, it seemed normal; this person’s attention had always been like that.
Yun Ci calmly replied, “Maybe.”
Yu Xun: “What do you mean ‘maybe’?”
Yun Ci lied, “Too many people, can’t remember.”
“…………”
Yu Xun clicked his tongue and said, “Remember who they are, I’ll find them one by one tomorrow.”
Yun Ci expressionlessly said, “Why don’t you just put up a sign outside our classroom?”
Yu Xun seemed to seriously consider this possibility, “If Mr. Gao allows it, it might not be impossible.”
“……” For Gao Pingyang’s mental health and psychological well-being, Yun Ci finally said, “No one. I was in a bad mood then and ignored everyone.”
Yu Xun: “What a coincidence. Me too.”
After leaving the classroom, they went to the cafeteria to eat.
During their meal, Yun Ci took the opportunity to reply to Liu Jiayu’s messages.
Liu Jiayu complained, feeling very out of place: [Not only have you slowed down in making questions, but you also take longer to reply to my messages and explain the questions.]
Liu Jiayu: [You used to be online even at midnight!!!!]
Liu Jiayu was referring to when Yun Ci was dealing with a breakup.
Back then, it wasn’t just midnight.
He could stay up all night playing some stupid game, day and night.
Liu Jiayu, having seen Yun Ci’s recent social media post and having been shocked, could only vent silently: [I told you, a man should prioritize his career! Career!]
Yun Ci casually replied: [I’ve always been a romantic, you know that.]
When Yu Xun handed him some food, he asked, “Who are you chatting with?”
Yun Ci said, “A kid.”
“Just tell him,” he added, “I’m not doing tutoring anymore.”
After replying, Yun Ci put down his phone, “No time to manage him.”
After starting his junior year, Yun Ci had already reduced the frequency of his lessons with Liu Jiayu, planning to quit altogether by the end of the semester.
Yu Xun picked out something he liked from his own bowl and put it into Yun Ci’s, then propped his chin and asked, “Why no time?”
Yun Ci replied, “Studying for exams with you.”
After thinking for a moment, he added, “And interning together next year.”
After he finished speaking, he noticed Yu Xun propping his chin and smiling at him.
“What’s so funny?”
Yu Xun didn’t mention that the two “together” implied a future involving both of them. Instead, he tapped the table with his finger and said, “Eat, Xiao Ci.”
—
The weekend came in no time.
Yu Xun rarely had a free day, with no need to visit Yu Ying in the hospital or work at the store.
So after waking up, the two of them stayed in bed for a while longer.
Yu Chichi, their cat, loved rummaging through various things, especially shiny packaging. Like a little dog, it carried things around all morning, sometimes bringing a cat toy, other times jumping heavily onto the bed with something else in its mouth.
Yun Ci reached out, still half-asleep, and took what the cat brought.
Half sitting up, he saw that it was a thin, transparent plastic film.
“……”
It was the plastic wrap from a newly opened box of something last night.
Yu Xun was about to get up when Yun Ci suddenly pressed him back down: “……”
“Nothing,” Yun Ci said, “It dug it out of the trash.”
He clenched the plastic wrap in his hand, then said somewhat awkwardly, “I’ll go throw it away.”
After getting out of bed and disposing of the plastic wrap, Yun Ci filled Chichi’s bowl with some cat food.
He squatted by the cat bowl, tapping its forehead with his finger: “Don’t carry random things around next time.”
Chichi rubbed against him when it heard his voice.
Yun Ci quickly surrendered, rubbing its head: “Fine, carry whatever you want.”
In their daily life, Yun Ci and Yu Xun didn’t have clearly defined chores. Sometimes, if he woke up first, he would make breakfast.
Yun Ci heated up a few simple dishes. After eating, the two of them enjoyed their rare day off in the living room.
Yun Ci picked up his phone, raised his chin at Yu Xun with a somewhat challenging look: “Log in.”
Yu Xun responded, then found a comfortable spot next to Yun Ci—he moved behind him, hugging him from behind and resting his chin on Yun Ci’s head.
But this time, it wasn’t to PK.
They were playing the same game as before, with Yu Xun no longer being a passerby character in the game.
They teamed up to clear a dungeon. Yun Ci’s character level was higher, and since Yu Xun used to just wander around in the game without doing quests, he now couldn’t manage any dungeon without Yun Ci.
Yu Xun followed him like a little brother.
……
This scene strangely fulfilled Yun Ci’s high school fantasy.
Yun Ci even talked more while gaming, occasionally giving cold commands: “Stay behind me.”
“Don’t attack, I’ll go.”
“You can’t handle it.”
“……”
Yu Xun obediently stayed by his side, responsible for healing him.
After a victorious round, Yun Ci couldn’t help but voice his thoughts: “Impressive, right?”
Yu Xun’s voice floated down from above his head: “Mm, impressive.”
Yun Ci felt elated.
He cracked his knuckles: “If I’m impressive, bow to your big brother.”
“……”
There was a moment of silence above his head.
Then a voice, with an ambiguous tone, said: “Big brother?”
Yu Xun’s hand had left his phone at some point and moved to Yun Ci’s waist, skillfully slipping underneath his clothes.
He lowered his head and whispered in Yun Ci’s ear, “Who was calling whom ‘brother’ last night?”
“……” Yun Ci pursed his lips, unwilling to waver from his big brother position, “I don’t remember.”
Such subtle competitions often occurred between them.
At home, Yu Xun dressed casually. With the arrival of autumn, he wore a sweater, and when he hugged Yun Ci from behind, it felt soft against his otherwise firm frame.
Just as the tension between them was building, Yu Xun’s phone rang.
Yun Ci glanced at it, recognizing the number that had called numerous times. It rang so often that Yun Ci almost memorized it.
Yu Xun didn’t even look at it, simply pressing the button to hang up.
He then adjusted Yun Ci’s clothes, kissed the top of his head, and said, “Big brother will let you off today.”
Chichi, sitting nearby, looked at their competition to be the “big brother” with confusion and let out a puzzled meow.
—
For National Day, Yun Ci went home.
Since that phone call, he and Yan Yue had less contact.
After moving out, he couldn’t report anything to Yan Yue anymore, and it was then that he truly realized his life was starting to diverge from Yan Yue’s.
It fulfilled what Gao Pingyang used to say during their freshman year: “After leaving your parents, you’ll start your own life.”
Yan Yue had also quietly changed.
He tried not to control Yun Ci anymore, and the things he shared with him changed from “games ruin lives” to “eating these things will make you healthier.”
His reminders were now limited to “Take care.”
Yun Ci hadn’t needed Yan Yue’s financial support for a long time, and on special occasions, he even sent red envelopes back.
This time, when he went home for National Day, he brought some health supplements for Yan Yue.
When Yan Yue opened the door, the two of them were silent for a moment before Yan Yue said, “Thank you.”
After entering, Yun Ci noticed many changes in the house.
Standing at the door of his room, looking at the unfamiliar scene inside, Yun Ci asked, “What happened to my room?”
“It’s been turned into a storage room,” Yan Yue said, “You’re not home anyway, so it’s used for storing things.”
Yun Ci: “……That’s fine.”
He returned to the living room and asked, “Where’s the chessboard?”
Yan Yue: “Sold it. You haven’t played chess for a long time.”
“…”
“But this new purchase,” Yun Ci said, pointing to the electronic piano Yan Yue had recently acquired in the living room, “Do you plan to play it?”
He had never heard of Yan Yue having a music hobby.
Yan Yue revealed, “It was a hobby from my youth, but I never had the time.”
Surprisingly, after letting go, Yan Yue also felt a sense of freedom.
Yun Ci had said he felt like his life wasn’t his own, and for many years, Yan Yue had lived for his child.
Yun Ci thought his visit home would be filled with mutual silence until dinner, followed by a quiet “goodnight.” Instead, they talked quite a bit, although a certain someone with the surname Yu never came up in their conversation.
As Yun Ci was about to leave the next day, Yan Yue called out to him.
“Take this,” Yan Yue said sternly, handing him a bag of food, “Take it with you.”
Yun Ci was about to comment on Yan Yue’s serious expression while giving food, but then he looked down and saw the contents of the bag divided into two portions.
Yan Yue motioned to close the door: “Go on, your car is coming.”
Yun Ci had many things to say, but in the end, he only said, “Thanks, Dad.”
Yan Yue looked at him and, just before closing the door, couldn’t help but ask, “Did you file the case?”
After all, he was Yun Ci’s former student. He had been a dedicated teacher for three years and knew about his family situation, having seen the hardships the child faced in high school.
Yun Ci replied, “It should be soon.”
—
Yang Wei thought Yu Xun was just fussing over some trivial domestic violence issue. He came back to his rental room drunk every day.
Living a muddled and chaotic life, his reality blurred with the drunken haze.
The rental room was a mess, filled with trash and casino chips he had brought back.
In the past year and a half, he was somewhat behaved for the first year, but it didn’t last long. He tried to swindle money from people he knew, but those old acquaintances had distanced themselves from him, so he had to come up with other ways.
He was unwilling to live like this for the rest of his life.
He wanted to show everyone who had looked down on him that he could still be as impressive as he was when he was doing business.
One night, Yang Wei got drunk and dreamed of Yu Ying.
He rarely dreamed of her; this was the first time.
In the dream, Yu Ying was bloody.
No matter how much he hit her, she wouldn’t die. Annoyed, he noticed a knife in the kitchen. As he was about to grab it, for some reason, he found the blade pointing at himself.
A chill ran from his head to his toes.
Yang Wei woke up in an instant.
“Why would I dream of that bitch,” he muttered to himself, reaching for a can of beer only to find it empty. Cursing, he checked his phone.
The curtains in the rental room were tightly closed, making it impossible to tell whether it was day or night.
The phone displayed the time as 9:30 AM.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
Yang Wei thought it was a delivery and shouted, “Leave it at the door.”
The knocking didn’t stop.
Yang Wei: “Damn it, I said leave it at the door.”
Wearing slippers and still groggy, he went to open the door, only to be greeted by a police badge.
Law enforcement officers stood at the door, saying, “Yang Wei, we’ve received a report that you are suspected of fraud and organizing gambling. Please come with us.”
“Report?” Yang Wei was dumbfounded.
He was always the one reporting others; who dared to report him?
“Who reported me?” Yang Wei, hands cuffed behind his back, kept resisting and shouting, “Who? I didn’t do it. I’m being framed—who reported me?”
He suddenly went quiet.
Then, he remembered the dream.
He asked, “Is the person named Yu?”
—
That morning when Yang Wei was taken away, Yu Xun felt unusually calm.
It was strange, he thought.
He had expected to feel many emotions on this day, but when it finally arrived, it felt no different from any other day. He opened his eyes to see Yun Ci in his arms. Normally tough, Yun Ci was soft and tender in his arms in the morning.
Unconsciously, Yun Ci rubbed his nose against Yu Xun’s neck, half-asleep.
All emotions dissipated with that small gesture.
Then, Yu Xun looked at the sunlight streaming through the window, got up to make breakfast, just like every other day.
The only difference was that his phone was finally silent.
No more harassing calls from Yang Wei, and after ending her marriage with Yang Wei, Yu Ying’s condition was improving.
Yun Ci slept until nearly ten. When he got up, breakfast was already laid out for both of them.
He knew what day it was, but there was nothing more to say. In the end, he said something as ordinary as, “Morning.”
Yu Xun, squatting by the cat bowl, looked up at his voice.
He hadn’t gone to the barbershop for a haircut in a while. The look Yun Ci had first seen in the corridor was gradually replaced. His hair had grown longer, with stray strands covering his forehead. He looked at Yun Ci and smiled, “Morning.”
—
Time passed, and as the temperature dropped, winter approached.
After moving in together, Yun Ci and Yu Xun shared their clothes and scarves, grabbing whatever was available when going out.
It wasn’t until he got to class that Yun Ci realized he was wearing Yu Xun’s scarf.
That day, the professor was discussing a case in a professional course.
“In this case, we learned about bail in the past. It refers to the investigative agency requiring the suspect to provide a guarantor or pay a security deposit and sign a guarantee… to ensure they don’t evade or obstruct the investigation and will appear when summoned…”
While under the desk, Yun Ci was messaging Yu Xun, circling four words in the case study on his book.
Yun Ci: [I took the wrong scarf.]
Yu Xun replied quickly.
Yu Xun: [You didn’t take the wrong one.]
Yun Ci: [I did it on purpose.]
There were still many unread messages on his phone, and one group chat was particularly active. It was a fight group that Li Yan and Liu Zi had set up separately but had now merged.
The group was named: [We Are All One Family].
But the content of the chat didn’t seem that way.
Li Yan and Liu Zi couldn’t stay harmonious for more than three minutes before starting to bicker again.
Li Yan: [You haven’t even gotten a hint from her, stop bragging all the time.]
Liu Zi: [You don’t understand.]
Liu Zi: [Why does she only ask me to bring her breakfast and not anyone else?]
Li Yan: […You’re proud of being a simp?]
Liu Zi: [Damn it. Say that again.]
Li Yan: [Simp.]
Liu Zi lost it, and instead of a text, he sent an angry voice message: [Which classroom are you in??? Come out if you dare, let’s settle this in the restroom.]
While Li Yan and Liu Zi were cursing each other out, someone in the group tried to intervene: [Stop it, stop it.]
But everyone else was unusually calm.
Someone: [Aren’t you guys going to stop them?]
Other brothers in the group responded: [They’ve redefined enemies; fighting is a form of affection. If Liu Zi and Yan-ge announce their relationship, I wouldn’t be surprised.]
With this, Li Yan and Liu Zi fell silent.
Li Yan: […]
Liu Zi: […]
Yun Ci glanced at the chat but didn’t join in the joking. He circled the words “bail pending trial” on his textbook and felt his right eyelid twitch. If Yang Wei still wanted to cause trouble, this was his only way out.
Sometimes, good predictions don’t come true, but bad ones often happen unexpectedly.
What Yun Ci had speculated about in class happened that evening, making him feel irritated as his right eyelid kept twitching.
Yu Xun had gone to work at the shop.
They had agreed that Yun Ci would wait for him at home.
But that evening, Yun Ci couldn’t stay still. He put down his exam prep book and took a walk to the area near where Yu Xun worked.
Winter had just begun, and the cold wind made the streets look bare and desolate.
Yun Ci stood across the street, looking at the lights in the shop from a distance. He lowered his head to send a message to Yu Xun, asking him to guess where he was.
When he looked up, he noticed a man in a narrow alley nearby. The man wore a mask and hat, and his clothes were tightly wrapped around him.
The man was hunched over, hands in his coat pockets, seemingly gripping something tightly.
Most striking were the man’s eyes.
His gaze was fixed on someone in the shop.
Yang Wei had cried in front of his mother, repeatedly emphasizing that he had a serious illness, and his mother had become his guarantor. Once released, his first action was to settle the score with Yu Xun.
He had wandered for years, barely making progress in gambling, only to fall back down again.
All because of Yu Xun.
Yu Xun had taken Yu Ying away from him.
He had sent him to prison.
…
His life was already ruined. Before he died, he’d drag Yu Xun down with him.
Just as he was about to pull out a knife, someone suddenly tackled him from behind. The force knocked him to the ground, and the knife sliced his own palm.
He didn’t have time to shout or see who it was. In the chaos, he acted on instinct.
He struggled to get up, pressing his palm to the ground, gripping the knife as he rose, and finally saw who it was—a boy taller than him, slender but with hidden strength, looking at him with cold eyes tinged with red.
He only got a quick look.
Because Yun Ci quickly closed in on him again, firmly grabbing his wrist to try and disarm him.
Yang Wei wasn’t easy to deal with. He tightened his grip on the knife: “Then you can die in his place.”
But Yun Ci wasn’t afraid. Or rather, at that moment, something was more important than fear.
Yun Ci reached for the knife, ignoring the blade cutting his palm.
“…,” Yun Ci said, word by word, “He could have had a good life.”
Standing in front of him was not just a person.
But a shadow that had trapped Yu Xun for many years.
“So, the one who should disappear is you.”
—
In the shop.
Yu Xun saw the message after over ten minutes.
He replied with a question mark: [ ? ]
Given what he knew of Yun Ci, his boyfriend wouldn’t send this without a reason.
Leaning against the counter, he glanced across the street.
The weather was bad today, the gray sky making the street look old. Across the street was empty.
He waited for Yun Ci to reply, but Yun Ci didn’t respond.
Yu Xun thought for a moment, then called him. As the phone rang, police sirens blared outside.
The sirens were urgent.
Two new customers in the store started discussing:
“Was there a murder?”
“No, I heard there was an armed robbery in the alley—”
“I saw it when I came, a tall guy in a white shirt, right?”
Tall. White shirt.
Yu Xun’s heart skipped a beat. He pushed aside the customer’s shopping basket and rushed out.
The cold wind cut through his clothes as he ran into the alley.
Two police cars were parked at the entrance.
Yun Ci was leaning against the wall, his hand wrapped in a white bandage.
Yu Xun, out of breath, locked eyes with Yun Ci.
He had so much to say, and his worry almost overwhelmed him: “You—” Do you know how dangerous that was?
But Yun Ci interrupted him: “He’s caught.”
“…”
At this moment, Yu Xun felt like he was living in a slow-motion scene. Yang Wei was being pushed into a police car, the surroundings were chaotic, but everything around him seemed very quiet.
Quiet like a silent film.
The only thing moving was the wind sweeping around and Yun Ci’s voice.
“He’s caught,” Yun Ci said. In the dim evening light, a street lamp at the alley’s entrance shone on him. He concluded, “No one can trap you anymore.”
_____
Author’s note:
The classroom content references an encyclopedia, and some of the previous content has been modified. After consulting a lawyer, it was indicated that unless reported immediately, domestic violence cannot be prosecuted later. It can be pursued civilly within a valid period but would only result in some compensation, so some farewells were changed.
