Luo Sifang really went to look it up: “Today really is, huh, how do you remember such an absurd holiday?”
Yu Xun: “I have a good memory.”
Luo Sifang thought there were too many things wrong: “…It’s one thing to remember it, but you even celebrate the anniversary.”
Yu Xun: “Yeah, I have nothing else to do, so I like to remember the school’s anniversaries.”
Saying this, he raised his head confidently, looked at someone on the upper bunk, and said, “I used to celebrate these kinds of school anniversary days in high school too, right, Xiao Ci?”
Yun Ci: “…”
Who has nothing better to do? Folding flowers to give to someone and using such an excuse.
But holding the paper-folded red rose, he finally said coldly, “Hmm.”
Even his old rival said so, so the other roommates didn’t doubt it. Luo Sifang sighed that the world is full of wonders: “It seems you really like school. How can anyone like school this much? If it weren’t for having to graduate and find a job, I wouldn’t even want to attend school.”
“…”
Yun Ci lowered his eyes, staring at the rose. That earlier “Right, Xiao Ci” echoed in his ears, as if taking him back to the first day of university. After dinner, the first time he walked around the Nanyang University campus, he happened to encounter this person doing an interview.
From that day on, the name Yu Xun didn’t disappear after leaving West High but crashed back into his world.
The others soon changed the subject, taking turns to wash up and get into bed before the lights out.
Yun Ci didn’t get out of bed, continued lying down pretending to be asleep, and placed the paper rose on the simple shelf by his bed.
Until he scrolled through his Moments before sleeping and saw a new post from Yu Xun: [“Share”, the viral tutorial on how to fold a paper rose. Try folding one yourself~]
The sharing time was around when he went to bed.
This time it wasn’t visible to him only, as he saw some comments from mutual friends from West High.
[Whoa, what’s this.]
[Paper rose? Is it what I think it is?]
[Yu-ge is in love?]
[……]
Yu Xun didn’t reply to any of them. Yun Ci, hiding under his blanket, felt that the medicine didn’t seem to be working; his mind was still burning as if on fire.
*
University life continued. Before classes on Monday, Yun Ci brought his textbooks to find Li Yan for a meal.
Upon reaching the cafeteria and just sitting down, a message from Yu Xun promptly appeared.
yx: [Morning]
yx: [Feeling better?]
Yun Ci replied with one word.
yc: [Hmm]
Yu Xun responded quickly, the chat box at the top showed “typing,” indicating he had been waiting there since sending the message.
yx: [I thought you wouldn’t reply.]
Yun Ci remembered this person had said it was okay not to reply.
Why did he reply again?
…
After a moment, he told himself: out of politeness.
After all, he had taken the medicine this person bought for him.
yc: [Your medicine]
yc: [Thanks]
After the morning class, Gao Pingyang appeared at the classroom door: “Classmates, quiet down for a moment, don’t leave yet, I have something to say—”
University counselors obviously don’t have the same prestige as high school directors, maybe because university classrooms are bigger and there are too many people. Once a few don’t cooperate, it easily leads to more.
Yun Ci happened to be near the podium, helping the teacher organize things.
He bent down, pulled the microphone on the podium, and with a “buzz,” the boy’s cold voice sounded: “Quiet.”
The room quieted down instantly.
Gao Pingyang felt somewhat relieved: “Thank you, you cause me trouble all the time, but today you’ve finally helped a bit.”
Causing trouble all the time wouldn’t normally apply to him if not for Yu Xun.
But Yun Ci didn’t want to explain anything, he handed the microphone to Gao Pingyang, who coughed and said: “It’s getting colder, take precautions, and there’s a lecture this afternoon. Class monitors should lead their classes. I’ll talk to the class monitors separately; you two come to the office.”
In the office.
Gao Pingyang first talked about the legal lecture, then asked: “How are you two doing recently?”
Yun Ci: “?”
Gao Pingyang: “Your relationship.”
Because they had caused trouble before, they were always a focus of Gao Pingyang’s attention, so he asked a bit more. Yun Ci was momentarily stunned by this “relationship,” and saw Yu Xun looking like he was ready to sit down and have a long chat about it with Gao Pingyang: “Our relationship actually—”
In a moment of desperation, Yun Ci reached behind Yu Xun and pinched his clothes.
He didn’t know where he pinched, but given the position, it should have been the lower back.
Yu Xun didn’t have much meat on him, his waist was lean and firm, and Yun Ci didn’t feel anything but hardness.
Besides hardness, the other sensation was tension.
When Yun Ci reached out, Yu Xun stiffened, and the words he was about to say stuck in his throat.
Gao Pingyang looked at him: “…Hmm? What? Why aren’t you speaking?”
Yu Xun didn’t say anything.
Yun Ci hurriedly let go: “Still very bad.”
Gao Pingyang: “…?”
Gao Pingyang looked at Yu Xun: “Is that so?”
Yu Xun seemed distracted, only responding with an “ah” after a while.
After leaving the office, Yun Ci, while contemplating chopping off his own hand, calmly said, “Just now, my hand slipped.”
Yu Xun: “Your hand slipped onto my waist.”
“…”
There were very few people in the hallway outside the office.
Yun Ci’s fingers twitched, then he simply tucked them into his sleeve.
“That kind of hand slip,” Yu Xun’s expression was also somewhat unnatural. He turned his head, unusually not looking at Yun Ci, and just casually said, “…can happen a few more times in the future. I don’t mind.”
The school lecture was held in the auditorium. Nanyang University regularly arranged many professional lectures for various majors, inviting experts and professors from different fields to help students better understand their majors and future career directions.
The lecture was very long. Yun Ci, just recovered from the flu, felt stuffy wearing a mask.
After listening for about half an hour, he bent over and sneaked out through the back door to get some air.
The back door led directly to a scenic garden. In winter, there were no flowers or plants in the flower beds, making them look bare.
Yun Ci squatted by the flower bed, scrolling through his phone, and lifted his hand to remove his mask.
Then he vaguely heard a very faint sound coming from the flower bed. After careful listening, he realized it was a weak meowing.
On his phone screen, a classmate sitting next to him was urging him:
[Class monitor, come back quickly, they’re taking attendance.]
[Your seat is empty, very noticeable.]
[……]
Yun Ci ignored these messages, stuffed his phone into his pants pocket, and then started to push aside the flowers and plants in the flower bed, leaning in completely.
“Meow…”
The meowing became clearer.
In a corner deep in the flower bed, there were two cats, but the bigger one had already frozen to death, its body visibly stiff. The smaller one was being protected by the bigger one and didn’t look good either.
Yun Ci quickly realized that his current position wasn’t good for getting in. He couldn’t push aside the rough branches and pick up the cat at the same time.
At this moment, a hand reached out from beside him, pressing down on the branches: “Go ahead and grab it.”
Yun Ci didn’t need to turn around; he knew who it was by the voice. “…Why did you come out?”
Yu Xun said competitively: “Only you can come out for some air?”
“…”
Yun Ci squeezed in, and when he touched the cat, its meowing became intense.
He scooped it up; it was very light and small, completely white, its eyes barely open.
Afraid it was cold, Yun Ci tucked it inside his coat to keep it warm. Feeling the warmth, the cat’s meowing gradually stopped.
Yun Ci, holding the cat, was thinking about what to do: “Ask if anyone can adopt it.”
Yu Xun, watching from the side: “You probably won’t find someone right away. Take it back first.”
Yun Ci thought about finding a pet shop to see if they could foster it for a while, but Yu Xun clearly had a different idea: “Take it back?”
Yu Xun: “The dorm.”
Yun Ci: “Don’t they check the dorms?”
Yu Xun: “We’ll figure it out then. We should be able to hide it.”
Yun Ci wanted to say that Yu Xun seemed to break all the rules.
Then he remembered that Yu Xun had blown up the dorm before; there was nothing he wouldn’t do.
“…”
The two of them didn’t go back to the auditorium; they went straight to the dorm.
Only Luo Sifang was in the dorm. He took off his headphones and suddenly heard a meow from Yun Ci’s coat: “Whoa, what’s that sound?”
“Meowing.”
Yun Ci unzipped his coat and reported to the dorm leader: “It might have to stay in the dorm for a while.”
After hearing the backstory, Luo Sifang said: “Our dorm has finally stepped onto the path of breaking the rules…”
Nanyang University strictly prohibited keeping pets in the dormitory, considering it a violation if caught. The student organization often conducted dorm inspections; illegal appliances were frequently found, though blowing up a dorm was unique.
Yun Ci: “Hmm. I should have joined the student council.”
Luo Sifang: “?”
Yun Ci: “Abuse of power.”
“…”
Luo Sifang: “Not sure if that’s what the student council is for… But morally, we are showing kindness.”
Luo Sifang then asked: “Is it hungry?”
The few of them scrambled around in the dorm.
Luo Sifang found a basin, Yun Ci went out to buy goat milk powder, and after a lot of hassle, the final scene was Yu Xun holding the cat, Yun Ci preparing the milk powder and feeding it spoon by spoon.
Yu Xun lightly rested his hand on the cat’s neck, the other hand supporting its waist and belly.
Yun Ci: “Lift it a bit, can’t feed it like this.”
Yu Xun adjusted his hand slightly.
Then, as if on purpose, he quickly let his hand drop again, the cat’s head dropping with it.
“Lift it a bit more.”
Yu Xun lifted it a bit more.
“…”
After a few times, Yun Ci looked up at him: “Are you doing this on purpose?”
Yu Xun admitted the interaction was too obvious: “…Maybe a little.”
After that, he behaved, not moving around. Once they successfully finished feeding, Yun Ci, holding the spoon, rubbed the cat’s head in Yu Xun’s arms. Then the spoon shook, spilling a few drops on someone’s hand.
Yun Ci took a tissue to wipe it, but as he touched the back of Yu Xun’s hand through the tissue, he realized something and handed the tissue to him: “Wipe it yourself.”
Luo Sifang, oblivious to the rising tension, said: “How about we post on Moments, see if anyone wants to adopt it?”
Yun Ci looked at his phone, ready to post, but couldn’t type a single word for a long time.
After his relationship with Yu Xun returned to normal, he found that the vague sense of irritation in his heart hadn’t disappeared, it was still there, subtly present.
When pulling Yu Xun’s clothes, when asking him to lift his hand. In every moment of their interaction.
…
Even though this person wasn’t deliberately provoking him anymore, why was he still so irritated?
Yu Xun, seeing him not typing, brought his phone screen to Yun Ci’s face: “Copy mine.”
Yun Ci snapped out of it: “…Who said I can’t write?”
Luo Sifang, thinking they were about to argue, quickly intervened: “It’s just a caption, no need to fight—”
Luo Sifang read out loud while typing his own caption: “Looking for a kind person, willing to adopt…” He paused, then suggested, “Shouldn’t the cat have a name? Just calling it a white cat is too vague.”
Yun Ci said white cat was fine.
Luo Sifang: “That’s too casual.”
Yun Ci: “Xiao Bai.”
Luo Sifang: “It’s even more casual, bro.”
Yu Xun suddenly said: “Yu Ci1(虞词) Yu from Yu Xun and Ci from Yun Ci.”
“…”
“???”
Luo Sifang didn’t understand for a moment: “What Yu (鱼, fish), what Ci (刺, thorn)?”
Yun Ci, his typing hand faltering, deleted the character and pursed his lips: “Pick another one.” He then warned, “The name.”
Yu Xun: “Why?”
Yun Ci: “It sounds awful.”
“I picked it up with you,” Yu Xun said. “Is there a problem with calling it this commemorative name?”
Yun Ci: “There is.”
Yu Xun understood the problem. He sat in the chair, slightly slouched, casually snapped his fingers, and said: “Yu Cici, adding a duplicate character. Pets usually have names like this, it feels more affectionate. I didn’t think it through earlier.”
“……”
