That day, Yun Ci didn’t go back home in the evening.
He informed Yan Yue, who, because of their previous disagreement about the tutoring job, didn’t say much, just saying, “You handle it yourself.”
This was a somewhat cold remark.
Yun Ci said, “Got it.”
Then, on the other end of the phone, Yan Yue also fell silent.
The confrontation between father and son was silent and soundless.
After a while, the call ended, and the phone was left with only a busy tone.
Behind him, Yu Xun opened the balcony door and squeezed in to hang up his pants, just in time to hear the busy tone: “Not going back tonight?”
Yun Ci: “Mm.”
Yu Xun: “What did Teacher Yan say?”
Yun Ci skipped over the content of his conversation with Yan Yue and didn’t mention Yan Yue’s opposition to him tutoring, only saying, “He didn’t say much. It’s the holidays, staying at a classmate’s house is normal.”
What wasn’t normal was that this classmate had just been holding and kissing him for a long time.
“When did you wash them?” Yun Ci looked at the pair of sweatpants he hung up, which Yu Xun had just been wearing. “Why—”
Why suddenly wash pants.
Halfway through the sentence, he figured it out himself.
Sure enough, after hanging up the clothes, Yu Xun leaned against the balcony door, tilted his head, and asked, “Why do you think?”
After some time apart, his hair had grown longer, almost reaching his shoulders. After washing those pants, he casually found a pair of low-waisted jeans. Standing there, he looked satisfied.
Looking at his beautiful eyebrows and eyes, Yun Ci suddenly remembered what he had said to Liu Jiayu, “Pretty.”
Yu Xun looked at him: “Think I’m too handsome to look away?”
“No,” Yun Ci said, “I don’t think you’re handsome.”
Yu Xun: “?”
Yun Ci said, “I think you’re a bit.” He thought for a moment, but couldn’t find a better word, so he still said, “Pretty.”
Yu Xun frowned lightly: “Isn’t that a word used to describe girls?”
Then, he relaxed his eyebrows and casually said, “Pretty is pretty. As long as you like it.”
After speaking, Yun Ci prepared to go into the room: “Aren’t you going in?”
Yu Xun: “I’ll stay on the balcony for a bit.”
“?”
Blow wind in the middle of winter?
The next moment, Yu Xun said, “The cold shower didn’t really help.”
“…”
With his lips a bit swollen from kissing, Yun Ci, without a word, resolutely opened the balcony door and went out.
Yu Xun blew the cold wind for a while, scrolling through his phone.
His little tutoring kid was asking stupid questions again: [How about I do another test paper? I just heard that the last place in our grade also hired a tutor. Isn’t my second-to-last place very dangerous?]
Yu Xun replied: [Don’t waste the paper. Even if you do thirty more, it won’t help.]
His student, second to last in the grade, replied instantly: [Why? Quantity changes lead to qualitative changes. Hard work creates miracles. The sea of problems tactic is the best way to raise scores. Doesn’t this work for me?]
Yu Xun, with his years-old black profile picture, replied: [If you can solve one problem on a test paper, that would be good. For that one problem, is it worth wasting a whole sheet of paper? Think carefully.]
On the other side, silence: [ …]
After replying to this kid’s message, Yu Xun responded to a few messages from Liu Zi.
Liu Zi: [Why didn’t you answer your phone? How about we sell fireworks near West High during the New Year? I’ll borrow a tricycle for New Year’s Eve, and we’ll go to the streets together.]
Liu Zi: [After last time, I have experience now.]
Yu Xun replied: [Failed experience doesn’t count.]
Then he specifically replied to the first message, explaining why he didn’t answer the phone: [Because I was with my partner.]
Liu Zi replied quickly: [Oh, with your partner.]
After a while, he sent a bunch of question marks: [Wait, with what? Did you mistype?]
Even though the black profile picture was just a black screen, Liu Zi somehow felt a strong sense of satisfaction and bragging from it.
yx: [Partner.]
yx: [I’m in a relationship.]
…
After sending it, he left Liu Zi alone in the wind, holding the tricycle he had just borrowed, and turned off his phone.
When he turned back to the room, it was almost dark.
Yun Ci was sitting on the sofa, casually changing channels. Seeing him come in, he said, somewhat unnaturally, “Where are you sleeping tonight?”
Yu Xun: “Bed.”
Yun Ci responded, “Oh,” and said, “I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
“Sleep on the sofa?” Yu Xun raised an eyebrow, confused. “…You don’t want to sleep on the bed?”
“…”
Even though they had kissed for so long, there was still a bit of that high school awkwardness when they were together: “Then you sleep on the sofa.”
“My bed is quite big,” Yu Xun directly hinted, “Big enough for two people.”
Though they had been roommates at school, even sleeping in bunk beds, the current situation was different.
The same room, the same bed.
When Yun Ci lay down, his first feeling was one of strangeness and familiarity. The environment was unfamiliar, everything different from his own bedroom, but the scent enveloping him was very familiar.
It was Yu Xun’s scent.
With the lights off, Yu Xun’s voice came from the other side of the bed: “If you move any further to the edge, you’ll fall off and sleep on the floor.”
“…”
Even though they were in college, it still felt like a “puppy love” because it was their first relationship.
It could also be because of the person beside him, bringing back memories of West High, carrying the marks of their sharp-edged era.
In the dark, Yun Ci buried himself under the blanket, his voice muffled, “I won’t fall off.”
There was a moment of silence between them, then a slight sound from the other side of the bed, as if the person next to him had turned over—he was facing away from Yu Xun, so he could only guess from the sound.
However, he miscalculated.
Because there was suddenly a hand at his waist, Yu Xun reached over from the other side, stopping only when he touched Yun Ci’s waist. He habitually held tightly, pulling him into his embrace.
“Afraid you’ll fall,” Yu Xun found a very reasonable explanation for his actions, “this way is safer.”
Yun Ci said in his arms, “It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with safety.”
Yu Xun candidly admitted, “Now I’m the one in more danger.”
At first, Yun Ci was a bit stiff all over, not knowing how long they hugged before sleepiness gradually crept in, and he finally relaxed a bit.
But just as he relaxed, Yu Xun suddenly said, “I think I forgot something.”
“?
“Goodnight kiss.”
Yu Xun especially liked kissing.
What started as a single goodnight kiss ended up with endless kissing.
“…This is called goodnight?”
Yun Ci’s lips felt a bit numb, and he said, “After kissing, there’s no need to sleep.”
Yu Xun lowered his head and pecked lightly: “Then it can be a good morning kiss too.”
They kissed for a while, took turns going to the bathroom, then kissed a while more, and took turns going to the bathroom again.
…
By the time the goodnight kisses ended, they couldn’t sleep anymore.
Yu Xun still maintained the position of holding Yun Ci from behind, trying to sleep. His chin rested on the other’s neck, their breaths intertwining.
Yun Ci couldn’t sleep and was browsing his phone.
Yu Xun half-opened his eyes, just watching him scroll.
In fact, phones are quite private, containing personal information, and the news and videos one watches.
The two chatted sporadically.
“This video is interesting, who sent it to you?”
“Li Yan.”
” …”
“Oh, this news seems fake.”
“Maybe.”
After a few minutes of silence, Yu Xun said again, “You have a message on WeChat.”
Since reading a forwarded video shows a “read” mark, Li Yan immediately poked him: [Still online so late.]
Li Yan: [Are you done with work? You’re not seriously working the whole winter break, are you?]
Li Yan: [So late, is your job a night shift?]
[ …]
Under Yu Xun’s gaze, Yun Ci typed: [Where do you think I’d work a night shift?]
Li Yan: [At this hour, a bar?]
Li Yan: [Don’t worry, as your bro, I’ll pretend I don’t know.]
Then Yun Ci typed word by word: [Not working.]
yc: [At my partner’s house.]
Li Yan was stunned for a moment before replying: [You’re in a relationship??]
Li Yan: [Who’s your girlfriend? Which department?]
yc: [Law.]
Li Yan: [ … same major?]
yc: [Mm.]
Chatting in front of your boyfriend felt strange.
After sending those messages, he heard the person holding him laugh, then lightly kiss his earlobe: “You told him just like that?”
“Nothing to hide,” Yun Ci said, “but for now, maybe don’t tell him who it is.”
He and Yu Xun had fought for so many years.
Li Yan was one of his team’s strongest members.
Suddenly telling him his romantic partner was Yu Xun might be too shocking.
Yu Xun’s voice was a bit sleepy: “I think the same, so I didn’t tell Liu Zi your name.”
“Take it step by step.”
Then, the person who just said “take it step by step” pulled out his phone: “How about I post on my Moments first?”
Post what?
Yun Ci thought for a moment, flipping through his photo album, and finally stopped at a picture of a paper rose, a red one that Yu Xun had folded for him: “Should I post this?”
Yu Xun glanced at it and also searched through his album: “I have this too.”
He pulled out a bunch of photos, all different angles of the paper rose—when Yun Ci had folded it from a piece of white A4 paper, Yu Xun had taken countless pictures. At a glance, there were at least ten.
“This angle is better, that one has a stronger atmosphere, this one has good lighting,” Yu Xun said while picking, “How about I post nine.”
“…?”
Is it necessary to post that many?
Yun Ci tilted his head, glancing at him.
Yu Xun noticed his gaze: “Too few? No choice, Moments’ limit is nine.”
” … …”
In the end, they posted to Moments one after another.
To take it step by step, they didn’t write any captions, just posted a photo.
yx: [/photo]
yc: [/photo]
Although not posted at the same time, the interval was short, and it was late at night, so refreshing Moments would likely show these two posts together.
After waiting about ten minutes, their respective friends started to react.
Especially their old classmates from West High, exploding in the middle of the night.
Led by Li Yan, comments flooded in: [Holy shit!!!!!!]
Someone replied to Li Yan: [What’s going on, Yu Xun also posted a photo.]
Li Yan: [How the hell would I know.]
Yun Ci was about to say the gradual approach seemed to be working.
Li Yan quickly posted a new comment: [I don’t know! I don’t want to understand these two’s mental state! I don’t know why they’re up late at night competing over who can fold a better paper rose!!!]
Others replied to Li Yan: [I think so too. Judging by the timeline, Yu Xun folded first, five minutes later, Yun Ci, not to be outdone, folded one too.]
Someone else said: [I think the color choice has a deep meaning.]
Old Classmate 1: [How so?]
Old Classmate 2: [Ever read Zhang Ailing? Red Rose and White Rose, cinnabar mole and white moonlight, don’t you get it? The colors are meaningful.]
Old Classmate 3: [Got it.]
The comments and likes kept increasing, and someone even started a poll: [Yu Xun’s post already has eight votes, who thinks his is better? How many votes for us? I’m definitely voting for Yun Ci, that red rose is so lifelike!]
Following closely, Li Yan sent a private chat: [You’re at your partner’s house, busy competing with Yu Xun in paper folding, and your partner doesn’t mind?]
Seeing the message, Yun Ci: “…”
Could it be that his partner is Yu Xun himself?
___________
Author’s note:
Liu Yan: Why is it that when others fall in love, it’s like a crematorium for us?
