Yun Ci was stunned by his sudden action, then habitually felt a bit of fighting spirit rise within him from the familiar tone.
…
Is he a coat rack?
Just hang it on him.
If it’s troublesome, why wear a scarf?
“You’re too lazy to hold it.” Yun Ci’s voice was muffled by the scarf covering his chin. “So you hang it around my neck?”
“What else should I do?”
Yu Xun lowered his eyes, and glanced at Yun Ci’s hands: “You have one hand holding a cake, the other hand in your pocket. Where should I hang it?”
“…”
“Carry it yourself.”
Yu Xun, in a very annoying manner, replied, “I said it’s troublesome. I don’t want to carry it.”
He continued, “It’s so cold outside, what if my hands get frozen?”
Hearing this, Yun Ci automatically envisioned the next line in his mind: After all, my hands look pretty good.
Sure enough.
Yu Xun’s next line: “After all, my hands look quite good—they just recovered from the scars last time, they can’t get frozen again.”
“…”
Fine.
Your hands are pretty. You’re precious.
The scarf around Yun Ci’s neck was very soft.
Wrapped tightly. The temperature gradually rose; even his nose tip warmed up.
However, this sudden and easily misunderstood gesture of putting on a scarf, in a few words from Yu Xun, reverted back to their usual banter without any trace of strangeness.
The waiting time at the red light seemed especially long.
They stood on the roadside in a group, constantly talking.
Ahead, Luo Sifang was shivering, saying, “If I knew it would be this cold, I would’ve worn more… But in the second round, Zhuang-ge, I think you could have sped up your coordination a bit, several times we almost got it.”
Wang Zhuang was also shivering, “I’m cold too, didn’t expect the temperature to drop at night… But to be fair, I did have my own strategy in the middle…”
Peng Yiyuan: “It is very cold. But do you two need to talk like this? Can’t you separate the topics?”
“…”
Only Yu Xun, out of place, unzipped his jacket to prove he was hot.
Luo Sifang turned to look for the other two in their team for a review, and happened to see this scene: “?”
Yu Xun, expression unchanged, with his jacket open, wearing a black sweater underneath. The sweater’s neckline wasn’t high, exposing his bony collarbones to the cold wind. At first glance, it looked like he was deliberately posing to look cool.
He looked back at Luo Sifang, lightly explaining, “People with our kind of good physique are like this. Wearing too much gets hot.”
Luo Sifang: “Impressive.”
Of course, this could imply that others’ bodies weren’t as good as his.
So, as the dorm leader, Luo Sifang quickly sounded the alarm: “Ci-ge! Stay calm, Ci-ge!”
“?”
Luo Sifang: “Don’t get worked up, don’t compete with him, don’t think that your body is better and that you can also take off your jacket and cross the street wearing just a sweater without shivering!”
Yun Ci: “…”
Luo Sifang thought he fully understood the way these archrivals operated: “Your body is also good; you two are evenly matched in this regard—”
After his speech, he saw the scarf wrapped around Yun Ci’s neck.
Luo Sifang abruptly changed the topic: “Hey, isn’t this…”
If he remembered correctly, wasn’t this scarf the one Yu Xun was wearing when he came?
He half-finished his sentence, his voice low, so no one noticed, and was directly interrupted by the traffic light.
“Green light, green light.”
“Hurry up, Sifang.”
“How come we never noticed how long this traffic light takes?”
“…”
Yun Ci walked past Luo Sifang, crossing the road. As they brushed shoulders, he still showed that competitive spirit unique to archrivals, but the manner was different from what was expected, with seventy percent taunting and thirty percent rationality: “Do I look like I’m sick?”
…
*
Yun Ci, wearing Yu Xun’s scarf, headed back to the dormitory. He wanted to take it off on the way but never had the chance, urged on by the green light, and Yu Xun’s hands in his pockets gave him no opportunity.
He couldn’t just take off the scarf and throw it on the ground.
So, wearing it all the way, they squeezed into the dormitory building just in time, facing the dorm supervisor grandpa, who had been sitting at the door with a stool early on.
Yu Xun pressed the phone’s screen light button and bent down to show the grandpa the time: “Right on time, not a second late, take a look. Grandpa, we’re not late this time.”
The dorm supervisor grandpa wore a thick green military coat, sitting there, unafraid of the wind and rain, with a stern face: “The first five of you indeed weren’t late, but the last one—” he pointed, “You, although your left foot stepped in, your right foot is still outside! You! Come here!”
Walking last and being called out, Peng Yiyuan: “…”
Wang Zhuang, walking in front of him, turned around, looking distressed: “Young Master Peng, what’s the matter with you? Just one foot away.”
Peng Yiyuan wanted to curse: “How would I know? Doesn’t this count as being inside?”
Luo Sifang negotiated, “Grandpa, can we round up and count him as having fully come in?”
“Look,” Yu Xun also leaned over and began to speak eloquently, “Actually, this student here, his main weight is focused on the left foot that stepped in.”
Yun Ci rarely agreed with him, saying coldly, “According to inertia, his right foot actually…”
Without armrests, the dorm supervisor grandpa angrily patted his own thigh and interrupted, “—What weight or no weight, I don’t care about inertia. Can you say that right foot isn’t his? Caught means points deducted!”
“…”
For the first time, Room 608 got points deducted, and it was for such a ridiculous reason.
When they were going upstairs, dorm leader Luo Sifang walked at the front, head down.
The others thought he was angry, after all, since taking office, Luo Sifang had shown great concern for the dorm’s honor, hygiene, and harmony. This one point deduction probably didn’t sit well with him.
But after climbing a couple more steps, Luo Sifang’s shoulders started shaking, then shook even more violently, and finally, he burst out laughing, “Damn, Young Master Peng, you got us deducted for just one foot. Ridiculous.”
After he laughed, the people following behind couldn’t help but laugh as well, “Who knew grandpa wouldn’t let even one foot slide.”
“This is someone who can build a wall overnight,” Wang Zhuang also laughed, “…He carried bricks and cement, and after finishing the wall, our Yu-ge was forced to return to the dorm on time every day.”
The group’s laughter was particularly infectious.
Yun Ci, walking behind, couldn’t help but smile.
When they got to the dormitory door, he saw Yu Xun, also laughing, walking at the end.
Moments like this were rare between him and Yu Xun.
Because of participating in the same thing, they shared a mutual reaction, like now with the dorm deduction.
Leaning against the wall, laughing freely while waiting for Luo Sifang to open the dorm door, the exposed part of his collarbone was slightly red from the cold wind. His skin was actually very fair, so any other color stood out.
Yu Xun noticed him, and Yun Ci saw that a small patch of skin at the corner of Yu Xun’s eye also seemed a bit red from the wind, looking like he had applied eye shadow, even the mole there was less noticeable.
“What are you looking at me for?” he asked.
“Oh,” Yun Ci casually mocked, “I’ve never seen a body this good.”
Yu Xun: “Then look a few more times; there is no admission fee.”
“…”
Yun Ci admitted defeat: “Can’t you hear the sarcasm?”
Yu Xun added: “As long as I can’t hear it, it doesn’t count as sarcasm.”
“…”
So he’s playing by the philosophy of “as long as I’m not embarrassed, the embarrassment isn’t mine.”
Yun Ci looked away, saying no more.
After all, he could never match the thickness of this person’s skin and psychological resilience.
Before entering the door, Yun Ci took off the scarf and said, “Here, take it.”
Yu Xun reached out to take it, the scarf still warm with the other’s body heat. The whole scarf was warm.
When Yun Ci handed it to him, for some reason he also noticed this point, just like that jacket before. His hand paused for a moment when handing it over, but Yu Xun didn’t hesitate, pulling the scarf from his hand and carefully holding it in his palm.
*
It was almost eleven o’clock.
Yun Ci had washed up simply, sitting in the dark at the long table below, waiting for a few strands of wet hair to dry.
Since he made that call to Yu Xun outside the internet cafe, he hadn’t really looked at his phone.
When he opened WeChat again, he saw a string of messages from Li Yan.
Li Yan: [No one in your dorm?]
Li Yan: [My dad sent me a box of fruit, and specifically told me to give you half a box. I carried the fruit over but your dorm was locked.]
Li Yan: [No more words, come get it yourself tomorrow.]
Half an hour later, without a reply from Yun Ci, Li Yan couldn’t hold back and sent another message, sounding a bit jealous.
[Are you guys having a dorm event tonight? Including that Yu Xun guy? What’s the deal, ever since college and separate dorms, you’ve spent more time with Yu Xun than with me.]
Yun Ci stared at the line about Yu Xun for a few seconds, replying, “Just got back to the dorm, hadn’t seen the messages.”
Li Yan replied instantly: [Am I still your best buddy?]
yc: [….]
Li Yan continued asking: [When are you finally going to kick that Yu out of the dorm?]
This used to be a line he wouldn’t have any reaction to.
In the past, he would even reply without thinking, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t survive tonight.”
But looking at the black cake he placed on the desk after entering the dorm, his fingers on the screen, he found it hard to type out the same deeply hostile words as before.
In his youth, he had recklessly and relentlessly opposed Yu Xun at every turn.
After sharing a dorm, that hostility subtly began to change.
…Even though this person was still as irritating as ever.
In the end, he skipped over that line, only changing the subject to ask, “What kind of fruit?”
Li Yan: [Oranges and such, said to boost immunity with the drop in temperature, replenish some vitamin C.]
yc: [Got it.]
Yun Ci’s fingers paused, but he still typed two more lines.
yc: [Don’t just think about fighting.]
yc: [If you’re free, go copy some perfect essays]
Li Yan: [?]
Li Yan: [Am I sick!]
The two chatted briefly, then Li Yan retreated. Yun Ci ran a hand through the bangs on his forehead, confirmed they were dry, and was about to climb back into the top bunk when his phone buzzed again.
Black avatar: [Did you eat]
Black avatar: [The cake]
“…”
So late at night, eating cake would be too rich.
And he didn’t know if it was an illusion. Yun Ci felt that without facing Yu Xun’s face and communicating through the internet, his thoughts were more likely to wander. These two five-word sentences felt like someone who had given a gift, eagerly hoping the recipient hadn’t thrown it away.
The lights were out.
The dorm was pitch black, he couldn’t see the lower bunks, and they couldn’t see each other clearly.
Yun Ci wondered why he had this feeling.
Then he remembered that indeed, he had thrown something—the chicken leg from high school, a big deal back then, had been forcibly chased out of the class by everyone.
He didn’t know the full story then, but after visiting Yu Xun’s home and learning the backstory of the chicken leg, not eating this cake seemed very impolite.
So Yun Ci fumbled in the dark, tore open the plastic bag, and then, holding a spoon, ate it bite by bite.
It wasn’t too rich.
Sweet with a chocolatey flavor.
This belated token of gratitude, because of the gunpowder-filled relationship between him and Yu Xun, was finally accepted a few years later.
Five or six minutes later.
There was a rustling sound near Yu Xun’s bed, then the sound of pulling and adjusting the sheets on the upper bunk.
In the darkness, after all these sounds settled down, the phone screen lit up.
Two words appeared in the chat box: [Ate it].
