Chapter 40 —If You Want to Marry, Go Marry Yourself
Very soon, Chen Jingshen messaged to ask why Yu Fan had hung up.
Why did I hang up? What do you think?
And what was with the way you were looking at me? Not exactly innocent.
But Yu Fan could not bring himself to say something as shameless as, “I thought you were about to confess.” So he simply did not reply.
Chen Jingshen did not press. Ten minutes later he sent a few photos of Fanfan instead.
Yu Fan squatted under a tree, smoking and letting the night wind cool him down. Once his head cleared, he opened the pictures one by one, then stood, crushed out his cigarette, and headed home.
When he got back, the windows were wide open and the lights were on. The TV volume was so loud the whole building could hear it.
Yu Kaiming was sprawled on the sofa, voice-chatting with gambling buddies while watching the game. The instant Yu Fan walked in, he muted his mic and even drew his legs off the coffee table.
Seventeen-year-olds shoot up fast. The kid was already taller than him.
When he was drunk or had people around, Yu Kaiming did not mind poking the bear. When he happened to be sober, he was not stupid enough to pick a fight.
Two years of experience said his odds in a one-on-one were not great.
Yu Fan glanced at the TV, tossed his keys on the shoe cabinet, and walked over without a word.
“I’m warning you, don’t start anything…” Yu Kaiming said quickly, dropping his feet to the floor.
Yu Fan picked up the remote, turned the volume from sixty-eight down to eighteen, tossed the remote back on the table, and headed for his room. He did not spare his father a single look.
The door shut behind him. Yu Kaiming shot a wary glance down the hall, then lifted the phone again.
“I’m here, not asleep. My boy just came in… no, no fight. No idea what he was doing tonight, but his face looks weirdly cheerful.”
The next night at nine, Yu Fan sat at his desk idly twirling a pen, waiting for Chen Jingshen to send the usual problem-solving video. No video came. Instead, a live video call popped up.
Yu Fan blinked, and only accepted right before it would have timed out.
A towel hung over Chen Jingshen’s shoulder. He was looking down at a test paper.
The desk lamp cut a cool wash across his cheek.
Just like when they were cramming before midterms, he said, “Those weekend problems you picked were good. Want to do a few now?”
Yu Fan’s fingers tightened on his pen. After a beat he propped the phone beside him and pulled out his test. “You are annoying… Forget it, I’m bored anyway. A few is fine.”
Chen Jingshen used the rear camera to walk him through the steps.
An hour later they reached the final long problems.
These were pretty tough. Whenever Yu Fan hit a wall, his mind wandered.
Chen Jingshen’s low voice flowed through his earbuds. As Yu Fan spun his pen and only half listened, last night’s image of Chen Jingshen on the backseat, faintly smiling, drifted up.
“Did you get that?” Chen Jingshen asked. No answer, so he lifted his eyes. “Yu Fan?”
Yu Fan’s heart jumped. He jerked his head up. “Oh, I didn’t—”
A thin creak, long and small, cut through his earbud. At first he thought he imagined it, until Chen Jingshen suddenly turned his head toward the side. A sweep of light flashed across his face, like a car headlight.
“We can talk at school,” Chen Jingshen said after a pause, setting down his pen. “Something came up. I have to hang up.”
Yu Fan hummed reflexively. A second later, the call ended.
He leaned back and frowned at the chat window for a while.
Was it his imagination? Right before hanging up, Chen Jingshen looked a little unhappy.
Same expressionless face though.
Yu Fan had been working problems for hours. He grabbed his phone and his cigarettes and went out to the balcony.
The old complex was quiet this late.
He sat and smoked and scrolled. While he was on the video, several messages had piled up, all from Wang Lu’an asking why his call would not go through.
Yu Fan replied that he had been busy. No reply. Probably gaming. He opened the group chat that had been @-ing him nonstop and scrolled back.
[Wang Lu’an: Can’t get Yu Fan on voice. Ask that PE kid in your class.]
[Zuo Kuan: Can’t reach him either. f***, what is with you people. Can’t even make a full squad. @- I’ll try again.]
[Zhu Xu: I’m here. f***, Wang Lu’an, do I not have a name? I was on video with my deskmate.]
[Zuo Kuan: Just say girlfriend. Deskmate? Whose deskmate video chats every night at eight for a full hour?]
Yu Fan’s fingers stilled.
What about video? How else do you explain problems?
He flicked a glance at Zuo Kuan’s game avatar and thought, Fine. People who don’t study will not get it.
[Wang Lu’an: You see each other every day at school. Isn’t an hour every night a waste of time?]
[Zhu Xu: Not really. I don’t have anything else to do at home. Honestly the real waste is cigarettes.]
[Wang Lu’an: ?]
[Zhu Xu: If the chat goes well I want a smoke. If it gets intense I want a smoke. If she suddenly can’t talk, still want a smoke… man, being in love is such a pain.]
[Zuo Kuan: Sh*** up. No one asked. Log in.]
Yu Fan’s fingers trembled around his cigarette.
After a while, he shut the phone and tossed it aside. He told himself he just wanted a smoke on his own. Nothing to do with Chen Jingshen.
One was not enough. He reached for another and found the pack empty.
He remembered pacing around that tree last night for ages, smoking circles into the dirt.
Yu Fan stared at the flattened pack, then crumpled it in his fist and pitched it into the trash by the door.
On Monday, news of Ding Xiao’s punishment swept through the second-year classrooms.
The boy himself did not show up. People who knew him said his family was arranging a transfer.
Yu Fan could not care less. No matter how much Wang Lu’an and Zuo Kuan yammered in his ear, he did not catch a word.
Elbow on the desk, chin propped, while those two debated who was the biggest coward for the thousandth time, his eyes drifted toward the actual biggest coward.
Chen Jingshen sat as straight as ever, head down, sketching out steps on his scratch paper.
He did not seem inclined to explain why he had hung up last night, and he gave no sign of finishing that last problem from the test.
Forgot?
Whatever. Teach it, don’t teach it.
Yu Fan looked away, irritated for no good reason.
The physics teacher walked in. The two chatterboxes finally returned to their seats.
Yu Fan slouched, reached into his desk for the textbook… and touched something new.
The advanced edition of “Slow Bird Flies,” a black cover.
He opened the first page. His name was written there, in his deskmate’s handwriting.
“I marked the key problems,” Chen Jingshen said. He leaned back the same way, turned his head. “I can finish last night’s test tonight.”
Yu Fan met his eyes for a second, and the knot of annoyance loosened.
He dropped his gaze and slipped back into lazy drawl. “...Sure.”
After first period, the physics teacher had barely stepped out when Zhuang Fangqin stepped in.
With everyone still at their desks, she announced a parent-teacher conference for Thursday afternoon.
“Everyone has to notify their parents. If they cannot make it, they need to call me first,” she said, then glanced toward the back rows. “That is it. Take a break… Yu Fan, come to the office.”
He followed her out without arguing.
“This time, your parent…” she began.
“No one is coming,” Yu Fan cut in.
Expected. No surprise.
She had tried before. Talked to Yu Fan, who was impervious. Eventually she bypassed him and dug up numbers, calling for two straight days with no answer. The one time someone picked up, the voice had been impatient. You know what our family is like. I am not going. School things are not my business.
So she dropped it.
“Then forget it. Since your parent is not coming, you do not need to wait at the gate. Come help me greet parents in the classroom.”
“…Me?” Yu Fan thought he heard wrong. “That is not a good idea. When this is over half the class will get withdrawn by their parents.”
“Behave yourself.” Zhuang Fangqin smacked him lightly with her lesson plan. “You do not have to do anything. Just hold the sign-in sheet and have parents sign.”
She reminded him for four days straight. He resisted for four days straight.
Thursday afternoon, the bell barely rang for break before she shoved the sign-in sheet into his hands and sent him to the door.
There was half an hour before it started.
A few students were decorating the room. Yu Fan leaned on the balcony rail with the sign-in sheet, staring down at the lively scene.
Their building had a prime view. From the balcony you could see the school gate and the street beyond. At the moment the road was jammed, bumper to bumper, with parents’ cars.
Chen Jingshen set his bag on the supply table and said, “I am going down.”
Yu Fan assumed he was going to meet a parent and gave a lazy “mm.”
Ten minutes later, he watched his deskmate walk to the gate with a red armband on his sleeve. The characters read “Outstanding Student Representative.” He took his place beside Hu Pang.
Yu Fan: “…What is he doing?”
Zhang Xianjing followed his gaze. “Chen Jingshen? On duty at the gate. One each from first, second, and third year. Hu Pang picked the top student… Did he not tell you?”
Yu Fan was about to say no when he remembered last night’s video. There had been a mention of gate duty.
Chen Jingshen had twitched the pen in his hand and said they would do it together.
…He thought that meant standing in the hallway to listen to the conference together.
“Oh. He did,” Yu Fan said, then glanced at the two beside him. “Why aren’t you going down to meet yours?”
“My mom is still stuck in traffic outside our building,” Zhang Xianjing said, eyes on her phone.
“My dad hasn’t left yet,” Wang Lu’an said.
Zhang Xianjing nodded at the classroom. “So he came to help set up?”
“You know nothing. My dad’s got that family-heirloom e-scooter. Fast as hell, whoosh whoosh through traffic. Ten minutes tops.” Wang Lu’an leaned over the rail. “Look at that mess down there. This jam is gonna… Holy s***!”
Yu Fan’s frown twitched at the volume.
He was loud enough that even Zuo Kuan, sweeping the hall in the next class, looked up to curse. “What are you yelling for?”
Wang Lu’an: “F***! Look at that car! Is that a Bentley?”
Clatter. Zuo Kuan threw the broom and sprinted over.
“F***, it is…”
Zhang Xianjing was unmoved. “How much is that?”
“Not that much,” said lifelong car nerd Wang Lu’an, licking his lips. “By the look of it… a few million, maybe ten.”
Zhu Xu sucked in a breath. “Damn. Our school… hiding dragons… Hey, it stopped. Quick, see whose family is that loaded.”
Yu Fan could not care less about cars. He kept his eyes on the tall figure by the gate, thinking, Why is Chen Jingshen standing there like that?
Almost every parent who passed stole a look at him, like they were gazing at a dreamboat.
Then the gate guard moved.
Chen Jingshen turned and said something to Hu Pang. Hu Pang nodded and waved him on.
Yu Fan watched him walk out of the gate, push through the crowd, and stop by the… luxury car.
A poised, elegant woman stepped out of the back seat. He could not see her face clearly. When she saw Chen Jingshen, she naturally reached up to straighten his armband.
Zuo Kuan: “F***! The top student!”
Zhu Xu: “F***, that is wild.”
“F***, the tycoon was right under our noses.” Wang Lu’an bumped Yu Fan’s shoulder, dazed. “…Hey, if you could date the top student, that would be marrying into money!”
“Get lost,” Yu Fan said on reflex. “If you want to marry, go marry yourself. I am not marrying anyone.”
He hugged the sign-in sheet and, right after the words left his mouth, the corridor went quiet.
Pin-drop quiet.
Sensing something off, Yu Fan’s eyelid twitched hard. He turned his head.
Wang Lu’an had an arm around Zhang Xianjing’s shoulder, mouth still open.
Everyone there stood frozen, stunned and bewildered, staring straight at him.
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