Chapter 60 – Partner Says No
Ji Lianyi held the same posture for a long time.
She wore a simple silk blouse and white suit pants. She had just wrapped up nearly half a month of high-intensity work and endured a flight of more than ten hours, yet she still looked poised and polished.
Her brows knit when she saw the band-aid on Yu Fan’s cheek and his hair, longer than at parent-teacher night. When her gaze dropped to the hand Yu Fan had pressed to her son’s face, the flicker of instinctive dislike shifted into severity.
“Were you two fighting?” Ji Lianyi asked at last.
Only then did Yu Fan realize how stiff his own expression must look.
He secretly let out a breath, his eyes and brows relaxing into something even more slouchy than usual. “Just came to get some—”
Before the word “money” could leave his mouth, someone took his wrist and set his hand back at his side.
Chen Jing Shen had just showered; his palm was cool. Their brief touch fell away, and he said evenly, “He came over to do homework with me.”
“…”
Ji Lianyi knew what kind of student Yu Fan was, and her expression grew more complicated. The tails of her phoenix eyes tipped up slightly. She glanced at the band-aid on Chen Jing Shen’s neck, then at the shorts on Yu Fan.
Yu Fan’s lips barely moved before Ji Lianyi eased her brows and nodded. “I see.”
“It is quite late. You should be finished,” she said to Yu Fan. “Do you need my driver to take you?”
One hand in his pocket, Yu Fan said, “No.”
The driver behind Ji Lianyi stood silent as a mouse, shifting the luggage. When Yu Fan walked past, he stepped aside. Yu Fan brushed his shoulder and left without looking back.
“Old Wu, you can head home too.”
“Alright.” The driver set the luggage down at once. “I will pick you up at nine tomorrow evening.”
The door closed. Ji Lianyi placed her handbag on the shoe cabinet, tapped open the camera feed from the iron gate, and changed shoes while watching Yu Fan go.
Chen Jing Shen withdrew his gaze and quietly reached for her suitcase.
“Why was Yu Fan wearing your shorts?” she asked.
“He got his dirty, so I gave him a pair.” Chen Jing Shen’s tone stayed light. “Have you eaten?”
“A little on the plane.” She softened her voice. “You really weren’t fighting?”
“No.”
“Then your neck?”
“Scratched it by accident.”
Thinking back to the two boys’ demeanor, she had to admit they did not look like they had clashed. She nodded and let it go.
Work and the divorce had kept her too busy lately, she knew that. She had neglected her son, and in the gap he had fallen in with a student like Yu Fan.
It would pass. Once the rush was over, things would return to normal. There were only a dozen days left in the term. Transferring classes now would be a headache.
“Alright then,” Ji Lianyi said. “Why did you cover the house cameras these last few days?”
“Uncomfortable,” said Chen Jing Shen, mild as ever.
She was quiet a few seconds, then nodded. “You’re older now. I can understand. But I didn’t install them to monitor you. They are for your safety. Do you understand? I am doing this for your own good.”
Eyes lowered, he looked at her and said nothing.
“Do not block the cameras outside your room again,” she instructed, light as air, laying a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll cook some noodles. Want a bowl?”
“No.”
“Alright. I will have Auntie come tomorrow to do a full clean and simmer a pot of chicken soup. I will have dinner with you before I go,” she said, heading to the kitchen. Something occurred to her. She turned back. “And you do not need to get those shorts back.”
On the bus home, Yu Fan chewed through an entire pack of gum.
He sat in the very last row, expression blank, staring out the window. His mind was a mess. Every few minutes he checked his phone. Still nothing from Chen Jing Shen.
Only after he got home and stepped into the shower did his phone on the sink finally chime. He reached for it with wet hands.
【-: Did she catch us? 】
【s: No. 】
One word, and all the tightness in Yu Fan’s body slackened. His shoulders lowered bit by bit. He tossed the phone on the counter and stepped back under the water.
Calmer now, he realized it had been a long time since anything made him this nervous.
Ever since it had been just him and Yu Kaiming at home, he had taken an indifferent stance toward most things. Alone, with nothing to tie him down, he didn’t care what people said or what consequences came.
So he was dating Chen Jing Shen, fine. Puppy love, same-sex love, whatever.
But Chen Jing Shen was not like him.
The moment he imagined people finding out that Chen Jing Shen was gay, and that he was dating someone like Yu Fan, his scalp prickled and his head spun with irritation.
He would have to rein it in. At the very least, he should not go to Chen Jing Shen’s place again.
Out of the shower, he hesitated, then pulled on Chen Jing Shen’s shorts again. They felt too big outside, but they were fine to sleep in. Roomy.
【s: But I can’t watch the movie tomorrow. 】
He had just put down one burden and taken another shower. Now he felt clean inside and out.
Cicadas droned outside the window. Lounging on his bed, one arm behind his head, he typed lazily.
【-: Oh. Then next week. 】
Chen Jing Shen sent back an “mm,” then an image. 【I will bring it Monday. 】
Yu Fan opened it and saw the black pants he had tossed into a corner and completely forgotten when he left. His nerves jumped.
He closed the image, opened it again, did that three times, then gave up and looked closely.
The pants lay in a basin of water. To take the photo, Chen Jing Shen had lifted one dripping leg free with one hand.
Yu Fan eyed the clean, minimalist bathroom, then the basin water dyed by his cheap, low-quality pants. He wanted to text back telling him to just throw the stupid thing away.
His gaze slid to Chen Jing Shen’s hand.
Long fingers. Clean joints. When writing, they drew no notice, but when he exerted force, the veins stood up, like when he lifted a water-heavy pant leg, like when…
F***.
Yu Fan tossed the phone aside, reached up, and cranked the fan to max, letting the wind blow his brain clear.
Yu Fan washed the shorts and brought them to school on Monday, swapping them for his own sorry excuse for pants.
To carry the pants, he dug out a thing from his closet he had not used in years.
So, after first period, a bunch of his few friends were all clustered outside his window.
“Holy—so I didn’t hallucinate during morning reading? Yu Fan really had…” Zhu Xu stared. “A backpack?”
Yu Fan: “…”
“I freaked out too. Thought I was still dreaming when I saw it,” Wang Lu’an said.
Zhang Xianjing chimed in, “Forget you two. When Fangqin walked past their row, she thought top student was carrying two backpacks.”
Zuo Kuan stuck an arm through the window, hefted the bag hanging on Yu Fan’s chair. “Not even heavy. What’d you pack? You didn’t stash sticks or knives in here, right…”
His hands were itchier than his mouth. He reached for the zipper.
Yu Fan, who had been sleepy, snapped awake at once and smacked his hand. He moved too fast and clipped the desk with his hip; the pens wobbled and rolled right off—
A hand caught them midair and set them neatly back on his desk.
Chen Jing Shen glanced over the half-finished test and tapped one problem. “Wrong steps.”
Yu Fan’s face had been black with rage at Zuo Kuan. One look at that hand and the fire went out. “…Oh.”
He turned back to the window, lazy again. “Touch my stuff again and I’ll cut your fingers off.”
Zuo Kuan: “…”
“Hey, while we have a minute, tell us what really happened that day.” Someone outside asked, “Word is Yu Fan ditched his girlfriend to go save Zuo Kuan?”
Yu Fan: “…”
Watching the boy beside him turn his pen in silence, Yu Fan wanted to ball up the curtain and stuff it in these idiots’ mouths. “That was because Ding Xiao’s mess last time, he came for me, so I paid it back. It wasn’t like—”
“Shh.” Zuo Kuan put a finger to his lips. “Drop the tough act, Yu Fan. I get it. Brothers are your limbs, women are clothes. Say no more. I’ll never forget what you did.”
“Listen, I—”
“Hey, that reminds me.” Zuo pulled out his phone. “Those clowns somehow got my number. They’ve been texting to curse us out and want a rematch.”
Yu Fan: “…”
Wang Lu’an lit up. “Damn, they still dare? The ambush was too sudden that day. I didn’t get to call half my boys. This time we’ll beat them till they admit it.”
“Of course. I already traded three thousand insults with them by text last night. We set it for this afternoon, the alley behind the school—”
“Not going,” Yu Fan said.
The heated discussion froze.
Wang Lu’an blinked. “Why?”
“I get it,” Zuo flipped his phone to show him. “You didn’t see the trash they texted us. Look. They said if we don’t show we’re cowards, and they’ll jump us every time they see us in Nancheng.”
“Hah!” Wang Lu’an snorted. “Text them back right now. Tell them the last guy who said that to Yu Fan spent three months in the hospital. Have them book a bed in advance—”
Yu Fan didn’t budge. “I said I’m not going.”
“Why?” Zuo couldn’t compute. “Don’t tell me you’re scared?”
“Is that even possible?”
Yu Fan leaned back in his chair, shoulder settling lightly against someone’s, and said in a flat mumble, “…My partner says no.”
The back row went dead silent for a few seconds. Every eye went wide.
Only his deskmate set down his pen and quietly turned his face a fraction.
“You…” Zhang Xianjing frowned. “Didn’t you say you broke up?”
“Got back together,” Yu Fan said, cool as ice.
Wang Lu’an protested, “Didn’t you say they were ugly and clingy and made scenes, and you were blind to even date—”
“I went blind again.”
Zuo Kuan tried, “Then go fight on the sly. She won’t know. We will keep your secret…”
“Thanks. No need,” Yu Fan said.
If his partner had not suddenly gone deaf, he already knew.
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