Chapter 64 — You Are the Top Student’s Boyfriend
Summer in Nancheng is like being trapped in a steamer. Even with big fans whirring over every table, the barbecue joint could not blow away the heat in the air.
Yu Fan sat there and felt as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown in his face. The world went cold all at once.
Yu Kaiming was back. Yu Kaiming was nearby. Yu Kaiming was watching him.
Each thought jabbed at Yu Fan’s nerves. His shoulders and neck tightened. He scanned the place, wary, but never found that familiar, hateful face.
Why send food to him? What had Yu Kaiming seen? He and Chen Jingshen… did they do anything just now?
Yu Fan had no idea how awful he looked.
Chen Jingshen watched him in silence, reached to touch those tense fingertips, but the moment they grazed, Yu Fan jerked away like he had been shocked.
His body moved faster than his brain. He froze for a beat, then lifted his eyes to Chen Jingshen’s.
“… My hand is greasy,” Yu Fan said at last. His expression smoothed back to normal quickly. He looked away. “You full?”
“Yeah.”
“Then let’s go.” Yu Fan picked up the last iron plate the boss lady had brought over, tipped it over the trash can, and a few skewers of wings slid into the black bag with a rustle.
Back at the old apartment complex, Yu Fan looked up. The light was on, just like he expected. The living room lamp was ancient, good enough to see by, but bad for your eyes if you sat there a long time. That dim, failing light made the whole place feel listless and oppressive.
At the gate, Chen Jingshen’s shirt was tugged from behind.
“Do not go up,” Yu Fan said without looking up. “Wait here. I will grab your tests.”
“Let’s go up together,” Chen said.
“I said wait.”
Yu Fan turned to go. Chen reached for his hand, paused when he remembered Yu Fan’s reaction earlier, and instead held his forearm.
“I am going up with you,” Chen said. “I will just wait by the door.”
Yu Fan had never spelled out his family situation, but Chen could guess seven or eight parts of it.
Chen did not push it. Yu Fan looked back at him and said it straight. “No need. I scared him bad last time. He will not try anything for a while. Wait here, and do not wander.”
When Yu Fan opened the door, Yu Kaiming was on the couch smoking and on the phone.
He glanced over, then turned back to the TV, voice cheerful. “Yeah, just got home. F***! I told you to bet that game and you didn’t listen. Now you come blame me, right, right, next time I’ll make you rich…”
Yu Fan did not even look at him and headed straight into his room.
Their way of getting along was set in stone. After a fight, Yu Kaiming would vanish for a bit, give them both time to cool off and heal. When he came back, they treated each other like air again. Silent and deadened, waiting for the next explosion.
Their relationship was a scar that would never heal. It scabbed, it split open, it bled, it scabbed again. Yu Fan used to ignore it, used to rot along with it, waiting for the day it finally died.
He did not want to rot with it anymore.
From the barbecue place to home to his room, Yu Fan kept his face blank. But his heart had been racing the whole way.
Good. It seemed like Yu Kaiming had not seen anything he should not have, or he would not be this quiet.
Yu Fan braced his hands on his desk and breathed for two minutes. He carefully hid a few things, grabbed Chen Jingshen’s tests, and headed downstairs.
Yu Kaiming had his feet up on the coffee table, chatting idly. When the bedroom door shut, his eyes slid over and stared at it for a long time.
Only when someone asked something on the phone did he look away and get up lazily.
“Yeah, my cheap son just left… No, we didn’t fight. I am too tired to fight him. Little ba***rd hits like a truck. One day he is going to beat me to death. I need to get more money off that b**ch this month for medical bills.”
He walked to the window and looked down. The old complex’s lights were dim. He watched his son walk up to the tall, thin boy from the barbecue place and hand over the tests.
“Keep your temper in check and talk less. The fewer fights the fewer injuries,” the voice on the phone said. “Careful you do not piss off the kid and he refuses to support you when you are old. It is just a rebellious phase. Put up with it. In a few years he will listen.”
“Am I not good to him already? I took him to KFC when he was seven. I even ordered two skewers of wings just now for him and his friend. This is not about a rebellious phase. The little b***ard is wild… But he is better recently. Looks like he is studying. He made a friend who seems pretty decent.”
Yu Kaiming focused on the tall, slim boy downstairs. He was quiet a moment, then added, “That friend looks rich.”
Downstairs, Yu Fan shoved the tests into Chen Jingshen’s hands and told him not to come around for a while.
After confirming no one had thrown punches upstairs, Chen said, “Come to my place.”
“No.”
“Then where do we meet?”
Yu Fan was silent, then forced out, “When school starts.”
“…”
He said that, but after a night’s sleep and climbing out of that headspace, the first thing he did when he woke, even while still groggy, was open his phone and search for places he could take Chen Jingshen.
He crossed out the theater, amusement park, KTV, arcades. Then a message came in.
【s: I am downstairs. When you wake up, come down. 】
Yu Fan squinted at the line for a long time, then snapped awake. He leapt out of bed, changed while typing.
【-: Didn’t I tell you not to come here?! 】
【-: Wait. I just woke up. 】
【s: That is why I did not go in. 】
【s: Bring the tests. 】
The moment Chen dragged Yu Fan into the taxi, Yu Fan had a breakfast in his hands. Sandwich and milk.
“Try it,” Chen said. “If you don’t like it, I’ll take you to get something else.”
Yu Fan opened the bag and took a bite, then saw Chen still looking and frowned. “What are you staring at me for?”
“Is it good?” Chen asked.
“Passable.”
“Oh. I made it myself.”
“Then it is bad.”
Chen turned away with a laugh.
Yu Fan took another bite. His head was still foggy with sleep. Was this a date? At ten in the morning? Why bring tests? Do a set after the date?
Chen Jingshen would totally do that.
When the taxi stopped, Yu Fan stood before the grand Provincial Library for two seconds, then turned back to the car.
Chen hooked him back. “Where are you going?”
“Home. Sleep.” Yu Fan said, dead-eyed, his eyes puffy under his messy hair. “Chen Jingshen, do I look like I belong in a place like this?”
“Why not?” Chen said. “You are top five hundred in the grade.”
“Get lost.”
Chen raised an arm and rubbed his hair. “You are the top student’s boyfriend.”
“…”
Ten minutes later, Yu Fan, in a black skull T-shirt and two bandages on his neck covering the marks, sat with a stormy face in the sunlight that poured through the self-study room’s glass wall.
The room Chen had picked did not have many people. They were paired off, one on each side.
They sat in the last row. Yu Fan flattened the crumpled tests he had stuffed into his pocket. Chen took a pen from his pouch and set it on Yu Fan’s paper with practiced ease.
“Start with this. If it gets noisy, we will switch rooms,” Chen said. “Leave the ones you can’t do.”
Yu Fan glanced at the four people besides them, not quite understanding. Libraries were supposed to be quiet. How would it get noisy?
He learned soon enough.
After a short while, the couple to his left began the whole you tap my hand, I tap your head thing, faces almost touching.
Soon the pair on the right started up too. The conversation sounded like “Baby, are you hungry, are you cold,” “Babe, the guy behind us looks scary,” “Don’t be scared, babe is here.”
Expressionless, Yu Fan stared at his test. Please. I am a lot more proper than you are.
People trickled in. Finally those two couples quieted down.
The library was so still it felt unreal. Even someone like Yu Fan, who could not sit still, managed to grind through two tests without a sound. Only when his phone buzzed in his pocket a few times did he snap out of it.
【Wang Lu’an: Where are you? Come to Bad Boy Internet Café. We are all here. Then KTV tonight. Zuo Kuan and I already decided. You are singing “Love’s Alliance of the Heartbroken” for Zhu Xu. 】
Are they sick? He was not heartbroken. Alliance my a**.
Yu Fan’s first impulse was to reply “library.” He typed it, then decided those three characters did not suit his vibe at all. He deleted and retyped: 【Date. 】
【Wang Lu’an: F***, Zhu Xu saw your reply on my monitor. He covered his face and ran to the bathroom!! 】
How was that his fault.
When Yu Fan put his phone away and looked up again, the two couples in front were gone.
Of course. Which couple could last in a library where you could not talk.
Chen Jingshen had blown past his quota for homework today and was flipping through a heavy tome. Yu Fan glanced over and thought, sneaky bastard, I am not falling for this tomorrow.
At that moment, Chen pinched the pages with his thumb, lifted the book with one hand, and leaned toward him.
Yu Fan had one hand on the desk, spinning his pen, annoyed. “What are you—”
Everyone in front was facing away, reading. The heavy book hovered in the air, blocking both their faces.
They kissed, a quick brush. The mint scent came close, then eased away. In a whisper, Chen said, “Finish this sheet and I will go find Wang Lu’an and the others with you.”
Yu Fan’s pen stopped mid-spin. “How did you know?”
“They said it in the group chat.”
Yu Fan rubbed his nose and gave a quiet, grudging, “Oh.”
Late July, Nangchen rolled into the dog days. Stand outside for a few minutes and you felt like you would melt.
They would officially become third years next term. This summer break had been chopped short, barely twenty days all told, but the homework load had not changed one bit.
The class chat was lively. Every day someone begged to borrow a finished test to copy.
The days flew past all those messages. One morning, Wang Lu’an messaged Yu Fan, asking him to team up and not turn in homework together.
Yu Fan brushed his teeth and typed back that he only had a few papers left.
【Wang Lu’an]: F***? Traitor!! 】
【Wang Lu’an: Yu Fan, be honest. Did you land yourself a top-student girlfriend? 】
Yu Fan’s toothbrush paused. He spat and typed.
【-: Scram. Quit guessing. 】
He grabbed the unfinished tests and headed out to the library. As he passed the TV, a rancid smell hit him. Snail noodle soup that Yu Kaiming had ordered last night. It stank up the room now. Several empty beer bottles lay beside it.
Yu Kaiming was sprawled on the couch asleep. Yu Fan frowned and thought about kicking him awake. As he walked over, Yu Kaiming’s phone on the table lit up with a ding.
【Your Alipay contact Yun Shan (stupid w***e) has transferred you 5,000 yuan. Note: Fanfan’s August living expenses. 】
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