Chapter 92 — Main Story Ends
The other three vaulted down with ease. Only Wang Lu’an got stuck for a bit on top. At last he said, “Zuo Kuan, stack me a few bricks. I’ll step down on them.”
Zuo Kuan: “You don’t think that’s embarrassing?”
“Whatever, no one else is here anyway. Or I jump and you catch me, like how Yu Fan caught the study god just now—”
“Pfft.” Before he could finish, a light laugh floated down from above.
All five of them froze and looked up. A few heads had appeared at the classroom windows upstairs. Girls with neat bun hairstyles in blue leotards, clearly dance majors in practice, were peeking down, smiling.
A thunk sounded behind them. Yu Fan turned and saw Wang Lu’an already hop down cleanly, then one swift kick knocked over the two bricks Zuo Kuan had stacked.
“Tch, that’s it? Guess I got blinded by the wind earlier and thought it was higher.” Wang Lu’an brushed off his hands, smoothed his hair. “Come on, brothers.”
“…”
The others stared at his back for a few seconds, then Zuo Kuan rushed over and put him in a chokehold. “You little sh***! Apologize to my bricks!”
After the snow, No. 7 High in Nancheng was decked in white. Branches bowed under the weight, and a clean path had been shoveled down the middle for students.
Only the seniors had classes right now. Even PE was not outside. The campus was quiet and empty.
Wang Lu’an looked around at the familiar buildings and sighed, “All these years and the school leadership is still so stingy. Nothing’s changed! The last ‘upgrade’ must still be those air conditioners we got in sophomore year.”
Zuo Kuan: “Not just that. Senior year our homeroom teacher got a brand-new triangular ruler to whack me with.”
The two clowns did their double act in front. The rest, embarrassed to be seen with them, trailed a ways behind. A few teachers passed and could not help looking over. Zuo Kuan’s face had a full beard, Zhang Xianjing was in full makeup, and Yu Fan’s hair hung over the collar of his school jacket. None of them looked like students.
One teacher stared hard at Chen Jingshen, as if recognizing the school’s former pride who had been recommended straight into Jiang University.
They marched through that blaze of stares and made it to the cafeteria.
The cafeteria kitchen had not started cooking. They hit the snack booth for some treats, then each walked out holding a hot milk tea.
Wang Lu’an swallowed a boba with dissatisfaction. “We are staying until the sweet-and-sour ribs come out of the wok!”
“You all… let’s not get ourselves kicked out first.” Zhang Xianjing flicked her hair. “Where to now?”
In the Grade 12 homeroom office, only two homeroom teachers were free. Zhuang Fangqin had just finished ten minutes of stern lecturing and told a certain student to bring a parent tomorrow. After shooing him out, she lifted her teacup for a sip and went back to grading.
The teacher beside her leaned over and lowered her voice. “Ms. Zhuang, you really work hard. This must be the hardest student you’ve ever had, right? Always skipping class.”
This young teacher had it easy. Kids rarely fought anymore, and with the neighboring school closed, No. 7 had been harmonious the past two years.
Zhuang Fangqin blinked, then could not help smiling. “Hardest? Not even close. He only skipped. I’ve had students ten times the trouble.”
“Huh? Worse than him? How bad?”
“Talking back was nothing.” The picture rose in her mind and she could not help tilting her head in memory. “Smoking, truancy, drinking, fighting, and often in groups. Oh, and puppy love… anything a student should not do, he did all of it.”
The other teacher gaped. “And the school didn’t expel him?”
He withdrew himself.
At that thought, Zhuang brought her gaze down and turned her head. “No. He got much better after. He—”
Her words halted. Something at the door caught her eye. A few seconds later, she looked squarely toward the entrance.
There stood the very thorn she had just described, with several familiar faces behind him.
Wang Lu’an lifted a hand and beamed, waving. He mouthed, “Fangqin! Come out to play!!”
Zuo Kuan’s homeroom teacher had class, so he ran straight to that doorway to show off. The other four stood with Fangqin on the skybridge corridor.
Zhuang looked at Wang Lu’an. “You never wore glasses in school. Went to work and started? What do you do now?”
“I am the boss.” He jabbed a finger through the empty frames. “Fangqin, they are fake. For style. Handsome, right?”
“…”
She could not be bothered and turned to Zhang Xianjing. “Why wear such heavy makeup back at school? Though you look much better than before. In high school your lips were painted like you had eaten someone. But why the puffiness here?” She pointed at her own cheek.
Zhang Xianjing: “Fillers, teacher. Do I look younger than your current students?”
“…”
At last her gaze stopped on Yu Fan and Chen Jingshen.
She had taught so many years that she thought her heart had gone cold as a winter steel lectern. But seeing the two of them side by side in school jackets again, little changed and with all limbs intact, she still felt moved and glad.
She raised her eyes, patted Chen Jingshen’s shoulder, full of feeling. “Very good. Still outstanding. Pity your Class 1 homeroom teacher is out today. She was just talking about you, you know. Said you were named Jiang University Outstanding Graduate and won an algorithm competition. She is proud of you. I am too. Even saying your name gives me face.”
Chen Jingshen said lightly, “I should be the one thanking you for cultivating me.”
“Thank her. I only had you for a semester. I am just borrowing the spotlight.”
Her kindly smile vanished the moment she turned.
“…Take your hands out of your pockets. Stand up straight. Is this the spirit a young man should have?” She frowned, tapped Yu Fan’s arm, then pushed at his hair. “Why did you grow it so long? And you are so thin. Do you not eat? By the way, where did you live after moving?”
“I went to Ningcheng. Just came back.” Yu Fan pulled his hands out, paused. “How did you know I moved?”
“You suddenly dropped out. Of course I went for a home visit. There was no one.”
“…”
A weight pressed Yu Fan’s chest. He had a retort on his tongue, then let it go.
She asked whether he continued school, which university, what job. Hearing the answers, she relaxed. At least he had not ended up picking trash.
“Fangqin, why don’t you ask me more?” Wang Lu’an lounged against the wall.
“When you come back as skinny as a monkey like him, I will.”
Yu Fan frowned, about to ask who she was calling a monkey, when the bell rang. Zhuang waved them away.
“Alright, off you go. I have class.” She said, “Avoid crowds. If the vice principal sees you he will definitely throw you out, and then you can forget those sweet-and-sour ribs.”
“Vice principal?” Zhang Xianjing blinked. “Wasn’t he a nice guy?”
“Oh, you do not know.” Zhuang arched a brow. “That vice principal was transferred. Director Hu moved up.”
“Director Hu?” Wang Lu’an blinked. “Fat Tiger? He is vice principal now but still lurking in the teaching building to nab students?”
Zhuang smacked him. “Watch your mouth! Go on, go, go!”
They got shooed downstairs and ran into Zuo Kuan returning from his performance.
Wang Lu’an: “Well?”
“She came out to smack me, told me not to scare her current students.” Zuo Kuan muttered, “Why is she fiercer than before? Menopause?”
“Doubt it. A normal teacher would not want anyone to know you were her student— F***! Zuo Kuan! What the hell!”
A snowball exploded across Wang Lu’an’s chest. He blinked, then scooped and returned fire.
“You have a death wish! Did you ever beat me at snowball fights in high school?”
“That is because you had Yu Fan!”
“Fine! Today Yu Fan is yours!” Wang Lu’an flung an arm. “Study god! Team up with me!”
Chen Jingshen’s lids were low. He was about to refuse when a splash of white smacked his cheek.
His boyfriend dusted off his hands and announced coolly, “You two are doomed.”
Chen Jingshen met his eyes for two seconds. “It rebounds,” he said flatly.
“…”
War broke out. Zhang Xianjing stood aside, dying to press these childish idiots into the snow. “Wang Lu’an, Zuo Kuan, are you dumb? They are a couple. Their snowball fight is flirting. You two might as well be sing—”
She saw the head-sized boulder Yu Fan had packed and switched mid-sentence. “—Did you two fight? Yu Fan, go easy! This is murder!”
Yu Fan: “No partners on the battlefield…”
Two tiny snowballs pattered on his face. He blinked. “Chen Jingshen, a sneak attack?”
Chen Jingshen: “Preemptive strike.”
“…You are done.”
Zhang Xianjing stood in the snow and watched as Zuo Kuan and Wang Lu’an ran out of snow and ended up slapping at each other barehanded; as Chen Jingshen pelted Yu Fan with a hail of small snowballs while Yu Fan chased him with a bowling-ball-sized one…
She could not help texting: 【Ting-bao, why are men all so immature? I am exhausted. I am embarrassed even standing near them.】
No one knew how long they played before all four collapsed in the snow, panting.
Yu Fan caught his breath. “Count yourself lucky. We never fought snowball battles back then. I was even better in school.”
Chen Jingshen glanced around at the others.
Seeing no eyes on them, he answered, “Back then, I never kissed you in winter either.”
“?”
Before Yu Fan could react, the man turned, cupped his face, and in that white-blanketed field kissed him, soft and cool.
After they rested, about half an hour remained before the ribs. They decided to swing by the lab building and snag a smoke.
Turned out the lab building was gone, converted into classrooms. There were students in session.
With nowhere to go, they loitered on the path beside it.
Wang Lu’an and Zuo Kuan squatted against the wall. The droning of the lecture inside made them drowsy.
“Where now?” Wang Lu’an asked.
“No idea.” Zhang Xianjing pulled lollipops from her pocket and tossed them over. “If you can’t smoke, suck these. Pass them along.”
Chen Jingshen was replying to work messages when someone poked his arm. “Candy,” Yu Fan said in his usual flat tone.
Chen Jingshen reached out. Two sensations dropped into his palm.
He paused, opened his hand. A strawberry lollipop. And a clean white button.
Yu Fan’s T-shirt collar was not tidied, and the missing spot at his chest showed.
He bit the candy stick, drawling, “Returning yours.”
Chen Jingshen was quiet for a long time. “Mm. I will wear it around my neck.”
Yu Fan crunched the candy with a snap and said, impatient, “I told you, the one on my neck is not—”
“—You climbed over the wall, didn’t you!”
A thunderous bellow shook them. All five flinched and turned in sync.
Same cheap black suit. Hu Pang, one hand on his hip, belly rounder than six years ago, face wrinkled in fury, jabbing a finger their way. “What class! Climbing walls! Skipping class! Rebellion, is it! All! Of! You! Punished!”
Their legs moved before their brains. One look at each other and they bolted.
Hu Pang froze, then gave chase. “Stop! No running! Run and it’s a major demerit! Do you know what a major demerit means!”
“You think you can get away? If I catch you, you are dead!”
“That student! Who are you! You know facial hair is not allowed! And you with the long hair! Do not run, I saw your face—Yu Fan??”
His eyes went wide. His feet moved faster.
Inside, students poked heads out despite teachers’ scolding. The teachers gave up and looked too.
They saw their stern, steady vice principal running so hard his cheeks shook. Ahead, five figures in the same school jackets as theirs.
Hu Pang, panting: “Yu Fan! I said it! Ten years, twenty years, even if I am old and slow and senile, one glimpse and I can still recognize you! Stop! I see you!”
“And Wang Lu’an! Zhang Xianjing! Zuo Kuan and—” Memory clicked and he recognized the tall silhouette beside Yu Fan. “...Jingshen??”
Wind rushed past their ears. Wang Lu’an puffed, confused. “Wait! Why are we running? Can Fat Tiger still punish us?”
Zuo Kuan: “No idea!”
Winter sunlight spread warmly across their faces. Yu Fan was sprinting when a hand brushed the back of his.
He curled his fingers and caught Chen Jingshen’s hand.
The sun was far, and youth rushed forward.
Seasons turned, years slipped past, and they were still vivid and blazing.
They ran toward freedom. They ran toward the light.
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