CH 6

After the initial daze, Ye Zhou scoffed, “What do I have to be afraid of?”

“Right, I also find it strange,” Shang Jin said in a perplexed tone, “Isn’t it just having people misunderstand that you like…”

The word ‘me’ didn’t come when Ye Zhou quickly got up and covered Shang Jin’s mouth. “You really act as if no one else is around. We’re in a train now!”

Shang Jin blinked. His mouth was covered so he couldn’t speak, but his eyes expressed exactly what he wanted to say: So what?

Ye Zhou thought about it. When did Shang Jin ever fear gossip? He was even well-aware of the gossip about his activities. He loosened his hand and sat back in his seat in a discouraged manner. He glanced at Shang Jin and said, “Hey, is your motto ‘take things as they come’?”

“Motto?” Shang Jin picked up the magazine he’d read halfway and carelessly said, “What’s the use of this thing?”

This ‘as a matter of course’ appearance was really extremely…hateful!

While traveling, Ye Zhou had never liked to look at his cell phone. Most of the time, he sleeps. This time too, he leaned back in his chair and drowsily fell asleep.

Shang Jin was flipping through the magazine and unexpectedly, a head leaned on his shoulder. He turned his head and his cheek lightly brushed against the other’s hair. His movement faltered and he dragged his attention back to the magazine.

This was the first time he’d had such close contact with his classmate. The weight on his shoulder wasn’t much, but he felt his existence at every moment. This kind of feeling, he was a bit…unaccustomed to it, but not disliking it.

Shang Jin wasn’t a person who would wrong himself: he wouldn’t keep his body stiffly in position because of the weight on his shoulder. Ye Zhou slept for half an hour, lightly scowling because Shang Jin kept moving his shoulder. When Shang Jin was thoroughly immersed in the magazine content, his body was already accustomed to the weight on his shoulder to the point that when he got up, he forgot that he’d been a pillow for an hour.

Following Shang Jin getting up, Ye Zhou’s body steadily slipped down. Only then did Shang Jin discover Ye Zhou beside him. When he came back to his senses, he’d already supported Ye Zhou’s head with his palm.

“Sleeping too much like the dead.” Shang Jin was quite speechless. He supported Ye Zhou and let his head lean against the chair before walking to the toilet at the end of the train.

Less than two minutes after returning to his seat, Ye Zhou’s head rested on Shang Jin’s shoulder again.

Shang Jin said to himself, “Is this intentional?”

Ye Zhou’s fingers moved and his lips twitched.

The sky was getting dark, and the train broadcast announced the arrival at the station.

“Aiya! Slept really well!” Ye Zhou stretched his body and glanced at Shang Jin with his peripheral vision.

Shang Jin put away the magazine and prepared to get off, simply not paying attention to Ye Zhou.

Ye Zhou felt the frustration of punching cotton. In fact, he didn’t sleep well at all…Shang Jin’s shoulder was both stiff and hard, and also loved to move around.

The other party’s ‘magnanimity’ actually seemed petty to him. Ye Zhou put up with this childish behavior. After the train stopped, he carried his backpack and followed the crowd toward the exit.

Clearly knowing that the right approach was for Shang Jin and him, the two people to each go their own way now, and afterwards, have their relationship drift apart, but Ye Zhou was a native and Shang Jin was a newcomer. He still worriedly gathered by Shang Jin’s side and asked, “Shang Jin, is someone coming to pick you up?”

Shang Jin stopped and looked at him with a smile that wasn’t a smile. “Why, do you want to send me?”

Ye Zhou suddenly felt that his cordiality was being insulted, especially because the other party had specifically emphasized the word ‘want’. He pointed east at the crowded bus station and said, “OK, send you by bus.”

After choking for a moment, Shang Jin raised his hand and waved toward Ye Zhou, heading toward the west exit without turning his head back.

Ye Zhou thumbed his nose and hummed a little tune. When he came to the bus stop that he wanted to take, he already couldn’t laugh anymore.

Through the window, he could already feel the crowded situation inside the bus, and there were still a lot of people at the entrance of the bus.

Ye Zhou stood at the end of the crowd and hesitated to cram in. As a result, a few girls dragging their luggage jostled him in.

The bus slowly started up. Ye Zhou, relying on his height advantage, easily grabbed the high handrail. The several girls who came behind him weren’t too tall and could only reach the top with a bit of difficulty. One of them pulled Ye Zhou’s clothes.

Ye Zhou looked down at her.

The girl was blushing, don’t know if it was from being tired from chasing after the bus or being shy after seeing Ye Zhou. She whispered, “Classmate, can you move inside a bit?”

Ye Zhou looked inside and awkwardly said, “It’s difficult.”

“Can you lift your foot? I’m a bit unsteady.”

Ye Zhou wasn’t sure what the relationship between him lifting his foot and the other standing unsteadily was, but he still very enthusiastically lifted his foot. Then, he found that he didn’t seem to have a place to put down his foot…

Maintaining this ‘golden rooster stands on one leg’ posture for who knows how long, he ended up with his nerves paralyzed before he got off the bus.

Looking at the dust of the departing bus, Ye Zhou actually had a kind of ‘being reborn after a calamity’ feeling. After seeing the bus information board, Ye Zhou finally realized that it was the last bus. No wonder there were so many people. Hammering his sore legs, he limped into the community.

It was already past 10 o’clock when he came home, and there wasn’t any light visible through the door crack. Ye Zhou took out the key and opened the door. As expected, the house was completely empty. He lightly wiped the shoe cabinet with his finger and there was a layer of dust.

Ye Zhou shrugged his shoulders, changed his shoes, rolled up his sleeves and simply swept for a bit before falling asleep in bed.

The next day, Ye Zhou was awakened by banging sounds.

“Mom, you’re back.”

Mother Ye was mopping the floor and was startled when she saw him come out from the bedroom. “Why are you home?”

Ye Zhou instinctively retreated a step and said, “My roommates all went home. I have nothing to do alone at school…”

“Nothing to do?” Mother Ye raised her voice. “Your roommates all returned and won’t be outside distractions. With such a good learning environment, you don’t enrich yourself during this precious holiday, but waste your time on the long road? You’re already a college student. Can you be a bit more conscientious? Don’t tell me that you forgot what your freshman comprehensive evaluation ranking was? Do you want to be second place this term too? Do you know that no matter in what situation, not getting the best means that everything is in vain? There’s no difference between the second place and the last place.”

Ye Zhou’s hands behind his back couldn’t help clenching into fists. These words, growing up as a child, he didn’t know how many times he’d heard them. He thought that he was already accustomed to them, but every time he went through them, his heart still couldn’t remain calm. In order to get his mother to hurry up and finish this topic, he took in a deep breath and said in one breath, “I borrowed some books from the library to read when I came back.”

“You still have a bit of consciousness.” Mother Ye stopped talking and said softly, “Mother is saying this for your own good. You look at your older brother. Growing up, when wasn’t he first place? Obviously, I gave you both the same educational environment. How can you not catch up with him? At the time of the college entrance exams, I told you to apply for your brother’s university, but you willfully changed your mind. C Uni is the best university in the country and your scores are clearly good enough, so why did you want to go to A Uni! After a year, the fire in my heart still rises once I think of this.”

Ye Zhou didn’t want to quarrel with Mother Ye. He shifted the topic and said, “You haven’t been home for several days?”

“I recently took on the high school third-years, and it’s too busy at school. Your father is also similar.” Mother Ye picked up the mop and began to mop. As if thinking of something happy, she said briskly, “Your brother is coming back in a few days. I’ll clean up the house a bit and help him air out the quilt. It’s rare for him to come back once. If you have any problems in your studies, you can ask him more about them. You’re still brothers. If others didn’t know, they’d think you were strangers.”

“Let me mop the floor. You…”

The words didn’t finished yet, Mother Ye hurriedly interrupted him. “What housework can you do? Growing up, did I ask you to move a finger to do anything in the house? I provided you such a good environment for you to raise your score. Don’t let me see any other ranking than the first rank. Use this time to go read some books.”

Ye Zhou no longer spoke and closed the door directly. He sighed and lay on the bed. Because the window hadn’t been opened in the room for a long time, there was a damp smell. When he thought about sleeping in such a dark and damp environment, Ye Zhou felt itchy. Moreover, he didn’t know what was going on: clearly this room had always been shut, but in the end, there was still a layer of dust on the table.

Ye Zhou’s room had a bathroom, and the tools in the bathroom had everything he needed. He dampened a rag and began to wipe down the bedroom. He casually wiped and an hour passed. After he came out of the room, he passed the room next door and casually glanced in. There was a pile of medals, certificates and trophies in the bookcase. Mother Ye was holding a rag and carefully wiping clean the shiny trophy. Ye Zhou took back his gaze, poured a glass of water and quickly returned to the bedroom.

On the desk was the book he’d borrowed from the library yesterday morning. No matter what, he didn’t seem to be able to get into the book. He couldn’t help but take out the return ticket from his bag.

Ticket for the sixth. It wasn’t clear on which day his brother would be coming back. If he’d known early, he would have just blurted out and asked.

Ye Zhou put down the ticket, opened his cell phone, and searched for the surplus tickets.

There were still quite a lot…