CH 51

Ye Zhou discovered that Shang Jin was a bit strange recently, observing the strawberries longer everyday.

Both pot of strawberries had a lot of flowers, and Shang Jin painstakingly took the strawberries out of the cage and spread the leaves to see each flower.

Ye Zhou asked curiously, “What are you looking at?”

Shang Jin deadpanned, “Flower viewing.”

“Did you finish viewing or not? Still not going to the library?” Ye Zhou looked at the time. There was no class on Friday afternoon and when the two had lunch, they said they would go to the library together. He didn’t expect that Shang Jin would be held up by these strawberry seedlings. Ye Zhou once again regretted why he’d gifted a strawberry seedling at that time.

“Fine.” Shang Jin had ensured that the strawberries were healthy and without bugs and went to wash his hands. He took his textbooks and went to the library with Ye Zhou.

Passing the crossroad, Shang Jin saw a kiosk not far away and said, “Wait for me here. I’ll buy a bag of candy.”

“Eating so much, be careful of rotten teeth!”

Shang Jin turned a deaf ear and walked over to the kiosk.

Having basked a bit in the June sun, Ye Zhou found the shade of a tree and stood underneath it. He took out his mobile phone and went through his friends circle.

“Ye Zhou, I just wanted to find you in these two days!”

Ye Zhou looked up. Su Yin held an umbrella and came under the tree shade. She put away the umbrella and said, “Go sit over there and talk.”

“Ehー” Ye Zhou hadn’t opened his mouth yet when he was half-pushed, half-pulled by the other to a stone bench next to the bamboo grove.

“Do you still remember what I said last time?”

Ye Zhou took out his cell phone and hurriedly sent a message to Shang Jin, responding to Su Yin, “What?”

“The big amusement park in the Southern District will open on June 20th. I promised to go with Tang Dongdong. Are you going?” Su Yin said animatedly. She took out her mobile phone and opened the website. “Didn’t I send you this page last time? You didn’t look?”

A few days ago, Su Yin seemed to have sent a website to him. At that time, he thought Su Yin was doing some sharing tasks, so he didn’t even open the link.

“So, are you going?”

Ye Zhou didn’t answer immediately.

Su Yin raised her eyebrows and said, “You wouldn’t have fallen in love with someone else, right?”

Ye Zhou hurriedly said, “You…what are you talking about? How can that be!”

“If it were last year and I asked you to meet with Tang Dongdong, you’d certainly nod without hesitation. How can you not utter a word for half a day now?”

Ye Zhou coughed and looked away. “I was just thinking that June 20 is during exam week, and I want to review.”

Su Yin was dubious. “Really?”

“Really, really,” Ye Zhou said and stood up to walk toward the crossroad.

Su Yin pulled him and tentatively asked, “I have new photos of Tang Dongdong. Do you want to continue trading Shang Jin’s photos with me?”

Ye Zhou’s footsteps paused. He couldn’t tell what feeling was in his heartーinstinctively wanting to say no tradeーbut wouldn’t this truly show that he’d had a change of heart? He sat down again and clasped his cell phone.

“You live with Shang Jin now. There must be HD pictures of his face, right?” Su Yin turned on the phone’s Bluetooth and searched in her album. “I don’t want the fuzzy back sneak shots like last time.”

There was indeed a photo of Shang Jin on Ye Zhou’s cell phone: it was the photo he’d taken of the two siblings when Shang Youyou came last time.

Su Yin put the phone in front of him and said, “Which photo of Tang Dongdong do you want?”

Ye Zhou put his cell phone in his pocket. He didn’t want to share the photo of Shang Jin and Shang Youyou with others at all. He pretended to be angry and said, “How could I possibly have photos of Shang Jin? Other people may not know me, but you also don’t understand? It’s not like you don’t know how much I detest Shang Jin. Shang Jin is my enemy. With nothing at all, why would I take a photo of my enemy!” Finishing this sentence, Ye Zhou feared that the other wouldn’t believe him and want to snatch his phone, so he took his schoolbag and left without looking back.

“Eh…what!” Su Yin tsked, “If you don’t have it, then you don’t. Why run?”

Ye Zhou walked to the tree shade at the crossroad and didn’t see Shang Jin, but he also didn’t see Shang Jin searching for him in the bamboo grove. He wouldn’t still be buying, right? He simply dialed his phone. The phone rang twice when Shang Jin picked up.

“Shang Jin, where are you?”

“The library entrance.”

“Why didn’t you wait for me! I told you I was in the bamboo grove!”

“I went and didn’t find.”

“Well, then I’ll go right now.” Ye Zhou hung up and curled his lips. The place where Su Yin and he had been was just at the entrance of the bamboo grove. It was so easy to find. How bad could Shang Jin’s eyes be that he couldn’t find it?

However, listening to Shang Jin’s voice, how could he hear the rustling of leaves? It wasn’t too windy today, and there was only a tall camphor at the library entrance. Maybe it was an auditory hallucination? Ye Zhou shook his head and quickly walked towards the library.

Ye Zhou didn’t leave for long, Shang Jin walked from the depths of the bamboo grove where they’d just chatted.

When he’d just bought the candy, he saw Ye Zhou’s text message. At that time, he didn’t think much about it and walked toward the bamboo grove. In the end, he heard a familiar voice before he reached it.

The brief word didn’t need much explanation. Connecting it with Ye Zhou’s series of abnormal behavior last year, Shang Jin also understood for the most part.

No wonder that Ye Zhou, who had no intersections with him in the first year, would take sneak shots of him.

No wonder that when it came out, he’d explained the matter again and again in a fluster.

The funny thing was that he actually took Ye Zhou’s explanation as a cover up and gradually invested his feelings in him.

If everything started from a misunderstanding, then in the relationship afterwards, how much of Ye Zhou’s feelings were real and how much were fake?

Shang Jin sneered. Enemy?

Once the seed of suspicion was planted, Shang Jin didn’t see anything as simple.

This afternoon, Shang Jin didn’t go to the library but went straight back to the dormitory.

The two pots of strawberries on the flower stand stood up just right. At first, he’d been so looking forward to them blossoming and bearing fruit, so that when Ye Zhou’s birthday arrived, he could take a pot full of strawberries and gift it to Ye Zhou.

Because Ye Zhou once said that gifts weren’t about price but the intention put into them.

For a man like Shang Jin, it was much more difficult for him to pay attention than to pay money.

But it was precisely this phrase of Ye Zhou that made Shang Jin devote himself entirely to something for the first time.

“Why didn’t you tell me when you were going back?”

Shang Jin turned his head and clearly wanted to ask, but in the face of Ye Zhou’s smile, he could only keep his face shuttered and said, “A bit dizzy from reading so came back.”

Ye Zhou said nervously, “Dizzy? Are you alright?”

Shang Jin stared fixedly at Ye Zhou’s eyes. The concern wasn’t false. He whispered, “Maybe I didn’t sleep well.”

“Then you should go to bed early tonight.” Ye Zhou put down his schoolbag and put the borrowed book on the shelf. “Have you eaten or not? Since your head is dizzy, should I help buy it for you?”

“Ye Zhou.”

“Hmm?”

“Nothing, no need. I’ll go down myself in a while.” Going out, Shang Jin glanced inside the dorm out of the corner of his eye. Ye Zhou passed by his table and conveniently helped place his fallen cup upright. This kind of small details couldn’t be faked even if he wanted to.

Shang Jin looked at the strawberry seedlings on the flower stand and carried a cage downstairs.

After dinner, Shang Jin took the pot of strawberry seedlings to the bamboo grove that noon. The bright moonlight illuminated the stone table. Shang Jin took out the flower pot brimming with small flowers, placed it in the middle of the stone table, and sent Ye Zhou a text message.

When Ye Zhou received the message from Shang Jin, he was wondering why it took so long for Shang Jin to eat dinner, practically eating from dawn to dusk. Now he sent him a text to go out, making people really be at a loss.

For other people’s requests, Ye Zhou had never asked why. This time was also so. Shang Jin asked him to go and, asking no more, he feared that the other party had something urgent so he quickly rushed toward the bamboo grove on his bike.

In the bamboo grove, Ye Zhou saw that Shang Jin was sitting at the stone bench where he’d sat at noon. The cold moonlight fell on Shang Jin, inexplicably carrying a sense of melancholy.

Ye Zhou leaned the bike to one side and the leaves rustled when he stepped on them.

“You came.”

Ye Zhou sat beside him and said, “What’s the matter? Is there something you can’t say in the dorm?”

Shang Jin picked two strawberry flowers and handed them to Ye Zhou.

“Eh, what are you doing!” Ye Zhou didn’t take them. Living together with Shang Jin day and night, Ye Zhou knew best how much Shang Jin treasured these flowers. But at that moment, he actually didn’t hesitate to pick off two flowers.

“Although not wildflowers.”

Ye Zhou: “???”

Shang Jin looked at the pot of strawberries and said, “When you gave it to me, this little thing was only three or four small leaves. It’s obviously so fragile, but it’s so strong. The wind and rain can’t fell it, and the birds and insects can’t destroy it.”

Ye Zhou smiled and said, “It’s because you took good care of it. If you didn’t care about it when it fell downstairs, how could you see this splendid flowering today?”

“Perhaps. Sometimes, a different result can be produced between one thought and another.” Shang Jin forcefully stuffed the two flowers into Ye Zhou’s hands. “So today, the result of us two are also between your thoughts.”

“You…what are you talking about…”

Shang Jin took a deep breath. Obviously he could have prepared more fully before talking to Ye Zhou about it, but when he heard the matter today, no matter how good he was at hiding his emotions, he couldn’t act as if nothing had happened when facing Ye Zhou.

Even the words he spoke now were blurted out by instinct. Clearly he could have mulled it over to come up with better arguments.

“We started as a misunderstanding but  I’m serious.” Shang Jin looked at Ye Zhou’s eyes and said, “Ye Zhou, I really like you. Like this strawberry, no matter whether there is wind and rain or birds and worms between us, I will never give up…”

Ye Zhou’s pupils suddenly tightened, and he immediately stood up. His lips trembled unconsciously, and his mind was blank. He never thought that Shang Jin would confess to him.

What if Shang Jin confessed to you one day?

Shang Ming’s words flashed in his ears.

“No…no way.” Ye Zhou subconsciously said, “Didn’t I tell you then that I really don’t like you? How can you…”

Shang Jin lowered his head, the darkness obscuring his gaze. He asked, “Is it Tang Dongdong? Did you always like Tang Dongdong?”

Ye Zhou was astonished. “How did you know?”

“It seems to be true.” Shang Jin mockingly laughed without explanation, but said, “Ye Zhou, you always said that you can’t beat me. You’re wrong. This time, I admit defeat.”