CH 6

Chapter 6 – Two People Alone

Who do you live with?

Fang Juexia’s surprised expression cleared up bit by bit, like water gradually growing still again after the ripples dispersed. 

“No one,” He replied simply.

“You’re the only one here?” Pei Tingsong glanced inside, his body permeated with the cold air from the outside. “The moving company is downstairs and will bring the things up in a moment.”

Fang Juexia, who had frozen mid-way through opening the door, let go of the door only after hearing that and said, “Oh…” Then he remembered that the other party hadn’t entered the room yet, so he moved up a step and asked, “Is there a lot?”

He also wanted to ask if he needed help, but it felt as if this question had gotten stuck in his throat. He could neither swallow it down nor ask it out loud.

The warmth of the house gushed out into the corridor, and Pei Tingsong plucked off his hat as he replied, “Not much.” He glanced at Fang Juexia’s snow-white soft pajamas and seemed to have guessed the direction of Fang Juexia’s thoughts. “Go in ba. With you wearing this little, you’ll freeze to death if you go down.”

These weren’t words that souded any good, but at least now he wouldn’t have to go out. Fang Juexia was quite satisfied with this outcome.

After a while, the sound of the elevator doors opening could be heard, and the movers quickly brought in Pei Tingsong’s luggage. Fang Juexia tidied up the living room, where the games his bandmates had played yesterday had been left strewn about, so that he could make some room for the movers.

After doing that, he got himself a cup of hot tea, and holding it, leaned against a wall, and watched them. Altogether, they brought in five big cardboard boxes. Observing the way they put down the boxes, he guessed that each box was pretty heavy. 

Fang Juexia couldn’t help but be curious about the things that Pei Tingsong had brought in.

“Have troubled you guys,” Pei Tingsong thanked them politely. 

Just as he was about to send them away, Fang Juexia suddenly called out to them and stopped them, then poured a cup of hot tea for each of the three big uncles. Without saying anything, he handed it directly to them.

“Thank you, thank you.” Huffing and puffing, the three big uncles hastily took the tea. After drinking it, their chests and hearts both felt nice and warm, and they were smiling and laughing as they left. 

The production team that had been arranged hadn’t arrived yet, so the only two people left in the dormitory were him and Pei Tingsong. Over the past two years, this kind of one-on-one time with just the two of them was almost zilch, which was somewhat embarrassing. He stared at the big boxes as if they were also staring back at him.

“I’ll show you your room.” Fang Juexia finally managed to think of something to say. He walked around him in his slippers, and only when he got to the door did he remember that He Ziyan would usually lock the door. He was worried and decided to give it a try, so it was unexpected when it opened.

He Ziyan knew that Pei Tingsong would be coming?

“I’m rooming with Ziyan Ge?” Pei Tingsong was standing behind him, and was carrying a cardboard box to bring into the room.

“En.” Fang Juexia moved to let him in. The room was quite large, and as soon as one entered through the door, they would see a large workbench with several display screens and midi percussion pads on it. Going around it, on another table, was a DJ mixer board. This really was Ziyan’s room. There was plenty of sunshine shining in, and the area next to the window was empty, with only a solid wood bed there that hadn’t been made. Pei Tingsong put down the cardboard box and touched the bookshelf being used to divide up the room. 

“Who do you live with?” He asked suddenly.

Fang Juexia froze for two seconds before answering, “Yiyi.”

He thought that if Miao Ge or Yiyi had been here right now, they might have taken Pei Tingsong around to familiarise him with the environment. However, it just so happened that he was the only one here, and he wasn’t clear on what to do. Should he take Pei Tingsong around for a tour of the dormitory, or should he remain silent and help him move his things in, or should he just ignore him and go back to his room? 

The last option was too cold, even if Fang Juexia really wanted to do so.

He could just do so.

Fang Juexia had started to take a step away, wanting to go, but who would have known that Pei Tingsong would suddenly open his mouth—

“I want to see the other rooms.” He took off his coat and put it on the empty bed, and he was wearing a very-soft looking gray sweater underneath. 

Forget it, after all, they were both in the same group. 

“En,” said Fang Juexia, then turned around and went out. Pei Tingsong kept his eyes pinned on this person. His back was covered with a snow-white fuzzy sweater, and his neck was long; when specifically looking at him from the side or the back, he looked just like a lone little swan. This surprised him, probably because he had never seen the way Fang Juexia was at home. Devoid of any makeup and wrapped up in a soft coat—it seemed that he had lost some of that cold aura he usually rediated so that no one may either approach or look at him closely. 

“This is Miao Ge and Yuan Ge’s room.” When Fang Juexia opened the door, the room looked very cramped. There was a stack of guqin music scores piled up on the shelf near the door, and a guqin was placed by the window. Back then, the captain had taken the initiative in choosing the smallest room, which also only contained a bunk bed. However, it turned out that Lu Yuan also liked to sleep in bunk beds, feeling that sleeping high up in the top bunk was very nice. 

He didn’t know how to explain their surroundings well, so he simply stayed silent. He took Pei Tingsong out of the room and then led him to take a turn around the living room and the open-plan kitchen. Fang Juexia said dryly, “That’s basically it.”

Who knew that at this moment, Pei Tingsong would lean against the kitchen counter and ask, “What about your room?”

Fang Juexia blinked slowly, then as if acquiescing to this request, he turned around and guided him to his own room. 

After all, they now lived together. If he didn’t see it today, he would inevitably see it tomorrow. 

Pei Tingsong felt this was interesting; he had thought that Fang Juexia would refuse. After all, he had always refused him, but now, he agreed to let him breach his private space so easily. Today’s Fang Juexia seemed to be particularly easy to pick on. 

But the guy wearing pajamas just opened the door and didn’t go inside. From outside the room, he politely introduced, “This room.”

Pei Tingsong definitely wouldn’t miss this opportunity to invade his territory. He stepped in without saying a word, which led to Fang Juexia losing control of the situation, leaving him the only option of passively following him from behind. 

This room was more distinct than he had imagined, with a row of wardrobes separating the two sides. The area facing the door was filled with all kinds of ornaments. The bedding had a Minion pattern printed on it, and there was also a row of Minion dolls lined up on the head of the bed. Ling Yi was, famously, a Minion fan. 

Pei Tingsong walked further into the room, and the area on the other side of the wardrobes was an extreme opposite to the front of the room. It looked very empty, with the only furniture being a combined wooden bookshelf and desk, two or three light gray cabinets, and a bed. A folded square shaped quilt lay on top of the dark blue bed, all very clean and meticulous.

He searched his mind for an appropriate adjective to describe this scene, but realized that the most appropriate description that could be used was the owner himself—

This was all very Fang Juexia.

“There’s nothing to see in my room.”

He could sense that Fang Juexia’s tone had begun to sound a little defensive. Pei Tingsong couldn’t help it as the corners of his mouth quirked up, and then he walked up to the desk. His gaze was drawn to the huge Sudoku book that lay on it. 

“Do you like Sudoku?”

Fang Juexia walked over, stuck a pen in to bookmark the unfinished page, and closed it. “When I’m bored, I play a bit.”

This surprised Pei Tingsong a bit, but as his gaze moved upwards, more unexpected things continued to appear in his line of sight.

“The Unity of Mathematics.” He drew closer and looked closely at the books on the shelf.

It wasn’t just “The Unity of Mathematics”, but also “Lectures on Riemann Surfaces”, “Functional Analysis”, “Morse Theory”, and another dozen or so mathematics textbooks, all in the same vein.

In fact, Fang Juexia’s embarrassment had already reached its peak, but due to an emotional delay, his tone was still calm as he answered, “Obviously, I studied mathematics.”

“Yes, I almost forgot.” Pei Tingsong remembered that Ling Yi and the others had mentioned this and had also joked about it before by saying that Fang Juexia had more homework in college than in high school. He also remembered Fang Juexia’s inborn talent for mathematics, even though he had just seen the tip of that iceberg every once in a while during some popular variety shows. 

“It’s okay.” Fang Juexia reached out and tried to pull him away, grasping his wrist tightly, exactly like how Pei Tingsong had caught hold of his before. 

His fingers were very long, but much softer than Pei Tingsong had imagined, and they were warm as they gently encircled his cold wrist.

“Let’s go and arrange your things.”

Obviously, this sentence carried a commanding tone, but Pei Tingsong could hear a slight request embedded in it. 

In fact, he was very curious about what kind of reaction Fang Juexia would show if he continued to stay here, in total opposition to his wishes. However, he could feel that Fang Juexia’s tolerance had already reached its limits. Even if he wanted to have fun with him, he would have to take it slow. 

Pei Tingsong wasn’t sure whether this aura of coldness and indifference that Fang Juexia exuded at all times was actually real, or just a fake character he was acting out. Maybe Fang Juexia was the type of person who would sell his body for opportunities like they said, and because his desires were too obvious, he had to cover it up by playing an abstinent character. If so, then his acting skills were really too sophisticated. Pei Tingsong was really curious, to the extent that he even started wondering why he hadn’t found it so interesting to interact with him in the past.

But Fang Juexia’s shell was both cold and hard, and pretty much grew right on top of his skin, so just peeling it off would be simply too cruel. 

Thus, Pei Tingsong didn’t continue tangling with him, and let the other person drag him out of the room. 

Once they reached the cardboard boxes, Fang Juexia naturally loosened his hold on Pei Tingsong’s wrist and rolled up the sleeves of his pajama top, thus revealing a small section of his pale forearms. He helped move a big box into the room and realised that it was really terribly heavy. Only when Pei Tingsong opened up the box did he find out that it was full of books.

Pei Tingsong didn’t let him move any more boxes, and just told him that he could help him arrange his books on the bookshelf. Fang Juexia pulled out and carried several books in his hands and asked him how he wanted them placed, whether in alphabetical order or by year. Who would have known that Pei Tingsong would heedlessly say, “However.”

However. Fang Juexia repeated this word in his heart,  then he started arranging the books in his hands one by one. He didn’t arrange on the basis of the year of publication or the title, but rather on the color shades of the book covers. 

Pei Tingsong moved the rest of his things in, then started opening them up and arranging them on the side. He had brought only four large boxes as his moving-in luggage, with only one of them containing his daily necessities, while the rest were full of books.

“You didn’t bring any clothes?” Fang Juexia had stepped onto a chair to arrange books on the top-most shelf, and he asked this as he stepped off of it. 

“I don’t live far away, we’ll see later ba.” Pei Tingsong said as he sat cross legged on the ground, setting books into the bottom-most shelf. 

They organized the books in silence just in this manner, one shelf per person, until they filled up the entire previously-empty bookshelf. Fang Juexia felt an inexplicable sense of achievement,  even though the books weren’t his, nor was this bookshelf.

“What about the rest?” He asked questions much like a child.

Pei Tingsong gathered up a few hardback multi-volume works, stepped onto a stool, placed them on the top of the bookshelf, and then stacked them into piles. He clapped his hands and said, “Done.” 

He had grown up in the United States. Even though he had always been studying Chinese and had even lived in China for several years now, some of his habitual English expressions would still appear from time to time.

Fang Juexia stood in front of the bookshelf and saw that the finished product, which they had put together, gave off a strange feeling of having different layers. The colors of the book-spines on the first layer went from light to deep, while the colors on another layer had no pattern whatsoever.

“Meditations on First Philosophy“, “Critique of Pure Reason“, “Ethics“, “The World as Will and Representation“…. He looked at the books on the bookshelf and found that they were all reading material beyond his knowledge. 

It turned out that Pei Tingsong studied philosophy.

He only knew that Pei Tingsong had originally been studying in the United States. Like any young dandy who was going to inherit his family business, he had studied business management. However, he had later dropped out without approval and had applied to another liberal arts and science college, and it seemed that he had chosen to study a major that his parents hadn’t agreed to. And then, because he had been drawn into the underground hip-hop circle, his elders simply sent him back to China.

But why enter the entertainment industry, and moreso, why come to such a small company? These were questions whose answers could only be speculated about, because Pei Tingsong’s coming and goings were uncertain and mysterious. All that everyone knew was that he finally tested into P University as an international student, and then refused to live in the group dorms by saying that he had to go to school. Anyway, they didn’t have many public events, so normally, he would just pretty much go to school. 

Now that he thought about it, their lives really had no intersection, aside from work.

“Pretty much done now.”

He saw Pei Tingsong move the stool away, and he wanted to help, but as soon as he lowered his head, he bumped into the bookcase. He felt something shaking, and before he could react, he was dragged forcefully over to the side, which threw his body off-balance, and he nearly fell over. 

A succession of thuds sounded out against the ground, and now, there were several thick books spread out upside down on the floor. 

It was at this point that the hand holding  his arm tightly released its grasp. Fang Juexia turned his head and saw that Pei Tingsong’s other hand was covering his right eye, and he suddenly realized what had happened. “Alright ba? You—did your eye get hit?”

Pei Tingsong didn’t let go of his eye, instead shaking his head continuously like a child, before sitting on the hard bed and burying his head in his arms. 

“I caused that to happen, I’m sorry.” Fang Juexia’s guilt suddenly welled up. He remembered that it had been him just now who had lowered his head and hit the bookcase. Pei Tingsong must have come over and pulled him away before getting hit. 

“Don’t try to put feathers in your own cap,” Pei Tingsong pushed his hand away as he argued, “It was me who wanted to put the books up there.”

After saying that, he murmured in a low voice, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, every day it’s I’m sorry…”

Fang Juexia didn’t listen to him at all. “Let me have a look.”

“No need.” He suddenly grew wayward again. 

After going up against each other in such a way, Pei Tingsong thought that Fang Juexia was just saying that sentence for show, but what he didn’t know was that Fang Juexia was terribly stubborn. He kept repeating this sentence like a robot. 

“Let me see.”

But after all, he had failed to become a hero and had instead gotten hurt himself. His self-esteem had suffered a slight set-back, so he was even more awkward when making a compromise. “Then you go get me a band aid.” Having said that, he stressed again, “Just a band aid is enough, okay, a band aid.”

However, it seemed as if Fang Juexia’s ears had become blocked as he ran out with a dundundun sound. When he came back, he was carrying the whole first-aid kit, and it clattered against the headboard of the bed when he put it down. 

Pei Tingsong looked at the box in front of him, then looked at Fang Juexia. 

This wasn’t a little swan, this was a goose.

—

The author has something to say:

The group livestream begins in the next chapter!

Friends, the gong’s character has already been written. Xiao Pei just has a bad boy character at the start. He is only a teenager, not a mature, stable, and perfect man. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to wait for the delicious payoff; you can stop now. Don’t curse out the character, don’t curse out the character. 

The two of them didn’t interact much for two years because of a misunderstanding. Fang Juexia’s way was to pretend that Pei Tingsong didn’t exist, while Pei Tingsong’s way was to play tricks on him. As for why he has misunderstandings? Because Juexia would never talk about the hidden rules situation, so Pei Tingsong could only understand the situation slowly through the outside world. But after he gets to know Fang Juexia, he will realize that he could not do such a thing and will offer him an honest apology. 

When Fang Juexia was really being coerced, Pei Tingsong ran over immediately to make things right, all because of the relationship between teammates. When Pei Tingsong got injured, Fang Juexia also immediately bandaged him. 

If this wasn’t the starting scenario, there would be no need for the two of them to be forced into offering fanservice, which would force them into understanding each other. Otherwise, they definitely would have gotten together a long time ago. 

I personally can not accept the role of being scolded. Begging everyone that if you don’t like it, then just give up, you really don’t have to force yourselves.