CH 96

Chapter 96: Christmas Fireworks

Having received a pair of limited edition AJs before Christmas, Jiang Yufan was so excited he essentially forgot everything else, only awakening from his great exuberance in the afternoon. The more he thought about it, the more he was shocked.

How did Yue Zhishi become a couple with senior Song Yu! 

And so he dragged Yue Zhishi into the sports ground. They talked the entire night — no alcohol, each person holding his own bottle of yellow peach yoghurt.

Jiang Yufan released a long sigh after hearing the entire story. He said to Yue Zhishi, “What a pity. If you two ever come out publicly, there’ll be countless girls with broken hearts.” 

Yue Zhishi was about to say something, but Jiang Yufan caught his hand again and said to him as they arrived in front of their dormitory building, “Wait, maybe you shouldn’t make your relationship public. I’m worried there’ll be idiots cursing at you guys.”

“Curse me for what?” Yue Zhishi blinked.

“Idiots will say whatever they can think of.” Jiang Yufan shook his head in disdain, slipping an arm around Yue Zhishi’s shoulders. “You know, those people who don’t focus on their own lives and only care about how other people pass theirs. The kind of people who have nothing better to do than to flap their mouths and blabber nonsense.”

“It’s fine.” Yue Zhishi remembered what Lin Rong had said. “We don’t live for the sake of other people’s mouths.”

Jiang Yufan nodded. “I’ll punch whoever says anything about you.”

“No need for that,” Yue Zhishi laughed, his shoulders shaking under Jiang Yufan’s arm. They headed up the dormitory together, Yue Zhishi listening as Jiang Yufan described just how cool, how amazing his AJs looked and how much more it was now worth.

The festive atmosphere increased day by day, and all the small shops on campus started to adorn themselves with boxed apples, 3D cards with both winter cherry blossom and Christmas trees on them, as well as Christmas hats and red socks. Dessert shops, behind their warmly glowing glass windows, carried beautiful and exquisitely made gingerbread houses and Christmas wreath cookies, offered in both red and green. 

A truck drove by and delivered a three metre high Christmas tree into the campus plaza. Students from some student society carried in a ladder and decorated the tree with small bells, gift boxes and silk ribbons.

A silver bauble fell down and rolled around a few times on the ground before coming to a stop in front of Yue Zhishi’s feet. He crouched down, picked up the bauble and walked towards the Christmas tree.

“Your bauble.” Yue Zhishi held out his arm and offered it to the girl standing on the ladder.

The girl lowered her head and was a bit surprised. “Oh, thank you!”

A gust of wind blew past, and Yue Zhishi held down his white woollen cap, snuffling his face into the scarf wrapped around his neck. He saw a poster board under the tree, and it said, in English, Merry Christmas and Kiss now — he curiously looked at it, and another girl gave him a friendly greeting as she twirled ribbons around the tree. She said, “Fellow student, do you have a girlfriend?”

Yue Zhishi subconsciously shook his head, looking at her.

“A boyfriend’s fine, too,” she laughed, covering her mouth. She then waved her hand. “I’m just joking. You should take a look at our event. Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve. You can get a small present in exchange for kissing in front of this tree and leaving behind a polaroid~” She pointed at the large box by the side. “We have heaps of presents. We’ll also upload the polaroids onto our social media account later, and the one that gets the most amount of likes will win a prize.”

Another girl added, “A very expensive prize!”

Yue Zhishi let out a light and relaxed ‘wow’, and so the girl said again in encouragement, “You can bring a friend too, if that friend’s willing to kiss you hahaha.”

Seeing words such as ‘the best couple’ and ‘exquisite gifts’ on the poster, Yue Zhishi became a bit interested — but he felt like he had nothing to do with a public event such as this one.

“You have to come participate, you’re so good-looking! There’s no way you don’t have a girlfriend!”

Yue Zhishi’s mouth crooked up in a smile. “Mn… he’s away from campus, I’m not sure if he can get back in time.”

The girl gave him a heartbroken look when she heard what he said. “As expected, you’re already taken.” She quickly wiped that look off her face and pulled off a small golden bell from the tree, handing it to Yue Zhishi. “But that’s okay, let me give you a present ahead of time. Who told you to be so handsome, hm?” 

“Thanks.” Yue Zhishi took it from her with with both hands; he gave it a gentle shake and then placed it into his pocket as though it was a treasure. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, I hope your girlfriend can come back early and spend Christmas with you!” 

The constant usage of ‘girlfriend’ coming out of her mouth left Yue Zhishi somewhat lightheaded even after he’d walked a fair bit away — it completely didn’t match Song Yu’s tall and handsome image. As he walked slowly on the roads, Yue Zhishi messaged Song Yu.

[Le Le: Have you eaten?]

Only one second later, he sent through another.

[Le Le: When are you coming back?]

Song Yu rarely replied instantly; he was always very busy while out on fieldwork. Yue Zhishi exited the chat, tapping into his Moments, and realised Qin Yan had posted a photo of his girlfriend while  they ate dinner. He’d most likely taken the photo while sitting across from her, and there were many likes and comments from their mutual friends underneath the post.

Yue Zhishi was a bit envious. His phone vibrated, so he switched back to his chat screen.

[Arctic Circle: Not yet. Tomorrow.]

Yue Zhishi sent him a sticker of a doggy sprinting over.

[Le Le: Then I’ll pick you up at the campus entrance.]

Song Yu no longer refused to allow Yue Zhishi to pick him up.

[Arctic Circle: Dress warmly.]

The temperature dropped even more the next day, and some people in class that afternoon exclaimed that it was going to snow. Raising his face, Yue Zhishi gazed outside the window — the sky was ash grey, and it was hard to determine if it was going to snow or not.

“I think it’ll sleet,” Jiang Yufan said, looking at the weather report on his phone. “But I feel like it’ll only be rain with no snow.”

“Maybe it’ll fall tonight.”

How nice would it be if it snowed on Christmas Eve.

Carrying an expectant heart, Yue Zhishi determinedly focused on his classes and his studying, and he waited until 10:30pm before he couldn’t hold back anymore and sent Song Yu a message.

[Le Le: Can I go to the entrance now to wait for you? Are you almost there?]

[Arctic Circle: The plane’s delayed. It’s cold outside, don’t wait for me.]

When it hit 11:45pm, Yue Zhishi came out of his self study classroom, very disappointed. The weather report was as unreliable as Song Yu’s flight — the supposed sleet never came, and it was merely very cold, the wind almost ripping the scarf from his neck. It was so cold the minute droplets of water in the air were about to solidify and stick to people’s skin.

He roamed around campus by himself, somehow finding himself in front of the large Christmas tree. Its decorations had been completed yesterday, and it was even prettier today — myriad starlights hung from the bauble-dotted branches, gift boxes overflowing from the bottom. Within the dark night, it was a golden radiance, tender and comforting.  

“Come try out our event, limited only to Christmas Eve! We finish at midnight! Final five minutes!”

There were so many couples in front of the tree, hugging and kissing — some were very shy, only lightly pecking at each other’s cheeks, while others wrapped their arms around their partners’ necks and intimately kissed. 

One of the couples was a female pair. Yue Zhishi didn’t know who they were, but he found their matching down jackets very cute.

Students working for the event faced the couples with polaroid cameras in their hands and yelled out in English, “Kiss now!” — and then they pressed down on the button of happiness. 

Couples came and went, wide smiles on their faces as they embraced, kissed; beautiful polaroids were then attached to the tree branches. Yue Zhishi stood in a position ten metres away where the twinkling lights couldn’t reach and watched those adorable people with his heart curious about the presents. He was like a child without any money, yet stubbornly standing outside the shop window.

He didn’t know how long he stood there watching, but then he heard them say they were about to finish their event. Yue Zhishi belatedly pulled out his phone, took a photo of his view and sent it to Song Yu. The photo contained the beautiful tree and the silhouettes of two couples.

[Le Le: Look, our university’s Christmas Eve event.]

His words were calm, displaying not a single shred of envy.

“Hey, it’s the handsome boy who helped pick up a bauble!” 

The girl from yesterday recognised him. “I almost didn’t recognise you since you’ve changed into a red down jacket.” She grabbed a handful of candy wrapped in colour cellophane and ran over to stuff it into Yue Zhishi’s hand. “We’re packing up soon, I’ll give these to you.” 

A distance away, another girl was dismantling the starlights, and she hollered over to Yue Zhishi, “Your girlfriend’s still not back?”

Yue Zhishi responded with a blank ‘ah’, and then he held up the candy, nodding in thanks. “Do you guys need me to help take things down?”

“No need, it’ll be quick. You couldn’t take part in our event since your girlfriend wasn’t here, so it’ll be even more sad if you had to blindly work for us.”

As he said it was fine, Yue Zhishi slipped the candies into his pocket before pulling out a pink one. He unwrapped it and threw it into his mouth — it was lychee flavoured.

He watched as the decorations came off the tree one by one, as the golden light faded and disappeared like magic. Tiny, almost invisible snowflakes floated in the air; they’d arrived at a very unfortunate time, with the tree having already been packed away and about to be lifted into the back of a truck.

His phone abruptly rang, and Yue Zhishi absent-mindedly searched for it, groping for a while before pulling it out of his pocket with a few candies falling out at the same time. He accepted the phone call and heard Song Yu’s voice.

“Little friend wearing red clothes, you have a girlfriend already at such a young age?”

A bit stunned, Yue Zhishi didn’t say anything and only looked around in every direction.

Suddenly, a hand landed on the white cap on his head, rubbing it. The phone he’d left by his ear was instantly stolen away, and the low, deep voice that should’ve been limited to radio waves rippled in the cold air — it became real, and near.

“Then what’ll your boyfriend do?”

Yue Zhishi turned his head around, and the moment he saw Song Yu, his eyes widened greatly. An infinitely small snowflake fell onto his long and soft eyelashes.

Song Yu glanced around at the truck driving away and the student society workers as they left, and then his gaze lowered to Yue Zhishi’s phone that he held in his hand. “You were so focused on taking other people’s candy that you didn’t reply to my messages.”

The phone screen lit up, and it displayed the two messages from Song Yu.

[Arctic Circle: Stay where you are and wait for me.]

[Arctic Circle: Turn around.]

A bemused look appeared on his face, and he lifted up the phone for Yue Zhishi to see. “When’d you change my name? Why’d you change it to this?” 

Rising up on his tiptoes, Yue Zhishi took his phone back and said, “I changed it last time we were at home, when you spitefully went upstairs by yourself to watch documentaries. I know you were watching documentaries about the Arctic Circle.” He pushed the phone back into his pocket. “And everyone agrees that the name really matches your temper.”

Song Yu didn’t admit to it, but he also didn’t get annoyed at Yue Zhishi calling him by such a cold, frozen nickname. Yue Zhishi rapidly changed the topic, asking how he appeared so suddenly.

“This is a surprise.”

“You were obviously lying to me.” Yue Zhishi focused on the main point, but he didn’t continue with it, catching Song Yu’s hand. He didn’t hold onto Song Yu’s wrist, like he used to — instead, he took hold of his fingers and regretfully pulled Song Yu away, saying, “It would’ve been nice if you arrived a bit earlier. There was a Christmas Eve event here just now, and they were giving away small presents.”

But then he quickly said, as though persuading himself, “But we wouldn’t have been able to participate even if you were here.”

“Why?” Song Yu asked.

Yue Zhishi wanted to say because we would’ve needed to kiss in front of everyone and would’ve also needed to take a polaroid, but he saw a small snowflake drift onto the bridge of Song Yu’s nose. His attention abruptly shifted, and he reached out to touch it.

The snowflake melted so very quickly.

He slowly explained, “We couldn’t. We would’ve needed to kiss in front of that Christmas tree while the workers yelled out ‘Kiss now’. They would’ve taken a photo of us kissing, and then people would vote on the best one.”

Song Yu quietly studied his face. Yue Zhishi had been so animated as he described the scene, and had looked so adorable as he mimicked the way the workers had yelled out their slogan. 

Yue Zhishi suddenly thought of the time. “Ah, it’s past midnight now.”

He upturned his face and smiled at Song Yu. “Merry Christmas!”

“That Christmas tree was very, very beautiful, the photo couldn’t capture just how pretty it was. It’s too bad you couldn’t see it yourself.”

Song Yu tenderly gifted him with the same Christmas greeting, and then he took Yue Zhishi’s hand without caring about anything else. Gently expressing his regret, he said, “I should’ve told the driver to go a bit faster.”

He wasn’t sure if Yue Zhishi had wanted to participate or not, if he’d wanted to publicly kiss or not.

But he was very willing.

Going by their conversation, Yue Zhishi believed Song Yu was regretful about not being able to see the tree.

He thought of something and then pulled Song Yu around, searching, before finally finding a row of cypress trees behind a random building. Once he decided on the best-looking tree, he tugged Song Yu over.

“I can turn this into a Christmas tree,” Yue Zhishi said as he walked over, his footsteps clear and crisp as they landed on the pine branches on the ground. Fishing out something small from the side of his schoolbag, he busied himself for a minute and then turned around, his hands moving in a cute introductory gesture. “Look!”

The place he pointed at had a small gold bell swaying in the cold wind.

Amused, Song Yu headed over to him and commented fairly bluntly, “Such a shabby looking Christmas tree.”

Yue Zhishi wasn’t annoyed, only looking back at it. But half of the smile on his face faded away as he said, “True.” 

Song Yu lifted a hand to stroke his chilled face, his voice very soft. “How are you so obedient? Agreeing with whatever I say and not arguing back.”

And then, with not much logical flow to his words, he said, “I really missed you.”

As they stood in the darkness, the fragrance emanating from the cypress tree buds mingled together with the scents of snow and frosted soil — they turned into the scent of winter, and it diluted the pleasant-smelling aroma on Song Yu’s body.

Song Yu never used cologne. Yue Zhishi knew this very well, but he didn’t know that the reason behind that choice was because of his asthma. 

As soon as Song Yu chose to, there were many things he could give up; as soon as he wanted, he could conceal many things away.

Yue Zhishi watched him with his face and beautiful features tilted upwards. He looked like someone who really needed to be kissed.

“I really missed you too.”

He rapidly explained again about why he didn’t retort back. “It really does look a bit shabby. It would look nicer if there was a starlight — at least then I’d be able to see your face.” 

Song Yu pulled Yue Zhishi into his arms, wearing the black down jacket Yue Zhishi had chosen for him. He rested one hand onto his waist, and his other hand searched in his pocket. “Good thing I have one.”

He drew out something thin and narrow and then also slipped out a lighter. Click — a tongue of flame sprang up, lasting for three seconds.

Suddenly, a dazzling, glittering stream of light burst in his hand. Only then did Yue Zhishi realise — Song Yu had hidden a sparkler in his pocket.

Under the small sounds of crackling and the faint scent of gunpowder, golden light splashed in all directions as the sparks ignited; they all came together and condensed into a shooting star, one that was willing to stop and remain in Song Yu’s hand. The light, blooming like a flower, descended onto Yue Zhishi’s face, and it made him look extraordinarily beautiful. 

“The Christmas tree looks really luxurious now.”

“Just with this?” Song Yu questioned his usage of the word ‘luxurious’ and even lifted the sparkler slightly higher.

Yue Zhishi nodded, both his hands around Song Yu’s waist. He said, utterly contented, “With your firework and my bell, this is better than the Christmas tree from earlier. This one belongs to only the two of us.”

“Since you put it that way…”

In front of that exclusive Christmas tree, Song Yu lowered his head and leaned in very closely to Yue Zhishi.

“Kiss now,” he said, softly and deeply, and placed his mouth onto Yue Zhishi’s soft lips. The narrow sparkler was held up high, quietly blossoming as their faces shifted so closely together they almost overlapped. The glow was like a protective cover, resplendent and dreamlike.

Light snow wafted downwards; temperatures ascended. A lychee-flavoured kiss was shared between them.

The floor lamp in their room allowed Christmas Eve to continue on. Song Yu and Yue Zhishi turned themselves into each other’s present, greedily possessing each other after unwrapping. Sweat and hormones were the best tools to keep warm during a snowy night, and their love and desire were nudged into the pillows, producing the most extravagant and gorgeous dream.

In the midst of passion, Yue Zhishi fell into conflicting thoughts — he wanted everyone to overcome their preconception of Song Yu’s coldness, but he also hoped to forever remain the only one who could uncover Song Yu’s unique side.

The gentle amusement in his eyes, the indulgence concealed in his touches, the accidental cute reactions and the embrace filled with security that was always prepared for him.

And in bed, the drawn together eyebrows and low pants.

Once the bell was taken down and the sparkler finished burning, that special Christmas tree had turned back into a cold and hard cypress tree in winter. It was just like Song Yu — his moments of luminous light and warmth belonged only to Yue Zhishi.

They’d stayed up too late, and so Song Yu held onto Yue Zhishi and refused to let him get out of bed in the morning. Yue Zhishi accidentally fell back asleep after his alarm rang, and he almost missed his 9:50am law class. Fortunately, Yue Zhishi managed to just get in; the law school’s strictest professor didn’t have to criticise him on Christmas.

He sat next to Shen Mi in that large class, and Shen Mi’s phone kept vibrating the entire time. He later seemed to get embarrassed and turned on his phone’s do not disturb mode.

With his pen poking at his chin, Yue Zhishi occasionally glanced at Shen Mi. He couldn’t hold back anymore when there was only one minute left of class, and he very quietly whispered, “Shen Mi, I have a question.”

Shen Mi had always been patient with him, and as he packed up his laptop, he gave Yue Zhishi a smile. “Then ask.”

Having gained permission, Yue Zhishi dropped his voice even softer and spoke in an almost inaudible voice. “Is Xu Lin really pursuing you?”

The professor was just about to reach the doors when an extremely loud question rang from the last row of the classroom.

“Who said he’s pursuing me?!!”

People stared at them when they exited the classroom. Thinking it was Shen Mi’s question that had caught their attention, Yue Zhishi explained why he was curious as they walked towards the corridor — he really wanted to blame it on Jiang Yufan. “I just heard… Just… Aiyah, Xu Lin said last time that he liked tall, handsome, bright and cheerful active guys. Have you guys really not…”

“No.” Shen Mi swiftly refuted. “I don’t like him at all.”

Yue Zhishi blinked. “But I didn’t ask if you liked him?”

Why’d you rush to answer.

“Anyway, to make things short…” Shen Mi coughed twice and twisted his head around to look ahead, suddenly noticing a large group of people surrounding the notice board at the end of the corridor. In the past, that wall had been used by the law school to announce rather important news, and the school would stick up things such as examination notices, holiday plans or election results.

“Have they announced the groups for the new round of mock trials?” Yue Zhishi asked.

“No, they announced that last week. How could there be so many people looking at that.” Shen Mi found it strange, and so he walked over; he was able to see what was on the board from a distance away since he was tall.

Yue Zhishi followed over too, and he watched as the look on Shen Mi’s face changed, his face stiffening. And so he turned to look, confused, at that notice board.

Between the gaps of moving heads, Yue Zhishi saw many printed A4 pieces of paper, stacked on top of each other until they covered the board. The papers held red, bold words printed in a large font such as ‘gay relationship’ and ‘immoral brothers’ — several photos were also fastened on top.

He immediately recognised one of the photos. It was him and Song Yu last night, kissing in front of that cypress tree; the sparkler blocked half of their faces, but Yue Zhishi keenly recognised his own clothing. That red jacket was very eye-catching.

Other photos showed them doing ambiguous things such as holding hands or having their arms around the other’s waist. Their faces were very clear in those photos.

The people looking at the board were all debating.

“Wow, what an explosive topic!”

“Are they really a gay couple? And brothers, too?”

“Let me just say, that photo of them kissing really is super pretty. I actually want to ship them…”

“But no matter what, this is an invasion of privacy.”

“Fuck! That’s the geomatics school grass! My dorm mate had a crush on him before!”

“Congratulations to your dorm mate hahaha, handsome guys truly only date other handsome guys.”

“This is so boring, is there some kind of grudge between these guys and the person who put these things up? They really don’t have any kind of professional sense to do something like this in the law school.” 

“But isn’t this guy that super famous boy in our school? That really good-looking mixed race boy…”

“Ah, I remember now, the one who was awarded first place in for the clothing design competition. He’s super adorable.”

“No wonder the final round had rainbows. But there should be quite a few gay people in our school, right? There really was no need to do this, watch out for a warning letter from a lawyer.”

Shen Mi cursed under his breath, wanting to explode but holding back. He took a look at Yue Zhishi, and when he saw the blank look on his face, he faintly started to worry. He wanted to say something first before he went to push through the crowd of people — he wanted to take down those pieces of paper at the very least.

Unexpectedly, Yue Zhishi opened his mouth.

“Excuse me, please let me through.”

The people in front of the notice board turned around one by one as they heard the sound of his voice. When they saw the person from the photos standing in front of them, most of them were startled and hurriedly moved aside. Yue Zhishi walked over unusually calmly and decisively tore down those A4 pieces of paper, crumpling them in his hands.

Some of the people watching started to whisper into each other’s ears. “It’s really him…”

“Shit, is this really incest?”

“He’s not my older brother. We’re not related by blood at all, and so far, we have no legal relationship between us either. We are simply a normal couple.”

Yue Zhishi had his back towards them as he ripped up those pieces of paper, and then he turned around and faced the crowd. He had a natural look on his face, and he also spoke mildly — but the question that came out of his mouth was very direct.

“Is homosexuality illegal?”