CH 97

Chapter 97: Public Announcement

Once he finished speaking, many of the people around him seemed to freeze in place. Roughly three seconds later, a guy in a lamb wool coat shrugged.

“Of course it’s not illegal.”

Everyone else stood there, speechless and at a loss, and then they started to echo what the guy had said.

“That’s right.”

“What a useless thing to talk about.”

Yue Zhishi placed the ripped up pieces of paper into his schoolbag, only continuing to hold the paper he’d crumpled up. He then walked out of the crowd as though nothing had happened; he’d only taken a few steps when someone in the crowd behind him shouted, “Don’t let someone like this get away with doing this.”

“Yeah, fuck him up!” 

“Don’t be afraid, jiayou!” 

It would be a lie to say he hadn’t had a reaction when he first saw those photos.

Yue Zhishi had never thought photos of him would be exposed so publicly, and at that moment, he’d been astounded more than he’d been angry.

But once he saw those exaggerated, eye-catching words, he was sure this was something someone had done out of malice.

Shen Mi followed him out, and a few students their year also caught up behind them.

“Yue Zhishi, are you really together with that geomatics senior?”

“Was that you in the photo with kissing?”

Shen Mi initially thought Yue Zhishi would be scared, or annoyed, and wanted to drive away those overly curious people, but Yue Zhishi nodded. He frankly said, “Yes, he’s my boyfriend.”

“Ah, he’s super handsome,” a girl said, very excited. “You guys really match each other.”

She then said some encouraging words, also telling him to not let off the person who’d done something so malicious, before she turned away and left with her friends, her face full of excitement.

Standing on the ground floor of the classroom building, Yue Zhishi looked at the paper in his hand with his head lowered; he then asked Shen Mi, raising his head, “Do you think this person will have spread this only in the law school?”

Shen Mi shook his head. “The geomatics school’s probably already in an uproar.”

When he heard the word ‘geomatics’, Yue Zhishi stopped being so calm. His phone abruptly vibrated, and he thought it was going to be Song Yu — it turned out to be Jiang Yufan calling him.

He’d just accepted the call when Jiang Yufan opened his mouth and spat out fuck I’m so angry fuck. He seemed to be even more agitated than Yue Zhishi himself.

“You’ve heard as well? Were there posters attached to your school wall too?” Yue Zhishi asked. 

“Posters?” Jiang Yufan questioned. “What posters? I’m talking about my Moments, the photo of you and Song Yu has already been reposted all over. People are still forwarding it around, open up your Moments and have a look.”

Yue Zhishi usually didn’t use his phone much when in class. He only tapped open his WeChat now; his main screen was filled with rows and rows of the red dots for unread messages. Ignoring them, he clicked open his Moments and scrolled down.

The photo of them kissing behind the sparkler essentially covered his entire feed. 

“Do you know who was the first person to post it?” Yue Zhishi asked.

“No. I was in class, and I only realised when girls started to talk about it. There’s definitely no way to find who it is now.” Jiang Yufan was extremely angry. “Taking a photo — isn’t this an infringement of your portrait rights!”

“After the amendment of our civil legislation, this really is considered an infringement of our portrait rights.” Yue Zhishi was pleased. “This person took a photo of us without our permission and even displayed it in public. This is not just our portrait rights — this is also an infringement of our privacy.”

Jiang Yufan cursed for a good while, being so angry. His girlfriend seemed to be with him since Yue Zhishi was able to hear her soothing him, and so he told Jiang Yufan to calm down and to go eat lunch with his girlfriend.

He glanced at the time. Song Yu should still be in a meeting; he’d said earlier that it would go until 12pm.

Nan Jia also messaged Yue Zhishi, having just finished her class, and bumped into him in a corridor. The first thing she said upon seeing him was, “You’re seriously famous now, almost the entire school knows about you after this morning.” 

Yue Zhishi couldn’t understand it. “Who would do something like this? I thought I got along with most people.”

Both Nan Jia and Shen Mi fell into thoughtful silence, and then they practically thought of the same person at the same time. “I know.” Shen Mi met Nan Jia’s eyes. “Senior, did you want to say senior Wang Zhi?”

“Yes.”  

“But we’d only had a small disagreement.” Yue Zhishi found it incomprehensible. “What a strange guy. Was it worth doing this to me after such a long time?” 

“Yes, it was just a small disagreement at the time.” Nan Jia didn’t have a good look on her face. “But he didn’t get along with Song Yu in the basketball team afterwards, and he kept getting physical with Song Yu whenever they split into teams for practice. The coach later punished him by benching him for half a year — he’s still not allowed to play.”

Shen Mi nodded. “I was there. He was really bitter when the coach was scolding him, and then he later yelled at Senior Song Yu things like ‘just you wait’. Plus he’s always liked Senior Nan Jia, so when his confession was rejected a while ago…” 

Nan Jia let out a helpless sigh. “He really takes things to the extreme. I already told him very clearly that I was rejecting him for personal reasons, but he kept asking if it was because of either you or Song Yu.”

Yue Zhishi laughed in anger, saying, “But we’re just friends.”

“He didn’t believe it.” Nan Jia’s head was aching terribly. “And then once everyone heard about how he’d made things difficult for you, many people scolded him for forcing you to drink. A lot of girls naturally like you, and Wang Zhi had previously condescended to people just because he was a senior, so they used you as an excuse. Things got to the point where he pretty much lost his entire reputation. He also recently lost the school election.” 

The trifling matter from the past had continued to brew as Yue Zhishi’s fame in the law school continued to rise.

“If it really was Wang Zhi, then you have to be careful. He also studies law, after all, so if he really wanted to make life hard for you, he would’ve definitely covered his tracks.”

“What a stupid idiot to post those things on the notice board,” Shen Mi cursed.

Yue Zhishi shook his head. “He would’ve done it deliberately. The students in our university are relatively tolerant of the LGBT community. If he’d only spread those photos around student social circles like on Moments, then it would’ve been just a private matter. Everyone would’ve just talked about it. But now that he’s posted the photos on the school’s notice board, the professors are going to notice.”

Nan Jia nodded. “That’s right. I’m afraid the school might end up hiding the entire thing.”

It wasn’t as though Yue Zhishi hadn’t thought about these things when he’d first gotten together with Song Yu. He had been afraid; he’d worried about how other people’s eyes had subconsciously landed on their clasped hands and had worried people would point and whisper at them behind their backs.

But now that the day had truly arrived, he realised that most of the people around him treated him amicably, some of them not even caring since the matter didn’t concern them personally — at least within the university student social circles. Yue Zhishi only worried about Song Yu; he didn’t want this to affect his graduation.

“As for Song Yu…” Head lowered, Shen Mi talked as he looked at his phone. “With his personality, there’s an 80 percent chance he’ll just ignore everyone. Even if someone made a fuss in front of him, he probably won’t react with his stony face.”

“It’s not a bad idea to ignore it either. The photos can’t prove anything anyway, and it’s not like their relationship is something to be ashamed about.” Nan Jia urged Yue Zhishi to not take it to heart, saying, “I’m familiar with the professors in the law school, so I’ll first go and try to see how they’re taking it. Don’t be anxious, do what you should be doing. Let them look.”

“I know.” Yue Zhishi smiled. “People have been looking at me since I’ve been a child. I’m already used to being stared at.”

“You shouldn’t say that either…” Shen Mi was staring at his phone, and he suddenly let out a ‘holy shit’. 

Nan Jia looked at him, and with a bit of weariness, she asked, “It’s not another photo, is it?”

“It’s not.” Shen Mi held out his phone for them to see. “Song Yu uploaded a post into his Moments.”

Yue Zhishi was somewhat surprised — ever since Song Yu had started using social media apps, he’d never uploaded a public Moments post. Yue Zhishi apprehensively opened his own WeChat, tapped onto the profile photo of his pinned conversation and then entered Song Yu’s Moments. As expected, a new post showed up, uploaded one minute ago.

[Arctic Circle: I already have a boyfriend. I’ve pursued him for a very long time.]

He didn’t share that widely circulating photo; instead, he’d uploaded a picture that looked like it’d been casually taken. The photo was of Yue Zhishi, his head having just turned to face the camera. The autumn wind had blown his slightly curly hair into a bit of a mess, and he looked so youthful and energetic. The camera leaned in closely, and Yue Zhishi’s eyes were curved in a beautiful smile, the tip of his nose faintly reddened — he held a golden gingko leaf in his hand, and the way he outstretched his hand looked like he was giving it to the person taking the photo. Golden-bright and dazzling gingko trees were behind him.

It was slightly out of focus, the photo a bit blurry, but it turned the photo into something even more natural and lovely.

“He actually replied…” Nan Jia found it inconceivable.

Rather than calling this a response to the absurd situation, it was more of a public announcement of his relationship.

Shen Mi and Nan Jia turned to the party concerned. Yue Zhishi looked at the photo for a good while, and then he muttered, “When’d he take this…”

Nan Jia couldn’t hold back her laugh. “Is that the point?”

After saving the photo, Yue Zhishi lifted his head again. “And besides, he didn’t pursue me at all.”

Shen Mi also laughed.

“I’m going to look for him.” Yue Zhishi guessed that Song Yu had already finished his meeting.

Seeing Yue Zhishi immediately walk away, Shen Mi called out to him, “Are you looking for him to yell at him?”

“I’m looking to eat lunch with him.”

When he arrived at the information science section of campus, Yue Zhishi just happened to see Song Yu come out of his research lab building. The rays of the winter sun fell one by one onto his slightly cold face, and he looked like a statue just carved out without a soul — until he saw Yue Zhishi, and then a glimmer of life floated onto his face.

People were glancing at them, but that was unavoidable — they were different, after all.

Ruffling his hair that’d gone into disarray from his run over, Yue Zhishi walked over to Song Yu and prepared to hug him, just like how he’d hoped to do many times in the past before he’d turned anxious. And yet the moment Yue Zhishi stood in front of him, Song Yu was the first one to open his arms; he gently them around Yue Zhishi.

He was surrounded by an utter sense of security he had never felt before, as though Song Yu’s arms was a complete barrier isolating him from all of the eyes of the world outside. 

Song Yu didn’t speak much about how they’d been secretly photographed. Instead, he took Yue Zhishi to eat, as if that was his top priority. Yue Zhishi stayed on his phone as they ate and also told Song Yu of the things Nan Jia and Shen Mi had said. He said to Song Yu, “Wang Zhi should be the one behind all this, but we don’t have any proof yet.”

“It’s not ‘should’ — no one else except him would’ve done it.” Song Yu gave Yue Zhishi a piece of beef and gave Wang Zhi a very low evaluation at the same time. “Since he has poor moral character, a low ethical bottom line and also really holds a grudge.”

“But I didn’t think he would do something like this.” Yue Zhishi’s head was still lowered at his phone, reading the discussion in the [Little Swallow Dressed in Flowery Clothes] group chat. Everyone in it was trying to find a solution for him.

“They’re saying that everyone seems to be pretty neutral so far, when they see us together. There’s a lot of curious and gossipy people, but the reaction seems to be a bit better than I’d expected. There aren’t too many disgusted people.”

Song Yu wanted to ask who the first ‘they’ were, but he still candidly said to Yue Zhishi, “Not a lot of people will say they’re against homosexuality on the internet these days, since we’ve all gone through higher education.” He then asked, “Are you scared of people cursing at you?”

“I’m scared of people cursing you,” Yue Zhishi said to him very honestly. “I’m scared you won’t be able to smoothly graduate because of this.”

Song Yu chuckled faintly, and then he used a very certain voice to say to Yue Zhishi, “It won’t, don’t worry. I’ve already gone and talked to Professor He after the meeting. When I told him my sexual orientation, he said that was my own private life and had nothing to do with academics. He even joked and said he thought it was some kind of private, adult photo when I mentioned the photo. He didn’t expect it to look like that.”

He gazed at Yue Zhishi. “He praised you and said you look really kind and honest. He said I chose well.”

Yue Zhishi pursed his lips — he looked shy when he smiled.

“Yue Zhishi.” Song Yu said to him very earnestly, “I didn’t want to tell only Mom and Dad. I originally wanted to come out. Also, I also told Qin Yan before I left for my latest fieldwork trip.”

Yue Zhishi was shocked; he completely hadn’t realised Song Yu had had those thoughts. “Why?”

After staying silent for three seconds, Song Yu gave him a very strange reason.

“Because I wanted to participate in last night’s kissing competition with you. And other things along those lines.”

“I want to hold your hand and hold you in my arms — I want to be by your side as your boyfriend while watching a movie in the open air cinema.” 

Song Yu always spoke with not much emotions in his voice. He was like an advanced artificial intelligence that had to synthesise even his voice, but the electronic signal for every single phrase linked directly to Yue Zhishi and gave him an intensely beating and throbbing heart.

“But I hadn’t been able to think of a suitable plan to make our relationship public, and I also worried about you being subjected to bad things because of it.” Song Yu’s eyes were warm, only showing a bit more emotion when talking about Yue Zhishi possibly suffering from pain. “And so I hesitated. But since it happened anyway, I can only hope that you won’t be unhappy.” 

“Is that why you went and publicly announced our relationship?” Yue Zhishi tilted his head.

“Mn. I did it the way I’d thought of doing before.”

In reality, Song Yu had wanted to post such a Moment a very long time ago — his desire to do so could be traced all the way back to the first day he and Yue Zhishi had started dating.

There was a secret photo album in his phone. The album contained 1,314 photos, all of them of Yue Zhishi; most of them were secretly taken photos of his face or of his back, and a small portion of them were photos of the physical photos and polaroids Yue Zhishi had been in as he’d grown up. Song Yu even had his high school graduation photo.

The photos inside the album would increase, as time went by. And so, out of the photos he’d treasured and hidden away, Song Yu would pick out those he loved just a little bit less and move them to other public albums, making sure the overall total of the secret album remained unchanged. Most of the photos he’d transferred away had other people in them, or they were photos he himself thought had been taken very terribly.

His time was very precious, but he was utterly willing to spend time on Yue Zhishi.

It was the same for the photo he’d uploaded to his Moments. Song Yu had spent a long time choosing, and then he’d ended up remembering the adorable thing Yue Zhishi had said to him as he’d handed him the gingko leaf. Only then did he decide on it.

“I picked up a piece of autumn for you.” At that time, Yue Zhishi had asked with his face upturned, “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Very beautiful.

“So you’ve thought of doing this a long time ago…”

Song Yu pulled himself out of his memories when he heard Yue Zhishi’s voice, and he tranquilly said mn. But displeasure appeared on his face very quickly, and he said, “But I very much don’t like being forced to do something. So I won’t let this matter just disappear.”

Yue Zhishi finished off the final piece of carrot, nodding, before he pushed in his bluetooth earbuds. He tapped a number into his phone’s call screen.

Looking at him, Song Yu asked, “What are you doing?”

“Calling the police.” Yue Zhishi lifted his head and winked at him.