CH 22

Chapter 22

‘I have to’’ or ‘I definitely won't’, Fu Jia almost never spoke like this. 

With the exception of quarrels, it was usually reserved for children who were clamouring to buy something at the mall. During those moments, they’d say to their elders: "I have to have this!”

In Fu Jia’s memory, Lin Fengxun was someone who’d constantly say this because he had the right to be willful. Moreover, elders were always willing to indulge him. 

For Fu Jia, Lu Qi'an was neither his elder nor was he someone that’d condone his willfulness. 

He only said this because he couldn’t hold it in anymore. 

After a brief moment of considering it, Lu Qi’an answered: “No.”

A predictable answer.

Although Fu Jia expected it, he was still sorely disappointed.

“Then…” he opened his mouth, but couldn’t continue. 

After thinking about it back and forth, he could only say: “Then just pretend I didn’t say anything.”

After several seconds, Lu Qi’an said: “En.”

This concluded the two’s conversation.

No. 6 High School’s weekly test results were usually announced on the following Monday, but it made no difference to Fu Jia what his results were. He was indifferent.

During the weekend, Fu Jia studied as he should, and made friends as he should. He forced himself to forget about Lu Qi’an, forget about the Lin family. Once he let down his vigilance against other people, everything ran smoothly.

With Big Head’s help, he made more friends in class and even went out for hotpot off-campus with his roommates. During this period, his roommates learned that Fu Jia was the oldest out of everyone and gave him the name ‘Boss Fu’. 

Big Head’s nerves were much tenser in comparison. As the class monitor, he was under a lot of pressure. No. 6 High School was a school that valued ​​academics. No matter how strong Big Head was in other aspects, if his studies weren’t up to standard then teachers would consider him an unqualified class monitor.

On Monday, Big Head didn’t immediately read his report card once he received it. Instead, he flipped it over and pressed it on the table, and through his mouth came out murmurs of worship toward Buddhist deities that Fu Jia had both heard of and never heard of. 

At last, he turned over the report card– third in class.

Big Head wow’d to himself, then covered his mouth that couldn’t stop smiling. 

Fu Jia looked down at his report card– eighteenth in class.

His mood immediately plummeted.

He made a very accurate guess. Even though Lu Qi'an marked down the question worth the most points and appeared as the final question on the math test, top twenty was the best he could do. And it was barely within the top twenty too, he was on the cusp of failing English.

Big Head was hugging and kissing his report card on the side, showing it off in all four directions before creeping up to Fu Jia with the intention to peek at his report card. With quick hands, Fu Jia crumpled the report card into a paper ball and held it in his palm.

“What’s wrong? Considering how hard you studied, it’s impossible for you to have failed. Lemme take a look!” Big Head smiled as he talked.

Fu Jia hid his paper ball even more: “"It's faster to count my ranking from the end than from the start, so stop asking.”

Big Head thought he was joking: "Impossible, hurry up and lemme see.”

Big Head didn’t mean to make fun of Fu Jia, he sincerely thought that Fu Jia’s grades were good. 

He wasn’t the only one in the class who thought so. During this first week at No. 6 High School, Fu Jia studied an outrageous amount. During class breaks, others would chat or play on their PSPs, even the more well-behaved students would read recreational books. It was only Fu Jia who would sit in front of his desk to study. If no one called on him to hang out, then he wouldn’t take a break on his own. This often made Big Head feel guilty whenever he called on Fu Jia to hang out.

Getting to know Fu Jia a bit more, Big Head was surprised by Fu Jia’s lack of hobbies and bad habits. He didn’t smoke or drink, nor did he have any experience with video games. He didn’t play basketball or soccer, or even touched a toy car.

Big Head could only come up with one conclusion: Fu Jia had an extremely strict family.

The more Fu Jia hid, the more curious Big Head got. He spent an entire three morning periods relentlessly asking Fu Jia for his report cards. The fourth class was PE, and the whole class had to leave the classroom and head to the track field. 

Fu Jia put the vocabulary cards he made into his pocket and got ready to leave for PE class. But as soon as he raised his head, he saw Big Head’s hand sneaking into his desk.

“Hehe…” Big Head rubbed the back of his head and smiled awkwardly.

Fu Jia sighed and took out the paper ball, then carefully flattened its wrinkled surface with his thumbs. 

“Have a look,” Fu Jia gave the report card to Big Head, “Only eighteenth place. I was too embarrassed to show you.”

Big Head quickly took the card, and immediately saw the number ‘18’. But he reacted fast and didn’t show any surprise. Instead, he laughed and said: “It's the first test of the semester. You’ll improve next time, you’ll improve next time~ And see, the math questions were so difficult this time. You did well."

“Really?” Fu Jia took back the report card and put it in his pocket. Big Head definitely couldn’t have imagined that Lu Qi’an had carried him through a question. If Big Head had also reviewed that question in advance, he might’ve been able to take first place. 

Big Head patted Fu Jia’s back in encouragement, took hold of him, then called over their other friends to go to PE class together. 

According to standard procedure, the first half of PE class was under the teacher’s instructions to participate in a collective class activity. A lot of teachers would take the chance to cut down group activity time so that they could decrease their own working hours. But the PE teacher in charge of Fu Jia’s class was the annual bannerman#, so half the class time meant half the class time. No more, no less.

After assembling together, the teacher instructed them to run 180 meters as a warm-up exercise. The girls’ resentment shot up to the sky, but couldn’t refuse instructions either. All they could do was run in front of the boys and drag down the class pace as much as possible. 

Led by the female students, their class slowly ran from the east end of the track field to the west end. They were next to the indoor gymnasium, as well as the basketball courts. Fu Jia absentmindedly looked over, then got startled.

He had already been trying so hard to control himself: don’t think about Lu Qi’an, don’t let your thoughts carry away.

He didn’t think he would see Lu Qi’an here. Was he also taking PE class? Why didn’t he see him last Monday? 

Lu Qi’an wasn’t playing on the court, but standing to the side with Li Qinhe. At this moment, a girl ran over from nearby, first handing a bottle of water to Li Qinhe, then another to Lu Qi'an. He took the bottle of water and murmured something. Based on his mouth movements, it should be a thank you.

Fu Jia lost his focus, slowing down his pace, which the male student behind him didn’t notice. With one heavy step, he stepped down on Fu Jia’s heel. 

“Hsss…”

He was in so much pain that he took in a sharp inhale of cold air.

The male classmate who stepped on him was startled, then quickly helped him walk to the side. Following him, Fu Jia limped out of the queue of running students, then squatted down once he couldn’t bear it anymore. 

The male classmate followed suit and squatted down: "I'm sorry. You’re not injured, are you?"

Fu Jia glanced down, there was some broken skin and a bit of blood around where he got stepped on, but it wasn’t a big deal. He knew it wasn’t the other’s fault as he was the one who got distracted first, so he waved his hand, untied the shoelace, then half-covered the wound with the heel of his shoe: “It’s alright, only a skin wound on the heel.”

When he put the shoe back on, it rubbed against the wound and Fu Jia shook in pain. He held himself back from making a sound, then stood up as if nothing happened.

The male classmate sighed in relief and then said: “That’s good. Let’s run and catch up to them.”

“Okay,” Fu Jia nodded.

The male classmate started running first, followed by Fu Jia. He was in pain with every step he took. He tried his best to steady himself, making it seem like there was nothing wrong with his stride.

He didn’t want Lu Qi’an to find out that something so dumb had happened to him. Even if there was little chance of Lu Qi’an noticing what had happened, he still paid attention to every step he took.

Brisk movements and a straightened back, one’s running form had to look good.

He raised his hand, pretending to wipe the sweat from his forehead, and secretly looked at Lu Qi’an, but unexpectedly found that Lu Qi'an was also looking at him.

This was rare. It had always been him who looked over first and waited for Lu Qi’an to return his gaze. This time, he had turned his head without any expectation and immediately met Lu Qi’an’s eyes.

With one glance, it felt like Fu Jia could read his eyes. 

They seemed to say: Fu Jia, come here.

Fu Jia quickly retracted his gaze and stared straight ahead, but quickly lost his focus. Even his footsteps became perfunctory. 

When did Lu Qi’an start paying attention?

The sports field was so big, it didn’t make sense for Lu Qi’an to notice him amidst a crowd of people. Could it be that Lu Qi'an heard him shout when his foot got stepped on earlier?

Fu Jia sped up his pace, quickly turning at the corner of the track and leaving the basketball court behind him. But he was so conscious of what was behind him that the hairs on his back stood up, causing a mild itch that he wanted to scratch. 

The way they looked at each other this time was very similar to the time Fu Jia saw Lu Qi'an on the basketball court on the first day of school.

During that time, Fu Jia’s feelings weren’t as clear yet. He didn’t believe that he and Lu Qi’an  were really staring at each other, and once he did realize, he had already turned to run towards him. 

If he dared to do it then, why didn’t he dare to do it today?

Fu Jia was out of breath and raised his hand to beat his chest, halting his steps as he regulated his breath. 

If one left the group without permission and didn’t notify the teacher of their absence, they’d definitely be scolded and deducted merit points once they were busted. But Fu Jia couldn’t be bothered to think so much anymore.

He took a deep breath, then turned around to walk over only to realize that Lu Qi'an was no longer there.

He was at a loss, glanced under the basketball hoop twice, then straightened his gaze forward–

He saw Lu Qi'an walking towards him.

Walking towards him… Why…w-w-why was he coming here?

Fu Jia turned around like a spinner top toy, shrinking his shoulders. It took two seconds before he realized how obvious and idiotic he was behaving. 

“Fu Jia?” It was Lu Qi’an’s voice.

Fu Jia turned around stiffly and faced him.

There were less than three steps between them. Fu Jia looked up and vividly perceived Lu Qi'an's countenance. This was a big mental blow to Fu Jia, who was convinced that Lu Qi’an wouldn’t move away from the basketball hoop.

Fu Jia’s brain short-circuited, and he was too empty-minded to come up with anything to say.

Lu Qi’an’s brows furrowed and slowly shifted his gaze downwards, staring at his feet. He also came to attend PE class. Other teachers took up his class period last week, so he didn't know that Fu Jia's PE class was at the same time as his.

Seeing Fu Jia here was a coincidence. Earlier, he and Li Qinhe were taking a break on the side instead of playing basketball. Li Qinhe was bored to the core, so he began to watch girls run on the track field as a way to pass time. It just so happened that Fu Jia's class was passing by with the girls running in front, which greatly excited Li Qinhe so he bumped against Lu Qi'an's shoulder for him to watch too.

Lu Qi’an didn’t have any feelings towards Li Qinhe’s passions in life, so he casually swept a glance over. Yet unexpectedly, he saw Fu Jia and set his eyes on him.# 

How long this stare lasted, Lu Qi’an didn’t keep count. 

He turned his eyes away before Fu Jia noticed him, but continued to take note of that side. In turn, he didn’t miss the moment when Fu Jia’s foot got stepped on, nor did he miss the moment he squatted down and revealed his reddened heel. 

“If you’re injured then go to the infirmary. Why are you still running?" Lu Qi'an's words took on a reproachful tone. 

Fu Jia didn’t know that Lu Qi’an saw him, so he said: “I didn’t get injured.”

Lu Qi'an's frown deepened. His expression was unhappy to begin with, but now it was even more obvious.

He didn't speak, simply squatted down and reached out to untie Fu Jia’s shoelace. 

Fu Jia’s hands jerked straight and stood in place like a nail, not daring to move around.

After untying the shoelace, Lu Qi'an gently pressed down on the heel of the shoe and said: "Take your feet out."

Fu Jia desperately shook his head: “No…”

If it wasn’t for Lu Qi’an’s fingers pressing down on his shoe, he might’ve ran off a dozen or so steps to find a spot where he could hear Lu Qi’an’s voice distinctly but wouldn’t see his face. 

Fu Jia lowered his head with complicated emotions, while the squatting Lu Qi'an raised his head and stared at him with unpleasant eyes.

They’ve known each other for ten years, but this was the first time–

“Take it out,” Lu Qi’an repeated. Fu Jia closed his eyes, somewhat unable to bear it.

For the first time…Lu Qi’an was looking up at him. 

It was a completely different experience looking at Lu Qi’an from this angle. The arc that connected his brow bone to his nose bridge was highlighted, and the orbit of his eyes looked extraordinarily deep. Framed in this orbit was a pair of upward-lifted eyes that possessed a sharp quality where the corner and tail lifted. 

Fu Jia was fascinated like never before. He was uncontrollable, and pulled out his foot from the shoe like an obedient marionette. 

He didn't care whether they were in public, and he didn't care what his feet smelled like after wearing sneakers all morning– he couldn't care.

Lu Qi'an supported the front of Fu Jia's ankle and checked the back of his foot. The bloody wound was visible even without taking off the sock. 

It wasn’t originally this severe, but Fu Jia ran half a lap after he injured himself, rubbing the wound against the tough shoe interior. The wound had worsened by double.

Looking at the shoe again, the large blood stain inside made the scene all the more tragic. 

Fu Jia moved his foot around, wanting to hide his injured foot behind the other leg. Although he didn't smell anything, the weather was hot and he had just exercised. How could his foot not have a smell?

“Stop looking at it…,” Fu Jia said, “It’s not that bad. Doesn’t hurt either.”

He really didn’t feel any pain. What really concerned him was how his foot turned hot at Lu Qi’an’s touch. 

Lu Qi’an silently let go of his hand, stood up, then turned his back to Fu Jia: “I’ll carry you to the infirmary.”

Fu Jia was quite bewildered.

He didn’t show his pain, so the pain went away. But now there was someone who thought he was in pain. 

In an instant, the pain from the wound surged out like a tide. 

He hummed back in response.

Lu Qi'an bent his knees and lowered his body so that Fu Jia could place his hands on his shoulders. Fu Jia’s movements were very careful. He didn’t really dare to touch Lu Qi’an, so he leaned back instead of sticking close to him and kept his hands on top of where clothes covered his shoulders. 

Lu Qi’an was resolute and directly held the back of Fu Jia’s thighs with his hands. 

“Lean forward more. I can’t carry you like this,” Lu Qi’an said. Fu Jia blushed and hugged his neck weakly with his arms.

“Lean forward more.”

Fu Jia took his time to shift a centimetre forward. 

“....” Lu Qi’an was quiet for a moment, then forcefully lifted him up. 

Fu Jia's centre of gravity was unstable and caused him to fall backwards. Almost falling off, he subconsciously tightened his hold and pressed himself against his back.

“Got a secure hold?” Lu Qi’an asked. 

They stuck together without leaving any room. When one person spoke, the other person could feel the vibrations of their body.

The same went for heartbeats, Fu Jia realized. His heart was beating so fast that he was sure Lu Qi’an could feel it.

“No…” Fu Jia said, then hugged him even tighter.