CH 34

Chapter 34

That night, Fu Jia's sleep was extremely light, and he had to be hugged by Lu Qi'an to stay asleep. As soon as Lu Qi’an let him go to turn over, he would wake up immediately and shrink into Lu Qi'an's arms again.

He was such a pest that Lu Qi’an was repeatedly woken up by him. After a few times, even if he wasn’t sleeping uncomfortably, he unconsciously controlled himself not to turn over. 

In the early morning, Lu Qi'an woke up on time with half of his body pinned under Fu Jia. Fu Jia was still sleeping, lying in his arms like a small stove. Lu Qi'an moved his body and froze.

Like always, he had a morning erection. This was a common occurrence for him, and it would go down by itself after closing his eyes and waiting awhile. But today, Lu Qi’an waited a full five minutes, but his thing down there still didn’t soften.

He used the hand that was free from Fu Jia to prop up his body, but as soon as he moved, Fu Jia woke up and grabbed onto his chest and hazily asked: “Where are you going…”

Lu Qi’an gave up and directly sat up: “I'm going to take a shower. You can sleep for another thirty minutes, and I'll call you when it’s time.”

Fu Jia still hasn't woken up yet, he rubbed his eyes and said: “I’m so sleepy…Can I ask for another day off?”

Lu Qi'an nodded and said: "Sure, but the school’s fiercely competitive. I don’t know if you’ll get into the top ten on next week’s rankings.”

Fu Jia was so startled that he woke right up.

Lu Qi’an helped him make the bed, then went to shower. Fu Jia rubbed his face, a little downcast. This thing called studying…really wasn’t easy to do. After taking half a day off yesterday, he didn’t know whether he could keep up with class today. 

He also climbed out of bed, then went to the bathroom to wash up.

As usual, Auntie Miao prepared breakfast before Lu Qi’an got up and knew to make a meal accommodating for two, setting aside servings of soy milk and milk.

After Fu Jia and Lu Qi'an had breakfast, they walked to school together. The two of them walked at a much slower pace than if they were to walk alone, because Fu Jia would secretly hold Lu Qi’an’s hand on roads with fewer people. Lu Qi’an would sometimes indulge him, and sometimes he would dodge his hand to evade attention from passersby. Fu Jia treated this as a sort of game, and played happily, causing his steps to become slower and slower. 

Lu Qi’an played along with him the entire way, only stopping once they arrived at campus. Before they separated at the crossroad, Lu Qi’an said: “Don’t invite others for lunch, we’ll go back together.”

Thinking of how his three meals a day would be like this in the future, he couldn’t help laughing and said: “Okay, I’ll come find you as soon as class is over.”

His eyes followed Lu Qi’an as he walked away, all the way until his figure disappeared into the education. Only then did he walk to his own education building. The moment he stepped into the classroom, almost every student glanced at him, turned back to pat their friends while saying something, and then turned around to look at him again. 

Fu Jia knew it was because of the fight yesterday and felt a little suffocated. Yesterday, he could run away without caring about anything, but today, he must face it head-on.

Fu Jia pretended as if nothing had happened and walked straight to his seat. Big Head happened to be in his seat as well, and Fu Jia originally thought he would excitedly run over to ask all sorts of question, but Big Head only gave him a cautious glance without any other reactions. 

Fu Jia took the initiative and talked to him: "Big Head, did the teacher assign any homework yesterday afternoon?"

Big Head’s reaction was still very restrained. He nodded and said: “Yeah, I’ll pass it over in a moment.”

In No. 6 High School, teachers would definitely leave homework for every class, and routinely distribute exercise booklets for evening self-study. Fu Jia must make up for these as soon as possible. 

It was very strange that Big Head didn’t ask anything, but Fu Jia was also happy to relax. After taking the homework from Big Head, he put his head down and got to work. 

Big Head endured for three questions’ worth of time, until he finally couldn’t hold back anymore. He said loudly: “Boss Fu! Why don’t you take me as your younger brother?”

Fu Jia stopped writing in surprise: "Huh?"

“You sent Feng Jing to the hospital with your fist, but in the end, he was the one who transferred schools, and not you! That’s tooooooo awesome!”# Big Head gave a thumbs up with both his hands.

He had a loud voice, and spoke the first sentence the loudest, attracting many students in the class to look over. Fu Jia frowned, dropped the pen on the desk, and said with dissatisfaction: “What do you mean by sending him to the hospital with my fist? Did I not get beaten by him as well? It was him who provoked me first, on top of destroying my things. Can’t I get some room to breathe?”

Big Head wasn’t frightened away. Contrarily, he thought the gesture of throwing the pen on the desk was mad cool, and said dramatically: “You can, of course you can! Our Fu-ge# did the right thing, I haven’t found that Feng Jing pleasing to the eye since the start. All he’s got going for himself is some decent grades, some seniority, and a family with some bit of money, and he still pulls up like a hyped up fool.# We should’ve vented some of our anger a long time ago.”

He babbled non-stop, but Fu Jia acted like his words were wind to his ears,# and this attitude filled Big Head with more admiration, so he pestered Fu Jia even more to take him as his little brother. 

“Second-Year Male Student Violently Attacks Third-Year Senior”, this headline swept No. 6 High School. What’s more was that the victim of this incident was forced to transfer, while the original perpetrator remained unscathed. 

Not only were the people in Fu Jia’s class pointing him out, even people from other classes and other grades ran over to take a look at Fu Jia live in action. 

Most students only heard gossip but weren’t clear on the specifics of the fight. Considering that the senior who was beaten left school, and the junior who beat someone wasn’t even punished, there was the impression that an exchange of money and power took place. There was even the melodramatic idea of the commoner being beaten by spawns of the rich, and yet the commoner was left with nowhere to redress their grievances. 

Only Fu Jia himself knew that he didn’t get out of it unscathed. 

During class break, the homeroom teacher who monitored the class took Fu Jia to his office. The homeroom teacher wasn’t at the scene of the incident when it happened. By the time he got the news and rushed to school, Fu Jia had already disappeared. Since Fu Jia also took a leave from school during the afternoon, he had been holding back his energy and wanted to properly discipline Fu Jia. 

The homeroom teacher lectured for ten minutes in one breath, while Fu Jia listened with his head down, maintaining a favorable attitude of repentance. 

Seeing that he had obediently repeated the words “I was wrong”, the homeroom teacher’s anger subsided greatly, and his complexion improved. He said: “I know, Feng Jing was the one initially at fault, but violence is absolutely unacceptable. After discussion, school management decided not to punish you, but merit points will still be deducted. Can you accept it?

Fu Jia nodded again and again. 

Only then did the homeroom teacher show a satisfied expression, he patted Fu Jia on the shoulder and said: “Good luck, study hard, and don’t be affected by this incident. Also, the school requires you to write a self-reflection.”

Fu Jia was taken aback: “Self-reflection?”

The homeroom teacher nodded: “Yes, with a minimum of two thousand characters. Hand it in during morning self-study tomorrow.”

Hearing the words ‘two thousand characters’, Fu Jia was about to black out.

For a long time, Fu Jia thought that his weakest subjects were math and English. Because he started school late and lacked a studious attitude, his arithmetic ability was very weak and he had close to zero intuition for English. 

As for Chinese, Fu Jia relied on rote memorization to barely raise his grade to an unconcerning level. But…never mind him writing a 800-character essay, a 2000-character reflection report? Was that something a normal person can do? 

After his morning classes ended, Fu Jia walked to the third-year education building to wait for Lu Qi’an. He stared at the people pouring out of the exit, and thinking about how he could now go home to eat with Lu Qi'an, his complicated mood towards the reflection assignment went away. And by the time Lu Qi'an came out of the building, he had already forgotten about the self-reflection. 

Walking side by side with him out of the school, Lu Qi’an said: “Next time you can wait for me in your classroom.”

After entering the third year of high school, teachers would delay class dismissal almost every day. 

It was delayed for about five minutes today, so Fu Jia didn't wait long, but there were always ten or twenty minute delays as well and Lu Qi'an didn't want Fu Jia to stand downstairs to wait for him then. 

Fu Jia didn't know what he was thinking and said: "But how can I sit still then?"

Lu Qi'an looked at him and asked: "Isn't it cold?"

Fu Jia looked around, ignored the passing pedestrians who were coming and going, leaned close to Lu Qi'an, and then stealthily held his hand: "Just warm me up then.”

Lu Qi'an's heart softened, and he grasped his hand. Though the roads were crowded with pedestrians during lunch break, he never let go.

As for Fu Jia, because he clung onto Lu Qi'an the entire time, by the time he arrived at the apartment, his face was red and his body temperature was high enough to sweat. 

When changing shoes at the door, Lu Qi'an naturally let go of his hand. Fu Jia then realized that his hands were covered with sweat, but Lu Qi'an still wasn’t repulsed by him. 

The two of them went to the bathroom together and washed their hands to get ready for lunch. Fu Jia thought of the fight, and then thought of the rumours going around in school. He looked at Lu Qi'an with some hesitation and asked: “Did you do something…about my situation?”

Lu Qi'an was wiping his hands with a towel, and when he heard the question, he stopped moving and answered: “Didn’t do much. Why are you asking like this? Did your classmates say something to you?”

“I don’t have anything…” Fu Jia was a bit embarrassed, “It's because I heard people say that Feng Jing's family is quite rich, and he was so confident at the time that he came off like he was going to fight me to death. But in the end, nothing happened, and I didn't have to pay a penny, and he transferred himself to another school. I was thinking, was it you…”

Did you spend a lot of money? Did you… borrow the power of elders from the Lu family?

“I didn’t do anything,” Lu Qi’an said, “I only went to the hospital and chatted with Feng Jing’s parents. Liu-laoshi was there too, and everyone sorted it out together. His parents are reasonable people who understood that Feng Jing provoked the incident and didn’t want to pursue it further. As for transferring schools, it’s only because Feng Jing's father moved abroad for work, so he immigrated overseas with him.”

The more he casually spoke, the more Fu Jia didn’t dare to believe it: “Really?”

“En,” Lu Qi’an confirmed.

Fu Jia nodded and finally chose to believe him unconditionally. 

Whenever anyone came to ask, he repeated to them what he told Big Head earlier in the morning. With a magnanimous attitude, he bored his drama-seeking listeners away. 

In the academically striven No. 6 High School, the fact that Fu Jia’s fight could be talked about for an entire day was already considered a miracle. By the end of evening self-study, the students were exhausted and couldn’t remain interested in this matter anymore. 

Fu Jia was sorting out homework to take home by his desk, and when he touched the math sheets, he suddenly had a flash of realization and remembered the 2000-character self-reflection the homeroom teacher had assigned. 

Fu Jia opened his eyes wide and almost dropped his school bag. The reflection must be handed in tomorrow morning, but he hasn't written a word yet. 

He dragged his heavy steps to the third-year education building and discovered that Lu Qi'an was already waiting for him under the streetlight.

There were very few pedestrians on the way back, but Fu Jia didn't play the hand-holding game, nor did he pester Lu Qi'an to talk. He kept his head hung, thinking who knows what. 

Before he could bump into a streetlight, Lu Qi’an tugged his elbow and pulled him aside. 

“What’s wrong?”

Fu Jia raised his head in a daze: "It's nothing, I'm thinking about my unfinished homework."

Lu Qi'an let go of him and didn't continue speaking. 

After getting home, Fu Jia brought up doing homework, and Lu Qi'an took him to the study. After entering, Fu Jia found that there were two chairs in front of the desk where there used to only be one chair. 

Lu Qi’an never brought homework home because evening self-study was enough time for him to finish the day’s worth of homework. He took a book from the shelf and sat on a chair: "If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask me.”

He was going to accompany Fu Jia to do his homework.

Fu Jia's spirit was revived as if he had been injected with a shot of chicken blood,# and he instantly had inexhaustible strength. He sat next to Lu Qi'an and moved their chairs a little closer, and then moved it a little more closer. 

He took out the math sheets, huffing and puffing as he calculated, and the usually time-consuming and labour-intensive final math question was now solved with ease. Next were his English comprehension questions. There were only three questions, and they were also completed quickly.

He rummaged through his school bag but couldn't find any other homework other than an essay-composition notebook. He closed his eyes in pain and took out the notebook, opened the first page, and then wrote down the words ‘Self-Reflection Report’. 

After that, he had nothing to write about. 

After a whole thirty minutes, Fu Jia scratched his head over the hundred or so words he had written, sometimes frowning, and sometimes mumbling. Lu Qi'an saw that he was pointing the pen at himself with his mouth opening to bite, so he quickly interrupted: "What are you writing?"

Fu Jia quickly covered the composition with his hands, but the words ‘Self-Reflection’ still peeked out from between his fingers.

Lu Qi’an put down his book and said: “Let me see.”

Fu Jia thought about the stuff he wrote down, and he had so much shame it could reach underground: “No…my writing’s too awful.”

Lu Qi’an said: “It can’t be too bad. Let me see.”

Fu Jia hesitantly took his hand away and said: “Then you can’t laugh at me once you read it.”

Lu Qi’an made an “en” sound and took Fu Jia’s notebook, then held it up with both hands to read.

Fu Jia wrote:

Dear respected teacher, 

Dear leaders and teachers, 

I was wrong! I deeply recognize my mistakes, I was wrong, I was really wrong. As a student, I was really wrong to use violence against my seniors. I am a mouth moth of society, the crumbs of society, a broken cog of society…

Lu Qi'an closed his eyes and didn't read any further. Looking back on Fu Jia's ability to write love letters, he could expect this unfathomably bizarre self-reflection, so he wasn’t surprised.

Fu Jia observed his expression with his heart in his throat and asked: “How is it? My writing’s okay, right? I really don’t know what else to write. Two thousand characters! Other than acknowledging my mistakes, what else can I write?”

Lu Qi'an took a pen from the bookshelf, tore off the page written by Fu Jia, and said: “You go wash up first, I’ll help you write it.”

Fu Jia clutched his heart tightly with a face full of shock.

"After I’ve finished writing, you can just copy it." Lu Qi'an contemplated for two seconds, and words began to flow out of his pen.

Fu Jia looked at his side profile. His heart was sizzling hot, as if he contained a pit of fire. 

He sat beside Lu Qi'an and didn't leave. When Lu Qi’an stopped writing to think, he put his hand on his shoulder and leaned over to give the corner of his lips a kiss. 

The kiss was about to end, but before Fu Jia let go, he suddenly thought of something and leaned in again, stuck out his tongue and gave his lips a lick. 

“Thank you…I’ll go shower first,” Fu Jia blushed and stood up from the chair, then left the study.

Lu Qi'an looked normal on the surface and was about to continue writing but found that he had completely forgotten the sentence he had planned.