CH 39

Translation checker: Rin

Editor: Elanor

“This Yu Ran, he didn’t come to class on the first day of school. How much homework does he still have left?” 

Two morning classes were already over, but Yu Ran’s seat was still empty. Fang Zhao had even cleaned the desk and chair with wet wipes for the other party. He also placed the newly issued books into his bookcase for him.

While spinning the pen with his fingers, Chu Mian asked Fang Zhao, “Did Yu Ran tell you that he was doing homework at home?”

“Yeah, he just texted,” Fang Zhao replied, looking at Chu Mian gloatingly. “Is your winter vacation homework still with that fool?”

Chu Mian nodded and smiled bitterly, showing a complaining expression. When he lowered his head to check his phone, all traces of emotions on his face faded, leaving only a slight frown. 

He had sent several text messages to Yu Ran, but the other party never replied, as if he was turning a blind eye to them. Chu Mian changed his phone from silent to vibrate mode so that he could contact Yu Ran in time later.

However, the whole day had passed, but Yu Ran had still not replied to his messages. Chu Mian could only assume he was too busy catching up on his homework to pay attention to the messages.

After returning home in the evening, Chu Mian called Xu Si again when he was home alone. He politely addressed the other party as “Si gē”, and inquired about Wen Junying. Similar to the information he had learned last time, Wen Junying owed loan sharks and was not able to repay it. Now the interest had already reached millions. It was difficult for him to take out 50,000 to 60,000 every month, so he often fled to other places to avoid the violent debt collection methods of Xu Si and others.

When Chu Mian asked as to why he needed to borrow money, Xu Si simply yawned a blasé yawn and said, “He had a lover back then who asked him to be the guarantor when borrowing money. Only, they were both men, so how could they have had a solid relationship? In the end, his boyfriend couldn’t pay back the loan and disappeared into thin air, but the mess was left for Wen Junying to clean up.”

Chu Mian thought for a moment and asked, “What about Mr Wen’s job?”

“He used to do interior designing. Even though he used up his savings to pay off the deposit, the money was not enough to cover all the loan and his income wasn’t enough, so he changed careers.”

His so-called career change was probably him joining the pet black market. Chu Mian could make a few educated guesses about the rest of the situation. He still had homework to do and didn’t have time to inquire further.

After having slowly accepted the fact that Marija had died a long time ago, the stone buried in Chu Mian’s heart could finally turn into powder and dissipate with the wind. Knowing what had happened to Marija was better than always thinking that she was missing. 

Chu Mian wasn’t sure if he felt relieved knowing that, but he definitely felt a little relieved when he remembered Yu Ran’s attitude when he had mentioned Wen Junying previously. At least that proved that Yu Ran didn’t know much about Wen Junying’s background. He had successfully learned how to draw, and had also received a red envelope for the New Year. He probably hadn’t been approached by that man with ill will in his heart.

The ringing of his mobile phone broke the silence in the room. Chu Mian saw that the call was from Yu Ran and quickly pressed the answer button. He asked him, “Have you finished your homework?”

“Not yet.”

Chu Mian could tell from Yu Ran’s voice that he was in low spirits and he also heard the sound of traffic over the phone. 

Yu Ran cleared his throat and said, “I was listening to the song you sang last time and remembered that I haven’t heard your voice today, so I hurriedly called you. I’ll hang up after hearing your voice.”

After saying that, he gave two slow, half-hearted laughs.

Chu Mian waited quietly for a while, then the corners of his lips curled up, and he asked, “Aren’t you going to hang up now?”

“Yeah… right away.” Yu Ran actually wanted to hear a few more sentences, but he knew it was time to call it a day and hurriedly told Chu Mian: “I’ll go to school tomorrow, wait for me.” 

Chu Mian put his mind at rest. He did not ask more questions, and only said: “The school has issued a new mascot keychain, I’ve kept one for you.”

“Great!” Yu Ran held the phone near his ear as he hesitated for a moment before hanging up.

He put his phone away and breathed a sigh of relief, and looked up at the graffiti wall in front of him.

The wall was painted with brightly colored cosmos and planets, and a cartoon spaceship was drawn in the middle of the sun and the moon. These were the masterpieces of his Master. There was an inconspicuous square robot in the lower left corner, which was drawn by Yu Ran. This was graffiti from two years ago, but Yu Ran still remembered many details. For example, he had drawn the stars in the wrong position, so his Master had to redraw the flames. After that, he had accidentally sat in a bucket of paint and was scolded by his mother when he returned home and had to throw away his pants. 

Unfortunately, this work was never completed. When there was still half of the wall left to paint, his Master had to leave for something and did not return that day.

Yu Ran recalled carefully and found that his Master often disappeared for two or three months, before quietly reappearing one day. Yu Ran had long been accustomed to the other party’s elusiveness, and never asked about his itinerary, so as not to ruin the sense of mystery.

At night, the Lanwan Square was lit up with colorful lights, and many residents had come to walk and dance after dinner. Regardless of the cold weather, the square was quite lively.

Yu Ran heard a motorcycle coming up behind him. As soon as he turned around, the sound of the engine suddenly stopped. 

Wen Junying hung his helmet on the handle, took off his gloves as he got off, and took out a paper bag from the trunk.

Yu Ran watched him walk towards him. When they were face to face, the teenager said in a low voice, “Master”.

Qfc Aecslcu rwlifv, qjaafv tlw bc atf rtbeivfg, jcv raeoofv atf yju lcab tlr tjcv. Te Ejc ibbxfv vbkc jcv rjk atja la kjr j ybz bo ubejmtf qjlca jcv rfnfgji ygjcv-cfk ygertfr.

“P’w ifjnlcu abwbggbk. P vbc’a tjnf alwf ab ajxf sbe bea ab vlccfg. P mbeiv bcis qlmx rbwfatlcu atja sbe mjc erf lc atf oeaegf.” Qfc Aecslcu rlutfv klat gfugfa, jcv iloafv atf hlqqfg bo Te Ejc’r vbkc pjmxfa ab atf abq lc qjrrlcu. “Qtfc vbfr sbeg rmtbbi rajga?” 

“Today.”

“Today?” Wen Junying poked Yu Ran on the forehead with his finger. “What happened? Skipping class again?”

Yu Ran avoided answering and asked rhetorically, “When will you be back next time?”

“I don’t know, we’ll talk about it then.” 

The nearby square dance music happened to stop, and Yu Ran’s voice seemed abruptly loud in the sudden silence: “Are you not going to come back?”

Wen Junying froze.

But he quickly calmed down and automatically avoided making eye contact.

Yu Ran stared at the man’s resolute and bony profile, and his contours gradually overlapped with the man in his memories— 

When he had just started junior high school, Yu Ran had yearned to become the kind of intimidating delinquents often seen in movies, and he actively and enthusiastically made appointments to fight with students of the same grade. Once, when he was fighting outside, he knocked over a motorcycle parked on the side of the road.

At that time, Wen Junying was painting graffiti on the wall. When he turned his head, he saw a group of young boys brawling near his motorcycle. He was worried that they would get hurt if they bumped into the vehicle, so he hurried over to see the situation. As soon as he came out, everyone was shocked by the tattoos on his arms and neck. They didn’t even dare to breathe, afraid of being eaten alive by the delinquent big brother in front of them.

Wen Junying didn’t mean to blame them. He straightened up the motorcycle by himself, waved his hand, and dismissed the boys to play elsewhere.

Yu Ran was attracted by the colorful walls behind him. He not only lingered nearby for a long time, he also deliberately came forward to talk and asked Wen Junying to teach him how to draw. 

“I’ll give you money!” Junior high school student Yu Ran was very generous. He gave Wen Junying five yuan on the spot. “Five million!”

Wen Junying glanced at the note. The boy had added several “0s” with a pencil after the number 5 in the bill.

He snickered, then pretended to look stern and told Yu Ran: “It’s illegal to scribble on money, you know?”

Yu Ran’s face turned pale in an instant, but he pretended to be tough and said loudly: “It’s, it’s also illegal to, to graffiti on the wall, you know?” 

Seeing the boy’s blustery look, Wen Junying laughed, and the sharpness in his eyes dissipated.

After that day, Yu Ran often followed Wen Junying to graffiti on the street. He had always enjoyed reading manhuas and had become interested in drawing. He learned some skills of copying existing arts and soon aspired to become an artist. Whenever Wen Junying was free, he would take Yu Ran to fast food restaurants and patiently teach him the basics of sketching.

They didn’t remember when Yu Ran started to call Wen Junying “Master”. Maybe it was a joke at first, but then they got used to it. Yu Ran did not hide his admiration for the other person in his heart, and Wen Junying never hesitated to teach him anything.

“Yu Ran, you are young. Don’t always think about fighting. This mindset is very harmful. Violence changes a person’s nature. Of course, if someone bullies you or your friends, you must fight back.” 

Wen Junying would sometimes teach him other things related to life. “Also, not everyone who wants to learn Art likes it as sincerely as you do. There are many people who simply do not want to study. If you come across such people in the future, don’t take them seriously, understand?”

Every time his Master talked to him, his tone sounded like that of a teacher giving advice. His sentences were always followed by “you know?” and “understand?”. Yu Ran would become annoyed when he heard too many of such sentences, and he would nod perfunctorily and say yes. He did, however, remember his Master’s words well. He stopped fighting for trivial matters and began studying hard for the high school entrance exam.

In the past six months, Yu Ran had fewer and fewer opportunities to meet his Master. He didn’t know when they’d be able to graffiti together as before and spend an afternoon by the wall.

Yu Ran could sometimes vaguely feel: I will never get that chance again. 

Bursts of cool wind rolled over Lanwan Square, and the boy asked again: “Will you not return to Ronggang in the future?”

Wen Junying kept his mouth shut and just looked at Yu Ran calmly.

Yu Ran pointed to the graffiti wall next to him and asked, “Why did you leave before we finished painting this wall?”

Seeing that Wen Junying seemed to have no intention to say anything, Yu Ran said slowly: “I saw the chat history on your account.” 

The man’s face finally showed some emotional fluctuations. His mouth opened and closed several times in astonishment.

Probably because he didn’t want to deceive the person in front of him, he finally murmured: “I thought I deleted everything thoroughly.”

Yu Ran’s breathing froze for a few seconds. He suddenly took a big stride forward and clutched Wen Junying’s collar with his hand.

His throat was dry, and he said with an unbelievably hoarse voice: “I saw it on my friend’s phone… You bullied him before.” 

Wen Junying frowned in confusion, but he didn’t deny anything.

“Yu Ran, draw well.” He raised his hand to grab Yu Ran’s wrist and forced it away from his collar. “Pay attention to your health, drink plenty of water, don’t catch a cold…”

“Go and apologize to him.”

Wen Junying continued: “You must also study culture classes carefully. You can’t take them lightly, otherwise it’ll be difficult to keep up in third year…” 

“You fucking—” Yu Ran grabbed the man’s strong arm, and said in a trembling voice, “I asked you to apologize to my friend, did you hear me? If you don’t want to say anything else, don’t say it, but you can’t… you can’t bully him.”

Once Chu Mian’s face appeared in his mind, Yu Ran’s eyes couldn’t help but turn red. “I’ve promised that I would protect him.”

“Yu Ran.” Wen Junying took a deep breath and looked at him calmly. “I don’t have any guilty conscience towards strangers. If I really needed to apologize to someone, it would be to you. I may not have time to teach you to draw again in the future.”

Wen Junying held Yu Ran’s hand, clenched his fingers into a fist, and pressed it against his cheek. “Before you leave, take it out on me any way you want.” 

Yu Ran was frozen in place.

A moment later, he shook off Wen Junying’s hand and smashed his fist against the graffiti wall. The skin on his knuckles split open and blood started to ooze out.

It didn’t hurt very much, there was only a slight itch near the wound. Yu Ran lowered his head and said slowly: “Don’t bully others anymore… Master. ”

He put the paper bag containing brushes and watercolors on the ground, took out the red envelope from his jacket pocket and threw it in. 

Then he turned around. He even forgot to look at the man for the last time. He walked towards the subway station one step after another, his mind completely blank.

Wen Junying looked deeply at the young man’s retreating back and found that he was much taller than he remembered.

The early spring of Ronggang was still cold and windy, and only by mid-morning every day could the sun be seen.

When Chu Mian saw the empty seat in front of him, he impatiently tapped his long fingertips on the desk. Last night Yu Ran had clearly confirmed that he would come to class today, but it was already noon and he was still missing. If he didn’t come again today, Chu Mian’s own winter vacation homework would be considered not done. 

“Hello? Hello, I’m here, outside the front door,” Yu Ran said on the phone, “Come out for a moment.”

“Security guard won’t let you in?”

“Hey, don’t ask anything, just come out.”

Chu Mian exited the classroom and went to the school’s main entrance alone, and he noticed the tall figure standing outside the railing. 

Yu Ran was only wearing a set of black Adidas sportswear today. His trouser legs were rolled up, and he was wearing white high-top sneakers on his feet. He wasn’t carrying his school bag. He was standing there casually, with his hands inside his pockets to keep warm. The whole person looked clean and spontaneous.

As soon as he saw Chu Mian, he smiled, trotted two steps closer to the railing and handed over two boat trip tickets. “The ice has melted. Let’s go.”

The departure time was two o’clock in the afternoon. Chu Mian gave Yu Ran an odd look. “We have classes in the afternoon.”

“What classes to attend? Anyways, you understand everything even without listening.” Yu Ran stretched out his hand from the gap between the railings and grabbed Chu Mian’s school uniform sleeve. “You had promised me.” 

Chu Mian thought for a moment before making a decision: “Then, wait a bit.”

He asked the homeroom teacher for a leave note, and then went back to class to pack his school bag. Fang Zhao saw that he was leaving suddenly without any explanation, so he joked: “Why, are you going on a date?”

The students next to him also heckled. Chu Mian was a little embarrassed, and said goodbye to them with a bashful smile. He didn’t tell anyone that Yu Ran was outside; he kept this information to himself.

When Yu Ran saw that Chu Mian was actually going out with his school bag on his back, he was annoyed and helpless for a while. “Hey, what’s the matter with you, why did you take a leave? Can’t we skip class together? How exciting would that be!” 

“If you skip class again, you will be punished. Also, return my winter vacation homework tomorrow.” Chu Mian glanced at him and noticed that he had two band-aids on his hand. “How did you get bruised?”

Yu Ran touched them indifferently. “Oh, I was working too hard on my homework.”

He handed his hand to Chu Mian. “Why don’t you blow it for me?”

“Get lost.” Chu Mian chuckled and pushed his head. 

The two took a taxi to the pier, boarded the boat early, and stood on the deck to enjoy the breeze.

This was also the first time Chu Mian had taken a cruise on the Lan River. After all, he lived in the Hanning Mansion in downtown Ronggang. He would have a panoramic view of the Lan River every time he went to the balcony, so he had never been interested in a boat trip on it. Unexpectedly, when he came to the river in person, the scenery he saw was still different from what he had imagined.

Yu Ran raised the collar of his sportswear to cover his neck, and then asked Chu Mian: “Are you feeling cold?”

Chu Mian shook his head. When he turned his face, he saw that Yu Ran’s hair was a wind blown mess, and couldn’t hold back his laughter. 

While looking at the river, Yu Ran said, “Chu Mian, I remember the first time I went to “Bronze Bird” with you, you had told me that if you hadn’t lost your snake, you wouldn’t have been so sad, and you might not have gotten narcolepsy. In that case, you would have been successfully admitted to one of the city’s top three schools now and gotten better grades, right?”

Hearing Yu Ran suddenly mention something from so long ago, Chu Mian looked at him hesitantly, then replied in a deep voice, “No.”

“No,” Chu Mian repeated and sighed. “The pathogenesis of narcolepsy has nothing to do with emotional stimulation. I don’t remember what I told you that time. Maybe I didn’t want to admit to you that I was ill and it was purely bad luck.”

The wind made them squint their eyes unconsciously, and Chu Mian continued: “But now I think I’m still lucky. Environment is the biggest factor in alleviating my condition. Chengjun’s teachers and classmates are more enthusiastic and considerate than my previous classmates and teachers. They treat me very well, especially…” 

— Especially you.

Chu Mian chose to keep this crucial point to himself. He lowered his eyes and changed his words: “Didn’t I tell you that time? I believe in the conservation of luck. I was unlucky before, so I will be luckier afterwards. I think… I’m very happy to be living in Chengjun now.”

After he finished speaking, he didn’t hear Yu Ran’s response for a long time. He looked up just in time to see a teardrop rolling down Yu Ran’s lower eyelid, dripping on his black collar, leaving behind a tear stain.

When Yu Ran noticed Chu Mian staring at him, he immediately raised his hand and wiped his tears away, sighed and took the initiative to explain the reason: “I miss my uncle Yu Le very much! He said he had died three times on this ship.” 

These words unexpectedly made Chu Mian laugh out loud. He gently kicked Yu Ran’s heel. “Why don’t you think about your younger brother, you’ve pulled out his hair twice.”

Yu Ran also laughed with him, but his tears were still flowing uncontrollably. He put his arms in front of his eyes, pretending to shield his face from the sun.

Yu Ran breathed heavily and suddenly felt his back being pressed. The next second, the wind in front of him was blocked.

Chu Mian did not know how he was swept into Yu Ran’s arms every time he fell asleep. He could only gently hug Yu Ran’s shoulders instinctually and whisper, “You miss him too much.” 

Without saying a word, Yu Ran drilled his head directly into Chu Mian’s warm chest to completely avoid the wind.

The two boys hugged in such a posture. Chu Mian couldn’t convince himself that the situation right now was normal, but he still chose to not be concerned about the atmosphere. He just asked one question to Yu Ran, trying to confirm: “Does your heart sometimes… feel panicky?”

Yu Ran shook his head. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” Chu Mian’s Adam’s apple rolled up and down. “It might be my problem.” 

— My own brain must have some kind of deviation to always produce a stress response when I have physical contact with Yu Ran.

“Not feeling well?” Yu Ran looked up with concern and pressed his palm on Chu Mian’s heart. “It, it doesn’t seem to be beating anymore!”

“Nonsense! There are so many pieces of clothing in between your hand and my chest.”

“What do you feel like? Is it serious? Does it hurt?” 

“It’s fine, I just feel like my heart skipped a few beats.”

“Ah?!” Yu Ran turned pale with fright. He straightened up and grabbed Chu Mian. “Where did it skip? Is it skipping too much? Why didn’t you fucking say it earlier?!”

He urgently took out his mobile phone to dial 120, but Chu Mian held his hand down with a smile.

“No need to call an ambulance.” Chu Mian vaguely felt that he had said these words before as well. 

“Is it really alright?”

“It’s alright. I’ll just adjust it myself.”

Chu Mian patted Yu Ran on the back twice as if to comfort him, but it was more like to comfort himself.

He did not know where to start with the so-called “adjustment”, he only knew that if he did not control… 

The rhythm of his heartbeat would totally be disrupted by the person in his arms.