CH 53

The distance between the buildings in the old complex was very narrow. Afraid of people from the opposite building seeing, the first thing Yu Fan did after entering his room was to turn off the lights and draw the curtains. The only light sources left were the light from the small desk lamp as well as the faint moonlight seeping in through the gaps in the curtains.

Yu Fan was originally leaning back against the head of the bed but he somehow found himself lying on his pillow. Neither of them said much. Occasionally, they would stop for a while and Yu Fan would subconsciously try and find something to do, for example, pick up the phone that had been ringing the whole time, turning it to silent mode and checking the group chat. Although all the words in there were words he recognised, none of it seemed to be registering. In the end, he could only impatiently lock his screen and look back up at Chen Jingshen.Chen Jingshen would then silently kiss him again.Embarrassment, freshness and restlessness all merged together in the silence. They melted together in the sweltering summer night.The canine was rubbed against repeatedly for a while. Yu Fan raised his hand and pushed Chen Jingshen’s face away, “Chen Jingshen, if you lick that tooth again, I’m going to bite your tongue off.”The messy hair across Yu Fan’s forehead had already been brushed back by Chen Jingshen, exposing his face completely. Although his words were fierce, his expression however was slightly tired due to lack of oxygen and, combined with his slightly red eyes and wet lips, it wasn’t threatening at all.Chen Jingshen looked down at him for a while before reaching to hold the back of his neck and helping him brush away a thin layer of sweat, “Okay.”Yu Fan for some reason felt a tingling sensation. He suddenly felt that something wasn’t right.He lightly moved his legs. His mind turned completely blank and his entire body froze up. It took him a while to find his voice again, “Chen Jingshen, let’s stop kissing.”The hand wrapped around his neck moved away and the skin there turned cooler. Chen Jingshen let out an ‘en’ and got up. He stood by the head of the bed and said, “Borrowing your bathroom.”In the faint light, Yu Fan could see that his ears were completely red and his jawline was taut. There were even some rare hints of sweat on him too.Chen Jingshen left the room and soon afterwards there was the sound of the bathroom door closing.Yu Fan stared at the ceiling in daze for a while before pulling his blanket up. His entire head felt like it was burning hot.He now seemed to know why they wouldn’t be able to do their homework if they kissed.Yu Fan pulled out the pillow under his head and covered his face with it, as if he was trying to cover the burning fire in him.Yu Fan covered himself like this for who knows how long before getting up to turn on the lights and turn the fan up to its maximum speed. He then slowly reached for his phone in an attempt to distract himself.His mind now cooled down, he was finally able to process the contents of the group chat messages.[Zuo Kuan: Seriously, we haven’t heard from Yu Fan all night. What on earth is he doing?][Zhang Xianjing: Probably busy. Didn’t he find himself a tutor?][Zuo Kuan: A tutor would stay at his place until midnight? Look at Zhu Xu. That guy is someone who spends two hours talking on the phone with his girlfriend every night and he is still able to reply to me. Yu Fan hasn’t replied to my messages for four fucking hours.][Zhu Xu: Hehe….hehehe [Love bubble.jpg].][Zhu Xu: Maybe Yu Fan is dating too?][Zuo Kuan: That’s not possible.][Zuo Kuan: With his personality, how could he be dating?]

Yu Fan paused here for a moment before continuing to go through the messages.[Wang Lu’an: Hey, what do you mean by that? There are many people pursuing my brother, alright?][Zuo Kuan: I know. There’s also one from my class.][Zuo Kuan: I didn’t mean it that way. Let me use an analogy ---- Look at Zhu Xu. He’s constantly stuck to his girlfriend, sweet-talking her and acting disgusting, and would always be hugging and kissing her. Can you fucking imagine Yu Fan like that?]With a clack, the bathroom door opened. Yu Fan immediately threw his phone aside.Chen Jingshen’s face was wet and his collar had also darkened in colour from the water. After returning to the room, he glanced at the blanket Yu Fan had pulled over him.Yu Fan immediately pushed away the blanket and sat up.Chen Jingshen quickly looked away. He picked up his bag and slung it onto his shoulder, “I’m going back now.”Yu Fan let out an ‘en’. He put on his slippers and followed Chen Jingshen over to the front door.Chen Jingshen glanced back at him, “Going to send me down with a sedan chair?”“….Dream on. Hurry and go, I need to lock up.”After driving the other person away, Yu Fan waited at his balcony for a while and soon saw Chen Jingshen’s leaving figure.He watched him get into a car and then sat down and habitually reached for the box of cigarettes he had left by the balcony. Just as he took one out and got ready to put it in his mouth, a thought suddenly appeared in his mind.If I smoke too much, would my mouth have a lingering taste of cigarettes?It wouldn’t be possible for him to brush his teeth every time before they kissed……Chen Jingshen was a weakling who would cough every time he smelt cigarettes.And didn’t the little girl from upstairs say it? That your lungs would turn black from smoking too much.Yu Fan stuffed the cigarette back into the box and proceeded to sit there and stare at the moon for a while. A while later, he picked up his phone, opened a shopping app, searched for ‘quit smoking candy’ and randomly selected a few and ordered them without paying attention to whether or not they were good. He had it set so that it would be delivered to him tomorrow at seven in the morning.After he was done with that, Yu Fan switched back to WeChat and idly scrolled through the rest of the chat. There was nothing important. After going through a few pages, he finally returned to the conversation he was reading earlier.It was late at night. All the lights in the opposite building had turned off. It gave people a feeling that they wouldn’t be discovered no matter what they did.Yu Fan closed WeChat and absentmindedly opened his web browser. When he returned his senses, a line of words had already appeared in the search bar ---- “How to date?”-In the morning of the next day, Chen Jingshen watched as his deskmate slept through two classes.It wasn’t until physical education class that Yu Fan slowly woke up and went downstairs to line up with half closed eyes. He only managed to lazily let out a response after the teacher called out his name twice.Wang Lu’an who stood next to him couldn’t help but ask, “Didn’t you go to bed at eight last night? Why are you still so sleepy?”

Yu Fan stood there sloppily, “Who said I went to bed at eight?”“Zuo Kuan. Said that you stopped replying to him after eight.”“…..”The person standing on the other side of him seemed to have glanced over in his direction.Yu Fan’s heart skipped a beat. He subconsciously straightened up and let out a vague grunt.Physical education class as usual started with running exercises. The morning sun was warm and bright. As Yu Fan slowly walked around the field, the sleepiness that was slowly dissipating earlier had gradually returned.He had searched up a bunch of nonsense on a whim last night after Chen Jingshen left…..and read it until three in the morning. He couldn’t even open his eyes when he arrived at the classroom this morning.“Zuo Kuan and the others are smoking in the classroom in the laboratory building. Let’s sneak over there when we reach that area later? They’re probably not going to note down our times anyway.” Wang Lu’an said this after putting down his phone.“En.”Just as the two of them arrived at the fork and got ready to escape while the teacher wasn’t looking, a voice sounded behind them, “Where to?”Before Yu Fan could turn back, Wang Lu’an had already answered him.“To the laboratory building. For this.” Wang Lu’an made a smoking gesture to Chen Jingshen and smiled, “Top Student, if the teacher checks attendance later, help us out. Tell them we went to the school infirmary.”Before, everyone was busy trying to get the court to play basketball but as soon as summer came, the number of people using it instantly halved.No one wanted to return to their classroom covered in sweat. Instead, they went to the laboratory building to smoke and play cards during their physical education classes.Wang Lu’an threw out a card and caught a glimpse of the person sitting next to him playing on his phone with a cigarette in his mouth. He offhandedly asked, “Yu Fan, give me one t...What is that?”“Quit smoking candy.” Yu Fan changed the position of the lollipop in his mouth.The candy Yu Fan bought was a little special in appearance, looking like a lollipop. The only difference was that the stick was designed to resemble a cigarette. When Wang Lu’an saw it at first, he thought it was a cigarette.“What kind of stupid design is that…” Wang Lu’an asked, “Why are you suddenly trying to quit?”“Don’t want to smoke anymore so I’m quitting.” Yu Fan lazily replied as he controlled the snake on his screen.“Don’t worry, you won’t be able to stand it after a few days.” Zuo Kuan checked his cards and suddenly remembered something, “By the way Yu Fan, I returned the love letter for you yesterday. That girl in our class was almost in tears.”Yu Fan continued to play on his phone and didn’t speak.Zuo Kuan then said, “And then another girl went to comfort her. Do you know what she said?”Yu Fan was uninterested. Wang Lu’an however asked curiously, “What did she say?”

“She said,” Zuo Kuan snorted and then cleared his throat, “Don’t cry. It’s actually better that Yu Fan rejected you. With him looking so fierce and constantly getting into fights, he would probably also hit his girlfriend in the future.”Yu Fan, “…….”Wang Lu’an, “HAHAHAHA!!!”Yu Fan stuck out his foot and kicked Wang Lu’an’s chair. Wang Lu’an immediately stopped laughing. He shook his head while trying to hold in his laughter, “That’s complete nonsense! Yu Fan never hits girls, much less his girlfriend.”Is that the fucking point?Yu Fan wanted to refute but he didn’t know what to say. He could only say with a cold expression, “Get lost. Go talk about something else, don’t involve me.”“Drop it. Sleepy people have bad tempers. Don’t mess with him.” Zhu Xu said as he chewed on his gum, “Hey, did you know that a girl from third year dropped out?”Wang Lu’an gave him a puzzled look, “How the hell do you even know about the third years?”“I heard it from a third year sports student. It was a pretty big deal.” Zhu Xu said, “I heard that girl liked a guy but that guy neither accepted her nor rejected her and just left her hanging, all the while still continuing with intimate acts like kissing and hugging. He even told the others that she was just a fling….That girl developed depression because of him and dropped out.”Yu Fan, who was lazily swirling the lollipop around in his mouth, almost bit his tongue when he heard this.“Fuck!” Wang Lu’an slapped his thigh, “Then isn’t that guy practically a scumbag? Such an embarrassment for us guys!”Zhu Xu, “Right?! I heard that guy also often yells at her. He’s terrible!”“Yes, he is!”Neither accepting or rejecting, leaving them hanging, kissing and hugging, and occasionally would yell at the other party----Yu Fan who covered all four points paused and no longer swirled the lollipop around.Zuo Kuan, “That girl dropped out? And nothing happened to the guy? He got off too easy….”With a ‘bang’, the back door of the classroom was pushed open. Yu Fan subconsciously looked over while biting onto the lollipop and paused very momentarily.Chen Jingshen stood at the door, panting slightly.The others were also surprised by this sudden commotion. They let out a sigh of relief when they saw that it was Chen Jingshen.Wang Lu’an, “Top Student, you scared me. I almost thought----”“Director Hu is coming.” Chen Jingshen said.The next second, hurried footsteps and a familiar shout could be heard, “That student at the front! Who is it! Tipping others off is also punishable! Those inside the classroom don’t even think about running. I could smell it all the way from here!”Wang Lu’an, “Holy shit!”

The boys immediately threw away the cards and scattered like birds ----- It didn’t matter if the classroom smelt like smoke. As long as they weren’t caught by Hu Pang, they could just continue denying it and he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.They all ran towards the window, the chairs and tables knocked around amidst the commotion. All of that made it seem like there was an earthquake in the laboratory building.Yu Fan got up and made way for the others to escape. Just as he was about to turn around and say something, someone suddenly grabbed his wrist and he found himself running towards the open window the next second-----Yu Fan stared blankly at Chen Jingshen back and yelled with the lollipop still in his mouth, “Chen Jingshen!”Chen Jingshen didn’t even look back, “Jump.”“…….”Hu Pang’s voice sounded from behind, “Yu Fan!”What the fuck?!Yu Fan gritted his teeth and jumped out the window with Chen Jingshen.Seven or eight boys scattered and fled towards various parts of the school campus while Hu Pang and the security guards similarly jumped through the window and chased after them. Seeing the boys ahead dispersing, the security guards asked Hu Pang who they should go after.“The one at the front!” Hu Pang ran until his tie was fluttering in the air, “Go after Yu Fan!”Wind rushed past their ears. The running they had skipped was still done in the end.Chen Jingshen clearly had no experience being chased by a teacher before. Yu Fan, who was dragged by him to the back of the laboratory building, wanted to tell him that they should go to the field where there are more people so that they could mix in.Yu Fan looked over. The wind had tousled Chen Jingshen’s hair, his brows were slightly furrowed and the collar of his clean school uniform was a little messy. Occasionally, he would look back at the security guard chasing after them.Sunlight reflected off Chen Jingshen’s dark eyes. It looked like the moon he was looking at last night.Yu Fan could smell a faint hint of mint. Unknown emotions slowly crept into his heart, filling it up, and reaching his brain.“Chen Jingshen.” Yu Fan said amidst his loud heartbeats.Chen Jingshen responded shortly, “En.”“Open your mouth.”Chen Jingshen furrowed his brows and looked at him in confusion. He then saw Yu Fan take out the ‘cigarette’ from his mouth and pass it over.He subconsciously opened his mouth and received it.A light sweet taste filled his mouth.“Let’s date.” Yu Fan’s voice mixed into the wind.Chen Jingshen unknowingly slowed down. With the almost completely melted lollipop in his mouth, he silently stared at Yu Fan with a dazed look.The tips of Yu Fan’s ears were a little red. He turned to look at him and quickly looked away before adding in a small voice, “I won’t hit you.”