CH 54

“Quit smoking candy?”

At the security guard’s office at the back of the school.Hu Pang carefully studied the lollipop in his hand with narrowed eyes and asked distrustfully, “You didn’t prepare this gimmick to try and throw me off when I catch you smoking?”Yu Fan who was standing against the wall was speechless for a moment. He took out another unopened candy from his pocket and threw it over at him.Hu Pang studied it as well. This candy really had a very unusual design. The packaging even said ‘Magical tool to quit smoking’.Yu Fan’s hands also didn’t carry the smell of cigarettes.“Since it’s your candy, why is it in Chen Jingshen’s mouth?” Hu Pang asked.“…..I,” Yu Fan paused and said vaguely, “I thought it tasted good and so I gave him one.”“Can this type of candy be given out so easily like that? Stand up straight. Is this the attitude a young man should have?” Hu Pang placed his hands behind his back and frowned, “If you didn’t smoke, why did you run?” And you even made me chase you all the way to the back of the school!Yu Fan, “Force of habit.”“…….”Hu Pang took a deep breath. He looked at the other student standing next to Yu Fan and his expression softened considerably, “Jingshen, why were you also at the laboratory building?”Chen Jingshen stood there with his hands by his sides and his eyes lowered. It was unknown what was on his mind but it took him a while to realise that Hu Pang was talking to him.He looked up and got ready to speak.“I called him over.” Yu Fan answered lazily.Hu Pang glared at him and then looked back at Chen Jingshen, “You didn’t touch anything a student shouldn’t touch, did you?”“He didn’t smoke.” Yu Fan said.Hu Pang continued asking softly, “Then why did you run off with them earlier?”“I dragged him with me.” Yu Fan said.“Did I ask you? Why haven’t I realised that you are this talkative?” Hu Pang, who couldn’t stand it anymore, looked over and scolded, “Then go on. Tell me why you dragged him along.”Yu Fan made up an answer on the spot, “He was next to me. Grabbed him along the way.”Hu Pang laughed out in anger, “If you could do that, why don’t you just take him all the way home after school?”“……..”Hu Pang still wanted to scold them a little more but he suddenly saw the two boys in front of him tacitly look away.Hu Pang furrowed his brows. He unscrewed the lid of his thermos and took a sip of his hot tea before beginning to question them about the others in the classroom.But even until the bell rang, he didn’t manage to get any names from them.Yu Fan remained silent as usual while Chen Jingshen’s answers were ‘didn’t see’, ‘didn’t recognise them’, ‘don’t remember’. It left Hu Pang breathing heavily in anger.

He waved his hand and got the two of them to go back to class.In between classes, the school was very lively. The corridors were bustling with students.Yu Fan strode back to his classroom with his head lowered. He walked rather quickly, making the students coming from the opposite end subconsciously give way to him.“The thing you said earlier when we were running. I didn’t manage to catch it.” Just as he was about to reach the classroom, a line sounded behind him.“…...”The thin school uniform couldn’t hide much. Chen Jingshen could see his deskmate’s shoulders stiffen. Their steps also slowed down and appeared a little unnatural.It took the other party several seconds before they coldly replied, “Your loss if you missed it.”Chen Jingshen caught up to him so that they were walking shoulder to shoulder and lightly reminded, “You seemed to have said ‘let’s’ something?”“……”Didn’t you fucking say that you didn’t hear?When Wang Lu’an saw the two of them return to the classroom, he stuck half his body out and called out, “Yu Fan-----”Before he could finish speaking, he saw his friend rush into the classroom with his head lowered. He had moved so fast, he couldn’t even see his face properly.Wang Lu’an watched him return to his seat before looking back in daze and asking the person behind Yu Fan, “Top Student, what happened? Did Fat Tiger punish you two?”Chen Jingshen, “No.”“Then…”Chen Jingshen calmly walked past him and returned to his seat.Wang Lu’an, “…….?”The next class was Chinese. Yu Fan stared at the reading comprehension text, not processing a single word. With one elbow resting between the two desks, he supported his head, looked out the window, and secretly closed his eyes and grimaced----He fucking.…really went and said it.He had searched up a bunch of things last night about dating and being in a relationship and read through dozens of responses but it was all too complicated. Things like taking into consideration the other party’s feelings, staying by the other party’s side, occasionally giving the other party surprises, dating, hugging and kissing----He didn’t know how to do any of them.He had never been very good with these things and he had also never thought about establishing a close relationship with anyone.So after turning off his phone last night, he laid in bed and stared at the ceiling for a while, thinking that maybe he should just drop it - it was too troublesome. He also didn’t know how long Chen Jingshen would like him. Perhaps Chen Jingshen would soon feel that dating someone with a better personality would be better.He clearly thought this before falling asleep but when Chen Jingshen grabbed him and ran, and when he saw him both pitiably and calmly look back at him, his mind turned blank and by the time he returned to his senses, he had already said it.

He had even stuffed the rest of his candy into Chen Jingshen’s mouth.And Chen Jingshen finished it.“…….”Yu Fan rubbed his face forcefully. He quietly turned his head and peeked through his fingers at the person sitting next to him.Chen Jingshen was making annotations in his textbook. His notes were very rough and messy. In fact, his writing had always been not so neat when he did his homework and practice papers. Only when he wrote essays or a love letter, it would…..Yu Fan quickly put a stop to his thoughts. With his mind a mess, he stared at Chen Jingshen’s hand. His eye followed as the pen moved to a blank space at the top of the textbook. The writing was suddenly neater ------(Let’s do what?)“…..”As if he was stung by something, Yu Fan immediately turned his head back.Yu Fan wasn’t able to pay attention in class the entire day. He was also not in the mood to talk about Hu Pang when Wnag Lu’an and Zuo Kuan came over to ask, let alone talk to his deskmate.But his deskmate was very patient.During the last class for the morning, he had his head buried under his desk as he read some shounen manga when his phone buzzed and a message popped up: [S: Let’s do what?]Yu Fan immediately raised his head and just happened to see his deskmate put his phone back into his desk and continue to pay attention to class.“?” Yu Fan directly turned on the ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode.At noon, as he tapped into the Snake game with his free hand while he ate his noodles, he checked the leaderboard and saw that the person ranked at the top with a doberman profile picture had changed their name: [Let’s do what?].Wang Lu’an was enjoying his meal when the person next to him suddenly had a coughing fit.During the last self study class in the afternoon, Yu Fan had developed some PTSD towards his phone but, because he really didn’t have anything else to do, he could only take out a maths paper and work on it. In the end, he was stuck on a problem at the end of the paper.He read the problem over and over again before subconsciously pushing his paper to the side and habitually calling out with a frown, “Chen Jingshen….”Fuck.Yu Fan’s voice abruptly came to a stop. He returned to senses and immediately pulled back his paper without daring to look up at the other person.Chen Jingshen held it down with one hand, not letting him pull it back.“…..”All of a sudden, the door to the classroom was pushed open.“Everyone stop. There is a last minute notice ----- Tonight at seven, the school has organised a movie session on the field. Both boarding students and day students will need to come.” Zhuang Fangqin glanced at her watch and said, “There will be higher ups coming too so the school field, rostrum and stands will need to be cleaned. Each class will be responsible for an area, our class will be responsible for the area in front of the left stand. I now need to send three students to come with me. Any volunte-----”

“Me!” Alongside the sound of a chair being pushed back, someone immediately stood up.The entire class subconsciously looked over and then they were all collectively left stunned.Zhuang Fangqin was also taken aback when she saw the person who stood up. It took her a while before she added, “Those who want to use this chance to skip class can drop that thought.”“I’m not trying to skip.” Yu Fan let go of his paper, “I’ll clean.”Zhuang Fangqin hesitated for a moment and then added, “I need two more.”As soon as she was done saying that, both the class president and the labour representative stood up. Zhang Fangqin pointed at the back of the classroom with satisfaction, “Alright, go get three brooms and follow me down….Yu Fan! Why are you going out the window instead of leaving normally? Are you looking for a scolding?!”Yu Fan picked up three brooms without saying a word and then headed downstairs without looking back.Zhuang Fangqin was still worried. She hurriedly threw out ‘continue self-study’ and followed after him.Chen Jingshen retracted his gaze and silently spun his pen.A moment later, he brought over the paper that was pushed over earlier as well as Yu Fan’s tattered scratch paper and wrote down a detailed solution to the problem.At first, Zhuang Fangqin thought Yu Fan either wanted to skip class or just slack off.But unexpectedly, he was the most diligent of the three. From the moment he reached the place, he hadn’t stopped sweeping, his eyes firmly fixed to the ground.Zhuang Fangqian didn’t hesitate to voice her praises, “Not bad, it’s pretty clean. Looks like you won’t need to pick up garbage in the future, you can be a sanitation worker instead. You have talent in this field.”Yu Fan didn’t even raise his head, “Thank you. I will consider it.”Zhuang Fangqin knocked him on the head with a smile, “Alright, I still have a small meeting to attend. Clean this place up properly and remember to come to the movie session tonight. They will be taking the roll.”The school had issued this notice rather late. It was almost the end of school when they went down to clean.Zhuang Fangqin was unlucky and managed to be picked to clean the largest place. When they were done cleaning, the school was already covered in a layer of gold and there were only a few people scattered around at school.After cleaning, you had to wait for someone from the student council to check before you could leave. Yu Fan sat down on the stand with the broom resting next to him as he hunched over and lazily waited for them to come.The golden sun sank in the west, their rays dyeing the sky with the colour of fire. Yu Fan stared at the clouds for a while until he heard rustling sounds nearby.He turned his head and met Chen Jingshen’s eyes.Fuck……..Yu Fan supported himself with his hand and got ready to get up when a bottle of coke that was still emitting cool mist appeared in front of him.“The teacher got me to bring it over.” Chen Jingshen sat down beside him and said calmly, “There was no more mung bean crushed ice.”“……”Having swept the place for almost half an hour, although he was fine earlier, he instantly felt that his throat was dry when he saw the drink.He looked around vigilantly. The class president and labour representative were sitting two steps below him, each with a bottle of coke in their hands.

Looks like it was indeed given by Fangqin.Yu Fan let out an ‘oh’, received the bottle and took a few big gulps. The cool sensation instantly made him feel a lot better.So just as he lowered his eyes and caught sight of something that appeared to be written on the exposed part of the bottle, he didn’t immediately react.Yu Fan raised the bottle and brought it closer but could only see blurred black lines.What is that? A coke promotion? Buy one get one free? Did he win?Yu Fan raised his head and took another big gulp before once again holding the bottle up and checking it against the fiery red afternoon sun. He could now see the black writing on the bottle ----(Let’s do what?)Yu Fan, “……..”The grip around the plastic bottle tightened. The bottle crumpled under that force, letting out several pitiful sounds.Chen Jingshen blinked his half-lowered eyes. He was prepared for the other person to throw the bottle away and leave.The next second, his collar was suddenly grabbed. He looked up in surprise-----“Chen Jingshen, have you had enough? Don’t you know what I want us to do?”Chen Jingshen quickly recovered from the surprise. He said, “I don’t know.”“Date!!!”Yu Fan’s face was burning hot just like the clouds in the sky. He suppressed his voice and said with both frustration and anger, “Let’s date! I fucking said that we should date!! You get it now?!?”“……..”Yu Fan caught sight of something and immediately turned around and yelled, “Hey, you over there. Yes, you. You fucking dare throw trash around? Can’t you see how clean this place is right now? Pick it up and throw it in the bin!”That classmate was startled. He immediately picked it up and scurried away.Yu Fan watched him run all the way to the school gates before finally turning back with a grumpy look on his face.He then saw that Chen Jingshen had his head turned away, his shoulders trembling a little.Yu Fan was taken aback. His hand was still grabbing Chen Jingshen’s collar. He tugged at it without much force and asked fiercely, “Chen Jingshen, what are you laughing at?”Chen Jingshen pursed his lips and turned to look at him but he soon turned his head away again. It looked like he had a hard time holding it in.Just as Yu Fan was about to explode again, Chen Jingshen finally spoke up, “Because I’m happy.”“Yu Fan, it’s my first time dating.” Chen Jingshen said, “I’m very happy to have you as my boyfriend.”Boy….Boom! Yu Fan felt his brain explode.The hand holding Chen Jingshen’s collar slowly loosened and his shoulders also relaxed little by little. His mind was buzzing for a while. After a long, long time, he finally weakly squeezed out a line, “O…..oh.”