Chapter 22: CH 15

Chapter 15: Special Friendship

Yue Zhishi noticed, from a very young age, that Song Yu always tended to say things he couldn’t understand.

And he would always try his best to figure out the true meaning behind Song Yu’s words no matter how many times it happened. This time, he was fully lost in his thoughts as they looked through the menu to order, and Xia Zhixu, who was sitting across from him, had to call his name several times to catch his attention.

“What?”

Xia Zhixu chuckled. “Do you want something to drink?”

Yue Zhishi shook his head. “I just had a milk tea.”

“I see.” Xia Zhixu looked down at the menu. “Then I’ll have two lemon-lime cokes. This daifuku looks pretty good, let’s have one portion. And this castella cake and matcha red bean dorayaki…”

Song Yu stopped him. “Are you here to eat Japanese food or dessert?”

Xia Zhixu held onto the menu and laughed. “Xu Qichen has low blood sugar, so he’s really good with sweet things. I’ve gotten into a habit after eating with him so many times, sorry, sorry.”

He then passed the menu to Yue Zhishi. “Le Le, is there something you want to try? The ramen here isn’t bad.”

“He’s allergic to wheat so he can’t eat wheat noodles.” Song Yu glanced over the menu and, deciding by himself, picked out some items he thought Yue Zhishi wouldn’t mind out of the things Yue Zhishi could eat.

“That’s so sad.” Xia Zhixu counted all the things he could think of that was made of wheat. “Then you can’t even drink beer.”

“Underage people obviously can’t drink.” Xu Qichen poured a cup of barley tea and sent it over to Yue Zhishi before he looked at him with a slight smile. “The daifuku doesn’t have any wheat in it. It’s a glutinous rice flour skin wrapped around some fruit and cream. You might like it.”

Yue Zhishi smiled as well. “Yes, I like glutinous rice.”

Actually, Yue Zhishi quite liked these two seniors even though they weren’t from the same school as him. This may have been their first meeting, but their words, even the way they looked at him, didn’t contain any excessive curiosity or intention to probe his moods. Their interactions with him were balanced very delicately, and it let Yue Zhishi feel very comfortable around them.

The server brought over two lemon-lime cokes with a pair of glass cups with ice. Xia Zhixu thanked her, and rather than giving Xu Qichen a glass immediately, he started pouring all the ice in one into the other.

Xu Qichen looked very unsatisfied by his actions, but he only expressed his dissatisfaction by frowning at Xia Zhixu.

“I can leave you a piece?” Xia Zhixu turned his wrist and slid a remaining piece of ice backwards, the glass tinkling as the ice fell back down. “You should drink less cold things since you’ll be eating spicy stuff later. It’ll be bad if your stomach started hurting.”

Xu Qichen didn’t respond. After Xia Zhixu finished speaking, he poured the soda into the glasses and then placed the glass with one piece of ice next to Xu Qichen’s hand.

Yue Zhishi watched them the entire time, his heart a little puzzled and uncertain. He wasn’t even sure why he was puzzled. He had friends, like Jiang Yufan, and he had seen friends interact with each other before too. But there was something different about the two people in front of him.

It felt like there were transparent pieces of silk between them tying them together. Fingers to fingers, mouths to mouths, eyebrows to eyebrows — there was nowhere the silk didn’t touch. The strings twined along their bodies so that if one person moved, the other’s whole body would move with him.

So strange. But compared to this intriguing relationship, Yue Zhishi thought it was more unusual for him to even notice it.

Xia Zhixu took a sip of his coke, and his face squeezed together from the sourness of the lemon-lime. He looked at Song Yu. “You did pretty well on the mid-semester entrance exam. I heard your math score was super high.”

“It was okay.” Song Yu started talking to him about their studies while Xu Qichen quietly ate his bowl of ramen.

A server brought over a platter with six different types of grilled sushi. Yue Zhishi picked up a piece of Song Yu’s favourite sweet shrimp sushi and placed it into his bowl, while he himself ate a piece of avocado sushi. The finely sliced avocado was decorated with soy sauce and salad dressing, and it covered the firm and sweetly sour rice ball. Even though it was vegetarian, there was a smooth and milky flavour to the avocado after being torched by a flame gun. It carried a slightly burnt caramel taste, melting away after entering the mouth.

“Is it good?” Xu Qichen asked.

Yue Zhishi nodded while chewing. Seeing Xia Zhixu also pick up a piece for Xu Qichen, he said, “You’ll understand after you try it. Eat more.”

Xu Qichen then said, “Le Le eats his food really well.”

Yue Zhishi swallowed the food in his mouth. “It’s because I’m allergic to so many things. I already have less to eat than other people, so I have to seriously enjoy what I’m eating, and eat more of it, so I don’t end up with less than other people.”

Song Yu sipped his tea. “Even gluttonous people have their own reasonings.”

Xia Zhixu actually quite agreed with Yue Zhishi’s way of thinking and touched his cup to Yue Zhishi’s in a cheer. His tiger teeth peeped out with his smile. “I like this reasoning. People who respect and enjoy delicious food are all especially cute.”

Song Yu poured a cup of hot tea again and pushed it to Yue Zhishi to drink it. But he wanted to leave space in his stomach for food, so he responded with a few noises and left it until it was half cold. Song Yu ended up drinking it for him before pouring him a new cup. “If you don’t drink this one, you’re not allowed to have a single bite of dessert.”

Yue Zhishi had no choice but to swallow his mouthful of crab meat tamagoyaki, lifting the tea cup with both hands to finish it with small sips.

“You’re so fierce as an older brother.” Xia Zhixu gave Yue Zhishi a piece of grilled foie gras sushi. “Le Le, eat this one with a slice of apple. It’s pretty yummy.”

Yue Zhishi said thank you and ate the piece according to Xia Zhixu’s suggestion. He usually didn’t like eating animal livers and would also refuse to eat foie gras in Lin Rong’s restaurant. In this sort of situation, he felt it wasn’t quite right to refuse. But once he ate it, the taste in his mouth was completely different from what he expected.

The foie gras was very soft and buttery, almost like a dense piece of heavy cheesecake. The taste of animal fat mixed with black pepper and rock salt resulted in a very rich, full flavour, and the slice of apple managed to reduce the greasiness very well. When paired with fresh, tangy rice, it was surprisingly very delicious. 

“So good.” Yue Zhishi lifted his head to smile at Xia Zhixu, eyes bright.

“See, I didn’t lie to you.”

Sure enough, preconceived biases can often create missed opportunities and regret.

As he focused solely on eating, the three high school 3rd year students moved on from the election speeches to talking about the university entrance examination. It looked like this was also an unavoidable conversation topic.

Hearing them talk, Yue Zhishi couldn’t help but interrupt. “Senior Xia, do you know what you want to study?”

Xia Zhixu slightly moved his head in thought after being asked this sudden question. “I actually quite want to learn computer programming. As to where I want to study…” He leaned onto Xu Qichen’s shoulder. “We’ve already agreed I’ll go where he goes. We should be going to Beijing.”

Xu Qichen put down the chawanmushi in his hands and softly smacked aside Xia Zhixu’s head on his shoulder. “Who agreed with you.”

Yue Zhishi noticed his ears were turning red.

He looked over at Song Yu. “What about you, Song Yu gege?”

Song Yu lowered his eyes. “I haven’t thought about it.”

Assorted types of tempura was brought out to them, the entire basket crispy and fragrant. Deep fried shrimp, crab legs, pumpkin, squid and mushrooms… Yue Zhishi wanted to stuff everything in his mouth just by looking at them. Freshly deep fried food was the best in today’s cold and damp weather, but sadly this Japanese restaurant used wheat flour as their tempura coating. He couldn’t eat a single piece.

Xia Zhixu laughed after he heard Song Yu’s response. He said, “Don’t at least a third of your Peiya’s students go overseas to study every year?”

Song Yu said, “Not that much.”

Xu Qichen also asked, “Are you going overseas? Are you also preparing for overseas entrance exams?” 

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“Nothing’s finalised yet.” Song Yu’s answer was very unclear. 

Hearing the word ‘overseas’, the Yue Zhishi who had been suffering from not being able to eat the tempura became even more depressed. So Song Yu could possibly go overseas for university? How many years did overseas universities take to complete? Did that mean Song Yu could only come back during school holidays? How many days of vacation would he have in one year?

In just a few short seconds, he imagined himself going through high school alone by himself, while Song Yu attended university parties overseas. 

“Why are you zoning out? Not eating anymore?” Song Yu asked.

Yue Zhishi shook his head. “I’m still eating.” He gave Song Yu a piece of shrimp tempura, while he took a small portion of seaweed with his chopsticks.

“Le Le’s about to start high school, right?” Xu Qichen asked.

“Come to our Jingjian,” Xia Zhixu wheedled. “Our cafeteria’s fantastic.”

But Yue Zhishi said, “Peiya doesn’t do remedial classes, and we have lots of activities outside of class.”

“True, I wouldn’t want to do remedial classes either.”

Yue Zhishi thought, no matter which high school he went to, he would have to separate from Song Yu anyway no matter where he went for university. They wouldn’t be able to see each other every day, and if Song Yu really did go overseas, several years would pass with Yue Zhishi not knowing when he’d be able to see Song Yu again. 

He became unhappier the more he thought about it, until he finally couldn’t eat. It’d been raining for at least two hours by now, and it looked like it was clearing up. Xia Zhixu didn’t allow anyone else to pay the bill, saying he must have Song Yu owing him a meal and would find another opportunity to have this debt repaid. Song Yu didn’t reject him either and stood at the back with Yue Zhishi to wait for them.

His line of vision unconsciously moved forward. Song Yu saw Xia Zhixu leaning on the front desk, Xu Qichen standing beside him and only centimetres away. Their two hands were hanging next to their bodies, and the back of their hands seemed to graze against each other’s, fingertips almost interlocking, before they separated the next moment. Xia Zhixu rubbed his hand against the seam of his pants and then very unnaturally, with difficulty, stuffed his hand into his shirt pocket. Xu Qichen’s fingers curled into the palm of his hand, and then he moved back a little, his face falling. 

Song Yu moved his eyes over and looked at Yue Zhishi. He would usually have a face full of satisfaction after he ate some delicious food, but he was so dispirited today. Song Yu thought for a while, and then opened his mouth, saying, “The tempura today was pretty average.”

Yue Zhishi lifted his head, his pair of big eyes shining clear and bright under the store lights.

Song Yu also said, “We still have the rice flour from last time. Let’s make some tempura at home tomorrow.”

If this has been in the past, Yue Zhishi would definitely smile and say okay with a face full of expectation. But today, even though Song Yu said it so openly, Yue Zhishi only nodded and faced the glass doors to look at the street outside. 

Song Yu frowned, but the other two returned after finalising the bill. Xia Zhixu even teased, “Seeing how you have to suffer so deeply being here, let’s go.”

One pair of them lived in Hankou, and the other pair lived in Wuchang. The direction to each place was different, so they left each other after entering the station. Song Yu led Yue Zhishi onto the right train to go home. There were a lot less people on the subway compared to before, but there were still no available seats. Song Yu looked for an empty grab handle after they got in and told Yue Zhishi to lean against one of the nearby poles.

The train started to move, the advertisements outside the window flashing past at a speed dazzling to the eyes. Yue Zhishi gazed at his and Song Yu’s reflections in the glass window. Their height different was more than half a head.

Yue Zhishi silently wondered, weren’t mixed race children meant to be tall? Why couldn’t he grow past Song Yu? There was already an unremovable difference in their ages, and now it was the same with their bodies.

“Why do you keep dazing off?” Song Yu lowered his head to look at him. “Your face is so depressed. Are you thinking my speech was terrible and I’ll be eliminated?”

“Of course not.” Yue Zhishi immediately looked up. After drying from the rain, his hair was curlier than usual. Under the carriage lights, it looked like soft down.

Song Yu raised an eyebrow and waited for him to speak further. Yue Zhishi blinked, then asked while looking at him, “Song Yu gege, are you really going overseas?”

Not expecting this question, Song Yu froze for a second and honestly replied, “I haven’t thought about it.”

“Can you not think about it?” Yue Zhishi hurriedly asked.

Song Yu watched him, looking like he was trying not to smile. “What do you say?”

I say you can’t, Yue Zhishi silently replied. But since Song Yu said it like that, he definitely didn’t have any plans yet to leave the country because he would have told him otherwise. This allowed Yue Zhishi to relax quite a bit. 

The carriage door opened, and quite a few people came inside. One couple rushed in, the girl wearing the man’s coat. Yue Zhishi suddenly remembered and shifted his head to look at Song Yu. “What did you mean by ‘they’re not friends’?”

Song Yu knew he didn’t understand. He also didn’t want to explain further, so he chose to dodge the question just like when they were younger. “They’re very good friends.”

“I could tell. Their relationship is really good.” Yue Zhishi thought about the second half of Song Yu’s previous words of ‘we’re not brothers’. Since they weren’t real brothers, it wouldn’t be too bad to be friends. His mouth moved faster than his brain, and he said, “We can also be very good friends.”

Song Yu didn’t expect him to reply like that and very unnaturally turned his face away.

“I won’t be friends with children.”

And unexpectedly, Yue Zhishi cheered up a little bit seeing Song Yu’s reaction, chasing after him to look at his face. He must have found some shred of hope in Song Yu’s complete refusal.

He was a child, but Song Yu was already grown up. His birthday was coming up soon in the winter.

Then once Yue Zhishi also grew up, Song Yu would be his friend.

Everyone else in the carriage stood with slouched backs and crooked waists except for Song Yu, who stood as straight as a pole he could lean against. Yue Zhishi held onto his arm and gazed at his reflection in the glass window.

He needed to grow up faster.

They finally found some seats after some people got off at the next stop.

Perhaps it was food coma, or maybe it was the flu medicine from the morning finally kicking in, but as Yue Zhishi sat there, his eyelids started struggling to stay apart. He couldn’t help but nod off, his head bobbing up and down like fish bait in water and his body swaying back and forth with the movements of the train. He almost fully reclined onto the shoulders of the random auntie sitting to his right.

Song Yu was originally looking down at his phone, but seeing Yue Zhishi’s struggle, he reached out a hand and grabbed his hood. He pulled the hood with enough strength to tilt Yue Zhishi to his body, and as the carriage slightly rocked, Yue Zhishi fell onto his shoulder like there was a magnet drawing him into place. He continued to sleep peacefully.

A young girl sitting across from them had been facing her phone towards them for a while. Song Yu lifted his head and glanced at her, and her face was immediately covered by a guilty expression, her phone lowering.

But Song Yu didn’t ask her to stop and didn’t look at her again. He merely raised his hand and adjusted Yue Zhishi’s hood, pulling it down to cover most of his face. He reached in a hand and felt his forehead before finally bringing his hand back to his side. It looked like Yue Zhishi was slightly disturbed by his movements, as he shifted a bit on his shoulder before snuggling in again to continue sleeping.

Yue Zhishi’s old habit of falling asleep in the car had still yet to be fixed. When he was younger and was on a train or a bus, he wasn’t satisfied with just Song Yu’s shoulder. He would often directly lean over and rest on Song Yu’s lap, two hands holding onto his waist, and wake up with sleep marks all over his face.

Song Yu opened his phone and exited the chat he had with Xia Zhixu. He then pressed open his messages with Yue Zhishi.

Yue Zhishi’s tracking ability was at the level of a kindergarten student. From the moment he’d left the house that morning, Song Yu had known Yue Zhishi was following him. So during a moment when Yue Zhishi hadn’t been paying attention, Song Yu had sneakily taken a photo of him and had sent it over, hoping to give him a little scare. He didn’t expect that this guy would’ve even forgotten his cell phone.

He clicked open the unused photo. Zooming in, he could see Yue Zhishi’s extraordinarily long eyelashes. Song Yu stared at the silent chat box and then looked back down at the person sleeping on his shoulder.

He’d realised too late — he could no longer delete.

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Girl: don’t stop me, I want to post #handsome guys on the train#

Song Yu told Zhixu about Zhishi’s allergy because they’re very good friends, and since they don’t go to the same school, he wouldn’t be able to harm Zhishi. Besides, eating together requires explaining why some food can’t be ordered or why he can’t let them give some food to Zhishi to try.

He told Zhishi to not tell other people because his ability to guard against others is too low.

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