Chapter 3: CH 3

The gossip spread more quickly than a virus. In the blink of an eye, nearly everyone in the school had heard of it. Chi Yu and Fu Zhi’an walked along the corridor, one behind the other, and the students passing by itched to shove video cameras and lenses in their faces. After living separate lives for the entirety of their first year, the two beaus finally crossed paths!

Once escaped from the pairs of staring eyes behind them, Chi Yu leaned against the door of the storage room and tugged irritably at his own collar.

“Fu Zhi’an, what are you playing at now?”

“I was just using a random excuse to reject a girl.”

“Yeah, but don’t drag me into your bullshit!” Chi Yu’s expression got darker and darker, the sound of him grinding his teeth was loud enough that Fu Zhi’an could hear him clearly even while standing a meter away.

Fu Zhi’an shot him a glance and folded his arms, speaking indifferently: “You were the one who ran headfirst into my bullshit.”

Chi Yu and Fu Zhi’an were neighbours who had lived opposite each other ever since they were in elementary school, and their parents spoke of each other as if talking about their own child. Fu Zhi’an’s father was a criminal policeman and could not stop sighing in despair ever since his son was born. Little Fu Zhi’an had been born with red lips and bright skin, his complexion was fair and tender, whenever they brought him out, everyone would praise him. However, this was not what Fu Jianguo wished for. Why was his son born so fair and rosy? Of course he didn’t expect him to exude manliness immediately upon birth, but shouldn’t he at least resemble a boy?

As for Chi Yu, he had been well known in the area since he was young; Every evening, there would be the sound of his mother shouting his name outside, calling for him to return home. When Chi Yu and Fu Zhi’an became neighbours, Fu Jianguo found that he liked Chi Yu’s eyes very much, glistening, and full of spirit.

Every day, Chi Yu listened to Wen Hua praise Fu Zhi’an for being outstanding in whatever he did to the point of losing his appetite, while Fu Zhi’an listened to his father harping over Chi Yu until his ear nearly formed calluses. So one day, when the two of them bumped into each other at school, they simply turned the other way and pretended to be strangers.

Fu Zhi’an: This cocky prick is just out here playing the role of a hooligan.

Chi Yu: What’s this apathetic brat pretending to be mature for.

It didn’t matter if they saw each other or not, they never bothered to greet one another; At the least, they shared tacit understanding in this regard. Chi Yu would leave his home twenty minutes early every morning to walk to school, while Fu Zhi’an left twenty minutes after to take the public transport there. After all, the further they stayed away from each other, the better.

Even so, they still ended up attending the same junior high school and now, the same high school. They had assumed they wouldn’t have to acknowledge the other until they were laid into their graves, but as it happened, Fu Zhi’an just had to point at Chi Yu who was napping under the Chinese scholar tree, out of literally everything else in the small garden.

Standing in front of the storage room and staring each other down was a situation that neither Chi Yu nor Fu Zhi’an had ever anticipated.

Chi Yu felt his temper starting to boil at the sight of Fu Zhi’an’s blank face, it was as if the other had facial nerve paralysis. He reached up to press a palm against his temple: “So what the hell are you going do.”

“Nothing much, it doesn’t really affect me.” Fu Zhi’an lifted his head to grin at him, drawling: “If you find it burdensome to be paired with me, I can try thinking something up.”

“You better fucking solve this quickly.” Chi Yu turned around to leave the moment he finished talking, but he hadn’t taken more than a few steps before he heard Fu Zhi’an’s amused voice: “Then, beg me.”

The years truly did nothing to diffuse his recklessness.

Chi Yu strode over with a swinging fist to his head, but Fu Zhi’an tilted his head slightly, and his fist barely missed him by a centimetre, smashing against the wall beside him.

“You dodge pretty fast, huh.”

If Chi Yu were a hundred percent a problematic youth, then Fu Zhi’an was a fox wearing a skin of indifference. He remained reserved and quiet in front of teachers and classmates, but the moment he faced Chi Yu, he dropped his façade like a demon running into Sun Wukong.

Chi Yu retracted his hand and laughed derisively at him before turning around and traipsing slowly down the stairs. As he walked, he said: “Whatever, it’s none of my damn business.”

The post on the forum hadn’t specified a name, but anyone with brains would be able to figure out that the two people discussed in the post was Chi Yu and Fu Zhi’an. Because of this post, school life, which had been dull and uninteresting, gradually regained vitality.

Chi Yu entered the classroom, agitated, and every student currently doing self-revision turned around to stare at him, dying to bring a video camera up to him and record a 360º footage.

“All of you want to die, is that it!”

Frowning, Chi Yu returned to his seat and looked at the thick stack of practice papers piled onto his desk. It had only been one period, but there were enough practice papers to crush a person to death. The more Chi Yu thought about it, the more frustrated he became. Eventually, he shoved all of them into his drawer and went to sleep again with his head covered.

Once the dismissal bell rang, the sound of listless sighs travelled throughout the classroom. Fu Zhi’an had already packed his bag and was sitting at this desk, only calling out when he noticed the girl sitting a little behind him had slung her bag up, getting ready to leave: “Lu Man, wait a moment.”

The light of the setting sun washed over the ground, emphasizing Fu Zhi’an’s slender silhouette. Lu Man had been chasing Fu Zhi’an for ages and yet this was the first time he had taken the initiative to talk to her.

“I just want to explain…”

Before Fu Zhi’an could finish speaking, Lu Man abruptly gestured a time-out at him and took in a deep breath.

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“I know you look down on me because you don’t find me attractive, but you didn’t have to say you were gay just to brush me off.” Lu Man looked at Fu Zhi’an’s handsome face and had a sudden moment of revelation in her heart. From the start, Fu Zhi’an was obviously using Chi Yu as an excuse. Being gay, liking boys, they were all excuses!

“I won’t give up on you.” Lu Man pursed her lips and nodded, then confidently turned around and disappeared down the corridor.

Fu Zhi’an hadn’t expected the situation to develop so much, he suddenly felt a headache coming on. Resting his arms over the railing, he spaced out into the distance. The image of Chi Yu’s arrogant yet uncertain face flashed across Fu Zhi’an’s mind, and he couldn’t help lowering his head to laugh.

Sorry about that, Chi Yu. I guess I’ll have to involve you in my bullshit after all.

Chi Yu opened the bedroom door, it was so dark inside that nothing could be seen. Such a spacious room only contained a single mattress, snack wrappers and comic books were scattered all over the floor. It was hard to tell when the heavy blackout curtains had last been pulled open. Chi Yu conveniently tossed his bag onto the ground, then kicked at the snack bags on the floor and sprawled onto the bed. He tugged the quilt over himself, then felt it wasn’t dark enough, so he simply pulled it higher to cover his head, wanting to fall into a deep sleep.

After laying there for a while, tossing and turning, Chi Yu was unable to fall asleep. He picked up his phone and found the post on the web forum, gritting his teeth before opening it. With a frown, he stared at the screen, when he scrolled to the very bottom, there was a hand-drawn picture; Someone had drawn an image of Chi Yu and Fu Zhi’an from their imagination. The black-haired youth had his eyes lowered, silky bangs falling over his eyes as he gazed affectionately at the delicate-looking boy before him, whose eyes carried a hint of a smile.

“They can fuck themselves! Since when was Fu Zhi’an this good-looking!” Chi Yu paused with a blank stare, suddenly feeling as if had been burnt by the phone in his hand. Tossing the phone onto the ground, he turned over and laid down properly again.

But no matter how he tossed and turned, Fu Zhi’an was like the wandering soul of an evil spirit, haunting him beneath his shut eyelids. Chi Yu pulled the quilt off in frustration and walked barefoot to the living room. He took out a can of beer from the refrigerator and sat down on the floor. With one hand, he twisted off the tab and raised his head, downing half the can quickly.

“Fu Zhi’an, you’d better pray hard that I won’t catch you.”

After Chi Yu silenced his alarm for the sixth time, he finally opened his eyes and slowly glanced down at the fallen clock on the floor.

Seems like he’d woken up earlier than yesterday, so he’d be half an hour late, at most.

He rubbed a hand over his hair and walked in front of the window, opening the heavy flax curtains. Unexpectedly, there was no glaring sunlight. The rising sun was obstructed by layer upon layer of dark clouds, and the sky was frightfully overcast.

Drawing the curtains closed again, Chi Yu walked barefoot to the living room. On the dining table was a sumptuous breakfast spread, the hot porridge in the white porcelain bowl still emitted steam. He didn’t spare even one glance at the food, directly heading to the refrigerator and taking out a bottle of iced water, gulping down a few mouthfuls as he walked towards the bathroom.

It was only as Chi Yu sauntered into school did he realize that tables and chairs were strewn all over the sports field. Boys were pushing little trolleys and transporting benches with rather disgruntled expressions.

Today was when the classes for arts and sciences were reassigned. This meant that everyone was looking forward to having the chance to be reshuffled into the same classes as the school beauties and school beaus. Just looking at the expression of one of the boys, it was obvious that not only was he not assigned to the same class as the school beauty, even the rank of his class beauty had dropped. Chi Yu approached the bulletin board and casually scanned through the class lists, after spotting his name in one of the first few rows, he continued towards the classroom block.

From almost half the corridor away, the sound of students chattering in the classroom could be heard. Chi Yu looked up and glanced at the classroom plaque: Year 2, Class 3.

He smoothly pushed the door open. Since the students were too noisy, whenever someone walked in, they would usually fail to notice. Until someone at the back called out: “Holy shit…”

As if someone had hit the mute button, everyone in the class simultaneously turned around to look at him. Chi Yu clicked his tongue a little irritably, then noticing that the seat by the window at the last row remained empty, he started towards it. On his way there, he suddenly felt uneasy. When he looked to the side, he saw a boy sitting at the second row from the front. He wore a white-striped jacket and had his head lowered while writing something.

“What the hell are you doing here!” Chi Yu yanked unhappily at his own collar, the flames in his head licking higher and higher. The boy slowly raised his head and happened to meet his eyes.

“Doing an assignment.” Fu Zhi’an said, then turned around and continued working on his practice paper.

Chi Yu finally understood what the phrase “misfortune arrives in pairs” meant. He watched Fu Zhi’an sullenly, they were close enough for their arms to brush, and Chi Yu was itching to throttle him to death.

Half an hour ago, their homeroom teacher Lin Jing had surveyed the diligent and well-behaved students in class and said: “I am your homeroom teacher for Year 2. It’s my pleasure to spend the next two years with all of you…” Her attention had drifted over to Fu Zhi’an who was seated at the third row[1]. He was very tall, the girl behind him had been peering over his shoulder, painstakingly trying to establish eye contact with her teacher.

“Fu Zhi’an, are you short-sighted?” Lin Jing had suddenly asked.

“I’m not.”

“Then why not switch seats with the student behind you?”

As a result, Fu Zhi’an had shifted to the fourth row. He was like a giant stone tablet, whoever sat behind him would be unable to see the blackboard. Fu Zhi’an then continued to be shifted backwards, row by row, until he finally stood before Chi Yu’s desk, where they ended up staring each other down.

“Sit down, I dare you.” Chi Yu’s lips twitched, looking at Fu Zhi’an who was carrying his bag and gazing down at him with an air of arrogance.

Fu Zhi’an didn’t even react to Chi Yu’s antics as he sat down and arranged his things. Once done, he turned and quirked his lips at Chi Yu.

“Sure.” Fu Zhi’an’s eyes curved as he showed him a grin. “Challenge accepted.”

[1] Previously, the author mentioned he sat at the second row. Might be a typo, but I’ll just translate it according to the text, just wanted to point this out in case there’s confusion!

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