Chapter 4: CH 4

Chi Yu’s mouth moved nonstop the entire math period. If he wasn’t cursing under his breath for Fu Zhi’an to hurry up and go bald, he was pushing at his elbow, saying he had gone over the dividing line. This went on until a piece of chalk was viciously thrown at his head.

“Chi Yu! What are you muttering about over there!” Lin Jing wasn’t in a good mood; She had been feeling worried ever since she stepped into the classroom and spotted Chi Yu’s perpetually sullen face. After the classes were reshuffled, every homeroom teacher had prayed not to have Chi Yu assigned to their class. Since she was Chi Yu’s homeroom teacher in his first year, Lin Jing had assumed that she wouldn’t be so unfortunate, Chi Yu couldn’t possibly be shuffled into her class again.

However, reality proved that the probability of this happening was higher than winning the lottery.

It only took one period for Lin Jing to be completely drained. It was impossible for her to move her focus away from Chi Yu; While she stood at the lectern teaching for fifty minutes, Chi Yu sat at the back muttering for fifty minutes. His expression was grim, if those dark eyes of his had the ability of speech, then they would have comprehensively spouted all known profanity. On the other hand, Fu Zhi’an sat next to him for the whole period, quiet and unmoving.

In comparison, they were like a gif and a jpg.

Once the class finally ended and Lin Jing stepped out of the classroom, Chi Yu snatched away the math book in front of Fu Zhi’an, “Are you fucking crazy? Why did you pick the science stream!”

Fu Zhi’an took in Chi Yu’s annoyance and calmly replied: “To challenge myself.”

“You want to die again?”

“It’s not too bad.” Fu Zhi’an glanced at the grumpy Chi Yu, his forehead still carried the “mark of victory” left behind from his previous fight. Fu Zhi’an took out a physics practice book from his drawer and placed it on the desk, saying coolly: “Even you are still alive, so I can’t die.”

Chi Yu abruptly stood up from his seat, the action causing the books and papers in his bag to scatter onto the floor, but he wasn’t in the mood to pick them up. Raising a fist, he kept it in the air for a few moments, but didn’t strike. Fu Zhi’an had such soft and tender skin, even if he only touched him, he would definitely bruise for a few days. What more a punch, if something really happened, wouldn’t he be blamed for the rest of his life?

After some thought, Chi Yu picked up the chalk on the desk and drew a line between the two of them.

“Stay the hell away from me and don’t let me see your damn face! Also!” He pointed at the line on the desk, frowning and huffing: “If your arm dares to cross this line, I’ll chop you up and feed you to the dogs!”

Fu Zhi’an merely looked down at the practice books scattered across the ground, a few pink envelopes were wedged between the pages, and they were very eye-catching. He glanced over and grinned at Chi Yu: “Your love letters have fallen out.” He paused, then continued: “You enjoy hoarding mail?”

Glancing down, Chi Yu crouched and gathered the envelopes before lifting his head to meet Fu Zhi’an’s condescending smile: “None of your damn business.”

From then on, Chi Yu never looked at the blackboard during class. He stared attentively at Fu Zhi’an’s elbow, as if afraid it would cross the line. As long as Fu Zhi’an ventured even slightly over the line, Chi Yu immediately adopted a stance as if he were prepared for war.

Yuan Gang could no longer tolerate Chi Yu’s furtive behaviour at the last row. He loudly coughed a few times, calling out: “Chi Yu.”

Too engrossed in monitoring Fu Zhi’an’s elbow, Chi Yu was completely unaware that everyone in the class had twisted around to stare at him. Fu Zhi’an turned to him, but before he could say anything, Chi Yu beat him to it: “Who let you turn your damn head, turn it back!”

“Chi Yu! Stand up!” Yuan Gang gave the table a hard smack. Everyone in class was shocked, but Chi Yu merely clicked his tongue without a change in expression and stood up from his seat, unhurried.

Yuan Gang smoothed down the sparse strands of hair on his head, only speaking after calming down: “What were you doing over there?”

“Listening in class.” Chi Yu responded without hesitation and saw that Yuan Gang’s mood seemed to worsen.

“All right then, you can tell us what I was talking about earlier.”

Chi Yu was just about prepared to smoke his way through with some nonsense when Fu Zhi’an who was sitting beside him suddenly flipped his book over to page five, then tapped on the first paragraph with his pen.

Despite knowing Fu Zhi’an had bad intentions, Chi Yu felt as if someone had struck him over the head. He started reciting the first paragraph, as though possessed: “As the saying goes, recognize what you know and admit what you do not know[1]…” He had only recited the first line when he realized something was off, he raised his head to look at Yuan Gang’s pumpkin-like face flickering black and red from anger.

“Go and stand in the corridor!” Yuan Gang’s spittle flew quite a distance and the students sitting in the front row all lifted their books as a shield, as if afraid of sustaining injury. Chi Yu had just turned around when Fu Zhi’an lazily shifted his chair forward to make space for him.

As Chi Yu headed outside, he glanced back at Fu Zhi’an’s impassive face.

“Fine, you got me.”

Leaning lazily against the wall, Chi Yu noticed that Yuan Gang wasn’t paying close attention to him, so he draped himself over the banister instead, arms hanging down like a dying zombie.

When Fu Zhi’an finished working on his questions and put his pen down, the first thing he saw upon looking up was Chi Yu staring intently at him from outside the window. The sight of Fu Zhi’an’s fake smile made Chi Yu raise both his middle fingers as high as he could, just in case Fu Zhi’an wouldn’t be able to see it. Fu Zhi’an was sitting in the classroom, and most likely could not retaliate. The more Chi Yu thought about this, the more pleased he felt. He grinned so wide his teeth showed, looking like a villain corrupted by newfound power.

Smack. A rolled-up textbook cuffed him viciously over the head, and Chi Yu unthinkingly grumbled: “Fuck…”

The corners of Lin Jing’s lips were already downturned to begin with, but hearing Chi Yu curse, they directly swooped onto the floor.

“Who are you raising your middle fingers at?”

“Nobody.” One of Chi Yu’s hands were clenched into a fist while the other pressed down onto his joints, the sound of knuckles cracking rang out. Lin Jing took two steps to stand in front of him, but when she looked up at his outstanding countenance, her temper quelled by half. She sighed: “Chi Yu, you’re already in your second year. Although you’re not too well-versed in humanities, you do quite decently in your sciences. If you start working hard from the second year, it’s still not too late…”

Chi Yu didn’t hear a single word. His entire focus was drawn into the classroom; Fu Zhi’an had turned around, eyes curved up while he raised a middle finger and grinned at Chi Yu.

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When the dismissal bell rang, Fu Zhi’an stood from his seat, but before he could walk out the back door, Chi Yu blocked him in the doorway with an arm. The boy lifted a brow, the side of his lips quirking up, eyes flickering: “Running away just like that?”

Seeing more and more students crowding in the corridor, Fu Zhi’an placed a hand on Chi Yu’s shoulder and leaned in by his fair neck, voice lowering: “Aren’t I out here looking for you?”

Chi Yu stepped backwards in slight disgust when he felt the hot breath against his neck, his charming brows now cinching together: “What the fuck did you get so close to me for, you psycho.” Fu Zhi’an may look like a decent human being, but Chi Yu was very clear on his bad intentions. Rubbing at his neck with a pale finger, Chi Yu retreated a step, face darkening.

“There are a lot of people now, hurry up and clear my damn name.”

The people in the corridor all held their breaths, afraid that if they made a sound, they would interrupt the showdown between these two people.

Fu Zhi’an glanced at Chi Yu’s attractive face and laughed under his breath. Beneath his long lashes, his lovely eyes briefly flickered, then he looked up again to face the student crowd, calmly saying: “It’s not what you all think.”

His gaze returned to Chi Yu, and Fu Zhi’an blinked a couple of times: “I have a one-sided crush on him.”

Chi Yu strode forward and closed the distance between them, reaching out to seize Fu Zhi’an’s collar. He glared fiercely at him: “Did your brain swap places with your ass again?”

“Aren’t I helping you clear your name? You don’t have to be gay, I’ll be gay on my own.” Fu Zhi’an leaned close, lowering his voice to murmur softly by Chi Yu’s ear. Glimpsing the throbbing veins on Chi Yu’s pale neck, a rush of perverse accomplishment arose from Fu Zhi’an’s heart.

Realizing that the crowd was growing, Chi Yu released him and walked towards the stairwell without a backward glance.

The other students too, soon dispersed from the corridor after seeing Chi Yu disappear down the stairs. For a while, Fu Zhi’an remained standing where he was without moving. He lowered his gaze to look at his hand. When he had held onto Chi Yu’s shoulder earlier, he felt that this person hadn’t changed much from when he was younger; His shoulder was still so thin, it hurt to touch.

All the teachers were having a meeting at the city’s education bureau, so every student in school was enjoying this period of free time. Chi Yu sat in a corner of the sports hall swearing. Students passing by wanted to steer ten meters away from him, since he was like a time bomb, whoever he caught would be blown up. Chi Yu rubbed at his hair in agitation. Fu Zhi’an truly aimed his bullshit at him more perfectly than a slam dunk. It wasn’t enough to drag him into the mess, he even had to piss him off.

“Chi Yu, we’re having a match with Class 5 later, join us.” Wang Xiao saw the grim-faced youth and initially did not intend to look for him, his temper was short and awful, completely out of control. But after classes were reassigned, he could count on one hand the people who were taller than 1.8 meters. At the sight of Chi Yu’s expressionless face, he silently retreated one step.

Wang Xiao may very well have sacrificed his life for the sake of his basketball career today.

Chi Yu threw a glance at the chubby fellow in front of him; His face was wider than the cafeteria plates. He then coldly spat out two words: “We’ll see.”

Since there was no rejection, it was probably an agreement. Wang Xiao counted off on his fingers, now there was Chi Yu and Wei Xiaoqiang, including himself and Wang Bo… it seemed they were still lacking one player. Sweeping one look across the remaining people in the class, he let out a repulsed sigh, but suddenly caught sight of Fu Zhi’an standing near the entrance, wearing his white sports attire.

Wang Xiao jogged over to Fu Zhi’an’s side, smiling: “I nearly forgot about you, you have to join our basketball match.” He had never seen Fu Zhi’an play basketball before, but had great expectations based on that pair of long legs.

With a silent nod, Fu Zhi’an followed Wang Xiao to the middle of the sports hall and met Chi Yu’s furious gaze.

“You still have the fucking balls to stand in front of me?” Chi Yu blurted. Wang Xiao turned around to glance at Fu Zhi’an’s tall figure and remembered the rumours that had spread like wildfire throughout the school just a few days ago. Although he was slightly averse to gays, he reluctantly placated: “We’re still short of players, I think Fu Zhi’an will be good.”

Chi Yu approached Fu Zhi’an slowly with a sarcastic laugh, then reached out to grip Fu Zhi’an’s pale, thin wrist, raising it. Chi Yu’s palm was so warm it burnt, and the numbness that spread from his wrist made Fu Zhi’an’s body go somewhat rigid.

“He can play basketball with such thin arms and legs? Don’t joke with me.”

He loosened his grip immediately after speaking, shoving his hands into his pockets before twisting around and walking out of the sports hall. No matter how desperately Wang Xiao called after him, Chi Yu ignored him and only offered him the alluring and nonchalant view of his back silhouette.

“How could he leave just like that, fuck!” Wang Xiao panicked, but when he turned his head, he realized that the look on Fu Zhi’an’s face was a little stiff, and the arm that Chi Yu had grabbed was still half lifted in the air. Noticing the suspicious squint of Wang Xiao’s eyes, Fu Zhi’an let out an awkward laugh and shook his arm a few times, saying in a soft voice: “My arm is a little numb.”

Much too panicked to delve deeper into Fu Zhi’an’s peculiar behaviour, Wang Xiao scanned the sports hall once more and spotted a short boy in a corner, who was currently bouncing a basketball while giggling to himself.

“Hey, want to play a basketball match?” Wang Xiao hooked an arm around Lin Chuan’s frail shoulders. Lin Chuan swallowed and looked at the sturdy figure of Wang Xiao, stammering: “I don’t know how to play basketball, I’ll just bounce one here by myself…”

“Don’t worry, as long as you can bounce the ball, you’ll be fine.”

Just like that, Class 3 formed a basketball team with an average height of 175cm. A power forward who had recently hit his leg, a point guard who only knew how to bounce the ball twice, a short-sighted center who had forgotten to bring his contacts, and a shooting guard with unknown skills.

Wang Xiao’s eyes pricked a little as he observed this lineup, it seems like his basketball career would end in his second year, with Class 3. Until ten minutes after the game started, Fu Zhi’an shot two consecutive three-pointers.

“Fuck, Fu Zhi’an, your three-point shot was so accurate!” Wang Xiao patted Fu Zhi’an’s back, but Fu Zhi’an just smiled and didn’t say anything.

A tall and beefy boy walked up to him and looked him up and down, scanning Fu Zhi’an’s skinny limbs. He grinned: “Bro, you play very well.”

But when he turned around, the tanned boy’s expression chilled. He gestured to his teammates across from him: I’ll deal with this three-point shooter.

[1] “知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也” is quoted from Confucius. The general meaning behind it can be summarized as “recognize what you know, realize what you do not know, that is knowledge”.

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