Yan Chen tossed the sausage wrapper into the trash bin. “Let’s go.”
The dorms for the Foreign Languages Department and the Sports Dey weren’t in the same direction. Ye Wenyu subconsciously wanted to ask where he was going, but fortunately his brain responded in time and stopped the words in his mouth.
Yan Chen’s meaning was obvious; he intended to walk with him. Since they could walk together, there was no need to ask why.
Lao Huangli vanished into the bushes with half a sausage in its mouth. Yan Chen clapped the dust from his hands and turned to leave first, with Ye Wenyu following behind.
The night was deep, and the evening breeze gentle. The small square around them was mostly deserted. Only when they reached the lakeside did they occasionally spot couples huddled together and whispering tenderly.
Ye Wenyu and Yan Chen walked side by side. At first there was still a bit of distance between them, but once they turned onto the narrow path by the lake, the gap between them closed to almost zero.
“What class do you have in Building 2?”
The soft rustling of leaves came from both sides, and Yan Chen casually picked a topic to chat with him.
“Introduction to Mao Zedong Thought,” Ye Wenyu replied distractedly, still wondering how to seize this moment to ask for contact information.
As they passed a streetlamp, he couldn’t help but glance sideways at Yan Chen.
The latter squinted slightly, seemingly enjoying the night breeze. The corners of his lips were curved, as if he was smiling, but also as if he was in a natural state of comfort.
Lazy and good-looking.
Ye Wenyu was like a rabbit eating from its bowl while eyeing the pot, only to have a carrot dangled in front of it too, his attention split three ways.
Yan Chen: “Until nine thirty? Three periods?”
Ye Wenyu: “Yeah.”
He responded almost reflexively to Yan Chen’s idle chatter. He had not yet thought of a reason, but he was so drawn in he couldn’t stop glancing at him.
So much so that he didn’t even notice the occasional light brush of their hands as they walked side by side.
Yan Chen: “It sounds tiring. But at least it’s only eight weeks.”
Ye Wenyu: “We finish even faster. Just six weeks.”
They were about to pass another streetlamp. As they entered the edge of the light, Ye Wenyu couldn’t help but glance again.
This time, he was caught red-handed.
Under the shadow of his long lashes, Yan Chen’s eyes appeared deep and still. He asked bluntly: “Why do you keep looking at me?”
Ye Wenyu’s lashes trembled with guilt, and he blurted out without thinking: “I have some face blindness.”
Some people may look calm and composed on the outside, but in fact they’re so panicked inside they say whatever comes to mind. Ye Wenyu immediately wanted to bite his tongue after speaking.
They’d already met more than once. Using face blindness as an excuse now…who would believe that?
While he stood there silently falling apart in the wind, Yan Chen had already pressed his lips into a straight line.
Coincidentally, there was someone with face blindness in his dorm, so he knew exactly how that worked.
—They couldn’t remember the faces of people they’d only seen once, and would need to hope the other person didn’t change clothes to recognize them next time.
If Ye Wenyu was face blind, then how did he recognize him?
The first time at the pool was because someone else pointed the way. The second time at the South Gate sports field, he stood there waiting for him to come over.
And the third time, that is this time…was it because he looked vaguely familiar by now, and he got lucky that there were no other people around?
So, when he said he remembered the two previous encounters, it was most likely just a polite remark.
Shadows swayed lightly, and the expression in Yan Chen’s eyes was unreadable.
Ye Wenyu stared straight ahead, his back stiff. He waited for a while without getting a response and thought the other party hadn’t heard him. But just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a large palm pressed against his back.
Yan Chen almost half-enclosed him, using a bit of strength in his wrist to gently pull him forward, while taking a small step back. The two of them were brought under the blazing white light of the streetlamp.
Ye Wenyu tilted his face up to look at Yan Chen in confusion.
The other party withdrew his hand, leaned in slightly, eyes focused. His pupils were dark like top-grade obsidian, vaguely reflecting Ye Wenyu’s silhouette.
“Can you recognize me like this?”
Ye Wenyu: “…”
He pursed his lips together a little awkwardly. “Just a little, it’s not to the point where I wouldn’t remember at all.”
“Mm.” Yan Chen followed up calmly, “Then remember clearly now. Don’t fail to recognize me next time.”
The two of them were very close, even closer than they had been in the library, the supermarket, or even the locker room at the swimming pool.
In the season when hibiscus flowers were in full bloom, Yan Chen, with his outstanding height, stood amid the branches that would normally be out of reach for others, and the flowers clustered around him willingly.
Ye Wenyu might have still had some words left unsaid, but at this moment, they were all thrown to the wind.
The moonlight, the night, the lake, the streetlamps, the hibiscus, and… Yan Chen.
When they all merged together, they had a bewitching effect on Ye Wenyu.
His eyes were mesmerized as he stared straight at Yan Chen. In a daze, his heart stirred.
He was so good-looking it was hard to believe. Everything in front of him seemed to blur into the moonlight. It felt like if he reached out with a finger to gently touch or brush against it, even his fingertip would be stained with color.
Yan Chen seemed like he had a good temper, a good personality, was patient, and was easy to talk to…he probably wouldn’t refuse him…
“Waaw…meow!”
“Meow!”
Out of nowhere, two cats in the bushes started fighting. Their drawn-out cries sounded aggressive, and just from the sound, one could imagine fur flying everywhere.
Ye Wenyu was startled and suddenly woke up as if from a dream.
When he came back to his senses, he realized that he had unconsciously raised his hand, trying to reach toward Yan Chen. At that moment, the tip of his index finger was hovering less than a centimeter from the corner of Yan Chen’s lips.
If not for those two fighting cats, he might have already touched him.
And Yan Chen didn’t seem like he had any intention of dodging.
“…” The corner of Ye Wenyu’s eye twitched.
He suddenly admired himself a little. To have such thoughts even in a situation where he didn’t know whether to advance or retreat, it was truly a testament to how good-natured Yan Chen was.
The two fighting cats didn’t struggle for long. One quickly ran off in fear, while the other chased after it aggressively. Both of them disappeared into the distance.
Ye Wenyu awkwardly redirected the path of his right hand, changing his target from Yan Chen’s lips to a freshly fallen petal on the leaves above Yan Chen’s left shoulder.
He picked it up to cover up his actions and was about to pull his hand back when Yan Chen suddenly staggered back slightly, as if he had missed a step.
Behind him was the lake. If he fell in at night, it would be a big problem.
Ye Wenyu was startled and panicked. He didn’t care about embarrassment and instinctively reached out to grab him.
But Yan Chen was faster and he grabbed Ye Wenyu’s wrist.
The slim wrist was easily encircled, and there was still space left between his fingers. The warmth of his palm was slightly hotter than the night wind. Their palms almost touched, and he could clearly feel the protruding bones on the outer side of Yan Chen’s hand.
Yan Chen’s eyes, which showed no trace of panic, narrowed slightly and he couldn’t help but tighten his grip a little.
Ye Wenyu let out a sigh of relief, and his heartbeat took a long time to calm down, as if he were the one who had just escaped a disaster instead of Yan Chen.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Yan Chen said he was fine, but he didn’t let go of his hand. Instead, as if on a whim, he turned his head and sniffed the petal still in Ye Wenyu’s hand.
Ye Wenyu could even feel the breath he exhaled on his hand, and the stiffness crept up his back again.
After a moment, Yan Chen raised his head and asked very seriously, “Do hibiscus flowers not have a scent?”
Ye Wenyu didn’t know. He didn’t know what Yan Chen had just asked, nor did he know whether hibiscus flowers had a scent.
All he knew was that when Yan Chen leaned down just now, his lips were just a millimeter away from touching his fingers.
It was almost like… almost like he was about to kiss his fingertips.
That image, along with that realization, exploded in Ye Wenyu’s mind like a bomb. All he could hear in his ears was the chaotic rhythm of his own heartbeat.
All the sensations in his body seemed to converge into a single point. At this moment, he felt with perfect clarity that the tips of his fingers were going soft and numb.
Yan Chen was completely unaware, even using his fingertip to gently tap the inside of Ye Wenyu’s wrist, urging him for an answer.
“I-I don’t know.”
Ye Wenyu’s eyelashes trembled violently. After a moment, he averted his gaze like an escape, no longer daring to look at him.
Sensing his discomfort and struggle, Yan Chen let go of his hand, his arm naturally falling back to his side.
Ye Wenyu immediately turned around, hiding most of his face in the shadow behind him. “It’s late. Let’s go back.”
“Mm.” Yan Chen’s face didn’t show much emotion.
But his hand seemed reluctant to let go, his curled fingertips pressing tightly into his palm.
Inside the dormitory, Ye Wenyu heard Chi Dongting cursing at his teammates in a voice chat the moment he stepped in. He didn’t disturb him, just quietly closed the door, went back to his seat, and put his book back on the shelf.
The petal fell onto the table from his hand. The folds he had made earlier had already oxidized and turned yellow.
He slowed the motion of pulling back his hand. Before the scene could replay itself in his mind, he deliberately pinched his fingertip hard, still feeling like it was numb.
Chi Dongting, who had been cursing at his laptop, suddenly stuck his head out and called him, then reached out with a long arm to hand him a stapled printout.
“This.” Chi Dongting said, “You walked too fast after class earlier. The class representative couldn’t catch up with you, so he asked me to pass it on.”
Ye Wenyu took the printed copy and flipped through it. It was the revised version of the dubbing script.
He sent a message to An Xue saying that he had received the script, then put his phone down. His attention naturally shifted back to the petal next to the phone.
After delivering the script, Chi Dongting quickly pulled back to begin another round of powerful output at his teammates.
On the desk, the petal had grown even more visibly yellowed along the creases due to prolonged exposure to air.
Ye Wenyu stared at it for a while. For some inexplicable reason, he didn’t throw it away. Instead, he picked it up and tucked it into the open page of the script, securing it at the binding before closing it.
He placed the materials into the drawer, then opened the closet door to get his pajamas, but suddenly his eyelid twitched.
Oops. He had forgotten something very important.
He forgot to ask Yan Chen for his contact information!
–
There were no classes on Tuesday morning. Ye Wenyu had tossed and turned all night in a jumble of dreams and woke up later than usual.
After washing up and returning to the dorm, he saw a notification from An Xue in the class group chat:
An Xue: [Urgent! We are still missing a male lead for the dubbing competition!]
An Xue: [Time is running out. Does anyone have a suitable recommendation?!]
At this time of the day, most people were probably still asleep, so the replies came in sparsely:
[Wasn’t the male lead already decided to be Wenyu?]
[Because it’s a double male lead.]
[You brat, clearly you don’t care about the collective honor of the class.]
[What are the requirements?]
That last question came from [Maoqiu], whose four-word reply stood out crisply among all the pointless chatter.
An Xue: [Should speak French! Or at least pronounce it decently. Must have a pleasant voice, a deeper and more steady tone…no overly lively or jumpy voices, or it’ll be OOC.]
[Then we’ll have to look within our major, right?]
[There are also people who took French as their second language.]
[Who in their right mind would choose French as a second language?]
[An-chan, what about me? I think if I try hard to suppress my voice, I might be able to meet the requirement. If you don’t believe me, just listen!]
[Voice message]
[F***! Damn it! Take back that cardiovascular-bursting breathy bubble voice! My ears are growing hemorrhoids!]
…
Maybe the notifications had woken everyone up, because more and more people started chatting, and the topic drifted further and further off course.
Maoqiu didn’t reply again, probably too lazy to fool around with this group of oversized children.
Ye Wenyu couldn’t help but feel that this [Maoqiu] gave him a strange sense of familiarity. But what kind of familiarity, he couldn’t pinpoint it.
That wasn’t important. He hadn’t forgotten the more important task at hand.
He returned to his desk, opened his laptop, and logged into the campus website to check the indoor swimming pool schedule.
Swimming Class 1, Tuesday afternoon at 3:55 PM.
He had class at 2 PM, which ended at 3:30. The third teaching building wasn’t far from the pool, so it would be just in time.
After last night, he didn’t want to waste energy coming up with excuses. He’d just say he had something urgent. If Yan Chen pressed on, he’d just brush it off as “personal business”.
Tomorrow was already Wednesday, so he couldn’t delay any longer.
“Hey? Wenyu, Wenyu.”
Chi Dongting suddenly called out to him: “Did you check the forum? Someone started a thread with your award photo from last time.”
His blood pressure had been rising thanks to his idiot teammates, so he quit the game and decided to browse the forum to cool down with a bit of academic atmosphere.
As a result, instead of calming down, he accidentally stumbled upon that thread.
It was a national-level competition, and by rule, winners had to take a photo holding the prize, which would then be posted on the campus homepage and written into the admissions brochure.
Ye Wenyu’s photo had been taken from the homepage and reposted in the thread.
Chi Dongting had already grown bored of the first dozen pages of over-the-top praise calling Ye Wenyu “heavenly appearance”. Just when he was about to close it out of disinterest, his finger swiped down one more time…and found something very interesting.
Ye Wenyu had just opened his mouth to say no when he heard Chi Dongting say in confusion, “Why are they all saying the black clothes you wore that day are the training uniform for the swimming class of the sports department?”
Chi Dongting enlarged the photo and stared at it for a while before asking curiously, “Didn’t you say that shirt was something you bought yourself?”
Ye Wenyu: “…”
Wasn’t that chapter already successfully turned over?
Why was there still a sequel a week later?
