HS Chapter 17

What kind of operation was this?

Ye Wenyu sat on the bed and half of his sleepiness disappeared.

In his understanding, maybe when a new friend was added, out of curiosity, they would glance through each other’s Moments, but usually, they wouldn’t scroll down too much, let alone openly acknowledge it. Otherwise, it would seem a bit rude.

He was purely unable to resist the temptation last night and was drawn in by Yan Chen’s Moments. But what about Yan Chen?

He knew his own Moments weren’t interesting, but Yan Chen was definitely someone far from being rude.

After thinking it over, the only possibility was that Yan Chen was using this way to express his gratitude.

Regardless of whether it was curiosity or gratitude, they both had looked through each other’s Moments, but Yan Chen left likes, openly and generously telling him “I’ve seen it,” while he had left nothing, entering quietly and leaving even quieter…

Following this logic, wasn’t he the one being rude now…?

With messy chicken-nest hair, Chi Dongting got down from the bed and prepared to go to the bathroom. He saw Ye Wenyu brushing his teeth while looking at his phone in a daze, so he swayed over with his oversized shorts.

He stood behind Ye Wenyu for two seconds and spoke in a sleepy voice: “Wenyu, what are you doing?”

Ye Wenyu was too focused and didn’t notice him at all. Startled, he subconsciously locked his phone and turned around to stare at Chi Dongting with wide eyes.

Chi Dongting: “?”

Chi Dongting: “I saw it already. You’re going through an old man’s Moments and liking each post one by one.”

‘Old man’s Moments…’ Ye Wenyu was speechless.

Chi Dongting: “Who is it? Why are there no captions or anything?”

Ye Wenyu hesitated for a moment: “My dad. Their school is holding a campaign where they collect likes.”

Chi Dongting gave an “oh” and was about to grab his phone: “Then I’ll add Uncle too and help him get more likes.”

“No need.” Ye Wenyu stopped him. “The number’s already enough.”

Chi Dongting: “Ah? Alright then. But Uncle’s scenery photos are really good. Remember to pass on my compliments.”

Ye Wenyu: “…Okay.”

Chi Dongting staggered into the bathroom.

After washing up, Ye Wenyu returned to the dormitory, finished liking the last two posts, and happened to receive a mention from An Xue in the group chat:

[Gather at the Art Building at 3 PM, reply 1 if received.]

Soon, a stream of [1]s appeared one after another. Ye Wenyu noticed that Yan Chen wasn’t among them.

‘Still asleep?’

The people in the group started chatting animatedly. Worried that too many messages would bury the notice and Yan Chen wouldn’t see it, Ye Wenyu exited the chat and decided to privately message him the meeting time.

After a whole night, finally, there was a proper reason to break the silence.

He organized his words and typed carefully. But just when he was about to send the message, a bubble popped up in the chat box, containing a neatly placed [2].

Ye Wenyu: “?”

He deleted the message he had edited and asked Yan Chen: [What’s wrong?]

YC: [There’s class in the afternoon, it ends at 3:30.]

Ye Wenyu: [You have classes even on weekends?]

YC: [Yeah, double degree.]

So that was it. It was rare for sports students to pursue a double degree.

Ye Wenyu: [Do you want to mention it in the group?]

As soon as he sent this, he quickly clicked to recall the message.

He almost forgot…since Yan Chen had already seen An Xue’s message, he would have replied if he wanted to. He wouldn’t specifically come and privately explain to him.

He probably hoped he could help pass on the message instead.

Ye Wenyu hadn’t realized before that Yan Chen was so introverted and shy. Being the only familiar person to him, he suddenly felt he had a great responsibility.

YC: [?]

Ye Wenyu: [I sent the wrong message just now.]

Ye Wenyu: [Don’t worry, I’ll relay the message to everyone. You just focus on your class. We’ll wait for you to come after.]

YC: [Okay.]

After replying to this message, Yan Chen said to the two behind him: “I won’t join you for lunch this afternoon. You guys arrange it yourselves.”

“Huh?” Yang Liang was browsing new nearby restaurants on an app. Hearing Yan Chen’s words, he looked up in surprise: “Why?”

Yan Chen: “I have something to do. From now on, don’t call me for Friday and weekend afternoons.”

“What’s going on?” Dong Xi was puzzled: “Didn’t you have nothing planned before? Why the sudden change?”

Yan Chen put down his phone: “I joined a competition.”

Dong Xi: “?”

Yang Liang: “?”

–

At three in the afternoon, Ye Wenyu arrived at the music classroom on time.

Everyone was already present except for Yan Chen. An Xue thought for a moment, then placed Ye Wenyu, who had the most scenes with Yan Chen, at the end of the sequence list and let the others start practicing first.

Ye Wenyu retreated to the piano and watched them practice their lines.

Today was the weekend, and there were no classes, but there should still be some students practicing in the nearby classrooms. The windows were open, and from time to time, fragments of piano music floated over.

When Yan Chen arrived, Ye Wenyu had his head lowered, marking a few sentences with his pen where the lines were longer.

Sensing someone beside him, he looked up and saw it was Yan Chen. Then he glanced at the clock hanging at the front of the classroom; 15:35. Yan Chen had come over right after his class.

“They’re still practicing their lines,” he whispered to Yan Chen. “Later, let’s watch the video first, then we’ll go through the lines together.”

Yan Chen nodded. He did not go to sit among the crowd but leaned against the piano with Ye Wenyu.

Ye Wenyu shifted inward to make room for him. Their clothes brushed together, one dark, one light, which was unexpectedly harmonious.

Of course, An Xue also noticed Yan Chen had arrived. After the last person finished reading, she walked to the multimedia console to play the video.

However, it was unknown whether it was a problem with the video source or the multimedia equipment, the projection would not play.

“You guys review by yourselves first,” she said. “I’ll go downstairs to find a teacher from the maintenance office.”

As class monitor, Chang Sichen could not let a girl run up and down by herself, so he volunteered to take on the task and left the classroom.

Ye Wenyu could have gone back to sit down at this point, but thinking of Yan Chen, he chose to stay with him.

And he tried to start a conversation.

But for someone who was not good at communicating, the difficulty of doing so was no less than solving ten advanced math problems within ten minutes.

“Yan Chen,” he called after thinking for a moment.

Yan Chen turned his head: “Hm?”

Ye Wenyu looked serious: “Are you thirsty?”

Yan Chen: “No, what’s wrong?”

Ye Wenyu: “Nothing, I just wanted to tell you that if you get thirsty, there’s a water dispenser at the back we can use.”

Yan Chen nodded.

The conversation ended there. This topic did not seem very useful.

Ye Wenyu racked his brain for a while and spoke again: “Are you hungry?”

The corner of Yan Chen’s eye twitched: “Right now?”

Ye Wenyu: “…” He forgot the time.

Ye Wenyu: “I mean, with your intense training, you probably burn a lot of calories…”

“Wenyu,” Yan Chen reminded him in time, “I just came from the School of Management, there was no training today.”

Ye Wenyu: “…”

Ye Wenyu: “Then when you usually train on the sports field, how many laps do you run?”

Yan Chen looked at him quietly.

Ye Wenyu also realized that his questions were getting more and more awkward, but he really could not think of a better topic.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to answer, I’m just asking casually.”

He awkwardly shifted his gaze away, racking his brains to recall how Chi Dongting managed to chat so animatedly with people he just met.

The script in his hand was unconsciously crumpled into a cylinder, his fingertips rubbed the pages without any pattern, curling and relaxing repeatedly, fully displaying his nervousness.

Yan Chen looked at him, and the corners of his mouth slightly curved upwards.

He realized that although Ye Wenyu’s face rarely expressed any emotions, his thoughts were always secretly revealed through unconscious small movements.

Just like yesterday, just like today.

Because it was too easy to see through, it made him seem pitiful.

Ye Wenyu was running out of topics and was about to give up.

A gust of wind came through the window and flipped a page of his script. He subconsciously turned the page over, and a dried petal fluttered to the ground.

It was the petal that Yan Chen had smelled last time, casually tucked into the printout. After so many days, it had completely dried up.

Ye Wenyu’s heart skipped a beat, he felt as guilty as a thief. His first reaction was to worry that Yan Chen would recognize it and find out he had kept the petal until now.

He immediately tried to bend down to pick it up, but unfortunately, he was still a step too late and Yan Chen had already picked it up first.

“Hibiscus?” Yan Chen asked, holding the petal.

Ye Wenyu could only nod stiffly.

Unexpectedly, Yan Chen did not mention that night. Instead, he loosened his fingers, letting the petal fall into his palm, squeezed it, then opened his hand–the petal was gone.

Ye Wenyu could not help but blink and subconsciously looked down at the floor, but it was clean and there was nothing there.

Ye Wenyu: “How did you…”

Yan Chen: “Give me your hand.”

Ye Wenyu didn’t understand why, but still obediently extended his hand.

An Xue lifted her head to stretch her neck and happened to see this scene.

In front of the piano, Yan Chen held Ye Wenyu’s hand, put their palms together, and with a flick of his wrist, it became Ye Wenyu’s palm underneath his.

When Yan Chen withdrew his hand, a withered petal quietly lay in Ye Wenyu’s palm.

It felt like she had accidentally stumbled upon a movie scene, and she could not help but blink.

Ye Wenyu was surprised that Yan Chen could actually do magic tricks.

“It’s just a little trick. If you like it, I can teach you next time,” Yan Chen withdrew his hand. “Isn’t your major having a proficiency exam at the beginning of November?”

Ye Wenyu carefully tucked the petal back into the script: “Well, this year is a bit special, so it’s been postponed to the end of November.”

Yan Chen: “Are you taking the exam this year?”

Ye Wenyu: “Yes, I’m testing for c1 this year.”

Yan Chen: “There probably won’t be a test center in Xuancheng this year either.”

Ye Wenyu: “Yes, so we might have to go to Wucheng, but it still depends on whether we can register at that test center…”

Yan Chen’s tone was casual, asking questions that neither offended nor made the conversation awkward.

If a topic was about to run out, he would naturally transition to the next one, linking them smoothly without any abruptness.

As a result, Ye Wenyu did not realize that the problem he had been worrying over had already been quietly solved.

Yan Chen chatted with Ye Wenyu casually while his gaze fell on his hand once again.

One hand held the script while the other pressed on top naturally after closing a page, no longer restless or uneasy. This shows the most relaxed state.

‘Hmm,’ he lightly tapped the paper with his fingertip, ‘successfully coaxed.’