HS Chapter 28

——You’re the exception. I don’t mind any kind of contact with you.

——What others can’t do, you can.

——No matter who I get annoyed with, it’ll never be with you.

No matter when, the unique privilege of being treated differently can easily capture someone’s heart to varying degrees. There probably wasn’t anyone who could stay calm upon knowing they were the most special existence to someone else.

Especially when that someone was Yan Chen.

Ye Wenyu only felt like there were either strings or bells in his head, being plucked by an invisible hand and making a constant ding-ding-dang-dang noise, so loud that his mind buzzed and he couldn’t calm down for a long time.

These words kept running through his mind and he was flattered.

But it didn’t seem to be just that.

He couldn’t make sense of the extra emotions. They were difficult to untangle, unfamiliar, and seemed to be wrapped in a fog. He couldn’t touch them or see through them, but they were strangely light and wondrous, as if they could grow wings and make his heart float into the sky.

“Why?”

He asked Yan Chen softly, as if afraid that a single moment of daze would startle something away: “Why is it that only I can?”

The few seconds waiting for a reply felt like time had frozen.

Then, he heard Yan Chen’s voice, clearly pouring into his ears: “I can’t explain it, but from the first time I got close to you, I realized that you were different from everyone else to me.”

“Maybe just wait a little longer.”

Under the neon light outside the window, there was a gentle tenderness in Yan Chen’s eyes as he looked straight into his bright, clear eyes: “Once I find the answer, I’ll tell you slowly.”

–

Chi Dongting had a few more drinks. He wasn’t drunk, but his chatterbox tendencies were fully activated. He sang and told stand-up jokes the whole way, and was as noisy as a magpie.

Unfortunately, tonight his performance went in one ear and out the other for Ye Wenyu.

The dormitory area for the side campus was large. After entering, they had to wind through several turns before reaching their dormitory building.

Along the way, Ye Wenyu was caught in a silent mental storm.

Did that count as Yan Chen agreeing?

It probably did. He’d already been given the privilege to touch freely. If that wasn’t agreement, what else could it be?

But he clearly hadn’t even confessed yet…

In a daze, Yan Chen’s calm and deep voice seemed to echo in his ears again. He couldn’t help but raise his hand and press his ears hard. The wind brushing past made his heartbeat feel a bit chaotic.

‘Actually, there was no need to overthink it,’ he told himself.

Yan Chen had already agreed.

Even if he hadn’t confessed yet, Yan Chen’s words were so direct, they were no different from agreeing to his request.

As long as he was honest and told him what he thought and wanted, there’d be no suspense and he would definitely agree.

Letting him touch as he pleased.

Only he could touch.

Only he alone could touch…

This sentence was like a loop, constantly playing in his mind.

Joy and impulsiveness rampaged through his chest. On one hand, he was eager to spill his secret to Yan Chen right away and put his thoughts into action. On the other hand, he felt guilty about exposing his possibly strong ulterior motives.

Yan Chen had just given the “Bing gold medal”, and he was already impatient to reveal all his impure motives.

Although his motives were indeed impure, to be this desperate was just trampling on someone’s heart.

He sighed lightly. Suddenly, someone threw their arms around his shoulders and shook him hard.

Chi Dongting shouted, “Wenyu! Wenyu, what do you think? What do you think? What do you think?”

Ye Wenyu: “…”

Ye Wenyu hadn’t been listening at all: “Think what?”

Chi Dongting: “Do you think I could audition as a crosstalk performer after graduation? Would I deserve 500 yuan a month? If I hold my own stand-up crosstalk special, will you fly back from France just to support me and bring me spicy Focheng skewers?”

Ye Wenyu: “…”

Ye Wenyu sighed again. When they arrived at the dormitory entrance, he held Chi Dongting with one hand, swiped his campus card to open the door, and helped him upstairs.

Chi Dongting: “Wenyu, say something. Wenyu, why aren’t you talking? Let me see…do you have a mouth? Why won’t you talk?”

Ye Wenyu: “You can. You’re very talented. The crosstalk world would probably welcome you.”

Ye Wenyu: “You deserve 500, and you deserve 5000 too. Give yourself more confidence.”

Ye Wenyu: “If you hold a special, I’ll support you. But I probably won’t go to France, so no need to come back specially.”

Ye Wenyu: “As for skewers, Focheng is too far. Is Wucheng’s okay?”

He had a lot of patience. Chi Dongting asked, and he answered every question one by one. Only after tucking him into bed did he begin to clean up.

He washed his hair, showered, washed his face, brushed his teeth, tidied the dorm, and finally, tidied his emotions.

After all the scattered tasks, he sat down to slowly reflect and organize his thoughts, and things gradually became clearer.

He decided to wait a couple more days.

At least don’t seem so impatient, as if there was nothing between them except a clear goal.

The greatest sin of a person was trampling on the sincere heart someone had offered up. He didn’t want to be that kind of sinner.

But he still felt guilty.

Yan Chen was so good, and he treated him so well. From their first real meeting, he’d been helping him, like lending clothes and letting them use the pool.

Later on, he even volunteered to fill in for the missing dubbing member. Clearly, he had been assigned to take care of Yan Chen, but after spending so much time together, looking back now, it felt like Yan Chen had taken care of him even more.

And yet, he had deliberately approached him just to satisfy his own unspeakable, greedy selfishness.

By 11 p.m. on weekdays, the power and lights would be cut off on schedule.

His vision suddenly fell into darkness, and guilt surged in like a tide, threatening to drown him.

As he lay in bed, the screen of his phone flickered on and off, reflecting the tangled emotions in his eyes.

After ten long minutes, a message from him finally popped up in the chat:

Ye Wenyu: [Do you have any competitions coming up?]

The other person wasn’t asleep either. Ye Wenyu saw the note above turn to “typing”, and soon a reply came:

Yan Chen: [What kind of competition?]

Ye Wenyu: [Anything, as long as you’re in it.]

Yan Chen: [Want to come watch?]

Ye Wenyu: [Yeah.]

Yan Chen: [Why?]

Ye Wenyu: [With one more spectator, it should be a little livelier.]

While typing, his hands moved fast and it didn’t feel weird. But after sending it, reading it over made the wording seem more than a little strange.

There were usually many spectators at matches. One more or one less really didn’t matter.

Ye Wenyu bit his lip in annoyance and tried to come up with a reasonable explanation:

Ye Wenyu: [I mean, I haven’t really seen your matches before. I just want to go check it out and join the fun.]

Ye Wenyu: [If it’s not convenient, that’s okay too.]

Yan Chen: [It’s convenient.]

Yan Chen: [There’s a training match at the swimming pool at 4p.m next Friday.]

Yan Chen: [Don’t forget to come.]

–

Ye Wenyu remembered that Yan Chen’s competition was on Friday, but completely forgot they had a physical fitness test before that.

What was even more unexpected was that their fitness test ended up scheduled at the same time on the same day.

“Oh my god oh my god, we’re doing the fitness test with the students of the sports department…just thinking about it makes me, makes me…”

“Makes me want to die.”

“What’s there to die about? If it’s together, then it’s together.”

“You girls think it doesn’t matter, but for us it’s public execution, public execution!”

“Why? Oh, are you afraid you won’t measure up? Just try harder and run faster, what’s the big deal.”

“…That’s easy for you to say, why don’t you do it.”

The classes from the foreign languages department were chatting excitedly, but Ye Wenyu didn’t think it was a big deal. In fact, he thought it was kind of great.

Everyone doing the test together made it more lively. Yan Chen would definitely be happy too.

There were people scattered all over the track field. Ye Wenyu followed the order and completed several tests, glancing around the field while waiting. Strangely, he never saw Yan Chen.

Not even Dong Xi or Yang Liang.

Instead, he unexpectedly saw a familiar face…the boy who had blocked Yan Chen to do a sales pitch outside the sports department dorms that morning of the recording.

Now, the boy was standing near the grove on the far right of the track with another boy in a sports training uniform. The two were speaking closely for a long time and looked unusually intimate.

‘Is he selling something again?’ he thought.

He knew there were many students secretly running micro-businesses, but the school had recently issued a strict ban on micro-businesses entering campus. And this guy still dared to be so blatant?

While he was thinking, the sales boy seemed to notice him, looked over from afar, and seemed to smile at him.

They were too far apart, so Ye Wenyu couldn’t see clearly.

“Wenyu, it’s time for lung capacity testing!” Chi Dongting waved at him. “Come on!”

Ye Wenyu responded and stopped looking at the micro-business boy and turned to walk toward Chi Dongting.

“It’s him, right?” Zhen Lin lazily withdrew his gaze. “The guy you saw walking with Yan Chen that rainy night.”

Liu Bingran nodded expressionlessly, “Yeah.”

Zhen Lin: “They seem pretty close.”

Liu Bingran: “How would I know? Why do you keep bringing him up?”

“Because I hate him.” Zhen Lin said it like it was obvious.

Liu Bingran frowned: “Why? Just because he’s close to Yan Chen?”

“Of course not just that.” Zhen Lin shrugged, sounding relaxed. “I don’t hate when everyone fawns over the moon, I just hate that the moon isn’t me. He got me scolded by so many people. If I don’t mess with him, wouldn’t that be letting him off too easily?”

Liu Bingran: “You mean the forum thing?”

Zhen Lin: “Uh-huh~”

Liu Bingran stared at his face: “So it all comes back to Yan Chen.”

Zhen Lin: “Ah, I can’t help it. I like Yan Chen. What, you’re upset again?”

As he reached out, Liu Bingran suddenly grabbed his wrist and said in a cold voice: “Right now, I’m your boyfriend.”

“Yeah, so what.”

Zhen Lin winked at him with a bright smile: “You still can’t beat Yan Chen in anything, right?”

Liu Bingran stared at him for a moment, then flung his hand off with force: “Just wait and see. Sooner or later, I’ll defeat Yan Chen.”

“Alright, boyfriend.” Zhen Lin clapped without a care. “I’ll be waiting.”

…

According to student number order, Chi Dongting was first. After finishing his test, he waited on the side for Ye Wenyu so they could run the 1000 meters together.

He was bored, fiddling with his phone and joking around with classmates.

When it was Ye Wenyu’s second turn to blow for the lung capacity test, Chi Dongting suddenly nudged him.

Chi Dongting: “Wenyu, look, it’s Yan Chen and his group! It looks like they’re getting ready to run the 1000 meters.”

“…”

Ye Wenyu lost his breath immediately, and the meter stopped at a ridiculously low number.

After the test, they moved to the track, and just then the whistle blew. Ye Wenyu saw several boys shoot out of the starting line like arrows.

After the bend where the shadows overlapped, the figure he had spent over ten minutes searching for in vain was now running in front.

“So fast. Isn’t it said that for runs over 50 meters, you shouldn’t start out too fast and should save energy for the final sprint?”

Chi Dongting clicked his tongue in amazement. “Are they going to make us run with them? Do I even have the qualifications to arm wrestle with them?”

Ye Wenyu looked at Yan Chen from afar.

Maybe because it was just a regular fitness test, he clearly wasn’t going all out, but he was still gradually pulling away from the people behind him.

As for the “arm wrestling qualifications” Chi Dongting mentioned, Ye Wenyu didn’t think he had them, so he decided to stay silent.

As they crossed the field to the other side of the track, they happened to see Yan Chen passing by on his second lap.

Ye Wenyu was afraid of affecting him, so he stepped back and made way.

Yan Chen ran past him at close range, his speed bringing a gust of wind, and a short phrase was carried right into Ye Wenyu’s ear:

“Wait for me here.”

Ye Wenyu froze and watched him run off until Chi Dongting tugged his sleeve.

Ye Wenyu turned his head: “What?”

Chi Dongting looked innocent: “Why does Yan Chen want us to wait here? What is he going to do?”

Ye Wenyu: “…”

He was stumped by the question, because he instinctively felt that Yan Chen was only speaking to him, not to both of them.

“No idea.” He gave a middle-ground answer. “We’ll find out soon.”

The start and end points of the 1000 meters were on opposite sides of the field.

Ye Wenyu stood just behind the finish line, watching as Yan Chen passed the starting point a second time, picked up speed on the final bend, and made his last sprint toward him.

The others who had started with him were far behind.

Both sides of the finish line were lined with people, some from the sports department, some from the foreign languages department.

A group of boys from the sports department saw Yan Chen from afar and immediately started yelling and joking around:

“Go, Yan-ge! A new record is waiting for you!”

“Run faster, Yan-ge! The girls from the foreign languages department are all watching. Our pride is riding on you!”

“Come on! Show everyone what it means to run 1000 meters without turning red or gasping, and then still be able to swim 800 laps afterwards!”

People from the foreign languages department weren’t familiar with them and were a bit shy, so they didn’t join in the shouting. They just watched the scene unfold with wide eyes.

Then, the large group of people from the two departments watched as this classmate who “can still swim 800 laps after running” charged across the finish line like the wind and carried by inertia, went straight for another student standing just behind the line.

When he got close, he opened his arms and hugged the person tightly, looking like he was so exhausted he couldn’t stand steady. He collided into the other student and made him stagger back a few steps, then shamelessly hung onto him.

“…”

“…”

“…”

There was a moment of silence, and then the cheers turned into boos.

Ye Wenyu was caught off guard by the pounce. In a daze, he was enveloped in warmth and he subconsciously hugged Yan Chen back. “Are you very tired?”

Yan Chen’s arms lightly wrapped around the boy’s slender upper body. His chin rested on Ye Wenyu’s shoulder and he took in the faint, clean scent of laundry detergent from him. “I’m so tired.”

Yan Chen was taller and broader than him. With one casual hug, it felt like an eagle catching a chick.

Ye Wenyu came back to his senses. Although he was acting as a support at this moment, he inexplicably felt like he was the one being trapped.

Yan Chen’s body temperature was so high it could burn. His breath on the back of Ye Wenyu’s neck felt like an electric current, tickling him and making his waist weak.

An indescribable feeling rose in him. Ye Wenyu hadn’t even started running yet, but his breathing was already unsteady.

“It’s okay.” He forced himself to clear his mind and gently stroked Yan Chen’s back with his thin arms. “It’s always like this right after a run. Just rest a bit and you’ll be fine.”

Yan Chen buried his face in Ye Wenyu’s shoulder. “Mm.”

The people behind them gradually crossed the finish line one after another, and the crowd that had been watching the fun finally shifted their attention to someone else to tease.

All around him was the sound of Yan Chen’s erratic breathing. Ye Wenyu tilted his face to the side, and his cheek brushed right against Yan Chen’s ear, making his heart silently skip a beat.

Trying hard to suppress the sudden panic in his chest, he said to Yan Chen, “Let me help you walk a bit. You shouldn’t sit down right after running, it’s better to walk around.”

Yan Chen: “I can’t walk.”

Ye Wenyu: “Why not?”

Yan Chen: “My legs are weak.”

Ye Wenyu: “Huh?”

Yan Chen: “My face is numb too.”

Ye Wenyu: “?”

Yan Chen: “I’m a little out of breath.”

Ye Wenyu: “!”

He did know that after overexerting, people could experience rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, and numbness in the face…but he never expected Yan Chen, who looked so at ease, would actually be this exhausted.

He had miscalculated. He really thought Yan Chen hadn’t even used full strength just now.

Now that he was worried, he didn’t care about anything else. He pulled Yan Chen’s face out from his shoulder and cupped his cheeks, rubbing them over and over. “Does this feel a bit better?”

Like a big dog being petted into comfort, Yan Chen held on tight and squinted his eyes with a “fragile” expression. “A little better.”

Ye Wenyu: “Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere else?”

Yan Chen leaned his head into Ye Wenyu’s palm “tiredly” and said weakly, “My neck is sore.”

Ye Wenyu obediently reached out with his other hand and massaged his neck and shoulders. “Anywhere else?”

“Mm.” Yan Chen said, “My chest feels stuffy too.”