On the afternoon of the competition, the swimming hall was unexpectedly lively.
Originally, it was just a small internal trial match within the department, with no public promotion. No one knew how people from other departments got the news. It was one thing if they just dropped by after class, but many even skipped class to join in the fun.
The place was buzzing with voices, and the echo from the environment made it even noisier and Ye Wenyu’s ears were ringing from the commotion. If it weren’t for Yan Chen, he would’ve left long ago.
There were only two rounds in the competition. The top four from the preliminaries would go directly to the finals, where the champion and runner-up would be decided.
Yan Chen, having ranked first in the preliminaries, entered the finals without suspense.
After a short break, the four finalists took their places. With the referee’s gunshot, four agile figures leapt into the water at the same time.
By the time the splashing white water dispersed, they had already swum several meters ahead.
Yan Chen’s body, full of explosive power, moved freely through the water, rising and diving, from start to the far end, then turning back to the finish without any slowing down in his speed.
The gap widened further and further. As expected, he took first place again without any suspense.
Sports competitions undoubtedly stir up the most excitement in people, and deafening cheers rang out.
Even though Ye Wenyu had expected the result, he couldn’t help being moved. Watching Yan Chen touch the wall first, his heartbeat couldn’t calm down for a long time.
“Damn damn damn how can he be so handsome? I’m speechless.”
“I can never resist the explosive moment of a sports student. Hormones are through the roof!”
“Why can’t men’s abs be copied and pasted? I don’t mean anything else ..never mind, no need to sugarcoat it, I can’t take my boyfriend’s pale chicken body anymore.”
…
Ye Wenyu subconsciously looked at Yan Chen’s abdomen that was still glistening with water. It was clean and smooth, with no trace of those stickers.
All those hidden secrets had been left behind in the sunlight of that afternoon.
The competition ended quickly, but the audience’s enthusiasm hadn’t faded and the crowd in the venue didn’t thin out for a long time.
It was not until after the small-scale award ceremony fitting for a small match ended that the excitement gradually cooled down, just like the ripples in the pool slowly settling.
It was finally quiet. The distracting noisy chatter was gone, but one by one, the delicate, tangled thoughts started to wrap around his heart again.
Ye Wenyu clenched his palm hard, then stood up and walked into the hall.
“Yan-ge! Awesome! As steady as ever!”
After coming down from the podium, Yang Liang was the first to rush over cheerfully: “And who would’ve thought the teacher even prepared medals? A gold medal, a gold medal! Beautiful!”
Dong Xi gave him a sideways glance: “Wake up. It’s not a real gold medal. It was probably just bought from some stationery shop outside, just a little something to hand out as encouragement.”
“So what if it’s not real gold?”
Yang Liang shouted, “The symbol of honor can’t be measured by money! I haven’t even gotten one from a stationery shop… I’m so jealous.”
“Jealous?”
Ye Wenyu walked over just in time to hear Yan Chen’s emotionless counter-question.
Yang Liang; “It’s a gold medal, of course I’m jealous.”
“Is that so?” Yan Chen picked up a dry towel and began drying his hair. “But I’m more jealous of the silver one.”
“Huh?” Yang Liang was confused. He glanced at the runner-up not far away. It was a boy from the next class over, who was now cheerfully hanging his newly-won silver medal around his girlfriend’s neck.
It was justified and aboveboard.
Ye Wenyu saw it too, but didn’t understand, only guessing that maybe Yan Chen thought the silver medal looked prettier.
“Whatever, gold or silver, I’m jealous either way.”
Yang Liang waved his hand, then moved on to the real point of interest: “So where are we going to celebrate tonight? I’ve been craving barbecue for a long time.”
Yan Chen: “Whatever.”
“Then barbecue it is.”
As they spoke, Dong Xi tilted his head and finally noticed Ye Wenyu standing in the back. He warmly invited, “Hey Wenyu, do you want to come out for dinner tonight? We’re celebrating Yan-ge’s gold medal.”
Yan Chen heard it too. He pulled down his towel and looked over. A few strands of his half-dry hair hung loosely over his forehead, a subtle mist swirling in his eyes. His eyes were unreadable, but they clearly held the same meaning as Dong Xi: waiting for his reply.
Ye Wenyu felt guilty and looked away the moment their eyes met.
He could hold back his words, but he was afraid that even if his mouth was shut, some wild thoughts might leak out through his eyes.
“Wenyu.”
Yan Chen called his name.
The sound seemed to go into a different ear canal. Other people’s voices entered his ears, but only his felt like it melted into his veins and nerves, reaching even the tip of his heart and making it resonate.
He quietly looked at Ye Wenyu, using a tone so gentle that Ye Wenyu couldn’t refuse: “Do you want to come with us?”
…
There were quite a number of participants in the competition, and even more when it came to joining in the celebration. In the end, it added up to more than a dozen people.
With so many, things naturally got noisy. After finishing the meal, no one wanted to leave. After some discussion, they headed to a nearby KTV. The lobby was filled with flashing lights and alcohol, and the hallways echoed with wailing. It was not the kind of place Ye Wenyu liked. Fortunately, Yan Chen stayed by his side the whole time.
A group of people from the sports department had already had a round of drinks at the barbecue restaurant. Since they weren’t familiar with Ye Wenyu, no one dared to pressure him into drinking, and Ye Wenyu luckily escaped unscathed.
But sports students always had a bit of enthusiasm and were easy going. Add some alcohol, a little urging, and the social butterfly syndrome kicked in. Once the drinks arrived, it didn’t matter if they were familiar or not…they grabbed whoever was nearby and poured away.
Ye Wenyu couldn’t fend off the enthusiastic pressure and ended up drinking two glasses. The fruity cocktail soaked his tongue and slid down his throat. It was both cold and spicy, with the sweet fizz lingering in every breath.
But when the third glass came, he didn’t get the chance to drink it.
Yan Chen naturally helped block it for him, raised his glass in a toast, then tilted his head back and finished it in one go.
Then came the fourth, the fifth, the sixth…
There were only three microphones in the room. Those who didn’t grab one had nothing to do, and not wanting to play the childish spinning wheel game, they resorted to drinking instead…plus randomly grabbing people to drink and mess around with.
With this kind of alcohol, Ye Wenyu could only handle three glasses at most. Using himself as a comparison, he naturally assumed Yan Chen could only handle two.
But now it was already way beyond two.
“You don’t have to block for me anymore.” He tugged on Yan Chen’s sleeve to stop him. Fortunately, they had chosen a seat in the farthest corner from the start, so the small gestures weren’t easily noticed.
Yan Chen turned his face slightly to look at him.
The light, refracted by the alcohol, cast a gorgeous, colorful glow on the sharp contours of his face…so good-looking it could dazzle the eyes.
Ye Wenyu unconsciously tightened the fingers hooked around the fabric of his sleeve.
Yan Chen asked him, “Do you want to drink it yourself?”
Ye Wenyu was about to say no, when he saw Yan Chen tilt his head back and finish the glass in his hand.
“I’m your temporary guardian tonight.”
Yan Chen put the glass down and looked at him, lips curved in a lazy arc. “Xiao Ye only has the freedom for two drinks tonight.”
Ye Wenyu was stunned by the “Xiao Ye”, and his earlobes felt like they had been gently zapped. It took him a long time to remember to ask, “Why?”
Yan Chen: “Three-glass is your limit. Two is already lenient.”
Ye Wenyu wanted to argue that he could handle more than three, but just as the words reached his mouth, he felt like something else would make a stronger point: “Your tolerance isn’t that great either, and you’ve drunk this much.”
His brows were slightly knitted together and he looked serious, but in Yan Chen’s eyes, he was just inexplicably cute. In the deafening noise of the terrible singing, every word he spoke sounded like he was acting coquettish.
Yan Chen narrowed his eyes, held back for a second but couldn’t resist anymore. He reached up and gently touched the corner of Ye Wenyu’s eye with the back of his finger. “It’s not great, but more than enough to block for you.”
Ye Wenyu hadn’t realized he had subconsciously become used to this kind of contact with him. He was about to say something when the door of the private room to his right was pushed open from the outside, and half a head popped in.
Yang Liang was holding a microphone and facing the door. When he saw the person, he spoke into the mic, amplified through the speaker: “Hello, hello, who are you looking for?”
Right after that, the person outside pushed the door open and came in. It was a short-haired girl, with a round face that made her look quite cute when she smiled.
Dong Xi turned the volume down a bit.
The short-haired girl: “Sorry to bother you. We’re having a birthday party next door. I lost a game and had to come over to find a classmate to sing a duet with me. Is that okay?”
People the same age were always easy to talk to. Not to mention, a girl showing up in a room full of boys only made them instinctively want to show their friendliness.
“Of course, of course, why wouldn’t it be?”
“Take your pick, pick anyone you want!”
“What are we singing? I’m the king of songs, I know everything.”
“Me too! I volunteer, I volunteer!”
The girl didn’t say anything. Her gaze rolled around the room, and when it landed on Yan Chen, her eyes lit up like someone had just turned on a flashlight.
Ye Wenyu pressed his lips into a straight line and that inexplicable tightness in his chest reappeared.
There were a few more people crowding around the doorway, probably from the birthday party next door, here to supervise the punishment.
The girl kept her eyes on Yan Chen and smiled sweetly: “Gege, you probably heard what I just said. Can you do me a little favor?”
Yan Chen lifted his eyelids and looked at her, and said in a cold voice. “No. Find someone else.”
The girl: “But they said I could pick anyone I want, and I’ve picked you now.”
Ye Wenyu lowered his eyes and stared at the half-finished bottle of alcohol in front of him, suddenly wanting to take a couple more gulps.
Yan Chen looked expressionlessly at the person who had made such a careless promise.
The boy scratched his head awkwardly and changed his tune: “Sorry, classmate, I got a little carried away. I guess not everyone is okay with it… I don’t really have the final say. It’s better to ask the person directly.”
“Oh, alright then.” The girl was straightforward. “Then I’ll ask now. Gege, can I trouble you to sing a song with me?”
The singing had stopped. Only the background music from the instrumental track remained in the room. No one spoke.
Yang Liang’s calves tensed up from nervousness and he felt secondhand embarrassment for the girl. Half his drunkenness sobered up, and he poked Dong Xi hard in the back.
Dong Xi turned around and clicked his tongue at him, then heard Yan Chen’s cold voice speak again: “I said no.”
The atmosphere dropped to freezing point.
The people at the door looked at each other, and the short-haired girl’s expression also froze for a moment.
But fortunately, she was thick-skinned and quickly smiled again. With a relaxed shrug, she said, “Alright, I won’t force it. I’ll pick someone else.”
Her gaze shifted, and this time she noticed Ye Wenyu sitting in the darkest corner of the room. Her eyes lit up again.
But before she could even open her mouth, the boy who had just rejected her without negotiation looked at her again.
The dark pupils devoid of emotion carried a sense of coldness and indifference, like a beast guarding its territory, full of warning.
The short-haired girl felt a chill run through her mind.
The next second, she suddenly seemed to realize something. Without even a second’s pause, she decisively turned and found the boy who had made the empty promise earlier. “Classmate, would you help me out?”
It was a rare male-female duet in a room full of boys…whether it sounded good or not, wasn’t it exciting just for the novelty?
The crowd started cheering and clapping. Some enthusiastic ones even adjusted the lights to the darkest and most atmospheric setting. The multicolored disco balls flickered, dazzling the eyes.
But none of it could lift Ye Wenyu’s mood.
Two glasses of alcohol, and just one away from three, were enough for the alcohol to start spreading through his body. It wasn’t enough to get him drunk, but it more or less began to affect rational thinking.
In his mind, he kept replaying the short-haired girl’s eyes lighting up when she saw Yan Chen, and how she had cast aside everyone else and resolutely chosen him in that moment.
Even though it was only their first meeting.
Yan Chen always drew attention. No matter where he went, no matter what he did, or even if he was just sitting there doing nothing, he could easily attract people’s attention.
Whether it was swimming, playing ball, or even during the most ordinary training, even in places where he couldn’t be seen, people were constantly singing his praises.
That should have been a good thing, Ye Wenyu’s rational side thought so.
But emotionally, he couldn’t be happy. Too many people were coveting Yan Chen.
“Not happy anymore?” Yan Chen called his half-lost soul back.
Ye Wenyu lifted his eyes and only then did he realize that at some point, his gaze had been stuck firmly on Yan Chen’s face.
“No,” he seemed to hear himself answer.
But whether Yan Chen hadn’t heard or just didn’t believe it, he simply stared at him steadily and asked, “Why aren’t you happy?”
Ye Wenyu still wanted to say he wasn’t unhappy, but a faint mint scent quietly slipped into his nose and slowly trapped him.
He’d been drinking orange-flavored alcohol. The mint scent…was Yan Chen’s.
His eyes became glued to Yan Chen’s face without any concealment, inching down bit by bit until they stopped at his lips. In a moment of daze, broken fragments of memory flashed across his mind like an old TV screen.
He seemed to have leaned in and sniffed.
Sniffed what kind of alcohol was on those lips.
Was he the only one who had smelled it?
Was he the only one allowed to, or could others do it too, if they wanted?
His thoughts fell into a subtle, unpleasant dead end. Dissatisfaction, confusion, longing, desire… a tangle of chaotic thoughts twisted into one, and he wanted to smell it again.
Or maybe, not just smell it.
“Do your words count?” he suddenly asked out of nowhere.
Yan Chen: “What?”
“Do the things you’ve said count?”
Ye Wenyu’s voice was very low, but he spoke seriously: “I still remember the grudge. You bit me.”
Yan Chen gave a definite reply: “They count. I said you could bite back anytime.”
Ye Wenyu: “Anytime?”
Yan Chen gave a quiet hum, his gaze never leaving Ye Wenyu’s face, his low tone coaxing and teasing: “Someone wants to bite back now?”
Ye Wenyu didn’t say a word.
The duet had reached its climax, the two singers’ sudden high notes strained to the breaking point, and the cheap mic with poor sound quality was barely holding on.
The demon-like noise filled the ears, and in the chaos of flickering lights, everything sounded like static.
Yan Chen’s head throbbed. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and was about to close his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose when the hand he had just begun to lift was pressed back down onto his knee as someone held his forearm.
A very soft “yes” floated lightly through the noise and tapped against his eardrum.
The person beside him suddenly leaned in, carrying the fermented orange scent of alcohol, and clumsily, recklessly bit down on the corner of his lips.
