HS Chapter 41

The movie ended. As the end credits rolled, Yang Liang stretched lazily and turned on the lights.

“Finally done. That was two and a half hours, I haven’t seen such a long movie in ages. So satisfying!”

Dong Xi asked, “How was it? It was pretty good, right?”

“It was awesome! Especially that final battle between humans and robots. High-tech, big scenes…eh?”

He noticed something and suddenly changed the subject, “Wenyu, why are your ears still so red? Is the ventilation still not enough?”

Ye Wenyu’s hand had been freed the moment the lights came on. His palm, which had just been tightly pressed a few minutes earlier, was now slightly sweaty and a bit sticky.

“I always react like this when watching movies,” he said. “Don’t worry about me, it’ll go down on its own.”

Yang Liang: “I see! It’s like how my heartbeat speeds up and I can’t help but go ‘da-da-da’ along with the machine guns when I watch war movies, right?”

Ye Wenyu nodded vaguely. “I’m going to wash my hands.”

After saying that, he stood up and wanted to go to the balcony, but forgot that he had to jump over Yan Chen, and his knee bumped into the latter’s thigh.

“Be careful.” Yan Chen steadied him and moved his leg out of the way so he could pass.

“Old Yang, let me ask you something,” Dong Xi said. “If you could customize a robot partner for yourself, what kind would you want?”

“Partner? I’ve never thought about it,” Yang Liang said. “Right now, my partner is our school’s swimming pool. Every time I see it, I can’t help but throw myself into its embrace. We have a deep affection.”

Dong Xi: “You don’t want a humanoid partner?”

Yang Liang: “That makes sense. Then I guess she should be shorter, whiter, sunny, and love sports. That way I can take her swimming with me.”

“Keep that to yourself, don’t ever say it out loud,” Dong Xi said. “Still swimming with her… Are you looking for a partner or a swimming buddy? Never mind. Wen Yu, what about you? What kind of partner would you want?”

Ye Wenyu had just plugged in his phone to charge. Influenced by Dong Xi, he blurted out, “Yan Chen teaches me how to swim.”

Dong Xi was stunned for a second, then laughed. “We know that, but I’m asking what kind of girlfriend you’d want to customize, not who you want to learn swimming from.”

Ye Wenyu had never thought about this question and subconsciously glanced at Yan Chen, who was also looking at him, waiting for his answer.

Under Yan Chen’s gaze, Ye Wenyu didn’t know why he suddenly felt guilty. He remembered how he once spent a long time trying to customize a satisfactory character in a game with Chi Dongting and still couldn’t get it right, so he shook his head. “The kind I like can’t be customized.”

“So unique?” Dong Xi laughed and to be fair, extended the question to everyone in the dorm. “Yan-ge, what about you?”

Ye Wenyu’s steps toward the balcony paused.

Soon, Yan Chen’s voice came from behind him. “Just someone who likes me is enough.”

“Off-topic, Yan-ge. You didn’t pay attention to the movie. Robots don’t understand what ‘like’ means…”

Ye Wenyu touched his ear and escaped the dorm under the cover of Yang Liang’s words.

Amidst the sound of water, he heard Yang Liang ask if Yan Chen would go play ball tomorrow afternoon, and also heard Yan Chen reply, “No time. I have something in the afternoon.”

Ye Wenyu knew that the so-called “something in the afternoon” was going to the library with him to work on his group assignment.

So the next day after his nap, he casually pulled out a translation workbook to pass off as the group assignment and brought it to the library.

Yan Chen didn’t return to the dorm at noon. He had sent a message in advance saying he had extra training and would be a bit late.

Ye Wenyu replied with “no rush”. After translating two pages, he twitched his nose slightly and caught a faint, familiar scent of body wash. He turned his head and saw Yan Chen sit down next to him.

It seemed like he had gone back to the dorm to shower after training before coming over.

“How much have you done?” Yan Chen asked.

Ye Wenyu: “About half.”

Yan Chen calculated the time. “That’s quite fast. It should be done this afternoon.”

Ye Wenyu saw him take out his phone to reply to messages and got worried that this hard-won afternoon of alone time would end up wasted, so he started racking his brain for a suitable topic.

“What did you do in training?”

Yan Chen: “500 meters.”

Ye Wenyu: “Swimming?”

Yan Chen: “Mm.”

Ye Wenyu: “That’s amazing…”

Just a few exchanges, and the conversation was already running dry.

Fortunately, the silence didn’t last long. Yan Chen took the initiative to ask, “Do you still want to learn?”

Ye Wenyu paused before realizing he was talking about swimming. He nodded, wanting to say he did, but hesitated as the words reached his mouth and lowered his head. “It’s too hard. For me, I don’t think I’ll be able to learn.”

“Learning is a process. It’s not something that happens overnight,” Yan Chen said lightly. “Swimming isn’t hard. It’s just a matter of time.”

Ye Wenyu wasn’t just afraid of annoying Yan Chen, but was also being realistic. “My stamina and endurance are both bad.”

Yan Chen: “Then practice more. A little each day, and you’ll build it up eventually.”

Ye Wenyu: “By swimming?”

“Any exercise will do,” Yan Chen said. “Swimming, running, hiking, or just something simple like playing ball.”

Ye Wenyu: “…”

All his thoughts were written in his eyes. Though subtle, Yan Chen could still tell at a glance. He curled his lips slightly and said, “Does it feel like it’s too much effort?”

Ye Wenyu’s neck turned red, but he still wanted to save some face for himself. “My schedule for junior year is packed, so there’s not much free time.”

Yan Chen’s smile deepened, but he didn’t expose the lie. “That’s true. I’ll think of an easy and effortless exercise that you can do sitting or lying down at home and still train stamina and endurance, then I’ll let you know when I come up with one.”

Ye Wenyu: “…Okay.”

He didn’t understand why, with so many topics to talk about, he had to pick one that exposed his shortcomings. Now he was embarrassed and still had to pretend to be calm.

He lowered his head and finished five translation questions in a row. By the time the heat on his face faded, a quiet study atmosphere had silently spread between the two of them.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Yan Chen looking at his phone. Probably to avoid disturbing his studying, the typing sounds that were there earlier were gone. When he said he’d accompany him, he really meant just sitting next to him and quietly accompanying him.

Ye Wenyu no longer had any hope in his ability to bring up a topic, so he simply went straight to the point and extended his hand

Yan Chen was reading the latest news when he suddenly saw a slender white hand enter his vision. He raised his head and Ye Wenyu looked at him and asked bluntly, “Do you want to play?”

Yan Chen couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

It wasn’t until after Ye Wenyu said it that he realized how weird it sounded. His throat was stuck for a while, and after a moment, he tried to explain, “You came to keep me company with homework. I can’t just let you sit there bored by yourself…”

Before he finished his explanation, the hand he extended in invitation had already been grasped.

Yan Chen asked, “Will I disturb your studying?”, but his hand was already rubbing and pinching him familiarly.

Ye Wenyu let out a sigh of relief and shook his head. “No.”

Their seats were in a corner against the wall on the top floor. There was still some time before finals, so the top floor hadn’t entered its busy season yet. A few people were sparsely scattered around, each occupying a zone of their own.

As Ye Wenyu selected the wrong answer for yet another question, he suddenly felt a weight in his palm.

His absent-mindedness found a destination.

He turned his head and saw Yan Chen leaning on the desk, both eyes resting in his palm as he fell asleep. The back of his hand was pressed to the desk, and in his palm lay Yan Chen’s relaxed brows and the faint sensation of his eyelashes.

Ye Wenyu’s breathing became disordered for a moment. He remembered that Yan Chen had come over right after extra training. After the high-intensity training in the morning and without taking a nap, it was natural for him to feel sleepy.

But he couldn’t describe this feeling.

The literature history teacher had once said that in literary character portrayals, the bowing of the strong and the stubbornness of the weak were the most commonly used contrasts. The more intense the conflict, the more moving it became.

He had never experienced it personally before, so he didn’t feel much when he heard this sentence, but now, he seemed to understand it a little.

The omnipotent Yan Chen, now simply resting his head in his palm, was enough to make a silent landslide collapse in his heart and scatter all over.

This should count as progress, right?

He thought restlessly. At least Chi Dongting didn’t need to worry that he was still stuck in place.

While he was thinking about Chi Dongting here, Chi Dongting was also thinking about him out there.

Before lunchtime, Yan Chen was called away by his teacher, and Chi Dongting excitedly asked him to go out to get a surprise. Ye Wenyu met him at the school gate and found out that the surprise was a basket of cherries in a shopping bag.

Chi Dongting: “I got them from my uncle’s company. He said they’re imported from Chile, they’re delicious! My mother took a bunch and couldn’t finish them. These have already been washed, so you can eat them straight away.”

Ye Wenyu thanked him, remembered what Chi Dongting said about needing to eat them soon, and planned to share them with the others when he got back. But when he entered the dorm, he only saw Yan Chen inside.

“Dong Xi and Yang Liang aren’t here?” he asked.

Yan Chen: “They went to the swimming hall.”

Ye Wenyu saw him taking his training uniform from the closet. “You’re going too?”

Yan Chen: “Yeah, I got a last-minute notice to record a regular score.”

He raised his arms, took off his shirt and was just about to grab the training uniform when his vision blurred, and a bright red cherry appeared before him.

Ye Wenyu: “I just went out. Xiao Chi gave these to me. He said they’re really sweet.”

The cherry was large, so dark red it was almost black, with droplets of water still clinging from the wash.

Ye Wenyu’s nails were clean and neatly trimmed. He twisted the round fruit with his fingertips, and the water stains flowed onto his hands. The contrast between soft pink-white and deep red was mouthwatering.

Yan Chen stared at it in silence for a moment, then opened his mouth and bit into the cherry from Ye Wenyu’s hand, his lips naturally brushing past his fingertips.

The soft, warm sensation passed in a flash, like an electric current, making Ye Wenyu’s eyelashes tremble. He stared obsessively, even forgetting to pull his hand back.

And when he saw a drop of cherry juice clinging to Yan Chen’s lips, he reached out to wipe it off as if possessed.

“Your lips are beautiful too…”

His finger pad brushed across the lower lip, pressing out a shallow curve. As Ye Wenyu murmured, he couldn’t help swallowing. His Adam’s apple rolled up and down, and his fingers curled slightly as if he was about to withdraw.

Unfortunately, before he could act, Yan Chen had already grabbed him tightly.

Those pitch-black eyes seemed even more silent and deep in that moment, staring directly at Ye Wenyu like a wolf locking onto prey.

Ye Wenyu’s breathing became disordered. The restraint on his hand didn’t bring fear. Instead, it brought an indescribable tension and even his throat felt dry.

“Wenyu, what do you want to do?”

Yan Chen looked at him, not missing a single micro-expression on his face. “Tell me, what do you want to do?”

Ye Wenyu didn’t speak, and Yan Chen didn’t give him much time to think either. “If you don’t want to say, then I’ll tell you what I want to do.”

“Do you remember when you helped me shower before? At that time, I asked you to leave…not because of anything else, but because if it had continued, I wouldn’t have been able to hold back.”

“Not just that time. When you helped me apply medicine and helped clean my tattoo. Every time you got close to me, do you know what I was thinking? I was thinking if I could have a bit more. I was thinking if I could have your hand touch every part of my body…”

Before he could finish speaking, his hand suddenly became empty.

Ye Wenyu’s fingertips brushed from the side of his ear down to his neck, then slid over his broad shoulder, circling back to his collarbone and slowly moving…

Everywhere they passed was a wildfire spreading, burning from the roots and eager to engulf this strong, vigorous body.

Ye Wenyu’s eyes were focused, as if he was doing something monumental. Finally, his fingers stopped just below the chest, and he pressed his whole palm against it.

“Like this?”

He looked up at Yan Chen. The latter, however, closed his eyes in the next second, his lips pursed tightly. He grabbed Ye Wenyu’s restless hand and squeezed it hard, then quickly let go, turned around and walked towards the bathroom without saying a word.

It was only a second, but the emotion burst out so clearly that for once, Ye Wenyu understood it.

His heart was beating wildly. His eyes widened slightly, and before his brain could react, his hand had already subconsciously reached out and grabbed Yan Chen’s arm.

“I’ll help you.”

His dry throat made speaking difficult. He looked at Yan Chen steadily. His messy breaths were full of timid hesitation, but the hand tightening its grip was surprisingly bold. “Yan Chen, I’ll help you.”

Voices from the hallway grew nearer. Dong Xi and Yang Liang, who were supposed to be waiting at the swimming hall, had returned for some unknown reason.

Yan Chen stared deeply at Ye Wenyu, then, as the key slid into the lock, swiftly pulled him into the bathroom.

Creak!

The dorm room door opened.

“I really can’t with you. You even managed to forget your swimming certificate. I reminded you right before we left.”

“I was too busy looking for my phone at that time. Hey, who left these cherries here?” Yang Liang sounded pleasantly surprised and wanted to eat some but was hesitant. “Was it Yan-ge or Wenyu?”

Dong Xi: “Probably Wenyu. Yan-ge didn’t even go out. Speaking of, where is Yan-ge?”

“He probably took another shortcut and didn’t run into us.” Yang Liang said, “If they’re Wenyu’s, then can I try one?”

Dong Xi: “Go ahead. It’s not like Wenyu would poison them. Maybe he left them out just for us to eat.”

Yang Liang: “Still, taking without asking is stealing. That’s not very polite. You’re not polite, and I’m just a little thief, hehe…”

Their chatter was blurred by a wall.

The wind from high above slipped into the bathroom through the window, and was instantly made hot by the steamy air inside, before drifting out in a daze along the way it came.

The beat in his palm matched the rhythm of his chest with miraculous accuracy. Ye Wenyu closed his eyes, and the heavy breath by his ear made his ears go weak.

His wrist quickly grew sore and trembling, but someone wouldn’t let him rest. The other party held his hand and forcefully guided the motion, the scorching heat seeping into his palm and burning straight into his bloodstream.

It was unknown how much time passed, but the rising temperature finally exploded and slowly began to settle. By then, the voices from the dorm had already faded with the closing of the door.

Ye Wenyu was panting slightly when he felt the weight on his shoulder disappear. He lifted his head in a daze and met a pair of eyes, burning with surging desire.

He was like a beast hunting in the night, lazily licking the scent of his prey from his claws and teeth after a satisfying meal. In the depths of his eyes was a darkness that could devour everything. Beneath that night, hid a momentary satisfaction and boundless greed.

Scorching, deep, dangerous…yet irresistibly alluring.

Ye Wenyu only looked for a second, and it felt like his soul was pulled out in that instant, drifting toward him helplessly.

He couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Yan Chen!” Like a mortal bewitched by a god, he threw his arms around the other party’s neck and every word he spoke was driven by instinct, “Be my boyfriend, okay?”