After finishing the talk about the shopping list with Yang Liang, Yan Chen chatted a bit more about changes to their training plans after returning to school. Ye Wenyu behind him finished off a small bunch of grapes alone, and just as he was about to start on a second, Yan Chen hung up the phone and pulled him from behind to his side.
Ye Wenyu was still feeling embarrassed. Afraid he’d bring up what had just happened, the first thing he did was stuff a grape into Yan Chen’s mouth.
Yan Chen bit into the sweet juice and smiled so much it even showed in his eyes.
He set his phone aside and pulled Ye Wenyu’s hand over. Somehow, he produced a small box and opened it…inside were two men’s wristwatches.
He fastened the slimmer one onto Ye Wenyu’s wrist, then put the other on himself. They were of the same style, but different skin tones made each look unique. Seeing them side by side gave off an indescribable intimacy.
Ye Wenyu was surprised. “When did you buy these?”
Yan Chen: “I actually brought a lot of film rolls.”
Ye Wenyu understood. So when they arrived at the Arc de Triomphe, the time Yan Chen slipped away wasn’t to buy film, it was to go back and pick up the watches.
“What made you want to buy this?”
Ye Wenyu meant, why suddenly give him a gift? But Yan Chen misinterpreted his question intentionally or unintentionally, “I originally wanted to buy something smaller.”
“?” Ye Wenyu didn’t get it.
Yan Chen gave his hand a squeeze. “After all, slipping it on a finger is more convenient than the wrist. But I was afraid you’d say no, so I’m just using this to satisfy a craving for now.”
Ye Wenyu’s gaze unconsciously followed his words from wrist to finger and even had a slow moment wondering what kind of watch gets worn on a finger.
The next second, Ye Wenyu understood and his expression froze. He looked up, met Yan Chen’s eyes, and quickly looked away like he’d been burned.
“I never said I wouldn’t agree.” Ye Wenyu gave a little cough and tried to look composed. “Just that… maybe it’s a bit early. I won’t turn 22 until August next year.”
Yan Chen: “Oh, so you mean once August next year hits, I can…”
Someone was getting greedy, but a grape ruthless shut him up.
Ye Wenyu’s neck quietly turned red. He shoved the fruit basket into Yan Chen’s arms. “It’s getting late. You finish the rest. I’m going to shower.”
After the sound of slightly messy footsteps, the bathroom door clicked shut. Yan Chen turned to face the balcony and raised his hand to admire the watch he’d just put on against the glittering lights outside.
‘August, August next year.’
‘Tsk. Why is it only January now?’
–
The New Year’s holiday ended, and the only thing left before the winter vacation was the final exam.
As the exams approached, whether it was the library or grad school classrooms, last-minute cramming squads could be seen everywhere. Night owls who normally stayed up late and slept in were suddenly transformed into diligent warriors, heading to the library in droves right after breakfast.
Third year students in the Foreign Languages Department had a lot of compulsory courses. Even a top student like Ye Wenyu couldn’t afford to waste the long review period before the break.
But it was just too crowded.
He woke up early two days in a row and still couldn’t find a single empty seat at the library.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t study in the dorm, it just had too many distractions.
Compared to the Foreign Languages Department, the Sports Department’s finals were much easier, with fewer books and fewer things to review. So Yang Liang and Dong Xi’s daily routine during the end-of-term period was to remain holed up in the dorm playing games nonstop, from the moment they opened their eyes to the moment they closed them, and it wasn’t an exaggeration at all.
When Ye Wenyu went to the library, they gamed freely. When he couldn’t go and had to study in the dorm, they would go completely silent, communicating only by typing.
Or they’d just carry their computers and chairs to a friend’s room next door for a gaming session. In short, they were very self-aware about not disturbing Ye Wenyu.
It was nice and considerate, model roommates even.
But it was exactly this kind of thoughtfulness that made Ye Wenyu feel immense pressure.
The dorm belonged to everyone, not just him. Why should the others have to give up their freedom to talk just because he needed to study?
Yan Chen saw all this and gladly made a suggestion: “Wenyu, let’s move out and live together.”
Ye Wenyu: “Move out?”
Yan Chen calmly weighed the pros and cons for him. “If we move out, you can focus on reviewing, and they can play games freely in the dorm. It’s a win-win.”
It really was a good idea. Ye Wenyu was very tempted and quickly agreed.
The other two roommates were completely unaware and it wasn’t until the luggage was almost packed that they finally realized what was going on. “You guys are moving out… to live together?”
Ye Wenyu: “…”
As a study-devoted top student, he hadn’t even considered this aspect.
And once it was phrased differently, everything suddenly felt a lot less pure, and sounded quite blush-inducing…
In contrast, Yan Chen was very calm: “Mm, Wenyu and I are moving out, so you guys can play games in the dorm without any worries.”
“No way? You’re moving out just because of that?”
Old Yang was simple minded, and looked genuinely guilty and innocent: “Don’t do that, even with you two here we can still go all out playing! It’s not suffocating at all, really! I really enjoy communicating with teammates through typing, it’s like returning to the basics. Why else do people say writing letters is more sincere than texting?”
Ye Wenyu hesitated: “But…”
Dong Xi quickly cut in: “But your keyboard goes clack-clack-clack, even typing will disturb others trying to study, haven’t you noticed?”
Yang Liang: “My keyboard is loud?”
Dong Xi: “Don’t wear headphones during tonight’s game, just listen for yourself and see if it’s noisy.”
“Eh, I really didn’t know.” Yang Liang scratched his neck. “It’s okay, I have a spare.”
Dong Xi clicked his tongue, hooked his arm around Yang Liang’s neck, and dragged him toward the balcony: “Spare what spare, just keep using the current one. It feels better to type on. Maybe the more you type, the more it’ll knock some sense into that iron skull of yours. Stop blocking the young couple from building their two-person world…”
The young couple successfully moved out to build their two-person world.
The day after they finished moving, that world welcomed an uninvited little guest… Tang Bao, the cat which had not appeared for awhile.
At the time, Ye Wenyu was sitting by the small round table in front of the floor-to-ceiling window reading, while Yan Chen sat across from him, figuring out how to use the remote to reorder the scrambled CCTV channels.
Tang Bao still remembered Ye Wenyu. After sneaking in through the side door from the corner, it scanned the room once and headed straight for Ye Wenyu, gracefully jumping onto his lap.
‘This cat is quite self-aware.’ Yan Chen tugged at the corner of his mouth. Just as he was about to say something, the doorbell rang.
Tang Bao’s owner was home on break. After lunch, he noticed the cat was missing and came looking for it. He was holding a badminton racket in his hand, clearly planning to hang out too.
Boys in their teens are noisy and full of energy. Yan Chen obviously couldn’t let him in to disturb his boyfriend’s study session, so to keep Tang Bao, he could only sacrifice himself and go outside to play with the boy.
Long periods of looking down were bad for the cervical spine, so after calculating the time, Yan Chen asked the boy to wait and went in to call Ye Wenyu out to the yard to get some fresh air and loosen up a bit.
Ye Wenyu’s athletic ability was average, but he had to admit that playing badminton with Yan Chen felt very comfortable.
A true master does not necessarily need to knock down the opponent at the beginning of the game, but to control the situation with ease. No matter how bad Ye Wenyu’s return shots were, Yan Chen could always catch them and hit them back at the easiest angle and strength.
Ye Wenyu now understood why the boy brought rackets when coming to retrieve a cat.
A little after four in the afternoon, the boy left with his parents to visit his grandma. The cat was left at Yan Chen’s place and would be picked up after dinner.
The vegetables in the fridge were fresh and there was still time, so there was no rush to cook.
Yan Chen finally got the channels ordered right. Despite the wide sofa, he insisted on dragging a chair over to sit next to Ye Wenyu. Even if he wasn’t doing anything, he was happy just to stay by his side.
The sun gradually dipped toward the horizon in the West. When Ye Wenyu looked up, the person sitting across from him had already fallen asleep on the table.
Yan Chen’s face was tilted toward the balcony. From Ye Wenyu’s angle, he could only see the closed lashes beneath the brow bone and the tall bridge of his nose.
The cat in his arms was also asleep, with its head tucked in and tail wrapped around, curled into a perfect little cat pancake.
One big and one small were unexpectedly harmonious.
Ye Wenyu poked the cat’s paw. Tang Bao lazily opened its paw like a blooming flower, showing off its neatly trimmed claws.
Ye Wenyu looked up, and on a whim, reached out to poke Yan Chen’s paw too.
The latter naturally turned his hand over and held his.
Ye Wenyu was stunned and tilted his head slightly. He found that Yan Chen still had his eyes closed, and was breathing slowly and evenly, as if still asleep.
The corners of his pursed lips curved into a soft smile, and he lowered his head to continue reading, but he never pulled back the left hand that was warmly wrapped in the other person’s palm.
When a young couple lives together alone, sparks are everywhere and there are landmines everywhere. A single misstep and it’d be gunfire erupting from every angle.
Especially since they both had their own little quirks. Sometimes a single look or an unintentional brush of the hand was enough to ignite a fire that burned from the tailbone all the way up to the top of the head.
Of course, Ye Wenyu also had moments of passion and confusion, but every time, Yan Chen managed to grit his teeth and hold back. Even when the arrow was on the string, he never went through with it.
After several times, Ye Wenyu was confused. One night, after Yan Chen came out of a half-hour cold shower, he finally couldn’t hold it in and asked, “Why?”
Yan Chen’s answer completely caught him off guard: “It would delay your revision.”
Ye Wenyu fell silent for a long time. “It’s not like my schedule is so tight I can’t spare even a few hours.”
Yan Chen was also quiet. After a while, he said, “But once we cross that line, it won’t be just a few hours anymore.”
Ye Wenyu: “…”
Yan Chen: “…”
Before the smoke could rise from the top of his head, Ye Wenyu pulled the blanket over and wrapped himself up completely. His muffled voice came out from under the covers: “Sleep when you’re calm, good night.”
The break for revision passed both quickly and slowly. After the final exam, a group of students who had been cramming at the last minute finally ushered in their long-awaited winter holiday.
Ye Wenyu was the last one in Dorm 508 to finish exams. As soon as he was done, Yang Liang couldn’t wait to organize a dinner, under the noble pretext of celebrating everyone’s escape from the sea of suffering, and also to have a “New Year’s Eve dinner” before everyone left for home.
After all, there were less than 20 days left until the New Year.
They had a quick discussion and decided there was no better time than the present, so they booked a table that very night at a restaurant that served rustic Jianghu-style dishes.
It wasn’t just the four of them from the dorm attending this New Year’s dinner. Classmate Xiao Chi and Dong Xi’s girlfriend, Lianlian, were coming too.
Considering Lianlian was a girl, and since no one planned to drink until they passed out tonight, Yang Liang ordered the lowest-alcohol cocktails in various fruit flavors that could pretty much pass as soft drinks.
When the drinks were served, Ye Wenyu specifically picked up a bottle to take a look. The highest alcohol content was only 20%.
Good. Having a few more drinks tonight shouldn’t be a problem.
