CFHE Chapter 58

Fu Yuhan’s lips moved slightly.

 

Wen Yu had been watching him the whole time, so naturally didn’t miss his subtle expression change: “Thought of something?”

 

“…Not really.” Fu Yuhan’s eyes flickered, somewhat hesitant.

 

He had mentioned before wanting to take Wen Yu to play some things he might not have played before, but today he realized again that his attitude toward Wen Yu might occasionally cross some boundaries.

 

“Come on, say it.” Wen Yu’s attitude looked quite natural. He stood with his hands in his pockets, head tilted slightly to the right—a posture somewhere between “casual” and “relaxed.”

 

He wouldn’t have been this relaxed in crowded places before. He really was changing.

 

Fu Yuhan’s brow twitched, suspecting he might be too sensitive—Wen Yu was already so pitiful, yet he was still thinking about all sorts of things.

 

So he said: “I was thinking of asking if you want to see a movie.”

 

Wen Yu was stunned.

 

“Let me see what movies are showing recently. I haven’t been to a cinema in a while either.” Fu Yuhan acted on his words, taking out his phone to check the showtimes.

 

Not long after the National Day holiday period had passed, the current lineup was somewhat lacking. Apart from the tribute films that hadn’t finished their run yet, there weren’t many other exciting-looking movies. Fu Yuhan asked while browsing: “Do you have any particular type you want to see, or any type you especially don’t want to see?”

 

Wen Yu didn’t answer directly, instead asking back: “What do you usually watch?”

 

“I’m fine with anything, usually watch ones with high ratings.” Fu Yuhan swiped his finger across the screen a couple times, “But right now the two highest-rated ones are a tribute film and a romance film. Do you want to watch either?”

 

“Either is fine.” Wen Yu’s gaze lifted from Fu Yuhan’s phone to meet his eyes, “I haven’t seen any of them anyway.”

 

Fu Yuhan: “…”

 

When Wen Yu said things like this with such a calm gaze and calm tone, he always successfully made Fu Yuhan’s sympathy overflow.

 

He felt he was quite sick too. If Wen Yu really got possessed and cried to him, he would probably just want to laugh. But this kind of nonchalant attitude particularly got to him.

 

“…Then let me check the showtimes.” Fu Yuhan avoided his gaze and lowered his head.

 

Wen Yu’s eyes darkened. Taking advantage of the gradually descending night’s cover, he imperceptibly curved the corner of his lips.

 

He felt no guilt about this kind of thing.

 

Soft-hearted people were really cute.

 

That tribute film was about to finish its run. The nearest cinema to them had one more showing tonight, in about an hour. The romance film had more showtimes and better timing.

 

“So this one then?” Fu Yuhan showed him the time, “Are you sure you won’t fall asleep watching a romance film?”

 

Some boys didn’t watch this genre—Pi Qiu was one example—so Fu Yuhan specifically asked again.

 

Wen Yu shook his head: “I won’t.”

 

Who would get sleepy in front of someone they liked? Even if the movie was boring, he could still watch him.

 

As he spoke, he leaned his head over: “Is it okay to choose like this? I’ve never bought movie tickets before…”

 

Wen Yu casually tapped a position in the back row on the screen.

 

“…Bro, the last row has couple seats.” Fu Yuhan grabbed his phone back, canceled that position and selected two adjacent seats in the front, “What are we two doing in couple seats… I chose the row in front.”

 

Wen Yu felt a bit regretful. He said in a way that revealed more by trying to conceal: “I heard someone say last time that cinemas don’t have couple seats anymore?”

 

“Some cinemas don’t. Those seats aren’t very practical—only couples buy them, otherwise they just sit empty.”

 

“What’s the difference?”

 

“There’s no armrest in the middle.” Fu Yuhan thought he was genuinely curious, so he explained very carefully while gesturing, “The armrest between the two seats is gone, the chairs are closer together, so couples can cuddle while watching.”

 

“Oh…” Wen Yu pretended to suddenly understand, “And since it’s in the back row, wouldn’t no one know if they did anything?”

 

“…” Fu Yuhan looked at him, “What are you thinking about every day?”

 

What he’d been thinking about most recently was probably Fu Yuhan, but obviously he couldn’t answer that way.

 

“Thinking,” Wen Yu paused, picking a previous answer, “‘Let me see what boring antics these boring humans have gotten up to today’—”

 

Fu Yuhan slapped his shoulder: “Be human.”

 

Wen Yu let himself be knocked sideways by the hit and laughed softly: “Let’s go, let’s get a taxi.”

 

“Mm.”

 

Even though Fu Yuhan had to go to Fourth Brother’s place for photos early tomorrow morning, return to school for self-study in the afternoon, and might have to face all sorts of troublesome things, tonight he decided to let Wen Yu lead him astray once and properly watch a long-awaited movie.

 

Fu Yuhan was naturally sensitive, in other words he had strong empathy. Plus he liked drawing, so he paid attention to artistic highlights in films like color grading, cinematography, and composition. He had quite high acceptance for romance films.

 

However, he glanced at Wen Yu several times during the movie and found that he was also very focused.

 

That was good.

 

When taking someone to do something, the worst fear was that they weren’t actually interested. It was good that Wen Yu could get absorbed in it.

 

Thinking this way, Fu Yuhan again felt he was so pitiful. He clearly wasn’t picky about games or movies, was a very easy person to entertain, yet had never experienced these things in eighteen years.

 

His skill at claw machines was probably due to not having other things to play.

 

When they came out after the movie, it was already past nine o’clock. Wen Yu proactively asked: “Where else shall we go?”

 

“Let’s go home.” Fu Yuhan glanced at the time, “I have to go to Fourth Brother’s place early tomorrow morning.”

 

“Back to my place?”

 

“No need, I’ll go home to sleep. No one’s home today.” Fu Yuhan said, “I have to leave early in the morning, and if I wake you up you’ll throw a tantrum.”

 

After saying this, he was stunned himself.

 

Had they been getting close too naturally recently?

 

“I do have morning grumpiness, but when have I ever thrown a tantrum?” Wen Yu was amused by him, “If no one’s at your house… can I go to your place?”

 

“Are you really that bored by yourself?” Fu Yuhan said helplessly, “Why do you have to stick together?”

 

Wen Yu’s gaze shifted, pretending not to care: “Not really, I was just saying. Let’s go back, shall we walk back?”

 

“Didn’t you just say to take a taxi?”

 

“Thinking about it, it’s not that far,” Wen Yu said, “Keep me company for a walk.”

 

Fu Yuhan sighed helplessly.

 

The cinema was less than two kilometers from both their homes, walking back would only take about forty minutes.

 

Wen Yu didn’t say much on the way, the two maintained a half-person’s width distance as they slowly walked toward home.

 

The autumn atmosphere was getting heavier, the wind that blew carried a chill. The fallen leaves that had been specially swept to both sides of the road by sanitation workers were blown by the wind again, rolling far away with an empty sound.

 

When they reached the intersection where they had to part ways, Wen Yu’s steps paused, and he turned his head to look at him: “Well… see you at school tomorrow.”

 

“Mm.” Fu Yuhan nodded.

 

Farewells between boys didn’t have so many fancy ceremonies, the two each turned around. After taking three steps, Fu Yuhan suddenly remembered something and turned around to call out: “Yu-ge!”

 

Wen Yu turned back.

 

“Go to school early tomorrow, okay?” Fu Yuhan said, “We haven’t done any homework these past two days!”

 

His backpack had been left at school because of Wen Yu and he hadn’t brought it back.

 

Wen Yu was stunned: “What time?”

 

“Noon? I’ll contact you when I get back?”

 

Wen Yu didn’t need to do homework or go to school early, so to arrive early by noon, given his personality he would definitely set a condition.

 

“Then—”

 

He had just said one word when Fu Yuhan continued: “I know, I’ll have lunch with you.”

 

“…” Wen Yu turned his head and smiled.

 

He smiled for more than ten seconds before saying: “Okay, I got it. We’ll contact by phone tomorrow.”

 

Fu Yuhan waved his hand, turned around and left.

 

This time he really left.

 

But Wen Yu couldn’t move his feet. He stared blankly at Fu Yuhan’s retreating figure until the person turned a corner at the end of the street and could no longer be seen, only then did he withdraw his gaze.

 

He lowered his head and thought for a moment, then walked home.

 

Wen Yu was someone very used to living alone, because Wen Ziming had been so busy his feet didn’t touch the ground since before he was born, rarely coming home; his mother didn’t want to be a full-time housewife and had her own work, so she couldn’t always accompany him.

 

When Wen Yu was little, living alone in a three-story villa, he never felt the house was big. When he first moved here, he even thought the house might be a bit small. But unexpectedly, when he returned home today, he actually felt this room was empty.

 

Missing one person, it seemed a bit cold.

 

But at the end of October, turning on the floor heating seemed a bit excessive.

 

He changed into slippers at the entrance and stood quietly for a while. In the kitchen sink, the bowls and chopsticks they had used for dinner were still there waiting for the auntie to wash tomorrow. On the coffee table, the game console was still in sleep mode. Everything was telling him that Fu Yuhan hadn’t actually left that long ago.

 

Wen Yu suddenly laughed softly: “Crazy…”

 

He shook his head, as if mocking himself, then took out his keys and opened that tightly locked room door.

 

He locked the door as usual, found a small desk lamp to place on the low table and lit it up. However, just as he took out the broken Gundam that Fu Yuhan had given him, he suddenly realized his behavior was somewhat unnecessary.

 

“Why do I have to hide in here to do this,” Wen Yu thought, “Wen Ziming isn’t here.”

 

The one locking him up seemed to be himself—

 

After three seconds of silence, Wen Yu turned off the desk lamp.

 

He took the Gundam and his small toolbox to the living room, cleared a small space on the coffee table, and started working.

 

Broken plastic pieces couldn’t be restored to their original state, and a missed childhood couldn’t be made up for.

 

But the model could at least be glued together as meticulously as possible, even if the cracks might drive someone with OCD crazy; experiences that were never had could be experienced again, even if the happiness wasn’t so pure.

 

But the memories were new.

 

–

 

He worked all night, roughly restoring the Gundam to a standing position, but there were still a pile of small fragments that needed to be somehow attached.

 

God knows how tired Wen Yu was. When he was woken up by the phone, he almost cursed right away.

 

Until he saw the caller ID clearly.

 

“Wild Cat.”

 

“…” All the curses had to be swallowed back. Wen Yu answered the phone, “Hello?”

 

Fu Yuhan on the other end seemed stunned for a moment: “What happened to you last night again? Why is your voice so hoarse?”

 

Wen Yu cleared his throat before saying: “Nothing much, just went to bed late… couldn’t fall asleep early.”

 

“Insomnia? Drink some milk before bed next time.” Fu Yuhan said, “I’m on my way, do you want to get ready to wake up?”

 

“…” Wen Yu struggled between sleepiness and love for a moment, silently sighed, “Okay. Are you coming to find me?”

 

“Mm,” Fu Yuhan said, “I brought you food, see you in a bit?”

 

“See you in a bit.”

 

Wen Yu hung up the phone, frowned, painfully turned over, then sat up from the bed.

 

He stared blankly in the pitch-black bedroom for a few seconds, finally feeling he was barely awake.

 

The unfinished Gundam had to be hidden before Fu Yuhan arrived.

 

And also…

 

He thought for a moment, opened his phone’s contact list, and gave that “Wild Cat” that had been saved for a long time a new name.

 

——”Ready to Pick Up.”

 

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 (advanced chapters available on kofi)