WAYCAV Chapter 34

“Do you know where Shen Nianjing’s house is?”

Su Zhiyan asked with a cold face.

Wen Bei spat out a mouthful of water and started coughing from choking, “Cough, cough! You want to go to his house to find him?”

Su Zhiyan silently threw down the tissues from the bed organizer, “Yeah.”

Wen Bei: “…”

He stared in shock as the tissues hit him in the face.

This was called not fighting?

“I don’t know, but the counselor should know.” He wiped his chin and observed Su Zhiyan’s expression, “But it would be weird for you to ask the counselor, and she won’t tell you anyway. It’s her job to protect students’ privacy.”

Su Zhiyan leaned lazily against the bed, “Then call Shen Nianjing first and see if he’ll answer you.”

Yesterday, he had even tried contacting Shen Nianjing through a friend he wasn’t very familiar with, but got no results either.

Now unless something huge happened, there was basically no way to drag him out of his house.

Instead of waiting for him to come out, it was better to go directly.

Wen Bei doubtfully made a voice call to Shen Nianjing.

A minute later, the call was automatically hung up.

Wen Bei almost dropped his jaw, his voice trembling, “S-Su Zhiyan.”

“Hmm?” Su Zhiyan tossed the doll in his hands and glanced at him.

“Did something happen to Shen Nianjing?”

Wen Bei’s imagination ran wild as he shuddered violently, his expression horrified. “He said there was something at home, but his family… logically speaking, nothing big should happen.”

His voice trembled, “If anything happened, it could only be him.”

Wen Bei’s eyes widened in terror, his upper and lower lips couldn’t help trembling, like he’d seen a ghost.

Su Zhiyan frowned, “What do you mean?”

He thought Shen Nianjing had only disappeared because of those two people appearing at the mall, but from what Wen Bei was saying, it seemed there was more to the story?

“He took a year off from school before because his father died. I only found out about this when I casually asked while we were playing basketball.”

“If something happened to his mom or younger brother, he definitely wouldn’t just ask for three days off, so it can only be him!”

Su Zhiyan’s mind went blank with a boom. He remembered when they ran into Fang Yu in the cafeteria before. That idiot had blabbered nonsense on and on, and at the time, Su Zhiyan had only thought he was someone who had no sense of boundaries and was obsessed with prying into others’ privacy.

Now…

Su Zhiyan’s lips curled into a cold smile.

He should have ruined Fang Yu’s reputation even more back then. Now just being coldly mocked and rejected by people at the college was really letting him off easy.

After Wen Bei finished speaking, he saw Su Zhiyan’s cold expression and shuddered again, “Y-your expression makes it feel like whatever happened to Shen Nianjing was your doing.”

Su Zhiyan: “…”

What nonsense! This was a law-abiding society in the new era of socialism! The only ones not bound by laws were ghosts!

“It’s probably not as scary as you think.” He pressed down on the doll’s head and thought for a moment, “If something happened to him, five days wouldn’t be… enough time either.”

“Maybe he’s just in a bad mood,” he said.

While comforting Wen Bei with his words, Su Zhiyan’s own heart sank.

He tugged at the rabbit ears in his hands, feeling a heaviness and irritation in his heart that he couldn’t quite describe.

He had thought Shen Nianjing came from a single-parent family since childhood, but it turned out…

That night, after the lights were out, Su Zhiyan hid under his blanket and opened his chat history with Shen Nianjing.

There were more than ten messages he had sent over the past few days.

The faint light from his phone illuminated his face as he pressed his lips together and typed.

[S: Is it necessary to go offline for so many days?]
[S: Peeking.jpg]

After waiting ten minutes, there was still no reply.

Su Zhiyan steeled his heart and closed his eyes.

Whatever! See you in my dreams, you idiot!

But annoyed as he was, he still needed to find him.

When Su Zhiyan woke up, he felt like his eyelids were heavy enough to be used as weights. If he didn’t see Shen Nianjing soon, he’d probably die from exhaustion before anything could happen to Shen Nianjing.

“Why are you so insistent on finding him? Won’t you see him on Monday anyway?” Wen Bei couldn’t understand why he was determined to go out despite looking so tired.

“There are some things I need to explain to him.” Su Zhiyan held the milk bottle with one hand and weakly put on his jacket.

“Did the counselor really tell you where his house is?”

Su Zhiyan frowned, looking troubled, “No, I didn’t go ask.”

“Then you—” Wen Bei gripped the bed rail, his eyes full of confusion.

“Doesn’t he live not far away? I roughly know which direction.”

He had seen Shen Nianjing coming from that direction during their morning runs before. He said his house was about two kilometers away from there, so Su Zhiyan had narrowed it down to two residential complexes.

“Then what, go door to door looking?” Wen Bei suspected he must still be asleep.

How could Su Zhiyan do something so brainless???

“Of course not,” Su Zhiyan held up his phone, showing his chat page with Shen Nianjing.

“I plan to get within two hundred meters of their residential complex, then send a location pin and keep sending it until he reacts.”

He always did things logically and efficiently. This kind of brainless behavior was just to bluff Shen Nianjing and see if he’d believe it, but from Shen Nianjing’s perspective, Su Zhiyan must definitely have his home address figured out or he wouldn’t be coming to his door like this.

Wen Bei was stunned and didn’t speak for a long time, just staring at the screen with his mouth open in surprise, like he could fit a whole light bulb in there.

Su Zhiyan held up his phone, “What’s wrong?”

Wen Bei looked at Su Zhiyan hesitantly, “Are you… sure you two aren’t dating?”

How did this topic come up again!!

Su Zhiyan couldn’t help rolling his eyes, feeling genuinely speechless.

“If you think we’re dating then—” He put away his phone and casually glanced at it.

His words stopped abruptly.

He stared wide-eyed at the chat window.

It showed several messages Shen Nianjing had sent him two minutes ago.

[Dreamcatcher: Sends location]
[Dreamcatcher: My mom made too many dumplings yesterday. If you need to find me for something, just come to my house]
[Dreamcatcher: Help me finish them]
[Dreamcatcher: Puppy begging.jpg]

Su Zhiyan: “………………”

He stared silently at those lines of text, his expression very complicated.

After a long while, he frowned slightly, his face showing a very interesting expression.

“That bastard.”

He muttered and walked out the door.

–

The early November air already carried winter’s chill. Su Zhiyan wrapped himself in a coat and took a taxi from the school gate following the location pin.

A University was in the busy downtown area, surrounded by many lively alleys and residential areas. Watching people coming and going to buy groceries and food in the early morning, he felt for the first time that downtown areas weren’t just about being lively.

There was a strong human presence, very full of life.

The term “human presence” was something Shen Nianjing had told him last week.

“I’m saying your house is always empty. Isn’t Yaoyao too lonely at home by herself? Even the housekeeper only comes in the afternoon.”

“You should go home more often, otherwise your house has no ‘human presence’ at all.” Shen Nianjing lifted his chin slightly, expressing helplessness at Su Zhiyan as an older brother.

“What’s ‘human presence’?” Su Zhiyan didn’t understand what he meant at all, “If there’s no ‘human presence’, does that mean there’s ‘ghost presence’?”

Shen Nianjing never expected him to say that, and laughed for a long time at Su Zhiyan’s handsome face full of confusion.

“Besides, she lives at school and only comes home two days a week. She has so many friends at school, she won’t be lonely.”

Shen Nianjing’s laughter faded as he stared at Su Zhiyan for a moment.

“Hey,” he suddenly spoke up.

“Hmm?”

“Were your parents often not home when you were little?” Shen Nianjing lay on the desk with his face turned toward Su Zhiyan, his gaze falling on Su Zhiyan’s clear and bright face, gentle as if it were a feather.

“They were both very busy with work.” Su Zhiyan looked down at his materials, “Besides, family members don’t need to see each other often. It’s not like you stop being family if you don’t see each other for a few days.”

Su Zhiyan’s dad was a senior engineer and his mom was a professor at C University. Both were rarely home and both were very ambitious, so under their influence, Su Zhiyan had found his life path early and never had moments of confusion.

Shen Nianjing watched him for a while without speaking.

Su Zhiyan sat by the window, sunlight casting soft outlines on his features. His quiet appearance as he looked down revealed a faint sense of loneliness.

Shen Nianjing turned his head and said softly, “No wonder.”

“What?” Su Zhiyan didn’t catch what he said.

Shen Nianjing shook his head and smiled gently, “Nothing.”

Outside the car window, the lively crowds filled the streets with laughter. The vibrant scene reflected in Su Zhiyan’s eyes.

He leaned his head lightly against the car window, remembering Shen Nianjing’s smile that day.

He always felt like Shen Nianjing had something to say but didn’t say it.

But he felt it probably wouldn’t have been anything nice.

That bastard’s mouth hadn’t produced any pleasant words so far. He had completely abandoned the beautiful subtlety of Chinese language and culture.

“…”

Whatever, Su Zhiyan couldn’t help but smile. When it came to the art of language, he wasn’t much better either.

Before even reaching the residential complex, he could already see Shen Nianjing’s figure by the flower bed along the road. Tall and lanky with long arms and legs, he was hard to miss.

This guy didn’t seem afraid of the cold at all, standing there in just a black shirt with his hands in his pockets, swaying in the wind and drawing quite a few stares.

Su Zhiyan: “…” Suddenly, he didn’t feel like walking over there anymore for some reason.

“Why so slow, Mr. Handsome Su? I’ve been waiting for you for half an hour.” When Shen Nianjing saw Su Zhiyan get out of the car, he walked over and widened his eyes slightly, “You even bought flowers and fruit?”

Su Zhiyan looked at his hands, holding yellow roses in one hand and a fruit gift box in the other, “It’s my first time visiting your house. I couldn’t come empty-handed.”

So when they passed the market, he had the driver stop and went shopping for some things himself.

Shen Nianjing took the bouquet and fruit. The cluster of orange-yellow was very eye-catching, breaking through some of the grayish dullness of autumn and winter and adding a bright touch.

He smiled.

“People who don’t know would think you’re visiting someone in the hospital.”

Su Zhiyan touched his nose, also feeling like he’d had a sudden brain malfunction, “Just pretend I came to visit you.”

Shen Nianjing looked at him with a faint smile on his face.

Su Zhiyan’s ears felt inexplicably hot, and he couldn’t help complaining internally.

Why wasn’t Shen Nianjing letting him into the complex quickly? This guy was thick-skinned and not afraid of the cold, but he was.

He looked up and met Shen Nianjing’s gaze. The other’s phoenix eyes were bright, containing some emotion he couldn’t understand. Su Zhiyan frowned slightly and looked down again.

What was he staring at? Let’s go already.

Su Zhiyan was unusually flustered and uncomfortable, burying his face in his sweater collar until only his beautiful nose bridge and eyes were visible.

Thank goodness for turtlenecks, thank goodness Wen Bei checked the weather forecast this morning, thank goodness he didn’t have a brain fart and wear a hoodie today…

“Su Zhiyan.”

While he was randomly giving thanks in his head, Shen Nianjing suddenly spoke with a seriousness and gravity he’d never had before.

Su Zhiyan stopped and looked up.

Shen Nianjing was looking at him gently, “I’ve decided.”

The rich, vivid rose petals swayed in the wind, their colors crashing boldly into his eyes.

Su Zhiyan tilted his head. Decided what?

“I won’t hide from anyone anymore.”

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