‘Touching?’
‘You could… you could even touch?’
Ye Wenyu, as the one who asked the question, was the one stunned instead.
All along, his feelings had stayed at the level of visual admiration, and he felt that was already enough to satisfy him. He had never thought about taking it a step further.
No, it wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about it…it was that it had never even occurred to him.
Yan Chen’s suggestion made his mind go blank for a moment, and he didn’t know how to respond.
“It shouldn’t be necessary…” he hesitated to give this answer, not even sure himself.
“Forget it.” He looked down, a little deflated. “I was just saying it casually, you don’t have to take it seriously.”
Yan Chen: “It’s just a casual remark?”
Ye Wenyu nodded.
Yan Chen: “Not because you feel like you can’t explain it to me?”
“?” Ye Wenyu was confused.
Yan Chen leaned forward, his arms resting on his knees as he looked at him. “I’m twenty-two, probably a bit older than you, but it shouldn’t be to the point of a generation gap.”
“I’m twenty-one,” Ye Wenyu answered subconsciously, then reacted and looked puzzled. “Why are you suddenly bringing this up?”
Yan Chen: “Nothing, I just wanted to tell you that if there’s anything you want to ask or say, you can just say it directly. Don’t be afraid I won’t get it.”
Ye Wenyu didn’t understand why Yan Chen suddenly brought up this topic.
He was about to ask when someone on the basketball court suddenly called out to Yan Chen, “Yan-ge, are you coming or not?”
Ye Wenyu had almost forgotten that the other party was playing basketball, and he’d sat here delaying him for so long.
“You go,” Ye Wenyu stood up. “I’m heading back. If there’s any problem with the assignment tonight, you can send me a message anytime. I’ll be…”
As spoke, Yan Chen casually rubbed his own hair and stood up as well. He then inadvertently noticed something seemed stuck to the corner of Yan Chen’s forehead.
The Ye family’s ancestral single-core processor came into play— his mouth was saying one thing, while his hand moved without being controlled by his brain.
His palm touched the side of the face…it felt a little warm.
He used the pad of his thumb to rub what he thought was a foreign object, but it didn’t come off. That’s when he realized it was a mole.
Because it was a bit red in color, and he had never noticed it before, he thought something had stuck there.
He wanted to pull his hand back but accidentally saw where the base of his palm was touching. His arm stiffened, and it felt like his brain had been filled with cement, becoming sluggish.
He forgot his palm was still pressed to Yan Chen’s face, and didn’t notice how Yan Chen’s eyes changed the moment he touched him. They became deep, like a bottomless well.
They were so close.
Just a little shift of the hand, and he’d be touching his lips.
He had really never thought about it before, but that one counter-question from Yan Chen had unblocked something in his brain.
He was like a kid running around with a toy, and one day got stopped and taught that the toy could actually be played with in this way.
Not only could you look, you could also touch.
‘You could also touch….’
‘Could he touch?’
The noisy shouts from the basketball court reached his ears and Ye Wenyu suddenly realized something wasn’t right and tried to withdraw his hand in a panic.
But just when he had moved by a millimeter, Yan Chen suddenly raised his hand and firmly caught his wrist.
Ye Wenyu’s heart skipped a beat, and his eyes met his.
“It’s a mole,” he pursed his lips and tried to explain. “I thought something was stuck there, so I wanted to help wipe it off…”
Yan Chen: “There’s sweat on my face. It’ll dirty your hand.”
That’s what he said, but he didn’t let go, his fingertips lightly pressing against the back of Ye Wenyu’s hand.
“It’s not, it’s not dirty.” Ye Wenyu was afraid of spiraling into random thoughts again, so he just looked away altogether.
Yan Chen looked at his slightly fluttering eyelashes. After a while, his fingers gently tightened then let go: “It’s too hot out here. Go back early.”
Ye Wenyu left the court, and Yan Chen returned to the game. Several boys joked around with him cheerfully:
“What were you doing, Yan-ge, were you running off for a date mid-game?”
“So clingy, tsk tsk, how weird heh heh.”
“You looked so reluctant to part..Looking at you from a distance, anyone would think you two were a little couple in love~”
Yan Chen: “Serve.”
Ten minutes later.
“Yan-ge, what are you doing?”
“Damn, I almost thought I was playing in the NBA…”
“Ouch, take it easy, take it easy. Yan-ge, are you sexually frustrated or something?”
On the way back to the dorm, the more Ye Wenyu thought about it, the more he felt like something was off about what Yan Chen had said.
Two people of the same grade and same age…why would he suddenly bring up the topic of a generation gap?
Did he mean something else?
Ding.
His phone got a WeChat message notification. An Xue posted a file in the group and @’d everyone, then sent Ye Wenyu a separate copy in private.
An Xue: [Wenyu, can you send it to Yan Chen? I feel like he doesn’t really check the group.]
Ye Wenyu: [Okay.]
Long press the file, forward, select contact, forward successful, open Yan Chen’s profile…
Ye Wenyu stared at their chat from last night, his expression froze:
Yan Chen: [/image]
Ye Wenyu: [Hello, uncle, I’m Wenyu’s roommate. Wenyu is taking a shower, he’ll reply once he’s out.]
Ye Wenyu: [Your potted plant looks amazing!]
Ye Wenyu: [Oh right, I also saw the photos you took, they look great too! I’d love to learn from you if I get the chance!]
Ye Wenyu looked at that “Mm” from Yan Chen three minutes later and nearly blacked out.
–
“What’s going on, Yan-ge?”
As soon as Yan Chen came back to the dorm, Dong Xi laughed, “Some of the guys in the group said you’re suffering from sexual frustration, and they don’t want to play basketball with you again for the whole week.”
Yan Chen: “Then we’ll play next week.”
Dong Xi: “Hahahahahaha, but don’t you hate playing basketball?”
A call came in, Yan Chen raised his hand to signal him and stepped out onto the balcony.
As soon as the call connected, the flight announcement noise from his father’s side came through. He was probably flying somewhere again on a business trip.
Yan Zhan: “You go back to the company next week to follow a project.”
Yan Chen: “I’ve got training, can’t go.”
Yan Zhan: “You can train anytime. When it’s time to do proper things, you do proper things. Don’t waste all your time on your little games.”
Yan Chen’s expression darkened: “Little games?”
Yan Zhan: “Isn’t it? Yan Chen, letting you pick your major in college was already the biggest freedom I could give you. Four years of college wasn’t enough for you to play around?”
Yan Chen: “President Yan, me agreeing to follow a project at your company while still in school is already my biggest concession.”
Yan Zhan: “My company?”
Yan Chen: “Isn’t it?”
Yan Zhan: “Yan Chen, you’re not a kid anymore. You should know what I have now will be yours in the future. We both know that. Even if you’re unwilling, you still have to do what needs to be done. You can’t avoid it.”
“At least right now, it’s not mine yet. So it has no right to waste my time.”
Yan Chen finished and hung up the call.
Back inside the dorm, Dong Xi had just finished a call with Yang Liang: “Old Yang’s uncle is visiting, he says he wants to treat us to dinner tonight. Yan ge, are you coming?”
Yan Chen tossed his phone on the table with a loud thud: “I have some stuff to deal with. You guys go.”
Dong Xi: “Ok, I’ll let Old Yang know.”
Yang Liang was spamming him: [Well? Are you coming or not?]
Dong Xi: [Yan-ge says he has something to do and can’t make it.]
Yang Liang: [Huh?]
Dong Xi: [I don’t know who called him, but he doesn’t look too happy.]
Yang Liang: [Alright then, if he’s in a bad mood I won’t bother him. What about you? Are you coming?]
Dong Xi: [Depends. My girlfriend might ask me to go see a movie with her.]
–
Ye Wenyu thought about it a lot and still felt uneasy about letting Yan Chen record the assignment on his own.
After dinner, Chi Dongting gleefully took his laptop next door to play a five-stack match.
Ye Wenyu sat in front of his laptop and flipped through the script. After a bit of thought, he messaged Yan Chen:
Ye Wenyu: [Are you busy?]
Then he saw those embarrassing messages again that left him speechless.
It was to the point where his scalp tingled if he looked at them for a few more seconds, so he simply deleted them all from the chat box.
Yan Chen: [No. What’s up?]
Ye Wenyu: [The assignment I mentioned earlier is due tomorrow night. Do you want to record it tonight or find some time during the day tomorrow?]
Yan Chen: [I have training during the day, so no time to spare.]
If he didn’t have time during the day, then it had to be tonight.
Ye Wenyu: [I’m recording mine tonight too.]
Ye Wenyu: [I just checked, there’s a section where we have a longer dialogue. Even split, the word count fits today’s practice requirement.]
Ye Wenyu: [Do you want to record it with me over voice call?]
His thinking was simple.
Yan Chen hadn’t done dubbing before. When everyone was together, the atmosphere helped bring out emotions. But if they did it separately, it might be harder to get into character.
Since he promised to guide Yan Chen through the whole process, he had to be responsible.
After sending the last message, he waited several minutes with no reply.
Did he not want to do a voice call?
He started typing again, planning to say if Yan Chen didn’t want to connect via microphone, he’d just finish his own part and send it over.
Before he could finish the sentence, Yan Chen’s belated reply popped up. It was one neat and concise word: [Want.]
Night had fallen outside, and the lights from afar spilled through the windows of the teaching building, and people were coming and going downstairs below the balcony.
Ye Wenyu adjusted the mic on his headset: “Can you hear me?”
“I can.” Yan Chen’s voice lazily penetrated into Ye Wenyu’s ears like an electric current.
Ye Wenyu’s ears tingled, and he instinctively shrank his shoulders.
Ye Wenyu: “Are you in the dormitory?”
Yan Chen made a sound of affirmation.
Ye Wenyu: “Should we start now? Will this time disturb your roommates?”
Yan Chen: “It’s fine. They’re not here.”
Ye Wenyu: “You’re alone in the dorm?”
Yan Chen: “Mm.”
Ye Wenyu: “Me too. My roommate went next door to play games.”
They chose a segment near the end of the script for practice.
By that point, the two brothers had reconciled and realized that each was the most important person to the other, the only one they could truly rely on.
They reminisced about their carefree childhood while at the amusement park, played through every ride, and ended up by the fence near the Ferris wheel, each holding a can of beer and chatting.
There was no suspicion, no quarrels…overall it was a warm, emotional scene, with subtle feelings expressed through the narrative. The emotional fluctuation wasn’t big, so the difficulty of the dialogue was relatively low.
The two of them worked together smoothly, occasionally pausing to discuss or revise certain parts.
But most of the time, it was Ye Wenyu who spoke, while Yan Chen was more of a quiet listener, responding only when appropriate.
Ye Wenyu’s voice was really well-suited for this kind of gentle and obedient young boy role.
His cold voice, softened and slowed down, poured into the ears at the closest distance in the stillness of the night, like fluffy feathers stirred by the wind, forming clusters and lifting the heart until it felt like it could float.
The originally irritable mood was unknowingly soothed bit by bit.
Yan Chen lowered his head with his fingertips pressing on both sides of his headphones, wanting the voice to be even closer and clearer.
He thought, if a voice had temperature, then Ye Wenyu’s voice should be the same as the warmth in his palm.
Just like when he held his hand while at the villa, or when he pressed his palm on his side face at the basketball court, there was a gentle warmth carrying a refreshing coolness.
In the space where no one else was around, he quietly listened to Ye Wenyu’s voice, releasing all the emotions he could or couldn’t express without holding back.
He had never thought that just a simple, voluntary touch could have such a deadly attraction to him.
It was almost addictive, making him not want to let go.
The dialogue practice ended quickly. The voice in the headphones suddenly disappeared, and Yan Chen couldn’t help but frown.
Ye Wenyu saved the recording, opened the file to rename it, and was just about to upload it to the group when he heard Yan Chen’s low voice calling him through the headphones: “Wenyu.”
“Hm?” He responded subconsciously, “I’m here, what’s wrong?”
Yan Chen relaxed his brows and tapped the spacebar with his fingertip to pause the recording. “Nothing, I thought you hung up.”
“No.” Ye Wenyu said, “I’m submitting the assignment.”
With the official matter done, both people in the voice call quieted down. Ye Wenyu sent the file, tilted his head slightly, and could faintly hear Yan Chen’s breathing.
Some things still needed to be explained.
So between bluffing his way through and honestly admitting his mistake, he chose the latter.
Ye Wenyu: “Sorry, I didn’t know Xiao Chi sent you that kind of message. He didn’t mean anything bad by it, there was just a little misunderstanding before. He thought you were, were my…”
Yan Chen: “Thought I was your dad?”
Ye Wenyu: “…”
Although that was indeed the truth, saying it out loud was really, really strange.
Ye Wenyu: “Yeah.”
Yan Chen sounded relaxed: “I’m more curious, what kind of misunderstanding made him think I was your dad?”
Ye Wenyu: “…”
Admitting this was really beyond his ability. He fell silent, his mind in complete chaos.
Fortunately, Yan Chen didn’t insist on getting an answer. “It’s okay. If you don’t want to say, you don’t have to.”
Ye Wenyu let out a sigh of relief and apologized again. “It was my fault. I’ll explain things to Xiao Chi properly.”
The boy’s earnest tone and apologetic attitude were too cute; it was easy for people to want to tease him.
Yan Chen: “Explain clearly that I’m not his uncle.”
Ye Wenyu: “…Yeah.”
Yan Chen: “This is the first time someone my age has called me uncle.”
Ye Wenyu: “…”
Yan Chen: “He said it twice.”
Ye Wenyu: “……”
Yan Chen: “If we’re counting…”
Ye Wenyu: “Gege.”
Yan Chen’s voice in the headphones abruptly stopped.
Ye Wenyu thought he hadn’t heard, so he called out again very seriously: “Gege.”
Then he asked, “In that case, can we call it even?”
There was still no sound from the other side. Ye Wenyu thought he was thinking, so he waited patiently in silence.
Meanwhile, the laptop in front of Yan Chen had already gone to sleep due to long inactivity.
He had teased someone only to get teased himself.
He lifted his eyelids and saw his own blurred reflection on the screen.
Suddenly he raised his hand, and rubbed his temples with his knuckles.
A cat that you’d been trying so hard to rub on the belly suddenly came over to you on its own, rubbed against the back of your hand, and gently pressed its forehead against yours.
It felt completely different from occasionally sneaking a stroke down its tail with careful schemes.
He had already tasted the sweetness.
If his previous calculated approach was just about satisfying curiosity and the desire to admire…
Then he had to admit that now, that no longer seemed enough for him.
