The sunlight fell on the metal window frame, forming a suddenly bright spot that dazzled Fu Yuhan.
He withdrew his gaze.
Looking at those two people, Xu Qianyi inexplicably felt somewhat superfluous, but since this matter started because of her, staying silent wasn’t her style. Both had said they didn’t mind, so she thought for a moment and asked: “How about I treat you both to dinner tonight as an apology?”
Wen Yu elbowed Fu Yuhan.
“Forget it, I already said I don’t mind… I have something tonight.” Fu Yuhan was confused by the elbow but answered Xu Qianyi’s question while glancing at Wen Yu.
Xu Qianyi: “What about Wen Yu?”
“I’ll pass too.” Wen Yu said.
He hadn’t yet put away that bit of smile, his brows and eyes all lazy, but that elbow just now made Fu Yuhan inexplicably think of those coy behaviors between girls like “if you don’t go, I won’t go either,” which was somewhat amusing.
“Then how about during National Day break? I won’t feel right if I don’t treat you both to a meal.”
Fu Yuhan used the motion of pressing his lips to hide his mouth that was trying to turn up: “We’ll see then.”
“You’ve been very busy lately?”
“A bit.”
“Alright then…” Xu Qianyi clicked her tongue. “Try to free up some time during National Day, okay? After that there’ll be even less time. I can’t delay your studying.”
“What would I study?” Fu Yuhan said.
“Even if you don’t study, there’s still Wen Yu.”
“There aren’t many people with such a simple and crude attitude toward apologizing.” Fu Yuhan took out his vibrating phone to look, replied to Ge Ran’s message, and said, “Let’s go back. Ge Ran is quite worried about you.”
“Why didn’t she call me? I brought my phone—” Xu Qianyi took out her phone to look. “Ah, it’s dead.”
“Remember to charge it next time.” Fu Yuhan put his phone back in his pocket and turned to walk back. “Don’t make me come out injured to find you.”
Wen Yu was the second to go downstairs. Xu Qianyi quickly followed: “Ge Ran asked you to come? Wasn’t it Wen Yu who called you?”
“Why would I call him?” Wen Yu didn’t look back.
The stairwell was very narrow, but each step was quite high. Going up didn’t feel like much, but going down was uncomfortable for the ankle.
Wen Yu didn’t show any abnormality, just naturally reached out to support himself against the wall, as if his hands were just restless and had to touch everything.
Fu Yuhan was the first to reach the corner and suddenly looked back.
“Mm?” Wen Yu looked up.
Fu Yuhan shook his head and called to Xu Qianyi: “I suddenly remembered I need to buy something. Can you go back by yourself? You know the way from the back door around to the stadium, right? Those guys are being held up by the boss lady now, so it should be pretty safe to go back.”
“Can’t we go together?” Xu Qianyi was confused.
“That shop is a bit far.” Fu Yuhan looked down at her. “Ge Ran has been looking for you for two hours. You should go back early.”
“What about him?” She pointed at Wen Yu.
“I need him to stay as an advisor—it’s guy stuff.”
Xu Qianyi twitched her mouth and looked Fu Yuhan up and down with disgust: “Do you two really not get along?”
“Yeah,” Fu Yuhan said matter-of-factly, “we’re love rivals after all.”
This was the truth, but Xu Qianyi took it as a joke. Given that Fu Yuhan always spoke in half-sentences, she didn’t delve into his purpose for wanting to get rid of her. She walked past them downstairs, muttering as she went: “I’ll stop chasing you two, okay? I can’t provoke that crazy Qian Kaile, but I can avoid him. Starting tomorrow I’ll turn over a new leaf and study hard.”
She quickly reached the bottom and disappeared around the corner to the left.
“What guy stuff?” Wen Yu finally spoke. “Let me say upfront, I won’t help you with ideas for Yang Fan’s birthday gift.”
“I wouldn’t want to hear them even if you offered.” Fu Yuhan snorted lightly and extended his hand. “Come on.”
“Hm?”
Fu Yuhan frowned: “Your foot hurts, right? I’ll carry you down. These stairs aren’t easy to walk on.”
“…”
Wen Yu never expected to hear such words. First he was stunned, then his mouth twitched, his usual smile almost failing: “Are you poisoned? I’m not disabled.”
“There’s no one else here, you don’t need to worry about losing face.”
“You sent Xu Qianyi away just for this?”
“What else?” Fu Yuhan said matter-of-factly. “Would you let someone carry you if there were people around? Number one at putting on airs.”
Never mind with people around—even without others it wouldn’t work. Wen Yu immediately tried to step past Fu Yuhan.
Fu Yuhan didn’t want to carry him either, but carefully calculating, Wen Yu running the relay was helping him. Fu Yuhan didn’t want to owe favors, so he prepared to use force.
He reached out to pull, Wen Yu blocked with his hand, and in the blink of an eye the two injured people fought several rounds in the narrow stairwell, like an action movie.
“You think I want to carry you? I’ll put you down once we reach the bottom of the stairs.”
“I can walk by myself, okay… damn, someone’s here.”
A middle-aged woman was standing at the bottom, arms crossed, watching them.
Boys this age could be childish among themselves, but absolutely didn’t want to embarrass themselves under “adult” gazes. The two immediately let go of each other. After exchanging glances, Wen Yu was the first to step down: “I’ll walk slowly.”
He stepped down with his right foot first, then brought his left foot over, walking step by step like a child just learning to walk.
This was his maximum concession. Fu Yuhan didn’t insist further, silently following behind with one arm always hovering at Wen Yu’s side and rear.
It wasn’t until the two slowly made their way to the bottom that the middle-aged woman spoke with a half-smile: “Haven’t been here for a few days, and as soon as you come, you bring me trouble.”
This voice had just been making a scene in front, loud enough to reach the second floor. Wen Yu recognized it—this should be the female shop owner.
Fu Yuhan rubbed his nose: “It was an accident. There was nowhere else to hide around here.”
“The police came, I had the girl handle the front.” The boss said. “First tell me what happened so I can figure out how to deal with this.”
How to explain this…
Fu Yuhan pressed his lips together, feeling it was a long story.
Wen Yu habitually put on a slight smile and picked up the conversation: “Weren’t there three people in the same school uniforms as us just now? The leader thought we were love rivals and called people to cause us trouble. We really have to thank you today, boss. Without your help, we would have been beaten up—look, my foot just got sprained, I couldn’t even run.”
Fu Yuhan looked at him with an indescribable expression.
If he needed to show weakness as a weapon, Wen Yu seemed to not mind at all whether he lost face, but usually he liked to put on airs. Calling him a pretentious king really wasn’t unfair.
“Students these days really don’t learn well. You two wait here, I’ll go say something in front.” The boss sneered and lifted the curtain to walk out.
When she made a scene, her voice was loud. Through that curtain, the two could vaguely hear what the boss was saying in front, roughly something like “senior students playing with thugs instead of studying well, how can students from a provincial key school be like this” and so on. With the boss being relentless on this end, the police had to take a stance. After they dealt with those big brothers, they grabbed Qian Kaile’s group for detailed criticism and education.
Before long, the boss came back: “You’re having a sports meet today? I was wondering why you’d be here—those three will be sent back by the police later. Your school leaders need to educate them properly.”
“…Isn’t that a bit harsh?” Fu Yuhan asked.
Making such a big deal of it, Qian Kaile and his group might get disciplinary action.
Before the boss could speak, Wen Yu spoke first: “Not harsh at all. This matter is too serious. Although it didn’t cause severe consequences, having teachers educate them properly would benefit their growth and learning.”
Fu Yuhan: “…”
“Is this your classmate?” The boss was amused. “Young man has quite high ideological awareness.”
“Can’t embarrass Third High like they did.” Wen Yu said nobly.
Fu Yuhan: “…”
Keep pretending.
He wanted to see how long this person could keep it up.
But the boss didn’t want to hear such empty rhetoric, even if Wen Yu was willing to put it on. She turned to look at Fu Yuhan with some regret: “I hired a student from the mechanical college out front. He’s careful, but unfortunately doesn’t understand art supplies. It would be great if you could come.”
“I’d like to.” Fu Yuhan lowered his eyes. “But I still have to go to school.”
The boss patted him: “It’s fine, go back early. Don’t run into the police when they send those people back.”
“Mm. Thank you for today.”
“Don’t mention it. Just take care of my business more in the future.”
After saying goodbye to the boss, the two came out through the back door. Wen Yu glanced at Fu Yuhan and found he was walking very slowly. Part of this was due to his back injury, and part was consideration for the person with the foot injury—it was hard to say which was which. But such details were like someone plucking a string, making a soft “hum” that was extremely subtle yet lingered.
“What did the boss want you to do?” Wen Yu asked nosily. “Part-time work?”
“Mm.” Fu Yuhan turned back with light mockery. “Your foot is like that and you still have time to pry into my business?”
Walking out of that alley with the miscellaneous items, they reached the plane tree path. The gradually westward-slanting sunlight fell through the gaps in the leaves, lengthening his shadow.
“If you’re really that interested, why don’t you tell me about your foot first.” He said. “What normal person would sprain their ankle while running after wrapping it with bandages for support?”
“I didn’t sprain it, it just hurts a bit.” Wen Yu said. “If it sprained that easily, I should be using crutches.”
“Is there much difference between you now and using crutches?”
“I can walk and run, thank you. If my ankle didn’t hurt a bit, I could have handled those five guys by myself just now.”
“Tch.” Fu Yuhan exhaled through his nose and changed the subject. “Teacher Zhou told me to learn from you before. I wonder what expression they’d have if they knew this ‘excellent transfer student’ could fight so well.”
“I don’t cause trouble and I can take exams. Of course teachers would smile.” Wen Yu’s expression shifted, his gaze taking on some coldness. “Anyway, whether it’s teachers or parents, don’t they all like this type—obedient, sensible, good grades.”
When he said this, his figure looked inexplicably thin.
However, Fu Yuhan had been looking down at the stone bricks on the road and didn’t notice his abnormality. The two walked back side by side, passing the plane tree path and turning back to the stadium entrance.
With Wen Yu there, the gatekeeper Teacher Li didn’t even question why Fu Yuhan’s hospital trip was so quick.
The events were down to the last few. There weren’t many people left on the field, and the podium kept broadcasting the newly calculated results. Fu Yuhan listened while walking.
Class 6’s performance this time was mediocre—several events were second or third place. Combined with the opening ceremony and relay results, the total score probably wouldn’t be low.
When they reached the middle of the field, there was commotion behind them. Wen Yu looked back and smiled: “The boss is quite trustworthy. She said she’d have the police send them back and really did.”
After the incident, someone from the podium quickly came down toward the iron gate. After gathering there, they closed the door and went outside.
With the announcement of results, the noise in the stadium continued. Few people noticed that police had even appeared here.
“Didn’t you two say you were going to buy something?” From the stands, Xu Qianyi leaned out from inside the railing and looked coldly at the two returning.
“We were concerned about our class’s results and came back first.” Fu Yuhan replied. “Are the rankings out?”
“Almost.” Xu Qianyi said lazily. “Don’t worry, beating Class 3 is no problem.”
“That’s good.”
Fu Yuhan went up to the stands, not noticing that Wen Yu had fallen a step behind him, looking thoughtfully at his back.
##
