Fu Yuhan walked to the station and stopped, looking at the orange-purple sunset glow on the horizon—extremely beautiful, colors he couldn’t yet paint.
“Sort of.” He thought and said, “I’m working part-time.”
“You’re a senior now. Why would you think of working part-time for no good reason?” Fu Xuecheng sounded very dissatisfied. “Is this how He Yan raises children?”
“Last time I came to find you, didn’t you tell me to ask her?” Fu Yuhan was expressionless. “I asked, and she doesn’t agree to let me study art—but I want to study it.”
“About this matter, I also talked with her today. I think although your mother often makes unreasonable demands, this statement makes sense.” Fu Xuecheng said. “Xiao Han, I didn’t expect your grades to have fallen so much compared to middle school… what have you been doing these past two years? There’s still more than half a year until the college entrance exam. If you use the time you spend working for tutoring, you should be able to get into a first-tier university. Weren’t you quite good at studying before?”
Fu Yuhan frowned slightly: “Didn’t you not object when I mentioned it to you that day?”
“I’m a parent who respects children’s ideas.” Fu Xuecheng said seriously. “But I didn’t expect you wanted to study art because your grades weren’t good—Xiao Han, I told you long ago that you must give yourself the right to choose.”
“…Who said it was because of my grades?”
“Your words aren’t convincing.”
“…”
The bus he was waiting for finally arrived. Fu Yuhan rolled his eyes, switched his phone to the other hand, and took out his transit card to swipe.
“Dad, you’re not planning to pay for my art classes anyway.” He said, about to hang up. “So don’t worry about it, okay?”
During rush hour, there were quite a few passengers on the bus home. Fu Yuhan squeezed through the crowd and stood by the back door.
Fu Xuecheng was indeed his father—he could tell from his tone what he wanted to do and said “wait” before the call could be disconnected.
Fu Yuhan decided to give him ten more seconds: “Mm?”
“I was just discussing with your mother. You don’t take money from home, but you still come home to eat. From now on, I’ll give her half of the monthly child support as meal expenses, and let you take the other half to spend. What do you think?” Fu Xuecheng thought for a moment. “Studying art isn’t bad, but if you have the ability to get into a proper university, why insist on studying painting?”
“You two…” Fu Yuhan was very puzzled. “Where exactly does this confidence come from, thinking I can definitely get into a first-tier university?”
“Weren’t your grades very good before?”
“But now isn’t before.” Fu Yuhan decided to be blunt. “I don’t object to you giving me money, but I’ll use it for art classes.”
There was silence on the other end for a moment.
After the typhoon passed, the bus was somewhat stuffy. Fu Yuhan was getting tired holding up his phone, and irritation accumulated bit by bit.
Young people don’t listen to advice, especially this kind of semi-forced “advice.”
The more his parents opposed his painting, the more he wanted to continue studying it.
“If you don’t speak, I’ll hang up.” He said.
“I can give you the money.” Fu Xuecheng suddenly said. “But Dad has a condition.”
“What?”
“Don’t work part-time anymore in the future, study properly. Art students also need cultural course grades, right? If your grades improve, fill in a regular major for your application. If that really doesn’t work, then consider art.” Fu Xuecheng thought he was being very open-minded, asking in a consultative tone, “I heard you had a conflict with your mother. If you don’t want to live at home, Dad can also find you a place near school—just the other day Ruoyan told me this place is too far from Third High, and she wants to rent a place for Xiangyan. You two brothers can live together.”
“…”
Fu Yuhan blinked.
He suddenly remembered what He Yan had said, and his expression became somewhat strange: “Dad, I never asked before, but that child support… how much do you give Mom per month?”
“What’s wrong?” Fu Xuecheng paused. “3000.”
“Half would be 1500.” Fu Yuhan snorted lightly. “Dad, do you know why I chose to go with Mom back then?”
Fu Xuecheng didn’t speak.
“Because you really don’t understand me very well.” Fu Yuhan said resentfully. “Forget it. How could I possibly live with Zhou Xiangyan? Do you really think we’re brothers?”
He hung up the phone. When Fu Xuecheng called back, he didn’t answer.
He silenced his phone and put it in his pocket, lowering his eyelids. The shadows cast by his long lashes made Fu Yuhan look somewhat lonely.
As expected.
The reason he hadn’t pursued Fu Xuecheng for money back then was because he had guessed it would be like this.
1500 yuan and he wanted to interfere with his decisions. It wasn’t even as good as He Yan giving him 200 per week—at least she didn’t care what time he came home, except for staying out all night.
He had always felt his father was somewhat presumptuous, liking to impose his own ideas on others. If you analyzed this presumptuousness carefully, you could taste a hint of vague arrogance in it.
For example, unilaterally wanting him and Zhou Xiangyan to get along as brothers.
…Get along my ass. To put it bluntly, that was just a stranger. Not just him—if Zhou Xiangyan was even slightly normal, he would also find this awkward.
At times like this, Fu Yuhan felt Fourth Brother was really quite good to him. The work he found for him could earn over a thousand in half a month, barely enough for his painting expenses.
Most importantly, it was free—no one would come out to scold him that studying art was bad or wrong.
The ancients were right—economic independence was really important.
Fu Yuhan thought about many things.
The bus kept moving forward, stopping and starting. When passing near Wen Yu’s home, Fu Yuhan saw a corner of that residential complex’s uniquely styled buildings in the gradually descending night.
He suddenly realized that this pretty good job also seemed to require thanking Wen Yu.
…When exactly had he started forgetting to be polite with Wen Yu?
He couldn’t seem to remember either.
–
Fu Yuhan quickly contacted that art teacher from Normal University and began a life of attending classes once a week and spending the rest of his time at Fourth Brother’s place painting.
When a person focuses on something, time passes very quickly. During this period, Fu Yuhan asked Wen Yu about Yong Rong’s situation twice—once Wen Yu told him the person was in detention, and once Wen Yu didn’t answer, only saying he would know when the time came.
Later Fu Yuhan stopped asking, mainly because he was really quite busy.
However, no matter how busy he was, he wouldn’t forget to prepare a birthday gift for Yang Fan.
Besides having the National Day holiday, the most important meaning of October for Fu Yuhan was that Yang Fan was having a birthday.
“This Saturday evening!” Yang Fan specifically chose 11 PM, a time when everyone would definitely be out of class, to call him. “I booked a table at ‘Flower Banquet.’ We’ll eat dinner then go sing karaoke. Since it’s senior year and time is tight, I’ll keep it simple.”
Fu Yuhan had no objections: “Mm, what time?”
“Be there at 6:30! Finish eating early so we can play early, and go home early at night without delaying homework.” Yang Fan chuckled. “It’s my coming-of-age ceremony. I ordered a super large cake that looks really cool—you’ll definitely like it.”
“You’re talking as if you bought it for me.” Fu Yuhan’s voice unconsciously took on a hint of amusement. “I have class on Saturday, 6:30 might not work… 7 o’clock?”
“You’re going to eat it anyway.” Yang Fan said curiously. “What class?”
“Art class. Oh, I forgot to tell you—I’m planning to take the art student exam, right? I recently found a teacher from Normal University for intensive training.”
“How’s the teaching?”
“I think it’s quite useful.”
“That’s good.” Yang Fan said. “By the way, have you prepared my gift?”
“I prepared it long ago.” Fu Yuhan thought for a moment. “But I don’t have much money this year, so the gift isn’t anything particularly expensive.”
“That doesn’t matter!” Yang Fan said, then paused. “Oh right, can you bring paper and pen when you come?”
“Hm?”
“I want you to draw me a picture on the spot… uh, it doesn’t need to be big, you can just bring your sketchbook?”
“Okay.”
“Then it’s settled!” Yang Fan said with a smile. “From now on you’re my daddy, your son loves you.”
Although it was just a joke, the words “love you” still made Fu Yuhan’s ears itch. He chuckled softly: “How many days can I enjoy being a father?”
“You’re my dad until my birthday ends!” Yang Fan reminded him again. “You can come at 7, just try to be early, otherwise by the time you arrive those beasts will have eaten all the food—I’ll hang up now, I still need to notify others.”
“Notify Wen Yu?”
“You two never stop, didn’t you say you made up?” Yang Fan was still laughing. “Of course I have to invite him to my birthday, you know that.”
“I really want to say I don’t want to know.” Fu Yuhan was in a decent mood. “Forget it, go notify him. See you Saturday.”
“See you Saturday.” Yang Fan hung up.
After entering senior year, their contact had become less and less frequent, with no time to even send messages.
Sometimes Fu Yuhan didn’t want to disturb him, but really wanted to talk to him. This long-awaited phone call saved Fu Yuhan from his restless longing.
What a pity.
What a pity he should have known that good things always come with obstacles—
Early Saturday morning, light rain began falling from the sky. Fu Yuhan left home in the early morning, walking through the morning mist to Fourth Brother’s place to shoot this week’s new photos.
In the afternoon he left Fourth Brother’s place and rushed to the teacher’s house for art class.
He had been keeping Yang Fan’s birthday gift in his bag. Although the backpack could block rainwater, Fu Yuhan was always afraid that moisture would dampen the wrapping paper, so he held the bag in his arms all day.
This action was a bit awkward—on any other day he definitely wouldn’t do it.
The number of students in each class at the teacher’s place varied. There were particularly many people that day, and Fu Yuhan had to wait for him to correct drawings, clearly going to leave a few minutes late.
He found a moment to call Yang Fan: “Hello, Yang Fan?”
There was noisy and boisterous laughter on the other end. Yang Fan’s voice came through after a while: “What’s wrong, Xiao Han?”
“I might be a few minutes late here, sorry.” He said softly.
“Sigh, I knew you guys would be late, that’s why I kept reminding you!” Yang Fan said. There was a burst of giggling female voices nearby. He said “wait a moment” quietly, then continued talking to Fu Yuhan. “Forget it, forget it, it’s fine. That guy Wen Yu isn’t here yet either. If you two are on the same route, why don’t you come together?”
“…Why would I go with him?” Fu Yuhan muttered.
Since the teacher’s house was close to his home, it meant it wasn’t far from Third High either.
If you had to say, if Wen Yu came by to find him, they could indeed go together.
But Fu Yuhan didn’t plan to make that call to Wen Yu—normally it would be fine, but today was Yang Fan’s birthday. No matter what, he couldn’t share a route with Wen Yu.
This was a kind of spiritual competition, and Fu Yuhan was very stubborn about this.
“So I don’t have to wait twice! You don’t know, the traffic is particularly bad today.”
At this moment, Yang Fan suddenly said “ah” twice in a low voice. “No, no, don’t pinch, I’ll be done talking soon.”
Fu Yuhan’s eyes flashed, suddenly feeling an ominous premonition: “Who are you talking to?”
“My goddess,” Yang Fan gasped, enduring the pain as he spoke, “your sister-in-law.”
Fu Yuhan: “…”
“I originally wanted to wait until you all came to introduce her.” Yang Fan seemed to have been pinched painfully and kept making “ow ow” sounds. “Stop pinching, baby, your husband is going to die!”
Fu Yuhan: “…”
“I pestered her for so long, and she finally agreed a few days ago! I thought since I was having a birthday party, I could introduce her to you guys… You’re my only bros, it wouldn’t be right not to formally introduce her.”
Fu Yuhan lowered his eyes: “Mm… is this the one you’ve been chasing all along? Then congratulations, your wish came true.”
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
