Before dismissal in the afternoon, Wen Yu was doing physics papers. To finish in one go, he stayed in the classroom for an extra 20 minutes. When he looked up again, only Ge Ran was left in the classroom.
The girl stood in front of his desk, somewhat amazed: “You don’t do force analysis when doing physics?”
Wen Yu habitually put on an appropriate smile: “I already did it.”
“I didn’t see you making rough drafts?”
“I did it in my head.”
“Amazing.” Ge Ran immediately showed a hint of envy. “You did it so fast… I can’t do that. Physics is my weak point.”
Wen Yu smiled, not wanting to elaborate: “Aren’t you going to eat?”
“Waiting for you.” Ge Ran jingled the keys. “Fu Yuhan isn’t here, so I’m locking up today.”
Locking up?
Wen Yu was stunned: “Isn’t there evening self-study later?”
“The classroom still needs to be locked when no one’s here during dinner. Isn’t it community open day when community members come to school to borrow the courts? We lock it in case anything gets stolen—I’ll come back to unlock it after dinner.”
“Oh… you should have said so earlier. I wouldn’t have done papers here and delayed your time.”
Wen Yu gave what could be called a gentle smile, stuffed the completed paper back in his drawer, and stood up with his bag. Ge Ran was shorter than him, so when he stood up his gaze naturally lowered, and he asked seemingly casually: “What does locking up have to do with Fu Yuhan?”
“He…” Ge Ran’s voice paused, her smile suddenly becoming somewhat awkward. “He’s the first to arrive and last to leave every day, so he usually manages the keys.”
Early to rise and late to leave—was he really that studious?
Wen Yu made an acknowledging sound, didn’t ask more, and left with a smile.
He lived very close by, so logically he didn’t need to rush home for dinner, but since he was out, he was out.
During dismissal time, outside the school gate was always very noisy. Countless streams of people getting off work, traffic, and Third High students wandering nearby looking for food created some difficulty for passage.
Wen Yu chose a small path near the corner, wearing his First High uniform, walking back to his residence in a low-key yet not low-key manner.
Usually during dinner time, an auntie would come to his house to cook and do cleaning part-time. However, what he didn’t expect was that today someone else was standing in the kitchen.
The woman was well-maintained with a gentle appearance, looking almost like she was only in her thirties. She was bustling about in the kitchen, her movements slightly awkward but clearly earnest.
The aroma of food drifted from the kitchen, almost giving a feeling of “home.”
Wen Yu was dazed for a moment, clenched his fist, his slightly long nails digging into the soft flesh of his palm, then quickly released it and put on a smile: “Mom, why is it you? Where’s auntie?”
“Xiao Yu, you’re back?” The woman turned around, wiped the sweat from her forehead with her wrist, and smiled at him with squinted eyes. “I wanted to cook you a meal today. After auntie finished cleaning, I let her go home… her son has been sick these past few days, so it’s good to let her go home early.”
“Really,” Wen Yu leaned against the kitchen doorway without going in. “I didn’t know.”
His father had once scolded him for being too cold in this regard, but unfortunately Wen Yu didn’t think he had a problem. In his view, the cooking auntie completed her work, his dad was responsible for paying, money and goods were settled, and neither party needed to care about each other’s private lives.
But the woman in front of him, as his dad’s wife, actually took the initiative to find an excuse for him: “You’re so busy with your studies. Usually when you come back from school, auntie has already left. You don’t see each other much, so it’s normal not to know.”
She was a very gentle person with many smiles, but in such smiles, Wen Yu suddenly didn’t want to continue the conversation.
“How much longer do you need?” he asked. “School starts evening self-study at seven.”
“Almost done. Go wash your hands and wait for me at the table.”
Wen Yu turned and went to the bathroom.
The tap water carried a bit of summer heat, not cool enough when it hit his hands. He lowered his head and vigorously splashed water on his face, finally feeling more comfortable.
When he came out of the bathroom, the food had been served on the dining table. The woman wiped her hands and sat down, glancing at the tightly closed room door on the other side of the living room.
“Auntie told me… you keep that room locked and don’t let her in…” She looked somewhat apprehensive. “Is there some problem?”
Wen Yu lifted his eyelids, his usually smiling face rarely showing no expression.
The woman’s voice gradually lowered.
After a long while, he spoke: “It’s a shrine.”
“Ah,” the woman became more uncomfortable. “Sorry, Xiao Yu, I didn’t mean to…”
Wen Yu lowered his head and smiled: “It’s fine, let’s eat. Thank you for making a special trip today.”
“Why be polite with me?” She bit her lip and smiled reluctantly. “If you’re not busy, occasionally come back to eat with us…”
“Busy.” Wen Yu cut her off. “Senior year, very busy.”
“…”
The woman seemed to sigh faintly and stopped talking.
The meal was very depressing. Although Wen Yu usually ate alone without talking, at least he would turn on the TV, and the atmosphere wouldn’t be like this.
Feeling uncomfortable, he really wanted to leave, and evening self-study was a perfect excuse.
Perhaps that line “senior year is very busy” set up a flag—during evening self-study that day, the English teacher from the neighboring class on duty came over midway to distribute two more test papers.
The evening episode left Wen Yu uninterested in the papers, not wanting to pick up his pen. When he was unhappy, he very much hoped everyone else would be unhappy too. After thinking it over, he took out his phone and sent Fu Yuhan a message.
Wen Yu: Have you finished your homework?
Today Fu Yuhan didn’t ignore him, but didn’t say much either, sending back a question mark before long.
Wen Yu continued sending bad news: Old Yu just came over and added two more test papers.
Fu Yuhan replied with six dots.
Although Old Yu was a male teacher, his difficulty level was no less than “Imperial Concubine Hua.”
From those six dots, Wen Yu sensed the other’s shattered mood.
He smiled with satisfaction, stuffed his phone back, picked up his pen and started on the test papers.
–
Facts proved that “Imperial Concubine Hua” was indeed difficult to deal with.
Early the next morning, Fu Yuhan was called to the office.
“Why do you look so terrible—didn’t you sleep all night?” Old Yu made himself a cup of goji berries and red dates, sipping while sizing up Fu Yuhan.
The tall boy stood by the office desk, his face pale and gaunt, looking like he might collapse at any moment.
“I’m puzzled, what are you doing at night? I see you turned in homework for other subjects, but not finishing mine is unacceptable, isn’t it?”
Fu Yuhan’s Adam’s apple bobbed once, his voice hoarse: “I wasn’t here last night, didn’t get the last two papers.”
“Weren’t here?” Old Yu’s desk was right next to Zhou Wenkang’s. He knocked on the partition: “Old Zhou, did your Fu Yuhan ask for leave from evening self-study yesterday?”
“No.” Zhou Wenkang hadn’t been on duty last night. Hearing this, he said helplessly: “Fu Yuhan, did you skip evening self-study again?”
Old Yu turned to look at him.
Fu Yuhan: “Mm.”
“You’re really something, now you skip evening self-study openly. I think you’re—”
Old Yu’s words suddenly paused mid-sentence. Fu Yuhan followed his gaze and saw Wen Yu walking in from outside with a smile: “Teacher Zhou, you were looking for me?”
Third High’s uniform had finally reached Wen Yu’s hands. The white uniform with navy blue short sleeves clearly outlined the youth’s broad, straight shoulder line, dazzling Fu Yuhan’s eyes just like that.
He couldn’t help but straighten his spine.
Old Yu snapped back to attention and continued scolding: “I think you’re getting more and more arrogant! Do you know you’re a senior now? It’s different from before! When will you get serious!”
In the first half of last night, Qin Xiaolu’s fever had finally broken. Fu Yuhan barely managed to sleep for a while on the hospital chair, but his spirits were still poor, constantly spacing out.
He was listening to Old Yu’s lecture, but his ears kept picking up Zhou Wenkang’s voice, seemingly talking to Wen Yu about chemistry competitions.
Doing competitions in senior year was risky. If you couldn’t get recommendation qualifications, it was equivalent to wasting review energy. Moreover, students with the ability to participate in competitions generally aimed for domestic TOP5 universities—to get recommendations, they’d have to compete for national-level awards.
That said, as Zhou Wenkang’s class, Class 6 had always had good results in chemistry competitions over the years. Fu Yuhan had heard Yang Fan mention many times that Wen Yu’s grades were unreasonably good—maybe he would participate…
“…You dare to space out?” Old Yu’s voice suddenly rose.
Fu Yuhan snapped back to attention.
In his peripheral vision, Wen Yu seemed to turn his head to glance this way, his smile gaining a few more hints of mockery.
As if laughing at him.
“No,” Fu Yuhan frowned very lightly and quickly, “I had something urgent yesterday, that’s why I skipped evening self-study… Can I make up the papers for you? Today’s fourth period is English class.”
“You owe me so much homework, do I care about two papers? Can you even score half the points on a 150-point paper?” Old Yu was heartbroken. “I’m talking about you skipping classes! You’re a senior now, wake up!”
“…”
Fu Yuhan’s grades were already at the bottom of Class 6, and English was his weak subject. 75… was indeed a bit much for him.
He couldn’t argue back.
And he wasn’t ungrateful either—he knew that teachers willing to earnestly advise him not to skip classes at this time were actually doing it for his own good.
But…
But.
He lowered his eyes: “So should I still make up the papers or not?”
“Make them up!” Old Yu glared at him. “Finish them before class, I’m going to go over them later. Today I’m also distributing three more papers, you need to turn them in on time tomorrow morning.”
“Alright.” Fu Yuhan agreed.
He was famous for being handsome and also famous for falling behind. All his various deeds were known throughout the grade level. When Old Yu was criticizing him, other teachers kept coming over to jokingly add a few words of their own. But on the other side, when those same teachers passed by Zhou Wenkang’s area, they all unanimously praised Wen Yu.
Although he had only been here for two days, his grades hadn’t been tested by any exam yet.
But when those teachers talked about him, they all… smiled just like Yang Fan.
Fu Yuhan glanced at the “grand scene” over there and suddenly felt a bit sour.
He hadn’t been like this from the beginning either.
If dreams were within reach, who would easily escape?
But what exactly lay on the other side of the mountain?
**Author’s Note:** This is a mutual redemption story
Both of them have problems now, but they’ll slowly resolve them w
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