Su Zhiyan looked up and saw Shen Nianjing staring at Xie Qifang with a mysterious smile.
However, his phone was still on the WeChat contact page, and he hadn’t clicked to add him as a friend.
He couldn’t quite figure out what Shen Nianjing was thinking.
What was going through this guy’s head?
What did it matter to him if he rejected Xie Qifang? Unless… Did he have a thing for Xie Qifang or something?
“Zhiyan, is this your friend?” Xie Qifang smiled and put away his phone, still looking polite. “You two seem really close.”
Su Zhiyan frowned, his eyes showing impatience.
“Of course we’re close, heaven and earth can testify to that.” Shen Nianjing had that annoying smirk on his face, tilting his chin up as he looked back at Xie Qifang.
Su Zhiyan: “…”
Okay, that didn’t seem like someone who liked Xie Qifang.
“Haha, is that so?” Xie Qifang chuckled and extended a hand toward Shen Nianjing. “Then I guess we know each other now?”
Who wants to know you? Shen Nianjing didn’t take his hand.
Xie Qifang’s hand hung awkwardly in the air as he turned to Su Zhiyan with a helpless expression. “Zhiyan, your friend doesn’t seem to like me much.”
Shen Nianjing: “??????”
Damn! Where did this green tea bitch come from!
And you’re acting all familiar with Su Zhiyan? What gives you the right to call him that?!
“Who are you anyway?” Shen Nianjing laughed and stepped forward to block Su Zhiyan. “You’re so shameless, you could roast a whole pig with that level of familiarity.”
Xie Qifang’s eyes gleamed shrewdly as he stared at Shen Nianjing without flinching.
“This classmate, I don’t think I’ve offended you in any way?”
“Who knows?” Shen Nianjing shrugged.
Xie Qifang stared at him for a while, then stepped aside and smiled at Su Zhiyan. “I’ll come find you again next week, see you later~”
“No, you won’t.” Shen Nianjing called out loudly. “Ah—”
Su Zhiyan pushed Shen Nianjing aside and calmly said to Xie Qifang, “I don’t think we’re suitable to be friends. Please don’t come bother me anymore, fellow student.”
“Also, your way of hitting on people and your communication style are both disgusting and presumptuous.”
Xie Qifang raised his eyebrows slightly.
“We’re all adults here. Can’t we be civilized about this?” After Su Zhiyan finished speaking, he didn’t even look at him and dragged Shen Nianjing away.
Shen Nianjing even turned back to make a face at Xie Qifang.
As Su Zhiyan pulled him along, Shen Nianjing muttered with a hint of grievance, “Is he sick or something?”
Su Zhiyan, who had been irritated, suddenly laughed at these words.
“Yeah.” he agreed, then looked at Shen Nianjing’s shocked and aggrieved face. “If you knew that, why did you bother with him?”
“Well, you weren’t saying anything the whole time. I thought you really wanted to be friends with him.”
“I was just watching you two chat so enthusiastically.”
“You call that enthusiastic? Su Zhiyan, when did your brain start short-circuiting too?”
Su Zhiyan looked at him quietly without responding.
He felt like Shen Nianjing was different somehow, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
This feeling of not being able to find an answer made him uncomfortable, just like before when he couldn’t understand why Shen Nianjing kept avoiding him.
“Hey, how do you even know that guy? He was actually harassing you like that!” Shen Nianjing got angry just thinking about it. “And he was slandering me too!”
“Wait, I guess it wasn’t really slander. I really couldn’t stand him.”
Shen Nianjing crossed his arms. “After all, as an upstanding young citizen like me, my judgment of right and wrong aligns with mainstream social values. People I can’t stand are usually not normal!”
“So I wasn’t normal before either?” Su Zhiyan said casually.
Shen Nianjing suddenly froze.
Su Zhiyan sat down on a bench nearby, hands in his pockets, his gaze calm. “That plot you told me about before…”
He paused.
“What drama was that from?”
Su Zhiyan didn’t look up at Shen Nianjing, but he clearly felt the other person stiffen.
He smiled bitterly.
In the end, he still asked.
He still wanted to ask.
But why was Shen Nianjing hiding things from him? What was he keeping from him?
Being deceived by a friend felt like a thorn stuck in Su Zhiyan’s heart, especially when this friend had been avoiding him like the plague before.
Su Zhiyan didn’t know if it was because too much time had passed, making him amplify those emotions in his mind. After all, back then, he hadn’t thought there was anything wrong with Shen Nianjing avoiding him everywhere.
He was focused on not having dreams and was at most curious about Shen Nianjing’s motives.
But now, whenever he thought about that period, he felt uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.
“That…” Shen Nianjing’s voice wavered slightly as he avoided Su Zhiyan’s gaze. “It’s from a really old drama.”
Su Zhiyan pressed his lips together. “Mm.”
“You can hardly find it anywhere!” Shen Nianjing suddenly grew more confident, his voice louder. “But I love it.”
“Because my grandma loved watching it. When I was little, she would often watch shows with me.”
Su Zhiyan’s chest rose and fell as he slowly looked up at him.
When Shen Nianjing got to this part, he looked up at the sky at a forty-five degree angle and started reminiscing about the past. “Whenever I came home from school, she would always pull me to sit by the electric fan with her and take out the DVD to start playing shows.”
Shen Nianjing sighed nostalgically. “Too bad that DVD got damaged.”
He added sincerely, “Otherwise I would definitely show it to you.”
Su Zhiyan’s lips curved up slightly. This smile made Shen Nianjing feel a bit more at ease.
“Why didn’t you go to acting school?”
Su Zhiyan stood up. “The entertainment industry not having you is honestly the biggest loss for Chinese film and television.”
Shen Nianjing: “?”
Suddenly being praised made him blush slightly as he scratched his head. “I’m okay, I guess.”
The next moment he realized what Su Zhiyan meant by those words and quickly said, “Everything I said was true!”
However, Su Zhiyan had already turned and walked away without waiting for him.
Shen Nianjing: “…”
Damn, he messed up.
Su Zhiyan was angry.
–
That evening, after Su Zhiyan finished washing up, he felt his head hurt a bit.
He drank a big glass of hot water and prepared to go to bed.
“Your face is a bit red, Xiao Susu.” Wen Bei looked worried. “Do you have a fever?”
Hearing this, Su Zhiyan touched his own forehead. It was cool.
“No, probably because I just drank hot water.”
“The temperature dropped too fast this week, you’re wearing too little.” Wen Bei checked the time. “By the time you get home now it’ll probably be ten o’clock. You should go home tomorrow to get some clothes and rest at home while you’re at it.”
Su Zhiyan buried his head in his pillow and said weakly, “Mm-hmm.”
On Saturday he woke up from bed feeling his face burning hot.
Damn…
Did he really get a fever?
Su Zhiyan wanted to sit up but didn’t have the strength.
He was already in a bad mood, and getting sick made his emotions even worse.
And today he couldn’t go find Shen Nianjing either. First, he couldn’t go find him, and second… he didn’t want to.
Su Zhiyan weakly collapsed back onto the pillow, the hot air he breathed out matching the temperature on his face.
So unlucky… Su Zhiyan thought to himself. Heaven was deliberately making things hard for him.
Today he probably wouldn’t even be able to get a good night’s sleep.
Whatever, sleeping when you have a fever isn’t comfortable anyway.
It was all the same.
“Su Zhiyan, get up and take your medicine.”
After Wen Bei noticed something was wrong with Su Zhiyan, he forcibly pulled him out of bed and made him swallow the only fever reducer they had in the dorm.
“Don’t go home, just have your parents bring you clothes.”
After Su Zhiyan took the medicine, he felt slightly better and got out of bed to change clothes despite Wen Bei’s attempts to stop him.
“They’ve been really busy lately and don’t stay home much.” Su Zhiyan wrapped himself in Wen Bei’s thick jacket and put on a mask. “My sister is still young. It would be good enough if she can keep track of her own things.”
Wen Bei smiled. “What kind of older brother are you?”
“Did you tell your sister you’re coming home? She must be excited.”
Su Zhiyan stuffed his phone in his pocket. “I didn’t tell her. It’s not like it affects me going home.”
“I give up, I really give up on you, Su Zhiyan.” Wen Bei was speechless. “What kind of family is yours anyway? You’re more like roommates than actual roommates.”
“It’s fine.” Su Zhiyan didn’t understand what he meant. “Everyone just has their own things to do, so we don’t get together often.”
“You should still send your sister a message. Don’t always just ask about her studies.”
Su Zhiyan thought about it. “Her math has improved a lot lately. She’s even passing now.”
So what? You ask about her studies all the time and never say anything else?
“Well, our little sister is working pretty hard then.” Wen Bei couldn’t help but scrunch his nose.
Su Zhiyan nodded and walked to the door.
“Hey, wait.” Wen Bei called out to him.
Su Zhiyan turned around and saw Wen Bei rummaging through boxes and drawers looking for something. After frantically searching through everything, he finally pulled out a yellow… thing from a corner?
“This is the bracelet you bought back then. I gave away all the ones you told me to give.”
A translucent yellow crystal bracelet dropped into Su Zhiyan’s palm. He lowered his lashes.
“You gave me this one too late, so I just put it somewhere and forgot about it.”
“Perfect timing to take it back for our little sister.” Wen Bei put his hands on his hips, feeling very satisfied with this plan.
Su Zhiyan felt complicated seeing this bracelet.
“It’s so ugly, better not give it to her.” He put the bracelet in his pocket and walked out the door.
“?” Wen Bei stood confused behind the door.
Was it ugly? He thought it looked pretty nice.
Had his aesthetic sense fallen behind the times?
–
Shen Nianjing received a message from Su Zhiyao on the subway on his way to Su Zhiyan’s house.
[Yaoyao: Shen-gege!! Sorry to trouble you again to bring some little cakes /cheer]
Shen Nianjing was already used to running errands for the little girl every time he came for tutoring. Sometimes he would bring some snacks to reward her too, since she had been improving a lot lately.
[Shen-gege: Sure, still the strawberry cake?]
[Yaoyao: No no no! Bring more!]
[Yaoyao: Please bring all the berry-flavored cakes from the freezer, and some taro egg tarts too!]
[Shen-gege: Can you really finish all that?]
[Yaoyao: Yes yes!! Thank you so much Shen-gege]
[Shen-gege: You’re welcome.jpg]
After getting off the subway, he went to the bakery first to pick out desserts. When he walked out, he was carrying two full bags.
Could she really finish all this? He doubted it.
Wouldn’t this much sugar be bad for a kid’s teeth and stomach? Should he tell Su Zhiyan?
As soon as this thought came up, Shen Nianjing immediately rejected it.
No no no, Su Zhiyan seemed to be mad at him lately. He hadn’t even replied to his messages. This wasn’t the time to drop a bombshell like “I’m your sister’s tutor” and add fuel to the fire.
Shen Nianjing was worried this fire would burn so hot it would send him straight to the crematorium.
After arriving at Su Zhiyan’s house, Shen Nianjing was still changing his slippers when Su Zhiyao excitedly ran over and eagerly took the two bags of desserts from his hands.
Then she flashed him a sweet smile, her voice full of barely contained excitement. “Shen-gege, my brother is coming home later!”
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