Chapter 11
“Still…” Xia Fengsheng’s lips trembled. He bit his own red lips until they turned pale, giving himself a bit of mental preparation. “You’re even getting shy now.”
As if he had forgotten Xia Fengsheng’s tyranny. In this world, no one could refuse a tyrannical poor man.
Once again, Xia Fengsheng grabbed Shi Ye’s hand and imposed forced love upon him.
Shi Ye chose legitimate self-defense and dodged his tyranny, protecting his own palm. Specifically, he clasped his own hands together, leaving the other man with nothing to hold.
Xia Fengsheng refused to let it go. “What’s wrong with a couple holding hands a little?”
He did his best to make rudeness sound reasonable. Right now he had amnesia, and Shi Ye was his boyfriend. Asking to hold hands with his boyfriend should have been the tiniest thing in the world, yet the other man was unwilling.
Shi Ye put on his gloves and said coldly, expressionless, “Even so, not right now.”
Xia Fengsheng asked, “Then when can we hold hands?”
When you stop dressing like this and start looking like a human being.
Shi Ye swept a glance over his revolting style of dress and felt a kind of powerless fatigue, as though saying anything would be useless anyway.
Hadn’t he learned enough lessons this morning already?
The two stood there in a standoff. Shi Ye’s figure was handsome and well-shaped, his appearance advantages brought to the limit. Xia Fengsheng, meanwhile, was wrapped in a down jacket, both hands slightly lifted like goose wings. Since the jacket was too thick, his arms felt squeezed when hanging naturally, so he simply raised them a little.
Shi Ye looked at him, wanting to speak and yet stopping himself.
“Forget it, if we’re not holding hands then we’re not holding hands.” Xia Fengsheng was the first to compromise. His black crystal-like eyes shifted. “Let’s do something even more heated instead.”
Feel speed and passion.
*
“Ha… ha… I can’t do it anymore… Feels like I’m going to die…”
Xia Fengsheng lowered his head. The down jacket on him hung wide open, and the lower half of his body was still moving nonstop. His eyes were tightly shut, like he was enduring something his body simply could not bear.
He clenched his teeth hard, and moans slipped out through the gaps. A flush gradually spread over his face. His mouth kept saying he could not go on, but he showed no sign whatsoever of stopping.
He kept panting, tilting his head back and gulping down air like he was trying to save his life. Oxygen flooded into his body. He and Shi Ye got closer, closer, closer.
“Your turn!”
The phone was passed into Shi Ye’s hand like a relay baton.
Shi Ye wore an expression as if he had seen through all worldly matters. Taking the phone, he started charging down the rubber track at Jing University.
At this point, he no longer had anything left to say.
Also, why did graduate students still have campus running?!
After finishing a lap, Shi Ye took the phone over to the check-in machine to clock in, and at the same time saw the remaining mileage still displayed.
52 kilometers.
“……”
Supporting his waist, Xia Fengsheng strolled over in a leisurely shuffle. He had not exercised in far too long. Halfway through running, he had gotten a stitch, and now his side still ached faintly, but that did not stop him from speaking righteously to Shi Ye, who had just finished his run. “Don’t stop immediately after finishing. You should walk around a little.”
Otherwise, it was very easy to run into physical problems.
Shi Ye asked, “Why do graduate students at your school still have campus running?”
Xia Fengsheng wanted to ask too.
Who exactly invented campus running?
And when finals were approaching, did the person who invented campus running also come frantically grind out laps like the rest of us?
The two of them had each run one lap, and both had warmed up. The zippers of their down jackets were open. Xia Fengsheng’s duck pajama pants were now completely exposed—so beautiful it hurt the eyes.
Shi Ye had also taken off his coat, wearing only a hoodie. His blood and energy ran strong, and his body heated up fast. After warming up, he could no longer feel the cold.
After taking off the down jacket, Xia Fengsheng once again directly sensed how different Shi Ye’s build was from back in high school.
In high school, Shi Ye had been an arts student. For dance, he had restrictions on food and drink, and he had carried a youthful thinness on his body. Now he looked almost completely remade, with no trace of his former self.
The strength in his shoulders and arms was the most obvious. Even in his youth his Adam’s apple had been pronounced, and now it matched his physique extremely well.
The two stood together looking at Xia Fengsheng’s phone.
Shi Ye asked, “How many kilometers do you have to run in one semester?”
Xia Fengsheng answered, “Fifty-four.”
Shi Ye lifted his eyelids and looked at Xia Fengsheng.
Just now, the two of them had each run one thousand meters.
And today was Xia Fengsheng’s first time coming to run this entire semester.
Xia Fengsheng’s throat itched a little. He placed a hand on his smooth, slender neck and pinched it twice. “…If I don’t finish it and fail, I’ll have to run even more.”
The hidden meaning was obvious without saying it aloud.
Shi Ye said, “Why should I help you run?”
“Aren’t you my boyfriend?”
“……”
For the first time in his life, Shi Ye felt an urge to beat him to death.
Who said New China had no Long March?
Tuesday, under bright sunshine, Xia Fengsheng and Shi Ye forcibly ran around the track the entire morning, and only at two-thirty in the afternoon did their journey finally come to an end.
During that time, they cursed the heavens, cursed the earth, cursed the school, yet they did not say one single sentence about themselves not being able to do it.
After Xia Fengsheng finished the final lap, while walking to cool down, one furry slipper fell off behind him. His whole face was flushed red with exhaustion, the veins from his jaw down along his neck drawn taut. He simply could not be bothered with the shoe and kept limping forward however he pleased, relaxed to an outrageous degree.
“Your shoe,” Shi Ye said.
Xia Fengsheng: Can’t hear you.
Shi Ye picked the shoe up from behind and, while the two were resting, tossed it back down by his feet.
The two of them sat side by side on the steps, too tired for either to want to speak for a while.
After resting a full twenty minutes, Xia Fengsheng weakly said, “I’ll treat you to a meal.”
Shi Ye thought of his insufficient meal-card balance. “No need.”
No point making that meal card’s situation even worse.
He had come to go on a date with Xia Fengsheng, and now he no longer knew whether he was taking revenge on Xia Fengsheng or on himself.
Suddenly, Ding Qizhen’s zodiac theory seemed to carry a few points of credibility.
“What? Afraid I’ll spend money on you?” Xia Fengsheng once again had the spirit of a tyrannical poor man descend upon him, all while wondering why Shi Ye still had not broken up with him.
He had pinched his own thigh purple under those pajama pants from acting all day long, and Shi Ye was still enduring him.
People did grow with time. During those seven years they had not seen each other, Shi Ye had evidently trained up an astonishing level of patience.
Generously, Xia Fengsheng said, “No need to feel bad about my money. You think carefully now about what you want to eat. In a bit, I’ll take you to the convenience store to buy it.”
Shi Ye: ……
Xia Fengsheng leaned close to Shi Ye’s ear and deliberately blew air across the rim of it, like a snake coiling around his neck, the tongue of the snake flicking straight into his ear hollow. “Spending money on your boyfriend is only natural.”
Shi Ye’s ears were sensitive. He did not like people talking right up against them.
Sure enough, he raised a hand on instinct. Xia Fengsheng was caught off guard and instantly flipped backward, even the slipper on his foot flying off.
The slipper was free.
Shi Ye had not actually used much force, yet Xia Fengsheng still toppled straight into the bushes.
That startled him too. “Are you okay?!”
Reaching out, he hauled Xia Fengsheng back up from the bushes, feeling annoyed. He already looked like a vagrant today, and now he looked even grubbier.
“How is it? Did you get hurt anywhere?”
There were a lot of fallen twigs in the bushes, and if one was not careful, it was easy to get scratched.
After being pulled out, Xia Fengsheng looked at him with unfocused eyes.
Shi Ye thought he had landed on an injured spot, and his expression turned serious. “Let me look at your ear.”
The next second, Xia Fengsheng slowly raised a hand. “For you.”
A little white flower.
“Chu.”
“……”
Quite something that he could come up with that, and quite something that there were still flowers blooming in winter.
Xia Fengsheng was just like that winter flower—blooming for no reason, inexplicable.
Shi Ye looked at him, his mouth opening and closing, opening and closing, until in the end it turned into a single sentence: “Let’s go to the convenience store.”
All the empty seats in the convenience store were occupied. Xia Fengsheng and Shi Ye each held a cup of instant noodles and stood by the customer counter near the glass door.
Customers in a hurry would stand there to eat.
The instant noodles Xia Fengsheng bought for Shi Ye were chicken stewed with mushrooms. Great tonic.
After entering the convenience store, Shi Ye ignored Xia Fengsheng again and stood off to one side scrolling on his phone.
“Clear your schedule next Monday.”
Xia Fengsheng said, “I haven’t arranged my classes and plans for next week yet.”
Shi Ye’s attitude was firm. “There’s something necessary on Monday. Figure out a way to make time.”
Xia Fengsheng’s eyes turned sharp as he quietly observed Shi Ye. He did not know what the other man intended to do. “Does it have to be Monday?”
Shi Ye said, “Yes.”
On Shi Ye’s phone screen was the most authoritative psychiatric specialist from a certain hospital. That specialist only took consultations on Mondays.
After finishing the noodles, Xia Fengsheng saw Shi Ye out of campus. Today’s date was over, and the two of them simultaneously let out a breath of relief. On the surface they still looked spirited, but in truth their eyes both held a kind of weathered weariness.
After saying goodbye, Shi Ye turned and left at once.
His back was resolute.
He walked faster and faster, faster and faster, and in the end directly started running.
The sun set, and the temperature gradually dropped.
Utterly exhausted in body and spirit, Xia Fengsheng trudged back toward the dorm, wrapped tightly in his down jacket.
Today, his face, dignity, soul, and morals had all been lost cleanly.
All four elements were empty.
The dorm building had the heat on. Xia Fengsheng was sweating from the warmth, but he still did not unzip the down jacket. Right now, making him appear before anyone dressed like this felt even worse than killing him.
He did not even dare think about how many people who knew him had seen him today.
“Is that Xiao Sheng?”
The cleaning auntie nudged the dorm auntie.
Seeing that slovenly back, the cleaning auntie hardly dared recognize him.
Usually, Xia Fengsheng dressed fashionably. Whether in formal wear or casual clothes, he always walked at the forefront of trends and had a keen sensitivity toward fashion.
“It is,” the dorm auntie said, trying to help him out. “Xiao Sheng fell from upstairs a few days ago. He can’t wear clothes that fit too closely while he’s healing, so looser clothing is better for recovering.”
The cleaning auntie was shocked. “He fell from upstairs? Was it serious? Is he still alive?”
“……” The dorm auntie looked at Xia Fengsheng stepping into the elevator. “He’s alive.”
After returning to the dorm, Xia Fengsheng stripped off the down jacket and went into the bathroom. After taking a hot shower, he came back out accompanied by steam.
He collapsed onto the bed and reached out for the phone he had just placed on charge.
The screen showed a VX message notification.
He opened it and saw it was a transfer of 5,000 yuan.
Sender: Shi Ye.
Xia Fengsheng: “?”
He did not understand why the other man had suddenly transferred him money.
A few minutes later, the other side replied.
Shi Ye: “Food expenses.”
Xia Fengsheng: “Oh.”
Shi Ye was on the way home. Passing by a pet store, he went in to buy Bubai some treats. They were out of meat cans at home.
When the shop assistant saw the stylish man walk in, she warmly said, “Welcome.”
The phone in his pocket vibrated. Shi Ye had just replied to Xia Fengsheng earlier and had not checked his messages again. Now another one had come from him.
He opened the message.
Greedy as ever, Xia Fengsheng said, “Not enough.”
“……”
On Xia Fengsheng’s side, he had been waiting for a breakup message from Shi Ye. With how he had behaved today, receiving one would not have been excessive.
He only wanted Shi Ye out of his world as quickly as possible.
The next second, the phone gave a notification.
Xia Fengsheng hurriedly checked it.
Shi Ye: [5,000 yuan transfer]
Xia Fengsheng: …You still won’t break up over even this.
When He Qiang came back, he saw Xia Fengsheng lying on the bed with one leg propped up, chatting away.
Now that Xia Fengsheng had amnesia, there were not many people he could still chat with.
Curious, He Qiang asked, “Sheng’er, who are you chatting with?”
Xia Fengsheng said, “A ninja.”
