Chapter 29
The newcomer was clearly at odds with Xia Fengsheng. His name was Sun Tongming. He also studied at Wuhai High, though unlike Xia Fengsheng, they were not in the same class.
You could not really say the two knew each other. At the very least, Xia Fengsheng did not even remember his name. There were so many idiots in the world—if he had to remember every single one, how long would that take?
The only real intersection between them was that Xia Fengsheng had beaten him up badly before.
The last time, because of that damned cripple, Xia Fengsheng had locked him in the bathroom and beaten him. Sun Tongming still had not swallowed that grudge.
Seeing Xia Fengsheng in the alley feeding a kitten in this fake show of kindness, he ran up and sneered, “What you’re doing right now is murder. Murder, understand?”
If you’re only pretending to be kind by feeding it, then if you’re really kind, take it home and raise it yourself.
Xia Fengsheng ignored him and tossed the kitten another piece of bread.
Kitten: nom~~
Seeing that he was being ignored, Sun Tongming spoke again. “I’m telling you, stop feeding it.”
All around them were students who had come out during lunch to look for food. Cross one more street up ahead and you reached Wuhai High, so there were especially many Wuhai students around, moving in groups as they searched the street for shops and snacks they wanted.
Sun Tongming deliberately raised his voice. “You keep feeding it without raising it—what’s it supposed to do later?”
“It’ll be winter soon. Cats can’t find food properly. Aren’t you just sending it straight to its death?”
Most of the students who passed through this street after school had seen this kitten before. It was all black with watery green eyes, and from time to time students would come over to pet it.
Because of Sun Tongming’s loud fussing, plenty of students turned to look, then began whispering to the companions beside them.
“What’s going on?”
“Looks like Xia Fengsheng is feeding the cat, but not keeping it.”
“Why are those two clashing again?”
“Those two? One’s Xia Fengsheng—who’s the other?”
“Uh… I don’t know either.”
“You think they’re going to fight?”
Gossip was human nature. In an instant, the roadside gained a whole row of students “tying their shoelaces.”
Untie, retie. Retie, untie.
The truly craftsmanlike ones even started braiding Chinese knots on the spot.
“You’re being irresponsible to the kitten. If you stop feeding it later, what’s it supposed to do? Starve to death?” one boy in the crowd chimed in. He had never liked Xia Fengsheng.
Once someone started backing Sun Tongming up, it instantly triggered a wave of criticism toward Xia Fengsheng.
“Right! If you’re not going to raise it, then don’t feed it! What fake kindness—if you’ve got the guts, take it home and raise it!”
“Putting on a show here, trying to make people think he’s so kind and good-hearted.”
Most people in school knew Xia Fengsheng. Between the fighting and always ranking first, some thought he had long since finished showing off, but wherever some disliked him, others worshipped him.
Xia Fengsheng’s looks were not even on the same layer as other boys still developing in high school. His face had looked complete even back then. Even if his eyes had not yet opened up into the adult sharpness they would later have, he still carried extraordinary presence.
On top of that, he did not like talking, and his whole person carried a gloomy air, very distinctive. And he was the top student in the grade. Quite a few girls at school were secretly paying attention to him, half afraid of him and half fascinated. This kind of setup belonged in novels.
The most petty thing in the world was the Y chromosome.
At that age of restless youth, when one person stole most of the opposite sex’s attention, jealousy naturally followed, and people gathered together to besiege him.
“Feeding it and refusing to take responsibility—what trash.”
“I think you shouldn’t feed it at all. Can’t even bear to buy it a sausage, and you’re giving a kitten bread. What kind of kitten eats bread?”
Xia Fengsheng raised his eyes.
The person who had just spoken instantly went mute. His jet-black eyes swept across the crowd. The first few boys who had chimed in quickly retreated deeper into the group, not daring to meet his gaze. One second ago they had still been speaking happily; the next, Xia Fengsheng had scared the words right out of them.
Xia Fengsheng was famous at school for having hard fists. If he really beat someone, they would probably be in bed for five or six days. If not for strength in numbers, nobody would have dared provoke him alone.
Sun Tongming found resonance and grew even more arrogant. “Listen to them, listen to them. Look at the kind of thing you’re doing now.”
“A good thing?” Xia Fengsheng stood up. His height gave Sun Tongming a crushing advantage, already pushing toward one meter eighty-three.
Sun Tongming: ???
How had this guy grown again? Wasn’t he the same height as him just a few days ago?
Being overshadowed, Sun Tongming unconsciously took a step back.
Standing there, Xia Fengsheng was taller than him, broader in the shoulders, better-looking, more sculpted in the features. Against him, Sun Tongming suddenly looked like some river imp that had just crawled out of the water.
“What I’m doing is obviously a good thing.” His low, hoarse voice drifted into Sun Tongming’s ears.
Xia Fengsheng’s dark eyes turned on him. “This cat ought to be grateful that I gave it a bite to eat today and let it not die today.”
The way he spoke was sinister enough to make people break out in goosebumps.
Sun Tongming shivered under his stare.
Xia Fengsheng’s gaze swept to the few boys who had just backed Sun Tongming up. They all immediately pretended to have urgent business and ran off. One of them even tripped on a stone and nearly fell, hurriedly regaining his balance and running away in a ridiculous panic, terrified Xia Fengsheng might decide to teach them a lesson too.
Xia Fengsheng stepped forward, looking down at Sun Tongming in contempt. “Compared to people like you—who only come to look at it to satisfy your own feelings while mouthing off about righteousness and morality—I’m better by no one knows how much.”
“Whether it dies this winter or not, I don’t know. But it didn’t die today, and that’s all that matters.” His blood-red lips parted, like a poisonous snake showing its fangs. “Know why?”
“Because I gave it a bite to eat.”
His voice was not loud, but it was clear enough for everyone around to hear.
Nobody knew why this cat might die one day, but the reason it could stay alive today was because Xia Fengsheng had fed it a piece of bread, enough to keep it from starving.
A lot of students nearby came to see the kitten, thought it was cute, and petted it. Xia Fengsheng was far from the only one who had not taken it home.
But only Xia Fengsheng had actually brought it something to eat.
Or rather, among everyone who came to look at it today, he was the only one who had brought food.
Usually so many people came to look at it, yet today the kitten had lain there in the alley without having eaten, and most people had simply turned a blind eye and walked away.
Was Xia Fengsheng really the only irresponsible one here?
He was the most responsible one.
Xia Fengsheng said, “You should be thanking my kindness for letting it live through today, instead of standing here asking me why I’m not raising it.”
“If it could speak, it would definitely be thanking me with tears in its eyes and begging me to come see it again tomorrow and give it another bite to eat.”
“And if it knew you scared off the one person keeping it alive, then after it died it would crawl back as a ghost just to come find you.”
Whether the cat died or not had nothing to do with him. Even if it dropped dead this second, Xia Fengsheng would not feel the slightest guilt wondering whether it had happened because he failed to take it home and raise it.
There was always something eerie about Xia Fengsheng. Sometimes Sun Tongming truly felt he was some kind of ghost in human skin.
The other side had rejected your moral blackmail.
And cursed you while doing it.
When it came to giving this kitten food, nobody had the right to use that against Xia Fengsheng.
In the city, the only way a stray cat could find food was by digging through trash cans. If it ate that filthy, rotten, stinking food, how many days could it survive anyway?
Xia Fengsheng turned back to pick up the bread bag on the ground. The moment the kitten finished the bread and saw him coming over, it scampered far away.
Xia Fengsheng glanced at it once.
A thing that could never be tamed.
Tomorrow, I’m downgrading your food back to steamed buns.
Sun Tongming had been refuted until his face burned red. He had lost face and could not get down from the stage, especially with so many classmates gathered around watching.
A wave of anger surged inside him. When Xia Fengsheng tried to leave the alley, he deliberately blocked the way and refused to let him out.
If Xia Fengsheng moved left, he moved left. If Xia Fengsheng moved right, he moved right. He glared at Xia Fengsheng, all aggrieved indignation.
Xia Fengsheng lifted his eyelids and looked at that clownishly ridiculous face.
The next second, he walked straight forward and rammed his shoulder directly into Sun Tongming, smashing him against the wall.
“Ohhhhh!!!!”
The crowd gasped. Xia Fengsheng had looked like he was simply walking normally, yet in one move he had slammed Sun Tongming over. Nobody knew whether Xia Fengsheng was too strong or Sun Tongming was simply too weak.
All eyes followed Xia Fengsheng’s retreating back.
He did as he pleased, unconcerned with how others saw him. One second, someone offended him. The next second, he showed them that offending him came with a price.
And if there was a next time, it would be worse.
“Isn’t that Xia Fengsheng?” Ding Qizhen had a popsicle in his mouth as he pointed toward the gathered crowd.
Shi Ye looked over. The name Xia Fengsheng meant almost nothing to him.
“You know him?” Shi Ye asked.
Ding Qizhen made an exaggerated face. “You forgot? He’s the one from the first day we transferred here, the one who read the self-criticism on the stage.”
The one who read an apology and then, the next second, went up again to give the speech for ranking first.
Ding Qizhen craned his neck to look. “Did he get into another fight?”
Shi Ye barely had any memory of Xia Fengsheng. He did not care about those things, and besides, during that school assembly he had stood so far from the stage he could not even clearly see what the other person looked like.
That evening after school, Shi Ye went to his teacher’s house.
His teacher had moved back from the capital to the small seaside city, settling in an old apartment building.
The building had to be at least twenty years old. The walls were faded and peeling, so weathered that you could no longer see what they had originally looked like. Shi Ye walked into the building, which was four or five years older than him, and started climbing the stairs.
His destination was the seventh floor. Ever since his teacher got sick, his health had remained very weak, yet for some reason he refused to live somewhere with an elevator and insisted on nesting in this run-down old apartment block.
Shi Ye had asked about it before, and his teacher had directly thrown back, “What do you know? This is homesickness.”
When he reached the seventh floor, his teacher, He Yu—the one whose homesickness was exploding out of control—opened the door for him.
The housekeeper had already prepared dinner. Shi Ye washed his hands and could eat right away.
After dinner, Shi Ye and He Yu walked to the rented dance studio to practice. By the time they came out again, it was already ten at night.
Today the studio’s water had been shut off. Sweaty all over, Shi Ye entered the changing room, wiped himself down with a towel, changed clothes, and came out intending to go home. Tonight he walked a little faster than usual. The sweat on his body made him uncomfortable, and he wanted to get home and shower soon.
As he walked down the street, he passed the back door of a barbecue shop and saw a snowy-white figure.
At the roadside, Xia Fengsheng stood there wearing gloves, dumping food waste into a trash can.
He had his head lowered, his hands moving nonstop. The surroundings were dirty and grimy, yet he himself was so white it was hard to tell whether the moon in the sky or Xia Fengsheng was the more luminous.
Shi Ye did not know him, but from the general outline he recognized him as the same person who had been fighting at noon.
He looked hot. On a late-autumn night with the wind blowing, he was wearing only a short-sleeved shirt. The ends of his hair and the back of his neck were damp with sweat, making his skin look even smoother. He wore cloth gloves on both hands and lifted an arm to wipe away the sweat dripping from his chin.
At that moment, a ragpicker slowly tottered over beside him, dragging a huge grey-green woven sack behind her, filled with empty bottles and cardboard she had collected.
She was very small and very thin, with unkempt hair and a bad smell clinging to her. When she came closer, she cautiously glanced at Xia Fengsheng beside her, then stood on tiptoe and clung to the rim of the recyclable trash bin, straining to poke her head in and search for bottles.
She was clearly elderly, her back bent so badly she could not straighten it, and yet she still dragged a sack larger than her own body while trying to dig through the trash.
Shi Ye started searching his pockets with both hands, pulled out his wallet, and took out all the cash in it—several thousand yuan in total.
At one glance, it was obvious the old woman had no children supporting her. Otherwise, she would not have been out collecting bottles in the middle of the night.
Just as Shi Ye was about to walk over, Xia Fengsheng moved.
The movement startled the old woman badly. She thought perhaps her filthy hand had accidentally brushed against him and offended him, so she hurriedly dragged her sack backward to get out of the way.
Old people who picked through trash belonged to the weakest group at the bottom of society. Anyone could bully them.
Xia Fengsheng kicked over the heavy green trash can, which for the old woman was like some giant beast, then turned his cold gaze on her.
The move shocked everyone.
Shi Ye quickly strode forward. “What are you—”
Before he could finish, Xia Fengsheng had already crouched down first.
Shi Ye froze mid-run: ?
After knocking the trash can down, Xia Fengsheng had no idea why the old woman was just standing there. Wasn’t a fallen trash can easier to pick bottles from than one still standing?
He crouched down, and with his gloved hands started pulling all the garbage out.
He did not think it smelled, and he did not think it was dirty. This was his life every day. He had long since gotten used to it.
Picking and sorting, he separated out all the recyclable bottles and cardboard, then tossed them all toward the old woman.
The old woman shrank back and looked at him, not daring to take them.
In a cold voice, Xia Fengsheng said, “What are you staring at me for?”
When she still did not move, he had no choice but to stuff all the items into her woven sack himself.
His movements were very quick. He worked with efficient, practiced ease, and in just two or three motions he had packed all the recyclables into the bag.
“Th-thank you, young man,” the old woman said.
Xia Fengsheng ignored her, tidied up the overturned trash can, then continued with his work. Once he finished, he turned around and went back into the barbecue shop.
The old woman kept watching his back until it disappeared from view, then dragged her heavy sack onward.
“Where are you taking these?” a bright voice sounded from behind her.
The old woman turned and met Shi Ye’s peach-blossom eyes. He took the woven sack from her hand. “I’ll help you.”
“No, no, can’t do that, can’t do that. It’s dirty and stinks.” Her voice was old and hoarse. She was afraid the sack would dirty Shi Ye’s nice clothes.
Shi Ye’s strong wrist took the sack from her hand as he casually lied, “It’s fine. I’ve got muscle weakness in my arms—I use this to exercise. Besides, my clothes are already dirty today anyway. It’s okay.”
Children his age almost never wanted to get close to her. Normally she also kept her distance out of self-awareness.
But tonight, she had met two all at once.
The old woman tried to refuse again and again, but she could not withstand Shi Ye’s enthusiasm, so in the end she could only tell him where she was headed.
“Thank you, young man.”
“It’s nothing.”
Shi Ye carried the sack all the way to where the old woman lived. Fortunately, she did at least have a home, somewhere to shelter herself, so she would not be left with nowhere to go in winter.
The place was piled high with bottles and cardboard—money she had gathered for surviving the winter.
“Young man, thank you,” the old woman said. “Met a good person today. That other young man too, good-hearted.”
Shi Ye thought back. The name should have been Xia Fengsheng.
After delivering the things to her, Shi Ye left.
The old woman began tidying her things at home. When she took off her outer coat before sleeping, she discovered that one pocket felt strangely full.
She reached in.
It was several thousand yuan, bright red.
*
Recently the school store had gotten in a new kind of lollipop—a foreign brand, yogurt flavor, fresh stock. Every day, once it was put out, it sold out before noon.
But it was somewhat expensive. Five yuan for one.
Class Six had just gotten out of PE. Shi Ye went in to buy water, with Ding Qizhen following behind him.
Ding Qizhen slapped his arm. “Hey! Hey! It’s him again!”
Who?
Shi Ye looked over.
Xia Fengsheng was standing in front of the stationery shelves, his eyes sweeping row after row. In the end, he took two of the cheapest pen refills and went to the cashier.
“That yogurt-flavored one is really good.”
Two girls queuing behind him were chatting, and Xia Fengsheng could not help glancing at the display box on the counter that had been specially set up for the yogurt lollipops.
After paying, he took the pen refills and left. Ding Qizhen was still staring at him. “I feel like he’s always kind of sinister. You think maybe there’s something following him?”
Shi Ye said, “Have you gotten too deep into astrology?”
Ding Qizhen explained, “It’s mainly that he looks too distinctive. We should stay farther away from him. I heard he’s always getting into fights, has a bad temper, is petty, and holds grudges.”
Shi Ye did not reply. He kept watching Xia Fengsheng’s retreating back.
When it was his turn to pay, for some ghost-knows-what reason, he bought two yogurt lollipops.
*
Recently, Shi Ye had hit a bottleneck in dance.
“No!”
He Yu angrily cut him off. “Stop, stop, stop!”
Shi Ye froze in place mid-lift with his dance partner in his arms. “Do I really have to do it that way, teacher?”
The girl still suspended in the air added, “Teacher, sure?”
He Yu: ……
Once the girl landed safely, Shi Ye was dragged out and criticized alone.
“Where are the emotions? You dance without emotions?”
Shi Ye was scolded until he could not lift his head.
He was He Yu’s proudest student. He Yu had not taken many disciples over the course of his career. Good seedlings mattered in quality, not quantity. The only one he truly liked enough to keep by his side was Shi Ye.
Getting into one of He Yu’s classes was even harder than climbing the heavens. The girl practicing with Shi Ye today had only gotten in because her family had pulled many strings, and He Yu had only barely agreed to teach her after seeing that the child really had talent.
Because they were in a small city, the girl had to take a plane on weekends, then transfer to high-speed rail, then transfer again to a taxi just to come to class.
Even so, to be able to take He Yu’s classes, she did it gladly. It was the sort of chance countless people begged for and never got.
Today was Shi Ye’s junk-food release day. Normally his diet was kept under strict control. Snacks were completely forbidden. No drinks, no fried food.
Today, he was allowed one small sweet cookie.
Under He Yu’s furious scolding, Shi Ye—lacking all sense of the moment—pulled out his Chips Ahoy.
He Yu snapped, “If you keep eating that damn Chips Ahoy, next time you’ll still dance like shit.”
Shi Ye: ……
After class, He Yu told Shi Ye that from now on he had to wake up early every morning and go run by the sea, feel nature, experience emotion from the heart.
Because of that early rising, the time Shi Ye started arriving at school also became earlier. The autumn sky had only just begun to brighten, still washed in blue.
Shi Ye walked into the teaching building and started up the stairs toward his classroom.
As he climbed, he heard footsteps in the corridor above.
Someone had come even earlier than him?
Curious, he went all the way up to the top floor. The moment he stepped into the hallway, he saw that snowy-white figure once again.
Xia Fengsheng had his head lowered, mopping the corridor tiles with a mop. Wearing an outer jacket was inconvenient, so he had taken it off and set it on the windowsill nearby.
His figure was long and slender. His thick eyelashes made his features look especially refined. The mole by his mouth was tiny, and because his eyes tilted upward and his lashes were thick, it looked as if he had naturally drawn eyeliner.
They had crossed paths a few times already, but this was the first time Shi Ye had ever clearly seen what Xia Fengsheng actually looked like.
Snow-white skin. Cherry… no, lips red like pomegranate seeds ripened to bursting.
The injuries from his last fight had not healed completely. There was still an abrasion on his cheek. The wound marred that face of white jade, giving him a cold, broken sort of beauty.
Outside the window, the sun slowly rose. Sunlight climbed onto him little by little, and the moment he lifted his head, a veil of gold made from light and shadow fell over his brows and eyes, bringing life to a person who normally seemed so cold.
In the next instant, Shi Ye was caught off guard and met his eyes directly.
Xia Fengsheng stood there holding the mop, looking at Shi Ye. He did not know why the boy kept staring at him.
Shi Ye came back to himself and realized it was impolite to keep staring like that, so he hurriedly withdrew his gaze—but his eyes could not help lifting again to look.
Xia Fengsheng grabbed the jacket from the windowsill and was just about to leave when, because he moved too suddenly, the coins in his pocket spilled out.
Clink—
Coins scattered all over the floor.
Xia Fengsheng looked at the spread of coins and froze too.
Shi Ye quickly strode over and beat him to it, picking them up one by one until they all rested in his palm.
His action had been too eager. When he stood up again, he looked shyly at Xia Fengsheng’s eyes a couple of times and tried to explain himself. “I didn’t mean anything by it… I…”
He started talking nonsense, without even knowing what he himself was saying. It was all disjointed. He just wanted to say something to him. Feeling that he was making a fool of himself, he simply held out his hand. “Here.”
Xia Fengsheng looked at the coins in Shi Ye’s palm.
He did not reach for them immediately. Instead, he looked at him with clear wariness.
He did not know why Shi Ye was helping him pick them up.
Shi Ye’s hand remained outstretched. His fingers were straight, his palm clean. His hand was long and the nails were neatly trimmed.
Because he had come straight from his morning run, the muscles on his body were still flushed. With his palm turned upward, you could see veins like snakes running from his wrist up along his forearm.
Lowering his lashes, Xia Fengsheng cautiously stretched out a hand to take the coins from Shi Ye’s palm.
Without meaning to, Shi Ye held his breath.
A little.
A little more.
Slowly, slowly—
his cool fingertips cautiously came to rest in Shi Ye’s palm.
Shi Ye sucked in a breath. That faint chill in his palm made him shudder from head to toe. Starting from his spine, numb electricity spread through his entire body. It was an indescribable kind of pleasure.
Shi Ye’s face turned red, and his heart shook harder than it ever had before.
“Did you do yesterday’s test paper? Let me copy it.”
Conversation drifted from behind them.
Like a startled bird, Xia Fengsheng snatched his hand away with a whoosh.
The fingertips resting in Shi Ye’s palm vanished instantly. Shi Ye’s pupils contracted. He wanted to curl his hand shut, but the person was already gone, leaving behind only an empty corridor.
The yogurt lollipops were still in his pocket.
