CFHE Chapter 67

He didn’t dare ask this question in front of Fu Yuhan. Rather than fearing the other’s denial, he was more afraid of the other’s admission.

 

Friends could worry about each other too, but Wen Yu was no longer satisfied with just being friends.

 

How ridiculous—not long ago, they didn’t even have the makings of friendship.

 

The paused computer emitted the faint humming unique to running electronics. The small lamp glowed softly, and the room was very quiet. Wen Yu seemed bewitched, instinctively lowering his breathing and moving slightly closer to Fu Yuhan—

 

The peaceful eyelashes suddenly trembled lightly, and those tightly closed eyes opened an almost imperceptible crack.

 

Wen Yu was startled, his head jerking back. His slightly dilated pupils quickly forced themselves back to their normal state, and he asked with feigned composure in a breathy voice: “Awake?”

 

Heaven knows, if Fu Yuhan had woken up half a second later, his kiss might have actually landed on the other’s forehead.

 

That wouldn’t just be social death.

 

He might also have to light incense for his love that hadn’t had a chance to sprout and grow.

 

Fu Yuhan might have been groggy from sleep. His eyelids trembled for a while but couldn’t fully open. A confused, muffled hum escaped from his nasal cavity, and after a long moment, he asked vaguely: “You’re not watching the movie anymore?”

 

“Finished watching.” Wen Yu said in a suppressed voice, “Want to go sleep in the room?”

 

Fu Yuhan’s head rubbed against the sofa, probably refusing: “Can’t… always sleep in your bed.”

 

“I don’t mind.”

 

Fu Yuhan still refused: “It’s getting cold, gege…”

 

Wen Yu was stunned, then laughed.

 

The previous few times, Wen Yu had carried him in after he fell asleep. Fu Yuhan wasn’t pretentious about it—after several times, he no longer resisted sleeping in his bed. After all, it was a double bed, and when two thin people slept on it, the distance between them was as wide as the Milky Way.

 

Although there was only one blanket on it, when it was hot, each person only needed a corner of the blanket.

 

When it got cold, it was different.

 

Sharing a bed was still acceptable, but sharing a blanket would be overly intimate—after all, they weren’t… that kind of relationship.

 

Speaking of which, he definitely had extra blankets here, he just didn’t know where they were stored.

 

Topic: “On the Harmfulness of Not Doing Housework”

 

Essay: It creates obstacles for yourself on the path of pursuing a boyfriend.

 

Too difficult.

 

Wen Yu sighed and went into the room to rummage through cabinets.

 

The auntie’s logic for storing things was fairly traceable. After opening several cabinets, Wen Yu found the blanket he needed. The difficulty lay in finding a suitable duvet cover, which took him half an hour.

 

By the time he finished everything and came out of the room, Fu Yuhan had fallen asleep for the second time.

 

But he wasn’t sleeping deeply.

 

As soon as Wen Yu scooped him up from the sofa, Fu Yuhan opened his eyes.

 

“What are you doing?” He squinted, his voice lazy and hoarse with heavy nasal tones, “I’m telling you, I’m… dead tired. If you try to kick me out now… I’ll kill you.”

 

“…”

 

“When have I ever kicked you out? Weren’t you the one who wanted to leave just now?” Wen Yu was amused by him, “Besides, how would you kill me?”

 

Fu Yuhan closed his eyes and grabbed his neck: “Like this.”

 

He didn’t use force, just rested his hand there. Wen Yu tried swallowing and could feel the other’s hand move slightly with the rolling of his Adam’s apple.

 

Very fragrant.

 

Fu Yuhan’s hand carried the scent of the body wash Wen Yu used every day, as if this person had been tainted with his scent.

 

This realization satisfied him. Wen Yu curved his lips slightly and placed one hand on Fu Yuhan’s arm—

 

The next second, with a grip and twist, he turned his upper body toward the wall and pinned his arm behind his back.

 

“Hiss…” His drowsiness instantly disappeared. Fu Yuhan sucked in a sharp breath, “Are you trying to kill me?”

 

“You were the one who tried to kill me first, baby.”

 

Using a threatening tone, Wen Yu leaned in close, his lips brushing past Fu Yuhan’s ear tip as he chuckled and dropped a retaliatory remark, touching briefly before separating. Then he released his hand and patted Fu Yuhan as if nothing had happened, scooping him up and saying: “Fight with me when you’re awake… Alright, go sleep in the room. I found another blanket, so you can go in now, right?”

 

Fu Yuhan rubbed his wrist and gave him an irritated look: “You woke me up.”

 

“Sleep again… or want to watch another movie?”

 

“Forget it.” Fu Yuhan yawned and rubbed his eyes, “I’ll go sleep… did you shower?”

 

“No, I’ll go shower now. You go in first.”

 

“Mm.”

 

There were indeed two sets of bedding on the large bed in the room. Fu Yuhan walked to the side where he usually slept, lifted the corner of the blanket and lay down. Wen Yu took his clothes and went into the bathroom to shower. The sound of water could be heard from afar. Fu Yuhan looked at the open door through the dim bedside lamp in the room and reached up to scratch his ear.

 

It was a bit itchy.

 

He couldn’t describe the feeling in his heart—it was very subtle, but Fu Yuhan was too tired to analyze it carefully before falling into a deep sleep.

 

When Wen Yu finished blow-drying his hair and entered the room, he saw the person sleeping peacefully, with the bedside lamp casting an orange-yellow halo on his clean face.

 

He closed the door behind him, drew the curtains, and walked over to turn off the light.

 

Then he went around to the other side and got into bed. In the pitch-black darkness of the room, he reached out and gave that sleeping form a virtual embrace.

 

Being able to steal this little bit of intimacy wasn’t bad, Wen Yu thought.

 

But he never expected his words to become prophetic. In the following period, apart from classes, he and Fu Yuhan really didn’t have much time to see each other.

 

Fu Yuhan was extremely busy. On weekends he had to go to Fourth Brother’s place to take photos and earn money, or attend art classes. Even Monday through Friday, he wasn’t at school three evenings a week. When they did encounter each other during the day, he was either reviewing or catching up on sleep, so they barely exchanged a few words.

 

Of course, Wen Yu himself was also very busy—

 

Overall, Third High’s key university admission rate was somewhat higher than First High’s, but they had never been as good at competitions as First High. Initially, Zhou Wenkang hadn’t expected the few people from their class to achieve high rankings—participation was the main thing. Who would have thought that the test paper Wen Yu had rushed through on instinct that afternoon would score so highly, earning him fifth place in the provincial preliminaries, with a small gap from the top four.

 

This gap might even account for some points he lost that morning when he was hesitating whether to oppose Wen Ziming.

 

Now Zhou Wenkang was excited, and even the competition training that Wen Yu had originally declined became something he had to participate in.

 

When Fu Yuhan heard about this, he even fanned the flames: “What’s wrong with that? Your dad wants you to get a national second place, so you should strive for a national first place to scare him to death.”

 

After hearing this, Wen Yu immediately threw a “Five-Three” practice book at him, feeling that liking Fu Yuhan must have been some kind of neural misfire.

 

Wen Yu had to participate in competition training at school, and on weekends he had to learn driving. According to his father’s wishes, since he was going to learn, he shouldn’t delay too long and should try to get his license within three months. With adequate payment, the instructor was willing to cooperate, but this meant he had even less time to spend with Fu Yuhan.

 

The southern weather was like an emotional child—today’s temperature might be in the twenties, but tomorrow it could be half that. After alternating between hot and cold for more than three weeks, the temperature finally dropped completely at the end of November, with everyone adding heavy coats over their school uniforms.

 

During this period, Wen Yu passed the semifinals and was preparing for the provincial exam; Fu Yuhan passed his third monthly exam and moved forward another examination room.

 

Although he was still at the bottom of Class 6, his progress was very obvious in terms of absolute scores.

 

This made Wen Yu somewhat unhappy, because he had been looking forward to it for a long time, yet this person had never actively come to ask him questions.

 

Did he even know his desk mate was first in the grade?

 

“Two announcements.” During morning self-study this day, Ge Ran ran to the podium, tapped the blackboard to signal for everyone to be quiet. “First, since it’s getting cold, the school is considering everyone’s health. From now on, we won’t do radio exercises during the long break—we’ll go downstairs and run laps around the track instead.”

 

“Ahh—” The class let out groans.

 

“Stop complaining, I don’t want this either.” Ge Ran said, “Running will be monitored, with supervising teachers watching all along the route. You can’t skip it, and you can’t sneak away halfway through. If caught, class points will be deducted, and individuals will have to write self-criticisms to be read at the school radio station… Anyway, everyone try not to escape.”

 

“What about the second thing?” someone in the front row asked.

 

“The second thing is that tomorrow afternoon during the last period, all seniors will go to the indoor gymnasium.” Ge Ran smiled, “For a unified coming-of-age ceremony.”

 

In fact, quite a few people in the class had already passed their eighteenth birthday, and quite a few wouldn’t come of age until next year, but the school had chosen a day when everyone was free, considering the review schedule, to hold this ceremony for the senior students.

 

It was meaningless, but also exciting. After Ge Ran finished speaking, people started mentioning when their birthdays were.

 

“Speaking of which… you’re already an adult, right?” Fu Yuhan put down his pen and turned his head to glance sideways.

 

“Mm, why?” Wen Yu also stopped writing his test paper.

 

“When’s your birthday?”

 

“June 21st.” Wen Yu said, “The last day of Gemini.”

 

Fu Yuhan snorted lightly: “You actually look at horoscopes…”

 

“My mom likes to look at them. She used to always tell me that my due date was originally the 22nd, but Gemini boys are more popular with girls than Cancer boys, so for the sake of my lifelong happiness, she deliberately moved it up a day…” Wen Yu smiled, “Too bad she didn’t know I don’t like girls at all.”

 

Fu Yuhan turned his head: “Your… birth mother?”

 

“Mm.”

 

“…Oh.”

 

Wen Yu rarely mentioned his birth mother. Fu Yuhan had asked once but didn’t get an answer, so he never asked again.

 

Everyone had things they couldn’t speak about, and Fu Yuhan didn’t mind. On the contrary, whenever he encountered such sensitive topics, he would naturally steer away: “Then I’ll remember that. I’ll give you a gift next year.”

 

Wen Yu smiled: “Good.”

 

Fu Yuhan still had some time before coming of age, but the group coming-of-age ceremony was essentially forced rest, so he didn’t mind going through the motions to listen to meaningless speeches.

 

However, young people were always more creative than the school expected.

 

While the English teacher hadn’t entered the classroom yet, Chen Liwen stood up and declared loudly: “Hey, comrades, I have a suggestion!”

 

Everyone’s eyes turned to him in unison.

 

“Since tomorrow is the coming-of-age ceremony, let’s do something big!” he said, “Tomorrow evening, no one leaves self-study. How about we go drink on the playground?”

 

“Huh???”

 

This matter… sounded fantastical, but actually had some feasibility.

 

Many senior students went out for supplementary classes, and quite a few left their seats to ask teachers questions. There was also a portion of “poor students” who needed to go to the lecture hall for extra tutoring, so almost every class’s evening self-study wasn’t at full capacity.

 

So if Class 6 left the classroom in rotating batches, the target wouldn’t be too obvious.

 

Alcohol could be brought in by a few students with larger backpacks from outside the school—security wouldn’t notice.

 

The thrill was in rebelling just once on the day of coming of age.

 

When it came to this kind of thing, Class 6 was very united. They quickly decided in the WeChat group who would buy alcohol and who would keep watch, with a complete process from fundraising to evidence elimination. Halfway through the discussion, the initiator Chen Liwen remembered something.

 

Chen Liwen: @Fu Yuhan Hey, Fu-ge, will you be at school tomorrow?

 

Just then, Wen Yu also turned his head and asked him: “Are you going to participate?”

 

Fu Yuhan glanced at him, then noticed that the entire class’s eyes were focused on this corner of the classroom.

 

Fu Yuhan: “…”

 

“…Do you all really want me to participate…”

 

Fu Yuhan asked “you all,” but his volume was only enough for Wen Yu and the two people in front to hear, so Wen Yu smiled at him: “There’s nothing wrong with it. First High would never organize such an exciting activity.”

 

“You’re looking forward to it?” Fu Yuhan looked puzzled.

 

Perhaps Wen Yu didn’t know, but at this moment his dark pupils were full of excited light, like a child anticipating a toy.

 

But honestly, this level of “rebellion” seemed really childish to Fu Yuhan.

 

“Mm,” Wen Yu nodded, “Isn’t collectively skipping evening self-study exciting?”

 

“…”

 

Well, he shouldn’t have expected someone who had no entertainment in childhood to be “more mature.”

 

“…Then I’ll discuss with the teacher about changing to another day for class.” Fu Yuhan said while sending “here” in the group chat and opening the art teacher’s chat interface to ask about changing the date.

 

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 (advanced chapters available on kofi)