“What date will you be back?”
“The 13th, I think.”
“Will you come to class on the 13th, or the 14th?”
“I don’t know,” Fu Yuhan thought and said, “If I’m free on the 13th, I’ll come back for evening self-study.”
“Anyway, we have to wait until the 14th, right?”
“Mm, what’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing.” Ge Ran smiled, “Your group is on duty next week. If you’re not there, I’ll need to find someone to replace you.”
Although the school had given seniors the green light and they didn’t need to participate in most campus activities, they still had to maintain the daily cleanliness of their own classroom. Fu Yuhan didn’t suspect anything and just asked: “Isn’t that arranged by the hygiene committee member?”
Xu Qianyi glanced teasingly at Ge Ran and picked up the conversation for her: “Don’t you know that those class committee members in our class love to slack off? Anyway, it’s not a big deal, so Ge Ran usually helps arrange it.”
“Thanks for the hard work,” Fu Yuhan said, “I’ll make it up when I get back.”
“It’s fine, I’m not working hard.” Ge Ran smiled gently, thought for a moment, then added: “Good luck on your exam.”
Fu Yuhan was slightly stunned.
He turned his head and met Ge Ran’s gentle, smiling eyes through the rearview mirror, responding quietly: “Thank you.”
He hadn’t expected to hear his first “good luck on your exam” here.
The taxi arrived at the market first. Fu Yuhan said goodbye to the two and went to the art supply store that had helped them during the sports meet, carrying his bag. The shop owner was a cheerful middle-aged woman who got along well with Fu Yuhan and always gave him discounted prices.
Although art supplies had low profit margins and the discounts weren’t much, when he wasn’t in a hurry, Fu Yuhan liked to make special trips to this store to buy things.
He was quite willing to chat with elders, probably because he usually couldn’t talk with his parents at home.
He had left in a hurry this morning without eating. After buying a piece of bread nearby, the shop owner saw this and invited him to have lunch in the store, and asked him to help watch the shop for the afternoon.
“The part-time girl has a school exam today and can’t come.” The female owner took a drag of her cigarette and leisurely exhaled the smoke ring from her lungs, “I’ll trouble you to watch the shop this afternoon, 12 yuan per hour, I won’t shortchange your wages.”
“Forget it, the discounts you’ve given me are worth more than that. Why calculate so precisely?” Fu Yuhan glanced at her coldly, “But won’t you be in the shop this afternoon?”
“I will be,” the owner pointed upstairs, “I’m getting old, my energy isn’t good, I need an afternoon nap.”
“…” Fu Yuhan was speechless but didn’t object, “Fine.”
The houses on this street belonged to the city’s cultural heritage protection unit. Many people were original residents here who were forced to convert their homes into shops. The cultural characteristic district had restrictions on what could be sold, so there weren’t many customers here. Fortunately, the rent was reduced, giving the entire street’s merchants a laid-back atmosphere.
They didn’t compete aggressively in business, only being active when watching the excitement. So even though Sunday afternoon should be the best time for business, the owner wanted to go upstairs to sleep.
“I’ll watch it for you, and I can draw for a while.” Fu Yuhan said, “Forget about the wages… didn’t you treat me to lunch?”
“Our little Fu is truly beautiful and kind-hearted.” The owner happily patted his shoulder.
“…” Fu Yuhan dodged her hand, “Who’s ‘beautiful’?”
“You are, little handsome guy.” The owner said while shaking her head and going upstairs, “Having such a handsome guy in my store, business will definitely be good this afternoon.”
Fu Yuhan: “…”
He shook his head and looked down at his phone.
The group on the mountain had gradually woken up, and they were all somewhat surprised to hear that three people had left early. Yang Fan even called directly: “You left?”
“Mm.” Fu Yuhan sat behind the cashier counter, playing with the brand new sketch pencils on the pen holder, his voice light and indifferent, “I suddenly remembered I had things to buy.”
“What things are so urgent that you had to buy them today? Couldn’t you go after school tomorrow?” Yang Fan pursed his lips on the other end of the phone, “Why were you angry yesterday? Such lasting effects?”
“What am I angry about?” Fu Yuhan chuckled twice, “I really do need to buy things. Tomorrow… I have an early morning train tomorrow to go to the neighboring province for an exam. I have exams for the next few days, so I need to prepare all my tools in advance.”
The other end was silent for two seconds, then Yang Fan said in surprise: “Why didn’t you mention this before?”
Because he wanted to tell Wen Yu first.
First, because… the order of who to inform mattered, since some people were petty; second, he didn’t want Yang Fan to skip class on Monday morning just to see him off at the station.
Everyone was in senior year, there was really no need to delay studying.
Fu Yuhan thought about it and chose the latter reason: “Wasn’t I afraid you’d get excited and skip class Monday morning?”
“I definitely have to skip for this.” Yang Fan got anxious, “No, why are you being so distant with me? Hey, my buddy is going far away for an exam, his first time, such an important exam. If I can’t accompany you, at least I should see you off at the station, right?”
“I’m taking the train from West Station, it’s far from your place.”
“I still have to go.”
“Really no need.” Fu Yuhan rubbed his forehead and said word by word: “Yang Fan, I don’t want to delay your studying.”
“We’re all senior year students, who doesn’t slack off at school?” Yang Fan said, “Stop talking, okay? If you keep this up I’m going to get angry. What time is your train tomorrow?”
“…Fine.” Fu Yuhan said helplessly, “Morning… 7:55 departure.”
“Damn, a difficult wake-up mission.” Yang Fan patted his chest and said, “No problem, don’t worry, I’ll definitely be there.”
“Mm.”
–
Yang Fan hung up the phone.
The high school boys and girls were still somewhat reserved. Although they had been lovey-dovey all day, when it came time to sleep, the boys still roomed with boys, and Zhao Tong went to stay with Chen Mengxian.
Chu Lei had just taken a shower and came out of the bathroom drying his hair, asking curiously: “See off at what station? Is Fu-ge going on a trip?”
“He said he has a train tomorrow to go out of town for an exam.” Yang Fan said, “Damn, this guy only mentioned it today! If he were standing in front of me right now, I’d definitely kick him twice.”
“What time tomorrow?”
“7:55 AM, West Station.” Yang Fan glanced at this “person who has trouble getting up,” “What, are you interested?”
“…This time and place puts me in a dilemma.” Chu Lei’s face was full of struggle, “My heart belongs to Fu-ge, but my body might be trapped by the bed.”
Winter was too difficult for people who had trouble getting up.
“I’ll call you at 5:50 tomorrow morning. If you can get up, we’ll go together.” Yang Fan said, “If you don’t answer the phone, forget it.”
“Okay.” Chu Lei looked very serious.
After saying this, he felt strange again: “If he has an exam tomorrow, why didn’t Fu-ge stay and play a bit longer today? Why was he in such a hurry to leave?”
“He said he has consecutive exams after this and needs to buy all his tools.” Yang Fan prepared to wash up, walking toward the bathroom while talking, “How would I know? Art students’ stuff is super complicated.”
“What a pity. Are we going up the mountain this afternoon?”
“Mm, Tongtong wants to see that little waterfall on the mountain. After seeing it, we can take the cable car down directly.”
“Should we bring backpacks?”
“Yes, pack your things properly!”
–
When the eight people gathered downstairs to count heads, someone realized that Wen Yu hadn’t made a sound in the group chat from beginning to end.
“Yu-ge isn’t still sleeping, is he?” Chu Lei exchanged glances with his new friends Sun Wenrui and Fang Jiayuan, twitching his mouth corners, “That shouldn’t be right. Isn’t Yu-ge always punctual at school? He shouldn’t have slept very late yesterday either.”
“Two or three o’clock, I think. He only went upstairs after we finished watching the movie.” Yang Fan looked upstairs.
“Two or three o’clock isn’t that late, right? Besides, Fu-ge already left. When Fu-ge was getting up, didn’t Yu-ge wake up?”
“Then you underestimate your Fu-ge…” Yang Fan muttered, “Xiao Han moves very quietly when doing things.”
That was practiced from witnessing his parents fight as a child, trying to minimize his presence.
When it came to Fu Yuhan’s family matters, Yang Fan always kept his mouth shut and quickly changed the topic: “I’ll go up and check.”
He had the best relationship with Wen Yu here, so the heavy responsibility of waking someone up could only fall to him.
The door to Wen Yu’s room was tightly closed. Yang Fan walked over and knocked, but no one answered, so he tried pushing.
The door wasn’t locked. The room was very dark with a stuffy smell.
Yang Fan waited a while until his eyes adjusted to the darkness before walking in—one of the two beds in the room was empty, the other had a lump of blankets on it.
“Wen Yu?” Yang Fan walked to the bed and gently shook it, “Yu-ge?”
After shaking for a while, that person finally moved.
But the low pressure when Wen Yu opened his eyes startled Yang Fan: “You, you’re awake? It’s noon…”
Wen Yu looked at him with a dark face for a full half minute before saying hoarsely: “Yang Fan?”
He still recognized people, so he was awake. Yang Fan breathed a sigh of relief: “Right, time to get up. We’re preparing to leave.”
“…”
Wen Yu was silent for a long time, then sat up from the bed and turned his head—
He saw an empty bed.
“Xiao Han left early in the morning.” Yang Fan said, “He said he was going to buy things.”
“Left?” Wen Yu was stunned, “Went down the mountain?”
“Yeah, he left with them… oh no, with those two girls from your class.” Yang Fan said, “Now eight people downstairs are waiting for you alone. We’re going up the mountain to see the waterfall, then planning to take the cable car down.”
Wen Yu cleared his throat: “I can’t take the cable car, my car is here.”
“…Ah.” Yang Fan opened his mouth.
“You guys go. I won’t go up the mountain.” Wen Yu glanced at Yang Fan, “Fu Yuhan isn’t even here, what would I go up for?”
After coming out to Yang Fan, Wen Yu was much more frank.
Yang Fan: “…”
He processed this for three seconds, then asked with pursed lips: “You two didn’t talk things through yesterday?”
Wen Yu shook his head.
“What’s going on…”
“I don’t know,” Wen Yu couldn’t very well tell Yang Fan “I was jealous of you yesterday,” so he could only plead ignorance, “I might have upset him yesterday… I’ll apologize to him when I get back.”
Yang Fan assumed the two had arranged to meet when they returned. Thinking that relationship matters weren’t his place to interfere, he didn’t say anything and just nodded: “Alright—you really won’t go up the mountain?”
“Going up the mountain means coming back to get the car, too troublesome.” Wen Yu said, “You guys go. I’ll sleep a bit more, then drive home.”
“Then bye.” Yang Fan left.
Wen Yu took a deep breath, found his phone under the pillow, and read through all the morning’s group chat records.
Fu Yuhan had actually left after 7 o’clock… he had been completely unaware.
No, rather, to avoid oversleeping last night, Wen Yu had deliberately not drawn the curtains, but now when he woke up, the curtains were closed.
The only person who could do this and knew his sleeping habits was Fu Yuhan.
It was considerate, he just didn’t know what he was angry about.
Wen Yu thought to himself that his own sourness was one thing, but didn’t Fu Yuhan understand how much it stimulated him to prioritize Yang Fan in everything?
And also—
Wen Yu tried calling Fu Yuhan, but the other person didn’t answer.
See, quite a temper.
What could he do? He still had to go coax him himself.
Wen Yu helplessly got up, opened the curtains and went to wash up, thinking that this jealousy he’d eaten was really too much of a loss.
Those two tears… how nice it would be if they were shed for him.
–
At 1 PM, Fu Yuhan moved over a folding ladder to help the female owner put a batch of goods into the overhead shelves.
At 2:15 PM, Wen Yu finished packing his things and drove away from the West Mountain townhouse.
At 2:30 PM, Fu Yuhan saw two missed calls on his phone from Wen Yu. He thought about it and decided to wait for the person to call again.
At 2:58 PM, a large wave of customers came to the store, and Fu Yuhan handled them alone.
At 3:05 PM, Wen Yu parked his car in Fu Yuhan’s residential complex and called him again, but couldn’t get through.
At 4:12 PM, Wen Yu put his dead phone in the car to charge.
At 4:17 PM, Fu Yuhan saw off the last batch of customers and temporarily had some free time. Seeing dozens of missed calls, he felt somewhat soft-hearted, but when he tried to call back, he heard the phone was turned off.
At 4:30 PM, Fu Yuhan helped the owner bring the tools from outside the store inside, preparing to close shop.
…
Wen Yu had wanted to coax him, but unexpectedly spent the entire afternoon unable to find Fu Yuhan.
–
Early the next morning, Yang Fan, who had struggled to get up, called Chu Lei three times. When the other person didn’t answer, thinking “as expected,” he sent a message to the class monitor and went to West Station alone.
Since it was still during the New Year period, the train station was still packed with people, occasionally mixed with groups of young people in school uniforms carrying black art bags and black art cases. Yang Fan felt the scale of the “school exam army” for the first time.
He was somewhat shocked, but this made it difficult to find people, so he called Fu Yuhan: “Hello, where are you?”
“On the way,” Fu Yuhan’s voice on the other end was as cold and calm as always, “I’ll be there soon. Where are you?”
“I’m at the bottom of the clock tower. Should I just wait for you here?”
“Okay.” The other side quickly hung up.
It was cold in the early morning, and it had snowed last night. There was still thin ice with water on the ground now, terribly slippery.
Yang Fan breathed into his palms and prepared to go to the chain Chinese fast food restaurant that had just opened nearby to buy three servings of iron plate fried dumplings.
While looking at the menu, he realized he knew Fu Yuhan’s taste but didn’t know what Wen Yu liked to eat. In his impression, the other person didn’t seem to have any dietary restrictions.
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
![The Return of The Lord God[quick wear]](https://i2.wp.com/knoxt.space/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/007S8ZIlly1ghl04hyuxyj30hs0owwgu.jpg?resize=85,105 "The Return of The Lord God[quick wear]")
xu xingchen defender On BAAF Chapter 122