CFHE Chapter 100.2

This money had long been saved up when he worked desperately at Si-ge’s place during summer vacation. If it really wasn’t enough, there were scholarships—Fu Yuhan’s cultural course scores were high, and calculating comprehensively, he’d actually tested into the program with the top score in the entire department.

 

“T University!” Fu Xuecheng was very happy. “Looks like you took Dad’s words to heart after all… I told you, your grades were so good in middle school, there’s no reason you couldn’t make it up in senior year…”

 

“Dad.” Fu Yuhan interrupted him. “I tested into T University through the arts track.”

 

Fu Xuecheng’s unfinished words stuck in his throat.

 

The other end fell silent. Fu Yuhan then heard some familiar sounds in the background noise. His eyes shifted as he said softly: “Are you at the hospital?”

 

Fu Xuecheng didn’t make a sound.

 

“Auntie Zhou should have given birth already, right?” Fu Yuhan calculated the time. “Why are you still at the hospital?”

 

After a few seconds of silence, Fu Xuecheng said: “You know?”

 

“Am I not allowed to know?” Fu Yuhan laughed softly. “Congratulations on becoming a father.”

 

Fu Xuecheng: “…”

 

For a moment, Fu Yuhan actually wanted to tell him, “Children need companionship more than material things—I hope you can do better this time.” But on second thought, it seemed pointless. He just dropped a line saying “I can earn money now and I’m studying properly, don’t worry about me, you’re busy” and hung up.

 

While Qin Xiaolu ran out to change her shoes, Fu Yuhan sent Zhou Xiangyan a message.

 

Fu Yuhan: Why is Fu Xuecheng at the hospital?

 

Zhou Xiangyan: Mangmang has a fever, seems pretty serious.

 

Fu Yuhan: …Mangmang?

 

Zhou Xiangyan: The official name hasn’t been chosen yet. He was born on Mangzhong (Grain in Ear solar term), so his nickname is Mangmang. How about it, don’t you think this name has no taste?

 

Fu Yuhan: It’s okay, but I prefer Xiazhi (Summer Solstice).

 

Zhou Xiangyan: ???

 

Fu Yuhan didn’t reply again.

 

A newborn with a fever was indeed a big deal.

 

But Fu Yuhan couldn’t understand Fu Xuecheng’s behavior of thinking to call him at this juncture, just as after eighteen years he still couldn’t understand why Fu Xuecheng had been so devoted to his career and never came home back then.

 

“Gege, I’m ready.” Qin Xiaolu looked up. “Can we go now?”

 

“Mm.” Fu Yuhan put his phone in his pocket and held her hand. “Let’s go find ‘Summer Solstice.'”

 

Qin Xiaolu: “Huh?”

 

“It’s nothing.” Fu Yuhan pushed open the door.

 

–

 

Late August—the sun blazed fiercely.

 

The summer heat was like ripened cherries, cellared wine, gradually taking on the mellow fragrance of fermentation.

 

The day before Fu Yuhan went to school to register, he sent Qin Xiaolu, who’d been with them for nearly two weeks, back to Uncle Qin’s rental and talked with him for two hours.

 

Before leaving, Uncle Qin asked if he wanted to see He Yan. Fu Yuhan thought about it, said forget it, and left.

 

The registration process was actually simple. Arrive at school, find the booth set up by the corresponding college, get the school ID and SIM card, look up the dorm number, then go to the designated place to get textbooks.

 

Wen Yu was right. Their colleges were different, and their dorms were indeed worlds apart—not only not the same building, but separated by a five-minute walk.

 

Yang Fan and Chu Lei had good luck though. They’d applied to different colleges, but unexpectedly one was the last student of the previous major sorted alphabetically, and the other was the beginning of another major, ending up in the same dorm room.

 

When several people exchanged coordinates in the group chat, Fu Yuhan finally met his new roommates: the 1O0 combination.

 

“Number 1” was a tall, thin guy from Northeast China. His speech had that distinctive accent, and within an hour he’d successfully influenced half the dorm’s accents.

 

“Letter O” was chubby. When he opened his suitcase at his bed, the first thing he pulled out wasn’t a mattress or mosquito net, but snacks.

 

As for “Number 0″—he was much more ordinary. Height slightly shorter than Fu Yuhan’s, estimated around 178cm, medium build, wearing glasses. When he entered, he was still looking at a college entrance exam vocabulary book. When asked, he said the entrance exam and CET-4 vocabulary databases were similar, so he’d memorize them first, planning to pass level 4 in December.

 

New roommates met, exchanged names, hometowns, and classes, then the dorm fell awkwardly silent for a moment. Because of the awkwardness, all three started busily tidying their things. Fu Yuhan had brought the least and finished organizing fastest, soon sitting down on a stool to observe their actions.

 

“Since we’ll be living together from now on,” Fu Yuhan suddenly said, “let’s all talk about our quirks. Better to have a heads-up.”

 

“Number 1,” who was struggling to put a cover on his comforter, stopped moving. A subtle expression flashed across his face: “Very sorry, I snore when I sleep.”

 

“Letter O” also stopped, showing empathetic understanding: “I snore too.”

 

“Number 0” said: “Me too.”

 

All three looked over.

 

“…” Fu Yuhan paused. “Don’t look at me. I don’t snore.”

 

“Then we feel sorry for you.” they said.

 

“It’s fine,” Fu Yuhan naturally pulled out what he wanted to say. “I actually came to the capital early and rented a place off-campus. Sometimes I might not come back.”

 

“Number 1” teased: “Living with your girlfriend?”

 

“No.” Fu Yuhan lifted his eyelids and smiled very faintly. “With my boyfriend.”

 

The three: “…”

 

“I’m gay, born this way. But don’t worry—gay people don’t go into heat randomly. I’m not some weirdo.” Fu Yuhan said. “Of course, if any of you are discriminatory, you can say so now. I’ll try not to be annoying.”

 

The three were stunned for a long time. Maybe they hadn’t expected someone to come out on the first day of meeting, or maybe straight guys’ lives hadn’t exposed them to actual gay people. In any case, they didn’t speak for quite a while.

 

Fu Yuhan glanced at his phone. Yang Fan and Chu Lei had already finished organizing and were asking in the group chat if they wanted to go out to “scout the area” and see what good food was around the new school.

 

After a long time, “Letter O” dazedly asked: “So would it be weird if we change clothes in front of you or make dirty jokes?”

 

“…” Fu Yuhan laughed, shook his head and said, “No—but is that all you want to ask?”

 

“I haven’t seen what gay people are like either. Don’t have much feeling about it.” “Letter O” scratched his head. “Looking at you, you don’t seem like a weirdo… I don’t know about those two.”

 

“I’m not discriminatory.” “Number 0” raised his hand.

 

“I… it’s okay?” “Number 1” was stunned. “I don’t really have a concrete sense of it either.”

 

“Then next time I’ll introduce my boyfriend to you guys.” Fu Yuhan said.

 

“He’s at T University too?”

 

“Mm, Mathematics Department.”

 

“Damn, awesome.” “Number 1” said in shock. “Is the Math Department a major normal people can even get into?”

 

Even though they’d all tested into T University, the other three in this room from the School of Architecture would only give the answer “no.” Before even meeting him, they had an initial impression of their new roommate’s boyfriend as “study gods are terrifyingly formidable.”

 

But having spoken openly, the conversation went much more smoothly. One said he’d pull all-nighters gaming, another quickly shook hands to join in. The four chatted and discovered their lifestyles were all similar.

 

Some stayed up late gaming, some stayed up late studying—in any case, no one went to bed early.

 

“Number 0” and Fu Yuhan, one a germaphobe and one skilled, announced they’d take over dorm cleaning. The other two—one claimed to have quick reflexes and could help grab classes, seats, and cafeteria food, the other said he was thick-skinned at cracking jokes, excellent at vocal impressions, and skilled at answering roll call for others.

 

The four quickly reached consensus and established very harmonious dorm friendship.

 

New students arriving for the first time found everything fresh and were enthusiastic about socializing. Friendship between guys was very simple—a ball game, a round of gaming, or a drink could quickly bring people together. At noon, Fu Yuhan’s dorm, Wen Yu’s dorm, and Yang Fan’s dorm—three dorms, twelve people—heartily feasted together off-campus.

 

Originally Fu Yuhan, who’d come out to his roommates, said he’d treat. But after Wen Yu heard about it, he laughed for a long while. At the table in front of the other ten people, he came out again, then took advantage of a bathroom break to settle the bill.

 

They’d been together for nearly half a year. Though they each paid their own way, they didn’t calculate things so precisely. Fu Yuhan didn’t fuss with him about it.

 

After eating, the two privately discussed where to spend the night. Since freshman military training started the next day, Fu Yuhan said it would be better to stay at school for the next few days.

 

Wen Yu had no objections—though he was clingy, he figured he could endure ten days of military training.

 

In the afternoon, each class’s homeroom teacher would hold small meetings. After eating, they each returned to their dorms. They did eat dinner together though, just the two of them. After the meal, with nothing to do, they went to an internet cafe.

 

The internet cafe near school had mediocre conditions. Seeing Fu Yuhan cough in the heavy secondhand smoke, Wen Yu felt both distressed and angry, saying he’d get a computer set up in the rental later.

 

“I mailed the acceptance letter back this afternoon.” He said resentfully. “One acceptance letter is worth tens of thousands of yuan from Wen Ziming.”

 

Fu Yuhan wanted to cough and laugh at the same time. He squeezed his hand: “It’s fine, I’m just not used to it. Let’s try a different place next time.”

 

“No, I’m buying a computer.” Wen Yu said. “Why wouldn’t I do something that annoys Wen Ziming?”

 

That actually made sense.

 

Fu Yuhan didn’t argue with him anymore.

 

–

 

Since getting together, they hadn’t slept apart at night in a long time. Lying in bed back at the dorm, Fu Yuhan actually found himself a bit unaccustomed to it.

 

And he’d been worried Wen Yu couldn’t endure it… Turned out he was the first to feel uncomfortable.

 

Longing was like a seed, planted silently in some unknown season, growing with the wind when it met the right opportunity.

 

The dorm lights were out. In the darkness, everyone’s phone screens glowed.

 

No one went to bed that early these days. Fu Yuhan turned over and started messaging Wen Yu.

 

Private chats between couples usually lacked substance, but could make those involved forget about time. When Wen Yu sent his goodnight, Fu Yuhan suddenly realized his three roommates had fallen asleep at some point.

 

In the quiet summer night campus, there were occasional temporarily quieted cicada calls, and rising and falling… snoring sounds.

 

Fu Yuhan: “…”

 

Forget whether Wen Yu could handle being apart for ten days—he doubted he could survive ten days in this “Snoring Concerto.”

 

The first day, Fu Yuhan fell asleep at 3 AM and was woken at 5:50 AM by the school’s unified broadcast. He got up and changed into the military uniform issued the day before.

 

He endured until noon with sleep-deprived low blood pressure. As soon as lunch break came and he returned to the dorm, he immediately collapsed on his bed.

 

The only way to defeat snoring was to fall asleep earlier than the snorers and not be woken by the snoring.

 

Fu Yuhan battled wits with his three roommate brothers for several days.

 

Modern young people lacked exercise and had poor stamina. Originally Fu Yuhan was the same, but during summer vacation Wen Yu had forcibly dragged him to the gym. His stamina was now much better than during the college entrance exam.

 

Clearly a good thing, yet in the snoring it became a bad thing—every day after military training ended, the three brothers were always more exhausted than him.

 

These past few days, either Fu Yuhan fell asleep later than them, or Fu Yuhan went to sleep early but was woken by snoring in the middle of the night. He felt himself reverting to that neurasthenic state of chronic light sleeping from years ago.

 

On the seventh day of military training, Fu Yuhan finally couldn’t take it anymore.

 

He sent Wen Yu a plea for help.

 

Wen Yu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry after hearing about it.

 

Wen Yu: Why didn’t you say something earlier?

 

Fu Yuhan: Didn’t want to disturb your sleep.

 

Wen Yu: Are you a fool?

 

Fu Yuhan: I admit I am.

 

Wen Yu: My roommate has earplugs. Should I bring you a pair?

 

Fu Yuhan: Does your college check entry and exit records?

 

Their dorm building had card readers downstairs. After the doors locked late at night, you could enter and exit with your campus card. Like all schools, T University had campus legends, such as—”although you can swipe in and out, if you do it too many times late at night the counselor will call you in for a talk, so if you miss curfew it’s best to return in the morning.”

 

Wen Yu: If they check, they check. The counselor needs to curry favor with me now. I don’t think they’ll bother me about this.

 

Fu Yuhan: Study god nb [bowing]

 

Fu Yuhan: Then you’ll bring them over? I’ll wait for you.

 

Wen Yu: Okay.

 

After saying “okay,” Wen Yu’s side temporarily went silent. Fu Yuhan couldn’t sleep anyway, so he simply got up and sat at his desk.

 

Their dorm had four bunk beds on one side, and connected desks with bookshelves on the other. Fu Yuhan slept on a lower bunk, so sitting at the desk was very convenient.

 

He turned his head to look at the balcony until his phone vibrated again.

 

Wen Yu: I’m almost at your building. Come down and open the door.

 

Fu Yuhan: Coming.

 

The hallway had all-night lights on. He silently slipped out and hurried downstairs.

 

He swiped his campus card to unlock the door. Wen Yu stood outside and gave him a smile.

 

There were cameras here. Fu Yuhan was too embarrassed to hug him directly. He pressed his lips together, took the earplugs from Wen Yu’s hand, and said softly: “Do you want to come up and hear the sound effects?”

 

Wen Yu laughed, hands in his pockets: “I was just wondering when you’d say that.”

 

On the seventh day of sleeping apart at night, more than one person missed the other.

 

Wen Yu snuck upstairs. The instant Fu Yuhan opened the dorm door, his mouth opened slightly.

 

“Impressive, right?” Fu Yuhan kept his voice down.

 

Wen Yu gave him a thumbs up in the light from the hallway: “Too strong. How did you endure these past few days… Put the earplugs on and try them.”

 

***

 

Author’s Notes: This chapter randomly drops red envelopes~

 

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