CFHE Chapter 69

The Class 6 people gathered on the first floor, using advertising paper they’d brought as seat cushions, sitting on the ground.

 

When the four went down, the boys who had arrived first had already opened beers and were chatting while drinking. Seeing them approach, they smiled and called out: “Fu-ge, come sit here!”

 

Fu Yuhan ignored that person and walked to a more spacious area, finding advertising paper to spread out.

 

Sun Wenrui: “You still want to sit with Fu-ge? You might as well sit with me and help me think about what to do later!”

 

“Deal with it as it comes, bro. I don’t have a girlfriend either, how can I think of anything?” that person replied, “If Fu-ge doesn’t want to, isn’t there still Yu-ge—”

 

Wen Yu had already walked to Fu Yuhan’s side to sit down and looked back at him.

 

That person laughed awkwardly: “Never mind, never mind, you guys go ahead.”

 

Fu Yuhan kept watching Wen Yu, watching him naturally take a seat, naturally let their shoulders touch, as if this was how they should always be.

 

“What?” Feeling his gaze, Wen Yu turned his head and suddenly leaned closer.

 

Fu Yuhan leaned back.

 

“Don’t dodge.” Wen Yu said, picking something off his face and flicking it away with his fingertip, “You dropped an eyelash.”

 

People with long eyelashes lost them every few days—this wasn’t anything strange.

 

What was strange was that perhaps the atmosphere of classmates laughing and chatting around them was too good, perhaps other parts of the playground were too quiet, or perhaps the temperature and humidity of the evening breeze was just right.

 

In any case, at the moment when their breaths intertwined, Fu Yuhan seemed to hear his heart skip a beat.

 

Thump.

 

“Hey, let’s rehearse first.” Chen Liwen emerged.

 

He had gotten a small tin can from somewhere, filled with a bunch of pale yellow paper strips, and also had a colored ball.

 

“Later we’ll play ‘pass the parcel.’ These are Truth or Dare questions—I specially picked them, most are related to romance. Anyway, we’ll use signals to try to pass the ball to the goddess. If one of our own gets it, just answer casually. We can let obvious lies slide. The goal is to help Lao Sun get information from the goddess.” He said, “Hey Lao Sun, pull yourself together. Don’t squeeze in with Lao Li and Lao Fang, okay? When Chen Mengxian comes, we’ll make a fuss and have her sit next to you so you can whisper to each other.”

 

“Good.” Everyone agreed, and Sun Wenrui also awkwardly stood up from among the group of boys, looking around for a place to sit with empty space beside it.

 

“Your purpose is too obvious,” Fu Yuhan said lazily while hugging his knees, “you’ll scare her later… don’t turn a perfectly good group activity into a group bullying activity.”

 

“Then what should I do, Fu-ge?” When it came to this kind of thing, Sun Wenrui was completely at a loss.

 

“Just sit there, sit right there.” Fu Yuhan raised his chin, “When she comes, quietly go over and ask if she’s willing to sit with you. If she agrees, you can sit down openly without needing this—and the rest of you shouldn’t make a fuss either.”

 

“Oh, oh,” although he didn’t understand the reason, Sun Wenrui instinctively chose to follow Fu Yuhan’s advice and sat back in his original spot, “But Fu-ge, what if she doesn’t agree?”

 

“If she doesn’t agree, go back where you came from.” Fu Yuhan said helplessly, “Have some self-awareness about whether she’s interested in you or not.”

 

Everyone burst into laughter, even Sun Wenrui, who was being teased, laughed along.

 

After laughing, Chen Liwen changed the other procedures accordingly.

 

Amid the commotion, Wen Yu turned his head, seemingly surprised: “You’re quite good at this?”

 

“I’ve got skills,” Fu Yuhan also glanced at him, “it’s just a pity I can’t use them on Yang Fan.”

 

They had lit an electronic candle and placed it in the center, like a campfire. The small orange light reflected in the depths of Fu Yuhan’s dark pupils.

 

Wen Yu’s eyes rolled halfway around, and he finally decided to pick up on this teasing: “Then I hope I’ll have a chance to ‘spar’ with you.”

 

There was a vague hint hidden in his words. Fu Yuhan opened his mouth: “What if I said I didn’t dare?”

 

“Our Fu-ge,” Wen Yu smiled, “when has he ever been afraid?”

 

“…”

 

This person…

 

“Stop whispering, my Fu-ge,” the girls were coming soon, and Sun Wenrui was getting more and more nervous, anxious like ants on a hot pan, “come save me.”

 

Fu Yuhan snapped back to attention, shook his head, and got up to walk over.

 

He quickly picked out a few strips from the pile of paper, had them mark them, hoping to get Chen Mengxian to draw them later, but didn’t say much else.

 

This kind of group catalyst was sometimes very effective, but sometimes counterproductive—it depended on the target. He didn’t really understand Chen Mengxian.

 

Some of the girls arrived quickly. With more people, they had to sit more closely together. When Sun Wenrui pretended to bypass everyone to go ask Chen Mengxian’s opinion, Wen Yu squeezed closer to Fu Yuhan’s side.

 

Shoulder-to-shoulder contact became person-to-person.

 

Fu Yuhan looked at him for a moment, then turned and beckoned to Xu Qianyi with his finger.

 

Within two minutes, Xu Qianyi, who had originally been sitting next to Chen Mengxian, came over with an advertising paper, pushed aside the boy on the other side, and sat down next to Fu Yuhan.

 

Wen Yu: “…”

 

“If it were anyone else calling me like that, they should be getting beaten up by me right now.” Xu Qianyi said fiercely, “Fu Yuhan, I’m giving your handsome face some respect.”

 

Fu Yuhan chuckled twice: “Didn’t you see there was a situation over there? Then go back and be a third wheel.”

 

“Forget it, I’m not going.” Xu Qianyi shook her head, “I know about their situation, I’m not stupid.”

 

The boy on the other side heard this and leaned over to ask quietly: “Then Qian-jie, do you think they have a chance?”

 

“If Sun Wenrui wasn’t so stupid, I think it’s possible. Mengxian isn’t someone who doesn’t know how to handle things. It’s not like she lacks suitors—if she really wasn’t interested, could she tolerate that idiot Sun bouncing around until now?”

 

“Mm, I think so too.” Fu Yuhan said, “So I actually called you over because I have something else to ask.”

 

“What?”

 

“Are you free to go out during Spring Festival?”

 

“…” Xu Qianyi turned around, “Huh?”

 

She was genuinely surprised, not pretending.

 

Fu Yuhan asking her out… she wasn’t some uninformed bystander, she wouldn’t really think there was any romantic news between them.

 

But before Fu Yuhan could give any answer, Wen Yu had already grabbed his jacket collar and forcibly turned his face around, raising an eyebrow to ask: “—Hmm?”

 

Although he was practically being grabbed by the collar, Fu Yuhan wasn’t panicked at all: “Can I explain later?”

 

Wen Yu shook his head.

 

“Fine, I’ll explain then.” Fu Yuhan squinted, “Let go of me first.”

 

The commotion here had already attracted frequent attention from others.

 

Tonight’s protagonist was supposed to be Sun Wenrui after all. Fu Yuhan didn’t want to steal any spotlight. After Wen Yu let go of him, he straightened his collar and leaned close to Wen Yu’s ear to whisper a few words.

 

Xu Qianyi: “…”

 

She suddenly felt like sitting here also made her quite the third wheel.

 

The funniest thing was that after Fu Yuhan finished speaking, he didn’t successfully appease Wen Yu, but instead made him frown even more: “Why didn’t I know about this?”

 

“He was just asking me to discuss it.”

 

“He didn’t discuss it with me.”

 

“Do you have to be possessive about this too?” Fu Yuhan said helplessly, “Are we going back to three months ago?”

 

“No, but I…”

 

“He mentioned it when he called me that day, asking me to tell you by the way, but I forgot because I was busy.” Fu Yuhan sighed with a “when will you be done” expression.

 

Wen Yu narrowed his eyes: “You called him again?”

 

“Yeah, it used to be once a week, now it’s at least once a month.” Fu Yuhan said with a light laugh, “It’s nothing…”

 

“Masochist.” Wen Yu looked away.

 

“Excuse me for interrupting.” Xu Qianyi finally couldn’t stand it anymore, “Can you explain to me first?”

 

“It’s just a friend of mine from First High.” Fu Yuhan smiled, “You should have seen him when we played video games at the beginning of the semester—he recently got a girlfriend and wants to go play in the suburbs for a couple days during Spring Festival. He needs to invite a few girls as cover, otherwise it’s hard to explain to the parents.”

 

Wen Yu hugged his knees and didn’t look this way, his face black as the bottom of a pot.

 

“Oh,” Xu Qianyi understood, “You’re using me as a tool?”

 

“First High’s school culture is too ‘well-behaved,’ he can’t get many people.” Fu Yuhan reminded, “Among the girls in class, I’m only close with you, so I’m asking for your help.”

 

“If Fu-ge speaks up, wouldn’t it be easy to find a few bootlicking admirers as tools?”

 

Fu Yuhan glanced at her: “Friend, I didn’t eat that National Day meal.”

 

Xu Qianyi: “…”

 

Even though the meal wasn’t eaten, Xu Qianyi still owed him a favor.

 

Fu Yuhan added: “Wen Yu is going too.”

 

Xu Qianyi: “…”

 

Now it was two favors.

 

“When did I say I was going? I didn’t even know about this.” Wen Yu muttered neither loudly nor quietly. Just as he was speaking, the colored ball flew into his hands.

 

He casually tossed it aside.

 

Whoo—

 

The whistle blew, and the ball landed in Fu Yuhan’s lap.

 

Fu Yuhan: “…”

 

Young Master Wen was really petty—this kind of revenge method worked too?

 

“Damn? Does this count as Yu-ge’s or Fu-ge’s?” someone asked.

 

“Yu-ge’s? The ball was in his hands when the whistle blew.”

 

“But it was already at Fu-ge’s place halfway through the whistle.”

 

“Damn, it’s all because the whistle-blower was bad, blew too long.”

 

The whistle-blower: “…” He only blew for one second.

 

Before they finished arguing, Wen Yu had already stood up unhappily: “Forget it, I’ll draw. I choose truth.”

 

Fu Yuhan felt guilty about calling Yang Fan and forgetting to inform him about the activity, so he also stood up: “Forget it, I’ll do it…”

 

At this point, Wen Yu had already drawn out a slip of paper and stuffed it into Chen Liwen’s hand.

 

“You two can answer together…” Chen Liwen said as he opened the slip, “‘May I ask, do you currently have someone you would risk everything for?’ Please answer honestly.”

 

Wen Yu paused and looked back at Fu Yuhan: “Aren’t you supposed to answer? Go ahead.”

 

“…” Fu Yuhan looked at him, then at Chen Liwen, “No.”

 

The people around made uninterested “tch” sounds, but only Wen Yu kept staring at him.

 

Fu Yuhan raised his chin: “Your turn.”

 

“I,” Wen Yu stared at him and said, “do.”

 

“Woah—”

 

“Who is it, Yu-ge? Is it someone from our class? Let me see which lucky person…”

 

The crowd around was making a fuss. Wen Yu looked at Fu Yuhan for a few seconds, then lowered his eyes and smiled at the people sitting nearby: “Stop guessing, you’ll never guess.”

 

“Is it the class beauty?” someone asked.

 

“What’s it to me? I’ve been trying to ask Wen Yu out for dinner for over two months and still can’t,” Xu Qianyi smiled at Wen Yu, “Right?”

 

“Mm,” Wen Yu chuckled lightly, going along with it, “How would I dare to reach so high above my station, Qian-jie?”

 

The two of them kept standing there until others urged them to sit back down.

 

Before Fu Yuhan could speak, Xu Qianyi had already opened her mouth first: “Okay, which day of the New Year?”

 

He was stunned for a moment before remembering what this was about: “It’s not decided yet… won’t be very early, at least after the fourth day.”

 

“Senior year winter break might be less than a week.” Xu Qianyi reminded him.

 

“Find a weekend.”

 

“Okay.” Xu Qianyi agreed, “Need other tool girls?”

 

“If you can get them, that would be best. I’ll ask him how many he needs when the time comes.”

 

Xu Qianyi made an “OK” gesture to him and turned to talk to others.

 

Fu Yuhan moved closer to Wen Yu: “Very angry?”

 

“I don’t like you being like this—clearly thinking about him in your heart, yet still helping to fuel his romance.” Wen Yu’s gaze was fixed on the colored ball being tossed around in the crowd, not looking at the person beside him. “I hope you can prioritize your own feelings… although I might not have the right to interfere with these things.”

 

Originally, he himself didn’t like being controlled, yet he kept controlling Fu Yuhan. Whether the other person listened or not, he felt uncomfortable.

 

“Aren’t you thinking of me as too fragile?” Fu Yuhan’s tone was quite light, “It’s not that painful. I just think this way I can let go faster.”

 

“That urgent?”

 

“Mm, very urgent, ex—treme—ly—urgent—” Fu Yuhan drew out the syllables, then asked back, “Or do you not want me to forget quickly?”

 

Wen Yu: “…”

 

How was he supposed to respond to that?

 

He closed his mouth in frustration.

 

Under everyone’s behind-the-scenes manipulation, Chen Mengxian got the ball twice, answering “what’s your ideal type like” and “which male present do you find most pleasing to the eye.”

 

No matter how slow she was, she could sense the gossip desire that everyone was forcibly suppressing around her, and her face turned red.

 

Wen Yu silently recited “the Long March was 25,000 li, this is nothing yet” for a full five minutes, finally finishing being sulky. When he turned his head, he found that Fu Yuhan seemed to have been keeping a thread of attention on him since earlier, and almost simultaneously glanced over.

 

“Yang Fan asked you to invite me, right?” Wen Yu pressed his lips together.

 

“Mm.”

 

“By then I should have gotten my driver’s license. For the suburbs, I can drive.”

 

“Mountain roads.”

 

“If you’re not afraid to die, I dare to drive.”

 

Fu Yuhan turned his head and chuckled lightly: “Okay.”

 

“Then, December 11th, Saturday, I’ll accompany you to the exam?” Wen Yu said, “Where’s the exam?”

 

“Mei Zhi, regular schools don’t have art studios.”

 

“Good.” Wen Yu nodded, “And then—”

 

“Ask everything at once, Yu-ge.” Fu Yuhan held back his amusement.

 

“What do you want to eat tomorrow morning?”

 

“…Huh?”

 

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