Fu Yuhan walked back and said sincerely: “Have you digested it yet?”
Yang Fan had already gotten over his shock and was actually fine now. The other three, however… were still quite confused.
Fu Yuhan could actually understand. Some things weren’t about discrimination or not—rather, even if one rationally understood niche matters, when they happened around oneself, there would still be some initial confusion. Seeing the group still hadn’t come to their senses, he didn’t say anything, just picked up his phone and stood to the side waiting.
It wasn’t long before he felt someone tug the back of his neck, an arm reaching from behind to hook around his neck.
Wen Yu handed a bag containing four cups of bubble tea to Chu Lei, then put his arm around Fu Yuhan with the hand carrying another paper bag, lowering his eyes to blow air at his ear: “You kissed me and ran?”
Fu Yuhan’s whole body was pulled askew by him, forced to tilt his face up to look at him: “So what do you want?”
Wen Yu lowered his head and stamped a kiss on his lips: “Let me kiss you back and we’ll call it even.”
They were still on the street, at the entrance of a popular mall. Such a public display of affection inevitably drew sidelong glances from passersby. Admittedly, modern people “minded their own business,” and no one would run up to curse “you two perverts,” but whether there would be probing gazes behind their backs, discriminatory discussions, or people filming them for fun to post on Weibo… no one knew.
But the two of them didn’t really care anymore.
Young people—when that surge of impulse hits, they don’t fear heaven or earth.
Fu Yuhan laughed and slipped out of his embrace, reaching to pull out the bubble tea from the other paper bag.
“…Fuck,” Chu Lei muttered. “What did I do wrong? At school I get fed dog food by Yang Fan and Zhao Tong, finally get to hang out without Zhao Tong, and I still have to be fed dog food by my two brothers.”
“Honestly, I was having a bit of trouble accepting it at first… but…” Pi-qiu also muttered. “Why do I feel like these two look so harmonious together…”
“We’ve fallen behind the times, gentlemen.” Beanpole said sorrowfully.
“You don’t need to say that,” Wen Yu opened his cup of bubble tea, drinking while making detached commentary. “I’m not trendy enough to represent the tide of the times. After all, I haven’t done anything inappropriate for minors here.”
The four: “…”
Fu Yuhan: “…”
“Yu-ge, have you been possessed by someone else’s soul?” Beanpole said mournfully. “You weren’t like this before!”
“Actually, he’s a closet pervert,” Fu Yuhan calmly delivered the finishing blow from the side. “You guys might need to get to know him again.”
Chu Lei shouted: “I suspect you’re showing off again!”
“Alright, alright, I have a suggestion.” Yang Fan raised his hand, looking at the three people beside him. “Since it’s like this, let’s make the rich guy pay for dinner tonight?”
“Agreed,” Pi-qiu was the first to respond. “Let’s eat Yu-ge out of house and home!”
Chu Lei: “Agreed!”
Beanpole: “Then I want to change restaurants. Let’s find an expensive one.”
The topic shifted to what to eat tonight, and the discussion became heated.
Wen Yu smiled. Suddenly, Fu Yuhan tugged his sleeve. “Hm?”
“Do you have enough money?” Fu Yuhan was a bit worried about him—after all, he and Wen Ziming had been in a cold war for a long time. “If not, I still have some.”
“It’s fine.” Wen Yu said. “I have money.”
During this period, Da-ge had pulled him aside for heart-to-heart talks from time to time, and his acceptance of spending Wen Ziming’s money had improved considerably.
What was rightfully his shouldn’t benefit others, and besides, a large part of Wen Ziming’s wealth came from his mother’s dowry and network connections back in the day.
“Besides, aren’t you going to work regularly at Si-ge’s place during summer vacation?” Wen Yu said in a low voice. “Da-ge said he’d have me come over to help him work and learn how to do business.”
Although running a bar and running a company weren’t the same thing, there were still things to learn.
Fu Yuhan hummed in acknowledgment, lowered his head to sip his bubble tea, then looked up at him again.
Wen Yu: “Hm?”
“Then study hard,” Fu Yuhan smiled lightly. “I’m planning to learn photography from Si-ge during summer vacation. From now on, I’m counting on my shit shoveler to support me and buy me equipment.”
Wen Yu froze, then smiled gently. His hand fell to his waist and patted it, making a fierce and sleazy expression as he smiled evilly: “Then it depends on your performance.”
“Guaranteed satisfaction.” Fu Yuhan’s eyebrow jumped. He leaned over to whisper in his ear, “—Hubby.”
Wen Yu: “…”
Wen Yu surrendered.
He had zero resistance to those two words “hubby”—even though he knew Fu Yuhan was deliberately saying it to tease him, he still couldn’t resist.
—*On How a Foolish Ruler Lost His Kingdom for Beauty*
Right then and there, Wen Yu opened an app and set up an “intimate payment” feature for Fu Yuhan.
When Fu Yuhan heard his phone notification, he froze: “Huh?”
“Buy, buy it all.” Wen Yu said heavily. “Buy whatever you want.”
“…Damn.” Fu Yuhan looked at the “intimate payment successfully activated” notification and laughed speechlessly.
Couples had their own “outsiders stay away” aura, so their small movements here weren’t heard by the other few people. Over there, after the four discussed for ages, dinner had changed from “AA system, 80 yuan per person civilian hotpot restaurant” to “Yu-ge’s treat, 170 yuan per person new Chinese-style boutique creative cuisine restaurant.”
Wen Yu had no objections to this arrangement—this meal should have been his treat anyway.
The sun was too scorching. They didn’t stand for long before noisily entering the mall, heading upstairs to the arcade that had been open for a semester. When the most excited Chu Lei and Pi-qiu dashed off to exchange tokens, Wen Yu stopped in front of a claw machine at the store entrance.
After a semester, the Pokémon claw machine still had Pokémon, but today it didn’t have that Haunter he’d caught last time.
But Wen Yu felt inexplicably nostalgic.
“What are you thinking about?” Fu Yuhan noticed the person hadn’t kept up and stepped back two paces to return.
“Thinking… that doll I caught for you last time is still lying in my cabinet at home.”
Fu Yuhan: “…”
He was stunned for quite a while: “That thing is still there?”
“You don’t like it?” Wen Yu glanced at him. “But Yang Fan said you liked it back then.”
“…I do like it, but back then wasn’t it…”
Back then they were still enemies, bickering whenever they met, mutually disgusted with each other.
As Fu Yuhan spoke, he couldn’t help lowering his eyes and smiling.
From late August to early June—less than a year.
Those memories were clearly still vivid, yet recalling them felt like a lifetime ago. Back then, he hadn’t yet seen the dawn, mistaking fireflies for the morning sun.
But how to put it—treating the emotion of being rescued as “liking” just because of a bit of warmth when at a dead end wasn’t really fair to Yang Fan. The person who from start to finish had always been looking at him, watching him, with eyes only for him, paying attention to his every move—whether targeting him or being tolerant—was actually Wen Yu.
Fu Yuhan thought, thank goodness they hadn’t missed each other.
—No, wait.
Thinking carefully, he felt they probably couldn’t have missed each other.
Whether he had tested into First High back then, or whether Wen Yu had transferred to Third High, in any case, there were only those two competitive top schools in the city. Some people would inevitably meet each other no matter what.
Looking past the crowd, only they were the same kind.
“Yu-ge.” After Fu Yuhan finished laughing, he lifted his head and looked at him steadily. “Which one do you like? Today I’ll catch one for you.”
Wen Yu raised an eyebrow: “Whichever you catch is fine. I’m not picky.”
“Okay, watch me catch you a big one.” Fu Yuhan was full of confidence.
Everyone has an illusion before getting on a claw machine, called “seeing how easily others catch things, I can do it too.”
After Fu Yuhan said that, he spent the entire afternoon at the claw machine. Wen Yu laughed beside him until he was bent over like a cooked shrimp—his back never straightened once.
“Fu-ge’s lifelong reputation collapsed today.” Chu Lei, who’d played a round in the store, went out to buy a box of ice cream and came back to watch while eating.
“Who would’ve thought—our awesome Fu-ge actually has such a noob moment.” Beanpole held a cheese hot dog on a stick, standing with him to eat.
“Are you guys itching for a beating, or has our Fu-ge become unable to wield his blade?” Pi-qiu was very shocked. “You actually dare to talk about Fu-ge like this.”
Chu Lei & Beanpole said in unison: “It’s fine. If Fu-ge hits us, we’ll hide behind Yu-ge.”
Wen Yu, who had been leaning against the wall laughing, immediately stood up upon hearing this and asked sincerely: “Guess whether I’ll protect you or help him beat people up together?”
“…Fuck, miscalculation.” Chu Lei nearly choked on his ice cream. “It’s the dog food duo! Colluding together!”
“I think you really are itching for a beating.” Fu Yuhan’s gaze was heavy as he stared at the little doll that had been grabbed by the claw, almost holding his breath as he pushed it toward the exit. “If I can’t catch this one, I’m turning Chu Lei into a doll.”
“Shit, I was wrong, Fu-ge.” Chu Lei immediately bowed, fawningly prostrating toward the claw machine. “Great immortal, please bless us. Saving one life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Sacrifice yourself alone to benefit my whole family. Once you come out, we can go eat. Amitabha…”
Who knows if his muttering actually worked, but that doll swaying precariously on the claw hook dropped down amid everyone’s exclamations. It bounced at the edge of the exit and actually fell into the chute.
“Wow! I don’t have to die! I’m alive!” Chu Lei was excited to death. “Thank you, claw machine immortal!”
Yang Fan and Pi-qiu behind him watched his idiotic display with amusement.
Fu Yuhan lowered his eyes and pulled out the round, fluffy toy from the claw machine, looking down at it.
Honestly, after spending who knows how many tokens all afternoon to catch just a medium-sized doll—no matter how you looked at it, it was a loss. But he was inexplicably happy. After looking at it for a while, Fu Yuhan stuffed the doll into Wen Yu’s arms as he walked over: “Here, for you.”
“I actually don’t understand why you insisted on catching this one,” Wen Yu looked down at the doll, somewhat puzzled. “No matter how you look at it, this one wasn’t easy to catch.”
This doll was too round, and its size was bigger than the claw. Wen Yu had watched him all afternoon and wanted to persuade him to switch to another one midway, but Fu Yuhan stubbornly refused.
“Because I think this one looks like you.” Fu Yuhan said.
“…” Wen Yu blinked. “Huh?”
Looks like him?
…Jigglypuff?!
Wen Yu’s face was full of shock and bewilderment.
“Let’s go, time to eat.” Fu Yuhan called to the others.
The other four, led by Chu Lei who had “gained a new lease on life,” noisily left the arcade with their afternoon’s spoils, leaving the young couple behind.
As Fu Yuhan passed by Wen Yu, he glanced at him, reached out to poke the round Jigglypuff’s head, lowered his eyes, and said softly: “Don’t you two look alike? Both are healing types, and often puffed up with anger…”
His narrow eyes swept up from below, carrying a hint of interest and teasing, the corners of his eyes smiling as he looked at Wen Yu. “…In my opinion, both are equally cute.”
Wen Yu: “…”
“Fine,” he magnanimously nodded. “If wifey says we’re alike, then we’re alike!”
“You’re asking for it, Wen Yu,” Fu Yuhan suddenly narrowed his eyes, looking at him dangerously. “Who’s ‘wifey’?”
“I am.” Wen Yu readily changed his tune, hugging the big pink ball as he walked off.
The restaurant was on the next floor down. Fortunately, Pi-qiu had come to get a number earlier when he saw the time was about right, otherwise they couldn’t have gotten in.
When taking their seats, Wen Yu deliberately sat in the inner position, placing the Jigglypuff plushie preciously beside him. While listening to them chat, he’d touch it a couple times when he had nothing else to do.
Fu Yuhan was in charge of looking down at the menu to order. The other few were talking about going back to school to see teachers.
“It’s probably set for the 12th.” Yang Fan put down his phone and suddenly glanced at Wen Yu. “Yu-ge, do you want to come along?”
After all, Wen Yu had also studied at First High for two years.
“The 12th?” Wen Yu thought about it and said, “Should be fine, I don’t have anything going on… What time and where?”
“9 AM, school gate.” Yang Fan said. “The class monitor said teachers start leaving after noon, so it’s best to go in the morning.”
“…That works… I guess,” Wen Yu paused, then turned back to pat Fu Yuhan. “Remember to wake me up on the 12th.”
Chu Lei on the side quickly covered his face, showing a toothache expression.
“Huh?” Fu Yuhan looked up blankly—he’d just been ordering food and hadn’t heard anything.
“I said, on the 12th I’m going back to First High with them to see teachers. Remember to wake me up, otherwise I’m afraid I’ll oversleep.” Wen Yu blinked. “Hey, why don’t you come with me?”
“What would I go to First High for?”
“Bringing family to see one’s teachers isn’t too much, is it?”
“…Huh?”
…
Chu Lei couldn’t take it anymore. He turned and posted a cryptic Moments update under the table.
—Little brother just graduated high school and is still a solo virgin, while the warriors have already moved in together. I shouldn’t be here, I should be under the car.
The accompanying image was a “Big bro drinks Coke” emoji.
***
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Rip Chu Lei 😭😂