CFHE Chapter 97

After speaking, the cousin smiled at him and shuffled into the house in her slippers.

 

The scent of food wafted from inside—as the old folks got older, they became increasingly nostalgic and liked to cook themselves for gatherings. Wen Yu vaguely heard his eldest aunt and his aunt who’d been pulled in helping in the kitchen. A smile suddenly curved on his somewhat dazed face.

 

How to put it… although it didn’t have much meaning, knowing there was actually an “ally” among this group of boring relatives was still quite a nice discovery.

 

He finished changing his shoes at the door and went inside. The living room already had a circle of people sitting around the coffee table. He wore a proper expression and greeted each of them. Among these elders, some had seen the news and politely congratulated him on becoming the top scorer. Wen Yu had been mentally prepared before coming, so he also politely responded.

 

He’d always been accustomed to performing “propriety.” If it weren’t for Fu Yuhan… he’d probably still be living the same life.

 

“Wen Yu.”

 

While exchanging pleasantries, Wen Ziming’s voice came from the doorway. Wen Yu glanced over and saw his long-unseen father with a stern face nod at the people in the room, then give a slight jerk of his head.

 

This meant for him to come out. Wen Yu stood up, smiled at everyone, and walked out.

 

The corner of Wen Ziming’s clothing flashed past toward the balcony direction. Wen Yu thought about it and followed.

 

“You’re becoming more and more lawless now.” As he approached, Wen Ziming said without turning his head. “You won’t even come home.”

 

Wen Yu didn’t make a sound, thinking to himself that he’d simply performed well before.

 

“Don’t you have anything to say?”

 

“Say what?” Wen Yu smiled and looked back at the empty hallway. “Dad, I got the top science score—that should be enough to make you look good, right? How’s your divorce from Auntie Fang going? If you don’t have enough energy, stop managing where I go back to, okay?”

 

“You! Is this how you speak to me now? You little bastard—”

 

Wen Ziming’s darkened expression was somewhat frightening, but strangely enough, the tone that would have made Wen Yu back down in the past didn’t intimidate him this time. Instead, it looked a bit ridiculous.

 

The youth had long grown as tall as his father. What was there to be afraid of?

 

“Let me remind you,” Wen Yu pointed at his dad. “I’m not your business partner or your subordinate. If you want me to save you some face today, don’t talk to me about this stuff.”

 

“You really think your wings have hardened? Without me giving you living expenses regularly, you’re nothing!”

 

“Your assets include my mom’s portion. Don’t force me to go find my uncle.” Wen Yu squinted. “I can listen to you and study for an MBA later, and I can play your excellent son when you need it. In exchange, please—don’t—manage—me.”

 

The man’s hand rose high in unbearable anger. The youth pulled open the balcony door with his other hand. A cross breeze suddenly swept through, lifting the thin corners of summer clothing.

 

“Go ahead and hit me,” Wen Yu looked at him, his voice very low. “I’ll call everyone over and let them watch your performance.”

 

He looked at that hand for a few seconds, confirmed it didn’t intend to come down further, then curved a smile: “If you’re not hitting me, I’m leaving.”

 

With that, he retreated from the balcony. A glass door separated him from Wen Ziming behind him.

 

He heard a dull thud from outside the door—probably Wen Ziming venting his anger with nowhere to go on the poor wall.

 

“Oh right,” Wen Yu suddenly turned back, opened the glass door, and smiled at his displeased father. “There’s something that the driver will probably tell you even if I don’t, so I’ll tell you in advance. Recently, a classmate has been staying at my place, but I won’t explain the reason.”

 

Wen Ziming: “…”

 

“I’m leaving.” Wen Yu closed the door again, straightened his collar, and properly returned to the living room.

 

Dinner was already finished. The family gradually gathered around the table. Seeing him return, his aunt called to him, and he walked over beside his cousin.

 

According to the Wen family rules, adults had to be seated first during meals, and peers were seated by age in order. No talking was allowed while eating. If there was anything to say, wait until after eating to chat together.

 

Honestly, whether it was the eating rules or having to stay seated for an hour or two of chatting after eating—all of it made Wen Yu feel disgusted. But he’d just finished confronting Wen Ziming and felt thoroughly comfortable, so he barely endured it.

 

The food was quite delicious though.

 

After eating, commendations began. Today’s star was undoubtedly Wen Yu, the new top science scorer—the Wen family members all had good grades, but only one had actually achieved top scorer. His eldest uncle even kindly asked if he had aspirations to pursue scientific research in the future, which he declined with a shake of his head.

 

“My dad wants me to study for an MBA.” Wen Yu smiled.

 

The eldest uncle looked at Wen Ziming with some regret, shook his head, sighed, but said nothing.

 

Grandpa had no objections. He himself had made his fortune in business. Although he advocated studying, he didn’t think there was anything wrong with doing business. Wen Yu having the ambition to take over the company was good for him, so he praised him a few times.

 

After praising Wen Yu came the praise/criticism meetings for the other younger generation. According to past years’ conventions, the beginning was all praise, but when it got to his cousin, she would be lectured.

 

Wen Yu’s grandfather was an old-fashioned man with “old-fashioned” ideas—for example, although he didn’t say it out loud, his actions showed he rather neglected his daughters. As a result, Wen Yu’s aunt had the most different personality from her parents and was rather permissive about her daughter’s development—this cousin had always had her own ideas. Wen Yu remembered she’d studied music, dance, and art. In the eyes of the “old antique,” she was basically the embodiment of “not pursuing proper learning.”

 

Since childhood at Wen family gathering tables, she’d been the criticized one, until last year when she got into a prestigious domestic school with high scores and things got slightly better.

 

This year’s criticism was that after the college entrance exam last year, she’d asked for a camera as a reward, and after a whole year, she hadn’t produced any results with it. The same topic was rolled over twice before jumping past her.

 

The conversation at the door made Wen Yu glance at her a few more times. Because they were sitting close, he saw that beneath her lowered head during the lecture, she concealed a kind of unruly defiance mixed with helplessness and mockery.

 

Just because of that expression, after the post-meal lecture time ended and a group of uncles clustered around Grandpa and Grandma at the coffee table for small talk, Wen Yu extended an invitation to her, who was alone.

 

“I’m planning to go back first,” he said. “Want me to give you a ride?”

 

His cousin raised an eyebrow, her eyes lighting up, and said with feigned restraint: “Then thank you.”

 

It wasn’t convenient for the neglected daughter of the Wen family to suggest leaving first herself, but Wen Yu had no such problem.

 

Today he was the “top scorer,” and “had to go back to school tomorrow,” so he “needed to go back to sleep early.”

 

Except for Wen Ziming, no one objected to him leaving first.

 

But with Grandpa here today, Wen Ziming, as a son, couldn’t really say anything.

 

The two young people finally slipped out of the house. His cousin breathed a sigh of relief: “Phew, finally out.”

 

Wen Yu smiled: “Where do you live? Let me take you home first.”

 

“At home,” his cousin looked at him strangely. “You haven’t forgotten where my house is, have you?”

 

“No, just asking out of habit.” Wen Yu said. “Like me—I don’t live at home.”

 

The two walked downstairs one after the other.

 

“Your dad doesn’t object to you not living at home?”

 

“I’m already an adult. What can he do if he objects?”

 

“Ah, that’s so nice. My mom says she’s open-minded, but I think after so many years in the Wen family, she’s been influenced to some degree.” His cousin stuck out her tongue. “It’s all backward thinking!”

 

Wen Yu smiled gently.

 

He pulled out his phone to call a car and suddenly saw a message from Fu Yuhan asking if he’d “eaten yet.” He typed a reply while chatting with his cousin.

 

The siblings hadn’t had a deep conversation in many years. This chat revealed they had quite a few compatible ideas. His cousin immediately pulled out WeChat to add Wen Yu as a friend, and he didn’t object.

 

He was just a bit curious: “But how did you know about Xiao Han and me? Under normal circumstances… people at Third High would just think we get along well, right?”

 

His cousin made a surprised sound: “You don’t know there’s a group of fujoshi at your school who opened a CP supertopic for you two?”

 

“…” Wen Yu shook his head. “I didn’t know.”

 

“Oh, anyway, there’s this supertopic,” his cousin said. “My underclassmates mentioned it casually at the time, and I said isn’t this person my brother? So I went to look… um, how to put it—you know gay people have a bit of ‘gaydar,’ right? When my mom told me you were coming today, I wanted to take the chance to ask.”

 

“What’s the supertopic called?”

 

“I’ll send it to you to look at.” His cousin lowered her head to fiddle with her phone.

 

Wen Yu watched the car’s location on the app get closer and closer. Feeling he should reciprocate the courtesy, he started a topic: “So you… do you have a girlfriend?”

 

“Unrequited love that didn’t work out.” His cousin smiled.

 

Just those four words carried a hint of melancholy that hadn’t been in any of the previous conversation. Wen Yu thought of his own painful pursuit and couldn’t help empathizing: “Then I wish you success.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

“If there’s a chance, I’ll introduce my boyfriend to you.” Wen Yu thought about it and said. “He’s also planning to study photography.”

 

“Wow, an art student?”

 

“Mm, planning to apply to T University Architecture this year.”

 

“That’s really good grades.”

 

“Mm,” Wen Yu smiled. “My boyfriend—how bad could he be?”

 

His cousin twitched her lips, made two “tsk tsk” sounds, showing a single dog’s expression of disdain.

 

The car finally arrived. Wen Yu got in the passenger seat and let his cousin sit in back.

 

His aunt’s family lived in an upscale residential complex in the city. Although it was a bit far, it was on the way for Wen Yu.

 

Along the way, the siblings chatted intermittently. Wen Yu consulted her about beginner photography questions. The conversation in the car never lulled, yet his cousin was puzzled: “You’re not sending that someone a message or calling—how do you have so much free time to chat with me?”

 

Speaking of this, Wen Yu felt a bit depressed: “He said he’s playing a game and doesn’t have time for me.”

 

“…” His cousin burst out laughing. “Playing what?”

 

“Don’t know. He said… Zelda?” Wen Yu frowned, pulling out this somewhat awkward-to-pronounce name from the chat history.

 

His cousin laughed loudly: “Then you’re done for. When I play that, I don’t even hear my mom calling me to eat.”

 

“Tch.” Wen Yu looked at his phone with dissatisfaction.

 

What could he do? He could only contact Da-ge to ask about getting help.

 

After asking about equipment prices from his cousin, he felt he needed to figure out how to make money.

 

The car first arrived at his aunt’s residential complex entrance. His cousin got out and thanked him. Wen Yu waited until the girl’s graceful figure disappeared around the corner inside the complex before having the driver restart the car to go home.

 

That small house was Wen Yu’s home. At least there, he could expose his most authentic and childish self.

 

As soon as he pushed the door open, he started complaining: “I really can’t believe it, Xiao Han. You’d rather play games than reply to my messages? I was making small talk with my cousin the whole way.”

 

“It’s fun. Besides, didn’t you say your cousin is pretty nice?” Fu Yuhan was curled up on the sofa holding a game console, his expression cool, but his fingers moving rapidly—clearly in the heat of battle. “I figured you’d be back soon. When you got back, we could chat again.”

 

“Even though you’re at home, could you please not always go without pants?” Wen Yu didn’t refute him but froze at the door—Fu Yuhan’s t-shirt covered nothing below, his two long legs awkwardly folded together. “I have reasonable suspicion you’re seducing me, and I have evidence.”

 

Fu Yuhan lifted his eyelids and gave him a cool glance, letting out a light snort.

 

“What a coincidence,” he said. “I am.”

 

Wen Yu: “…”

 

“I started playing games after showering. I originally thought you might be in a bad mood coming home today and would need comfort.” Fu Yuhan put down the game console and looked him up and down. “But why do I feel like you’re in a pretty good mood?”

 

“No, my mood is terrible, couldn’t be worse. I urgently need a boyfriend to comfort me.” Wen Yu strode over and kissed him on the face. “I’m going to shower now. Go back to bed and wait for me.”

 

Fu Yuhan laughed lightly: “Go back to bed to chat?”

 

“Right,” Wen Yu said. “Chat about the ‘CP supertopic’ my cousin sent me to look at.”

 

Fu Yuhan: “?”

 

***

 

Author’s Notes: No secondary CP, not planning to write the cousin’s CP.

 

I originally didn’t plan to expand on Da-ge’s CP either, but because I promised, I’ll add an extra chapter for it later.

 

The original plan was to write about their lives after high school in the extras. I’ve listed everything that needs to be explained in my notebook, and I’ve crossed off more than half now. It looks long because I’ve been writing too slowly lately—if each chapter was 10,000 words, right now I’d only be at Extra 4.

 

Originally, this kind of daily content would be more comfortable to read with 5-6,000 word updates per day, but I haven’t been feeling well these past few days. Apart from work hours, I’ve been lying half-dead in bed. On top of that, I need to prepare a new story, so 3,000 words is my limit…

 

So I thought about it—how about this: next time I’ll request leave in advance, save up two or three days’ worth of updates, and post them all together as one large chapter. That way the reading experience might be better. There’s not much content left anyway.

 

If I don’t update, I’ll send out red envelopes as usual.

 

I’m sorry for the inconvenience this causes everyone. I really have been writing very slowly lately. Bowing to everyone again.

 

***

 

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