Gu Yu pushed the door open, holding two thermal bags in his hands. Seeing the two people talking, he asked in a casual tone, “Is it fixed?”
Zhao Che nodded and pointed to the tool box in the repairman’s hand. “Just finished. I was just about to settle the payment.”
Seeing this, the repairman chimed in with a smile, “Young man, your friend is back? I can settle the fee with him instead—it was probably this gentleman who called me earlier.”
Zhao Che looked up at Gu Yu, a flicker of emotion showing in his eyes. So it really was him.
He rushed to say, “It’s fine, I’ll pay.”
“Sure, either way works. That’ll be 200 yuan in total.”
After scanning the code to pay and seeing the repairman out, Zhao Che turned back to pick up the thermal bags on the table. Seeing the “Yuan Ji Porridge Shop” printed on them, he asked in surprise, “You went to Qushui Street?”
“Yeah,” Gu Yu replied as he bent down to change his shoes.
Hearing this, Zhao Che couldn’t stay calm. Qushui Street was seven or eight kilometers away from Fengjing Garden, and it was rush hour right now. He asked, “How did you get there?”
“Bus.”
Bus? Wouldn’t a round trip take nearly two hours?
“Did you take the mint candy?”
When Gu Yu straightened up, Zhao Che finally noticed that Gu Yu’s thin lips were nearly drained of color. Yet his voice remained unchanged, flatly saying, “I took it.”
If you took it, why do you look so pale?! Does Gu Yu think I’m an idiot…
A strong sense of bitterness suddenly surged in Zhao Che’s throat. “Why did you go so far just to buy porridge?”
Seeing Zhao Che looking at him with such a strange expression, Gu Yu felt uncomfortable. He dodged his gaze, unwilling to answer the question, and skipped the topic in a offhand tone: “Has your fever gone down?”
“I’m fine now.” Carrying the bags toward the kitchen, Zhao Che murmured in a slightly choked, listless voice, “Don’t run so far next time.”
Gu Yu leaned against the kitchen doorframe, watching the back of the person unpacking the takeout. “Okay.”
After a moment, not knowing what came to his mind, Zhao Che suddenly chuckled softly. Turning around, his eyes met Gu Yu’s, who happened to be looking at him as well. He said earnestly, “Thank you, A-Yu.”
Whether in his past life or this current one, this was the first time he had ever called Gu Yu “A-Yu.”
He was used to calling Gu Yu by his full name, but as he grew older, he gradually wanted to get closer to Gu Yu—closer and closer. Yet, when he picked up the nickname “A-Yu” again, it became surprisingly hard to say aloud. These two words were no longer just about family-like affection, but were mixed with a selfish longing that shouldn’t have sprouted, and a love that should have been locked under taboo.
Yet at this moment, he couldn’t help blurt it out, his tone intimate and tender. This impulse of a second came out of affection, heartache, reluctance to let go, and most of all, a surging wave of ten thousand overlapping emotions.
“Thank you, A-Yu. Truly.”
He repeated it once more, his genuine demeanor causing the person in front of him to freeze for a moment.
Gu Yu looked away first. This sudden “A-Yu” caught him completely off guard; like a startled fish, he swiftly fled from that burning gaze.
He didn’t respond to Zhao Che’s thanks, merely giving a brief nod. Maintaining his usual calm and composure, he spoke in a low, cold voice: “Hurry up.”
As soon as these words were uttered, Zhao Che walked over carrying two plates, his uncontrollable laughter clearly falling into Gu Yu’s ears.
The person before him was already noticeably taller than him, with a broader frame. Ever since Zhao Che passed his voice-changing phase, Gu Yu could no longer hear the youthful, crisp tone of Zhao Che’s younger days. It had been replaced by a mature, gentle voice.
“All done. You go sit down first.”
Scanning the table and seeing two steaming bowls of porridge, Gu Yu wanted to help out: “I’ll carry the rest.” Unexpectly, before he could take two steps, Zhao Che lightly blocked him with a shoulder.
“I’ve got it.”
The two 1.8-meter-tall young men stood straight right in the middle of this narrow kitchen doorway, locked in a stalemate—as if Gu Yu didn’t move, Zhao Che wouldn’t move either.
In the end, Gu Yu couldn’t stand the delay any longer. Frowning, he shot Zhao Che a glare and simply turned around to go to the dining table.
The teaching pace at No. 2 Experimental High School was frighteningly fast. Another week passed, and apart from a few subjects that didn’t follow the textbooks, all the curriculum material had been covered.
In his spare time, Zhao Che personally reviewed the key points of the three high school years. Regarding his own study efficiency, he couldn’t help but sigh: Forget about reviewing high school knowledge at twenty-four—even at thirty-four, it’s all a piece of cake!
It was a bright afternoon with a scorching sun. The old ceiling fan in Class 1, Grade 11 was spinning so hard it seemed on the verge of smoking, yet the students sitting below were still too hot to settle down.
Zhao Che was no exception, fidgeting in his chair. Taking off his school uniform jacket wasn’t enough, so he unbuttoned the top two buttons of his collar.
Just as he was feeling bored, Zhou Wei behind him gently tugged the back of his collar and passed a note from underneath. Curious, he opened it. Instantly, a sharp gaze shot over from the podium. He coughed twice, quickly hid the note, lowered his head, and pretended to read his English textbook.
Once the English teacher turned around to write on the blackboard, he tossed the note back to the desk behind him. After a few back-and-forths, he could hardly hold back his expression.
Noticing the two people just a meter away laughing so happily, Li Changlin wanted to join in as well. He winked at Zhao Che and mouthed: Brother Che, what are you guys laughing at? Let me see.
Receiving Li Changlin’s secret signal, Zhao Che generously replied with a mouth movement: OK.
Taking advantage of the English teacher’s inattention, a small paper ball landed precisely on Li Changlin’s desk.
Li Changlin opened the paper ball, his cheeks puffing up instantly as he suppressed his laughter. After adding a couple of strokes, he threw it back.
Unexpectedly, he failed to control his strength, and the paper ball overshot its target position, flying straight toward Gu Yu, who was taking notes with his head down. In just a few seconds, it bounced off Gu Yu’s head with a “pap” and rolled onto the open textbook in front of him.
Everyone in the note-passing operation felt their hearts drop. Having witnessed the entire scene, Zhao Che tried to save the situation, but the moment he reached out his hand, it was already too late.
Gu Yu reflexively looked up, glanced at the open hand in front of him, and then frowned toward the direction the paper ball had come from. Li Changlin returned a smile that looked uglier than crying, an expression that seemed to say: It’s over, I’m dead.
Before Gu Yu could say a word, a loud voice exploded in the classroom.
“Gu Yu, Zhao Che! Both of you stand up!” Having already stepped down from the podium, the English teacher stood in front of Gu Yu’s desk, holding the paper ball and glaring furiously: “Passing notes instead of listening to the class? You know it all, don’t you?! You think you can both get full scores now?!”
Zhao Che took a quick glance at Gu Yu, then stood up without a word.
His ears were throbbing from the barrage of verbal attacks, but he couldn’t help thinking that the nickname “Spicy Sister” was truly custom-tailored for this English teacher.
“Why aren’t you talking anymore?!” Spicy Sister glared intensely at Zhao Che and shouted again, “I could tell you were up to no good earlier!”
This English knowledge really wasn’t difficult for Zhao Che—his 149 score on the English College Entrance Exam in his past life was no boast. Just as he was hesitating on how to explain, he heard Gu Yu beside him say calmly, “I was listening.”
Spicy Sister looked Gu Yu up and down. The student in front of her was wearing his school uniform jacket with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, holding a pen in one hand, and the notes in his textbook were neat and orderly. Indeed, he looked like he had been listening carefully—
Except for the paper ball lying quietly on the textbook!
She snatched up the paper ball: “Listening? Then what is this! Great, now you’ve even learned to make up lies!”
Seeing Spicy Sister targeting Gu Yu standing beside him, Zhao Che hurriedly explained, “Teacher, the note was passed to me. Gu Yu didn’t know anything about it.”
He couldn’t bear to see Gu Yu suffer an injustice for nothing; his mind was consumed by a single thought: I can’t let him be falsely accused.
Listening to the two of them being berated so harshly, Li Changlin couldn’t sit still any longer. He stood up with a “swish”: “Teacher, I was the one who threw it.”
Zhou Wei gritted his teeth and stood up as well: “Teacher, I was the one who passed it first.”
At this point, the English teacher was trembling with anger. Pointing at the three of them, she laughed out of sheer rage: “Good, very good, every single one of you… I want to see what on earth you were chatting about!”
She unfolded the paper ball and paused. The air pressure dropped so low that the whole class held their breath, leaving only the old ceiling fan that couldn’t read the room, continuing its work and making intermittent “creak, creak” sounds.
On the paper was a “portrait” that could only be described as abstract: a meticulously styled small-wavy haircut was drawn as an afro, strands tangled together; single eyelids were simplified into two solid black lines without even eyeballs; the lips were painted so thick and big that they hyperbolically took up half the face, with a prominent big black mole right above the upper lip.
Even more hilarious was a line written in blue pen beside the “portrait”: Up close it’s a perm, from afar an explosion.
Squint those two eyes, smaller than the mole’s vision.
Open that big mouth, blabbering without intermission.
Ask who this is? No. 2 High’s Spicy Sister on a mission.
It even bore a signature at the end—Composed by the brilliantly talented poet, Li Changlin.
Apart from Li Changlin, whose expression looked ready to cry, the other three didn’t show much emotion.
Gu Yu didn’t know what was written on the note and cast an inquiring look at Zhao Che. In response, Zhao Che gave him a smile that looked uglier than crying, as if silently saying: You’ll find out in a moment.
At this moment, the English teacher raised her head, her face darker than the bottom of a wok. She slammed the paper heavily onto Gu Yu’s desk: “Fine, fine, impressive! Li Changlin, I never realized you had a talent for poetry! And the three of you—you’re driving me insane!”
Now Gu Yu really knew…
Seeing that the English teacher still thought Gu Yu was involved, Zhao Che secretly clenched his fist: “Teacher, this really has nothing to do with Gu Yu!”
Gu Yu closed his eyes in speechlessness.
Zhou Wei couldn’t understand what Brother Che was thinking either—wasn’t this just digging a deeper hole for Brother Yu?
Sure enough, the English teacher grew even angrier. Her voice trembled slightly as her fury hit its peak, almost setting the whole classroom ablaze: “Still playing the deep brotherhood routine here? Do you think I buy it? Get out and stand in the hallway for the rest of the class!”
Seeing Gu Yu grabbing his textbook and heading out to stand as punishment, Zhao Che realized he had done something stupid. He even knocked over his chair as he walked toward the door.
What on earth was he doing just now?! In a situation like this, the golden rule is to keep your mouth shut! Otherwise, an explanation just looks like a cover-up, and a cover-up looks like quibbling—adding extra guilt to the crime! Was his freaking brain kicked by a donkey or caught in a door?!
Looking at his clumsy movements, Spicy Sister felt the punishment was still too light and added toward the doorway: “If you don’t score above 145 on the next exam, don’t even think about sitting down in my English class!”