“Where was I staring at you like a creep?” Lin Duole couldn’t understand why Lu Chengyu would use such a word to describe his gaze. Considering that he was currently asking Lu Chengyu for a favor, he could only defend himself by carefully picking his words: “That was clearly me admiring you fair and square.”
“Admiring what about me?” The corner of Lu Chengyu’s lips curved up slightly, a shallow dimple appearing on his left cheek, clearly thoroughly enjoying the praise.
Lin Duole blinked, looking at him leaning against the bus stop sign. His natural brow structure was deep and defined, paired with a high bridge of the nose and thin lips. Two buttons of his neatly kept school uniform were undone, faintly revealing his collarbone. “Admiring your biceps—mighty and powerful.”
“After holding it in for so long, all you came up with was ‘biceps’? You’re way too insincere.”
Lu Chengyu tsked, resting his hand atop Lin Duole’s fine, messy hair and ruffling his head, forcing an answer out of him: “Am I not handsome?”
Lin Duole nodded, stating very earnestly: “Handsome! Handsome to death!”
He was indeed ridiculously handsome. When Lin Duole had just transferred over, the girls around were all discussing his looks and even comparing Lu Chengyu with Lin Duole. However, their temperaments were polar opposites, so there was no real winner. The girls said that between the two of them, one was so beautiful he lacked any aggressiveness, appearing naturally harmless; while the other was overwhelmingly bad-boy handsome, radiating a sharp, striking presence.
“Then how’s my figure?” Lu Chengyu smoothed out his hair, giving a casual chuckle before continuing, “Besides the biceps.”
Lin Duole looked up, feeling that this guy was far too difficult to please. But thinking about the swimming class, he braced himself and said, “It’s great! Looking across the entire class, your physique is the absolute best!”
“You looked at others and even compared them across the whole class?” Lu Chengyu raised an eyebrow, staring at him.
Lin Duole waved his hands frantically and said, “No, no! I only said that to emphasize that you’re the best!”
Lu Chengyu ignored him, crossing his arms as he waited for the bus to arrive at the stop. Lin Duole didn’t know whether he was actually willing to help or not. Lowering his head to look at the ground, he noticed his shoelaces were loose, so he squatted down, bent his knees, and nimbly tied them up.
Right then, the bus arrived at the stop, and a crowd of people got off. Lu Chengyu turned back and asked him, “Are you coming or what?”
“How about I wait for the next one?” Lin Duole constantly kept in mind the rules set months ago—he couldn’t squeeze onto the same bus with him, nor could they head back together.
“Oh, suit yourself.” Lu Chengyu curled his lip, knowing what he was insisting on. If he spoke up to invite him aboard, it would just be slapping his own face.
The two returned home thirty minutes apart as usual. Grandpa’s dinner was already prepared. Lin Duole went upstairs and saw Lu Chengyu in his room, hesitating over whether to call him out for dinner and ask him again while he was at it.
“Um, are you actually willing to teach me how to swim or not?” Lin Duole knocked on the door, entering the room and asking timidly.
Lu Chengyu was a neat freak. Coming home, he intended to take off his school uniform and pull out a casual T-shirt to change into. As he unbuttoned his uniform, Lin Duole stood not far off watching, his gaze slowly following the hand unbuttoning the shirt down, his eyes blank and his face devoid of expression.
“Since you’ve already put it that way.” With only one button left, Lu Chengyu stopped his hands, tossed a cardigan right over Lin Duole’s head, and said unhurriedly, “If I were to refuse again, wouldn’t that make me terribly ungrateful?”
“That’s awesome!” Hearing that he agreed, Lin Duole pulled the clothes he had worn off his face, only to find the other boy had already finished changing. He asked him, “But why are you acting shy now? Didn’t you use to strip right in front of me before?”
Lu Chengyu folded the school uniform in his hands, tossed it into the laundry hamper nearby, and said in a cheeky tone, “Afraid you might covet my striking good looks.”
Not expecting such an answer, Lin Duole’s face flushed red, almost completely stunned by this guy’s sheer shamelessness. It took him a long moment to squeeze out a single line of rebuttal: “I… would never be that kind of person.”
“Right, you’d better not be.”
As the two were bantering, Grandpa hadn’t seen anyone come out of the room after waiting for a long time. He walked over, knocked on the door, and asked, “What are you two up to? Neither of you eats when you get home, hiding in the room for what?”
“Coming, Grandpa! We’re coming out right now.” Lin Duole tossed the clothes in his hand into the laundry basket and walked out of the room with Lu Chengyu.
The spread on the dining table was as lavish as ever, with a different menu every day. Grandpa ladled a bowl of lotus root and pork rib soup for Lin Duole, then picked up some fish for Lu Chengyu: “You two kids are growing taller, you need to eat more to replenish your nutrients.”
Just as Lin Duole was about to say thank you, Grandpa beamed again: “Lele, why be so polite? Tingyu told me all about it—you suffered quite a lot in the past. Now that you’re staying here, just treat it like your own home, don’t stand on ceremony with Grandpa. Besides, having you here gives Chengyu some company. This kid is so antisocial, he barely has any friends.”
“That’s not true, Chengyu is actually super popular at school,” Lin Duole spoke the truth. In class, he often saw a bunch of girls holding exercise workbooks going over to ask Lu Chengyu to explain things, though he always kept a sour face and paid them little mind.
“Oh, really?” Grandpa didn’t seem to believe his grandson held that much charm.
“Of course, there are so many of them,” Lin Duole drank his soup and said with a smile, “Though they’re all girls.”
The moment he finished speaking, Lu Chengyu kicked him under the table, signaling him to shut up.
“Hahaha, then that might actually be true.” Grandpa recalled something and continued talking to Duole: “This little rascal has been a face-con since he was tiny. Back when we lived in the residential apartments, there was a neighbor’s young daughter—eyes all watery and sparkling, delicate features, extremely pretty. The two of them were only three or four years old, yet every day as soon as he woke up, he’d go knock on their door saying he wanted to see the little sister.”
“Hahahahaha.” Lin Duole pictured it in his head, finding it inexplicably adorable. He turned his head to ask Lu Chengyu, “Really? You were that bold when you were little?”
“And how!” Grandpa beat him to the response, adding right after, “If this kid weighed ten pounds, nine pounds of it was pure audacity! At five years old, he already dared to light fires and play with sky rockets! Heh heh, he takes after me in that regard.”
“Just eat your food.” Lu Chengyu didn’t answer, nor did he refute it, seemingly wanting to focus on eating. “Ask any more, and I won’t help you.”
Lin Duole sensibly shut his mouth.
After dinner, Grandpa took Lin Duole downstairs for a walk to digest the meal. In name it was a walk, but in reality, the grandfather and grandson just found a spot to keep chatting about Lu Chengyu’s embarrassing childhood stories.
Listening to them, Lin Duole felt his childhood sounded endlessly fascinating—much richer and far more exciting than his own spent following his mother around doing farmwork and chores since he was little.
The next day was Saturday, and Lu Chengyu kept his promise, taking Lin Duole to the swimming pool.
Having just entered June, it wasn’t midsummer yet, but the weather was already very hot. The capital had officially entered high temperatures, with intense UV rays during the day and dry air, though the nights remained relatively cool.
Lin Duole followed Lu Chengyu into the changing room. As the two put their clothes into the lockers, Lin Duole asked him, “How long do you think it’ll take me to learn?”
“How should I know?” Lu Chengyu looked at him as if he were an idiot. “You haven’t even gotten into the water yet.”
Lin Duole: “True. Then once I get in the water later, you can take a look again.”
Before getting into the water, Lu Chengyu first bought a little yellow duck swimming ring for Lin Duole and thoughtfully slipped it around him.
Because they arrived early, there weren’t many people in the pool. Lin Duole was pushed into the water by Lu Chengyu. Lying atop the little yellow duck, he paddled his hands and feet in the water like marching in military training—only submerged, mechanically repeating that single, uniform movement.
Lu Chengyu dived underwater like a fish, his whole body slick with water, making his entire presence seem soft and fluid. He hooked Lin Duole’s flailing feet underwater, then surfaced, asking, “How is it? Fun?”
“It’s alright.” Lin Duole wiped away the water trickling down from his forehead. His skin tone was very fair, but unlike Lu Chengyu’s cool pale, his fairness leaned toward a more natural tone. “If I could swim as freely as you, it’d definitely be a blast.”
“…” Lu Chengyu touched his nose. Because it felt a bit chilly after coming out of the water, he noticed Lin Duole’s nipples had hardened. After stealing a few glances, he hurriedly averted his gaze and said, “Practice slowly, that day will come.”
Lin Duole nodded, saying with obvious interest, “Then hurry up and teach me.”
“Practice holding your breath underwater first.” Lu Chengyu put the goggles on for him and said, “You’ve already automatically learned how to walk along the edge and walk without holding the edge underwater. Now practice holding your breath and learn to adjust your breathing in the water.”
After several rounds of breath-holding training, Lin Duole had clearly grasped the breathing rhythm required for swimming. “What next? What do we learn for the next step?”
“Learn edge-assisted floating and the breaststroke posture.” Lu Chengyu pulled him along as he swam to the poolside, guiding him step by step: “First extend both legs straight out, fully relax your body on the surface of the water, then slowly float up before moving your legs.”
Lin Duole followed the instructions, but as soon as his body floated up, he couldn’t manage his breathing rhythm properly. Immediately afterward, he kept choking on water, completely unable to relax.
“Don’t rush, relax slowly. Sink your head down first, then flutter your legs.” Standing by the side watching, Lu Chengyu found the root of the problem. He stepped forward and scooped up Lin Duole’s head to prevent him from repeatedly swallowing water.
“This step is so hard.”
“It’s fine. Relax first and try to catch the feeling.”
Fifteen minutes later, Lin Duole barely managed to master edge-assisted floating and the most basic breaststroke posture. Seeing his movements were in place, Lu Chengyu stretched his arms and said, “Finally ready for the next step.”
Lin Duole coughed softly and grabbed a towel to dry his hair. After a moment’s thought, he said, “How about we stop here for today, and I’ll practice these until I’m more familiar?”
“That works too. You just learned the breaststroke, so practicing it more is good.” Lu Chengyu put the swimming ring back around Lin Duole and said, “You practice slowly by the poolside, I’m going to swim freestyle for a bit.”
After Lin Duole flashed him an OK sign, Lu Chengyu swam off into the distance.
Taking advantage of him having just left, Lin Duole performed another set of edge-assisted floating. He realized that wearing the swimming ring felt exceptionally clumsy, making it hard for his body to truly relax, so he set the life ring onto the poolside.
The second set of edge-assisted floating officially began. Having completed it successfully, he started practicing the breaststroke posture. Just as he submerged into the water, his right foot suddenly cramped. He instantly flailed his arms in panic, yet his body continued to sink.
Lin Duole wanted to cry without tears, wishing to shout Lu Chengyu’s name out loud for help, but water choked his mouth, leaving him unable to breathe.
Gradually, his body kept sinking deeper. Scenes flashed across Lin Duole’s mind as he thought he was about to lose his life right here. Suddenly, a pair of hands dove through the water, scooping him up.
Lu Chengyu dragged him ashore, laying Lin Duole flat on the ground in a panic. He pressed on his chest, but seeing no reaction from him at all, cold sweat broke out across Lu Chengyu’s forehead. He lowered his head and pressed his lips onto Lin Duole’s, giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
The next second, Lin Duole sat up abruptly, crashing straight into Lu Chengyu’s chest, while the water choked down his lungs was spewed from his mouth.
Lu Chengyu was scared half to death by him, his chest aching terribly from the collision—so painful he almost gasped. But at this moment, he cared even more about Lin Duole. Patting Duole’s slightly dazed and bewildered cheek, he asked, “Lele, you’re awake? Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Please, don’t scare me like that!”