Zhou Ruicheng was generally considered a refined man, but that night in his study, he was so infuriated by Zhou Ai that he nearly threw the tablet he was holding.
He pounded on the table as he questioned Zhou Ai, his voice carrying through the door and down to the floor below: “Do you know how much effort it took for me to find Mr. Chen for you at that time! I had to find someone cheerful! Someone well-educated! Someone with patience! Most importantly, someone who knows sign language and can communicate with you!”
“Mr. Chen is still a university student himself! But every time I ask him, he finds a way to adjust his schedule to accommodate you! He was the top scorer in the municipal college entrance exam, and you, you don’t even want him!…”
Zhou Ai looked calmly at the middle-aged man standing up from his seat. This was his father, and in this moment, he had thoroughly ignited his father’s fury.
Before he had even picked up the tablet to type that sentence, he knew the request would likely be denied. Yet, he still wanted to try just this once. Regardless of the outcome, he would not ask a second time.
Zhou Ruicheng’s rage continued unabated, but Zhou Ai had become truly numb. From childhood to adulthood, his father had always worn that same look of disappointment whenever he faced him—a look that told Zhou Ai he was Zhou Ruicheng’s greatest failure. It wasn’t until the birth of Zhou Youbao that Zhou Ruicheng shifted the vast majority of his attention to his younger son. The “defective product” Zhou Ai was gradually marginalized by his parents, but in that marginalization, Zhou Ai actually found an opportunity to breathe.
Zhou Ai stood in place, calmly enduring his father’s reprimands, until he belatedly felt the door behind him open gently. Someone rushed over, hugging his leg and even grabbing the fingers he had hanging at his side.
“Dad, Dad, don’t be mean to Brother.” Zhou Youbao stood before him, the top of his head only reaching Zhou Ai’s waist. Zhou Youbao even had to stand on tiptoe to hold onto Zhou Ai’s hand.
Zhou Ai lowered his eyelids, looking at the top of Zhou Youbao’s head.
Seeing his younger son, Zhou Ruicheng immediately reined in his anger. He walked around from behind the desk and picked Zhou Youbao up from the floor. He softened his voice and asked: “Why did you come upstairs by yourself again? Where is your mother? Where is Auntie Qi?”
Zhou Youbao subconsciously reached up to wrap his arms around Zhou Ruicheng’s neck, but he kept tilting his head back, constantly looking at Zhou Ai. He answered Zhou Ruicheng’s question in a garbled voice: “Mom… Mom is taking a bath.”
Zhou Ruicheng’s attention was entirely focused on Zhou Youbao. He held Zhou Youbao, back turned to Zhou Ai, looking out the study window at the night view.
“Go back to sleep,” Zhou Ruicheng said, the anger in his voice vanishing. He spoke with his back to Zhou Ai, his tone dripping with fatigue: “Zhou Ai, you aren’t even as sensible as your brother is now.”
Zhou Youbao kept twisting his head to look at Zhou Ai. The study wasn’t very large, so Zhou Ai could clearly feel the child’s gaze fixed on his face, but until the moment he left the room, he never looked back at Zhou Youbao.
…
The management of the sophomore and junior years at the Sixth High was extremely strict. Not only were the morning and evening study sessions lengthened, but there was also an implicit requirement for all students to board at the school to facilitate unified management and extend study hours.
In contrast, the freshmen who had just enrolled were relatively relaxed and enjoyed a wide variety of activities.
Following the autumn sports meet, as autumn deepened, the only grade-wide autumn outing of their three years of high school was finally scheduled. The location followed the precedent of the previous freshman class, with the main activity being a hike to the summit of a mountain park on the outskirts of the city.
Because it was a unified outing for the entire freshman grade, safety was the top priority. The hiking activity was conducted with teachers leading the way to take roll call, followed by classes marching up the mountain in neat formations.
At 9:00 AM on Saturday, nearly 20 buses were parked uniformly at the foot of the mountain. Zhou Ai’s class, Class 1, was at the very front of the grade’s formation, so they were walking at the very head of the hiking procession.
With the departure from the classroom, Teacher Qin had also relaxed slightly. He walked beside Class 1 in comfortable sportswear, chatting casually with many students along the way. However, he had to keep an eye on all the students in the class, and so he noticed that Zhou Ai was consistently trailing silently at the very end.
The stone steps up the mountain were not wide. Most of the formation was in rows of two; it wasn’t too crowded, and they could talk and chat while walking. Some of the more restless students could even run back and forth to find friends in different rows, but Zhou Ai always walked alone at the very end, leaving a gap between himself and Class 2 behind him.
He was like someone isolated from the tide of people, cut off from everyone around him.
Teacher Qin paused for a moment and was about to slow his pace to move to the back when he suddenly saw a tall boy in a black athletic set approaching from behind. He broke through the Class 3 formation, strode straight past Class 2, and finally walked to the very end of the Class 1 queue, walking right up beside Zhou Ai.
The line of one person became two walking in parallel, and Zhou Ai, who had been cold and lost in thought the whole way, finally stirred. He turned his head to look at the boy beside him, then took a bottle of mineral water from his own backpack and handed it to the person next to him.
Teacher Qin frowned slightly. He felt that the boy who had walked up looked familiar, but he couldn’t quite remember where he had seen him. Nevertheless, he wouldn’t interfere with students from different classes interacting, and Zhou Ai was so isolated that it was actually a good thing if he had a friend.
Teacher Qin took one last look at the two people in the very back row before turning his head back and retracting his gaze.
Chen Xunfeng was in Class 21. His class was among the last to arrive at the foot of the mountain. After getting off the bus, he didn’t care about the teacher dragging his feet while taking roll call; he simply broke away from his class’s main group and started heading up the mountain.
There was only this one road up. It was filled with students and teachers from their school. Chen Xunfeng didn’t count, but he had likely passed every student in the grade before he finally caught up to Zhou Ai.
He had been somewhat irritated. Walking through almost every class in the grade, there were always people he knew. As he walked up, those boys would tease him, trying to stop him to play in their rows. Chen Xunfeng found them insufferably annoying; he had even kicked one of them.
When he finally caught up and saw the back of Zhou Ai’s head at the very front, a gust of wind blew down the mountain path. Chen Xunfeng walked upward against the wind, and all his irritation seemed to be blown away by that breeze in an instant.
“Do you have water?” This was the first sentence Chen Xunfeng asked Zhou Ai after walking up.
Throughout the entire climb, Chen Xunfeng’s actions were neither restrained nor hidden. At a certain moment, students from the two rows of classes ahead and behind them fell silent. The students of Class 1 in front were listening to their movements, while the eyes of Class 2 behind them were vaguely gathering on them. But because the teachers were close by and Chen Xunfeng had a reputation to uphold, their scrutiny was nothing more than a passing glance; after a moment of silence, they returned to normal, and no one turned around to stare openly at them.
When Zhou Ai heard the voice, he turned his head and saw Chen Xunfeng by his side.
The wind whipped Chen Xunfeng’s hair up, revealing beads of sweat on his forehead. Chen Xunfeng had appeared suddenly by his side, skipping the awkward greeting phase. After the two made eye contact, Chen Xunfeng even added naturally: “I’m a little thirsty.”