“Dad, I didn’t run away from home.”
Xia Shuo bit into an apple and took a bite. “If you don’t believe me, look, I’m at Shen Yu’s place. Can this even count as running away?”
Running a couple of steps, Xia Shuo flipped the camera view to face Shen Yu, who was typing away at his keyboard. “Look, Dad, your other son is right here.”
Shen Yu paused his typing and waved at the camera. “Uncle Xia.”
“Aiya, why did you run off to Xiao Yu’s place again? The poor guy is busy. Aren’t you just pure trouble?”
“No way, Dad. You can’t be that biased. I’m your son too.”
“Alright, alright. Learn more from your Brother Yu and stir up less trouble.”
Xia Shuo nudged Shen Yu’s knee with his own leg, signaling him to speak.
“Uncle Xia, Shuo Shuo isn’t causing trouble. He’s learning from me, and I’m more than happy to have him here.”
Xia Shuo gave a thumbs-up behind the screen. He’s smooth, as expected of the older brother I chose.
“Well, you guys study then. Come over for dinner when you have time.”
“Got it, got it! Dad, I’ll head back on Friday.”
Having stayed at Shen Yu’s place for a few days, he had almost forgotten that the May Day holiday was coming to an end.
“Brother Yu, are you heading back to campus today or tomorrow?”
Xia Shuo pulled up a stool and sat right next to Shen Yu, resting his chin on one hand as he stared intently at him.
Seeing that Shen Yu didn’t answer, Xia Shuo extended his leg to hook the other’s calf, rubbing against it gently.
Shen Yu finally stopped what he was doing, took off his headphones, and gestured for him to speak.
“When are you heading back?”
Shen Yu: “Tomorrow.”
Xia Shuo played with the hem of Shen Yu’s shirt. “Sigh, I’m so torn. Is it better to go back to campus today or tomorrow?”
“Bro, what time are you waking up tomorrow?”
“Driving from here to Qingda takes an hour.”
It wasn’t that Shen Yu’s apartment was particularly far away, but rather that the campus was quite remote. Shen Yu’s place was right in the city center, yet driving to school still took a whole hour.
“Leaving at eight. First-period class is empty.”
“Oh, I guess I’ll go back to school today then. I have a class at 8:00 tomorrow morning.”
“Let’s go together tomorrow. I’ll drop you off.”
“No way, that means waking up at 6:30. Brother, you know I can’t wake up that early.”
Shen Yu fell silent.
Watching the PowerPoint presentation being crafted on Shen Yu’s computer screen, Xia Shuo asked, “Are there still this many classes in your junior year? I have forty periods a week right now, practically full days.”
“Your junior year will have a bit less.”
“Oh, that’s great! Wait, why are you so busy, Brother… Oh right, aren’t you guys in the dual-degree program always on a full schedule?”
Even though both of them were majoring in Finance, Shen Yu was pursuing a dual degree in Finance and Mathematics, having entered through a math score of 145 on the college entrance exams combined with an interview placement.
“It’s alright.”
After hanging out and teasing Shen Yu for a while, Xia Shuo went to his room to pack his things. Whatever he had brought with him, he was taking back. Even though they were good friends, adults needed to respect each other’s personal space.
They had been sleeping in the same bed these past few days, and he could clearly tell that Shen Yu’s sleep quality hadn’t been that great, especially when waking up in the morning, always finding himself curled up inside Shen Yu’s embrace.
“Brother Yu, let’s go.”
The study door opened, and Shen Yu walked out holding his car keys, throwing an arm around Xia Shuo’s shoulder. “Let’s go together.”
“Are you heading back today too, Brother?”
“Mmh.”
After a moment, Shen Yu asked, “Do you need to bring your suitcase to campus as well?”
“I can’t just leave it at your place forever. Even though we’re brothers, your little brother still respects your privacy.”
Shen Yu didn’t say anything.
“Family, I’m back!” Xia Shuo pushed open the dorm room door, dragging his suitcase behind him.
“Shuo’s here! Quick, quick, come and see how the confession speech I wrote sounds!” Gao Hao held up a handwritten draft while the rest of the guys crowded around to analyze it earnestly.
“A confession? Hao, are you going to confess?” Xia Shuo put down his luggage and joined the huddle to take a look.
Everyone had known since military training that Gao Hao liked Mu Fei from their class, it had been about two years now.
Yet it had always been a secret crush. Mu Fei had a lively personality and was quite pretty. Most importantly, back during military training when Gao Hao had suffered from heatstroke, Mu Fei had run back and forth to ask for leave for him and visited him in the infirmary every day after training ended.
Even though Mu Fei was the class monitor and did those things purely out of a sense of duty, Gao Hao fell head over heels for her anyway.
Although his other roommates had also gone to look after Gao Hao, he completely filtered them out of his vision, keeping only Fei Fei etched in his memory.
“A person’s gotta try at least once. I scrolled past a video yesterday saying that people need to be brave at least once in their lives. I’m planning to be brave this time.”
“Brothers, Friday is May 19th, Fei’s birthday. Her birthday party is inviting our dorm again this time. I want to go ahead and decorate the venue in advance to give her a surprise.”
“Sounds good, Hao. The roommates will definitely go help you with something this big.” Luo Yang flashed a row of pearly white teeth and patted Gao Hao on the shoulder.
“I… I support Hao too,” Luo Qiu said softly.
“Count me in. Just drop the location in the group chat, we’ve gotta support Hao,” said Xia Shuo.
Gao Hao was extremely nervous, discussing it sentence by sentence with everyone. “How does this line sound? Will it feel super fake and make it seem like I’m not sincere?”
Luo Yang: “How could it? Your genuine feelings will definitely shine through.”
Luo Qiu: “Should we… maybe ask her roommates what they think of Hao? Otherwise, preparing blindly might…”
Luo Qiu was on the more shy side, his voice often very quiet.
He had the delicate and gentle look typical of people from Sichuan and Chongqing, standing a bit shorter than the other three roommates at around 175 centimeters. He was slender, and even after taking a shower in the dorm, he would still put on long pants.
Usually wearing a black-framed pair of glasses, he looked scholarly and delicate, speaking in a soft, milky voice.
He was also the only out-of-province student in their dorm.
Gao Hao’s eyes lit up as he grabbed Luo Qiu by the shoulders and shook him twice. “Qiuqiu is still the thoughtful one! What if my confession actually brings Fei unnecessary trouble? Plus, it’s her birthday. I don’t want Fei to be unhappy.”
Luo Yang: “So who’s the best person to go probe around?”
Everyone unanimously turned their gaze toward the well-liked Xia Shuo.
“Shuo, aren’t you high school classmates with Fei’s roommate Gao Yiqing?” Luo Yang seemed to remember something.
“Oh yeah! I remember during the freshman introductions, Shuo and Yiqing were in the same class.”
Gao Hao threw an arm around Xia Shuo’s shoulders. “Shuo, help a brother out, will ya? Ask if Fei has any bad impressions of me. If she hates me, we’ll drop the whole thing.”
Xia Shuo patted his chest. “Leave it to me.”
“Shuo, you’re the best! Ying ying ying ying ying.”
Xia Shuo used his hand to push away Gao Hao’s macho-style acting spoiled.
Though Gao Hao looked big and burly, with an intimidating appearance and a buzz cut, his actual inner thoughts and communication style were basically that of a molten lava mooncake, hard on the outside, soft on the inside.
The very next day, Xia Shuo messaged Gao Yiqing to ask if she had time since he needed to talk to her about something.
【Gao Yiqing: Coincidentally, I have something to talk to you about too. I don’t have class this afternoon, let’s meet at the milk tea shop on the first floor of the library.】
【Xia Bu Xia: OK.】
Xia Shuo had originally thought about having Hao and the others tag along, but since it was just one girl, and what if she had zero interest in Hao? That would make things super awkward for him. In the end, Xia Shuo went alone.
At the scheduled time, as soon as Xia Shuo walked close enough, he saw Gao Yiqing waving at him from inside the transparent glass wall.
Over here, her mouth motioned.
Xia Shuo opened the ordering mini-program on his phone and handed it over for her to choose. Being old classmates, they weren’t awkward about it, and Gao Yiqing generously picked her favorite drink.
Xia Shuo took the phone back to order the house special for himself, and then added a new-release small cake for the girl.
Gao Yiqing had a bright and radiant look, with parting long hair slightly curled at the ends and fair skin. Back in high school, quite a few guys had liked her, openly or secretly.
She rested her chin on her hand and smiled at Xia Shuo. “You never visit a temple without a cause. What’s up, spill it.”
Xia Shuo smiled. “Can’t I just treat you to milk tea out of the goodness of my heart?”
Gao Yiqing covered her mouth and laughed. “Well, it definitely isn’t because you’re interested in me.”
“How’s your ‘big brother’ doing?”
Mentioning Shen Yu brought a smile to Xia Shuo’s face as well.
Little did he know, Shen Yu, who was walking out of the library at that exact moment, happened to see the two of them smiling at each other through the shop window.
One bright and radiant, the other handsome and dazzling, a sight for sore eyes.
Yet in Shen Yu’s eyes, everything looked pitch black.
He picked up his phone and sent a few messages, never once seeing the people inside glance at their screens.
“Shen Yu?” urged the roommate walking next to him. Shen Yu clutched his phone, turned his head away, and left.
He walked quite a distance before looking back one last time at the milk tea shop, where the two of them were still deep in animated conversation.
Xia Shuo, of course, had no idea what had just happened outside. Gao Yiqing kept chatting about funny high school memories, especially bringing up Shen Yu.
“Hey, did you know? Regarding you turning into the dark horse of the college entrance exam, once people found out Shen Yu tutored you, even my relatives wanted me to contact your ‘brother’ and hire him at a high price to tutor their younger cousins.”
“One thousand two hundred and ninety an hour, do you even know how insane that is?”
“Hey, wait a minute, the two of us were classmates. Why does it feel like you’re elbowing outward and rooting for someone else?”
“Could it just be that I was always capable of getting that score and was just hiding my true power?”
Gao Yiqing started covering her mouth with her laughter again. “Could I not know what level our class was at?”
After saying that, she still offered Xia Shuo a word of affirmation: “Still, you really are quite smart and hardworking. It wasn’t just Brother Shen’s credit, of course.”
“Yeah, yeah, right. That sounds like you’re just comforting me. How come everyone loves Shen Yu? Even my parents do.”
“Nobody could possibly dislike Shen Yu.”
Xia Shuo propped his cheek in his hand and lazily dropped a sentence: “True. How could anyone not like Shen Yu?”
The milk tea and cake arrived together. Looking at the small cake placed in front of her, Gao Yiqing’s eyes sparkled. “Shuo, seriously, nobody could possibly dislike you either.”
“You’re just too awesome.”
Once Gao Yiqing finished eating happily, Xia Shuo finally brought up the main reason he came. “I actually do have a favor to ask you today.”
Gao Yiqing took a sip of her milk tea, chewing the pearls in her mouth. “Alright, spit it out. What is it?”
Xia Shuo thought for a moment before speaking tactfully, “Are you and Mu Fei from your dorm super close?”
Gao Yiqing put down her milk tea, nodded solemnly, and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Xia Shuo carefully weighed his words. “Is she single?”
Gao Yiqing narrowed her eyes and shot him a mischievous smile.
“Hey, don’t look at me like that. I’m asking for a friend.”
“Everyone loves to say ‘I have a friend’ nowadays. That lawyer livestream channel uses that excuse every single day…”
“This really is my friend,” Xia Shuo explained.
Gao Yiqing burst out laughing. “I’m just teasing you. Of course I know it’s not you.”
“Did you really have to beat around the bush like that?”
“Fine, fine. It’s actually my roommate, Gao Hao. You’ve seen him before, right?”
Hearing that name, Gao Yiqing smiled for some unknown reason.
Xia Shuo cut straight to the point: “He likes Mu Fei and wants to find out if she has feelings for anyone else.”
Instead of answering directly, Gao Yiqing took a detour and asked, “What is he planning to do?”
“Confess.”
“Will it cause Mu Fei any trouble?”
After parting ways with Gao Yiqing, Xia Shuo finally checked his phone and found three unread messages.
During regular class hours at school, his phone was always on silent.
【Yu Yu Yu: Where are you?】
【Yu Yu Yu: Is the milk tea good?】
【Yu Yu Yu: Reply when you see this.】