Futile Devices Scans

Middle school was a delicate age. Everything was stirring restlessly. One began learning rebellion, began learning sentimentality, began envying the freedom of adults, and began doing foolish things one would later regret deeply. Ke Bu was a rather lazy guy. He had to drag everything out until the very last moment before he was willing to do it, whether it was washing clothes or anything else. Even when it came to peeing, he had to hold it in until he could no longer bear it before he was willing to stand up.

It had already been a month since he and Zhi Li started dating. As if that incident had never happened at all, life was still proceeding normally. Thinking about it, it really was unbelievable. The precious beautiful boy of all the girls in school was actually his lover. He pushed away the review materials piled in front of him and lay bored against the window. The noisy sounds downstairs were endless. Ke Bu shifted his gaze toward a boy and a girl. The childish boy was teasing the girl he liked, pulling her hair and making her angry, while the girl chased after him in anger. At this age, when everyone was very curious about love, everyone was eager to try. Innocence could not withstand the scrutiny of time. Slowly, fantasies, wishes, and obsessions would become more and more blurred. Those things that once existed would remain only in that age when they had once existed. Ke Bu had cast aside innocence too early. He even looked down on the children around him who thought the world was beautiful, yet mixed into that contempt was envy. Contradictory.

He shifted his gaze again toward the corner. Sitting on the bench was a beautiful boy. Fair skin, long lashes trembling along with his eyes, a delicate and handsome face that perfectly interpreted the word beauty. The boy sat in the shade, legs bent, sketchbook resting on his knees, no expression on his face, neither happy nor angry, impossible to read yet carrying an enormous attraction. Even Ke Bu could not help sighing inwardly. He was clearly a boy, yet he was more beautiful than any girl. This Zhi Li, after a few years, what kind of man would he grow into? Ke Bu could not imagine it. So it turned out he liked drawing. Only now did Ke Bu realize that he seemed to know nothing about Zhi Li at all, what he liked, what he disliked. Before meeting Zhi Li, Ke Bu had never once considered the existence of two boys dating. After meeting Zhi Li, he did not hate it. He did not hate this label that maintained the fragile relationship between them.

He grabbed the review materials on the desk, aimed in Zhi Li’s direction, and threw them. The materials landed by Zhi Li’s feet, but he did not even lift his eyelids and continued drawing. Ke Bu pursed his lips, then picked up another set of review materials. All of them were ignored by Zhi Li. Unable to endure it anymore, Ke Bu called out, “Hey, you down there.”

“I don’t accept impolite conversation,” Zhi Li said lightly.

This guy’s personality was even more hateful than Ke Bu had imagined!!

“Zhi Li, let me ask you a rather important question.”

“Go ahead.”

“Do you still remember my name?” Strange. What was this slightly nervous feeling?

Zhi Li finally raised his head. That face in the shadows, their gazes colliding—Ke Bu upstairs, lying against the window; Zhi Li downstairs, holding his sketchbook. He paused for a while. “Who are you?” He forgot? He actually forgot? Could this guy be the legendary naturally slow type? Had Ke Bu’s initial judgment been wrong?

Somewhat angry, Ke Bu grabbed the review materials and threw them down. “I’m your long-lost father!!!”

Zhi Li sized up Ke Bu. “Is that so? But why don’t we look alike?”

He actually followed along with his joke!! For a moment, Ke Bu did not know how to talk back. All he could do was shut the window hard. Only he himself was an idiot, still remembering that agreement. Loss accumulated somewhere inside his body. Ke Bu grabbed the clothes over his chest. Not good.

After school, the students carried their schoolbags and rushed out of the classroom at flying speed. Ke Bu, who was on duty that day, walked weakly to the podium and began wiping the blackboard. Half a piece of chalk fell lonely by Ke Bu’s feet. Ke Bu bent down to pick it up. The hand holding the chalk hesitated for a second before writing Zhi Li’s name on the blackboard. As if venting, he drew crosses over the name. “Go die, go die, go die, go die, go die.”

“Just how much do you hate me?” Zhi Li leaned against the doorway with his head tilted, looking at Ke Bu.

“What are you here for?!”

Zhi Li waved the review materials in his hand and tossed them onto the desk.

“I don’t need your fake kindness. I don’t know you anyway.”

Zhi Li did not get angry. He walked over to Ke Bu, turned his back to the teacher’s desk, and propped both hands on it. “Throwing a tantrum?”

“Who, who’s throwing a tantrum?”

Damn this evil school. Why did they make the blackboard so high? Were they bullying him for developing slowly? Ke Bu stood on tiptoe, reaching toward the top of the blackboard and wiping with difficulty. A hand behind him took the blackboard eraser. Ke Bu tilted his head and looked at Zhi Li, who was helping him wipe the blackboard. That beautiful profile. Unwilling to lose, he said, “I’ll grow very, very tall in the future. Just you wait and see.”

“I really can’t tell.”

“Stop looking down on people.”

The blackboard returned to a clean state. Ke Bu went back to his seat and packed his schoolbag. Zhi Li walked to the classroom door. Ke Bu called after him, “Hey, um, goodbye.”

Zhi Li lazily waved his hand. “Goodbye, Ke Bu.”

The books in Ke Bu’s hands scattered all over. His own name, called out in Zhi Li’s pleasant voice, spread through the classroom. He shouted toward the outside, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you? You definitely did that on purpose!!”

Then, one day a week later, Ke Bu was sneaking around while holding his homework. This was bad. Yesterday, he had only cared about playing. He had originally planned to do his homework at night, but the moment he lay down on the bed, he slept straight until early morning. If the teacher caught him, he was dead for sure. Why did this world have such a cruel thing as assigning homework to students? Ke Bu hid inside a toilet stall. He had to hurry before the homework was collected. Zhi Li walked into the bathroom and was just about to wash his hands when he heard waves of mournful sounds coming from the stall. Zhi Li pushed open the unlocked stall door and saw Ke Bu crouching there, pressing his workbook against the wall, biting his lower lip. The whole scene was very obscene. When Ke Bu saw Zhi Li, he first froze, then dragged him into the stall and locked the door. “If the teacher sees me later, I’m dead!! You came at the perfect time. How do you do this problem? Has your class taught this part yet?”

“Your idiocy has already exceeded my imagination.”

“I can tolerate your attacks. Hurry up and tell me the answer.”

“Thirty-one.”

“Don’t just say the result!! What’s the formula?”

Outside the window, the blazing sun was roasting the school. The narrow stall could not escape the heat. Sweat slid down from Ke Bu’s forehead. “Damn weather. It’s hot enough to kill someone. Hurry up.” Behind him was silence. Ke Bu turned his head and, for some reason, felt a chill crawl up his spine. Zhi Li’s face had become even more expressionless, and he looked at Ke Bu coldly.

“Zhi Li?”

“What are you calling for? Hurry up and do it.”

“But I don’t know this problem.” Ke Bu somehow felt that Zhi Li was a little irritated, his whole body emitting a black aura.

Zhi Li narrowed his eyes and looked at Ke Bu as if he were looking at trash. “You don’t know? Then why are you still coming to school? Hurry up and pack your things, then go home and farm.”

“I don’t know how to farm either,” Ke Bu said weakly, his momentum weakening.

“Stop rambling all over the place. How long do you want me to stay here?” Zhi Li pulled open the button at his collar and frowned. “So hot.”

“Then, is the answer to this problem fourteen?”

Zhi Li smacked Ke Bu hard on the back of the head. “Wrong. Calculate again.”

“That hurt.”

“Hurt? Does a bastard like you have the right to say it hurts?”

“Then fifteen?” The moment the words left his mouth, he was hit again. “Then it must be sixteen.”

“Keep guessing. Guess one more time and I’ll shove the workbook into your mouth.”

“What the hell? Don’t think I’m easy to bully. I’m telling you, I…” Before Ke Bu could finish his threat, Zhi Li pressed Ke Bu’s head down against the workbook. “You what, you. Cut the crap.”

From time to time, fragments of conversation spilled out of the tiny stall.

“Twelve. This time it’s definitely not wrong, right? Whoa, that hurt.”

“It’s right.”

“Since it’s right, you still hit me!!” Ke Bu roared, going crazy.

“It’s habit.”

“Your habit formed way too fast!!! You’re a devil. You’re definitely a devil!!”

After a process of tears and helplessness, Ke Bu said weakly, “Finally, the last problem. Do I substitute this formula here?”

“That one.”

“No.”

“Then which one?”

Zhi Li impatiently clicked his tongue in disdain, bent down close, and grabbed Ke Bu’s hand holding the pen. “Use this one.” The controlled hand wrote a distorted formula in the workbook. Even in the hot weather, Zhi Li’s fingers were still somewhat cool. Ke Bu’s heart trembled. Temperature was being transmitted—from fingertip to heart, from heart to brain—blankness spreading everywhere. It was only after Zhi Li released his hand that Ke Bu finally came back to himself and let out a breath. “Finally done. Safe!!”

“Repay me properly.” After saying that coldly, Zhi Li left. Ke Bu looked in the direction where Zhi Li had disappeared. Not good. This was really not good. That heart of his, which should have been very indifferent and undisturbed, was having a chemical reaction to this person called Zhi Li! And this chemical reaction that made him confused and angry was hidden, suppressed, and ignored by Ke Bu.

The class bell rang. Ke Bu opened his drowsy eyes. When had he fallen asleep? He had dreamed of things from the past. There was an emotion warming up inside him. So back then, they had been that young. Time really was an incredible thing. The students were walking outside. Ke Bu quickly walked to Zhi Li’s side and looked at him very directly. He had shed his childish appearance. Different from the delicate beauty of the past, he had become even better-looking and moving, with more of a man’s flavor.

“Zhi Li, I grew taller, right?” Ke Bu said proudly.

“I really can’t tell.”

“That’s because you were growing too!! Your personality hasn’t changed at all, though!!”

“What nonsense are you saying?”

Ke Bu smiled, smiling very sweetly. Even after being scolded, he still smiled very sweetly. “I’m not telling you.”

Previous

Main

Next