A summer vacation was still far too short to change something, Ke Bu thought. The four of them were still stiff and awkward around one another, but perhaps they would gradually get used to it with time. He sat on the bus back to school in an excellent mood. There was no need to ask why he was so happy. Obviously, it was because he was about to see Zhi Li again.
He could go back to campus life. He could go back to insulting each other with that whole group of people. He could… Ke Bu realized that little by little, he was recovering and experiencing the childhood and childishness he had lost after having to endure a broken family far too early.
Why was the bus moving so slowly? How many more seconds until it reached the school? How many seconds had passed just while he was thinking about it? He wanted Zhi Li. He wanted his face, his voice, everything about him. Eight years had already passed. Those fine threads of love, like strands of poison, had intertwined with the thread of his life until they had become one.
When the bus finally arrived, Ke Bu suddenly wasn’t in such a hurry anymore. He certainly wasn’t going to let Zhi Li know just how badly he wanted to see him. He deliberately strolled into the school. Sheng Jie Academy hadn’t changed. The atmosphere hadn’t changed. It felt as though nothing had changed at all. He first returned to the dormitory and dropped off his bag. Chu Hao Yu still hadn’t arrived, even though he had clearly said in the group chat that he would come early. Was he busy eating shit somewhere? Ke Bu truly did nothing more than put down his bag before heading toward the club building. He knew Zhi Li would definitely be there. As he passed the school bulletin board, he glanced at it and was about to keep walking when he stopped and turned back toward the notices plastered all over it.
[Sheng Jie Academy prohibits vulgar, obscene, and improper homosexual relationships. Anyone discovered engaging in such a relationship will be expelled immediately. Students are requested to maintain a healthy and normal sexual orientation.] The prohibition looked so ridiculous that Ke Bu couldn’t understand it. Until now, Sheng Jie Academy had always been open-minded about all sorts of things. At least, in all the time Ke Bu had studied there, the school had never issued anything resembling this kind of prohibition. Could it be someone’s prank? But it didn’t look like one. The student council’s official seal was printed at the bottom of the notice. Ke Bu didn’t linger or think about it much further. His desire to see Zhi Li could overpower anything.
He couldn’t remember the faces of any of the students he passed. Step by step, he headed toward the club building, moving faster and faster until he finally broke into a run. He wanted to laugh at himself.
Zhi Li, you have to be there. You have to.
Ke Bu shoved open the door to the club building, and every bad premonition he had felt earlier vanished. Zhi Li was there. He was sitting in his usual place, drawing. Even without seeing his face, Ke Bu’s heart started pounding. He approached quietly, pressed his chest against Zhi Li’s back, and reached both arms over his shoulders. “I thought you’d get to school later.” Mushy words really were impossible for him to say. He could only say things that suited the two of them.
“You’d be happier if I came later?”
“What do you mean happier? I’m not that happy right now.” Ke Bu was dissatisfied with Zhi Li’s choice of words.
“You don’t usually hug me this enthusiastically.”
Being called out so bluntly immediately embarrassed Ke Bu. “You seriously need to learn which things you’re supposed to say out loud and which things you’re supposed to keep to yourself!” Ke Bu let go of Zhi Li, pulled over a chair, and sat beside him. Resting his cheek on one hand, he said, “I can’t say the second half of my summer vacation was completely terrible, but it wasn’t great either. Coming back to school gave me a bad feeling. For a second, I really thought my streak of bad luck was about to start again.”
“A bad feeling?” Zhi Li repeated. His pencil stopped, but only for a brief moment before he resumed drawing.
“I’m not complimenting you or anything, but when you’re here, those bad feelings disappear.”
“Then stick a picture of me on your face.”
“I absolutely refuse!”
“Why?” Zhi Li genuinely found Ke Bu’s refusal strange, making Ke Bu unable to resist kicking one leg of Zhi Li’s chair.
Someone knocked on the club-building door. “Delivery.” At the sound of the voice, Ke Bu didn’t even turn around. “Refused.”
“This is a delivery you have to accept.”
“I’m not accepting it even if I have to. Yutai, what kind of stunt are you trying to pull?”
“I was trying to make it look like I accidentally interrupted you two. If you didn’t know I was here and suddenly started doing something that needed mosaics right in front of me, things would get awkward for all of us.” Chu Hao Yu spoke as he walked inside, then immediately began carefully checking whether any of his precious belongings in the club building had gone missing.
“Why are you only getting here now?”
“My girlfriend broke up with me just now. It took a little time.”
“She finally realized there’s no money to squeeze out of you?”
“I’m someone who doesn’t want to trade money for someone’s body, hahaha.” Chu Hao Yu didn’t look heartbroken in the slightest, yet what he said sounded strangely principled.
“I think you’re just someone who doesn’t want to spend money to sleep with people.”
“That’s true too.”
The others gradually arrived at school as well. Gong Zhu looked furious. “Ke Bu, did you see the notices posted all over the school?”
“I saw them.”
“Then how can you still react like this?! And all of you are way too calm!! How can you act as if this has nothing to do with you?” Gong Zhu stomped his feet in anger. These days, people who actually stomped their feet when angry were becoming pretty rare.
“Drink some water and calm down first,” Zhang Luo said. “Maybe the student council is just fooling around. You know student council presidents are always weirdos. I don’t believe the school would really dare expel someone under that kind of excuse. Those notices were obviously put up to provoke people. Getting angry just means you’re giving them what they want.” Zhang Luo’s reasoning did make sense, and Gong Zhu seemed slightly less furious. Ke Bu turned to Su You Yan. “You Yan, do you know what’s going on with the school?”
“The puppet has started moving.” Even someone as smart as Ke Bu couldn’t decipher such a cryptic answer. He lightly nudged Zhi Li with his elbow and spoke very, very quietly, not wanting anyone other than Zhi Li to hear him. “I’m not worried at all, so you don’t need to worry about me either.”
“Then I won’t worry about you at all.”
“That… sounds a little cold.”
“Are you on your period?”
“Now you’ve learned how to insult me indirectly too!!”
Ke Bu truly didn’t care or worry about it in the slightest. By the very next day, however, he discovered that he had no choice but to care and worry.
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