OS - 40

Cheng Yanqing came to pick up his sister’s forgotten items. Before leaving, he told Cheng Yuzhou that he was going to Yanci’s place to play games and would spend the night there instead of coming home.

The weather had warmed up. Cheng Yanqing carried the bought food and drinks upstairs.

Yanci took five or six minutes to open the door. His short hair was a mess, and his eyes were barely open.

“Sleeping?” Cheng Yanqing entered the room. There were no slippers again today. “Last year I told you to buy a few more pairs of slippers so we could change into them when we came over. I’ve told you eight hundred times, but you never listen. Don’t you get tired of always mopping the floor?”

He could only enter the room wearing his sneakers. “Was this a nap, or did you not get up at all this morning? What time did you go to bed?”

Yanci went to the washroom to brush his teeth. Only when Cheng Yanqing’s questions annoyed him enough did he speak. “Eight o’clock.”

“Don’t tell me it was 8 AM,” Cheng Yanqing pulled open the dark curtains. Sunlight streamed into the living room, making the room much brighter. “Can you keep reversing day and night like this? I disagreed when you applied to study at home at the start of the semester. The school atmosphere is better. We study when we should, and rest when we should. There are people to talk and chat with, and occasionally you can play basketball. It’s just annoying to wake up early, but it’s almost over. I’ll be so blessed if I can even get into a second-tier university...”

Yanci finished washing his face, then submerged his entire head in the water. Cheng Yanqing’s chattering voice grew more distant in his ears. He straightened up just before the oxygen in his lungs ran out, squeezed shampoo into his palm, worked up a lather, washed his hair, and then casually towel-dried it until it was semi-dry.

The food Cheng Yanqing brought was cold. Yanci put it all in the microwave for a few minutes.

“Didn’t your parents plan to send you abroad before?”

“Cheng Wanyue didn’t want to go, and I thought about it and decided against it too. Qing Hang probably doesn’t need to take the gaokao; he’s going to Beijing. We can see him off then. Which university are you planning to apply to? Teacher Li said your performance in both mock exams was normal.”

Yanci looked out the window, his expression extremely detached. “Haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

His strict father’s ideal university was Jiaotong University. He failed to get in back then and always regretted it.

Cheng Yanqing thought Yanci might apply to Jiaotong University, but it wasn’t certain.

The microwave ‘dinged’, and both of them snapped out of their thoughts.

The TV was replaying yesterday’s basketball game. Their tastes in food differed greatly, but they always ate together.

________________________________________

“Do you want to go play?”

Fewer and fewer students were on the sports field. Cheng Yuzhou tossed his school uniform jacket onto his shoulder, and the slight breeze it created brushed against Zhou Yu’s cheek.

The sun was a bit dazzling. She shielded her eyes with her hand, looking up at him. “Go where?”

“Arcade? Video game center? Amusement park? Anywhere is fine.”

Zhou Yu lowered her head and sighed deeply. “None of those places exist in this county.”

Cheng Yuzhou took out his phone to check train tickets. The county was less than a hundred kilometers from the nearest city, and train tickets were only a dozen yuan.

“There’s a train to the city at 1:30 PM. We can buy tickets now, each go home to get our ID cards, and then go to the station. We have plenty of time. We’ll come back at 10 PM and can play for several hours.”

Her heart stirred. “Then... what about homework?”

“Stay up late, or just don’t write it. Make it up tomorrow. Good students have the right to be willful once. Want to go?”

“...Yes!”

It wasn’t that Zhou Yu couldn’t resist temptation, but that when Cheng Yuzhou stood in front of her, he seemed to see right through her, knowing what she wanted most at that moment.

On the way home to get her ID card, Zhou Yu walked a few steps then started to run. The negative emotions in her heart from hearing those two male students’ discussions on the sports field were easily shaken off by her light steps, leaving only irrepressible joy and excitement.

She rarely used her ID card, keeping it in the innermost part of her drawer.

Before leaving, she remembered she was still wearing her school uniform and ran back to her room to change.

Liu Fen saw her daughter, who had just returned and hadn’t eaten, about to go out again, so she asked if she was going to find Cheng Wanyue.

Zhou Yu lowered her head and assented, saying she’d be back later.

She lied.

She wanted to be willful once, hoping that her little lie to her mom could also count as part of this act of willfulness.

Cheng Yuzhou arrived at the intersection first. He called a taxi. Because the weather was good, Grandma was sunbathing in the yard, and Liu Fen would occasionally step out of the house. If Zhou Yu went directly from home to the station, it would be in the opposite direction of going to find Cheng Wanyue.

As the taxi passed in front of Zhou Yu’s house, Zhou Yu felt inexplicably nervous. She could see Liu Fen from inside the car.

Cheng Yuzhou took off his hat and put it on her, the brim covering her face.

The trains that stopped in Baicheng were all green-skinned trains. With last-minute tickets, their two seats weren’t in the same carriage. Cheng Yuzhou didn’t go to his own seat; he stood beside Zhou Yu.

“Why don’t you sit for a bit?”

“You sit. It’s only an hour. I’ve been made to stand for more than an hour before.”

Zhou Yu was surprised. “You’ve been made to stand too?”

Cheng Yuzhou smiled. “Too many times, I can’t even count. Smashing someone else’s window while playing ball, puncturing classmates’ bike tires, fighting with Cheng Yanqing, being punished by my dad at home, by the homeroom teacher at school, and by my grandpa when I got back.”

Zhou Yu felt like laughing as she listened, because in her perception, Cheng Yuzhou was too perfect. Before she met him at the supermarket, he was a distant fantasy. After they met, all she saw was his good side. Even when she called him after the final exams, and he said she would slowly see his bad side, she didn’t truly believe him.

Only now, hearing him talk about his past, did he feel real.

“I also had a bicycle when I was little, and its tire was punctured by glass shards on the road. I was especially sad then, and later found out someone deliberately smashed a bottle there. How unethical.”

“Qin Yiming curses me like that too.”

“Who’s Qin Yiming?”

“The unlucky guy whose tire I punctured. He came to visit for a few days last year during National Day. He’s seen you, but you haven’t seen him.”

Zhou Yu had no impression whatsoever. “Where did he see me?”

Cheng Yuzhou said, “I’m not telling you.”

The train passed through a long tunnel, the light in the carriage dimmed, then brightened again upon reaching the station.

There were many people leaving the station. Cheng Yuzhou naturally held Zhou Yu’s hand. He hadn’t been to this city to play either, relying entirely on navigation. There was a small amusement park with unlimited time all day. After booking tickets online, he went to eat first.

The consequence of not planning ahead was that most of this amusement park’s attractions were water-based, attracting crowds only in the summer. Although it wasn’t cold this season, it wasn’t quite time for water activities either. Luckily, the weather was warm today, and all the attractions were open, so they weren’t limited to just riding children’s carousels.

Cheng Yuzhou didn’t mind, and Zhou Yu was only wearing a light jacket.

“Raincoats aren’t very useful; your clothes might get wet. Want to play?”

Zhou Yu nodded. “I want to play.”

“Then let’s start with the water roller coaster,” Cheng Yuzhou took off his jacket and left it with the staff before getting on.

The raincoat was indeed not very effective. After just one ride, Zhou Yu’s clothes were wet.

Initially, even if she was scared, she held it in. Once she let go, she would scream along with Cheng Yuzhou at the moment of extreme descent. No one here knew her, so she didn’t have to worry about anyone’s strange looks. She could shout when she wanted to shout, and laugh when she wanted to laugh.

Around six o’clock, it became a bit cold when the wind picked up.

Zhou Yu was still very enthusiastic, but Cheng Yuzhou saw her body trembling.

Getting sick wouldn’t be worth it.

Cheng Yuzhou went to retrieve his jacket from the staff, returned, and put it on Zhou Yu, zipping it up. “Wear this for now.”

His clothes were too big for her. Having been worn by him and then put on her, they had a unique scent. Cheng Yuzhou then took off his hat and put it on her head.

Zhou Yu rolled up her sleeves, exposing her hands. “I ordered two hot milk teas, they’re not ready yet.”

“Okay,” Cheng Yuzhou waited with her. “Do your clothes need to be dried?”

Zhou Yu looked down at her wet pants. Even if she could brazenly get on the train like this, she couldn’t go home in wet clothes.

“There doesn’t seem to be a place to dry clothes here.”

“Should we get a room?”

Zhou Yu froze for a moment, looking up at him.

Her wet gaze made Cheng Yuzhou unnaturally look away and cough twice. “I mean, get a room to wait, and change into dry clothes after they’ve been dried.”

“...Okay.”

There was a hotel next to the amusement park. Zhou Yu wasn’t nervous even when standing beside Cheng Yuzhou, waiting for the front desk to register. Upon entering the room, the warm air from the air conditioner blew on her face. For some reason, her ears also started to feel hot.

Cheng Yuzhou said, “You go wash first. There are bathrobes inside. Leave your wet clothes for now, and I’ll take them to the auntie to dry after I’m done washing.”

“Okay,” Zhou Yu entered the bathroom.

The bathroom door was frosted glass, so it wouldn’t be too awkward.

She quickly rinsed off, took out her wet clothes, and dried her close-fitting underwear and panties with a hairdryer.

Cheng Yuzhou also washed quickly. He opened the door and handed both their clothes to the auntie, who said it would take half an hour to forty minutes.

There was only one hairdryer. Zhou Yu used it first, then he did. He blew his hair first. When he was about to blow-dry his underwear, Zhou Yu, wearing her bra, came out of the bathroom.

Black.

She had seen it once before in Qian Grandma’s washroom last summer.

Hot steam filled the air, making even breathing feel humid.

Cheng Yuzhou saw Zhou Yu sitting cross-legged on the sofa through the mirror. She lowered her head and tugged at her bathrobe, covering her toes.

The bathrobe was loose, gathered only by a belt.

She was minding the bottom, so she couldn’t mind the top.

White, tender softness flashed past in the mirror, making his eyes hot and his heart race.

The hairdryer roared. Zhou Yu saw him standing in front of the mirror for a long time, not drying that black pair of underwear.

“Cheng Yuzhou, what are you thinking?”

“Thinking about doing something bad.”