OS - 57

Cheng Yanqing hadn’t seen Yanci for more than half a year. After Cheng Wanyue was hospitalized, he even played games rarely. The two had grown up together, so it wasn’t like they had nothing to say.

“How many days can you stay?”

“I asked for a week off from my advisor.”

“Then you can stay two more days. Tomorrow, I’ll take you to a scenic spot. Let’s stay in a hotel tonight, going back home would be an eyesore anyway. Since we have nothing to do, want to go to the hospital and play a few rounds of Gobang with my sister? No, you smell of alcohol; if she smells it, she’ll tell on me again. You coming to see her, she should be very happy today, I won’t upset her,” he thought for a moment. “How about going boating on Xuanwu Lake? It’s two subway stops, very close.”

“Boating?” Yanci glanced at him disdainfully. “Me with you?”

“What’s wrong with me? This is your great honor. If you miss it today, you might not get this chance in the next ten years. Cherish it, young man.”

“Stay away, don’t disgust me.”

Cheng Yanqing deliberately leaned in, then jumped and draped himself over Yanci’s back. Yanci couldn’t shake him off, and they both ended up tumbling onto the grassy roadside. Cheng Yanqing simply sat there. He fumbled in Yanci’s clothes and found a pack of cigarettes, pulling one out to smoke. But thinking about going to the hospital tonight, he took two drags and then put it out.

There was a Qin Hua advertisement by the road. Her face, with exquisite makeup, flashed across the electronic screen. Fans were taking photos, and only then did Yanci recognize the person in the advertisement as her.

“Broke up?”

“Broke up a long time ago. We were never on the same path, so forcing it was meaningless,” Cheng Yanqing said indifferently. “I don’t wish for anything else now. Yueyue’s health is more important than anything.”

“Have you been back?”

“Cheng Yuzhou went back once, I haven’t. Grandma isn’t used to living in the city. If Yueyue hadn’t gotten sick, she would have wanted to move back last year. This year it’s probably not possible. I don’t know if we can take Yueyue back to Baicheng for summer vacation next year.”

“Probably,” Yanci put one hand on his shoulder. “I’ll take care of your food and drink then.”

Cheng Yanqing repeatedly waved his hand, “Thank you, sir. The food you cook, even dogs won’t eat. It’s a miracle you haven’t poisoned yourself to death. Yueyue has a filter for you; she can bite it down, but I can’t let myself suffer. When it comes to cooking, that still has to be Qing Hang.”

“You’re both in Beijing, but you don’t see each other much?”

“I don’t have time, and he’s busy too. I only saw him once before the New Year, we had a meal together. It was quite awkward. He probably won’t be going back again.”

Qing Hang’s last lingering thought in Baicheng gradually disappeared with time. He could only keep moving forward.

Even if he paused for a second to rest, that feeling of vast emptiness around him would make him gasp for breath.

________________________________________

Zhou Yu woke up groggily from a nap. It took her a while to remember where she was.

She was in Nanjing, in Cheng Yuzhou’s room.

It was very different from his bedroom in Baicheng; she could barely hear any sound from outside.

“If you don’t wake up, I’m going to pull off the covers,” Cheng Yuzhou poured a glass of water and placed it on the table. He sat on the edge of the bed. “Does your head still hurt?”

Zhou Yu shook her head, yawning sleepily, “I’m wearing clothes.”

“I know you’re wearing them, and wearing them doesn’t mean you can’t take them off,” Cheng Yuzhou pulled back the covers and had just lain down beside her when he was kicked off the bed. He sat on the carpet, hands propped behind him, looking at Zhou Yu with a half-smile, “So you’re trying to back out now that you’re sober?”

“...What did I say?”

“You said you loved me very much, that every day after we broke up was miserable, and you cried, begging to get back together with me,” he reeled off. “My black hoodie was soaked from your tears.”

He had indeed changed his clothes; there was a clean scent about him.

“Impossible, I won’t fall for that,” Zhou Yu burrowed into the covers, not even showing her head.

“Not admitting it, huh.”

Cheng Yuzhou reached a hand under the covers and grabbed her ankle. Before she could escape, he pulled her, blanket and all, off the bed.

Zhou Yu tumbled onto Cheng Yuzhou. She had just woken up, her反应 was slow, her hands and feet tangled in the blanket, and her entire body was firmly trapped between his body and the bed.

“...Let go, I think I have a cramp.”

“Even if you broke a bone today, you’d still have to admit it first.”

Cheng Yuzhou knew his limits and wouldn’t hurt Zhou Yu. His hand was still gripping her ankle, his fingertips gently caressing her skin. The faint, elusive tickle made her scalp tingle, and she instinctively tried to pull back, but there was nowhere to hide, her palms sweating from the heat.

Zhou Yu watched as he made a phone call to Qian Shu.

Cheng Yuzhou even put it on speakerphone: “Grandma, is Yueyue awake?”

“She’s awake, reading comics, waiting for those two to come and play Gobang with her.”

“Please give the phone to her.”

Qian Shu handed the phone to Cheng Wanyue. Cheng Wanyue lay on the hospital bed, slowly saying, “Can’t you two play by yourselves? Are you feeling wronged again? I won’t help you.”

Zhou Yu instinctively wanted to cover Cheng Yuzhou’s mouth, but the more she tried to break free, the tighter the blanket wrapped around her.

Cheng Yuzhou moved the phone away, looked at Zhou Yu, and raised an eyebrow, silently reminding her this was her last chance.

Zhou Yu’s hands and feet couldn’t move, but she still had her mouth to speak: “Wanyue, I miss you.”

“We can see each other again tomorrow,” Cheng Wanyue smiled. “Ayue, just humor Cheng Yuzhou, otherwise he’s really annoying. I need to take my medicine now, bye-bye.”

The call ended. Zhou Yu breathed a sigh of relief, her head falling onto Cheng Yuzhou’s shoulder.

Cheng Yuzhou tossed the phone aside and slowly pulled away the blanket wrapped around her. “It’s no use denying it; I recorded it long ago. Your school’s broadcast station should have a WeChat official account, right? In a few days, I’ll submit it and ask them to broadcast it during prime time. Then people will start asking who the person in the recording is. Oh, it turns out it’s that Zhou Yu who made the news at the start of school because of a military training photo.”

This incident actually happened before Zhou Yu fainted.

A candid photo of her and an anonymous love letter unexpectedly went viral online. A local media outlet used that photo in an article reporting on military training at various universities. That’s why when photos of Yanci carrying her to the infirmary were uploaded online, so many people paid attention. The account was later deactivated, but the photos could still be found online.

Zhou Yu was enraged and her face turned red with anger, “You recorded it and still called Wanyue!”

“I didn’t mean to threaten you with Cheng Wanyue; you just thought the worst of me,” Cheng Yuzhou said matter-of-factly. “I’m not at the hospital, so I make at least two calls a day. Hearing her voice makes me feel more at ease.”

He wore a triumphant expression, but Zhou Yu didn’t believe what he said.

Zhou Yu struggled to grab her phone. Cheng Yuzhou was tackled by her and landed on the floor.

“Delete it.”

“Beg me,” he stuffed the phone into his clothes, looking at her leisurely. “You beg me, and I’ll delete it.”

Zhou Yu said, “I don’t believe you.”

“Then forget it, I want to keep it anyway,” Cheng Yuzhou picked up his hat and stood up.

Everything seemed normal and unremarkable before he left the room. Only after closing the door did subtle signs of arousal appear: his hair was still very short, and the brim of his hat couldn’t hide the blush slowly emerging from his ears.

He waited until he had calmed down before knocking and re-entering the room. Zhou Yu had already folded the blanket neatly.

“Do you want to take a shower? Should I get you one of my hoodies?”

“Your clothes are too big for me,” she had worn them before.

“We’re not going out far, just around the neighborhood,” Cheng Yuzhou took out a hoodie from the closet that was a similar color to the one he was wearing. “Find me outside after you’ve showered.”

“Okay.”

While Zhou Yu showered, Cheng Yuzhou went upstairs and found his skateboard, which he hadn’t played with in a long time.

There was a pedestrian walkway outside the complex, lined with neat sycamore trees. Zhou Yu thought this road must be beautiful in the summer.

Cheng Yuzhou glided towards her on his skateboard from a short distance, and she waited for him where she was.

“Want to try?”

“I can’t.”

“It’s okay, I’ll help you for a bit.”

Cheng Yuzhou held Zhou Yu with one hand. When she first started learning, she couldn’t glide far before falling into his arms. She was tired and panting, and Cheng Yuzhou wasn’t much better; a restless fire was burning in his heart.

They continued until the sky grew dark and the streetlights lit up.

“It’s so hard,” she said, finding a bit of interest.

“I taught you how to skateboard to make you happy, not so you’d only focus on learning it quickly and not even look at me,” Cheng Yuzhou helped her sit on the skateboard, then squatted in front of her, his palm gently rubbing her knee, which she had bumped earlier.

His left hand rested on the ground. In this season, the ground was still cold.

Zhou Yu looked down. She smelled the fragrance in the wind. Her hand extended from her loose sleeve, paused after touching his finger, and in the next second, he grasped it.

Their eyes met, and she closed her eyes and leaned in to kiss him.

He froze, not moving, and quietly asked her, “Are you sober?”

Zhou Yu pulled back a little, opening her eyes, “Yes.”

Cheng Yuzhou’s low chuckle blurred between his teeth. He kissed her lips, then tilted his head closer, even kneeling on the ground with his left knee at some point.

They kissed under the streetlight, briefly breaking apart when someone rode past on a bicycle from behind them.

Cheng Yuzhou’s breathing was hot. His right hand cupped the back of Zhou Yu’s neck, but he only managed to kiss her chin. Zhou Yu pushed his shoulders, leaning back.

She turned her head to the side and saw the girl she had met at the hospital in the morning, standing not far away.

“You live in the same complex?”

Cheng Yuzhou looked over, then quickly retracted his gaze. He hadn’t managed to kiss her just now, so he made up for it, lightly biting her lip while still holding it, “Yeah, are you jealous?”

Zhou Yu silently glided away on the skateboard. Cheng Yuzhou’s legs were already numb. He leaned on a tree trunk and struggled to stand up, showing no embarrassment from being seen by an acquaintance, only unconcealed joy. After a brief greeting to the girl, he followed behind Zhou Yu, walking slowly for a few steps. Once the stiff numbness in his legs eased, he ran to catch up.

He bent down, scooped up the skateboard, and picked up Zhou Yu with one arm, spinning her around.

“Walking so fast, feeling guilty?”

“Why would I feel guilty?”

“You made me have a physical reaction.”

“...”