Lovely Allergen

Chapter 33: May All Your Wishes Come True

Xu Qichen's rumours spread also to Peiya. Compared to the Jingjian who was in the centre of the storm, Peiya's students weren't much calmer: everyone loved gossip. The rumours were grossly exaggerated, and different kinds of the 'truth' came out, each version stranger and more contrived than the last.

The gossip recklessly misrepresented Xu Qichen's personality and usual behaviour. The gossipers have never even seen him before, and yet they all acted as if they were the ones who understood him best. "I heard", "allegedly", "just by looking at that face", "everyone's heard already" — in the midst of all these illogical, empty words, the person concerned had already lost his true identity.

The second day after the training camp finished, Song Yu returned back to school. Another boy sitting at his table in the cafeteria during lunch started to talk about this topic.

"I'm sure you guys must've heard right, about that guy from Jingjian. A male student having an affair with a male teacher." The boy's sexual orientation was the same as a large majority of the population, and his belief in his superiority showed in his words. "It's so disgusting how a man can like another man. Good thing they're not here, or else I wouldn't even dare come to school." A few of the people around him burst into laughter after he finished.

Qin Yan picked up a bite of the communal food dishes with his chopsticks and threw it into his food tray, lazily saying, "That's enough. There's plenty of girls who like boys on the streets. Do you see them liking any random guy they see? It's the same for gay men too."

The other student's face fell in irritation. "So what? Gay people can't be gossiped about? Don't tell me you like guys too."

Qin Yan placed down his chopsticks. "Honestly, I like pretty girls with long, straight black hair. But even if I suddenly turned gay one day, I still wouldn't like men from the ."

Song Yu had been silently brooding as they talked. He grabbed his still fairly full food tray and stood up as Qin Yan was speaking, walking away with a look on his face. Qin Yan saw how he looked and also followed him with his food tray.

The fourth day after they came back from the training camp, Song Yu finally received Xia Zhixu's WeChat reply.

[Xia Zhixu: I'm fine.]

But Song Yu didn't feel like he was truly fine. The people surrounding him were all very noisy, and his desk mate was taking the chance to catch up on sleep. He sent a message.

[Song Yu: If you'd like to play some basketball, you can look for me during the weekend.]

He very rarely cared about others, but Song Yu wasn't able to be a completely indifferent bystander when it came to Xia Zhixu. Maybe it was because he just happened to witness his breakdown, or maybe it was because he really did consider Xia Zhixu as his mirror.

The mirror was shattered, and his reflection in it was also in pieces.

The sky was grey, and the rain came down in needles, drizzling down in a way this city rarely saw. Song Yu gazed out the window, lost in his thoughts. A memory drifted back again into his mind — of that day he stood outside Peiya's school entrance after he'd just come back from the training camp.

It was very hard for him to describe how it had felt to be embraced by Yue Zhishi after witnessing an example of such utter defeat.

If he had to describe it, then he would probably describe it as drinking poison to end his thirst.

That day, Yue Zhishi didn't ask a single thing, only soothingly saying, let's go home, we can watch a documentary together?

As if he were the child and Yue Zhishi was a very mature adult.