The girl was stunned, seeing the gift box in front of her.
“Thank you,” Yue Zhishi spoke solemnly, “but ever since I was a child, my family has taught me I can’t casually accept other people’s gifts and especially if the gift is from a girl. I would be taking other people’s feelings for granted if I did. So this gift, I have to return back to you. I’m sorry.”
Yue Zhishi’s eyes were obviously Caucasian. The profiles of his face were slightly gentler, and his hair was also a warm brown, shimmering golden underneath the sun; his entire person was soft and transparent. His looks made people feel as though he was easy to approach, easy to attack and capture — that they could be accepted by him. But reality was different.
There were many times when the childish Yue Zhishi would be overly serious.
The girl looked a bit upset, but she had expected this. She was only hesitating about whether she should take back her gift. “But I…”
She started speaking and then stopped again.
“This should be really expensive. You must’ve thought about it for a very long time before you bought it.” Very insistently, Yue Zhishi stretched out his hands again until the gift was close to her hands. He had her take it. “Your handwriting’s really nice, you’ll suit this pen better than I will.”
Hearing that, the girl raised her head. He used a compliment in place of a rejection, making it so she couldn’t even bring herself to feel upset.
Except she was still not quite reconciled. “Then do you have someone you like?”
Yue Zhishi froze.
Like.
There were many people he liked, such as Aunt Rong and Uncle Song or the owner of the rice noodle shop who would give Yue Zhishi two extra pieces of beef every time he ordered plain rice noodles. There was also Teacher Zhang in his drawing class, who’d given him painting tools and comic books… There were too many people; Yue Zhishi had an endless list in his heart.
But if he were to add a qualifier of the people he liked ‘the most’, then the scope of his list would shrink.
Except that didn’t seem to the ‘like’ the girl in front of him had for him.
“You don’t?” she prodded.
Yue Zhishi put on his schoolbag again, adjusting it. “No. I don’t want to date right now, we’re about to take our high school entrance examinations. Our parents will be called if our grades drop.”
Seeing the girl start to look dejected, Yue Zhishi then said, “We can still be friends.”
“Really?”
“I don’t lie.” Yue Zhishi tugged at the schoolbag on his back. “It’s so hot. Isn’t there an automatic vending machine downstairs? I’ll treat you guys to a drink.”
“I want coke!” Jiang Yufan would definitely take advantage. He glanced downwards and saw that Song Yu was actually still there with his arms crossed over his chest. He was leaning against the tree with his earphones in, his face tilted up and gaze focused on them.
Jiang Yufan couldn’t help but shiver, and he nudged Yue Zhishi with an elbow.
“Le, look downstairs.”
Yue Zhishi twisted his head over, hearing Jiang Yufan. He immediately saw Song Yu’s figure over the railing.
It was as if he’d been given a shot in the arm. Yue Zhishi turned around at once, both of his hands holding on the railing as he stuck out almost half of his body — yet when he called out ‘ge’, it was in a very soft, airy voice.
He was like a tentatively hesitating puppy that wanted to pounce from excitement.
Seeing Yue Zhishi’s excited figure, the girl thought he seemed to have turned into someone else; he was completely different from the person who’d just rejected her confession.
Song Yu, who was leaning against the camphor tree, dropped his arms and went to his bicycle parked under the tree. He kicked up the prop stand and threw a long leg over, looking like he was preparing to leave.
Yue Zhishi turned anxious. “Hey hey hey.” Clutching his schoolbag, he wanted to rush down, but then he remembered how he’d just promised to treat them to drinks. He said in a hurry, “I’ll go down first and buy you guys your drinks.”
He clattered down the steps; luckily, Song Yu had yet to leave so quickly. Yue Zhishi frantically flew to the vending machine and first selected three cans of cold coke. When he went to pay, he paused for a second, changed his choices to two cans and then added an extra bottle of white peach soda water. Jiang Yufan and the girl had come down by now, so Yue Zhishi hurriedly left the two cans of coke on top of the machine, madly pointing at the vending machine to Jiang Yufan. He himself turned around and ran over to Song Yu.
His face was flushed from panting, and the shadows of the trees swayed on top of him, the dappled spots of light very beautiful. He took a little while to recover, and only then did Yue Zhishi call out Song Yu gege with a smile, brushing his hair back.
“Why’d you run.” Song Yu only gave him a glance, his earphones still in his ears.
I was worried you’d run off.
Even if he forgot about his asthma attack, Yue Zhishi had exposed their relationship in front of so many people and ruined Song Yu’s opening speech. Everything had turned into a mess. He was afraid Song Yu would ignore him.
Yue Zhishi gave the cold soda water in his hand to Song Yu. When Song Yu took it from him, he noticed the watch on Song Yu’s left wrist: it was the watch he’d given him.
When he was ten years old, the young model for Lin Rong’s photographer friend had fallen sick. Yue Zhishi had been brought over to help with the emergency, and so he’d earned some money. Lin Rong’s parental philosophy was very free and open; she’d encouraged Yue Zhishi to do whatever he wanted with that money.
A child’s first reaction upon receiving a red pocket was always to want toys and snacks. The young Yue Zhishi had gone to the shopping centre and walked around by himself for a few days — he’d ended up buying a beautiful watch.
Because in two days, it was Song Yu’s birthday.
That had been his first time buying a gift with his own money. As a child, he’d thought the watch had been extremely expensive, but now that he looked back at it, the watch wasn’t from a famous brand and it was also a very simple design. It wasn’t an electronic watch popular with students nowadays — it wasn’t cool nor sophisticated.
Growing up, Song Yu had received quite a lot of ‘gifts’ from Yue Zhishi, such as a ‘rare’ four leaf clover with its fourth leaf manually glued on, Le Le stickers that meant he would run errands or do anything for gege if Song Yu collected ten of them, or a desk calendar drawn by hand exclusively for Song Yu…
But when he received this gift for the first time, Song Yu had been very resistant to it — to the point he even dragged Yue Zhishi to the shopping centre where he’d bought the watch.
At that time, Song Yu had only just entered first year of junior high, but he’d been as calm and composed as an adult when standing in front of the counter and returning the watch. Yue Zhishi had been crying by himself, and he had even sat on the floor, wailing as he hugged Song Yu’s thigh. It had been as though it was his present that needed to be returned.
But unfortunately, his memories were too fuzzy. Exactly why Song Yu had opposed that gift so much or why he’d changed his mind and decided to keep it — Yue Zhishi couldn’t quite remember anymore.
For a moment, he was slightly curious, but he didn’t end up asking after thinking about it. He’d only just had an attack; he would already be ridiculously grateful if he didn’t end up getting yelled at. It wasn’t a good time to ask right now.
Song Yu twisted open the bottle and took a sip before giving it back to him. Yue Zhishi came back to his senses.
“Song Yu gege, have you waited for long?”
“I only just got here.” Song Yu stepped onto the pedals.
Yue Zhishi took the initiative to report the results of his check up, saying, “I’m fine now. I’ve also taken some meds just then.”
“I can see you’re fine,” Song Yu said.
Yue Zhishi didn’t sense that there was anything wrong with his words, and he continued, “Good thing you were there, or else I might’ve passed away.”
He said the two words of ‘passed away’ so seriously, but he truly wasn’t exaggerating. In elementary school, even though he’d brought his own food to school as much as he could, young children had yet to understand the severity of an allergy. His allergy had seriously flared up a few times during then, and it had also been Song Yu, who’d been in the same school as him, who’d saved him every time.
He didn’t know just how many times Song Yu had saved this life of his. Sometimes, Yue Zhishi would think of cartoons where small animals repaid their debts and then seriously consider what kind of animal he’d be in his next life.
It’d be best if he could be a small, cotton candy-like Pomeranian with a small sign hung on his neck.
Having thought of a sign, Yue Zhishi suddenly connected it with the school entrance earlier that day. “You saved me twice today.”
Song Yu didn’t scold him like he thought he would, but he also didn’t say anything else, only preparing to leave. Yue Zhishi realised this, and so he immediately plopped his butt onto the backseat. Seeing Song Yu turn his head around to look at him, he raised up his face and said, “I parked my bike at the school entrance. I’ll head out on yours first.”
Song Yu didn’t agree nor disagree, as if he was carrying a mass of air. As he sat on the backseat, Yue Zhishi waved in goodbye to Jiang Yufan and the girl, who were not too far away. “I’m going home first.”
Jiang Yufan watched Yue Zhishi, feeling as though even the final lilts of his voice were happy.
When he first learned that Song Yu and Yue Zhishi were brothers, he’d found it strange why the two of them didn’t tell others of their relationship. He’d even found Song Yu overly cold when remembering how they didn’t interact at all.
But now he put himself in Song Yu’s position and thought — how would he explain his relationship with Yue Zhishi.
No matter how he explained it, he wouldn’t be able to avoid Yue Zhishi’s deceased parents.
Gossip was a knife that didn’t draw blood. Sometimes, silence was the shield best able to prevent others from harm.
Gusts of wind rose as they biked out; the summer wind was soft and gentle as it blew around his body.
This made him remember riding on Song Yu’s backseat as a child. At that time, Song Yu had only just learned how to ride a bike, and the first person he carried had been Yue Zhishi. They’d been very happy in the beginning — tiny Yue Zhishi had hugged gege’s waist, both of his legs raised high up in the air, and he’d shouted faster, faster.
He’d fallen off, later. Yue Zhishi had scraped his knees, bleeding, and from then on, Song Yu had stopped carrying him.
They were about to reach the school entrance soon. Yue Zhishi had been worrying about whether Song Yu would stop and have him ride his own bike home, and so he’d been struggling over an excuse the entire way.
His bike chain fell off? No, that was too fake.
His tires didn’t have enough air? That didn’t seem too good either.
He might as well just say he’d yet to fully recover from his asthma — that his chest felt tight, and so he couldn’t ride his bike.
It’d taken him so long to think of a suitable excuse, but then he lifted his head and realised they’d already left the entrance far behind. Song Yu hadn’t stopped. He might’ve forgotten what he’d said earlier, Yue Zhishi thought.
When they arrived at traffic lights, Song Yu paused. Cars shuttled by in front of them, one after another, and the sunlight was also very quiet.
There was a layer of mist on the bottle he was holding; it turned into a very guilty bottle of soda water.
“Song Yu gege, did Teacher Wang call Aunt Rong?”
Song Yu didn’t reply. Yue Zhishi didn’t know if it was because he hadn’t heard him.
Even though Song Yu usually didn’t speak to him much either, Yue Zhishi could sense the subtle slight changes in his mood. He kept feeling like Song Yu wasn’t happy today.
Was it because he’d eaten something wrong and given him trouble?
Then why’d he come see him?
Most likely to confirm Yue Zhishi was really okay, or else he wouldn’t be able to explain himself to Aunt Rong once he went home.
“Song Yu gege…” Taking advantage of the red light, Yue Zhishi reached up and lightly pulled off one of Song Yu’s earphones. In an appeasing voice, he said, “Can you not tell Aunt Rong about the thing today, she’ll definitely scold me.”
The traffic light flickered again and again, looking even guiltier.
“What thing?” Song Yu abruptly asked.
Yue Zhishi couldn’t quite follow. “Ah?”
The bicycle wheels once again started turning. Under the sudden pull, Yue Zhishi’s body couldn’t help but lean backwards, the cord of the earphone becoming the fragile connection between the two of them. Panicking, Yue Zhishi instinctively wrapped his arms tightly around Song Yu’s waist. He also heard his voice, as though it was transmitted through the warm body.
“Tell me, are you referring to the fact you almost went into shock during the opening ceremony because you ate something wrong and didn’t bring your meds.”
The sun of September remained sharp and penetrating.
“Or that you’re early dating?”