Editor: Sammy
Proofreader: Bubbles
The two walked towards the dormitory building.
The silently standing street lamp obliquely dragged their shadows.
Chu Yu, who was wrapped in a thin jacket, recalled the scene just now. If his eyes weren't deceiving him earlier, then Lu Shi must've... smiled?
Remembering something, he turned his head and asked Lu Shi, "You purposely waited for me at the basketball court?"
Chu Yu didn't realize it at the beginning, but now that he reflected, he discovered that if Lu Shi had really wanted to avoid him, there would've been plenty of places to hide.
But he didn't. Instead, he'd chosen the basketball court.
Lu Shi's figure was lean, with an exceptionally straight back. His hands were in his pockets as he slightly lowered his head, listening to Chu Yu's words.
He replied, "En, for fear you wouldn't find me elsewhere."
Chu Yu didn't know how to answer.
So angry, what did he mean by 'he wouldn't find him elsewhere?
However, after careful thinking, it seemed that that was indeed the case.
Except for the classroom, dormitory, cafeteria, and basketball court, he had no other clues. If Lu Shi hadn't been on the basketball court, perhaps he would've really had to search for a long time.
Chu Yu exhaled and explained to Lu Shi, "That person's blood this morning-"
As soon as he said the first half of the sentence, Lu Shi's expression suddenly diluted by two points.
But the explanation still had to be clarified so Chu Yu continued, "His blood smelled very bitter, just like the scent of abundant Chinese medicines boiled together in a big pot. It smelled really, really unpleasant, so I eyed him many times."
Lu Shi halted.
Chu Yu also stopped after him, wondering, "What's the matter?"
Lu Shi's hands had been inside his pockets for a long time, yet his fingertips were still cold.
He used his ice-cold fingertips to trace Chu Yu's lips and spoke softly:
"You can't. No matter if someone's blood is bitter, stinky, unpleasant, or anything else, you're not allowed to smell it. Don't be curious about anyone's blood other than mine. Is that alright?"
Although the three words 'Is that alright' were used at the end, it didn't give Chu Yu any leeway to choose at all.
Chu Yu felt a light itching on his lips. "Can I answer it isn't?"
"No."
Really overbearing.
Chu Yu complained in his heart, but he knew this was something he'd condone. After all, he'd personally told Lu Shi, 'You can do this and make such requests'.
He also promised him, 'Only your blood smells good, I'll only drink yours'.
A bit of perplexity arose in Chu Yu's heart- why did it suddenly become like this?
Before he could figure out why, Lu Shi spoke again, "Chu Yu."
His thoughts were interrupted, he shifted his eyes and looked at Lu Shi. "Hm?"
Lu Shi stretched his left index finger in front of him. There was a deep red scab on it- the wound from the plastic straw.
Then he heard Lu Shi say, "Chu Yu, it hurts."
His voice was light and hoarse, drifting along with the cool evening autumn breeze and into his ears.
"Who was it who said earlier that it didn't hurt?"
"Me."
Lu Shi wasn't the least bit lacking in confidence. "Earlier was earlier, now is now. Chu Yu, it hurts now."
Lu Shi's indifferent expression when he'd pierced his finger with straw once again appeared before Chu Yu's eyes.
He compromised, pouted his lips, and softly blew towards the wound. "Does it still hurt?"
"Hurts."
Chu Yu struggled.
Finally, he leaned closer and lightly licked the wound a few times with the tip of his tongue.
When he stopped his movements and raised his eyes, his line of sight met with Lu Shi's undistinguishable emotions.
Inexplicably, Chu Yu stumbled as he spoke, "Lu Shi, are you s-still in pain?"
Withdrawing his hand and inserting it back into his pocket, Lu Shi's voice increased in huskiness by two points. "Mm, it doesn't hurt anymore."
Obviously, Lu Shi's fingertips had been bitten who knows how many times by now, but this time, it felt a bit strange.
However, the specifics of where and how it was strange couldn't be clearly explained.
Early the next morning, Zhang Yueshan and Li Hua were already mentally prepared to continue being blown by the cold air current.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Lu Shi sat down in his seat, their School Flower turned around and handed a thermos cup over.
"Today's chicken soup, quickly drink!"
Lu Shi received the cup, unscrewed it, and seriously drank.
Zhang Yueshan and Li Hua looked at each other.
"This is... the cold winter's over?"
Li Hua looked profound. "Sure enough, men are fickle."
After the monthly examination, the autumn sports competition was soon approaching.
Dream-Ge stood on the podium and thumped the table with a 'dong dong' before saying in a loud voice, "Little brothers and sisters, can you take a look at me, no, take a look at the sports competition registration form in my hand? Look everyone, isn't the registration form particularly brilliant?"
No one paid attention to him.
Dream-Ge was used to this kind of treatment. He sighed, beginning to approach and ask, "Dear, are you interested in sports events? Want to understand? Explanation is free of charge!"
Fang Ziqi, who was asked, burst into laughter. "Damn, Dream-Ge, don't fucking talk in a pinched voice. You're this sturdy, it's nauseating when you talk like this! Hahahaha!"
Dream-Ge slapped the table, but his voice was still pinched very delicately. "So, dear, are you signing up? Want to listen to a free description of each event?"
Fang Ziqi couldn't stand it anymore. "Sign sign sign. I'm just begging you to not explain it to me, I don't want to listen, don't want to listen! What I want is one with running, even sprints. My explosive power is out of the question, so long-distance running is a little good."
"Okay."
Having pulled in an able-bodied man, Dream-Ge was very happy. More motivated, he continued pinching his voice and scurrying around the classroom.
When Dream-Ge stood beside Chu Yu's desk, Chu Yu was concentrating on reading comics.
Dream-Ge glanced at the content of the comic and cleared his throat. "School Flower, do you wish to be like the protagonist in comics, darting on the field, overflowing with the hot blood of youth!"
Chu Yu raised his head, looked at him, and refused, "Don't want to."
"Why?"
Chu Yu had ample reasons. "At last year's sports competition, the one who ran 200 meters got a leg cramp and fell. His face was scratched and scarred, there are still traces of it till now."
Dream-Ge dragged a chair, being very patient. "Then... shot put?"
"No, shot put makes it easy for the face to be hit."
"High jump or long jump?"
"Likely to land on the face."
"Swimming?"
"Hair's all wet, too ugly."
"Tennis?"
Before Chu Yu could respond, Dream-Ge answered his own question, "The ball will hit the face."
"Correct!"
Scratching his hair, Dream-Ge was worried. "Then what can you participate in?"
Chu Yu frowned, entangled. He contemplated and tentatively suggested, "Probably... a beauty pageant?"
"Scram scram scram, what sports competition has some damn beauty pageant!"
Chu Yu squeezed his comic book, his shoulders kept trembling as he stifled a laugh.
Dream-Ge gave up. He skipped Chu Yu and aimed for Zhang Yueshan. "Class Rep, it's your time to shine!"
Before Zhang Yueshan could speak, Dream-Ge filled in Zhang Yueshan's name under men's shot put and 5000m relay.
Zhang Yueshan pointed to the tennis column. "I'll also sign up for this."
Dream-Ge was moved to tears. "Class Rep is mighty!"
Fearing that he'd change his mind, he quickly wrote his name down.
Lu Shi returned from outside at that moment.
Dream-Ge's eyes beamed and he waved his sturdy arms. "Lu-Shen! Sports competition, what event do you want to sign up for?"
Lu Shi didn't answer, asking Chu Yu first, "What did you register for?"
Chu Yu's face appeared innocent, but his light-colored eyes showed a bit of craftiness. "I wanted to apply for the beauty pageant, but unfortunately there's no such event."
"Hm."
Rubbing Chu Yu's hair briefly, Lu Shi asked again, "What event do you want me to sign up for?"
"Ah?"
Chu Yu was a little overwhelmed.
Lu Shi was letting him make the decision?
Taking a glance at the registration form, Chu Yu wasn't sure. "How about... three kilometers?"
"Want to watch me run?"
"Mn, yup."
Lu Shi turned to Dream-Ge.
Dream-Ge quickly snapped out of it. "Okay! Thank you Lu-Shen for being our class' shining star!"
While writing Lu Shi's name, Dream-Ge was chattering in his heart-
It seems, he's not so much of a shining star for the class, but rather... a shining star for School Flower?
Wtf, this idea is so dangerous!
Before leaving, Dream-Ge conscientiously reminded, "Class Rep, Lu-Shen, there's still half a month left before the sports competition. You guys should practice long-distance running often or else you'll either get cramps, sprain your ankle halfway through running, or fall on the track and suffer a lot."
Chu Yu noted this sentence down.
During class, he was ill at ease. He mulled it over for a while, then tore a piece of paper, wrote a line of words with a 'swish swish', rolled it into a ball, and threw it onto Lu Shi's desk.
Lu Shi was currently multitasking; listening to the class while answering problems. Seeing a small ball of paper drop in front of him, he raised his eyes and looked at the back of Chu Yu's fluffy head.
He opened it.
On it was the handwriting of an elementary student, as always.
[Do you want to formulate a long-distance running practice plan or something? I'm really scared.]
Lu Shi replied on the slip of paper. [What are you scared of?]
That paper note was too small and had limited writing space, so Chu Yu switched to a printed draft paper upon which he wrote his worries.
[I'm really scared that you'll fall while running and your face will be scraped, what to do?]
After writing, he felt that it didn't sufficiently express his tone and mood, so Chu Yu issued three exclamation marks and drew a small, crying person at the very end.
When Lu Shi received the paper, he stared fixedly at the small person at the end and didn't reply again.
After class, Lu Shi called Chu Yu's name.
"Chu Yu."
"Yeah?"
"Since you're afraid, you can make a training schedule for me."
After that, until the end of the evening self-study, Chu Yu was researching information and creating the schedule.
Something like 'Kinematics', 'Learning Track and Field Physical Fitness' and the like. He looked through them until he was dizzy and his vision blurred.
But anyhow, the training schedule was made.
Passing a thin page to Lu Shi, Chu Yu raised his chin. "Quickly look at my final results!"
Lu Shi read it from start to finish. "Mn, we'll move according to your plan. We'll head to the playground together at 6:30 tomorrow morning."
"Okay!"
After Chu Yu finished agreeing, he suddenly noticed that something was wrong. "No, I'm going with you?"
Lu Shi, who was holding the paper in one hand and leaning against the back of his chair, raised his eyelids to stare at Chu Yu. "Are you not going to supervise at the site?"
Chu Yu considered this argument. In any case, he created the schedule, so how could he not be there in person?
"Okay!"
However, imagination and reality were always different.
At dawn the next day, when he heard three 'dududu' knocks on his door, Chu Yu turned over on his bed, dazedly stepped on the carpet with bare feet, and went to open the door.
Without clearly seeing who was standing at the door, he floated back to his bed like a wandering spirit and fell asleep wrapped in a quilt.
The door was closed, producing only a slight movement.
In the room, there was a slight scent of aromatherapy floating in the air. The curtains were tightly drawn, and only a small night light in the corner was on, sprinkling a faint layer of warm light.
Chu Yu held the quilt in his hand, breathing smoothly.
Lu Shi stood by the bed, stooped down, and pulled Chu Yu's quilt. "Get up."
Chu Yu reacted to Lu Shi's voice. His fingers firmly grasped the quilt as he muttered vaguely, "No... wanna sleep... five minutes more."
Lu Shi really waited quietly for five minutes.
Five minutes later, Lu Shi once again pulled off Chu Yu's quilt. "Five minutes are up."
Chu Yu couldn't open his eyes. He pulled at Lu Shi's clothes and barely managed to sit up. He was still swaying with a tendency to fall back on the bed in the next second.
Lu Shi spoke softly, "Sit properly."
Chu Yu instinctively chose to be obedient.
His head was covered in a layer of sleepiness, not so awake, as he subconsciously raised his arm.
Lu Shi lowered his eyes and gazed at Chu Yu's fine, soft hair that was messed up by sleep. The other sat on the soft bed, head drooping little by little, looking sleepy. He grabbed the school uniform from the side and unfolded it.
Afterwards, he helped Chu Yu take off his pajamas and put on the white school uniform shirt.
With distinctly-jointed fingers, he patiently fastened the buttons one by one.
Fastening the topmost button, his fingertips inadvertently touched Chu Yu's Adam's apple.
Lu Shi suddenly wondered- in the past, did someone else also help him wear his clothes like this?
For a moment, his heart seemed to be pierced by the sharp thorns of a rose and his eyes darkened.
With his knuckles slightly bent, Lu Shi lifted Chu Yu's chin and asked him in a low voice, "Who am I?"
Without opening his eyes, Chu Yu answered fuzzily, "Lu Shi."
"En, very good."