After sending that text message, Qi Yang didn’t bother waiting for Mu Yicong’s reply. He got up, shooed Qi Xing out of the room, and pulled open the wardrobe to change clothes.
He slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked out of the bedroom. Zou Meizhu and Qi Dahai were still lounging on the sofa. “Where are you going, Yangyang?” Zou Meizhu asked casually. “No school today, so why are you carrying that backpack?”
“Going to a classmate’s place to do homework,” Qi Yang said.
Zou Meizhu and Qi Dahai both froze, then simultaneously looked up at him.
“Did you eat too much?” Qi Dahai turned to Zou Meizhu, frowning.
“No, I didn’t,” Zou Meizhu said, thinking it over carefully. “I didn’t even make much lunch.”
Even Qi Yang found the words “do homework” awkward coming out of his mouth. Being teased by the couple like that, he couldn’t even string together a reply as his face stiffened. He just went straight to change his shoes.
“Whose house are you going to, son? You actually have a study buddy?” Zou Meizhu stood up and started bustling around. “Must be a good student. Want me to buy some snacks or fruit for you to bring?”
Without waiting for Qi Yang’s answer, she directly called out to Qi Dahai: “Give your son some money.”
Qi Dahai wasn’t much of a father, but when it came to spending money on his wife and kids, he never held back.
But today, even though Zou Meizhu had directly called him out, Qi Dahai just dawdled on the sofa, avoiding the subject. “Are you really going to study, or are you going to fight? If you end up in the police station again, I’ll skin you alive, you little brat.”
Qi Yang hadn’t planned on taking any money anyway. He ignored Qi Dahai’s grumbling and just closed the door behind him as he left.
The weather was nice today, and his mood was decent too. He pedaled his bike, hitting green lights all the way, and before long he arrived at Mu Yicong’s neighborhood.
Unfortunately, that good mood evaporated the instant he saw Ren Wei opening the door.
“Qi Yang, you’re here.”
Ren Wei greeted him through the security door, like he was the owner of the place. “Come on in.”
Qi Yang stood at the door, not moving, and looked the guy over.
After they’d been assigned to different classes, he hadn’t had any contact with Ren Wei anymore, but everyone at school knew the kid was always hanging around Mu Yicong.
Every time he ran into Mu Yicong at school, Ren Wei was always nearby, “Mu Yicong this, Mu Yicong that,” the three characters of Mu Yicong’s name stuck to Ren Wei’s lips like saliva.
And now he’d even changed into a new pair of slippers.
Qi Yang deliberately glanced at his feet.
“What are you doing here?” he asked Ren Wei directly.
“Oh, I came to ask Mu Yicong to tutor me.” Ren Wei seemed a bit embarrassed, and emphasized, “I’ve been coming a lot lately.”
Just as he finished speaking, Mu Yicong came out of the kitchen carrying a glass of water. He passed through the living room, and over Ren Wei’s shoulder, glanced at Qi Yang.
“Slippers?” Qi Yang said, locking eyes with him.
The question was aimed at Mu Yicong, but Ren Wei was the one who answered.
Gripping the door handle like a gargoyle, he stood between Mu Yicong and Qi Yang, explaining earnestly, “There aren’t any extra slippers at Mu Yicong’s place.”
Qi Yang shifted his gaze back to Ren Wei’s face, then suddenly curled his lips into a smirk.
He took a step straight into the house. Ren Wei was forced to move back. After a few steps of this, Qi Yang shoved his arm aside and walked straight in.
The entire time they were inexplicably wrestling at the door, Mu Yicong leaned against the coffee table in the living room, sipping his water and watching Qi Yang.
Whether it was Qi Yang’s imagination, or because they were at Mu Yicong’s place where he was on his home turf, Mu Yicong wasn’t putting on the same act he did at school. His whole posture was very relaxed, and the way he looked at Qi Yang held something different from his usual demeanor.
Given Qi Yang’s level of composition writing, all he could summarize it as was “something different.”
He couldn’t describe it. But the Mu Yicong of today—or rather, ever since he’d started bringing him breakfast—had become a lot more pleasant to look at than before.
To outsiders like Liu Dameng, Cui Wu, or Ren Wei, they all thought the two of them were still at loggerheads, never initiating conversation at school.
Only the two of them could sense the subtle shift in their dynamic.
Qi Yang was observing the unusually pleasant-looking Mu Yicong and was about to speak when Ren Wei’s voice came from behind him again.
“I didn’t think you’d actually come.” Ren Wei laughed in a tone that implied familiarity. “Mu Yicong suddenly said you were coming over to do homework too. I thought you were joking.”
Having been interrupted by this guy multiple times, Qi Yang turned around with a slightly baffled look.
“When are you leaving?” he asked Ren Wei.
“What?” Ren Wei was taken aback.
Standing under Qi Yang’s gaze for a moment, he shifted his eyes and looked at Mu Yicong.
Qi Yang understood that shift in gaze.
Ren Wei thought Mu Yicong would have his back.
That realization struck Qi Yang as hilarious.
He brushed past Mu Yicong’s shoulder into the living room, plopped down directly on the sofa, crossed one leg over the other—still in his outdoor shoes—and without another word, started playing on his phone.
From this angle, he couldn’t see Mu Yicong’s expression, only his straight back, but he had a perfect view of Ren Wei’s reaction.
“Yicong, look…” Ren Wei blinked, putting on a troubled, wry face, and flicked his eyes toward Qi Yang. “Should I head home first, then?”
“Mm,” Mu Yicong said.
“Huh?” Ren Wei was completely stunned.
Qi Yang lifted his eyes from his phone screen and glanced at Mu Yicong’s back.
“Are there still problems you don’t understand?” Mu Yicong asked Ren Wei in return.
“No, I think I’ve got most of it.” Ren Wei, realizing he was being given the boot, immediately became flustered and awkward. “I’ll go get my backpack. It’s about time I went home anyway…”
Until Ren Wei had sullenly grabbed his backpack, changed his shoes, and left, both Qi Yang and Mu Yicong were busy with their own things, neither paying him any attention.
Qi Yang was busy lounging on the sofa playing on his phone; Mu Yicong was busy taking small sips from his glass.
The door clicked shut, and the sound of Ren Wei’s footsteps going downstairs gradually faded. Mu Yicong tilted his head slightly, and his gaze met Qi Yang’s.
“You running some kind of open house here? Letting anyone in,” Qi Yang said, his lips running away from him, never saying anything nice.
Mu Yicong immediately reverted to his usual “can’t be bothered” expression.
He put his cup down on the table, turned around, and went to the bedroom, sitting down at his desk to continue working on problems.
Qi Yang had been to Mu Yicong’s place twice before. The first time, he’d gotten his hand crushed in the door at the entrance. The second time, he’d gotten a shock in the bathroom. He’d never had a chance to check out the rest of the apartment.
The sofa happened to face the bedroom door, so Qi Yang stayed seated, looked at the clean floor inside the room, then down at his shoes that he hadn’t changed out of.
He called out to Mu Yicong across the space: “I was joking. You run off to your room just because I said one thing? Is that how you treat your guests?”
“If you’re not here to copy homework,” Mu Yicong’s voice came back, neither loud nor soft, “then get lost.”
“Give me some slippers,” Qi Yang said.
There was two seconds of silence from the bedroom.
Mu Yicong came back out, stood at the bedroom door, looked at Qi Yang, then jerked his chin toward the shoe cabinet in the entrance.
Ren Wei’s just-removed slippers were neatly arranged on the carpet.
“Not those,” Qi Yang said without even looking.
Wearing slippers that Ren Wei had worn? Just the thought disgusted him.
“Those are all there is,” Mu Yicong said, turning to go back to the bedroom.
“Where did that pair come from?” Qi Yang stared at Mu Yicong, also using his chin to point at Ren Wei’s slippers.
“He bought them himself,” Mu Yicong said.
“I’ll wear yours,” Qi Yang said.
Mu Yicong had one foot already inside the bedroom door. When he heard Qi Yang say that, he paused, then turned around and came back.
Standing in front of Qi Yang and taking off his slippers, Mu Yicong looked down at him with a gaze that was both superior and provocative.
But when Qi Yang really met his gaze, locked eyes with him, and shoved both feet into the slippers Mu Yicong had just taken off—still faintly warm and dry—Mu Yicong’s expression changed.
Qi Yang still couldn’t articulate what was different about Mu Yicong.
Just like he couldn’t explain why he himself had changed: earlier, when he was bored, instead of thinking about going to hang out with Liu Dameng and the others, the first person who popped into his head was that annoying Mu Yicong. Seeing Ren Wei here too pissed him off, but the fact that Mu Yicong chose to kick Ren Wei out instead of him gave him a little thrill. Even as he was disgusted by Ren Wei having a pair of slippers here, he was willing to wear Mu Yicong’s.
He wasn’t happy about his own change. He wasn’t happy about the shift in his attitude toward Mu Yicong. And he was even less happy that, after discovering these changes, his interest in Mu Yicong had only grown, not shrunk.
Light from the window sliced down at an angle across the sofa, carving a hazy, sluggish band of light between the two of them—one standing, one sitting.
Tiny specks of dust drifted through that band of light, echoing the half of Mu Yicong’s eye that happened to be in shadow.
Qi Yang rested his forearms on his knees, raised his eyebrows, and looked up at Mu Yicong. He noticed that Mu Yicong’s eyelashes were quite long, like a horse’s, and together with his pupils, they were painted a dark gold by the light.
“I’m here to copy homework and all, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you,” Qi Yang said, after staring at the guy for a long time. He cleared his throat, stepping on Mu Yicong’s slippers.
“Did I do something to you?” Mu Yicong remained standing, looking down at Qi Yang from his angle in front of the sofa.
“No, you didn’t,” Qi Yang answered honestly. “But the first time I saw you, I disliked you.”
Mu Yicong’s lips quirked slightly. He picked up his water glass again and went back to the bedroom barefoot to do his homework.
Qi Yang, wearing someone else’s slippers, took a leisurely stroll around the apartment.
After his tour, feeling a bit bored, he called out to the bedroom again: “Aren’t you going to get me some water?”
Mu Yicong’s writing sounds got noticeably more impatient. “What are you here for?”
“Hurry up, I’m thirsty.” Qi Yang leaned against the bedroom doorframe and stared at him.
“Get it yourself.” Mu Yicong didn’t even lift his head, continuing to work on problems at his desk.
The layout of Mu Yicong’s bedroom matched the rest of the apartment’s bareness perfectly.
Aside from the bed, wardrobe, and desk, there was no extra decoration. The only extra items were two small stools behind the desk, placed quite close together.
Before Qi Yang arrived, Ren Wei had probably been sitting there.
Qi Yang plopped down onto one of them.
Then he picked up Mu Yicong’s water cup from the desk and took a sip.
Mu Yicong’s pen stopped. He stared at him.
“What are you looking at?” Qi Yang stared back.
“I’ve already drunk from that,” Mu Yicong said.
“So what?” Qi Yang drained the cup. “What, your mouth’s lined with gold? Nobody else can drink from a cup you’ve used?”
