Chapter 16
“Aren’t you two dating?”
Clang! Yan Weiqiu’s hand slipped, and the glass tumbled from the table, splashing water everywhere.
He coughed, wiping the water off himself with a napkin, looking quite disheveled.
Jiang Yuebai handed him more napkins and asked worriedly, “Are you okay?”
Fortunately, it was only warm water.
Fang Xiu took the bowls into the kitchen, leaving them some space.
Yan Weiqiu’s pants were mostly wet, water droplets trailing down his legs.
Jiang Yuebai glanced at them, coughed uncomfortably, and didn’t dare to help.
Yan Weiqiu muttered softly, “Why aren’t you helping me wipe it off?”
Jiang Yuebai: “…”
He wanted to, but he was afraid Yan Weiqiu would get angry and accuse him of taking advantage of him.
Yan Weiqiu glanced at him, then at the busy figure in the kitchen, before looking back.
“Why didn’t you explain just now?”
Jiang Yuebai didn’t say anything, just gently wiped the water droplets off Yan Weiqiu’s face with a napkin.
They stared at each other in silence for a dozen seconds.
“It’s getting late, I’ll be going then.” Jiang Yuebai looked back at him again as he reached the door.
Yan Weiqiu just watched him silently, only breathing a sigh of relief after the door closed.
The unspoken affection between him and Jiang Yuebai had just been exposed by his mother.
They were both at a loss, the atmosphere incredibly awkward.
“Where’s Xiaobai?”
“Why did he leave?”
“Isn’t he staying the night?”
Fang Xiu heard the door close and poked her head out of the kitchen to ask.
“Mm, he went home.” Yan Weiqiu responded.
“It’s raining so hard; he’ll be soaked by the time he gets home.”
“At such a crucial time, he mustn’t catch a cold.”
Hearing his mother’s words, Yan Weiqiu frowned and hurried to the balcony, looking at the blurry figure in the heavy rain.
Until the figure blended into the rain and disappeared.
He hesitated, holding his phone, wondering if he should send Jiang Yuebai a message, reminding him to stay warm and not get sick. But as he scrolled through their chat history, he felt awkward.
Not long after, Jiang Yuebai’s message arrived: I’m home.
Yan Weiqiu replied: Take a hot shower, don’t catch a cold.
Seeing this message, Jiang Yuebai couldn’t help but smile.
[Mm, go to bed early.]
[Good night.]
Yan Weiqiu: Good night.
After sending the message, he tossed his phone aside and lay on his bed.
His heart was beating faster than before, his face flushed.
They had known each other for so many years.
Why was he suddenly shy around Jiang Yuebai?
It didn’t make sense.
Yan Weiqiu looked at the teddy bear on his bed and hugged it.
It was a Children’s Day gift Jiang Yuebai had given him a few days ago.
“It’s all your fault.”
Yan Weiqiu punched the teddy bear’s head.
It turned out that everyone, his friends, classmates, teachers, and even their parents, thought he and Jiang Yuebai were dating.
But both he and Jiang Yuebai knew they weren’t.
But what if they were?
Would they be even closer than they were now?
Yan Weiqiu thought about it, his face burning.
He opened Jiang Yuebai’s chat window, suddenly wanting to see his WeChat Moments.
When he clicked on his profile picture, he accidentally tapped too many times, and a system message popped up: I poked “Jiang Yuebai” and said “You’re so handsome.”
Yan Weiqiu’s eyes widened. So shameless.
He quickly tapped the “Withdraw” button.
System: If the recipient isn’t using the latest version, the message may not be withdrawn.
Yan Weiqiu: “???”
Jiang Yuebai should be using the latest version of WeChat, right?
Please, please.
He carefully tapped on Jiang Yuebai’s profile picture again, opened his profile, and clicked on his Moments.
The first thing he saw was a childhood photo of them together.
Jiang Yuebai was hugging him, smiling happily.
But it was his Moments background picture.
Other than that, there were only three posts, all photos of him.
The first one was taken when he had just started high school. Jiang Yuebai had tricked him into standing at the school gate, saying he wanted to take a picture to send to his mother.
The second one was taken on his seventeenth birthday, him wearing a crown and making a wish.
The third one was of him sleeping on his desk.
Whose Moments was this, his or Jiang Yuebai’s?
Yan Weiqiu opened his photo album, looking at the pictures he had secretly taken of Jiang Yuebai.
In the quiet night, only the sound of rain pattering against the window could be heard.
Should he confess to Jiang Yuebai after the college entrance exams?
Or should he wait? What if Jiang Yuebai met his destined mate in university?
Was Jiang Yuebai’s rut approaching soon?
Yan Weiqiu’s mind raced with random thoughts as he gradually drifted off to sleep.
…
…
The college entrance exam arrived as scheduled.
“Do you have your pens?”
“Did you bring your admission ticket?”
“Where’s your water?”
Fang Xiu checked his things over and over again, her heart pounding nervously. Seeing Yan Weiqiu still leisurely eating his breakfast, she became anxious.
“Hurry up and eat. Get to school early.”
“My heart just can’t calm down.”
Yan Weiqiu responded and sped up his eating, but he still looked calm.
Fang Xiu didn’t know what to say. It was good that her child was calm, but she was also worried that his calmness would backfire.
“I won’t be bringing you lunch today. The lunch break isn’t long, and I don’t want to disturb your rest.”
“I’ll make you something delicious when you come home tonight.”
“Shall I take you to school?”
Yan Weiqiu shook his head. “Mom, no need. It’s rush hour, and I’m worried about traffic jams. Besides, Xiaobai and I agreed that he would take me to school today.”
Fang Xiu thought about it and agreed. “Then be careful on the road, you and Xiaobai. Call me if anything happens.”
“Okay.” Yan Weiqiu picked up his bag and responded.
Jiang Yuebai was already waiting for him downstairs.
The weather was nice today, sunny after the rain, the sky a clear blue without a single cloud.
Jiang Yuebai leaned against his bike, the breeze ruffling his hair, his uniform swaying in the wind. He had a lazy expression, and when he saw Yan Weiqiu, a languid smile appeared on his lips.
“You’re here.”
“Did you have breakfast?” Yan Weiqiu asked casually as he got on the back of his bike.
“Mm.” Jiang Yuebai chuckled helplessly. “I’m praying I don’t get diarrhea during the exam this morning.”
Yan Weiqiu laughed and grabbed the hem of his shirt. “Then come to my house early tomorrow morning, and my mom will add an extra pair of chopsticks.”
His mother had been worried about what Jiang Yuebai would eat for breakfast, after all, Auntie Jiang’s cooking skills were…
Jiang Yuebai smiled. “Really? Then I’ll come early tomorrow and ask Auntie Xiu to make a little extra.”
During the three days of the college entrance exam, everywhere you went, you could hear students comparing answers and speculating about the questions.
And just like every year, there were a few careless students who lost their admission tickets.
Every day after school, the school gate was crowded with reporters and parents, making it difficult to get through.
During the last exam, Yan Weiqiu finished filling out his answer sheet early and carefully checked it over.
Time ticked by. The exam room was quiet, only the sound of pens scratching against paper and the rustling of test papers could be heard.
Until the bell rang, signaling the end of the exam.
Yan Weiqiu looked out the window at the blooming roses and the lush sycamore trees, the cicadas chirping.
Summer had just begun, but it felt like a chapter had closed.
He didn’t feel the joy he had expected, but more of a sense of melancholy.
“Class monitor?”
“Class monitor.”
“Class monitor!”
Yan Weiqiu heard familiar voices behind him. Before he could turn around, someone rushed over and hugged him from behind, followed by another, and another, clinging to him.
“Waaah, it’s finally over!”
“Three years! Do you know how I survived these three years?!”
“Finally, I don’t have to wake up at six every morning to rush to school, and I don’t have to stay up until midnight studying!”
“High school is finally over!”
“Waaah!”
Yan Weiqiu: “…”
They all hugged him and cried.
He was held so tightly that he couldn’t even free his hands. He could only comfort them. “You’ve worked hard. You don’t have to stay up late tonight, and you don’t have to wake up early tomorrow. You can sleep in every day.”
“Class monitor.”
“You’re so calm.”
“…”
Yan Weiqiu finally managed to extricate himself from his classmates’ enthusiastic embrace and returned to his seat, disheveled.
The student in front wiped his tears and said to him, “Class monitor, we don’t have to come to school tomorrow! I’m so happy!”
Yan Weiqiu: “…”
He could tell; they were happy to the point of tears.
The student in front patted his deskmate’s shoulder, his eyes red from crying. “We won’t have the chance to be deskmates anymore.”
The deskmate looked sentimental at these words.
The student in front sniffed and snorted. “That’s great!”
Deskmate: “…”
Student in front: “I mean, it’s great that we’re graduating.”
Deskmate: “…”
Suddenly, excited laughter came from the corridor outside.
Students from Class 2 ran over and shouted, “Come and tear up your textbooks with us!”
“That’s a bit much, isn’t it?”
“Won’t the teachers care?”
“Just tear them up! I don’t want to see these textbooks ever again!”
Scraps of paper flew everywhere.
A group of students crowded the corridor, tearing up their textbooks and crying loudly.
The dean of students walked up to this floor and saw this scene, his blood pressure spiking.
The students who saw him quickly turned around, trying to hide their faces.
The dean of students looked at the scattered paper and the wails coming from the corridor, was silent for a moment, then shook his head and turned to leave.
Forget it, let them have their fun.
Yan Weiqiu didn’t join them in tearing up his textbooks. He wanted to keep them as a memento.
He felt that the precious memories of these three years shouldn’t be so casually discarded.
But carrying this huge stack of books home seemed a bit difficult.
After a while, Jiang Yuebai pulled over a small handcart.
Yan Weiqiu said in surprise, “Where did you get this?”
Although they still had to carry the books down the stairs, at least it would be much easier.
Jiang Yuebai: “I borrowed it from the dean of students. I told him I needed to move books, and he gave me this.”
Yan Weiqiu smiled. With Jiang Yuebai’s resourcefulness, he didn’t need to worry about him doing poorly on the exams.
After the exam, Auntie Jiang came to pick them up.
The two mothers sat in the front, chatting, while Yan Weiqiu and Jiang Yuebai sat in the back, rather silent.
Jiang Yuebai was flipping through the travel guide he had made online when he suddenly leaned closer and started a conversation.
“Let’s go to Guilin first, okay?”
“Then we’ll go to Beihai.”
“If we don’t go to Sanya, we can go to Chongqing instead.”
“Or we can just go wherever we want along the way, without a fixed plan.”
“We have plenty of time anyway.”
They sat close together, Yan Weiqiu leaning against his chest, their arms overlapping as if they were holding hands.
“Okay.”
“Anything you say.”
Yan Weiqiu rested his head on his shoulder, his eyes half-closed, nestled in his arms.
As long as it’s with you, anything is fine.
“Are you tired?” Jiang Yuebai adjusted his posture to make him more comfortable.
“Mm.” Yan Weiqiu lay down with his head on Jiang Yuebai’s lap.
They seemed to have returned to the intimacy of their childhood.
Jiang Yuebai discreetly played with his soft hair, then, getting bolder, gently traced his face with his fingertips.
Then Yan Weiqiu swatted his hand away and even punched him in the stomach.
“Hiss.”
A pyrrhic victory.
His hand hurt.
But Jiang Yuebai seemed unaffected, even taking his hand and gently blowing on the sore spot.
Fang Xiu: “See, I told you, these two are so close.”
Auntie Jiang glanced at the rearview mirror and smiled. “Why don’t we get them engaged before university? They can get married after graduation, that would be nice.”
Fang Xiu nodded. “No problem, let’s see if there are any auspicious dates recently.”
The two mothers continued discussing engagement.
From the engagement to the wedding house, even to children…
They didn’t notice that the two subjects of their discussion had become stiff as statues.
Jiang Yuebai: “…”
Yan Weiqiu: “…”
At this moment, they shared the same thought: This won’t do! The confession plan hasn’t even started yet! They couldn’t skip the confession, confirm their relationship, and jump straight to marriage, could they?
