CH 40

Ye Yao certainly didn’t get hit and crashed, but was still dragged around for a good inspection.

As he examined him, he watched Lu Xun’s head come closer and closer to his neck.

He could even hear the faintest sound of Lu Xun’s breathing, Lu Xun was breathing deeply, not knowing what he was inhaling.

“I didn’t get hit in the neck.” Ye Yao said.

“……” Lu Xun stepped back a bit to look at the uncomprehending Ye Yao.

Of course he knew that it was unlikely that he would get hit on the neck when he walked, he just …… had some restraint.

He hadn’t been able to suck on Ye Yao himself for a long, long time, or at best, on Ye Yao’s clothes.

Ye Yao, now in living colour, is in front of him, so close to him that it easily evokes the deepest addictions of his heart.

Lu Xun rubbed his nose and said in a muffled voice, “It’s always good to check just in case.”

When Ye Yao didn’t say anything, Lu Xun sat down next to him and continued to grill the meat.

“I overheard a lot of the conversation you had with that man just now.” Ye Yao opened his mouth, “I’m sorry.”

Lu Xun immediately retorted, “How can you call this eavesdropping? It’s called listening openly, and this is your place, so you can come back whenever you want.”

Ye Yao laughed, then put the smile away and continued, “After he gives up on you as a target, chances are he’ll go for another boy.”

“That would be best.” A familiar flash of disgust and revulsion flashed across Lu Xun’s face as he chucked the roast into Ye Yao’s bowl and returned to his smiling appearance when he faced Ye Yao, “Enough about that, let’s get on with it.”

*

Back in the dormitory, Ye Yao is lying in bed.

He recalled every single thing that had happened today.

Lu Xun’s overwhelming desire to be exclusive and possessive of him does not allow anyone to interfere with the absolute exclusivity between the two of them.

There was also a flash of disgust on Lu Xun’s face, probably unnoticed by Lu Xun himself, when he mentioned that the boy might be looking for other men.

That’s exactly the same resistance Lu Xun used to feel when he heard about homosexuality when he was a homophobic straight man.

This subconscious reaction is still present today when Lu Xun claims to have gone bent.

He didn’t get to see Lu Xun’s face when he was talking to the boy, but now that he thinks about it, it was probably one of extreme disgust and revulsion.

This makes him even more convinced that Lu Xun is still very straight, but that there seems to be a slight possibility of a bend in the straightness.

…… How can such an oxymoron exist.

Ye Yao is not very good at relationship matters and it is a rare enlightenment for him to realise that he likes Lu Xun. It is only normal for him not to be able to see that people are hitting on him.

Ye Yao’s phone vibrated and he picked it up to see a message from Lu Xun.

Lu Xun : [Little penguin probe.jpg]

Lu Xun : [Can I get a passing grade on today’s date?

Ye Yao thought about it and replied.

[That’s not called a date today.]

[Called a dinner date.]

*

It’s another school day, Lu Xun is still in the throes of a date turned dinner date, and Ye Yao receives a message from his mother.

[Ye Yao, has your grandfather come to see you?

Ye Yao also rushed to reply during the lesson: [No, what’s wrong mum?

Mother Ye replied: [Your uncle wants to buy a house and grandpa wants us to help pay for part of it, if he comes to you, you can just ask him to call mum, no need to bother talking to him more to affect your mood].

When my mother was sick and could barely pay for his treatment, my grandfather’s family didn’t take a dime, but now they want to borrow money?

Ye Yao lowered his eyes: [Okay, don’t worry about it, Mom].

*

Ye Yao knew that his grandfather would be looking for him, so he didn’t go out that night either and studied in his dormitory.

Ye Yao received a call just after 8pm and walked outside the hostel with his mobile phone.

It started with a few pleasantries and Ye Yao’s cold attitude, but it didn’t take long to see Grandpa get to the point.

“Xiao Yao, your second uncle is going to buy a house, we are all family, so we should help each other more, right? Grandpa knows you must have some money on hand, and you’re so good at your studies! Don’t be stingy, you’re an only child, when you’re old, in case something happens to you, you’ll have to let your cousin take care of you.”

Ye Yao walked to the corner of the unoccupied staircase and opened the closed window, letting the breeze, which was beginning to carry the heat of early summer, hit his face.

“That’s not necessary, I can hire a carer to look after me, so I won’t bother him.” Ye Yao said indifferently.

Grandpa’s voice was loud: “How can outsiders be as attentive as family members? There was a news story the other day that a caregiver earning $10,000 a month wouldn’t even help with shit and urine!”

“It’s okay.” Ye Yao said, “I was afraid that my cousin would take care of me and I could just pull my oxygen tube, the nurses were fine.”

Grandpa sounded even more angry when he spoke again, after a few minutes of being stopped by Ye Yao’s words: “You can’t be a wolf, Ye Yao! Do you remember when you were little and I took you and your cousin out to play? You had so much fun then, but now you’ve grown up and you’ve turned your back on me like your mother?”

The spring breeze could not remove the frost that covered Ye Yao’s brow as he looked out of the window, his chest churning with depression.

“I didn’t think I had fun that time,” Ye Yao said coldly, “and Mum, she didn’t just turn her back on me and hang up for no reason.”

Ye Yao hung up the phone straight away and closed the window again to walk back to the dormitory, but as he turned around he saw a figure standing furtively at the corner of the stairs coming up from downstairs.

The figure was familiar to him.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” Lu Xun said, holding up the shopping bag in his hand to show his innocence, “I saw you studying too hard, so I wanted to go downstairs to buy you some snacks, but I didn’t expect to come across you talking on the phone here.”

“…… hmm.” Ye Yao adjusted his mood to face Lu Xun , “Back together?”

Lu Xun takes three steps up the stairs and walks over to Ye Yao.

Lu Xun touched Ye Yao’s shoulder carefully, “What’s wrong, is your cousin bullying you? Tell me why you’re not happy, I’ll help you bully him back.”

“…… It’s okay, it was over ten years ago, it’s long gone.” Ye Yao laughed and didn’t put it out there.

Lu Xun was not surprised by Ye Yao’s reluctance to say anything. Ye Yao had always been the kind of person who liked to keep things bottled up inside.

Of course, not everything is a good time to get to the bottom of things, but Lu Xun’s instincts told him that Ye Yao cared enough about it to warrant asking.

Wouldn’t it be bad if Ye Yao also has a psychological shadow that makes Ye Yao reluctant to turn his friends into lovers?

After a bit of hard work, but no relief from Ye Yao, Lu Xun chose to seek help off-site.

He took out his mobile phone and started to communicate with Ye Yao’s mother.

As a friend of Ye Yao’s, he was respectful and warm towards Ye Yao’s mother, and now as a suitor of Ye Yao’s, Lu Xun’s attitude is even warmer and more affectionate.

How can that be Ye Yao’s mother, that’s his mother! From now on, we’re all family!

After Ye Yao’s mother had been cheered up by him, Lu Xun began to pose his own questions.

[I was talking to Ye Yao today and I heard him talking about how he was upset about going out with his cousin, but he didn’t tell me anything about it.

Ye Yao’s mother does know.

At that time, Ye Yao was still young and had not yet developed the habit of keeping everything inside, so when he went home and was hugged and coaxed by his mother, he told his grievances.

At that time, a new amusement park was opened and Ye Yao’s grandfather took Ye Yao’s cousin with him, fearing that he would be bored without him.

The amusement park was still a very high class and new place for people at that time, so there were a lot of people going there and the stuff inside was sold out.

The trendy juice soda was sold down to one glass, which was rightly given to his cousin, Ye Yao, to drink the mineral water. Since Ye Yao is the older brother, he has to give way to his younger brother and the mineral water is healthy.

There was only one big bucket of Crown Ice Cream left, so I gave it to my cousin and Ye Yao just had a regular small box of ice cream because Ye Yao was too skinny to eat that much.

Later they saw a balloon seller with a balloon bearing the Huluwa and Sun Wukong that most young boys would like, and Ye Yao liked it too.

There were two balloons left and Ye Yao was happy to think that he would get one this time, whichever one it was.

But Ye Yao never thought that he would end up with none of them. He couldn’t let go of either one because his cousin liked both the Huludao and Sun Wukong. In the end, the old man put both balloons into his hands after he cried and screamed.

“Little Yao is so pretty, he must not like this kind of thing,” Grandpa Ye Yao said, “Grandpa will buy it for you when he sees Snow White’s.”

“…… I don’t like Snow White, I just like this.” Ye Yao said.

“What did you say?” Granddad asked.

Ye Yao didn’t answer. After buying the balloons, you can have your photo taken with the cute people dressed as doll bears not far away for ten dollars a person.

The large doll bear was fluffy and the fur on his body was soft to look at. My cousin buried his face in the bear’s belly with excitement and Ye Yao couldn’t stop looking at it.

He liked that too, and he wanted to go and hold the doll bear’s furry looking hand.

Ye Yao, who was waiting, got the bad news that he had spent too much today and did not have enough money left.

This time Ye Yao voluntarily withdrew and received a compliment from his grandfather who said he knew what he was doing.

Maybe because he’s the older brother, maybe because he’s the grandson, whatever the reason, he won’t be the one being pampered on this excursion.

Ye Yao’s introverted nature also prevents his from competing for favour.

Ye Yao’s mother finished roughly what had happened and sighed: [Now that we’re talking about all these trivial things, he certainly wouldn’t want to tell you such trivial things again, he would feel embarrassed].

Lu Xun was so angry when he saw what had happened that he wished he could have been next to Ye Yao and bought everything for him.

How could he have met Ye Yao in high school? They should have been friends since they were three years old, childhood sweethearts, and when they became adults, they started to fall in love, and when they turned twenty-three, they got their marriage license, so no one could bully Ye Yao under his nose.

Lu Xun took a breath to calm herself down and replied to Ye Yao’s mother’s message: [Yes, I’ve been to the amusement park with him before and he hasn’t said anything about it once].

Nowadays, if Ye Yao has the intention to hide something, he will hide it from anyone.

Ye Yao’s mother continued: [When we tried to take him to the amusement park later, he always said he didn’t like it anymore and wouldn’t go.

Did you really dislike it, or did you pretend not to?

I am afraid that Ye Yao, having seen how much it costs to go out once, did not want to burden his parents. It was only after Ye Yao started to get a scholarship and a part-time job that he started to go out more often.

…… Ye Yao’s regrets, the times he was not involved in, he wants to make up for them all and occupy every inch of Ye Yao’s memories.

Lu Xun poked his head out of bed and asked Ye Yao, “Are we going to the amusement park this weekend?”

“I’m going to be a tutor on the weekend to fill in.” Ye Yao replied.

Lu Xun took his head back and tapped his phone again, then poked his head back out after a while, “But I saw Ms. Wang’s circle of friends saying that he was going to take him out for the weekend because he did well in his monthly exams.”

Ye Yao took his phone out to see if this was actually true, and he soon received a text message from Ms. Wang that he had the weekend off.

“That doesn’t want to go either.” Ye Yao said.

After today’s phone call, I’m afraid he won’t want to go to the amusement park for the next while.

Ye Yao thought this was the end of the story, but a few minutes later he received a message from Lu Xun.

[Going to the amusement park this weekend? If you don’t want to, I’ll ask again in five minutes.]

Ye Yao : “……”

Lu Xun was true to his word, sending Ye Yao invitations every five minutes, and it didn’t matter if Ye Yao didn’t reply, he continued to send messages when the time came.

By the time Ye Yao had finished his textbook and washed up in bed, there were dozens of Lu Xun’s invitation messages piled up on his phone.

Five minutes after five minutes, and only twelve five-minute periods in an hour.

It’s lights out in the dormitory and Lu Xun’s messages are still coming every five minutes.

As long as the phone is on silent, this message will not affect Ye Yao in any way and Lu Xun will be the only one busy.

At twenty-eight minutes past twelve, Ye Yao, who was lying down, got up and went to the curtains of the bed which had been drawn up.

At 12:29:50, Ye Yao lifted the curtain of the bed between him and Lu Xun.

Lu Xun is holding his mobile phone, typing the invitation message word by word, the light from the screen shining on his face, reflecting the seriousness in his dark eyes.

Lu Xun raises his head at the sound of movement and meets Ye Yao’s eyes.

Lu Xun, who had been expressionless, showed a smile to Ye Yao, and it seemed to be his instinct to smile happily when he saw Ye Yao.

Ye Yao Yao’s grip on the bed curtain squeezed tighter, crumpling the piece of fabric as he said in an airy tone, “What kind of person types word by word, it’s been posted so many times, copy and paste don’t you know how?”

Lu Xun didn’t say anything as he sent a new invitation message and then started typing and sending again.

Ye Yao took out his phone to look at it and saw a new text from Lu Xun.

[Each invitation must be as sincere as each one you invite, no copy and paste.]

Ye Yao’s hand trembled slightly as he lowered the bed curtain back between him and Lu Xun and typed back, word by word.

[Go on then.]

*

Ye Yao was surrounded by children and couples as he entered the amusement park with Lu Xun on the weekend.

Probably because he and Lu Xun are more distinguished and the children don’t know how to hide it, many of them stared at them and waved “bye” to them before walking away.

Ye Yao was infected by the childlike atmosphere, and a smile tinged his eyes: “The children are quite cute.”

Next to his Lu Xun frowned, “But we won’t have children.”

Ye Yao : “……”

Lu Xun came up with a solution: “But we can adopt as many as you like.”

Lu Xun frowned again, “I don’t like children though.”

Ye Yao : “…… I think you’re thinking too far ahead.”

Lu Xun doesn’t feel half as far gone as he thinks, but instead of going on about the subject, he stops when he and Ye Yao come to a place.

“Wait for me here for a moment.” Lu Xun said.

Ye Yao was unsure, but stopped and stood still.

While waiting, several large dolls played by several people walked past him, followed by a group of chattering children.

Ye Yao watched quietly as the big doll and the little friend departed. He did not make a sound, so no one would stop for him, let alone know what was in his mind.

There was a sudden weight on his shoulders and Ye Yao turned his head to see a large, furry paw.

Ye Yao : “?”

Ye Yao turned around and saw a huge doll bear standing behind him.

The bear is fluffy and round, the fur on his body is soft and touchable at first glance, and he is holding two sparkling balloons in his other hand, making him look cartoonish and dreamy.

Ye Yao, a big man, was impressed by the bear, not to mention the other children.

A little boy rushed up, “Xiong Xiong , can I touch the hair on your body?”

“No.” A lazy male voice came out of the bear’s head, the voice Ye Yao knew best.

The big bear’s head turned towards Ye Yao and looked at him with a smile in his voice.

“I’m his very own bear and will only let him touch it.”