CFHE Chapter 48

“…” Fu Yuhan was thoroughly choked up.

 

If eyes could speak, a string of curse words should have flown through his gaze at that moment. Wen Yu found it amusing and really wanted to ruffle his hair.

 

The texture would probably be quite nice.

 

But “you can’t touch a tiger’s butt,” and Fu Yuhan’s head was even more untouchable—unless Wen Yu wanted to pick a fight right now.

 

He didn’t, so he chose to open his lunch box.

 

“Let’s eat.” Wen Yu said. “Are you confident about tomorrow’s exam?”

 

Only then did Fu Yuhan pick up his chopsticks: “I can do better than last time, but whether I can improve by 30 places, I can’t say for sure… that depends on whether others will cooperate with me.”

 

“Go shout in the hallway.” Wen Yu lifted his chin, his tone casual. “‘Nobody better do well on the exam tomorrow, all make way for our Brother Fu.’ That way you’ll definitely move up 30 places… maybe even 300.”

 

For obviously teasing remarks like this, Fu Yuhan would usually retort with a line or two, but Wen Yu waited a few seconds without hearing him speak.

 

He turned his head to see Fu Yuhan looking at him. That gaze seemed calm, yet also carried a hint of amusement.

 

“Feeling better?” Fu Yuhan said. “When you first came in, I thought you were going to go out and cut someone down.”

 

“…”

 

If he were to cut anyone, it would be Fu Yuhan, Wen Yu thought.

 

He was stunned for a moment, then chuckled softly: “So you’re not going to refute the suggestion of shouting in the hallway?”

 

“I won’t refute,” Fu Yuhan said while eating, casually grabbing a study guide from the desk and throwing it over, “I usually just take direct action.”

 

Wen Yu easily caught the textbook.

 

Although the food had gotten a bit cold.

 

Tonight’s dinner was still very delicious.

 

–

 

The midterm exam was more formal than the monthly exam at the beginning of the school year. Before evening self-study ended, homeroom teachers on duty from other classes came in and directed them to pull apart the desks and arrange them like an exam room.

 

Exam seats were pre-arranged by grade ranking. For example, Wen Yu was in the first seat of the first exam room for senior year, while Fu Yuhan, having not written his essay last time, was relegated to the thirteenth exam room, four floors away from him.

 

Thursday morning was Chinese, afternoon was math and English; Friday morning was comprehensive science, afternoon was for teachers to grade papers while students studied.

 

Evening self-study arrangements remained the same.

 

At first, Wen Yu didn’t feel anything was wrong, but when he walked out of the Chinese exam room planning to wait for Fu Yuhan outside to eat lunch, he suddenly realized their exam rooms were indeed quite far apart.

 

He had to admit that last time when he saw Fu Yuhan fall asleep during the exam and didn’t wake him up, there was indeed a tiny bit of intentional component to it.

 

But Wen Yu… Wen Yu wasn’t planning to reflect on it.

 

Anyway, even if Fu Yuhan had written one more essay, he would probably just move his exam room upstairs, not sit together with him.

 

Either way, they wouldn’t see each other for a day and a half.

 

Signal jammers were turned on in the exam area, and signals wouldn’t be good until exams ended. Afraid he couldn’t contact anyone, Wen Yu specifically turned in his paper ten minutes early.

 

When he reached the hallway outside exam room thirteen, there were still five minutes left until the exam ended.

 

At this point, many people had entered the final checking phase, but the first floor was the territory of poor students, and most of them didn’t do such meaningless things.

 

The last five minutes were boring time of “not daring to turn in papers early but having nothing to do” for people in exam rooms thirteen through fifteen on the first floor.

 

Most of the exam room noticed someone walking leisurely through the hallway, an attitude that seemed particularly mocking at this moment.

 

Until they turned their gaze over—

 

Oh, first in grade, never mind.

 

“Use the last few minutes to check carefully.” The proctor barely maintained order, walking out the front door to shoo people away. “Student, which exam room are you from? What are you doing here?”

 

The proctor was from another grade helping out and didn’t recognize Wen Yu. Wen Yu clasped his hands in front of him and said very politely: “From the first exam room—I came to wait for a classmate to have lunch, teacher.”

 

Hearing “first exam room,” the teacher’s expression softened slightly: “Then go wait over there, don’t stand at the door, it will affect people.”

 

“Yes, teacher.” Wen Yu glanced into the exam room—he found Fu Yuhan within a second, confirmed that he had seen him, then moved two steps toward the end of the hallway where there were no classrooms.

The bell for turning in papers finally rang—

 

Behind Fu Yuhan sat a guy from Class 5 who often played basketball with Sun Wenrui and the others, and was also acquainted with Fu Yuhan. As soon as papers were turned in, he immediately started muttering: “Is our newly ‘crowned’ grade first in love? But there aren’t many good-looking girls in our exam room. Who’s so capable they could win him over? The girls in our class are going to cry to death.”

 

A male student next to him immediately chimed in: “Can’t he just be waiting for a buddy?”

 

“Besides Brother Fu, who else from Class 6 is here?” the boy said. “I haven’t seen the transfer student hanging out with people from other classes either.”

 

“Not really, I’ve seen him walking with those two competition guys from Class 1.”

 

“Class 1 definitely wouldn’t be in exam room thirteen!”

 

The boy talking to him was about to respond when he suddenly saw Fu Yuhan turn around, his gaze particularly cold.

 

He choked up: “What’s wrong, Brother Fu?”

 

“You two,” Fu Yuhan paused, “talk too much.”

 

The two boys looked at each other, not quite understanding which of their words had offended the big shot.

 

But immediately after, they saw Fu Yuhan put his hands in his pockets and walk straight through the front door toward Wen Yu.

 

The two: “…”

 

People in Class 6 knew about Wen Yu and Fu Yuhan “making up,” but not everyone in other classes was so clear about it.

 

At Third High, there were many rumors about Fu Yuhan.

 

Like how he fought his biological mother at the school gate on the first day of enrollment; how he skipped classes without reporting and teachers didn’t dare manage him; and how because he liked the Class 6 class beauty, he had a disagreement with a certain pursuer from Class 2, leading to three years of antagonism between the two classes.

 

In short, none of these described him as having a good temper.

 

People who had publicly arranged to fight at the beginning of the school year could walk side by side to the cafeteria for meals in less than two months—they had never even thought of such a thing.

 

“You guys don’t understand shit. The distance between people from positive distance to zero distance often only takes an instant.” Behind them, a girl stood up with a strange smile on her lips, lightly pushing her glasses. “Could you let me through? I also want to go to the cafeteria.”

 

–

 

The matter of Fu Yuhan eating with Wen Yu became lunch break gossip for exam rooms thirteen through fifteen.

 

However, the two protagonists were unaware of this—since it was inconvenient to return to Class 6 at noon, Fu Yuhan had wanted to go back to the exam room to sleep, but was stopped by Wen Yu.

 

“How’s your preparation for this afternoon’s exam?” he asked. “Should I quiz you on some vocabulary?”

 

Fu Yuhan thought for a moment and changed direction: “Okay, go to the empty building?”

 

“Mm.” Wen Yu glanced at him. “Why do you like going to the empty building so much?”

 

They walked past the gymnasium toward the playground. When the view suddenly opened up without the teaching building blocking it, Fu Yuhan pointed toward the empty building: “Do you see the sun?”

 

Wen Yu: “I’m not blind.”

 

“At dawn and dusk, there’s a beam of light that shines through the empty building’s windows,” Fu Yuhan said as he walked. “The color is different from now too, very beautiful.”

 

Wen Yu raised an eyebrow.

 

He suddenly remembered that on parent-teacher conference day, when he was looking for a quiet place to call Yang Fan, he had seen such a beam of light from far across the playground.

 

He made an “oh” sound: “It is quite beautiful.”

 

“You’ve seen it?”

 

“Mm,” Wen Yu recalled, “it left a deep impression.”

 

He also liked beautiful things.

 

Though he couldn’t draw.

 

“Aren’t we supposed to quiz?” Fu Yuhan suddenly asked.

 

Wen Yu came back to his senses: “…Mm, I’ll quiz you randomly. Active?”

 

“Positive.”

 

“That’s an adjective, you should say ‘positive/active.'”

 

“…Fine.”

 

“Explain?”

 

“Explain… verb!”

 

–

 

With Wen Yu actively helping him review, Fu Yuhan felt the afternoon English exam went much more smoothly.

 

He just didn’t know why the girl sitting two seats behind him kept looking at him strangely throughout the exam.

 

Fu Yuhan had encountered many admirers and could confirm this girl wasn’t secretly in love with him.

 

That gaze was more like… the way Wen Yu looked at him when they first met.

 

Probing and enthusiastic.

 

A day and a half of exams wasn’t long or short, and passed in a flash.

 

Friday afternoon ended early, so Wen Yu asked Fu Yuhan in advance when he would come to his house.

 

Originally there was no evening self-study on Friday nights, but there was on Sunday. However, senior students had it harder than the other two grades and had to return to school Friday evening too.

 

Fu Yuhan didn’t want to go home and come out again, so thinking of what he had promised, he said he’d go right after school.

 

He found it somewhat amusing inside.

 

Wen Yu seemed confident about everything, but could be this enthusiastic about playing a game—it was both funny and pitiful. Fu Yuhan felt a bit sorry for him.

 

As soon as school ended, the two left together.

 

“First accompany me to the pickup point.” Walking out the school gate, Wen Yu took out his phone to check and said, “The delivery contacted me this morning, but I wasn’t home.”

 

“What did you buy?”

 

“A TV.” Wen Yu glanced at Fu Yuhan, meeting his suddenly widened eyes. “Didn’t I say I was going to buy one?”

 

“…I thought you were just saying that.”

 

“Can’t play without a TV, right?”

 

The logic was sound, but Fu Yuhan still found many issues with it.

 

Fortunately, what Wen Yu bought was a monitor with audio output, not very large in size, otherwise it would have been difficult for just the two of them to carry a big color TV back.

 

Wen Yu could certainly afford a gaming console, but for a “newbie player” to skillfully find so many old game discs and select his favorite from them wasn’t easy. As Fu Yuhan helped him carry the monitor back, he thought while walking: “He’s so enthusiastic, he must really want to play.”

 

Just imagining this person growing up in such a boring environment made Fu Yuhan deeply sympathetic.

 

So as soon as they arrived at Wen Yu’s house, he actively helped arrange the wiring. The 32-inch monitor would be hard to see if placed too far away, so Fu Yuhan directed Wen Yu to put it on the coffee table.

 

“This way you can curl up on the sofa to play in the future.” Fu Yuhan said.

 

Wen Yu looked at him: “I’m fine with anything.”

 

Although he hadn’t touched this console for many years, Fu Yuhan’s memory was still good, and he had the wiring connected in about ten minutes.

 

“Play God of War?” He sat on the sofa and glanced at Wen Yu, who was already sitting beside him.

 

“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t play it?” Wen Yu said. “Let’s look at the Dark Souls you mentioned before.”

 

“Alright, but that might be a bit difficult…” Fu Yuhan said as he opened the Dark Souls box.

 

Wen Yu had never encountered anything “a bit difficult” in his life, so he didn’t pay attention to this comment.

 

An hour later, Wen Yu, who still hadn’t passed the first small level, put down the controller expressionlessly: “Let’s switch to another one?”

 

“…” Fu Yuhan collapsed on the sofa laughing.

 

Wen Yu had known him for over two years, and this was the first time he’d seen him laugh so happily.

 

His brows furrowed: “Is it that funny?”

 

“Yes.” Fu Yuhan struggled to get up and change the game disc for him. “After knowing you for so long, this is the first time I’ve seen you get completely defeated. It’s so satisfying.”

 

“…” Wen Yu lowered his gaze and thought for a moment. “Friend, do you know whose reference materials you’re using for exam prep?”

 

“I know, but I won’t call you daddy like they do.” Although his laughter quickly subsided, Fu Yuhan’s eyes and brows still carried unmistakable amusement. He opened a new box and inserted the disc into the console. “Alright, alright, let’s play this one first. This one doesn’t require much operation—what are you looking at?”

 

He turned back and suddenly met Wen Yu’s heavy gaze.

 

“You look quite good when you smile like that.” Wen Yu seemed to say casually, then asked, “What game is this?”

 

Fu Yuhan was stunned: “…Ah, Heavy Rain. It’s an… interactive movie? The plot is very good.”

 

Wen Yu blinked: “Movie?”

 

“AVG, it’s also a type of game. You’ll understand once you play it… it’s still different from movies.”

 

“Oh, I’m not saying movies are bad.” Wen Yu said. “I just wanted to ask if you need to turn off the lights to play this type of game.”

 

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 (advanced chapters available on kofi)