Chapter 35
Proofreader: Ri
Zhen Yuanbai slammed the door at Zhen Youxiu.
He clearly knew that Shi Bufan would not kill him, but it was definite that he would give him a beating. Not only did he hurt Shi Bufan and make him lose his memory, but he also pretended to be his good friend. Now, he was even deceiving his feelings…Shi Bufan believed everything was true, but it was the opposite. He had lied to him for such a long time and Shi Bufan would definitely beat him into the ICU.
If that was the case, Zhen Yuanbai might spend at least a year in the hospital bed which means this might seriously influence his college entrance exam and even his entire life.
Yet, Zhen Yuanbai caused this for himself. After all, he was the one that couldn’t control his hand, hurting Shi Bufan’s head.
Zhen Yuanbai turned around and glanced at the ceiling, constantly pondering for a solution. How could he make sure he wouldn’t be beaten?
It was rare for Shi Bufan to receive his little classmate’s message first: goodnight.
In the past, he always forced Zhen Yuanbai to send the message and the latter would refuse. From time to time, he even forgot about it and now, he actually sent one without being requested.
Shi Bufan wiped his hair and lifted his eyebrows in shock, replying: you’re going to sleep that early?
Little friend Congming: I was just thinking that you’re about to sleep, so I sent you that message.
That considerate…Shi Bufan rolled over and leaned against the headboard of the bed, sending a video-chat invitation. The face that he had been thinking of day and night quickly appeared on the screen and Zhen Yuanbai found support to prop the phone against the wall, facing it against himself. He revealed a smile and said, “I am still doing homework.”
Shi Bufan was sweetened by the smile and sighed with feelings, saying. “You’re that outstanding. Just how much effort do I need to put in order to stand shoulder to shoulder with you?”
Zhen Yuanbai pursed his lips and said, “In the next monthly exam, I won’t do good on it and I’ll go down the ranks to stay with you, ok?”
Shi Bufan’s heart shivered again and he said in uncertainty. “What did you say?”
“I said.” The face on the screen was extremely well-behaved that it didn’t seem reasonable. “I won’t get first place next month and I’ll go down the ranks to be a lowly student with you. Ok?”
“…” Shi Bufan was unable to say anything for a while. He licked his lips and asked, “What, honey? Are you thinking about me? Do you want me to go over and find you right now?”
“No.” Zhen Yuanai hurriedly sat up straight, afraid that he might actually come over and said, “I just, I just want to let you know that I want to be good to you. Right. I just want to be good to you.”
Shi Bufan trained his eyes on him and gradually said, “I know you want to be good to me. You don’t need to come down to find me. Just stand there and watch as I overcome the obstacles to find you.”
In reality, it had taken Zhen Yuanai a lot of courage and thinking before he said that. He believed that it was better if he took the time to do things to move Shi Bufan, so that maybe when he recovered his memory, he might not beat himself up. Shi Bufan’s response made him sigh in relief. If he really dropped from the first rank to the hundreds, he definitely needed to come up with an excuse to explain to his parents.
He nodded and wanted to comfort him, but thought that it might make Shi Bufan unhappy. After all, he didn’t like to study. “If you think it’s tiring to study, it’s actually fine too. Even if you don’t have good grades, I won’t…won’t be unhappy with you.”
“I will be very good.” It was rare for his little classmate to be considerate and Shi Bufan felt as if his heart had been squished, made into all sorts of shapes. Each shape seems to be desiring to hug Zhen Yuanbai. He emphasized and said incomparably seriously, “I will become better and better until I am worthy of you.”
Zhen Yuanbai nodded.
Shi Bufan seemed to be very touched and this made Zhen Yuanbai a bit touched too.
The two chatted about something else and then Zhen Yuanbai hung up on the video chat. Even if Shi Bufan had recovered his memory, he will definitely remember this…right?
He knew he couldn’t run away from it, so he just had to pray this would work.
Shi Bufan must’ve been crazy as he ran to Zhen Yuanbai’s neighborhood in the middle of the night. He raised his head and glanced at the first floor where Zhen Yuanbai lived, taking out his phone. It showed that it was exactly midnight and about to be winter. It was freezing during nights like this and he wanted to call Zhen Yuanbai downstairs so that he could give him a hug, but he shoved his phone back inside his pocket in the end.
There was a 24-hour convenience store where a young man was inside watching a TV show and Shi Bufan walked over. The other party glanced up to see him, smiling and asking, “Buying cigarettes?”
Shi Bufan instinctively glanced towards a certain brand of cigarettes on the glass drawer. Seeing that the other party had taken it out skillfully, he said, “I haven’t seen you in a while. Have you been studying lately?”
Shi Bufan was stunned and reached for the cigarettes, pointing at his nose in confusion. “Do you know me?”
“Of course I know you. Didn’t you used to come here in the middle of the night frequently and we even played a few rounds of cards before.”
Shi Bufan grabbed two bags of candies and said, “This…right, I have been busy lately.”
The man nodded, understanding. He watched as Shi Bufan scanned and paid the money. When Shi Bufan turned around to leave, he said thanks and this made the man shocked.
Up until Shi Bufan had walked to a tree far from the store, he stopped peaking and said, “Did he change or something?… He even knows how to thank people now.”
He wasn’t like this in the past.
Whenever the boy came over, he would have a gloomy face as if someone had owed him a huge fortune and he would leave after getting cigarettes. Then, he would stand beneath a certain tree and glance expressionlessly at the neighborhood, smoking. Sometimes, he would smoke the entire night and cigarette butts would be left on the ground.
He remembered that Shi Bufan had come over with his forehead bleeding once and he had a gloomy expression like a devil from the underworld. He almost scared someone in the middle of the night and he would stand up in spirit and ask, “What do you want to buy?”
The other party pointed at the cigarette in the glass drawer and said in a gloomy voice, “I want this.”
He glanced at the other party and politely said, “We don’t sell cigarettes to minors.”
The young man immediately raised his head and glanced at him as if he was about to eat him alive. “Either give me the cigarette or I’ll smash your store.”
The young man didn’t seem like someone to be easily offended and the owner of the store didn’t want to cause any trouble, so he took out the packet of cigarettes. The young man tossed him the money and didn’t wait to get his change before he immediately left.
He was only in his teens and he wore famous bands instead of school uniform. However, his parents didn’t mind him either. Under that winter evening, the only impression he got of the young man was him under the gloomy tree and the bright cigarette butts.
But this night, he seemed to be different from usual.
That figure gradually stopped the car. Shi Xian knocked against the steering wheel impatiently while Ling Xuan peeked her head out of the window, smiling and said, “Fanfan, why did you come here in the middle of the night? Where’s Yuanyuan?”
On one corner of Shi Bufan’s lips, he had a cigarette in his mouth and on the other side, he shoved some candy in his mouth. While in a dilemma, he saw her by coincidence and immediately took the cigarette out of his mouth, knitting his eyebrows and asking, “Why did you come here?”
“Uncle Wang said that you slipped out of the house and I was worried. Look, your father is still in his pajamas.”
Shi Xuan turned around and glanced at him, knitting his eyebrows tightly, “Boy, you…”
His mouth was covered by Ling Xuan and she glared at her husband, pulling the car door open and walking out, saying, “Why don’t you come home with us? It’s quite cold outside and you still need to go to class tomorrow.”
Shi Bufan glanced at Shi Xuan and the latter really wore pajamas out. He turned his head, refusing to meet eye contact with his son.
The family was in a deadlock for a while before Shi Bufan coldly humphed and bent over, getting into the car.
What happened tonight seemed like a dream. No matter whether Zhen Yuanbai suddenly became friendly towards him or that his parents had suddenly come to search for him in the middle of the night, it didn’t seem real to Shi Bufan.
Shi Bufan knew that it wasn’t just because he lost his memory, but it had to do with something else too.
He hadn’t slept much the entire night, but the next morning, he was in high spirits unexpectedly. Now, Zhen Yuanbai had been picked up and brought to school by Zhen Youxiu every day, so he didn’t need him. Therefore, Shi Bufan went downstairs after packing everything up and Ling Xua still prepared breakfast like usual. The moment she saw him, she immediately smiled and said, “Fanfan, time for breakfast.”
Shi Bufan walked out without looking back.
Her smile gradually faded and Shi Xuan who had been ordered to not eat first picked up his chopsticks impatiently and said, “I told you before. It’s no use.”
Despite making breakfast personally every day and even calling her husband come, Shi Bufan’s heart was like a rock. He had hated him deeply and even though he lost his memory, he wouldn’t forget to hate them.
Ling Xuan sighed and said, “He will be better one day. After all, haven’t we picked him up yesterday?”
From yesterday night, Shi Bufan had gotten too many surprises. Zhen Yuanbai first started to act friendly to him and now this morning…what did he see? His little classmate was actually waiting by the bus platform for him.
Shi Bufan was in his private car and he hurriedly had the driver stop when they passed by Zhen Yuanbai. “I’m going to take the bus.”
The moment he got out of the car, Zhen Yuanbai immediately smiled and waved his hands. Shi Bufan curled his lips and quickly walked over, saying, “What’s the matter? Why did you decide to come over that early?”
“You used to buy me breakfast and I should start doing the same for you.” Zhen Yuanbai delivered Shi Bufan his breakfast and the latter took it, saying, “It’s not that warm anymore. When did you come here?”
“I left the house at 6.” Zhen Yuanbai had never come here taking the bus from home, so he wasn’t sure how long it would take. Therefore, he came out of the house a bit earlier. Although he said he wanted to move Shi Bufan, he couldn’t help but complain, “This is such a long path. It takes me about 40 or so minutes to come here by bus and now, we need to hurry to school.”
“Right. If you take the bus by yourself, it will feel longer.” Shi Bufan inserted the straw and delivered it to Zhen Yuanbai, but the latter shook his head and said, “I ate already. Taste it first. If it’s cold, we can buy another one when we’re at school.”
The porridge was indeed cold. Shi Bufan took a sip and felt his stomach going chilly. However, his heart felt unusually warm and he said, “It’s warm and pretty good.”
There was only one bus and there weren’t many passengers. Plus, it was the morning, so the bus was basically empty. The two got on the bus and Shi Bufan couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you suddenly being so nice to me? Did you do something bad?”
Zhen Yuanbai felt his heart thumping hard and he immediately denied, saying, “Of course not!”
Shi Bufan raised his eyebrows and reached over to grab Zhen Yuanbai’s fingers. His hand was skinny and smooth. Right now, Zhen Yuanbai was hiding his hand in the sleeves of his uniform. Shi Bufan pulled Zhen Yuanbai’s hands out and the latter immediately knitted his eyebrows due to the cold, saying, “What are you doing?”
“Don’t you think you’re not wearing enough?” Shi Bufan lifted Zhen Yuanbai’s sleeves to count the layer of clothes inside. “One, two…there’s only two layers?”
“I have long sleeves and a sweater. The thicker one isn’t suitable for right now and I will be hot after the morning jog. Plus, the classroom isn’t cold.”
Zhen Yuanbai placed his hands in his sleeves again and Shi Bufan said in approval, “That’s right. You won’t be comfortable if you wear thick layers. However, I can recommend a magical object that can keep you warm from the cold days.”
“What is it?” Zhen Yuanbai just turned his head when he felt himself being lifted from his seat and hugged in Shi Bufan’s arms. The warmth immediately spread from Shi Bufan’s body, along with the latter’s pleasing laughter.
“A boyfriend.”