CH 6

After telling Yin Rui the truth, Bai Fan felt uncomfortable for a while. He thought about how difficult it would be for adults to accept this matter, let alone a child, but unexpectedly, Yin Rui’s reaction was very calm, too calm for a child .

After Yin Rui asked him a few simple questions, he became interested in his lock-picking skills, and so Bai Fan got an apprentice.

The two still lived their days as usual. Since Bai Fan came clean to the young boy, Yin Rui newly added his daily itinerary to the cloth everyday. He told Bai Fan everything that happened during the day, so that Bai Fan would not be clueless when he came over at night. Bai Fan also wrote down what he did at night and who he saw on the cloth. This way, the two of them can have a smooth transition to what happens in the outside world, so that a fault would not appear suddenly.

After Yin Rui also learned how to open a lock, the two of them had a better life. After all, Yin Rui knew more about this place than Bai Fan. The place they could steal from is not only the kitchen anymore. Sometimes they could even have enough food to stay in the house for several days. As a result, Bai Fan found that the piece of cloth Yin Rui left him grew bigger and bigger, until finally he tore off the entire curtain, which was densely covered with words.

Every day Bai Fan would receive a long “letter” that doesn’t seem to be written by a small child, this makes Bai Fan feel very complicated. He touched the tender handwriting.

“Probably because of loneliness…”

Other than him, Yin Rui didn’t have anyone to talk to. Should such a lonely and miserable childhood really be endured by such a small child?

Bai Fan had seen the other child in this family, Yin Rui’s elder brother, the young man who was loved by thousands of people. He only glanced at him from a distance, but even so he could see the smug look on the young man’s face. Bright clothes along with a group of servants, why are children of the same father treated like a world apart? Even though Bai Fan was just an outsider, his blood boiled, so what about Yin Rui? How much injustice was hidden in his heart?

After realizing this, Bai Fan bought a lot of books that contained short jokes; he often flipped through them when he had nothing to do. If he finds some interesting jokes that he thinks Yin Rui could understand, he’d memorize them and add it to the ‘letter’. Bai Fan didn’t ask for anything big, he just hoped these small jokes would give Yin Rui some happy memories of his childhood.

It is worth gratifying that with his efforts, Bai Fan could gradually see some liveliness in Yin Rui’s letter.

…

But you can’t always have everything you want, life just doesn’t allow it. While Bai Fan lived smoothly during the night, there was a crisis in his daytime.

“Let’s break up.”

When He Yanyan said this, Bai Fan only felt shocked and confused. He didn’t even understand why she wanted to break up with him, so the question “Why?” came up naturally.

Unexpectedly, this sentence pulled the anger trigger, He Yanyan said furiously, “Why??? You ask me ‘why’?!? I’ll tell you, I’ve had enough.”

“Tell me yourself, how long has it been since we’ve gone out together? Whenever I ask you to watch a movie, eat a meal, you’re always dodgy, saying that you want to go to bed. It’s not even 10 o’clock yet, can’t you think about a better excuse? Look at the other couples, are you still my boyfriend?” He Yanyan vented all her long-standing dissatisfaction in one breath. Seeing that Bai Fan was still silent, she finally asked the question she had been holding in her heart for a long time. “Bai Fan, tell me, do you have someone else?”

Bai Fan finally reacted this time, he frowned, “What are you thinking?”

However, He Yanyan firmly believed this ‘fact’, “Tell me the truth, if you have another girl, you either break up with her, or we break up, but if you want to step on two boats*, you’d better give up that idea, I, He Yanyan, hate that kind of man the most.”

“Yanyan, you wronged me, I really don’t have another girl.” Bai Fan explained patiently.

“Okay, you said no, then tell me now, where have you been at night.” Yanyan looked at Bai Fan.

Bai Fan paused, “…Sleeping.”

“Heh.” He Yanyan nodded fiercely to Bai Fan and sneered, “Wow, fine. From now on, don’t appear in front of me again, we have nothing to do with each other anymore.”

He Yanyan didn’t even bother to look at Bai Fan’s reaction any more, she turned and walked away with her high heels. Just in time to see Luo Shuai approaching, but she was not in the mood to say hello to this good friend of Bai Fan at the moment, she only glanced at him and left without looking back.

Luo Shuai walked up to Bai Fan, “What’s wrong?”

Bai Fan wiped his face and said weakly, “We broke up .”

“Broke up?” The surprise on Luo Shuai’s face was just right, then he patted Bai Fan on the shoulder and comforted, “There’s nowhere without fragrant grass in this world, why do you need to love a single flower*? There’s no point in dwelling on it, let’s go, I’ll invite you to a drink.”

On this day, Bai Fan and Luo Shuai drank a lot of alcohol, Bai Fan even forgot the time. When it was eight o’clock and he passed out on time.

Waking up in the fresh and clean air of another world, Bai Fan sat on that little broken bed and thought about it for a long time. In the end, he decided to let it go. Although in the current situation, it is not impossible to get her back, but he would always fall asleep at eight o’clock. The situation of being asleep can’t be changed, there is no way for him to accompany Yanyan to go on dates, however, the most important reason is that both of them are about to graduate, and… after graduation, they probably will go different ways, they may… still have to say goodbye.

After figuring out this issue, Bai Fan took out a steamed bun from the small package beside the pillow and put it in his mouth, and then started to read Yin Rui’s long letter. As time passed, a smile appeared on his face. The troubles created by the breakup before were swept away.

Bai Fan picked up a graphite bar and wrote a reply seriously, then added two little jokes at the end.

Notes:

Step on two boats: means having two girls at once, a very useful idiom indeed

“There’s nowhere without fragrant grass in this world, why do you need to love a single flower”: there’s a lot of fish in the sea/ there’s other girls don’t worry about it bud, move on