CH 73.1

New Year Eve’s Party (1)

Fang Li’s slender body was engulfed by him and he couldn’t beat Fu Songhua’s brute force even after pushing him away several times. After several tries, he finally gave up.

“I can’t. We can’t be friends.” His eyes were red like a beast’s and he whimpered and repeated, “You have many friends, unlike me.”

Fu Songhua eagerly said, “It’s true I have many good friends, but you’re the best out of all of them!”

Fang Li’s eyes were sore and tears slowly welled up in his eyes. “Fu Songhua… why can’t you understand? You want to befriend me, but I don’t want to befriend you.”

What he was thinking in his heart was so hidden and unspoken that it blasphemed the bright and open word ‘friendship’ like splashing grease and dirt on a brilliant and sunny painting.

Anyone who looked at it would feel that it was filthy and disgusting.

Fu Songhua was dumbfounded and his face felt like it had been slapped hard, feeling incredibly embarrassed for a moment.

So, it was like this?

After a while, he finally released Fang Li’s hand slowly, awkwardly forcing a smile. “I’m sorry. From childhood to now, I thought… everyone liked me.”

Fang Li softly said, “A lot of people like you.”

Fu Songhua leaned on the wall and slowly slid down, sitting on the floor.

He hugged his head. “It’s been a few days and you weren’t in your classroom when I walked past your class after the night self-study session.”

He muttered to himself, “It was raining tonight and I suddenly thought that you would be drenched if you didn’t bring an umbrella, so I went to your class in advance to take a look. In the end, you still weren’t there.”

Fang Li listened in a daze, the rims of his eyes becoming even redder.

“I asked Bai Jing and he said you left earlier. Nobody knew where you were. I became anxious and asked Ruan Qingmu… But he told me to leave you alone and not to ‘mess’ with people.”

He raised his head and looked at Fang Li, a bit of bewildered pain in his bright eyes. “I wanted to listen to his words but it was too hard. Seeing as to how you haven’t returned to the dorm yet, I kept thinking, were you trapped by the rain alone and hiding somewhere?”

Fang Li lowered his head and the tears in his eyes slowly seeped from the corner of his eyes. He didn’t dare to raise his head and didn’t dare to speak, afraid he would let out a sob.

“I didn’t dare to call you, afraid you would become annoyed by me. I got an umbrella and looked around the whole campus, thinking maybe I would suddenly find you.” Fu Songhua dazedly looked at their campus outside the window. “I also don’t know why… after looking around with no result, I sat here.”

Fang Li slowly pushed him away and began to climb up the stairs. “… I’m all right. I just didn’t want to attend night self-study.”

Fu Songhua shook his head. “Just now, I couldn’t help to send the class monitor a message, wanting to ask Ruan Qingmu through him if he knew where you were. But for some reason, this was the first time he sternly said ‘You have your own life,’ and told me stop ‘prying’ around.”

There was a rare look of defeat on his sunny, healthy face. “So Fang Li, what kind of life are you living? Ruan Qingmu, Dr. Gong, everyone could enter your life, only I can’t, right?”

Fang Li closed his eyes. His soft hair was wet from the rain and fell into submission on top of his head.

Dr. Gong’s words flashed through his mind. For a moment, his heart felt so uncomfortable that it felt like it was being clenched tightly by an outside force.

Everyone in that bar, the waiters wearing skirts, the white-faced server smiling happily, and the strong but gentle Dr. Gong were the same as him.

“Fu Songhua, you want to ask about my life…” He said softly, “I will tell you then.”

He smiled bitterly, but no smile could be seen in his eyes. “Do you know? The female ghost you went to catch in the past was me. I like to wear women’s clothes, dress up as a girl, and even like to dance women’s dance.”

He walked upstairs step by step with his back toward Fu Songhua, tears already streaming down his face unconsciously. “What does such a life have to do with you?”

… With several days of continuous autumn rain, it was already a few days later when the sky cleared up.

The students were stifled for several days by the gloomy rain and they played particularly crazily during today’s morning PE class.

In the middle of the sports field, the three-eighty line* that had been especially drawn for the fight between the two classes was already blurred. The two classes’ students were lively, muddling together. Some were playing mixed doubles badminton while some girls were lazily lying on the grass, drinking milk tea in secret.

*T/N: This is the line forming the border between North and South Korea.

On the basketball court, Class 1 and Class 9 were split into two sides and played the simplest of 3-on-3 matches.

Ruan Qingmu was in one group with Huang Ya with another tall boy from his class. The opponents were Qin Yuan, Fu Songhua, and another Class 1’s boy.

Ruan Qingmu had just learned how to play basketball but was already making great progress, shooting accurately and defending fiercely. But unfortunately, the two teammates from Class 9 were completely incompetent. Qin Yuan and Fu Songhua slightly joined forces and beat their side into a sorry state.

Ruan Qingmu managed to grab a ball and was about to dribble and attack when a familiar shadow flashed at his side. Qin Yuan had already rushed to intervene. He blocked in front of him again.

Ruan Qingmu’s body shifted rapidly and turned to the other side. Fu Songhua’s tall body also followed quickly, pinning him in between the left and right, preventing him from breaking through.

Huang Ya panted at the side while waving his hand. “Ruan-ge, pass it to me. Here!”

Ruan Qingmu made several fake moves, but he couldn’t get past Qin Yuan and Fu Songhua’s combined interception. His teeth itched with hatred when he glanced at them and saw the faint smile in Qin Yuan’s eyes.

He took a deep breath and rushed toward Fu Songhua’s side. Fu Songhua had a healthy, robust body and Ruan Qingmu didn’t expect to knock the stupid big guy down. He just thought that if he could dodge a little, he might be able to find a chance to pass the ball out.