EAY Chapter 33
by VolareA Group of Friends
33
Qi Ye stared at him intently, making Shi Ran’s heart palpitate. Sure enough, his previous thought of letting the matter quietly pass was the right one. He really couldn’t tell Qi Ye. Besides fearing Qi Ye’s disappointment and that expression, Shi Ran also felt an indescribable emotion, which was just bad, especially bad.
After a long stalemate, his neck was sore. He finally surrendered, saying as he went upstairs, “I got into a fight with someone.”
Fighting used to be a common occurrence for Shi Ran. After all, the title of “school bully” didn’t come out of nowhere.
But since Shi Ran decided to study hard with Qi Ye, fighting had been far from his life. Hearing him say this suddenly, Qi Ye felt especially unfamiliar. His first reaction was that Shi Ran was being bullied. He asked nervously, “Who hit you?”
“Don’t make it sound like I was just getting beaten up. The other side is in a much worse state.” Shi Ran came up, standing on the same level as Qi Ye. Looking at Qi Ye’s good boy face, he explained, “I don’t think this is something to be proud of. This time, I really didn’t start it. If you really want to talk about it, it was the most heartbroken fight I’ve ever had.”
He was already using “heartbroken,” so who was it? Qi Ye was even more curious.
Shi Ran took out the key from his pocket to open the door. As he pushed the door open, he turned to Qi Ye and said, “It was some of my old friends.”
Qi Ye consciously followed Shi Ran into the house, his first sentence being, “You mean those people who used to surround you?”
Shi Ran nodded, then said, “Not all of them, just a few. Hiss—” He wanted to find a glass to pour water. There were only two water glasses in the house since it was usually just him and Grandpa Shi. Guests had to use disposable cups, which were all stored in some unknown cabinet. As Shi Ran rummaged, his hand bumped into the cabinet door several times, hurting him so much that he kept hissing.
Qi Ye couldn’t stand it anymore and quickly stepped forward, saying, “What are you looking for? I’ll help you.”
Shi Ran smiled, “I have to pour a glass of water when a guest comes.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m not thirsty. Do you have a first aid kit? You need to put medicine on those wounds quickly.” Qi Ye looked around casually, then said worriedly, “Or should we go to the nearby hospital? Let’s go.”
“Hey, hey, there’s really no need. These are all just superficial wounds. I’ve been getting these kinds of injuries since I was a kid. If I had to make a big fuss like you every time, I might as well just live in the hospital.” Shi Ran said with a smile, “There’s a first aid kit at home. Can you help me get it?”
Following the direction he pointed, Qi Ye found the small white first aid kit and pulled Shi Ran to sit down on the sofa.
Shi Ran couldn’t help but hiss a few times when the medicine touched the wound. He was about to remind Qi Ye to be gentler when he saw his particularly solemn expression. Shi Ran laughed, “It’s really not a big deal.”
After applying the medicine and putting a band-aid on the cut on his cheek, Qi Ye asked softly, “Are there any more on your body?”
There were, of course. The most injuries from a fight were often in places you couldn’t see, but Shi Ran was too embarrassed to say. He’d just look in the mirror and apply the medicine himself tonight. Anyway, he was an experienced hand.
“No, how could I be that weak? I’m the school bully.” Shi Ran chuckled twice. At the same time, his lower back was throbbing faintly. Those few people actually resorted to dirty tricks. Disgusting!
Shi Ran touched his head, “How did you think of coming to find me?”
Qi Ye avoided his gaze, tidying up the debris on the table. “I was chatting in the dorm group, and you weren’t saying anything. I called your phone, but no one answered. You didn’t go to work either. From the tone of that employee, I felt like you usually don’t take leave on holidays. I was worried something had happened to you, so—”
Qi Ye was a little disgusted with his premonition for bad things. He’d rather Shi Ran just be lazy and sleeping at home. How could he be fighting with friends and end up in such a miserable state?
“You even went to the milk tea shop.” Shi Ran chuckled twice. “What a coincidence. I was wondering when you’d come, so I could treat you to milk tea. How about tomorrow?”
Qi Ye nodded, still looking at him with worried eyes.
“I’m really sorry, Qi Ye. My phone died. I didn’t mean to not answer your call.” Shi Ran silently added an apology.
How could Qi Ye be angry with him? Plus, with that pitiful look, even if he had really made a terrible mistake, Qi Ye could forgive him immediately. Ugh, he was really hopeless.
“It’s okay.”
Shi Ran leaned back on the sofa, sighing a long sigh. “I decided to take leave today on the spur of the moment. If those few people hadn’t been urging me so urgently, I wouldn’t have been willing to give up the triple pay.”
Qi Ye asked curiously, “What did they want you to do? And how did you end up fighting?”
“They said on the phone that they were in trouble and wanted me to come and help them out.” Shi Ran said, touching his nose. “You know, those of us from before, we’d just hang around doing nothing during the holidays. We’re kind of like hooligans. We don’t actively cause trouble, we’re just wasting time. But there are always hooligans who like to cause trouble, like to swagger around in the streets. You can’t back down when you meet people like that. If you don’t fight, you’ll just keep getting pushed around. Anyway, a few of my friends ran into some troublemakers when they were having breakfast outside. They couldn’t beat them, so they called me to come.”
Shi Ran quickly added, “Don’t think of it as a chaotic scene like on TV, where the restaurant gets smashed beyond recognition and bystanders are affected. They’re not that bold. At most, they’d resolve it in a remote place, like an alley.”
Qi Ye smiled, “Yeah, I know. But didn’t you say you were fighting with your friends?”
Shi Ran hummed, showing a very helpless smile. “We didn’t fight with those troublemakers. They’re getting less and less brave. All they know how to do is talk tough. It was with those, I don’t know if I can still call them friends. At first, it was pretty good. We were chatting about each other’s recent situations, but I quickly felt like something wasn’t right. The way those few were talking was barbed. They kept saying things like, ‘College students are good, amazing,’ or ‘College students are worthless, graduates are social idiots,’ stuff like that. Anyway, they said it all. I thought it was pretty boring, so I thought about leaving first, but then those few said I was looking down on them because they went to vocational school. You know my temper, I can’t win with words, but I’m quick to act…”
Qi Ye said nervously, “You were fighting several of them alone? Why didn’t you call me?”
“There were only two or three.” Shi Ran glanced at him, his expression speaking volumes. Qi Ye felt a little frustrated, “I’m not as weak as I used to be.”
The real beginning of his and Shi Ran’s acquaintance was when Shi Ran helped him get rid of trouble, so in terms of martial ability, Shi Ran subconsciously felt that he couldn’t help himself, right?
Shi Ran said happily, “Yeah, I know. You’re now the hero who can carry ten girls to the infirmary.”
“Seven.” Someone must have spread the wrong number first, Qi Ye had to correct it every time.
The two looked at each other and laughed, the atmosphere not as heavy as before. Qi Ye looked at Shi Ran and said, “I don’t have much experience with this kind of falling out with friends, so, I don’t know how to comfort you.”
“You can tell me that some friends are only temporary, that you’re growing and moving forward, and some people are bound to be left behind.” Shi Ran said, “You can also say that actually no one is really wrong, it’s just that everyone is starting to go their own way, and there’s no need to dwell on it.” After a pause, Shi Ran smiled self-deprecatingly, “Anyway, it sounds like the meaning is about the same.”
Shi Ran said, “The principles are all similar, but when you actually experience it, you can’t avoid being sad.”
Qi Ye thought for a moment and said, “You’ll probably experience this kind of sadness again in the future.”
Shi Ran: “?”
Qi Ye said sincerely, “After all, you have so many friends. If one scatters every once in a while, it’ll probably take until after you graduate from college to scatter them all.”
“You jerk! Are you making fun of me!” Shi Ran grabbed a pillow and threw it at Qi Ye, then his whole body followed, pressing down on him. “You’ve only been gone for a day and you’ve already learned to be bad. Be honest, who did you meet, those dark-hearted friends!”
“No, no, really no.” Qi Ye laughed and dodged, seeing that Shi Ran wasn’t going to let him go, he simply went limp. Shi Ran was still pressing down on him, his face pressing down from above the pillow, meeting Qi Ye’s calm face. It seemed like he rarely looked at this face from such a close distance. Was it because he had lost a lot of weight? These features seemed more defined. No wonder so many girls at school had a crush on him. People really do judge by looks. If it were an ordinary face, it definitely wouldn’t have such a sensational effect.
Shi Ran then looked at Qi Ye’s black eyes, which seemed to contain a huge attraction. If you looked at them for a while, you could get sucked in. Shi Ran immediately put away his giggling, measuring look. It wasn’t fun anymore, this person was starting to “play dead” again.
“Ugh, boring.” Shi Ran said, straightening up. His lower back had been abused by the activity just now, and he couldn’t help but rub it.
Actually, it wasn’t boring, it was a little weird.
Shi Ran quickly shook his head, dispelling the weird atmosphere, and coughed lightly. “I don’t have as many friends as you think. If they scatter one by one, they’ll be gone soon, no need to wait until graduation.”
“Oh.” Qi Ye sat up slowly, blinked his eyes, and said softly, “I’m also among those few friends, right?”
“Nonsense!” Shi Ran glared at him sideways. “How many times do I have to tell you, you’re different from those friends.”
Qi Ye asked, “How are we different?”
Shi Ran, “Haven’t I said it before?”
Qi Ye said softly, “Maybe you have, but I forgot.”
You can never hear enough of that kind of thing. Of course, the more the better, and it would be best if each answer was different.
Shi Ran really started to think seriously. “Well, like today, for example, I was injured. If you hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have told you.”
Qi Ye frowned. “That’s not a good kind of different.”
Shi Ran laughed, then said seriously, “I’m a little afraid to tell you. Since I was a kid, no matter if I caused trouble or got hurt, the person I was most afraid to tell was Grandpa Shi. Now, I’ve added you.”
Qi Ye was greatly shaken, his fingers involuntarily gripping the sofa cushion tightly. He was flattered, “How can I be compared to Grandpa Shi?”
“You’re my best friend. Without realizing it, your importance to me has reached this point.” Shi Ran turned his head and took his hand, his eyebrows and eyes clear, smiling innocently and naturally. “Qi Ye, let’s not be those friends who are only around for a while. Let’s be good friends for a lifetime, a lifetime, okay?”
“…Okay.” Qi Ye’s heart was really filled with mixed feelings. He never knew he could have such complex psychological activities: surprise, gratification, but also sadness, melancholy. The hand gripping the sofa cushion quietly loosened.