DP Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Xiang Yiye got out of the car, and Xu Chuo lowered the car window, seeing him turn his head several times, almost bumping into someone.

Xu Chuo returned a warm smile, but a trace of worry surfaced in his heart. He didn’t know if he would become like that frog in warm water, softened by gentleness and companionship, gradually losing the courage and ability to face cruelty and loneliness.

He always stands at the beginning, already envisioning the end.

Xiang Yiye rushed to the classroom. The teacher was still adjusting the courseware. The seat he usually sat in was already taken, with several books on the desk. His eyesight was normal, and he usually sat in the third row from the back in the center, near the aisle.

Just as he was scanning for other seats, Wu Yiyue waved at him from the back and bent down to the front row, taking the books off the desk. Xiang Yiye walked over.

“I can’t believe I’m seeing you rushing to class at the last minute,” Wu Yiyue said, “I saved you a seat. Tell me how you’re going to thank me.”

“I woke up late this morning,” Xiang Yiye said, “How do you want to be thanked…besides calling you dad.” Wu Yiyue had no other hobbies, just liked to be a father to everyone in the world.

Wu Yiyue pretended to think, and Xiang Yiye immediately seized the opportunity to add a condition: “Calling you grandpa is also out of the question.”

“Am I the kind of person who likes to take advantage of others?” Wu Yiyue said, “There’s a basketball game next month, against the Material Science department. That kid Ye Ming broke his arm on the court a few days ago, and it’ll probably take a few months to recover.”

Xiang Yiye was on the department basketball team in his freshman year, but he had hardly participated in any games since sophomore year, and rarely went to practice. He had a lot of work and studies to do, and then he probably had to make time for dates, so thinking of this, he smiled and said, “Then I guess I can’t play, I’m too busy. Don’t you have other centers who can fill in?”

“We do, but none as tall or as skilled as you. I’m telling you, Xiang God, it’s one thing to refuse someone, but you’re refusing so happily, are you secretly gloating?” Wu Yiyue tried to persuade him further. The classroom quieted down, and the teacher began the class.

After a while, Xiang Yiye turned his head and asked, “Did you bring paper and a pen? I forgot to bring mine.”

“Do I look like someone who takes notes?” Wu Yiyue said. It was good enough if he brought the textbook.

So Xiang Yiye borrowed from other classmates, wrote the main points on scratch paper, and planned to organize them later.

Wu Yiyue looked at Xiang Yiye coming to class empty-handed, without bringing books or a tablet, and was a little puzzled.

Usually in class, Xiang Yiye would sit upright in the front row and listen, while Wu Yiyue would hide in the back row, happily slacking off. Today, he inexplicably found that his battle comrade on the front line, his shield, was unusual. He stopped slacking off and stared at the back of Xiang Yiye’s head for research.

By the time the last class ended, the two went to the second floor of the cafeteria to eat. Wu Yiyue watched Xiang Yiye staring at an ordinary boiled egg on his plate and grinning foolishly. Finally, he analyzed that his comrade was really a bit lovesick today.

Wu Yiyue poked the plate, as if he had discovered something amazing, and exclaimed, “Wow, Xiang God, what’s that on your neck?”

Xiang Yiye immediately pulled up his collar, his face flushed unnaturally: “It’s nothing, you must have seen wrong.”

This reaction confirmed it. Wu Yiyue was heartbroken: “We agreed that we brothers would stay single based on our abilities. How could you betray the organization first!”

Xiang Yiye: “…” He seemed to have been tricked.

Wu Yiyue: “I will announce it to the world, unless you give me 50 as a hush money… wait, you’re actually transferring it…”

Xiang Yiye: “Is 50 enough?”

“No, talking about money hurts feelings,” Wu Yiyue said, “Next month’s basketball game, are you really not coming? Now that you’re taken, think about us brothers. I’ll find a way to get the girls from the Literature, Fine Arts, and Music departments to come watch the game. It would be embarrassing to lose to Material Science.”

Xiang Yiye: “Even if I go, we might not win. Material Science is pretty good.”

Wu Yiyue saw a glimmer of hope and said, “It doesn’t matter, winning or losing is secondary. We won’t have many chances to play together in the future. The key is to promote the competitive spirit of our Engineering department’s men’s basketball team!”

It was quite cheesy, but Xiang Yiye was amused: “Then I’ll try my best. I’ll practice more these days.”

Wu Yiyue was so happy that he wanted to celebrate on the spot. After being noisy, he sat down and said seriously, “Then, if your ‘sister-in-law’ is free that day, she can come and watch too. That way, she’ll be so mesmerized that she’ll never leave you.”

The words “sister-in-law” made Xiang Yiye laugh and cry. “We’ll see. He’s not much more free than I am.”

After eating, Xiang Yiye returned to his residence to get his books and computer, and went back to school for the afternoon classes.

The classroom was crowded with people, a common sight in large elective courses across departments. D University had a rich history, and just as old as the dormitory facilities was the course selection system. Every semester, as soon as the academic affairs system opened, tens of thousands of students would flood in, and the system would crash instantly.

At the beginning of course selection, Xiang Yiye would do his homework, collect information to understand various courses, first considering personal interests and relevance to his major, with course difficulty and teacher style as secondary. Later, he found that it wasn’t necessary to do so much, because most people couldn’t get the courses they wanted anyway, and many colleges had developed a fixed pattern. Most people just chose the same courses as their seniors before them, as long as they could get the credits.

The afternoon class was in psychology, which Xiang Yiye was quite interested in. It also helped him understand characters in acting, but he wouldn’t listen the whole time, as his energy was limited. He was looking up literature underneath, planning to write the final paper for this course.

His eyes were on the screen, but he was a little distracted, constantly checking his phone for messages. After procrastinating for half an hour, he made up his mind and put his phone face down, focusing on writing the paper.

After successfully deciding on a topic, outlining it, and writing the first part, a classmate he didn’t know suddenly patted him and passed him a folded letter.

As soon as Xiang Yiye saw the color of the letter paper, he had a premonition. He looked around and saw a girl in the diagonal back paying attention to him.

He opened the letter, which read: Hello, I’m a freshman from the Foreign Languages department. I’ve noticed you for a long time. I think you’re very handsome. Can I get to know you? My WeChat is…

The handwriting was delicate, with a smiley face at the end. Xiang Yiye picked up a pen to reply, paused, folded the letter paper and put it in his book, then tore off a piece of grid paper, considered for a while, and wrote back carefully, passing it back.

As soon as the note left his hand, the phone on the desk vibrated. Xiang Yiye paused, flipped it over and saw that it was indeed Xu Chuo.

He hadn’t done anything, but he felt inexplicably guilty. It seemed that one’s sense of morality shouldn’t be too high.

Xu Chuo: “Can you send me a copy of your schedule?”

Xiang Yiye: “Are you going to audit my classes?”

Xu Chuo: “I want to know when you have time.”

Xiang Yiye opened his schedule for the next month, added the basketball game, revised the previous plan, changed some aerobic activities to basketball training, and sent it over.

When he left the school gate in the evening, Xu Chuo’s car was still parked in the same place, giving Xiang Yiye the illusion that the car had been there all along, waiting from day to night.

He was in a daze, wondering if he hadn’t gone to the Blue Bar yesterday, he would be walking home alone now?

Life is sometimes long and monotonous, as if every day is the same, and sometimes it changes too quickly, making it difficult to distinguish between chance and necessity, like a one-way ray with unevenly distributed points.

At dinner, Xu Chuo said, “I want to take you somewhere on the weekend in a few days, but it’s a bit far, more than three hours round trip.” He looked at Xiang Yiye’s packed schedule, which also had events on the weekend, with a half-day rest each week, usually Friday afternoon.

Xiang Yiye: “Where to? It wouldn’t be some mountain villa, would it?”

Xu Chuo was surprised: “Does social psychology also teach mind reading?”

Xiang Yiye: “Just guessing. Don’t rich people like buying villas everywhere?”

He knew that Xu Chuo had a Shangri-La-like place, on Little Cang Mountain in the suburbs of City S. In his previous life, when he wanted to be alone, Xu Chuo would go into the mountains alone for a few days, without taking anyone else, including Xiang Yiye.

Xu Chuo: “I want to find a place where it’s just you and me, even if it’s just for half a day.”

Xiang Yiye felt a softness in his heart and said, “If you don’t mind the hassle, then let’s go.”

On Friday afternoon, the two went to the supermarket to buy some supplies and drove to Little Cang Mountain. In April, the winding mountain road was lined with lush green hills.

“We may have to stop at the Little Cang Mountain Sanatorium later,” Xu Chuo said.

“Are you visiting someone?” Xiang Yiye asked.

“It’s my teacher,” Xu Chuo said, “He just passed the physical detoxification period. The next few months are crucial. He can’t have contact with the outside world.”

“Can he really quit? Why did he start in the first place?” Xiang Yiye was skeptical.

Xu Chuo said, “A few years ago, when his body wasn’t having any problems, he found that he couldn’t paint anymore. That was like losing his life to him. He tried to change his lifestyle and started backpacking around, and almost got stuck in Southeast Asia. When he came back, he said that the world was the same every day, and there was nothing new to be excited about anymore. He’s been very depressed ever since.”

Just like some poets who suddenly end their lives without warning, so-called geniuses see, hear, and think differently from ordinary people, and others can’t understand their world.

Xiang Yiye didn’t want to understand either. He said, “Did you apply to give up the competition ranking because of him?”

Xu Chuo didn’t know how to say it. He simplified it: “It’s just a competition.”

So it was related. Xiang Yiye said, “But he can’t force you to make decisions, can he? Even if he’s your teacher, he should respect you.”

“He’s not having an easy time,” Xu Chuo said, “I’m partly responsible for him becoming like this. Sometimes I think, if I had kept my teacher’s wife seven years ago, things might have been different.”

“Why are you blaming yourself? He didn’t keep his own wife. How could he expect a child to do anything? Looking at it from another perspective, he treated the closest person to him like that. How good could he be to others? I don’t think he deserves any pity at all…” Xiang Yiye said, then stopped, feeling that his words were a bit harsh.

Xu Chuo didn’t say anything.