The weight of a hug
The immense joy and the rapid secretion of adrenaline after high-intensity exercise instantly overwhelmed Lu Yu's sanity.
He forgot about everyone around him, forgot about his carefully maintained Plan B, and forgot about the safe distance he had warned himself to keep.
He only knew that they won.
The next second, Lu Yu laughed out loud. He turned around, opened his arms, and hugged Shi Guang, who was breathing heavily with his chest heaving and his cheeks flushed, tightly!
He even hugged Shi Guang excitedly and turned around in a circle!
Shi Guang's body was light, lifted into the air by Lu Yu's powerful force. The weightlessness made him cry out in surprise, and his hands instinctively grasped Lu Yu's shoulders. When his feet landed on the ground again, he was still completely dazed. He leaned against Lu Yu's arms, gasping for breath, his ears filled with the sound of Lu Yu's strong heartbeat and the thunderous, completely crazy screams and whistles of the audience.
Lu Yu finally came back to his senses from the ecstasy of victory. He loosened his grip and looked down at the confused boy in his arms. His hair was soaked with sweat, and his lips were slightly parted as he gasped for breath.
Then he heard thunderous cheers from the surroundings.
"Give me a kiss! Give me a kiss!"
"Get married right here!!"
Lu Yu's expression gradually froze. He looked at Shi Guang's face, which had turned from red to white, and felt his body stiffen instantly. A thought exploded in his mind like thunder.
It's over.
Shi Guang raised his head, facing the deafening sound waves, and looked at Lu Yu with tired eyes.
There was no anger or panic in those eyes, nor was there any shyness. It was like a bottomless lake, clearly reflecting all of Lu Yu's panic and regret at the moment.
At that moment, Lu Yu's heart seemed to be grasped tightly by an invisible hand.
"Alright, alright! Be quiet!"
Lu Yu quickly regained his voice. He didn't let go of Shi Guang immediately, but first gently rubbed Shi Guang's soft black hair, which was wet with sweat, with a soothing and protective gesture.
Then he loosened his arms and took half a step back, but still stood in front of Shi Guang, blocking most of his sight.
He turned to face the seething crowd, his signature broad smile plastered on his face. "Everyone, calm down, calm down! Our pure revolutionary friendship can't stand up to your slander! I'm a thin-skinned man, so please give me some face, okay?"
He said the three words "my brother" frankly, his tone natural, which sounded like both a clarification and a protective declaration.
This action was more convincing than any flimsy explanation. The booing gradually died down, turning into good-natured laughter and whistles.
After the instructor took out the two huge plush bears as prizes and successfully diverted everyone's attention, Lu Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Congratulations to Lu Yu and Shi Guang from the first platoon of the seventh company for winning the championship of this fun sports meeting!" Zhou Hai stuffed the two bears into their arms and couldn't help laughing.
Lu Yu took the two funny bears and glanced at the side. Shi Guang was looking down, using the back of his hand to inconspicuously rub the hair that Lu Yu had just rubbed.
When Lu Yu was about to leave with the two bears in his arms, surrounded by his classmates, Shi Guang followed him silently. He walked up to Lu Yu and saw that he was squeezed so tightly by the two bears that he could barely see the road. Finally, he reached out and took one of the bears from his arms.
Shi Guang hugged the bear, which was almost as tall as him. The bear's head blocked his face, leaving only a muffled voice:
“…That’s so stupid.”
No one knew whether he was saying that Lu Yu, who was holding the bear, was stupid, or something else.
This little interlude made the two people's walk back to the dormitory feel strangely harmonious. A tall boy and a skinny boy, each holding a huge stuffed bear, walked along the campus's tree-lined path like two fools who had just returned triumphantly from an amusement park. The scene was surprisingly harmonious.
Back in dormitory 602, Lu Yu threw the bear to the ground and breathed a sigh of relief. Fatty Jiang immediately pounced on it, squeezing and punching it, exclaiming exaggeratedly.
"Holy crap, Brother Lu, this is the championship reward?" Fat Jiang turned the bear over and over, then pointed at the label on the back of the bear with a look of disgust. "I was told! Jiangda Souvenir Shop! Has this thing been sitting in the store for eight hundred years and can't be sold? Only then are they giving it away as a prize?"
Lu Yu was amused by him and took a bear to look at it carefully.
These two bears may seem like a pair, but they are completely different in details.
The one in his hand was slightly larger, and its entire body was a light brown like sunshine. A grinning arc was sewn into the corner of its mouth with black thread, making it look confident and a little silly. The words "Sunshine Bear" were embroidered in crooked fonts on its chest.
The one that Shiguang held was slightly smaller, with a calmer off-white color, straight corners of its mouth, and a pair of black bean-like eyes that looked particularly innocent and quiet. The words embroidered on its chest were "Moonlight Bear".
One is like the sun and the other is like the moon.
One is passionate, the other is cold.
Lu Yu looked at the sun bear in his hand, then at the moon bear that had been lost in time, and his heart suddenly moved. He felt that Jiang Xiaopang was wrong. This prize was simply tailor-made for him.
Shi Guang also put the bear against the wall, then he walked to the desk, reached out his hand, picked up the small vase on his desk that he had been fiddling with for a long time, and gently placed it on Lu Yu's desk.
In the vase, there was a small piece of foxtail grass that he had picked from somewhere.
Lu Yu stared blankly at the small vase that had appeared out of thin air on his desk. The furry foxtail grass looked especially soft in the afterglow of the setting sun filtering through the window.
"Oh, I'm so tired. I can't go on. I have to go out and recharge." Fatty Jiang used the sun bear as a pillow, slumped in the chair and groaned for a long time. Finally, driven by hunger, he struggled to stand up. "Brother Lu, Shi Guang, do you have anything to eat? I'll bring it back for you."
"No need, we can handle it ourselves." Lu Yu came back to his senses and said with a smile.
"Okay, then I'll be leaving first." Fat Jiang waved his hand, dragged his tired steps, and walked out the door swaying like a penguin. In an instant, only Lu Yu and Shi Guang were left in the dormitory.
Silence once again enveloped the small space. Lu Yu could hear the rustling of paper as Shi Guang turned the pages. Shi Guang could also hear the sound of Lu Yu's fingers gently tapping the tabletop.
This feeling is very strange, just like playing hide-and-seek when you were a kid. You know that the other person is hiding behind the door and you can even hear their breathing, but you both tacitly agree not to speak up first.
In the end, it was Lu Yu who moved first.
He stood up and walked to Shi Guang's desk, not getting too close, but keeping a polite and comfortable distance. He pointed to the small vase on his desk with a gentle smile on his face.
"Thank you for that," he said.
Shi Guang's fingers paused as he turned the pages of the book. He raised his eyes, looked at the vase, then looked at Lu Yu, and then gave a soft "hmm" as a response.
Then, silence again.
Lu Yu felt that he couldn't let the atmosphere get any colder. He scratched his head and asked in a very natural tone, "What do you want to eat tonight? I'll order takeout."
This was a very common question, but it was also their first real conversation in daily life.
Shi Guang didn't seem to expect him to ask this. A rare hint of confusion flashed through his usually cool eyes. He seemed to have gotten used to handling everything on his own and had never considered that something like dinner required discussing with another person.
"...anything is fine." After several seconds, he answered in a low voice.
"Then let's have some porridge," Lu Yu took out his phone and opened the food delivery app. "You have a bad stomach. You've been busy all day. Eat something light to nourish your stomach."
He made the decision in a declarative tone. This arrangement, without any sense of oppression, made Shi Guang unable to refuse, nor did he want to refuse.
Twenty minutes later, the takeaway arrived.
Lu Yu put his desk and Shi Guang's desk together to form a makeshift dining table. Two bowls of steaming preserved egg and lean meat porridge and a few refreshing side dishes were set out under the warm glow of two table lamps, emitting tempting heat.
There was no noise from Degenerate Street, no smoky smell from the barbecue stalls, only the quiet sound of the fan in the dormitory and the occasional slight clash of bowls and spoons between the two people.
"Try this," Lu Yu pushed a plate of cucumber salad in front of Shi Guang, "This restaurant makes good food, it's not spicy."
Shi Guang silently picked up a piece, put it in his mouth, and nodded.
"Military training...it will be over in a week, right?" Lu Yu found a topic.
"Um."
"Finally, I can take a break," Lu Yu stretched. "My mom has already sent me a WeChat message, telling me I must go home for dinner this weekend. What about you? Judging from your accent, you don't sound like a native of Jiangcheng."
Shi Guang paused for a moment, seemingly unprepared for the conversation to turn to this point. He was silent for a few seconds before softly replying, "Well, no."
"Where is that from?"
Shi Guang lowered his gaze and said softly, "In Sichuan Province."
"Sichuan Province, what a great place!" Lu Yu immediately responded, his tone filled with sincere admiration. "I traveled there when I was in high school. The food was delicious and the scenery was beautiful."
Lu Yu keenly noticed that Shi Guang didn't want to talk more about this topic, so he didn't ask any further questions.
Just as he was about to change the subject, Shi Guang raised his head and asked softly:
"And you?"
This was the first time since the start of the school year that Shi Guang took the initiative to ask about Lu Yu's personal life.
Lu Yu's heart felt like it was being gently bumped. He was stunned for two seconds before reacting. A huge smile broke out on his face. "Me? I'm a local. I grew up here."
He looked at Shi Guang and found that after asking the question, the other party seemed a little uncomfortable again, and his eyes fell back into the bowl.
Lu Yu smiled, not wanting to make the atmosphere awkward. He pointed to the dogtail grass on his desk and naturally brought the topic back to the topic: "Speaking of which, where did you find this thing on the playground?"
"The lawn on the south side," Shi Guang replied. "I saw it on the way back."
It's that simple.
There is no twists and turns in the story, and no deliberate search. I just saw it on the way back, thought it matched the vase, and brought it back with me.
Lu Yu smiled. He felt that this was very "timely".
The meal ended with this kind of casual conversation.
The two of them silently cleaned up the table and returned it to its original position. Shi Guang continued reading his book, while Lu Yu sat back in his chair. He didn't open the game or watch the video as usual, but just stayed there quietly.
He looked at the small vase on his desk. The foxtail grass looked particularly soft and tough under the light.
He turned his head and looked at the next door. Shi Guang was leaning back in his chair, the soft light from the desk lamp outlining his thin profile.
The night was very quiet, and the fan above my head was turning tirelessly, bringing gusts of cool breeze.
This was the first time they shared the same space in such a peaceful atmosphere.
There were no misunderstandings, no temptations, and no tension.
Just simply being there for each other as roommates.
Lu Yu suddenly felt that this might be what he really wanted from the beginning.
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