Chapter 3
In the evening, Li Ruiyuan was awakened by a call from his mother. "Ayuan, come with me to the market." The clamor of the market came from the other end of the line. "Xuanxuan said she wants to eat boiled chicken." Li Ruiyuan tutted and was about to refuse when he saw Wu Ye standing in the corner of the living room, like a forgotten suitcase.
"Hey," he kicked the sofa leg, "Do you know how to pick a chicken?" Wu Ye was stunned for a moment, nodded, and then shook his head. "Let's go." Li Ruiyuan put out his cigarette, "Don't stand there like a log."
The market was bustling with activity, and the damp ground was littered with vegetable leaves and fish scales. His mother had been waiting there for a long time, and when she saw Wu Ye behind Li Ruiyuan, her brows immediately furrowed.
"Who is this?" his mother asked in Cantonese, her eyes roaming over Wu Ye's worn jeans and washed-out T-shirt. "A friend," Li Ruiyuan said, not wanting to explain. Clearly unconvinced, his mother pulled him aside and asked, "Are you hanging out with those babbling people again?" Her voice was quiet, but Wu Ye had undoubtedly heard it. He stood there, his fingers picking at the seam of his pants without realizing it.
Li Ruiyuan was about to retort when his mother turned to Wu Ye and said, "My dear, you must be studying hard to work hard."
Wu Ye looked up and said softly, "Read."
"A side school?"
"Guangwei Middle School."
The air suddenly grew quiet. The suspicion on the mother's face instantly turned to surprise. In this old town, children who could attend Guangwei were the envy of their neighbors.
"Really?" Mother's tone softened. "What grade are you in?"
"Senior year."
"How are your grades?" Wu Ye glanced at Li Ruiyuan: "Not bad... not bad."
His mother's expression had completely softened. She even smiled and patted Wu Ye's arm, "Good boy! Guangwei is such a difficult university to get into!"
Li Ruiyuan scoffed, "Mom, your expression changes faster than turning the pages of a book." His mother glared at him and said to Wu Ye, "Do you know how to teach others? Xuanxuan is so bad at math, I don't even know how to teach her..."
Wu Ye's ears turned red: "Sure."
"Oh, great!" Mother suddenly remembered something. "Wait, I'll go buy a nice chicken to add to the dishes tonight!"
She hurried over to the delicatessen stand, leaving the two young men staring at each other in bewilderment.
"Guangwei?" Li Ruiyuan raised an eyebrow. "I didn't notice." Wu Ye lowered his head. "Public school students are free of tuition."
"Are you testing Guangwei for fun?" Li Ruiyuan laughed. "You're quite the pretentious fellow."
On the way home from buying groceries, his mother treated Wu Ye like one of her own. She kept asking him questions about everything from his studies to his daily life, and even about what his parents did for a living.
Wu Ye was silent for a moment: "They are gone." His mother fell silent immediately, her eyes softening: "Oh, I'm sorry... Where are you living now?" "With me," Li Ruiyuan said for him, "For now."
The mother looked at Wu Ye and then at her son, and suddenly sighed: "Ah Yuan, you are imitating the servants. I am a good student of Guangwei..."
Li Ruiyuan rolled his eyes but did not refute.
At dinner, four dishes and a soup were on the table, a rare occasion. Wu Ye's mother kept serving him food, saying, "Eat more! Studying is really taxing." Li Xuan snickered, earning a glare from Li Ruiyuan.
"Brother Wu Ye," Li Xuan suddenly asked, "Can you teach me math? Our class will have a test next week." Wu Ye paused with his chopsticks and looked at Li Ruiyuan.
"Why are you looking at me?" Li Ruiyuan ate his food. "It's up to you to teach me or not."
Wu Ye finally nodded: "Okay." His mother immediately smiled: "That's great! A Yuan, look how nice he is..."
After dinner, Li Xuan actually took out her math homework. Wu Ye sat next to her, his solution so clear that even Li Ruiyuan was surprised. Sunlight streamed in through the kitchen window, casting long shadows on the two young people.
Li Ruiyuan leaned against the door frame and watched for a while, and suddenly felt that the scene was a bit ironic. The best high school student in the city was sitting in the home of a gangster.
While washing dishes, his mother whispered to Li Ruiyuan, "You poor boy, you finally did something good." Li Ruiyuan didn't respond, but simply watched Wu Ye's serious face as he taught her the exercises. The boy's eyes were terrifyingly focused as he solved the problems, completely unlike the gloomy and depressed boy he was during the day.
That evening, Wu Ye volunteered to wash the dishes. His mother couldn't refuse, so she let him go. Li Ruiyuan leaned on the balcony railing, smoking, and watched Wu Ye's busy figure in the kitchen. Moonlight streamed in, illuminating his washed-out school uniform.
"Hey," Li Ruiyuan suddenly asked, "You have no future with me..." Wu Ye paused while washing the dishes: "But you helped me." The sound of water splashed, and after a long time, Wu Ye said: "What kind of person do you think I am?"
Li Ruiyuan exhaled a puff of smoke and said, "A stray dog that no one wants." Wu Ye actually laughed: "What about you?"
"Needless to say? He must be your master." Li Ruiyuan laughed and pushed him a few times.
Under the moonlight, the eyes of two young men met in the air. One was lazy and uninhibited, the other was gloomy and paranoid, but they were inexplicably compatible.
His mother called out from the living room, "Ah Yuan! Stop ordering me around!" Li Ruiyuan put out his cigarette and said to Wu Ye, "Did you hear that? You're the apple of our eye now."
Wu Ye lowered his head and continued washing dishes, but his ears turned slightly red.
After dinner, the mother saw Li Ruiyuan pulling out an old mattress from the cabinet and spreading it on the floor in the bathroom.
"What are you doing?" asked the mother, frowning.
"Make the bed." Li Ruiyuan didn't even raise his head. "Are you going to let him sleep on the sofa?" Wu Ye stood aside and whispered, "I can sleep anywhere..."
The mother snatched the mattress away and said, "You idiot! How can you let people sleep on the floor?"
Li Ruiyuan frowned and said angrily, "So what? Are you going to sleep with me?"
"When you were little, you shared a bed with your dad!" His mother pushed him away in anger. "Why are you pretending to be a big shot now?"
Li Ruiyuan staggered and his face darkened. Wu Ye said quickly, "Auntie, I can really sleep on the floor..."
"What the hell!" The mother turned to Wu Ye and said in a softer tone, "You have to go to school tomorrow, how can you sleep on the floor?"
Finally, the mother forcibly changed Li Ruiyuan's bed to a clean one and placed Wu Ye's schoolbag at the head of the bed: "You squeeze in with A Yuan, he won't dare to bully you." (You squeeze in with A Yuan, he won't dare to bully you.)
Li Ruiyuan leaned against the door frame and sneered: "Mom, you don't really think he's your son?" (Mom, you don't really think he's your son?)
His mother glared at him and said, "They are top students from Guangwei! What do you know?"
After his mother left, the atmosphere in the room suddenly became awkward. Li Ruiyuan's single bed was only 1.2 meters wide, which was really a stretch for two grown men.
"I'll sleep on the floor." Wu Ye said in a low voice.
"Why are you hitting me?" Li Ruiyuan ripped open his T-shirt in anger. "My mom will nag you again if she finds you sleeping on the floor during a checkup tomorrow."
He was the first to lie down on the side against the wall, with his back facing the outside. Wu Ye hesitated for a moment before carefully lying down on the edge of the bed, trying not to touch him.
It was late at night, and moonlight was filtering in through the gaps in the curtains. Li Ruiyuan could feel the body behind him tense, like a piece of wood.
"Hey," he suddenly said, "Why aren't you sleeping?" (Hey, why aren't you sleeping yet?)
Wu Ye's voice was very soft: "I'm afraid of disturbing you."
Chen Ruiyuan found it funny and said jokingly, "Your breathing is disturbing me." Wu Ye immediately held his breath.
Li Ruiyuan turned over and faced him. In the darkness, only the boy's vague outline could be seen. "Are all the students at Guangwei as weird as you?" (Are all the students at Guangwei as weird as you?)
Wu Ye was silent for a while: "I'm not a good student."
"You can see it."
After a while, Wu Ye suddenly asked: "Then why did you help me?" Li Ruiyuan closed his eyes: "Maybe because I am cheap"
“…”
It rained at night, and raindrops pattered against the window. In his half-awake state, Lee Seo-yeon could feel the boy beside him trembling.
"Cold?" he asked vaguely. "A little..."
Li Ruiyuan cursed and kicked the quilt over there: "Cover it up"
Wu Ye carefully wrapped the quilt tightly and said in a lower voice: "Thank you..."
At dawn, Li Ruiyuan discovered he was actually holding something. He opened his eyes and saw Wu Ye, huddled in his arms, fast asleep, his forehead resting on his chest. The boy's breathing was light, and his eyelashes fluttered slightly in the morning light.
".?" Li Ruiyuan was stunned
He was about to push the door open when it suddenly opened. "A Yuan! Go buy breakfast—" His mother's voice was stuck in her throat.
Li Ruiyuan immediately withdrew his hand and sat up as if nothing had happened: "What's the matter?"
His mother looked at him, then at Wu Ye, who had been woken up, and suddenly smiled, looking particularly kind: "You two little boys, you sleep so badly."
When she closed the door, Wu Ye's ears were already red: "I'm sorry..."
"What are you sorry for?" Li Ruiyuan kicked off the quilt and got out of bed. "Make the quilt, classmate." (What are you sorry for? Make the quilt.)
Sunlight streamed in through the curtains, dividing the room into two halves: light and dark. As Wu Ye lowered his head to fold the quilt, Li Ruiyuan noticed a faint scar on the back of his neck.
"Here," he pointed and suddenly asked, "How's that?"
Wu Ye subconsciously touched the back of his neck. "When I was little... I was careless." Li Ruiyuan didn't ask again. Some wounds didn't need to be asked a second time.
During breakfast, his mother was particularly happy and kept giving Wu Ye some fried dough sticks. “Come back tonight and have some soup. I made some traditional Chinese soup!”
Li Xuan secretly said to Li Ruiyuan: "Brother, Mom seems to like Brother Wu Ye more."
Li Ruiyuan sneered: "What are you talking about? Eat your buns."
Wu Ye lowered his head to drink soy milk, but the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. The sun shone on him, and the collar of his school uniform looked white from washing, but it was very clean.
"Let's go, classmate Wu, let's go to school"
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