I'll tie you up
The night breeze carried a warm scent. Yu Shi sat on the cool steps by the roadside, with several empty wine bottles beside him, some knocked over by him, and others standing upright.
Chu Sinian quietly walked over and sat down next to him. "How long have you been sitting here?"
Yu Shi turned his head and stopped crying, but the tear stains on his face made him look somewhat disheveled.
Chu Sinian didn't speak, but sat beside him, watching the leaves under the streetlights sway in the wind.
Yu Shi wiped his face: "Brother, it's dirty here." He took out a crumpled tissue from his pocket, "Wipe yourself before you sit down."
Chu Sinian chuckled, took the tissue from his hand, and said with a unique flirtatious tone, "Why are you crying? Break up with him and be with me."
Yu Shi chuckled, snot running down his face. He wiped his nose, his swollen eyes crinkling slightly. "If only we could really be together, you would definitely be a perfect lover."
Chu Sinian tapped his head, "You already know this without even watching your brother talk about it?"
As he spoke, he took out a bottle of mineral water and a row of pills he had bought, saying, "Hangover medicine, so my head won't hurt when I wake up tomorrow."
Yu Shi took the pill and gulped it down. He twisted the cap back on, licked his lips, and said, "Brother, my eyes hurt."
Chu Sinian leaned closer to him, and beneath his gaze were a pair of clear, clean eyes, only tired and swollen from tears.
He should buy an ice cup.
Yu Shi nodded wearily, breathing softly with his mouth open.
Chu Sinian leaned his shoulder closer to him. "Lean on me."
Yu Shiwei's eyes widened slightly. "Brother doesn't like people getting close."
"fine."
Yu Shi leaned closer, closed his eyes, and smelled a faint fragrance.
"I want to go back to when I was a child."
"Which childhood?"
“Elementary school. Back then, I didn’t have to worry about anything, I wasn’t afraid of getting hurt, my mom was healthy, my dad…” He rubbed his chin forward, “I would have many choices.”
Chu Sinian looked ahead and said, "Nostalgia for the past is a kind of betrayal. You have to learn to grow up when you're young."
Yu Shi lifted her head from his shoulder, rested her chin on her arm, and said sullenly, "Am I very childish in your eyes, brother?"
"At eighteen, you should be naive, but I don't want you to be foolish in matters of the heart."
Yu Shi suddenly remembered something, looked up at Chu Sinian, and said, "Brother, I want you to be happy."
Chu Sinian smiled. "Why are you suddenly talking about me?"
Yu Shi shook his head and said earnestly, "Be happy."
Tears fell silently to the corners of her mouth, sliding from her lips into her mouth, where Yu Shi tasted the salty bitterness.
The streetlights began to cast a desolate glow, and a withered autumn leaf drifted about beneath them, its edges blackened and its stem withered and lifeless.
Chu Sinian turned to look at Yu Shi, who was lying on the side, fast asleep, his face flushed with embarrassment, and a deep weariness emanating from his slumped body.
Chu Sinian carried him on his back and walked forward in silence.
——
Astronomy is a niche major with few students, and a professor can memorize most of it in just one class.
Chu Sinian arrived at the classroom very early. The morning sun shone through the curtains that were not fully closed, forming a pattern of light that illuminated the slightly dim classroom.
Around 8 o'clock, a classmate walked up to him, sat down next to him as usual, and opened a book. "You're here so early?"
"It is a bit early."
The classmate flipped through a few pages, then suddenly frowned and turned his head. "Have you been drinking?"
Chu Sinian looked at his single-eyelid eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses and shrugged. "A little bit."
The classmate leaned closer to him and smelled him, "Chu Sinian, who are you trying to fool?"
"For me, it's just a little bit." He smiled, his face revealing a touch of roguish charm.
Kong Bo adjusted his glasses, glanced away, and said, "You just had surgery last month. You're asking for trouble, but you're not going to do this."
"After a month, it no longer has any impact."
Few friends could lecture him.
Chu Sinian turned his gaze to that relaxed face that hadn't changed much.
Kong Bo is a friend he has known since childhood.
The two women's mothers were acquainted and often took them to visit each other when they were young. However, not long after, Chu Sinian moved away from the manor and settled in another city, and the two rarely met again.
They each have their own things to do and their own new social circles, and they rarely see each other except when they participate in some large-scale business events together.
Unexpectedly, the university brought many people together again.
After finishing two classes, Chu Sinian went back to his dormitory to wash up and go to sleep. As soon as his head hit the pillow, fatigue rushed over like a tsunami and he quickly fell asleep.
He was only woken up by Ning Zicheng, who left for class resentfully, and then he fumbled for his phone to check the time; it was a little after 3 p.m.
"Are you awake?" Ning Zicheng asked, standing in front of his bed.
Chu Sinian, peeking through the slightly drawn curtains and leaning against the cushions, asked, "What brings you here?"
Being late for class, Ning Zicheng asked a question casually and immediately rushed out of the room to send a message to Chu Sinian as if in a race.
[Our dorm is going out for dinner tonight, so cancel all your plans, especially Yu Shi's.]
Chu Sinian raised an eyebrow and sent a voice message in a cheeky tone, "If I don't seize the opportunity to take advantage of Yu Shi's breakup, I'll have wasted my life."
Ning Zicheng was furious upon hearing the voice message and replied instantly, "I don't care how old you are! If you don't come tonight, I'll tie you up and bring you here!"
The reality was just as tough as he described.
As soon as get out of class ended, Ning Zicheng immediately dragged her two roommates back. When she saw Chu Sinian dressed neatly in a chair, she nodded in satisfaction and took him to the restaurant.
The sky above the road changed from a dusky yellow to a dark blue hue, appearing alongside the streetlights that lit up along the roadside.
Ning Zicheng listened to the conversation between the two people next to her, occasionally glancing at Chu Sinian's face, which was always smiling and made his originally cold features gentle.
Ning Zicheng couldn't help but ask, "You didn't come back all night last night. Did you go to keep Yu Shi company?"
"Guess."
"Guess what?!"
"Do you know how Yu Shi found out he was cheating?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Liang Jingsi posted a photo of him kissing a woman on her WeChat Moments, the very night they got back together."
Chu Sinian paused, the image of Yu Shi's red and swollen eyes from that night flashing through his mind.
What good is youthful passion if it all ends in a mess in the end?
"Feeling sorry for him now? Liang Jingsi is such a bastard."
Chu Sinian snapped out of his daze and couldn't help but laugh as he heard him scolding Liang Jingsi.
"That person is so petty, he might even pester you if he hears you say that."
"Come on, let him come if he dares."
Ning Zicheng has been willful since childhood, so he doesn't care.
However, they've known each other for almost four years now.
The two spent their most unrestrained adolescence together, during which he completely lost face, constantly doing stupid things that left a bunch of people cleaning up his messes.
Chu Sinian was different; he was always like an outsider, never doing anything foolish or dramatic, nor experiencing any passionate love.
He remained detached from the ever-flowing torrent.
The hot pot restaurant was quite far from the school, and it took them a while to get there.
Liang Tong was starving, so he ordered food as soon as he arrived at the restaurant.
Chu Sinian, Ning Zicheng, and Zhou Zhuo are all people who don't eat spicy food, while Liang Tong loves spicy food, so they ordered a hot pot with two broths.
Ning Zicheng took a bite of the appetizer and said, "The first-year graduate student in computer science at our school made it to the ACM finals, right? I heard they had a conflict, and apparently one of them was kicked out of the team by their coach."
Liang Tongjie said, "Yes, there's a guy in the team named Zhang Xiu who's my friend. It seems like they got into a fight during a celebration, but I don't know if it's true or not."
Ning Zicheng frowned. "Celebrating?"
Wasn't the time they bumped into each other at the bar a celebration? Ning Zicheng suddenly remembered the pile of glass shards swept away, Li Liao's pleading toast, and the less-than-pleasant expressions of the other two.
He froze instantly, his scalp tingling.
Zhou Zhuo rinsed the chopsticks and washed the other three chopsticks as well. "They must be fake. They're all so old, it can't be that bad."
"They all seem to be 22 years old. What's scary is that their coach is the same age as the players. Can you imagine how that would be?"
Chu Sinian laughed out loud, "A genius?"
"Yeah, that guy is a fucking genius. If I were with him, I probably wouldn't be able to handle the psychological gap," Liang Tong said sheepishly.
"Is it true that they fought?"
Before Liang Tong could answer, Ning Zicheng immediately moved closer to him and said, "It's absolutely true."
"Do you remember that time a few days ago when you were so drunk at the bar that you passed out? You passed out in their booth, you know that? You really know how to pick a place."
Chu Sinian touched his chin, recalling the lingering sensation on his body. He had drunk too much that day and was not fully conscious, but it seemed…
Did I hit someone that day?
Ning Zicheng said "Ah", "No, I didn't see it."
Chu Sinian had no choice but to give up.
The hotpot meal ended quickly, and it was too early for them to leave.
Liang Tong, still wanting more, suggested going to a bar, but Ning Zicheng refused.
"No way, I thought you were a party animal. How come you don't even go to bars?" Liang Tong said, then turned to Chu Sinian and said, "Let's go, let's go."
Ning Zicheng grabbed Chu Sinian and said, "Don't even think about it, he's not going. Why don't you take Zhou Zhuo and go have some fun? He's never been before, it'll be new to him."
"No way, why don't you go? They're all innocent young men."
Ning Zicheng gave him a light punch, then casually pointed at Chu Sinian and said, "Are you kidding me? My brother can be a womanizer without ever getting a single petal on him, what do you think!"
Chu Sinian slapped his head and tilted it, saying, "I have a drinking problem, and I can't help it once I start."
"Oh, oh, oh." Liang Tong smiled apologetically, "That's really not appropriate. You guys go back and rest, I'll take Zhou Zhuo out to play."
"No way! Don't corrupt him!"
Before Ning Zicheng could finish calling, Liang Tong put his arm around Zhou Zhuo's shoulder and left, saying, "You're not going anyway, why are you meddling in other people's business? Little Zhuo is happy to be with me."
The two figures were one tall and one short. Zhou Zhuo struggled to look back, but Liang Tong pulled her face back.
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