◇ Chapter 35 if Shen Ci traveled to when Xie Yu was in high school
"I don't have any parents, and no one will come to bail me out."
"Compensation? I don't have any money."
"Detention? Then detain me. I won't apologize to those bastards."
Xie Yu was sitting in the interrogation room. When he hit someone just now, his fist hit the schoolbag chain, scratching a coin-sized piece of skin. The bleeding has stopped now, and a thick blood scab has formed on it, turning black and red.
The clerk typed on the keyboard with a headache: "Looking at your school uniform, you are still a high school student, right? This matter must be notified to your parents..."
"I told you, there are no parents."
Xie Yu interrupted, his tone stiff, his hair seemed to have not been cut for a long time, hanging down and half covering his eyes, he was staring at the clerk with inexplicable gloom.
"Okay, then I can only issue you a detention order..."
The clerk sighed and entered the document in front of Xie Yu. No one spoke. The small interrogation room was silent except for the sound of fingers tapping on the keyboard.
Click-click. Click-click.
Xie Yu kicked the ground intermittently, feeling upset.
He didn't know what this person wrote in the record, whether it was saying that he bullied his classmates and broke the law, or that he was disobedient and paranoid, in any case it would not be a good thing.
The clerk typed mechanically for an unknown amount of time before he suddenly paused and double-clicked the screen, as if confirming something.
Xie Yu rubbed his school pants and stood up nonchalantly: "Okay? Where should I go for detention?"
He would rather go in quickly than be looked at with surprise and pity.
"No, wait a minute, I'll take a look. Someone's here to bail you out."
"Someone?" Xie Yu sneered and sat back down. "Your system is wrong. I don't have any parents."
Unexpectedly, the clerk knocked twice and said, "No, it's true. Please go out. Someone has paid the fine for you and is waiting for you in the lobby now."
Xie Yu wondered who was joking here, or was it because they had the same name and made a mistake? He stood up and asked, "Who will bail me out?"
The other party tapped on the screen: “Let me see—Oh, his name is Shen Ci.”
*
Xie Yu met Shen Ci in the service hall.
When he came out, the man with the nice name was flipping through bail documents. He was wearing a suit and old-fashioned silver-framed glasses, and had a noble and gentle face. He did not look like he was sitting in a noisy service hall reading bail documents, but more like an ancient teacher reading poetry in a courtyard full of banana trees.
Xie Yu didn't know such a person. His high school days were like a pile of sewage in a sewer, and had nothing in common with the man in a suit in front of him.
Xie Yu thought: There must be something wrong.
He picked up his schoolbag and was about to go back to the clerk to explain that he didn't know this Chen Ci and the other party was not looking for him. He just wanted to complete the detention procedures quickly. He was too lazy to waste time.
But Shen Ci had already raised his eyes and saw him.
The moment he saw Xie Yu, his eyes suddenly burst into amazing light, like surprise, and like nostalgia. He used his eyes to carefully depict Xie Yu's outline, greedily like a traveler thirsty for water in the desert.
Xie Yu felt very awkward.
He looked at himself inconspicuously: he had worn the school uniform for a long time and it was old, faded and curled, hanging loosely on his body. There were bloodstains on his hands and schoolbag, and he looked like a bad boy at first glance.
If they met on the street, Shen Ci would probably want to walk around him.
The boy's self-esteem was immediately hurt. He sat cross-legged opposite Shen Ci and deliberately threw his schoolbag onto the stool next to him, making a loud bang. Then he asked nonchalantly, "Who are you? What do you want from me?"
Shen Ci's eyes kept falling on the wound on the back of his hand, and only then did he raise his hand to push his glasses, smiling gently: “Your father has something to do, so he asked me to take care of you for a while. Don’t go home these two days, live with me.”
As he spoke, he pushed over a cellphone screen recording, in which a drunk man staggered on the couch, mumbling like a madman: "Chen Ci... is your distant, distant cousin, who is in Jiangcheng recently. I ask him to take care of you."
Xie Yu almost laughed out loud.
He couldn't tell which of the two was more ridiculous: the smoke from his ancestral grave in the remote village that produced a person as rich and noble as Shen Ci, or the fact that his father, who was full of evil, had a brain disorder and remembered to find a temporary guardian for him when he was drunk.
Shen Ci said: “If you don’t believe it, you can call your father. It is indeed him who asked me to take care of you.”
Although some tricks were used.
Xie Yu was too lazy to talk to his father, so he picked up his schoolbag and said, "Okay, where are we going?"
He examined Shen Ci and dragged out the ending tone: “Cousin?”
Shen Ci turned around and paused.
He quickly concealed this insignificant pause and naturally took the schoolbag from Xie Yu: "I drove here, get in."
Xie Yu’s breath caught in his throat, and he snatched the schoolbag back from Shen Ci’s hand: “I don’t need you to carry it!”
He is a high school student, not an elementary school student. He is taller than Shen Ci, so it is not his turn to carry his schoolbag for his weak cousin.
Shen Ci was pulled by him and staggered slightly, but he didn’t say anything, so he had to smile temperately: “Okay, you carry it yourself.”
“…”
Xie Yu was even more unhappy.
This cousin who appeared out of nowhere seemed to treat him as a three-year-old, with helplessness yet indulgence, as if he still needed coaxing to cooperate.
But you can't hit a smiling person. With Chen Ci's look, Xie Yu couldn't get angry. He just kept a sullen face and watched Chen Ci open the trunk to put his schoolbag in, then went around to help him open the passenger door.
“…”
It's more like taking care of a three-year-old.
Xie Yu was furious and sat on the seat sulking. Shen Ci came in and reminded him softly, "Fasten your seat belt."
Xie Yu fell silent.
This feeling was really weird. In the first few decades of Xie Yu's life, his biological father treated him like an enemy, his teachers and classmates avoided him, and the rest of his relatives were strangers to him. But a "cousin" he had never met spoke to him in a friendly way and told him to fasten his seat belt.
He muttered, "I know, no need to nag," and tied it up obediently.
Shen Ci held the steering wheel and drove to a residential area near the river.
This place is adjacent to the business district, surrounded by two good primary schools, and the housing prices are high. Xie Yu thought to himself: "It is true that they are either rich or noble."
The other person lived in a large flat near the river. When Xie Yu came in, Shen Ci pointed to a room and said to him, "You will live here from now on."
He led Xie Yu around and smiled apologetically: "Time is tight, and there is no time to arrange. I bought you some small things, see if you like it."
There was no way Xie Yu didn’t like it, Shen Ci bought it according to his preferences.
Xie Yu didn't have many hobbies. He liked playing games, so there was a floor-standing display screen and matching handles in the room. Xie Yu liked riding motorcycles, so there were limited edition helmets and motorcycle keys in the room. Shen Ci even knew his favorite drinks and snacks.
“…”
Xie Yu looked around and said stiffly, "Thank you."
He didn't say this word often, his expression was stiff and his posture was awkward. Shen Ci didn't point it out. He was about to leave and leave his private space to Xie Yu, but suddenly remembered something: "By the way, you are going to take the college entrance examination soon, right?"
He looked at Xie Yu's school uniform and the name tag on his schoolbag: "I remember your father said, you will be a senior in high school soon? Then you need to control the time you spend playing games. You can only play after you finish the test papers."
Xie Yu was already feeling extremely awkward.
He didn't know why this cousin was so troublesome. It would have been fine if he just took care of his food and accommodation, but he even took care of his studies. Xie Yu hadn't studied for more than a year.
But Chen Ci was serious.
That night, he really knocked on Xie Yu's door with the test paper and asked, "Do you want to try it?"
Chen Ci's eyes were sincere, but Xie Yu was easily influenced and felt embarrassed to be living in someone else's house. So he was pushed to the side of the table without knowing what was going on and a pen was stuffed into his mouth.
This was a comprehensive science test paper, and Xie Yu began to write it in a daze. The test paper was seven or eight pages long, but Xie Yu could only understand less than one page. He wrote it carelessly and just wanted to put it away when Shen Ci took the test paper away.
Shen Ci began to correct the papers.
He sat on a chair, his silver-framed glasses reflecting warm white light under the desk lamp. Even the way he held the pen was elegant and beautiful. Xie Yu thought about his shitty answer sheet and curled up his fingers lightly.
——Chen Ci would probably think that he was an unlearned rubbish.
It was strange that his teachers and classmates all thought he was a piece of trash, and Xie Yu also considered himself to be so. But now, he suddenly felt a little sad.
But Shen Ci finished marking a set of test papers with a normal expression, circled and marked them, and then looked up at Xie Yu: "Are you tired?"
Xie Yu: “…What?”
Shen Ci: "Would you like to sit over here and listen to my explanation?"
silence.
Shen Ci did not urge him, but just sat quietly, but Xie Yu could not sit still first and rubbed the chair.
He had encountered so little kindness in his life that he couldn't refuse a few kind words from others.
Shen Ci took up the pen and began to explain fluently.
He spoke clearly, in a gentle tone, and explained fluently. He got to the point of difficulty right away and broke down the knowledge points layer by layer. Xie Yu was reluctant to learn at first, but as he listened, he actually learned most of it.
Seeing that the time had passed twelve o'clock, Shen Ci closed the pen cap and pushed Xie Yu's shoulder: "Go to bed, I'll wake you up for breakfast tomorrow."
A completely unfamiliar bedroom, a completely unfamiliar bed, Xie Yu thought he would not be able to sleep, but there was an exceptionally peaceful and gentle atmosphere around Shen Ci, and he actually fell into a deep sleep as soon as he touched the pillow.
For the next three hundred days and nights, Xie Yu went to school and Shen Ci went to work.
Their lives became more and more in tune with each other and more and more intimate.
Xie Yu didn't know what this cousin did. He only knew that he always wore a well-dressed suit and went in and out of high-rise buildings. He should be an elite who was busy with business. But every night, Shen Ci came back unshakably to teach him to do his homework, breaking down and explaining each question one by one, and even refusing phone calls, as if teaching him to do his homework was the most important thing, 365 days a year.
Occasionally on weekends, they played games together. Chen Ci made delicious soup, especially radish and pork ribs. Every time he tied an apron and cooked in the kitchen, the rising white mist blurred his noble eyebrows, and the aroma of the ribs filled the living room, Xie Yu had the urge to rush over and hug him. He had a vague illusion that Shen Ci was his family, and they had spent many years like this, plainly and warmly.
……family?
Can a distant cousin be considered a family member?
Xie Yu was a little confused.
His bipolar disorder has not recurred since he came to this house. His grades have been getting better and better. He has risen from the bottom of the class to the front. His speed of progress is astonishing. He quit playing games and riding motorcycles, and sat from morning to night like an ascetic. Even the teacher was amazed at his perseverance and even asked him to teach the secret of self-discipline to the whole class.
Xie Yu shook his head and refused.
It's embarrassing to say, but a big part of the reason why Xie Yu suddenly became interested in studying was that every time he made progress and gave his transcript to Shen Ci for signature, Shen Ci's smile was really beautiful.
He was truly happy for Xie Yu's progress.
Xie Yu didn't want to disappoint the only person in the world who was kind to him.
Days passed, and it was the college entrance examination. Shen Ci did not go to work that day, and specially accompanied Xie Yu. Like other parents, he waited at the door to pick up his child. As soon as Xie Yu stepped out of the examination room, he could stand shoulder to shoulder with him.
Xie Yu has changed a lot this year. He cut his long hair, his clothes were all chosen by Shen Ci, who had good taste, and his cheeks have gained weight, giving him a youthful look.
Shen Ci spotted Xie Yu in the crowd. He was tall and good-looking, so he squeezed through the crowd and came to his side. He asked about his well-being like other parents, and then asked, "What do you want to eat tonight?"
Xie Yu tilted his head and thought for a while, then said, "All good."
It’s all good, as long as he eats with Shen Ci, he’s not picky.
Having said that, Shen Ci still did a lot. He opened two bottles of red wine, which was rare for him, and toasted with Xie Yu shallowly as a celebration.
Xie Yu didn't sleep well during the two days of the college entrance examination. After this meal, he drank some wine and fell asleep at night. Halfway through his sleep, he began to dream vaguely. In the dream, Chen Ci leaned in his arms, with his elegant and beautiful eyebrows and eyes filled with spring water. They stuck to each other, hugged, and finally kissed. The buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned and the quilt slipped to the ground.
…
Only then did he suddenly understand what it was that throbbing in his heart every time he walked side by side with Shen Ci.
He liked the only person who was good to him and wanted to be close to him and touch his skin.
Xie Yu woke up and was stunned for a long time, then suddenly raised his hand and slapped himself.
He hit her hard, leaving red marks in an instant. Xie Yu went to the sink to wash his face with cold water, then raised his eyes to meet the disheveled face in the mirror and suddenly let out a sarcastic smile.
He thought to himself with self-mockery: "I am really not a good person."
Chen Ci is his cousin. Out of care for his family, his cousin provided him with food and shelter, and supervised his studies. However, the cousin he raised turned out to be ambitious and coveted things that he shouldn't have.
Shen Ci really shouldn’t be so nice to him.
He washed up in silence, and took advantage of the night to stuff a messy sheet into the washing machine. When he clicked the start button, the machine started up with a bang, which was particularly dazzling in the dark night. Xie Yu stayed by the washing machine, praying that Chen Ci would sleep more soundly, so that he could hide his gloomy thoughts deeply and not expose them.
But behind me, someone turned on the light.
The pure white light poured down in an instant, the darkness retreated and disappeared, and nothing could escape detection.
Shen Ci stood in the corner of the living room in only pajamas, looking surprised: "Why aren't you sleeping so late?"
Xie Yu blocked the washing machine stiffly and lowered his eyes: "I can't sleep at night."
Shen Ci looked worried, walked forward and touched Xie Yu's forehead with his hand: "Are you nervous about the exam? It's normal to be nervous after the college entrance examination."
Xie Yu didn't say anything, Shen Ci hesitated for a moment, and still asked: "It's so late, I really can't sleep, do you want to... or do you want to sleep with me?"
Xie Yu closed his eyes and wanted to laugh even more.
He wondered what Chen Ci was thinking. He was a high school graduate, was he still in elementary school? He wanted his mother to coax him when he couldn't sleep, and he insisted on sleeping with his mother? Or was he, a distant cousin, really treating him like his own child?
Does Shen Ci know what kind of dirty thoughts this "child" in front of him has towards him?
If he knew, what would he do? Would he panic, avoid her like the devil, or...feel sick.
Shen Ci obviously knew nothing about Xie Yu's secret thoughts. He even reached out and grabbed Xie Yu's wrist, trying to lead him into the house: "Come on, I'll talk to you. Everyone has gone through the college entrance examination like this. Don't be nervous."
It's like inviting a wolf into the house.
Xie Yu was furious and pushed him away with unexpected force: "No!"
Shen Ci looked back in surprise.
Since they started living together, Xie Yu hasn't spoken in this tone for a long time.
The surprise in his eyes obviously hurt Xie Yu, and Xie Yu suddenly smiled bitterly: “Chen Ci, do you really treat me as a child?”
Shen Ci blinked and hesitated: “…No?”
——How could he treat Xie Yu as a child? Every sleepless night, he missed the warmth of the embrace so much that he was almost crazy.
It’s just that Xie Yu hasn’t graduated from high school yet, and he was afraid that saying it too early might seem like he had other intentions and might scare people.
Unexpectedly, Xie Yu's expression showed even more self-mockery. He took a step forward, encircled Shen Ci in a heavy shadow, and almost questioned: "Knowing that I'm not a child, how dare you invite me to sleep with you?"
Shen Ci: “…”
——Why not?
But Xie Yu's expression was really ugly, so Shen Ci didn't ask anything, but just changed the subject and said in a good-tempered manner: "Are you feeling unwell? Do you want to eat something?"
Xie Yu was under too much pressure from the college entrance examination, and now he couldn’t be kissed or hugged, so if he wanted to comfort him, the only way Shen Ci could think of was to feed him.
——But this looks more like a parent who is worried about his child’s mental state.
Xie Yu closed his eyes tightly.
He watched Shen Ci turn around and really put on an apron to steam cakes. A ridiculous, powerless, and painful feeling suddenly came over him, burning his internal organs and causing them to ache.
Long-term loneliness made Xie Yu unaccustomed to getting along with others. He didn't get any favor from his father, so he always had low expectations. He didn't expect others to be nice to him. Now that Shen Ci was nice to him, he didn't dare to believe that this kindness would last for a long time. He could still pretend before, but that dirty dream suddenly made him realize that he could no longer pretend to be a good cousin.
Everything before our eyes is like a mirage. When the bubble bursts, we will lose everything.
And Xie Yu suffered a lot during the process.
He didn't want to wait any longer, he desperately needed an answer, so he suddenly had an urge to expose all these unbearable, unspeakable filth, and expose them clearly under Shen Ci's eyes, pointing at them and questioning him - look, the child you raised has this kind of thing in his bones, why do you still want to be so good to him?
If you had seen his heart, would you still be willing to be nice to him?
He then suddenly reached out, grabbed Shen Ci's wrist, grabbed the back of his head in Shen Ci's surprised gaze, and suddenly kissed him.
Instantly separate.
This dragonfly-like touch of water exhausted Xie Yu's courage. He took two steps back, waved his hands with difficulty, and smiled bitterly: "Now, do you still want to invite me?"
Shen Ci was stunned for two seconds.
Finally, he raised his hand under Xie Yu's dead gaze and placed his fingers on his lips, which were still slightly watery and moist.
"Oh my god." Shen Ci hesitated for a moment, then told the truth.
"Xie Yu, your kissing skills...are as bad as before."
The author has something to say:
Each of you wears it once, and then you can spread the flowers~ and enter the new unit tomorrow.
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