The next morning, before the assembly, Lin Shiyu found the accompanying school teacher and mentioned that he wanted to go home for a while.

The teacher asked him, “What do you need to go home for?”

“There’s something at home.” Lin Shiyu didn’t want to elaborate much and explained briefly, “My mom wants me to come home for a bit.”

The teacher was a reasonable person and nodded. “Alright, then go talk to your instructor and ask him to give you a leave slip. I’ll take you out when the time comes.”

Ask Instructor Chen for a leave slip?

Lin Shiyu stood in formation and glanced at the instructor, who always had a stern face, and gritted his teeth.

The sun was still scorching hot today. The male students of Class Seven’s formation had to stand in military posture longer than other formations. Fortunately, they had occasional breaks where they could disperse and go to a shady area to drink some water, but the duration of the break entirely depended on the instructor’s mood.

During one break, Lin Shiyu didn’t go for water and walked up to Instructor Chen.

Instructor Chen leaned against a tree with his arms crossed and glanced at him, his voice lacking fluctuation. “What’s the matter?”

Everyone got nervous when they saw Lin Shiyu standing with the instructor, fearing that he would do something to provoke the ferocious and stern-faced figure, and might be punished to run a dozen or twenty laps on the playground or even get beaten up.

Lin Shiyu knew he was asking a favor, so he had to try to lower his attitude and make his voice sound less harsh. “I would like to request a leave slip.”

“Oh, this time you can’t engage in intense physical activity?” Instructor Chen sarcastically remarked. “Is it a headache or weak legs?”

Lin Shiyu tried to remain calm. “There’s something going on at home. I’ll finish training tonight and go back home. I’ll be back the next morning.”

“What’s so urgent that you have to take this opportunity to go back? Who doesn’t have things going on at home? Everyone else is training just fine, but you insist on leaving.” Instructor Chen’s tone turned cold. “What’s the matter? Are you the pillar of your family? Can’t they manage without you for a short while?”

Lin Shiyu took a deep breath, and an uncontrollable flame of anger surged in his chest. He was never good at communicating with others in a gentle manner, and now that he was provoked it caused his tone to become more forceful. “I said it won’t affect my training time.”

“Whether your leave affects it or not, is that up to you to decide?” Instructor Chen stood up straight and pointed at Lin Shiyu’s nose with his hand. “Do you want me to teach you how to speak to instructors? Is this how you ask for a favor? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’re here to pick a fight! Every day, you strut around in front of me with a bad attitude. Who are you showing off to? Do you think you are the only one with a temper? Do you think you can act tough?”

Lin Shiyu clenched his fists.

“Who are you glaring at?” Instructor Chen suddenly shouted. “Do you really think I won’t hit you?!”

Everyone looked at them. Zhong Qi put down his water bottle and looked over, lightly squeezing the bottle with his fingers, making a slight cracking sound.

Mao Silu nervously stood up. “Why are they arguing again?”

Ruan Zhikai said, “Two stubborn guys picking on each other.”

Instructor Chen, no longer paying attention to Lin Shiyu, turned his head and whistled. “Line up and gather!”

After the team had assembled in an orderly manner, he spoke in a cold voice. “Everyone, fifteen minutes of push-ups. Don’t even think about slacking off. Begin!”

Then he turned his head to look at Lin Shiyu and said, “Lin Shiyu, thirty minutes of push-ups. Start.”

Zhong Qi was taken aback as he looked at Lin Shiyu. However, Lin Shiyu remained silent for a few seconds and then bent down, placing his hands on the ground and without a word, started doing the push-ups.

After fifteen minutes, when the others had finished their push-ups, some almost stumbled and fell due to how exhausted their arms became.

Lin Shiyu continued doing push-ups.

Zhong Qi wiped off the small stones embedded in his skin, and he saw sweat beads forming on Lin Shiyu’s forehead. His complexion had darkened since the beginning of the military training, but he was still fairer than most people. A blush crossed his cheeks and earlobes, spreading a faint redness to the back of his neck.

Gao Jie also watched Lin Shiyu and couldn’t help but sigh. “He knows the instructor doesn’t like him, yet he keeps provoking him. Why is he so stubborn?”

Thirty minutes later, Lin Shiyu planted one foot and stood up, supporting himself with his knees.

The cement ground in front of him was damp with sweat, and his forearms, with rolled-up sleeves, were still sweating. He stood under the scorching sun, panting, emitting heat from his whole body.

Zhong Qi immediately noticed some red spots on his palm that had been pressed against the ground for too long, causing the skin to be scraped and bleeding.

“Finished?” Instructor Chen glanced at him and then casually said, “If you’re done, why aren’t you back in formation? Why are you standing there like a tree stump?”

Lin Shiyu pulled down his sleeves and returned to the team.

During the lunch break, Lin Shiyu left the training ground and walked towards the cafeteria. Before he walked halfway, someone caught up to him.

Zhong Qi approached him from behind and asked, “Where are you going?”

Lin Shiyu was already feeling frustrated and didn’t feel like talking much so he simply replied, “To the cafeteria.”

“Aren’t you going to the infirmary to have it looked at?”

Lin Shiyu was taken aback and couldn’t react in time. “Why should I go to the infirmary?”

Zhong Qi held his wrist and lifted it, palm facing up. The bloodstains in Lin Shiyu’s palm had dried up, and the area around it was dirty with dust.

“Shiyu, what happened to your hand?” Mao Silu seemed to appear out of nowhere, and hurriedly stood beside him. “You need to go to the infirmary and have it checked.”

Lin Shiyu withdrew his hand impatiently and said, “I’m hungry. I want to eat.”

Zhong Qi nodded at Mao Silu, gesturing for him to get some food. “Alright.” Mao Silu made an obedient gesture and didn’t wait for Lin Shiyu’s response before running off towards the cafeteria.

“Let’s go.” Zhong Qi said to Lin Shiyu.

Lin Shiyu was puzzled as Zhong Qi led him away from the direction of the cafeteria. After a while, he finally reacted and asked, “Why are you following me?”

“To make sure you don’t run off.”

It was obviously an offhand excuse, but Lin Shiyu didn’t bother to inquire further. Since they had already passed the cafeteria, and his hand indeed felt a little painful, he simply headed towards the infirmary.

“What did you say to the instructor?”

The sunlight cast a long golden path on the tree-lined road, with shadows of trees swaying and scattering in the light.

Their shadows gathered at their feet, sometimes accidentally overlapping, sometimes apart.

“Nothing.” Lin Shiyu’s voice was faint.

“Why do you have to provoke him?” Zhong Qi asked. “In the end, it’s not only you who will be punished.”

“I didn’t provoke him.” Lin Shiyu’s tone turned sour, but in the next moment, he closed his mouth and tried to calm his emotions. “I just wanted…”

Zhong Qi turned his head to look at him.

“…nothing,” Lin Shiyu didn’t want to say that he wanted to ask that stern-faced man for help in getting a leave slip, but instead ended up being ridiculed and punished for no reason.

Occasionally, a bird chirped between the treetops but for a while there was only the sound of their footsteps overlapping as the scorching summer made people feel tired.

“Is it so difficult for you to tell the truth?” Zhong Qi’s voice calmly resounded.

His lightly curled eyelashes suddenly trembled, and Lin Shiyu pinched his fingers, feeling a dull pain in the wound in the palm of his hand.

“What’s the point of saying anything?” Lin Shiyu’s attitude turned cold again. “What’s the use of telling the truth? To seek sympathy, or convincing oneself?”

For Lin Shiyu, words were pale, fragile things, an understanding that was rooted from his family.

His mother always retreated, apologized, and feared blaming anyone, hoping that everyone could sit down and get along peacefully. Yet what she got in return was that man, his biological father that he hated for his whole life, endless beatings, insults, and violence without any reason. It easily shattered the barrier of language and dragged out the person hiding behind it, tearing them apart.

As for his younger sister, Lin Wanyue couldn’t even communicate. No matter what Lin Shiyu said, his sister would just look at him and laugh foolishly. The shadow that had enveloped Lin Wanyue since birth was too thick, like a heavy thundercloud that would never dissipate, hiding his sister in the depths of the starlight at the edge of the sky.

Language couldn’t withstand the cruel blows that came directly at him, nor could it protect his fragile soul. Rumors, misunderstandings, the gazes of others, they meant nothing to Lin Shiyu.

Because life had already burdened him enough. Just carrying that weight forward had already exhausted all his strength.

After a simple cleaning of Lin Shiyu’s hand and wiping it with alcohol, the two of them returned to the cafeteria.

During the meal, Lin Shiyu and Zhong Qi sat separately, not speaking to each other. The other three people were joking around, but Lin Shiyu remained silent throughout, focusing on his own meal.

When it was time to gather, Ruan Zhikai and Zhong Qi talked.

“Did you have a fight with him?”

“Not really.” Zhong Qi unscrewed his water bottle and took a sip. “We didn’t fight, just chatted casually.”

“You can casually chat with Lin Shiyu? I noticed that you care a lot about him.” 

Zhong Qi glanced at Ruan Zhikai who said, “I’ve never seen you pay any attention to him before.”

“It’s not like he’s interested in talking to me,” Zhong Qi said, feeling a hint of resentment in his tone for some reason, as if he was waiting for someone to approach him. He shrugged dismissively. “With his bad temper, no one wants to upset him.”

“Your temper isn’t much better.”

Ruan Zhikai crossed his arms and looked Zhong Qi up and down, his expression strange. “You seem to be speaking up for him.”

“Is that so?” Zhong Qi casually placed his water bottle aside, no longer engaging in further conversation with Ruan Zhikai, and walked away alone.

When Lin Shiyu returned to the dormitory in the evening, he took out his phone and turned it on, revealing a missed call from his mother.

His heart sank.

He held the phone tightly and left the dormitory once again, walking to a dimly lit corner of the staircase to call back.

“Shiyu.” Lin Hui spoke on the other end of the line.

“Mom, what happened to my sister?”

“She refuses to eat properly,” Lin Hui’s voice sounded anxious and unsure. “She keeps asking about her brother. I told her that her brother went for military training and will be back next week, but she doesn’t listen.”

“…Give the phone to her.”

There was a moment of friction on the phone, and Lin Shiyu said, “Lin Wanyue?”

A tender voice sounded. “Brother.”

Lin Shiyu faced the window, the night casting its hues on his face, infusing his voice with a rare sense of calmness. “I’ll be back home next week. You wait for me, okay?”

“Mmm, mmm.”

“Eat your meals properly, listen attentively in class, and complete all the assignments given by your teachers.” Lin Shiyu slowed down his speech. “Do you hear me?”

“Brother is coming back.”

“I’ll be back soon.”

“Mmm, brother is coming back.”

“In a few days.” Lin Shiyu patiently said. “I’ll be back in a few days, and Mom will accompany you.”

“Accompany.” The girl repeated his words, her tongue not quite forming a clear pronunciation, as if she had saliva bubbles in her mouth. “Brother is coming back.”

Lin Shiyu held the phone, falling into silence.

There was no more conversation on the other end of the phone, only the girl’s clear breathing sound, as if she held the phone close, breathing onto it.

Finally, Lin Shiyu spoke softly, “Okay, I’ll come back.”

The girl responded with a forceful “Mmm” over the phone.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Shiyu quietly looked at the deep night outside the window for a while, then turned around.

He then saw Zhong Qi standing behind him.

Alarm bells rang in Lin Shiyu’s heart. He stared at Zhong Qi in the darkness and angrily asked, “Did you eavesdrop on my phone call?”

However, Zhong Qi casually adjusted his collar and wiped off the water droplets on his neck, not saying anything. It was then that Lin Shiyu noticed that he was holding a basin of toiletries in his hand, his hair half wet and wearing a pair of slippers, as if he had just returned from the bathhouse.

“I didn’t eavesdrop,” Zhong Qi said. “I just came upstairs and overheard you talking about coming back.”

Lin Shiyu put his phone back in his pocket, about to bypass Zhong Qi and leave, when Zhong Qi suddenly said, “If you need anything, maybe you should try calling Old Li.”

Lin Shiyu paused. Zhong Qi turned to face him, carrying a faint scent of refreshing shower gel.

“Maybe it’ll be helpful to talk to someone else.” Zhong Qi said.

 

Edited by: Jaisland

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