On the first day of the lunar new year, the entire city was on holiday. Lin Hui finally didn’t have to work overtime all week round, and the aunt’s small restaurant was also closed for the New Year holiday, so Lin Shiyu didn’t have to go and help. The family went to the supermarket to buy New Year goods and then went home. Lin Hui and Lin Shiyu cleaned the house thoroughly, and then they made dumplings, spring rolls, and wontons together, filling the refrigerator with three full drawers.

On the evening of the third day of the lunar new year, the three of them sat around the dining table, eating dumplings and watching TV. Lin Shiyu was enjoying himself when his phone, which he had thrown on the sofa, rang several times in a row. He got up and picked it up, seeing a message from Mao Silu.

[“Happy New Year, Shiyu!! Happy.jpg”]

[“Are you coming out tomorrow? Let’s go see a movie together as we planned!”]

[Everyone else has already made plans, everyone is going out to play, you can’t just run away alone.]

Lin Shiyu glanced at the message, then returned to the dining table to continue eating dumplings.

Lin Hui asked: “Is there something going on?”

“A classmate wants to hang out with me.”

“Really? That’s great, go ahead, have fun with your classmates.”

Lin Shiyu poked at the dumplings in his bowl: “What about Lin Wanyue?”

“I’m off these two days, I went to my aunt’s house to celebrate the New Year on the first day, there’s nothing else to do.” Lin Hui saw that Lin Shiyu had finished the dumplings in his bowl, so she got up to go to the kitchen and brought him another bowl: “Just enjoy yourself, I’ll stay at home with your sister.”

Lin Wanyue was also sitting there, eating with gusto, nodding along as she heard her name, and seeing the bottom of her bowl shining. Both siblings had hearty appetites, and Lin Hui couldn’t cook enough to satisfy them, so she had to get up again to cook another pot for them.

Taking advantage of the moment, Lin Shiyu picked up his phone and replied to Mao Silu’s message, arranging a meeting time and place with him. Then, he opened the chat with Zhong Qi and sent a message: “[Are you going to see a movie tomorrow?]”

The response came quickly: “[Yes].”

“[Together?]”

“[Okay].”

Lin Shiyu put down his phone and scooped up the soup in his bowl.

His mood lifted a bit strangely.

The next day was a sunny day.

Lin Shiyu waited at the entrance of the community for half an hour before Zhong Qi leisurely strolled out of the community gate.

“So slow!” Lin Shiyu glared at him, feeling impatient from waiting.

Zhong Qi glanced at his watch. “Just five minutes late.”

He looked like he had just woken up, with messy hair sticking up in a tuft, wearing a thick, long black winter coat, obviously thrown on casually. Black casual pants, black sneakers, hands in his pockets, he looked like a lazy black pillar.

Lin Shiyu admitted that he had mistakenly arrived early, but waiting for too long still made him very annoyed. Zhong Qi casually reached out and patted his head, like patting a puppy: “Next time I will be earlier.”

Lin Shiyu pushed away his hand. “Stop touching me.”

Today Zhong Qi didn’t ride his bike, so the two of them took the bus and then the subway to Wanda Plaza. On the way, Zhong Qi bought a bottle of apple yogurt and handed it to Lin Shiyu, trying to placate his dissatisfaction.

During off-peak hours, there weren’t many people on the subway. Lin Shiyu and Zhong Qi found a vacant seat together. Zhong Qi took out the earphone wire from his pocket and asked: “Do you want to listen to music?”

With nothing else to do on the train, Lin Shiyu nodded.

Then he watched as Zhong Qi slowly untangled the earphone wire for a whole five minutes.

Lin Shiyu, who was usually impatient, felt his patience being pushed to the limit. Unable to bear it any longer, he snatched the tangled mess of wires from Zhong Qi’s hands. “You can’t even untangle a wire.”

Zhong Qi said: “You’re very impatient.”

“It’s because you’re too slow!”

Lin Shiyu carefully untangled the earphone wire and handed it back to Zhong Qi. Sitting side by side, they each put in an earphone. Zhong Qi opened the music app on his phone, browsed for a moment, and selected a song.

“For this world, if you have too many complaints,

If you fall down, you won’t dare to continue forward,

Why are people so fragile and fallen…”

“‘Rice Fragrance’.” Lin Shiyu asked: “Do you like listening to Jay Chou?”

“I listen to all kinds of songs. Why?”

Lin Shiyu quite liked this song, and he even learned to sing it the first time he heard it, but no one had ever heard him sing it.

“Nothing, it’s quite nice.”

“Sing it for me sometimes.”

Lin Shiyu looked at Zhong Qi, who seemed very natural in his request. “Didn’t you say you can sing?”

“Who said I’d sing for you?”

“It seems that playing with your sister every day doesn’t get you anything.”

“Don’t I cook for you? You almost emptied the fridge.”

“Only material, no spiritual rewards.”

“Don’t take advantage of me! Besides, you didn’t even eat the food!”

A light laughter came from across, and the two arguing turned to see several girls sitting opposite them, seemingly amused by their conversation and couldn’t help but laugh.

Lin Shiyu could only awkwardly cross his arms and turn his head away, while Zhong Qi remained unchanged, continuing to look at his phone.

Pretending not to know each other.

When Lin Shiyu and Zhong Qi arrived at Wanda Plaza, they didn’t see Mao Silu and the others who had messaged saying they had already arrived. Finally, they found Gao Jie, Mao Silu, and Ruan Zhikai happily eating at Xianyuxian on the first floor of the mall.

Gao Jie greeted them with a hearty smile: “Happy New Year! Come and have some taro balls, I’ve ordered for you two as well.”

Mao Silu said: “Happy New Year, long time no see!”

Ruan Zhikai said: “Are you two wearing couple outfits?”

Lin Shiyu looked down and realized that he and Zhong Qi were dressed in black and white, even their shoes were one black and one white. The only difference was that Zhong Qi wore sneakers while he wore casual shoes with sequins.

Lin Shiyu muttered: “Who’s wearing a couple of outfits with him,” and walked over to sit down.

Gao Jie asked: “Where are the others?”

Ruan Zhikai said: “I messaged Tao Chen, she said they just finished shopping and are coming right away.”

Mao Silu looked puzzled for a moment, then looked at Ruan Zhikai with a puzzled expression.

Ruan Zhikai pretended not to notice.

Ten minutes later, the girls arrived. Tao Chen still looked stunning, wearing a light-colored velvet coat today, with a high-necked striped sweater paired with a red skirt, beige leggings, and snow boots. Her shoulder-length hair had obviously been carefully styled, with a touch of light makeup on her face, making her look radiant.

“Happy New Year, everyone—” Shen Ziyi bounded over, carefree: “Didn’t keep you waiting too long, did I?”

“Not at all. What goodies did you buy while shopping?”

“Bought some notebooks and a set of adorable hairpins, look.” Shen Ziyi took out a small bag from her tote, filled with various colorful fruit-shaped hairpins. She emptied the bag onto the table. “Aren’t they cute? Come on, let me try them on you guys.”

As Shen Ziyi spoke, she started clipping the hairpins onto their heads. The guys immediately started exclaiming and yelling. Lin Shiyu, who was focused on eating taro balls, suddenly felt a pink, strawberry-shaped hairpin clipped to his ear, causing his taro balls to roll off the spoon.

“Oh my goodness, Shiyu, this suits you so well.” Shen Ziyi slapped her thigh and raised her phone to take a picture. “Come on, smile.”

The guys, still sporting hairpins on their heads, burst into laughter. Lin Shiyu found himself at a loss for words amidst the chaos and reached to remove the hairpin from his ear.

Across from him, unaffected, Zhong Qi said: “Why take it off? It suits you.”

Lin Shiyu replied: “If you like it, wear it yourself.”

Zhong Qi turned to Shen Ziyi. “Send me the video.”

“Forget it, I’ll delete it!”

“No, the last one was too short. Shiyu, put it back on so I can take a proper picture…”

“Get lost!”

When the group finally entered the movie theater, all the guys had varying degrees of bedhead. Among them, only Zhong Qi’s was natural, the others were styled by Shen Ziyi.

“Seven tickets, seats 8 to 14 in the sixth row. Sit wherever you like.” Gao Jie handed out the tickets while sporting a head full of messy hair. “Hold onto your tickets for now.”

Tao Chen took her ticket and walked over to Zhong Qi, striking up a conversation. “Zhong Qi, what do you usually do at home during your vacation?”

“Homework.”

“Me too. My parents also enrolled me in tutoring classes, and I still have piano practice. I’m busy every day.”

“Is that so?”

“How much of your holiday homework have you done? I’ve been working on math recently, and the problems in that difficult analysis book are really tough. There are so many I don’t know how to solve.”

“I haven’t started on that book yet.”

“Oh…really? I thought if you had, you could help me. After all, you have such good grades.”

Zhong Qi finally glanced at her and said flatly: “You’re not bad at math.”

Tao Chen was among the top students in their class, especially excelling in math and English. She smiled at Zhong Qi’s words and said: “But still not as good as you.”

As they were talking, the group entered the theater. Zhong Qi naturally paused his steps, allowing the others to go ahead, and when Tao Chen noticed the empty space beside her, Zhong Qi had already slipped behind Lin Shiyu and Mao Silu without a trace. Even those two didn’t notice. They climbed up the steps and took their seats in order. Lin Shiyu sat at the very end, with Zhong Qi seated one space away from Mao Silu.

Mao Silu said: “Hey? Zhong Qi, why are you sitting here? Switch seats, switch seats, I want to chat with Shiyu.”

“I’m tired of walking. Don’t want to move.”

“But you’re next to him!”

“If you want to switch, do it with Lin Shiyu.”

“… “

Lin Shiyu had heard Zhong Qi’s eccentric remarks countless times before, so he was quite accustomed to it.

Just as the movie started and the theater darkened, Zhong Qi’s phone vibrated.

He took it out and saw that Shen Ziyi had sent him a private video. Zhong Qi opened it, skipping past the chaotic scene of Gao Jie, Mao Silu, and Ruan Zhikai being forcibly adorned with cute hairpins, directly to the scene where Lin Shiyu had a strawberry hairpin clipped to his ear. The camera shook a bit, and Zhong Qi adjusted it a few times to capture Lin Shiyu’s profile clearly.

Even his confused expression while holding a spoon was captured perfectly.

The main subject glanced over.

Lin Shiyu swiftly grabbed Zhong Qi’s phone. “Delete it.”

Zhong Qi remained calm and didn’t let go. “I have cloud sync enabled for my photo gallery.”

“Delete it!” Lin Shiyu gritted his teeth and started to turn and grab the phone from him. “Are you insane? What’s there to capture!”

“It’s a public place, mind your manners.”

“Give it to me…”

Zhong Qi took the phone back and slipped it into his pocket. Lin Shiyu lowered his head to reach for it, but Zhong Qi suddenly chuckled and firmly grabbed Lin Shiyu’s wrist, pulling it behind his back and pressing it against his own shoulder. Lin Shiyu lost his balance and stumbled, landing in Zhong Qi’s arms, his forehead hitting Zhong Qi’s chest.

Mao Silu said: “Are you two fighting again?!”

Gao Jie said: “Keep it down, it’s indecent.”

Shen Ziyi said: “Surely it’s brother Zhong opening the video in front of brother Shiyu. Ah, the guilt.”

Zhong Qi moved Lin Shiyu’s head away from his chest, feeling a dull pain: “Is your forehead made of iron?”

Lin Shiyu felt dizzy from the impact and held his head, trying to push himself up: “You…let go first!”

With his hand still twisted behind his back, Lin Shiyu had to use his other hand to support himself against Zhong Qi’s abdomen to maintain his balance. Zhong Qi’s voice sounded close to his ear, like a gust of icy wind carrying snowflakes, deep and resonant like the rumble of a iceberg. 

Lin Shiyu suddenly felt a tingling sensation on one side of his ear, spreading slightly to his neck.

Zhong Qi remained silent for a few seconds, then released his grip.

Lin Shiyu immediately straightened up, rubbing his wrist angrily. Zhong Qi had exerted too much force, and that pinch had made his wrist ache. It still felt warm to the touch, probably reddened from the pressure.

Since the movie had already started, Lin Shiyu reluctantly sat aside, looking as if he would rather die than talk to Zhong Qi again.

Zhong Qi didn’t say anything either, keeping his gaze fixed on the big screen as though he was engrossed in the movie.

But in reality, he wasn’t paying much attention to what was playing on the screen. Just now, when they were closest, Zhong Qi had briefly caught a glimpse of Lin Shiyu’s face in the dim light. The bright eyes beneath his lashes held a harmless mixture of embarrassment and dissatisfaction, making him look lively and vibrant, close enough to touch.

Following that was the scent of Lin Shiyu, like rain falling among the green leaves of late summer, saturated with the cool and clear water of a stream. There was a faint, elusive hint of floral fragrance, yet upon closer inspection, it was just the refreshing scent of post-rain air.

When those naturally innocent eyes looked over, the past wariness and aloofness faded away. It was like when a wolf cub bites but doesn’t draw blood, at most leaving the other with a stinging sensation from the teeth.

Zhong Qi sensed this change. In fact, every time he teased Lin Shiyu, it was a subtle test, a measure of how many steps closer Lin Shiyu allowed him to get and how much his tolerance level had increased.

For Zhong Qi, it was truly an interesting little game.

 

 

 

Edited by: Jaisland

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