After closing the door, Shang Jue ran back to the bathroom.
Standing in front of the mirror, he opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue, and examined where he had been licked. His heart was filled with a chaotic mix of emotions—some embarrassment, a bit of shame, and a sense of resistance, but most of all, it was guilt.
He mechanically lowered his head, turned on the faucet, bit down on the stream of water, and gurgled before spitting it out.
“Damn…”
Shang Jue was out of patience, his mind swirling with complex thoughts.
Am I bent? No way, right…
It’s only been a month; is it really that serious? Not at all.
A couple of days ago was the anniversary… ugh, fake anniversary. That stupid dog hesitated to call him “baby” while they were eating. Recording a video felt like pulling teeth.
Shang Jue comforted himself, feeling somewhat relieved.
He pulled out his phone and scrolled to the video they had taken a few days earlier.
—— “Baby, don’t be so stiff. Say something?”
—— “Say what?”
—— “Anything is fine, just say something I want to hear.”
—— “Babe…”
Looking at the person in the video with flushed ears, Shang Jue thought to himself: I’m really being such a pain.
Just then, he heard himself in the video let out a sultry “Hey~.”
Shang Jue: “…”
The pair of slippers he was wearing suddenly felt hot against his feet, and he kicked one off, bouncing nervously in place, feeling a bit anxious.
Then he reassured himself: even if there’s a little tendency to bend, once that stupid dog regains his memory, he would definitely go straight back to being normal.
He suddenly recalled the way Lu Yuxing had looked at him, his eyes lowered, the bright black pupils staring at him.
Wanting to remember you.
Damn, did he really need to say it so seriously, so earnestly? If he wants to remember, then just remember—remembering might just blow your mind…
Shang Jue raised his hand to touch the back of his neck, the sensation of someone holding him there still lingering, and the heat in his palm felt too intense.
He pressed his forehead against the cold mirror and took a few deep breaths.
Eventually, eventually…
If that stupid dog wants to punch me, then so be it.
He slowly blinked his eyes, and after a while, looked at his phone again, finding He Yang’s contact.
He was very familiar with He Yang. He Yang was the only friend who knew everything about him, including the less-than-glamorous things about the Shang family; He Yang was well aware of all of it. So even the malicious act of lying to Lu Yuxing wasn’t something Shang Jue planned to hide from him.
But this time, he didn’t know how to express it.
He hesitated in the chat box for a long time before finally shutting off his phone.
After all this inner turmoil and then giving up, Shang Jue felt all his strength drain away. He walked out of the bathroom, pulled out his suitcase, and grabbed a cigarette for himself.
---
Before going to bed that night, Shang Jue remembered He Yang's advice from a week ago: "Don't bend straight! If you do, heaven will strike you down! You need to restrain yourself!"
Restraining himself.
At that time, he hadn’t taken it to heart, but now he decided to put it into action.
For the next few days, Shang Jue followed the rules, greeting Lu Yuxing with a "good morning" and "good night" each day, suppressing the "baby" suffix deep inside him.
As for phone harassment, that was something he didn’t even consider.
Lu Yuxing was pulled to the back of the classroom by his two roommates. Shang Jue always sat in the front row, while the two were either in the dorm or outside, and they weren’t in the same class. Sometimes, they didn’t even attend the same lectures, so there hadn’t been any face-to-face interaction for several days.
Shang Jue was behaving himself, but Lu Yuxing took the initiative to message him. However, he wasn’t the type to share much; often, he just made small talk, chattering about random things. Shang Jue replied as if he were taking it seriously, but upon closer inspection, his replies were full of indifference.
If he really wanted to chat with someone, he could think of a hundred topics to discuss with Lu Yuxing; this passive messaging wasn’t his style.
Lu Yuxing sat at the back of the classroom, a half-read textbook beside him. He wasn’t paying attention in class; instead, he was busy trying to catch up on the knowledge he had forgotten, so he wouldn’t face the same embarrassment during the semester-end review as he did during the midterms.
He flipped through a couple of pages, jotting down notes on some paper, occasionally glancing up. His gaze drifted past the rows of students in front of him, some sleeping, others daydreaming, finally landing on the serious figure in the front row, stirring an indescribable feeling of unease within him.
After class, the students in the classroom dispersed.
Shang Jue always took his time packing up when most of the crowd had left.
As he slowly closed his book, he saw Lu Yuxing leave through the front door with two others and let out a sigh of relief.
But just two minutes later, when the classroom was empty, Lu Yuxing unexpectedly came back, standing at the front door without moving, staring at him intently. Ge Zhicheng and Lin Xuying weren’t around him, so he must have made up an excuse to return.
Shang Jue was taken aback for a moment.
"Have you been busy lately?" Lu Yuxing asked him, his tone calm and patient.
"I've been pretty busy these past few days. Our class representative, Wen Jiayue, asked me to help record a congratulatory video for the school's anniversary." How long could recording a video take? Shang Jue quickly added, "And there are other little tasks, so I haven't had much time…" He put on a smiling expression and knowingly asked, "Baby, have I been neglecting you lately?"
Lu Yuxing replied, "…Not really."
Shang Jue actually hadn’t changed much; for instance, during Lu Yuxing's hospital stay, he visited once and then stopped caring. Most of the time, he would only tease Lu Yuxing if he occasionally remembered. It was just that the long period they spent together during the midterms and their anniversary had led Lu Yuxing to feel suddenly distanced by Shang Jue.
The one who had changed was actually him.
After leaving Shang Jue's home a couple of days ago, he kept thinking about meeting again.
He pinched his fingers together, walking up to the front row and leaning against the desk.
Lu Yuxing had long legs, and the desk didn't even reach his thigh; his long legs swung in front of Shang Jue.
"Is there any little task I can help with?" he asked.
Shang Jue smiled, "Thanks, baby, but I can handle it myself."
"That's not what I meant." Lu Yuxing's palm itched, and he rubbed Shang Jue's hair. Shang Jue's back stiffened, thinking the scene from that night might replay, but then he realized they were in the classroom, so Lu Yuxing shouldn't be able to do anything.
Lu Yuxing said, "I just want to help you, so you can have some free time to rest."
Free time?
Shang Jue thought sarcastically: What would I do with that time? Kiss you, a guy who gave up his straight male façade in just a month?
"Baby, haha, really no need… You do your thing; you have a lot to relearn, right?"
His phone on the desk vibrated twice.
Shang Jue glanced at the message; it was a delivery notification. He furrowed his brows.
Lu Yuxing noticed his expression and asked, "Whose message is it?"
"A package delivery, but I shouldn't have ordered anything recently. And how did it get sent to the school delivery station?" Since he moved out in September, his address had changed to his off-campus residence.
Lu Yuxing said, "Maybe it’s a gift from a friend. Aren't you having a birthday next week?"
Shang Jue was somewhat surprised. "How do you know?"
Lu Yuxing pressed his palm against the desk, "Is it strange that I remember your birthday?"
After asking Shang Jue about his allergies, he went back to the dorm to catch up on some classes and scrolled through Shang Jue's Moments and QQ account, noting his birthday along the way.
Shang Jue: "…"
He suddenly felt inadequate compared to Lu Yuxing. He didn’t even know when Lu Yuxing's birthday was…
Lu Yuxing hadn’t shared such information on his personal account, and Shang Jue had never seen him celebrate a birthday at school, so he had no way of knowing the date.
A phone call came in; Shang Jue answered. After a brief conversation, he replied with a “Okay” and hung up. He then looked up and said, “The delivery person called and said there’s a declared-value package. It’s probably the one mentioned in the text; they want me to pick it up as soon as possible.”
“Are you going now?”
“Yeah.”
Lu Yuxing seized the opportunity. “Then I’ll go with you.”
Shang Jue: “...Fine.”
After leaving the classroom, Lu Yuxing asked, “How do you want to celebrate your birthday?”
Shang Jue casually replied, “Celebrate? I’ll be twenty; do I really need a crowd around me for my birthday?”
This point was quite similar to Lu Yuxing. He didn’t celebrate his birthday either. In the past, the only one who remembered was Lu Yunsheng. During middle school and up to his first year of high school, Lu Yunsheng was in college, and Lu Yuxing was boarding at school. Even though they were in the same city, Lu Yunsheng couldn’t come back to celebrate, usually sending a gift to school instead.
Then he would send Lu Yuxing a red envelope, reminding him to buy a cake and share it with his roommates.
But back then, they were too poor; both brothers were students, relying on scholarships and part-time jobs for income. Lu Yuxing often obediently saved the two hundred yuan meant for the cake, using it as living expenses instead. Things were much better now. The A-grade scholarship program provided plenty of support, and Lu Yuxing's expenses in his first year were fully covered by his scholarship, with extra left over. Lu Yunsheng, being outstanding, was only in his mid-twenties and was quickly climbing to the top of the industry salary-wise.
As for how Lu Yuxing celebrated his birthday in the past two years, he couldn’t remember the details.
He himself didn’t care about birthdays, but seeing Shang Jue’s indifferent attitude, he thought a boyfriend’s birthday should still be celebrated.
“I’ll order a cake,” he said.
Shang Jue glanced at him, “No need, baby”
Lu Yuxing asked, “What flavor do you want?”
“…” Shang Jue had to reply, “Black Forest, but don’t get a big one.”
“Okay.”
As Shang Jue slowly walked forward, he suddenly felt a jolt in his heart: Wait, doesn’t this seem suspicious?
Although it wasn’t direct fraud…
He had just tagged along with Lu Yuxing for a commemorative dinner the other day, and that restaurant wasn’t cheap.
Could a few thousand yuan count as fraud? Was it two thousand or three thousand?
He stopped in his tracks, turned around, and took out his phone. “Should I give you the money for the cake?”
Lu Yuxing: “…”
Shang Jue awkwardly put his phone away when he met Lu Yuxing’s complex expression of self-doubt.
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