Shang Jue finally folded his wordless heavenly book and tucked it away in a corner of his bookshelf.
For the next week, there weren't many classes. However, even though the schedule was light, no one was slacking off. In class, you could see people pulling out their books to start reviewing. As the end of the semester approached, aside from the upcoming New Year celebration, the remaining days were spent counting down to the exams.
The one living the best life was probably Tian Miao. He had upgraded his phone to the latest model, and even those old sneakers, which stayed yellow no matter how many times they were washed, were replaced with branded ones.
You could say he was lucky in an unfortunate situation. After getting beaten up, two people gave him money. Tian Miao's family wasn't very well-off, but they made sure to give him a decent allowance as the only promising student in the household. However, Tian Miao liked to hang out at bars and occasionally book hotels, so he didn’t live as comfortably in other aspects, and his grades weren't quite good enough to win any scholarships.
This time, he made a lot of money, so he didn't have to worry about expenses for a while. The first thing he did after getting the money was replace his old phone, which he had used for several years.
The new phone wasn't cheap. Lin Xuying, who kept up with the latest gadgets, immediately recognized its price and asked Lu Yuxing when they returned to the dorm, "Lu-ge, how much did you compensate Tian Miao? Was it around ten or twenty thousand?"
Lu Yuxing shook his head. "Including medical expenses, a few thousand."
"But his new phone costs at least eight thousand to get."
Lu Yuxing didn’t think much of it and wasn’t interested in talking about the guy. It was possible Tian Miao chipped in some money himself.
Ge Zhicheng chimed in, "But lately, Old Wang hasn't been bothering you anymore. Looks like that idiot finally gave up."
Lu Yuxing considered this and felt a bit puzzled. A few days ago, when Tian Miao was still in the counselor's office, he had been playing the victim, acting like he was determined to get to the bottom of the issue. But now, there hadn’t been a peep from him.
Ge Zhicheng then commented, "Lu-ge, you haven’t been going to the library much lately. You've just been hanging around the dorms these past few days." It was a rare occurrence.
Lu Yuxing replied, "The library's been pretty crowded recently."
Just as he finished speaking, Shang Jue entered the dorm, dropped off his bag, and soon left again with his phone.
Lu Yuxing waited a bit before heading out. He saw Shang Jue standing at the far end of the hallway, making a phone call in the water room. It seemed to be a private call, which was why he stepped out to make it.
Respecting his privacy, Lu Yuxing stood far enough away not to hear the conversation. When Shang Jue glanced over and caught sight of him, his speech sped up.
A few minutes later, after finishing his call, Shang Jue hung up, and Lu Yuxing walked over.
Keeping his voice low since they were still in the dorm area, Lu Yuxing asked, "Did you talk to Tian Miao?"
Shang Jue didn't answer, instead responding with a question of his own: "Why would I talk to him?"
"Did you give him money?"
"Why would I give him money?"
By now, Lu Yuxing understood Shang Jue’s tendency to avoid lying but also his habit of dancing around the truth, embellishing it into something abstract. Since he didn’t deny it, it meant he had given the money.
Lu Yuxing was a little upset that Shang Jue had intervened behind his back. "The issue between me and him has nothing to do with you."
Shang Jue’s expression darkened, and he didn't want to continue the conversation.
"How much did you transfer to him? I’ll pay you back."
Shang Jue replied coldly, "What I gave him has nothing to do with you."
“...”
The tension between them thickened, as if they were on the verge of an argument.
Lu Yuxing snapped, “Aren’t you disgusted by him?”
Shang Jue was triggered by the word "disgusted," and his eyes almost reddened as his voice grew colder. "If you think I'm disgusting, then fine, I don’t care."
Lu Yuxing paused, then clarified through gritted teeth, "I meant, aren’t you disgusted by him?"
"...Oh," Shang Jue calmed down a little, "Did you skip those lessons in elementary school about sentence shortening? Is that why you shrink things like this?"
They both fell silent. After all, Lu Yuxing didn’t want to argue about his elementary school grammar lessons.
“Don’t overthink it,” Shang Jue eventually said. “I didn’t seek him out because of you.”
“...”
I know that, but you didn’t have to make it so obvious.
Realizing he had worded things poorly, Shang Jue corrected himself, “It wasn’t entirely because of you.”
The room grew quiet again, both of them lapsing into silence.
After a long time, Lu Yuxing asked, "If it wasn’t entirely because of me, then what else was it for?"
His question stumped Shang Jue. When he traced the root of his actions, he realized it still came down to Lu Yuxing.
After a long pause, Shang Jue finally said, “He slandered me in a forum post. It pissed me off.”
Lu Yuxing frowned. “How do you know it was him spreading rumors about you? And if you didn’t like him, you had even less reason to send him money. What were you trying to do?”
Shang Jue explained, “I’ve never been to that bar before. It was He Yang who went there to ‘gain some experience’ and got harassed by Tian Miao. I made something up to scare Tian Miao so that he would break up with Lin Yihan.”
Lu Yuxing paused for a moment. “You’ve never been?”
Shang Jue looked confused. “Didn’t you remember everything? You should know I’m not gay, so why would I go to that kind of place?”
Lu Yuxing’s expression shifted slightly. “You’re not?”
“…,” Shang Jue opened his mouth, hesitated, then deflected, “Anyway… I wasn’t before.”
He quickly changed the subject. “So the only person who could’ve claimed they saw me at Breeze is Tian Miao.”
“Wasn’t before? What do you mean, you’ve changed now?” Lu Yuxing’s voice was hard to read.
Shang Jue replied, “Does it really matter? It’s not like sexuality is fixed. Didn’t you say you were straight before? Yet, in the heat of the moment, you changed just like that.”
“….”
“Yeah, it’s not important, not fixed,” Lu Yuxing smirked bitterly. “I guess I’m fickle. I couldn’t have guessed someone would pretend to be my boyfriend just to mess with me, so I guess I deserved it.”
Shang Jue replied, "And I didn’t? Do you think I could’ve predicted that you’d lose your memory for months?"
"So, it’s my fault now? I shouldn't have lost my memory?"
Shang Jue curled his lips. "I'm not saying that, but you did cross the street without looking both ways. You’re at least a little responsible, aren’t you?"
"..."
Lu Yuxing felt a faint ache in his chest, as if he was so angry he might fall ill. He turned and started to walk out of the washroom.
But Shang Jue grabbed his hand.
Lu Yuxing stopped and turned back. "What now? Do you expect me to apologize for crossing at a green light?"
Shang Jue tightened his grip on Lu Yuxing’s hand. "I lied to you. It was my fault. Can I apologize now?"
Still angry, Lu Yuxing blurted out, "No. I don't accept it."
Shang Jue's face fell, and he let go of his hand, shrinking back like a snail retreating into its shell after hitting an obstacle—meek and without any persistence.
Lu Yuxing: "..."
His right hand was free, but he didn’t leave. Instead, he awkwardly changed the subject. "How much did you give him?"
At that moment, Shang Jue was emotionally fragile, completely drained, and lacked even the energy to retort. He lifted one hand and tucked in his thumb.
Lu Yuxing: "Four thousand?"
Shang Jue lifted his eyelids but said nothing.
It wasn’t four thousand. It was more than that.
—
A week passed without any incidents, and two days before New Year's, the school went on break.
That evening, Shang Jue went out for a while, returning to the dorm just before curfew. The dorm lights were about to go out in a few minutes, and under Ge Zhicheng's worried gaze, Shang Jue hurriedly went to wash up.
The next morning, Ge Zhicheng and Lin Xuying went to the library to review. Although neither of them studied much on a regular basis, they were reliable enough when exams were near.
The two people who had argued the day before were left in the dorm, sitting with their backs to each other.
Unexpectedly, that afternoon, Ge Zhicheng and Lin Xuying rushed back with their backpacks, barging into the dorm and loudly asking, "Lu-ge, why didn't you reply to the messages?!"
Lu Yuxing always kept his phone on silent while studying, placing it somewhere out of reach so he wouldn't be distracted. The only time he used to set it on vibrate was back when he was dating Shang Jue.
Looking at the two visibly excited people, he asked, "What’s going on?"
"What’s going on? Huge news!!" Ge Zhicheng quickly shut the dorm door. His loud voice from earlier dropped to a whisper, "Tian Miao got arrested last night for soliciting prostitution!"
Lu Yuxing was stunned. "Where did you hear this?"
"It’s some inside gossip from the group chat. Apparently, he was caught soliciting a... man."
Lu Yuxing frowned slightly. A man? That made it sound more credible.
Lin Xuying was equally excited. "Isn’t this karma? Our school rules say that anyone caught soliciting will be expelled, and Tian Miao was caught red-handed! This guy is done for!"
Ge Zhicheng added, "Hmph, this can’t have been his first time."
Lu Yuxing asked, "Why do you think that?"
"Would someone really get caught in a prostitution sting the first time they tried? What are the chances?"
Lin Xuying said, "Not necessarily. Maybe someone noticed and reported him. His family isn't well-off—he even applied for financial aid last year. He probably doesn’t have the money to be doing this all the time."
"Man, that's disgusting. Spending his parents' hard-earned money on prostitution?"
Lin Xuying commented, "His spending's been suspiciously high recently. Did he win the lottery or something?"
Lu Yuxing’s hand, holding a pen, suddenly froze. His gaze shifted toward the person who hadn’t spoken the entire time, locking onto Shang Jue’s back.
"Who knows..." Ge Zhicheng glanced at Shang Jue, who had remained silent. "Shang Jue, you’re usually more in the loop than we are. Did you hear about this earlier? Is it true or not?"
Shang Jue turned around, his expression far less relaxed than the others. He calmly replied, "It’s true, I guess."