Chapter 103 #2
“How did it go?!” Jiang Cheng squeezed past the herd of students, ran up to Gu Fei, and clapped him on the arm.
“It was okay. I even wrote a whole bunch of stuff for the essay.” Gu Fei smiled as he rubbed his arm. “English is your strong suit. Gonna fly by with a perfect score?”
“Can’t fly,” Jiang Cheng replied with a smile. “There were two answers I still wasn’t sure about even when I handed it in, but it’s good enough.”
“We won’t worry about it, then.” Gu Fei stretched. “Come on, Lao-Xu must be waiting for you outside. I bet he’s looking for you so hard he’s going blind.”
“I…wonder how things are with Yi Jing. She still went to her exams today, right?” asked Jiang Cheng.
“Mm. Jiuri said she still wanted to do it.” Gu Fei sighed. “She’s pretty stubborn. Besides, she probably can’t let it go just like that. Unlike you, she’s always been that good, diligent student.”
“It’s not like I spent that much time goofing off.” Jiang Cheng tutted. After thinking about it, though, he smiled. “Although I really wasn’t as hardworking as she was. Other than my grades, there’s really nothing else that’d put me in with the ‘good’ students.”
“Says who?” Gu Fei glanced at him.
“My…” Jiang Cheng trailed off.
“Everything about you is great,” said Gu Fei. “Every. Single. Thing. Your grades are the at the bottom of that list.”
“Damn, I wanna give you a kiss.”
“I think Lao-Xu’s going to get there first.” Gu Fei directed his eyes forward.
“Jiang Cheng! Jiang Cheng!” Lao-Xu stood at the front gates, madly waving his folding fan in the air.
“Yeah! Coming!” Jiang Cheng answered, a little amused, then quickened his pace as he walked over.
“How did it go?! Your English is absolutely nothing to worry about—it’s your strong suit. Mr. Lu said you’d get a high score for sure!” Lao-Xu beamed at him with sparkling eyes.
“It was okay.” Jiang Cheng smiled. “Really, it wasn’t bad at all. I feel pretty good about it myself.”
“That’s good! That’s good! Aahhhh, thank goodness!” Lao-Xu repeated over and over. His hand, still clutching the folding fan, shook a little.
Jiang Cheng opened his arms. “Xu-zong, want a hug?”
“I thought you never let anyone touch you.” Lao-Xu had remembered this fact very well; every time he patted shoulders and slapped arms, he always skipped over Jiang Cheng. “Wang Xu said if anyone touches you, you hit back.”
Jiang Cheng didn’t reply. He laughed as he walked up and gave Lao-Xu a hug. “Thank you, Xu-zong.”
“Hey! No problem! Just doing my job! If you guys do well on the exam, I’ll be the happiest camper.” Lao-Xu patted Jiang Cheng’s back, a little worked up. “Good boy!”
Just as Jiang Cheng was about to let go, Lao-Xu suddenly cupped Jiang Cheng’s head in his hands and landed a loud smooch on his cheek. “Good boy!”
“Agh!” Jiang Cheng immediately sprang backward a few feet, nearly bowling over Gu Fei behind him. “Xu-zong, have you lost your mind?!”
“I’m just happy. Overjoyed!” Lao-Xu chortled.
“I… You stay away from me!” Jiang Cheng rubbed his cheek with his hand. “That’s enough from you!”
“You two get on that shuttle there.” Lao-Xu grinned as he pointed at a bus parked on the side of the road. “We’ll head straight back to school later, so you can pick up your application guides before you go home.”
There were already some Fourth High students on the bus, and it was clamorously loud.
Those who didn’t place any hopes in the exams were all chatting away at this point; now that they’d passed this hurdle, they all wanted to let loose and have fun, regardless of whether the result was life or death.
Quite a few others stayed quiet as they stared blankly out the window, and a few sported red eyes.
But more than anything, people were comparing answers.
When one question gave rise to three different answers, every one of their faces looked a little horrified.
“That’s why you shouldn’t check answers right now.
No matter how much you check, you can’t go back to the exam room and change it.
” Jiang Cheng sat down in the last row. “Who knows if you were really wrong or if you just remembered wrong—or maybe it’s the other person who remembered wrong.
You’ll just scare yourself for no reason. ”
“Mm, Cheng-ge is right.” Gu Fei nodded.
“After all this checking, they won’t even feel like letting loose and having fun until the scores are out,” Jiang Cheng said quietly. “Either way, I feel fantastic about myself. I’ll ride this feeling out and enjoy it while I can.”
“Mm-hm, yep. Cheng-ge is right.” Gu Fei was still nodding.
Jiang Cheng glanced at him. “You looking to get smacked?”
“Cheng-ge can smack as he pleases. Cheng-ge is always right. Long live Cheng-ge.” Gu Fei smiled at him.
“You just love to run your mouth,” Jiang Cheng laughed.
There were signs of fatigue on Gu Fei’s face. He hadn’t exactly dedicated himself to studying this whole time, but he had spent his energy on taking care of someone else while he studied. Now, at last, his tightly wound nerves suddenly relaxed and he began to show some weariness.
Jiang Cheng squeezed closer to Gu Fei and took his hand in the space between them.
Gu Fei’s hand was very warm. Even on the air-conditioned bus, it didn’t take long for his palm to start sweating.
When they arrived at school and got back to their classroom, everyone was a little wistful from the feeling of familiarity that, because of their short time away, had turned a little strange.
The classroom erupted with noise as everyone talked to one another.
Jiang Cheng sat down in his seat, looked at the classmates he had spent the past year and a half with, and realized there were still quite a few he couldn’t name.
He had never paid attention to them before; it was only in this moment, with all these faces suddenly in front of him, that he realized he could hardly take them all in.
There was no sign of Yi Jing. Apparently, her parents had taken her home immediately after the English exam. Jiang Cheng turned to look in Wang Xu’s direction, wondering how she was doing.
Wang Xu was chatting with the others, too, but he was obviously a little distracted and in low spirits.
Someone nearby mentioned Yi Jing, and the lively, crackling atmosphere suddenly cooled.
At times like these, people tended to be a little more sensitive, and any tiny ripple in the air would be amplified.
Besides, Yi Jing was their class president—a girl who’d always been an important figure among them.
Several girls immediately broke out in tears at their desks.
Jiang Cheng’s face wasn’t as expressive. He leaned back in his chair, trying to figure out what exactly he was feeling. But he couldn’t, so he only held on to Gu Fei’s hand under the desk.
In all his months here, this was the first time he’d sat at his desk without reading a textbook, working through question banks, or taking notes.
He just sat there quietly. Lao-Xu entered the classroom and said something, but Jiang Cheng didn’t make out most of it.
All he heard was that Lao-Xu hoped everyone could attend the class dinner tomorrow evening, since it would be the last class-wide activity of their high school life.
“Man… It’s the farewell dinner,” somebody lamented with a sigh.
Jiang Cheng’s heart abruptly clenched, and his hand trembled ever so slightly.
That’s right. It’s the end.
High school was really over, just like that. He hadn’t even gotten to stop and savor it properly before it passed him by. The next time he looked back, it would only be a memory. Even now, the memory of this last year was already starting to blur.
Gu Fei must have felt it too, because he lightly squeezed his hand. Jiang Cheng turned to face Gu Fei, who gave him a smile and said, “How nice.”
“Hm?” Jiang Cheng looked back at him, a little dazed.
“That I got to meet you in high school,” Gu Fei said.
Jiang Cheng snapped back to the present, and he smiled too. “Yeah, how lucky to have met you.”
Lao-Xu gave each of them a guidebook that contained general information about various universities and programs. Jiang Cheng gave it a cursory flip-through and then closed it.
Seeing these large chunks of text now almost made him dizzy.
He didn’t want to spare it even one glance—not that he could take in any of the information anyway.
But it didn’t matter. He already had a handful of schools in mind; he just needed to wait for the final scores to be released before he made his decision.
“Come on,” said Gu Fei. “Let’s go.”
“Mm.” Jiang Cheng stood up.
As they walked out of the classroom, he heard a few people talking about visiting Yi Jing.
He nudged Gu Fei. “Should we go visit Yi Jing?”
“I can go alone,” Gu Fei said. “You…should hold off for now. Maybe give it some time.”
“Okay.”
“When we get back, let’s take a shower and clean up. I’ll treat you to a big feast tonight. Now that you’re free, you can eat whatever you want, however much you want. No need to worry about food poisoning or getting sick anymore.”
“Shit.” Jiang Cheng started laughing. “I’ve been craving so many things the past few weeks, but now that you put it like that, I suddenly don’t know what to pick.”
“No rush. We can go downtown. There’s so much food there; we’ll walk around, and if you see anything you want to eat, we’ll go in.” Gu Fei smiled. “I’m ready to let loose and eat too. I’m sick and tired of my own cooking.”
“We should probably bring Er-Miao, huh?” said Jiang Cheng. “It’s been a long time since she got to feast with us.”
“We’ll bring her next time. Today, it’ll be just the two of us.” Gu Fei snapped his fingers. “No third wheels allowed. Especially not a creaky, draggy one like her.”
“All righty,” Jiang Cheng giggled, nodding. A few steps later, he suddenly whipped his head around and stared at him. “Gu Fei!”
“Huh?” Gu Fei immediately answered, looking at him. “What is it?”
“So, uh…later, when we get back…” Jiang Cheng suddenly felt embarrassed as the words reached the tip of his tongue. “Are we…going to, uh…?”
“Do it before we go out, right?” said Gu Fei.
“What the fuck,” Jiang Cheng said, giving him a look. “How can you be so utterly without shame? How can you just say it so smoothly like that? Do you not have any shame at all?!”
“…Weren’t you the one who said you won’t do anything but me this summer?” Gu Fei stared right back at him. “Now you’re going to turn around and act all innocent? You’re the shameless one.”
“Hold on.” Jiang Cheng couldn’t stop laughing once he started thinking about it. “I really was a little embarrassed just now. I mean, it’s been a while since we did anything, so bringing it up suddenly, I was just…a little self-conscious.”
“You better not be saying please, thank you, and you’re welcome later.”
“Uh-huh.” Jiang Cheng nodded, his face stiff as he held in a laugh.
***
It had been a long time since Jiang Cheng felt so light on his way back from school. There was not a single highlighted point in his mind; not a single formula, historical year, geographical feature, or grammar rule… There was only Gu Fei.
Neck, shoulder, collar bone, abs, thighs, calves, and ass!
Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
As they walked up the stairs, he couldn’t help himself—he had to pinch Gu Fei’s butt.
“Look.” Gu Fei looked back at him, then pointed at the window on the side of the stairwell. “I won’t even need both arms to toss you out the window here. Wanna try your luck?”
“No, I believe you.” Jiang Cheng skipped past him and raced up the stairs, taking another swipe at Gu Fei’s waist on the way up. “But I know you couldn’t bear to do that to me, ho ho.”
“Weirdo,” Gu Fei muttered, and ran up the stairs after him.
As soon as Jiang Cheng was through the door, he flung his shirt off and launched himself at Gu Fei. He pelted him with kisses before pushing him onto the sofa, where he ran his hands underneath Gu Fei’s shirt, grabbing and caressing his skin.
“Hey.” Gu Fei laughed as he responded in kind. “The TV remote is digging into my back. Hold on…” But Jiang Cheng didn’t listen, just carried on nuzzling the dip of Gu Fei’s shoulder.
Once he’d pulled the TV remote out and tossed it onto the coffee table, Gu Fei freed both his hands and wrapped them tightly around Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng, however, suddenly propped himself up against the sofa and stared into Gu Fei’s face, frowning.
“What’s up?” Gu Fei reached up and stroked his chin.
“Why do you feel so hot?” Jiang Cheng touched Gu Fei’s skin; it was burning.
“Must be my excitement.” Gu Fei thrust his hips. “When I get excited, I—”
“You have a fever.” Jiang Cheng leaned down and pressed his lips to Gu Fei’s forehead, then whipped his head up. “Fuck! I was wondering why your hand felt so warm this whole time! Where’s the thermometer?!”
Gu Fei tugged at Jiang Cheng to stop him from getting up. “Cheng-ge, Cheng-ge. Don’t get off track.”
“Off track, your ass.” Jiang Cheng shook his hand off and stood up.
He rummaged around in the coffee table drawers until he found the digital thermometer Gu Fei had bought to monitor his health during the pre-exam period.
Beeping it against Gu Fei’s forehead, he froze. “Fuck, it’s a hundred degrees!”
“Hmm, one hundred degrees… Still fuckable.” Gu Fei grinned. “You know, these instant thermometers aren’t very accurate, anyway.”
“Shut up.” Jiang Cheng frowned. He couldn’t figure out why Gu Fei had a fever out of nowhere. His heart hurt for Gu Fei, and anxiety filled him. “Did you catch a cold? Or…”
He took Gu Fei’s temperature a few more times in succession. It was one-hundred-point-something every time.
“I’m fine.” Gu Fei stroked Jiang Cheng’s cheek as he sat up. “Really, I don’t even feel anything.”
“Bull-fucking-shit!” Jiang Cheng glared at him. Gu Fei’s hand was burning hot; it was obvious now. “I was wondering why you didn’t seem very excited after we came out of the exams! You haven’t been feeling well for a while and just didn’t tell me, right?!”
“Ahh…” Gu Fei sighed, still smiling.
“You have to go to the hospital.” Jiang Cheng grabbed his hand and tried to pull him up. “Hurry up.”
“I’ll be fine with some rest, really.” Gu Fei didn’t move, then finally said very quietly, “I don’t really have any strength right now. I don’t wanna move.”
Jiang Cheng felt a pang in his heart, almost a physical ache. Perhaps it was because of the major life event they’d just gone through; even though he was an amazing overachiever, his emotions at present were still prone to fluctuations…
Jiang Cheng pulled Gu Fei into his arms and held him tight. When his hands touched Gu Fei’s scorching body, they trembled. He could feel his heart shudder, aching for Gu Fei.
Just like that, tears came pouring out uncontrollably.