Chapter 120 #2
“I told you already—I don’t have time.” With that, Gu Fei picked up his things and walked out of the classroom.
His class president wasn’t a bad person; he was honest and responsible when it came to class affairs.
However, even if Gu Fei hadn’t been on a short fuse right now, he wouldn’t have responded very differently.
Back at Fourth High, all of the events he’d attended—school and class activities, tournaments, outings—he’d only ever joined for Jiang Cheng’s sake.
Without Jiang Cheng here, he didn’t want to participate in anything.
Without Jiang Cheng, he wouldn’t even have attended this school.
Without Jiang Cheng… He pulled out his phone to check the time. He suddenly missed Jiang Cheng very much.
Unlike his own, Jiang Cheng’s schedule at U of R was packed with classes.
Now that it was close to finals week, Jiang Cheng almost had no time to chat with him.
Their calls before bedtime, already cut short, were punctuated by Jiang Cheng’s endless yawns.
In any case, these days, it was mostly Jiang Cheng talking, and him listening.
As he approached the gate, Gu Fei finally sent Jiang Cheng a message. He couldn’t help himself.
- nothing’s wrong but I just wanted to tell you that I suddenly miss you a lot
Jiang Cheng’s call came in about three seconds after Gu Fei sent the message; he didn’t even get a chance to put his phone back in his pocket.
Gu Fei answered the phone. “You’re not in class?”
“I don’t have class right now.” Gu Fei could hear the smile in Jiang Cheng’s voice. “I’m about to get my things and go spend the rest of the day at the library.”
“You’re not gonna eat?” Gu Fei asked.
“Of course I am. Zhao Ke and I will take turns going to eat so one of us can stay and save our library spot,” said Jiang Cheng. “What about you? Done with class?”
“Mm-hm. I’m about to head home,” said Gu Fei. “Planning to go out later to shoot some night scenes.”
“Where?” Jiang Cheng asked at once.
“That place where you arranged the glowing bricks for our birthday,” Gu Fei said. “The grass is wilted now. I’ll go take some photos at sunset, and some more at nighttime.”
“I wanna see,” said Jiang Cheng.
Gu Fei smiled. “I’ll send them to you once I’m done with the edits.”
“Do you still have mobile data? I want to see your face all of a sudden.”
“There’s always enough data to look at my face,” said Gu Fei. “But it might be pushing it if you’re planning to rub one out while you look.”
“Fuck.” Jiang Cheng laughed for a while. “Just your face is fine.”
Gu Fei hung up and sent him a video call request. When Jiang Cheng’s face appeared on his screen, he suddenly felt a twinge of pain in his heart.
It’d been a while since they’d last had a video call. Jiang Cheng only had time to chat at night before bed, which was a bad time for video calls, so it had been a month at least since he last saw Jiang Cheng.
He had lost weight.
The weight loss was obvious, and not just because Gu Fei was his boyfriend. Anyone with eyes could see that Jiang Cheng had gotten thinner—even his chin was pointier. He looked exhausted, too.
“How did you lose so much weight?” Gu Fei asked, frowning.
“Did I?” Jiang Cheng touched his face. “No way. I’ll weigh myself tomorrow in the cafeteria. I don’t really feel it.”
“What do you eat every day?” asked Gu Fei. “You didn’t lose this much weight in the last year of high school, even though you were killing yourself every day. Didn’t you say the food’s pretty good on campus?”
“It is pretty good. Besides, I get meat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner…” Jiang Cheng took out a mirror from his drawer, then swiveled around in his chair so he could lean against his desk.
“I look in the mirror every day, and I’ve never once thought I’ve lost weight.
Maybe it’s the camera that makes me look thin? ”
Gu Fei could see the books on Jiang Cheng’s desk.
The tiny bookshelf was bursting with them, and Gu Fei spotted one of the books behind Jiang Cheng’s ear: Psychology…
something . Just as he was squinting to get a better look, Jiang Cheng moved the phone closer until his face filled up the whole screen.
“Still skinny?” he asked.
“Yes.” Gu Fei nodded. “Have you been studying too hard? There are so many books on your shelf—are they all for your courses?”
“Yeah, but it’s not that bad, really.” Jiang Cheng smiled as he turned the camera toward his shelf. “There are only three and a half shelves. It’s mainly because of all the…reference books.”
Jiang Cheng’s view shook violently, as if he suddenly noticed something. He hurriedly turned the camera back to himself, but not before Gu Fei saw the word “psychology” on the cover of several books in a row, even though he couldn’t see the rest of it clearly from just a fleeting glance.
“Yeah.” Gu Fei gave him a little smile and said very quietly, “Please take care of yourself, Cheng-ge.”
“Don’t worry,” Jiang Cheng said. “I go for a run every morning.”
“I’m not saying you don’t exercise,” Gu Fei said. “But when it comes to…studying, you need to pace yourself. Don’t push yourself too hard. I’m not trying to scare you, but you really have lost a lot of weight.”
“Got it.” Jiang Cheng smiled, then brought the phone closer and gave the camera a smooch.
“Don’t make me worry about you.” Gu Fei watched him on the screen. Jiang Cheng had taken off the bandage above his right eyebrow. Up close against the camera now, Gu Fei could see a tiny scab.
No. That wasn’t a scab. A scab this small would’ve fallen off ages ago, once the wound healed—no way would it still be visible.
Feilock Holmes only stared at the mark for less than two seconds before he figured it out.
Jiang Cheng had a habit of twirling a pen in his hand when he studied, with the tip of the pen pointed up most of the time.
This scar must’ve been from the tip of a pen.
The tiny mark looked just like the dot left in Gu Fei’s own palm from the time he’d poked himself with a pen in elementary school.