ATIBESLM 34

On the vast and expansive New Siwu Avenue, the camphor trees on both sides had just been transplanted, supported on all sides by wooden stakes to keep them from losing their balance and toppling over.

The road had been cleared and cleaned, stretching endlessly out of sight. The asphalt surface gleamed though it wasn’t yet open to traffic. Off the road, piles of gravel and yellow soil that hadn’t been hauled away still remained.

Occasionally, a work vehicle would pass by, their speed kicking up the yellow dust and turning half the sky into a hazy fog.

At the starting line, five racing vehicles were lined up side by side. The roar of their engines was deafening. Four of them were racing-grade supercars; the exhaust blasting from their pipes seemed like it wanted to be spitting out handfuls of banknotes.

In the center was a black motorcycle with a matte finish body. It was low-profile, yet every detail manifested the owner’s nobility and extravagance. The rider was methodically fastening his helmet, narrowing his eyes as he looked calmly at the road ahead.

The window of the dark red sports car beside him slowly rolled down, revealing a very cute and lovely smiling face. Two tiger teeth directly seized the full attention of anyone looking at him.

“Ye Xuan, it’s a deal. If you lose, bring your younger brother out, and us gege will treat him to a meal,” Yan Bo said with a grin.

The stake of this race was Ye Lingwei. They blamed Ye Xuan for being uncool—hiding his young brother away like that, what was that about? They had all discussed and agreed. The four of them must, in order of age, successively become Ye Lingwei’s god-brothers¹This refers to a “sworn brother” relationship. It is not necessarily religious but signifies a close bond where an older male takes on a protective, brotherly role toward a younger person..

Ye Xuan rejected it immediately without even thinking. God-brothers? Ye Lingwei already had enough brothers. Between biological, maternal cousins, and paternal cousins, two hands weren’t enough to count them, not to mention he hadn’t forgotten to acknowledge a few more at school.

Another reason was that staying in Shencheng during this time offered nothing to do. Racing without prizes is boring, but none of them were masters who lacked money. If money were the bet, they wouldn’t even bother lifting their eyelids.

However, Ye Xuan’s younger brother was different. They had never heard Ye Xuan mention him before. The boy was pretty and obedient—who wouldn’t like him?

Click.

Ye Xuan frowned and fastened the buckle. His gaze passed through the helmet’s visor. Not far away, the yellow dust was blown up by the wind. Ye Xuan heard the sound of his own heartbeat, and a thin layer of sweat broke out on his hands.

He didn’t like Ye Lingwei, but that didn’t mean he was willing to let Ye Lingwei become a prize.

“I can’t make decisions for him.” Accompanied by the sound of the engine, Ye Xuan’s indifferent voice rang in Yan Bo’s ears.

Yan Bo laughed heartily, straining his throat to shout at Ye Xuan, “No way, Xuan-ge, you’re so weak! You can’t even control your own younger brother!”

Yan Bo thought Ye Xuan was joking, that he just didn’t want to bring Ye Lingwei out. When he met his younger brother for the first time before, he was so obedient, greeting everyone one by one. How could he not make decisions for him?

“Xuan-ge, he’s a boy. How can you raise him in a greenhouse?” Yan Bo laughed as the window slowly slid up. The red race car’s engine roared, immediately piercing through the clouds above.

Ye Xuan arched his back into the standard motorcycle riding posture. He thought, Ye Lingwei is no little lily in a greenhouse, he should be a wild rose growing on a mountain cliff.

For a split second, Ye Xuan actually wanted to let them meet Ye Lingwei—properly meet him—so Ye Lingwei could teach these guys who didn’t know the height of the sky or the depth of the earth a good lesson.

New Siwu Avenue had been cleared in advance. The wooden stakes around the camphor trees struggled to hold up the trunks teetering in the wind. Yellow dust curled into small whirlwinds; before the sound of cars was even heard, the dust had already arrived to signal the warning.

On an extremely tricky curve, the body of the black motorcycle was almost pressed against the road surface. He took the lead, closely followed by Yan Bo’s flamboyant red whirlwind and another person’s deep blue starry sky supercar.

Yan Bo, wearing a headset, howled inside the car, “Yangzi, Yangzi, box him in, box him in! You pinch him, I’ll overtake him!”

“Got it!”

No sooner had the words fallen than the deep blue race car slammed on the gas, sped up, and charged up beside the black motorcycle. The motorcycle was forced aside, leaving the lane completely open.

“Oh my, so sorry,” Yan Bo said, shooting forward without hesitation.

Ye Xuan struggled to increase his speed but was forced to fall back steadily by Yangzi’s car.

“Er-ge, I won’t eat this, you have it…”

The image of Ye Lingwei in thin pajamas, stuffing a chicken meatball into his hand, flashed through Ye Xuan’s mind. His younger brother, a member of his Ye family—since when could he be lost to someone else and become their trophy?

Yangzi was having a blast seeing Ye Xuan trapped. However, he hadn’t been laughing for even half a minute when he heard the roar of an engine beside him, loud enough to almost shatter his windows. Yangzi took a quick glance.

It would have been better if he hadn’t looked, damn it. With one look, Yangzi’s soul was scared right out of him.

Ye Xuan pushed the speed to the max, ramming directly toward the supercar. He wasn’t afraid of dying, but someone else was terrified. Yangzi spun the steering wheel with lightning reflexes, narrowly escaping disaster.

However, his side mirror was knocked flying. Yangzi was forced to stop.

After stopping, he nimbly unbuckled his seatbelt, took off his helmet, and went over to check his precious car. The spot where the mirror used to be now only had a few wires left, dangling there and swaying miserably. Yangzi covered his face in heartache, looked around, and after a long while, put his hands on his hips and screamed.

“Ye Xuan, where the f*ck is my mirror? You smashed my mirror worth several hundred thousand without even f*cking blinking? Are you f*cking human?!”

Yan Bo was still leisurely having a good time when he heard the roar from behind. His scalp tingled—aside from Brother Xuan, who could make a motorcycle cause such a commotion?

Looking in the rearview mirror, Yangzi wasn’t behind him.

Where is Yangzi?

Yan Bo didn’t see Yangzi. Instead, he saw the rearview mirror hanging on Ye Xuan’s arm. His eyes widened in disbelief. Wasn’t this the f*cking mirror Yangzi spent a heavy sum to have it specially customized from a foreign club? He usually treasures it to death—wiping it in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and again before bed. Yet now, it’s just hanging on Brother Xuan’s hand like that?

The black motorcycle was like a dark shadow, approaching the red sports car at extreme speed. Yan Bo, being incredibly sensible, prepared to make way. However, Ye Xuan’s target was him. With speed like a lightning bolt striking past, Yan Bo checked his mirror. The mirror was gone.

He stopped, stunned for a long while. He turned on his headset, but before he could make a sound, he heard Yangzi wailing like a ghost and howling like a wolf, “Baibai, my mirror is gone! It’s gone!”

Yan Bo could almost hear the sobbing in Yangzi’s voice.

He said with some difficulty, “I think I just saw it hanging on Xuan-ge’s arm?”

“Say that again—it’s where?”

“On Xuan-ge’s arm…”

“…F*ck your ancestors, Ye Xuan!!”

—

The motorcycle performed a steady drift at the finish line. Ye Xuan disdainfully flung away the rearview mirror hanging on his hand. In the time it took for him to take off his helmet and fix his hair, the cars behind arrived one after another.

The first to get out was Yangzi. He rushed directly toward his rearview mirror and knelt beside it. “Oh my mother…”

“Didn’t I just want to claim a younger brother? What did I do wrong? Wuwuwu…”

He was there alone, howling and putting on an act. Ye Xuan really couldn’t stand watching it anymore, so he kicked him once. “I’ll compensate you.”

“I don’t want it. Gone is gone. It is irreplaceable.”

Ye Xuan frowned. “You can take any car from my garage.”

Yangzi sniffled. “Pick any one?”

Ye Xuan: “Mm.”

“Alright then.” Yangzi stood up without hesitation and threw the rearview mirror into the trash can.

Yan Bo: “…”

Ye Xuan leaned against the motorcycle. He remained silent for a while and then said, “Don’t use Ye San as a bet. I don’t like it.”

Yan Bo froze for a moment. Ye Xuan using such a serious tone was rare. Having the closest relationship with him, Yan Bo scratched his head and said, “We didn’t mean anything else by it. It’s just seeing that you treasure him so much, we were just curious. We weren’t looking down on him.”

Really not…

Ye Xuan frowned slightly. “I don’t treasure him.”

Yan Bo rolled his eyes. “Come on, Xuan-ge. Your mouth says no, but your body says yes. Look at the things you do—which one shows that you don’t treasure him?”

You didn’t even blink while knocking off two rearview mirrors from your brothers’ precious cars, or running out in the dead of night to buy oden. Yan Bo didn’t want to say it out loud, but Ye Xuan would sooner or later suffer for his stubborn mouth.

“Think whatever you want,” Ye Xuan said coldly. He put on his helmet without even fastening the buckle and swung his leg over the bike. He turned around and sped away.

The icy wind of early autumn poured into his body through his neck. The road was empty. When the glass shards from the shattered rearview mirror had flown out earlier, they scraped a patch of skin on his neck. It wasn’t bleeding, but the pain was piercing.

“Er-ge, do you not like me?”

“Er-ge, I hurt.”

“Er-ge…”

With a delayed reaction—unsure if it was the wound hurting or somewhere else—his chest felt like it had been forcefully yanked by something. Ye Xuan couldn’t help but bend over, losing the strength to control the motorcycle.

The cars following behind hadn’t even gotten close when they saw the motorcycle flipped on its side at the curve ahead. Ye Xuan had been thrown to the side, his helmet having long since rolled away.

“Xuan-ge!”

“…”

—

Fei Lan has been acting strange these past two days. He stopped sleeping in class, but what’s even stranger is that while he isn’t sleeping, he isn’t listening to the lectures either. He just does his own thing—studying Physics during Math, and English during Chinese.

Aside from the time spent reviewing, Gao Linhao is just praying to the gods. He believes that absolute sincerity can crack open metal and stone²A famous idiom meaning that if one is sincere and persistent enough, they can overcome any obstacle, no matter how hard..

Ye Lingwei was still reading through exam papers. By reviewing past questions, it was easy to spot the habits and patterns of the teachers who set them. Besides, he had no intention of shooting straight for the top three.

The original host’s grades had always been very poor. If he suddenly ranked in the top three, anyone would think they were seeing a ghost.

Actually, they really would be seeing a ghost.

However, reviewing is just reviewing; his normal daily routine would not be disrupted.

Ye Lingwei held the distributed milk, drinking it half-heartedly. Gao Linhao, on the other hand, had downed his in one gulp the moment he got it, and now he was staring like a hungry tiger at the milk in Ye Lingwei’s hand.

He knew Ye Lingwei couldn’t finish it. He had made a habit of finishing off the leftovers, doing it so naturally and as a matter of course.

With his eyeballs glued to the bottle in Ye Lingwei’s hand, Gao Linhao sighed absent-mindedly. “My mom said if I don’t improve by fifty places this time, she will deduct half my living allowance. I calculated it—I only get three hundred a week total. After the deduction, only one hundred and fifty is left. What am I supposed to eat?”

Ye Lingwei nodded in agreement. Indeed, Gao Linhao had to eat two servings of rice plus an extra chicken leg at noon. “You need to work hard then.”

“I can’t, I can’t do it. My English is dragging me down. This damn English—I feel like every word, except for the length being different, looks exactly the f*cking same everywhere else!” As he spoke, Gao Linhao lost all his spirit and slumped weakly onto the table.

Li Jing pushed up his glasses and said, “We will wait for you at the summit.”

Gao Linhao was indignant. “Why don’t you tell Ye Lingwei that you’ll wait for him at the summit then?”

Li Jing subtly glanced at the past exam papers on Ye Lingwei’s desk, then compared them with the crooked path books on Gao Linhao’s desk—titles like Write a Good Essay with One Method, Master This and Listening is a Breeze, and The Secret Patterns of Multiple Choice Answers. Finally, he concluded, “Ye Lingwei is smarter than you.”

Gao Linhao: “…”

Chen Fengbao nudged Gao Linhao. “Why don’t you ask Lan-ge? Lan-ge is looking at English…”

Gao Linhao’s eyes lit up, and his whole body energized. He craned his neck, attempting to glean some tricks or convenient shortcuts from the exercises in Fei Lan’s hands. Surely, the book Brother Lan was reading had to be the best.

However, why were the words so… long? Why was the phrasing so… weird?

Watching Gao Linhao’s expression grow stranger by the second, Chen Fengbao finally couldn’t help laughing out loud. “Dumbass, that’s CET-6 English. You should figure out the difference between ‘he,’ ‘she,’ and ‘it’ first.”

Gao Linhao: “…”

After laughing at Gao Linhao, Chen Fengbao lay on his arms and watched the papers in Brother Lan’s hands for a while. He shook his head, worrying for some unknown person. “Someone is about to have a sleepless night.”

From the first day Fei Lan took out a brand-new book, the few of them knew the grade rankings were going to be reshuffled.

Since their Brother Lan had made up his mind, he definitely wouldn’t be polite to that group who usually called themselves academic tyrants. These people hadn’t yet witnessed what a real academic tyrant looked like.

To be a tyrant should mean domination and massacre.

It would be just like Fei Lan in middle school, representing a status that could not be shaken.

Ye Lingwei listened to them finish with his eyelids lowered. He really couldn’t drink another sip of the milk. Gao Linhao, watching eagerly, had already reached out, ready to take it. He didn’t expect Ye Lingwei to place the milk directly on Fei Lan’s desk instead.

Fei Lan looked at the swaying milk inside the glass bottle. The white liquid hit the wall of the glass and slowly flowed back down.

He tossed his work aside, turned his head, and looked at Ye Lingwei.

The latter was lying on the table. When he looked up, his eyelashes lifted with his eyes, looking very innocent and pure.

Gao Linhao quietly reached out from behind Fei Lan, whispering and muttering, “Lan-ge never eats other people’s leftovers, never drinks other people’s leftovers. Better let me endure the hardship…”

Before he could even get the last word out, Fei Lan glanced at him.

If a look could turn into physical substance, Gao Linhao thought he would be covered in cuts and bruises right now.

“What are you doing?” Fei Lan asked leisurely.

Gao Linhao thought Brother Lan was going to drink it himself; he had already prepared an exaggerated expression to react with. However, Fei Lan just took the bottle, carelessly twirled it around in his hand, and placed it right in front of Ye Lingwei’s eyes. “Drink it yourself.”

Ye Lingwei’s vision was blocked by the milk. He tilted his head slightly and blinked twice. “I can’t drink anymore. If I drink too much…”

“I get milk-dizzy,” Ye Lingwei explained solemnly.

Fei Lan ignored him. With his back to Ye Lingwei, he faintly said, “You’re spoiled. Drink it yourself.”

Ye Lingwei looked at Gao Linhao. Gao Linhao immediately understood. Without even extending his hand, he stretched his neck, planning to shove his mouth over, bite the straw, and just go for it. He had calculated it. With his skills, the chance of being discovered by Brother Lan was barely one in a hundred thousand.

His mouth hadn’t even touched the straw when he felt his neck being propped back by a cold object, rendering him unable to move.

Fei Lan swept a light, indifferent glance over Ye Lingwei. Ye Lingwei’s heart gave a nervous tingle, and he immediately cupped his face. “Gao Linhao wants to kiss me.”

Gao Linhao: “I did not!”

Never-ending nonsense with these two.

Fei Lan didn’t bother engaging with the bored duo. He reached out and scooped Ye Lingwei’s milk bottle into his hand. The way his lips wrapped around the straw was very gentle. It was just half a bottle, less than 150ml. Fei Lan finished it, tossed the bottle into the wastebasket beside the desk, and looked at Ye Lingwei. “Happy now?”

Ye Lingwei’s eyes curved into a smile. “Happy.”

Gao Linhao froze. Sitting in his seat, he realized too late that, actually, from the very beginning, Ye Lingwei had only planned to give the milk to Brother Lan. No matter how much of a run-around they gave, Ye Lingwei would have made Brother Lan drink that half bottle in the end.

He sighed. His life was truly a failure. He couldn’t even get half a bottle of milk.

—

Evening self-study.

Sweat beaded on Lin Chudong’s forehead. Hands tucked into his uniform pockets, he walked through the hallway with visible nervousness. As he passed, he hurriedly stole a few glances at Ye Lingwei. Ye Lingwei liked to lie on his desk. The girl sitting in front of him, Wu Meng, had a famously fiery temper. Her most treasured possession was her jet-black, sleek long hair, but now that precious hair was in Ye Lingwei’s palm, being twisted into one tiny curl after another.

As he passed, Lin Chudong happened to hear Ye Lingwei whisper to Wu Meng, “Jiejie, does it look good?”

Lin Chudong clenched the item in his hand tight, his eyes filled with thick unease. Hardly anyone would come to the restroom at this time; evening self-study generally didn’t allow students to run to the toilet without a good reason.

He had bought cigarettes at the supermarket outside. He had been feeling very repressed lately. Li Lan was recovering at home and had placed all her focus on him. Aside from urging him to solve problems from morning to night, all other times—including meals—were spent nagging in his ear that he must trample Ye Lingwei beneath his feet.

She blamed her current state entirely on Ye Lingwei. Lin Chudong attempted to reason with her, but what he got in return was hysterical roaring.

Lin Chudong lit the cigarette unskillfully. Through the curling, rising white smoke, he saw his listless face and uneasy eyes in the mirror.

It seemed like everything started spiraling from the moment Ye Lingwei stopped liking him.

The moment he thought of this, Lin Chudong felt his insides twisting in pain.

Smoke choked into his airway, and Lin Chudong began coughing violently. He pressed his hand against the sink, coughing until tears came out, though he couldn’t tell if the tears were from the physical discomfort or something else.

“Why learn to smoke when you were doing just fine?”

As the voice rang out above his head, the cigarette in Lin Chudong’s hand was taken away. With incomparable skill, Xia Huan placed the cigarette into his own mouth. He swallowed the smoke down his throat and let it drift out through his nose; combined with his face, there was a treacherous eeriness that made one’s back run cold.

It was completely different from the usual Xia Huan.

“See that? That is smoking.” Xia Huan expressionlessly stubbed out the cigarette and tossed it into the trash can, then suddenly smiled. “Let me guess why you’re smoking.”

Without giving Lin Chudong a chance to speak, Xia Huan continued, “I guess… it’s because of Ye Lingwei, isn’t it?”

Lin Chudong opened his mouth, a look of surprise in his eyes. After a long moment, he stammered, “How did you… know?”

If Xia Huan was also from No. 3 High, it wouldn’t be strange for him to know. However, he transferred here less than a week ago—how does he know? Relying on those messy gossip threads on the forum?

“Does it matter how I know?” Xia Huan looked at Lin Chudong with amusement.

“Ye Lingwei doesn’t like you anymore. Who are you putting on this act for?” Xia Huan’s tone was mocking, making Lin Chudong want to crawl into a hole. “He has Fei Lan now. Rest assured, no matter what you do, he won’t look back.”

Lin Chudong’s eyes reddened instantly. He hadn’t really thought about it himself, or rather, he had been trying to deceive himself. Yes, doing all this—to put it bluntly—wasn’t it just hoping Ye Lingwei would look back at him again?

“Fei Lan…” Lin Chudong asked with difficulty, “What is the relationship between Ye Lingwei and Fei Lan? Are they dating?”

Xia Huan shook his head. “No.”

Lin Chudong breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t care if what Xia Huan said was true. All he needed right now was an answer that allowed him to keep going, whether it was true or not didn’t matter.

Xia Huan paused for a moment after answering, then continued, “However, it is just as scary as dating.”

“Fei Lan now…” Xia Huan dragged out the tone, looking up at the bathroom light that flickered dimly. He murmured, “Is Ye Jiaojiao’s guardian deity³Literally a patron saint or guardian spirit. It implies Fei Lan is the absolute protector of Ye Lingwei, shielding him from everything..”

• 1
  This refers to a “sworn brother” relationship. It is not necessarily religious but signifies a close bond where an older male takes on a protective, brotherly role toward a younger person.
• 2
  A famous idiom meaning that if one is sincere and persistent enough, they can overcome any obstacle, no matter how hard.
• 3
  Literally a patron saint or guardian spirit. It implies Fei Lan is the absolute protector of Ye Lingwei, shielding him from everything.