SYU 27. Contact Name

Chen Xiucheng sent Wu Jinshan his home location. Wu Jinshan replied that he would arrive at 6 a.m., but Chen Xiucheng complained that he could not get up that early.

“I don’t get up that early for class. Do we really have to leave so soon?”

Because the Liangshan Ranch was about four hours away from his house, Wu Jinshan explained that the ranch closed its tours by 4 p.m. If they left too late, there would not be much time left to visit.

Chen Xiucheng responded that it was fine to arrive late. They could just stay a few days at his place and explore the ranch bit by bit.

“It’s not every day I get to visit for free. I should really take my time and experience everything properly. Summer break is long anyway, no need to squeeze everything into one day. A rushed trip isn’t worth it.”

“Then you’ll need to book a hotel,” Wu Jinshan said, and sent over a list of nearby hotels that partnered with Liangshan Ranch.

Chen Xiucheng swiped the screen twice half-heartedly but did not open the file. He only replied with a vague “Oh.”

That night, he emptied out the backpack he had brought home from school, stuffed in two clean pairs of underwear, and made sure to pack the little frog plush ball. Then, after some thought, he wrapped up the pair of matching items on his desk in foam paper and tucked them into the bag as well.

The next morning, Wu Jinshan arrived ten minutes early and was already waiting at his front door.

Chen Xiucheng rushed out with his backpack and immediately saw the familiar white delivery truck. He remembered it vividly. That day, he had been desperate to borrow the truck from Wu Jinshan to save Fu Hexi, and that was how the two of them ended up in a hotel together.

The truck belonged to Wu Jinshan’s second uncle. Chen Xiucheng recalled that Wu Jinshan had mentioned before that his uncle occasionally used it to drive into Qinhai City for business and would deliver a few fat ducks while he was at it. Because of that, the truck always had a lingering duck poop smell.

Last time, the stench had nearly choked him. But this time, the smell was gone, and the truck even carried a faint, pleasant fragrance.

Wu Jinshan sat in the driver’s seat, staring at his phone without glancing sideways. When Chen Xiucheng greeted him, he only gave a brief response and told him to buckle up.

After driving for a short while, Chen Xiucheng suddenly said he had not eaten breakfast and wanted to stop by a convenience store to grab something. Wu Jinshan pulled over and waited.

Chen Xiucheng came back quickly. When he got back in the car, he was holding a bag of snacks and two bottles of drinks. He first asked if Wu Jinshan wanted anything, then began making small talk, casually rambling about anything, though it was clearly a bit forced.

Wu Jinshan either said nothing or just replied with a dry “mm.”

“Do you have a driver’s license?”

“I do. I showed it to you last time.”

“Oh, right,” Chen Xiucheng feigned confusion. “Did you bring it this time?”

“I did.” Wu Jinshan kept both hands on the steering wheel, answering mechanically, like a machine without emotion.

“Can I see it?” Chen Xiucheng asked. When the other man didn’t respond, he reached over on his own.

He first stretched out his left hand, tapping twice on Wu Jinshan’s thigh with his fingertips. When he saw that there was no resistance, he boldly reached out and gave the bulge of the pocket a squeeze.

“What the hell are you doing?” Wu Jinshan’s expression finally changed. He frowned slightly and swatted Chen Xiucheng’s hand away, gave him a sidelong glance, then simply pulled the wallet out of his pocket and tossed it over. “It’s in there. Look for it yourself.”

The license was tucked into the front slot of the wallet. As soon as Chen Xiucheng opened it, he saw it. His face gradually turned solemn, and he no longer felt like making any off-topic conversation.

He hadn’t remembered wrong. Wu Jinshan’s birthday was the same day they had moved into Dorm 502. Actually, the first time he laid eyes on Wu Jinshan in that dorm, he had felt an unexplainable fondness for him and had subconsciously wanted to get close.

He tried to strike up a conversation, chat, offer help, give gifts. But none of the usual ways of currying favor had any effect on Wu Jinshan. Worse still, while fumbling through, he had said the one thing Wu Jinshan hated the most.

Chen Xiucheng had never felt so defeated in a social interaction before. Back then, he had no idea what he had done to make Wu Jinshan hate him. He only thought the guy was targeting him for no reason at all.

No one wants their birthday to be the anniversary of their mother’s death. It was a cruel coincidence, one that no one could foresee or change.

He fell unusually quiet. After watching the scenery outside the window for a while, he nibbled on some snacks, and once they got onto the highway, he leaned back in the seat and fell asleep.

When he woke up again, the sun visor in front of him had been lowered, blocking out most of the light. Rubbing his bleary eyes, he glanced at the dashboard clock. Over three hours had passed.

He turned to look out the window. The midday sun was glaring, and the scenery had shifted from high-rise buildings to stretches of grassland, with cattle, sheep, and scattered farmhouses.

“Are we almost there?”

“Yeah. Which place are you staying at?” Wu Jinshan asked.

“Huh?” Chen Xiucheng was still groggy, his brain slow to respond.

“The hotel or inn.”

“Oh, I forgot.” He gave an awkward laugh and asked, “Can I stay at your place first?”

Wu Jinshan said nothing, as if this outcome had already been within his expectations.

Chen Xiucheng, on the other hand, was genuinely anxious. He had no idea whether Wu Jinshan would just drop him off at some hotel and be done with it. When Wu Jinshan kept silent, he could never quite guess what he was thinking.

He waited in anxious silence for several minutes. The quiet was not his comfort zone, and not speaking made him feel restless. Just then, he noticed a girl around twelve or thirteen waving in their direction from the side of the road.

“Brother—!” the girl called out. Her hair was tied in a neat ponytail, and she wore a short-sleeved shirt and shorts. She cupped her hands around her mouth as she shouted toward them.

Wu Jinshan turned the wheel and pulled into a parking space in front of a building. The girl stepped forward a few paces and greeted Chen Xiucheng warmly. “I’m Wu Yashan. You’re the one who called yesterday, right?”

Chen Xiucheng nodded and gave Wu Jinshan a look before quietly asking, “Your sister?”

“You’re going to the ranch tomorrow, right? I want to go too,” Wu Yashan said cheerfully, brushing aside the wind-blown strands of hair at her forehead as she followed alongside them.

“Sure, let’s all go together,” Chen Xiucheng replied. Her lively energy was a stark contrast to Wu Jinshan’s gloom, and it helped him relax from his tense state.

Wu Jinshan suddenly stopped and shot Wu Yashan a warning look. “If you want to go, you can go any time. You’ve lived here for twelve years and still haven’t had enough?”

Having her little scheme exposed by her brother, Wu Yashan put on an innocent face again. She gave a sheepish shrug and stuck out her tongue before reverting to a well-behaved and sensible look.

To her, Wu Jinshan had always been someone different, someone who inspired awe. He was not like a peer. He carried more pressure than even most adults.

Yesterday afternoon, Wu Yashan had passed by the lounge near the workshop.

She knew her brother’s habits. He did not like anyone touching his things, so unless something unusual happened, she would never touch his phone.

But to her, yesterday’s call counted as special. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her, because she saw the screen displaying the incoming call contact name as “Wife.”

“Is Yashan not coming in?” Chen Xiucheng asked, gesturing to where she still stood at a distance, watching them.

She had stopped a few steps behind and hadn’t followed when her brother moved to unlock the door.

“No. She lives with our parents,” Wu Jinshan said, pointing to a newly built villa not far off. He then pulled out a key and opened the rusty iron gate in front of them. “This is my place.”

“Huh?” Chen Xiucheng still did not quite grasp what he meant.

The two-story house with a backyard looked like it was at least thirty or forty years old. Inside, it was obvious that someone had recently patched up some of the damaged walls, but only minimally. Nothing had been renovated. Even the outdated and inconvenient furniture had been left in place.

The floor on the first level was still bare cement. There was a wrinkled leather sofa, a wooden chair with peeling paint, and an old television from several years ago. But everything had been thoroughly cleaned, and the backyard lawn was carefully trimmed.

This old house was indeed occupied by Wu Jinshan alone, but Chen Xiucheng had no time to ask about his family situation. Aside from the few snacks he had eaten in the car, he had not had a proper meal all day. As soon as he entered the house, the first thing he did was look for food.

In the first-floor kitchen, he used whatever ingredients were available to cook two bowls of noodles with vegetables, ham, and egg. He also made two glasses of fresh orange juice and steamed a plate of frozen dumplings.

Thanks to his father, a former Omakase head chef, Chen Xiucheng had inherited at least one useful skill, enough to keep himself from starving out in the wild.

It was already past six in the evening. Though the sun had not yet set, Chen Xiucheng insisted that he was tired and needed to rest, and that everything else could wait until tomorrow.

Wu Jinshan cleared out his study on the second floor for him. Not long after, Chen Xiucheng said he wanted to use the bathroom to take a shower. He went upstairs carrying his bag, then deliberately shouted, “Ah, I forgot to bring clothes!” and asked if Wu Jinshan could lend him something to wear.

Wu Jinshan did not have the heart to expose this string of clumsy acting. Pretending to be reluctantly cornered, he opened the wardrobe and let Chen Xiucheng choose for himself, silently watching to see what other stunts the other man would pull.

Later on, Wu Jinshan also went to take a shower. His master bedroom on the second floor had a built-in bathroom. After washing up and changing into his sleepwear, he came downstairs and saw that Chen Xiucheng was now wandering around the living room wearing nothing but one of his white T-shirts.

Wu Jinshan’s clothes were clearly too large for Chen Xiucheng. The collar hung low, exposing his collarbones, and the hem reached down to the tops of his thighs. Under the living room lights, the plain white fabric looked slightly translucent. From where Wu Jinshan stood on the stairs, it looked as if the guy was not wearing anything underneath. His smooth, pale legs were fully exposed.

Chen Xiucheng heard the noise upstairs and looked up. Seeing Wu Jinshan frozen on the steps, he immediately lifted the hem of the T-shirt and generously showed off his equally white briefs underneath. “I am wearing underwear,” he said.

Wu Jinshan said nothing. He turned and quickly retreated to his bedroom, firmly shut the door, and locked it.