The wind rustled the trees on both sides of the road. Cheng Ye thought he wouldn’t get an answer from Jiang Shi. But after a few seconds, Jiang Shi’s barely audible voice came from behind him.

“I don’t like you.”

Cheng Ye’s stride faltered. He seemed to sigh helplessly. “How much do you not like me?”

“Very… very… much.”

Cheng Ye was silent for a long time.

He carried Jiang Shi on his back to the familiar, dilapidated residential building. The corridor was dark, and he navigated his way up the stairs using the light from outside.

The stairwell was so quiet that only his steady footsteps could be heard.

Halfway up, Cheng Ye stopped. He tilted his head slightly. His features were invisible in the darkness. “Young Master, were you telling the truth just now, or were you lying?”

Jiang Shi didn’t respond, as if he had fallen asleep.

By the time Cheng Ye reached the second floor, Jiang Shi, who was draped over his shoulder, pursed his lips and let out a small laugh.

“I was lying. Cheng Ye, I tricked you.”

…

By the time Cheng Ye entered Liu Man’s room, Jiang Shi was completely asleep.

He placed him on the sofa, rummaged through Liu Man’s messy wardrobe, and finally found a set of clean bedsheets and a duvet cover.

Jiang Shi slept very peacefully when he was drunk. Even though he was on an uncomfortable sofa, he only frowned slightly. His breathing was even, showing no signs of waking up.

Cheng Ye changed the bedding, laid his own school uniform jacket underneath, and carried Jiang Shi to the bed.

On the bed, Jiang Shi turned his head and rubbed against the pillow, clutching a corner of the school uniform. He adjusted to a comfortable position and continued to sleep, as docile as a lamb.

Cheng Ye squatted by the bed.

The person before him was sleeping without any defenses. His face was flushed, his lips slightly parted, revealing a sliver of his white teeth. His lips were red and glossy.

Cheng Ye’s gaze swept from his full forehead, then down to his brow bone, his eyes, his nose, and finally settled on his lips.

When he first realized his feelings for Jiang Shi were not right, Cheng Ye had gone to an internet cafe to do some research.

At this time, the internet was not well-developed, and people’s thinking was very conservative. Homosexuality was mostly heard of in foreign countries. In China, it was considered a disease.

It turned out he really was sick.

Cheng Ye then wondered, Does Jiang Shi have this disease too?

No one could give him an answer. But as he searched more and more, the system gradually started pushing pictures and videos to him.

At that time, internet censorship wasn’t very strict, and you could see anything online.

At seventeen or eighteen, at the peak of adolescent turmoil, those pictures and videos would often appear in Cheng Ye’s dreams.

The protagonist in his dreams became Jiang Shi.

The face was the same face, the eyes were the same eyes, but the face was flushed red, and the eyes were filled with desire. A single glance from him would make his whole body ache.

Those videos were too debauched. Kneeling, lying on his stomach, sitting… The Jiang Shi in his dreams was also incredibly forward. That narrow waist pressed against him, trembling when he held it, actively taking him in bit by bit.

The bottom ate, and the top ate too.

In reality, he always squatted in front of Jiang Shi, looking up at him. But the Jiang Shi in his dreams would actively kneel before him…

The feeling was so stimulating that every time Cheng Ye woke up, the sense of loss was greater than the pleasure.

Physical pleasure was easy to satisfy, but the emptiness in his heart could never be filled.

A bottomless pit of desire.

Jiang Shi on the bed turned over, facing Cheng Ye.

Cheng Ye knelt at the foot of the bed. He reached out and pressed his hand on the boy’s slightly parted lips.

Full, warm, like a juicy peach. When his rough fingertips ground over them, the color of the lips deepened.

His knuckles bent. Without much effort, he easily slipped through the parted lips.

Warmth enveloped him.

The thousands of simulations in his dreams were ultimately just imagination. The sensory experience in reality was completely different from the dream.

Cheng Ye’s breathing quickened, and a vein throbbed on his temple.

He tried to go in a little further.

The foreign object made Jiang Shi’s brows furrow. He tried to push it out, but the other pressed down on his tongue, even pinching the tip, teasing and playing with it.

“Mmm…”

The boy let out two uncomfortable hums. His eyebrows curved into a wronged arc. In his sleep, he reached out, grabbed a thick wrist, and pulled it out, a string of saliva trailing from it.

Cheng Ye stared at Jiang Shi’s face. The malicious thoughts he had suppressed for so long were growing stronger and stronger, until today they were almost uncontrollable.

In the end, he followed the desire in his heart. He used his other hand to lift his clothes and reached in towards his lower abdomen.

Then he opened his mouth and licked up the crystal-clear saliva on his fingertips.

The sun was already high in the sky when Jiang Shi woke up.

He sat up from the bed in a daze. His eyes were met with an unfamiliar environment. He reached out and pulled a rumpled school uniform jacket from under his butt. Judging by the size, it wasn’t his.

Cheng Ye pushed open the door, carrying breakfast. He seemed to have guessed that he would be awake around this time and wasn’t surprised to see him up. “You’re awake. Come and eat breakfast.”

Jiang Shi had drunk very little yesterday, so his head didn’t hurt much, but he was very groggy. He couldn’t remember anything that had happened after he got drunk.

“Where is this?”

“Liu Man’s house.”

Liu Man’s house?
Jiang Shi threw off the covers. “Damn! What time is it? We have class today!”

“It’s fine,” Cheng Ye said. “I asked for leave.”

…

In the office, Chen Yi let out a cold laugh. “Yesterday afternoon, Cheng Ye had a stomachache. This morning, Jiang Shi has a stomachache. What a coincidence, you two. One after the other.”

Jiang Shi didn’t say a word. Cheng Ye said, “It is quite a coincidence.”

“Is it?” Chen Yi said. “Then explain to me why someone said you two didn’t attend evening self-study yesterday.”

Jiang Shi said in a small voice, “I suddenly felt unwell last night. I almost fainted in the bathroom. Luckily, my classmate Cheng Ye found me and, at the risk of skipping class, bravely took me to the hospital.”

Chen Yi gave him a “do you think I’d believe that” look.

But she didn’t plan on pursuing the matter with the two of them. She just sighed wearily. “Don’t let it happen again. If there’s a next time, I won’t be so easy on you.”

After speaking, she took a form out of her drawer and handed it to Cheng Ye. “The school sent out a notice this morning. There’s a provincial math competition. The top three all get prize money. I saved the form for you. Fill it out quickly, it’s due this afternoon.”

She didn’t say it explicitly, but everyone present knew that Cheng Ye needed the prize money more than the competition itself.

Chen Yi said, “Do your best. Although our school has always been at the bottom among the high schools in Lincheng, the school leaders still have high hopes for you. The principal said that as long as you can place, besides the competition prize money, he will give you an additional reward.”

After speaking, she let Cheng Ye go out and kept Jiang Shi in the office.

There were no other teachers in the office at the moment. Chen Yi got a chair for Jiang Shi to sit on and poured him a glass of water.

“The results of the pop quiz from the other day are out. Jiang Shi, do you know what your score is?”

Jiang Shi held the water cup, his head slightly lowered. He knew. Second to last in the class. In fact, he had barely done any of it. Most of the time, he just randomly filled in a couple of blanks and then fell asleep.

As for why he was second to last, it was because the person who was last had gotten sick and missed one of the exams.

“Many teachers have reported your problems to me. You don’t listen in class, you sleep, you play on your phone. I know you’re already an adult, and whether you study or not is your business. But I also know a little about your family situation. Of course, it’s not just you. Most of the students in our school are the same.”

“You are all children from the countryside. Maybe your parents went out to work when you were young, and you didn’t have anyone to take care of you or discipline you. Over time, you became more and more willful.”

“But Jiang Shi, you have to know that studying is the only way for you to change your path. Your parents worked hard their whole lives and couldn’t get out of the mountains. I don’t want you to be trapped in the mountains for your whole life too.”

The boy in front of her had his head down, his fingertips slightly pink from the heat of the disposable paper cup filled with hot water. His skin was porcelain white, his features delicate. He didn’t look like he came from a poverty-stricken place like Xiliu Village, but rather like a pampered young master.

Chen Yi tried to persuade him, “You’re already in your second year of high school. This semester is about to end, and you’ll be in your third year in September. You don’t have much time left. You have to think about your future, don’t you?”

“You’re an obedient child, and you’re not stupid. I saw your entrance exam scores. You did quite well, otherwise you wouldn’t have been placed in Class Three. I don’t know why you don’t like to study, but if you don’t study, if you don’t go to university, what do you plan to do in the future?”

“What can you do?”

…

When Jiang Shi came out, Cheng Ye was standing by the corridor, filling out the math competition form. Seeing him, Cheng Ye capped his pen and casually folded the form a few times before stuffing it in his pocket. “What did the teacher want to talk to you about?”

Jiang Shi’s school uniform jacket was open, revealing a loose white T-shirt underneath. A part of his collarbone was faintly visible at the round neckline. His expression was weary from lack of sleep, his brows furrowed.

“Nothing much.”

Cheng Ye carefully examined his expression. He didn’t look like he had been reprimanded. “Nothing much, yet you talked for so long?”

“She thinks I did poorly on the test and wanted to give me a pep talk.”

“Where did you do poorly?” Cheng Ye frowned. “You only got a low score because you didn’t do much. To get that many points after doing so little, if you had done all of it, you would have definitely scored higher than me.”

Jiang Shi: “…”

It’s a pity there’s no emperor now, otherwise Cheng Ye would have a promising future as a treacherous minister.

The two of them had disappeared for an entire evening self-study session and a morning, and now they were back together. The eyes of their classmates frequently darted towards them. But they weren’t familiar with either Jiang Shi or Cheng Ye, so even if they were curious, no one dared to go up and ask.

The first class in the afternoon was physics. Normally, Jiang Shi should be catching up on sleep at this time, but he wasn’t feeling sleepy at all, despite hearing the rustling of his classmates flipping through their books.

His body was tired, but his mind was like a taut string.

The girl next to him carefully poked Jiang Shi’s arm with a ruler. “Classmate Jiang Shi, were you with Cheng Ye last night?”

Jiang Shi came back to his senses and zipped up his jacket. “Yeah, we were together.”

He said lazily, “I accidentally drank too much and couldn’t make it back.”

The girl gasped. “So you two slept together last night?”

Jiang Shi rummaged through his clean desk drawer. After a long time, he finally pulled out a physics book that looked as good as new. “I guess so. I don’t remember.”

The girl’s face was flushed. She didn’t dare to ask anymore. She lowered her head, took out a locked notebook from her desk, and started writing furiously, her thoughts flowing like a fountain.

Jiang Shi opened the first page of his physics book. He searched for a pen for a long time but couldn’t find one. He turned around and grabbed one from Cheng Ye’s desk.

Cheng Ye’s pen was also in a pitiful state. The cap was gone, leaving only a bare stick, and there wasn’t much ink left inside.

Jiang Shi reluctantly used it to write his own name, and after that, he didn’t know what to do.

He looked at his deskmate and realized that after all this time, he still didn’t know her name.

“Um…” he said slowly. “Where are we in the book?”

The girl closed her notebook, took out her own physics book, and on the side of the book, Jiang Shi saw her name.

Li Caiying.

Li Caiying’s book pages were covered in dense notes. She skillfully found the new material they were supposed to be learning and pointed it out to Jiang Shi. “Here.”

Jiang Shi noted down the page number. Before he could turn to it, the chair under him was kicked.

He turned his head. Cheng Ye was looking at him, his brows pressed low. “Jiang Shi, why didn’t you ask me?”

Jiang Shi: “?? “

It was just a matter of convenience. Why did he have to turn around?

He gave Cheng Ye four big words.

“If you’re sick, get treatment.”