Chapter 5

"Brother, you're back." Fu Cheng had momentarily forgotten the injury on his face, only noticing it when he tried to smile.

Fu Yuhe changed his shoes and walked in. "What happened to your face?" he asked in a low voice.

"I... fell by accident." Fu Cheng's explanation wouldn't have convinced Shen Yi, much less Fu Yuhe.

Fu Yuhe said, "Look up."

Fu Cheng obediently raised his head.

Fu Yuhe frowned.

As the atmosphere froze, Shen Yi spoke up in greeting. "Hello, brother. I'm Shen Yi, Fu Cheng's classmate. Sorry for the trouble today."

His warm, familiar tone instantly let Fu Yuhe match him to the voice he had heard on Fu Cheng's phone. Besides that morning, he had also heard it coming from Fu Cheng's bedroom afterward.

That night, Fu Cheng's door had not been fully closed. Fu Yuhe had been passing by when he heard a conversation inside, and the person on the other end had that very voice.

Because of things that had happened in junior high, Fu Cheng hadn't had such a close friend in a long time.

Shen Yi tilted his head up slightly, a brilliant smile on his lips.

The man wore a black suit and was dressed impeccably from head to toe. There was a well-concealed scrutiny in the way he looked at him.

His features were deep-set, and he looked very young, but the powerful aura of someone in a position of authority would never let anyone underestimate him.

"Hello." With an adult's mature composure, Fu Yuhe gave a slight nod. "Did you get into a fight?"

The second question was directed at Fu Cheng.

Fu Cheng stopped resisting. "Yeah, I did."

Shen Yi looked at the brothers before him, the curve of his lips widening.

The way they interacted and their personalities were both rather interesting, with a striking contrast between them. The younger brother was obedient and innocent, while the older brother was deep and calculating, as if a big bad wolf had raised a little lamb.

Seemingly mindful of Shen Yi's presence, Fu Yuhe didn't press further. Teenagers cared about their pride, and if he lectured Fu Cheng as his older brother in front of his friend, it would inevitably embarrass him.

"Brother, don't blame him. Today's fight was because of me. I'm sorry."

When Fu Yuhe didn't press the matter, Shen Yi added another comment himself.

"No, that's not it," Fu Cheng said hastily. "Those guys were trying to give me trouble too. If it weren't for Shen Yi last time, they might already have..."

He abruptly stopped speaking.

The living room fell silent.

"Last time?" Fu Yuhe asked slowly.

"Ah..." Shen Yi chimed in. "The collar of one of Fu Cheng's shirts was scorched by a spark."

It seemed as if he had said nothing, yet also as if he had said everything.

Fu Yuhe glanced at Shen Yi. If he hadn't made that extra comment just now, he wouldn't have drawn out the rest of what Fu Cheng had said.

The young man seemed completely unaware that there was anything wrong with what he had just said. The collar of his shirt had been pulled loose and askew, shadows accentuating his delicate collarbones. His smoothly contoured chin was raised, and there was a touch of red at the corner of his mouth. Looking as though he had been roughly ravaged, he inexplicably appeared somewhat alluring, even lending the smile on his lips an inexplicable charm.

"Is that so." Fu Yuhe's tone was somewhat unreadable.

"Brother, I can handle it myself," Fu Cheng said.

After a long moment, Fu Yuhe said, "All right."

He didn't stay downstairs for long before going up to his study.

The second floor was cut off from the sound of laughter and conversation below. Fu Yuhe sat at his desk, but he didn't immediately get to work. The documents he needed to deal with were all on the desk, and he held a pen, tapping it lightly against the surface.

This friend of Fu Cheng's was rather interesting. With just a few words, he had gotten Fu Cheng to reveal something he hadn't wanted to tell Fu Yuhe.

He thought back on how Shen Yi had acted. He wasn't aggressive; he was gentle, smiled often, and had a sunny personality. He and Fu Cheng seemed to get along very well, but when they talked, Shen Yi was actually the one in control most of the time, always finding a way in through something that interested Fu Cheng.

Was it all a coincidence?

Fu Yuhe narrowed his eyes and pressed the pad of his thumb against the pen cap.

Chapter 3: Keeping it secret

The campus gossip group was lively that night. When Shen Yi and Fu Cheng had fought Xu Fanchao and his friends, they hadn't gone far beyond the school gates, and plenty of schoolmates had been around.

Everyone in the gossip group was anonymous, and the discussion was in full swing.

A little after nine that night, Shen Yi sat lazily at the head of his bed. The lights in his room were off, and only his phone lit up his face as he scrolled through the chat.

[That was wild. The handsome guy on the left took on three of them, and his moves were so cool.]

[Why is it Xu Fanchao again? He got beaten like a dog this time, though, hahahaha.]

[Serves him right, if you ask me. He finally kicked an iron plate.]

[Why did they start fighting?]

[I was there and heard some of it. I think it was a love triangle. Xu Fanchao kept asking the handsome guy whether he chose him or the fair-skinned boy. Then the handsome guy chose the fair-skinned boy, and Xu Fanchao flew into a rage out of humiliation.]

[Huh???]

[Holy shit?!]

[Shocked gossip-eating face. What's going on?]

[Oh, come on, stop spreading rumors. I heard from my boyfriend that a girl Xu Fanchao likes likes the fair-skinned boy. And the handsome guy seemed to be pretty close with Xu Fanchao before...]

[Hmm... anyway, everyone can think it over for themselves.]

When Shen Yi saw that message, his fingertip paused.

Someone had added him to this group before. A lot of the gossip in it was sometimes quite accurate. For example, when it came to who was dating someone from which class, it was basically right every time.

Messages kept flooding in, and before long, the group moved on to another topic.

On Monday morning, Shen Yi and Fu Cheng were called to the homeroom teacher's office, along with Xu Fanchao and his friends. Both sides only said it had been a minor disagreement between them.

The injuries on Xu Fanchao and his friends' faces didn't look serious, but they actually had quite a few injuries on their bodies.