Xie Xue had been really into Infernal Affairs II around that time. She watched that movie repeatedly, and everything that popped out of her mouth involved the characters’ names. Then, she sighed, “My family’s genes are just too powerful. My brother’s just too handsome.”
He Yu looked at the elegant, refined, and proper-looking youth in the photo and flipped the picture frame face down with an apathetic expression on his face. “How is he handsome?” As if that wasn’t enough, he flipped the photo back up a moment later and took another look at it, then said coldly, “Ugly.”
This time, he didn’t have the chance to turn it face down again before Xie Xue snatched the photo away and began to rant. “Pah! You’re just jealous of my beauty! Jealous of my brother’s good looks!”
He had nothing to say to this woman. Never mind her saying that he was jealous of Xie Qingcheng’s good looks, but what the hell did she mean that he was jealous of her beauty… Wait, no, there was absolutely no way he would be jealous of Xie Qingcheng’s good looks either. He Yu was so handsome that half the girls in his school had given him chocolates or love letters by now. Why would he be jealous of a boring, outdated old man?
As if he cared what Xie Qingcheng looked like.
But He Yu had truly been dealt a heavy blow that day. After sending Xie Xue home, he sat at his desk playing with his phone, turning the display on and off over and over again. Flashes of shadow and light weaved through his eyes—when it brightened, he saw only the glow from the phone, but when it darkened, the screen reflected his face, which had already begun to show hints of his future handsome demeanor.
He Yu stared at his reflection for a while. Then, after rolling his eyes and muttering a curse, he unlocked his phone again and sulkily typed out “Infernal Affairs II Francis Ng” and pressed “Search.”
On that hot and muggy afternoon, the boy sat at his desk, kicking his fair, toned, long legs in his school gym shorts underneath the table. He stared indifferently at all the stills from Infernal Affairs II on his phone screen, looking at that stern underworld triad boss. His face turned gloomy as he stared, as though the actor owed him a hundred million yuan. “What’s so great about this prim and proper vibe… What’s so great about him? Is he handsome? He’s not handsome at all.”
Early the next morning, when Xie Qingcheng walked out of the He residence guest room where he was staying with a yawn, he nearly ran straight into He Yu’s nose.
Startled, Xie Qingcheng shot him a glare that was still heavy with morning grumpiness. “Little devil, what are you doing?”
Truthfully speaking, it was no longer fitting for Xie Qingcheng to call He Yu “little devil” by then. After He Yu hit puberty, his height shot up suddenly. Xie Qingcheng had always been accustomed to lowering his head to look at He Yu, but in the blink of an eye, he had to get used to looking straight on at this boy who was more than a decade his junior. The boy was still growing too, so perhaps it wouldn’t be too long before Xie Qingcheng would need to learn how to look up at him…
This was probably why he had been rather unfriendly toward He Yu during that time.
Whenever he spoke to He Yu, Xie Qingcheng would subconsciously lower his head and look down. As a result, he would find himself looking at either He Yu’s school uniform shorts and long legs or his feet in his size 9 sneakers.
But that day proved to be an exception.
That day, when Xie Qingcheng glanced over, what he saw wasn’t He Yu’s school uniform shorts but an ironed pair of tailored cool-weather dress pants.
Briefly dumbfounded, Xie Qingcheng shifted his line of sight upward.
Good lord. He didn’t know if He Yu had gotten his medication mixed up or what, but he had changed into an exceedingly clean polo shirt that was so white it practically glowed, with the collar buttoned all the way up. He had even changed his hairstyle; his face was usually covered by his bangs, but now, he had gotten a fresh cut that exposed his brows and forehead.
He Yu’s appearance looked rather familiar…but Xie Qingcheng couldn’t quite put his finger on what this style reminded him of.
“You changed your style?”
He Yu curled his lip and scowled without answering. Then, after stewing in silence for a long while, he asked with a face so ashen it looked like he had inhaled poison gas, “What do you think?”
Xie Qingcheng was baffled, but he carefully looked him over from head to toe. “It’s all right. Better than before.”
“Hmph.”
“It’s just that it seems kind of familiar.”
“Hmph!” He Yu rolled his eyes and walked away with a bounce in his step and an air of secrecy.
Xie Qingcheng was left standing there, still slightly out of it, stroking his chin and muttering, “What’s gotten into that little devil…”
Naturally, He Yu’s outfit that day was met with Xie Xue’s enthusiastic approval.
“Wow!” she exclaimed. “Hey, handsome, you look amazing today! You’re so cool!”
He Yu’s heart swelled with delight even as he acted like her praise didn’t mean anything to him. He said mildly, “I don’t know about that. My hair got a bit too long, so I just told the barber to cut it however he wanted.”
“You really look sooo good!”
He Yu was overjoyed, but the expression on his face only became more inscrutable and cooler. From that day on, he started to carefully study how that old man Xie Qingcheng dressed and carried himself, clicking his tongue in disdain even as he strived to emulate him.
As a result, there came a day when He Yu was watching Xie Qingcheng wash his hands with his sleeves rolled up. Suddenly, he noticed the tattoo just above Xie Qingcheng’s left wrist, which was like a bracelet of tiny, slanting English words. At the time, He Yu had found it rather odd that Xie Qingcheng had a tattoo—had even he once been cavalier and rebellious in his youth?