“Cheng-ge.” Gu Fei smiled as he extinguished the engine, turning back to look at Jiang Cheng. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“Do you?” Jiang Cheng held his gaze.
“If this was before,” Gu Fei said, “I wouldn’t have let a single one of them walk out of here. If they made the mistake of showing up, they wouldn’t be getting a pass.”
Jiang Cheng smiled. “Why didn’t you do that today?”
“Trying to take after the overachiever. Follow my boyfriend’s example and keep him from worrying.” Jiang Cheng didn’t speak, only patted his back. Gu Fei started the engine again. “Wanna go get some breakfast?”
“Mm-hm.” Jiang Cheng nodded. “My treat.”
It was true that when Li Hui’s call came in first thing in the morning, Jiang Cheng couldn’t think of any other way to resolve this than going out and giving him a beating. If Gu Fei hadn’t shown up, and he’d had to go downstairs to face Li Hui on his own, it would have happened the same way.
It was like Gu Fei said: He didn’t have a reason to call the police, and he didn’t have the energy to either. He was a high school senior deep in preparation for university entrance exams. If he had to go up against a scoundrel like Li Hui, there seemed to be no other choice.
Still. He stared at the back of Gu Fei’s head. Even if Gu Fei had more restraint than before, Jiang Cheng felt uneasy.
No matter how hard Gu Fei tried to follow his boyfriend’s example, he would be the only one doing it. The majority of people around here weren’t going to follow anyone’s example. They would never change.
Jiang Cheng could leave this place. He most certainly would leave this place. But what about Gu Fei? Gu Fei shielded him from the filth and grime, but then what?
Jiang Cheng bowed his head and pressed his forehead against Gu Fei’s back. He still didn’t know what to do. Gu Fei, for his part, had already gone from being full of hope, to burying his hope, to closing his eyes in peace; he didn’t know what to do either.
But even so, Jiang Cheng thought, clenching his jaw, Gu Fei has to leave this place. No matter how hard it is, he has to leave.
It wasn’t that Gu Fei didn’t have hope; he’d simply buried it.
Just as Jiang Cheng was filled with determination, his spirits flying high, Gu Fei suddenly leaned back and nudged lightly against him. Jiang Cheng was only a second away from bursting out into song. Come with me! We ride at dawn!4
“Sit up straight.” Gu Fei turned his head slightly. “There are Fourth High students ahead.”
“Oh.” Jiang Cheng glanced ahead. They had already turned onto the road where they usually went to get breakfast. There were a lot of people standing and sitting around the breakfast stalls. “You can still see without your glasses?”
“I was guessing,” Gu Fei said, and Jiang Cheng started laughing. “It’s true my eyesight can’t compare to yours, though. You don’t miss a single shot, even from upstairs. When did you buy a new slingshot?”
“Pan Zhi gave it to me last time he was here,” Jiang Cheng said. “This one is… I feel like he might just straight up give me a crossbow next time.”
“It’ll be October soon. Is he coming again for National Day on the first?” Gu Fei stopped the bike.
There were indeed a number of students from Fourth High at the breakfast stalls. Jiang Cheng didn’t recognize any of them, but he knew who they were because when he and Gu Fei got off the bike, all those students turned to look at them at once.
“He can’t come,” Jiang Cheng told Gu Fei. “His fourth grandpa has just passed away. It’s too short notice to make up any more relatives to croak. Not to mention, if they die too frequently, nobody will believe it. Fourth High doesn’t give days off for National Day either. But more importantly, I can’t afford to lose any more study time.”
There weren’t any vacant tables at the breakfast stalls. After the two of them had bought breakfast, they walked a lap around the tables, but eventually gave up. They ended up sharing a table with two other Fourth High students who looked like a young couple. As soon as Jiang Cheng and Gu Fei sat down, the couple exchanged knowing glances, sipped on their soy milk, and eyed Gu Fei.
Jiang Cheng frowned. He was beginning to understand the powerful impact of the words “composition by Gu Fei.” He looked worriedly at Gu Fei, but he seemed pretty calm. He had a dough fritter in one hand and a bowl of tofu pudding in the other, happily eating away.
When the couple finally finished eating and left, Jiang Cheng breathed a sigh of relief. “Shit.”
“What?” Gu Fei finished his own tofu pudding, then grabbed Jiang Cheng’s as well.
“Nothing.” Jiang Cheng picked up a bun. “People like that are just annoying, staring at you like that. What the flying fart do they think they’re looking at?”
Gu Fei smiled slightly and didn’t reply.
Once they arrived at school, the stares kept coming. Jiang Cheng was a little sorry that he hadn’t encouraged Gu Fei to skip class.
It was much better once they were in their classroom. After all, the people of Class Eight had spent years in this room with Gu Fei. They were surprised, sure, but their reactions weren’t as dramatic as everyone else’s.
Besides, they had the fake tyrant of the class, Captain Wang Jiuri, trying to steal the spotlight by force.
Wang Xu was sitting on his desk, boasting to the people around him. “Exactly! I just don’t bother to show off most of the time. When I started fooling around with the guitar, you all were probably still singing in the shower! Anyway, I’m not exactly a pro.” Turning and spotting Jiang Cheng, Wang Xu immediately beckoned him over. “Jiang Cheng! Say, how was that guitar solo I added? It added a lot to our performance, huh?”
“Yes.” Jiang Cheng nodded earnestly and gave him a thumbs-up.
“Are you planning to apply to a music school?” someone asked.
“We’ll see. It’s not like you have to get into music school to learn music.” Wang Xu’s expression was solemn. “If I fly out of this shitty place one day and end up in some big city, at least I’ll have a skill I can live on!”
“Oh…” Everyone nodded their heads fervently.
Jiang Cheng chuckled, but he felt a little wistful as he sat down. Even Wang Xu talked big about his dream of someday making it out of this place. He had the confidence to claim he could live on those paltry guitar skills if he needed to…
But Gu Fei was the one who actually had a skill to live on. More than one, at that. Even if Gu Fei were to apply to the shitty local colleges, he could at least get into the least rotten one of the bunch.
Jiang Cheng glanced at Gu Fei. He wouldn’t say any of this to him. Everything was still up in the air right now. If Gu Fei didn’t want to be woken up, then Jiang Cheng couldn’t wake him.
Jiang Cheng sighed and slumped over his desk. He was sleepy. He hadn’t slept well last night, and then Li Hui had caused a ruckus so early in the morning… Now that things had quieted down, all he felt was extreme fatigue. In the short hour of the morning self-study period, he was sure he must’ve yawned at least eight hundred and sixty times. His eyes were practically swimming with bleary tears.
“Why are you so tired?” Gu Fei set down the phone he’d been messing around on. “Were you thinking inappropriate thoughts the whole night?”
“Fuck off.” Jiang Cheng laughed, but as soon as he stopped laughing, he yawned again.
“Maybe…you can snooze for a while?” Gu Fei suggested.
“Nah, I still gotta copy down the key points.” Jiang Cheng rubbed his eyes. “I might have to buy a voice recorder.”
“Do you want me to take notes for you?” asked Gu Fei.
“What?” Jiang Cheng blinked.
“The key points, like you said. And notes and stuff. I’ll write them down for you so all you have to do is listen. And if you can’t stay awake, you can take a little nap.”
“So you’ll…” Jiang Cheng stared at Gu Fei and pushed his notebook toward him. “…Take notes for me?”
“Mm.” Gu Fei flipped open the notebook. “Ah, first period is English?”
“…You don’t even know what first period is?” Jiang Cheng chuckled.
“I don’t know what any period is. I only find out when the teacher walks into the room.” Gu Fei glanced at Lao-Lu, who had just arrived. “When you review the notes, will my beautiful handwriting hurt your feelings too much for you to focus?”
“Oh, get over yourself.”
As usual, Lao-Lu started the class by slamming his warrior-god palm on the lectern to stun the sleepy students to a half-awake state, and then began his lecture.
Jiang Cheng flopped over the desk and rested his head on his arm. He kept his ears open for Lao-Lu as his eyes stayed on Gu Fei.
Gu Fei twirled the pen, looking a little nervous—he had never taken proper notes before, let alone English notes. When Lao-Lu turned to the blackboard to write out key focus points, Gu Fei put his head down and began to copy them.
Staring at Gu Fei’s profile, Jiang Cheng fell into a daze.
When you open your eyes, I’ll definitely hear it.