It was really noisy.
Yang Feiwen rushed to the front and shouted first, “Yan-ge!” followed by a chaotic chorus of voices. They had returned empty-handed from their outing, having run for nothing, and now faced the extreme challenge of making it back within fifteen minutes. They were already dizzy from running.
When they saw Yan Xiu, they thought the fifteen minutes were up. Someone frantically checked their watch, and before even seeing the time clearly, they started pleading with Yan Xiu.
Yu Sui knew that whatever he said now, Yan Xiu would hardly be able to hear him. Taking advantage of Yan Xiu turning around, he tried to slip back with his suitcase, but his arm was suddenly grabbed.
“I’ll find you later,” Yan Xiu said. Yu Sui’s heart skipped a beat.
He didn’t even dare look back, struggling briefly before slipping away with his suitcase.
The dormitory supervisor closed three entrances to the dormitory building, leaving only one open, and then sat guard outside that single entrance.
In that short time, the dorm supervisor witnessed countless students who had slipped out rushing back through the stairwell entrance, each looking particularly disheveled or frantic. They didn’t even bother checking whether the supervisor was still sitting in his chair.
The supervisor half-opened his eyes and snorted coldly.
Amidst this chaos, a neatly dressed boy drifted in through the entrance, carrying a suitcase and moving quickly. As he turned toward the stairwell, he seemed to notice someone sitting at the entrance, so he freed one hand and threw a bold, exaggerated flying kiss. “Supervisor, get some rest early.”
The supervisor was quite pleased, thinking to himself, This is a good kid who only goes downstairs when necessary, not like those sneaky little brats.
Soon, another group of brats surged in through the entrance. They were in a great hurry, and some of them, after rushing into the dormitory building, didn’t even bother taking the stairs. Instead, they grabbed the railings that extended down to the first floor and climbed up, racing nonstop.
“Little brats!” The supervisor couldn’t even sit still watching them. “It’s a shame you weren’t born with wings! Were the stairs built just for decoration?” These brats had no time to answer the supervisor, and soon only a gust of wind remained in the stairwell.
The boys’ dormitory was slightly farther away than the girls’ dormitory. The boys from Class 3 who had snuck out didn’t make it back within fifteen minutes—they were three minutes late.
However, the disciplinary department hadn’t checked those floors yet, so it was actually easy to fool them. Unfortunately, they ran into Yan Xiu when they returned and even tried to curry favor with him.
“Just three minutes.” Yu Sui’s roommate slumped onto the table, on the verge of tears.
“It’s alright, at least it wasn’t recorded,” another roommate comforted him, seemingly unconcerned.
“That’s true.”
Yan Xiu hadn’t reported their names to the dean of student affairs, but they still had to write self-criticisms and hand them over to him.
After showering, Yu Sui climbed into bed, only half his head visible as he lay under the covers playing with his phone
The dormitory building was long past lights-out, and the only light in the room came from their own glowing devices. Yu Sui reached out from under the covers and pointed, signaling his roommate to turn off the lamp shining directly at him.
His roommate said, “Even if I turn it off, you’re not sleeping anyway.”
Yu Sui replied, “Mind your own business.”
“Bad habit,” the roommate muttered as he walked over and turned off the lamp with a click.
Yu Sui rolled over and continued scrolling on his phone.
This incident had caused quite a stir, and many teachers from the school had gotten involved. As a result, the disciplinary committee students were still tied up with the teachers at this hour.
Minister Yan, who had said he would find Yu Sui, still hadn’t managed to come by.
But thanks to the great electronic products of our time, Yan Xiu had other ways to find someone.
Ren Mu: [You go to sleep first]
Fish Can: […]
Fish Can: [How much longer are you guys going to take?]
This time, Yan Xiu directly sent a photo of the group of directors.
The same scene, from another angle, was spreading widely on social media at that moment. Since they were right under the dormitory building, the department heads looked as serious as if they were at a crime scene.
Fish Can: [Then I’m going to sleep]
Ren Mu: […]
Yu Sui stared at the dots, pressing his cheeks to the pillow, and only continued looking at the screen after a while.
Still dots.
The other side showed “typing,” but no new message came through after a long while.
Yu Sui was actually already sleepy.
He had the lazy bones of a pampered young master that hadn’t been exercised in ages. Today, his physical activity had suddenly spiked—climbing over the wall on one side, crossing the commercial district to find someone, hauling that heavy box back, then climbing over the wall on the other side to return to the dormitory.
His physical activity had already exceeded the limit, and his lazy bones were the first to protest, clamoring for sleep.
But he didn’t want to just fall asleep like that.
Maybe it was because he finally had the gift he’d spent days and effort searching for in his hands, and it felt particularly satisfying. Or maybe it was because, after climbing over the wall, he had been caught red-handed by Yan Xiu.
Even though a reprimand hung over his head, he still liked this subtle coincidence.
Or perhaps it was simply because Yan Xiu seemed to have unknowingly crossed a boundary.
He felt it was enough, almost there, but also felt it wasn’t just that—there was something else.
So, after waiting for that “typing” status for what felt like forever, Yu Sui idly clicked into Ren Mu’s profile.
Yu Sui was face-blind and usually added names for people. When he added Yan Xiu, he didn’t know him, so the name section had been left blank. Even now, he hadn’t added a permanent name.
For a while, he had Yan Xiu named as “Minister Yan,” then as “Deskmate,” and finally as “Family Brother.”
Later, when he realized that even “Family Brother” could fall from grace and that “Family Brother” could also like someone else, he removed the name.
He exited the profile and saw that this time, the other side didn’t even show “typing.”
Yan Xiu didn’t seem to want to let him sleep just like that.
Yu Sui renamed to “Human Wood” and sent Yan Xiu a sleeping dog emoji. He had waited too long and couldn’t hold on any longer, falling asleep the moment he closed his eyes.
A chilly night air filled the windowpane, forming a thin layer of condensation. A gust of wind slipped into the dormitory, waking Yu Sui from the cold.
He climbed out of bed, avoiding Yang Feiwen’s body sprawling out from under the covers, and walked to the window to close it.
He wasn’t fully awake, so he stood dazedly in the darkness for a while.
His throat was dry from lack of water, and his arms felt faintly cold.
Although the young master wasn’t fully awake, his alertness kicked in, and he bent down to find some cold medicine.
It was the change of seasons, and the teacher, to prevent everyone from getting sick, had given everyone cold medicine.
Yu Sui sniffed, slowly remembering he should use his phone for light.
He straightened up, fumbled for his phone, and turned on the flashlight to illuminate the cabinet. This time, luck was on his side—he found the medicine almost immediately.
Yu Sui brought over a cup of hot water and continued using his phone as a light.
Only one nerve was left to keep him going through this series of actions, so when a new message notification popped up on his phone, he didn’t react at all.
Human Wood: [Why can’t we take it seriously?]
After drinking the cold medicine, rinsing his mouth, and climbing back into bed, Yu Sui buried himself under the covers and went back to sleep.
The next morning, Yang Feiwen and the other two found a paper under Yu Sui’s cup on the desk that read, “I’ll sleep through two classes.”
They also spotted a discarded cold medicine packet lying nearby.
None of the three dared to wake Yu Sui, and the entire morning passed in silence.
Yu Sui indeed slept through two classes. When he woke up, the first thing he did was touch his throat—it felt fine, and he was breathing smoothly.
Out of habit, he fished out his phone to check the time and glanced at his new messages list.
During school hours, the number of new messages he could receive was limited, and he could see them all at a glance. The only notable ones were the pinned contact “Human Wood” and the line in the chat window that read, “Message withdrawn.”
“…”
He tossed out a string of question marks without a second thought, only to have his phone vibrate behind him.
Yu Sui sat up and turned around, only to realize there was someone else sitting at the desk. The person was resting his head on his hand, waiting for the water in what could only be described as a health kettle to boil with medicinal herbs inside.
He didn’t know when he got in or how long he’d been here.
Yan Xiu had just unlocked his phone and taken only one glance when he turned around and looked at Yu Sui.
Yu Sui was still holding the blanket, clutching his phone, his voice slightly hoarse from just waking up. “…Does the disciplinary committee also handle class nanny duties? Why did Lao Gu send you here again?”
“No,” Yan Xiu replied, surprisingly not offering any further complaints about the disciplinary committee being turned into a class nanny. He shifted slightly, pulled out a thermometer from somewhere, cleaned it, shook it, and handed it to Yu Sui. “Tuck it under your arm.”
“So cold first thing in the morning,” Yu Sui muttered as he got out of bed, his bare feet touching the floor. Soon, a pair of slippers was kicked over to his feet.
He looked up at his deskmate. Minister Yan had removed the lid of the health kettle and was adding goji berries inside.
Yan Xiu noticed Yu Sui’s gaze. He turned his head, his eyes falling meaningfully on the mercury thermometer in Yu Sui’s hand.
Very organized, very calm.
Yu Sui smiled, tucked the thermometer under his arm, and went to brush his teeth. When he returned, Yan Xiu had already finished with the health kettle.
However, he also ignored Yu Sui’s row of question marks, as if he hadn’t even seen it.
Sometimes, when two people met, they often overlooked messages they had just sent online. Yu Sui did this often too, but that was under normal circumstances—like when he and Yang Feiwen called each other idiots and forgot about it after meeting up.
Now, with this special person, Yu Sui didn’t want to let it go easily.
“Yan Xiu,” Yu Sui said.
Yan Xiu handed him a steamer of takeout soup dumplings, casually grabbed the young master’s arm, and pulled out the thermometer from under his armpit.
“Yan Xiu,” Yu Sui repeated.
“Eat first,” Yan Xiu said.
Yan Xiu seemed busy. He glanced at his phone, pressed a button on the health kettle, and only then checked the thermometer.
Yu Sui leaned over Yan Xiu to glance at the screen and indeed saw that the person on the other end was Tang Ying.
He had once drunk health water brewed from this kind of formula in a health kettle at the Yan household. At the time, Tang Ying had told him it was for dispelling cold in winter and preventing colds and illnesses.
Normal temperature, no illness, perfectly healthy.
Yan Xiu seemed to let out a sigh of relief, but then the hem of his clothes was tugged. Everywhere was quiet. The dormitory building was empty, and all the loudmouths were in the teaching building. No one could see them, and no one knew they were there.
Yu Sui swallowed a small bite of the bun: “Little Yanzi.”
Yan Xiu paused, his cold gaze sweeping over Yu Sui’s face. He reached out and pinched Yu Sui’s cheek: “Say it again?”
Yu Sui dodged him: “What did you delete last night?”
Yan Xiu lifted his eyelids slightly: “…What about it?”
Yu Sui looked back at him, lightly pursing his lips: “I saw it.”
Author’s Note: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, Happy National Day, Happy Holidays!
Translator’s note: Hi everyone! I have some good news to make (I just want to share this actually haha). I will be presenting my research on astrophysics conference this August!! *celebratory noises* Attending one is fun, but presenting your own research is another story >< (especially with no funding)! Despite this, I will still be continuing the update every Monday and Thursday!
If you have some extra money, please consider donating to my KoFi! Thank you!
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152