Having been classmates for so long, most of the students in Class 3 Arts were quite familiar with Yan Xiu and knew his personality. Yang Feiwen, as a highest member of the official CP fandom, thought he knew Yan Xiu very well.
But he didn’t know Yan Xiu would also make health-preserving drinks for people.
So thoughtful, so domestic? He’d only ever seen such things in fanfiction writers’ posts on the official CP forum.
Yang Feiwen was deeply incredulous: “Why would he make them for you?”
Because of love.
Thinking this, Yu Sui said aloud, “Just because.”
“He brought some fruit, grabbed some thermos, and then just brewed some?” Yang Feiwen tried to remain unaffected by the “official CP” sentiment, but the more he spoke, the more it sounded off. Finally, putting himself in that position, he said sarcastically, “He doesn’t eat much even when drawing, why would he grab some fruit? Besides, why haven’t I seen him brew some for anyone else?”
Because of love.
Yu Sui continued answering in his mind, then slapped Yang Feiwen: “Are you done?”
Young Master Yu was usually lazy and didn’t like to tire himself, but he was actually quite strong. Yang Feiwen groaned and rubbed his shoulder as he sent a voice message to the person on WeChat. After sending it, he muttered something strange, “It’s not that I’m stupid enough to think there’s something wrong with you two. I’ve never been like this before. Is there really such a big difference between a deskmate and a classmate? I also really want to be favored by Yan-ge just once…”
Before he could finish, Yu Sui gave him a side-eye. Yang Feiwen immediately stopped talking. He felt that Yu Sui’s gaze was more than just annoyance; his dark eyes were sinister, like he was looking at a pretentious intruder.
Yu Sui’s schedule looked very busy at first glance.
That day, he had several events scheduled to participate in, and the most important on it was the vocal and instrumental performances.
The remaining students from No. 26 High School were mostly silent, watching the stage nervously. They were facing off against the Shenghuang High School, and only one school could advance to tomorrow’s finals.
Both schools had tied for the top spot on the leaderboard, and neither wanted to fall to the point of failing to reach the finals in such a small competition.
However, the affiliated high school had specialized in this area for many years and had better resources. In contrast, No. 26 High School, while stronger than other schools, still had clubs composed mainly of students with hobby-related interests, lacking the fundamental professional skills and having fewer members.
“I can’t breathe,” the boy behind Yang Feiwen whispered. “I want to smoke.”
Immediately, someone said to him, “Smoke your ass!”
The other competition area had already started. Their matches took much longer, with less rest time than here, but they ended earlier.
Yu Sui replied to the message, before getting the thermos in his pocket, and then unscrewed the lid to take a sip.
He noticed the glances others cast at his thermos—they were usually good friends and didn’t mind sharing snacks and drinks.
But the young master was being stingy today. After finishing his drink, he kept the thermos in his pocket.
“Hey, is it really necessary?” Yang Feiwen found it somewhat amusing.
A group of people echoed Yang Feiwen’s drawn-out tone, “Hey, is it really that serious?”
Yu Sui smiled, saying in an annoyed tone, “Yeah.”
Yang Feiwen immediately urged him on, still feeling that their behavior was off; but this time, before he could offer his opinion, Ji Jiangwu gestured for them to get ready.
A large flow of people surged into the backstage area, instantly making it extremely crowded, with everyone dressed in identical black formal attire.
“Yu Sui,” a girl calling out, came from the direction of the affiliated high school.
With her were several other girls who were pushed and shoved out. They were playing around shyly and timidly. The girl in the lead was almost pushed out and staggered a few steps before she could stand up.
With such a commotion, Yu Sui couldn’t pretend he didn’t know. Yang Feiwen and his group didn’t try to avoid them this time—it was too crowded. There was nowhere to hide.
“Hey—here to declare war?” the boy playing the violin joked.
“No, no!” the girls opposite waved their hands. “We just wanted to wish you good luck.”
Yu Sui smiled and agreed.
Behind him, a boy peeked out in surprise: “Wow. You’re cheering us on?”
“Ah…” The girl opposite was momentarily embarrassed, glancing at the boy with half-disdain, secretly thinking that the students from the neighboring school seemed to have rather low emotional intelligence.
Yu Sui pushed the boy back down, about to say something to smooth things over, when Zhou Yijia emerged from behind the affiliated high school: “Misunderstanding! I wasn’t cheering for you guys. I was cheering for Yu Sui. After all, he came from our school.”
His slightly slanted eyes coldly looked at Yu Sui: “I’m also curious whether your skill level has improved in the past two years.”
Yu Sui had gotten used to Yan Xiu’s 365-degree cold sarcasm lately and was completely immune to Zhou Yijia’s level, so he remained silent for a moment before realizing that Zhou Yijia was probably provoking him.
Yu Sui paused: “Have we participated in competitions together before?”
Zhou Yijia frowned: “Many times.”
But back then, Yu Sui was exceptionally talented, and no one could beat him.
Yu Sui nodded: “Just remember the feeling.”
Zhou Yijia: “…”
He hadn’t been in contact with Yu Sui for a long time. His impression of Yu Sui was still that he was always easy to talk to. He imagined Yu Sui to be a humble person, but he had also heard that Yu Sui had become lax since leaving the affiliated high school. So he just wanted to tease Yu Sui. Unexpectedly, he was provoked and just walked away stiffly.
“He’s that guy called Yijia,” Yang Feiwen whispered, leaning against Yu Sui. “What you do should be none of his business. I really want to smash my violin in his face.”
Who knew they’d have such a strange connection with the students from the affiliated high school today? They ran into them again later when they went to the restroom.
This was an accident. The group talking around the corner didn’t even notice them coming.
Yang Feiwen looked annoyed. “Why do some people always like to chat by the toilet door? Does it smell especially good?”
Yu Sui chuckled: “Maybe?”
This time, it was Qian Ruichen. They weren’t in the same class as Zhou Yijia’s group and didn’t often hang out together. He’d only just heard about the little argument that had broken out backstage, and he said with a displeased expression, “Their class always likes to do unnecessary things.”
“But that Yu Sui from No. 26 High School, he actually came from the affiliated high school, he’s pretty good.” The speaker couldn’t remember exactly how good he was.
Qian Ruichen had inquired about it and scoffed, “He’s unreliable. He withdrew halfway through the last M-competition, and soon after, he switched to other competitions. How far do you think someone like that can go on one path?”
“That’s true, nothing to fear.”
Yu Sui hadn’t expected this to escalate. He and Yang Feiwen were stuck in a position where neither moving forward nor turning back was appropriate. Yang Feiwen said speechlessly, “Is there something wrong with them? We’ll know after the competition. What’s the point of talking about it here?”
The young master shrugged. “They’re just afraid.”
They originally planned to wait until Qian Ruichen had moved on from the topic of No. 26 High School before going over to it.
However, perhaps everyone had the habit of going to the restroom before going on stage, because they heard footsteps behind them. Gou Yuda, Zhou Yijia, and a few others arrived, and he asked them, rather inexplicably, “What are you doing standing here? Can’t you use the restroom?”
Yu Sui: “……”
Yang Feiwen: ”…..”
Zhou Yijia shouted, and Qian Ruichen and his group heard it. They instantly came out from around the corner, creating an extremely awkward three-way confrontation.
“Damn it.” It’s unclear who uttered the first curse. Then, Yu Sui grabbed Yang Feiwen and walked past them into the restroom.
The concert hall was huge, and looking down from the stage could easily create a sense of pressure.
Yu Sui had already been up there once, so he felt fine and looked for his seat.
Usually, in a competition, only the judges need to sit attentively from beginning to end. One judge saw Yu Sui, raised an eyebrow, and clearly recognized the boy.
The 26th High School students were in position, while the affiliated middle school students hid backstage, practically sticking their heads out to listen.
Both schools performed the same piece, so the focus was on the mistakes and the moments of brilliance.
Zhou Yijia and Qian Ruichen, as two proud individuals who had openly and secretly boasted about their performances, naturally paid close attention to the No. 26th High School’s performance.
As soon as Professor Xu waved his conductor’s baton, they exchanged a glance, their eyes revealing identical surprise.
The stage was bustling with excitement and excitement, while backstage, people were running around.
“Zero errors.” Gou Yuda lowered the curtain. “The performance was excellent, even ahead of us. The judge doesn’t keep scores, so we’ll only manage a draw this time.”
Zhou Yijia’s expression wasn’t good either: “Of course you can do that with more practice. We’ll see in the individual matches.”
The affiliated high school’s performance wasn’t bad either, but their starting points were almost identical to those of the 26th High School. And because they were behind, they suffered a significant disadvantage from the start.
A poor start inevitably leads to low morale.
After the match, Gou Yuda calmed down those on his left and right, then got up to find Yu Sui to assess the situation.
However, he searched the 26th High School’s area but couldn’t find Yu Sui.
Yi Tian was stopped and helplessly shrugged, “I don’t know. If you’re really in a hurry, you can go check out the competition area next door.”
“The competition area next door?” Gou Yuda frowned. “When did he become interested in art?”
Upon hearing this, Yi Tian’s expression became much more subtle: “Oh, I guess it’s because I love him so much…”
A question mark appeared on Gou Yuda’s face.
Later, he mostly saw Yu Sui on stage. Facing someone in the same category as Yu Sui was unpleasant. He could tell the result of the competition just by looking at the judges’ faces after the performance, and the psychological pressure was immense.
Zhou Yijia was ranked ahead of Yu Sui in both instrumental and vocal performances. He was quite confident after the first round, but after Yu Sui came down, all his confidence vanished.
Zhou Yijia said, “Didn’t they say he didn’t practice at that lousy school?”
Gou Yuda patted him on the shoulder and asked curiously, “Where did you get that false information?”
Zhou Yijia: “…”
He waited until the evening’s vocal performance, breaking out in a cold sweat before even going on stage, glancing warily at the boy backstage who was engrossed in his phone.
Gou Yuda seemed alright after his last performance: “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Zhou Yijia looked away and walked out after the host called his name.
It was the last performance.
Yu Sui breathed a sigh of relief. He tapped into Yan Xiu’s chat window, clicked on his nickname, and silently changed “Human Wood”1人間木頭 \rénjiān mùtóu\ to “Sacred Human Wood.”2人間神木 \ rénjiān shénmù \
He actually wanted to give Yan Xiu a more intimate nickname, but he didn’t dare to use ambiguous words, so he gave up in the end.
There were very few messages in the chat that day.
Both profile pictures were the same color scheme, and the fish looked like the same fish.
Drawn by Yan Xiu.
The young master tapped on both profile pictures and then typed.
Fish Can: [I’ll come find you later]
The competition in the next area ended at a fixed time, a little earlier than here. He’d go over after he finished his competition.
By the time he finished sending the message and looked up, Zhou Yijia had just returned.
To ensure efficiency in the competition, the next contestant would usually wait on the edge of the stage beforehand. Zhou Yijia came over and saw Yu Sui still playing on his phone, his lips twitching violently.
The two bumped into each other and politely gave each other a perfunctory hug.
As soon as they entered backstage, Zhou Yijia started complaining: “How come he always has an endless stream of messages?”
The students from the affiliated high school who rushed forward were stunned, feeling that the direction of this complaint seemed a bit off: “…Huh?”
Zhou Yijia was completely oblivious: “Does he even care about me?”
The students from No. 26 High School glanced up at them, their eyes filled with sympathy, before quickly looking away: “Yu Sui is starting. Get out, get out…”
A girl from the affiliated high school hesitantly raised her hand, recording Zhou Yijia’s behavior.
A girl next to her glanced at her curiously: “What are you doing?”
“Shh,” the girl whispered, “Don’t you think Lao Zhou looks like someone who can’t have their love?”
“Ah…”
The girl continued in a low voice: “Weren’t he and Yu Sui classmates before? Now what is it, a reunion at the peak or a broken mirror mended…”
She was interrupted before she could finish: “No, they can’t be together.”
The girl turned her head somewhat displeased, only then realizing that the girl who had spoken to her wasn’t from their affiliated high school.
Yi Tian said gently, “Our Sui’er already has an official CP. It’s our Minister of Discipline Inspection Department. He’s very fierce.”
Afraid the girl wouldn’t understand, she gave an example: “Let me put it this way. For a while, our school’s online forum was completely filled with posts about Sui’er’s harem. It was so lively. Then overnight, it all disappeared, leaving only our Minister and Sui’er’s posts.”
This sounded fake, and the girl from the affiliated high school subconsciously asked, “Why?”
Yi Tian became even gentler: “You’ll have to ask the Minister.”
After all, they hadn’t dared to ask.
Most of the others would eavesdrop on their opponents’ performance backstage after they judge their approximate position.
But Young Master Yu was clearly not in this group. He left immediately after his performance, seemingly unconcerned about the evening’s results announcement. He even led several members of Class 3 Arts away.
“Stay for two more minutes, and you’ll get to see the colorful expressions on the faces of those from the other group,” Yang Feiwen said as they walked away.
Yi Tian, who was on Yu Sui’s side this time, said, “We’ve been watching their faces change all day, haven’t we had enough?”
“Not enough,” Yang Feiwen slapped Yu Sui’s shoulder relentlessly. “I just wanted to take a picture of them looking like that this morning, especially that guy surnamed Zhou…”
The competition in the next area had already ended. Even before getting close, a noisy commotion could be heard, with many students carrying buckets and paint palettes, searching for places to wash up.
Yu Sui lightly hooked the strap of his violin case and sent a question mark to the person on the other end of the chat window.
Yan Xiu didn’t reply. He was probably packing.
The commotion among the group carrying water buckets suggested something big had happened inside. Yang Feiwen put down his violin case and strolled over to inquire.
Paint buckets and easels were scattered everywhere, making it inconvenient for them to go directly, so they stood a few meters away and waited.
Yu Sui looked up and saw the teacher collecting the scrolls leaving through the side door. He subconsciously glanced at the scrolls—but saw nothing.
Outside, a row of faucets and hoses stood, and the students were squatting beneath them, rinsing their paint palettes. The music students, unfamiliar with such things, clicked their tongues in disapproval: “What a waste of water.”
Yu Sui hesitated for a moment, then suddenly remembered that Minister Yan was allergic to paint.
On the other end of the phone, Shen Mu finally responded.
Shen Mu: [Outside?]
Fish Can: [Yes]
After replying, he typed another line.
Fish Can: [Do you want your boyfriend to wash the paint palette for you?]
Shen Mu: [Do you know how?]
Fish Can: [Who do you think you are?]
Fish Can: [I saw them rubbing it on with a sponge?]
Shen Mu: […]
Shen Mu: [Thank you, no need]
Fish Can: [I’ll give you a chance to retract it]
Three more dots came from the other side, and half a second later, the “Thank you, no need” message was withdrawn.
“I’ll go in for a bit.” Yu Sui put down his violin case and strode inside.
Yan Xiu was in a good spot, easily visible from the inside. A pair of thin, transparent gloves draped over his easel. He had just put his things into the paint container and gestured to Yu Sui, indicating his location.
“How is it?” Yan Xiu asked.
Yu Sui’s smugness wasn’t overtly obvious: “Pretty good. How about you?”
Yan Xiu raised an eyebrow slightly.
The young master was surprisingly reliable at this moment. He took Yan Xiu’s paint palette and realized that this stuff was a fast-moving consumer goods in the Minister Yan’s hands—used once and thrown away, only requiring the water in the bucket to be emptied.
The group from No. 26 High School who had carried their boxes immediately sighed: “Oh dear, it’s just a bucket, not heavy at all! And they’re already complaining!”
“You don’t know anything,” Zhao Ru, a girl from Class 3 Arts, thought she knew a thing or two. “Their families are close, they’re brothers.”
Yang Feiwen, having overheard the gossip, chimed in, “Oh dear, these days calling each other ‘brother’ and ‘little brother’ is a skill.”
A girl from his class blushed and scolded him, “Yang Feiwen, why are you, a guy, so into this?”
Yan Xiu said indifferently, “He wants it.”
Yang Feiwen didn’t dare to directly confront his Yan-ge, and choked.
Yu Sui, initially not reacting, gave him a light kick in annoyance. Unexpectedly, someone carrying a paint bucket in a hurry tripped over a step and stumbled towards them, nearly falling.
Yu Sui, still holding one leg up, was grabbed by the hind leg, staggering and crashing his back into Yan Xiu’s chest. Most of the overflowing bucket spilled out, soaking the hems of both their clothes.
Author’s Note: Good morning—the silly author just realized the date was set incorrectly.
Maria Lian On CFRFGC Chapter 104