Not hearing Shen Zhifei's response, he couldn't help but glance at the bed, and his ears started burning again.
He quickly covered Shen Zhifei with a quilt, then grabbed a sweater and ran out the door: "Make sure you're covered up so you don't get cold. I'm going back to school first, or I'll be late for class this afternoon."
Shen Zhifei stared at his back and said in a moderate voice, "You said what you like."
Song Lang paused for a moment, then closed the door without looking back and ran out of the house as if fleeing.
Stepping out of the apartment building, Song Lang rubbed his face haphazardly, his mind replaying the inappropriate and forbidden moments he and Shen Zhifei had just shared. Frustrated, he kicked the wall: "Damn it! How could this happen?! Damn it, damn it, damn it!"
Chapter 021
Shen Zhifei quietly curled up on the messy bed, covered with the quilt Song Lang had draped over him, staring blankly into the air.
The sunlight outside the window gradually faded, and it was long past school dismissal time, but the house was still quiet.
Song Lang did not go home.
Shen Zhifei clutched the corner of the blanket, where a small patch of dried semen remained. He rubbed it a few times with his fingers, then got up and tidied the room.
He changed all the sheets and duvet covers and threw them into the washing machine. He stood barefoot on the balcony and looked down for a moment. Under the streetlights, he could only see sparse snowflakes swirling down from the sky. The ground was covered with a thin layer of white, and pedestrians could leave a string of shallow footprints.
There wasn't a single row of footprints leading to him.
A chill crept in from the soles of his feet, like wisps of light mist, clinging to his long legs, climbing over his waist and abdomen, and finally seeping into his heart.
Shen Zhifei shivered, turned around and went to her room to put on slippers and a down jacket to keep warm.
He hadn't eaten lunch and sat cross-legged on the sofa on an empty stomach, staring at the clock on the wall as it ticked from 6 to 7, but there was still no sound from the door.
He picked up his phone, intending to call Song Lang, but his finger hovered over the nickname "brother" for a long time before he finally pressed the call button.
Knowing that calling now would only make Song Lang more embarrassed, Shen Zhifei decided to give him some time to process the situation and instead sent a WeChat message to Meng Fanxing.
With a "ding," Song Lang subconsciously reached into his pocket for his phone, only to find the screen completely dark. He felt a pang of disappointment, wondering if Shen Zhifei had gone back to school yet, and if he was still at home, perhaps waiting for him to return.
Meng Fanxing glanced at the new message, then nudged Song Lang with her elbow, puzzled. "Hey Dalang, what's going on between you and Xiao Fei?"
Song Lang immediately shook his head guiltily, his voice unconsciously rising: "What nonsense are you talking about? What could possibly happen between me and him!"
"Hey, what are you yelling about?" Meng Fanxing handed him her phone. "Xiao Fei just texted me asking if you weren't coming home tonight. If you two hadn't argued or had a fight, why would he text me first?"
Song Lang glanced at the message quickly, his gaze lingering on the sender's name, unable to look away. The absurd and forbidden intimate act from noon resurfaced in his mind.
"What are you daydreaming about?" Meng Fanxing poked Song Lang's forehead with her finger. Song Lang almost jumped up from his seat, hopping to the side like a frightened cat.
His exaggerated reaction amused Meng Fanxing: "Dalang, what are you doing? You're so easily startled. Are you getting too scared on your birthday? Besides, I'm not exactly handsome, but I'm not scary either."
Song Lang wasn't in the mood for banter, so he tossed the phone back into Song Lang's arms and said, "You'd better reply to his message quickly, or he'll start to worry."
Meng Fanxing unlocked her phone speechlessly, replying to messages while complaining, "I'm just a human mouthpiece. When you two brothers have a falling out, I come in handy. Once you make up and everything's fine, I'm done for, completely useless."
“Your self-awareness is quite accurate,” Song Lang sneered, glancing repeatedly at his phone screen. Unable to make out what he was writing, he feigned impatience and asked, “Have you finished writing yet? What have you written? It’s been so long and you’re still not done.”
Meng Fanxing glanced at him and said sarcastically, "Why don't you take a look at my eyes?"
"Fine then," Song Lang said, seizing the opportunity and snatching the phone from him with a disgruntled expression. He examined it closely, his brow furrowed as if he were deeply troubled.
"No, I mean, Ms. Song, are you grading essays?" Meng Fanxing laughed so hard her shoulders shook. "It's just a text message, telling Xiao Fei that you're at my house, eating well and sleeping soundly, isn't that enough? Why are you racking your brains like this?!"
"What do you know?" Song Lang deleted the text message and threw the phone back at him. "Just write this: I'm coming to your house for tutoring these past two days, and my phone is dead. Tell him not to call me yet."
Meng Fanxing rolled her eyes: "The three of us have the same model of phone, and you can use my charger too. Besides, using 'studying' as an excuse for you is so lame, I wouldn't believe it even with my toes."
"Stop talking so much nonsense. Just write it as I tell you to." Seeing that he didn't move, Song Lang raised his hand and slapped him. "Hurry up, what are you dawdling for? He'll get anxious soon."
"Alright, alright, you two are both big shots, I can't afford to offend you."
Meng Fanxing quickly edited the text message, checked it twice by Song Lang, and then sent it to Shen Zhifei.
Less than a minute later, Meng Fanxing's phone rang again.
Song Lang's hands moved swiftly as he picked up his phone and opened the unread messages.
Shen Zhifei: Okay, I understand.
For some reason, Song Lang heard a sense of despair in those few words: "Brother, you broke my heart. You scumbag."
The "scumbag" label he used later was his self-assessment.
He couldn't help but recall the rapid breathing and passionate kiss in the bedroom at noon, the eagerness with which he had probed his tongue into Shen Zhifei's mouth, entwining it with hers, and Shen Zhifei's damp breath and pleading tone as she bit his ear and asked him if he liked it...
Although Shen Zhifei's actions when he pressed down on him at the end had a somewhat coercive feel to them, Song Lang believed that he should still bear the main responsibility for this absurd incident.
Shen Zhifei is younger than him and is in the most confused and impulsive sensitive period of adolescence. As the older brother, he did not provide proper guidance but instead added fuel to the fire, allowing himself and Shen Zhifei to act recklessly together. This was really wrong of him.
Moreover, he believed he knew Shen Zhifei well from childhood. Despite the boy's quiet and aloof demeanor, Song Lang could sense Shen Zhifei's dependence on him when they were alone.
Having been dragged into a shameful and outrageous mistake by his most trusted older brother, and then abandoned at home alone, Song Lang felt more and more like a scumbag.
Perhaps the sensitive child is currently huddled in some corner of the house, lost in thought, and Song Lang wonders if he's hungry. After much deliberation, Song Lang sent Shen Zhifei a message: Remember to eat.
He hadn't expected to receive a reply, since he was using Meng Fanxing's phone, and Shen Zhifei would never reply to such messages.
But less than half a minute later, the phone popped up with Shen Zhifei's name.
[Shen Zhifei: Happy birthday to you too.]
Song Lang's heart suddenly began to pound uncontrollably, pounding so hard it felt like it would burst out of his chest. In that instant, he desperately wanted to go home.