“Aru…” Lexi buried her face in Shilu’s chest, her voice sounding muffled.
"Go back quickly. Be careful not to catch a cold again." Shi Lu kissed his nose and slowly let go of him. A bright smile appeared on his face.
"I'm going up now." Lexi smiled too. "I won't see you off! ... Bye-bye."
"Bye...bye-bye." Shi Lu raised his hand like a puppet, mechanically waving it a few times, watching Le Xi walk into the door. The sound of his footsteps echoed in the hallway, and the motion-activated lights lit up one floor at a time with each step, until they reached the third floor. His steps were light, and judging from the sound, he seemed to be in a good mood.
Shi Lu stared at Le Xi's bedroom window until the light there came on, then left with immense joy. There were no pedestrians on the street, and a lone Audi A8 sat under the streetlights, its headlights on, but it was impossible to tell if anyone was inside.
"How romantic!" one man said to another in the dark car. "A light kiss in the snowy night, I didn't expect them to be so artistic."
"Snap!" The old Zippo lighter was lit, its eerie orange flame dancing in the darkness. Qi Hui took out a cigarette and lit it. In the flickering light, Yang Jingyu seemed to see the undisguised anger in his eyes.
He sounded sick on the phone, working overtime just to come home as soon as possible. But why does it all seem like a joke? Is it all just a one-man show?
conflict
The day of the exam finally arrived. Lexi had math in the morning and foreign language and moral cultivation in the afternoon. He got up early, made breakfast and ate a little bit. He was a little worried about his exam, so he sat by the window and reviewed the math formulas. After looking at the questions the teacher had marked for a while, he packed his things and went out.
He saw Shi Lu standing at the entrance of his shop, waiting for him. Shi Lu was the proctor. He had escorted Le Xi to the exam classroom and originally intended to wait until Le Xi found a seat before leaving. However, Le Xi's classmates kept making jokes at him after seeing him, so in order to "maintain his dignified image," he made an excuse and quietly slipped away.
Exams are inherently boring and tedious. Shi Lu stood at the podium, secretly yawning twice, then turned to look at the snow outside the window. He couldn't help but drift off into thought, recalling Le Xi's expression under the moonlight yesterday. That every smile, that perfectly shaped mouth, those soft fingers—it actually made his face flush.
"What's Xiao Shi thinking about?" the teacher who was proctoring the exam asked curiously. "Smiling so brightly, you must be having some luck with love."
"What romantic luck? It's winter now." Shi Lu waved his hand, making a serious expression. "As future engineers of the human soul, we have noble pursuits too. We don't talk about romance or love affairs under the moon!"
"You're just talking nonsense." The young female teacher was also open-minded, and the two chatted and laughed, no longer feeling bored.
After finishing the exam and tidying up the papers, Shi Lu said he had to leave early because he had an urgent matter. He jogged to the exam room where Le Xi had taken her exam, and from afar he saw Le Xi huddled together with several male classmates, seemingly talking about something. As soon as Shi Lu entered, he met Le Xi's gaze. He seemed a little unhappy, his handsome brows furrowed, and he stared directly at Shi Lu.
Upon seeing Shi Lu, the expressions on the boys' faces changed, and they whispered something to Le Xi.
"What's wrong?" Shi Lu watched the boys leave the classroom and helped Le Xi pack up her stationery.
"It's nothing. A few of them cheated on the exam and asked me to let them copy their answers, but I refused," Le Xi said calmly.
"Is that so? But you did the right thing. If the proctor finds out, you'll be punished."
“Discipline?” Le Xi sneered. “The proctor didn’t care at all. The whole class was copying like crazy! The exam papers were being passed around right under his nose, and he didn’t even glance at them.”
"Really? That's a bit much! Who are your proctors? Are they from our department? Only teachers from our department could get this kind of good luck while proctoring, right?"
"A good thing? You think this is a good thing?" Lexi looked at Shilu incredulously.
“There are too many things like this. Why do you care?” Shi Lu noticed that Le Xi was probably quite angry, his shoulders were trembling and his chest was heaving, so he softened his voice to comfort him.
"But what about all my efforts? Should I regret it—if I had known it would be so easy to cheat, I would have preferred not to have studied at all!"
"You can't say that. University grades are all fake anyway. Everyone knows that professors highlight the questions and outline the scope before the exam. As long as students memorize what the professor highlights, they can get high scores. Who cares whether they actually understand it? Exams are just a formality. Why are you taking it so seriously?"
They ate a quick lunch in the cafeteria. Le Xi was still sullen because of the cheating incident. Shi Lugang had upset Le Xi because of a disagreement, so he didn't dare to say anything more, and the atmosphere was very silent.
Finally, Lexi's phone rang, and Shi Lugang breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately became nervous again.
"Brother, oh? You're back? Want to come over tonight? No... No, no... I have final exams these days, I need to study. Can I come over after I finish my exams?" Le Xi spoke on the phone, making up a bunch of excuses for refusing Qi Hui's request to come over. "Want to have dinner together tonight?... Okay... um, I'll call you after I finish my exams."
"Are you going to your brother's place tonight?" Shi Lu asked tentatively.
"I'll have dinner with him in the evening, and then go home to read."
"Hehe, is that so? I was thinking of asking my mom to make something nice for you, since you haven't had much of an appetite these past few days. I was thinking of having her make you something light. But you have to stay with your brother, so forget it then," Shi Lu said disappointedly.
"Oh? Maybe next time! Auntie's cooking is delicious. How about I come to your house for dinner after the exams?" Lexi swallowed hard, looking at him with her big, watery eyes.
"Well, I'll wait until after your exams, you little glutton." Shi Lu grinned so hard his mouth almost crooked.
Because she had two exams in the afternoon, Lexi went home to sleep after lunch. Shilu volunteered to be her alarm clock and insisted on going to Lexi's place. Lexi had no choice but to take him back. As a result, he was groped a lot in his sleep.
The afternoon exam descended into chaos once again, with cheating, copying, and comparing answers driving the entire exam hall into madness. The boy who had asked Lexi for answers in the morning sat near him again and began harassing him, demanding answers. Lexi's train of thought was interrupted countless times throughout the exam, and finally, unable to bear it any longer, he handed in his paper early.
During the exam on moral character and conduct, a teacher from the academic affairs office appeared at the back of the classroom at some point. They lingered outside for a long time before entering the classroom and catching more than a dozen people cheating. As a result, the exam was suspended, all exams for the class were invalidated, and the exams were to be rescheduled for another day.
The class erupted in chaos, with almost everyone pointing the finger at Lexi.
"He handed in his English exam early, it must be him! Otherwise, who would have time to complain to the academic affairs office!"
"What the hell is wrong with him! Now the whole class is in trouble!"
Perhaps because Lexi didn't interact much with his classmates, no one stood up for him even in this situation. Lexi sat in the back of the classroom, feeling resentful as all voices were directed at him and all eyes were on him.
"So what if I did it? Don't go too far!" Lexi stood up and shouted.
"Hmph, so what? Who went too far? Everyone's watching! The eyes of the masses are discerning!" the boy who had asked him for an answer but hadn't gotten one jeered.
"Exactly, exactly! Hiding things is no big deal! What's with the high and mighty act!"
"Of course! Just because he's on good terms with the teacher doesn't mean he's all that! What kind of spell did he cast on Teacher Shi? He gets so much attention during class!"
"..."
The arguing continued, and Lexi stood there blankly, forgetting to refute or retaliate. Everyone was clearly at fault, yet the blame was being placed on him; instead of feeling hurt, he found it somewhat ridiculous. Why was it like this?
"Enough! Stop talking! Everyone, don't go too far!" Pang Ge couldn't stand it anymore and stood up to say.
What is happiness?
After finishing his work in the afternoon, Qi Hui waited for Le Xi's call, but it never came. He waited patiently for over an hour, watching the sky gradually darken and the snow begin to fall again, but the phone remained silent. He finally dialed it, but it was always busy.
Qi Hui couldn't sit still any longer. He went out, drove to Le Xi's place, and knocked on the door, but no one answered. Qi Hui panicked.
It's like when something bad happens at home and you can't find Lexi anymore. Your heart feels empty, floating in mid-air, unable to find a place to land. Standing in the snow, snowflakes fall and land on your shoulders and head. Even though you're wearing a lot of clothes, you feel inexplicably cold to the bone.
The phone rang, and Qi Hui was stunned for a moment. He ran back to his car, grabbed the phone, and saw that it was Le Xi.
"Brother, I was on the phone just now and saw your missed call, so I called you back. Um... Zijie cooked hot pot and asked me to eat with him. You know, Chen Song and Zijie had another fight, and Zijie is really upset right now, so could I stay with Zijie tonight? I'm worried about him."
I worry about my friend, but when have I ever worried about him? He's always by your side, always thinking of you, your brother.
"Okay, are you staying at his place tonight? Remember not to stay out too late, and also, don't drink, understand?" Qi Hui sighed, pretending to be relaxed.
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, bro!"
"You should spend time with him. Remember to call me tomorrow."
"Okay, bro. I'm hanging up now."
"Okay, you can hang up now."
"You hang up first."
"Okay, I'll hang up then." Qi Hui gripped his phone, smiling, but didn't immediately hang up. After a while, Le Xi sighed from the other end of the line: "Brother, why haven't you hung up yet?"
"It's nothing, I just wanted to wait for you to hang up first."
I want to hear your voice more often.
"Brother, I..." Le Xi hesitated, unable to finish her sentence.
"What's wrong? Is there anything I can do to help you?"
"No, it's nothing. Hehe." Le Xi smiled, and after a while, she continued, "I'm not a child anymore, I can handle it myself. Actually, it's not a big deal, hehe. Brother, don't worry."
After hanging up the phone, Qi Hui sat in the car for a while. When he got out, it was completely dark. He closed the car door, leaned against it for a moment, and then, as if making a decision, walked towards the building where Le Xi lived. He went upstairs, listened to the door, and knocked, saying, "Baby, open the door."
No one answered the door, so Qi Hui patiently continued knocking: "Open the door quickly, I know you're in there."
Five minutes, ten minutes.
Finally, footsteps sounded from inside. Qi Hui's lips unconsciously curled up, but froze the moment Le Xi opened the door.
"What happened?" Qi Hui grabbed Le Xi's arm, lifted his chin to make him face him, "What's this on your face?"
"Oh, it's nothing. I just slipped. The floor was too slippery." Le Xi chuckled, looking down. "I'm always so forgetful, you know that! Hehe... By the way, how did you know I was home?"
“Baby, you know what? You like to giggle like an idiot whenever you lie. You were giggling the whole time you called me.” Qi Hui carefully examined the bruises on Le Xi’s face and body. Although they weren’t serious injuries, Le Xi gasped when she touched the bruises—they definitely weren’t caused by a fall.
"Brother." Le Xi leaned over and gently hugged Qi Hui, burying her head in his chest. "Let me hug you. Just for a little while."
"What's wrong, baby?" Qi Hui frowned, picked him up and put him on the bed. Le Xi lay down, rolled over, grabbed Qi Hui's clothes and buried his face in them. Soon Qi Hui felt that a large patch of his clothes was wet, and his heart tightened involuntarily.
"Brother, what do you think is the point of all this effort to survive?" Le Xi asked slowly.
"To make the person who loves you live happily, to let them see you every day, and to let them be happy because of your happiness."
"But what is happiness? There are too many unhappy things in the world. Many people have different positions and different ideas, so why can they use what they believe to be the right standards to hurt others?"
“When what others consider correct becomes the standard for the majority, you become a minority. Baby, there is no true justice in the world, no absolute right or wrong. If you disagree with what everyone agrees on, you become an outcast. At that time, you need to learn to protect yourself, understand?”
“But I don’t think I’m wrong,” Lexi sighed.
"Truth is held by only a few."
"Do I look like a martyr who is about to die for his country?"
"Martyr? Silly boy." Qi Hui chuckled, patting his head affectionately. Although he still didn't know what was bothering him, as long as the boy was willing to talk, everything was easy to resolve. The best way to deal with this little guy was to find a way to get him to speak. He'd experienced this little fellow's stubbornness far too many times; it was truly a headache.
After much gentle persuasion and subtle probing, Qi Hui gained a general understanding of what had happened that day. The classmates, angered by Le Xi's report of the class's collective cheating to the academic affairs office, ganged up on her. Because of the chaos, they didn't know how the fight started. If it weren't for the class monitor, Pan Ge, constantly trying to calm things down, Qi Hui estimated that Le Xi's injuries today would have been much more severe than they appeared.
He comforted Lexi, applied medicine to him, coaxed him to eat something, and only after seeing that he had fallen asleep did he close the door and stand outside to make a phone call.
After calling the department head and then the teacher in charge of the academic affairs office, Qi Hui told the teacher, "I hope you can handle this seriously." The teacher understood immediately and said that an investigation would begin soon and that the students who had laid a hand on Le Xi would definitely be punished.
Qi Hui hung up the phone and suddenly felt a stinging pain in his palm. His gaze fell on some discarded furniture in the hallway that he had unconsciously clenched earlier. He realized he had broken off the old cabinet door himself, and his palm was deeply pierced by wood shavings, from which bright red blood seeped.
Turning around and entering the room, Qi Hui found that Le Xi was not sleeping peacefully at all. The blanket that he had carefully tucked in earlier was now wrapped around Le Xi's body, and she was lying on the blanket, squirming restlessly.
"Baby, baby!" Qi Hui walked over quickly, patted his face, turned him over and covered him with the blanket, and asked softly, "Did you have a nightmare? Why can't you sleep peacefully?"
Le Xi opened her eyes groggily, looking around aimlessly before finally meeting Qi Hui's gaze. She said lazily, "Brother, I'm cold."
"How can you not be cold if you don't cover yourself properly?" Qi Hui smiled wryly. "Sleep well. Don't move around."