Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Shen Yan silently hoped he wouldn’t bump into anyone he knew. After letting go of Hu Chengyu's neck, his two hands, which had no place to go, quietly tugged at the collar of his tracksuit, pulling it up to cover his chin, then his lips, and finally his nose.

"Am I making you lose face?" Hu Chengyu asked, noticing his small movements out of the corner of his eye.

Shen Yan's fingertips, gripping the soft fabric, stiffened. He swallowed hard, unsure of how to respond.

He was too close to Hu Chengyu; he could even feel the warmth of the other man's body.

It was a normal body temperature, but it felt unbearable to him.

His heart pounded in his chest, each beat echoing in his ears. Was his heartbeat really that loud?

The next moment, he heard a surprised exclamation, "Bro, who are you carrying?"

Shen Yan recognized the voice of Lu Zhao. It was the sound of him coming down the stairs!

Now, it wasn’t just his fingertips that were stiff; his whole body froze.

Was he supposed to laugh or cry?

Lu Zhao hadn’t recognized him?

He was relieved that Lu Zhao hadn’t recognized him.

However, his relief didn’t last three seconds before he heard Lu Zhao yelling at the top of his voice, "Oh, it's Yan Yan! I was in a rush earlier, I didn’t notice you two came back holding hands.

"Bro, who else would you carry besides Yan Yan?"

Shen Yan drew in a sharp breath, clenched his eyes shut, and steeled his heart. He would play dead.

Despite his racing thoughts, he immediately picked up on the hidden meaning in Lu Zhao’s words. Lu Zhao hadn’t gone out, yet he said that Hu Chengyu and Shen Yan had come back hand in hand. Someone must have taken photos and spread them.

Of course, it was also possible that an acquaintance saw it and told Lu Zhao.

Damn, who had the time to do this?

And seriously, how long could a two-story staircase be? Why weren’t they there yet?

Shen Yan’s mind raced with random thoughts, but he absolutely refused to open his eyes.

He couldn’t bear the embarrassment.

Hu Chengyu found it amusing how Shen Yan was moving like a snail, hiding his head in his collar. His already slower-than-usual steps slowed down a bit more.

Lu Zhao, who was a step behind them, muttered softly, "Bro, are you feeling weak or something? Why are you moving so slow while carrying Yan Yan up the stairs?"

Hu Chengyu: ...

Shen Yan clenched his back teeth, wishing he could give Lu Zhao a good beating.

If you can’t say anything useful, just shut up.

Shen Yan originally thought that by pretending to be asleep, he could avoid answering any questions from Lu Zhao about today's events.

But today was Saturday, and Gu Jia had been picked up by his uncle last night, so the dorm was locked and empty.

Shen Yan listened to Lu Zhao's soft knocking, and his mood felt as desolate as a leaf falling in the autumn wind.

Should he pretend to wake up now, or continue pretending to be asleep?

Eh, it’s not like being teased by Lu Zhao would be the end of the world.

Just as he was about to pull down the collar covering half his face, he heard Hu Chengyu say, "Since his roommate isn't here, let him sleep in my room for now."

Shen Yan's heart skipped a beat. Was he going to sleep in Hu Chengyu's bed?

Suddenly, his sportswear felt as warm as a down jacket, making him feel a bit overheated.

"I..."

"Just enter the password."

Hu Chengyu's voice cut off Shen Yan before he could finish speaking.

Even so, Lu Zhao still heard a little something. "Bro, Yan Yan seems to be talking."

"Probably dreaming. Keep your voice down."

Shen Yan sighed inwardly.

He decided to wait until Lu Zhao left before he made his move. Already feeling drowsy, with his eyes closed the whole time, he couldn't fight off the sleepiness and soon fell into a semi-conscious state.

He could even hear Hu Chengyu unzipping his jacket, and just as he was about to protest, he faintly heard Lu Zhao ask, "Bro, what are you doing?"

Hu Chengyu: "It's uncomfortable sleeping with your jacket on."

Shen Yan agreed with the logic and let it go.

Hu Chengyu gently lifted Shen Yan's back, removed his jacket, and listening to his soft, even breathing, couldn't help but chuckle.

Is he this sleepy?

After Hu Chengyu tucked Shen Yan in, Lu Zhao quietly mentioned the photos on the forum.

Hu Chengyu checked the forum and, sure enough, found no related posts. He then contacted the forum administrator for a brief conversation.

Curious, Lu Zhao asked, "Bro, what are you doing?"

"Solving the problem at its root."

Lu Zhao laughed. "How does that solve the problem at its root? As long as people are around, they’ll keep posting on the forum."

"Unless you shut down the forum." Then, muttering, "Damn, bro, did you actually hack the forum? This is the A University student forum."

It might even end up trending on social media.

Hu Chengyu glanced at him, looking at him like an idiot.

"Wouldn't it be enough to just ban posts related to Shen Yan and block any mentions of 'Shen Yan'?"

Lu Zhao snorted, "What good would that do? They’ll just use initials or homophones, and Yan Yan will still be the brightest star on the forum."

Hu Chengyu said, "There's nothing we can do about homophones, but we can censor initials too." He then continued to communicate with the admin.

Lu Zhao looked at Hu Chengyu as if he were seeing King Zhou of Shang.

He shook his head vigorously, convinced that he must be hallucinating from staying up all night gaming; his nerves were shot.

The fact that Shen Yan's name was censored on the forum did cause a bit of a stir.

But as students at A University, they focused more on enriching themselves than on campus gossip.

*

After Hu Chengyu dropped him off at his dorm, Shen Yan fell back into his usual routine of avoiding Hu Chengyu.

He even had Gu Jia check if the coast was clear before leaving for class to avoid running into Hu Chengyu directly in the corridor.

After six days of evasion, on Friday morning, he received a message from Xu Tong: "Yan Yan, the sample has been released. To celebrate, the club has decided to have a gathering tomorrow. Do you have time to come?"

Shen Yan was surprised that it had happened so quickly.

Though tempted by the gathering, he politely declined Xu Tong's invitation: "Senior, tomorrow is my brother's birthday, so I won't be attending the gathering."

Xu Tong was regretful but still sent her well wishes.

Just as Shen Yan was about to put his phone away, he noticed Xie Shiyu’s avatar. He felt that Xie Shiyu had been acting a little differently since Sunday.

Though Xie Shiyu still smiled at him and seemed as cheerful as ever, Shen Yan couldn’t shake the feeling that something was different.

Perhaps it was because he was exhausted from the intense two-day shoot.

As he was lost in thought, a new email notification popped up.

When he opened the email and saw the familiar Leaf icon, his heart tightened.

He had been so preoccupied with avoiding Hu Chengyu that he almost forgot about something important.

But it seemed that 'Inch' had spent six days investigating this time. Could Shu Kai really be that problematic?

He clicked open the email and read through it carefully. It included details from Shu Kai's early life.

Everything significant from childhood to elementary, middle, and high school, up until his current life, was recorded.

The most frequent entries from elementary to middle and high school were about fights with Shu Qianfei. According to the records, apart from a few victories in elementary school, Shu Kai had mostly lost afterward.

There was even a photo of them standing in punishment after a fight from when they were younger.

Judging from the background, it was taken at school. In the somewhat unclear photo, Shu Qianfei glared at Shu Kai with wolfish eyes. Her hair was hastily tied into a ponytail with a pen as a makeshift hairpin.

With her arms crossed, she looked very much like a little female warrior.

Even though she was small, you could already see hints of her future presence.

Shen Yan had never seen a photo of his mother like this before and felt a little joyful. He cropped Shu Kai out of the picture, leaving only a solo photo of his mother.

As for Shu Kai's later experiences, Shen Yan skimmed through them and found that they didn't differ much from what he already knew.

The adult Shu Kai was obsessed with dating girlfriends and, with the backing of Shen Yan's grandfather, had caused quite a bit of trouble.

After taking over the gold shop, he stopped dating but started frequenting nightclubs.

Shen Yan scanned it twice but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

Maybe he was just being paranoid.

There’s no way someone as clueless as Shu Kai would have the smarts to scheme against Shu Qianfei.

After tidying up, he got a call from Wang Shu, who was already waiting at the school gate.

Shen Yan rushed out of the school gates, ready to find Wang Shu’s car, when he spotted a group of people gathered nearby.

Even from a distance, he could make out Xiaolin’s voice.

Watching Xiaolin chatting and laughing so effortlessly, Shen Yan couldn’t help but imagine that if their family hadn’t fallen apart in the previous life, Xiaolin would have been this carefree and lively in college, wouldn’t he?

Xiaolin spotted Shen Yan and waved excitedly, calling out, "Bro!"

Shen Yan still wasn’t comfortable with all the attention and only relaxed once they were in the car.

"Come on, brother. They’re just a bunch of cute girls. They won’t bite you. Why were you so nervous?"

Shen Yan replied seriously, "I wasn’t nervous."

"Oh, I get it. You must be so deep in the closet that you can’t even handle talking to girls anymore," Xiaolin teased, grinning like he’d just solved a mystery.

"I’m just not used to being stared at by so many people," Shen Yan shot back.

Last week during filming, Xie Shiyu really helped me get into character. Otherwise, we’d have been stuck on NGs all day.

Before Xiaolin could keep arguing, Shen Yan quickly changed the subject. "Why are you here anyway?"

At that, Xiaolin deflated like a punctured balloon, slumping against Shen Yan’s shoulder.

"Of course, it’s to pick you up," Xiaolin grumbled softly. "What kind of brother makes his high school brother come pick him up?"

His words suddenly reminded Shen Yan that it was Friday afternoon. How did a high school student have time to be here?

"Did you skip class?"

Xiaolin: "…No, Mom asked for a leave on my behalf."

"Brother, let’s eat out. I don’t want to go back to that house."

Shen Yan was slightly stunned. "Don’t want to go back? Is something wrong at home?"

At the mention of this, Xiaolin perked up.

"What could be wrong? It’s just Mom and Dad being polite to each other like familiar strangers.

"They’re supposed to be a couple, but now Mom barely talks to Dad, and Dad’s always tongue-tied. The whole house feels like an icebox.

"When we eat at home, I’m worried the ice shards in the air will freeze my stomach," Xiaolin said, rubbing his arms as if shivering.

Shen Lin’s description was a bit beyond Shen Yan’s understanding. From what he remembered of the previous life, his parents did have feelings for each other.

Could it be that their family’s emotions had to follow the law of conservation of energy?

In the previous life, when his parents were on good terms, he and Xiaolin fought fiercely.

In this life, Shen Yan's relationship with Shen Lin was good, but now there were issues between their parents?

Shen Yan was getting frustrated. What the hell was going on?

The person behind all this hadn't been found yet, and the family dynamics were all over the place.

Shen Yan wasn't hungry and only picked at his food.

Maybe he should call Shu Qianfei and ask her what was happening.

"Hey, isn't that Hu Chengyu? Who's the girl with him? I don't recognize her." Shen Lin looked out the restaurant window and said, surprised.

Shen Yan followed his gaze and sure enough, it was Hu Chengyu.