A Hand Held Out

Jian Yixun said those words far too seriously.

Xu Shuche froze for a moment, then turned his face away, only showing him the tips of his reddened ears.

“Liar.”

“I’m not lying.”

Jian Yixun pulled two tissues from the box on the table and handed them to him.

“I’m serious.

Whatever you say, I’ll believe it.”

Xu Shuche took the tissues and wiped the tear marks from his face.

The overwhelming sense of grievance from before slowly faded, and he suddenly muttered in a small voice,

“I should’ve cursed him out just now.”

Jian Yixun was warming his hands with safflower oil.

Hearing this, he let out an “ah” and looked up at him in confusion.

“That guy is so annoying.”

Xu Shuche narrowed his phoenix eyes behind his lenses, looking extremely displeased.

“I really wanted to beat him up.”

Jian Yixun asked,

“The injury on his face really was from you?”

“Yeah,” Xu Shuche said.

“Doesn’t it look like it?”

Not just “doesn’t look like it.”

Jian Yixun had always thought of Xu Shuche as a harmless little rabbit.

Now that he thought about it, even rabbits would bite when pushed too far.

“Only giving him one punch was letting him off easy,” Xu Shuche muttered again.

“I should’ve slapped him too, smashed his mouth so he couldn’t spout nonsense anymore.”

Jian Yixun couldn’t hold back and laughed.

“What are you laughing at.”

Xu Shuche shot him a glare, remembering how he’d lost control earlier because he was too wronged.

His face started to burn.

“Laugh again and I’ll hit you.

And you’re not allowed to tell anyone about what just happened.”

“Got it.

For senior’s dignity, I definitely won’t say a word.”

Seeing Xu Shuche’s mood gradually improve, Jian Yixun’s own mood brightened along with it.

“What do you mean, for my dignity.”

Xu Shuche raised his brows, righteous and confident.

“So what if I can’t argue?

I cry when I argue.

What about it.”

Jian Yixun continued instinctively coaxing him along.

“What about it.

Next time if you can’t win, remember to give him two slaps.”

He pressed his oil-slicked hand onto Xu Shuche’s knee and gently applied pressure.

As expected, the bristling little cat sucked in a sharp breath, then reflexively lifted his leg to kick him.

Jian Yixun was prepared.

Using the defensive skills he’d honed on the basketball court, he restrained Xu Shuche’s leg.

“It might hurt a bit, but you have to apply the medicine.

I’ve got experience.

Listen to me.”

He rambled on about injury treatment from his basketball team days.

His large hands wrapped around Xu Shuche’s injured knee, kneading gently and precisely, helping the medicine absorb properly.

Xu Shuche felt strange.

Amid the mild pain was an inexplicable itchiness that slowly crept up from his bruised knee toward the base of his thigh.

Unconsciously, fragmented breaths escaped his lips.

He reached out to push Jian Yixun’s shoulder.

“I can’t take it anymore.

Wait a moment.”

Jian Yixun didn’t understand.

He insisted,

“No waiting.

It’s just medicine.

Don’t be so delicate.”

Xu Shuche only felt that an area about the size of a fist centered on his knee was inexplicably itching.

And Jian Yixun’s palm was far too hot, scorching him until his mouth went dry.

He subconsciously lowered his gaze and realized how conspicuous Jian Yixun’s hand looked resting on his knee.

“Jian Yixun…”

Xu Shuche tried hard to keep his voice steady, not letting anything show.

“It’s really uncomfortable.

Stop for a second.”

“Just endure it for a bit and it’ll be fine,” Jian Yixun said.

“Senior, I wanted to ask you yesterday.

Why are you so pale?”

Jian Yixun loved sports and had spent the whole summer running wild outdoors.

His skin, tanned to a wheat color, hadn’t yet faded back.

Against Xu Shuche’s almost sickly fair skin, the contrast was as stark as a river dividing two lands.

The visual impact was intense, making him suddenly think of some forbidden film he’d seen at some point.

The film starred two men.

One was very pale and slender, while the other had wheat-colored skin and a broad frame.

When the darker-skinned man pressed the slender one beneath him, their skin tones were just as sharply contrasted.

Xu Shuche didn’t usually watch such things and wasn’t interested.

Yet for some reason, the scene before him suddenly brought that film to mind.

The memory was so vivid that he even remembered the dirty talk spoken by the man on top.

Just as Xu Shuche was on the verge of breaking, Jian Yixun finally released his knee.

It felt like a pardon.

Xu Shuche took deep breaths, feeling like he had almost suffocated.

Jian Yixun washed the safflower oil from his hands.

When he came back, he saw Xu Shuche sitting with his back to him.

Amused, he asked,

“What’s wrong, senior?”

“You only know how to bully me,” Xu Shuche said.

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

He was acting spoiled again.

Jian Yixun looked at his ear, red enough to drip blood.

His hand moved faster than his brain, reaching out—

Then stopping just short of touching the jade-like earlobe.

He coughed lightly, both embarrassed and relieved, and casually picked up the phone on the table.

“Senior, we haven’t added each other on WeChat yet, right?

Come on, add me.

I’ll pull you into the research group chat.”

Xu Shuche hummed and brought up his QR code.

Jian Yixun scanned it, opened his profile, and read it aloud word by word,

“‘The evening wind kisses the lotus leaves, letting me fall drunk by the pond.’

Nice poem, nice poem.

Senior really is cultured.

Who wrote it?”

“It’s song lyrics.”

Xu Shuche replied vaguely.

He accepted the WeChat request from “Armed Guard” and habitually clicked into Jian Yixun’s Moments.

Jian Yixun’s Moments had only a single post.

It was from last winter, just one photo and one sentence.

The photo appeared to be his own middle finger.

Extremely unfriendly.

The caption was even worse.

“All gay men stay away from me.

Don’t harass me.

If you do, I’ll beat every one of you.

A bunch of perverts.

Disgusting.”

Xu Shuche stared at that line for a full minute.

Long enough for Jian Yixun to lean over, awkwardly explaining,

“Ah, that.

I was too emotional back then and posted it.

Does it look like my character is really bad?”

“Well, it’s because there was this extremely perverted gay guy.

He sneaked into my dorm to steal my socks and underwear.

He even installed a hidden camera in the shower to film me.

Once he was stealing my socks and I caught him.”

It was obvious the incident had left a deep impression on Jian Yixun.

Disgust was written plainly between his brows.

“The worst part was, I thought we were pretty close.

I didn’t expect he only got close to me to secretly film me.

I thought I’d made a friend, but it turned out he had ulterior motives.

It was disgusting.”

Xu Shuche listened quietly as he vented.

After a long while, he gave a soft “mm.”

“By the way, senior.

Before, there were rumors at school saying, saying…”

Jian Yixun scratched his hair, hesitating.

“They said you’re also…

Are you?

I don’t mean anything else.

I just have psychological trauma.”

Xu Shuche looked at his embarrassed eyes and suddenly smiled.

His phoenix eyes curved, a dimple appearing by his lips.

“I’m not,” he said lightly.

“I’ve never even been in a relationship.”

Jian Yixun seemed to breathe a huge sigh of relief.

“That’s good.

Too many scheming gay guys have tried to get close to me under the excuse of friendship.

I really can’t stand it.

When will these perverts disappear.

Just thinking about it makes me want to puke.”

Xu Shuche smiled again and didn’t respond.

“Senior, just move into my dorm,” Jian Yixun said.

“That roommate of yours is vicious.

I’m afraid he’ll poison your water.”

“No need,” Xu Shuche’s voice sounded a bit unnatural, though Jian Yixun didn’t notice.

“He doesn’t stay in the dorm much anyway.

I…”

“No.

You have to move.”

Jian Yixun pulled out his straight-guy, no-argument tone.

“I’ll help you move later.

I can’t stand this kind of crap.”

Xu Shuche parted his lips, about to say something more.

But the dorm door was pushed open.

A tall, slender, fair-skinned boy stood at the doorway.

He wore a British-style plaid trench coat and round glasses.

A plastic bag hung from his hand as he looked at them in surprise.

“Your guest?”

“Let me introduce you.

My roommate, Feng Zhou.

He’s also from the physics department.”

Jian Yixun said.

“This is second-year senior Xu Shuche.”

“Oh?”

Feng Zhou placed the plastic bag on his desk.

“I’ve heard of you, Senior Xu.

You’re the one who published a journal paper before I did.”

“He’ll be sleeping on my bed from now on.

You don’t mind, right?”

Jian Yixun asked.

“I don’t come back to live here much anyway.

It’s just sitting there collecting dust.”

“I don’t mind at all.”

Feng Zhou leaned against the desk and smiled gently.

“Maybe in a few days I won’t live in the dorm either.

My friend is coming back from the UK and I’ll go stay with him.

Besides…”

He pushed up his glasses.

“I’ve long admired Senior Xu.

I’ve had many academic questions I wanted to ask you.

Living in the same dorm is really great.”

“As long as you’re okay with it.

I knew you’d be okay.”

Jian Yixun let out a breath of relief.

He patted Xu Shuche’s shoulder.

“Move over here.

It’s right across from your old dorm.

Don’t use distance as an excuse.

Xiao Feng is really nice and easy to get along with.

Don’t be scared.

Move over, okay?”

“When did you become so gentle with people?”

Feng Zhou had already sat down and opened his laptop.

Hearing Jian Yixun’s words, he turned around and looked at him curiously.

“I never knew you could comfort people.”

“What comfort.”

Jian Yixun clicked his tongue.

“This is brothers sticking their necks out for each other.

Alright, it’s settled.

Come on, I’ll help you move your luggage.”

Xu Shuche half-pushed, half-yielded.

Unable to resist him, he finally agreed.

Some people simply do whatever they want, possessing the courage to accomplish anything in the world.

But there are also many people like him.

No matter what they do, they hesitate at every step, terrified of making a wrong move.

Afraid that all their efforts would collapse in an instant, leaving them beyond redemption.

At the root of it, perhaps it was because Jian Yixun had received too much love over the past twenty-plus years.

People who are loved always have the courage to do anything.

Xu Shuche’s thoughts were interrupted by an impatient knock at the door.

Qu Chao had been in his dorm applying an ice pack to his face.

Hearing the knock, he pulled a long face and unwillingly shuffled to the door.

When he saw Jian Yixun, he froze.

“Junior?”

Qu Chao looked pleasantly surprised.

“I’m actually not hurt that badly.

I—”

“Who cares whether you’re badly hurt or not.”

Jian Yixun said coldly,

“I’m here to help Xu Shuche move his things.

Step aside.

You’re blocking my way.”