Chapter 17: Did you miss me?

Final exams ended successfully, and winter break arrived with the eager anticipation of a host of students.

Ye Yao and Lu Xun bought tickets home on the same day and went to the airport together. Ye Yao's boarding time was earlier, and before he left, Lu Xun gave him a tight hug.

"I'll call you every day," Lu Xun said, "remember to miss me."

"Still don't want to then, you fight every day anyway." Ye Yao replied.

"That's bad, but it's okay, I like it." Lu Xun buried his head in Ye Yao and sucked on it, reluctantly releasing the man.

Ye Yao pulled his suitcase to the boarding gate, and before he boarded the plane, he looked back at Lu Xun, who was still standing far away, watching him leave.

*

Ye Yao had a smooth journey back home to a cozy home-cooked meal cooked for him by his parents.

Instead of Lu Xun's tireless feeding of him at the dinner table, he was greeted by his parents with concern, which for a while put Ye Yao in a trance.

The first day away from Lu Xun was slightly disconcerting, yet a fierce relief.

Most relationships diminish over time, so maybe he'll be able to turn this one back into a friendship instead over the course of the month because he won't be able to see Lu Xun?

It's kinda sick that one would think about kissing a guy and wanting a deeper contact exchange, it would be nice to change back.

Ye Yao planned well in his mind, and after eating and drinking, he went back to the house to wash up and rest at his mother's urging.

Pushing open the bedroom door, Ye Yao's breath caught at the sight of his neatly tidied bedroom - he had completely forgotten that it was still filled with all sorts of Lu Xun's personal belongings.

When Lu Xun came over here for high school, he lodged with him during the week, and on the weekends, he dallied with him and went back to his house.

He didn't have a spare guest room in his house, so Lu Xun came to his house and always slept with him, and all kinds of personal belongings belonging to Lu Xun filled up the room more and more.

Robot models and extracurricular books bought by Lu Xun on the desk, a photo of the two of them on the nightstand that Lu Xun insisted on putting up, and a pillow belonging to Lu Xun on the bed ......

If he remembered correctly, there were still Lu Xun's towels in the bathroom that came with the bedroom, and various clothes in the closet that Lu Xun hadn't taken.

On his first day away from Lu Xun, he had just taken a few breaths of Lu Xun-free air before he was once again surrounded by things that belonged to Lu Xun.

Ye Yao closed the bedroom door with a headache and took a deep breath.

*

Lu Xun also successfully returned home, due to his parents' cooking skills are very poor, but also did not do any home cooking, let the family chef is responsible for, do part of Lu Xun love to eat the dishes.

Lu Xun's dad, wearing a pair of glasses and pretending to look at work messages on his phone, cleared his throat loudly when he saw his rebellious son enter.

"Long time no see." Lu Xun greeted lazily and put the things he was carrying on his hand on the table, "Here, I brought you guys specialties from over there."

Lu Xun father grunted, the corners of his mouth to be curled to stand up, checking the specialties brought by his filial son, and finally skimmed the corners of his mouth and sighed: "Really smoke from the ancestors' graves, you kid also learned to be filial."

Lu Xun's father, who always spoke in a gloomy manner, was slapped by Lu Xun's mother, who came down from upstairs, and Lu Xun's mother beamed with joy: "Good, good, good, mom likes this, why did you suddenly think of buying this home?"

"I learned from Ye Yao." Lu Xun said.

"Ye Yao is such a sweet kid." Lu Xun's mom sighed a little, "The old saying that near Zhu is red, is still very true, we can learn a little more from Ye Yao."

The family sits down at the dinner table and Lu Xun throws out his decision to go to Ye Yao's house on the second day of the Lunar New Year, which gets a laugh from Lu's dad.

"Past the second day of the New Year, you think it's the son-in-law going to the in-laws' house?" Lu Xun's father was eating his healthy fat-reducing meal, "I've heard people gossiping that a lot of young people nowadays start dating after they go to college. You're not going on a blind date with Ye Yao, so you'll be annoying people."

Lu Xun's brow furrowed.

A blind date? Ye Yao's such a good-looking guy, he doesn't need a blind date.

What kind of person can you find on a blind date? Can you find someone who is rich, good-looking, and sweet to Ye Yao?

You can't meet, so dating is a bad decision.

When he goes over there, he'll have to remind Ye Yao not to waste his time with blind dates.

"Do you want a blind date?" Lu Xun's father asked again.

"No phase." Lu Xun refused without hesitating for half a second, "I won't give face to a heavenly fairy even if you find one, so don't do this kind of thing that makes enemies for your family."

*

In the cozy and tidy hut, Ye Yao puts the things belonging to Lu Xun into the invisible cabinet, just as he did.

The cool robots Lu Xun bought, the pens Lu Xun used, the exercise books he made, all of them were put into the cabinet in the far corner that Ye Yao would never pay attention to.

Lu Xun's clothes were originally mixed with Ye Yao's, but now they are all picked out and folded neatly, and put into the topmost compartment of the closet, so that Ye Yao won't be able to see Lu Xun's clothes as long as he doesn't step on a chair to look at them.

The room gradually became less and less filled with Lu Xun's scent.

Ye Yao relaxes, goes to the bathroom and takes a shower, blow-dries his hair and then lies down on the bed tiredly.

Turning his head, Ye Yao saw the picture frame on the nightstand, and the picture in the frame.

That's Lu Xun posing for a picture of him and Lu Xun.

At that time, he and Lu Xun were still high school students, their faces were much more tender than now. They were wearing blue and white school uniforms, and Lu Xun was behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, her eyes looking at him, her thin lips lifting up to reveal a smile.

Ye Yao picks up the frame and looks at Lu Xun in the photo, and then at himself in the photo.

At that time, his youth was beautiful, and he never thought in high school that he would have such unseemly thoughts about Lu Xun.

When he was packing up earlier, he intentionally skipped over this photo, Ye Yao knew he was more than a little reluctant to part with it.

Ye Yao sighs and puts the picture frame back in place.

A few more days of posing, and he'd lock the group photo into a cabinet with it.

*

New Year's Eve arrives with the sound of firecrackers, and Ye Yao is not surprised to receive a video call from Lu Xun.

Ye Yao, who was eating hot pot with his parents while watching the Spring Festival Gala, spoke to his family and then went back to his room to pick up the video call.

Lu Xun had called him over the past few days, and he had refused the video with excuses such as he was in the shower or something like that, and had simply voiced it. Now that he suddenly saw Lu Xun's face, he was still a bit uncomfortable.

The camera can easily make people ugly, but Lu Xun is already handsome, no matter how ugly the camera makes him look, he is still a handsome guy. Big handsome guy lying on the bed and videoing with Ye Yao, looking downcast.

"What's wrong, not feeling well?" Ye Yao worried.

Lu Xun's voice was dull, "Well, it's hard."

Ye Yao couldn't help but worry more, "Where is it hard, do your parents know?"

"Why don't you have any sensitivity at all, where else can it be hard, of course it's hard in the heart!" Lu Xun separated his thumb and forefinger to gesture, "I haven't seen you for so many days, one day's absence is like three autumns, if you do the math, we haven't seen each other for decades!"

Ye Yao: "......"

He's stupid. Lu Xun has a family doctor at home. He shouldn't have worried about taking Lu Xun's word for it.

The sound of fireworks exploded, and Lu Xun could see them from his bedroom window, so he got out of bed with his cell phone and went to the window to watch the fireworks show with Ye Yao.

Ye Yao is thousands of miles away, enjoying the beauty of the fireworks through the screen. The quiet environment of the villa and the faint sound of the fireworks as they exploded, and then transmitted to Ye Yao through his cell phone, carried an inexplicable sense of being a world away.

Lu Xun's voice sounded softly, "I want to spend New Year's Eve with you every year."

The sound of fireworks exploding one after the other gradually overlapped with the sound of heartbeats.

Ye Yao didn't make a sound, as if he was intently watching the gorgeous fireworks.

Lu Xun goes on and on, "Did you hear that?"

"Probably heard someone talking nonsense." Ye Yao replied.

Lu Xun frowned and turned the camera from the fireworks outside the window back to his own face, "What do you mean bullshit-"

"Well, it's been a long conversation, go spend time with the family. I'm hanging up, bye." Ye Yao didn't intend to have a long conversation with Lu Xun, he pressed the hang up button and ended the call.

Ye Yao sat on the bed for a while.

He banned fireworks here, so there would be no sound of fireworks. In the room was quiet, and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of the Spring Festival host wishing everyone a happy family on the TV outside.

Ye Yao stood up from the bed, walked over to the nightstand and picked up the frame, locking it, along with the photo, into the cabinet containing Lu Xun's personal belongings.

With that done, Ye Yao took one look around the room, which no longer had any Lu Xun vibes, and returned to the happy family meal.

*

On the second day of Lunar New Year, Ye Yao helped her mother make dumplings filled with pork and corn.

Being from the south, the family doesn't really eat dumplings on Chinese New Year's Day, but rather chicken and fish with white rice. But Ye Yao wasn't surprised when his mom suggested making dumplings.

After all, nowadays, the Internet is so advanced that it is not strange to be influenced by the Internet atmosphere and to want to try to eat dumplings once in the Spring Festival like the northerners do.

Ye Yao likes to do this kind of handwork, and when he is making dumplings he feels his mind is at peace and he doesn't think about so many messy things, and he doesn't think about Lu Xun.

Lu Xun loves dumplings, especially those filled with pork and corn.

The thought entered Ye Yao's mind in a moment of disorientation, and the movement of Ye Yao's hands paused for a moment, then resumed.

He couldn't keep thinking about Lu Xun anymore, since he had already decided to break away from it, if he continued to think about it, he would fall deeper and deeper into it.

Now that there was no outside interference, it was a good time for him to pull his feet out of the mud.

Ye Yao's mom's cell phone, which she had forgotten in the kitchen, rang, and she went into the kitchen to answer the call, and when she came out after finishing the call, she said to Ye Yao with a smile, "Help mommy to buy a bottle of vinegar from the kiosk downstairs, the vinegar in the house is running out, and dumplings don't taste good without vinegar."

Ye Yao responded, put on his jacket and grabbed his phone, and rode the elevator down the stairs.

The weather was cold, and at this hour there was no one in the neighborhood, so Ye Yao went out of the building and walked towards the kiosk without paying any attention to his surroundings. Then he only heard the sound of footsteps, and suddenly a man came out from behind, who moved very fast, blindfolded him with one hand, and wrapped the other hand around his waist.

"Robbery, hand over the most valuable thing you have on you!" The robber's voice was so low that the original timbre could not be heard.

Ye Yao calmly said, "The cell phone is in the pocket."

By the time this thug reaches for his cell phone, he'll only have one hand to restrain him, and then he won't be blamed.

Ye Yao thought well, but he never thought that the robbers did not even bother to touch his cell phone.

"How can the most valuable thing be a cell phone?" The thug was raging.

Ye Yao doubted, and was about to say that the most valuable item that modern people carry with them is indeed a cell phone when the thug behind him very uneasily pressed up tightly and embraced his entire body into his arms.

The outlaw's no-longer-suppressed, laughter-laden voice rang out, "The most valuable is of course you, my dear Yao Yao."

Ye Yao stiffened, his eyes widened and he slowly turned back to the face he most wanted to see and at the same time least expected to see.

Lu Xun hugged him from behind and winked at him, "Miss me?"