—These flowers bloom rather late.
Sun Wenqu said.
But he couldn’t say what kind of flower they were. He said he had tried looking it up but couldn’t figure it out. Fang Chi didn’t mind, he liked these flowers very much and stared at the photos for a long time.
There weren’t many flowers yet. Each pot only had a few scattered dots, tiny against the green leaves. With Sun Wenqu’s always casual photography skills, Fang Chi couldn’t even clearly see what the flowers looked like.
—Can you not be so lazy? Tighten your arm a bit and take a closer shot. The way you’re shooting now the flowers look like grains of rice.
—You’re really demanding!
Sun Wenqu complained, but still sent a close-up photo. Now he could finally see them clearly. The buds were like grains of rice, and the blooming flowers were only about the size of two grains, very delicate.
—Really beautiful.
Fang Chi replied while brushing his teeth.
—There are prettier ones. I’ll take photos for you.
When Fang Chi finished getting ready and headed out to school with his backpack, Sun Wenqu sent two more photos, both flowers, yellow and pink, both close-ups where the veins could be seen.
Flowers so beautiful and delicate that Fang Chi was a little surprised.
—What flowers are these?
Sun Wenqu didn’t answer, just sent another wide shot.
Fang Chi froze when he saw it and immediately sent a voice message.
“This is sour-mimi! The flowers of sour-mimi are this pretty? I never noticed before.”
Sun Wenqu probably didn’t feel like sending voice messages or typing, so he directly called him.
“What the h*ll is sour-mimi?”
“It’s what you photographed, sour-mimi. When we were kids we used it to fight,” Fang Chi said as he walked. “Sour-mimi.”
“This thing is called wood sorrel,” Sun Wenqu said.
“It’s sour-mimi. I played with it every day when I was little,” Fang Chi said.
“You used it to fight? How?” Sun Wenqu asked.
“There’s a vein in the middle…” Fang Chi thought for a moment, not knowing how to explain. “Ah, I can’t explain it clearly. Why don’t you ask my grandpa to teach you how to play.”
“Alright,” Sun Wenqu laughed. “I’ll go find him in a bit.”
“You… how’s the work going now?” Fang Chi asked.
“Progress is normal,” Sun Wenqu said. “When you finish your exam, part of it should be ready.”
“We’ve already entered the 100-day countdown,” Fang Chi said.
“Nervous?” Sun Wenqu asked him.
“Not really,” Fang Chi scratched his head. “Not too nervous. Next month is the second mock exam, then we’ll see from the results whether I need to be nervous.”
“That’s quite a bad*ss thing to say,” Sun Wenqu laughed.
“Of course,” Fang Chi laughed too, then felt a little embarrassed. “I just… feel like my review lately has been pretty good. With the weekly exams I don’t even feel anything anymore.”
“In another couple of months you’ll be free to run wild,” Sun Wenqu said. “Hang in there.”
“Mm.” Fang Chi responded.
“Alright, go run,” Sun Wenqu said. “I’m going to wander around the mountain today.”
“Don’t wander around randomly,” Fang Chi frowned. “Your footing isn’t steady, don’t go falling again.”
“I’m with your grandpa. Don’t worry about it,” Sun Wenqu clicked his tongue. “If there’s a major called worrying professionally, I think you could apply for it.”
“I don’t always worry…” Fang Chi said quietly. “Alright, I’m hanging up.”
As the exam approached day by day, the teachers talked in their ears every day, sometimes earnest and patient, sometimes passionately stirring. Everyone was like a string that had already been stretched tight for a long time, no matter how much more they tried to tighten it, it wouldn’t tighten anymore.
Every day when Fang Chi lay over his desk he felt like he wasn’t going to take the college entrance exam, but going to sacrifice himself for the country, his heart surging yet uneasy, wanting to charge into battle but afraid of getting shot and falling…
A boy in their class who studied pretty well suddenly stopped coming to school. Xu Zhou asked around and said he was sick, too much mental pressure.
Fang Chi felt he was still okay. His pressure wasn’t too big. Mainly because his pressure came only from himself. His parents and grandparents, none of them treated his college entrance exam as anything particularly important.
Whether he did well or poorly didn’t matter.
It was actually pretty good.
Before he hadn’t really felt it, but once he started reviewing seriously he slowly realized time passed very quickly. After a few sets of exam papers and looking through books, a day was gone.
The numbers on the blackboard slowly decreased. Sometimes when he saw them he would suddenly be startled. The last time he looked the ones digit had still been 8, and when he looked again it had suddenly become 5.
The results of the second mock exam came out, and Fang Chi was a little surprised. Old Li kept patting his shoulder, spitting saliva all over his face.
“Not bad! I knew if you pushed yourself you could do it.”
Although this result had nothing to do with the real college entrance exam result, Fang Chi was still very happy.
When he ran home and saw Chief Huang, who had ignored him for a long time, he picked him up and kissed him.
“Chief Huang, you’re really beautiful.”
After being thrown back onto the sofa, Chief Huang still hadn’t recovered from the shock, standing stiffly between the cushions.
There was no one he could tell this happiness to. His parents didn’t care about his grades. His grandparents probably wouldn’t understand it. If he wanted to talk about it, he could only find Sun Wenqu.
But Sun Wenqu had been very busy lately. The last time they talked on the phone Grandpa said he had started staying up all night again. Once he stayed up all night three days in a row, only sleeping a little during the day.
At this time Sun Wenqu was either catching up on sleep or busy. Fang Chi didn’t want to disturb him. After all, this was probably the first job Sun Wenqu had seriously done since he had never worked before.
“Hey!” Even though there was no one to tell, Fang Chi was still very happy. He picked up Chief Huang again and flopped onto the sofa, touching Chief Huang’s nose with his finger. “I feel like I should be able to do pretty well on the exam. What do you think? Little eunuch.”
Chief Huang stared at his fingertip, eyes crossing. After several seconds it suddenly swatted his hand with a claw, struggling to turn and jump away.
“Little eunuch!” Fang Chi laughed and shouted, then sang a line, “Where did the balls all go, before you could even feel them properly they’re already gone, ”
It was quite a long time after Fang Chi’s second mock exam that Sun Wenqu finally received a call from him.
“How did you do?” Sun Wenqu asked.
“Pretty good. I made it into the top ten in class. Before I was always around twenty or thirty,” Fang Chi said with a smile. “Probably not as good as you, but much better than before. Honestly I’m quite surprised.”
“That’s already very good,” Sun Wenqu immediately said. “I’ll go tell Grandpa and Grandma.”
Grandpa was repairing a chair in the yard, and Grandma was helping beside him. When Sun Wenqu said Fang Chi’s mock exam results were pretty good, neither of them spoke. After a while Grandma asked: “Touch you?”
Fang Chi burst out laughing on the other end of the phone. “I told you they wouldn’t understand.”
“Not touch me.” Sun Wenqu squatted beside Grandma and patiently explained. “It’s just an exam, like the college entrance exam, a practice test. Fang Chi did pretty well.”
“Oh,” Grandpa understood and smiled. “That’s good, that’s good. All that studying wasn’t wasted.”
“He said he can rank in the top ten in his class now. Pretty impressive,” Sun Wenqu said. “Before he was probably within the bottom ten.”
“I’ve never been bottom!” Fang Chi said.
“Then that’s quite a big improvement,” Grandpa said. “This kid, I didn’t realize he was actually pretty good at studying.”
“Mm, if there were an award it would be the Most Improved Award.” Sun Wenqu laughed.
“He got an award?” Grandma immediately asked. “There’s prize money, right?”
Fang Chi laughed like crazy on the other end. Sun Wenqu could only nod. “Yes, yes.”
“Tell him not to save it and not bring it home. Buy some good food and nourish his body.” Grandma said.
“Alright.” Sun Wenqu nodded.
Sun Wenqu chatted with Fang Chi for a few more sentences. Fang Chi sounded in a good mood. Then he handed the phone to Grandpa, and Fang Chi talked with him for nearly half an hour before hanging up.
He must have been holding it in for quite a long time without properly talking to anyone.
Sun Wenqu smiled, took his phone, and sent Fang Chi a red envelope: 2666.
After Fang Chi accepted the red envelope he immediately sent a message.
—Holy sh*t, why so much? What are you doing?
—Prize money. Grandma said don’t save the prize money and don’t bring it home. Buy something good to eat and nourish yourself.
—…You should save your money a bit. It only goes out, nothing comes in.
—When money comes in here it’ll come in one big batch at once. Now you’re worrying about this too.
Fang Chi didn’t say anything else. A few minutes later he also sent him a red envelope.
Sun Wenqu frowned, thinking Fang Chi had awkwardly sent the 2666 back to him. But when he opened it he laughed.
One yuan eighty-eight.
He looked at that 1.88 and laughed for a long time without stopping.
Several times Sun Wenqu thought about going to see Fang Chi, but in the end he decided not to. Fang Chi’s current state was pretty good. They weren’t contacting each other much, but he could see Fang Chi’s mind was very calm. Sun Wenqu felt it was better not to break this rhythm.
The monkey flowerpots and the handsome flowerpots had all been moved to the rooftop by Sun Wenqu. Now that the weather was warmer, these flowers were blooming more and more beautifully. Their blooming period was quite long. They bloomed little by little, fell little by little, and when they bloomed again there would be even more flowers.
Sun Wenqu still hadn’t found out what kind of flowers they were. He simply took photos of them every day.
By the end of May the flowers had filled the small branches and leaves.
“When you have time, come back once,” Ma Liang called him.
“Hm?” Sun Wenqu sat by a small stream in the mountains watching the water.
“That bottle you showed me last time,” Ma Liang said. “The shape is a bit str– strange. I want to see the real thing.”
“Mm, then I…” Sun Wenqu thought for a moment. “In the next couple of days then. Fang Chi’s exam is in about a week anyway.”
“You’re going to accompany the exam?” Ma Liang asked.
“Just go cheer him on. I guess no one in his family will bother,” Sun Wenqu stood up. “Or you could book a room for him so he can rest at noon… though they’re probably all booked by now?”
“Already full,” Ma Liang said. “You’re really acting like a dad.”
“Then book one farther away. Just for noon, drive him there and back,” Sun Wenqu said. “He doesn’t seem as nervous as others anyway.”
“Alright.” Ma Liang said.
Fang Chi looked like the closer the exam got, the more relaxed he became. When he called Sun Wenqu the conversations were longer than usual, and he chatted happily with Grandpa and Grandma too. Once he started talking he couldn’t stop.
When Sun Wenqu heard him tell for the third time about how they went to see the exam site and one classmate got so nervous halfway through that he wanted to have diarrhea, while Fang Chi laughed loudly while telling it, he smiled and asked: “Hey, are you very nervous?”
Fang Chi was still laughing. After forcing himself to laugh for more than ten seconds, he finally stopped.
“Yes. How did you know?”
“You’re practically turning into a chatterbox from nervousness, and a repeating-record type at that,” Sun Wenqu said. “How could I not hear it?”
“D*mn.” Fang Chi felt a little embarrassed. “Is it that obvious?”
“Don’t be nervous,” Sun Wenqu said. “It’s just one exam. You’ve taken so many this year already. You’ve taken harder ones many times.”
“That’s true,” Fang Chi sniffed. “Then… when I’m taking the exam… will you come?”
“I will. I told Liangzi, he booked a room for you so you can rest at noon.” This time Sun Wenqu didn’t plan to give Fang Chi any surprise, afraid it might affect his exam.
“No way,” Fang Chi laughed. “I don’t need anything that exaggerated.”
“That’s what everyone does. Just go with the flow,” Sun Wenqu smiled. “Your parents aren’t accompanying you to the exam, right?”
“No. They can’t leave the shop. They probably can’t even remember what day my exam is,” Fang Chi said. “Then are you arriving the day before?”
“Mm,” Sun Wenqu responded. “Then Uncle Liangzi said he’ll take you out to eat something good to relax.”
“Don’t eat anything too good,” Fang Chi said. “I’m afraid I’ll eat too much and get diarrhea the next day.”
Sun Wenqu laughed. “Is your stomach that delicate? Then when the time comes you can choose whatever you want to eat.”
“I want barbecue,” Fang Chi immediately said.
“…The kind from a street barbecue stall?” Sun Wenqu paused.
“Mm.” Fang Chi immediately confirmed.
“You’re not afraid of diarrhea eating that?” Sun Wenqu couldn’t quite understand.
“A wild dog’s stomach works like that.” Fang Chi laughed.
“Then barbecue it is.” Sun Wenqu agreed.
Sun Wenqu drove back to the city. Grandpa and Grandma prepared a big pile of food Fang Chi liked, packed it into bags, and put it in the car.
“He can’t eat that much,” Sun Wenqu laughed. “Besides, once the exam is over he’ll definitely come back to see you first thing.”
“You help him eat,” Grandma patted him. “You get skinny every summer, your face gets pointy. If you step on a scale you might not even weigh as much as Xiaozi. Just take this chance to fatten up.”
“Alright then.” Sun Wenqu looked at the bags. “There’s beef jerky, right? Last time he didn’t get to eat it, he’s probably still remembering it.”
“There is,” Grandpa laughed. “Two big boxes. You two can slowly fight over them.”
Sun Wenqu drove the little shoebox Beetle back to the city with a pile of food. He left late today, so by the time he reached the city it was already afternoon. He looked at the time and didn’t go to Ma Liang’s place first. Instead he went to Fang Chi’s school and parked near the intersection where Fang Chi got off the car last time.
Fang Chi got out of school early today. There were no classes, no studying, mainly just reporting to school and listening to the teacher explain tomorrow’s exam instructions before being dismissed.
Seeing that students were already walking over in twos and threes even though school hadn’t officially ended yet, Sun Wenqu guessed Fang Chi and the others were already done and called him.
“I’m at that intersection where I parked last time,” Sun Wenqu said.
Only about a minute later he saw Fang Chi running over in big strides. He didn’t get out of the car, just rested his head on his hand and watched Fang Chi run all the way toward him.
To be honest, Fang Chi looked really handsome when he ran.
Full of vitality. Even though these past six months of exam preparation had worn him down to the point of dizziness, he was still written in big letters as energetic youth, the kind that carried wind and sunlight with it.
“How long have you been waiting?” Fang Chi jumped into the car and tossed his backpack onto the back seat.
“Just got here.” Sun Wenqu glanced toward the students walking over, not seeing Fang Chi’s good friend. He drove the car toward Ma Liang’s studio. “Did you get your exam admission ticket today?”
“We looked at it,” Fang Chi smiled. “Everyone looked at it once, then Old Li collected them again. Tomorrow they’ll hand them out at the exam site, afraid we’ll lose them.”
“How does it feel?” Sun Wenqu glanced at him. Fang Chi had clearly given it everything these past few months, compared to the last time they met, he’d gotten noticeably thinner. Although his spirits seemed good, the fatigue was still written all over his face.
“I feel pretty great the whole time, like I’m freaking amazing,” Fang Chi said, raising a hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead. “Peking University and Tsinghua are crying and begging me to come.”
Sun Wenqu smiled and pointed to the back seat. “Your grandparents brought you a bunch of food. There’s beef jerky.”
“You didn’t eat any?” Fang Chi leaned back to look, reached out, grabbed the lunchbox with the jerky, and opened it. “Smells so good!”
“I’m driving. No spare hands to eat,” Sun Wenqu said.
“Wow, this is delicious!” Fang Chi didn’t even bother about whether his hands were dirty, he pinched a piece and popped it into his mouth. “So good. I told you this jerky is top-tier. Seriously good.”
Sun Wenqu just smiled without saying anything.
After eating several pieces, Fang Chi stopped, holding one piece of jerky. He glanced at Sun Wenqu, then looked back at the jerky, then turned again after a moment. “You…”
Just as Sun Wenqu said, “I’m not eating,” Fang Chi had already made up his mind and thrust his hand over, a bit forcefully, straight up to his mouth. “…Want some?”
They spoke at the same time. Fang Chi froze, unsure whether to pull his hand back or keep holding it there.
Sun Wenqu quickly turned his head and took the jerky from his hand with his mouth. “With service this attentive, I have to eat it.”
Fang Chi laughed, a little embarrassed, and lowered his head, stuffing two more pieces into his mouth.
Although Fang Chi had said he wanted barbecue, Ma Liang, being the “uncle,” didn’t let him go to a roadside stall. Instead, he booked a table at an all-you-can-eat smokeless BBQ restaurant.
By the time Sun Wenqu and Fang Chi arrived, Ma Liang and his wife were already busy at the food counter.
Seeing them come in, Hu Yuanyuan ran over with a plate of skewered meat. “Hey, nephew, what kind of meat do you like? Auntie will grab it for you.”
“Thanks… Auntie,” Fang Chi said. “I can get it myself.”
“The beef today is great, nice balance of fat and lean. You can take more. I’ve already checked,” Hu Yuanyuan said.
“Okay.” Fang Chi smiled and nodded, getting up to pick food.
“I think he looks… pretty okay,” Ma Liang said, carrying over a plate of chives and sitting next to Sun Wenqu. “Thin, thinner, but his eyes are still bright.”
“You two trying for a baby?” Sun Wenqu looked at him.
“No,” Ma Liang looked back. “Can’t… can’t afford one.”
“Then why are you eating so many chives?” Sun Wenqu said with a grin.
“Brat,” Ma Liang said. “They’re for you. Just afraid you’ll eat them… and not have any use for them.”
Sun Wenqu looked at Hu Yuanyuan. “You going to do something about him?”
“Am I wrong?” Ma Liang pointed toward Fang Chi, who was picking food at the table. “See that? There’s a chive… spirit over there.”
Sun Wenqu couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing along with Hu Yuanyuan. “We should compile a quote book for you.”
“I wi–will… when I’m old,” Ma Liang nodded.
After chatting for a bit, Sun Wenqu also got up to get food.
Fang Chi wasn’t much of a cook and wasn’t picky about eating, but right now he was being unusually selective. After a long time, there was barely anything on his plate.
“Nothing you want?” Sun Wenqu stood beside him.
“No,” Fang Chi glanced at him. “I thought you wouldn’t come over to get food, so I was going to grab some for you. But I don’t know what you like, you’re so picky.”
“Am I that picky? I ate everything you made,” Sun Wenqu said.
“Chocolate and sesame paste?” Fang Chi smiled. “I’ll make more for you after the exams.”
“Deal,” Sun Wenqu nodded. “Going straight back after the exams?”
“Of course,” Fang Chi said. “I’ll relax a bit. I think I’ll feel exhausted after, it just hasn’t hit me yet.”
“You can finally get some proper rest,” Sun Wenqu said with a smile.
“You…” Fang Chi thought for a moment. “You’ll keep staying at my grandparents’ place until your work is done, right?”
“Mm,” Sun Wenqu responded.
“And after that?” Fang Chi asked again.
Although Sun Wenqu had already answered this before, he still smiled. “After that, I’ll head back to the city. Around the time you get your admission letter and are getting ready to enroll.”
“…Oh.” Fang Chi looked down at the meat on his plate.
