BTO CH53

The blazing warmth of the boy’s palm, along with their breathing, gradually intertwined.

Xu Sheng was as familiar with this art studio as could be. Countless nights before his freshman year of high school, he had sat right here, facing an easel with a paintbrush in hand.

When he painted, he liked listening to music, any song at all. The headphone cord pulled out from his pocket, with a song playing casually in one ear, while the other ear caught the soft rustling sound of the brush tip rubbing against paper.

In the afternoon when the sun was at its fiercest, a few calico cats with lazy strides would often pass by the steps outside the floor-to-ceiling window beside him.

Occasionally, they would stop, expose their bellies, and lie down to bask in the sun.

All the arrangements in the studio remained as they were, and even the few demonstration drawings hanging on the wall hadn’t been taken down. It was precisely because of this familiarity that Xu Sheng felt all the more uncomfortable.

To hold the brush steady at first, his fingers gripped tightly, but then, as if burned by the temperature of the other’s hand, he loosened his grip slightly out of control.

Until Shao Zhan asked him, “Not going to paint?”

“…”

Xu Sheng thought to himself: Don’t you find this posture weird?

Shao Zhan’s tone was calm, carrying an almost imperceptible hint of temptation: “Your friend has been out for almost five minutes. He should be back soon.”

“I’ll paint,” Xu Sheng covered his hand over Shao Zhan’s again, his fingers tightly interlacing with Shao Zhan’s knuckles one by one. “Don’t move around.”

It wasn’t that Xu Sheng had never corrected someone else’s drawing before, but doing it in this manner was a first for him.

He guided Shao Zhan’s hand to dip into the paint on the palette, his other hand resting on the back of Shao Zhan’s chair. The two were very close, especially when Xu Sheng leaned down to close the distance. Once the brush tip was coated with paint, he guided it back to the paper, hovering right in front of the canvas before swooping down with a brushstroke.

The so-called ambient color was the hue presented on a specific object when ambient light reflected off it.

Only after finishing that single stroke did Xu Sheng let go of his hand.

Kang Kai happened to return after buying the medicine. He hurried through the door and said, “What’s wrong with your stomach? How did you get a stomachache… I remember you used to catch colds easily for a while, is it any better now?”

Shao Zhan: “Colds?”

Kang Kai: “Yeah! Every time you caught a cold, your temper was especially bad. You were too lazy to move even a finger, and whatever anyone said to you, you’d only reply with a single word: scram.”

Xu Sheng indeed had poor immunity when he was little, easily catching colds every season change. Originally, this young lord regularly found spots to slouch and sleep; catching a cold made it all the more justified, making his behavior even more brazen.

Every time Kang Kai couldn’t stand watching it: “You’re not writing your homework? Didn’t your teacher issue a harsh threat that if you don’t turn in your homework again, you don’t need to attend her class next time?”

“Don’t bother me, I’m a patient right now. Why mention homework to me?” Xu Sheng would say raspy-voiced, “Scram.”

Kang Kai looked ready to seize the opportunity to continue complaining.

Xu Sheng couldn’t listen to it anymore, so he pointed at Shao Zhan: “Isn’t he supposed to take his medicine?”

Shao Zhan: “…”

Kang Kai: “Oh right, I’ll go get hot water.” Saying this, Kang Kai only then realized that his drawing had been modified.

“Holy crap!” Kang Kai could recognize Xu Sheng’s handiwork at a single glance. He said, “It’s already fixed?”

Afterward, Aunt Kang returned from buying groceries and warmly invited the two of them to stay for dinner, since it was rare to meet “Xu Sheng’s” friend. Calculating the time, however, the two had to return before campus curfew.

The sky was gradually darkening. Buses came every half hour, and when the two arrived at the bus stop, the previous one had just left.

Shao Zhan asked, “When did you start learning to paint?”

“Junior high, probably,” Xu Sheng squatted on the edge of the flower bed nearby, speaking in his usual nonchalant, indifferent tone. “You could say… I studied for four years.”

“Why didn’t you continue?”

“What ‘why’ is there? Just didn’t have time.”

Xu Sheng’s line about an interest class wasn’t easy to arouse suspicion. People who knew nothing about art wouldn’t immediately link it to any art entrance exams, especially students at a purely academic school like Linjiang Sixth High, whose knowledge of “art examinees” was practically zero.

It was just like suddenly finding out a friend around you could play an instrument.

Just an interest.

Although as an academic slacker he wasn’t good at anything school-related, couldn’t an academic slacker still have a bit of special talent?

If Shao Zhan hadn’t seen one specific slip among that stack of target school papers in Meng Guowei’s office, he might have thought the same way.

Yet he wasn’t sure if the four words on that slip meant what he thought they meant.

Only when connecting the two together did a faint question mark, shrouded in a haze, emerge before his eyes.

Since Xu Sheng showed no intention of elaborating further, Shao Zhan didn’t ask.

As they were talking, the bus arrived.

There weren’t many people on the bus at this hour. After dropping his coin in, Xu Sheng walked straight to the back row: “Sit in the back?”

Shao Zhan had no objections.

After the two sat down, Xu Sheng pulled his phone from his pocket and held it out in front of Shao Zhan, gesturing to swap phones back.

Before handing his phone over to him, Shao Zhan saw an unread notification on the lock screen.

The rest of the content was truncated.

Xu Sheng took it back, his expression unchanged upon seeing that message. His elbow rested on the edge of the window as the wind blew in through the wide-open pane.

Mom: You’re on vacation now, right?

Mom: Make sure to eat properly on weekends too. Don’t wake up too late in the morning, and don’t eat out all the time. School cafeteria food might not match what’s outside, but at least it’s healthy.

Xu Sheng replied: Got it.

Only now did his tense nerves over the past few days relax. Yet Shao Zhan unexpectedly receiving Kang Kai’s message and stepping into the art studio continued to pull at his thoughts. Xu Sheng stared at the word “Mom” for a long while before closing his eyes.

The bus slowly drove into the tunnel, the dark, gaping entrance resembling a giant abyss that could devour everything.

A moment later, even the floating white halo visible through his eyelids dimmed away, and everything before his eyes turned pitch black.

Time and space seemed to travel back through this tunnel to over a year ago, on a night of torrential rain.

Outside the window, thunder rumbled continuously as rain pattered down softly.

Xu Yaping wouldn’t let him study art. Xu Sheng was just like any other rebellious teenager of that age, and with his personality, making a scene would only be far wilder than theirs. He curled his lips into a smile: “Mom, are you thinking for my sake, or for your own?”

Xu Yaping said sharply, “How am I not thinking for your sake? The teachers said your grades are improving fast. Based on mock exam scores, your first choice could easily shoot for other top schools. If you insist on applying to Liyang Second High, then you might as well not attend high school at all!”

Xu Sheng lowered his eyes to look at the drawing papers scattered across the floor. On the desk beside him, a copy of High School Entrance Exam Workbook lay open, packed dense with handwritten notes. His grades were genuinely bad; every incorrect question had to be copied out twice.

The argument bore no results, only repeating endlessly.

In the end, it escalated further and further, using the sharpest needles to sting each other.

During that period, the relationship between Xu Sheng and Xu Yaping dropped to freezing point, finally exploding when Xu Yaping brought up moving house.

Xu Yaping was furious. Raising the child by herself for so many years, she possessed a strong desire to control him, attempting to plan out Xu Sheng’s future.

“I don’t like academic subjects at all. Don’t you know why I pulled my grades up? Why do you think I slept only four or five hours every day?” Xu Sheng didn’t yield a single inch. Though his voice wasn’t sharp, it brooked no argument. “Which school I apply to is my freedom.”

Xu Yaping: “I’m not arguing with you right now. Either way, Liyang Second High is out of the question.”

Xu Sheng: “If all you want to tell me is this, then saying this much is enough.”

Xu Sheng finally swallowed his anger only when he accidentally overheard Xu Yaping making a phone call on the balcony later, discovering that her company was undergoing layoffs.

“I saw my name on the layoff list,” Xu Yaping choked out incoherently while clutching her phone tightly. “What should I do? And Xiao Sheng… I can’t sleep every night, wondering what if I can’t find a suitable job after this. What will happen to the child? I have to hold on, I can’t fall.”

When Xu Yaping said these words to a close friend, her tone was one Xu Sheng had never heard before.

In Xu Sheng’s impression, Xu Yaping was competitive and domineering, seemingly capable of anything.

That was the first time Xu Sheng caught her crying, only then realizing that she was just an ordinary person as well, someone who had moments of indecision and helplessness, getting completely lost in places he couldn’t see.

Xu Yaping sobbed softly: “So I hope he doesn’t take risks. I hope he lives well in the future, taking a safer, more stable path…”

Xu Sheng stood leaning against the wall on the other side of the door.

The bus finally emerged from the tunnel.

Perhaps Xu Sheng fell asleep, or perhaps he didn’t.

His senses separated from the images in his mind, and he vaguely felt something shielding his eyes.

Xu Sheng opened his eyes to a crack, realizing it was Shao Zhan… his own hand.

Shao Zhan raised his hand, brushing away the stray hair falling over his eyes to the side, then pressed his palm against the back of his head, letting him rest against his shoulder.

Finding a comfortable sleeping position, Xu Sheng turned his face slightly, finally falling fast asleep against Shao Zhan’s shoulder.

The half-hour ride passed in a flash. When they arrived at the stop, Shao Zhan calmly pressed his forehead to force him to lift his head, his tone cold but his movement gentle: “We’re here.”

Strangely enough, after the two became familiar with each other’s bodies, even though Shao Zhan was inside his body, there were no longer any bizarre sensations. On the contrary, Xu Sheng realized with absolute clarity that regardless of whose body it was, he was still that Shao Zhan.

Looks cold, but actually…

After pondering “actually” in his heart for a long while, Xu Sheng added a sentence looking at Shao Zhan’s retreating back.

Actually, he really is pretty cold.

Xu Sheng looked down, spotting the distinct knuckles on the teenager’s hand, yet the temperature of his hand seemed entirely the opposite.

Only after returning to the dorm did Xu Sheng remember there was still a folded square stack of A4 paper in his pants pocket, the homework assigned to Shao Zhan by Zhou Yuan.

S: Your homework is still with me, forgot to give it to you. You coming to get it, or should I bring it over?

Shao Zhan replied after a moment: I’ll come get it in a bit.

S: How long is “in a bit”?

S: I’m going to play games in a bit. According to e-sports spirit, I won’t open the door for you mid-game.

Shao Zhan: After taking a shower.

S: …

Fuck.

S: You’re taking a shower?

S: Shower faster.

S: Shower with your eyes closed.

A few seconds later, with a ding, the screen lit up.

Shao Zhan: Already seen everything long ago. Isn’t telling me to close my eyes now a bit late?

Shao Zhan stood bare-chested, the black cord still hanging around his neck. Before stepping into the shower stall, he watched the person opposite type repeatedly until the typing… status finally ceased, the chat box returning to calm.

Only then did Shao Zhan set his phone down.

Before going today, he had thought the art studio was merely a simple “interest class.”

Yet unexpectedly, he discovered it seemed to be much more than that.

There seemed to be countless traces of Xu Sheng’s life here: whether it was the never-before-seen sight of the teenager holding a paintbrush, or hearing the small details of daily life woven between his childhood friend’s words, all of it seemed to imperceptibly draw him closer to Xu Sheng.

And only in hindsight did Xu Sheng realize that Shao Zhan had, before he even noticed, stepped right into his private territory.

No.

Xu Sheng recalled the teenager sitting on the windowsill inside the dim corridor back at Lüzhou Base.

Or rather.

It was both of them who had long since stepped into each other’s worlds.