Just in Time Chapter 96
Translated by Sylver (ko-fi)
Chapter 96 Airport Pickup
"This semester, you are already in your third year of high school, and the college entrance exam is coming soon, yet you're all still dazed here!" Old He heavily placed his thermos cup on the podium. "Especially those few! Zhang Haize! Wu He! And Qin Jun! Running to the playground every day, do you think playing basketball will improve your scores or what? You should all learn from Yun Fang! Look at Yun Fang, he never—"
Old He looked at Yun Fang's empty seat and his expression changed. "Where is Yun Fang?"
Ji Shumo hesitated whether to answer, then heard Qi Huo raise his hand and loudly say, "Report, teacher! Yun Fang asked me to pass on a message to you! He said he has something very important to do today!"
"Nonsense!" Old He was very angry. "You're in your third year of high school and still taking leave at every turn. I think all of you need a lesson! From now on, anyone who takes leave must have their parents come! Bring the leave slip before you go out! This is ridiculous!"
No matter how furious Old He was, Yun Fang couldn't care less for now.
He stood at the airport's arrival gate, occasionally looking down at his phone, but there was no new message.
He had contacted Yi Chenliang two months ago. To be precise, he had finally found out where Yi Chenliang was. He originally planned to fly directly to find him, but the chat interface that had been silent for almost a year suddenly had a new message.
Yi Chenliang contacted him first. Both of them were very excited. Yi Chenliang refused his proposal to go to Switzerland and told him he would be back soon, and Yun Fang was also at a critical point in what he was doing, so he had been waiting for Yi Chenliang to return to the country.
Yi Chenliang would send him a message every two or three days, each time in a hurry. Several times, Yun Fang couldn't help but want to go and bring him back, but Yi Chenliang persuaded him not to.
They had been apart for almost a year.
And from the time they met to the time they separated, it had only been about a year.
Yun Fang stood among the crowd, unable to describe his feelings. His gaze suddenly paused.
There was a boy who looked about seventeen or eighteen, very tall, with medium-length hair casually tied at the back. He wore a beige shirt and black casual pants, with sneakers that seemed to have some mud on them.
He was walking while looking at his phone, his long legs moving quickly. The sleeves of his shirt were loosely rolled up to his elbows, and the red bracelet on his thin wrist was particularly noticeable.
Just as Yun Fang was about to speak, the boy seemed to sense something and looked up, meeting his gaze.
It was a face he was all too familiar with, one he had seen countless times in the mirror, the face of the adult Yi Chenliang.
But seeing him from this distance, it felt strangely unfamiliar.
Until that cold, sinister face in his memory, always with a hint of malice, suddenly broke into a bright and sunny smile, Yun Fang's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled.
It was his Xiao Yi.
Just grown up.
Yi Chenliang threw down his suitcase and ran towards him.
Yun Fang opened his arms, embracing him, but staggered back a step from the impact.
Just like countless times before, whenever Yi Chenliang got excited, he didn't hold back.
"I'm back." Yi Chenliang held him tightly, his voice choked with emotion.
"Mm." Yun Fang patted his back, trying to steady his voice. "Welcome back, Xiao Yi."
Yi Chenliang held him tightly, unwilling to let go. Yun Fang reached out and patted his head. "Let's go home."
Yi Chenliang sniffled and lifted his head from Yun Fang's shoulder, his eyes a bit red.
Yun Fang took his hand, grabbed the suitcase, and hailed a taxi outside the airport.
The two sat in the back seat of the taxi, with Yi Chenliang holding onto Yun Fang's hand, staring at him as if trying to make up for a year's worth of missed sight.
Yun Fang couldn't stand his intense gaze and turned to him with a smile. "Stop staring."
"You've changed a lot," Yi Chenliang said.
"Mm?" Yun Fang's heart skipped a beat, but his expression remained unchanged. "How have I changed?"
"You're even more handsome," Yi Chenliang said earnestly.
Yun Fang laughed.
Yi Chenliang looked deeply at the person in front of him.
It had only been a year since he last saw him. Yun Fang, who he remembered as always fair and clean, seemed to have matured suddenly. The familiar black-framed glasses were now replaced with thin silver frames, his features were sharp and cool... making him seem a bit unfamiliar for a while.
The taxi stopped in front of the building opposite Yun Fang's home.
They got out, and Yun Fang took the suitcase from the trunk. "Let's go upstairs," he said to Yi Chenliang.
Yi Chenliang felt as if he had returned to that night a year ago. It had been just an ordinary evening among countless others. Yun Fang had given him a ride home on his scooter. They had parked downstairs, he kissed Yun Fang, and then went upstairs without looking back.
Ordinary to the point of insignificance, yet it became their only farewell.
"What are you daydreaming about?" Yun Fang waved his hand in front of his face.
Yi Chenliang grabbed his hand and looked at him. "I'm back."
Yun Fang smiled. "Mm, you're back."
"Every time I dream, I dream of coming back and reaching the downstairs," Yi Chenliang said to him, with a hint of subtle grievance and fear. "And then, no matter what, I can't get in."
Yun Fang's nose stung, and he turned away hastily, not daring to look at him. He pulled him upstairs. "You can get in. I'll take you inside."
Yi Chenliang, being pulled by him, walked effortlessly, without any resistance, into the hallway he could never enter in his dreams.
The somewhat worn security door was opened, just like two years ago when Yun Fang first brought him here, walking in ahead of him.
Yi Chenliang looked at the room, which was exactly the same as when he left, and instantly felt a sense of familiarity return.
At the entrance was the shoe rack they had assembled together, still holding several pairs of his shoes. The dog-head pillow was on the sofa, the candle-lighting little girl he had whimsically twisted into a cheeky pose was on the TV cabinet, and the three lucky bamboo plants he had impulsively bought were still there... It was as if he had only left for a moment.
Yun Fang put the suitcase in the bedroom and raised his voice to ask, "Do you want to rest first or unpack?"
Not hearing an answer, he came out of the bedroom and saw Yi Chenliang staring blankly at the candle-lighting little girl.
"Do you miss the candle-lighting little girl?" Yun Fang asked with a smile. "No worries, you'll see her every day from now on."
Yi Chenliang turned his gaze back. "When Su Shengwen took me away, everything in this house was taken away. He told me the lease was terminated."
Yun Fang's smile faded slightly.
"But this place is exactly the same as it was the morning I left for school," Yi Chenliang turned to look at him, eyes red. "You, all by yourself, filled it up again bit by bit."
Su Shengwen had taken Yi Chenliang away, leaving Yun Fang with an empty house.
So, he recreated their home from memory, bit by bit, like an ant moving house.
A person sitting on the ground assembled their shoe rack together;
A person ran to the mall to pick the desk lamp they had picked together;
A person ran to the supermarket next to Xinnan Alley and bought pots and pans;
………
A person bought a cake by himself, celebrated Yi Chenliang's seventeenth birthday alone, and then, imitating Yi Chenliang, twisted the candle-lighting little girl into a cheeky pose and placed her on the TV cabinet.
All the furniture and items were painstakingly put back in their original places by him, making the house look exactly the same as it did before Yi Chenliang left—
Except without Yi Chenliang.
“It wasn’t as miserable as you think,” Yun Fang finally couldn’t help it, reaching out to ruffle his hair with a smile. “I just did it when I had nothing else to do—”
Before he could finish speaking, he was buried in a kiss.
Yi Chenliang finally got to kiss the person he had been thinking about day and night.
Yun Fang initially didn't react, but when Yi Chenliang bit him in dissatisfaction, he snapped back to reality, gently returning the kiss.
They had too many things they wanted to say to each other, but there were too many words to say at once, so they poured all their thoughts into a kiss.
It was just like countless kisses before, yet completely different.
"I've been wanting to ask you since I saw you." Yun Fang tugged at the medium-length tuft of hair behind his head. "How come you started growing your hair out?"
Yi Chenliang's forehead rested on his shoulder, sounding a bit sulky. "I don't like others touching my head. I'm waiting for you to come back and cut it for me."
Previously, it was Yun Fang who used to cut his long hair for him.
Yun Fang chuckled at his childish words and playfully tugged at the tuft he had tied up. "It looks pretty good, though."
Even as he tugged at his own hair, Yi Chenliang didn't budge, sticking to Yun Fang like a lump of sticky cotton candy.
"You're not feeling too hot like this?" Yun Fang chuckled helplessly, feeling both amused and tender.
"I miss you so much," Yi Chenliang lifted his head, his eyes still red, as if on the verge of tears but forcefully holding back, looking miserable.
"I know," Yun Fang caressed his face. "I miss you too."
"Whenever I think that you miss me like this, I wish I could just kill those people." Yi Chenliang's eyes flashed with hostility, his voice carrying an icy edge.
"Xiao Yi, look at me." Yun Fang cupped his face, his gaze gentle and calm. "Look at me."
Yi Chenliang looked at him with red eyes.
"But they bully you. Without even being in the juvenile detention center, they treat me like this. I can't bear to think that they'll treat you even worse." Yi Chenliang pursed his lips. "Sometimes I really want to kill them when I think about how they treat you."
"They're not worth it," Yun Fang gently reassured him. "Just treat it like a bad dream, forget about them, and leave everything else to me."
"I saw the message you sent me the day you came back," Yi Chenliang said. "You said you brought me a gift and asked me to guess what it was."
"You sent me a smiling little sun."
"You told me it snowed on New Year's Day, and the fireworks over Jinshui River were beautiful."
Yun Fang smiled. "The fireworks that day were indeed beautiful, the kind of blue ones you like."
"I wanted to capture them to show you, but I got too mesmerized watching."