I Can Still Salvage It

Shen Mian went with Xu Yuanfan to climb the mountain on the second day. In fact, he had been to that mountain before as a child, but at that time, it wasn’t a tourist site yet. Unlike now, there were long stone paths on the mountain, and at the mountaintop, various shops and tourists posing for photos could be seen everywhere.

There was a small temple built on the mountain at some point. It wasn’t big, but because the scenery inside the temple was good, there were many people checking in and taking photos.

Fortunately, it hadn’t become a popular tourist spot yet, so although there were more tourists than before, it wasn’t to the point of being overwhelming.

Shen Mian leaned on the railing and drank frozen juice, saying to Xu Yuanfan, “Next time we have a holiday, I’ll come here with Pei Zhiyi and introduce the two of you.”

He still had a childish nature, wanting to share everything he found interesting with Pei Zhiyi. Fortunately, Pei Zhiyi didn’t find him annoying.

Xu Yuanfan had heard Shen Mian mention Pei Zhiyi since yesterday.

Although he had never even seen Pei Zhiyi, he already knew that Pei Zhiyi was 185 cm tall, always ranked top three in his grade, could play the piano and violin, and was excellent at basketball and long-distance running. He was also very handsome.

In short, he was perfect.

Now that Shen Mian mentioned him again, Xu Yuanfan couldn’t help but tease, “Is he really your childhood friend? If someone didn’t know better, they would think he’s your girlfriend.”

Shen Mian didn’t think much of it and replied, “I don’t have a girlfriend yet.” But then he curiously looked at Xu Yuanfan and asked, “What about you? You are so good-looking, you must have someone, right?”

Xu Yuanfan smiled slightly.

“I don’t have a girlfriend either,” he said.

Shen Mian showed a surprised expression and stared at Xu Yuanfan’s face, trying to see if he was lying, but Xu Yuanfan’s eyes were sincere and natural.

Shen Mian believed him and asked, “Are your standards too high?”

Xu Yuanfan didn’t answer, but instead patted Shen Mian’s head and said, “Don’t ask too many questions, kid.”

Shen Mian stopped asking, although he didn’t think of himself as a kid anymore.

He was already seventeen, and in a few months, he would be an adult. Although he was a bit short, he still had room to grow.

He explored the mountain with Xu Yuanfan, and after going around once, it was already evening. The sunset that day was beautiful, casting a gorgeous pink and purple color over the mountains when viewed from the mountaintop.

Before coming down the mountain, Shen Mian saw a souvenir shop in front of the temple selling lucky charm embroidered bags. Although he didn’t believe in such things, he still bought one.

Xu Yuanfan took a look and found that it was a studying fortune, so he teased Shen Mian, “Are you going to start studying hard?”

After helping Shen Mian with his homework yesterday, he had discovered that Shen Mian was a bit of a slow learner.

On the way back……

Shen Mian sat in Xu Yuanfan’s car, feeling a bit tired, and rested his head against the car window. Outside the window was the beautiful sunset, which softened his facial features.

“I bought it for Pei Zhiyi. He ranked second in the grade last time. I hope he can rank first next time.”

Shen Mian smiled unintentionally as he held the small charm in his hand. It was such a rough little thing, but he felt that as long as he brought it back, Pei Zhiyi would be happy to accept it.

Xu Yuanfan parked the car at a traffic light intersection and looked at Shen Mian’s fair profile.

Upon hearing Shen Mian’s words, his expression became a bit complicated.

When the car started again, he lightly said, “Seems like you really like him a lot.”

But his words were too light, and Shen Mian didn’t hear them clearly.

After Xu Yuanfan dropped Shen Mian off at home, he warmly invited him to stay for dinner, but Xu Yuanfan had made plans with friends, so he couldn’t stay.

He asked Shen Mian while sitting in the car, “Should I pick you up tomorrow to hang out again?”

Shen Mian shook his head, showing the distress of a high school student, “No, I haven’t finished my homework.”

He hadn’t even started the homework assigned by teacher Ding.

Xu Yuanfan smiled. He recalled when he was in high school and to some point understood Shen Mian’s troubles.

“Then I’ll leave. We’ll hang out when you go back home.”

He knew Shen Mian was about to go home, even though his university was in the same city as Shen Mian’s family. But that city was so big that it was difficult to run into each other without deliberately staying in touch.

He liked Shen Mian, thinking that he was an interesting kid. But a chance encounter for two or three days wasn’t enough to become friends who would meet up regularly.

Shen Mian would return to high school and spend time with his childhood friend who was always on his mind, while Xu Yuanfan had his own circle of friends and acquaintances.

He had just glimpsed Shen Mian’s phone lock screen, which was a photo of him with Pei Zhiyi. He was about to point it out to Shen Mian that it was unusual for adolescent boys to be so attached to their childhood friends.

But when he saw Shen Mian’s bewildered face, he ended up not saying anything and just chuckled.

He bid farewell to Shen Mian and drove away as soon as Shen Mian entered the house.

Entering the house, Shen Mian’s family had dinner in the yard. The nighttime breeze was already pleasantly cool, and Shen Mian sat under the grapevine, eating the pine nut cakes made by his grandmother. If he didn’t have homework, that day would have been perfect.

However, after finishing dinner, he sighed and returned to his room. He closed the door, turned on the lights, and started working on the exam papers.

He struggled through the writing, not understanding why he had to draw auxiliary lines, why balancing chemical equations was so difficult, and why that small square in physics kept sliding around.

In the end, feeling frustrated, he made a video call to Pei Zhiyi.

Just like the previous day, Pei Zhiyi quickly answered the call. He seemed to have just taken a shower, with water droplets still clinging to his hair. His skin was even paler than usual, but his cheeks had a slight rosy tint from the steam.

Looking at Pei Zhiyi’s face, Shen Mian inexplicably thought of the phrase “a feast for the eyes” and couldn’t help but chuckle.

Pei Zhiyi looked at him with a puzzled expression. “What are you laughing at?”

Shen Mian wouldn’t say it. If he did, Pei Zhiyi would definitely say he was being cheeky.

He lay on the table, cheeks resting on his arms, and skillfully acted spoiled towards Pei Zhiyi, “Brother, I don’t know how to do my homework, show me.”

He knew Pei Zhiyi should have finished his own homework already.

However, this time, Pei Zhiyi didn’t readily agree.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Pei Zhiyi dried his hair with a towel and asked, “Didn’t you meet a new friend who helped you with your homework yesterday?”

Shen Mian clearly remembered Xu Yuanfan’s name, but he didn’t want to mention it. He instinctively felt awkward by anyone who seemed to have an interest in him.

But he didn’t catch on, honestly saying, “He went to play with his friends, and I don’t have time to go find him tomorrow. Besides, Xu Yuanfan was my grandmother’s student, not my friend.”

“So, you’re only thinking of me now?” Pei Zhiyi wanted to ask with a hint of jealousy, but he thought it was unreasonable.

He stared at Shen Mian in the video call for a few glances. Shen Mian was no longer lying on the table but curled up on the single sofa, wearing a white T-shirt, absentmindedly playing with the spring on a pen. He looked at Pei Zhiyi with big round eyes and pouty lips.

Pei Zhiyi sighed, “Alright, tell me which ones you don’t understand.”

Shen Mian felt like he had been granted amnesty and quickly read out loud the questions he couldn’t solve. However, there were too many of them, and he felt a little embarrassed when showing them to Pei Zhiyi.

Pei Zhiyi picked out the questions Shen Mian couldn’t solve from his own paper and roughly selected the ones of moderate difficulty to explain to him.

Shen Mian thought to himself that with Pei Zhiyi’s patience in tutoring, he would probably be a successful teacher in the future.

Or maybe when Pei Zhiyi had kids in the future, he would definitely be a good dad.

He thought that way and said it out loud.

Pei Zhiyi, however, coldly chuckled from the other side of the phone, “Forget it. What if my son ends up being like you? I’d go crazy.”

Shen Mian stared blankly, “Why would your son be like me?”

Only then did Pei Zhiyi realize he misspoke.

His pen lightly drew a line on the exam paper.

“It’s nothing, just talking nonsense. Don’t mind me.”

Shen Mian didn’t pay much attention to it.

With Pei Zhiyi’s guidance, Shen Mian finally stumbled through all the homework. Only an essay was left, and he planned to write it the next night.

“I’m tired. I’m going to bed,” he yawned and mumbled to Pei Zhiyi, “I’ll be back tomorrow, remember to wait for me at my place.”

Pei Zhiyi’s eyes softened, “Okay.”

But after saying that, the two of them still sat on their phones for a while longer, even though there was nothing much to do, they didn’t hang up the call.

Outside the window, the sounds of insects chirping could be heard by Pei Zhiyi from Shen Mian’s phone, as if the two were still sitting under the same night sky.

Pei Zhiyi tried to recall how Shen Mian’s grandmother’s house looked. When he was very young, he went there with the Shen family. It was an old courtyard with grapevines and green stone slabs on the ground. He and Shen Mian would look at the stars and catch fireflies together in the courtyard.

The two of them sat like that for a while, one reading, the other doing homework, occasionally chatting.

Until the call ended, Shen Mian noticed that he had carelessly written the name “Pei” on the paper, hastily and casually, hidden among the lines he had scribbled.