Chapter 50 (1/2)

When Lin Wenxi woke up again, he saw Zhao Yuan bent over his desk, snoring. It was winter now, but Zhao Yuan still wore only a thin sweater and a coat. Upon seeing that, Lin Wenxi could not help but think worriedly, “It was really cold and windy last night. He drank so much beer and went out to find me in the chilly weather. It’s not good for his health no matter how strong he is.”

His nose twitched and he began to weep.

He thought to himself, “Zhao Yuan, I know that you’re optimistic and humorous and can make fun of anything, but what do you really think about me? Do you take me seriously? Or do you just treat me well because of a bet? I don’t blame you. I can’t blame you. My body was dirty. I can’t ask you to adore me and cherish me.”

He got out of his bed and saw a cup of cold ginger tea on his desk. Beside the ginger tea, there were a few buns and tarts and a bottle of soy milk. He found a note beneath the bottle. It was left by Gu Xi.

“Big Xixi, just be happy. Remember to eat your breakfast.”

Lin Wenxi packed some of his clothes and left the university.

When Zhao Yuan woke up, he yawned and smiled. He had been busy taking care of Lin Wenxi last night and fallen asleep at 5:00 am or 6:00 am this morning. To his surprise, he had a good dream. He dreamed that he had an unforgettable night together with Lin Wenxi. In his dream, Lin Wenxi looked at him with smiling eyes, and there were red silk curtains around their bed and a pair of red candles burning in their room.

He smacked his lips and turned around. When he saw that Lin Wenxi’s bed was empty, he was startled and broke out in a cold sweat. He looked at himself and found out that Lin Wenxi had covered him with the blue and white coat that he often wore. He touched Lin Wenxi’s bed and quilt. Although the quilt was still somewhat warm, the bed was cold. He thought that Lin Wenxi must have left a long time ago.

He called Lin Wenxi but failed to get through to him. After that, he called Gu Xi, Wang Xiang and Shu Xiaoman, but still failed to get any clue as to Lin Wenxi’s whereabouts.

Zhao Yuan asked Wang Xiang to find their university counselor and tell the counselor that they had to contact Lin Wenxi’s parents in an emergency.

“Why do you want me to do that?” asked Wang Xiang.

“You have the cheek to do anything.”

Wang Xiang beat his breast and sighed before leaving for the counselor’s office.

Not long after that, he returned dejectedly, as he failed to get the contact information. Zhao Yuan asked him to find the counselor again and tell her that they had to contact Zheng Kai’s parents in an emergency. This time, Wang Xiang succeeded.

Upon seeing the contact information, Zhao Yuan frowned. He went to find the university counselor by himself and successfully got what he wanted.

“How did you do that?” Wang Xiang asked curiously.

Zhao Yuan smiled and said, “I just asked her if there’s anything special about Lin Wenxi’s parents? I told her that I just couldn’t understand why she could tell us how to contact Zheng Kai’s parent when she refused to let us contact Lin Wenxi’s parents.” Zhao Yuan felt somewhat curious about Lin Wenxi’s family now. All he knew was that Lin Wenxi’s family lived in this city. They had never asked about each other’s family by now. Neither had anyone of them taken the initiative to talk about his own family. Zhao Yuan wondered, “I don’t want to talk about my family for a reason. What about Lin Wenxi? Why didn’t he talk about his family at all?And why did the counselor feel so reluctant to give us the contact information of his parents?”

When talking with Lin Wenxi’s parents on the phone, Zhao Yuan found out that they sound quite nice. They thanked Zhao Yuan and told him that Lin Wenxi had come home this afternoon. Upon hearing that, Zhao Yuan felt relieved.

Lin Wenxi was the only child of his parents, and they cared a lot about him. As he had locked himself in his room for hours since returning home, his mother Huang Xiya kept crying for hours. Despite that, he still refused to come out. The moment his father Lin Ziwei received the call from Zhao Yuan, he was busy urging his son to come out of his room.

Not long after that, Lin Ziwei received a call from Lin Wenxi’s university counselor. This counselor was the wife of his subordinate and would tell him everything about his son. Today, she told him a thing that totally irritated him.

“When Wenxi’s teacher read out his name in today’s lecture, a girl named Shu Xiaoman answered the roll call for him. She probably thought that it would be alright as the teacher probably didn’t know who Lin Wenxi was. However, she didn’t know that the name list the teacher had was actually a name-gender list. When she answered the roll call for Wenxi, the teacher was shocked and asked her to stand up to further ensure that she was a girl and could never be Lin Wenxi.”

Lin Ziwei was angry. He stood in front of Lin Wenxi’s door, gave a choked cry and then kicked the door open. To his surprise, he did not see anyone inside the room.

He panted heavily and opened the closet. He saw his son hiding inside the closet. The boy was trembling and weeping.

Two days later, when Lin Wenxi came back to the university, he looked absent-minded, and his eyes were glassy. He kept lying on his bed and refused to attend any lecture or class.

At noon, Zhao Yuan bought Lin Wenxi a box of lunch food and some porridge from the canteen after class. When he went back to the dorm with the food, he found out that the ginger tea cup was empty. He thought that Lin Wenxi must have drank up the tea and smiled. After putting the lunch box on Lin Wenxi’s desk, he went to the bathroom to wash his hands. To his surprise, he smelt ginger tea in the sink. The smile on his face disappeared.

“Today’s lecture was about the configuration of a computer system. You know what. The teacher managed to finish the first two chapters during the first class! The guy who invented the first computer is named Alan Turing, and he’s gay. Do you know what that means? He was a guy who liked guys! Well, that’s not important. I should tell you about floating-point arithmetic, binary arithmetic and octal arithmetic…”