For two weeks straight, Yue Zhishi's mode of transportation was the back seat of Song Yu's bike, and his mood was consistently at its peak. He felt like Song Yu taking him to and from school and letting him study on the fifth floor all had a purpose, but he was easygoing and didn't think too deeply about things.

The old man who repaired bikes at the school gate had fixed his bicycle, but he left it parked at the gate, untouched. The excuses and reasons he had prepared in his mind were enough to fill an Excel spreadsheet, just waiting for the day Song Yu would kick him off, but they were never put to use.

Winter and the final exams seemed to be racing each other, as if afraid one would get ahead of the other. Thus, both arrived together without any warning, catching Yue Zhishi completely off guard.

With exams approaching, the school required third-year junior high students to have an extra half-day of makeup classes on the Saturday morning before the monthly break, while third-year senior high students had to have an extra full day. Peiya School, which originally prided itself on not having makeup classes, was no exception.

Yue Zhishi had wanted to stay at school until the afternoon to go home with Song Yu, but due to the flu season, the school was conducting a campus-wide disinfection. All areas except for classrooms currently in session were being sterilized and were off-limits. With no other choice, Yue Zhishi could only head home by himself first.

He stood at the end of the hallway and edited a text message to Song Yu to report the situation.

Barely a second after sending it, he received a reply. It was just a single word: 'Mm'.

It had been a long time since he'd gone home with Jiang Yufan. On a whim, Yue Zhishi invited him to eat at Auntie Rong's restaurant. Jiang Yufan had long heard that his family's restaurant was incredibly hard to get a reservation for and couldn't be more delighted. He wanted to call his parents to let them know, but he didn't have his phone.

Yue Zhishi took out his own. "Use mine, good thing I brought it today."

......

Coming out of the math teacher's office, Song Yu glanced at the third-floor corridor. The junior high students who had finished school were almost all gone. There were only a few scattered students left, and the sound of their chatting seemed particularly loud in the empty space.

Passing by the activity room, he glanced inside. Staff members were disinfecting it.

Qin Yan was running up the stairs, carrying a takeout box. He came face-to-face with him. "Quick, the fried chicken is here. What did Old Zhang want with you?"

"Nothing much, just about the competition."

"That delivery guy just couldn't find the meeting spot. I waited for ages, I'm freezing to death." Although Peiya School wasn't super strict, takeout wasn't allowed on campus, so they could only retrieve it through the fence.

Qin Yan rubbed his hands together and took out the fried chicken box. "While I was waiting there, I saw a couple have a huge fight, the whole thing. They were arguing so fiercely. Good thing I'm single..." He took another sip of his soda. "I also saw a few young punks meeting up. They took off their school uniforms, passed around cigarettes, it was just like a gangster movie."

The windows were closed, and the sound of the wind outside was like the sharp screech of fingernails on a blackboard. Song Yu frowned, putting down the chopsticks he had just picked up. "From the Junior High Division?"

"How did you know?" Qin Yan stuffed a large piece of fried chicken into his mouth, his words muffled. He gestured as he described, "A guy with a crew cut, tall and skinny, followed by a little fatty and a scrawny one with brown-dyed hair. The rest were all outsiders, don't know if they were from another school or just hoods. They didn't look like good news. They weren't even hiding, just smoking right there in the parking area. I'm telling you, the Junior High Division kids these days are so..."

Before he could finish, Song Yu stood up and left.

"Hey, where are you going? Not eating?"

"Something came up."

He dialed Yue Zhishi's number twice, but it was busy both times. When he ran to the bicycle parking area, Song Yu knew with a single glance that Yue Zhishi's bike was gone. A bike that was there every day was conspicuously absent once it disappeared. He got on his own bike and headed home, riding faster than he ever had before.

At the fork in the road, Song Yu stopped at a red light. The busy signal still played from his wireless earbuds. He redialed.

Sorry, the number you have dialed is switched off.

The north wind at the intersection was infuriating. The light for the other direction turned green, and the cyclist next to him rode past. Song Yu looked at that road; it was one he didn't usually take.

Taking the bus home was six stops, which wasn't a short distance. When Yue Zhishi rode his bike by himself, he liked to take a shortcut through an alley between residential buildings slated for demolition, which could save a lot of time. Song Yu knew all of this, even though he didn't often go back with him.

......

This old alley hadn't been this lively in a long time.

A large green trash can at the mouth of the alley had been kicked over. Wang Jie was chewing gum, looking like a little punk. The person next to him flicked a cigarette butt to the ground and crushed it with his shoe. Seeing the smeared ash on the ground, Yue Zhishi was reminded of many manga villains who liked to forcefully leave their mark, their postures ugly.

"So what if there are a lot of you!" Jiang Yufan stood protectively in front of Yue Zhishi. "You're so shady! If you have the guts, fight me one-on-one at school!"

He spat out the gum, and it stuck to the ground in front of Yue Zhishi.

"One-on-one? Are you worthy?" Just as Wang Jie finished speaking, the tall, burly guy behind him pressed down on his shoulder and sized up Yue Zhishi. "So you're the one who caused trouble for my buddy at school, huh? Got a pretty little face, you like being in the spotlight that much?"

Yue Zhishi didn't answer, his expression deceptively calm. In reality, his mind was completely focused on avoiding getting hit in the face this time, and he was determined to beat Wang Jie to a pulp. After their last fight, he'd regretfully watched fighting videos all night, growing more and more dissatisfied with his own performance.

His current daze was a great insult in the eyes of that big brother. "I'm talking to you!" After speaking, he stepped forward and shoved Yue Zhishi hard in the chest.

Jiang Yufan got anxious. "What are you doing! Don't you dare touch him!"

Yue Zhishi took off his backpack, handed it to Jiang Yufan, and gave him a look. Then he turned to the burly guy and said, "It has nothing to do with him. Let him go."

"The little guy's pretty loyal."

"I'm not leaving." Jiang Yufan also wanted to take off his backpack and throw it on the ground, but Yue Zhishi stopped him. "Hold it. Don't get it dirty."

Otherwise, how would he explain it to Song Yu when he got back.

Wang Jie looked at him, seemingly wanting to do it himself, but he was blocked by this guy in black clothes and couldn't make a move. He shouted, "Yue Zhishi, you come over here. I'll settle this with you."

"How are we settling it? I still have to go home for dinner." Yue Zhishi ignored him, glancing over the people in front of him. "Are you all coming at once?"

But his words were drowned out by the screech of brakes and the sound of a bicycle falling to the ground. No one heard this standard, heroic pre-battle declaration. However, Yue Zhishi wasn't discouraged by this, because the person who had arrived was Song Yu.

The moment he turned around, the wind, for once, messed up his hair, but it looked very good. Even the panic on his face was heart-stirring. The bicycle was tossed aside, and the thick school uniform jacket was also taken off and thrown into a corner. Despite being a bit of a neat freak, at this moment he didn't care if it got dirty or how he'd clean it up afterward.

Just like that, Song Yu strode towards him against the light. This was the exact frame Yue Zhishi imagined for a hero's entrance.

His arm was grabbed, and he was pulled behind him, just like when they were little.

"Who the fuck is this now?" The burly guy glanced at Wang Jie, seeming quite displeased with the expansion of the battlefield. Wang Jie was also very irritated, as if this whole thing wasn't going as he had wished.

"I'm his brother." Song Yu took off the watch from his wrist and handed it to Yue Zhishi. "Stand back."

Song Yu's voice was very low, revealing a hint of gentleness. Yue Zhishi stood in the wind, staring at the watch in his hand. It looked almost exactly the same as when he had just bought it, new and clean, showing no signs of having been used for four years. The second hand ticked away, accelerating his heart rate.

The other guy wasn't as tall as him, but with more people, he wasn't intimidated at all. He looked him over provocatively. "What? You're gonna take the beating for him?"

Song Yu raised his eyes. A vein at the end of his eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly.

"I'm going to beat people for him."

The last time Song Yu had stood in front of Yue Zhishi and fought was back in elementary school.

That was when Yue Zhishi had been bullied the worst. At that time, because he greedily took a few bites of the small cookies handed out by the school, his face broke out in large patches of rashes, red and swollen. The male classmates who had been ostracizing him saw it, laughed at how ugly he'd become, and even surrounded him to stuff cookies into his mouth. It had been too long ago; Yue Zhishi had already forgotten how he had cried for help. He only remembered the way Song Yu arrived, that scene of him standing protectively in front of him, like a hero from a manga.

The ending wasn't very cool, though. One of them was injured from the fight, the other was disfigured by an allergic reaction, and they were punished by Lin Rong to sit in a row at the entrance of Yanghe Qizhe Restaurant as mascots.

Compared to Yue Zhishi, who had already been through this, Jiang Yufan seemed incredibly inexperienced.

"N-no way, is your brother this badass...?" He watched as Song Yu single-handedly took down that burly guy. The remaining underlings hesitated to even get close.

Yue Zhishi clutched the watch. "He's learned Taekwondo." After saying that, he added, "Me too."

Jiang Yufan stared wide-eyed at the unfazed Yue Zhishi.

No wonder he took on four of them in the washroom last time.

The so-called "big brother" Wang Jie had found was a paper tiger. Song Yu had seen through this the moment he arrived at the alley's entrance. He was worried the other guy might have a concealed weapon, so he observed him for a bit. The guy's clothes had no pockets, he didn't even have any calluses on his hands, and his physique was less muscular and more obese with a high body fat percentage.

To catch bandits, first catch the king. Only idiots get into a gang fight without a plan. Song Yu didn't want to waste too much time in a drawn-out struggle. He landed a few side kicks on the guy's chest—he couldn't be too ruthless, or he'd end up at the police station—so he could only use clever force to take down this leader.

"Brother Zhang!"

Except for Wang Jie, the others all swarmed him. One of them, a lackey with red-dyed hair, jumped up and wrapped his arms around the back of Song Yu's neck, trying to restrain him so the others could make a move.

Song Yu's brow furrowed in annoyance. He grabbed the guy's arm and executed a shoulder throw, kicking up a cloud of dust.

After a series of violent attacks, no one dared to approach anymore. Brother Zhang, lying on the ground, had just tried to get up when Song Yu kicked him back down. This happened several times, to the point that later, whenever Song Yu just lifted his leg, he would shrink back reflexively.

"Still want more?" Song Yu asked.

"I'm so fucking unlucky, I can't believe I fell for your bullshit." The other guy cursed under his breath, but he backed away.

Song Yu's arms hung at his sides. He rotated his wrists, his face still expressionless. "Don't you ever lay a hand on him again. If I find out, it won't be as simple as today."

Yue Zhishi watched as Brother Zhang stood up, his obese body swaying. Like many unimpressive villains in manga, he said something along the lines of "I'll be back!" before running away with his men, looking utterly defeated.

Wang Jie was clearly the most furious; nothing had gone according to his expectations. He glared resentfully at Song Yu, his fists clenched.

"Don't even think about it." Song Yu didn't even spare him a glance as he picked up his jacket from the ground.

"I'm not interested in fighting with children."