Catalytic Reaction

Thinking that their books were still in the car, Song Yu suggested swapping cars with Lin Rong. They exchanged keys and left Yanghe Qizhe. Not long after, Yue Zhishi chased after him.

Song Yu had already started the car, but when he saw Yue Zhishi come out, he still rolled down the window and looked at him.

Yue Zhishi was a little out of breath from running. He leaned against the car window, called him brother, and asked, “Are you unhappy?”

Song Yu rested his elbow on the windowsill and raised an eyebrow. “Why do you ask?”

“I don't know either.” Yue Zhishi pursed his lips. “I just feel like you and Shen Mi don't get along, maybe it's just my imagination. But I don't like the way he talks to you.”

Song Yu looked at his worried face and felt a little like laughing. “A friend comes over for a meal, and you just leave him alone to run out here and even speak ill of him. Is that really okay?”

He then said deliberately, “Shen Mi is so attentive to you, he accompanies you in everything. Unlike me, I've just come back, and I still have to go to a group meeting.”

Yue Zhishi felt that he had been speaking awkwardly all morning and was amused. “You're talking so strangely.” He reached over and adjusted Song Yu's watch, straightening the watch face. “Drive a little slower, being a little late should be fine, right? You haven't even started grad school yet, and they're already working you this hard...”

“Want to come with me?” Song Yu suddenly said.

Yue Zhishi froze for a moment, thinking he had misheard. He stared straight at Song Yu, his hand holding Song Yu's wrist loosening.

“Just kidding.” Song Yu had a slight smile on his face. He reached out and squeezed the back of Yue Zhishi's neck. “Go in and finish your meal.”

In the end, he left by himself, as if he had sobered up in an instant.

Then, Yue Zhishi also came to his senses and returned to Yanghe Qizhe alone.

Before entering the door, Yue Zhishi uncomfortably touched the back of his neck. In his memory, Song Yu had never done anything like that to him. On one hand, he was a little unused to it, but on the other, he somewhat enjoyed such intimacy.

He wished Song Yu wouldn't make such jokes and could really take him away, but he also felt that a joking Song Yu was different from his usual self and more intimate.

Contradiction and confusion kept Yue Zhishi immersed in his own world after returning. He barely engaged with Shen Mi and forgot to tell him not to speak to his brother like that.

After the meal, Lin Rong drove the two boys back. On the way, Shen Mi barely said a word, a complete change from when he arrived. Yue Zhishi vaguely felt that the atmosphere was a bit off, but he couldn't figure it out, and he never liked to ponder others' thoughts anyway. Besides, he felt that Shen Mi was always changing. Normally he was fine, but when he met his brother, he became a different person, and now he had changed again.

Yue Zhishi couldn't make sense of any of it, but he didn't want his friend and his brother not to get along.

Shen Mi's home and the Song Family's were in two different phases of the same residential complex, very close to each other. Lin Rong dropped Shen Mi off at his home first and had Yue Zhishi help him carry his books upstairs.

It was quiet in the elevator. Yue Zhishi stared at the changing numbers on the screen when he suddenly heard Shen Mi speak.

“Lele, what do you think of your relationship with your brother?”

“It's great. He's the best person I've ever met,” Yue Zhishi said without thinking. His arms were a little sore, so he rested the books against the elevator wall. “Haven't I told you that many times?”

Shen Mi was silent for two seconds. “You have.”

He had said it many times, but without actually meeting, there was always a bit of wishful thinking.

Yue Zhishi thought about what happened during the meal and felt that Shen Mi might be prejudiced against his brother, so he explained again, “He's really great, in a way you can't imagine.”

Hearing him say that, Shen Mi laughed. Holding his books, he glanced at Yue Zhishi. “Do you know that you sometimes talk like a little kid? The kind with a limited vocabulary, just using the word 'great' over and over again.”

“Because I don't know how else to describe it.” Yue Zhishi followed Shen Mi out of the elevator, his words very honest.

Shen Mi opened the door, took off his heavy backpack, and placed it in the entryway along with the books he was holding. Then he took the stack from Yue Zhishi's hands. “Thanks.”

Yue Zhishi suddenly remembered, “Ah, I think you left your basketball at the restaurant.”

“It's fine, I'm not in the mood to play today anyway.” Shen Mi stretched his arms. “So tired. My back is already aching just from carrying these books for a bit.”

Yue Zhishi nodded. “Alright, since you're going to Yanghe Qizhe anyway, you can just leave the ball there. We can play next time.” Thinking of basketball, he recalled the scene of him and Song Yu secretly playing at school. A smile appeared on his face, and then, as usual, he happily shared this with Shen Mi. “Let me tell you, my brother took me to play basketball last night, and I even made a slam dunk.”

But he quickly and honestly admitted, “Although it was the result of cheating.”

Shen Mi also laughed. “No wonder.”

“No wonder what?” Yue Zhishi asked.

Shen Mi shook his head. He suddenly remembered something, told him to wait a moment, then returned to the living room, took something out of the drawer under the coffee table, and hurried back to the entryway. “These are the tickets for the anime convention.” He handed them to Yue Zhishi. “This time, I'll remind you a day in advance.”

“You already bought the tickets,” Yue Zhishi took them, staring at the tickets with interest. “I'll pay you back later.”

Shen Mi scratched the back of his head. “There's no need, it wasn't much money. Besides, it's thanks to you that I was able to find a part-time job.” After speaking, he pursed his lips. “Um, when I went to your house to find you today, I felt like your brother didn't really welcome me and didn't believe I was your friend, so I was a little unhappy. That's why I lied and told him I didn't know he was your brother. Actually, I guessed it at first sight. He was exactly as you described.”

He just felt a little indignant.

After his frank admission, Shen Mi looked at Yue Zhishi again. “But you, have you really never mentioned me to him?”

“You shouldn't have lied to him.” Yue Zhishi's focus was off-topic, but in response to the latter sentence, he was also very honest. “I have mentioned you, just not that much.”

"Not that much" basically meant "not at all." Shen Mi understood this clearly in his heart, so he nodded. “Anyway, I didn't really hold back today. I ran my mouth and said a lot of things I shouldn't have. Don't be upset, I won't go looking for trouble for no reason. Thinking about it now, it was indeed a bit dumb and impolite of me to just rush to your house. And I also genuinely think your brother is amazing, I really envy him.”

He spoke so quickly that Yue Zhishi thought he had misspoken the last sentence, accidentally saying "envy him" instead of "envy you," but he automatically filtered out this small "slip of the tongue."

“It's okay. I really can't stand it when people speak ill of my brother; I've been like this since I was a child. He has a bit of a keep-your-distance personality, and he's a bit cold when first meeting unfamiliar people, but he's a really good person, you'll know in the future. So please don't target my brother, okay?”

“I can tell. You're a complete and utter bro-con.” The smile on Shen Mi's face faded slightly. “But there are many other people in this world besides him, right?”

Yue Zhishi didn't quite understand the meaning of that sentence. He frowned in confusion, staring into Shen Mi's eyes, but all he got was Shen Mi urging him to go downstairs, with no further explanation.

Back in the car, Lin Rong had somehow gotten a huge bar of chocolate. She struggled to break off a piece and put it in her mouth. Seeing Yue Zhishi, she broke off another piece for him.

“I'll take you home, then I'll go back to Yanghe Qizhe.”

“I can go help too,” Yue Zhishi said.

“No, your brother just messaged me and said you didn't sleep well, telling me to take you home to sleep.” Lin Rong started the car. With chocolate in her mouth, her speech was a bit muffled. “Shen Mi was also strange today. This was his first time meeting Xiao Yu, right?”

“Mhm.”

“Xiao Yu just isn't talkative, you should explain that to Shen Mi.”

“I did, he knows.”

Lin Rong handed the chocolate to Yue Zhishi, turned the steering wheel all the way, and made a turn. “That kid Shen Mi is actually very attentive to you. It feels like he really sees you as a close friend. When he came in to help me serve the dishes, I asked him if he was planning to relax these few days, and all the activities he mentioned were things you like.”

“I know he's very good to me.” Yue Zhishi looked down and searched for the price of the anime convention tickets, then opened WeChat to transfer money to Shen Mi. Feeling relieved, he added, “All my friends are especially good.”

“But... I feel like Shen Mi is a bit too eager sometimes. He can't hide his possessiveness over his good friends, but if it's for your own good, it's not a bad thing. It's just that his purpose is a little too obvious.” She laughed. “As expected of a kid, so impatient.”

She also couldn't understand it. He was usually fine, so why did he change the moment he met Song Yu, as if he were desperate to show how good his relationship with Yue Zhishi was.

Yue Zhishi listened to Lin Rong's words and thought for a moment. “Jiang Yufan doesn't seem to be like that.”

“That kid Xiao Jiang is just as simple-minded as you, just goofy all around. Hey, I haven't seen him around lately. Could he have started dating?”

“How did you know?” Yue Zhishi looked at Lin Rong, as if he thought she was a prophet.

Lin Rong clicked her tongue a few times. “You little boys at this age, you're really easy to see through. Except for you two brothers. You should clearly be overflowing with romantic prospects, yet you stubbornly don't have anyone you like.”

Yue Zhishi broke off a piece of chocolate and fed it to Lin Rong. “I do, I like Auntie Rong.”

Lin Rong, her mouth full of chocolate, said indistinctly, “You little boys at this age are the best at sweet talk!”

“How can you mock my sincere feelings?” Yue Zhishi mimicked Lin Rong's tone, leaving her helpless.

After getting home, he sent Song Yu a message, telling him in detail everything Shen Mi had said that day.

But after waiting for a long while, all he got was a noncommittal reply from Song Yu.

[Brother: I won't interfere with your friendships. As long as you think the other person is sincere, that's all that matters.]

......

Before the college entrance exams, Yue Zhishi had indeed thought about sleeping like the dead to make up for all the lost sleep. But when he actually tried, he found it was very difficult. A person's biological clock is engraved in their body's memory, and he couldn't fall asleep once it was time to wake up. So later, Yue Zhishi, just like Song Yu back then, rode his bike to the Provincial Library to read every day.

He was also aware that his interest in law was actually based on a very superficial level. It was possible he would lose all interest after reading one civil code book. So he spent a lot of time reading. When he came across some inspiring cases, he would get very excited and would stay in the library for the whole day.

For more than ten long years, Yue Zhishi had always been like this, following the path Song Yu had walked, repeating his footsteps, and living his own life.

Shen Mi also didn't ask Yue Zhishi out every day as they had agreed. After meeting Song Yu once, he discovered that the relationship between the two was even closer than he had imagined and very difficult to shake. So he decided to retreat in order to advance, helping Lin Rong at Yanghe Qizhe every day and reading in the restaurant during his free time.

Occasionally, Yue Zhishi would also go to the restaurant. They would eat together and then head home together since it was on the way. He watched all the new anime that Yue Zhishi was following, so they always had something to talk about.

Song Yu's summer vacation started later than expected. On the first day he was back, he was summoned to Yanghe Qizhe by Lin Rong.

During this time, Lin Rong had taken an order for an engagement party. It was for her best friend's child, so she put a lot of thought into designing the menu and decorating the venue. She had fresh wisteria, lily of the valley, and white roses delivered, wishing she could turn the entire Yanghe Qizhe into a fairyland.

When Song Yu arrived, the employees of Yanghe Qizhe were all arranging the seats. He immediately spotted Shen Mi, also in uniform, helping a waitress move chairs, carrying four by himself. Shen Mi also saw him, smiled at him from a few meters away, and called him Brother Song Yu.

Although his impression of him was mediocre, Song Yu still nodded, then walked past them and headed straight into the restaurant. As soon as he entered, he saw Yue Zhishi standing on a long table, holding a long string of wisteria flowers, struggling to hang it from the ceiling. But the hanging wisteria kept falling in his face, blocking his view.

Just as Yue Zhishi was struggling, Song Yu stepped onto the table, lifted the wisteria that was blocking his view, and gathered it in his hand.

His vision instantly cleared. Behind the wisteria, Song Yu's face appeared. Yue Zhishi's eyes lit up immediately. “You're back?”

“Mhm.” Song Yu used his other hand to help him fix the branch onto the hook and smoothed out the vine. “You can hang the last section now.”

Yue Zhishi took a step back, but he had spent so long on this section of the vine that he had forgotten he was standing near the edge of the table. With that step, he lost his balance completely and fell backward uncontrollably. Fortunately, Song Yu was quick-eyed and deft-handed, grabbing him and pulling him directly into his arms.

“I was scared to death.” Yue Zhishi leaned against Song Yu's chest, breaking out in a cold sweat. He looked up and saw Shen Mi coming in with extra chairs, witnessing this scene. His expression seemed a bit strange.

“Be more careful.” Song Yu turned his head and also saw Shen Mi. He let go of the hand he had around Yue Zhishi's waist. “You can get down. I'll hang the rest.”

But Yue Zhishi was unwilling to leave. He hovered around the table, as if afraid Song Yu would make the same basic mistake he did.

Shen Mi walked around them, silently taking out all the flower baskets that were against the wall and arranging them as Lin Rong had instructed. Finally, he called out to Yue Zhishi, asking him to stand inside the restaurant and help see if the arrangement of the words was correct.

After finishing hanging the wisteria, Song Yu leaned against the table, watching the two of them through the floor-to-ceiling glass window. Yue Zhishi was telling Shen Mi whether to move left or right, and the two gestured back and forth. It was unclear what Shen Mi did, but it made Yue Zhishi lean against the glass and laugh out loud.

They were busy until nine at night before the whole venue was more or less set up. Lin Rong had to drive three female employees home, so she asked Song Yu to take the two kids home.

On the way, Yue Zhishi and Shen Mi were talking about the upcoming anime convention, a little excited. “The day after tomorrow, there should be a lot of people cosplaying characters I like. I'm going to bring my DSLR.”

Shen Mi sat next to the car door, able to see Yue Zhishi's profile perfectly. “You can cosplay too. You're better looking than all of them, and your features are so defined. You wouldn't even need a wig to cosplay some characters.”

Yue Zhishi shook his head. “Nah, I'd rather not. I like to watch, not to be watched.”

Red light. Song Yu stopped the car and casually interjected, “People will look at you just by you standing there.”

“Yeah.” Shen Mi agreed naturally. This time, it was as if he had learned his lesson. While chatting with Yue Zhishi, he would also tentatively interact with Song Yu from time to time, for example, asking him how the cafeteria at W University was, or how many people were in a dorm room.

Although he didn't like him very much, for Yue Zhishi's sake, Song Yu answered each question. The atmosphere in the car among the three was still somewhat awkward, but it was better than the first time. Song Yu saw through Shen Mi's intentions clearly, but felt he was just a kid and didn't want to expose him. Although he didn't want someone with ulterior motives around Yue Zhishi, he had no standing to interfere with other people's actions.

Or interfere with Yue Zhishi's will.

An enclosed, narrow environment like a car was very suitable for observation. Shen Mi's gaze was always on Yue Zhishi. Unlike at school, where Yue Zhishi would at most just constantly mention his brother in that adoring tone, observing them face to face, he discovered more.

When Yue Zhishi was happily chatting, he always liked to grab Song Yu's hand. Even if that hand was resting on the steering wheel, he would subconsciously touch it, as if it had become a habit. And Song Yu was very indulgent, not even saying a word about it.

Shen Mi saw all of this. He wanted to ask Yue Zhishi, "Won't you disturb your brother while he's driving like that?" but after calming down, he gave up the idea.

After what happened last time, Shen Mi knew that this approach wouldn't work.

After dropping Shen Mi off downstairs, Yue Zhishi rolled down the window and told him, "See you tomorrow." Shen Mi also smiled, and said "thank you" to Song Yu before leaving.

After going upstairs, Yue Zhishi slipped into Song Yu's room again. He was an old hand at this now. All he needed was an excuse like bringing fruit or milk, and he could get in the door. Then he would linger for a while when Song Yu wasn't paying attention, until Song Yu came to his senses and shooed him out.

He felt that Song Yu's reaction time was often very slow. He could nestle in his room like a piece of Cotton Candy, without being discovered.

Song Yu was leaning against a beanbag chair, with a book in his hand. Yue Zhishi brought in a plate of grapes and naturally flopped down beside him. “Brother, let's play a game.”

“Isn't Shen Mi also very good?” Song Yu turned a page, saying lightly.

Yue Zhishi frowned. “But I want to team up with you.”

“He's probably online waiting for you right now.”

He found Song Yu's attitude very hard to understand. Before, he had never paid so much attention to any of his classmates; he even once called Jiang Yufan by the wrong name, Jiang Yifan. But every time it came to Shen Mi, Song Yu would say things he normally wouldn't and do some inexplicable things.

He put down his phone and stared at Song Yu. “Why do you always bring up Shen Mi?”

Song Yu looked completely nonchalant, full of composure. “It's nothing, I just think he's pretty good.”

“And then?” The screen of Yue Zhishi's phone went dark. He unlocked it again, returning to the game lobby screen.

Song Yu said there was no "and then," but after a moment he spoke again, in a very casual tone, “Can Shen Mi do a slam dunk?”

“He can.” Yue Zhishi changed his in-game character's top. It was blue, Song Yu's favorite color, an outfit he had bought specially. “He's the small forward in our class.”

Song Yu hummed in acknowledgment and turned another page of the book he wasn't actually reading. He emotionlessly listed a bunch of Shen Mi's good qualities, “He can play basketball, he's good at games, he's cheerful and eloquent, and he's tall too.”

“I'm not short either,” hearing this, Yue Zhishi immediately put his leg on top of Song Yu's. “I'm 1.8 meters tall now, look how long my legs are.”

“You're short by one centimeter, I think.” Song Yu glanced at him and deliberately pushed his leg away as if in disgust. “I saw your physical exam report for the college entrance exam.”

“It's been over a month since then. I must have grown one centimeter by now.” Yue Zhishi was a little indignant. “And I'm cheerful too. I might not be as good as him at basketball and games, but I...”

Song Yu turned his face to look at Yue Zhishi. “You what?”

“I'm good-looking.” After Yue Zhishi said it, he himself became embarrassed. He lowered his head and popped a grape into his mouth, but it was so sour that his whole face scrunched up. “These grapes are poisonous, you can't eat them.”

Song Yu pursed his lips to keep from smiling, maintaining the cool, indifferent expression on his face. His eyes met Yue Zhishi's as he looked up. “Then do you think Shen Mi is good-looking?”

The sourness of the grape lingered in his mouth. The unripe taste continuously affected Yue Zhishi's mind. He stared at Song Yu motionlessly, as if trying to read something from his expression.

The room was very quiet. Suddenly, Song Yu's phone started ringing. He didn't know who the caller was. He just glanced down at it, when another slender, fair hand appeared in his field of vision, took Song Yu's phone, and silenced it.

Song Yu looked up, about to speak, but Yue Zhishi beat him to it. And his painstakingly passive-aggressive remarks, upon reaching Yue Zhishi's ears, seemed to have gone completely off-track, heading down a path Song Yu himself had not anticipated.

“I don't think he's as good-looking as me.” Such words might sound overly confident coming from someone else, but Yue Zhishi was just that frank. Yue Zhishi, who rarely got angry, even sounded a bit petulant this time, holding Song Yu's phone with no intention of returning it.

“If you don't agree with my point of view, then I will have to express reasonable doubt about your aesthetic sense.”

The author has something to say:

System Prompt: Player Song Yu has launched a [Passive-Aggressive] attack, unexpectedly triggering the [Sweet and Sour Cheese] Easter egg.

Shen Mi: So I'm really just a tool, huh.

Mama didn't understand. If you look closely, Mama also can't figure out why Shen Mi becomes a different person in front of Brother. She just thinks Shen Mi is good to Lele and has a friend's possessiveness.