Gu Fei looked quite normal and didn't seem too badly injured. But when Jiang Cheng saw the torn hole on the right side of his waist through the ripped t-shirt after he took off his jacket, he still frowned a little.  

"Did you get this from playing basketball?" he asked.

"Yeah," Gu Fei threw his jacket to the side and glanced at him, "Haven't you eaten yet?"

"No appetite." Jiang Cheng replied.  

"I'm a little hungry," Gu Fei took out his phone, "I'll order two rice bowls to be delivered, you just eat a little something?"

Jiang Cheng didn't say anything.  

"Beef with green peppers," Gu Fei looked at his phone, "What do you want? There's also potato beef brisket, tomato scrambled eggs, braised eggplant..."

"Tomato scrambled eggs." Jiang Cheng sighed.

Gu Fei ordered the takeout, then took out a first aid kit from the small cabinet next to him. He glanced at Jiang Cheng, hesitated for a few seconds, then took off his t-shirt.  

"Fuck me," Jiang Cheng was startled when he saw the two huge gashes on his shoulder and waist, "How have you not been beaten to death?"

"Who can beat me to death?" Gu Fei smiled and went into the small room.

"...Do you need help?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Thanks." Gu Fei said.  

"Is that a yes or no?" Jiang Cheng stood up.

"Yes." Gu Fei looked back at him.

With only two wounds, it was actually not too bad. Jiang Cheng went into the small room and took a close look at the injuries. The edges of the wounds were very jagged, clearly made by a very blunt tool, so the gashes were basically torn open. Just imagining it made him feel the pain.  

He opened the first aid kit and took out some alcohol, and after thinking for a while, finally asked: "Was it Monkey? His...brass knuckles."

"Damn," Gu Fei looked at him in surprise, "You can even tell from this? Our top student has this kind of extra ability too...It wasn't Monkey, it was Jiang Bin."

"I guessed," Jiang Cheng held a cotton ball in one hand and a bottle of alcohol in the other, staring at Gu Fei's wound, wondering how to clean such a long gash. He dipped the cotton ball in alcohol and started dabbing it on... It would take a long time to disinfect such a long cut, and he felt awkward in the position after a few tries.

"Should we just go next door to get it treated?"

"No, next door is full of old folks getting IV drips in the afternoon and evening. It's like a gossip story editing department right now. If I go over once, tomorrow this whole area will know I got slashed, and that I died from it too," Gu Fei said, "It's not that serious, just disinfect it simply and tape some gauze on it."

"Oh." Jiang Cheng responded.  

"You just..." Gu Fei didn't finish his sentence when Jiang Cheng suddenly poured the alcohol directly onto his shoulder wound. He was stunned for two seconds before sharply sucking in a breath, "Fuck?"

"Should've gotten a bottle of saline...Did it hurt a lot?" Jiang Cheng looked at him.

"What do you think?" Gu Fei frowned.

"The pain from alcohol will go away quickly," Jiang Cheng blew on the wound twice, "I just wanted to rinse it."

"...Oh," Gu Fei looked at the wound, "Rinsed already?"

"Yeah," Jiang Cheng rummaged in the first aid kit again and took out a bottle of iodine, "Disinfecting it with this should be good enough right."

"Are you going to pour that on too?" Gu Fei asked.

"Yeah," Jiang Cheng nodded, "It'd take forever to use a cotton ball on such a big cut."  

"You're quite smooth." Gu Fei said.  

"If you're looking to die, at least don't get injured. You should have the ability to not get hurt in the first place." After Jiang Cheng said that, he poured the iodine on as well, then used a cotton ball to dab it evenly.

"Actually...it's not that I didn't want to bring you," Gu Fei raised his arm to let him treat the wound on his waist as he leaned against the wall, "Mainly because...this has nothing to do with you."

"Uh-huh," Jiang Cheng knew what Gu Fei meant. He could also guess that Jiang Bin lost the basketball game and wanted to take it out on someone, but his backer Monkey was targeting Gu Fei, "But I was the fuse. If you didn't insist on taking the fall for me, Monkey wouldn't have been able to find you trouble."  

Gu Fei didn't say anything. He had run into Jiang Cheng as soon as he came back today. He didn't even have time to make up an excuse, let alone sort through what had happened earlier.  

But Jiang Cheng made him feel a little amazed. Just this little outburst showed that Jiang Cheng was able to quickly figure everything out based on that tiny bit of information. As expected of a top student, with such strong logic he could go study science.

"You're making me lose face," Jiang Cheng said as he held the alcohol bottle and splashed it onto his waist without warning, "I..."

"Hey!" Gu Fei couldn't help but yell, "Warn me before splashing!"

"I can do that," Jiang Cheng looked at him, "I'm splashing again now, heads up."

"You..." Gu Fei didn't get the words out before Jiang Cheng splashed the wound again. He sucked in a breath, "Are you getting back at me?"

"Done," Jiang Cheng dipped a cotton ball and dabbed it, "I still have two tubes left of that wound adhesive gel from the hospital last time, I'll give you one tomorrow, it'll help heal faster."

"......Okay." Gu Fei grunted in response.  

Although Jiang Cheng hadn't directly touched him at all, the light pressure of the cotton ball on the wound still made half of his body feel a little numb and weak. But after the alcohol splash, he immediately lost any wicked thoughts, his mind was completely pure.

After taping on all the gauze, the food delivery arrived. Jiang Cheng went to bring in the two rice bowls, and Gu Fei set up the small table and sat down.  

Only now did he finally feel the tension of the afternoon slowly easing away.

"This restaurant," Jiang Cheng opened his rice bowl and stared at it for a long time, "will definitely go bankrupt this year."

"Hm?" Gu Fei opened his and it smelled quite fragrant.

"Every time I see tomatoes cut even bigger than a face, and a single egg divided into an eighth to make tomato scrambled eggs," Jiang Cheng said, "I'll say this."

Gu Fei stared at the tomato scrambled eggs in his bowl for a while, then couldn't help laughing. It took him a long time to stop, then he pushed his beef with green peppers over, "Want to switch?"

"No need," Jiang Cheng peeked into his container, "With this kind of green pepper cut just once, and beef cut into eighty pieces, this restaurant will go bankrupt this year."

Gu Fei laughed as he ate. Jiang Cheng didn't say anything else, just ate with a displeased expression.  

After eating silently for a good few minutes, Gu Fei looked up and put down his chopsticks, "Sorry, I didn't mean to deceive you."

Jiang Cheng didn't speak, looking at a piece of tomato speared on his chopsticks. After a while, he put it in his mouth, "Is the matter resolved?"

Gu Fei hesitated for a bit, "I'm meeting Monkey the day after tomorrow, after playing our match."

Jiang Cheng looked up at him.

"That really is just between me and Monkey," Gu Fei said, "Whether you're the fuse or not, it would've exploded anyway. Best to take care of it in one go."

Jiang Cheng didn't make a sound, just continued eating with his head lowered.  

The food really wasn't good, the tomato juice wasn't cooked out, too little egg, and the rice was overcooked to mush. He stopped after eating half.

"If you can't finish just leave it on the table in the backyard," Gu Fei ate quite quickly, his bowl already almost empty, "There are stray cats that will eat it."

"Oh," Jiang Cheng got up and brought the half-finished food out to the backyard, leaving it on the table. He stood there for a bit but didn't see any cats come eat, so went back inside, "Didn't see any cats."

"The one that comes often is very timid, won't come out if anyone's there." Gu Fei threw out the empty container and put away the table, then lit a cigarette and leaned against the front counter.  

Jiang Cheng sat on a chair, listlessly scrolling through his phone.

"I know you're quite unhappy that I didn't call you today," Gu Fei said with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, looking at his shoes, "If it was just Jiang Bin, I would've called you. But with Monkey there...I felt it was better not to."

Jiang Cheng glanced at him.

"Some things, if you can avoid it, avoid it. If you can not get involved, don't get involved," Gu Fei exhaled a mouthful of smoke, "It gets very troublesome."

"Mm." Jiang Cheng grunted.  

"You asked me the other day why I didn't go to a vocational or technical high school," Gu Fei looked at him, "Want to hear about it?"

"Sure." Jiang Cheng nodded.

Gu Fei went to close and lock the shop door, pulling the rolling shutter halfway down. He grabbed a chair and sat facing him.  

"I was quite...you know, when I was little," Gu Fei was silent for a while before speaking, "Fighting all the time in elementary school, my elementary school classmates still walk on tiptoes around me now."

"School bully huh." Jiang Cheng looked at him.

"Anyway I was just...getting beat at home by Dad, going out to beat others," Gu Fei gave a laugh, "I didn't like to talk then, would get physical over any small thing. Got someone injured from a beating and they came to our home demanding money, my dad would give me another beating."

Jiang Cheng sighed lightly.

"First year of middle school, I pushed my deskmate out the second floor classroom window," Gu Fei stretched out his legs and looked at his toes, "Actually my dad had thrown me before too, I wasn't hurt much either..."

Jiang Cheng stared at him in surprise, not saying anything.  

"But that kid was quite seriously injured, his arms, legs, ribs all broken," Gu Fei's voice was very low, "The school notified my mom...my dad had just died then. The school already felt it was inappropriate for me to continue in a normal middle school. After this incident, they sent me to a work-study school."

"What is a work-study school?" Jiang Cheng asked. Seeing Gu Fei's somewhat distracted state, he lowered his head and quickly looked it up on his phone.

Work-study schools are a special type of educational institution set up in China for minor teenagers who have committed slight violations of the law or crimes. They are not considered administrative sanctions or criminal punishment.

"The fuck?" Jiang Cheng was stunned for a moment.  

"Many places have cancelled them now," Gu Fei said softly as he rocked his toes, "The one I went to later changed to a vocational school too. There weren't many students when I was there."

"Oh." Jiang Cheng responded, not knowing what to say.

“Actually back then the principal suggested for my mom take me to a psychologist, he thought I had serious violent tendencies,” Gu Fei stamped out the cigarette butt and lit another. “My mom refused. With Er Miao like that already she couldn't stand hearing I had problems too...so I went to a work-study school.”

“Were all the students there like you?” Jiang Cheng asked.

“I was considered a good kid there,” Gu Fei gave a small laugh. “Mixing with those kids, you learn what's truly beyond saving. You can't even imagine, these teenagers, how rotten they could get. I lasted a year and a half. Don't want anything more to do with them in this life.”

“Give me...a cigarette,” Jiang Cheng said.  

“You're out of them again?” Gu Fei took out the pack. “Just grab from the counter next time you're out.”

“Just happened to be out,” Jiang Cheng lit it up, feeling somewhat chaotic mentally.

Actually from Gu Fei's usual attitude he could imagine his past had been rough, but he didn't expect it to be so severe. Just the incident of Gu Fei "killing" his dad left him processing for half a day. Now he felt his brain rebooting again.

“I seemed to get off topic just now,” Gu Fei said.

“Ah,” Jiang Cheng looked at him, still not fully present.

Thrown from a second floor by his own dad, he found that hard to accept. Pushing a classmate out the second floor window, he was equally shocked.

"Classrooms on the second floor are higher than residential building second floors right." He said.

"Hm?" Gu Fei was confused for a while before reacting to what he was talking about, then suddenly laughed and turned his head away, "Brother Cheng, I've discovered your ability to grasp key points is very strong."

"The fuck are you laughing for," Jiang Cheng had just lit a cigarette and had been holding it in his hand. Just now he finally remembered to take a drag, "Did we get sidetracked? What was the original topic?"

"In the second half of the third year in middle school, the school changed to a vocational school. After we graduated, most of us continued in the attached vocational high school," Gu Fei said, "But I still wanted to go to a regular high school. I really didn't want to stay with them anymore. I really didn't want anything to do with them anymore for the rest of my life."

"So you tested into No. 4 High School?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Yeah," Gu Fei nodded, "No. 4 is a bad school, relatively easy to test into."

Jiang Cheng didn't speak, taking two drags from the cigarette before slowly sighing, suddenly at a loss for words.

"Brother Cheng," Gu Fei got up and took a bottle of beer from the cooler, biting it open and drinking two mouthfuls, "You're different from the people here, you have no idea how much trouble it would bring if you got tangled up with them."

Jiang Cheng looked at him.  

"You get in one fight, lose, and people will think you're easy to bully. Win, and people will think you're fucking arrogant. No matter what you do, you'll keep getting pestered," Gu Fei said, "The further away you stay from these people, the better. Understand what I mean?"

"......Yeah." Jiang Cheng closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly let it out.

“You're not Wang Xu, not Jiang Bin, and definitely not Monkey. You're a good student,” Gu Fei said. “Go to class, do your homework, take your exams, go to the school you want. Don't get dragged into this stuff.”

Jiang Cheng silently stubbed out the cigarette, rubbing his face a few times before leaning back in the chair.

“I'm not letting you go, not to shoulder anything for you,” Gu Fei said. “I'm just afraid you'll get stuck. I wouldn't care about anyone else because no one's told me they 'won't rot here' like you did. You said it so you have to do it. Don't think I'm helping you or you owe me anything.”

Jiang Cheng still didn't speak, just suddenly standing and walking over to Gu Fei, patting his head.

“...I'd punch anyone else who pats my head like this.” Gu Fei looked up at him.

Jiang Cheng patted his head again.

“Fuck,” Gu Fei laughed.  

Jiang Cheng tugging the back of his head, hugging his head to himself.

“What are you doing?” Gu Fei's face was smushed into his stomach, he could only ask muffled.

“Don't talk,” Jiang Cheng said.

“I need to breathe,” Gu Fei said.  

Jiang Cheng ignored him, holding on a few more seconds before letting go. He sat back down looking at Gu Fei and suddenly laughed, grinning at him.

Gu Fei had stood up with the beer, intending to drink it, but stopped with the bottle at his mouth two to three times. Finally he put the bottle on the ground and started laughing too.

"I'm actually," Jiang Cheng said, laughing, "a very serious person."

"Me too," Gu Fei drank a large gulp of beer to hold in his laugh, "Hope you don't get the wrong idea."

"Yeah," Jiang Cheng nodded, persisting in laughing for a while longer before catching his breath. He let out a long sigh, was silent for a very long time, before slowly starting to speak again, "Can you tell me how you plan to resolve things with Monkey?"

"Why ask about this?" Gu Fei asked.

"If you fight it out, he definitely can't beat you," Jiang Cheng said, "You definitely won't be fighting one-on-one. Last time Wang Xu and I got cornered, he still gave you face, so he wouldn't have a whole group beat just you, right?"

"Yeah." Gu Fei smiled.  

"So how are you resolving it?" Jiang Cheng stared into Gu Fei's eyes.

Gu Fei met his gaze, seeming to hesitate. Finally he said softly: "High jumping."

"What the hell is that?" Jiang Cheng looked at him in confusion.  

"It's the recognized way to settle things in the steel factory area," Gu Fei said, "Common rule."

"Jump what? How do you jump it?" Jiang Cheng asked again.

"Has your idol recently changed?" Gu Fei drank some beer.

"What?" Jiang Cheng was confused for a moment.

"Wasn't it Xiao Ming's Grandpa before," Gu Fei said, "It's not him anymore?"

"...Piss off." Jiang Cheng felt around in his pocket and took out a cigarette, putting it in his mouth to light.

Just as he was about to light it, Gu Fei clicked his tongue, "Got your own cigarettes but still smoking mine?"

"Hm?" Jiang Cheng looked at the cigarette in his hand, he really did have his own, probably was distracted just now.  He stared at his cigarette for a while, took the one in his mouth out and put it back in the pack, then stuffed it back into his pocket, and reached out to Gu Fei: "Give me one."

Gu Fei gave him an exasperated look and threw a pack of cigarettes into his hand.  

"How do you do this high jump?" Jiang Cheng took the cigarette but didn't light it, and continued to ask.

"Go straight along the road where you bought your bike. There's a railway bridge," Gu Fei said, "Next to it is an old residential area. The factory moved away, someone bought that area but hasn't developed it yet. The buildings are all dilapidated..."

"Fuck," Jiang Cheng interrupted him before he could finish, "Jump off a building?"

Gu Fei looked at him.

"Jump from this building to that building?" Jiang Cheng glared at him, "Right?"

"Yeah," Gu Fei nodded, "Jump until someone gets hurt or quits."

"Is the air quality really that bad around your steel factory? Lack of oxygen damages your IQ?" Jiang Cheng couldn't even describe how he felt, "Why not say jump until someone dies?"

"Usually no one dies, the distance isn't big." Gu Fei said with a smile.

"Idiot," Jiang Cheng tried to light his cigarette several times with the lighter but it kept getting blown out by the air he breathed out through his nose. Finally he threw both the lighter and cigarette onto the bench next to him, "There are people this stupid in the world, it really opens my eyes!"

Gu Fei took the cigarette and lit it for him, handing it to him.  

Jiang Cheng gave him a look, and reached out to take the cigarette in his mouth.

Neither of them spoke again. The shop was very quiet, there was no sound from the street either. Jiang Cheng could only hear the sound of his own heavy breathing.

He inexplicably wanted to get angry, not at Gu Fei, not at Monkey, he didn't know who at, he didn't even know what he was angry about exactly. He just felt irritated.

He glared at Gu Fei. Gu Fei looked back at him calmly.

Suddenly he felt a little heartache.

Gu Fei had gone from being his tacit teammate, from being the deskmate he shared unspeakable secrets with, to suddenly being pulled apart by all those chaotic, dark things he'd never considered, and always felt were beyond reach. He became a shadow that Jiang Cheng couldn't quite grasp.

His heart ached.

The cigarette was quickly finished smoking in silence, smoked in a very unpleasant way, somewhat uncomfortable, and made his throat dry.

He stubbed it out and reached his hand out to Gu Fei.

Gu Fei looked at his hand, seemingly not knowing what he was trying to do. He hesitated for a while before placing his hand in Jiang Cheng's.

Jiang Cheng grabbed it tightly, then squeezed hard for a while before letting go.

"When? Doing that brain damaged jump off that building?" Jiang Cheng asked.  

"After the final match." Gu Fei rubbed at the hand that had been squeezed white.

"I'm going to watch," Jiang Cheng said. Gu Fei seemed about to say something, but he waved his hand to stop him, "I won't let anyone know I went, I just want to see."

"See what?" Gu Fei asked helplessly.

"See what kind of person you are," Jiang Cheng looked at him, "I just want to see clearly what kind of person you are."

The author has something to say: Continuing tomorrow.

The first update of the year ⊙▽⊙, let's keep having fun together this year ⊙▽⊙. Remembering the oath I made to keep kneeling until this book ends, the author, kneeling on five black furballs, raises her arms and declares.

"......" The silent crowd of black furballs.