There was an adult shop around the corner.

Compared to whether he should go in and take a look, or why this shop looked so dodgy like a train station barbershop, Jiang Cheng was more surprised that he had never noticed it before.

But he was too embarrassed to discuss this with Gu Fei, if it was a different kind of shop he would have definitely said something like - wow, I can't believe with my sharp eyesight I never noticed there was a baozi shop here before.  

This was an adult shop, so it was awkward to talk about it, it would inevitably lead the conversation into the yellow zone, even though he was quite eager about it and certain desires inside him had grown quite robust...after all he was still a teenager, even if he really wanted to do something with his boyfriend, he couldn't just openly say it.

Besides, his bragging that he would beat the second-best in the exams by a huge 100 points gap was still fresh, he couldn't get distracted.

Listening to teachers preaching, inspiring and pleading all morning, Jiang Cheng temporarily put that dodgy shop aside. Without Gu Fei sitting next to him, he found it hard to daydream and was listening quite attentively to class.

With less than 10 minutes before the end of the last class, Gu Fei's lazy figure flashed by the front door, then slowly walked to the back door and entered the classroom.

It was geography class, the teacher looked at Gu Fei with anger and resignation.  

Gu Fei bowed to the teacher, then sat down.

"Some students," the geography teacher tapped the podium, "only care about instant gratification, never considering their own future, when you regret it one day..."

"Did you not sleep last night?" Jiang Cheng asked softly, Gu Fei looked a bit sleep deprived today, not his usual self.

"Didn't sleep much," Gu Fei yawned again, the teacher was still reprimanding him indirectly at the podium, but he didn't immediately rest his head on the desk. Bowing his head looking properly remorseful, "Er Miao made a racket all night."

"Just a blanket, how bad could it be?" Jiang Cheng frowned.

"Don't know, bad mood I guess," Gu Fei sighed, "it's been a while since she acted up like this, I had to slap her before she settled down."

"Fuck," Jiang Cheng turned to look at him, "You hit her?"

"Just a light pat on her butt," Gu Fei said, the teacher started assigning homework, he put his head down on the desk, "I was gentle, but it's hard to not lose my temper with her sometimes."

"Was she upset after you hit her?" Jiang Cheng felt a bit worried.

"No," Gu Fei said, "After hitting her I talked to her for a long time, told her little kids get hit when they misbehave, all kids are the same, it tired me out."

"Maybe you should ask for leave and rest this afternoon?" Jiang Cheng didn't know what else to say.

"No fucking way, exams are the day after tomorrow, no way Old Xu will approve leave today, not like I'm you," Gu Fei smiled, "I'll sleep in classroom this afternoon."

A new pizza shop opened near the school, interior looked decent, No. 4 High students found a place to show off their uniqueness, everyone sat elegantly inside eating pizza.

"Let's go eat pizza," Gu Fei said.

"That shop at the entrance?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Yeah," Gu Fei nodded, "let's try it, I've never had it before either, if it's good I'll get some for Er Miao to try too."

"Okay then," Jiang Cheng nodded.

He didn't have any expectations about the pizza taste in this shop, but since Gu Fei hadn't tried it before, no harm sampling it, who knows they might get lucky.

But after walking in and glancing at the prices, he felt there likely won't be any miracles, 7 inches only cost 22 yuan, quite affordable.  

The shop was crowded with No. 4 High students, Gu Fei got one to go.

"Where should we eat this?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"By the bridge?" Gu Fei looked at him, "Bask in the sun, chat about our relationship... let's grab a couple cokes too, have a picnic."

Jiang Cheng thought it was silly, couldn't get sillier. Two guys sitting by a bridge, next to a crappy little river, eating 22 yuan pizza and drinking coke.

But even as he thought this, he still nodded along very quickly when Gu Fei suggested it.

It was silly, but really fun too. Hard to describe the feeling... just being together made anything fun, he probably would have happily gone with Gu Fei to clean bathrooms. Well, maybe not that.

There weren't many people on this side of the bridge at noon. They sat down on a long bench under the bridge, leaving a few seats between themselves and another person listening to music loudly while reciting English.  

Jiang Cheng found it a bit strange yet nostalgic to see someone studying English diligently here, in the most run down part of this small, crappy steel town. It made him feel sentimental.

"Really gross," Gu Fei took a bite and said.  

"It's decent if you eat it fresh," Jiang Cheng also took a bite. As expected it wasn't great, Wang Xu's meat pies were way better, "If you want, we can go eat Pizza Hut after exams?"

"We don't have Pizza Hut here," Gu Fei said.

"...Oh," Jiang Cheng was surprised, "Then how about a nicer pizza place?"

"Might as well just go eat Wang Er Xian Bing," Gu Fei said, "Cheap, and his mom gives them to us for free if she's in a good mood."

Jiang Cheng laughed for a while drinking his coke: "So should we just go eat pan-fried buns on our birthdays too?"

"No need for that," Gu Fei thought for a moment, "How do you want to celebrate your birthday? Invite classmates over?"

"Let's not invite others," Jiang Cheng said, "I was thinking, our birthdays are pretty close, why don't we pick a date in between and celebrate together?"

"We can just do it on your actual birthday," Gu Fei said, "Or each of us skips a birthday to celebrate together."

"Oh," Jiang Cheng was delighted, he found Gu Fei's suggestion of skipping a birthday very cute, "What about lunar birthdays then?"

"You check your lunar birthday and see if it lines up with my solar one?" Gu Fei said.  

"Probably won't match well either," Jiang Cheng said, taking out his phone. He turned on the screen then immediately locked it again, putting the phone back in his pocket, "No no, let's do mine. Yours is too late."

"Alright," Gu Fei smiled, "Why are you in such a rush?"

Jiang Cheng froze mid-bite of pizza, looking at Gu Fei's smile... it seemed like a normal smile? But Jiang Cheng perceived the meaningful implication behind it anyway. He cursed indistinctly with his mouth full: "F*ck off."  

Gu Fei just kept smiling without responding.

"I'll hit you if you smile again," Jiang Cheng said.

Gu Fei wiped the smile off his face and turned to look at him seriously, arm leaning against the bench back: "Brother Cheng, let's celebrate on your birthday, that very day. I'm really eager, I want to celebrate with you together."

Jiang Cheng glared at him. After a long pause, he patted Gu Fei's shoulder lightly: "Fine."

The day before midterm exams, a betting pool opened up on the No. 4 High forum. At first someone wanted to bet on who would be first place in their 10th grade class, but that was dismissed for being too predictable. Then someone suggested betting on highest score in the whole school, but that was also shot down for the same reason.

Finally after discussion, they decided to bet on how much the first place score would beat the second place score by.  

"I placed a bet," Gu Fei said as he slowly biked home with Jiang Cheng, playing on his phone, "I bet 118 points, 8 cucumbers."

"You're so f*cking bored," Jiang Cheng said, exasperated. He had seen those posts but didn't click into them.

"What do you think? 118 points too hard?" Gu Fei looked at him.

"Why didn't you just bet on me getting full marks," Jiang Cheng said.  

"That's unrealistic," Gu Fei laughed, "If your handwriting was half as good as mine, I would've bet. With your writing there's no way you'd get full marks."

"Piss off," Jiang Cheng said.

"Really Brother Cheng, work on your handwriting," Gu Fei said, "What if you lose points for sloppy writing on the gaokao?"

"I'm practicing, I write very carefully on all my homework," Jiang Cheng clicked his tongue.  

"Think you can beat 118?" Gu Fei asked.  

"Don't know, 100 is no problem, but you think 18 points is that easy to get?" Jiang Cheng said, "I gotta say, you guys are betting cucumbers when you're not even willing to bet bigger stuff, at least bet a truckload of cucumbers or something."

Gu Fei laughed for a while: "Some of the usernames have posted their real life identities before. Last year when they bet on sports day rankings, someone really brought cucumbers over."

"...Now that's dedication," Jiang Cheng sincerely admired, "Is there still a sports day in 12th grade?"

"Yeah," Gu Fei said, "There's a party after sports day too, 12th graders all participate since it's the last school event for us."

"Oh," Jiang Cheng suddenly felt a bit nervous. After this summer, it would be 12th grade - less than a year until gaokao. Back in his old school, they didn't even get summer breaks in 12th grade. Teachers and parents collectively rejected any breaks for the poor senior students.

But No. 4 High actually had half a summer break, and 12th graders still did sports days and parties?

"You don't participate in sports day either right?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Nope," Gu Fei smiled.  

"How about the party?" Jiang Cheng asked again.

"I'll still go watch that," Gu Fei said.

"Oh," Jiang Cheng smiled too.

Normally a final exam wouldn't stress Jiang Cheng out much. Even with his 100+ points goal, trying to accomplish it wouldn't be a big deal. But for some reason, thinking about HandsomeBeyondTheHeavens's eight cucumbers made him inexplicably nervous.

No one knew who HandsomeBeyondTheHeavens was, but the pressure to "not let HandsomeBeyondTheHeavens lose his cucumbers" appeared out of nowhere.

The exam process was the same as the midterms - students on his left and in front hoping to get answers from him, only Gu Fei on his right calmly leaving questions blank.

But the final exam questions were clearly more difficult than the midterms. For HandsomeBeyondTheHeavens's cucumbers, Jiang Cheng didn't leave early for any subject, staying until the last minute for each one.

When he walked out after the last exam, Gu Fei had just come over wanting to talk to him but got squeezed aside by Old Xu: "How did it go this afternoon?"

"Pretty good," Jiang Cheng said.

"You don't seem very excited," Old Xu looked at him with concern, "Did you not do as well as you wanted in some subjects?"

"No, I'd look the same even with full marks," Jiang Cheng said.

"Good good, great attitude," Old Xu nodded in relief, "Rest well these next few days, summer classes will start soon, time to get into the 12th grade mentality!"

"Mm," Jiang Cheng nodded.  

The semester was over. They had a two day break before grades came out, and all the students went wild wanting to play as much as possible. Jiang Cheng had wanted to think about a birthday gift for Gu Fei, but Wang Xu dragged him out two days in a row without rest.

Aside from Guo Xu's group, Wang Xu had also called some girls to hang out, though everyone knew his goal was just to get Yi Jing out.

Jiang Cheng didn't want to go, but Wang Xu insisted on bringing Gu Fei and Gu Miao too so he went along.

The only annoying thing was, for how hard it was to get this group together to play, Wang Xu's big entertainment activity was...going downtown to shop, eat a little, play some arcade games. Jiang Cheng almost wanted to tell him there was no way this would help him woo Yi Jing.

The most exciting part of their two days wandering around turned out to be running into a group of youths skateboarding in the plaza. Gu Miao got on a skateboard and played with them for a long time, attracting crowds taking photos and videos.

Finally one skateboarder invited her: "Little sister, want to come join us at our skate club and play together?"

Gu Miao looked at him coldly, then kicked the skateboard up into her hand. Holding the board she turned and walked away.

"Hope to see you again little sister! We meet here the first weekend of every month! Come by if you're free!" The youth called after her retreating back.

From afar, Jiang Cheng watched Gu Miao walk back and laughed out loud: "Damn, what an attitude."

"Simply rude," Gu Fei smiled, bending down to wave his hand at Gu Miao as she approached, "Er Miao, say thank you to those big brothers for playing with you for so long."

Gu Miao glanced at him, then turned back around to bow at the youths still waving this way.

"Actually... that skate club, it could be good for Gu Miao to join them and play together if possible, right?" Jiang Cheng thought about it.

"I'd have to be with her the whole time. She doesn't know how to interact with others, and they wouldn't understand her triggers," Gu Fei sighed, "Where would I find the time? I already have photo shoots scheduled, and next week she starts rehab appointments... we'll see after."

Jiang Cheng reached out to gently squeeze his back. He didn't know what to say.

Gu Fei's schedule over break was packed - helping out at home, photo shoots, taking care of Gu Miao's medical appointments... at this point it was no longer a matter of willingness or scheduling. These were things he just had to do.

Sensing the helplessness at times like this made Jiang Cheng feel down. Watching Gu Fei was like seeing an eagle chained up, standing on a tightrope. Just staying balanced was difficult enough, his wings weren't meant for flying anymore, only for keeping upright.

But Gu Fei seemed to have adapted. Aside from the occasional sigh, Jiang Cheng rarely heard him complain. After grades came out, he happily went to buy 8 cucumbers.

"Here, 4 for you," Gu Fei handed him the bag with cucumbers.

Jiang Cheng was also in a good mood. He took second place overall, still below Yi Jing, but he did meet his goal of 100+ points promised to Old Xu.

But taking Gu Fei's...cucumbers, he still felt a bit awkward.

"We're the youth of today," Jiang Cheng watched Gu Fei happily start munching a cucumber right outside the supermarket, "Can we celebrate in a more sophisticated way?"

"For your birthday you won't even..." Gu Fei stopped mid-sentence and started laughing while eating the cucumber.

"I really wanna meet your f*cking grandpa, Gu Fei!" Jiang Cheng glared at him.  

But awkwardness aside, Jiang Cheng took his birthday very seriously, and not just for... two cucumbers.

This was the first time he could fully plan his own birthday celebration, the first time celebrating with Gu Fei.

He sat cross-legged on his bed pondering Gu Fei's gift for three whole hours, before jumping up and calling a taxi straight to the shopping mall.

He didn't want to just buy a premade gift, that was boring. But he didn't have the skills to make something himself either. So he settled on a compromise - buy materials to create something.

Last time when he was here with Wang Xu and the others, he saw many people doing crafts in one store. Yi Jing had even gone in to browse, saying they were bead crafts.

Jiang Cheng decided to make a beaded keychain for Gu Fei.

Right after walking into the bead store, Gu Fei called: "It's been a long boring day, my boyfriend. I just finished my photoshoot, want to come out and mess around, boyfriend?... You're out right now?"

"Mm, I'm... running some errands," Jiang Cheng said.

"What errands?" Gu Fei asked. He didn't wait for Jiang Cheng to answer before laughing again, "Buying me a gift?"

"Don't think too much," Jiang Cheng glanced at the bookstore sign next door, "I'm at the bookstore."

"Buying materials?" Gu Fei asked, "Want me to come over and go with you?"

"No need, by the time you get here I'll have already bought everything," Jiang Cheng said.

"Alright then, I'll take Er Miao out to play," Gu Fei smiled.

After hanging up, Jiang Cheng walked back into the figurine shop.

The shop owner was very enthusiastic and introduced the products to Jiang Cheng for a long time: “This is not difficult. As long as you pay attention to details, you will know what to do after making a few simple ones.”

“Do you have any patterns?” Jiang Cheng asked.

“Yes, what kind of pattern do you want?” the shop owner asked.

“Just...cutie little people,” Jiang Cheng looked at the people working next to him, “I want to make a keychain.”

“Here,” the shop owner clicked on the computer a few times and found a cutie with two little people, a man and a woman, “Do you like this one?”

“Um,” Jiang Cheng cleared his throat, he could barely open his mouth, “Do you have...two little boys?”

“Yes, we do,” the shop owner smiled, “Let me find some for you. You can also give me the ones you like, and I'll help you turn them into pixel art.”

The shop owner enthusiastically searched and found more than a dozen different cutie little boys. When showing them to Jiang Cheng one by one, there were even two indecent ones. He was suddenly embarrassed, “Let's...not use these.”

The shop owner laughed. After showing him several more, although he had expressed not wanting indecent ones, Jiang Cheng still reluctantly picked one with two boys hugging and kissing.

Walking out of the store with a bag of DIY tools and even an iron, Jiang Cheng felt like he was sweating. There was a milk tea shop next door, but he didn't go in. He kept feeling like the DIY shop owner was seeing him off behind him.

After leaving the shopping mall, he bought a cup of milk tea on the streetside and finished it in one breath.

While waiting for the bus at the bus stop, Pan Zhi called: “Cheng’er! I'm coming to celebrate your birthday!”

“Come after my birthday.” Jiang Cheng said.

“...Fuck,” Pan Zhi was stunned for a moment, “Are you going to spend it alone with Gu Fei?”

“Ah.” Jiang Cheng looked at the bag in his hand.

“Grandpa, how could you do this to me?” Pan Zhi was very indignant, “Why can't we celebrate together? Eat, drink and have fun to celebrate your adulthood?”

“No.” Jiang Cheng said.

“Fuck, why did I drop in status so quickly?” Pan Zhi was very annoyed, “It hasn't been that long! Didn't you struggle between lust and friendship? How could you make a choice so easily?”

“Can you be more considerate of your elder?” Jiang Cheng said.

“Well, remember,” Pan Zhi said, “I'm still staying at your place when I get there. Don't make me stay in a hotel.”

“Okay.” Jiang Cheng smiled.

“I prepared a great gift for you, guaranteed you'll like it.” Pan Zhi said.  

“What is it?” Jiang Cheng immediately asked.

“My little heart.” Pan Zhi said.

“...No thanks, you've given your little heart to at least fifty people if not a hundred,” Jiang Cheng tutted, “Worn out and broken into pieces to give one to each person.”

“Damn,” Pan Zhi laughed hard, “Wait for me, I bought tickets, I'll tell you the train times, come pick me up.”

“Okay.” Jiang Cheng smiled.

Gu Fei felt that the top student was quite tied up, these past few days Jiang Cheng had been busy with something, but he didn't know what. When asked to go out he said he didn't have time, and when he went to the rental apartment, he didn't see Jiang Cheng busy with anything.

The birthday gift and plans for the birthday, Jiang Cheng was tight-lipped about, only telling him to wait and see.

Sitting in front of the computer while working on graphics, Gu Fei glanced at the time in the bottom right corner of the screen. In another five minutes, it would be Jiang Cheng's birthday. He picked up his phone, ready to call right at midnight.  

Time passed second by second. Looking at the time on his phone, he realized he was actually a little excited, his fingers unconsciously trembling slightly.

23:59:55

He counted in his head, 56, 57, 5...

The phone screen suddenly switched, Jiang Cheng's avatar popped up, and the sudden loud ringtone scared him so much he almost threw the phone on the ground.

“Happy birthday,” he answered the call without waiting for the other side to speak, “Brother Cheng.”

“Happy birthday,” Jiang Cheng laughed and said, “Were you waiting for the exact time?”

“Yeah,” Gu Fei smiled and sighed, “Never timed you before, you beat me to it.”

“Us top students are very organized, it would ring right on time when you picked up,” Jiang Cheng said, “You're forcibly 18 now, how do you feel?”

“Time waits for no one,” Gu Fei said. Suddenly he heard wind sounds in the receiver and was stunned, “Where are you?”

“Downstairs from your place,” Jiang Cheng said, “Come down, Brother Cheng will take you to celebrate your birthday.”

Author's Note: More tomorrow.  

After working hard to catch up, the birthday boy has finally appeared on scene. The author who feels very thoughtful after drinking some tea said emotionally.

Now that the birthday boy is here, it's time to make mischief o(≧口≦)o. The black fur spirit shouted loudly.