For this school sports meet, aside from Class 8, it seemed like almost every class in third year had students participating. It wasn't that Class 8 was working hard on exam prep; they just didn't have anyone suited for any of the events.

With the way the basketball team did last time, they could probably make it into the school's history books already. A bunch of newbies making a comeback.  

Gu Fei was quite looking forward to the school sports meet. Friday, Saturday, Sunday - three days off classes to watch the events. Starting this afternoon, he could skip self-study and weekend classes on the excuse of watching the competitions. The classrooms would be empty miracles if they had ten students total.

All morning there were constant announcements over the school broadcast with updates on the various events, as well as manuscripts submitted by the classes. They all sounded the same to Gu Fei. He felt like the manuscripts he heard in primary school were just like these.

In this refreshingly cool autumn season, our school welcomes yet another sports meet. The field flies colorful flags as people bustle about, the atmosphere heated as everyone rolls up their sleeves, eager to show their abilities and win glory for their class. Over there on the 100m track...

"You're not coming to school this afternoon?" Jiang Cheng asked beside him.

"Mm," Gu Fei tilted his head. "I need to take some photos these couple days, street scenes. The weather's not bad recently. I'll head out this afternoon."

"For a magazine?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Yeah, some new crappy magazine. I know one of the editors who came from our school, used to learn photography from me," Gu Fei said softly. "If they'll use them, it's a pretty big spread this time with good pay."

"That's great," Jiang Cheng looked even happier than him. "What's the theme?"

"The other side of a small industrial city you can't see - closed factories, laid off workers," Gu Fei said. "Feels like it was custom-made for the steel plant."

"You shooting tomorrow too?" Jiang Cheng said. "I want to go watch."

"Watch me or watch me take photos?" Gu Fei asked.

"Mainly watch you, just coincidentally watch you take photos too," Jiang Cheng smiled. "Let's be lowkey."

Gu Fei also smiled and nodded. "Sure."

The award ceremony was Sunday afternoon. These couple days, Wang Xu would definitely grab any bit of time to drag Jiang Cheng off to practice. Wang Xu was especially enthusiastic and stubborn about chances to show off, especially positive chances this time, which would greatly raise his standing in Yi Jing's eyes.

Gu Fei actually wanted to say, you don't have time to watch me take photos. But he didn't say it aloud.

He'd never brought this up with Jiang Cheng before. He always felt that once they started talking about it, it would lead to the topic of "Why don't you want to participate?", which he couldn't explain properly. His boyfriend said, if you don't want to say it, then keep it to yourself. He could only keep it to himself for now.

Jiang Cheng didn't skip the Saturday class, but looking at the empty seat beside him that Gu Fei usually sat in, he felt a bit empty inside.

There were quite a few empty seats in the classroom, all down at the field watching the events or slipped out the school gates to play. But even if all the seats were empty, Jiang Cheng wouldn't have felt anything. His eyes just switched back and forth between the lectern and this seat beside him.

Sometimes when he thought about it, he found it a bit scary. Just not seeing Gu Fei for a day or two, and he already didn't feel right. Next year after his exams, they'd probably separate...

He wasn't afraid of distance, but he truly feared suddenly not being able to see Gu Fei after turning his head.

This was probably the melodrama and panic of first love, especially at the very start of first love.

Che.

First love was amazing. Turned guys into sissies, constantly thinking about their boyfriend.

Speaking of boyfriend, where was he?

Taking photos. Who knew if he'd thought about anything besides composition, lighting, framing, etc in his mind this morning.

His phone buzzed.

Jiang Cheng glanced down. Cute Little Bunny.

- Look at pics?

- Duh, of course

Cute Little Bunny sent over a few photos. Jiang Cheng looked and was stunned.

The photos showed some dilapidated buildings. Scattered sunshine reflected off broken glass. Random objects were strewn across the rooftop patio. It didn't look dirty, just desolate. That grey, faded scene under the sun. Lifeless silence.

This left a deep impression on Jiang Cheng. This was where those steel factory freaks had jumped last time.

And Gu Fei's photography spot was probably the rooftop he'd hid on.

- You went there?

- Mm, look what I found

Cute Little Bunny sent another pic. It showed Gu Fei's outstretched hand, a walnut sitting in his palm.

Jiang Cheng was a bit shocked. That was probably from when he'd shelled walnuts and dropped some on the roof. It had been so long, yet he could still find it.

And...

- Your hands are so pretty

- ...What's your point, top student

Jiang Cheng laughed to himself. He looked at the pics a while longer before sending another message.

- How many did you find?

- Two, I kept them both

- They're probably rotten, why keep them?

- I can treat them so they won't rot. Can take them out and look when I miss you

Jiang Cheng stared at these words for a long time until Old Lu's yelling at Wang Xu jolted him back. He quickly sent another reply.

- Look at me when you miss me, what's looking at walnuts going to do?

- Then take a pic now and send it over, I miss you right now

Jiang Cheng hesitated a moment before turning on the camera. He was a narcissistic top student, but he rarely took selfies, especially not in class. He'd never done something so embarrassing in his life.

But he'd done plenty of embarrassing things with Gu Fei, so what was one more. When the camera flipped to front-facing, he nearly smashed his phone seeing the sudden giant nostrils and trapezoidal face.  

Scared the crap out of him.

Front-facing cameras were the perfect concealed weapon.

After settling himself, he placed the phone on his desk. Though not a frequent selfie-taker, he knew his best angles very clearly. It was just him in the last row right now, no need to worry about anyone seeing.

He adjusted the angle to frame himself nicely, then pressed the shutter.

Click.

Since Old Lu had just yelled at someone, the classroom was quieter than usual. In Jiang Cheng's ears, that click was like thunder.

Boom boom boom!

Crackle pop pop!

Though it probably wasn't too loud for the other students, several still turned to look.

Jiang Cheng quickly slapped the phone facedown on his desk, staring stonily ahead.

Zhou Jing chose that moment to turn around. "Jiang Cheng, yo, Jiang Cheng were you taking a self—"

Jiang Cheng felt he really shouldn't have forgotten about Zhou Jing like that. As the boy in front of him, and an excessively bored boy at that, not turning to ask was out of character for Zhou Jing.

Before he could finish his sentence, Jiang Cheng grabbed his English textbook and smacked it over. "Shut up."

"I!" Zhou Jing froze, shocked.

"Zhou Jing!" Old Lu yelled. "What are you doing! Trying to learn from our school's star? I applaud you! Come, stand up here by Jiang Cheng's side and learn what a model student looks like!"

Zhou Jing hurriedly turned back around and started writing fiercely.

- Appreciate this hard-won pic

Jiang Cheng didn't even dare examine what kind of selfie he'd managed to take. He sent it straight to Gu Fei, then reached into Gu Fei's cubby to fish out a chocolate bar and tossed it onto Zhou Jing's desk.

- Brother Cheng, you can only take decent pics of yourself, can't handle anyone else's face

- Kiss-ass

After a pause, Gu Fei sent another pic over.

Jiang Cheng took one look before quickly saving it to the "Gu Fei Fei" folder on his phone.

It was a backlit silhouette of Gu Fei's profile. Though the expression wasn't clear, Gu Fei's straight nose in the backlighting, slightly parted lips, beautiful jawline, and the small halo of light around his lips...

Compared to his selfie, he couldn't even look at Gu Fei's.

Of course, Gu Fei was using a DSLR.