Be Passionately In Love

Seasons always move on to the next, and youth must eventually come to an end. The encounter that began in summer finally concluded in the scorching heat of another summer.

Zhu Yangqi went to Beijing a month early to scout the place. He found a job at an art studio, where he spent his days boasting to the young girls—mostly about his incredibly impressive friend, though naturally, no one believed him. Occasionally, he even posed as a free life model, but the girls complained about his poor physique and constantly demanded a replacement. The teacher, however, was quite satisfied, saying, "This way, you can focus on your drawing." Unwilling to accept this, Zhu Yangqi started working out at a nearby gym after class. Two weeks later, he was successfully fired.

Jiang Cheng ultimately decided not to retake the college entrance exams. When the results came out, he was surprised to find he had done decently and ended up in Sichuan, studying advertising design. Rumor had it he and Hang Sui were in the same university district. Feng Jin went to Jilin to study animation photography, saying that of all the places he'd been, only Jilin gave him the desire to stay. Da Zhuang and Da Jun went to the China Academy of Art and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, respectively.

Cai Yingying chose to retake the exams. She had no intention of applying to Zhai Xiao's school, nor did she want to become "better" just to make him regret his choices—because she felt he wasn’t worth it. Old Cai was about to be transferred to another province. The day Cai Yingying went to his office, she realized how hard her father had it. All his colleagues' children who hadn’t gotten into top-tier universities had at least made it into 211 or 985 schools. But as the dean’s child, she had barely scraped past the undergraduate cutoff. When people asked where his daughter was going, perhaps without malice but with a hint of comparison, Old Cai could only mumble, "Still deciding." The response would often be, "Well, it’s fine for a girl. Marrying well is what matters most." Old Cai’s face would darken instantly. "What do you mean it’s fine for a girl? And besides, it’s my fault for being too busy with work to guide her properly. She’s no less capable than any other kid. Whether she marries well or not is secondary—I just want her to be happy. Even if she only gets into a vocational college, I’ll support her for life."

One way or another, everyone seemed to be moving forward—some in groups, others alone. The future of youth is a road with no end in sight, yet brimming with endless possibilities.

As it turned out, they did meet again later.

That time, it was because the rental lease had expired. Lian Hui had bought him an apartment in Jiang’an District and asked Chen Luzhou to move in. Not wanting to return to the villa, Chen Luzhou decided to stop by the old place to pick up some packages and pack his things. Just as he unlocked the door with his fingerprint—the soft ding perhaps mingling with the faint chirp of cicadas outside—he heard a quiet click from upstairs, followed by unhurried footsteps descending. For some reason, an intuition told him it was Xu Zhi.

He knew Tan Xu had decided to retake the exams and had renewed the lease on the upstairs apartment for another year. When he went to terminate his own lease, the landlord mentioned his was the only unit on the third floor that hadn’t been vacated yet.

The molten gold of the setting sun cast a lonely glow in the stairwell. Before the figure appeared around the second-floor landing, its shadow had already fallen onto the steps below. Chen Luzhou knew it was Xu Zhi. She was equally startled to see him. The sunset burned as fiercely as it had on the day they first met, carrying the last remnants of summer’s warmth. The sky seemed ablaze with fiery clouds, painting the entire scene in vivid, passionate hues.The atmosphere between them was as cold as ice. Xu Zhi noticed the odd look in his eyes and descended two steps to explain, "I came to leave my senior year books for him."

Chen Luzhou gave a faint "mm" in acknowledgment. "I came back to pack my things."

It had been a while since they'd last met. Xu Zhi noticed he'd grown even thinner, his hair cropped shorter with almost no stray strands on his forehead, accentuating his handsome features and full brow. It was strange—though Chen Luzhou was lean, especially in clothes, he still had defined, wiry muscles. He really did have abs. That night in the bedroom when they'd been kissing passionately, Xu Zhi had wheedled and coaxed until, worn down by desire, Chen Luzhou leaned against the headboard in a daze. Yet he remained stingy, only lifting the hem of his shirt briefly to give her a quick glimpse of his abs.

Xu Zhi had huffed, "You lift your shirt longer when wiping sweat during basketball games. Others can see, but I can't?" Chen Luzhou had just laughed unabashedly and replied, "That's why I wear two shirts when playing—a T-shirt under my jersey. Can't let people see. There are always so many spectators at our school games—gotta be careful. It's not that big a deal to show them, but some people take photos. If I get married someday, I don't want my wife finding a bunch of these pics in other people's phones and getting jealous." Xu Zhi had clicked her tongue. "Truly worthy of being Campus Idol Chen." No one cherished their body more than he did.

...

As the sun dipped westward, the stairwell was bathed in golden light. Xu Zhi descended the steps and calmly walked past him. "Alright, I'll head out first."

"Xu Zhi," he called out.

"Hmm?" She turned back.

Chen Luzhou didn't look at her. His tall frame blocked the stairwell—lean yet broader-shouldered than most boys, with the classic V-shaped torso.

His hand still rested on the doorknob. A lot had happened in his family recently, but he didn’t know how to tell her. He didn’t want to give her false hope if things didn’t work out. Better to wait until it was certain. His grip tightened until his knuckles turned white. Swallowing hard, his throat dry and itchy, he fought back the cough rising in his chest. In the end, he only said quietly, "Your shoelace is untied."

With that, he opened the door and went inside. Seconds later, violent coughing echoed from within.

After that, it seemed like a curse had been cast on Chen Luzhou's family. Lian Hui, likely still shaken, returned from abroad unable to sleep and vomited upon waking. Chen Xingqi started running a fever the very night he came back, spiking repeatedly, especially at midnight. Chen Luzhou spent those days shuttling back and forth to the hospital, losing count of how many times he'd registered for appointments. Chen Jishen, superstitious by nature, sought out fortune-tellers and feng shui masters the moment his wife and son fell ill, convinced their ailments stemmed from some imbalance in their surroundings.At that time, Lian Hui had already agreed to let Chen Luzhou stay in the country. The shooting incident abroad had frightened her badly—every time she closed her eyes after returning home, she would see that bloodied, gory head. Yet, Chen Luzhou never once used this incident to bring up the idea of not going abroad with Lian Hui. If it had been the old Chen Luzhou, he would have seized this opportunity, using his silver tongue to wheedle and cajole until he got his way. But now, Chen Luzhou was so obedient that it unsettled Lian Hui. She vaguely sensed that if she didn’t do something soon, she might lose this son for good. Before, Chen Luzhou would joke around with her and trade sharp words with Chen Xingqi, but at least he felt close to them. Now, though he was well-behaved and no longer spoke recklessly, there was an unmistakable distance and indifference in his demeanor.

Even Chen Xingqi remarked, “Mom, I feel like Brother isn’t close to me anymore.” It was then that Lian Hui suddenly realized what Chen Luzhou was planning—or rather, what he could do. He was just an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old boy. Even if he wanted to do something, he lacked the means, let alone in a family like theirs, where countless eyes would be watching his every move, and countless hands would be ready to stab him in the back. Chen Jishen’s opportunistic relatives and friends would never let him off easily.

Chen Luzhou’s obedience was his way of severing the adoptive relationship for good—just as he had said before: I’ll take care of you in your old age and repay you for raising me these past years.

So, Lian Hui tried to persuade Chen Jishen to let Chen Luzhou stay, but Chen Jishen refused. He insisted on sending Chen Luzhou abroad. That was just how Chen Jishen was—paranoid, sensitive, and stubborn. Once he set his mind on something, it had to be done, or it would fester in his heart. Only by going abroad would Chen Luzhou truly prove his obedience in Chen Jishen’s eyes. If anything went wrong in the company or at home in the future, Chen Jishen would immediately suspect Chen Luzhou. This was also why Lian Hui had initially insisted on sending him abroad—she knew Chen Jishen too well. He might play the role of a good man on the surface, but inside, he was full of suspicion and scheming. The role of the villain always fell to her.

That night, they had a fierce argument, their faces flushed with rage. By the end, Chen Jishen was exhausted and finally snapped, “If you bring up letting him stay again, we’re getting a divorce.”

Chen Luzhou had rushed home after receiving a call from Chen Xingqi, who said their parents were fighting terribly. Just as he reached the door, he heard Lian Hui say calmly, “If you want a divorce, then let’s divorce.”

Chen Jishen suddenly grabbed the teapot from the table and hurled it violently at the wall. Scalding tea splashed past Lian Hui’s face as the porcelain shattered with a deafening crash —the sound so piercing it chilled one to the bone. Chen Luzhou was about to rush in to intervene when, after a brief silence, Lian Hui—sitting amid the shattered shards, her feet cut and bleeding slightly but her expression unflinching—met Chen Jishen’s gaze with eyes as still as stagnant water and said:

“I abandoned him once. I won’t abandon him a second time.”Author's Note: I could have made this story excruciatingly angsty if I wanted to, but I chose not to go in that direction because these two boys are just too precious. After all, it's a campus novel—I really wanted to keep things pure and simple. So there won't be any messy drama in the later chapters either. What follows will probably just be sweet, ordinary romance as they date and fall in love.