“Don’t worry, Principal. The students are all in good health. Yes, yes, yes, everything is fine…”
Yu Chengsong sat up, looked down at himself, his clothes were still tidy, then looked at Yin Gu.
Classmate Gu Gu had already tidied himself up and even helped him straighten his collar.
Just as he took his hand back, the door was pushed open, and a woman with a melon-shaped face in a white coat, walked in like a big wave. When she saw them, she exclaimed, “Yu Chengsong, what are you doing? There’s so much pheromone in the room.”
“Had a fight.” Yu Chengsong leaned against the wall and stretched lazily. “Open the window for a while, and it will disperse.”
“Had a fight?” Doctor Zhou pushed open the window and smiled at them. “You little brats, do you really think we know nothing? The fight ended up on the bed? Believe it or not, I’ll tell your Director Han that you guys are in puppy love.”
“Tell the principal that we didn’t have puppy love.” Yu Chengsong realized it later and felt a little embarrassed. He didn’t do anything when he was biting him just now, but he was embarrassed when he was caught. “The floor is dirty. We are all clean and bad boys. We just like to fight on the bed.”
“Yes, yes, yes, your face is glowing with a rosy color.” Doctor Zhou opened the medicine box and took out medicine. “Fighting can also strengthen your body.”
Glowing with a rosy color?
“Is it very red?” Yu Chengsong looked at Yin Gu and asked in a low voice.
“Not red, just very handsome.” Yin Gu also said in a low voice.
“You too.” Yu Chengsong nodded seriously.
“Thank you for the compliment.” Yin Gu also replied seriously.
Yu Chengsong was caught by Zhou Zheyu as soon as he entered the class.
“Where have you been? It’s been another morning, and you’ve been missing for longer and longer.” Zhou Zheyu glanced at Yin Gu and said in a low voice, “F*ck, haven’t you noticed that you’ve been particularly ignoring me since you got him?!”
“Really?” Yu Chengsong pushed him aside and sat down, saying with a smile, “This is a long story.”
“Then please keep your story short.” Zhou Zheyu glared at him.
“It’s quite complicated. I’ll tell you in detail after your second aunt leaves tomorrow.” Yu Chengsong patted his shoulder.
He hasn’t reached the level where he could openly talk about these unspeakable things in class yet.
“…Okay, you still have a conscience.” Zhou Zheyu said. “Come to my house for dinner tomorrow? Bring Chengdi with you.”
“Then there’s no need to go into details.” Yu Chengsong said.
“That’s right, Chengdi can’t learn from us, he’s already learned to be bad.” Zhou Zheyu said with a look that I understood, “Then let’s go with just us two.”
The bell for lunch break rang.
Yu Chengsong glanced at the class schedule, turned around, and asked, “Are you attending class this afternoon?”
“I can listen or not. I have already done the homework.” Said Yin Gu. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sleepy and want to sleep.” Yu Chengsong pressed his neck.
“Then… go to my house?” Yin Gu looked at him.
“Let’s go.” Yu Chengsong was waiting for him to say this.
When Yu Chengsong reached the bukeport and was about to push the bije, he paused and withdrew his foot.
Yin Gu look at him.
“You ride, I’m so sleepy that I’m about to dream.” Yu Chengsong took a step back. “I might end up falling into a ditch with you halfway if I ride.”
“Then don’t fall asleep halfway through the ride.” Yin Gu laughed and got on the bike. “Do you want me to hold you? I’m afraid you’ll fall to the ground and get lost.”
“Don’t worry,” Yu Chengsong sat in the back seat, holding his phone in one hand, and swirled his other hand in the air before finally resting it on his thigh. “I will definitely not fall alone.”
When he arrived at Yin Gu’s house, Yu Chengsong washed his face first, then curled up on the sofa and didn’t want to move.
The sofa in the rental house is quite soft, but it is too hot to lie on in the summer. He should put a cool mat on it.
Yin Gu cut a plate of ugly watermelon and put it on the coffee table, then took out two large bags of snacks from the bedroom and put them next to the watermelon. Yu Chengsong was about to say, “Sit down”, but he turned around and walked to the refrigerator to get a bottle of iced water, which he put in a large glass, so it was impossible to tell what was in it.
“Try it,” Yin Gu poured him a cup. “It should be quite sweet.”
“You haven’t had it yet, and you asked me to taste it. Am I an eunuch who tests poison?” Yu Chengsong took a sip, his eyes lit up. “It’s honey water, quite sweet.”
“Gonggong1Gonggong is how they address an eunuch. is too kind.” Yin Gu pushed his legs inwards, “Gonggong Yu, give me some room.”
“You are so arrogant.” Yu Chengsong bent one leg to make some room for him and picked up some snacks. “I am not sleepy anymore after you put all these things in front of me.”
“Did you stay up late again yesterday?” Yin Gu opened a bag of fish tofu. “You’ve been sleeping all morning already.”
Yu Chengsong wanted to say, how’s that all morning? He hasn’t slept for at least half of the time.
“I didn’t fall asleep until three in the middle of the night.” He stretched out his hand to reach the bag of biscuits that Yin Gu had placed on his side, but couldn’t reach it, so Yin Gu handed it to him. “My mother missed Yuanyuan in the middle of the night and stood in the living room to call back the soul. She shouted for half the night.”
“Yuanyuan?” Yin Gu looked at him, puzzled. “Isn’t your brother at home?”
“Not that Yuanyuan.” Yu Chengsong frowned, and after a while he said, “It’s a long story… Have you ever had your fortune told?”
Yin Gu was stunned for a moment, then reacted and recited it fluently: “I have, they calculated that I will live to be a hundred years old. Please help me waste some time. Living to be a hundred years old is too scary.”
“You are really awesome.” Yu Chengsong gave him a thumbs up and couldn’t help laughing. “Why do you remember this thing? Do you keep it to make up the word count when you write in your diary? ‘My deskmate said something very meaningful today, which is—’.”
“Extra points for quoting famous sayings.” Yin Gu said seriously.
“As expected of the top student in the grade.” Yu Chengsong applauded him, and after thinking about the right words for a while, he began to speak: “This is a long story, and I don’t have much experience in telling others about it, so you can just listen to it.”
“En.” Yin Gu looked at him.
“I have a twin brother. I told you that he died when he was six years old. He drowned.” Yu Chengsong paused for a moment and said, “His name is Yu Chengyuan.”
“Then why is your brother also called…” Yin Gu was stunned.
“Let me start from the beginning.” Yu Chengsong licked his teeth and wanted to smoke. “It’s similar to you. Yu Chengyuan and I are also fraternal twins. We don’t look alike at all. I was born with some natural curls, and his hair is straight and yellow, like malnutrition. My mom said that I started bullying him since I was in the womb. And we have different personalities. He is obedient, and I am naughty.”
“Maybe it’s because he has a likable personality. My mom has favored him since we were young. If we made a mistake together, she would beat me. If he made a mistake, she would beat me too. But I didn’t think it was unbalanced at the time. I was so young. I could be happy all day by playing in the mud. I didn’t think it was a problem at all.” Yu Chengsong bit into a biscuit. “Until that year, when I was six years old.”
“He… that year when the accident happened.” Yin Gu said.
“Yeah.” Yu Chengsong nodded. “My grandparents live in the countryside, and every summer my parents take Yu Chengyuan and me to visit them. That day, when relatives came to our house, my mother asked us to go out and play so as not to cause trouble. Yu Chengyuan suggested going to the river to play in the water, but I didn’t want to go. I was wearing new clothes that day, and if I got them dirty, my mother would not beat him but me, but he kept begging me, so I agreed.”
“Ai.” Yu Chengsong sneered. “This is called self-destruction.”
Yin Gu pressed the back of his hand, and Yu Chengsong grabbed his hand with his backhand. He felt that the pressure in his heart had eased a lot, and then he continued: “In order to irrigate the land, the countryside would dig deep ponds, some of which were by the river. When we first started playing by the water, I saw fish in a small puddle, so I caught fish in the puddle myself.”
“At that time, I was very good at making myself happy. I could play in the puddle all day without anyone accompanying me, so I didn’t follow him.”
“When I was halfway through catching fish, Yu Chengyuan called me and asked me to go to the big puddle and throw stones with him. I didn’t go because I don’t like stones. I like fish. He threw stones by himself…” Yu Chengsong opened his mouth and exhaled, “I had just caught the first fish when I suddenly heard a loud splash, like something big hitting the water, and it wasn’t a stone… I was stunned at the time. I looked up and called his name, but no one responded.”
Yin Gu clenched his palms.
“The puddle I was in and the pond were far away. When I ran over there, there were nothing but ripples in the water. I was so scared that I ran back to the village, crying and calling for help. I fell many times on the way, but it was still too late. When he was rescued, he was already dead.”
Yu Chengsong took a deep breath, memories flooding in like a tide, making it hard to breathe. “I saw them pull him out of the water with my own eyes. It’s been so long, but I always remember that his mouth was open, his lips were very purple, as if he were poisoned, and his eyes were staring at me, as if asking me, ‘Why didn’t I play with him’…”
“This matter was not your fault from the beginning to the end.” Yin Gu pressed his palm, frowned slightly, and stared at him with a darker expression. “Don’t take the responsibility on yourself.”
“But my mother thinks it’s all my fault.” Yu Chengsong shook his head and suddenly felt like laughing. “She thinks I deliberately took Yu Chengyuan to the pond when the adults were not around, deliberately pushed him in, and deliberately didn’t call for help earlier…”
“Why doesn’t she think that it was her fault that she didn’t take good care of her child?” The obvious unhappiness on Yin Gu’s face made Yu Chengsong laugh.
This is why he always told Yin Gu to “speak directly if he feels sad, and don’t bear it alone.”
If you talk to someone about something that’s driving you crazy and feel their support and understanding, you’ll feel a lot more relaxed.
Although before Yin Gu, only Zhou Zheyu knew the details.
Compared with the right time and place, talking requires more harmony among people.
“Because she can’t stand this stimulation.” Yu Chengsong pinched Yin Gu’s wrist. The clear pulse made his heart inexplicably soft, and these bad memories were not so annoying. “Compared to admitting that she killed her son, putting all the blame on a six-year-old child makes her feel more relaxed.”
“After Yu Chengyuan died, she would say to everyone she met every day that I killed him. She raised a murderer and said that I had been abnormal since I was young. She was strict with me for my own good, but I was jealous of Yu Chengyuan and killed him… After finishing speaking outside, she hit and scolded me when she came home, and then continued to go out with me covered in wounds. The wounds were evidence of her words—even his own mother was this angry. This child is really… a devil who killed his own brother.”
“After a set of procedures, if she still felt unsatisfied, she would tie me to a chair and repeat in my ear, ‘It’s all your fault. No one around you has a good ending. You are a devil. Sooner or later, you will kill everyone. Whoever gets close to you will be unlucky and die!’ She kept saying this every day… until she decided to have another child.”
“Yu Chengdi?” Yin Gu’s voice was cold, and Yu Chengsong couldn’t help but glance at him. Due to the angle, he could only see a part of his chin that was very tight.
“Yes, but little idiot was born into a bad family.” Yu Chengsong said. “She smoked and drank when she was pregnant, so Yu Chengdi was born with a disabled leg. Besides, he looks too much like me.”
“After my mom gave birth, she took one look at the baby and didn’t want him anymore. My dad didn’t want a second child in the first place, but he was a coward and afraid of his wife, so he didn’t dare throw the baby away and just registered Yu Chengdi. The name was randomly chosen when registering the baby, and the second child was named Yu Chengdi. There’s one more unlucky child.”
“That’s why she has Yu Chengyuan now?” Yin Gu asked.
“She didn’t get pregnant right away. After giving birth to Yu Chengdi, my mom’s health deteriorated. She took care of the baby for four years before having another child.” Yu Chengsong laughed a little sarcastically. “In fact, this one doesn’t look much like the real Yu Chengyuan, but the most important thing is that he doesn’t look like me.”
“Has your mother raised him as Yu Chengyuan until now?” Yin Gu found it a little hard to imagine how a child who knew nothing and thought he had all the mother’s love would react when he knew the truth.
“Yeah, she keeps shouting ‘Yuanyuan, Yuanyuan’ every day, wanting the stars but not the moon2This is a Chinese idiom referring to one obeying whatever the other asks.,” Yu Chengsong said with a sigh. “I’ve gotten too used to it.”
“He is ruined.” Yin Gu said declaratively.
“Too late to save.” Yu Chengsong buttoned up the sofa cover. “In fact, I don’t have any feelings for them anymore. I’ve hated them and resented them. I don’t care now. But I feel disgusted when I see my mother pinching her throat to talk to Yu Chengyuan. Maybe because of this, I’m not interested in those nice words. I just do what I have to do. Speaking to them reminds me of her.”
“Isn’t there a saying that the most terrifying thing is to find out that I have become her?”
“Your sharp tongue but soft heart will sooner or later eat you up.” Yin Gu looked at him.
“Eat if they want.” Yu Chengsong laughed. “I don’t care.”
“Take your time to adjust.” Yin Gu whispered, “There will always be a day when you will leave.”
Yu Chengsong looked at the water cup on the table, and after a while, he let out an ‘en’.
The author has something to say: The author squatted in the corner and whispered, Song Song’s life story…
