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After going through the snack street and gorging out, Ye Zhou was finally perfectly content and returned back to the dorm with Shang Jin.
Ye Zhou was the first to go into the bathroom to shower. Washing away the savory smell of barbeque, he opened the door feeling refreshed.
Shang Jin was sitting in front of his computer playing games.
Ye Zhou walked next to Shang Jin and shook his head. A lot of water droplets on his hair splashed on Shang Jin’s body and on the computer screen.
Shang Jin wiped the water droplets from the computer with a paper towel and said, “Do you belong to the dog genus?”
Ye Zhou sat in his swivel chair and slid over to Shang Jin. “You seem to be very happy today.”
“Am I?” Shang Jin carelessly replied, “I’m like this everyday.”
Ye Zhou propped his chin and observed Shang Jin’s expression. It seemed like there was nothing different from the ordinary, but he could feel that Shang Jin’s whole body had exuded a relaxed atmosphere all night. Ye Zhou couldn’t say the reason why, so he retreated back a few steps and returned back to his seat.
Shang Jin glanced at his back from his peripheral vision, quirking up the corner of mouth.
Ye Zhou was really sharp enough: he was indeed a bit more spirited than usual today, especially at night when Ye Zhou asked him seriously whether Xie Shuhan had invited him to a banquet to murder guests. At that time, he’d looked at Ye Zhou’s little expression and felt he was a little cute.
Unexpectedly, the word ‘cute’ would actually appear on a boy, and there was no sense of discordance.
The appearance of Xie Shuhan suddenly made him realize that there were many people and many matters in the world that weren’t under his control. He’d thought that Ye Zhou and him would spend the remaining two years together as before, but reality gave him a lesson.
Ye Zhou once said that what he wanted, he’d depend on himself to fight for it. No matter the difficulties, for the results to be successful, he need to try it first before speaking.
Shang Jin turned to the window sill and looked at the two strawberry seedlings placed together. After more than a month of growth, the growing leaves swayed in the evening wind.
The arrival of the midterms made the students at school quite well-behaved, and Xie Shuhan didn’t come to provoke Ye Zhou again.
There was still a steady stream of people visiting the Shang Ye number in front of the dorm. Shang Jin and Ye Zhou didn’t drive this car during this exam period for the sake of everyone’s “convenience”, lest someone came to worship the Shang Ye number but wasn’t able to find it.
After the midterms, Xie Shuhan ran to the 405 dorm again.
Liu Yutian and Wen Renxu were very adaptable to the circumstances and left. Shang Jin pretended not to see or hear anything and had no qualms sitting in front of the computer to browse the web.
Ye Zhou asked guardedly, “What’s going on?”
Xie Shuhan solemnly said, “Senior Ye Zhou, I’m sorry!”
Ye Zhou wasn’t clear why.
“I’m really ashamed of myself now. I clearly said that I liked you. When I was faced with the exam, I was still shaken…” Xie Shuhan carried a bag of lemons. “This time’s tests, I estimate that I’ve flunked them all, and even worse than before… My friend said that if I continue to nag you, it may get worse and worse in the next few years. Later, it’s hard to say whether I can graduate or not…”
Ye Zhou sincerely rejoiced that A Uni students had such feudal superstitions. He comforted, “Don’t be so disheartened. You certainly can graduate.”
Xie Shuhan signed and said, “I came in as an art student. Otherwise, based on my results, how could I get into A Uni?”
Ye Zhou used the tone of a senior to say, “You just entered the university. There’s still time. Afterwards, you should focus on your studies. Don’t talk about how high your grades are, you should at least not fail your classes. Graduating isn’t an effortless matter. Remember that we students’ job is to study, fighting.”
Receiving the encouragement, Xie Shuhan nodded and said, “Yeah! I sure will!”
Ye Zhou reached out and gripped Xie Shuhan’s hand.
Shang Jin’s eyelids jumped and his peripheral vision tightly stared at the two people’s clasped hands.
“Study hard, the test god will bless you!”
At this time, in Xie Shuhan’s eyes, Ye Zhou who’d softly spoken these words seemed as if his entire body was plated in a layer of golden light. Only, not letting him be infatuated for too long, his hand was pulled out.
“I’m the forever first and should be more effective than the second.” Shang Jin also held his hand and said, “Study well. I’m optimistic about you.”
Ye Zhou flew into a rage. He poked Shang Jin’s back and said, “Be less proud of yourself!”
Xie Shuhan was moved and rubbed his hands, said, “Brother Shang Jin, Senior Ye Zhou, you can rest assured that I will definitely live up to your expectations!”
“Fighting.” Shang Jin leaned against the door frame and sent Xie Shuhan out the door.
Ye Zhou crossed his arms and said, “I wanted to ask before: how did you become brothers with him?”
Shang Jin deliberately said, “Who knows…”
“Why exactly?”
Shang Jin laughed once and didn’t answer.
Almost May, the weather turned worse. The dark rain drizzled and the wind wasn’t small. The dorm window couldn’t be opened at all, and not only did the washed clothes smell a bit damp, but even the leaves of the strawberries were listless.
“I haven’t seen the sun for a long time.” Ye Zhou opened the window. In the afternoon, the rain finally stopped, and the cool breeze was very comfortable. “It should be okay to open the window tonight, right?”
Liu Yutain walked next to him and took a deep breath. “I don’t think it’ll rain tonight. It’s also good to open it; the air outside is fresher.”
The next day, the sun that hadn’t been seen for a long time showed its face. Not yet seven o’clock, the sun crept quietly into the bed closest to the window.
Ye Zhou frowned and pulled his eyes opened into a slit. His right hand randomly groped at the bedside, closed his eyes and opened the phone. “Get up…”
Shang Jin turned over. Waiting until Liu Yutian and Wen Renxu got dressed, then he slowly sat up. When he saw the strawberry seedlings on the windowsill, he got out of bed and placed the two pots of strawberry seedlings under the sun.
“Do you see any changes?” Ye Zhou gathered by his side. “You’ve been watching them everyday.”
“It’s amazing to watch them grow up a little bit.” Shang Jin touched the lower leaf. “I always feel that it’s best to grasp everything in my own hands, but occasionally having something go beyond my expectations is also quite good.”
Ye Zhou quietly observed Shang Jin’s expression so earnestly looking at the strawberry leaf with the corner of his mouth unconsciously holding a hint of a smile, and he also smiled, “Having everything in your grasp is more boring. Like this kind of living thing isn’t so easy to control. Even if you know how to cultivate it, you can’t control on which day and on which hour it’d blossom. It’s better to enjoy the surprises that life gives you.”
Shang Jin took back his line of sight and said, “Life doesn’t only have surprises, but also shock.”
“Let them bask in the sun today.” Ye Zhou put the little flowerpots in the protective net and kept repeating in his mouth, “Let them bask their whole body.”
After the two men finished washing their clothes, they went to the classroom on the Shang Ye number. The following semester of the second year was fuller than the previous semester. In the second class, the sky darkened. Originally thinking that the sky would clear after the rain, but they didn’t expect the morning sun was only short-lived.
Ye Zhou inhaled the air, the book pages rustling in the wind. He used his cell phone to press the textbooks and continued to take notes.
In their third class, a torrential rain began to fall from the sky. Many students stood in front of the class building, looked at the rain and hesitated to take action.
“Fortunately, we drove our Shang Ye number today.”  The rain scoured the glass window. Ye Zhou lay on the table and used his pen to jab Shang Jin sitting in front of him. “Such a big storm, you’d get soaked even if you used an umbrella.”
“The morning sun was too deceiving.” After saying this, Shang Jin always felt that he had forgotten something.
Life doesn’t only have surprises, but also shock.
This remark was quickly confirmed.
After school, Shang Jin finally remembered what he had forgotten.
“Ye Zhou, did you put the strawberry seedlings in the window protective net before you went out?”
“Yes, what…” Said halfway through, Ye Zhou also reacted, “The big storm just now wouldn’t have blown them down, right?”
Shang Jin didn’t say anything further, took his textbooks and ran outside.
“Hey, wait for me.”
Downstairs, Shang Jin had long disappeared.
“First place runner is terrific…” Ye Zhou clicked his tongue in annoyance. Driving the car away, how could he…eh? In the parking shed, the Shang Ye number was still peacefully resting in its original place. Shang Jin didn’t drive the car?
“What kind of person!” Ye Zhou frantically grabbed his head and, under the admiring gazes of the students taking shelter from the rain, he rushed in front of the Shang Ye number. Obviously, spending less than a minute in the rain would soak the clothes for the most part.
In the heavy rain, most of the students were hiding under the eaves. Beside from the small number of students with umbrellas running through the wind and rain, the remaining person madly rushing through the rain was easily locked on by Ye Zhou.
Ye Zhou steadily said, “Get on!”
Shang Jin didn’t say much, pulled open the car door and entered. Ye Zhou opened the window separating the two compartments and said with a poor complexion, “If you wanted to go back in such a big rain, why didn’t you ride the car?”
Shang Jin found a tissue in rear compartment and casually wiped the water on his face. “If I rode away, what about you?”
Ye Zhou’s heart suddenly jumped twice and quickly recovered. “We can go together.”
“I can do it alone. With such a heavy rain, returning to the dorm and then going to the canteen wastes more time.”
Ye Zhou was still unhappy, and even a bit reproachful of himself about why he had to buy potted plants to gift to Shang Jin. “Isn’t it just a potted plant? If it falls, then it falls.”
“You can’t deny that they’re alive because plants don’t say anything. Maybe in the eyes of others, they’re insignificant, but when you gave it to me, it was filled with priceless regard. Besides, plants and animals are the same. Since we’ve accepted them, we need to be responsible for them.”
With his back facing Shang Jin, Ye Zhou’s ears were slightly red. Before, Zhou Wendao had said that the strawberry seedlings were worthless, but hearing Shang Jin describe them as priceless treasures, Ye Zhou had a kind of feeling in is own heart that he was cherished by the other side.
At the dormitory entrance, Shang Jin pushed Ye Zhou into the dormitory building and said, “You look upstairs. I’ll walk around to the flowerbed in the back to see if the strawberry seedlings fell.”
Ye Zhou ran upstairs and his own strawberry seedling had fallen on the windowsill. The dirt was scattered on the outside and the seedling was stricken by the wind and rain. The familiar shadow of the flowerpot beside it wasn’t there. Seeing this situation, Ye Zhou had some trepidations in his heart. Fortunately, there was a flower bed behind the dorm and people usually wouldn’t pass by. What Shang Jin really hit the mark.
Ye Zhou took an umbrella and ran downstairs.
In the flower bed behind the dormitory, Shang Jin knelt down on one knee and carefully covered the roots of the seedling in the soil and placed it on the fragments of the flowerpot.
Looking at the complete mess, he once again felt that many things couldn’t be controlled by him.
Ye Zhou quietly stood behind him and, holding the umbrella over his head, said, “Hurry up.”
Shang Jin smiled in relief. Even if everything wasn’t under his control, as long as this person was always by his side, it’d be okay.