Side Story, Fang Jun Chapter

“Hey! Fang Jun!”

A little girl’s voice rang out from downstairs.

Fang Jun had been doing his homework on the balcony. Hearing her call, he grabbed the wire mesh railing and looked down.

“Huh?!”

A girl holding two badminton rackets stood below, staring up at him.

“Come down and play badminton with me!”

Fang Jun shouted back, “I can’t! I’m doing my homework! Go play by yourself!”

“No! There’s no one to play with me. I’m coming up to your place to get you!”

Before Fang Jun could refuse, the little girl turned and left.

A short while later, the doorbell at Fang Jun’s home rang.

Fang Mingcong, who had been reading the newspaper in the living room, got up to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Uncle Fang, I want Fang Jun to come downstairs and play badminton with me.”

Fang Mingcong immediately recognized her as the little girl surnamed Luo from the neighboring building. She went to the same school as his son.

“Oh, he’s doing his homework.”

Why was Fang Jun obediently doing his homework on the balcony? Wasn’t it because Fang Mingcong was at home keeping an eye on him?

“Uncle Fang, can you let Fang Jun come downstairs and play badminton with me? I’ll supervise him and make sure he finishes his homework.”

Fang Mingcong couldn’t help laughing when he heard that. This little girl thought she could supervise his son’s homework?

The thing he found most annoying about Fang Jun was that the boy hated doing homework.

His grades were pretty good, but he simply didn’t like doing homework. His teacher had called Fang Mingcong several times because of it.

That was why he often kept an eye on Fang Jun and made him do his homework on the balcony.

Unfortunately, the boy had always been a slow writer.

So Fang Mingcong said, “How about this, Little Luo? If you can get him to finish his homework, then whenever you want him to play with you in the future, he’ll have to come right away.”

“Okay, Uncle! I can definitely do it!”

The little girl’s voice on the intercom was full of confidence.

“All right. I’ll have him bring his homework downstairs now. Make sure you keep an eye on him.”

After hanging up the intercom, Fang Mingcong walked toward the balcony. The sound of his footsteps instantly snapped Fang Jun, who had been daydreaming, into battle mode.

It wasn’t as if showing his head would get him killed.

“Little Luo came to find you. Go on.”

Fang Jun’s eyes lit up at once.

“Really?”

Fang Mingcong knew immediately that his son’s eyes were shining not because of the little girl, but because he could go out and play instead of doing homework.

“Really. But you have to bring your homework. I’ve already made an arrangement with her. You can play for a while, and then she’ll make you do your homework. If you don’t finish it, she won’t be allowed to come play with you anymore.”

Fang Mingcong let out a cold laugh.

“Be back before dinner. If your homework isn’t finished when you return, then from now on, you’ll only be allowed to do homework after school. Don’t even think about watching cartoons on Jade Channel.”

That would be worse than killing him!

The cartoons on Jade Channel were extremely important.

So Fang Jun immediately began gathering his homework and prepared to go downstairs.

Seeing that his son had clearly been motivated by the threat, Fang Mingcong smiled without saying anything and returned to the living room to continue reading the newspaper.

Fang Jun quickly packed his schoolbag and got ready to go downstairs.

But before leaving, he thought about it for a moment, then ran to the refrigerator. He pulled open the freezer compartment and took out two red-bean popsicles.

“Oi! Oi! Oi! Why are you taking so many?” Fang Mingcong put down his newspaper.

“Two is fine, okay? She’s waiting for me downstairs. I obviously have to bring one for her.”

“Then why not just bring one?”

Fang Mingcong gave his own son a stern reprimand.

“If I bring just one, what if she feels embarrassed about eating it? Then she might give it to me in the end, and I’d feel embarrassed to eat it too.”

For someone so young, Fang Jun’s logic was remarkably clear.

Even Fang Mingcong thought it made perfect sense.

So he waved his hand. “All right, go on. Remember to come back before dinner, or your mother will kill you.”

“Hey, can you ask Mom to buy barbecue pork on her way home?”

“You look like a piece of barbecue pork yourself. Get lost!”

“Sure thing.”

Little Fang Jun slung his schoolbag over his shoulder and headed downstairs.

There was a bench by the entrance. The little girl was sitting on it, swinging her legs.

Hearing someone come downstairs, she turned her head.

“You took forever!” She jumped down from the bench.

“I couldn’t help it. My dad had nothing better to do today, so he stayed home and watched me do my homework. If you hadn’t come to get me, I probably would’ve had to keep writing forever.”

As he spoke, Fang Jun handed her one of the popsicles.

“Ooh, Five Rams red-bean flavor. I love this.”

The girl accepted the popsicle, tore open the wrapper, and began eating it.

“Come on. We’ll play badminton first, and then I still have to teach you how to do your homework.”

The way she put it made Fang Jun sigh.

“Come on, Luo Ruiyu. My grades aren’t any worse than yours. I don’t need you to teach me, okay?”

“But you’re always failing to turn in your homework. The teacher has already mentioned it several times. And Uncle said that if you don’t do your homework, he won’t let me come play with you anymore.”

Fang Jun thought about it. In the end, he sighed again.

Fine. He would play badminton first and worry about the homework afterward.

There was a large open space beneath the building where Luo Ruiyu lived, which was just right for the two children to play badminton.

Fang Jun put his schoolbag on a stone table nearby, picked up a racket, and immediately went into battle.

When children played badminton, they basically only knew how to hit high lobs.

After barely half an hour, the two of them were already exhausted.

“I’m done. Let’s take a break and start on the homework.” Luo Ruiyu put down her racket.

Fang Jun was dumbfounded.

She got to enjoy herself, and he still had to do homework?

“Where’s your homework? Did you finish it already?”

“I finished it ages ago. Unlike you, I don’t drag my feet.” Luo Ruiyu gave a little snort.

“You’re so superior. You’re amazing.”

As he spoke, he spread open his math workbook and began writing.

It was obvious, however, that he was writing very slowly.

“Write faster! Why are you going so slowly?” Luo Ruiyu watched him and felt as if Fang Jun were a snail.

Fang Jun’s eyes suddenly shifted.

“Hey, how about you let me copy your homework?”

“No way. Who knows whether your dad might suddenly look down from the balcony?”

As she spoke, Luo Ruiyu turned her head and glanced upward.

Naturally, there was no one there.

Still, Fang Jun was startled by the gesture. He could only lower his head and obediently write each character stroke by stroke.

At that moment, Luo Ruiyu couldn’t help frowning.

“Something’s not right. I remember the handwriting on your test papers wasn’t like this. Why does your writing look so much neater now?”

“You wouldn’t understand. My dad didn’t study much. When he checks my homework, he doesn’t know whether the answers are right or wrong, so he just checks my handwriting. Otherwise, why do you think I write so slowly?”

Luo Ruiyu burst out laughing when she heard that.

She reached out and rubbed Fang Jun’s head like he was a puppy.

“Oh, you poor thing. Go on and write properly. Don’t make any mistakes.”

Fang Jun didn’t slack off. He honestly continued writing.

Still, he couldn’t help wondering whether his wicked old father was secretly standing on the balcony watching him.

And in fact, at the edge of the balcony, a head with reasonably thick hair slowly rose into view. Through the wire mesh, it looked down at Fang Jun, who was doing his homework below.

“That boy really does need someone watching him.”

Fang Mingcong gave a quiet snort, then turned around and went back into the living room to continue reading the newspaper.

—Lin Mo: Oh, childhood sweethearts. They’re practically innocent little lovebirds.

“Hey! Fang Jun!”

A girl’s voice came from behind him.

Fang Jun, who was biting into a freshly fried youtiao, turned his head to look.

The girl was riding a pink bicycle out from around the corner.

“Miss Luo, what took you so long?” Fang Jun said as he handed over the fried dough sticks and soy milk hanging from his bicycle handlebars.

Luo Ruiyu did not take them.

“Hang them on your side first. What kind of look would it be if I had two fried dough sticks hanging from my bike?”

“Oh, Big Old Jade is quite the girly girl, huh?”

“Call me that again and I’ll kill you.”

Luo Ruiyu narrowed her eyes. Her mind was already imagining all the ways she could beat the crap out of Fang Jun.

After entering middle school, Luo Ruiyu had shot up like a weed.

Fang Jun had grown taller too, but he was still slightly shorter than Luo Ruiyu.

So Fang Jun wisely backed down. The two of them rode their bicycles to the intersection, where they ran into An Yuexin head-on.

“Oi, Old Fang! Big Old Jade!”

Fang Jun gave Luo Ruiyu a knowing smile.

Luo Ruiyu glared at him, clearly saying: This is all your fault!

“I didn’t come up with that nickname.”

“It’s still your fault.”

The three of them joined up and headed for school.

“Did you hear? A while ago, the father of Xie Yuling from the class next door passed away. Her classmate, Chu Ling, bad-mouthed her dad in class, and the two of them ended up fighting.”

Fang Jun spoke as he pedaled.

“Which Xie Yuling?”

Luo Ruiyu was curious.

“The really pretty girl from Class Six. But I heard that after their parents came to school, Chu Ling’s father even slapped her.”

As the class gossip king, Fang Jun really did know a lot of inside information.

Luo Ruiyu shook her head while riding. “Chu Ling really was out of line. Her classmate’s father had just died, and she was bad-mouthing him. She deserved that slap.”

“I think so too. At a time like that, what she needed was support and comfort.”

The three of them cycled toward school.

Before long, they saw Xie Yuling riding past them as well.

“Hey, that’s Xie Yuling.” An Yuexin pointed ahead.

The three of them were not riding very fast, so they simply followed behind her.

“I heard Xie Yuling doesn’t talk to anyone anymore. She’s basically become a woman of few words.”

Luo Ruiyu felt somewhat helpless when she heard that.

“That’s perfectly normal, isn’t it? It wasn’t just Chu Ling who bad-mouthed her. I bet Xie Yuling won’t want anything to do with those people anymore.”

“True. Who knows which people in her class are human and which are monsters?”

They soon arrived at school.

Once they passed through the gates, they had to get off and push their bicycles. When Xie Yuling dismounted, she glanced at the three of them behind her, then pushed her bike toward the bicycle shed.

An Yuexin looked at Xie Yuling and could not help saying, “She already feels like an iceberg.”

“Please split this iceberg apart, don’t keep suppressing the love in your heart...”

Fang Jun casually sang the next line.

Luo Ruiyu asked in an eerie tone, “Are you planning to go split open that iceberg?”

“Of course not. I’m afraid of the cold. That line just suddenly popped into my head. Though I am a little curious about who’ll be able to melt that iceberg someday. If someone like that really exists, they must be pretty amazing.”

“It definitely won’t be you,” Luo Ruiyu snorted.

“It definitely won’t be me.”

The three of them walked toward their classroom, chatting and bickering all the way.

--Lin Mo: It’s me! It’s me! It’s me! It’s definitely me! Your friend, Big Lin Mo!--

“Hey, Fang Jun!”

“Hm? What is it?”

Fang Jun turned around and looked at Luo Ruiyu, who was sitting behind him.

“Which high school are you planning to attend?”

“Obviously Guangba High School. We’re all so good. Of course we’re going to Guangba.”

Fang Jun was ranked among the top five in their class.

An Yuexin also walked over and draped an arm over Fang Jun’s shoulder.

“Exactly. We said we’d all go to Guangba together. It’s a good school, it’s nearby, and we could even walk there every day.”

At that moment, a troubled expression appeared on Luo Ruiyu’s face, as though she did not know how to bring something up.

She thought it over carefully before finally saying, “I might not be able to go to Guangba with you guys.”

An Yuexin froze for a moment, but Fang Jun looked as though he had been struck by lightning.

“Wh... why?”

“Yeah, why? Where are you going?” An Yuexin remained relatively calm.

“You both know that my household registration isn’t in Yangcheng. And because of my family, I’ll probably have to go back to my hometown.”

When Fang Jun heard this, his heart seemed to collapse.

“Then... will you come back?”

“I don’t know. I can only follow my dad’s arrangements.”

“Oh. All right, then.”

At that moment, Fang Jun became stiff and expressionless.

But there was nothing he could do. He could not bring himself to ask her to stay.

Or perhaps he knew that he had no way to make Luo Ruiyu stay.

Luo Ruiyu also knew that she had probably ruined something, but she understood even more clearly that if she waited until the very moment she left to tell them, they might not even be able to remain friends.

At a time like this, all she could do was let Fang Jun calm down on his own.

She glanced back at Fang Jun, who had his head lowered. A painful feeling welled up inside her, but she could not put it into words.

Perhaps this was where it would all end.

There was another phrase in her heart: destined to meet, but not destined to be together.

She simply could not say it aloud.

“I never loved you deeply, but I still love remembering you, especially the record that sings on my behalf when I’m heartbroken.”

Fang Jun had a cigarette between his lips and a lighter in his hand, but he never actually lit it.

An Yuexin was numb with disbelief. Fang Jun had secretly bought the cigarette, only to leave it hanging from his mouth until the filter was soaked through with saliva.

“If you can’t smoke, then don’t. You can’t even smoke, yet you’re trying to imitate smokers. Who are you putting on an act for?”

Fang Jun took the cigarette from his mouth and sighed.

“Lao An, you don’t understand my pain. If Mai Chuwen from Class Three were transferring away, what would you do?”

An Yuexin naturally understood what Fang Jun meant, but he could only play along.

“It hurts. It hurts so much. But are you really not going to confess? You’ve liked Luo Ruiyu for quite a while now, haven’t you?”

“What difference would it make if I like her? She’s leaving, and she doesn’t like me. If I confess, what if we can’t even remain friends afterward? She might never come back to Yangcheng again. Wouldn’t that make things even worse?”

“So you’re just going to let her go? You’re not upset about it?”

An Yuexin looked at him suspiciously.

“Even if I’m upset, I have to let her go. Once she returns to her hometown, someone else will probably fall for her. What if she ends up liking someone else too?”

“What, you still remember that she once liked that guy?”

“Anyway, she doesn’t like me. Confessing would just mean getting rejected. If that’s how it’s going to be, I might as well use this opportunity to move on.”

Fang Jun took a long drink of cola, his entire body going numb.

“Master, are you really willing to let her go?”

“There’s nothing to be unwilling about. Time has always been the best medicine. Maybe once I get to Guangba, I’ll fall for someone else.”

“I wouldn’t. I’ll always like Mai Chuwen.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever you say. Then why haven’t you confessed?”

“You wouldn’t understand. You need the right opportunity.”

The right opportunity?

I probably don’t have one.

Fang Jun drained his drink in one go.

But he put the cigarette back in the pack.