Brother, you smell good - 46

 

| BYSG | 0 or 1 | 46

The teacher only noticed that Shen Yu was constantly looking at his phone, so he asked him to stand up and answer the question and casually reminded him to pay attention in class. He didn't make things difficult for him.

Shen Yu answered the question very well, and after he finished, the teacher allowed him to sit back down.

After sitting down, Shen Yu stopped looking at his phone and decided to reply to Cheng Mofei's messages after class. Anyway, his unflattering video had already been sent out, and Cheng Mofei hadn't sent his yet.

As for the boy in the video... he had no impression of him. He probably just kept smiling at him because he looked like he was nodding off.

There weren't many entertainment options in high school, so students could only find some fun in each other.

But it was a good thing. It seemed like Cheng Mofei was becoming more and more accepting of his sexual orientation and being able to joke about it with him.

Finally, the class bell rang. Shen Yu opened his phone and found that Cheng Mofei had sent him a lot of messages.

Cheng Mofei: [Where are you?]

Cheng Mofei: [Little hamster confused]

Cheng Mofei: [Did I guess right?]

Cheng Mofei: [Little hamster pricking up ears]

Cheng Mofei: [Little hamster rolling around]

Cheng Mofei: [Little hamster throws a sunflower seed at you]

Cheng Mofei: [Little hamster getting cheeks pinched]
…

Cheng Mofei: [Look at the new hamster stickers I collected]

Shen Yu: "..."

Is he being this deliberate on purpose?

Shen Yu had never realized before that Cheng Mofei was so nosy.

Finally, the class bell rang, and Cheng Mofei finally received Shen Yu's reply.

Shen Yu: [When I was chatting with you during class, I got caught by the teacher.]

Cheng Mofei: "..."

So that's what happened.

Cheng Mofei's anxious heart finally relaxed.

Cheng Mofei: [Are you okay? Did the teacher make things difficult for you?]

Shen Yu: [No.]

Shen Yu: [You’re overthinking it. That guy likes girls.]

Cheng Mofei: [Oh.]

It was a bit strange for Shen Yu, who had just started college, to have no impression of his high school classmates. So, he casually made up an excuse, saying the guy liked girls.

After all, being gay was still a less common sexual orientation, and even in a whole class, there might not be more than one or two people.

Shen Yu: [What about your ugly photo?]

Finally remembering, Cheng Mofei dug through his old phone and sent all the high school photos he had found to Shen Yu.

Shen Yu carefully flipped through them one by one, his eyes narrowing into little crescent moons.

Cheng Mofei in high school looked even more innocent than now, and his hair was cut so short it almost felt like it would prick your hand if you touched it.

As for why they were called "ugly photos"...

Back then, beauty filters had just become popular, and Cheng Mofei had used all kinds of weird stickers and effects on his face in the camera.

There were cat effects, dog effects, "shamat" effects, big eyes effects, and more...

Shen Yu really wanted to say—could you not mess around with your handsome face like that?

After going through all the photos, Shen Yu noticed that Cheng Mofei had sent him a few more messages.

Cheng Mofei: [So, what do you think? Want to take a photo together?]

Cheng Mofei: [Little hamster holding a rose]

Shen Yu: [TD] 

(“TD which means "Cancel Subscription". People usually do this when they think they received a spam text in China.”)

Though he said that, when he returned to the dormitory and Cheng Mofei came over with a tablet, smiling and eager to take photos, Shen Yu didn’t refuse.

He wanted more pictures with Cheng Mofei.

No matter what kind they were.

Normal ones, or weird ones, it didn’t matter.

The two of them casually took a few photos with animal-themed filters. Suddenly, Cheng Mofei spotted something and eagerly downloaded it.

"This hamster ears filter is perfect for you."

As soon as he said that, the filter finished downloading, and a pair of cute hamster ears appeared on Shen Yu's head in the screen.

Unfortunately, this was a single-person filter. When there were two people in the shot, the hamster ears only appeared on one person’s head.

Without hesitation, Cheng Mofei stepped out of the frame, letting Shen Yu enjoy the filter alone.

"Hey, you hold onto this, I’ll go get my son," Cheng Mofei suddenly handed the tablet to Shen Yu, then stood up and walked over to the hamster cage.

In no time, he returned, cradling a fluffy, round, gray hamster in his hands.

After being fed for a while, the little hamster had gotten much chubbier, its became fur softer and fluffier, and had a sweet personality that made it easy for anyone to hold and cuddle.

Cheng Mofei took the tablet back from Shen Yu and gently placed the little hamster into Shen Yu's palm.

"Stay just like that, don't move."

Click.

Shen Yu held the little hamster. The two, one big and one small, both looked at Cheng Mofei with the same dazed expression. Their movements were perfectly synchronized.

Looking at the frozen photo on the tablet, Cheng Mofei smiled in satisfaction and sat back next to Shen Yu, showing him the picture. "So, how is it? Did I take a good one?"

Shen Yu hummed, "Send it to me. I'll pick a few to send to my mom later."

"Okay."

Gradually, he had gotten used to sharing his daily life with his mom. She always responded with enthusiasm, her emotional support filling him up completely.

As they kept taking photos, the other two roommates joined them in the fun.

Xiao Xiong: "I want the long-haired princess filter."

Sun Xinghe: "I want to try this magical girl one."

Cheng Mofei: "We’re all little princesses."

Shen Yu: "..."

Who could possibly outdo you guys?

Finally, after all the photo-taking and fun, Cheng Mofei's tablet album had hundreds of new photos.

Cheng Mofei sent all the photos to their dorm group chat.

Shen Yu sifted through them and only sent three photos to his mom, the ones that were actually presentable.

One was a solo photo of him holding the little hamster, taken by Cheng Mofei.

One was a photo of him and Cheng Mofei, both sporting the simple little dog ears filter.

One was a group photo of the four roommates, each with a cartoon flower on top of their heads.

Shen Xunyan smiled as she saved the photos one by one, saying: [For your birthday next year, Mom will take you to take a "one-year-old" photo.]

Shen Yu helplessly smiled back: [Next year, I’ll be 19. Let’s not do something like that.]

When he had lived at the Shen Lide family home, his stepmother would take her own kids to the photo studio every year to take "one-year-old" photos. 

Honestly, those photos were a bit of an eyesore—it was so plastic and studio-like, something only young kids would enjoy.

If he were 9 years old, he’d probably want to do it, but being 19? No thanks.

There was a brief pause from Shen Xunyan before she replied: [Then how about I draw a portrait of you, and you can be my model?]

Shen Yu’s eyes curved into a smile: [Okay.]

While Shen Yu was chatting with his mom, Cheng Mofei secretly went to the bathroom with burn ointment wrapped inside his pajamas to treat his injury and take a shower.

Just as he stepped out, Xiao Xiong suddenly spoke up with a tragic expression: "I sent the photos to my parents, and they said I’ve gained weight again. Wuwuwu... Brother Fei, can I touch your abs to give me some motivation?"

With that, he tried to act shamelessly and lift Cheng Mofei’s shirt like he used to.

In the past, Cheng Mofei would have easily let Xiao Xiong touch his abs without hesitation, but now...

Cheng Mofei instinctively glanced in Shen Yu's direction, only to find that Shen Yu had also been drawn in by Xiao Xiong’s antics and was looking over at them.

Cheng Mofei quickly and desperately pulled his shirt down, trying to hide the burn marks on his abs from Shen Yu.

"Get lost, don't be a hooligan," Cheng Mofei said firmly.

Xiao Xiong looked utterly heartbroken and incredulous. "You’ve changed, man."

"People change," Cheng Mofei replied indifferently, tucking his shirt into his pants.

Shen Yu quickly averted his gaze, letting out a silent sigh.

Ever since Cheng Mofei had found out about his sexual orientation, it seemed like he was trying to "avoid suspicion" to the point where he didn't even dare let Shen Yu see his abs anymore.

The path to chasing after his love was long...

...

The next day at noon, Sun Xinghe was going out to have lunch with his girlfriend, and Xiao Xiong had already ordered takeout. This left Shen Yu and Cheng Mofei once again as a pair.

While waiting in line to get food, Shen Yu was caught off guard when his eyes met those of a "familiar" face.

Both of them froze for a moment, then exchanged a smile and a nod.

It was Zhong Yuxuan, the girl he had met on the first day of the basketball game through Cheng Mofei's friend, who had added him on WeChat and, after learning about his sexual orientation, had jokingly suggested they could be "sisters."

She was accompanied by a handsome-looking guy, though Shen Yu couldn't tell what their relationship was. The guy also looked over at Shen Yu.

Perhaps they were just ordinary classmates or friends, or maybe they were more than that.

If it was the latter, Shen Yu silently hoped that she wouldn't encounter another gay guy this time.

That afternoon, Shen Yu and Cheng Mofei attended a simple club activity just to get some credits. All they had to do was be present and wait for the required time to pass.

Sitting in a corner, playing on his phone and slacking off, Shen Yu suddenly received a message from Zhong Yuxuan.

Zhong Yuxuan: [Are you there?]

Cheng Mofei's phone still hadn't been fixed, so he'd been using his old phone for the past few days. 

The old phone wasn't very convenient to use, so Cheng Mofei especially liked to borrow Shen Yu's phone to scroll through pictures and videos together.

That message's history was Shen Yu’s open admission about his sexual orientation, and Cheng Mofei naturally saw it and knew who the person was.

Shen Yu didn’t hide it from him and replied: [Yeah, what's up?]

Zhong Yuxuan: [Hmm... Is it okay if I ask whether you're a 0 or a 1?]

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TL: Umm I don’t know about you guys but I feel like her asking that question is inappropriate, she barely knows the SY. Gay or not, it’s none of her business.