Chapter 8: Drunk

Bai Chen turned his head in the direction of the sound.

Then, he saw a pink-haired head pop out.

Zhu Yu was holding up his phone and gesturing at him, the screen displaying a QR code. Bai Chen looked closely and realized it was a QR code to add him as a friend.

Bai Chen understood.

He opened his phone, added Zhu Yu as a friend on WeChat, and once the friend request was accepted, Zhu Yu raised his hand and gave him an “OK” gesture before grabbing his bag and running off. The morning sunlight filtered through the gaps in the trees, casting dappled shadows on the ground.

The scattered shadows landed on Zhu Yu, and the scene looked like a vibrant world-famous painting.

Bai Chen didn’t look away until that slender, lively figure completely disappeared from his sight. Only then did he lower his lashes and finish the rest of his coffee.

Ding dong. His phone vibrated, and a WeChat message popped up on the screen.

Bai Chen picked up his phone. It was a message from Zhu Yu.

【Zhu Yu: Senior, see you tonight (^з^)-☆】

Bai Chen replied with one word: 【Okay】

Then, Zhu Yu didn’t reply. Bai Chen stared at the chat for a moment, and almost on a whim, he clicked on Zhu Yu’s profile picture.

It was a sunflower swaying in the wind, with all the petals bent backward by the breeze. Below it was a caption:

【Live as if heading towards the sun】

This was originally a humorous meme, but Zhu Yu had used it as his profile picture.

Bai Chen couldn’t help but laugh at Zhu Yu’s profile picture. He smiled silently and then clicked into Zhu Yu’s Moments.

Although his Moments were set to show only the past six months.

But Zhu Yu posted frequently, sometimes even three or four times a day.

Bai Chen quickly scrolled through. He found that Zhu Yu was someone who loved documenting his life. His Moments were filled with pictures of stray cats and dogs, as well as many selfies—some beautiful, some quirky…

And from three months ago, Zhu Yu’s most frequent post was “I’m starving.”

Almost every week, there would be a post about him feeling like he was starving to death.

Scrolling further back, six months ago, Zhu Yu had posted a series of selfies. One was of him with off-white hair, and the other was of the blond hair that Bai Chen had seen before.

He complained that his favorite hair color was the one from before, but really, Zhu Yu looked good no matter what hair color he had.

Zhu Yu’s Moments were lively and interesting. Bai Chen didn’t realize that as he scrolled from top to bottom, the smile at the corner of his lips grew wider.

The café is always busy on weekends.

The coffee here is very popular among Chinese students, and Zhu Yu enjoys the process of delivering coffee to their tables because it gives him a chance to slack off and listen to their casual chatter.

The topics of casual conversation vary by social circle.

Zhu Yu enjoys listening to them discuss where to find good Chinese food, especially if they mention the prices.

Then, during his break, he would quietly calculate when he might be able to go there for a meal, after factoring in the money for Liu Bo’s cat food.

“Yu, coffee for table 7.”

When Ms. Chloe called him from the front desk, Zhu Yu was sitting in the break area, massaging his sore calves. Hearing the call, he stood up and responded, “Okay.”

He picked up the coffee and went to table 7.

“Hello, here’s your coffee,” Zhu Yu didn’t have a habit of staring at the customers, so after placing the coffee, he was about to leave.

Unexpectedly, the customer at table 7 suddenly grabbed his wrist.

“Zhu Yu.” The customer had a Chinese accent.

Zhu Yu thought the voice sounded familiar and turned to look at the customer at table 7.

“Fu Wenyu?!” Zhu Yu’s voice noticeably rose with excitement as he called out the person’s name.

“Didn’t expect it, huh? I came to find you!” The young man in brand-name clothes with a buzz cut suddenly patted Zhu Yu on the waist and remarked, “You really have lost weight.”

“And this little pink hair, it suits your face,” Fu Wenyu continued, eyeing Zhu Yu’s hair color.

Zhu Yu didn’t want to make a scene at his workplace, so he slapped Fu Wenyu’s head with his hand, lowering his voice to scold, “Are you crazy?”

“What are you doing in the UK?” Zhu Yu didn’t expect to run into his domestic friend in the UK.

“My mom came here for business, and since I knew you were in London, I decided to come over and see you. I had to ask around to find out you were working part-time here,” Fu Wenyu explained.

Fu Wenyu covered the spot where Zhu Yu had slapped him and then pulled out a chair, motioning for Zhu Yu to sit and chat with him.

“If you hadn’t blocked me, I would’ve found you sooner,” Fu Wenyu added at the end.

Zhu Yu glanced around and, seeing no new customers, sat down next to Fu Wenyu.

“You came to see me? What did you bring me?” Zhu Yu automatically ignored the second part of Fu Wenyu’s statement.

Fu Wenyu replied, “Your mom is the one managing people like us…”

“Anyway, I didn’t bring you anything to eat,” Fu Wenyu knew what Zhu Yu wanted, so he immediately added that to cut off any further thoughts.

Zhu Yu extended his hand and, with a playful tone, said, “Then lend me some money.”

Fu Wenyu put his phone in his pocket, shaking his head, “That’s not happening.”

“Zhu Yu, do you even understand? I’m really scared of your mom.” Just thinking about the way Yu Lianhuan had warned them made Fu Wenyu feel a chill down his back.

“Me, Lao Yu, Brother Zhou, and Xiao Yang—she warned each one of us individually, explicitly forbidding us from providing any financial or material support to you,” Fu Wenyu said, counting on his fingers.

“So what exactly did you do wrong? What made your mom send you to this crappy place?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Zhu Yu emphasized with a frown, clearly displeased. But just because he was sent here, everyone thought it was his fault, and no one was willing to stand by him.

But what was the point of making friends? Wasn’t it supposed to be for moments like this, when someone could blindly stand by him?

Zhu Yu rolled his eyes and pushed himself up from the table, preparing to leave.

“Alright, alright, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Seeing that Zhu Yu was about to get angry, Fu Wenyu hurriedly stopped him. “Don’t go, even though I can’t help you with anything, but…”

“But you can still make things worse for me,” Zhu Yu interrupted, his hands on his hips, looking completely speechless.

Fu Wenyu immediately said, “What are you talking about? I’m taking a flight back to the country in the early morning, and tonight I can treat you to dinner.”

“Really?” Zhu Yu finally heard something he wanted to hear and sat back down in his chair.

Fu Wenyu replied, “Of course, bro, I still care about you.”

“I want Chinese food.” Zhu Yu didn’t pay much attention to the comment about him taking advantage of the situation.

Fu Wenyu nodded grandly, “Whatever you want.”

“I also want to drink alcohol,” Zhu Yu’s eyes lit up.

“Alright! I’ll book a restaurant right now,” Fu Wenyu took out his phone.

“I haven’t finished work yet, wait for me…” Zhu Yu lifted his wrist to check the time. “Two hours, maybe.”

Fu Wenyu frowned, “Take time off then.”

“For these two hours I’m taking off, you’re paying me,” Zhu Yu said.

Fu Wenyu shrugged, conceding, “Fine, whatever, you just keep working.”

He sighed with resignation, but it was more about how Zhu Yu had changed. After all, Zhu Yu was raised in the Zhu family, pampered since childhood. He was the little master who grew up surrounded by wealth—how could he have ever suffered like this?

The kid had lost so much weight.

But what was the result? He would rather work part-time at a place like this than admit his mistakes to his family.

Fu Wenyu watched Zhu Yu’s busy figure. Sometimes, he was really curious about him—how could someone be so competitive and stubborn?

—

7:30 PM in London.

At a Chinese restaurant—

“Zhu Yu, are you really drunk?” In a luxurious, traditional Chinese private dining room, the table was filled with various Chinese dishes, and most of them had already been eaten.

There were only two people at the table, and one of them, a handsome young man with pink hair, was completely drunk and squatting beside his chair, crying loudly while holding an empty wine bottle.

Tears fell like pearls off a broken string, one after another.

Fu Wenyu had a good tolerance for alcohol, and at least he was much more sober than Zhu Yu. He went over and squatted beside him.

“Stop crying, you’ve eaten, you’ve drunk, let me take you back to your dorm,” Fu Wenyu said as he supported Zhu Yu’s arm to help him stand up.

Zhu Yu punched his chest lightly. The punch wasn’t strong, and Fu Wenyu coughed while covering his chest, then heard Zhu Yu complain, “I hate you guys.”

“You hate a lot of people,” Fu Wenyu said as usual, supporting Zhu Yu as they walked out of the private room.

Anyone who made Zhu Yu unhappy or didn’t stand by him, he hated them.

Zhu Yu hugged the empty wine bottle tightly, refusing to let go, sobbing and crying, “No one understands me…”

“Then when I ask you what happened, you won’t tell me. How are we supposed to understand you?” Fu Wenyu stuffed him into the car and fastened his seatbelt before asking the driver to take them to Zhu Yu’s apartment.

Zhu Yu was angry, “Aren’t you supposed to unconditionally stand by me?”

“That’s not possible. I’m still reasonable,” Fu Wenyu replied. “I need to figure out who made the mistake.”

Then, Fu Wenyu received a solid punch to his nose.

He covered his nose, wanting to scold Zhu Yu, but when he turned around, he saw that Zhu Yu had curled up into a ball in the corner, crying. He couldn’t bring himself to scold him.

After all, Zhu Yu was the one who was suffering the most among their group.

Thinking this, Fu Wenyu took out his phone and opened the camera. “Zhu Yu, look at the camera.”

Zhu Yu looked up when he heard the voice. He didn’t really understand what Fu Wenyu wanted him to do, but he just raised his head because Fu Wenyu called him.

When he saw himself in Fu Wenyu’s phone, he instinctively straightened up, raised his hand, and flashed a “V” sign to the camera.

“You really are…” Fu Wenyu took two quick shots and then looked down at the photos. “Always caring about your image.”

Even though the lighting in the car was dim, in the photos, Zhu Yu’s teary eyes were still the most captivating, and the ear studs on his ears glimmered with a cold light.

Zhu Yu wrapped his clothes tightly around himself again and fell asleep on the back seat.

“I say, Zhu Yu, why don’t you remove me from your blacklist?” Fu Wenyu had been pushed into a corner by Zhu Yu, and seeing Zhu Yu’s feet about to press onto him, he hurriedly pressed down on Zhu Yu’s restless feet.

Zhu Yu slowly lifted his eyelids, his mind slowly processing for two seconds before he fumbled in his pocket, took out his phone, unlocked it, and tossed it to him.

“Do it yourself,” Zhu Yu said.

Fu Wenyu took the phone and scrolled through WeChat, removing himself from Zhu Yu’s blacklist.

“Can I remove them too?” Fu Wenyu asked while watching Zhu Yu’s expression.

Zhu Yu’s expression remained unchanged, and he seemed to be in a fairly good mood.

“Whatever,” Zhu Yu replied, holding the wine bottle. For some reason, his tone sounded a little awkward.

The people Fu Wenyu mentioned were actually Zhu Yu’s friends back in China, all of whom had upset him over various matters and ended up being blacklisted.

“We’ve been so tolerant of you, Zhu Yu. You need to work on your temper. You can’t just pick on us, the ones who are close to you,” Fu Wenyu said.

Zhu Yu closed his eyes and ignored him.

He knew he had this bad habit, but he just couldn’t change it. The closer the relationship, the harder it was for him to hide his temper.

After Fu Wenyu finished, he paused on the chat screen and saw that one of the latest contacts in Zhu Yu’s chat list was someone labeled 【Senior Bai Chen】.

“Hey, who’s this Senior Bai Chen?” Fu Wenyu asked, handing the phone to Zhu Yu.

Zhu Yu held the phone, recalling Bai Chen’s face and figure. He slowly curled his lips and said, “He’s a male… Bodhisattva…”

As soon as he finished speaking, the car stopped steadily in front of the apartment building.

Fu Wenyu helped him sit up and casually said, “Okay, okay, Bodhisattva Bodhisattva. So, which dorm do you live in?”

Zhu Yu hung his head and pondered Fu Wenyu’s words.

Bodhisattva… which dorm?

He staggered out of the car, leaning on the door and said to Fu Wenyu:

“Bodhisattva is…” Zhu Yu’s voice was muffled, “514.”

Fu Wenyu helped him, but didn’t quite hear the first part clearly. “Room 514? Alright, alright, I’ll take you home first, I need to catch a flight later.”