Chapter 14
Editor: Princess
He dialed the wrong number.
The moment Yu Pei realized this, he sniffled, and the person on the other end seemed to catch on to his sniffles, because he called his name again, “Ah Pei?”
“I—I pressed the wrong button…” Yu Pei blurted in a fluster, then hung up quickly.
But because of this little slip-up, he forgot to cry for a moment. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, wiping away tears at random. Just as his vision started clearing, a message popped up from Luo Changzhou on QQ: [Did you catch a cold? Your voice sounded a bit off.]
[En, yes…] Yu Pei replied, feeling a bit guilty and worried Luo Changzhou might ask why he’d dialed the wrong number in the first place.
Luckily, though, Luo Changzhou didn’t seem too hung up on it. Instead, he sent over a voice message.
Yu Pei held his phone to his ear, and Luo Changzhou’s deep voice sounded right next to him: “I thought you were calling to ask about the homework you couldn’t figure out, but it turns out you just called me by mistake.”
Yu Pei typed back hurriedly: [En, en, I actually wanted to ask my big brother about a problem, but I ended up calling you instead.]
Luo Changzhou replied with another voice message: “How is that a mistake then? Which questions do you not understand? I can help you.”
In reality, the whole homework thing was just an excuse Yu Pei had come up with to play along with Luo Changzhou’s assumption—he hadn’t even pulled his homework out of his backpack this week, let alone thought about which questions he might not understand. So he replied: [A lot of them, actually. But it’s getting late, so how about you help me tomorrow instead?]
“Alright.” Luo Changzhou agreed, his voice low and gentle.
Yu Pei couldn’t resist pressing the phone to his cheek, listening to each voice message from him over and over. He thought back to that stretch of the walk they’d shared after school today, to how Luo Changzhou had said he’d bring him some tea on Monday that wouldn’t taste bitter, to how he’d promised to help with his homework tomorrow. All these little memories, so warm and hopeful, seemed to soothe Yu Pei’s heart until he began to feel a quiet calm settling over him.
A little while later, Luo Changzhou sent another voice message: “I saw you bought that green-wood soda today. Was it good?”
Yu Pei quickly replied: [It’s pretty good! You should try it too. Don’t be scared off by the color because it’s unlucky.]
“Hmm, alright, I’ll give it a try in class on Monday. It’s getting late now, we should both get some sleep.”
Maybe it was because he’d just cried, or maybe it was because of the medicine, but Yu Pei felt drowsy too, so he replied: [Mm, mm. Goodnight.]
This time, Luo Changzhou didn’t send another voice message but instead typed: [Remember to take your medicine, have sweet dreams. Goodnight.]
Yu Pei let out a soft sigh, dimmed the lights in his room, and stared at Luo Changzhou’s profile picture on the screen until his phone went dark and locked itself. Only then did he close his eyes.
He slept dreamlessly.
But when he woke up the next morning, he felt pretty refreshed.
However remembering how he’d called Luo Changzhou by accident when he was feeling unwell the night before, he couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed. Luo Changzhou had probably kept sending those voice messages just to comfort him…. after all, sometimes a voice was more soothing than mere words.
Sighing, he opened his backpack and began doing something he rarely ever did—his homework.
As it was the senior year, the workload was heavy. Most teachers didn’t assign simple copying tasks anymore but piled on all sorts of college entrance exam practice tests. These mock exams were difficult and endless, and with several subjects’ worth of work, it was nearly impossible to finish it all without dedicating an entire weekend to it.
Yu Pei hadn’t even been diligent with assignments in his first and second years, so now, after taking six months off from school, he was completely out of his depth with these mock exams. He managed to complete the first two questions, basic multiple-choice ones, but then he put down his pen, wanting to cry as he stared at the test papers.
Although Luo Changzhou had offered to help him with homework last night, there was no way he could show up with a practically blank test paper and ask for guidance.
Which was why he’d decided to try filling in a bit more on his own before going to Luo Changzhou for help. But after flipping through his textbooks without understanding a single thing, he gave up and took the test papers downstairs. His first go-to for help was the old housekeeper, Uncle Zhuang.
Uncle Zhuang, now in his forties, had practically watched Yu Pei grow up. While for Yu Pei, he had spent more time with him than with his own father, what’s more with his big brother, Yu Qing, busy with work, he didn’t dare bother him, so when he got stuck with homework, the first person he thought of was Uncle Zhuang.
When Uncle Zhuang saw Yu Pei moving towards him with three sheets of test papers, he was surprised but took the papers, reading over the questions as he asked, “Little Young master, what’s got you so suddenly interested in doing homework?”
“Uhm….. it’s senior year now, so I thought I’d try to study seriously.” Yu Pei made up an excuse casually to brush off the question.
However Uncle Zhuang, knowing his character well, could tell he wasn’t being entirely honest, but he didn’t press him. He just smiled, leaving it at that. However after a few minutes, he also fell silent.
Yu Pei looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to explain the problems
But looking at his expectant expression, Uncle Zhuang finally said with some difficulty, “I’m sorry, little young master….. I can’t solve these questions either.”
Of course, Uncle Zhuang had gone through the college entrance exams himself once upon a time, however he had majored in liberal arts!
And what had Yu Pei brought him? Physics, chemistry, and biology! Asking a liberal arts graduate who hadn’t studied sciences in nearly thirty years to solve these was practically a death sentence.
Yu Pei took the test papers back from Uncle Zhuang, feeling a little guilty for expecting a man nearly fifty years old to help him with these college prep questions.
“Little Young master, you can ask your classmates for help.” Uncle Zhuang suggested, despite not knowing the answers. “Didn’t you say you made a new friend at school? That new transfer student, the mixed-race one.”
He looked at Yu Pei with a smile. “He seems to be pretty good at studying, doesn’t he?”
“Oh, en….. he’s a great student.” Yu Pei replied. Luo Changzhou was indeed a good student, and he had even offered to help with homework, but with this blank test paper in his hands, he felt too embarrassed to ask him for help just yet. “Alright, I’ll ask him for help.”
However despite saying this, Yu Pei didn’t go to Luo Changzhou immediately. Instead, he looked for Gu Zheng first.
Unfortunately, Gu Zheng was an even worse student than he was.
“Ah Pei, what’d you say? I’m at a music festival right now, I can’t hear you over all this noise!” As soon as Gu Zheng picked up, a blast of music came through the phone, so loud that it nearly deafened Yu Pei, what’s more Gu Zheng had to shout to be heard over the music, almost blowing out Yu Pei’s eardrums.
Yu Pei had to pull the phone away slightly, wincing, before shouting back, “Hey, Ah Zheng, how are you at physics?”
Gu Zheng shouted: “What was that?”
Yu Pei could only shout back, “Never mind, enjoy yourself!”
“Will do! I’ll be transferring back to Nan Hua in a few weeks!” Gu Zheng finally caught what Yu Pei said this time, his voice sounding excited, and it wasn’t known whether it was because of the thought of transferring schools or the festival atmosphere, but he seemed totally hyped up.
“En! Got it!”
Yu Pei hung up, then put his phone down, a little worried. Before Gu Zheng transferred out, his grades had actually been a little better than his, but now he was leaning hard into the “rich second generation” lifestyle. He figured that once he transferred back, he’d be taking over the last-place spot in their class.
He glanced at his test papers, then back at his phone, then finally sent Luo Changzhou a message: “[Changzhou, what are you doing?]”
This time, Luo Changzhou responded much faster than he had the night before: “[Watering the flowers.]”
Yu Pei remembered all the plants he had posted on his feed and felt a bit more at ease, however he still asked cautiously, “[Then I didn’t disturb you, right?]”
[Of course not. What’s wrong?]
[Have you finish your homework? There are so many questions I can’t figure out on this test. I was hoping you could help.]
[I’m done. Send me a picture of the ones you’re stuck on.]
Yu Pei snapped pictures of the nearly blank pages hurriedly then sent them over, feeling a bit sheepish: “[I barely know how to do any of it….]
Seeing Yu Pei’s almost-empty test pages, Luo Changzhou was dumbfounded and also kind of wanted to laugh at the same time. He replied: [There’s quite a lot you don’t know. Here’s what we’ll do—I’ll send you pictures of my test, and I’ll walk you through the first five problems for each subject. The rest, just copy from mine for now, and when school starts next week, I’ll teach you more in person. How does that sound?]
[Perfect, perfect, perfect!!!] Yu Pei was so excited that he added three exclamation marks.
And Luo Changzhou, looking at his screen, could almost picture Yu Pei’s delighted expression on the other end. The corners of his lips hooking up gently, he took pictures of his own test quickly, sent them over, then gave Yu Pei a call.
“Changzhou….” Yu Pei’s voice shook a little as he answered.
“Mm.” Luo Changzhou responded, and although his voice was slightly altered by the phone’s speaker, it was still that familiar, deep and low tone. “Take out your physics test. I’ll start with that.”
Yu Pei quickly fished his physics paper out from the stack and spread it out flat on his desk, more focused than he ever was in class.
“Your answer for the first question is wrong. Here’s how you should solve it…”
**
The entire morning, Yu Pei was surrounded by a sea of exercises, accompanied by Luo Changzhou’s steady, low voice. Luo Changzhou’s test answers included detailed step-by-step solutions, and although he didn’t grasp everything, it was still a massive improvement over him floundering alone. Right before they ended the call, he held his phone tightly, murmuring softly, “Changzhou, you’re really great….”
He heard a low chuckle on the other end, and Luo Changzhou’s voice, clearly smiling, said, “No worries. Anytime you need help, just ask.”
“En.” Yu Pei hung up, looked down at the almost fully completed test paper, and broke into a smile himself.
Since this new semester started, life really did feel different.
He was now good friends with Luo Changzhou. Luo Changzhou was a top student, which meant that most of his friends were likely high achievers too, so while being a straight-A student might be too ambitious for him, Yu Pei figured he could manage to be a good, average student.
A hardworking student still won the teacher’s favor and respect, even if their grades weren’t top-tier.
So, from now on, he’d study diligently. Even if he didn’t excel, he’d work hard. That way, he’d gradually be liked by the teachers, accepted by his classmates, and become a friend worthy of someone like Luo Changzhou.
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