Summer in Your Name - 6
Arguments
12:30. Hou Junqi finished a ranked match and rubbed his stomach, negotiating with the study-obsessed genius next to him. "Shu. You done? Books got knowledge, books got gold, but they don't got rice."
Zhang Shu glanced at the clock above the podium and took off his glasses. "Let's go. Wouldn't want you to starve."
Hou Junqi shot up. "Finally. I'm so hungry my back's stuck to my chest."
Zhang Shu grinned lazily. "With your build? You could starve for a month and your back still wouldn't meet your chest."
Hou Junqi: "Shut it. So what if you're skinny? You think you're so special?!”
---
By now, the cafeteria was a ghost town. So was the food.
Most of the trays in the serving stations were nearly empty. The few that still held something were meatless, just a few sad vegetable dishes, some reduced to nothing but garnish.
The two of them pretty much polished all the leftovers. Zhang Shu ate without expression. While Hou Junqi was close to tears. No meat, no happiness for the rest of the day. He missed Sujin-jie's braised ribs, her fried pork chops, her braised beltfish, her cola chicken wings, her soy-braised beef... Hell, even her stir-fried eggplant would beat this monk's diet they were choking down now.
"A-Shu, how long are we doing this cafeteria thing? Give me a timeline." Hou Junqi stabbed at the rice with his chopsticks.
Zhang Shu glanced up, unimpressed. "Till my sister gets married. Weren't you all for it back then? Acted like you wished you were her brother. Regretting it already?"
"Never. I'll fight for Sujin-jie's happiness till the end." Hou Junqi shoveled a few bites, then slumped. "Can we at least come earlier? This stuff is barely edible.”
Zhang Shu: "You think they'd sell it to us for two bucks if we came early?"
Hou Junqi: "We're not that short on money, are we? Didn't you just sell your mistake notebooks?"
He really had to hand it to Zhang Shu. The guy was a genius at moneymaking. He sold his notes to the stationery shop owner up near the North Gate, who then photocopied them and sold them to underclassmen, a win-win situation.
Zhang Shu: "Can that money lasts forever?"
Hou Junqi: "I'll lend you some!"
The second the words left his mouth, he regretted it. This was never about money. Zhang Shu was determined to prove a point this time, to show Zhang Sujin he could stand on his own, so she could finally go live her own life.
Besides, he knew Zhang Shu. The guy had been saving for two years and probably had a few thousand stashed away. To become independent sooner, he’d explored every possible way to make money, from flipping electronics to trading gaming accounts online. Zhang Shu’s mind was sharp as a tack; he was just stingy.
“Can’t you cut yourself some slack? If you weren’t so damn stingy, Chen Mengyao would’ve thrown herself at you ages ago…" Hou Junqi muttered under his breath, not quite daring to say it loud.
Zhang Shu looked up, leaned back in his chair, and fixed his gaze on Hou Junqi. "What's she got to do with it? Others might be clueless, but you're with me every day. You clueless too? You can stop eating with me if you want."
The words hung in the air, sharp and unamused.
Hou Junqi, who was about to pick up his chopsticks, froze. "Zhang Shu, what the hell’s that supposed to mean? You know that’s not what I meant!”
Zhang Shu: "I don't mean anything. This is my business. You don't have to do it with me."
A surge of anger rushed to Hou Junqi's head. His face twisted. "That's a hell of a thing to say. Some brother you are!"
Zhang Shu's expression didn't change, still the same lazy detachment.
Hou Junqi shot to his feet, hurled his chopsticks onto the table, and stormed off.
He made it all the way to the cafeteria entrance without hearing a single call from behind. Scratching his head, he hesitated for a moment before glancing back.
Zhang Shu was eating with his head down, not even bothering to watch him go, ike his best friend walking out meant nothing to him.
Hou Junqi turned again, stomping his way out.
The more he walked, the angrier he got. At the North Gate, he flagged a taxi, and went to eat alone at a restaurant, a proper meal this time.
---
Thinking back, he and Zhang Shu had become friends through a fight. Well, fighting someone else together.
In their first year, Zhang Shu wasn't a top student yet, though he wasn't quite a disaster like Hou Junqi. Neither of them cared much for studying, but Zhang Shu could coast to 15th or 20th in the class, while hou Junqi was a permanent fixture at the bottom.
At first, Hou Junqi couldn’t stand Zhang Shu. He seemed too cool, too aloof.
The most infuriating part was he never even tried to act cool or say anything cool. Every move he made just was.
Normally in such a situation, you'd think the girls would be all over him and the guys would keep their distance. But weirdly, even the guys flocked to his desk, then turned around and sang him praises behind his back.
Hou Junqi came from the basketball team. He'd been a little king among his friends since he was a kid and had never seen anything like it before.
Their first real interaction was during a class basketball tournament. Zhang Shu could play, that wasn't the problem. He just played too clean, they couldn't get on the same page. The other team played dirty, streetball tactics, constant fouls, and the ref was blatantly biased. Losing his temper, Hou Junqi shoved the referee and was disqualified. Without their best player, Class 6 naturally lost the tournament.
That night, Hou Junqi went to the ref's classroom to settle the score and was told the guy had gone to the internet cafe. Hou Junqi stormed over, ready for a fight. But in the alley behind it, he stumbled onto a 1v3 fight.
Zhang Shu, alone, against three sophomores. And he was holding his own. What won it wasn't his fists, it was his brain.
The three of them swarmed at him, throwing wild punches. But Zhang Shu went straight for the leader. He dodged behind a tree, grabbed the ref's arm, twisted it behind his back, and pinned him to the trunk. The ref was screaming in pain, not even sure how Zhang Shu had done it.
Zhang Shu: "You call yourself a ref? You’re not fit to even touch a basketball. Might as well retire this hand.”
The referee was so close to calling him 'dad' on the spot, apologizing over and over.
Just then, one of the thugs, hidden in Zhang Shu’s blind spot, quietly picked up a a glass bottle from a trash can and wound up, aiming for Zhang Shu's head. Hou Junqi quickly launched himself from behind the café door, kicked the guy square in the ass, and sent him face-first into the pavement.
After the fight, the two sat drinking by the door. Hou Junqi said, "I could've settled my own score. Didn't need your help."
Zhang Shu shot him a sidelong glance. "You flatter yourself.”
Despite his words, he clinked his can against Hou Junqi's. Then he tipped his head back and downed the whole can in one go, shaking the empty container with a smirk.
Hou Junqi felt like he'd been bewitched. His only thought at that moment was: This guy really is cool as hell.
He downed his can too.
Like that oath in the Peach Garden, they were brothers from then on.
---
Hou Junqi never would've guessed Zhang Shu could fight like that. The guy was thin stick.
Later, when they started hanging out, he learned where his fighting skill came from.
Zhang Shu had a rough life. He had no parents.
His dad died of heatstroke at a construction site, it even made the papers. Contractors and developers swarmed his family every day with ‘mediation’. His mom, pregnant with him at the time, was depressed. She died the day he was born and so he was raised by his sister, who was eighteen years older than him.
His sister, Zhang Sujin, was once a singer. Though the few songs she'd released went nowhere, she was young and beautiful, had she held on, she could've had a future.
Instead, to raise Zhang Shu, she gave up music altogether. She left Dongzhou, came back to Nanli, and opened a breakfast stall in their hometown to support themselves. She was a good cook and a beauty, business was decent. But that beauty also attracted the wrong kind of attention from men who thought they could take what they wanted. Zhang Shu learned to fight because he had to. God knows how many beatings it took to get this good.
When Zhang Shu entered ninth grade, Zhang Sujin had saved enough to open a fast-food shop near the north gate of Affiliated High.
Up until then, Zhang Shu had been coasting, a troublemaker kid. He only worked hard to get into Affiliated High because of her. Ninth grade was a grind, but he managed to pull himself from the middle of the pack in their rural middle school to somewhere around the top 800 in the city.
If Mencius’ mother moving three times to secure her son’s education was touching, Zhang Shu’s sister wasn’t far behind.
Her food was good, and the words soon spread. Zhang Sujin built a steady clientele who introduced new customers, eventually allowing her to open a lunch care.
She was thirty-five and unmarried. Never even had a boyfriend. Always said she simply hadn't met the right one.
But Zhang Shu knew. It was because of him.
He wished Zhang Sujin could have her own happiness. To live her own life.
The week before school started, he saw a man pursuing her. He saw them kiss. He saw the man propose. He saw Zhang Sujin push him away.
The man was gentle and well-mannered. His eyes brimming with devotion, his words and manners showed nothing but respect for Zhang Sujin. He understood her reservations, said he'd help raise her brother, that he'd wait.
Zhang Shu also noticed the Maybach parked beside them.
Money. Character. Patience. Everything you could ask for.
And Zhang Sujin had clearly kissed him back like she meant it.
Yet she still turned him down.
That night, Zhang Shu got into a big argument with Zhang Sujin. He swore he’d never eat another bite of her food, insisted he would become independent, and told her to stop being a brother-rearing martyr, to live her own life.
Hou Junqi also went to Zhang Sujin's lunch care. She only charged him half price, and he always got extras because of Zhang Shu.
It wasn’t just talk. To him, Zhang Sujin was like a sister.
Zhang Shu was difficult to define; he didn't fit in any boxes.
Call him a top student? Outside school, he was wilder than anyone, cross him and see what happens. Call him a bad student? His brain worked too well, if he wanted to be first in the class, he'd be first.
Hou Junqi felt both sympathy and admiration for him. There seemed to be nothing Zhang Shu couldn’t do, as long as he set his mind to it. Maybe it'd take time, but he'd definitely get there. Having him as a friend felt like an honor, sometimes however, Hou Junqi got insecure. They had fun together, sure. But their inner minds worked way too differently.
That’s why Zhang Shu’s words today cut so deep. It felt like they'd laid bare Hou Junqi’s own pathetic desperation, trailing after him like some eager lapdog, even begging his father to pull strings so they’d be in the same class. And for what? Zhang Shu didn’t seem to care whether he was around or not.
Then again, Zhang Shu was always running his mouth, vicious with it. He probably didn't mean anything by it.
Maybe storming off was dumb.
Juvenile.
Goddammit, does he even consider me a friend?
---
The cicadas' chirping in the afternoon are deafening, yet for those drowsy with sleep, it sounded like a lullaby.
Hou Junqi was asleep on his desk, dead to the world as drool pooled on his arm. He wasn't quite snoring, but close.
The most embarrassed person in the room was Sheng Xia.
At lunch, she'd bought a small crate to store her books next to her desk. Now her desktop held only what she needed for the day's lessons. Clean, clear, organized.
But being too organized came with consequences. Because if she so much as glanced down now, she’d see—
Hou Junqi, big as a house, slumped over his desk, his shirt riding up to reveal the waistband of his underwear with letters on it.
For the whole period, Sheng Xia's face went from pink to red and back again. She barely made it to the break, then escaped to get water. But even after filling her bottle and going to the bathroom, Hou Junqi was still asleep.
It was a long break, the classroom was chaotic; people talking, yelling, doing everything. Some kids even played hacky sack in the hallway. Yet none of it disturbed his slumber.
Xin Xiaohe and Yang Linyu were whispering, trying to guess how long it would take for Hou Junqi to drown in his own drool. They snickered, obviously noticed the underwear, too.
Xin Xiaohe didn't seem bothered at all.
So Sheng Xia felt weird bringing it up. She sat back down, bent over, and pulled the books she'd just stowed away back out of the crate, piling them back onto the desk one by one to form a tall wall.
Blocking the view of what eyes shouldn't see.
Just as she finished, she noticed Zhang Shu sitting sideways, one foot on the rung of his chair, elbow on his knee, chin in his hand, watching her. She had no idea how long he'd been in that position, but he was looking at her like she was an idiot.
She also didn't want to be the idiot who moved her books around for no reason, alright?
He had his glasses on. While black frames made most look nerdy, on him, they lent a scholarly air, taming his usual recklessness just enough to strike a balance between refined and unbridled.
When their eyes met, he didn't look away. If she wasn't imagining it, one corner of his mouth seemed to twitch into an almost-smile.
Sheng Xia thought: Is this what "barely there smile" looks like?
The light glinted off his lenses, momentarily dazzling her.
Then he stood, walked to Hou Junqi's desk, and knocked his knuckles against the desktop. "Store. Coming?"
His voice wasn't loud, barely audible over the chaos in the room. But Hou Junqi shot up like he'd heard a military command. Still half-asleep, he said, "Where, A-Shu? Store? Yeah, let's go!"
The two tall figures vanished through the back door.
Finally, Sheng Xia's views were clear.
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