Back To My Youth

there would never be a chance to draw this person again.

Guo Jingyu was extremely attentive as he drew, there was no trace of the playful attitude he’d had before, his eyebrows had gathered together, his entire line of sight converged on his face.

This was actually the first time Li Tongzhou was watched like this by him, and was a bit stiff for a while, but after some time he slowly relaxed.

This was Guo Jingyu, not other people, so he could accept being eyed like this. 

Li Tongzhou would also take advantage of when he lowered his head to draw to look at the other, because his eyes were downcast, his eyelashes seemed ever denser, casting a small patch of shadow, in contrast with his pale skin.

The pen in Guo Jingyu’s hand made sha sha sounds as it touched the paper.

Li Tongzhou’s line of sight went from his brows and eyes to his upright nasal bridge, until it fell on his lips, even if Guo Jingyu wasn’t smiling or laughing the corners of his mouth still naturally quirked upwards, the same as his double lidded upturned peach blossom eyes, which easily made people feel good, made people want to get close to him.

When Guo Jingyu raised his head to look at him, Li Tongzhou subconsciously withdrew his gaze, landing on the textbook in front of him, though his eyelashes trembled a few times, he pretended to be unperturbed. 

He heard Guo Jingyu laugh, but Guo Jingyu always loved to laugh, so he had no idea why the other laughed now.

Really wanted to ask.

Wanted to ask what he was thinking, and what he was laughing about.

Wanted to ask him: these things, did they have a little to do with himself? 

As Li Tongzhou absentmindedly thought on, his gaze also became more mild, bearing a hint of warmth.

Guo Jingyu finished drawing quickly, he gave it to Li Tongzhou boastfully, “Look, is it drawn well or what?”

Li Tongzhou lowered his head and looked, it was his face in side profile, but he didn’t understand how to evaluate art, only felt it was somewhat similar to himself in photos, but also was much better looking than that, probably it carried the artist’s own subjective take, he himself already thought the person in the piece was not bad.
He thought for a while before he nodded and said: “Very good, the execution of the shading, looks very complete.”

Guo Jingyu said smugly: “It’s alright, the main thing is the model’s handsome.” 

Li Tongzhou said: “Then you can draw facing a mirror, since you’re more handsome.”

Guo Jingyu lifted his head to look at him, attentively observed for a while before he discovered that Li Tongzhou didn’t intend on teasing, that he was simply taking Guo Jingyu’s words seriously and extending them further, and was so amused he began to laugh.

Li Tongzhou saw him starting to use a small knife to cut the borders of the paper, baffled, asked: “What are you going to do?”

“Tidying it up a bit, later take it home to hang it up, ai, at first I didn’t even think I could draw this well, if I knew I’d have used legitimate drawing paper instead.” 

Li Tongzhou didn’t understand these things, but the handicrafts he made were fairly good, so he helped Guo Jingyu cut it out.

Guo Jingyu gave directions for a bit, then handed it off to him to do, taking the opportunity to copy homework again for a while.

Tonight as per usual Li Tongzhou’s parents were not there; compared to that day when they’d encountered Jiang Min, the empty home now was the norm.

Guo Jingyu saw that it was more or less time for dinner, didn’t allow Li Tongzhou to call a restaurant for delivery, went to the kitchen himself and searched around.
The Li home’s fridge didn’t really have any fresh vegetables in it, probably Li Tongzhou’s mother didn’t plan on having her son cook, having left a lot of money.
Guo Jingyu asked one question, and Li Tongzhou fished out a few hundred from his pocket and handed it to him. 

Guo Jingyu’s pocket only had a few coins left in it, and this was actually his public transportation fee, at once his heart filled with admiration, “Ayi is so good to you.”

Li Tongzhou said: “For you.”

Guo Jingyu waved his hand: “Don’t, I’ve already stopped accepting protection fees.”

Li Tongzhou said: “Mine isn’t a protection fee, it’s a gift to you.” 

Guo Jingyu thought about it, drew out one of them and said: “Then it’ll be as if I borrowed this from you, in a few days there really is a bit of business outside to deal with.”

Li Tongzhou nodded, not saying anything.

The Li family’s kitchen actually had a comprehensive stock of seasonings and sauces that lacked nothing, Guo Jingyu took out meat and shelled shrimp from the freezer, first diced them into small cubes and stir fried them on high heat with scallions and ginger, added chili bean sauce after and covered the pot tightly for a while.
The cubed meat had a little bit of fat attached, were all thoroughly suffused with the sauce and liquids, leaping about inside the pot all gulugulu, the skin of the meat was soft and sticky and gleamed red, a fragrant smell quickly came out.
Guo Jingyu kept an eye on the fire while he efficiently cast a handful of noodles into the pot next to it, passed that under cold tap water after it boiled, then took it out and set it aside, around this time the stir-fried sauce was also pretty much done, waves of the meat’s fragrance and the shrimp’s freshness made their way into the nose, just smelling it was incredibly appetizing.

At night they ate zhajiangmian, Li Tongzhou particularly liked it, though his mealtime behavior was refined, the speed at which he ate was not at all slow, in a short amount of time he ate a full bowl, and moved to serve himself another. 

Guo Jingyu asked him: “Is it good?”

Li Tongzhou nodded.

Guo Jingyu ate while he summarized his experience, “It’s just that it’s not exactly like zhajiangmian, put too much sauce, it should be better if paired with rice.
Next time I come over I’ll buy some groceries, cook you luroufan.”

Li Tongzhou agreed, ate two more bites then asked: “Where are you going in a few days?” 

Guo Jingyu was a little surprised, lifted his gaze to look at him and said, smiling: “You didn’t ask just now, I’d thought you didn’t want to know, in a few days I’m going to my uncle’s house in the provincial capital, my mother entrusted him to buy me a computer, I’m following along to pick one.”

Li Tongzhou said ‘oh,’ Guo Jingyu thought this matter was over with, but didn’t expect that when he finished eating dinner and was preparing to go home, Li Tongzhou stood at the entryway with slightly pinched brows and asked: “Can I go?”

Guo Jingyu didn’t react in time: “Go where?”

Li Tongzhou said: “The provincial capital, I’ll advise and help you decide?” 

T/N: sorry for missing a week! i’ve been rather unwell and fell behind on just about everything.
in other news, this author sure loves run on sentences huh? sdk;csdkc