Orange Storm chapter 79
Very important people
After Jiang Zhijin finished speaking, Fang Xing glanced at him, then turned his attention back to the TV screen, sounding quite calm.
“What kind of sleep?” Fang Xing asked.
Jiang Zhijin raised his eyebrows slightly, holding back a laugh as he asked, “Which kind do you think?”
This time, Fang Xing remained silent for quite a while. Jiang Zhijin felt that maybe his joke was a bit inappropriate, considering Fang Xing had just turned eighteen and was still a teenager in his first relationship.
“I’m not ready,” Fang Xing said.
“What?” Jiang Zhijin was caught off guard, not understanding.
“I said I’m not ready,” Fang Xing exhaled, staring at Jiang Zhijin with wide eyes. “We need to buy… things from the pharmacy.”
It took Jiang Zhijin a moment to understand what Fang Xing meant.
First, he was shocked, then he felt a bit…, quite amused.
“You—”
Jiang Zhijin bit his tongue to suppress the laughter. For the first time in his life, he found himself at a loss for words. Fang Xing, on the other hand, blushed completely after saying those words. Jiang Zhijin felt that bursting into laughter might make the situation awkward.
In the end, he just looked at Fang Xing with a bit of amusement and asked, “How did you know, Mr. Fang, the supposed teen experiencing first love?”
“I checked,” Fang Xing said, finding it awkward to explain. “Just… casually searched online.”
Jiang Zhijin was first stunned and then burst into laughter. The two sat on the floor, leaning against the sofa. Jiang Zhijin laughed so much that he fell onto the sofa.
Fang Xing felt hot as if he had a fever, the warmth spreading from his neck to his ears. “Is it… so funny?”
Jiang Zhijin struggled to contain his laughter, shook his head, and asked, “Can you tell me when you searched for that?”
Fang Xing coughed, “Just recently, right after we started dating.”
“So, you are quite… forward-thinking,” Jiang Zhijin said with a smile.
“Enough, stop teasing me. All you’re good at is talking big,” Fang Xing said.
“Well, do you want me to be serious?” Jiang Zhijin laughed.
“…Have you never been slapped for saying something too cheeky?” Fang Xing asked.
Jiang Zhijin laughed for a while and finally contained his laughter, looking at Fang Xing seriously.
“After the college entrance examination, alright?”
The atmosphere was light just now, so Fang Xing didn’t find it difficult to say those things. But now that Jiang Zhijin said this seriously, Fang Xing suddenly became a bit tongue-tied.
“Uh… okay.”
Jiang Zhijin wanted to laugh again. He sat up a little, asking, “So, can we just sleep innocently tonight?”
“What do you mean by innocent sleep—” Fang Xing said halfway, then realized. “Covering ourselves with a blanket, just chatting, right?”
“Sure,” Jiang Zhijin said with a smile.
To be able to experience such innocent and pure things like covering themselves with a blanket and chatting during their first love, Jiang Zhijin didn’t expect to have such an experience at almost thirty. He felt a bit like laughing and a bit like sighing.
“Okay. But,” Fang Xing glanced at Jiang Zhijin, hesitating whether to say something or not.
The atmosphere was obviously not suitable for such a statement, but Fang Xing was really conflicted—
“I still have an unfinished test paper today,” Fang Xing said.
Jiang Zhijin: “…”
When the boyfriend invited the boyfriend to sleep together and the boyfriend said he still had a test paper to do—truly amazing, it directly stupefied himself.
This time Jiang Zhijin remained silent for a long time, finally smiling and letting out a long sigh.
“Fang Xing, I find that you are quite…”
“What?” Fang Xing also felt a bit sigh-worthy.
Jiang Zhijin leaned over and kissed his forehead before retreating, smiling. “Quite serious.”
Too serious, to the point of being cute.
“I just like you like this.”
Jiang Zhijin turned off the TV. “Alright, go and write it.” He beckoned to Tang Yuan beside him.
“Let’s go, accompany your brother to do homework.”
Because Fang Xing had homework to do, Jiang Zhijin and Tang Yuan moved to Fang Xing’s room that night. Fang Xing sat at the desk writing his English paper, while Tang Yuan lay in the cat nest brought in from the living room, and Jiang Zhijin lay on the bed playing with his phone.
The doors and windows were closed, and the room was warm. Fang Xing only wore a set of pajamas. After finishing a reading comprehension passage, he took a moment to look at Jiang Zhijin on the bed.
Jiang Zhijin, wearing off-white pajamas, leaned against the bed, completely wrapped in a SpongeBob SquarePants blanket, holding a phone and not knowing what he was looking at. Sensing Fang Xing’s gaze, Jiang Zhijin didn’t lift his head, saying, “Focus, study god.”
Fang Xing turned his head and continued to look at the questions.
The room was very bright, forming one of the lights among the numerous lights outside the window.
When Fang Xing persisted in completing the test paper and turned to look at Jiang Zhijin, he found that the latter had already closed his eyes, seemingly asleep.
He packed up his things, turned off the lights, and the room instantly plunged into darkness. He climbed onto the bed in the dark, felt Jiang Zhijin move a bit to make space, and lifted the blanket.
“Done writing?”
“Yeah.” Fang Xing crawled under the blanket, pressing himself onto Jiang Zhijin, burying his face in the other’s neck and taking a deep breath.
“mmh…” Jiang Zhijin smiled helplessly and hugged him.
……..
When school started, the reality of the college entrance examination once again weighed on all students.
The evening self-study time in the second semester of senior year was extended to eleven o’clock, and Jiang Zhijin basically started picking up Fang Xing from school every day. Sometimes Fang Xing would take a nap as soon as he got in the car, managing to sleep for about twenty minutes before going home to wash his face and review.
Jiang Zhijin felt that Fang Xing visibly lost weight, making him a bit distressed. However, once Fang Xing started reviewing, he became extremely focused and serious. The brightness in his eyes became even more vivid and dazzling.
The morning mist at six o’clock, the lights at two in the morning, every written word, and the trips back and forth between home and school… Summing up these trivial things, for these seventeen or eighteen-year-old seniors, could be described as “effort” or “dream.”
And these two things wouldn’t let anyone down.
When there were still one hundred days left until the college entrance examination countdown, the school organized a pledge ceremony in the school auditorium, requiring one parent to accompany the student. The senior grade teacher representative and student representative had to give speeches on stage, cheering on all the senior students in the school, commonly known as “injecting chicken blood.”
The senior grade teacher chose the head teacher, and among the students, it was Fang Xing.
“So, what are you planning to say when you go on stage?” Jiang Zhijin asked Fang Xing.
The ceremony hadn’t started yet, and students were leading their parents into the auditorium. The school was noisy.
“It’s basically the same, working hard to get into a prestigious university, thanking the school, teachers, parents…” Fang Xing glanced at Jiang Zhijin. “Thanking my boyfriend.”
Jiang Zhijin looked at him. “Spare Tang Yi; if you say that on stage, he might faint.”
“I know.” Fang Xing smiled.
Of course, Fang Xing wouldn’t say that. Although he was a science student, he took the opportunity to write a script. Jiang Zhijin wasn’t present at the time, so Fang Xing even read it twice by himself. Fang Xing always felt that his memory was quite good, so when he went on stage, he directly took off the script.
Shaojiang High School’s auditorium was quite large, enough to accommodate nearly 2,000 people. There were a total of 717 students in the 2021 class of Shaojiang High School. Adding parents, the auditorium was almost full.
Fang Xing’s class was in the central position. As soon as he got on stage, he saw Xu Hang and Jiang Xinxin waving frantically in the crowd. He smiled at them first, then looked at Jiang Zhijin next to them.
It was already spring, and Jiang Zhijin wore a white shirt today. He looked clean and relaxed, standing out among the crowd. He was watching Fang Xing on stage. When Fang Xing’s gaze met Jiang Zhijin’s, Jiang Zhijin smiled at him.
Fang Xing shifted his gaze away, held onto the microphone stand, and began to speak.
“Hello, teachers, students, and parents. I am Fang Xing from Class 3, Senior Grade 3.”
His speech wasn’t long, and the beginning was indeed the usual motivation boost—perseverance, striving forward, fighting for the college entrance examination, no regrets in youth, etc. Jiang Zhijin listened below, admiring him for remembering so many words even when off-script.
Until the last part, Fang Xing paused slightly, and his gaze returned to Jiang Zhijin.
Until his gaze met Jiang Zhijin’s, he continued speaking.
“One hundred days countdown to the college entrance examination. At the same time, I want to thank the teachers, students, parents, and other… very important people who have supported us during this time.”
“Very important people,” Fang Xing said seriously. He raised his head slightly and smiled in the direction of Jiang Zhijin.
“If we were people chasing the moon in the dark all this time, thank you for lighting the way for us. Let us understand, in the stage of ‘just beginning to understand that life is not as easy as we thought in childhood,’ although life is not easy, if it’s for important people, a little effort is worth it.”
“Finally, I wish all the senior students of Shaojiang High School’s 2021 class, no regrets and a bright future.”
Amidst the applause, Fang Xing took a step back and bowed slightly.