Translator: Reiyu; Editors: playerprophet, Pyrrhae

During the day on Sunday, Lin Feiran used Gu Kaifeng's computer again for research.

Last night after Gu Kaifeng had fallen asleep, Lin Feiran spent a long time turning things over in his head. The largest obstacle in solving the old princ.i.p.al's problem was that Lin Feiran had no way of communicating with him. But even though Lin Feiran could not, maybe other people who met certain conditions could?

For example, the students who the old princ.i.p.al had saved back then.

If the old princ.i.p.al could see with his own eyes the students he had worried about for all these years, perhaps his obsession would ease a little. With his obsession reduced, it was likely he would come back to himself.

The students were in their teens at the time, but now they would be over eighty. Lin Feiran was not sure the old princ.i.p.al would recognize them if he saw them. But aside from this method, Lin Feiran could think of no other solution…

With this as a hypothesis, Lin Feiran went through the names in the student record for that year. Fortunately, among these students, several were still living, including the girl the old princ.i.p.al had saved back then. But the real problem was that these students who had walked out from beneath the fires of war were now in very different positions in life. Among them were retired leaders, scientific researchers who had made great contributions, and well-known scholars. Lin Feiran had no way of contacting them, and even if he did, it would be useless. He was only an ordinary high school student, and could hardly invite these senior leaders and researchers to the school with a single phone call.

Lin Feiran noted in his phone these students' names and some other information, then turned off the computer and lay spread-eagle on Gu Kaifeng's bed. The scent of Gu Kaifeng's body wash still lingered on the sheets and pillowcases, a faint and refreshing woodsy scent. When Lin Feiran smelled it, he immediately recalled what had happened on this bed the previous night, and a rush of hot blood surged through his body. It was so sweet and so shameful that he could not help hugging the pillow and rolling around on the bed, his head full of 'ah ah ah ah ah!!!'

Since this morning, the moment Lin Feiran thought of it, he would get so excited he could not help himself!

So, when Gu Kaifeng subsequently walked in with ice cream, he silently watched Lin Feiran roll around on the bed in fits of silly laughter…

Lin Feiran hugged the pillow and kicked his legs twice, marking the end of his venting, and then sat up calmly. His gaze met that of Gu Kaifeng who had been watching the show from the side.

The corners of Gu Kaifeng's lips twitched; it was excruciating holding back his laughter. He asked, even though he knew the answer, "What makes you so happy?"

Lin Feiran: "……"

"Come, eat some ice cream." Gu Kaifeng removed the lid and fed Lin Feiran a spoonful of macadamia nut ice cream, saying, "It'll calm you down."

In embarra.s.sment, Lin Feiran opened his mouth and ate it.

The ice cream he had given to the little girl's ghost last week in offering was also macadamiflavored. The little girl's ghost had said it was the flavor she liked most, and out of concern that she would not get to eat as much as she wanted, Lin Feiran bought five boxes and offered them all to her. Ghosts would not get stomach aches and did not have to worry about tooth decay, anyway. Gu Kaifeng, who was very attentive to things like this, misunderstood that Lin Feiran liked that flavor of ice cream.

Just last night, Lin Feiran had gotten hungry in the middle of the night and went downstairs to find food. The moment he opened the freezer door, he had seen a small mountain of macadamiflavored ice cream. Looking at that macadamia ice cream mountain, his heart had become toasty warm.

Gu Kaifeng fed him several spoonfuls and confirmed, "I remember that you like this flavor?"

"I do!" Lin Feiran nodded forcefully.

Indeed. He liked it beginning today.

Gu Kaifeng opened a tub for himself and started eating. The two good-looking youths sat side by side on the edge of the bed. The especially radiant sunshine of the afternoon painted a warm yellow patch on their backs, and a Yorkie lay on his side, intimately curled up with his head resting on one of their cotton slippers. Time itself seemed to take form, becoming a soft and warm liquid that filled the entire bedroom.

"Oh yeah," Gu Kaifeng swallowed a mouthful of ice cream and asked, "Do you play golf?"

Lin Feiran shook his head. "I've never played."

"I'll teach you. I play well," Gu Kaifeng said confidently. "A friend of my father's opened a golf club. He's free next weekend and wants to take us for a game."

Lin Feiran obediently hummed in a.s.sent. Not only was he not envious of Gu Kaifeng having a skill over him, he was even faintly proud.

Indeed, he's worthy of being my, Lin Feiran's, boyfriend! Aside from singing and playing the piano, there's nothing he can't do!

But at the mention of Gu Kaifeng's father, Lin Feiran remembered that he had previously donated money to the school. A flash of inspiration came to him and his eyes lit up as he looked Gu Kaifeng's way and asked, "Can I ask, is your father…"

Gu Kaifeng corrected, "Our father."

Lin Feiran hesitated, and in the end he could not bring himself to say it. He altered his words and said instead, "Is uncle's relationship with the princ.i.p.al good?"

"Seems all right. They've had a meal together before. What about it?" Gu Kaifeng's gaze remained on Lin Feiran's face for a moment and said with understanding, "Are you looking for the princ.i.p.al for something?"

Lin Feiran scratched the tip of his nose, feeling awkward. "Yes."

"Tell me what it is, and I'll tell my dad," Gu Kaifeng took it upon himself without hesitation. "As long as it doesn't go against the school rules, it should be no problem."

"It's…" Lin Feiran pulled up the notes on his phone and pointed to the list of names. Nervously, he said, "The 12th of December is our school's 95th anniversary, isn't it? These are all old alumni of this school. Then…" Lin Feiran was aware that this request sounded very strange. He swallowed and said in a small voice, "Could you ask the princ.i.p.al to invite these alumni to partic.i.p.ate in the next anniversary celebration? They're all retired leaders, scholars and scientists, so there's educational value to invite them as our role models."

Hearing this, Gu Kaifeng looked very confused. He stuck his little finger into his ear and verified, "You want to invite these alumni to partic.i.p.ate in the school's anniversary. I didn't hear wrong, did I?"

Lin Feiran hung his head, knowing Gu Kaifeng had a point. "You heard right."

Gu Kaifeng frowned slightly. "These are your idols?"

Lin Feiran explained awkwardly, "No, I just think it'd be good to invite them. Just a suggestion…"

Gu Kaifeng exhaled heavily and said with gravity, "RanRan."

Lin Feiran heard that his tone was off and hastily said, "Don't bother telling uncle. It was just a pa.s.sing thought."

Gu Kaifeng waved his hand and uttered with some hidden bitterness, "Somehow, I feel like I'm not good enough for you. Your way of thinking is so lofty. Last night, the atmosphere was so good yet you urged me to do my homework, and today, you took the initiative to make a request, and it's for something like this."

This wife was really something. Even when he was acting cute, he danced to his own tune!

Lin Feiran was at a complete loss for what to say.

Gu Kaifeng contemplated the future with some worry, "When we go to university, will you make me memorize the Party Const.i.tution? If I recite it once you'll let me do that once, and if I fail to, you won't let me?"

Lin Feiran's face turned red and, seething, he jabbed Gu Kaifeng in the ribs. "What are you talking about!"

"Just having fun." Gu Kaifeng kissed the corner of Lin Feiran's lips, which were sweet and stained with ice cream. He patted his chest and promised, "This is such a trivial thing. I'll tell my dad right away. For the 95th anniversary celebration we need to invite alumni to give speeches anyway, don't we? We might as well invite these people. There's a lot of educational value."

Lin Feiran had not expected that things would be settled so easily. He sighed with relief and said, "Thank you."

He was not expressing his thanks because Gu Kaifeng was enough of a stranger that he needed to be formal, but out of habit.

"'Thank you', really?" Gu Kaifeng joked. "Then I'd better think properly about what you can do to show your grat.i.tude. Shall we take care of it now?"

Lin Feiran's eyes, illuminated by the sunlight, shone clear and bright. Somewhat hesitantly, he opened his mouth, "Even without this, you'd still do whatever you want to, wouldn't you…"

Otherwise, what would be the difference between being boyfriends and not being boyfriends?!

But these words of Lin Feiran became quieter and quieter as Gu Kaifeng visibly transformed into a wolf, the final "you" basically nothing more than a movement of his mouth.

"Then come on, baby. You said it yourself, I'll do what I want to do." Gu Kaifeng made an exaggerated show of rubbing his hands together, revealing a perfectly lecherous smile. Like a hungry tiger pouncing on its food, he pushed Lin Feiran down onto the bed.

Lin Feiran's eyelids were lowered shyly, but he did not fight and only lay obediently under Gu Kaifeng's body.

But Gu Kaifeng only kissed his cheek, like a dragonfly skimming the surface of the water, and then let him go.

Lin Feiran touched his cheek, confused. "Just that?"

Gu Kaifeng was driven to madness by this unintentional, artless teasing. He grit his teeth. "f.u.c.k, why have you become so obedient now?"

Lin Feiran opened his eyes wide. "…Have I?"

"You're still teasing!"

So Lin Feiran got his wish, the 'meal set' x 1 of being kissed, bitten and touched all over.

Peaceful and happy days pa.s.sed one by one in this way. Through Gu Kaifeng's information network, Lin Feiran learned that the school had agreed to invite those alumni to partic.i.p.ate in the 95th anniversary celebration. It was still up in the air whether they would be able to attend, but at least there was hope.

Lately, Lin Feiran tried to make it to the school gates after the last period in the afternoon ended. Indeed, he saw the scene of the old princ.i.p.al sacrificing himself many times. As he had guessed, the old princ.i.p.al would relive his death every day at the same time. Lin Feiran had tried to communicate with the old princ.i.p.al several times, but no matter how Lin Feiran began, it would end with the old princ.i.p.al lecturing him. Lin Feiran had no recourse but to wait patiently for the school's anniversary celebration.

December 12th came quickly. The anniversary celebration was organized for the morning, and the cla.s.ses that would be disrupted by the celebration were instead pushed back to the afternoon and evening self-study periods.

At 8 in the morning, all the students and teachers in the school a.s.sembled in the auditorium where the Culture and Arts Festival had taken place. The auditorium sported a simple setup: a long table stood on the stage, and on its surface were name cards. Aside from the school leaders, there were five names that were unfamiliar to the other students. Those were the five alumni Lin Feiran had found.

All five of them attended.

The students in Lin Feiran's cla.s.s lined up according to their height in two lines, with boys on one side and girls on the other. When they reached the seats reserved for them, they filed in in order and sat down. Lin Feiran was eighth in the boys' line and Gu Kaifeng was first, so there were six people between them. Not even ten minutes after they sat down, Gu Kaifeng sidled over and whispered to Zhang Xu, "Bro, let's swap seats."

Zhang Xu stood up and went to sit in Gu Kaifeng's seat. Taking advantage of the darkness in the hall, Gu Kaifeng extended his hand and pinched Lin Feiran's waist. w.a.n.g Zhuo whistled and heckled with a smiling face, "Oh geeze, even when attending the school's anniversary celebration, you two have to have lovers' seats? So lovey-dovey!"

He Hao, who was sitting in the 'lovers' seat' with w.a.n.g Zhuo, pinched w.a.n.g Zhuo's arm and warned, "Old Zheng is glaring at you."

w.a.n.g Zhuo immediately put away his monkey's tail, sitting up straight in a second.

"Ms. Zheng is watching you from behind, so stop touching me." In order to open his Yin-Yang eyes, Lin Feiran carefully put some distance between him and Gu Kaifeng.

Gu Kaifeng dragged out his voice and whined, "Fiiiine—"

Seeing his little wolf's ears droop, Lin Feiran quickly leaned over and bit Gu Kaifeng's ear, adding, "Touch all you like once we get back to the dorm."

Consequently, the little wolf's pointed ears stood up again with a whoosh!

Several minutes later, Lin Feiran's Yin-Yang eyes opened. He held back his fear and started looking around at the audience, which was composed half with humans and half with ghosts…

The ghost of the valedictorian with the lolling tongue sat proper and upright on Zhang Xu's neck, balancing precariously, his arms folded over his chest. Maybe he was in a good mood today, because the long tongue hanging over his chest seemed exceptionally vivid…

The little girl's ghost sat on Ms. Zheng's lap, quietly playing with her doll. Her body was so faded she had almost entirely disappeared. If Lin Feiran had not known beforehand that she would be by Ms. Zheng's side, he might not even have noticed her when he glanced over…

And the beautiful female ghost who had scared Lin Feiran in the mirror backstage was now wearing a costume, mimicking with exaggeration the severe expression of the princ.i.p.al behind the podium…

After a while, the ghost with whom Lin Feiran was very familiar appeared. The old school founder with half a head pa.s.sed through the door and entered. He walked down the long aisle and looked with half an expression of anger at these students. Even though it was broad daylight, they were not studying, and had instead run out to make trouble.

Even the teachers were not holding cla.s.s!

This was exceptionally outrageous!

Right at that moment, the celebration for the anniversary of the school's founding officially began. Students supported the five elderly alumni as they walked out from backstage and shook hands with the school leaders, then sat down behind the podium. The audience gave a smattering of unenthusiastic applause.

The students all found it boring! Even Gu Kaifeng just clapped three times for politeness's sake.

Among these five alumni were three old men and two old women. Lin Feiran narrowed his eyes and tried very hard to distinguish them, trying to identify the female student who the old princ.i.p.al had given his life to save. But the photos on Xikipedia were too different from their current appearances, and Lin Feiran could not tell which of the old grannies was the girl from the past.

But the old princ.i.p.al seemed to know…

It was completely inexplicable from a common sense point of view. The old princ.i.p.al was muddled in the head and could not even understand speech, and even confused the sound of a car horn for a police siren. Logically, it should have been impossible for the old princ.i.p.al to recognize five people whose looks had completely changed. But when those five alumni appeared onstage, the old princ.i.p.al's gaze, which was scanning the hall, suddenly came to a halt.

Lin Feiran had an aisle seat, and the old princ.i.p.al was standing only two meters from him. He could clearly hear the school founder's old and tremulous voice ring out from behind his right.

"Li Jingshu… Zhang Shunying… w.a.n.g Youqing…"Word by word, he steadily p.r.o.nounced the names of the five old people. "Liu Guangzhi… Xu Chengyong…"

Those five names were identical to the five names Lin Feiran had recorded on his phone, with not a single mistake among them.

T/N: Apologies for the late release; this chapter was longer than usual. Chapter 49 will be released sometime this week as well.