After three days, Saturday soon came around.
Taking the train lines of B City, Gu Xiao followed the GPS but, sadly, got lost many times before finally arriving at the set destination.
Examining the residence, he had to blink a few times before confirming if the house before him was even a house and not some movie set. The walls were glistening clean, and the sunlight reflected on the tall glass windows, immediately bringing a tinge of shine and luxury to the exterior. Freshly trimmed hedges travelled down to the main entrance, and a large fountain sat on the side where birds perched and chirped with the noisy cicadas.
Gu Xiao stood in front of the tall gates, and his neck grew sore after staring at the top of the gate for too long.
He had thought about this before, but he kept thinking about it again and again. He knew Lan Yuning was filthy rich, but this was beyond his imagination. Everything about him never ceased to amaze him.
However, beneath that awe and surprise laid hints of solemnness when he saw this house. He wasn't feeling melancholic for himself, but for Lan Yuning.
Ringing the bell, someone walked out and opened the gates for him. He assumed this man was his driver, since he remembered vaguely seeing this face when Lan Yuning got picked up.
When Gu Xiao finally stepped into the house, Zhang Yongyin immediately tackled him down.
"Why are you so late?"
"I got lost. When did you get here?"
"Thirty minutes ago."
Lan Yuning walked downstairs, and he and the man exchanged glances, or more like him, glaring with contempt as though he was telling the man to leave.
Although the reason behind Lan Yuning's looks was vague, it definitely wasn't a sort of friendly look, and the man didn't look all too pleased either. However, he walked away in the end.
"Student President!" Gu Xiao beamed brightly that lifted the sunken tension in the air.
As always, Lan Yuning just responded with a word that was too quiet for his ears to hear. But it was probably just a sigh.
Entering his room, a large bed on the side with an entire wall window reaching from the ground to the ceiling. There was even a balcony outside the window that had a complete set of polished tables and chairs. Nothing was out of place.
Song Anwen waved with a gentle smile. "Gu Xiao, you're here."
"Yeah, sorry for being late."
Although Gu Xiao would typically behave recklessly, something about the environment pressed him down.
He had been stealing multiple glances at Lan Yuning ever since he came. Seeing him in any other clothes other than the school or gym uniform was something new to his eyes. Although he was simply wearing another plain white t-shirt and shorts, those simple clothes somehow looked different on him.
Lan Yuning returned his stares back after Gu Xiao countlessly kept glimpsing at him. With his refined face, his pair of clouded eyes instantly washed Gu Xiao's mind into a state of vacuity.
As always, Gu Xiao offered another foolish smile, and the other shunted his laughter, walking down to the table.
Lan Yuning had two different types of silences. One was the silence he used as a response, and it was up to the listener to decide whether he meant yes, no, or a greeting. And the other was the silence of being absorbed in his thoughts.
"Still bitter as always," Gu Xiao mumbled to himself.
The four all sat down, and the work was going smoothly. Excluding whatever was going on the other side of the table.
Zhang Yongyin would randomly blank out like he was astral projecting his soul into another universe, while Gu Xiao would sometimes just pass out and wake up after a few minutes like he was a broken computer that kept shutting down and reopening.
On the other hand, Song Anwen tried his best to direct the two with such patience and warmth that every time he smiled, it was like an angel was bestowed upon them.
Sitting in front of him, Lan Yuning completed all his sections diligently with high-quality research and even finished the citation chart.
However, Song Anwen and Lan Yuning were still exchanging feedback to improve their slides, while the other two fought over something extremely crucial.
"If you use a big font, it will push the bottom sentence on the radioactive isotopes," Gu Xiao complained.
"But if you minimise it to twelve, then the title will look like it's part of the content."
"Well, why is it such a bright red with yellow highlight? Do you want our dear classmates' eyes to bleed? Might as well make it rainbow!"
"Well, rainbow sounds good."
...
As the two continued pushing and shoving over the laptop, Song Anwen, who was talking to Lan Yuning about their research, realised Lan Yuning's mind had already drifted off somewhere else.
Glancing up, Song Anwen saw Lan Yuning watching the two arguing about the font and colour of text, slightly intrigued by their passion for their slides' artistic quality.
Zhang Yongyin's eyes wandered around Lan Yuning's room, and his eyes widened, immediately jolting up. The sudden movement made the other three dart their gaze towards him in curiosity.
"Student President, you met D.K Park?! Do you do taekwondo?" Zhang Yongyin beamed and pointed to a small framed photo laying on his table.
It was a photo of Lan Yuning when he was in junior high school and beside him was a man in a taekwondo uniform. Zhang Yongyin immediately knew it was during the Korean National Championships because of the setting the photo was taken in.
"I don't," Lan Yuning said. "My father brought me to watch the championships since he is friends with D.K Park."
Both Gu Xiao and Zhang Yongyin's mouth gaped at Lan Yuning's words, but Gu Xiao didn't even know why he was shocked since he wasn't that educated in taekwondo.
"Wait, who's D.K Park?" Gu Xiao asked.
"Don't you remember my idol? When all I did every day was watch interviews and matches? It was all D.K Park. The one who is considered to be the grandmaster of taekwondo. He has won over one-hundred and fifty international championship competitions before settling in the United States. He's going to be at the Olympics in Tokyo this year. I've always wanted to meet him! I'm so jealous of you," Zhang Yongyin sulked.
"Do you want to get into the national team?" Song Anwen asked.
That question forced Zhang Yongyin's smile to falter, and Gu Xiao knew why he was hesitating to answer. In the past, when people asked him this question, Zhang Yongyin's answer was always yes.
Seeing the athlete that he had admired for so long, and the sport that he slowly distanced himself from, all arise at this moment, Gu Xiao knew Zhang Yongyin couldn't help but be seized by this strange feeling.
Their past in Shanghai still haunted both of them. For Zhang Yongyin, the distance he forced between him and taekwondo was still there, though the cracks had gradually begun mending themselves last year.
Zhang Yongyin was clearly so passionate about it, but to make it to the national team seemed like it would always be a dream.
He laughed, though a lingering regret filled his eyes. "It would be great if I can."
"You've been chasing after D.K Park for years. You can't just give up now."
"Thank you, but that sounds very ironic coming from you," Zhang Yongyin said to Gu Xiao which forced Gu Xiao to shut his mouth.
"...I can try ask my father to see when D.K Park has time if you want to talk to hi—"
"What? Really?" Zhang Yongyin stammered. "Can you really do that? Isn't he really busy?"
Lan Yuning was stunned by his excitement that he was relatively guilty about raising his hopes.
"I will try..."
Zhang Yongyin began bowing and excessively thanking Lan Yuning, with tears soaking his eyes. While Gu Xiao watched this scene, something inside him dropped away, and a rushing warmth came to fill in the empty shell.
Listening to Zhang Yongyin's eyes light up when he spoke about taekwondo—a sport that brought him to ruin just a few years ago—with such gaiety, it was clear to Gu Xiao that Zhang Yongyin didn't let his passions die out.
The whole conversation triggered Gu Xiao profoundly with a throbbing heart. It was admirable. Gu Xiao was happy that Zhang Yongyin was no longer torturing himself or running away from his dreams, but what about him? What exactly was he doing right now?
This was the same feeling of joy yet lost when he watched others striving for success towards their goals. It wasn't that Gu Xiao didn't know what he wanted to do, but he was still recovering from the past that his body and mind refused to do anything or function like a "normal" person.
But this is okay. I am happy. I am happy where I am at now. I am doing everything I can.
He kept telling himself this, and eventually, he believed it.
"Alright. Let's get this physics PowerPoint over and done with!" Song Anwen said.
The four started working diligently, and surprisingly, so was Gu Xiao.