Love Notebook of a Reclusive Beautiful Boy - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Du Yu’s gaze suddenly froze.

He looked at the old photograph on the ground, covered by glass shards.

Du Li’s hand was resting on his shoulder, smiling very happily.

Du Yu’s eyes instantly filled with panic.

Du Yu slowly crouched down, his gaze suddenly losing focus as he murmured to himself, “A-Yu is a bad person… A-Yu is a bad person… Brother… Brother… it’s A-Yu… A-Yu is too bad…”

The people around them were somewhat surprised.

“That photo seems to be quite important to him.”

“I don’t think he’s deaf; he might be an idiot.”

“Zhao Youqi, you actually bullied a fool, how shameless.”

…

Zhao Youqi hadn’t expected this to happen. He only wanted to take a look; he didn’t intend to break the boy’s thing.

Originally, he felt a bit of guilt in his heart, but being suddenly accused by everyone, that bit of guilt vanished, replaced by anger born of humiliation.

He raised his hand, just about to swing at Du Yu, when suddenly his hand was gripped fiercely by someone.

Zhao Youqi looked up and saw a tall man.

With anger written on his face, he gripped the boy’s wrist with one hand.

Zhao Youqi cried out in pain, “Let go! What are you doing? Do you know who I am? I’ll call my father—”

Before he could finish, he was interrupted by Jiang Sheng.

“What do you want to do? Want to hit someone? Do you want to try hitting me?”

The words were spoken coldly, carrying a faint, oppressive pressure.

The pain made Zhao Youqi’s voice change as he shouted, “Let go first, quick, let go!”

Jiang Sheng didn’t want to bother too much with these children and flung his hand away.

The force of the fling was somewhat large; Zhao Youqi didn’t stand firmly and stumbled backward several steps.

He touched his wrist, rubbed it, and let out a “hiss,” saying, “It’s all red…”

Then he looked at Jiang Sheng, “Who are you!”

Jiang Sheng ignored him. Someone on the side shouted, “Are you that Eagle God? I saw you before in the Jingang Daily.”

“Who is the Eagle God?”

“The Eagle God who caught Liu Zichen. My brother is at the police station; I heard it from my brother. He said his marksmanship is incredible.”

“So he’s a policeman.”

Zhao Youqi’s brother had been to the police station and had told him about how formidable the police were.

Though he personally looked down on the police, he was still somewhat wary. He gave a huff and said, “Sir, are you mistaken? This is a school, not a crime scene. What are you doing coming here to mess with me?”

Jiang Sheng glanced at him, his tone cold. “Since you know I’m a policeman, you should know that the Jingang police have many ways to make someone ‘eat prison food’ (go to jail). Do you want to eat prison food?”

Not long ago, several cases of wrongful convictions had broken out at the Jingang Police Station, causing the police’s credibility among the public to take a heavy hit.

Zhao Youqi: “Wow, Sir, you’re threatening me!”

Jiang Sheng was merely bluffing. Zhao Youqi wasn’t even as tall as he was; standing before him, the boy had no presence at all.

Jiang Sheng’s gaze grew sharper as he deliberately smiled. “Yes, I am threatening you.”

Jiang Sheng didn’t want to bully these kids; he only wanted them to retreat in the face of difficulty.

Such a threat was more or less effective. Zhao Youqi didn’t want to lose face, so he could only pretend to be tough, saying, “You just wait, I’ll have my father find trouble for you!”

Jiang Sheng didn’t waste any more words with him. He looked down at Du Yu, only to see him crouching, about to reach out and pick up the photo.

On the ground was glass shattered everywhere.

“Don’t.”

Jiang Sheng shouted with some urgency in his voice.

He reached out wanting to stop him, but he wasn’t as fast as Du Yu; Du Yu had already picked up the photo.

The photo was covered in many glass fragments. Broken glass is naturally prone to causing cuts, but when he picked it up, he didn’t have a shred of danger awareness. The broken glass was gripped tightly in his hand, slicing open his palm.

“What are you doing!” Jiang Sheng crouched down, feeling anxious. “Quick, let go!”

He grabbed Du Yu’s wrist, wanting to pry his hand open, but Du Yu had just been stimulated and thought Jiang Sheng was like Zhao Youqi, wanting to snatch the photo.

“Won’t give! Won’t give!”

He fiercely pushed Jiang Sheng away, turned, and ran out.

“A-Yu!”

Jiang Sheng was originally crouching; he had no guard against Du Yu, and he hadn’t expected that when Du Yu became obsessive, his strength would be so great.

His body fell uncontrollably to one side.

He braced his palm downward to maintain his balance.

But as it happened, he pressed right onto the scattered broken glass.

Feeling the pain, he looked down. The glass shards had pierced his hand, and bright red blood was emerging.

He didn’t pay it any mind and hurriedly chased after him.

But he hadn’t expected that Du Yu, who looked frail, actually ran very fast. By the time Jiang Sheng ran out of the classroom, the boy was nowhere to be seen.

The school was so big; where would he go?

Calling him at this time was useless. Usually, one had to call him two or three times to get a reaction; at a time like this, it was out of the question. He had been stimulated and had certainly hidden himself away.

He liked to stay in dark places.

Ideally, where there were no people, because Du Yu didn’t like contact with others.

Darkness, corners, no people…

Relying on this direction, he began to search through the school.

Empty classrooms… stairwells… landscaped gardens…

No matter how he searched, there was no one.

Where could he have run?

Jiang Sheng searched for a long time in the landscaped gardens without seeing anyone. Just as he was about to change locations, he suddenly noticed a small warehouse a bit further away with the door standing open.

So he walked over.

It looked like an abandoned warehouse. This area was being converted into a green space, so it was likely this warehouse would soon be demolished.

Jiang Sheng took a look. There was nothing inside except a modern wooden desk and a cabinet.

The cabinet was shut tight. Jiang Sheng had a premonition.

He pulled open the cabinet door.

And then, he saw Du Yu.

He was crouching, his arms hugging his knees tightly as he curled into a corner, his body trembling slightly. When his vacant gaze saw Jiang Sheng pull open the door and sunlight flooded in, he frantically tried to shrink further into the corner.

“A-Yu.”

Jiang Sheng reached out wanting to soothe him, but as soon as he extended his hand a little, Du Yu shrunk back even more.

His head was against the cabinet surface, and even his voice was trembling, “Don’t, don’t.”

He was already in the corner with no further way to retreat, yet he still kept hugging his knees and squeezing inward.

For a moment, Jiang Sheng didn’t know what to say.

Does he think I’m going to snatch his photo? Jiang Sheng thought.

He was already sensitive and fragile, unable to take stimulation. He held Du Li in such high regard, yet those kids just had to break his photo frame. What was to be done now?

Looking at Du Yu’s startled and chaotic gaze, Jiang Sheng inevitably felt some heartache for this child.

He blamed himself; he hadn’t expected things to evolve to this point.

When he saw those people surrounding Du Yu, he hadn’t thought too much of it. He had originally thought that communicating with others was the first step for Du Yu to move forward—the child had to grow up eventually—so he didn’t interfere.

But by the time he sensed something was wrong, it was already a step too late.

He crouched down, his voice becoming extremely soft and kind, “A-Yu, don’t be afraid.”

At a time like this, facing such a sensitive and special youth, Jiang Sheng had to make himself appear very kind. Du Yu was now stimulated and would not trust anyone.

If he wanted to take him away, he had to make Du Yu believe he wasn’t a bad person.

Du Yu curled his body, shivering slightly.

“I won’t snatch your brother.”

Jiang Sheng wanted to reach out and carefully soothe him, but just as his hand began to unfold, he remembered what happened earlier, clenched it back into a fist, and lowered it.

“Didn’t we also agree to go fly the butterfly kite together…”

Jiang Sheng tried to awaken his memory, saying word by word, “Butterfly, A-Yu, do you remember? But-ter-fly…”

This tactic of shifting attention still had some effect on Du Yu, especially regarding Du Li.

“Butterfly…” Du Yu murmured softly.

His gaze, which had dared not meet Jiang Sheng’s, slowly turned over. With a hint of timidity, he cautiously raised his eyes to look at Jiang Sheng.

Seeing that this tactic worked, Jiang Sheng continued. He tried his best to appear friendly. “Yes, butterfly. The butterfly Brother liked. I’ll accompany A-Yu to go in the future, okay?”

“Butterfly…” “Yes, butterfly.” “Brother…” “Yes, Brother.”

Du Yu remembered the scenes of Du Li taking him to fly kites when he was little. The hands hugging his knees suddenly loosened.

Children always forget quickly.

He looked at the ground as if spacing out. Then he let out a laugh, the smile very faint, with dimples appearing slightly at the corners of his mouth. “A-Yu wants to go.”

Jiang Sheng let out a sigh of relief. “Good, then A-Yu must be obedient.”

Du Yu nodded obediently. “A-Yu is obedient.”

Jiang Sheng glanced at his hand. “Does A-Yu’s hand hurt?”

Du Yu looked at him, his expression ignorant and confused. “Hand…”

Jiang Sheng said, “Yes, hand…”

He reached out and tapped his own palm. “Hand… does it hurt…”

Du Yu imitated him and also extended his hand. It was full of blood and glass fragments. He looked up at Jiang Sheng and weakly uttered a single word: “Hurts.”

Jiang Sheng was helpless; only now did he know it hurt. He had put all his attention on the photo frame; he probably didn’t even know he was injured.

He reached out his hand. “Give me your hand.”

Du Yu hesitated a bit, looking into Jiang Sheng’s eyes. After pausing for quite a while, he slowly extended his hand.

Seeing his hand, Jiang Sheng gave a soft sigh. Then he grasped Du Yu’s wrist and gently began to pick out the glass fragments for him.

Lowering his head, he softly soothed him, “A-Yu has to endure it; it’ll be better in a moment.”

His palm was covered in fragments. Some were embedded deeply and were hard to clean without tools, so he simply picked out the slightly larger ones on the surface with care.

The rest would have to wait until they got back.

He worked very carefully, hardly hurting Du Yu at all. After removing several pieces, perhaps seeing this red palm, he couldn’t help but advise, “Don’t do this again in the future. Don’t hide away, understand?”

But after saying it, Jiang Sheng felt it was somewhat funny—what was he thinking? Why was he saying these things to him? How could he possibly understand?

He shook his head and continued his hard work. He had his head down, his hair a bit messy, and his high, straight nose looked even more sculpted from this angle.

Du Yu looked at him—this man who was going to take him to fly a butterfly kite.

He tilted his head slightly forward to see Jiang Sheng’s face clearly…

There was a trace of curiosity in Du Yu’s gaze as he suddenly asked, “Who are you?”

Jiang Sheng froze for a moment. He raised his head and looked at Du Yu.

A pair of clear eyes looked at Jiang Sheng with a confused expression.

This was the first time he had opened his mouth to ask for his name.

It was also the first time he had become curious about someone else.

If someone else had asked him, it would have been more than normal, but because it was Du Yu asking, it caused Jiang Sheng to stay dazed for a long time.

But he soon recovered and gave Du Yu a slight smile.

“I am Jiang Sheng.”