Time Has Grown Dim, And Evening Has Already Fallen - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Grandmother had lived alone all these years, but she couldn’t bear to see such a young child living in loneliness. In the end, she brought him home to take proper care of him.

Since Cheng Xun’s household registration (hukou) couldn’t be registered under her own home, Grandma had to ask an old friend for a favor to register Cheng Xun under his name.

The old friend was formerly a Chinese teacher at the County First Elementary School—a warm-hearted old man. Unfortunately, his wife had passed away early, and he never remarried or had children of his own.

A few years ago, after retiring, he sold his house in the county seat and moved back to his rural hometown to live out his retirement. During holidays, Grandma would take Cheng Xun to visit him.

They had long since become family. Cheng Xun was very sensible; not wanting Grandma to work too hard, he constantly worked various part-time jobs and odd gigs.

In this small county, regulations regarding the age of workers were relatively relaxed. Besides, Cheng Xun was tall and slender, and he didn’t look underage at all.

Thus, even though Lu Xingshu had never met Cheng Xun, he had already come to know him completely through Grandma’s stories.

Grandma’s house was an old-style street-front building, with the first floor serving as a small convenience store she managed herself.

The layout of the entire house consisted of the shop in the front room and a small kitchen with a small dining table in the back room—that was where they ate.

Behind the door was the staircase leading to the second floor. The second floor consisted of two bedrooms, a living room, and a bathroom, though everything was quite small and cramped.

Lu Xingshu’s luggage was temporarily placed in the living room; the small space felt almost entirely filled just by the presence of a worn-out fabric sofa.

“We still need to ask about the school… It would be best if you could go to the First High School or Second High School,” Grandma’s voice pulled him back from his thoughts.

The First High School was the key high school of C County, boasting the best teaching staff and student quality, while the Second High School was slightly lower in rank. Aside from these two, the other ordinary high schools were all roughly the same.

Cheng Xun attended Ninth High, which was ranked in the lower-middle tier. He chose this school primarily because it was closest to home, and secondly, because his grades were average.

The school was just two blocks away from their house, making the commute very convenient.

Cheng Xun listened quietly to Grandma speaking, focusing on his meal without offering any opinion.

The First and Second High Schools had always been strict about admissions. Given Lu Xingshu’s situation, he would likely have to repeat the second year of high school (Grade 11). Without connections, it was basically impossible to get into those two schools, even if his transcript was excellent.

Cheng Xun knew nothing about Lu Xingshu’s past—skipping classes, fighting, and going to internet cafes—at his previous school. He only knew the guy had exceptionally good grades, and simply judged him to be a quiet, “good” student.

If Grandma had any familiar connections worth mentioning, it was actually the Dean of Students at Ninth High…

The back room and the shop were separated by a glass door. While they ate, they had pulled down the exterior rolling shutter and hung a “Closed” sign.

After eating, Cheng Xun began helping to tidy the kitchen and wash the dishes. Because the overall space was so small, it had to be kept clean to prevent pests.

Once finished, Cheng Xun raised the rolling shutter and sat at the counter to help mind the shop, while Grandma accompanied Lu Xingshu upstairs to unpack his luggage.

Cheng Xun had already taken out his notebooks and started writing his homework, racing against time. A small electric fan on the counter hummed, nearly blowing his papers away.

Grandma kept muttering about the school as they went upstairs, but Lu Xingshu had already made a decision in his heart.

“It doesn’t matter which school I go to,” the boy paused, his voice deep. “I don’t want to cause you trouble.”

Grandma just smiled. “How could it be a trouble… it’s just looking for connections and asking for a favor.”

Lu Xingshu naturally knew it wasn’t that easy. He thought for a moment, suddenly recalling the school Grandma had mentioned for Cheng Xun.

“Ninth High is fine,” he said casually.

Grandma paused and glanced at him, then let out a sigh and said slowly, “Ninth High is close to home, but the school is quite ordinary. Your grades are so good, Xiao Shu. It would be a waste for you to go to Ninth High.”

“They aren’t that good,” Lu Xingshu said truthfully. His records were full of “black marks”; he was by no means a “good student.” Key high schools that cared about their reputation probably wouldn’t want him anyway.

Hearing him say this, Grandma didn’t say anything more, feeling heartache for her grandson’s “sensibility.”

In fact, having not seen each other for so many years, Grandma had feared their estrangement and was afraid that Lu’s father and that woman would raise Lu Xingshu to be a bad kid.

But fortunately, he didn’t seem to have turned out “crooked.”

Clearly, Grandma—just like Cheng Xun—had only seen his transcript.

She hadn’t expected the relatives on the Lu side to be so cold-hearted. Back when the Lu family was wealthy, many people had come to claim kinship and seek favors, but now that trouble had struck, they had all scattered.

No matter; they would just live well from now on.

Once Grandma came to terms with it, she briskly helped Lu Xingshu unpack.

He hadn’t brought much—mostly clothes and a laptop—though Grandma’s house didn’t have broadband, so he couldn’t get online.

Grandma looked at the bed in Cheng Xun’s bedroom. It was a wooden single bed; it was fine for just Cheng Xun, but it would be difficult for two big boys to sleep there.

She looked at Lu Xingshu with some hesitation. “Squeeze in with Xiao Xun for now. We’ll go buy a bunk bed in a while.” She scanned the room and added, “We can buy another desk first.”

Lu Xingshu looked down at the bed and shook his head. “It’s fine.”

The room was cramped with little furniture. A bed was pushed against the wall with a very small nightstand. The desk was placed under the window with an old-fashioned swivel chair. To the side were a bookshelf and a wardrobe placed side-by-side. These few pieces of furniture already filled the room to capacity.

Now, the wardrobe was stuffed with clothes from both of them.

The desk also felt aged, made of a faded wood color. However, the surface was kept very clean and held quite a few books. The bookshelf was filled with Cheng Xun’s books; looking closely, one could see there were quite a lot of novels.

Cheng Xun worked on his homework while watching the shop. Since installing a security camera in the store, shoplifting had decreased significantly.

Grandma had originally planned to use that money to buy him a second-hand computer and get broadband, but Cheng Xun refused, no matter what.

Anyway, he could look up many things on his phone now. If he absolutely needed the internet for schoolwork, he could go to the internet cafe at the corner of the street.

Besides, the son of the internet cafe owner was his friend, so he got a discount there.

Although everyone said the teaching quality at Ninth High was average, in Cheng Xun’s view, the teachers were quite responsible. It was just that the students had their own ideas; some people just didn’t like to study or do homework, and there was nothing you could do about them.

Once his homework was mostly finished, Cheng Xun began packing his books and notebooks into his black backpack. Just then, Grandma led Lu Xingshu downstairs. He looked toward the stairs and unintentionally met the boy’s eyes.

Inner double eyelids, shallow folds, and “puppy eyes” that drooped slightly at the corners. Unfortunately, paired with his naturally cold expression, it only made him seem distant.

Subconsciously, Cheng Xun blinked at him.

He wasn’t someone who smiled much, yet he had a gentle and harmless face. His soft features often gave people the false impression that he had a good temper.

Grandma picked out some gifts and wrapped them up. After giving the two boys a few instructions, she headed out.

Lu Xingshu also sat down at the counter, right next to Cheng Xun.

For a moment, the atmosphere was quiet and silent; neither spoke.

In the end, it was Cheng Xun who broke the silence.

“Actually, our Ninth High is okay.”

Cheng Xun gave a fair assessment of his high school—not exactly an endorsement, but an honest one.

He was wearing a beige cotton T-shirt, and the fan was blowing his medium-length black hair into a bit of a mess.

Lu Xingshu tapped on his phone and replied simply, “I know.”

Cheng Xun gave an “oh” and added, “It’s just that some people aren’t very well-behaved. It’s not as chaotic as people say, though.”

Probably just some small-time punks and the like, Lu Xingshu thought. He didn’t take it to heart; after all, he wasn’t exactly a “goody-two-shoes” himself.

“Are you going to repeat your second year then?” Cheng Xun asked again.

Cheng Xun knew a bit about Lu Xingshu’s situation; Grandma hadn’t kept the fact that he had taken a leave of absence from him.

“Yeah,” the boy replied somewhat absent-mindedly, his voice low.

Cheng Xun felt a genuine pang of sympathy. “You were already in the second semester; it’s such a loss to take a leave. If you transfer, you have to go through the second year all over again. Just thinking about it is annoying.”

“It’s alright,” Lu Xingshu paused. “Too much happened during this period. I wasn’t really learning much anyway.”

Cheng Xun was surprised that he was so open-minded about it.

The slightly warmer atmosphere soon fell back into silence. Cheng Xun understood that Lu Xingshu probably didn’t want to talk too much, so he stopped speaking. The two sat side-by-side behind the counter. Occasionally, when someone came to buy something, Cheng Xun would handle the transaction.

Watching his practiced way of handling the cash register, Lu Xingshu couldn’t help but lift his eyelids to steal a few glances at him.

Many children came to the store, noisily looking for candy, and it seemed they were all quite familiar with Cheng Xun.

Being neighbors in the street, Grandma’s shop had been open for a long time, so naturally, there were many regular customers.

Grandma returned quite late, but she had a look of joy on her face. It seemed that Lu Xingshu’s school transfer was settled.

Cheng Xun thought to himself: As expected, Ninth High is still more casual about these things.

At night.

While Lu Xingshu went to shower, Cheng Xun turned the air conditioner in the room to a comfortable temperature, then went to Grandma’s room to grab an extra pillow.

Two big guys sleeping in a 1.5-meter (full-size) bed was indeed a bit tight.

Cheng Xun debated whether he should just find a straw mat and sleep on the floor, but the floor of this old house hadn’t been deep-cleaned and wasn’t fit for sleeping.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to sleep in the living room. Although the living room was small, there was a fabric sofa—even if it was old.

Unfortunately, after standing in the living room for just a moment, Cheng Xun was overwhelmed by the heat.

It’s hard to go from luxury to poverty; life without air conditioning was hard to endure.

When Grandma saw him standing in the living room looking conflicted, she immediately understood his plan. She half-pushed and half-scolded him back into the bedroom.

“Oh my, it’s so hot today! There’s no AC in the living room. You’ll die of heat sleeping on the sofa!”

Air conditioning was only installed in the two bedrooms.

Cheng Xun twitched the corner of his mouth awkwardly. “I was just afraid he would find it too crowded.”