Long Way Home - Chapter 8

I stopped talking to Lu Feng.

Lu Feng was worse. Even at his age, he hadn't once learnt the spelling of the word "sorry", so how could he be the first to give in? When we had no choice but to meet at times, his face was stiffer than mine.

For a few days, I kept dreaming about Lu Feng. That arrogant fellow would suddenly have a 180 degree change in personality, gently holding my hand as he said, "Xiao Chen, I'm sorry. Please don't ignore me." I would then hold on to his shirt and bawl my eyes out. Waking up after crying halfway, I would find myself still lying on the 80cm single-sized mattress on the top bunk. Poking my head out to take a look at Lu Feng at the lower bunk, I would then find that he was still sleeping soundly.

Cheng Yi Chen, you must be dreaming.

Similar dreams kept repeating themselves, making me secretly call myself stupid every time I see Lu Feng's nonchalant face.

"Xiao Chen, don't be angry, it's all my fault."

I had enough experience this time round. "Stop comforting me, I know I'm dreaming."

As expected, I woke up in the blink of an eye, and just as I was moping, I saw Lu Feng sitting beside me, his head lowered as he looked at me with a small smile. "You're awake? Xiao Chen, let's make up."

I started crying again. "Lu Feng, I just dreamt of you speaking to me, and when I woke up, I was afraid you were going to ignore me again."

Lu Feng was smiling gently, lightly patting my head. "You're not dreaming now. Don't cry."

"Ring-..."

My eyes flew open, my heart beating wildly.

It was the school's wake up call. I sat up, wiped the sweat off my forehead, blankly started into space for a while, then quietly wore my clothes and got off the bed.

Unintentionally, I glanced at Lu Feng's bed. It was empty.

I pondered for a moment. Unable to bear my curiosity, I asked, "Lu Feng didn't return last night?"

The others had just woken up as well, and were in the midst of taking their towels and toothbrushes to wash up. Xiao Shan was looking at the mirror closely, squeezing his pimple as he said with both admiration and jealousy, "Lu Feng ah, you didn't know? He recently started dating the school's goddess and was hardly seen anywhere. I have no idea where he took that girl to last night though. That bastard's fast..."

I stood there stiffly. Only a few days had gone by and he had already gotten himself a girlfriend, going in for the kill with the speed of light. That really sounded like his style. Only a nerd like me would foolishly worry over a friend like this. That fellow Lu Feng was the true definition of easy-going; he didn't even take me seriously. His circle of friends was big anyway, so one less wouldn't matter, unlike me who took my one or two friends as treasures, actually having such a far-fetched dream in a dream. I was ridiculous.

As I thought it through, I slowly started laughing.

"What are you laughing for?"

"Nothing, nothing." I smiled widely as I waved him off.

It was a friendship that lasted for less than half a year, so it wasn't a big deal. I lowered my head to search for my toothbrush and toothpaste; my stomach felt strangely painful.

Lu Feng didn't appear for all four lessons in the morning. I didn't plan on guessing where that person was at or what he was doing and focused on writing my notes and doing practices, using the break time to finish two whole sets of math questions. My productivity level was way higher than usual, shocking my deskmate who exclaimed, "Xiao Chen, you're way too aggressive! You're basically doing these at supersonic speed..."

"The speed at which you solve the questions is very important," I said seriously, "There are so many questions in the exams now, if you don't hurry, you won't be able to complete them." "No wonder you score 20 marks higher than me every time for Chinese..." My deskmate murmured. The Chinese papers were always too long for most people to finish them within two hours; I was probably the only exception.

By afternoon, the lower bunk was still empty. I could no longer continue doing practice questions and instead, started counting sheep.

"403 Cheng Yi Chen, someone's calling for you!" The uncle on duty downstairs shouted.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." I ran downstairs. The only one who would call the school would be my strict father, to call at this time would mean it was an urgent, and most likely bad, matter.

"Dad!"

"Is this Cheng Yi Chen?"

"..." A young woman's voice... I was cheated.

"You are Lu Feng's close friend right?"

I didn't know how I should answer, so I gave an ambiguous "um" in reply.

"That idiotic brother of mine was stabbed for stealing someone else's girlfriend. I don't know if he's dead yet, but do help me go over and take a look at him."

Chapter 7

Chapter 9