Chapter 20

Xia Xingcheng was sick for two days, and on the third day he recovered a little bit of vigor and continued filming.

That night, the weather was especially hot. Fang Jianyuan took a shower and turned on the floor fan the moment he came out of the bath. He aimed the blast of wind at himself and felt a little cooler.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, his two pale thin legs stretching out of his shorts. Instead of wearing his slippers, he stepped on them with the heels of his feet and spread his toes wide to blow-dry them with the wind as quickly as possible.

It was quiet upstairs.

Fang Jianyuan leaned back, propping his elbows on the bed, and looked up at the ceiling. He knew that Yu Haiyang was not yet home.

The small building's soundproofing was not particularly great, and sometimes in the next room, his mother would crank the TV volume up so loudly that he'd be able to hear it clearly.

When Yu Haiyang comes back, Fang Jianyuan would be able to distinctly hear the tread of his footsteps on each staircase.

Fang Jianyuan took a quick glance at the alarm clock on the bedside table. It was already way past 10 o'clock.

At this moment, the noise of the fan in the room suddenly became louder.

Fang Jianyuan then turned his attention from the alarm clock to his floor fan.

The fan produced a wailing sound, which sounded like the painful whine of the internal machinery. Although the sound was loud, the fan's rotation was slowing down little by little. Fang Jianyuan stared at it in a daze, and as soon as it almost came to a stop, it abruptly began to speed up again, the fan's blades rotating violently. Persisting for a while, it didn't take long before the fan slowed down once more.

After a few turns of this back and forth, the fan's noise suddenly ceased, the room becoming quiet all at once. The fan's blades rotated a few times from the remaining inertia and then feebly came to a stop.

Fang Jianyuan got up from the bed, tucked his feet into his slippers, and walked up to the electric fan, slapping at its big drooping head.

There was no response.

Fang Jianyuan pulled the fan's plug from the wall socket and plugged it back in, but the fan still did not respond.

It seemed that this fan had finally broken down.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on Fang Jianyuan's forehead.

He turned off the light in the room, opened the window as far as it would go, and sat quietly on the desk in front of the window.

Although it was nighttime, there was not a single trace of wind blowing in, and all Fang Jianyuan could feel was the muggy summer heat which was brimming with moisture that wrapped around his entire body and rushed to get into every pore, rapidly turning into a stream of sweat.

Apparently, his peace of mind couldn't be cooled naturally, Fang Jianyuan thought to himself, besides, Fang Jianyuan's mind was not calm at all.

Staying in this hot and stuffy room was indeed difficult to bear. He finally remembered that there was another floor fan in the grocery store downstairs that was currently unused.

Fang Jianyuan jumped off the table and quickly left the room to head downstairs.

He hadn't turned on the lights on the way down. Light shone in through the glass window at the corner of the stairs, and each stair was vaguely visible.

The grocery store on the first floor was a little darker. Fang Jianyuan crouched down, groping about for the fan's plug in the dark.

At this time, the small wooden door on the left side of the grocery store's entrance was opened from the outside.

When Yu Haiyang stepped across the threshold and came in, he heard a noise in the dark that showed a sign of movement and asked, "Who is it?"

Fang Jianyuan felt the plug in his hand at last, pulled it out, and stood up.

Yu Haiyang also fumbled for the light switch on the wall, then lightly pulled it to turn on the incandescent lamp on top.

Fang Jianyuan's eyes abruptly registered the sudden brightness, and he narrowed his eyes uncomfortably.

Yu Haiyang also saw him clearly, and reached out to close the small wooden door, standing still.

Fang Jianyuan adapted to the light and saw Yu Haiyang looking at him with a smile on his face. He looked down at himself to find that his sleeping clothes, a white tank top, had been pulled loose to one side, exposing the light-colored nipple on his bare chest.

Panicking, he uncomfortably pulled his tank top back in place.

Yu Haiyang took a step forward, looking at him and yet not saying a word.

Fang Jianyuan also made no sound, and he bent down to pick up the fan, then half carried it and half dragged it to the direction of the stairs.