Chapter 89: Kiss Before Leaving
In the months of November and December, although Haicheng had not become bone-chillingly cold yet, a hint of damp chill could already be felt in the air.
In the early morning, Yin Chang held the warm Shao Junling in his arms, feeling too comfortable to get out of bed. However, a new alarm tone rang from beside them.
Immediately after, the "little warm stove" in his arms started to fidget.
"...Did you set it?" Yin Chang frowned.
"Yeah." Shao Junling picked up his phone and turned off the sound.
Yin Chang unconsciously tightened his arms. "What are you doing so early?" he asked with a lazy tone.
"Running," Shao Junling wriggled and got out of Yin Chang's embrace, "I have to start training for the upcoming red belt exam. My coach wants me to run three kilometers every day to improve my physical fitness."
"Can't you run at night?" Displeasure could be heard in Yin Chang's voice.
"I don't have enough time at night." Shao Junling quickly put on his clothes. He looked towards his still sleeping brother, and reached out to pull the blanket over him.
At this moment, Yin Chang suddenly grabbed his wrist and unconsciously murmured, "Kiss me before you go..."
Shao Junling was stunned, and his face turned completely red with embarrassment. He struggled to shake off Yin Chang's hold and ran away as fast as he could.
Yin Chang furrowed his brows slightly, still in a daze as he dreamt.
He dreamed of when he was a child. Before Yin Dong left for a long journey, he would lift him up and say, "Kiss me before I go." His handsome and gentle father's face was close, with nothing but reluctance in his eyes. Yin Chang clung tightly to his father's neck and also kissed his forehead affectionately...
The warmth of his blanket was still there, but the feeling of cuddling was gone, making Yin Chang's thoughts slowly return to reality.
He opened his eyes,l a little dazed. This memory came from when he was very young, and as he grew older, Yin Dong stopped doing that. He thought he had already forgotten about it. However, he had not expected this memory to still be buried deep in his subconscious mind. It made him blurt out those words to Shao Junling when he was half asleep.
Yin Chang looked at the time, it was only six-thirty in the morning. He was still sleepy and he wanted to go back to sleep before his work started at ten o'clock in the morning.
When Shao Junling came back from his morning run, Yin Chang had already gone back to sleep with his blanket.
Afraid of waking Yin Chang up, Shao Junling went to take a shower in the bathroom before entering the bedroom again to change his clothes. It was almost seven o'clock, and he had to leave for school after breakfast.
As he picked up his backpack, Shao Junling suddenly thought of something and tiptoed to the bedside.
Looking at his brother who was sleeping like a log, Shao Junling's heart beat rhythmically in his chest.
Kiss me before I go... Where should I kiss him?
His gaze swept over Yin Chang's smooth forehead, long eyelashes, high nose bridge... until it finally fell onto his blush lips.
Was it here?
...
...
Five minutes later.
Shao Junling appeared at the dining table with a flushed face. He took a deep breath and buried his head in a large bowl of porridge, gulping it down as fast as he could.
Fiona came out with a cup of hot milk and was shocked by his eating. "Why are you in such a hurry?"
"Um..." Shao Junling wiped his mouth and drank the entire bottle of high calcium milk in a single gulp before picking up his backpack and running away.
At the end of the semester, Yin Chang received a call from Teacher Lin, saying that Shao Junling had passed the grade-skipping test and would be joining class 3A after the Chinese New Year.
Yin Chang was both delighted at his brother's progress and worried that he might not adapt to the new environment and teacher after changing classes.
Teacher Lin smiled, "Don't worry, the possibility of that happening is very low. The grade-skipping test at De International not only examines academic performance, but also conducts psychological evaluations. If he cannot pass the evaluation, regardless of his academic performance, he will not be allowed to skip a grade."
In addition, De International provided a one-on-one psychotherapist for special students who were capable of skipping grades, and that was also what Teacher Lin did. Even if Shao Junling's homeroom teacher changed in the future, Teacher Lin would continue to monitor his physical and mental health until he graduated from elementary school.
"During this period, if I find anything special about Junling, I will adjust his situation in a timely manner."
"I see." Yin Chang breathed a sigh of relief and then asked, "What does the psychological evaluation mainly assess?"
"Things like his mental age, adaptability to new environments, and the purpose of skipping a grade..." Teacher Lin said. "Speaking of that, did you give your brother any pressure to skip a grade?"
"What?" Yin Chang was puzzled.
Teacher Lin clarfied, "Perhaps not pressure, sometimes it may be unconscious suggestions from adults."
"I don't remember saying anything..." Yin Chang replied. "How did he respond?"
Teacher Lin laughed along, "He said he wants to catch up with his older brother."
Yin Chang was amused, "No way, I'm so much older than him. What does he want to catch up to me for? How could he catch up to me?"
Teacher Lin laughed as well, "Yes, that's what I thought too. Usually, if there are older siblings who are more accomplished in the family, a child's normal mindset should be admiration and aspiration, like wanting to be as good as their older brother. It shouldn't be 'catching up to their older brother'... If the latter mindset appears, it is often that the elders in the family use inappropriate suppression and derogation to motivate the child. If we encounter this we try to discourage it..." Teacher Lin paused and hurriedly added, "Ah, I'm just giving an example. I recall that you are not like that."
Yin Chang reflected on his usual way of treating Shao Junling, "Sometimes I tease him, does that count?"
"How do you tease him?" Teacher Lin asked.
"...Tickling him? Joking with him?" Yin Chang replied.
Teacher Lin chuckled, "That doesn't count."
"Then that's all. I don't have much demand for him, and I never ask him about his rank. My support for him skipping a grade is based on the premise that he catches up with his peers in his age group. After all, he automatically repeated a year when he entered school. If he does it too much, I worry about him getting along with others," Yin Chang said.
"You've considered this very comprehensively. Actually, after this evaluation, we found that Shao Junling's psychological age is higher than his peers, so sometimes he behaves differently not because of his introverted personality, but because he doesn't have common topics to discuss with the people around him... I think his skipping a grade this time is just the beginning. If he has the ability, we will support him to continue to move forward," Teacher Lin said.
"Thank you..." Yin Chang joked, "But don't put too much pressure on him. I see that he is doing his homework until 9:30 every night and getting up at 6am to run. It really affects my sleep quality."
Teacher Lin was stunned for two seconds, "Uh, then, are you sleeping with Junling..."
"Yes," Yin Chang said. He saw that Lu Lingjuan nearby was silently gesturing to him. "Teacher Lin, I have to go to work. We'll talk on WeChat."
"Okay, bye. We'll chat later."
After hanging up the phone, Teacher Lin couldn't help but think of the scene from "Super Star Life" where the brothers were sleeping together in each other's arms. Her face flushed, and she put her hands on her cheeks to cool them down.
Not only her, but after "Super Star Life" aired, most of the teachers at De International watched the show. Many female teachers naturally became fans of Yin Chang and Shao Junling's brotherhood. Because Yin Chang and Shao Junling got along so well, there were few female viewers who weren't captivated after watching this show. Combined with the fact that both of them were orphans, it caused the female teachers to overflow with motherly love.
This also made Teacher Lin, who was Shao Junling's homeroom teacher, popular among the grade level. Just as she returned to the office, a group of teachers surrounded her and curiously asked. "How did it go? How did it go?"
"What are you talking about?" Teacher Lin gave them a playful stare. "Communication with the parents of students is considered private, it cannot be revealed."
A male teacher who didn't join in pretended to scold them from behind, "Yes, you need to pay attention to your professional standards."
Of course, the teachers knew, but they couldn't resist the impulse to chase after stars even as they grew older...
After teasing Teacher Lin for a while, the teachers dispersed.
Back in the office, Teacher Lin recorded the time and the content of the conversation with Yin Chang. While documenting the last sentence, she considered the situation again. Although it was a lovely scene, from an objective and adolescent developmental psychology point of view, she couldn't help feeling that there was something strange about it.
"Teacher Fang, can I ask you something?" Teacher Lin asked her female colleague in a low voice. "Do you think it's fine for an eleven-year-old boy to still sleep with his adult brother?"
Teacher Fang was the most experienced female teacher in the department and the oldest, nearing fifty.
"You mean Shao Junling and Yin Chang?" She quickly guessed who Teacher Lin was talking about and said with a smile, "He hasn't reached puberty yet, so it doesn't matter. In a few years, when he develops a sense of privacy, he will gradually become independent."
Teacher Lin nodded in understanding. Perhaps she was overthinking it.
But at that moment, Teacher Fang pushed up her glasses and added, "But since they don't share blood, this situation is indeed inappropriate and they should be separated early."
"...," Teacher Lin was suddenly conflicted.
She wanted to say, "Teacher Fang, times have changed. Even blood siblings... might not be appropriate!"
In March after New Year's, Shao Junling successfully passed the red belt exam for Taekwondo, and Yin Chang began filming for "Encounter Love in the Square."
Originally, with the addition of Yin Chang, the entire crew was delighted, and several lead actors expressed their warm welcome to Yin Chang as well. However, as soon as they began filming, they discovered a serious problem.
In the original script, the writer described the blind person as an "unremarkable" man, but Yin Chang's looks were somewhat outstanding. Whenever he sat there with his sunglasses on, almost everyone's gaze in the entire room would be involuntarily attracted to him.
...How is this "background scenery," he's obviously the "spotlight!"
If the female lead could still talk about love with other people casually in front of Yin Chang, when the movie aired, the audience would probably curse the real blind person as her.
So, just two days into filming, the director urgently called a meeting with the producers and writers. The producer suggested that they persuade Jiang Li to replace him as the male lead, but Yin Chang was unwilling. He insisted on portraying the blind person and even said that he had read the script several times to capture the character's psychological changes when observing the female lead and interacting with different people to prepare for this role.
The director was really puzzled... This dude was blind for the entire movie, wearing sunglasses all the time. What psychological changes could he possibly portray?
