Chapter 164: Yu Fan
"Brother! You're back?"
As soon as he walked into the house, Yu Fan heard that familiar, happy voice.
A gentle smile appeared on his face. He pulled a fried chicken leg he bought from a street vendor out of his pocket and looked at Yu Miao, who had already run over excitedly.
Yu Miao was in his third year of middle school. His grades were pretty good, but he hadn’t grown much yet. Even though he was already fifteen, his voice hadn’t changed, and he only had a little fuzz on his chin.
He looked pretty average, not as handsome as Yu Fan or their father.
He used to wear that “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf” helmet on Yu Fan’s electric scooter, but he stopped using it three years ago after he became aware of gender roles.
"Here, I brought you a chicken leg."
Yu Fan handed over the chicken leg, which was wrapped in a plastic bag. He watched his little brother run off to his room with it and start doing homework. Then Yu Fan looked up at his father, who was limping out of the study room.
"You’ve been out almost every day lately, and now you insist on living at school. What, is this house not good enough for you anymore?"
As soon as they saw each other, Yu Jiancheng’s face tightened into a frown, and he said with a sarcastic tone, "Did I not raise you well or something?"
Yu Fan had expected that kind of reaction from his dad. After all, his dad had strongly objected when he first wanted to live at school. And now that he was rarely home on weekends too, a little scolding was totally normal.
"The spring exams are coming up. It’s easier to focus on studying at school."
He had already prepared that excuse. He plopped down on the sofa in the living room and asked, "Is Auntie not home?"
"She went out to exercise in the square."
Yu Fan rolled his eyes, and the smile on his face faded a bit. He crossed his legs and turned on the TV, but his thoughts started drifting to Li Mu.
To be honest, he had planned to spend the night at Li Mu’s place.
After all, Li Mu had just fully transformed into a woman today. He wasn’t sure if she had been hiding her feelings during the day. But if she felt upset tonight, he wanted to be there to comfort her, and maybe get a little closer to her emotionally.
But unfortunately, his dad had called him home.
Yu Jiancheng sat down next to him and took a bag of tea leaves from under the table. He started making tea on the small tea table in front of them.
After a few moments of silence, his father suddenly asked, "So how’s it going with that girl next door?"
"Not going anywhere. I don’t really talk to her."
"She seems to like you, though."
"But I don’t like her."
His father stopped making tea and turned to look at Yu Fan carefully for a few seconds. Then he suddenly understood.
"Ah... you like someone else, don’t you?"
Yu Fan was caught off guard. He didn’t expect his dad to figure it out so quickly.
Now curious, Yu Jiancheng leaned in.
"So when are you bringing her home for me to meet? Got a picture? What does she look like? Is she pretty? What’s her family like?"
Question after question, Yu Fan couldn’t help but scoot a little farther away and muttered:
"Are you doing a police background check or something?"
He was usually a pretty bold guy, but now his face was starting to turn red. He felt a little awkward under his father’s intense questioning.
"You really do like her, huh?"
Yu Jiancheng clicked his tongue in surprise. He had never seen his son act this way before.
"It's not even official yet."
"Then just let me see a picture?"
"You’re like fifty years old, can you not be so nosy?"
Yu Fan couldn’t take it anymore. He quickly stood up and headed to his bedroom.
"I’m going to sleep!"
"You haven’t even taken a shower!"
Yu Fan’s home had three bedrooms and two living rooms. It was decorated in a traditional Chinese style, with wooden flooring throughout. The place was about 150 square meters. Although the location was a bit far from the city center, overall, it was a pretty nice place. At least both brothers had their own rooms.
When Yu Fan got back to his bedroom, he locked the door behind him, sat down at the edge of the bed, patted both sides of his cheeks, and shook his head, trying to shake off the shy feeling that was still lingering.
But as soon as he looked up, he saw an oil painting leaning against the computer, and he couldn’t take his eyes off it.
In the painting, Li Mu was sitting with her legs together at an angle, holding a Stitch doll on her lap, and smiling gently with her eyes.
He had painted this after taking a photo of Li Mu at a karaoke place. Of course, he had made some changes, giving her a bit of a beauty filter and making her look more feminine and elegant, even though back then she hadn’t fully shown those features in real life.
"So pretty," he mumbled to himself, not sure if he was praising the painting or the person in it.
The small bedroom had paint stains on the floor and walls that were hard to clean. Some of Yu Fan’s favorite paintings were placed neatly along the walls.
There was one sketch of Li Mu looking out the window in class, her short hair being lightly blown by the wind.
Another was a colored pencil drawing of her sitting cross-legged on her dorm bed, leaning against the wall and focused on her phone.
There was also a rough draft of Li Mu hugging his waist while riding on the back of his electric scooter, her long hair flying in the wind.
……………………………………………
Most of these were painted after he secretly took photos of her. Some were purely from imagination.
Unfortunately, he had never formally studied art. While his work was better than most people’s, it couldn’t compare to someone trained in art school. His drawings of Li Mu didn’t quite capture her true charm in real life.
As for entering art competitions, that was just something he did casually. Sometimes he liked to show off his drawing skills in front of Li Mu, though he often exaggerated. Honestly, saying a few braggy things in front of someone you like wasn’t too bad, right?
He also didn’t dare ask Li Mu to be his model, worrying that after hours of drawing her live, the results wouldn’t be as good as the ones he carefully made from photos.
"I wonder what Li Mu is doing now?"
No one was allowed into his room, and he cleaned it himself, so it was a bit messy. But he didn’t really care. He flopped down on the bed, lying flat on his back.
"Brother! Brother! Help me with this question!"
Suddenly, someone knocked on his bedroom door.
"Help with what? I only went to vocational school!"
Even though he said that, Yu Fan still got up and walked out of his room.
He glanced at his dad, who had gone back to playing on the computer in the study room, and felt relieved. Then he looked down at Yu Miao.
"What question?"
"Math."
"Alright, I’ll try."
He went into Yu Miao’s room and started looking at the middle school math problem.
"Brother, didn’t you already have a girlfriend? How come you like someone else now?"
Before he could even finish reading the question, Yu Miao curiously asked from the side.
"Don’t talk nonsense. Your big brother is very pure. I’ve only liked one person. Never had a girlfriend before."
Yu Fan glared at him. "If you don’t know, don’t make things up."
"I just thought that because you go out all the time," Yu Miao scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"I used to go out with classmates to the internet café. The computer at home was old and slow."
"What about now?" Yu Miao’s eyes lit up. "You go out to hang out with the girl you like, right? What does my future sister-in-law look like?"
"......"
When did this kid start calling her "sister-in-law"?
Just then, Yu Fan had a strange feeling. He looked toward the bedroom door and caught a glimpse of a black shadow passing by.
He rubbed his temples with a sigh and said, "There’ll be a chance to bring her home in the future. Let’s talk about it then."
"Bringing her home means you want to marry her? Don’t you want to date for a few more years first?"
"It's not even official yet, so why do you all seem more excited than me?"