Second-Hand Love Letter

He understood the reason, and he had even planned to make Lu Yong say such a thing.
But when he actually heard Lu Yong say this, Shen Wenqiu found that his heart was hurting, and his eyes became sore uncontrollably.

His hands were clenched into a fist, and his fingers almost cut into the palm of his hand.
He held back the tears that were about to break.

　　

There was a fiery phantom pain on his cheek as if he was slapped on the face.

Shen Wenqiu didn’t expect Lu Yong to say it so directly.
It was when Lu Yong said it bluntly that he realized that he actually had a little wishful thinking in his heart, and subconsciously thought that Lu Yong might still be infatuated with him like ten years ago.
He hoped that even though he was already covered with mud, there was still someone in the world who foolishly thought he was a clean and kind person.

What was he doing? Jumping up and down like a clown, annoyed by himself.

He was still confident that he had a good image in Lu Yong’s heart, but in fact, Lu Yong had already regarded him as a bad person.

　　

“I know you are a bad person.”

Even Lu Yong regarded him as a hopeless bad guy.

　　

The strength of all of Shen Wenqiu’s limbs seemed to lose their strength because of Lu Yong’s words, and even his soul lost strength.
He laid back, took a deep breath, and suppressed the tears that he didn’t want.
There was an impulse to act recklessly in his heart as he thought of himself as someone hopeless. 

He kicked Lu Yong again, and Lu Yong let go of him.

 

During this period of time, the false peace carefully maintained between the two of them was as if it suddenly turned into only a thin layer of ice, separating both of them. 

Shen Wenqiu had an urge to quarrel, but he suppressed it and didn’t lash out.
He said, “I’m going to sleep.”

Lu Yong said carefully, “I’m not talking about what you thought of, I…”

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Shen Wenqiu indifferently, “I know, I know, you don’t need to explain.
It’s annoying.
President Lu, you still need to go to work tomorrow.
Just go to bed earlier.”

　　

Lu Yong refused to leave and said, “I’ll buy you a few more games.
Are they not fun? Didn’t you like playing games before?”

Shen Wenqiu said impatiently, “It’s fun.
But it’s not as fun as with those people.
It’s so boring to play games alone at home.
It’s like chatting with you, it’s just a waste of breath.”

　　

Lu Yong, “…”

He was anxious, but there was nothing he could do.

They were not like this before.
When they were fifteen years old, they were able to make friends, of course, because there were endless things to say.
Although most of the time it was also Shen Wenqiu who took the initiative to talk to him, even his gloomy character was illuminated by his smile that was like direct sunlight.

　　

Lu Yong said, “You can tell me if you have any difficulties, I will help you as much as possible.”

Shen Wenqiu smiled haughtily again when he heard what he said.
He said it lightly. How could it be possible? His life had fallen into the abyss, and he was still burdened with hundreds of millions of debts.
Could he still be saved?

Was it because Lu Yong had been in this business world for a lot over the years, that his personality has changed? He could say such words without blinking an eye.

Shen Wenqiu turned his body, faced inward, and waved his hand, “Okay okay.
I’m so sleepy, I don’t have time to talk to you now, let’s talk another day.”

“I beg you, okay?”

　　

He didn’t know how much time had passed, and Lu Yong finally left.

Shen Wenqiu’s thoughts were in a whirl as he fell asleep.
He thought, how nice if rebirth existed in the world, he could start from the beginning again, and he would definitely be a clean person.

　　

……

 

Both Shen Wenqiu and Lu Yong were children who grew up in single-parent families.
His mother died in a car accident and Lu Yong’s mother died of illness.

The fathers of the two parties met because of the car accident last time.
Shen Wenqiu’s father knew that the Lu family was struggling for money, so he gave away the company and family waste products to Lu Yong’s father for free, and even helped to introduce them to customers since it was not a difficult job.

In fact, the income of the Lu family’s recycling center was not bad.
What’s more, both father and son were diligent and hardworking people.
But previously, he had to borrow money for the treatment of his wife who passed away.
His dad was not someone who could afford to owe money, and when he earned money, he only left a little only enough for basic expenses, and the rest went to pay for the debt.

　　

After the two got along for half a semester, Shen Wenqiu plucked up the courage to invite Lu Yong to play at his own home.

After Lu Yong heard the invitation, he subconsciously said, “I have to help my father work on weekends…”

Shen Wenqiu felt angry.

 

Only then did Lu Yong change his mind as if he was afraid of him, “I’ll ask my dad if I can go after school on Friday.”

　　

In the end, Lu Yong still went to his house to play, and he also put on a new suit and shoes, and also brought fruit as a home gift!

Shen Wenqiu looked at it and felt a little remorse.
He caused others to spend money in vain, and said, “What are you being so formal for? Didn’t I say that you don’t need to bring gifts? You will often come to play in the future.
Are you going to bring them every time? Then you don’t have to come.”

Lu Yong said naively, “That’s what I said, but my dad said that I can’t come here empty-handed when it’s the first time I come.”

The host could say that, but the guest couldn’t take the initiative to say that they didn’t want to bring gifts as a guest!

　　

Shen Wenqiu took Lu Yong to play computer games.
This was the first time for Lu Yong to play computer games, and it was quite a new experience for him.
Shen Wenqiu said, “My dad is busy at work, and I usually watch TV and play games at home.
My dad said that if I get into the top 50 in the final exam, he will buy me the latest foreign game console.
This one I have is almost broken…”

“I bought the new game cassette on purpose, just to play with you!”

At first, Shen Wenqiu wanted to show off in front of Lu Yong.
It wasn’t to show that he was rich, but it was to show that he played well in the game, because he couldn’t compare to Lu Yong’s grade in school.
So couldn’t he be better at playing than Lu Yong?

Today, he would let Lu Yong know how the sons of rich parents would act!

　　

In the end, when he really picked up the controller, he found that he had forgotten one thing.

——Lu Yong only has one hand.

Shen Wenqiu was embarrassed, “Ah, I forgot…”

Lu Yong laughed instead, “It’s okay.
It’s not the first time you have forgotten.”

 

Shen Wenqiu said, “Let’s play keyboard games.
There are several games that can be played with one hand.”

Then he taught Lu Yong how to use it.
Shen Wenqiu won the first half an hour, but after a few tries Lu Yong started to turn defeat into victory, and Shen Wenqiu lost more and won less.
There was also some advanced gameplay, he knew the theory, but he couldn’t play it out, but Lu Yong fucking mastered it without being taught!

Shen Wenqiu was so angry that he almost smashed the keyboard.

　　

Lu Yong was also a naive one.
Seeing Shen Wenqiu saying he didn’t want to play anymore, he asked: “Should I not win?” Then he said, “I will let you win.
Don’t be angry.”

Listen, is this the way to talk to people? Shen Wenqiu thought.
It was no wonder that he heard Lu Yong had no friends in junior high school, and now no one wanted to make friends with him except himself in the class.
Someone previously told him in private that he felt that Lu Yong was both inferior and arrogant, he was conceited and looked down upon people.

Shen Wenqiu calmed down.
Seeing him being very anxious and not knowing what to do, he felt amused and laughed, “It’s okay.
Do I look so petty?”

　　

They continued to play.

Unfortunately, they could only play two more rounds and the game console broke.

Shen Wenqiu banged the console, confirming that it was really broken, and wailed in grief, “It is troublesome to fix this.
I have to send it to the factory.”

　　

Lu Yong looked through it and said, “Would you like me to repair it? I have received a copy of ‘Comprehensive Collection of Skills to Examine and Fix Computer and Video Games Devices’.
I remember that it contains the model of your game console.”

Shen Wenqiu sprouted, “You know how to repair this too?!”

Lu Yong did not give an exact guarantee.
He only said, “I have repaired another model according to the book and sold it after the repair, but I think it should more or less be the same.”

　　

Isn’t this more interesting? Shen Wenqiu put the game console in his school bag and said excitedly, “Go! Let’s go now!”

Shen Wenqiu called his father and said he was going to Lu Yong’s house.
He thought about it, and he took a big bag of imported snacks from the snack cabinet as a courtesy to each other.

　　

Lu Yong’s home was very far from his home, it took forty minutes to get there by bus.

He felt that the journey was too short when chatting all the way.
Shen Wenqiu was a small chatterbox, his head and mouth couldn’t be idle, and he wanted to talk to people all day long.
This was also the reason why he had a good impression of Lu Yong——

Lu Yong didn’t speak much, but he listened to him very seriously, and would occasionally express a few strange words.
He was always serious, and his brain circuit was different from others.
He didn’t even realize that what he said was destroying the atmosphere.

If it were someone else, they would think that Lu Yong was just spoiling the fun.
He either didn’t talk, or he would offend others once he talked.
But Shen Wenqiu didn’t think so, he even laughed, thinking that Lu Yong was very funny.

 

Lu Yong’s recycle center was not small.

Father Lu saw that Shen Wenqiu also came, and he was at a loss.
He quickly wiped his hands on his apron and wiped off his sweat.
As a result, his face turned filthier.

　　

The place filled with all kinds of garbage was not tidy no matter how it was sorted and organized.
At first glance, it seemed to be messy, especially in the hot summer, there was a smell of garbage.

Father Lu was embarrassed.
He grabbed a rag in his hand and kept wiping his hands.
He said in embarrassment, “Xiao Baa, you came over to play? Our house is so messy… Let Dayong take you to have a seat in the house.”

After finishing, he hurriedly touched his pocket.
He just made some money, took out a handful of tattered and dirty small bills in his pocket, and stuffed it to Lu Yong.
“Get some snack popsicles to entertain your classmates, don’t be stingy.”

Shen Wenqiu’s smiling eyes arched as he said good-naturedly, “Thank you, Uncle.”

Lu Yong said as if he was counteracting his father.
“He didn’t come to play, he came to repair the game console.”

“Oh oh.” Father Lu hurried him, “Then you go and help him fix it.”

　　

Then Shen Wenqiu was led to the backyard by Lu Yong.
There was a small house simply built with bricks, wood, glass, and steel sheds on the wasteland.
Lu Yong said, “My father helped me build it.
The tools and materials were collected on my own.”

Shen Wenqiu had a sense of adventure.
As he opened the door and entered, his eyes lit up.
Probably every boy would want a technical house studio of his own.
And Lu Yong already owned one.

Shen Wenqiu said with heartfelt envy, “Your dad is so kind to you.”

　　

He wasn’t trying to flatter him.

Although his family was rich and thought that his father was good to him, his father was too lazy to spend time and energy on everything that could be bought with money, and it was difficult to spend more time with him.

　　

Shen Wenqiu always remembered the scene at that time.

A beam of light came in from the glass on the top, and fine dust flew in the rusty yellow light, falling on Lu Yong who was bending over the desk and the circuit board in front of him.

Lu Yong only has one hand.
Even though he was very dexterous, he still had trouble using certain tools, so he must be more focused and careful.
He was extremely patient as if he had forgotten everything around him.

Shen Wenqiu sat beside him, let alone being noisy, he didn’t even dare to let out a breath.　　

The silver metal nodes could be seen on the dark green printed circuit board, refracting light like faint stars, and every connection and transition was brimming with a logical beauty.

All the light was in Lu Yong’s eyes.

　　

Lu Yong repaired the circuit board but didn’t put the case back in.
He first connected it with his broken TV.
Electric current wandered through the circuit board.

Like a light that set the stars on fire, they then ran in an orderly fashion, operating as a small invisible radiant universe.

The TV screen lit up, and the picture was clear.

　　

“It’s done,” Lu Yong said.

Shen Wenqiu saw Lu Yong’s eyes brighten up, brighter than ever before.
He had only seen Lu Yong’s silent and gloomy expression at school.
It was the first time he saw a different Lu Yong.
Somehow, he didn’t even care about the game console, his eyes stuck on Lu Yong’s face uncontrollably.

At this moment, he even thought that Lu Yong was the most handsome 15-year-old boy in the world.

Lu Yong sweated and shone with shimmering light.
He wanted to reach out and wipe it, and he was distracted by this strange thought.

　　

Then Lu Yong suddenly turned his head to look at him, and he caught him off guard.

The eyes of the two met, as if they were being burned, Shen Wenqiu quickly changed his line of sight, “Ah? Ah…Thank you, thank you, let me take a look…”

“It’s really fixed.
You are amazing.
If I want to find a professional person to repair it, it will cost hundreds of dollars.”

　　

The shining Lu Yong just now looked like a mirage, disappeared in an instant, changed back to a big black silly guy.

“It’s good if it comes in handy.” He said stupidly, “If it breaks again in the future, come to me and I’ll help you fix it.”

He said in a silly manner, “As long as you’re happy.”