Social Outcast

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Edited by: Planetes

By the time Fang Zhaomu reached home, he was about to turn into a block of ice. With a heavy head, he first went to the bathroom for a shower, then climbed into his bed and fell asleep for two hours. His hunger woke him up in the afternoon. Looking through his kitchen, he did not have anything edible, and could only prepare a glass of milk and went back to his bed. As he cupped his hands about the glass and drank a few mouthfuls, he suddenly heard his phone alerting him of new messages.

Fang Zhaomu put down the glass and picked up his phone. Andrew had sent him a message, asking if he was home already. Fang Zhaomu was a little astonished, he looked at the time, and realised that it had already been four hours since he sent Andrew the last message. Andrew must have been really busy at work if he only thought to ask Fang Zhaomu if he had reached home four hours later.

“I’m already home,” Fang Zhaomu told Andrew. “I even took a nap, but you’re just done with work.”

“Yeah.” Andrew replied with only one word.

Fang Zhaomu drank more of his milk. He was too lazy to pull his curtains apart to take a look at the outside world, and so, he asked Andrew, “Has the rain stopped?”

Andrew replied, “It had already stopped.”

Fang Zhaomu could not help complaining to Andrew. “I’ve always suspected that I’m being haunted by a rain demon. As long as I don’t bring an umbrella with me, no matter how clear the sky is, it’ll end up raining. And when I get back home, the rain would stop.”

After awhile, Andrew responded. “Superstitious.”

Fang Zhaomu looked at the word, and felt that Andrew was so stiff that he was becoming adorable. Thinking about it, he then used a very mysterious tone and said to Andrew, “I’m at home, and there’s no one around. I can take a photo now, do you want to see it?”

Fang Zhaomu then added, “If you want to see it, send me a voice message. If you don’t, just text a reply.”

Fang Zhaomu really liked talking to people, but there was no one he could talk to in school.

Now that there was Andrew, a person he did not know but was attracted to, Fang Zhaomu could help but tease him.

Not long after, Andrew really sent him a voice message. Fang Zhaomu played it, and Andrew had used his cold and aloof voice to tell Fang Zhaomu, “I don’t want to see it.”

Hugging his phone to his chest, Fang Zhaomu laughed for a long time. He then carelessly took a photo and sent it to Andrew, scoffing at him, “If you didn’t want to see it, why did you send a voice message?”

Song Yuanxun was at the library with a few of his business school classmates. Seeing the photo and voice message popping up on his phone screen, his hand paused for a moment before opening the photo Fang Zhaomu had sent over.

Fang Zhaomu had really taken this photo very casually. About half of it was his blanket, revealing his shoulder and a little half of his face. His right eye was not captured fully, and his cheeks were flushed with sleep, the corners of his mouth curving up. Fang Zhaomu had a pair of alluring eyes, and there was a very tiny mole at one corner of his eyes . Although the light in the room was dim, and the shot was also taken by the front camera of his phone, his eyes had gleamed as though they were wet.

Song Yuanxun only looked at the photo for a few seconds and kept his phone. However, for some reason, Fang Zhaomu’s eyes kept drifting about in his head, and never left.

Song Yuanxun personally thought, comparing Fang Zhaomu’s photo to his actual person, he was even fairer in real life.

When Song Yuanxun left the library, the sun was about to set. Entering his car, he saw that Fang Zhaomu had said that he would be going into the city the next weekend, and asked Song Yuanxun if he wanted to have a meal together.

Song Yuanxun paused for a few seconds before replying Fang Zhaomu, “I’m not free.”

He could not explain why he was chatting with Fang Zhaomu, and even seriously tried to consider the reason behind it. This was the most unseemly thing Song Yuanxun had ever done in the past twenty odd years of his life, but, what if Zhao Han again secretly used this account when he was not paying attention?

It was safer for Song Yuanxun to personally freeze Fang Zhaomu out, and monitor as Fang Zhaomu lose interest in Andrew.

“If you have to work on the weekends as well, does that mean you’ll only be free in the evenings?” Fang Zhaomu asked, then continued, “Working is hard.”

Song Yuanxun was driving, and did not reply. On the way home, Song Yuanxun received another two messages from Fang Zhaomu. He drove into the garage, parked his car, and played those messages.

“I used to never want to start working, and wanted to stay in school forever.”

“However, if I still have to meet people like those in the lab now, I’ll rather go to work.”

Song Yuanxun suddenly remembered that in the mid of the previous semester, a high school classmate called Li Wei had looked for him, asking about T University. He said, barring any unexpected circumstances, he would be doing a one year exchange here next semester. When the semester arrived, the one on exchange had turn into Fang Zhaomu.

Out of courtesy, Song Yuanxun had asked Li Wei about it. Li Wei’s response was furious. He said that he did not know what underhand methods Fang Zhaomu had used, and taken over his place. He even coyly hinted to Song Yuanxun, “They all say that the faculty dean treats him like his own son, but, who knows?”

When Song Yuanxun saw Fang Zhaomu the next day, he had an inkling of what Li Wei meant.

At that time, Fang Zhaomu was not as reserved as how he was like now. He walked about the lab, and hung around Song Yuanxun, saying that he was also doing a similar topic, and asked him some questions about it.

Song Yuanxun was highly annoyed by the scent wafting off Fang Zhaomu, and did not reply him, only saying to him, “Classmate, do you have to spray so much perfume when you come to the lab?”

The smile in Fang Zhaomu’s eyes vanished, while the expressions of Zhou Meng and Zhang Ranyu who were standing nearby also changed subtly.

Zhang Ranyu was a person who loved to curry favour for his own benefits. Before entering the school he had heard that Song Yuanxun was only son of the director of a certain top ranking biochemical pharmaceutical company back home. If after graduation, a student wanted to go back home to develop his career, he would definitely have to come in contact with Song Yuanxun’s family business. As such, Zhang Ranyu tried his best to ingratiate himself with Song Yuanxun, hoping to gain some advantages from it. Although Zhou Meng was not a lackey like Zhang Ranyu, but after Song Yuanxun expressed his irritation with Fang Zhaomu, she too silently distanced herself from Fang Zhaoumu.

Fang Zhaomu was very sensitive. Registering that he was not welcomed amongst them, he was no longer lively in the lab, but that scent from his body had never lighten up despite Song Yuanxun’s reminder.

Song Yuanxun sat in his car for awhile, holding his finger on the photo that Fang Zhaomu sent. The option to save the image appeared, and he stared at it. In the end, he still ended up locking the screen, and did not save it.