After class in the afternoon, Chu Yi specifically went to the training room and tinkered with a pile of parts for half a day.  

Teacher Yang scolded him today. Although he was very nervous and scared, he still remembered some of the things said.  

He is doing very well in his professional course right now. He should listen to the teacher and continue to study well, because he will have to rely on this for a living in the future.  

Perhaps others may not understand, like Zhou Chunyang who thinks about eating, drinking and having fun every day. His family sent him here to the secondary vocational school because he had nowhere to go after graduating middle school. Zhou Chunyang chose auto repair himself because he likes cars, although he now realizes that learning auto repair is not at all what he imagined - being able to play with cars every day - it's just playing with parts every day. But it was too late.  

Chu Yi knows very clearly that he is different from those other students. He has no way out. From the moment he said he wanted to go to secondary vocational school, he would have to rely entirely on himself.  

No, actually if he really messes up, there is still Yan Hang. Yan Hang would help him.  

When he thinks of Yan Hang, he feels a sense of security in his heart.  

But he doesn't want Yan Hang's help. Every time Yan Hang tries to take advantage of him for money, asks for expensive gifts from him, tells him not to give him money anymore, says he'll cook for him but wants him to pay... whenever he hears things like this, he feels very satisfied, like he has already grown up.  

When the practical training teacher came over and saw him squatting on the ground covered in grease tinkering, he was extremely happy. He came over and gave him a detailed explanation, and even guided him through disassembling and assembling an engine once.  

"If you're interested," the teacher said, "come over whenever you have time, or come find me in the garage. There are some cars there that need repairs that you can take a look at and get familiar with different faults and how to diagnose and fix them."  

"Mm," Chu Yi nodded.  

"Auto repair is a very lucrative industry nowadays," the teacher said. "Don't think there's nothing impressive about being a car mechanic. I can spot some faults with one glance, and with one listen I can tell what kind of car it is just from the sounds it makes as it passes by me. That's skill."  

"Mm," Chu Yi nodded again, somehow feeling that such skills were extremely cool for no reason.  

After washing his hands and leaving the training room, he felt that he was walking quite briskly, as if he could see his awesome self two or three years later.  

But when he reached the school gate and felt his phone in his pocket, he suddenly remembered those two phone calls and immediately felt stifled by gloominess again.  

Yan Hang said no matter what, overthinking is useless, but actually not overthinking is truly too difficult.  

To be safe, as he walked towards the bus stop, he looked around.  

But he felt that his awareness skills were truly much worse than Yan Hang's. As he looked left and right the whole way, someone was able to approach him without him noticing at all.  

When there was still some distance from the bus stop, something poked into his waist from behind.  

"Robber," someone behind him said. "Don't move."  

At first his whole body froze, then he suddenly felt extremely elated.  

"How, how can you be so f*cking awesome?" he turned his head back and saw Yan Hang standing behind him.  

"Who do you think I am," Yan Hang smiled. "My dad used to play this with me when I was in elementary school."  

Looking at Yan Hang's smile, Chu Yi felt that in this moment all his troubles had vanished, completely dispersed, he could even float up into the air.  

"What are you doing here?" It was only after floating for a bit that he remembered to ask.

"I was bored at home with nothing to do," Yan Hang said, "so I came to play at robbing."  

Chu Yi laughed for a long time, then let out a sigh. "Not because you were... worried?"  

"Don't flatter yourself," Yan Hang interrupted him. "I'm not as nervous as you."  

"Oh," Chu Yi laughed but didn't say anything more.  

The coffee shop was about the same today as it was yesterday, not many customers, probably wouldn't be busy until later.

"Let me see what ingredients there are," Yan Hang walked to the fridge to investigate. "You're paying right?"  

"Mm," Chu Yi nodded. "I'm going to change first."  

"Go ahead," Yan Hang said.

When Chu Yi came out in his work uniform, Yan Hang had already taken out some ingredients and was getting ready to start cooking. He walked over and stood next to Yan Hang.  

"Let's make something simple, don't interfere with the shop's business," Yan Hang said. "How about a pizza and black pepper beef fried rice?"

"Okay." Chu Yi swallowed, usually he would eat dinner after 5, but today he had deliberately waited to eat with Yan Hang and was starving. Just hearing the names of dishes made him want to go over and gnaw on the pot.

As Yan Hang started making the pizza, a few customers came in. After ordering coffee and drinks, they started chatting and playing cards.  

Chu Yi was extremely nervous. As he used the coffee machine to make coffee, he kept glancing over at Yan Hang.  

Yan Hang smiled at him, "Got it?"  

"Mm," Chu Yi nodded.  

Yesterday Yan Hang had taught him how to make several kinds of coffee, he still remembered the ratios and what to put in. Mainly he was just habitually nervous.  

But when he started making the coffee, he was still clumsy. Fortunately the customers mainly wanted to play cards and didn't rush him.  

When he brought the coffee and drinks over, he looked at the several cups of coffee and drinks that he had made himself, and suddenly felt that he was very talented and skillful.

"Waiter," one of the young men turned his head and called out, "smells so good, what is it?"

"Fried rice," Chu Yi said. "It's our even..."  

"Get us an order of fried rice too," the young man said. "Smells so good I'm hungry now."  

"Rice," Chu Yi finished his sentence. Hearing him say this, he suddenly didn't know what to do and turned to look at Yan Hang.  

Yan Hang nodded.  

"Okay," Chu Yi picked up the menu to take a look. There was no price listed for black pepper beef fried rice, and there were no main dishes on the late night menu.  

"Tell them 28 yuan per serving, there's only one serving left, no more if they want extra," Yan Hang glanced at the menu.

"Mm," Chu Yi smiled.  

This job was still pretty good. There weren't many customers who came at night. The ones who did would generally order a few drinks, clean up and leave when it was time to close shop.  

Chu Yi felt it was quite interesting, of course it definitely wouldn't be as interesting without Yan Hang here.

After the pizza and fried rice were done, the two of them sat down at the small table in the corner.  

The pizza had durian which Chu Yi didn't really like the taste of, but Yan Hang had made it very well. He didn't know what seasonings were added, but it made the durian flavor not as strong, with a milky fragrance, and it was surprisingly pretty tasty.  

He ate while looking at Yan Hang.

When Yan Hang glanced up at him, he became flustered again and hurriedly lowered his head to poke at his fried rice.  

Now when he was with Yan Hang, it felt different than before.  

There was a very subtle sense of intimacy, but because of this intimacy he would also suddenly feel a bit embarrassed.  

Sitting this close face-to-face, he could almost hear the sound of Yan Hang's breathing mixing with the steam from the fried rice, which would abruptly bring him back to some unspeakable yet unbearable excitement.

"I have to go back to work in a couple days," Yan Hang said. "I'll keep you company for two more days, that should be enough."

"Mm," Chu Yi nodded. After thinking for a bit he became somewhat worried again. "You haven't, been to work for so long. Are you still, the team leader?"  

"I am," Yan Hang smiled. "What, are you afraid I'll lose my job?"

"Not afraid," Chu Yi said.  

"I'm trying to get transferred to the back kitchen next year," Yan Hang said.  

"You managers, a-are crazy," Chu Yi sighed. "All you think, about day and night is, the back kitchen."

"Can't be helped," Yan Hang said with a laugh. "It's the only hobby I've got."

"I don't have any hobbies," Chu Yi suddenly felt somewhat dejected. "Really, I actually don't have any hobbies?"

"You do," Yan Hang said. "Boxing, polishing little rocks and stuff."  

The mention of little rocks immediately made Chu Yi nervous. Not all of the crushed rocks had been salvaged. Two of them had been ground down from little rocks into tiny rocks. He was even afraid that drilling holes in them would cause them to split apart, so he still hadn't finished them yet.  

It had been so long since he worked on them. Wasn't he not taking them seriously enough!