Xu Xingzhe used to be like a soft rice cake, sticking to Lu Zhaoshen wherever he went. Now, he had turned into superglue, and Lu Zhaoshen couldn’t tear himself away even if he tried.
[I’m screwed, I’m screwed. I like you more day by day. What should I do!]
Lu Zhaoshen glanced at the small note Xu Xingzhe handed him, then crumpled it into a ball in his palm and pretended to throw it. Xu Xingzhe shrank back and pouted grumpily while lowering his head to continue doing his homework.
As the National Day holiday approached, the library became less crowded. After Xu Xingzhe finished his homework, he didn’t dare to disturb Lu Zhaoshen and ran downstairs. He chose a biography and lay down on the table to read it while waiting for Lu Zhaoshen to finish. But within ten minutes, a girl approached with a shy blush on her cheeks and a slightly downturned mouth due to nervousness. Xu Xingzhe immediately became alert, ignoring the book and sitting up straight, glaring at Lu Zhaoshen’s hands. At first, Lu Zhaoshen didn’t notice anyone approaching, but he caught Xu Xingzhe’s movements in his peripheral vision and glanced toward the side.
The girl leaned forward and handed him a small note.
Lu Zhaoshen averted his gaze and hesitated before calmly accepting the note so as not to embarrass the girl.
Xu Xingzhe clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. As soon as the girl turned away, he reached out to snatch the note from Lu Zhaoshen’s hand. As if expecting it, Lu Zhaoshen leisurely opened his hand with a smile in his eyes and waited for Xu Xingzhe to grab it.
Xu Xingzhe’s mind was read, and he couldn’t hide the embarrassment on his face. He stopped the hand a second before it was about to touch Lu Zhaoshen. He mouthed to Lu Zhaoshen with a haughty attitude, “Humph, you think I care? Who hasn’t been pursued by someone?”
Lu Zhaoshen was still smiling subtly. In the blink of an eye, the note disappeared from his hand. Xu Xingzhe pretended not to care while secretly peeking around to see where the note had gone.
When the self-study was over, Xu Xingzhe was still unhappy. Out of spite, he stuffed the book into his bag, not caring if the corners were creased. Then he zipped up the bag and left. Lu Zhaoshen followed him and tried to help him put the water bottle he had left on the table into the side pocket of his bag. Xu Xingzhe refused to cooperate and twisted his waist. Lu Zhaoshen curled the corners of his mouth and then opened the bottle cap to drink all of the water in Xu Xingzhe’s bottle.
Once they were out of the library and in a dark place with no people, Xu Xingzhe was finally able to speak. He complained with a huff, “Do you think that saying something nice to me will give you a free pass? If you bully me again, I won’t want you anymore! Throw away the note you just got, do you hear me?”
Lu Zhaoshen didn’t move, so Xu Xingzhe pounced on him to search his pockets. Sure enough, he found a crumpled but carefully folded small note. “Why did you keep it? Why did you keep the note?!”
Xu Xingzhe was about to tear it up, but Lu Zhaoshen stopped him by wrapping his hand around Xu Xingzhe’s hands, “Don’t move.”
“Lu Zhaoshen, you big jerk!”
Xu Xingzhe was almost in tears. Lu Zhaoshen realized he had gone too far and quickly pulled him into his arms, helplessly coaxing, “Did you look at what it is? Don’t you even recognize the note you wrote yourself?”
Xu Xingzhe sniffled and lowered his head. It really was the palm-sized, misshapen piece of paper torn from his scrap paper with a draft he made while doing homework.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Lu Zhaoshen didn’t use much force when he crumpled it up, but he put a lot of effort into flattening it and carefully folding it into a square.
“Tbe xfqa la?” We Wlcuhtf’r nblmf kjr ilxf j wbrdelab.
“P vlv.”
We Wlcuhtf vlvc’a jrx jcs wbgf rliis defralbcr. Pcrafjv, tf qgfrrfv tlr ojmf jujlcra Oe Itjbrtfc’r cfmx jcv qifjrfv tlw rboais, “Po sbe kjca rbwfatlcu clmf, P’ii ufa la obg sbe abwbggbk.”
“Gbc’a.” Oe Itjbrtfc rjlv klat j rwlif, “Gb sbe gfwfwyfg tbk wjcs ibnf ifaafgr sbe’nf rfca wf?”
“How many?”
“There have been twenty or so, including tonight’s. Half of them were written on scrap paper, and the other half on candy wrappers.”
Xu Xingzhe giggled along and leaned against Lu Zhaoshen, “You should be super happy to have someone like you sooo unconditionally.”
“Yeah, I’m happy.”
Before returning to the dormitory, Xu Xingzhe remembered one more thing. He grabbed Lu Zhaoshen’s phone and acted serious: he wanted to add to his WeChat bio that he was taken, please do not disturb.
Lu Zhaoshen wrestled with him for a while, but eventually, he reluctantly accepted the words “not single”.
Xu Xingzhe tapped the screen until he saw something that made his cocky expression suddenly freeze and his smile fade. He slowed down, typed “not single” into the bio, and then pressed confirm. He handed the phone back to Lu Zhaoshen and hugged him tightly as if he was afraid of losing him.
Lu Zhaoshen asked what was wrong, but Xu Xingzhe shook his head and said, “Lu Zhaoshen, don’t think I’m so delicate. I’m easy to provide for, just as long as there’s meat.”
Lu Zhaoshen took him into his arms and kissed his forehead.
Xu Xingzhe smelled the scent on Lu Zhaoshen’s body and thought about the private status update he had just mistakenly clicked on Lu Zhaozhen’s Moments.
—Xu Xingzhe grew up living in luxury. I can’t let him suffer with me.
Just thinking about it made his heart ache.
It was over. He was going to be at the mercy of Lu Zhaoshen for the rest of his life.
*
“How are you going back on National Day? Will Uncle Lu pick you up or will you take the high-speed train?” Xu Xingzhe crossed his legs and scrolled through his phone, resting his head on Lu Zhaoshen’s shoulder. There weren’t many people in the roller skating club, and Xu Xingzhe didn’t avoid the public display of affection.
Lu Zhaoshen’s hand paused as he was taking off his roller skates. He said in a deep voice, “I’m taking the high-speed train back.”
Xu Xingzhe quickly sat up straight, “Then I’ll take the train as well. I’ll buy the tickets!”
“I already did.”
“Eh?” Xu Xingzhe froze, and it took him a while to react. He bit his lip and leaned forward cautiously to ask, “So… did you buy me a ticket too?”
Lu Zhaoshen glanced at him and nodded.
Xu Xingzhe’s heart fell from high up into soft and sweet cotton candy, bubbling with sweetness. All the things he was searching for, all the uncertainties, and all the things he didn’t dare to believe, now had answers. Even if Lu Zhaoshen didn’t say it, he understood.
“You’ve got me figured out anyway. I’ll stick to you no matter what. But Lu Zhaoshen, don’t get too smug. I’m big trouble.” Xu Xingzhe nestled back onto Lu Zhaoshen’s shoulder, his tone filled with laughter.
“Didn’t you say you were easy to take care of?”
“It’s true that I’m easy to take care of, but it’s not easy to date me. I’m forgiving, but I get jealous easily. You just glance at someone else and I get jealous—” Xu Xingzhe laughed at himself as he spoke, “Lu Zhaoshen, I’ve gotten a little carried away lately.”
The corners of Lu Zhaoshen’s mouth turned up. As he lowered his head, Xu Xingzhe kissed him.
“The others have left,” Xu Xingzhe whispered.
Lu Zhaoshen then wrapped his arms around Xu Xingzhe’s waist and pulled him into his arms. Xu Xingzhe kicked his roller skates aside, leaned over to sit on Lu Zhaoshen’s lap, and kissed him. Sunlight streamed through the glass windows of the empty classroom, shining on the floor and their intertwined legs.
Footsteps approached from outside the door. Lu Zhaoshen pulled Xu Xingzhe away. He used his right thumb to wipe the saliva from Xu Xingzhe’s lips. Xu Xingzhe stared blankly at Lu Zhaoshen’s hand without moving. Lu Zhaoshen patted his butt to get him to stand up and put on his shoes. “Come on, let’s eat.”
“I want to eat mala hot pot.”
“Okay.”
On the way to the cafeteria, Xu Xingzhe suddenly remembered something. He tugged Lu Zhaoshen’s sleeve and said, “You haven’t been to my house for a long time. Since the second semester of our third year of high school, you stopped tutoring me and stopped coming to my house. I came to your classroom to find you, but you avoided me. If I hadn’t persisted and chased after you to ask about your university choice, where would we be now?”
Lu Zhaoshen’s expression suddenly changed. Xu Xingzhe thought he had said something wrong and wanted to fix the situation. But then he thought that he didn’t think that there was anything wrong with what he said. Lu Zhaoshen had done a lot of things that hurt him, and even though Xu Xingzhe now knew Lu Zhaoshen’s feelings and struggles, it didn’t mean that his tears had been shed in vain.
“Lu Zhaoshen, oh Lu Zhaoshen, do you know how much time you’ve missed?”
Throughout the second semester of their third year of high school, they barely saw each other because Lu Zhaoshen kept avoiding him.
“Xu Xingzhe.” Lu Zhaoshen suddenly spoke, startling Xu Xingzhe, and then his expression turned serious.
“I’m sorry for making you suffer so much.”
Xu Xingzhe was stunned and his steps slowed down.
Lu Zhaoshen turned to look at him. “I always think too much and do too little. I’m sorry.”
Lu Zhaoshen grew up in an ordinary family, living a simple and frugal life. After his mother’s death, his personality became withdrawn. His father worked as a driver and was away from home all the time. Lu Zhaoshen’s world remained small. So he tended to attach great importance to small things.
For example, in their second year of high school, Xu Xingzhe sucked on a lollipop and clung to Lu Zhaoshen’s shoulder, saying that he wanted to attend a university in a coastal city. Although it was a pity that he couldn’t eat seafood, he loved the sea and the color blue. Xu Xingzhe had only mentioned it in passing and forgot about it afterward. But Lu Zhaoshen thought Xu Xingzhe was planning their future together.
His ordinary background also brought some problems, such as his inability to casually accept the love of a wealthy young master.
When the young master’s father found out about their affair, he used his leverage without batting an eyelid to force Lu Zhaoshen to leave on his own.
The winter of their third year of high school was cold until mid-March, and Lu Zhaoshen’s self-esteem was shattered in the snow.
“You may not care about your own future, but do you not care about your father? He still has to work. By the way, I recently gave him a promotion and a raise. He was thrilled. I think he might not be able to handle the pain of suddenly losing his job.”
Thank You for the new chapter ♡(ŐωŐ人)
So xingxing’s dad knew about their relationship? Things have been hard for the both of them 😔 jiayou you two!!
Oh that’s devastating to have your father’s job threatened against you