“Here’s my assignment sheet for tonight,” Xu Xingzhe said as he handed it to him with both hands with a sticker with indecipherable handwriting on it.
Lu Zhaoshen flipped open his own workbook without even looking up. “What’s it got to do with me?”
Xu Xingzhe shook his head with a smile and said seriously, “I’m keeping up with you. Even though we’re not in the same class, we have the same subjects. If you do Chinese, I do Chinese. If you do physics, I do physics. I’ll speed up and definitely won’t slack off.”
“I’ve done all my homework.”
“What?! Then what are you doing?” Xu Xingzhe exclaimed in shock, quickly snatching Lu Zhaoshen’s exercise book and flipping to the cover to take a look—”Analysis of College Entrance Examination Mathematics Questions.”
“Aren’t you only in your second year of high school?!”
Lu Zhaoshen glanced at him without saying a word, but that was already an answer in itself.
“Why are you so smart? It makes me look dumb.” Xu Xingzhe slumped over the table like a wilted eggplant, his chin knocked against the table a few times. Then he turned to Lu Zhaoshen and said, “I got 47 on the monthly math test, is there any hope for me?”
“No hope. Stop studying and go to bed early.”
It was the first time Lu Zhaoshen had said so much to Xu Xingzhe. As he spoke, he packed his bag to leave. Xu Xingzhe mumbled worriedly, his fingers twisting around Lu Zhaoshen’s bag strap to prevent him from leaving.
“Actually, I’m not stupid. I just haven’t studied seriously. The teachers all say I’m pretty smart. I scored over ten points higher than the passing score in the Xizhong middle school entrance exam.”
Lu Zhaoshen looked at him as if he were a fool and implied, “What does your intelligence have to do with me?”
“From now on, I will keep my mouth shut and not bother you, okay?”
Only then did Lu Zhaoshen put down his bag and pick up a black pen to continue working on his exercises. Xu Xingzhe graciously offered his own copy.
“What if I have questions I don’t understand—”
Lu Zhaoshen pointed at the small alarm clock on the table, “No talking before eight thirty.”
“Oh.”
If it were anyone else, it would have been hard to refuse Xu Xingzhe’s cute act, but his tactics were useless against Lu Zhaoshen. Lu Zhaoshen had a natural shield specifically for Xu Xingzhe, ignoring both good and bad.
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.
Xu Xingzhe pouted and pulled out his homework book from the mess in his bag. He looked at the assigned tasks on the sticker and flipped to the corresponding page. He hadn’t turned in his homework for a long time. He had bribed the math class representative with a week’s worth of spicy sticks and sausages to escape the strict supervision of the math teacher.
Lf tjv obgubaafc jybea la tlwrfio ecali tf gfjmtfv qjuf 25 jcv vlrmbnfgfv atja atf qgfnlber afc qjufr kfgf jii yijcx. Lf delmxis mbnfgfv la klat tlr fiybk jcv qgfafcvfv ab rmgjamt tlr tfjv ab tlvf tlr fwyjggjrrwfca.
Oe Itjbrtfc uijcmfv ja tlw jcv ecvfgrabbv tlr wlrvffv.
Mffilcu jrtjwfv, We Wlcuhtf qertfv tlr mtjlg jkjs ogbw Oe Itjbrtfc, bmmeqlfv j dejgafg bo atf ajyif ys tlwrfio, jcv tevvifv reixlis ab mjamt eq bc tlr tbwfkbgx. Ktf qgbyifw kjr, atja tf vlvc’a xcbk tbk ab vb la jcv tjv ab ajxf bea atf afzaybbx ab ifjgc la jujlc.
When Qin Jiazhen walked in, Xu Xingzhe was already dozing over the formulas in his math book. Qin Jiazhen stuck a piece of ice watermelon with a fork and brought it to Xu Xingzhe’s mouth, waking him up instantly. Xu Xingzhe wiped his mouth groggily, his first thought being that Lu Zhaoshen had kissed him. Just as he was about to giggle, he heard Qin Jiazhen sigh, “Zhaoshen, you’ve seen it too. With his attitude, can he even go to college? He’ll probably end up carrying bricks at his father’s construction site.”
Xu Xingzhe shuddered as he fully woke up and raised his eyes to see Qin Jiazhen standing at the desk with a smile that wasn’t a smile, while Lu Zhaoshen was doing his English paper.
Once again, Xu Xingzhe lost face in front of Lu Zhaoshen. He glared at Qin Jiazhen and stuffed the watermelon into his mouth. He buried his head and continued to work on his problems.
Finally, after enduring until eight thirty, Xu Xingzhe glanced at Lu Zhaoshen’s expression and carefully placed his “Daily Practice” in the middle of the desk, “There are a few questions I don’t understand…”
Lu Zhaoshen had eaten the fruit brought by Qin Jiazhen, so he didn't dare bully Xu Xingzhe anymore. He put down his English paper, took Xu Xingzhe’s homework, and glanced at the questions he had circled.
Lu Zhaoshen looked particularly attractive when he got serious. He took off his school jacket, revealing a clean white T-shirt that exuded the charm of a top student from his fingertips to the corners of his face.
“For this type of question, you need to consider three scenarios: when X is less than or equal to 0 when X is greater than 0 but less than 2, and when X is greater than or equal to 2. Then, we need to draw graphs for each scenario—”
Halfway through his explanation, Lu Zhaoshen felt a fixed gaze on his face. When he turned his head, he actually saw Xu Xingzhe staring at him intently while biting the tip of his pen.
Xu Xingzhe trembled before Lu Zhaoshen could get angry. He quickly sat up straight, intending to place his right hand on the armrest of Lu Zhaoshen’s chair. However, due to nervousness, his hand slipped and brushed against the armrest, then landed directly on Lu Zhaoshen’s thigh.
The position was already awkward, but his fingertips landed on an even more awkward spot.
“…..”
In his mind, Xu Xingzhe wondered: Would Lu Zhaoshen believe him if he said that he wasn’t fully awake and was dazed?
Lu Zhaoshen gritted his teeth, then threw Xu Xingzhe’s “Daily Practice” into the corner of the room in a beautiful parabola.
Feeling guilty, Xu Xingzhe didn’t dare to retaliate. He sheepishly hopped on one leg to the corner and retrieved his workbook.
*
After Lu Zhaoshen left, Xu Xingzhe slumped in his chair in boredom, flipping through his homework that had been corrected over and over again, lost in thought.
He didn’t know what was wrong with him.
Qin Jiazhen came over and asked if he wanted some milk, but he declined. It seemed like when Lu Zhaoshen left, he took Xu Xingzhe’s spirit with him.
Xu Xingzhe felt he was being a little weird. He seemed to be too enthusiastic about Lu Zhaoshen, almost shamelessly so. Lu Zhaoshen was already tolerant of him; if it were Chen Xiaoming, he would have probably thrown a punch by now.
Xu Xingzhe was clingy but also mischievous. Few of his friends could stand him. Qin Sijia, his best friend who had grown up with him wearing open-crotch pants, described him: the most lovable and the most annoying.
Xu Xingzhe had been spoiled by his parents since childhood and never cared what others thought of him. The more annoying he was, the more excited he became. He was like a little mad dog, causing mischief everywhere. But this time was different.
He hoped Lu Zhaoshen wouldn’t dislike him, not even a little bit.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go the way he wanted.
When Lu Zhaoshen came back the next day, Xu Xingzhe behaved obediently. His homework was neatly laid out, with formulas and English words copied into a small notebook. When he needed it, he would pick it up and take a quick look. For questions he really couldn’t understand, he would tug on Lu Zhaoshen’s sleeve and ask. Seeing Xu Xingzhe’s obedient attitude, Lu Zhaoshen’s expression softened. As he explained the problems, he even shared his problem-solving techniques with Xu Xingzhe.
“In fact, many problems have fixed solution steps. For this question, you need to break down the variables one by one. Let me give you a simple example…”
As Lu Zhaoshen continued to speak, he noticed that Xu Xingzhe beside him remained motionless. He thought that Xu Xingzhe was up to his old tricks again and was about to get angry. However, when he turned his head, he saw Xu Xingzhe’s serious expression with furrowed brows, as if he couldn’t understand but was trying hard to keep up with Lu Zhaoshen’s pace.
“You don’t understand?”
Xu Xingzhe thought that Lu Zhaozhen might abandon him, and hurriedly shook his head, “I understand, I do.”
But Lu Zhaozhen didn’t seem angry. Instead, he turned a page of scrap paper, rewrote some formulas, and began to explain the basics to Xu Xingzhe.
Lu Zhaoshen was serious about studying, and his attitude toward Xu Xingzhe improved when he saw him taking his studies seriously. Xu Xingzhe was lost in thought as he watched Lu Zhaoshen’s lips move before he finally looked back at the tip of Lu Zhaoshen’s pen.
As Lu Zhaoshen leaned down to explain the problem, his black-framed glasses slid down a little on his prominent nose. Xu Xingzhe was tempted to reach out and push the glasses back up.
He leaned in closer, and Lu Zhaoshen happened to turn his head at the same time. Their noses were only a few centimeters apart so they could feel each other’s breath. Lu Zhaoshen could even hear Xu Xingzhe’s thundering heartbeat.
Xu Xingzhe’s features still carried a hint of childishness, with blunt corners at the eyes and nose, resembling a little puppy. His skin was fair, and from Lu Zhaoshen’s angle, he could see Xu Xingzhe’s collarbone through the open neckline. Xu Xingzhe’s collarbone wasn’t prominent because he wasn’t thin; he was pampered by Qin Jiazhen and looked like someone who had never experienced hardship.
Xu Xingzhe was also taken aback. His mouth felt dry for no reason, so he licked his lips.
His lips turned into a shiny cherry red.
Lu Zhaoshen turned his head slightly and tossed the scrap paper onto Xu Xingzhe’s desk. Then, with a push, he moved Xu Xingzhe’s chair half a meter away from him. The legs of the chair made a scraping sound on the wooden floor, bringing Xu Xingzhe’s wandering soul back.
“I just noticed your glasses slipping down. I didn’t mean anything by it,” he explained.
“I’ve said that I don’t like boys.”
“I also—” Xu Xingzhe hesitated, uncertain of himself. He humbly sought advice, “Actually, I never thought about this before meeting you, but now I’m starting to doubt myself.”
“You’re not, don’t overthink it.”
“Really?” Xu Xingzhe was not completely convinced. The eraser on his black pen cracked under his fingernail as he asked seriously, “Lu Zhaoshen, how can you be so sure you’re not? Is there any way to know for sure?”
Lu Zhaoshen’s facial expression changed repeatedly at his question, and a crimson color crept up to his ears.
He looked unhappy, and there was even a hint of offended anger in his expression.
But Xu Xingzhe’s question was asked seriously as if it was a serious and tense academic problem that needed to be solved. To Xu Xingzhe, Lu Zhaoshen seemed like someone who should know everything.
After a while, Lu Zhaoshen finally opened his mouth to say, “Sexual impulse.”
He didn’t explain further because he thought Xu Xingzhe wouldn’t be stupid enough to not understand.
Xu Xingzhe was stunned for a while before he realized that his face was turning red. He sat up straight in embarrassment, picked up his pen, and pretended to do his homework as if nothing had happened. The two of them remained silent, separated by more than half a meter, as if the boundary-crossing conversation had never happened.
Lu Zhaoshen thought that this should put an end to the situation, and Xu Xingzhe probably wouldn’t cling to him anymore. Before leaving, he even gently bid Xu Xingzhe goodnight.
Who would have thought that the next morning, as soon as Lu Zhaoshen woke up, he would receive a call from Xu Xingzhe. Xu Xingzhe’s voice sounded clingy as if he had just woken up. He said, “Lu Zhaoshen, I dreamt about you last night.”
Lu Zhaoshen was about to tell him to shut up when he heard Xu Xingzhe’s voice full of grievances, “I’m screwed.”
T/N: I picked this up after seeing it in the pick-up requests. I’ll upload a new chapter whenever I complete one. The novel is short, so the translation shouldn’t take too long 
If you find some inconsistencies between the old translation and this let me know. I don’t mind~
Oooooh, thank You for picking it up! Can’t wait to go on this trip with You! 《《o(≧◇≦)o》》Thank You for translating ʚ♡⃛ɞ(ू•ᴗ•ू❁)
Haizz lu zhaoshen don’t bully poor xu xingzhe so much >w< he’s just a lil puppy experiencing first love www
Omg I’m the one who requested this to be picked up! Thank you so much!! 😀