Both of them didn’t pay much attention to these two encounters, but sometimes the fate between people is quite mysterious. It’s like they have a unique magnetism that always pulls them together.
At A High School Attached to A University, they promoted character education. Taking advantage of the period before students entered the most stressful stage of their final year, they organized ‘one-on-one mutual assistance study groups’. Feng Zhi was specially assigned to Yang Huaijin by the teachers because this student was really hard to handle, while Yang Huaijin had a personality that got along well with everyone. However, the teacher still couldn’t help but remind Yang Huaijin to ‘take care of yourself’.
What does ‘take care of yourself’ mean? Teacher!
Yang Huaijin felt a bit of a headache. Although it had been six months since the last basketball game, this period was enough for him to understand what kind of person Feng Zhi was – not afraid of underachieving academically, but afraid of an underachiever being a school bully!
Encountering a school bully, if he likes you, he’ll easily recruit you as one of his lackeys. You might even have a few lackeys who respect you at first sight. But if the school bully doesn’t like you, it becomes fun for his lackeys to harass you. In the last basketball game, if it weren’t for Yang Huaijin, Feng Zhi’s class wouldn’t have struggled so much. So, for Yang Huaijin and Feng Zhi, this ‘one-on-one mutual assistance study group’ was akin to being trapped with an enemy.
However, what must be faced must be faced. One day after school, Yang Huaijin deliberately went to find Feng Zhi.
“I’ll be at table 8 on the second floor of the library this weekend, doing homework. I’ll save you a spot.”
The tall boy across from him looked at Yang Huaijin with playful eyes. Yang Huaijin’s name was well known, even to someone like Feng Zhi who didn’t care much about grades because his name always ranked at the top of the leaderboard. It’s just that Feng Zhi hadn’t expected Yang Huaijin himself to not only lack the typical studious aura but also be a cheerful youth who loved sports.
Feng Zhi stared at Yang Huaijin for a moment, noticing the slight nervousness in his gaze. Mischievously, he decided to tease the boy in front of him and whistled playfully, “Oh, aren’t we supposed to be studying? Why does it sound like a secret date, with a secret location and all?”
Yang Huaijin remained unruffled, raising his eyes to meet Feng Zhi’s gaze and laughed softly. “If it were a date, I’d have to bring flowers,” he raised his chin slightly, deliberately adding a hint of flirtation to his smile. “But unfortunately, between us, we only have test papers, the kind that can’t be finished until we can’t go home.”
“…Tsk.”
Yang Huaijin thought Feng Zhi wouldn’t show up, but to his surprise, when he arrived at table 8 on the second floor of the library the next day, Feng Zhi was already there.
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.
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Upon hearing footsteps, Feng Zhi woke up and lazily leaned back in his chair, yawning.
Yang Huaijin was momentarily surprised and stuttered, “What are you doing here?”
Feng Zhi’s eyebrows immediately furrowed, and he replied succinctly, “Studying!”
When Feng Zhi said he was studying, he meant it, even if he struggled with it. Some people, having grown up playing without any supervision, only realized the importance of studying when they reached a certain age, but by then, they had fallen behind in their studies, unsure of where to even begin.
Yang Huaijin was not only a good student but also a good teacher. Since Feng Zhi said he was here to study, Yang Huaijin fulfilled his ‘one-on-one’ responsibility.
The table they sat at, table 8, was a solid wooden table. Facing each other, Yang Huaijin leaned on his chin, watching Feng Zhi struggle with the numerous mistakes in his practice exercises. After watching for a while, he couldn’t help but grab a stack of blank papers and sit next to Feng Zhi.
“I’ll explain it to you!”
Yang Huaijin didn’t explain the exercises but shared some study methods instead. He analyzed Feng Zhi’s current learning progress and taught him how to simplify and organize the knowledge in the textbooks. His voice was gentle, each sentence articulated clearly, making unfamiliar knowledge suddenly seem simpler, and thick textbooks gained a clearer understanding.
Since they were in the library and couldn’t speak loudly, they kept their voices as low as possible, leaning in close. Feng Zhi was taller, and at this distance, he almost enveloped Yang Huaijin in his arms.
“You see, thinking like this makes it much simpler, understand?” Yang Huaijin asked.
“…” Feng Zhi stared at Yang Huaijin blankly for a moment, then muttered a vague “yeah,” distancing himself from Yang Huaijin and quickly turning his head towards the window.
Outside the library’s large floor-to-ceiling windows, the trees were lush with branches and leaves, allowing beautiful specks of light to filter through, swaying gently and casting a green hue all around.
Naturally, Feng Zhi didn’t understand a word of what Yang Huaijin was saying. His attention was nowhere near the words spoken by Yang Huaijin.
This guy… why does he smell kind of nice…
Feng Zhi thought to himself, murmuring inwardly: “It smells quite good…”
…
In the afternoon, amidst the distant noise from the playground, though muffled by the trees outside the library, Feng Zhi’s keen Alpha senses caught wind of it. He looked over at Yang Huaijin, “Wanna play ball?”
Feng Zhi remembered the previous game where the ‘fighting cocks’ in the team couldn’t arrange that ‘informal match’. Perhaps this time, he could challenge Yang Huaijin on the court.
Yang Huaijin lifted his head from his books without hesitation, “Let’s play!”
This straightforward response caught Feng Zhi off guard. Seeing Yang Huaijin smile, a smile tinged with a hint of provocation, felt odd. He lowered his head, only to find someone sneakily pushing a test paper in front of him.
“Finish this page of the test paper, then we’ll go play ball. It’s 4 o’clock now, I hope you can let me play some ball before it gets dark,” Yang Huaijin said.
“…Ah, what a downer!” Feng Zhi sighed heavily, reluctantly picking up the test paper in front of him. He gritted his teeth inwardly: Oh well, it’s because you smell good, I’ll let you have your way!
Of course, it wasn’t feasible for a slacker like him to do the test, but luckily, he was quick. Feng Zhi hastily filled in the answers… no, he meant he did his best until he reached the last question on the test paper, where Yang Huaijin was already frowning at the crumpled paper. However, before Feng Zhi could meet his gaze, Yang Huaijin smoothed out his expression and took the test paper with a smile.
After checking the correct answers, Yang Huaijin drew a big red X on the paper.
This time, it was Feng Zhi’s turn to furrow his brows. He had just written the answers seriously. This is… too embarrassing!
Yang Huaijin drew the final X on the paper and folded it. “Let’s go, time to play ball!”
Feng Zhi raised an eyebrow: Oh, aren’t you going to explain the questions to me?
Yang Huaijin stood up, leaning over the table with one hand on it. “I said we’d play after finishing the test, don’t waste my time!” he said, giving a sly wink.
The prospect of going over wrong answers on a failed test was discouraging enough for a certain slacker. It was better to head out for some fun first. As for the mistakes, they could be dealt with later, couldn’t they? Maybe when Feng Zhi’s mood improved, he’d have more motivation to face them!
In order to keep their voices low, Yang Huaijin and Feng Zhi were very close. From this angle, Feng Zhi looked up at the boy in front of him, meeting his gaze and peering into a pair of smiling eyes. Yang Huaijin’s reminder not to waste his time seemed to dissipate the embarrassment of the wrong answers just in that moment. Feng Zhi seemed to catch a faint scent of flowers and grass again, and his heart skipped a beat.
Creak—
The library chair creaked loudly as Feng Zhi stood up, ignoring the chair that was tilted to the side. He avoided Yang Huaijin’s gaze, grabbed his bag, and left.
“Hey—wait up!”
Yang Huaijin hastily stuffed the books into his bag and hurried to catch up.
