After that incident, Chen Xingze and Lu Hao give each other the cold shoulder for a period of time.
Neither of them fare very well.
Lu Hao’s frustrations are because of Chen Xingze, Chen Xing’s frustrations are because of You Xiaolin. Three days after Lu Hao’s outburst, You Xiaolin comes looking for Chen Xingze. Being the smart character that he is, it didn’t take him long to figure out the implication behind Lu Hao’s words.
“Did you spend your own money on those flowers?”
“No.”
“Chen Xingze.”
Chen Xingze’s back tenses at the calling out of his name, making him feel like a wife whose been caught red-handed doing something wrong.
In the end, he’s forced to accept 200 yuan under You Xiaolin’s persistence.
“…It’s really unnecessary,” he says weakly, taking one last stance.
“If you don’t take it, let’s not see each other anymore.”
No. Anything but that.
Chen Xingze takes the money.
200 yuan is nothing to him, but You Xiaolin lives frugally and doesn’t ever spend over 20 yuan on a meal. This money must be at least ten days’ worth of meals for him.
Chen Xingze’s heart clutches reflexively at the sight of You Xiaolin’s pale, slender neck. When he walks back to his own classroom, it’s as if his feet fall on knives with each step he takes.
Halfway there, he runs into Lu Hao.
What seems to be a coincidence is actually a result of Lu Hao’s deliberate planning.
Lu Hao had been in a state of extreme vexation since the upsetting parting beyond the peach tree forest. Chen Xingze is the strangest person he’s ever met. Even though he’s his best partner on the basketball court and also his closest friend, he doesn’t understand him at all. He can’t read him; Chen Xingze doesn’t get angry when he should, and randomly bursts into anger when he shouldn’t.
Despite this, Lu Hao still doesn’t want to lose this friendship, and since he’s not one for going around in circles, he decided the very afternoon of their argument to go apologise to Chen Xingze.
At the time, Chen Xingze’s entire body had emanated a terrifying aura; Lu Hao had to force himself to walk over and speak to him.
“Chen Xingze…I, I want to talk to you.”
Chen Xingze had turned a cold gaze on him. “About what? You going to lecture me again?”
It was obvious that he didn’t intend to give Lu Hao the chance to apologise, and so all of his tentative olive branches were shot down. This frustrated Lu Hao, who didn’t understand what Chen Xingze was thinking—the boy was more of an enigma than a girl.
The past two days have been excruciating for Lu Hao, who experiences insomnia for the first time in his life. He goes whining to Venerable Mother and tells her all about his fight with Chen Xingze. She tells him that if he wants to be friends with him again, he has to go to him and say everything he wants to say.
“No way, I can’t. He won’t forgive me.” He adds in frustration, “But I don’t even fucking know what I did wrong!”
“Don’t curse.”
“Sorry. Mum, help me think of something.”
“Think yourself, why are you such a wimp?”
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.
“I’m not a wimp! You have no idea, whenever I see Chen Xingze, I just, just…” He breaks into nonsensical muttering and Venerable Mother slants her eyes at him. It’s humiliating, but Lu Hao squeezes the next words out quietly, “I just get nervous… my heart beats so fast and I don’t know why.” He clutches his chest as he speaks.
His mother looks at him for three seconds, then shakes her head in disdain and walks off.
He’s a boy with a simple life and a simple personality; this is probably the most complicated human relations problem he’s ever encountered. But the torment inside is unbearable, so he decides to try to apologise to Chen Xingze again even though he’s afraid.
Which is precisely what brings us to that moment.
Lu Hao had followed Chen Xingze, and meant to accidentally-on-purpose run into him around the stairs. He steps forward and says, “Chen Xingze, I’m sorr—”
At which point Chen Xingze is walking along with the 200 yuan from You Xiaolin in his pocket. A handful of cash, all 10 yuan, 20 yuan bills aside from a single 50 yuan bill. He’s so upset over the money that his heart is squeezing itself into a stroke, and it’s then that he runs into Lu Hao the Perpetrator. Naturally, his attitude is less than pleasant.
“Go away!” he spits out, passing him by.
Lu Hao sinks like a ferryboat in water.
He skips English class second period.
Even though his grades are sub-par, his attitude towards school isn’t; he usually pays attention in class. This is Lu Hao’s first time playing hooky. Chen Xingze glances at the empty seat next to him thoughtfully.
It must be… because of what he just said. Maybe he was too harsh.
Chen Xingze isn’t a petty person; it’s just that in matters concerning You Xiaolin, he has a tendency to lose it. When he calms down and thinks back on the incident, he doesn’t really think that idiot did anything wrong. Lu Hao had been well-intentioned, feeling injustice on his behalf. He just didn’t know what You Xiaolin means to Chen Xingze is all.
The English teacher realises Lu Hao’s absence and goes to ask the class representative, but Chen Xingze cuts in: “He wasn’t feeling well so his family took him to the doctor.”
“Is that so?” the English teacher replies. “It’s getting chilly, everyone take care of yourselves. Let’s get class started then.”
When he leaves the classroom, Chen Xingze thinks of a few possible places Lu Hao could be. First he goes to the basketball courts, and as expected, there beside the court is one bleak silhouette of a person.
“You’re an easy one to find.”
Chen Xingze walks over to where Lu Hao is sitting with his head buried in his arms at the stairs and pulls him up to see his face. When their eyes meet, he feels something like lightning flash over his head.
Lu Hao has tears and snot all over his face and fights to hide himself again, feeling humiliated.
Chen Xingze has no idea what’s happening. “Is the apocalypse here?” he asks randomly.
Fierce hatred flashes across Lu Hao’s swollen, tear-stained eyes as he roars, “Chen Xingze—” except the holler is cut short by a drop of snot that falls into his mouth.
Chen Xingze lets out a snort, which makes Lu Hao so furious he could kill him.
“You’re laughing?! Are you even human?!”
Laughter bubbles out of Chen Xingze uncontrollably and tears start streaming down Lu Hao’s face again. He’s so upset that he can’t control them. “…Why are you,” he chokes, “why are you laughing, why were you mad… Chen Xingze, what even goes through your head? Are you from bloody outer space?”
A second ago when he’d come down the stairs, Chen Xingze had already decided to forgive Lu Hao, but seeing the boy like this now, he suddenly has an impulse to reach out and stroke his head.
This is bad, he thinks to himself. A weird fetish has been triggered in me.
He lets out a cough and then postures himself like the boss of a gang. “Are you a man?” he says. “Crying over such a small thing.”
Lu Hao turns away indignantly. “I didn’t cry!”
“Sure you didn’t.”
Chen Xingze sits down next to him and the two of them stare out at the empty basketball court, spacing out.
They made up just like that, without much symbolic dialogue.
Who cares if the process was embarrassing, as long as the outcome is satisfying? Is what Lu Hao thinks.
Despite the dramatic display of tears, Lu Hao comes back to life after just a single night’s rest. His eyes are still red and swollen, but he’s full of confidence that he and Chen Xingze’s relationship is finally back to normal and that they’ll be back to their usual shenanigans. Except something else happens out of the blue.
One day after class, Chen Xingze receives a confession.
Pc ogbca bo atf qfjmt agff obgfra.
Qlatbea kjgclcu.
Takes him by complete surprise.
“You don’t remember me?” The girl is pretty, her eyes bright and shining, wind and fire.
“Tbe’gf…”
“Ktfgf kjr j rcjxf ecvfg ws rfja.”
“…..”
Ah. During the welcoming ceremony incident, Chen Xingze hadn’t even gotten a clear look at the starring girl’s face.
Her name is Na Lili. A rare last name, denoting her Manchu ethnicity.
Of course, Chen Xingze turns her confession down.
“Is it because you want to focus on studying?” she asks.
“Zw.”
“Liar, I’ve watched you for a long time. You don’t study properly at all.”
His lie gets punctured just like that, leaving him with no rebuttal.
He thinks he turned her down and that Lili would give up, but she becomes persistent. She somehow manages to get Chen Xingze’s phone number from who-knows, and starts texting him each day, although never excessively. She sends polite greetings, as if she doesn’t want to bother him too much.
Occasionally at noontime, Na Lili comes looking for Chen Xingze to have lunch together, which irks Lu Hao to no end.
“You don’t like the stuff we eat!”
“I can eat anything.”
Every time Na Lili comes over, Lu Hao’s face darkens into ash and he grinds his beverage straw like it’s a piece of gum.
Chen Xingze is a gentle person from the bottom of his heart; he understands the magnitude of hurt a person can experience because of their feelings because he carries the pain from his own experience of first love, so with Na Lili, he remains tactful with the way he speaks. He’s incapable of treating someone who has expressed their love for him with a cool, nonchalant attitude, but he also knows that if this continues, it will only hurt her more.
And so he decides to tell her the truth.
Even though You Xiaolin once attacked him over it, he doesn’t think of himself as disgraceful in the slightest.
One afternoon when Na Lili comes looking for him, Chen Xingze tells Lu Hao, “I have something to discuss with her, you go on and eat.”
Lu Hao can’t believe his ears. “Chen Xingze?”
At first, Chen Xingze meant to maintain a serious attitude for his upcoming conversation, but the sight of Lu Hao’s completely flabbergasted look makes him want to laugh. After letting out a chortle, he hurries off and leads Na Lili away.
Lu Hao stands in place and takes three deep breaths, thinking that he doesn’t need lunch anymore because he’s so pissed that he’s already full. “Ungrateful bastard! Abandoning your friend for a girl!”
Lu Hao’s vocabulary skills are limited and these are the only two statements he can come up with. No longer wanting to eat, he walks back to the school building with huge strides. But the second he walks inside, he suddenly pauses, feeling like there’s a large stone suspended over his heart, pressing down on him. He swivels around and glowers in the direction where Chen Xingze and Na Lili disappeared.
Chen Xingze brings Na Lili to the deepest part of the school yard, behind the auditorium, where it’s usually empty and no one walks by. And there, he calmly relates the truth of his circumstances to her.
At first, she doesn’t believe him, so he waits until she does.
Perhaps people who are telling the truth emit a certain sort of aura; after a period of stiff silence, Na Lili’s eyes turn red.
“Why would you tell me this…”
“Because I don’t want to lie to you.”
Na Lili bursts into tears. “When you said you wanted to speak to me privately, I thought it would be good news!”
“I’m sorry.”
“…Is there any chance that you can change back?”
“I doubt it.”
Na Lili cries with much more abandon than Lu Hao’s prior display of tears.
“Heavens! How could this happen?”
Chen Xingze stands off to the side, waiting for her emotions to come back under control. She stabilises herself after ten minutes of sobbing. Chen Xingze hands her a tissue, which she takes to wipe her nose.
“Never mind, it can’t be helped.” After she wipes her tears, she looks at Chen Xingze again. Studies his handsome face, then remarks sorrowfully, “…what a waste.” His head tilts downward slightly, and she promises, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone else such an important secret.”
In truth, Chen Xingze had been nervous about confessing to someone, and so Na Lili’s words sense a rush of genuine gratitude rising up from the bottom of his heart.
“Thank you.”
Na Lili rubs her nose.
“Really, thank you. This is the first time I’ve received a confession,” says Chen Xingze.
The statement sends Na Lili into tears again. “But there was no result!”
“Er…” He searches his head for something else to talk about, “are you hungry? Why don’t I take you out to eat?”
“I want something expensive!”
“Okay.”
They walk out together, discussing their food options.
They don’t notice, behind a large tree along the path behind them, is Lu Hao, who has accidentally heard the secret is has transformed into a frozen stone statue.
thanks for the chapter <3
aww… my heart…
thanks for the chapter~
Lu Hao! Poor Lu Hao! He has a Maiden’s heart… He can’t stand Chen Xingze’s harsh words, and now he’s going to get confused.
Thanks for the chapter!