“I don’t smoke.”
Yu Zuojin looked at Sheng Yuan, saying word by word.
His voice was hoarse, and there was no trace of guilt on his calm face.
As if he had no connection with the cigarette box at all.
Zheng Zilu: !
What audacity!
Yu Zuojin lowered his gaze to look at Zheng Zilu.
Just a single glance, yet it held profound meaning.
What to do, you figure it out.
If you can’t handle it, then you’re done for.
Zheng Zilu swallowed a mouthful of saliva, stretching his neck.
Facing Yu Zuojin’s deathly stare, he gritted his teeth and picked up the cigarette box with a bold move.
His smile wasn’t a smile, but tears hidden in secret.
Looking at Sheng Yuan, Zheng Zilu chuckled, “Hahaha, it’s nothing, just using it as a stress reliever for the intense pressure of senior year.”
The academic pressure of senior year was a good excuse no matter where you went.
Even if a deity appeared, it would still have to take a backseat.
Zheng Zilu discreetly glanced at Yu Zuojin, and the threatening gaze arrived on cue, like a sword hanging over a gourd.
Man is the carving knife, and I am the fish.
Zheng Zilu quickly retorted, “I love smoking Medieval the most.”
Sheng Yuan looked at the words on the cigarette box and said, “That’s ‘Zhonghua.’”
Zheng Zilu: “…”
In an instant, a bone-chilling coldness emanated from behind, as if the air conditioning had been turned to its maximum.
The weight of this enormous pot covered him, obscuring the sky.
His world would never brighten again!
He fabricated an excuse, “I just like calling it that way, a little quirk of giving cigarettes a nickname.”
Zheng Zilu, however, abhorred anything that violated discipline, and Sheng Yuan was surprised that the cigarette box belonged to him.
It seemed that the academic pressure was exceptionally heavy.
“Have you encountered any obstacles in your studies recently?”
Zheng Zilu stuck to his lie, “Sort of.”
Sheng Yuan’s words held deep meaning, “Indeed, your short legs can’t cross over.”
Zheng Zilu exclaimed, “Hey!!!!”
Damn it!
Sheng Yuan put one hand in his pocket and turned the doorknob of Room 408 with the other. “If you have any questions, just come directly to me.”
“Oh, by the way, tonight he and I are going to have candied hawthorn on a stick. Why don’t you join us?”
The handsome youth’s smile was lazy.
“Gege is inviting you.”
Having candied hawthorn on a cold day was also a form of stress relief.
With those words, he pushed the door open and walked in.
Thinking of candied hawthorn, Zheng Zilu licked his lips. It occurred to him that he hadn’t eaten any since autumn began. It was already early winter, and the leaves on the trees were nearly all gone.
“Alright, I’ll come find you after evening self-study.”
Yu Zuojin stood in place, his cold and stern face showing cracks.
He had thought that eating candied hawthorn in the evening was going to be a two person thing.
But unexpectedly, Sheng Yuan invited someone else.
Fortunes change.
It was as if he was paying the price for his dishonesty.
Zheng Zilu saw Sheng Yuan enter the dormitory and silently held out the cigarette box to Yu Zuojin.
He tentatively asked, “Do you still want it?”
Yu Zuojin’s face turned as dark as the bottom of a pot. “I don’t smoke.”
This time, he didn’t knock down Zheng Zilu’s books. He didn’t want to leave any trace on another page of his dark history.
He bypassed Zheng Zilu and returned to Room 408, slamming the door shut.
Zheng Zilu felt both timid and indignant.
Fine! Fine! I’ll smoke it!
He stood there, consumed by impotent rage, throwing punches in the air, punching the earth until it shattered, holding the cigarette box in his hand.
After spreading fury to the world, his mood improved considerably when he thought about the free candied hawthorn at night. He planned to indulge in two sticks—one with hawthorn as the base and another with grapes.
Room 408 was much cleaner than Sheng Yuan had imagined. He thought it might have become messy after not coming for over a week, but to his surprise, the dormitory was well-organized. For a moment, Sheng Yuan even wondered if he had entered the wrong room.
In fact, when he came, Sheng Yuan had already planned to tidy up the dormitory a little.
But he didn’t expect Yu Zuojin to keep it so clean.
Sheng Yuan regarded him with newfound respect. “Classmate Yu, you’ve been living diligently lately.”
Yu Zuojin remained silent, but he had come in just to hear Sheng Yuan praise him.
“Even the floor is so clean.”
Yu Zuojin turned his back, pretending to look elsewhere.
Sheng Yuan walked to his side, tilting his head to look at him.
“Very impressive.”
As Sheng Yuan’s lavish compliments reached his ears, Yu Zuojin’s ears grew warm.
But he still wore a cold expression, pretending not to care, “It’s alright.”
Except when he roared in anger, his tone was always mysteriously hoarse, devoid of any emotional fluctuations.
So much so that he appeared indifferent, others assumed that he truly didn’t care.
After all, with his cold and aloof demeanor, no one would think deeply about the meaning behind his words.
Due to the cleanliness of the dormitory, Yu Zuojin’s deliquent points decreased by five points.
Truly Ambitious suddenly emerged.
[System: Host, have you noticed?]
Sheng Yuan: “What?”
[System: As long as the target doesn’t do anything bad, his points will decrease regardless of his actions.]
Sheng Yuan suddenly realized.
So, all roads lead to Rome?
At that moment, the ringing of the mobile phone on the table interrupted them. Yu Zuojin answered, it was from the old man.
“Little Yu, we’ll be closing the shop early tonight and turning on the air conditioning. You don’t need to come, consider it a day off.”
Yu Zuojin replied with a monosyllabic sound and hung up the phone.
“No need to pick me up tonight.”
He conveyed the message in a dry tone to Sheng Yuan.
Sheng Yuan picked up his English notebook from beside the pillow. “Why? Aren’t you going to the shop today?”
Yu Zuojin nodded.
Something must have happened at the shop. Sheng Yuan didn’t ask further, as things that didn’t concern him personally were not of his interest.
“After evening self-study, let’s meet at the school gate and go eat candied hawthorn.”
As he spoke, he approached Yu Zuojin and said, “Gege will buy you strawberries.”
Sheng Yuan wanted to give him something he liked.
With only ten minutes of break time, Sheng Yuan didn’t delay after taking his English notebook and quickly returned to the classroom.
Sheng Yuan loved strawberries the most.
If it weren’t for the incident when he got drunk, Yu Zuojin wouldn’t have known.
Yu Zuojin didn’t have any particular favorite food. He could drink the freshly brewed milk and even the milk with a protein content of only two yuan per box.
But Sheng Yuan loved strawberries.
So, he followed suit, and loved them too.
He still couldn’t forget the scene when Sheng Yuan brought the strawberry milk tea to his face and said it was his favorite fruit.
Yu Zuojin touched the external device of his cochlear implant.
He was cute.
If only Sheng Yuan would say that he liked him like that one day.
—–
The last two self-study sessions in the afternoon were for reviewing. Sheng Yuan, as usual, took out the test papers and began working on them.
Xia Zhiqi glanced outside the door and saw that the disciplinary headmaster wasn’t on patrol during this period. He stealthily moved to another seat behind Sheng Yuan.
Xia Zhiqi lightly tapped his chair twice.
Sheng Yuan leaned back in his seat, lazily resting against the backrest, and casually asked, “What’s up?”
He still held the partially rolled-up test paper in his hand.
Xia Zhiqi confirmed the information he had just received once again.
“Brother Sheng, are you in a relationship recently?”
In a relationship?
With whom?
He recalled how Xia Zhiqi mistakenly thought he and Yu Zuojin were in a relationship.
“No.”
“Yu Zuojin isn’t interested in the same gender either.”
It was not Sheng Yuan’s original intention to cause inconvenience to the other party.
So he helped Yu Zuojin deny it.
Xia Zhiqi: “Brother Sheng, it’s not the police station incident.”
Then where else could it be?
Xia Zhiqi continued, “Aren’t you dating a girl from No.12 Middle School?”
No.12 Middle School? Girl? Dating?
Sheng Yuan hadn’t even been to the gate of No.12 Middle School, so how could he be dating someone from there?
“No.”
Xia Zhiqi was surprised, “Really none?”
Sheng Yuan: “What? Do you think I have a clone that went to No.12 Middle School?”
Xia Zhiqi understood. Thinking about it, Brother Sheng is always at school all day, and he even goes to pick up Yu Zuojin at night. Where would he find the time to date?
“Why did you suddenly ask this?”
“Just curious. Someone spread rumors that you, Brother Sheng. That you have a girlfriend outside.”
As he said that, Xia Zhiqi took out his phone and showed it to Sheng Yuan.
The other person was a friend of Xia Zhiqi from No.12 Middle School. They had lived on the same street since childhood, and their families had a deep relationship, but the person was not a delinquent, just an ordinary student who studied diligently.
[Is your big brother dating a girl from our school?]
Sheng Yuan raised an eyebrow.
He couldn’t be bothered with such baseless rumors.
After getting Sheng Yuan’s answer, Xia Zhiqi replied on his phone and buried it under the desk.
[There’s absolutely no such thing. Who started this rumor?]
The other person was obviously in class and didn’t reply immediately.
Xia Zhiqi didn’t wait either. He went back to his seat and started playing games on his phone. When the message arrived, he was in the middle of an intense game and didn’t read it carefully, so he just swiped the message away.
[Our school’s forum is going crazy with this rumor.]
After evening self-study, Sheng Yuan wrapped Feng Juan’s scarf around his neck.
The tree branches outside were bare, and the only things left were the withered leaves that refused to fall and clung to the branches.
As winter approached, the weather was getting colder day by day, and even breathing outside produced white vapor.
Truly Ambitious saw Sheng Yuan’s method of wearing the scarf and found too unlawful.
[System: Have you ever thought about wearing the scarf in a different way?]
Sheng Yuan: “Plain and simple is the truth.”
Just wrapping it around was sufficient.
Sheng Yuan picked up his backpack and planned to meet Yu Zoujin at the school gate.
[System: Why didn’t you bring your little brothers to eat something delicious?]
Sheng Yuan retorted, “Why should I bring them when eating something delicious?”
[System: …]
Ridiculous.
But surprisingly, what he said made some sense.
Sheng Yuan reached the school gate, and Yu Zuojin and Zheng Zilu were already standing there.
Due to the cold weather, Zheng Zilu had his neck tucked into his collar, while Yu Zuojin stood tall in the cold wind, his imposing presence making other students afraid to approach.
People walked around him, quickening their pace, avoiding eye contact with him, and treating him like a plague.
Yu Zuojin had already grown accustomed to it. He coldly looked at the bare trees on campus.
“Yu Zuojin.”
At that moment, a voice called out to him from the crowd.
Yu Zuojin turned his head from the withered branches and saw Sheng Yuan waving at him, wearing the eye-catching red scarf.
His cold eyes softened slightly, but he maintained his distant demeanor.
Sheng Yuan didn’t ride a bike since a bicycle couldn’t carry three people.
He walked up to them, “Everyone’s here, let’s go.”
Zheng Zilu rubbed his hands together, trying to generate some warmth. “Where should we eat?”
“On Tianqiao Road.”
It was within a reasonable distance.
Zheng Zilu also made it clear, “I’m eating two sticks today.”
Sheng Yuan: “Eat as much as you want.”
The three of them walked out of the school gate.
“Sheng Yuan!”
In the distance, a soft and gentle female voice called out Sheng Yuan’s name.
Sheng Yuan instinctively turned his head, but before he could react, something rushed towards him and crashed into his arms.
“Sheng Yuan!”
Sheng Yuan couldn’t dodge in time and took two steps back to stabilize himself. His chin was hit, and the pain made his vision go black.
What an impressive skill. Only the headmaster, Iron Head, could match it.
Looking at the soft girl who suddenly rushed into Sheng Yuan’s embrace, Zheng Zilu: What the hell! This girl just suddenly rushed over!
Yu Zuojin clenched his fists, his dark eyes seemingly bottomless, and took a step forward. Zheng Zilu was one step ahead of him and asked, “Sheng Yuan, what’s the situation? Who is she?”
The girl hugging Sheng Yuan’s arm raised her head, “I’m Sheng Yuan’s girlfriend.”
….. i think yu likes being praised and scolded lmao
Eh???
Bro who gave her the courage??
The fuck? She dares?
Sorry girl, danmei dont accpt girlfriend… but girl-friend is fine , 😃
Anyway, RIP 😬
Girl, R.I.P in advance….