Su Jinning gritted her teeth, turned her head away from him, and after a moment said, "Then I'll try to persuade you again."
"You son of a bitch!" Shen Moyu's face flushed red with anger, her fair cheeks turning crimson in an instant: "Fine, I'll go talk to Jin Shuoshuo."
"Come back!" Su Jinning grabbed Shen Moyu's arm and pulled him back forcefully, but the force was too strong, and Shen Moyu's shoulder bumped into Su Jinning's collarbone without warning.
The impact was quite strong, and Su Jinning gasped in pain.
"Are you alright?" Shen Moyu hurriedly turned around.
"Alright." Su Jinning's tired voice rang out. She tightened her grip on his wrist, then slowly let go, finally lowering her head: "Stop fooling around."
"You've said this so many times." Thinking about their awkward interactions throughout the day, he was almost driven to madness with frustration: "I'm not a child anymore, I'm not throwing a tantrum, can you please stop making things so tense?"
Su Jinning turned her head away and scratched her hair: "I don't want to argue with you. If you really don't want our relationship to be this strained, you should go back tomorrow."
"Why do you insist on making me go back? I've already said it doesn't matter where I am, I just want to be with you."
Su Jinning's temper flared up, like a bomb with a lit fuse, the air thick with gunpowder: "I don't need you to come back to be with me. Do you know how important the Grade 11 A and B classes are? Top-notch teachers and a great learning environment—some people want to get in but can't. Do you understand?"
Shen Moyu looked at the urgency in his eyes and took a deep breath: "I know, and I'm prepared, so you don't need to worry about me at all."
Recalling what Jin Shuoshuo had said to him today, the oppressive feeling almost overwhelmed him. He sighed and said, "Listen to me, go back. I can pass the exam on my own."
Shen Moyu disagreed, staring straight at him: "I'm going back with my boyfriend, is there anything wrong with that?"
The phrases "come back with him" and "come back for him" are the sharpest weapons to mock Su Jinning, but they also reveal the most unbearable truth.
Su Jinning sneered, pressing her tongue against her cheek: "You don't need to do this. It's my own fault for being so useless, I don't need you to pay for it."
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Author's Note:
morning
Chapter 63 Two-way journey
"Do you even know what words you're using to describe yourself? What are you saying?" Shen Moyu's face turned ashen with anger at his words.
"Am I wrong?" Su Jinning's phoenix eyes trembled slightly, and she let out a long sigh: "Jin Shuoshuo talked to me today and asked me to persuade you to go back. Everyone here thinks you should go to Class A, that you don't belong here."
“There’s no such thing as belonging.” Shen Moyu took a step closer, her gentle yet sharp gaze fixed on him. “It doesn’t matter where I am. I just wanted to come to Class 8, so I belong here.”
Su Jinning felt utterly overwhelmed, leaning weakly against the wall and lowering his head. "Do you know that the second year of high school is a crucial turning point? Those A and B classes are filled with the top 100 students in the entire grade, the top few hundred in the city." He looked up at him with a helpless yet serious expression. "It's fiercely competitive there. As the top student in the grade, you just leave like that. Do you know how many opportunities you've given to others? Don't you know your score is high enough for a guaranteed admission spot? If you take the exam again, can you guarantee you can catch up?"
In the end, Su Jinning grabbed his shoulders, her rapid breaths carrying her unease as they blew into Shen Moyu's hair.
Shen Moyu was taken aback for a moment, then turned his head away: "Since I got first place once, I'm confident I can get first place every time. You don't need to worry about me at all."
His hand, which was at his side, trembled slightly, but he finally placed it on Su Jinning's hand: "I just want to sit in Class 8 with my boyfriend, I just want to be able to see him whenever I turn my head, I just want to work hard with him, what's wrong with that?"
Perhaps it was the heat of Shen Moyu's hand that burned Su Jinning, or perhaps it was those overly warm words that caught him off guard. He stepped back and withdrew his hand.
"You're not wrong, I'm the one who's wrong..." His voice rose slightly, "So why should you share the consequences of my mistake, just because I didn't get into Class A, and you have to come back with me?"
Shen Moyu pursed his lips, as if he wanted to say something.
Su Jinning turned her head away: "I don't want to be a stumbling block on your path..."
But what he didn't know was that the thorn pierced through the chests of both men in an instant.
Shen Moyu felt extremely distressed and anxious.
"You're not a stumbling block. You improved your score by 200 points in half a month and ranked 120th, my boyfriend." His words softened, like a gentle breeze in the twilight, comforting Su Jinning's panic.
“I came to Class 8 voluntarily, and I am good to you willingly. I don’t want you to feel like you are chasing after me. I want you to know that.” He paused, and once again placed his hot palm on Su Jinning’s cold hand: “We have always been two people walking side by side, hand in hand, moving forward together.”
That softness almost smoothed out all of Shen Moyu's rough edges. He was trying his best not to get angry or feel indebted.
But the more he acted this way, the stronger Su Jinning's feelings of guilt and unease became.
“Okay…” Su Jinning gently touched his forehead: “Then promise me you’ll go back to Class A tomorrow. Will you wait for me? I’ll definitely pass the exam next time.”
“I don’t have the patience to wait for you.” Shen Moyu looked up at him. “Every moment I’m apart from you drives me crazy.”
Su Jinning was stunned, and finally lowered her head helplessly: "But it's not worth it..."
“I said you’re worth it, and that’s what I mean.” Shen Moyu rejected his words once again.
The bustling crowd was isolated by their intense heat, and the corner was so quiet that they could hear each other's breathing clearly.
Shen Moyu once again grabbed Su Jinning's hand as she tried to pull away: "We are always going in the same direction. You can take a step for me, and I can take a step for you, instead of me standing there foolishly waiting for you."
His gaze hardened, softening Su Jinning's disheveled appearance: "If I can't even do this much, what do I have to say I like you with? With my mouth? Or with that bouquet of roses?" He paused, then sighed: "That's certainly romantic, but not practical."
Su Jinning looked up at him. The twilight shone on Shen Moyu's face, and his figure was bathed in light.
Shen Moyu touched his eyes: "My love for you is something I want you to see with your eyes, smell with your nose, and kiss with your lips." He touched Su Jinning's cheeks all over, and finally slid his hand to Su Jinning's heart: "This, I can feel."
Something cool and delicious, I don't know what it was, but it went down Su Jinning's throat and flowed into his heart.
Shen Moyu brushed aside the stray hairs that were obscuring Su Jinning's eyes from his forehead: "You underestimate how much I like you. Because it's you, I'm capable of anything."
Su Jinning smiled, whether from anger or from being too happy, it was hard to tell.
He stepped forward and hugged his boyfriend, who had become increasingly talkative since they started dating, gently rubbing his head and whispering in his ear, "You talk too much."
Shen Moyu secretly pinched the back of his hand and said somewhat angrily, "So can you please not send me away?"
What seemed like an indignant remark was interpreted as a coquettish complaint by Su Jinning.
He answered softly, his sigh dissipating in the breeze.
On the road at dusk, there were few people, and the tree-lined path was cool. Shen Moyu held his hand tightly.
So stop chasing me away, and stop rejecting someone who is rushing towards you without hesitation.
——