Grass.
Wang Zehao preferred a deskmate to a brother; if Gu Chen hadn't immediately helped him solve his problem, he would have been ready to break off all ties with him for three minutes.
Recently, Xiang Yu seems to be sleeping a bit too often during breaks. When she came to school, she had a slight dark circle under her eyes. She was fine a while ago, but it has been going on for three or four days now.
At the beginning of the semester, when some classmates had family problems, they also showed similar behaviors: unable to sleep at night and in poor mental condition during the day. Xu Youluo took leave today because of family matters.
Gu Chen was worried that something might have happened to the other person recently.
When the school bell rang, Xiang Yu automatically sat up and stared at the math problems on the table in front of him, trying to keep his brain active and force himself to stay awake.
"My deskmate?" Gu Chen leaned closer and whispered, "Has anything happened at home lately?"
"Huh?" Xiang Yu was completely dumbfounded by his question, staring at him for a long time without being able to react.
Seeing him like this, Gu Chen thought to himself, "Oh no, I'm afraid I was right." So he comforted him, "It'll be alright, deskmate. Everything will pass. If you need anything, just let me know, and I'll help you." After saying that, he tidied the messy short hair that had been pressed down when he was lying down, and couldn't help but ruffle the top of his head a couple of times.
Xiang Yu remained bewildered until she heard the last sentence. After realizing what had happened, she slapped the other person's hand away and replied, "You can't help me."
I really can't help.
The yarn ball arrived several days ago. With the other person's birthday approaching and midterms coming up, he wanted to finish knitting the scarf quickly so he could study properly, so he stayed up until one or two in the morning every day for the past few days.
It's a pity that while he's good at swinging people, he's really not good at doing delicate work like this.
In just a few nights, I watched a video on a certain website that taught me how to knit a scarf from a first-person perspective, over and over again.
-Brain: I've learned it.
System: I've learned it too.
-Xiangyu: ...I've failed at learning.
In a fit of anger, he broke several knitting needles. He looked at the scarf he was knitting, which started with 40 stitches, then became 43, 45, and now 50. He had knitted half a meter long, and it was gradually changing from a rectangle to a trapezoid.
Thinking of this, Xiang Yu sighed.
Never mind, let's go back and continue.
After class started, Class 2 was unusually quiet. Everyone was reading, writing, or daydreaming, but no one dared to make a sound. This situation lasted for nearly twenty minutes before someone broke the deadlock.
Jiang Wensong said, "Brother Chen, why don't you go to the office and take a look?"
"Okay." Gu Chen wrote the problem, put down his pen, got up and walked outside. As he went out the door, he met his math teacher, Liang Yingjuan.
Gu Chen greeted her with a smile, then turned and went into the classroom, with Liang Yingjuan following closely behind as she walked up to the podium.
"I just attended a grade-level meeting. I took out the accompanying workbook and turned to page 29." Liang Yingjuan opened the book methodically and looked at the exercises on this page. "The meeting was mainly about the arrangements for your midterm exams. If nothing unexpected happens, it should be on Monday or Tuesday of the week after next."
Everyone knows that midterm exams are inevitable, but the timing is really too tight. Midterm exams are different from monthly exams; the results are released right before the parent-teacher conference.
The school has a bizarre rule that parent-teacher meetings are not announced by students at home, but by the homeroom teacher via text message to ensure that every parent knows the specific time of the meeting, so that students don't even have a chance to slack off.
During his first semester of high school, Wang Zehao was unaware that the school had such a shady operation. His midterm grades were not ideal, so he spent 100 yuan to hire an uncle to impersonate his father. As a result, the fake father and his real father met at the classroom door.
According to Yang Shuhuan, after returning home, Wang's father nearly broke the real crocodile leather belt he was wearing. Finally, Yang Shuhuan couldn't bear the screams from upstairs, so she found Gu Chen and knocked on Wang Zehao's door. She then rescued the wailing Wang Zehao from his father's leather belt.
After school, Yang Shuhuan laughed so hard he could barely breathe when he talked about it, and he only stopped laughing when Wang Zehao tried to punch him at the cafeteria entrance.
Wang Zehao: "It's tough. I have to take this midterm exam very seriously. I've decided to start reviewing tonight. I'll go back and do one or two practice tests first. Brother Chen, come to my house and help me."
Gu Chen glanced at him and started talking endlessly about his area of expertise.
"Just doing practice tests won't help, Mouse. Your foundation is weak. If you really want to improve steadily, you have to start from scratch. But luckily, the content we learn in the second year of high school is not related to the first year. For example, in math, you don't have to start from scratch; you can start from the first chapter. When the time comes, you should carefully review the examples in the book and redo the accompanying workbook. I guarantee you'll improve significantly, but—"
"Okay, okay, Brother Chen, you don't need to say 'but' anymore." Seeing Gu Chen start talking too much again, Wang Zehao quickly stopped him, saying, "I don't think your method is suitable for me. I'll ask my dad for help."
After saying that, he gave Xiang Yu a fawning smile: "Right, Daddy? Are you free this weekend and next weekend?"
Xiang Yu looked at him and pondered for a moment before saying, "Anything is fine."
After queuing for a long time at the cafeteria window, the group finally saw what dishes were served today.
"Wow!" Wang Zehao's eyes lit up as he looked at the neatly arranged black jars inside. "They even have clay pot soup today! Enough said, enough said! Tomato and egg stir-fry, sweet and sour pork, shredded pork with garlic sauce, braised eggplant, braised duck leg, braised chicken leg, double serving of rice, and a bowl of seaweed and pork rib soup."
The cafeteria was a mess, and because Wang Zehao recited the menu so quickly, the cafeteria auntie had to ask him several times before she could serve him his food.
As he placed the earthenware pot of soup into the groove in the upper right corner of the iron plate, he instructed, "Be careful, this pot is quite heavy."
The girl in the next line was also given the same advice by another cafeteria lady. The weight on the iron plate was unevenly distributed, and the girl wobbled a couple of times when she picked it up, but managed to keep it steady.
"Hey classmate, be careful not to spill it. Just now, a classmate lost his grip and spilled it all over the ground."
"No, I'm very steady." The girl smiled, turned around and took a step, but then felt her foot slip on something.
Hua's face paled as she exclaimed, "Holy crap!"
She stepped on the seaweed that the previous person who spilled soup had missed cleaning, and quickly steadied herself with the tray in her hand as she pushed it forward.
It was better if it were unstable; the soup in the clay pot flew out like water being splashed, and by sheer coincidence, it spilled onto a boy's white hoodie.
Xiang Yu: ""
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm really sorry." The girl wanted to go up and check on Xiang Yu's clothes, but she could only stand there anxiously with the tray in her hand.
"I'm sorry, classmate, I didn't mean to." Xiang Yu's face grew increasingly pale, and the girl, seeing this, was almost in tears. "How about I wash it for you?"
“…No need.” Xiang Yu couldn’t let others do her laundry, so she turned to Gu Chen and the others and said, “I’m going back to the dorm first.”
“I’ll go with you. There’s soap that the dorm supervisor leaves at the public washbasin.” Gu Chen took out a tissue from his pocket and wiped the soup off his clothes that hadn’t been absorbed. “I think I have some clothes in my closet that I didn’t take back before. At least I’ll have something to change into.”
Xiang Yu, worried about delaying his meal, said helplessly, "Just tell me where it is."
"It's okay." Gu Chen wrapped the used paper up and held it in his hand, intending to throw it away in the trash can later.
“Let’s go, let’s go back together.” Then he said to Yang Shuhuan, who hadn’t gotten her food yet, “Huanhuan, bring back two wraps later, we won’t eat here.”
Yang Shuhuan nodded blankly and said, "Okay."
The soup soaked a side of the hoodie, and Xiangyu could feel it seeping in and sticking to his skin.
Feeling extremely uncomfortable, Xiangyu grabbed a section of his hoodie and pulled it outwards, trying his best not to touch that area.
"Just bear with it a little longer." Gu Chen knew that the other person was a clean person and saw that he was uncomfortable, so he coaxed him, "Let's go ask the aunt to borrow a basin. I have some wet wipes in my drawer. I'll wipe you down when we get back."
Gu Chen had a good impression of the dormitory supervisor, and when she found out, she took out a new basin from the storage room for them without saying a word.
This is provided for students staying overnight; it is not available for students staying at the dormitory during the day.
Before they went upstairs, they asked Xiang Yu, "Do you know how to wash? Do you want Auntie to help you wash?"
"I can wash it, thank you, Auntie." Gu Chen smiled and waved to the aunt, carrying the basin in one hand and pulling his classmate's sleeve with the other as they went upstairs.
Back in the dormitory, Gu Chen was even busier than Xiang Yu, the person involved. While Xiang Yu was still standing there, not even having time to take off her clothes, Gu Chen had already filled a basin with hot water from the hot water room and placed it on the table, and also brought out some soap.
He was now bending over, searching for clothes in the cabinet under the drawer. It was late autumn, and the temperature had dropped to single digits. The thickest piece of clothing Gu Chen had was a thin sweatshirt he wore in early autumn; the rest were all short-sleeved shirts.
Gu Chen took it out and draped it over the edge of the upper bunk, then pulled out a short-sleeved shirt and tossed it on as well. He opened the drawer and handed the wet wipes to Xiang Yu.
"Hey deskmate, get some soap and rub it on to get rid of the smell."
"good."
Xiang Yu carefully took off the dirty sweatshirt, afraid that the soup stains would get on other parts of her body.
Gu Chen watched as his deskmate cautiously lifted the corner of his shirt. The other person's skin was indeed fair, and his muscles were also well-defined.
'Boom'
Gu Chen felt like a small volcano had erupted in his brain, his face flushed red, and the already low temperature rose instantly. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he heard himself swallow.
'Bang!'
When Xiang Yutou peeked out from under his hoodie, Gu Chen was nowhere to be seen in the dormitory; only the door frame, which had just trembled slightly from the loud noise of closing the door, remained.
If you look closely, you'll notice that his ears are tinged with pink.
Xiang Yu pursed his lips, threw his hoodie at his feet, soaked a wet wipe in a basin of hot water, and used soap to scrub the patch of skin that had been stained with the smell of soup.
"Huff, huff, huff—" Gu Chen's situation could be described as fleeing in panic. He opened the window at the end of the corridor and took a deep breath of the fresh air outside, trying his best to get rid of the scene from his mind.
He knew exactly what it was, but he didn't dare face his deskmate like that.
After all, even if two people are deeply in love, it takes time.
Gu Chen stood in the cold wind for a while, which temporarily suppressed the strange feeling in his body and mind.
That should be about right; your deskmate should have finished packing by now.
With a heart full of unease, Gu Chen didn't know how to face Xiang Yu. Just as he stepped outside the door, he heard a familiar voice coming from inside.
"Holy crap, what is this thing?" Wang Zehao and Yang Shuhuan went to the dormitory across the street first, just before Gu Chen came in.
Gu Chen pushed the door open and saw Wang Zehao standing in front of his deskmate's shoulder blades, shouting "Holy crap!"
"Mouse." Gu Chen couldn't help but remind him when he saw him getting so close to his deskmate, "Don't get so close."
"Holy crap, Chen-ge, look! A tattoo!" Wang Zehao exclaimed excitedly. "So cool! Holy crap, Yu-ge, where did you get that tattoo? Tell me!"
“Luo Zai also has a tattoo on his back, but he won’t tell me where he got it.” Wang Zehao touched the tip of his nose and laughed, “You two got your tattoos from the same shop, right? That’s so damn real.”
Xiang Yu said, "It shouldn't be."
Tattoo?
"What tattoo? Let me see." Gu Chen was surprised that his deskmate had a tattoo. "What's this? A tiger?"
He got too close, his breath hitting Xiang Yu's shoulder blades, causing Xiang Yu to shudder and pull on his hoodie.
"Um."
Wang Zehao rolled up his right sleeve and flexed his biceps at Yang Shuhuan, "Huanhuan, what do you think of me getting a tiger tattooed here? After graduation, I'll get a blue dragon tattooed on the left side, so it'll be a blue dragon on the left and a white tiger on the right—"
"I think you're a complete idiot." Yang Shuhuan glanced at him. "Aren't you afraid your dad will break your legs?"
After Zhang Boyuan returned to his dormitory, Wang Zehao went back to his own dormitory. Gu Chen helped Xiang Yu wash her clothes and hang them on the balcony. Xiang Yu said she could do it herself, but she couldn't persuade Gu Chen otherwise.
The dormitory quieted down. Zhang Boyuan and Yang Shuhuan went back to their beds and lay down. Xiang Yu was about to go up the ladder when Gu Chen stopped him.
"Classmate." Gu Chen crossed his arms and pulled off the fleece-lined sweatshirt he was wearing. "You wear this thick one, and give me the one you're wearing."
"No need." Xiang Yu shook his head and prepared to climb the ladder.
It was cold outside, and Gu Chen was afraid he would catch a cold, so he resorted to a rogue act and blocked the ladder with his hand, saying, "Be good and give it to me."
Seeing that Xiang Yu was still unmoved, Gu Chen coaxed him softly, "It's cold outside. You wear this thick one, and I'll wear two short-sleeved shirts and then this thin one. The effect is the same."
"I won't catch a cold," Xiang Yu said, indicating that she was telling the truth.