It seemed that something was sprouting, budding, growing, and slowly maturing in the boy's heart.
When Xiang Yu and Li Yifan returned home after school, they could tell that the adults were all home by looking at the extra shoes placed in the entryway.
"Hey, that's unusual." Li Yifan couldn't help but smile when he saw the adult man's shoes. He ran into the living room without even changing his shoes. When he heard a noise from the kitchen, he rushed over to see what was going on. "Dad, you're back!"
Li Yifan's father, Li Wei, is a surgeon at the city's central hospital. He is usually so busy that he doesn't even have time to spend with his family. He and his wife, Sun Xiaona, are okay because they work at the same hospital. But it's different with his son, Li Yifan. The father and son rarely have time to talk to each other face-to-face.
Li Wei, still sporting a bit of stubble on his chin, was peeling a potato next to the trash can when he saw Li Yifan and gave him a loving fatherly smile.
"Xiao Fan is back." Seeing Xiang Yu walking slowly towards him, he greeted her, "Xiao Yu, you've grown so tall!"
"Hello, Uncle." Xiang Yuchong nodded to Li Wei.
Two bags of groceries from the supermarket were on the table. Li Yifan went over and pulled out the receipts. Seeing that they contained meat roll hot pot base, he excitedly asked, "Hot pot? Are we having hot pot?"
“Yes, let’s have hot pot.” Sun Xiaona washed the green vegetables, arranged them neatly on a plate, and placed them on the dining table. She then took out a dusty electric hot pot from the cupboard, cleaned it, put it on the table, plugged it in, and started cooking the hot pot broth.
After all the preparations were complete, I looked at the two people standing there and said, "Go wash your hands, we're about to eat."
Li Yifan was the most enthusiastic, not because of the meal itself, but because the whole family was having hot pot together! Such opportunities were extremely rare for Li Yifan, and he even took the initiative to help Sun Xiaona set out the dishes.
The dipping sauce was store-bought; you just tear open the package, pour it into a bowl, and eat. Surprisingly, all four of us had the same taste—we all liked sesame sauce. The broth was bubbling with two kinds of ingredients: butter and tomato.
Xiangyu doesn't like spicy food and basically only eats the tomato-based soup.
Sun Xiaona cooked a plate of beef rolls in both pots, and half a minute later, she served half to Xiang Yu and Li Yifan respectively. When she served Li Yifan, she casually asked, "Xiaofan, have your first monthly exam results come out yet?"
"..." Li Yifan was enjoying his meal, but when he heard the word "grades," his enthusiasm visibly waned. He said with a bitter face, "Mom, it's not easy for our family to get together for a meal. Can we not talk about these unpleasant things?"
"Look at you." Sun Xiaona glanced at him, then stopped asking about his grades and turned to Yu: "Yu, what about you? The teaching quality of the two schools is definitely different. Has it affected you?"
"No, it's fine." Xiang Yu was very modest and did not take the initiative to mention his ranking. He did not want to be compared with Li Yifan, fearing that his aunt would discourage Li Yifan by comparing the two of them.
Fortunately, Sun Xiaona didn't inquire about school matters again, and Li Wei, being a man of few words, made the meal quite pleasant.
After nightfall, Xiang Yu washed up as usual and did two sets of math problems. There were five sets left to finish. It was Friday, so he set his alarm for 7 a.m. before going to bed, planning to finish the five sets of problems in one go after getting up tomorrow and then go out to buy a new set of problems to work on.
The plan was set, and it was already 11:45 p.m. Xiangyu scrolled through her phone, intending to go to sleep.
The phone vibrated the moment she put it down, and Xiangyu knew without even thinking who had sent it.
-Gu Chen: Desk mate, desk mate.
-Gu Chen: Calling my deskmate.
Gu Chen: [Baby, are you there?] .jpg
Grass.
When Xiang Yu saw this meme, his hand trembled and he almost dropped his phone.
[Author's Note: Xiang Yu: I was so scared I dropped my phone.]
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Gu Chenming speaks frankly, his deskmate's handmade knitting is his favorite.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Gu Chen: Let's not beat around the bush, my deskmate's handmade knitting is my favorite.
"Depend on!"
- The message has been retracted.
After realizing what he had posted, Gu Chen hurriedly deleted the emoji, staring at the deleted message with lingering fear.
Wang Zehao thought his emojis were too old-fashioned, so he changed his input method to one that could automatically match emojis. He typed "Are you there?" and quickly sent the first matching emoji. But this input method not only automatically matched emojis, but it also added random content.
Gu Chen stared nervously at the chat interface. He didn't know if the other person had seen the message, and if so, how they would view him. Although they were mutually attracted, would they think he was being abrupt and lacking in ceremony?
Xiang Yu had no idea that the other person had so much inner monologue. When he saw the other person retract the emoji, he thought it was just a slip of the hand.
A feeling flashed by, too fleeting for Xiangyu to grasp, yet it seemed to be a kind of pleasure?
What the hell?
Xiang Yu shook his head; it certainly wasn't a pleasant feeling.
-East Corner: ?
Gu Chen breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the other party didn't reply for more than a minute, thinking that the other party probably hadn't seen the message.
-Gu Chen: The amusement park in the new district is finished. When I got out of school, Haozi received a flyer and was particularly interested in the hospital-themed haunted house. He was thinking of going to check it out tomorrow, Saturday.
Gu Chen: Let's go together, deskmate.
Xiang Yu wanted to refuse, but he already had plans for tomorrow.
-Gu Chen: Huanhuan, Haozi, me, Luozai, and Luozai's sister are going too.
Before Xiang Yu could type a rejection, Gu Chen immediately sent another message.
Upon seeing Xu Youqing in the group, Xiang Yu suddenly began to hesitate.
On the way back from National Day, Li Yifan asked Gu Chen if the person he liked was Xu Youqing, and Gu Chen answered yes.
'Sigh, stop guessing.'
An ambiguous answer.
It wasn't denied, nor was it confirmed, but the probability is extremely high.
As the two spent more time together, and given the transparency of each other's social circles, Xiang Yu discovered that Xu Youqing was the only girl in the entire school with whom Gu Chen could exchange more than a few words.
While Xiang Yu hesitated, Gu Chen sent two more messages.
Gu Chen: Desk mate, come with me.
Gu Chen: [Pitiful]. jpg
- Dongyu: Hmm.
After agreeing to Xiangyu's request, I was pulled into a group chat called "Haunted House Adventure Squad". The group was discussing things enthusiastically, from what time to go in the morning, what the weather would be like tomorrow, what clothes to wear, what to eat for lunch, what to eat in the afternoon, and which shops near the amusement park had good online reputations.
The new urban area is far from the city center, so the group decided to take a bus and then the subway to get there, and then hire a minivan to return.
Xiang Yu left home around 7 a.m. to take a bus to the subway station. As soon as he got off the bus, before he could even stand properly, he heard someone calling his name from the subway entrance.
"Brother Yu—" Xu Youluo waved from the subway entrance steps. Xu Youluo had naturally curly hair, short and fluffy curls, and wore a clean and refreshing white hoodie. When she smiled, her dimples made her irresistibly approachable.
This is very similar to the first impression Gu Chen gave. If Gu Chen gives people the feeling of an older brother like other people's children, then Xu Youluo is the younger brother.
Xiang Yu nodded to him and walked in that direction.
Xu Youqing was leaning against the wall playing on her phone when she noticed Xiang Yu approaching out of the corner of her eye. She looked up and nodded, "Good morning."
"Good morning," Xiang Yu replied, standing in a less conspicuous spot by the wall, waiting for the others to arrive.
Before leaving home, Xiang Yu thought that Gu Chen would be the first to arrive. Now that she had arrived at her destination and found that Gu Chen was not there, she realized that Gu Chen lived close to Wang Zehao and Yang Shuhuan, and the three of them probably set off together.
Yang Shuhuan wasn't worried, but he was concerned about Wang Zehao. Xiang Yu recalled the last tutoring experience, and it was questionable whether Wang Zehao was even up at this time of day.
"Have you got a meal yet?"
Xiang Yu was positioned very close to Xu Youqing, just behind and to her side. When Xiang Yu snapped out of his reverie, he realized that it was Xu Youqing who was asking him a question.
The siblings were wearing matching hoodies; Xu Youqing's was black, and her slightly wavy long hair was styled into a high ponytail at the back of her head.
At this moment, Xu Youqing turned her head to look at him. Xiang Yu nodded honestly and saw the other party take out three meal replacement bars from his crossbody bag.
"Let's grab a bite first, and then we'll see if we want to have a proper meal once everyone's here."
"Thank you." Xiang Yu took the meal replacement bar from the other party, and then watched Xu Youqing break the remaining two apart and hand one to Xu Youluo.
"Ah~" Xu Youluo didn't take it. Instead, she opened her mouth wide and took a bite with her sister's outstretched hand. After chewing and swallowing, she tried to take another bite, but this time she missed.
Xu Youqing withdrew her hand and looked at him coldly, "Take it yourself, or I'll throw it away."
"Oh." Xu Youluo pouted, reluctantly took the meal replacement bar, took a bite, and continued to look around at the bus stop and wait for others.
"..." Xiang Yu felt that the siblings were a bit strange, especially Xu Youqing. He always felt a strange feeling when he looked at the other's straight back.
Something's not right.
Xu Youqing stuffed the meal replacement bar into her mouth in two bites, jumped down the steps, threw the packaging bag into the trash can, and then jumped back up to stand in her original position.
Xiang Yu watched her move freely, opened the meal replacement bar, took a bite, and suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
After chewing and swallowing quickly, he asked, "How did your leg heal so fast?"
"..."
"..."
He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt as if the siblings' bodies stiffened.
Xu Youqing puffed out her cheeks, turned around and looked at him, slowly finished the bite in her mouth, and said seriously, "You're tough, you'll recover quickly."
"Pfft." Xu Youluo, who was paying attention to the commotion, couldn't help but laugh out loud.
“…I see.” Xiang Yu looked at her with suspicion.
It takes a hundred days to recover from a broken bone. The other person broke their leg during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, and it's been about a month, or more than thirty days, since then. They don't even need a cast anymore, and their movements are more agile than a normal person's.
That's outrageous. Xiang Yu thought the other person might have faked breaking her leg, after all, she was the woman who pretended to cry for half an hour in the grade department.
That doesn't make sense either; why would someone pretend to have a broken leg?
I can't figure it out.
So, it seems I don't deserve to have normal people around me after all?
Wang Zehao couldn't get up in the morning, but fortunately Gu Chen and Yang Shuhuan knew him well enough that they met at Wang Zehao's doorstep after getting ready.
Without exchanging any further words, Yang Shuhuan rushed out the door, with Gu Chen following behind, witnessing the entire process of Yang Shuhuan dragging a large rat out of the bed.
Wang Zehao even recorded the video, planning to show it to his deskmate on the subway later for a laugh.
Gu Chen got off the bus and first saw his deskmate standing at the subway entrance. He was about to call out to him when he realized that his deskmate was looking at Xu Youqing.
Gu Chen was immediately displeased.
Xu Youluo suppressed a laugh at Xiang Yu's suspicious look. She only noticed Gu Chen when he walked in and greeted him, "Good morning, Brother Chen." She then turned her head to look behind him and smiled, "Haozi, Huanhuan, good morning."
"Good morning." Yang Shuhuan and Wang Zehao stopped at the bottom of the steps, watching their brother Chen take a long stride up the steps and walk to his deskmate's side, putting his arm around the other's neck.
"Good morning, deskmate." After saying that, she pulled him closer, as if to assert her ownership, and then looked at Xu Youqing, smiling as she greeted him, "Good morning."
"Good morning." Xu Youqing looked at his tightened arms, raised her eyebrows slightly, and remembered that night when he came to her for advice. She smiled and turned around, taking out three meal replacement bars from her bag and handing them out to them.