Chapter 71: Is He…

Lin Hexi got up to brush his teeth and wash his face, but he didn’t notice that You Chong had been sitting by the bed without moving.

When he finished tidying up and came out, You Chong went into the bathroom to take a shower.

Lin Hexi had nothing else to do, so he sat in the living room, hugging his Alaskan dog and playing on his phone. After playing several rounds of the game, You Chong still hadn’t come out of the bathroom, which made Lin Hexi look at the time with some curiosity, but he didn’t think much of it.

Around 8:30, the two of them left for school.

You Chong asked him, “Do you have the book?”

Lin Hexi shook his head and, with a smile on his face, responded, “Do you think I would?”

You Chong glanced at him but didn’t say anything.

Lin Hexi still tried to resist, “I really don’t understand a thing about English.”

You Chong said, “I’ll get you past exam papers to work on. If you don’t understand, I can teach you.”

Lin Hexi muttered with his head down, “I don’t know any of it.”

As if he had expected Lin Hexi to say that, You Chong’s expression didn’t change. “I can teach you from the very beginning.”

Lin Hexi sighed in frustration.

Yang Juan and Zhao Du got up a bit late and didn’t even have time for breakfast. They rushed to the library just as it opened to secure seats, picking a table in the corner of the third-floor study room where no one else was. When You Chong and Lin Hexi arrived at the library, they even brought breakfast for them.

The two went out to eat breakfast, while Lin Hexi sat down at the table, disinterestedly glancing at the books on the table, already ready to take out his phone.

You Chong sat down beside him and whispered, “Put your phone away.”

Lin Hexi turned his head to look at him, holding back a smile, and softly said, “Do you know what you look like right now?”

You Chong asked, “Like what?”

Lin Hexi’s shoulders shook slightly as he chuckled, “Like the dean from our high school who used to catch students playing on their phones during class.”

You Chong’s expression remained calm as he looked at him without saying a word.

Realizing that the other person was probably a little upset, Lin Hexi finally wiped the smile off his face, obediently switched his phone to vibrate mode, and offered it to You Chong, saying sincerely, “You keep it for me.”

Seeing him act so well-behaved, You Chong felt a slight stir in his heart, and his mind wandered back to the scenes from that morning by the bedside.

His body was beginning to react subtly again. After pushing down those inappropriate thoughts, You Chong took his phone and placed it on the table. “Learning some English won’t do you any harm.”

Lin Hexi muttered softly, “It’s not much help either, I’m not going abroad.”

You Chong raised his eyebrow in disagreement, “What if you do have to go abroad?”

Lin Hexi didn’t answer but instead looked at him thoughtfully, “Are you planning to go abroad after you graduate?”

You Chong replied, “I don’t have that plan at the moment.”

“Since you’re not going abroad, and I’m dating you, I won’t go abroad either. Unless—” Lin Hexi rested his chin on his hand, thinking for a moment, then looked up at him, his tone casual, “Unless we’ve already broken up.”

You Chong’s expression suddenly tightened as he frowned, “Take that back.”

Lin Hexi laughed lightly, his demeanor relaxed, “It’s just a hypothetical. Why are you so nervous? Besides, speaking realistically, Lin Yuanwei would never spend the money to send me abroad.” He lazily lowered his gaze, unconcerned. “For the Lin family, accepting me into the family and sending me to university is already more than enough, isn’t it?”

You Chong didn’t say anything, but when he heard Lin Yuanwei’s name, his eyes darkened slightly.

After sensing the emotions rising in You Chong’s eyes, Lin Hexi subtly shifted the topic, “When is the exam?”

You Chong replied, “On Christmas Eve.”

Lin Hexi nodded and then looked at him with a smile, “If I pass the exam, shouldn’t I get some kind of reward?”

You Chong, however, said, “If you pass, shouldn’t the credit go to me?”

Lin Hexi was momentarily stunned. After thinking it over, he realized You Chong had a point, but he still felt a bit unwilling to accept it. “But I’m the one actually taking the exam, not you.” He squinted his eyes slightly, analyzing it logically, “Whether I pass or not depends not only on your help but also on how well I perform in the exam, right?”

You Chong didn’t comment on it, “What kind of reward do you want?”

“Anything is fine.” Lin Hexi propped one hand against his face, his tone filled with a playful smile. “If you want me to take exam preparation seriously, shouldn’t you give me some motivation to study?”

You Chong thought for a moment, his gaze slowly settling on Lin Hexi’s face. “You don’t have to wait that long.”

Lin Hexi looked puzzled. “What?”

You Chong said, “You want a reward, don’t you? You’ll get it right after the exam.”

Lin Hexi remained silent for a long time. His thoughts drifted back to being rejected by You Chong that morning, and his gaze turned a little strange. “After the exam?”

Feeling somewhat puzzled under his gaze, You Chong slightly frowned. “What? You don’t want it?”

After a few seconds of consideration, Lin Hexi hesitated before speaking, “You’re not thinking of using that as the reward, are you?”

You Chong’s frown deepened. “What kind of thing?”

Lin Hexi didn’t answer directly. Instead, he subtly reminded him, “Once you miss the chance, it’s gone.” Still holding onto the frustration from earlier that morning, he put on a cold, displeased expression. “Since you missed it this morning, it won’t happen again.”

You Chong suddenly realized what Lin Hexi was thinking, and a hint of amusement appeared in his eyes. “Is that all you think about?”

Lin Hexi, slightly annoyed, decided to lay it out openly. “Weren’t you talking about sleeping together?”

You Chong chuckled deeply. “Of course not.”

Suppressing his frustration, Lin Hexi turned his face away, as if he didn’t intend to continue the conversation.

You Chong reached out his long arm, placed his hand on Lin Hexi’s cheek, and gently turned his face back. “Have you ever seen the snow in the North?”

Lin Hexi instinctively froze for a moment, forgetting that he was still upset. He shook his head. “No, I haven’t.”

Since the year he was born, Lin Hexi had always stayed in this coastal city in the south. Now, hearing You Chong suddenly mention the North, he found it a bit amusing and added, “I’ve never been anywhere else, and it doesn’t snow here in the winter. I’ve never even seen snow, let alone snow in the North.”

Surprised by his response, You Chong felt a slight tightening in his chest, and his gaze deepened as he looked at him. “Do you want to go?”

Lin Hexi slowly raised his eyelids. “Are you going to take me?”

“I’ll take you.” The hand resting on Lin Hexi’s shoulder tightened, pulling him closer. You Chong smiled and softly promised, “After the exam on Christmas Eve, I’ll take you to the North to see the snow.”

Meeting You Chong’s gaze, Lin Hexi blinked lightly. “Are we going with your friends?”

You Chong replied, “Just the two of us.”

Lin Hexi thought for a moment, then asked, “What if I don’t pass the exam?”

You Chong raised his eyebrow and countered, “Isn’t this reward enough motivation for you to study for the exam?”

Lin Hexi’s eyes lit up with a bright smile. “It’s enough.”

For the next while, Lin Hexi really did bury himself in doing practice questions. Although when it came time to check the answers, the accuracy was so low that it was painful to look at. Out of a hundred words, he probably didn’t know ninety, and for ten questions, all ten were guessed.

Still, Lin Hexi propped up the thoroughly marked-up test paper, resting his chin in his hand with a sense of accomplishment. “This is probably the first time in my life I’ve ever completed a full English exam.”

You Chong glanced at him, half exasperated, half amused. “Lin Hexi,” he said with a hint of irritation, “if you weren’t my boyfriend, but my biological son, I’d want to beat you right now.”

Lin Hexi’s mouth moved faster than his brain, and without thinking, he replied, “Although you can’t beat me, if you want to take me, that’s not out of the question.”

As soon as the words fell, the sound of a pen diligently scratching against paper abruptly stopped.

Lin Hexi, slow to realize, finally looked up, only to see Yang Juan and Zhao Du both staring at him with dumbfounded expressions.

He smiled slightly, his eyes full of innocence. “Why are you all looking at me? Haven’t you seen a couple flirting during the honeymoon phase?” After saying this, he seemed to remember something and added with an apologetic look, “Sorry, I almost forgot, you’re both still single.”

Yang Juan and Zhao Du, in unison, lowered their heads again in silence, their expressions numb as they clutched their pens and continued writing.

Only then did Lin Hexi turn to look at You Chong beside him.

However, You Chong didn’t respond as Lin Hexi had expected by playfully joining in their flirting. Instead, like an utterly clueless and straightforward guy, he gave Lin Hexi a look that was hard to describe. “Lin Hexi, do you even know how to write the word ‘shame’?”

The frustration Lin Hexi had been suppressing all morning was finally on the verge of exploding. Without answering You Chong’s question, he calmly held out his hand. “Can I take a ten-minute break and play on my phone?”

Still busy reviewing the exam for him, You Chong handed him the phone without even looking up.

Lin Hexi unlocked his phone, first changing the screen timeout setting to 30 minutes, then opening Zhihu^[1]Zhihu is a Chinese question-and-answer (Q&A) platform similar to Quora. Users can ask questions, provide answers, share knowledge, and engage in discussions on a wide range of topics, including … Continue reading to search for some keywords.

Finally, he found Fang Qingning on WeChat and sent her a message.

After seeing the message, although somewhat puzzled, Fang Qingning quickly replied with an “OK” gesture.

Lin Hexi snickered inwardly. He exited the WeChat interface, opened Zhihu, and placed the unlocked phone on the table. Then, leaning closer to You Chong’s face, he said, “I’m going to the bathroom. If any calls come in, answer them for me.”

You Chong nodded, and turned his head slightly to glance at him.

Lin Hexi said nothing more, silently curling his lips into a smile before turning and leaving his seat.

You Chong paused, a faint sense of something being off slowly rising within him. His gaze followed Lin Hexi’s retreating figure, but he couldn’t pinpoint anything unusual.

He turned his attention back to the exam paper in front of him.

A moment later, the phone on the table indeed began to vibrate, showing an incoming call on Lin Hexi’s phone.

Suspicion flickered in his eyes as You Chong picked up the phone, and slid his thumb across the screen to answer.

Fang Qingning’s voice came through from the other side: “Is this Lin Hexi?”

You Chong responded, “He’s not here.”

Fang Qingning gave a soft “Mm,” then said, “I’ll call back later.”

After hanging up, You Chong intended to place the phone back on Lin Hexi’s seat. But out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that after the call ended, the Zhihu page Lin Hexi had been browsing popped back up.

He lowered his gaze, absentmindedly glancing at the screen.

In the next second, after reading the words clearly, You Chong’s expression darkened instantly.

On the screen, in bold black text against a white background, was an enlarged question:

[My boyfriend is indifferent to my teasing and flirting. Could it be that he’s… not capable?]