There were only two classes in the afternoon, and before he knew it, the dismissal bell rang.

The students in the class said their goodbyes to each other, their steps light and hurried as they prepared to head home and recharge.

Xu Xing slowly packed his bag, unable to resist taking out his phone for a quick glance. The last WeChat message notification was from two hours ago—Lu Che’s reply to his message about copying the homework problem: “Okay~”

Xu Xing let out a sigh for no reason.

Wang Zicong stood next to his seat with a backpack, a lollipop from Tang Mian in his mouth, and blinked at him, asking, “What’s wrong?”

Xu Xing stuffed his phone into his pocket and said, “Nothing, I’m waiting for my dad’s call. Let’s go.”

Xu Xing and Wang Zicong walked to the school gate, where Wang Zicong said goodbye and left first. Xu Xing stood by the side of the gate waiting for his dad’s call.

He looked down at his phone and scrolled through Weibo to pass the time. With his left hand in his pocket and his right hand sliding up the screen, he absentmindedly pressed on the screen, quickly glancing over a few posts.

The open school gate became a one-way street, with students streaming out. A few girls walked by arm in arm, sneaking glances at Xu Xing, whose height of 1.8 meters and handsome appearance made him hard to ignore.

Xu Xing paid little attention to the gazes of passersby, scrolling through his classmates’ nonsensical complaints on social media. Just as he was about to close Weibo, he suddenly remembered that he had mutual followers with Ke Di, the notorious post freak—

Xu Xing had a slight impression of Ke Di because, during a certain period of the summer vacation, Ke Di’s frequency of posting on Weibo was so high that it made Xu Xing want to block him out of sheer impulse.

Xu Xing found Ke Di’s profile from his following list and clicked in, immediately seeing his latest post from early Friday morning at one o’clock—

“Ke Di won’t change his name if he doesn’t go to Beijing Sport University: Don’t miss out, play a marriage game~ If you’re interested in this gorgeous girl in the photo, hurry up and like it. The beauty says she wants to find someone [smiley face] [smiley face] [smiley face].”

Xu Xing didn’t bother to look closely at the girl’s photo attached to the Weibo post and casually scrolled down when he suddenly overheard a few people nearby whispering, “I only know that Lu Che and his friends got hurt pretty badly. After all, a repeating student is still a big shot…” Usually, big shots teach others how to behave; he’d never heard of anyone teaching a big shot how to behave.

Xu Xing paused with his thumb and abruptly raised his head, but unfortunately, with so many people at the gate, he couldn’t tell who had spoken.

Just then, his phone rang. The ringtone, with its robotic sound effect, blared unceremoniously: beep beep beep beep beep.

Xu Xing’s attention was finally drawn back, and upon seeing that it was his dad calling, he answered the phone.

“Dad.”

“Hmm, I’m waiting for you at the bus station.”

“Okay…”

Xu Xing found his family’s car. As he sat in the passenger seat and buckled his seatbelt, he heard his dad ask, “Where’s your classmate?”

Xu Xing hesitated in buckling his seatbelt and replied, “He has something to do, not at school.”

His dad responded with an “Oh” and didn’t ask further.

Sitting in the car, Xu Xing stared blankly out the window at the passing traffic.

The earlier comment he’d overheard about Lu Che getting hurt dominated his thoughts.

When Xu Xing got home, he dumped his backpack next to the desk and sat at the table, fiddling with his phone absentmindedly.

He opened WeChat, frowning as he browsed through Lu Che’s message history, feeling more and more that Lu Che’s replies were evasive.

Xu Xing’s mind was fixated on one thought: Lu Che was hurt badly, but he just didn’t want to say it out loud and worry him.

Xu Xing clicked his tongue in annoyance and inwardly mocked Lu Che: Thinking too much. Why would he care about Lu Che? How could he possibly worry?

He tossed his phone aside and paced between his bedroom and balcony, still feeling restless, an uncomfortable knot in his chest.

Until—

When Xu Xing went to the bathroom, the recurring feeling of constipation made him even more irritable but suddenly unraveled the myriad of worries in his mind: every time something happened to Lu Che, he could sense it—yet that didn’t mean he cared; it was simply because of the red thread acting up.

Xu Xing couldn’t help but think that if he could see the red thread now, it would probably be shaking like it had epilepsy.

He recalled the last time he went out to pick Lu Che up, which allowed him to go to the bathroom without any problems, complaining and making sarcastic remarks while finding a justifiable reason to return to school. When he came out of the bathroom, he went to grab his phone and walked out of the living room to tell his parents, “Dad, Mom, I need to go back to school for a bit.”

His mom was busy in the kitchen and didn’t hear him, but his dad, sitting in the living room, turned around to ask, “What’s wrong? Did the teacher notify you last minute? I can drive you back.”

Xu Xing stood at the entrance changing his shoes, hurriedly said, “No, I can just run over myself. I need to pick something up and will be back for dinner soon.”

Xu Xing put on his shoes and left, quickly walking out of the community and directly hailing a taxi back to school.

On the way back, Xu Xing was conflicted about what to say when he saw Lu Che. If he abruptly appeared in front of him, Lu Che would probably smile so wide he’d reach his ears. That wouldn’t do. The most annoying thing was being misunderstood by Lu Che as someone who cared.

However—

Xu Xing furrowed his brow, thinking: He didn’t know how badly Lu Che was hurt. He probably hurt enough to grimace, unable to laugh or smile. Maybe his presence could make Lu Che feel a little better…

Lost in his thoughts, Xu Xing returned to school and it was already past five. The school was empty, and the security guard had only left a small side gate open for students to come in and out.

From the school gate to the dormitory downstairs, then climbing from the first to the third floor, Xu Xing’s footsteps gradually slowed down.

He first returned to his dormitory. There were three roommates staying over, and they were surprised to see Xu Xing and asked, “Class leader, why haven’t you gone home yet?”

Xu Xing replied, “I just came to get something and will leave.”

He rummaged through his belongings and finally found a small notebook summarizing biology notes.

Xu Xing held it in his hand, hesitated for a moment, then went to the balcony to grab an umbrella, preparing himself fully before heading to room 311.

---

It had been cloudy all day, but the sun, hiding behind the clouds, finally peeked out, and the golden orange rays penetrated the floating clouds.

The entire floor was quiet except for the chatter coming from room 311.

Lu Che sat at the edge of the lower bunk, leaning against the stairs connecting the upper and lower bunks, holding a clean apple in his hand and absentmindedly watching the noisy group on the opposite bed as he took a bite.

At that moment, he heard two knocks on the door from outside.

Fu Dai, sitting on the bed next to him, was playing on his phone. Without looking up, he shouted, “Who is it? Come in.”

The door wasn’t locked and swung open from the outside.

Lu Che glanced lazily at the doorway—

When Xu Xing opened the door, he brought along a slice of sunset with him. The setting sun was not glaring, but the people sitting inside the room couldn’t help but squint slightly.

“…”

Lu Che’s expression froze for a moment, his teeth leaving a faint, neat imprint on the apple, but he forgot to take another bite.

Fu Dai looked up curiously and asked, “Class leader, is there something you need?”

Just as Fu Dai asked this question, someone next to him threw something over. He instinctively caught it and, upon closer inspection, found it was an apple. Looking up, he saw that Lu Che had already walked to the door.

“…”

Fu Dai took a bite of the apple, feeling a bit puzzled, but he was chatting with Xiong Huan, so he didn’t pay it much mind.

The moment Xu Xing pushed the door open, his eyes briefly scanned the other people in the dorm before locking onto Lu Che, who was sitting in the middle-left bed. In just two seconds, Xu Xing’s gaze had swept over Lu Che from top to bottom, confirming that he only had a bandage on his left hand. Lu Che was leisurely leaning against the bed, munching on the apple, looking nothing like a seriously injured patient, which made Xu Xing sigh in relief.

When Xu Xing came back to his senses, Lu Che was already standing in front of him, his handsome face illuminated by the warm glow of the sunset, making him look exceptionally radiant, with a smile that couldn’t be hidden in his eyes.

---

As Xu Xing expected, the moment Lu Che saw him, he couldn’t suppress the corners of his mouth lifting and softly asked, “Class leader, why haven’t you gone home yet?”

As Lu Che leaned in closer, Xu Xing quickly reached out and stuffed the umbrella into his arms, blocking his intended embrace just in time.

Xu Xing replied, “I came to return the umbrella.”

His tone was emotionless, cold, and a bit aloof.

Lu Che chuckled as he took the umbrella, only to see Xu Xing casually drop a “I’m going home now” before turning to leave.

Lu Che tossed the umbrella aside and chased after Xu Xing, grabbing his arm and laughing, “Wait, class leader, can I have a hug before you go?”

As soon as Xu Xing was stopped, Lu Che unhesitatingly pulled him into an embrace from behind.

Xu Xing looked down at the arms wrapped around him and thought: He didn’t push Lu Che away, only because he was afraid of hurting Lu Che’s injured left hand.

Lu Che sighed as he held Xu Xing, saying, “I haven’t seen you for twenty-five hours.”

Xu Xing turned his back to Lu Che and asked coldly, “Did you get into a fight?”

Lu Che hurriedly explained, “That idiot Kedi got into a fight; I went to break it up.”

“…”

Xu Xing replied, “Alright, alright, let go first.”

Lu Che, sensing the impatience in Xu Xing’s voice, complained, “But I still haven’t hugged you enough,” yet reluctantly released his grip.

Lu Che felt a bit guilty about the fight. Additionally, considering they were standing in the dorm hallway, he knew Xu Xing wouldn’t want others to see them.

Fortunately, after Lu Che let go, Xu Xing didn’t leave immediately. Instead, he turned slightly, his gaze lingering on the white bandage on Lu Che’s hand, and huffed, “If you were really breaking it up, just this little injury means you’re lucky.”

Xu Xing’s words were blunt, but they made Lu Che laugh. He reached for Xu Xing’s hand and countered, “You were worried about me, waiting here at school until now, right?”

Xu Xing swung his hand away without thinking, retorting irritably, “I’m not that bored to worry about you.”

Lu Che was well aware of Xu Xing’s tough exterior but soft heart, and his smile only grew brighter. With deep eyes fixed on Xu Xing, he gently said, “You don’t need to worry about me; no one can hurt me right now.”

Xu Xing scoffed at that, but Lu Che quickly corrected himself, “Oh, wait, there is one person who can hurt me.”

At this, Xu Xing’s mind immediately filled with the name of that year’s top student.

But then he saw Lu Che smiling gently at him, sweetly saying, “Only you can hurt me. You can easily hurt me.”

“…”

Xu Xing couldn’t handle the sticky sweetness of his words and couldn’t help but blurt out, “Go away; if you stay away from me, you won’t have to worry about me hurting you.”

Lu Che laughed, “I’ve tried that, but I can’t stay away from you!”

Lu Che’s clinginess seemed endless, and Xu Xing rolled his eyes. “Just leave me alone.”

Lu Che leaned his chin against Xu Xing’s shoulder and said, “No way, you have to love me properly; I’m really afraid of pain.”

Xu Xing responded with annoyance, “If you’re afraid of pain, why would you go and get into fights?”

Lu Che retorted, “Because I’m afraid of pain, I rarely get hurt in fights; that’s what I meant!”

“…”

Just then, someone from room 311 called out to Lu Che, causing him to pull away from Xu Xing a bit.

Fu Dai walked out of the dorm with three other people following behind. Xu Xing noticed that these were all new faces, clearly from other classes in the same grade.

Fu Dai saw Lu Che and said, “A Che, let’s go; Ke Di and Zhou Mang have made it out alive and want us to go out for dinner.”

Ke Di and Zhou Mang went to apologize to Director Guo, who was in charge of supervising the athletes. Fu Dai and the others were just waiting for them in the dorm.

But Lu Che replied, “No, thanks.”

Fu Dai was taken aback, “Huh?”

Xu Xing furrowed his brows and looked at him as well.

Lu Che then seriously replied, “I want to study hard tonight and catch up on the classes I’ve missed these past two days. You guys go; there won’t be anyone in the dorm to disturb me.”

Xu Xing: “…”

Fu Dai: “??”

What a weirdo!

Fu Dai held his forehead and waved to the others, “Forget it, let’s go.”

The others behind him laughed as they bowed to Lu Che, saying, “Brother Che, you’ve worked hard.”

After everyone left, Lu Che turned back and clingily pouted to Xu Xing, “Class leader, please don’t go home, okay? Stay and have dinner with me, and help me catch up on my studies tonight!”

Xu Xing rolled his eyes at him, “Yeah, right, as if that would happen.”

Lu Che instantly transformed into a pitiful figure, “It’s so lonely for me to go to the cafeteria alone.”

Xu Xing disdainfully told Lu Che, “Go away; I’m going home.”

Just then, Xu Xing’s phone rang, interrupting their conversation.

He fished his phone out of his pocket, and the screen showed a call from his mom. He answered, “Mom?”

Xu Xing lowered his eyes, his lips slightly parted, and suddenly saw Lu Che leaning in closer to him. The space between them was only half a phone screen apart, so close that Xu Xing instinctively held his breath, feeling as if he could sense Lu Che’s every breath.

With a smile at the corner of his lips, Lu Che’s thin lips almost brushed against the edge of Xu Xing’s palm as he leaned close to the phone’s microphone, his dark, bright eyes reflecting Xu Xing’s silhouette as he softly said:

“Hello, Auntie~”

“…”

Xu Xing jumped back, suddenly creating distance between them.

His left hand, holding the phone, felt as if it had been scorched by Lu Che’s lips.

---

The author has something to say: Xu Xing ate too many twisted doughnuts when he was young, resulting in a double-helix structure in his brain.