Chapter 23: This fool, surely he’s flustered and doesn’t know what to do…

Lu Liu spun his pen around with his thumb, index, and middle fingers, speaking slowly, “You know what I mean.”

Yao Wenjing avoided eye contact, his chest rising and falling rapidly, and stubbornly said, “I don’t know.”

“Then forget it,” Lu Liu shrugged, “Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

After standing there in a daze for nearly half a minute, Yao Wenjing gave up on tidying his half-done desk and dragged his feet back to his seat, still nervous for a while. It was only then that he seemed to remember something, quickly looking up toward the corridor leading to the restroom, and then said with a pleading tone, “Lu Liu, please don’t tell Lin Zhi. I’m afraid he…”

“I won’t say anything about the matter between you two,” Lu Liu, pretending to act for Lin Zhi’s sake, said with hidden intentions, “But I think you shouldn’t do this. Lin Zhi treats you like his best friend, yet you’re hiding this from him.”

“I…” Yao Wenjing subconsciously wanted to apologize, stumbling over his words as he tried to explain, which also served to reassure himself. “I’ve never thought too much about it. I’m just… I’m just happy to be friends with Xiao Zhi. I won’t tell him, and besides, Xiao Zhi already has someone he likes…”

Lu Liu suddenly lost control of the pressure on his pen, and it fell in a circle on the ground.

“Right, we can’t let Xiao Zhi know,” Yao Wenjing muttered to himself, “It would trouble him.”

Bending down, Lu Liu spotted the pen under the desk. Lin Zhi would only be troubled if he knew, and he himself was already troubled. Was it true that Lin Zhi had someone he liked?

After picking up the pen, Lu Liu didn’t say anything more. He didn’t know what else he could say—should he advise Yao Wenjing to give up? Or should he advise himself to give up?

Just as Lu Liu thought he should ask Yao Wenjing who Lin Zhi liked, Lin Zhi’s figure appeared in the corridor.

As soon as Lin Zhi entered the classroom, he sensed that something was off. Yao Wenjing, who always greeted him with a smile, was now nervously avoiding his gaze, and Lu Liu, who usually had a warm smile, was now frowning.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Zhi asked cautiously. He had only gone to the restroom, so what had the two of them been doing behind his back? This situation was making it easy for him to misinterpret things.

Lu Liu, feeling a bit off, didn’t answer Lin Zhi’s question for the first time, and Yao Wenjing, flustered, said, “N-nothing, really.”

Lin Zhi’s gaze swept between the two of them, his suspicion growing. He knew Yao Wenjing well enough to recognize his nervous stammering, and with Lu Liu’s expression, Yao Wenjing’s nervousness… it was beginning to make him think deeply.

After that day, Lin Zhi clearly felt that Yao Wenjing was hiding something from him. Not only had Yao Wenjing turned down his invitation to go home together on their bi-weekly breaks, but whenever they met at school, they barely exchanged a few words before Yao Wenjing hurried off.

After witnessing Yao Wenjing “fleeing in panic” once again in the teaching building, Lin Zhi returned to the classroom, thought about it, and finally couldn’t hold back. He interrupted Lu Liu, who was solving problems, and asked, “Class monitor, can I ask you something?”

It sounded as though this semester’s countless problems were taught to someone else, like a petty wolf who liked someone.

Lu Liu paused his pen, and with a casual tone, said, “Ask.”

“The last time in the study room, when I went to the restroom,” Lin Zhi, unaware of what Lu Liu was thinking, directly voiced his confusion, “Did you say something to Yao Wenjing?”

“When?” Lu Liu pretended to think seriously, “If I’m not mistaken, you seem to go to the restroom quite a lot.”

Lin Zhi: “…”

Lu Liu wasn’t wrong. He really couldn’t sit still, and would come up with an excuse to go to the restroom and wander around every half hour.

“It’s when I actually went to the restroom,” Lin Zhi clarified.

“How would I know which time was real?” Lu Liu blinked and smiled, “I wasn’t watching you.”

“…” Lin Zhi couldn’t explain, and it seemed that Lu Liu wasn’t willing to tell him. He figured it would be easier to “press” Yao Wenjing later. “Forget it, I won’t ask.”

“Mm,” Lu Liu nodded and, as usual, asked, “Is there anything from the lesson today that you didn’t understand?”

Lin Zhi: “…Yes.”

Lu Liu muttered to himself, “^[1]“Little white-eyed wolf” (小白眼狼, xiǎo bái yǎn láng) is a Chinese idiom used to describe someone who is ungrateful or does not appreciate the kindness or help they’ve … Continue readingLittle white-eyed wolf,” but still gently asked, “Do you want me to explain it to you again?”

“Then I’ll trouble you,” Lin Zhi flipped open the part with doubts, “Thank you.”

Sunday afternoon, Lin Zhi sent a message early to call Yao Wenjing out, threatening, “If you ditch me again this time, we won’t study together anymore.”

With the “threatening message,” Yao Wenjing indeed appeared at the stairwell at the agreed time.

Lin Zhi had been lazily leaning against the wall waiting for Yao Wenjing. As soon as he saw Yao Wenjing coming down the stairs, he straightened up and walked toward him.

Yao Wenjing smiled slightly, skipped the usual greeting with Lin Zhi, and looked eagerly toward the corridor behind Lin Zhi, asking, “Why isn’t Lu Liu here?”

“He’ll come later,” Lin Zhi squinted his eyes, joking half-seriously, “What, are you disappointed that I’m the only one here?”

Yao Wenjing looked confused, like he didn’t understand what Lin Zhi was saying. He avoided Lin Zhi’s direct gaze and said, “Let’s go then.”

In Lin Zhi’s opinion, Yao Wenjing’s nervousness was a clear sign of his shyness after being caught off guard.

Lin Zhi raised an eyebrow and smiled. He had guessed it right—Yao Wenjing liked Lu Liu!

With this conclusion, everything Yao Wenjing had done suddenly made sense. In his previous life, Yao Wenjing knew Lu Liu but didn’t tell him because he was too shy, on the day they ate hotpot, Yao Wenjing had been trying so hard to ask Lu Liu to teach him questions, not out of study need but because he wanted to find a way to interact with Lu Liu, Yao Wenjing had strongly agreed to the Sunday afternoon study session with the three of them because it was an opportunity to be alone with Lu Liu, and when he saw Yao Wenjing and Lu Liu acting strangely after he came back from the restroom—this was because…

“Shit,” Lin Zhi almost missed a step on the stairs, “You’re not already…”

“Be careful!” Yao Wenjing, startled by Lin Zhi, instinctively grabbed his arm, his voice full of lingering fear, “Watch your step coming down the stairs. What if you fall?”

“Got it, got it,” Lin Zhi said nonchalantly, “It’s not like I fell.”

Compared to this, what concerned him more was that Yao Wenjing liked Lu Liu and had even let Lu Liu know. That fool must have been flustered and didn’t know what to do.

That’s why Lu Liu had frowned that day, and that’s why Yao Wenjing had been avoiding him for the past two weeks. Every time he saw Lin Zhi, Yao Wenjing would think of Lu Liu, which was why when he asked Lu Liu about it, Lu Liu had deflected the topic. That was also why, when they met earlier, Yao Wenjing had ignored his question about why Lu Liu wasn’t there.

It turned out everything had been clear all along. In his previous life, he had been so focused on secretly liking Lu Liu that he had ignored Yao Wenjing’s subtle feelings. In this life, he had been so wrapped up in Lin Qingye’s illness, Yao Wenjing’s family matters, and his goal of going to B City to find “Zhi” that he had overlooked the fact that it wasn’t just Yao Wenjing’s failure to get into university that troubled him.

In his previous life, Yao Wenjing’s character had changed drastically. He still couldn’t forget the image of him at the bar, being embraced by a rough-looking guy, forcing a smile that was painful to remember.