Chapter 4

After that day, Mu Chi became even more clingy to Song Wenzhou, and he would let Song Wenzhou have his way with everything. He often left half a curse word unsaid, swallowing the rest, and wore either a genuine or fake smile at all times, as if he had no temper at all.

However, this sometimes caused him a bit of trouble. Occasionally, when he wanted to speak in class but was irritated by Song Wenzhou’s indifferent attitude, his fake smile masking his inner loneliness, he would immediately receive a chalk thrown at him by the teacher, accompanied by the comment, “What, do you find my lesson that funny?”

One time, Mu Chi was playing basketball with Qi Ling and the others, and had a conflict with some boys from another class. Originally, they could have resolved it with a few choice words, but Mu Chi, as usual, put on his fake smile when he got angry. The other group of boys felt deeply insulted and nearly rolled up their sleeves to fight Mu Chi and his group.

Of course, Mu Chi wasn’t scared at all. If Song Wenzhou hadn’t coincidentally been on the basketball court that day and stopped their roommates, a war among a bunch of delusional teenagers would have been unavoidable.

Even after returning to the dorm, the anger of the group hadn’t subsided.

Mu Chi angrily splashed cold water on his face and turned to Song Wenzhou, saying, “It’s all your fault for stopping us. Otherwise, I would’ve made that idiot feel the taste of a fist. He struts around like he’s some kind of big shot every day.”

“Exactly,” Qi Ling agreed, “Does he really think we’re afraid of him? He dares to bully us.”

Zhang Feiyu kicked the basketball into the corner and added, “That guy deserves a beating.”

Song Wenzhou pulled out a change of clothes. “This is school. What if we beat him up and get a punishment?”

“It won’t happen,” Mu Chi said confidently, “There were so many people there. The school can’t punish everyone. The worst they’ll do is give us a warning and make us write a self-reflection.”

“…” Song Wenzhou thought to himself that even that sounded pretty serious. After a moment of thought, he added, “They’ll probably call our parents.”

“Let them,” Mu Chi said dismissively, “My parents aren’t here, so what’s there to be afraid of?”

Qi Ling, always keen to compare with Mu Chi, hesitated a bit and said, “I… I’m not scared either!”

Song Wenzhou sighed silently. “I’m scared, okay?”

His parents were always busy with work, and he’d never caused any trouble before. If he got called in for fighting in the first semester after transferring to a new school, they’d probably start unnecessarily worrying about his school life.

Mu Chi glanced at him indifferently, not sure what he was thinking, his expression unreadable.

Zhang Feiyu said, “So if you don’t fight, nothing will happen, right?”

Song Wenzhou casually responded, “If you guys charged in to fight, how could I just stand there and watch?”

This left the dormitory in silence. After a while, Qi Ling lightly chuckled and bumped into Song Wenzhou’s shoulder.

Song Wenzhou, knocked sideways, laughed as well, “Actually, you guys didn’t really want to fight, did you? Otherwise, there’s no way I could’ve stopped you.”

“How could you not stop us?” Mu Chi sat down on Song Wenzhou’s bed, shaking his neck. “You were holding onto my waist so tightly that I was worried I’d fling you off if I tried to run.”

“I was holding…” Forget it, Song Wenzhou didn’t want to nitpick Mu Chi’s words. He just slapped his firm arm. “Don’t sit on my bed with your stinky sweat.”

“Very particular,” Mu Chi stood up, casually patted the spot where he had been sitting. Before Song Wenzhou went to the bathroom to shower, he called out to him, “By the way, can you lend me your key later?”

“Where’s yours?” Song Wenzhou turned back. “Did you lose it again? Why don’t you lose yourself instead?”

Mu Chi scratched his nose, looking a little embarrassed. “The key is so small. I always remember where I put it, but when I go to find it, it’s gone. I really can’t do anything about it.”

Song Wenzhou rolled his eyes and tossed his key into Mu Chi’s palm. “Why don’t you just bulk order ten of them?”

Mu Chi accidentally pinched Song Wenzhou’s finger when he took the key, quickly pulling his hand back and chuckling, “Never mind, I’m afraid they’ll all disappear at the same time.”