Chapter 13 Damn, I Was Careless.

The student cafeteria was crowded and noisy.

But at Fang Ningyun’s table, not far from Pei Zhou, it was unusually quiet.

Fang Ningyun had watched everything just now, her spoon clenched tightly in her hand, while her companions all fell silent.

From the table next to them, however, the girls’ gossip drifted over.

“Eh? Is that Pei Zhou?”

“The girl sitting across from him—who is she?”

“Let me see… looks like Lin Chuge from Class Three.”

“Class Three? Didn’t Pei Zhou just transfer from Class Six to Class Three these past couple of days?”

“Yes!”

“Oh my god, now that you mention it… could it be…”

“Something’s going on between them.”

“But isn’t Lin Chuge especially close with Song Bonian?”

“Who knows.”

“Song Bonian and Lin Chuge are just plain friends, right?”

“Anyway, I’ve never seen Pei Zhou treat any girl this politely. Have you?”

“No…”

“Then this is the first time! Wow, I’m going to sit back and enjoy my gossip!”

Not many people knew about Fang Ningyun’s rejected birthday gift for Pei Zhou. Aside from a few close friends, only his buddies who had been there at the time knew. Now, her friends remembered it again, inevitably sneaking glances at her.

Such an expensive gift, and Pei Zhou hadn’t even looked at it, let alone accepted it.

In comparison, his attitude toward Lin Chuge couldn’t just be described as “good-tempered.”

Though they thought this, seeing Fang Ningyun’s dark expression, no one dared speak.

Fang Ningyun had no appetite left. She picked up her tray without a word and left with a gloomy face.

Lin Chuge and Pei Zhou knew nothing of what had happened on the other side.

After lunch, when they left the cafeteria, Lin Chuge followed closely behind Pei Zhou like a little tail.

Pei Zhou pretended not to notice.

Even when he turned toward the men’s restroom, Lin Chuge still showed no sign of stopping.

Pei Zhou blocked her way. “Are you blind?”

Lin Chuge looked up at him, confused. “Huh?”

He pointed at the men’s restroom sign.

She glanced, then gave an embarrassed laugh, pulling her foot back and retreating two steps. “I’ll wait outside.”

Pei Zhou stayed in the restroom for five minutes, planning to wait her out.

In the sixth minute, a WeChat message arrived.

He opened it.

Two photos—of those damn banners.

Pei Zhou cursed under his breath, stubbed out his cigarette, washed his hands, and left.

When Lin Chuge saw him, her face lit up as she walked over. Then she caught a faint unpleasant smell in the air.

No one nearby was smoking, but she immediately recognized it as smoke. When Pei Zhou ignored her and strode toward the classroom, she jogged after him, sniffed a few more times, and carefully confirmed—the smell was coming from him.

“Pei Zhou, you even smoke?”

She moved in front of him, frowning as she looked up.

He sneered. “Whether I smoke or not, what’s it to you?”

“It stinks.” She wrinkled her nose.

Too lazy to argue, Pei Zhou brushed past her and went into the classroom, sitting at his seat.

Not two minutes later, Lin Chuge came running over with her workbook, sat in front of him, and turned around. “Pei Zhou.”

He kept playing on his phone, not answering.

Her nose still caught that lingering smoke smell. She couldn’t stand it. She ran back to her desk—

And quickly returned.

This time, she held up a bottle of perfume. “This one’s pretty neutral. Smell it?”

A moment later, Pei Zhou caught a whiff of cool citrus, then a faint green tea scent.

Then she asked, “How is it?”

He gave an objective comment. “Not bad.”

Before he could ask what she was planning, Lin Chuge had already gotten up and sprayed a whole circle of perfume around him.

Pei Zhou: “…”

Damn, I was careless.

Once finished, she sat back down, sniffed the air, and, confirming the smoke smell was gone, handed her workbook to him with an innocent smile. “Pei Zhou, can you teach me how to do this problem?”

Xiong Tao leaned over, grinning. “Asking our Zhou-ge about math problems?”

“Pretty creative, Lin Chuge.”

She looked at him. “Zhou-ge?” Then looked at Pei Zhou. “Zhou-ge?”

Pei Zhou: “…Scram!”

She thought he was scolding her, but it was Xiong Tao who obediently pulled his head back. Meanwhile, Pei Zhou had snatched her workbook with a slightly rough motion. She giggled, then handed him her pen and scratch paper, pointing at two problems. “These two—I don’t know how to do them.”

While looking over the questions, Pei Zhou warned, “Just this once. Don’t expect it again.”

Lin Chuge grinned foolishly, said nothing, and lay obediently on the desk, waiting for him to teach.

Meanwhile, Fang Ningyun, still upset over what had happened in the cafeteria, had thought of trying to get Pei Zhou to step out.

But when she reached Class Three, she saw him patiently explaining problems to Lin Chuge.

This was a side of him she had never been allowed to see.

Her eyes dimmed. No matter how she looked at it, the sight was unbearable.

“Classmate, who are you looking for?”

A helpful Class Three student asked. Fang Ningyun snapped back, took a deep breath, and turned away.

·

Lin Chuge really had asked him math questions—and Pei Zhou really had solved them.

Xu Luoluo was dumbfounded.

She tugged on Lin Chuge’s hand when she came back to her seat and whispered, “What’s going on? How are you and Pei Zhou this close?”

Lin Chuge organized her notes. “Are we close? I think it’s just normal.”

Xu Luoluo’s eyes widened. “That’s not close?”

She quickly broke it down—how Pei Zhou had always been cold to girls before, how his attitude toward Lin Chuge was unusually different—and then kept pressing. “Chuchu, is there something between you two that I don’t know about? Are you hiding a secret from me?”

There were things Xu Luoluo didn’t know. And yes… there was a secret.

Feeling guilty, Lin Chuge thought about it. Some things, maybe she could tell her friend.

“Mm, there’s a little something.”

She nodded, then quickly added in a low voice, “But we’re just classmates, nothing else.”

But Xu Luoluo only latched onto the first part.

“What, what, what?” Her gossiping heart flared. She pushed Lin Chuge to spill everything.

With more and more classmates entering the room, Lin Chuge suggested, “Let’s go outside to talk.”

She skipped over the Band-Aid incident, but told her about her grandparents knowing Pei Zhou’s grandparents, about the first time she met him, about asking him questions, about the square dance incident (skipped), about taking the iron rod for him, about the banners (skipped), about calling the cops when he fought, about being called out and questioned, about getting treated to dinner, about him buying her clothes, about going to his place (skipped)…

Xu Luoluo listened, wanting to clap the whole time. “Amazing, absolutely amazing.”

Lin Chuge: “…”

“So I think Pei Zhou is actually pretty nice, not as scary as he seems.”

Finally, she said, “Such a good person—wouldn’t it be a shame if he ruined himself with fighting?”

Xu Luoluo nodded in agreement. “True.”

A few seconds later, she suddenly lit up. “Chuchu, I get it!”

Lin Chuge: “…?”

“What?”

Xu Luoluo gripped her shoulders, shaking her excitedly. “I know why you suddenly want to study—it’s because you want to set an example for Pei Zhou, so he’ll study too, right? So touching, I’m gonna cry!”

Lin Chuge: “…Not really.”

Xu Luoluo hugged her tightly. “No need to explain, I understand. I get it all.”

Who would have thought such a beautiful love story was right here all along!

She let go, her voice firm. “Chuchu, don’t worry, I’ll always support you.”

Lin Chuge nodded dazedly, though she felt something was off.

But before she could figure out what, Xu Luoluo had already pulled her back to class.

Forget it.

Lin Chuge thought, since Xu Luoluo didn’t even blame her for hiding all that, the rest didn’t matter.

·

The second period in the afternoon was P.E.

After warmups, the P.E. teacher talked about the upcoming school sports meet at the end of the month, encouraging everyone to sign up. He also confirmed the Class Three basketball team members, then let the others do free activities.

For once, Pei Zhou wasn’t napping or on his phone.

Athletically gifted, he was good at basketball and was already on the school team.

The teacher recognized him and pointed him out as captain.

No one objected.

And Pei Zhou didn’t mind.

He and the other selected players gathered around the teacher to hear instructions.

Lin Chuge looked back, pleasantly surprised to see him listening attentively.

Not into sports herself, she went with Xu Luoluo to the campus store for ice cream.

After picking her favorite flavor, she was about to pay when Xu Luoluo asked, “Chuchu, aren’t you buying water?”

“Why?”

“Pei Zhou’s playing basketball. At least get him a bottle of water.”

“…Oh.”

What did he like to drink again? She glanced around, finally choosing a cold Coke and a bottle of mineral water.

Then she realized—when it came to watching Pei Zhou play, Xu Luoluo seemed even more enthusiastic than she was.

On the way, Xu Luoluo went on and on.

“Even though Pei Zhou acts like that normally, he’s amazing on the court. You missed it last semester when our school played the interschool league—this time you must not miss it.”

She had been seriously ill then.

So yes, she’d missed it. But she had seen the basketball game at the freshman sports meet.

Yet she had no memory of Pei Zhou from then.

“Didn’t he play in the freshman meet?” she asked.

Xu Luoluo shook her head. “Nope.”

“So when he showed up in the league, everyone was like, ‘Who’s this guy?’ But later, they all admitted he was good.”

Lin Chuge felt relieved.

So her memory hadn’t failed her.

By then, they had reached the court.

Pei Zhou, Qiu Tianqi, and the rest of the Class Three players were scrimmaging with the neighboring class.

She and Xu Luoluo found seats on the sidelines to watch.

Just as they sat, Pei Zhou drove to the basket, dodged a defender, leapt, and with his long arm, slammed the ball through the hoop.

Screams and cheers erupted around the court.

Lin Chuge turned to look at the students cheering for him—some girls, some boys.

Then her gaze returned to the calm figure on the court.

Loose jersey on his tall, lean frame, his posture straight and strong.

At that moment, Pei Zhou seemed to shine.

Lin Chuge couldn’t help smiling. Maybe—this was what he wanted?

As she thought, she raised her phone, snapped a few photos of him in his element, then posted them on her Moments, visible only to him, with one word:

“Handsome!”