CH 14

Xia Zhinian subconsciously backed away, his heel hitting the door.

In the dead of night, the slightest sound was magnified, and the bang was especially clear.

"...Yan Ci, you're awake."

He pressed against the door, the cold temperature making his hair stand on end. "I...didn't want to disturb you, so I want to go out to make a phone call."

Xia Zhinian turned his phone around and showed him the message page-

[Mom]: "Nian Nian, what's wrong with your stomach? Call me when you wake up, any time is fine, don't forget."

Yan Ci glanced at the phone and then back at Xia Zhinian. He stepped back a bit to make some space.

"I told Aunt Jiang in the afternoon. You were sleeping so soundly that I didn't wake you up. It's 3:30 in the morning now. Aunt Jiang is probably asleep. Send her a message and call her tomorrow morning."

Xia Zhinian's eyes were round and he breathed a sigh of relief. He nodded.

Yan Ci turned and walked into the room. Xia Zhinian turned his head and looked at the locked door. He quickly looked away, sent a message with his phone, and followed him inside.

Yan Ci sat down on the empty bed. The warm-colored night light made his face more handsome and elegant, but half of it was in the shadow, making him look somewhat mysterious. His voice was very soft.

"Is Classmate Xia's stomachache better?"

Xia Zhinian stood on one side, not touching the bed of the clean freak protagonist shou again. He shook his head. "It doesn't hurt anymore."

He glanced at Yan Ci and said, "Thank you for this afternoon."

He didn't understand why the protagonist shou suddenly cared so much about him, the villain.

Yan Ci's lips curved slightly.

He looked a bit sleepy, his double eyelids were deep, and the scar at the corner of his eye was lazy and relaxed. He took out two small breads and a box of medicine from the drawer and put them in front of him. "This is the medicine that the school doctor prescribed. Take one after you eat something."

He lay down on the empty bed as soon as he finished speaking. He casually covered his eyes with one hand, his voice hoarse. "Eat something and then sleep for a while. Don't bother me. We'll talk tomorrow if there's anything."

Xia Zhinian looked at the empty mattress under Yan Ci, then at the bed that belonged to Yan Ci but had been slept on by him. He hesitated for a moment whether to speak up and let the protagonist shou change.

But Yan Ci had already closed his eyes and stopped talking. His breathing was light and even.

Xia Zhinian looked at the locked door, pursed his lips, stuffed the medicine into his pocket, and lay down again.

The next morning, Xia Zhinian almost left as soon as the dormitory door opened. Yan Ci opened the door with a key in front of him, turned around and smiled gently at Xia Zhinian.

"The lock tongue of the anti-lock is broken, so I can only do this."

Xia Zhinian: "..."

Bah, black sesame dumpling lying through his teeth.

He tried it last night, it was clearly fine.

Xia Zhinian pouted, said nothing, took his phone and quickly left.

Jiang Yuan gave him another day off. He went straight back to Xia's house and was pulled by Jiang Yuan to ask about his stomachache. Xia Zhinian was not good at dealing with elders. He just said that his stomach was not good and promised to check it out when he had time. He went back to his room with his head down.

Xia Zhinian slept for most of the day yesterday and was unusually awake now. He lay on the bed thinking about Yan Ci's actions these days. Suddenly, his phone rang with ding-ding-ding sounds.

It was class time, but the class group exploded with messages that kept ringing non-stop. The class group required real names, so Xia Zhinian opened the messages.

[Zou Ziqian]: Fuck, is it true? Are we really having midterm exam? There was no news all year, I thought they would just skip it haha. Orange cat sigh.jpg

[Yuen Long]: You wish. The Chinese teacher already said it, so I bet Lao Qin will announce it in math class next period. We're taking it tomorrow, didn't expect that huh?

[Zou Ziqian]: Why didn't they notify us earlier? If I knew I would have delayed my allergy for two more days and I could have missed the exam haha.

[Yang Jing]: Cat head.jpg, Xia Zhinian was carried away by the class leader yesterday, I don't know if he can come back for the exam.

The class group went strangely quiet, and then started ringing again.

[Fang Xixi]: Xia Zhinian hasn't come today?

[Zou Ziqian]: He left yesterday and didn't come back. I got better and he took a leave. Maybe there's some mysterious and terrible and ancient curse on the last row.

[Du Bao]: Stop it. It's better if he doesn't come back. His grades are trash, he'll drag down the average score.

[Qi Jin]: He couldn't keep up with the progress since he transferred here. He won't be the last in the grade, will he?

[Wei Fang]: I still can't believe it. The class leader is so clean freak that he would hug someone. The rumors on the forum can't be true, right? @Meng Chen @Meng Chen are you there? You're close with the class leader, do you know what's going on?

[Meng Chen]: ...I don't know either. I'm just Brother Yan's little follower, I haven't had any use lately.

[Sun Qian]: I don't believe it. How could the class leader like a crazy person who follows people's butts? He's just kind and responsible.

Suddenly, there was another "ding".

A window popped up with two lines of small words-

The administrator has turned on mute. You have been muted for one minute.

The mute has been lifted. You can resume communication.

[Yan Ci]: No phones during class. Everyone pay attention to the lesson. If you have any questions, you can ask me after class.

"..."

"......"

The class group was silent as death.

Xia Zhinian waited for a while and saw that no one sent a message. He couldn't help but laugh twice.

Finally someone experienced the same pain as him of being caught by Yan Ci. But indeed, Yan Ci was a clean freak and he actually hugged him and let him sleep on his bed.

Unbelievable.

Xia Zhinian returned to the main page. The message reminder showed that there was a new friend request. The reason for the request-

[YC]: Classmate Xia, we have midterm exam tomorrow. If you're feeling better, please confirm as soon as possible whether you want to take the exam or not.

Classmate Xia, remember to accept the request and tell me the result when you decide.

Xia Zhinian: "..."

Fine, don't let others play with their phones, but the class leader secretly plays with his own.

Xia Zhinian clicked his tongue. He didn't want to add this friend. He thought for a moment, opened the group contact Yan Ci, and opened the chat box.

[,]: Yan Ci.

He clicked send and continued typing.

[,]: I'll go back and take the exam normally tomorrow. No leave.

Ding - The other party has turned off the stranger chat function. You are not his friend yet. Please add him as a friend first.

Xia Zhinian: "...?"

Xia Zhinian's apricot eyes were clear. He stared at the line of words in shock, his expression like an old man on the subway looking at his phone.

Did that sentence just go through? And then he couldn't send anymore?

He changed the settings on the spot.

Xia Zhinian was stunned for a while, feeling that this protagonist shou was strange and weird. Fortunately, Jiang Yuan knocked on the door and came in, saying that he had received a call from the head teacher, asking if he could take the exam normally.

Xia Zhinian nodded and let Jiang Yuan tell Lao Qin directly.

On Friday, the exam time was fast and they finished all of them in one day. Xia Zhinian practiced writing the original owner's crooked name plus ABCD at home for a day before the exam. He guessed the multiple choice questions in the last examination room and then lay down to sleep.

At school time, the students came out in twos and threes, mostly talking about the exam. They passed by the gate and saw something out of the corner of their eye. They looked towards the alley not far away.

Xia Zhinian's face was a bit red, his ears were burning, he stretched out his hand to cover his ears, and then resisted the shame and put it down. He looked carefully at the school gate.

He was afraid that his handwriting would be discovered as different, so he didn't do homework for so long. He wanted to skip the exam too, but unfortunately, there was a villain plot after the midterm exam.

As mentioned in the original text, following Chu Qingjian.

Xia Zhinian grew up so big, it was the first time he followed someone else, and he did it openly. He was seen by the crowd passing by, and his ears quickly turned red. His face was burning hot.

Come on, come on.

Let's deepen everyone's impression of him being crazy.

Xia Zhinian gritted his teeth, leaned against the wall, stretched out his body a little bit more, and stared intently at the school gate. Soon, a handsome boy with a tall figure appeared at the gate. Xia Zhinian's eyes lit up.

Chu Qingjian met with a few boys wearing other school uniforms at the gate. They pushed and laughed and punched each other on the shoulder.

"Brother Chu, there's a new bar on Chenli Street. You promised before. You can't go back on your word."

"Yeah, yeah. The exam is over. There's no reason to fool us anymore. Let's go, let's go."

The group walked away, and Xia Zhinian wanted to imitate the original owner, ignoring everything around him and following Chu Qingjian openly.

But...there were too many people at the gate.

It was time to leave school. The crowd was dense and coming and going. Chu Qingjian had a good face and was also a popular figure in school. He attracted attention naturally. Xia Zhinian looked even more delicate. He followed so publicly that it was even more obvious.

Chu Qingjian was on the right side of the gate, and he crouched on the left side. Seeing that Chu Qingjian and his group walked to the right side, Xia Zhinian bit his lip. There was a bit of shame and heroism in his apricot eyes. He braced himself and blushed as he crossed over from the gate and followed behind Chu Qingjian.

Countless eyes gathered on him in an instant.

Jiu Min, Jiu Min!

Xia Zhinian's eyes still fell stiffly on the protagonist's gong body. There was something like thorns behind him. His toes gripped the ground. He wanted to find a crack in the ground to drill into.

He had been secretly photographed and shared for many years, but this was the first time he attracted attention for this kind of thing.

Chu Qingjian walked forward for a while, noticed something, suddenly turned his head and looked over.

Xia Zhinian was startled, his apricot eyes widened, his ears redder than ever, and his heart thumped wildly. He subconsciously dodged to the corner of the wall, leaned against the wall with his hand covering his eyes, and pressed against the wall, a real-life version of covering his ears and stealing bells.

T/N: It means to deceive oneself with stupidity or to be delusional about reality. It comes from an ancient Chinese story about a thief who wanted to steal a bell but thought that covering his ears would make the bell silent. The idiom is 掩耳盗铃 (yǎn ěr dào líng) in Chinese.

Help, help, help!!

Shark him!

T/N: It means to kill him or harm him severely. It is a slang term that comes from the idea of a shark attacking its prey. It is often used as an exclamation or a command.

Right now!

He couldn't live in this world anymore.

Xia Zhinian's face was so hot that he felt it burning. He covered his ears with his hands, pressed his forehead against the cold wall, and tried to cool down. Unfortunately, it didn't work. He bumped his head lightly against the wall.

A shadow suddenly fell over him from the side. A clear and low voice sounded very close, chuckling lightly.

"Classmate Xia's face is so red."

Yan Ci?!

Xia Zhinian hadn't recovered from the shock just now. He raised his head abruptly. His apricot eyes were round and his ears were even more red. His heart beat wildly and he couldn't help but take a step back.

"You, how..." are you here.

Ah, what a big social death scene!

Yan Ci looked at his red ears and wide opened eyes, and his teeth itched. He pressed his tongue against them, his eyes slightly darkened, and he smiled softly.

"Classmate Xia is shy about stalking, but not shy about seeing people?"

The evening sun set, sprinkling golden red afterglow. The boy's slightly light hair and porcelain white skin shone in the sun. The exposed neck was like a layer of honey-colored glaze. His earlobes were rosy and his appearance was soft and obedient.

Xia Zhinian's head was hot. He subconsciously took another step back. Not far behind Yan Ci, another person stepped into the corner.

Chu Qingjian walked in front, a few boys lagged behind a bit and blocked the corner.

"Brother Chu!"

Xia Zhinian's eyes lit up. He pulled out a bit of plot and character from his burned brain. He didn't care about anything else and followed the protagonist gong first. He opened his legs and ran towards Chu Qingjian.

Chu Qingjian looked at Xia Zhinian's red ears and excited eyes, then looked at Yan Ci's increasingly beautiful smile on his face. He snorted, hesitated, and took a step back.

Xia Zhinian: "?!"

"Brother Chu!"

He ran towards the corner, passing by Yan Ci. His wrist was suddenly pinched by a hand.

A strong force came, pulling him sideways with a twist.