Chapter 35: CH 35

Chapter 35

Fu Jia returned to the study after taking a shower and found that Lu Qi'an had already written to the second page. He rarely put down his pen to contemplate on what to write, but even writing two thousand characters continuously would take a while to complete, so he didn’t know when Lu Qi’an would finish writing.

Fu Jia sat next to him and watched him write, feeling sleepier and sleepier as he watched, and couldn’t help lying on the table with his arms pillowing his head.

“Go sleep first,” Lu Qi’an said.

Fu Jia shook his head, his eyes fixating on his fingers, then yawned.

One person observed, while the other one wrote, but the observer was getting drowsier while the writer was getting more efficient.

Soon, Fu Jia fell asleep at the table.

Lu Qi'an put down his pen and picked Fu Jia up from the chair. This time it was a princess carry, so he had to hoist Fu Jia up first, but Lu Qi’an’s slight movement woke Fu Jia up.

Leaning into Lu Qi'an's embrace, he unconsciously retracted his hands to the front of his chest, making his whole person look one size smaller. He asked with a nasal tone: “Are you finished writing?”

Lu Qi'an carried him back to the master bedroom, wrapped him snuggly in the duvet, and said: “Finished writing."

Fu Jia nuzzled the duvet and said in a trance: “Okay, then you sleep first, and I’ll go copy it down.”

Lu Qi’an pressed down and stopped him from moving, and then said: “Copy it tomorrow morning. You sleep first, and I’ll come back after a shower.”

Fu Jia was so sleepy that he immediately stopped resisting after Lu Qi’an put it like that, then hugged the duvet tightly and continued to sleep.

Lu Qi'an turned off the light, sat beside him, and didn’t leave until he completely fell asleep.

There was only one paragraph left to write for the self-reflection essay, Lu Qi'an couldn't care less about penmanship, so he finished it hastily. He didn't have the patience to tidy up the study room like he usually did either.

After washing up, he laid next to Fu Jia and reached out to cuddle him.

Fu Jia knew it was him, so he moved around and clung onto him little by little.

It was another sleeping position where neither of them could easily turn over, but Lu Qi'an didn't reject it.

In the dark, he silently observed Fu Jia for a while, then naturally drifted to sleep.

For so many years, he didn’t know that he could sleep so peacefully.

After two weeks, Fu Jia completely got used to this kind of life. Excluding class time, he and Lu Qi’an were glued to each other at practically every moment; they went to and from school together, ate three meals a day together, and slept together at night.

No one knew the reason, but despite never having intimately lived with Lu Qi’an before, they didn’t need an adjustment period at all. Both sides unconditionally tolerated the other, as if they had already rehearsed for this lifestyle in their hearts.

This couldn’t be described as a dream come true, because not even in Fu Jia’s wildest dreams could he imagine something this good.

In the recent two weekly tests, Fu Jia's performance stabilized to the top ten of the class, hovering between seventh and eighth place. Although it was difficult to improve this ranking, it wouldn’t drop easily either. Big Head felt awed by Fu Jia due to the previous fight, so he stopped using him as a stepladder to get to Lu Qi’an as well. Fu Jia steadily studied for school, and steadily made new friends, living an ideal life.

It wasn’t until a certain PE class that Fu Jia realized he neglected a major issue. That day, he split from Big Head after group activities, and rushed to the basketball court to find Lu Qi'an. He looked forward to the physical education class very much, because he had justification to magnanimously stand on the court sidelines to watch Lu Qi'an play and pass water to Lu Qi'an.

Because of his enthusiasm, Lu Qi'an's classmates all became familiar with him and at the same time knew that he was the one who transferred Feng Jing to another school. Seeing him run over, they clicked their tongues and sighed: "He's here again."

Most people were curious about Fu Jia because of the incident with Feng Jing, and surrounded him with the intention of enjoying a show.

Only Li Qinhe and one other person in the class knew the inside story, and no one could understand how his heart despaired. When he saw Fu Jia waving to Lu Qi'an, and Lu Qi'an responding to Fu Jia, he almost fainted on the spot.

Fu Jia was standing on the side of the court, and everyone around him withdrew three feet away. Only one girl stepped forward to say hello: "Hi~ You’re here again."

Fu Jia learnt from Big Head that this girl was the third year classroom one’s class flower.# Her personality was very likable, both gentle and kind, and she was popular not only in No. 6 High school, but the whole city’s high school circles.

Fu Jia also greeted her amicably: “Hello.”

Their interaction was caught by Li Qinhe's knife-like eyes.

Class Flower covered her mouth and smiled. Ignoring Li Qinhe, she said to Fu Jia: “Why doesn’t Li Qinhe like you? He’s always so fierce. Do you guys have beef with each other?”#

Fu Jia laughed coldly and said: “Yeah, I don’t know either. I don’t know him at all, so maybe he’s got a personality problem.”

Class Flower had a low standard for humour, because of Fu Jia’s words, she couldn’t stop laughing. She said: “It’s really so weird. Lu Qi’an gives you special treatment, so how come his best friend doesn’t like you?”

Fu Jia grasped the key point and asked her: “Special treatment?”

Class Flower nodded: “Yeah. You see, Lu Qi’an wouldn’t look outside the court when he played basketball before, but once you come, he’ll look over from time to time and will even greet you. Also, do you remember what happened the first time you gave him water? It really surprised me, you loudly asked in front of so many people and even mispronounced the words, but he didn’t get mad and even left with you.”

Fu Jia felt sweet in his heart, and couldn't help but want to laugh: "So that’s it…that doesn’t even count for much."

Class Flower carefully observed his expression and saw the unconcealable pride in his eyes, and said: “He really is so good to you. Could it be that…you’re his relative?”

"Huh?" Fu Jia looked at her, "Why do you ask that?"

Class Flower turned her head and saw a bunch of girls eagerly looking at her. She said with some embarrassment: “Someone trusted me with this favour. Well, you know why. Lu Qi’an is too difficult to approach. We finally managed to find out about your breakthrough, so I wanted to ask you for some information. I think Li Qinhe doesn’t want to see you around because he’s jealous that Lu Qi’an is closer to you, isn’t that the case?”

Though Fu Jia agreed with her last sentence, there were her words of “Well, you know why”. What did he really know? Fu Jia had a bad premonition, and alarm bells rang out in his heart.

Sure enough, Class Flower continued: “After class, I'll treat you to milk tea, okay? Can you tell me...if Lu Qi'an has a girlfriend?”

For a moment, Fu Jia stared straight ahead.

His heart was overwhelmed, there were ten thousand lions roaring inside. If it wasn’t Class Flower who was standing next to him, but Li Qinhe or Feng Jing, he wouldn’t be able to control cussing the other person out.

He stared fixated on Lu Qi’an inside the court, and said without thinking: “He has one, and they’re very in love. You should give up.”

He spoke extremely fast and his tone was firm.

Class Flower let out a bewildered sound.

Fu Jia stared at her: “I already told you to give up. Don’t ask anymore.”

Seeing his fierce look, Ban Hua tilted her head for some unknown reason.

On the way home with Lu Qi'an during lunch break, Fu Jia kept staring viciously ahead.

It was fine when he didn’t notice it, but after noticing it, Fu Jia realized that many people were looking at Lu Qi’an in the wrong way. While Lu Qi'an was undoubtedly an excellent person, how could those teachers and classmates unabashedly look at him with so much appreciation and love?

Even he was afraid of angering Lu Qi’an if he showed explicit affections.

“What kind of girl do you think is pretty?” Fu Jia asked.

Girl? Lu Qi'an frowned lightly.

He didn't answer, and Fu Jia didn't mind, so he continued to ask: “Is long hair pretty? Or big eyes? Mm…pouty lips just like this, with dimples as well. Is this considered pretty?”

Fu Jia tried his best to describe the appearance of Class Flower from his memory and imitated her pouting lips and dimpled cheeks with his fingers.

Lu Qi'an asked him expressionlessly: "Do you think it's pretty?"

Fu Jia said truthfully: “Pretty!”

Lu Qi'an turned his face away and said: "Then yeah, pretty.”

Hearing the word "pretty" from his mouth, Fu Jia was filled with a sense of crisis. He frowned and thought about the countermeasures, but he didn't notice that Lu Qi'an's face had turned cold.

Encountering a problem related to girls, Fu Jia's first reaction was to go to Cen Mengke. But Fu Jia’s free time was all spent with Lu Qi’an now, so he had no chance to meet Cen Mengke. He could only consult with Big Head as the next best thing.

After making up a story about an imaginary friend, Fu Jia said: “Big Head, my friend recently got together with someone they’ve been chasing for a long time…”

As soon as Fu Jia began, Big Head immediately had a look of ‘I get it, I get it, I get it’. He was sharper than Cen Mengke, so Fu Jia didn't intend to explain, and just let him think that he got a girlfriend.

Fu Jia continued: “As for his girlfriend, she’s a little cold, not talkative, and has a bad temper. She’ll get angry if you’re not careful, and you won’t know why either.”

Big Head clicked his tongue and said, "Then your friend has worked hard... It's rare to meet such a troublesome girl nowadays."

Fu Jia retorted with dissatisfaction: "They’re not troublesome."#

Big Head burst out laughing and changed his words: “Alright, alright. She’s the most considerate person in the world, okay? Go on.”

Hearing him praise Lu Qi'an, Fu Jia felt a lot better and lightened his tone: “I’m thinking, they’re like this because they’re not close enough with their boyfriend yet. And since they haven’t been dating for long, they haven’t done anything meaningful either. Do you think that makes sense?” He asked Big Head, "How can they become more intimate so that their boyfriend is the only one they see?"

This was a very bold statement. To be the only person in the other’s eyes, the intense exclusivity behind this idea was very impactful to high school students. Big Head widened his eyes and wowed.

“Your thinking is too impressive.” He got closer to Fu Jia, and his ideas gradually swayed off the proper path, moving towards topics that young and hotblooded boys were interested in. He asked furtively: “You two…No, what stage have they hit?”

As thick headed as Fu Jia was, even he could understand what that meant once he saw Big Head’s meaningful eyes. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, he couldn’t help frowning. When he said he wanted to become closer with Lu Qi’an, he didn’t necessarily mean in that aspect. Whatever can make Lu Qi’an like him more was fine.

But…It should be normal for a couple to be asked about that sort of thing by others, right? Thinking over it carefully, the dynamic between Lu Qi'an and him had always been very dull. Even though they already lived together, there were only typical hugs and kisses. The only time they were intimate was when Lu Qi’an used his hand, and it was just that one time. And since Fu Jia was a quick shooter that day, he didn’t get to enjoy it much.

Although he was in high school, Fu Jia was already a legal adult. He understood that he wasn’t a girl, he wouldn’t get pregnant, and he didn’t have to guard his first time.# In modern society, affectionate couples don’t need to act so restrained, at least not like Lu Qi’an, who didn’t seem to have any desire for him.

He didn’t know the specifics of how to do it with people of the same gender, but he knew that cuddling and kissing wasn’t making love. It was more intimate than that.

Was it because of Lu Qi’an’s cold personality, or because… he wasn’t as pretty as girls were?

Fu Jia thought for a while, then answered Datou: “As long as they’re willing to, doing anything is okay.”

Datou froze for two seconds, choking on his own saliva, he waved his hand: “That’s not it, Boss Fu. Is your internal heat too lively these days?# What’re you thinking? This mindset is too dangerous, we’re still high school students who can’t mess around!”

Fu Jia belatedly realized how lousy his words were and felt somewhat uncomfortable: “Then…pretend I didn’t say it.”

Big Head stared at him in dejection to the point Fu Jia’s cheeks reddened to a blush. He scratched his hair with a conflicted feeling and said: “How about this, I’ll download something on an USB tomorrow, and you can watch it yourself. But let me tell you, only watch those kinda things to vent. Don’t get physical with girls so easily.”

Fu Jia felt uneasy talking about this kind of topic to outsiders and didn’t want to talk to Big Head anymore. He stood up from his seat and said, "Let's talk about it tomorrow, I’m going to the washroom.”

Big Head stared at his retreating figure and ruefully shook his head.

Next day after school, Big Head deliberately kept Fu Jia in the classroom, and once all their classmates left, he handed the USB to Fu Jia as promised.

Given Big Head’s accommodating attitude, along with his provocative and loud words of, “What’re you shy for? Don’t tell me you haven’t seen enough of these kinda movies?”, Fu Jia and him gathered close together to discuss how to properly use the USB. Big Head took out his handwritten notes and told him which teacher’s work in which folder was the most classic, and which work was rich in technical content worth learning.

Fu Jia listened carefully and soon forgot about the time.

Ten minutes later, Lu Qi’an, who hadn’t seen Fu Jia waiting for him at the third year education building, came to Fu Jia’s classroom to look for him. There were only Big Head and Fu Jia left in the empty classroom, huddled together talking about who knows what.

That focused appearance was identical to how Fu Jia talked to the girls in PE class.

Lu Qi'an pressed his lips into a tight line, his eyes filled with frost.