“It looks like you two didn’t learn your lesson back in the first year of high school? For this entire year, every time you saw me, you’d put on an act and call me ‘Shi-ge’. It must have felt so humiliating, right? Did you really think I didn’t know about all the times you were backstabbing me and wagging your tongues behind my back?”
Inside the boys’ bathroom, Jiang Shi held a mop with a filthy, stinking bottom end, pressing it down threateningly right in front of the two people sprawled on the floor. His voice was icy cold.
“After you ran into me at noon, who did you run into in this bathroom? What did you say?”
“You love gossiping about me behind my back, and I can usually be too lazy to waste time bickering with you. But Shen Ying… you’d better not even mention him. If I ever catch you saying a single bad word about him again, neither of you will need to bother staying at Yinan No. 1 High School. As for whatever happened here tonight, if a single word of what I said gets back to Shen Ying, you can bear the consequences yourselves.”
At the school gates.
Ye Ze and Chen Mo stared at the figures of two people getting into a private luxury car in the distance. The former replayed the warnings Jiang Shi had given them in the boys’ bathroom during evening self-study.
“Damn it!” The more Ye Ze thought about it, the less he could swallow this grievance, but he could only take out his anger on a nearby pebble, kicking it hard so that it flew a long distance away.
“Did you put on the ointment?”
After taking showers, Shen Ying and Jiang Shi rushed into the study as if racing against time. Jiang Shi stared at the injuries on Shen Ying’s face and asked him.
From yesterday until now, every time Shen Ying remembered to apply his medicine on time, it was because Jiang Shi had reminded him.
But this time, Shen Ying answered with a hint of hidden pride in his tone. “Applied.”
He really had been forgetting that he still had injuries on his face these past two days. Just now, when he saw his face in the mirror after his shower, he immediately went to his backpack to get the ointment the second he stepped out of the bathroom.
Jiang Shi had gently reminded him so many times, so he had to let Jiang Shi know, even if it was just for once, that he was actually listening properly to his words and that Jiang Shi didn’t have to exhaust himself reminding him of such trivial things as applying medicine.
However, this hidden pride and sentiment of his was met with a very lukewarm reaction from Jiang Shi.
Jiang Shi quietly gazed at the bruises on his face without saying a word.
“What’s wrong?” Shen Ying asked, feeling puzzled.
“Shen Ying.”
“Hm?”
“Will you stay with me for the rest of your life?” Jiang Shi suddenly asked out of nowhere.
This question was indeed a bit baffling to Shen Ying, which was why he didn’t give Jiang Shi an answer right away after hearing it.
After all, he couldn’t possibly tell what kind of tone Jiang Shi was using. Was he asking whether he was willing to stay by his side and act as a mindless playmate or study companion, or was he asking if he might one day, out of a delusion for wealth and status, cling to him like a plaster for the rest of his life and refuse to be shaken off?
Between these two possibilities, if it were the first one, Shen Ying could state with extreme firmness right now that he was willing. After all, he had long prepared himself mentally for that, Jiang Shi and he were complete strangers, yet Jiang Shi hadn’t hesitated to extend a helping hand to him. Whether Jiang Shi wanted to treat him like a pet cat or dog, or make a beast of burden out of him, he would go along with it, even acting as an ox or a horse was fine.
But if it were the second possibility, even though Shen Ying knew Jiang Shi was a wealthy and generous benefactor, he couldn’t casually brush it off with a casual “I won’t.” Aside from verbal promises, he genuinely had no idea how to reassure Jiang Shi or prove his loyalty.
The two of them were truly unacquainted, and the time they had known each other was still too short, they completely lacked mutual understanding of each other’s character, leaving Shen Ying entirely unable to fathom Jiang Shi’s true intentions.
“Forget it, you don’t have to answer.” Seemingly finding the wait for an answer too long, Jiang Shi simply lost his willingness to hear his over contemplated reply. His gaze darkened as he said, “Study.”
Shen Ying first opened his mouth, but in the end, he said nothing and instead intently threw himself back into his studies.
The consequence of this, however, was that Shen Ying became so engrossed in studying that he completely forgot to check the time. It wasn’t until Jiang Shi reminded him that it was time for bed that he realized it was already one o’clock in the morning.
“Jiang Shi, next time, since you’re good at studying on your own, you don’t have to wait for me.” As Shen Ying frantically packed his things into his backpack, he noticed that Jiang Shi’s belongings had already been packed away at some point, and he had no idea how long Jiang Shi had been sitting there waiting for him.
“I can’t fall asleep by myself.”
Great. He felt even more guilty now.
At this very moment, Shen Ying truly wanted to get down on his knees and beg himself to start paying attention to Jiang Shi’s difficulties!
After packing up, Shen Ying quietly followed Jiang Shi out of the study, silently staring at Jiang Shi’s back.
Just as the two of them were about to reach the bedroom door, Shen Ying subconsciously reached out to grab Jiang Shi’s arm, though he quickly let go.
“Jiang Shi, I’m really sorry.” Jiang Shi turned around to look at him promptly, and Shen Ying immediately followed up with an apology, continuing, “Sometimes I’m just a bit thick headed. Once I get focused on one thing, I always tend to overlook everything else. But I really didn’t forget what you said last night. I promise, starting tomorrow, I won’t make you wait so late just to go to sleep.”
If he had to cut into Jiang Shi’s precious quality sleep time just so he could pull off an ideal score on the monthly exams, then he might as well just go sit somewhere out of the way.
His primary task, the one that should rightfully be ranked first, ought to be Jiang Shi, and only Jiang Shi.
Right now, Jiang Shi’s sleep was of the utmost importance.
It was his own momentary failure to sort out his priorities clearly, without Jiang Shi, where would he even get the opportunity to study in peace?
“Why did you suddenly say today that you want to get good grades on the monthly exam?” Hearing Shen Ying’s apology, explanation, and guarantee, Jiang Shi only asked this instead.
“Shen Ying, compared to everything you just said, I care more about whether you’re hiding anything from me. Besides, you still didn’t remember what I said, in front of me, you have to tell the truth.”
“I didn’t mean to hide anything from you.” Shen Ying genuinely hadn’t expected to be seen through by Jiang Shi so easily. “I just really didn’t want you to know that I heard people in the bathroom saying I only got into Class 3 through connections. I couldn’t stomach that anger, so I have to prove I have the ability.”
“Is that the only reason?”
Shen Ying stared blankly, completely failing to understand what Jiang Shi meant by this.
Wasn’t his answer extremely reasonable and logical?
The two of them stood at the bedroom door, staring at each other in a stalemate of silence for a good long while.
In the end, Shen Ying was naturally the one who caved. He began to speak the truth. “I don’t want other classmates to ever have the chance to use this matter to talk about you.”
Hearing this sentence, Jiang Shi’s gaze shifted.
“They can talk about me all they want, I honestly couldn’t care less. But I’m afraid that later on, if other people find out I was able to get into Yinan High mostly because of your connections… When I heard those two boys in the fourth class gossiping about us behind our backs in the bathroom, their words actually woke me up. I have to use my grades to shut their stinking traps in the shortest time possible.”
“Alright, I’ll help you.” As if he had finally heard the answer he wanted, Jiang Shi’s tense expression softened considerably. “But Shen Ying, you need to know that with me around, you don’t need to worry about things like that.”
Hearing this, Shen Ying’s heart violently contracted, and a myriad of emotions instantly surged within him before quietly spreading outward.
Having almost never heard such unconditional words of backup, Shen Ying momentarily forgot how to react.
“Whatever people say about me behind my back is completely unimportant to me, and I don’t care at all. You don’t need to worry,” Jiang Shi said solemnly.
To his surprise, these words directly triggered an intense reaction from Shen Ying. “You might not care, but I do.”
A flash of surprise crossed the depths of Jiang Shi’s eyes, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.
“Jiang Shi, it’s their problem if they have bad character and like to randomly judge others behind people’s backs. I know you’re just too lazy to bother with them. But don’t worry, I have plenty of experience dealing with people like that. In the future, if anyone dares to bully you or say a single bad thing about you, I will definitely stand right in front of you and curse them right back.”
“Alright.” Jiang Shi’s gaze wavered for a rare moment. His eyes first darkened, and then he softly asked Shen Ying, “Shen Ying, if one day you find out… that I’m not the person you currently think I am, and you discover that I actually have a completely different side to me, would you end up loathing me because of it?”
“Of course not.” Once Shen Ying opened his heart, he stopped beating around the bush. “Jiang Shi, when you asked me that question in the study tonight, I didn’t deliberately refuse to answer you. I was just afraid that speaking would sound like making empty promises. But thinking about it now, if I’m even unwilling to speak up, that really wouldn’t look good either. I’ll officially answer you now, Jiang Shi: as long as there comes a day when you need me, I will stay by your side forever, and I will always stand by you.”
Will you stay by my side forever?
As long as you need me.
If you discover my true face, will you loathe me?
No, I will always stand by your side.
Jiang Shi had not only gotten Shen Ying’s answer, but it was also the exact answer he most wanted to hear.
“Alright, I will remember the answer you gave me today for the rest of my life.” Jiang Shi looked at Shen Ying with burning eyes. “Let’s go, it’s time for us to sleep.”
“Okay!” Shen Ying smiled, not feeling for a second that there was any issue with Jiang Shi wanting to remember his promise for a lifetime.
Turning off the lights, Jiang Shi had just laid down in bed when he turned his head to look at Shen Ying, who was sleeping on the other side of the bed as usual, by the dim glow of the nightlight. He softly asked if he could sleep in the middle of the bed, a little closer to him.
Without a second thought, Shen Ying immediately put action into practice, quickly scooting to the middle of the large bed and even comforting Jiang Shi by telling him not to be afraid of nightmares since he was there now.
After they finished talking, the bedroom fell into a prolonged silence. No matter how Shen Ying tried to lie, he couldn’t get comfortable, and unable to hold it in anymore, he tossed and turned.
“Jiang Shi, are you asleep?”
“…. Not yet.”
“Can I go buy a pillow for myself tomorrow? Don’t get me wrong, it’s just that the pillow at your place is so soft and comfortable that I’m really not used to sleeping on it. It feels like no matter how I lie, it’s uncomfortable.”
Upon hearing this, Jiang Shi said, “Then I’ll have someone send a pillow over for you right now.”
With those words, he immediately made a motion to get up.
“No, no, no.” Startled by Jiang Shi’s drive to make such a huge fuss in the middle of the night, Shen Ying first sat straight up in flattered shock, then quickly pressed down on Jiang Shi’s body to keep him from getting up. “It’s too late right now, we can just go buy one together after school tomorrow.”
Shen Ying’s movements were exceptionally swift, so fast that Jiang Shi had zero time to react. By the time he came back to his senses, half of Shen Ying’s body was already pressing down on him. His breath caught in his throat, and just as his hands instinctively raised to touch something, Shen Ying pulled back with lightning speed, leaving him once again with no time to react.
“Go to sleep, go to sleep, it’s already past one in the morning.” In the dark, Shen Ying couldn’t see the almost lingering, unsatisfied look in Jiang Shi’s eyes, and urged him to sleep with a coaxing tone.
The next day.
Perhaps due to the old adage that practice makes perfect, the moment they opened their eyes that morning, both parties were remarkably calm about the fact that Shen Ying had used Jiang Shi’s arm as a pillow to sleep on again.
Shen Ying didn’t just apologize verbally this time either, he took direct action by massaging Jiang Shi’s numb arm.
After finishing breakfast and applying the medicine to the injuries on his face, Shen Ying headed out to start his third day as a transfer student.
The weather was nice today, and Shen Ying’s internal state was also good, he guessed this might be a sign of things finally getting on the right track.
His luck was decent, too. The moment the car arrived at the school gates and he and Jiang Shi stepped out, they ran right into their old nemeses, Ye Ze and Chen Mo, in a classic narrow escape encounter.
With bruises still on his face, Shen Ying stared at the two people whose conditions didn’t look any better than his own. Remembering his chat with Jiang Shi the night before, he instantly puffed himself up with borrowed authority.
“What’s wrong with your faces? Did you guys backstab people so much that even the heavens couldn’t stand it? Later on, I’ll have to go burn three sticks of incense to thank the heavens.”
Ye Ze and Chen Mo.
They quietly glanced at the silent Jiang Shi, didn’t dare to flap their gums any further here, and simply hurried away.
Seeing that they were just as cowardly as yesterday and left him with a head full of unacted dialogue for the day, Shen Ying shrugged.
“Let’s go, Jiang…” Realizing there was no point, Shen Ying turned to look at Jiang Shi, but the words he hadn’t finished speaking got stuck right in his throat by the sight before him. “Jiang Shi, it turns out you look really good when you smile.”
Jiang Shi was left dazed and stunned by this extremely frank and sincere compliment, leaving only a fading trace of a smile at the corners of his lips that he hadn’t quite managed to pull back.
“Since you look so good when you smile, you should definitely smile more often at school. I bet if you just flash a smile on ordinary days, you’d be able to choke to death a whole bunch of people who look at you with disapproval behind your back,” Shen Ying continued with a grin.
Walking side by side at a leisurely pace into the school gates, the two of them completely failed to notice Tao Ruiyu, who had been standing not far behind them ever since they got out of the car, watching the whole thing.
Biting down on his yogurt straw and completely forgetting to drink, Tao Ruiyu stood frozen in place, staring wide eyed at his two classmates as they gradually walked away.
The way their Shishen got along with this new student was getting stranger and stranger the more he thought about it.
The things they said were even more bizarre.
Since when did Shishen need to smile to piss people off?
Wait, Shishen actually knows how to smile?!