Although in the novel Zhang Chen was a blond delinquent, his looks weren’t bad at all. No matter how you looked at it, he was still handsome.
With his 1.85-meter height and upright build, he could pull off the school bully type just fine. The blond delinquent’s fighting ability in the story was naturally nothing to scoff at… he could even trade blows with the male lead for a few rounds.
Of course, he still lost in the end…
Zhang Chen walked into the barbershop, and Nan Xingwan followed him in. The barber enthusiastically asked who was getting a haircut, then followed the usual routine and asked Zhang Chen how he wanted it cut.
“How do you want it cut?” After the barber asked, Zhang Chen turned to Nan Xingwan with a smile.
“How would I know?” Nan Xingwan sat down on the sofa nearby, her tone full of resentment.
At that moment, she was still worried about Zhang Chen’s citywide joint exam next week. How could she possibly be in the mood to care about his hairstyle?
She wanted to urge Zhang Chen to hurry home and study, but when the words reached her lips, she held them back.
Because if she told Zhang Chen not to get a haircut and to go home early to review instead, he would definitely tell her that if she was in such a hurry, she could just leave on her own.
This wasn’t the first time she’d been left behind on the roadside by Zhang Chen.
Seeing that, Zhang Chen raised an eyebrow. So they hadn’t quite reached the point of a complete falling out, but she was definitely holding some resentment.
If he had charged ahead tonight with the kind of energy you only get when you’re fighting for love and told her to stop meddling, they might have truly broken up by now.
After figuring out their current situation, Zhang Chen felt a bit more at ease.
Based on his understanding of Nan Xingwan, she was the kind of girl who never held back with her words, but deep down she was very kind and cared a lot about Zhang Chen.
Proud and willful.
Only in front of Zhang Chen would she always carefully tuck away her sharp edges, afraid that another wrong word would make him unhappy.
But her lowering her head wouldn’t be obvious to others. The way she spoke still carried her own unique attitude, so people would still feel that she was the same Nan Xingwan.
Only the person she was facing had changed.
Now that Zhang Chen had transmigrated here with a god’s-eye view, he could completely guess what Nan Xingwan was thinking. It was all obvious to him…
For example, even though she was sitting on the sofa with her arms crossed, pretending to look outside the shop, she was actually making eye contact with him through the glass on the shop door…
Zhang Chen looked back at himself in the mirror. Although he couldn’t compare with Eddie Peng’s looks from when he was reading this novel, he still looked pretty good.
So he deliberately said, “Then… I’ll shave my head bald.”
“!!!?” Nan Xingwan immediately turned around and glared at Zhang Chen, blurting out, “What!?”
Zhang Chen gave a fake smile. “Shave my head bald.”
“No way… absolutely not!” Nan Xingwan shot back.
“Why not?”
“The school doesn’t allow shaved heads.”
“The school doesn’t allow dyed hair either, but didn’t I still dye mine?” Zhang Chen said with a laugh, pinching a strand of his hair.
“You…” Nan Xingwan hesitated, and in the end couldn’t come up with a good excuse. She could only say in a conflicted tone, “Anyway, no.”
Hearing that, Zhang Chen looked at Nan Xingwan’s serious expression, at the way she wanted to control him but was afraid of overstepping, and changed his tack.
“Fine, if a bald head won’t do, how about I dye this thing green? What do you think?”
As he spoke, Zhang Chen even used both hands to slick his hair straight up, looking animated and full of energy.
“…” Nan Xingwan only imagined green-haired Zhang Chen in her head, and her face almost turned green too…
“No.”
“That doesn’t work either?”
“Can’t you just get a normal haircut?” Nan Xingwan said in a restrained tone.
“Hmm… I think that’s pretty normal. You think it’s not normal, but you’re not helping me pick one.” The corners of Zhang Chen’s mouth lifted. Seeing that the timing was right, he steered the topic back to having her help him choose a hairstyle.
Sure enough, Nan Xingwan’s next words were, “Fine, then I’ll choose one for you. Don’t blame me.”
“Mm-hm.”
While Nan Xingwan was flipping through the hairstyle catalog to pick one for Zhang Chen, Zhang Chen said to the barber, “In a little while, dye my hair black.”
Hearing that, Nan Xingwan lifted her eyes and glanced at Zhang Chen, a faint glimmer quietly rising in the depths of her gaze…
After picking a hairstyle, Zhang Chen took a look and was fairly satisfied, so he told the barber to cut his hair that way.
During the haircut, Nan Xingwan kept waiting nearby the whole time, watching strands of blond delinquent hair fall away, then watching Zhang Chen’s whole head of blond delinquent hair be dyed black and return to its original state…
Sunny, cheerful, handsome.
It had to be said that Nan Xingwan’s taste was as good as she was.
Zhang Chen looked at the haircut in the mirror and was very satisfied as well. The aggression and off-putting feel of the blond delinquent hair was gone.
With his eyebrows trimmed and a fresh, fluffy hairstyle, he looked bright and sunny. He really did look like a normal male high school student now.
If there were no male lead, then he would be the spitting image of a male lead’s looks right now!
What was that phrase again? Clean-cut face, sword-like brows, and bright, starry eyes!
The current him and the version of himself before entering the barbershop were like two completely different people!!
“A hairstyle really can change a person…” Zhang Chen looked at himself in the mirror, then at the pile of hair on the floor, unable to imagine that an hour earlier he had looked like that blond delinquent…
“Stop looking. Pay up.” After admiring his hair for a bit, Zhang Chen picked up his school bag and said to the dazed Nan Xingwan on the sofa.
“Huh? You don’t have money?”
“I don’t.”
“If you don’t have money, why are you getting a haircut?”
“Isn’t that what I’ve got you for?” Zhang Chen said with a thick-skinned grin.
Nan Xingwan’s face reddened. She let out a huff and turned her head away, refusing to look at Zhang Chen.
“Remember to pay me back when we get home.”
“The total comes to 141…”
After the haircut, Zhang Chen and Nan Xingwan went home together.
Their homes actually weren’t in the same place. Zhang Chen lived alone in a single rented room in a residential building near the wet market, a few kilometers away from No. 1 Middle School.
Nan Xingwan, on the other hand, lived in a neighborhood near No. 7 Middle School, sharing an apartment with someone else.
Neither family’s finances were bad, but both sets of parents were very busy.
Zhang Chen’s parents ran a franchise store in Tiancheng City’s Jiangbei District. They were busy from early morning until late at night every day, with neither the time nor the energy to take care of Zhang Chen. And since Zhang Chen’s grades weren’t very good, his family didn’t expect him to accomplish much. They just hoped to save up enough so that even if Zhang Chen didn’t get into college, he’d still have a way to make a living after entering society.
Nan Xingwan’s parents both held civil service posts. Her father was a government official, and her mother was an outstanding teacher at No. 2 Middle School. Because of work, they also couldn’t spare the time to accompany Nan Xingwan.
So they rented her a place in the neighborhood closest to No. 7 Middle School, and didn’t have her live on campus.
Zhang Chen carried his school bag with one hand while Nan Xingwan walked in front. Neither of them spoke.
A car drove past honking its horn nonstop. Seeing this, Zhang Chen stepped forward and pulled Nan Xingwan a little toward the inside of the road, walking to her side.
Nan Xingwan subconsciously turned her head, glanced at the small sedan passing by, then looked up at Zhang Chen. She couldn’t help feeling that today’s Zhang Chen was a little different.
Just as she was thinking that, Zhang Chen suddenly spoke.
“You took leave to come over?”
Compared with No. 1 Middle School, No. 7 Middle School’s schedule was only stricter. There was no way they would let out before No. 1 Middle School.
So for Nan Xingwan to make it to No. 1 Middle School during evening self-study, she could only have taken leave.
“Mm.” Nan Xingwan replied.
Zhang Chen said, “Wow, you bring your phone to class.”
Nan Xingwan: “…”
“So even good students like you bring phones to school?”
“It’s different. I only bring my phone to look up information. The teacher knows about it,” Nan Xingwan corrected. She wasn’t like certain people, whose phones would be confiscated by the teacher if they took them to school.
“Damn, so it’s the same privilege I used to have…” Zhang Chen thought to himself.
Before transmigrating here, he used to play on his phone right in front of the teacher and nothing happened…
“Then how long will it take you to get back?” Zhang Chen asked again.
“I take the bus. I’ll be there in a little over ten minutes.” Nan Xingwan answered. She immediately spotted the bus stop not far ahead, and just so happened to see the 209 bus waiting there.
But after glancing at Zhang Chen and seeing that he hadn’t noticed it, she kept quiet about it.
“I see…” Zhang Chen thought for a moment, then asked, “What time is it now?”
Nan Xingwan looked at the white watch on her wrist and replied, “It’s 9:13.”
“It’s already 9:13… I still haven’t done today’s homework,” Zhang Chen muttered, frowning.
Nan Xingwan didn’t respond.
Zhang Chen: “Ahem…”
“…”
“Ahem, ahem, ahem…”
“?”
Nan Xingwan blinked twice and looked at Zhang Chen in confusion.
“I have a favor. I need you to help me with it,” Zhang Chen said in a strained, conflicted tone.
Nan Xingwan immediately realized something. She took two steps back and held her hands in front of her flat little prairie…
If it’s that tiny, you don’t need to cover it!
Nan Xingwan said, “Don’t even think about asking me to do your homework.”
“Not that,” Zhang Chen denied. “Do I seem like that kind of person?”
Nan Xingwan nodded. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly, carrying a distinctly mocking tone. “You do that plenty…”
“Ahem…”
Zhang Chen waved his hand and once again put on a solemn, heavy expression. “I want to ask you to tutor me.”
“Tutor me and help me with my studies. My citywide joint exam next week…”