The words were spoken too close, the voice soft and low, stirring memories into a tangled mess.
“—You… could you help me open the sugar jar?”
“—Help me open it…”
…
It was just an ordinary sugar jar, neither too big nor too small, fitting perfectly in a pocket. Yet Lu Xingheng didn’t twist it open as quickly as he had in childhood.
“What’s inside?” He crouched in front of Jiang Wan, his tone not exactly gentle, cold and detached.
“Sugar…” Jiang Wan’s voice was weak, faint, barely audible. “Open it…”
The bottle was transparent, with white, flaky pieces mixed with small, sugar-like granules.
Lu Xingheng: “What kind of sugar?”
“What…” The pain in his stomach gradually intensified, and Jiang Wan, dazed by the pain, spoke haltingly, “What sugar…”
“Help me open it…”
“Brother!” Jiang Wenyan was growing impatient. He ran over and pushed Lu Xingheng aside. “What the hell are you doing? Open it for him!”
Caught off guard, Lu Xingheng stumbled from the push, but his grip on the jar didn’t loosen in the slightest.
Jiang Wenyan: “I’ll open it for you, it won’t hurt anymore, it won’t hurt…”
Jiang Wenyan’s eyes were red with anger. But Lu Xingheng had no intention of handing the jar over. He lowered his gaze, seemingly lost in thought.
“Hmm…” Jiang Wan’s Adam’s apple bobbed rapidly as he struggled to stand up, leaning against the wall for support.
His head throbbed painfully, dizzy and uncomfortable.
“What has my brother ever done to you? Why are you bullying him like this?” Jiang Wenyan grabbed Lu Xingheng by the collar of his school uniform, raising his fist. But just as he was about to swing, someone gently caught his hand—cold and lacking strength.
Jiang Wan’s voice was thick with illness. “Jiang Wenyan, let go.”
Jiang Wenyan didn’t move, afraid of hurting Jiang Wan, and didn’t dare exert more force.
Xu Yichen finally snapped out of it and hurriedly pulled Jiang Wenyan back. “Brother!!”
Lu Xingheng steadied Jiang Wan and asked quietly, “What kind of sugar?”
“Painkillers.” Jiang Wan reached out to grab the jar, but Lu Xingheng shifted it away.
Jiang Wan’s hand closed on empty air.
“You won’t even give it to me, Lu Xingxing? Be reasonable, this is my stuff.”
Lu Xingheng: “What else is inside?”
“Lu Xingheng, give it to me.”
Lu Xingheng remained silent.
Jiang Wan, recovering slightly, pointed toward the classroom, deliberately changing the subject. “The problems Sister Yun assigned aren’t finished yet, and class is about to start.”
Jiang Wenyan struggled fiercely, and Xu Yichen was almost unable to hold him back. He shouted urgently, “Class monitor!”
Jiang Wan, clutching his stomach, didn’t try to snatch it back. “There’s a bit of sugar mixed in.”
Lu Xingheng’s voice was cold and calm. “What kind of painkiller do you treat like candy?”
“Hmm…” The pain in his stomach persisted, and Jiang Wan couldn’t help but turn his head to dry heave.
Lu Xingheng twisted open the jar and poured out a white pill. “Jiang Wan.”
“What…”
Lu Xingheng: “Do you have stomach problems?”
Jiang Wan was severely drained of energy, leaning halfway against the wall. “No…”
“Understood.”
Lu Xingheng stuffed the sugar jar into the pocket of Jiang Wan’s jacket and, half-forcing, handed him a painkiller.
Jiang Wan swallowed with difficulty, his breathing ragged.
Lu Xingheng paused. “You… can you still walk?”
“Of course.” Jiang Wan’s voice was groggy. “It’s just… a stomachache, not some terminal illness…”
Jiang Wenyan was furious. Taking advantage of Xu Yichen and Jiang Wan’s distraction, he directly struck Lu Xingheng.
Xu Yichen couldn’t stop him in time. “Hey—peace and harmony, please!”
“Brother! Mainly, you can’t fight here anyway, or you’ll get two demerits slapped on you!”
Lu Xingheng said nothing, simply and efficiently twisting Jiang Wenyan’s arm behind his back, gripping until Jiang Wenyan’s wrist began to ache.
“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t fight?” Jiang Wan glanced down at Jiang Wenyan’s wrist, seemingly unconcerned with Lu Xingheng’s response. “It’s already red. Does it hurt?”
Lu Xingheng went straight into the classroom.
Jiang Wenyan pulled his hand back, impatiently saying, “It doesn’t hurt.”
Turning to Jiang Wan, his tone softened considerably. “Brother, is your stomach hurting again?”
After taking painkillers, Jiang Wan felt slightly better, perhaps due to the placebo effect. “It’s probably because of the changing seasons these past couple days. It’ll pass after a while.”
“Damn.” Xu Yichen’s brain finally booted up. “Just after finishing lunch, I saw Brother grabbing Lu Xingheng by the collar, about to throw hands. Scary as hell!”
Jiang Wenyan: “…”
Jiang Wan seemed to think of something, frowning slightly. “Jiang Wenyan, try not to walk alone these next couple days.”
Jiang Wenyan rubbed his wrist. “Alright, alright, just go finish your problems.”
Feeling dizzy, Jiang Wan walked slowly. By the time he took the chalk to the front blackboard, Lu Xingheng had already written most of the problem.
“That part seems a bit off.” Jiang Wan picked up the chalk and directly verified it on the side. “sin30… Wouldn’t using trigonometric functions make it too convoluted?”
Lu Xingheng: “Double ln3.”
Jiang Wan looked at the blackboard. “Can you proceed with that?”
Lu Xingheng: “Almost done.”
Jiang Wan: “Oh.”
Lu Xingheng: “Forget it, do as you like.”
“Isn’t this part wrong?” Jiang Wan directly circled it on the blackboard with the chalk, his pale fingertip pointing at the composite function section.
Lu Xingheng: “Theoretically, there’s no need to discuss the monotonicity of f(x).”
“Mm, right.” Jiang Wan smiled faintly. “Lu Xingxing, then can you make a simple judgment?”
“…”
Lu Xingheng felt he must be somewhat abnormal to be discussing the final problem with someone who scored seven points in math.
The classroom gradually filled up. Several girls in the front row stared wide-eyed, and the looks-obsessed crowd began gathering.
“Which school’s heartthrob had a lapse in judgment, transferring to our class?”
A few bookworms weren’t well-informed. “The exam results aren’t out yet, right? How can we be sure he’s in our class?”
“Sister Yun said he scored 140 in math, and his main subject grades are reportedly similar to Jiang Wan’s. It’s definitely settled; his seat’s already arranged.”
One girl couldn’t hold back. “Damn, let me swear a little—the class monitor’s hand, his hand—is it, is it, is it?!”
“Sis, I saw it! Yes! They touched!”
“Shipping everything just makes me nutritionally balanced! But I still prefer the class monitor!”
“You’re such a toxic stan!”
…
“Well, that should be about right.” Jiang Wan wiped the chalk marks from the blackboard clean, then turned to write the problem on the other board.
Jiang Wan worked much faster on his own, and since he had already solved it once on the test paper, he hardly needed to draft.
Lu Xingheng didn’t leave, glancing coolly at Jiang Wan’s hand pressed against his stomach. “Still hurting?”
“The medicine hasn’t kicked in yet.” Jiang Wan casually picked up a piece of chalk.
Lu Xingheng: “Didn’t you say you don’t have stomach problems?”
“Tsk.” Jiang Wan stopped writing, looking up to stare at Lu Xingheng. “I just finished calming down the younger one at the door.”
Lu Xingheng: “What?”
“Do I have to calm you down too, the older one?”
Jiang Wan’s pale complexion was tinged with a smile, gradually overshadowing the sickly pallor and becoming lively.
Lu Xingheng suddenly said, “We’ve met before, more than once.”
Jiang Wan smiled without paying it much mind. “The Mengpo soup on Naihe Bridge must have been watered down.”