“For Meng Yuxiu?”
Han Shuo immediately felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over him. Sure, he wasn’t interested in guys, but he realized that not only were there no girls paying attention to him in this world, now even a guy wasn’t interested in him. This imbalance in his self-assessed charm value made him feel uneasy.
He subconsciously thought of Meng Yuxiu’s face. Could it be that people here all liked that kind of delicate and tender look? But that couldn’t be right; his current seventeen-year-old body was also quite delicate and tender.
He wondered if everyone preferred the cold, aloof type like Meng Yuxiu. Wasn’t his cool guy face appealing?
Seeing Han Shuo not taking the letter and lost in thought, Jiang Xiaowen nervously said, “It’s like this, last time I accidentally spilled water on Meng Yuxiu’s shoes in the canteen, and I haven’t had the chance to apologize to him…”
Han Shuo raised an eyebrow, thinking it was a love letter all along, almost hurting his self-esteem.
He snatched the letter from Jiang Xiaowen’s hand, “Whoa, an apology letter? You should have said so earlier, why did you fold it so fancily?”
Jiang Xiaowen blushed and mumbled softly, “It seems more sincere this way.”
“Is it necessary for such a trivial matter?” Han Shuo said, then thought, oh right, Meng Yuxiu is indeed hard to deal with. He just made a couple of jokes, and this person ignored him for days.
“Alright, alright, I’ll deliver it to him now.” Anyway, Han Shuo was planning to find Meng Yuxiu later, so it was just a small favor.
Jiang Xiaowen thanked him repeatedly, but as Han Shuo reached the corner of the stairs, he called out again, “Hey, four-eyes, since I’m delivering the letter for you, let me copy your math homework later.”
Jiang Xiaowen nodded repeatedly.
This small favor was quite beneficial; Han Shuo hated doing math homework, and his friends were all about the same level as him. Now, by helping Jiang Xiaowen, he would have ready-made answers in the future.
Han Shuo happily ran downstairs. He originally planned to deliver the letter first and then go to the playground to buy some oranges. But as he reached the stairway on the first floor, he saw a girl returning with oranges, chatting with someone, saying the orange vendor was about to leave.
Han Shuo hurriedly asked the girl, “Are the oranges sold out?”
“I don’t know,” the girl said. “When I went to buy them, there were still a few left. If you want to buy some, you should hurry. The vendor might leave soon, and the bell is about to ring.”
Hearing this, Han Shuo glanced at the classroom door of Class One and asked the girl, “Which class are you in?”
“Class One.”
Perfect.
Han Shuo handed Jiang Xiaowen’s letter to the girl and said, “Help me give this to Meng Yuxiu,” then rushed to the playground.
Meng Yuxiu, except for going to the bathroom, usually spent the ten-minute break at his seat. Previously, he had to rush to complete tasks with Han Shuo, but these days he was quite free.
He was flipping through study materials when he heard someone call him. He looked up to see a girl from his class, whose name he couldn’t recall, walking over to hand him a letter.
In the 21st century and in this era, Meng Yuxiu had received many love letters. He didn’t have the habit of throwing things away, so he expressionlessly took the letter and casually tossed it into his desk, then continued reading his materials.
However, the girl’s words almost made him think he heard wrong. He looked up again and asked, “Who did you say?”
“Han Shuo asked me to give it to you.”
“Han Shuo?” Meng Yuxiu frowned and asked.
“Yes,” the girl said. “He handed it to me and then rushed off.”
Perhaps other people’s love letters left Meng Yuxiu indifferent, but hearing it was from Han Shuo made him almost twitch his lips.
Meng Yuxiu’s instinctive thought was that Han Shuo, instead of coming to the back door of his classroom to chatter, was up to some new trick.
After the girl left, he retrieved the heart-shaped letter from his desk, hesitated for a few seconds, and then opened it.
However, the more he read, the more indescribable his expression became.
The content of the letter was as follows:
Hello, Meng Yuxiu.
Because of the incident in the canteen, I want to apologize to you. You might not care, but after thinking it over, I felt I should say something.
I should have told you in person, but I was too embarrassed. You might not know, but since last semester, I’ve been quietly paying attention to you.
It’s so embarrassing; this is my first time writing a letter to someone.
“…” Meng Yuxiu’s eye twitched twice as he read this. Suddenly, an image of Han Shuo biting a pen with a shy expression popped into his mind, and he almost continued reading with discomfort.
I don’t know what else to say. I want to say, Meng Yuxiu, you are excellent, and you shine brightly in my eyes.
Every time I pass by you, my heart races, but I don’t dare to tell you. I can only pretend to pass by your class and secretly watch you.
I hope I haven’t disturbed you, and once again, I apologize.
A person from Class 7 who greatly admires you.
“Crazy,” Meng Yuxiu silently evaluated after reading the letter and then tossed it back into his desk.
He thought if Han Shuo’s family conditions were better, he should really get his brain checked. If he truly wanted to apologize, Han Shuo should choose the most important matter to apologize for, not the trivial canteen incident, which happened so long ago.
As class was about to start, students gradually returned to the classroom. Meng Yuxiu had just closed his book when he noticed a familiar figure at the back door of the classroom.
Seeing Han Shuo poking half his body out and chattering away.
Meng Yuxiu couldn’t help but think of the line from the letter.
“I can only pretend to pass by your class and secretly watch you. I hope I haven’t disturbed you.”
Meng Yuxiu was speechless. Han Shuo’s letter sounded nice, but his actual behavior was still harassing.
And after finally being quiet for two days, he was back to his endless harassment.
Meng Yuxiu ignored him, but Han Shuo kept chattering or softly calling his name.
The girls in the classroom turned their heads, whispering and giggling, while the boys were making a fuss.
“Meng Yuxiu, someone’s here for you! Why aren’t you going?”
“Han Shuo is so enthusiastic about you, why are you still sitting there?”
Meng Yuxiu felt embarrassed, even though Han Shuo was like a monkey calling at the back door of the classroom, he felt as if his own face was being rubbed on the ground.
He couldn’t sit still and had to stand up.
The two of them walked to a spot behind the wall, blocking the view of others in the classroom.
Meng Yuxiu said coldly, “What do you want?”
“You really are a big Buddha, calling you for ages before you come out.”
“Do you have something to say?”
The bell rang, and Han Shuo originally wanted to give him the oranges and smooth things over with Meng Yuxiu, but there was no time. He quickly pulled out two bright oranges from his pocket and tried to shove them into Meng Yuxiu’s arms.
Meng Yuxiu turned slightly, avoiding Han Shuo’s hand, and refused without thinking, “I don’t want them.”
“Take them,” Han Shuo continued to shove them into his arms. “I specifically ran to buy these for you.”
“I said I don’t want them…”
“Just take them, class is about to start, and the teacher will see us.”
The two of them were pushing and shoving by the wall near the back door of the classroom, just as the teacher for the next class came out of the office at the end of the corridor. Han Shuo took the opportunity to toss the oranges into Meng Yuxiu’s arms, not caring if they rolled to the ground.
He quickly said, “Oh, I wanted to tell you something, but there’s no time now. I’ll come find you after class at noon! I have to go!”
Then he hurriedly ran upstairs.
Meng Yuxiu had no choice but to pick up the two oranges from the ground before the teacher arrived and return to the classroom.
In this small county town, not many families were well-off, and students living on campus usually didn’t have snacks.
Meng Yuxiu’s male deskmate saw the oranges in his hand and his eyes lit up. He leaned over and whispered to Meng Yuxiu, “Hey, Meng Yuxiu, that Han Shuo from Class 7 usually looks fierce, but he’s really nice to you. Is his family rich? He even bought you oranges. If a guy or girl bought me oranges one day, I’d be over the moon.”
Hearing this, Meng Yuxiu was suddenly taken aback.
He had been to Han Shuo’s house, and the conditions were indescribable. Han Shuo had also told him before that he only had one yuan for round-trip bus fare each week.
These oranges…
Meng Yuxiu suddenly thought of the content of the letter. Earlier, he was speechless about Han Shuo’s new trick, but now he frowned deeply.
“Hey,” his deskmate patted Meng Yuxiu’s arm, smiling flatteringly, “Meng Yuxiu, these oranges look pretty sweet.”
Meng Yuxiu was still pondering, and he turned his face to stare at his deskmate’s expectant face for a moment, then decisively stuffed the two oranges into his own coat pocket.
Then he said lightly, “Class is about to start.”
His deskmate pouted and turned his head back, feeling disappointed.
When Han Shuo returned to the classroom, the teacher was already there, so he got scolded again and had to stand in the corridor for ten minutes before being allowed back in.
But missing ten minutes of class was more enjoyable for Han Shuo. After returning to his seat, Pidan, sitting next to him, noticed that he had gone out for ten minutes during the break and returned looking much happier, and couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you suddenly so happy?”
“What do you mean?”
Pidan said, “When you came back to school on Sunday, you had a gloomy face, then you were happy during evening self-study. But when you returned to the dorm, you were gloomy again, and you’ve been gloomy for several days. You just went out and came back happy.”
Han Shuo raised an eyebrow, surprised, “I didn’t expect you to have such amazing observational skills.”
Doufu, sitting in front, turned his head and whispered, “Does it even need observational skills? With your face, unless someone is blind, they can see it.”
Pidan asked, “What did you do to come back so happy?”
Han Shuo couldn’t tell them he went to curry favor with Meng Yuxiu. Although he would eventually go back, he still had to maintain his face before returning. After all, he was somewhat of a big shot at Yunxi High School.
Another deskmate, Pan Xiaodong, leaned over with an experienced look and told Pidan, “Isn’t it obvious? Look at Han Shuo, he must be in love.”
Han Shuo raised an eyebrow, pondering Pan Xiaodong’s words. From his current interactions with Meng Yuxiu, it did have a bit of a dating vibe. Wasn’t it? He was giving gifts and coaxing, while Meng Yuxiu got angry like a little girl.
Perhaps thinking of describing Meng Yuxiu as a little girl made Han Shuo laugh.
Seeing him smile with a lovestruck look, the three close friends got even more excited, pressing him to admit if it was Meng Yuxiu.
“Go, go, go,” Han Shuo waved them off, “Don’t mess around with this nonsense, I don’t have your kind of hobbies.”
Originally, Han Shuo planned to find Meng Yuxiu after class at noon, but as soon as the bell rang, he was called to the office.
It was nothing more than him being late and chatting during the last class, plus scoring in the thirties on last week’s exam.
The homeroom teacher gave him a lecture in the office, and Han Shuo cooperated by nodding and agreeing to everything the teacher said.
Just then, Han Shuo noticed Meng Yuxiu entering the office with a stack of homework.
Han Shuo winked at him, but Meng Yuxiu chose to ignore it, walking straight to the math teacher’s desk, handing in the homework, and then leaving the office.
“Han Shuo, the teacher is asking you a question.”
Han Shuo was eager to leave, knowing the homeroom teacher’s lecture would go on and on, so he quickly clutched his stomach.
“Oh no, oh no, I can’t take it, Teacher Yu, my stomach hurts.”
“Stop pretending.”
Han Shuo hunched over, almost stomping his feet, “I really have a stomachache. If I don’t go to the bathroom, I’m going to soil my pants.”
The homeroom teacher had no choice but to wave him off, letting him go.
Han Shuo thought Meng Yuxiu would walk fast, and he would have to chase after him. But to his surprise, Meng Yuxiu was waiting for him outside.
This surprised Han Shuo.
“Waiting for me?”
Meng Yuxiu nodded, then took out the two oranges from his pocket and handed them back to Han Shuo.
“?” Han Shuo was puzzled, “Why?”
“Returning them to you.”
Han Shuo was frustrated, “I bought them for you to eat, there’s no reason to return them to me.”
Meng Yuxiu said, “If I want to eat, I’ll buy them myself.”
Han Shuo laughed, “You don’t even have a yuan, how will you buy them?”
“…”
Han Shuo pushed his hand and the oranges back, “Don’t be mad, just consider it my apology, okay? I really didn’t mean to make fun of you that day, actually…”
Han Shuo looked around, then leaned in and whispered, “Actually, I got hard too when we kissed that night…”
Meng Yuxiu gave him a cold look, as if saying, “Keep making things up.”
Han Shuo had already thought of a reason over the past few days. Meng Yuxiu was angry because he thought two guys kissing and getting aroused was embarrassing.
No problem, Han Shuo would come up with a more embarrassing reason.
Han Shuo said, “I wasn’t lying that night, it’s just… I get hard quickly, but I go soft even quicker… when you touched, it was already…”
He shrugged helplessly, “You know.”
Meng Yuxiu seemed momentarily shocked, and seeing Han Shuo’s troubled expression, he didn’t know how to comfort him.
Han Shuo saw his reaction and was amused inside, but on the surface, he pretended to comfort himself, patting Meng Yuxiu’s shoulder, “Don’t look at me like that, it’s no big deal.”
Meng Yuxiu hesitated, then finally said, “What will you do in the future?”
Han Shuo chuckled, “Don’t worry about it, it’s not your problem anyway.”