Right, the handsome face appearing before him was precisely the Zuo Xingyun he detested to the core.
“You.” Hua Sheng darted his eyes left and right, terrified of being seen by others, and said in a suppressed, angry whisper, “Are you out of your damn mind? Let me go.”
Zuo Xingyun’s pupils were dark and moist, looking like two black pearls just fished out of water. He stared at him unblinking, his left hand pressing against Hua Sheng’s waist and thrusting upward heavily.
A tremor surged up Hua Sheng’s tailbone, blocking his curses in his throat as if Zuo Xingyun were using this method to vent his dissatisfaction.
What the hell do you have to be dissatisfied about? I’m the one getting the short end of the stick!
“You haven’t come to school for three days,” Zuo Xingyun said expressionlessly. “You didn’t reply to my messages either.”
At the word “reply,” he thrust upward heavily once more, forcing Hua Sheng onto his tiptoes. Hua Sheng grabbed Zuo Xingyun’s sleeve with his left hand, his legs turning weak.
“What? What does that have to do with you?” Hua Sheng tried his best to maintain a normal tone. “I caught a cold and asked the teacher for sick leave. It’s totally normal that I didn’t come to school. Let me go already.”
“You said last time that I could do whatever I wanted next time we met.” Zuo Xingyun lowered his head, his scorching breath puffing against Hua Sheng’s neck as he kissed his scent gland through the isolation patch. “Are you trying to run away from your promise?”
“When did I say? Mmph, ah! Don’t touch there.” Hua Sheng let out a quiet gasp, quickly changing his tune. “Ah, I remember. I did say that. Let me go, damn it, what if someone sees us?”
“I wait for you every day. When I can’t see you, I can’t sleep at night.”
“If it weren’t for that night, I could have kept hiding my secret crush,” Zuo Xingyun said, his tone heavy with thick disappointment. “But you were so soft, and once I experienced that kind of bliss, I tasted it and could never go back to just looking at you.”
“What kind of bullshit is that!” Hua Sheng almost bit his tongue. “Let go of me first. I won’t call the cops, but you know what my brother is like. When he flies into a rage, even a stray dog passing by will lose two layers of skin.”
“Not letting go,” Zuo Xingyun spat out the two cool words.
Hua Sheng felt like he was about to grind his teeth to dust. Every time Zuo Xingyun showed up, he could precisely strike the nerve of Hua Sheng’s anger.
Damn it, I can’t take this anymore!
He was just about to turn around and hit him with an elbow strike when he suddenly heard Zuo Xingyun speak.
“If seeing us would make it even more exciting, then I’ll call out to him.”
Hua Sheng knitted his brows, panting heavily. “What the hell are you talking about? Who?”
He followed Zuo Xingyun’s line of sight toward the front right and spotted a round back of a head.
Oh no, it’s Fatty.
He immediately shut his mouth.
If the people around them were unfamiliar and completely irrelevant strangers, he could afford to throw a reckless fit. But if even a single student from No. 3 High School caught this and spread exaggerated rumors about it, wouldn’t his lifelong reputation be ruined?
Besides, Fatty had a big mouth and couldn’t keep a secret.
No, no, for Hua Sheng, saving face was more important than money.
“If you dare call out to him, I’ll never speak to you again for the rest of my life,” Hua Sheng threatened in a low voice.
Hua Sheng’s expression looked genuinely angry.
A trace of nuance flashed at the tail of Zuo Xingyun’s brow, a look of joy that vanished in a flash, hidden without a trace. He said with unruffled calm, “Then is what you promised before still counting?”
“I fucking swear, I really yield to you. Fine, fine, fine!” Hua Sheng had no other choice against him, scolding as he spoke. “Then what do you want, Big Brother Zuo Xingyun? Blocking me at the subway station early in the morning. Did you do this on purpose? I took the subway for just one day today and ran into you, I must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck!”
Zuo Xingyun leaned close to his ear and blew a gentle breath. “I’ll let go now, but don’t run away.”
“Run where? It’s packed with people,” Hua Sheng said crossly. “My word is as good as gold, when have I ever gone back on my word?”
Zuo Xingyun nodded and released his hand.
That wasn’t a lie. His path was blocked by several burly middle-aged uncles, forming a natural human wall. He could even hear the uncle right in front of him snoring.
He didn’t dare act rashly; if he disturbed the man’s sweet dream, who knew if the guy would wake up with a bed-head temper and curse him out.
He couldn’t leave, couldn’t budge, and couldn’t even squeeze through. He rubbed his arms and straightened his posture with a sour face.
“If someone sees this, you’re dead! I’ll never talk to you again in this lifetime,” Hua Sheng reiterated his stance.
Zuo Xingyun steadied his shoulders, leaned close to his ear, and murmured like a stalker, “Hua Sheng, I miss you so much.”
“I think of you every single second. The classroom doesn’t have your voice, and I don’t like it.”
“Get lost.” Hua Sheng’s face turned beet red. Zuo Xingyun’s murmurs sounded like secret love whispers, giving him goosebumps all over his body.
If the place weren’t so cramped and crowded, Zuo Xingyun wouldn’t have had the chance to take advantage of him.
“I applied to the teacher for a study-aid group. From now on, you’re my tutoring partner, and I want to study hard with you.” Zuo Xingyun’s hand slid down his shoulder. “Don’t move.”
“Damn it, didn’t you just say you let go? Are you touching your damn…” Hua Sheng’s voice was as soft as a mosquito’s buzz, his earlobes red enough to bleed. “Shameless jerk, you really dare to do this right on the subway. Take your hand out, we’re only a few stops away from getting off.”
“Hua Sheng, you’re so soft, sweeter and more fragrant than jelly.” Zuo Xingyun uttered such wild and brazen words. “After tasting you, I can’t eat anything else, and my mind is filled with nothing but you.”
Hua Sheng rolled his eyes back, almost passing away. He couldn’t figure out where this dead pervert’s lower limit was, so he lowered his voice and angrily cursed, “Shut the fuck up, I surrender, get lost!”
“I was extremely happy that night. Actually, I originally wanted to help you cover your lie, but you actually said I could do whatever I wanted.” Zuo Xingyun said infatuatedly, “That very night, I had a dream. I dreamed you trapped me in the classroom just like that night. The classroom lights were broken, there was no one else around, just you and me. I pulled you into your seat and hugged you as we kissed.”
“So soft, so sweet,” Zuo Xingyun said. “You would occasionally bite my tongue with your canine teeth, giving me a tingling sensation, and your strength to resist was practically negligible.”
Hua Sheng’s face flushed crimson.
“Was your kiss that night sincere? After kissing you for a while, you stopped resisting me. Were you also intoxicated by it?” Zuo Xingyun was unusually chatty; perhaps perversion was his natural state. “You’re really so cute.”
“Shut up, are you ever going to finish?” Hua Sheng couldn’t bear it anymore; the murmurs by his ear were too unbearable to hear.
What the hell was this if not sexual harassment? The word “pervert” couldn’t even begin to describe this crime!
“Hua Sheng, I can…” Zuo Xingyun pushed his luck, his palm exploring downward.
“No, you can’t!” Hua Sheng pinned down his arm, gritting his teeth. “I hate you so much, I totally despise you!”
Zuo Xingyun’s body stiffened.
“Zuo Xingyun, I’m sick to death of you.” Hua Sheng hugged his schoolbag tightly, his eye rims quietly turning red. “Why is it always like this? I already apologized.”
Looking for trouble was his fault, but he hadn’t even succeeded; instead, he was the one who got the short end of the stick.
Even if he had brought this rock down on his own feet that night, what was going on right now?
He had already apologized, and Zuo Xingyun hadn’t suffered any actual harm. Only he had genuinely been molested from head to toe!
So annoying, so hateful.
Amidst his sorrow, he heard a soft sigh from the person behind him. After that, Zuo Xingyun’s tightly pressed body pulled away.
Hua Sheng was stunned and slowly turned his head.
He saw Zuo Xingyun lowering his eyes, staring at him like a large dog that had done something wrong, looking as if he had suffered the greatest grievance in the world.
Seeing this, Hua Sheng hurriedly swung the schoolbag from his front to his back, cutting off any physical contact between them.
For the rest of the journey, the guy truly didn’t touch him again.
After about 15 minutes, his stop arrived, and Hua Sheng squeezed out through the gap in the doors like a flash of lightning.
Zuo Xingyun followed right on his heels, step for step.
Hua Sheng didn’t look back, walking forward angrily, yet he could still sense Zuo Xingyun’s burning gaze locked onto him.
After walking a few paces, he suddenly remembered something. He fished Zuo Xingyun’s phone out of his schoolbag and looked at him with knitted brows.
Standing more than five meters apart, he held up the phone toward Zuo Xingyun. “I’ve been holding onto this for you for so long, aren’t you going to say thank you?”
Zuo Xingyun walked up and stopped in front of him, took the phone, and smiled slightly. “Thank you, little peanut.”
That unserious nickname made him angry just hearing it, but this wasn’t the time to fuss over that. Once the property was returned to its owner, he and this guy surnamed Zuo would draw a clear line, each minding their own business like the waters of a river not crossing a well.
“I am magnanimous, so I’ll let that last incident slide, and I won’t hold your hooligan behavior on the subway against you either. From now on, stay far away from me, and you’d better pretend you don’t know me at school,” Hua Sheng crossed his arms and raised his chin to look at him. “You be your model student, and I’ll be my delinquent youth. Understand?”
Zuo Xingyun stared at him intently for a moment before shaking his head. “No, the study-aid group. We’re in the same group.”
Hua Sheng frowned. “What study-aid group?”
“I applied for it with the teacher a few days ago. You and I are in a group.”
“What?” Hua Sheng was shocked out of his wits. “Do you have too much time on your hands and nothing to do? Why’d you apply for that? You’re in your senior year, you’re not taking the college entrance exam, are you doing charity work instead, are you a living Buddha? Damn it, who gave you permission to apply with our head teacher to put us in a group, and you didn’t even ask my opinion. I don’t agree!”
Zuo Xingyun lowered his eyelashes. “Me helping you study won’t take up much time, I just want to see you more.”
“See a ghost, get lost.” Hua Sheng unleashed a continuous stream of curses the moment he opened his mouth. He scratched his curly hair, pacing back and forth in front of Zuo Xingyun. He raised his index finger to point at Zuo Xingyun, stammering a string of yous before dropping his hand again, then pointed at him once more, gritting his teeth. “Hey, are you doing this to cross me on purpose? Are we even that close? Do I need you to manage me?”
“Because I like you,” Zuo Xingyun said straightforwardly. “This is my own selfish motive.”
“How many times do I have to say it? I don’t care about your liking, what does your liking have to do with me anyway, and I don’t even like guys in the first place!” Hua Sheng was emotionally agitated, firing off a rapid-fire volley of words with spittle practically flying onto Zuo Xingyun’s face. “Are you really trying to provoke me into finding someone to beat you up? Do you believe me if I say I could have you cornered one of these days without even having to show up myself, and still beat you up so badly your own mother wouldn’t recognize you?”
“The tutoring time is very short. I applied to be excused from evening self-study so we can find a quiet place to study alone.”
“What kind of bull? Huh?” Having processed his words, Hua Sheng suddenly snapped to attention, his eyes widening. “You said excused from evening self-study? Who said that?”
“I discussed it with the head teacher.”
Hua Sheng opened his almond eyes wide and looked at him in disbelief. “You can discuss that too? Not attending evening self-study is basically taking our head teacher’s life!”
Zuo Xingyun’s expression revealed incomprehension as he slightly tilted his head. “Why?”
“What do you mean why? The head teacher has always regarded grades as more important than his own life; if we study a single minute less, he acts like he’s suffered a massive loss, let alone three whole sessions of evening self-study. Are you kidding me?” Hua Sheng reconfirmed, “Did he really agree? Doesn’t that mean everyone wouldn’t have to attend evening self-study?”
“No,” Zuo Xingyun explained. “Only I and my group member are excused.”
“How come only you get special treatment?” Hua Sheng narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “You aren’t trying to trick me, are you?”
“Because I’m ranked first in the grade.”
A resounding, definitive sentence.
Indeed, being ranked first in the grade gave him that kind of confidence. No matter how much he innovated or messed around, the head teacher would still bend to his will.
A look of joy gradually bloomed on Hua Sheng’s face. If he didn’t have to attend evening self-study, wouldn’t that be legalized truancy?
Usually, asking for leave was harder than ascending to the heavens, and playing truant meant getting threatened with a summon for parents. How could he not seize an opportunity like this?
How much time could tutoring with Zuo Xingyun possibly take anyway? Once they stepped out of the classroom, who would care whether he was actually being tutored or not? If he wanted to run away and didn’t want to study, could Zuo Xingyun really control him?
Besides, even if he went to the tutoring session, he could just use a bathroom break as an excuse and slip away.
He suppressed the corners of his mouth from curling upward, though his pleasure and excitement leaked out from the corners of his eyes and brows. “Well, then I’ll have to think about it.”
“Ahem, when does it start?”
“Next week.”
Hua Sheng pulled out his phone to check. It was only Wednesday.
“Fine, then I’ll see if I feel like studying next week. In any case, you still need to keep your distance from me this week.” He raised his right fist to press against his lips and gave a light cough. “Alright, we’ll talk about this later. I’m leaving.”
Hua Sheng shouldered his bag and turned to walk away.
Zuo Xingyun lifted his feet and took a few steps to walk right beside him with a natural expression.
“What are you following me for?”
Zuo Xingyun looked at him with a straight face. “Going to school.”
Hua Sheng curled his lip and stepped sideways to put some distance between them. “Don’t walk with me. If someone sees us, they’ll think we’re super close. You go first, or I’ll go first, just don’t enter the classroom at the same time.”
Zuo Xingyun paused for a moment and asked, “Why?”
“Because I don’t want people to think our relationship is good.” Hua Sheng raised a hand to block him from moving forward, looking at him with disdain. “Besides, you’re a total pervert.”