Wen Ying knew exactly who the “he” Qu Huo was referring to.
But he was too tired right now to dissect Qu Huo’s words or analyze his attitude toward Huo Jueyue.
He knew Qu Huo was right.
He just wanted to rest now, and this wasn’t a good place to rest.
“Sorry for the trouble.”
Meeting Qu Huo’s gaze, he stiffly straightened up and numbly followed Qu Huo out.
Qu Huo moved like a black hound, deftly avoiding the potholes on the ground as he led Wen Ying through the sticky moisture and earthy smell.
The weather had cleared up slightly.
“Sorry.”
Stepping out of the dim alley, Wen Ying finally regained some light in his eyes as he came back to his senses.
His behavior earlier had been somewhat rude, so Wen Ying apologized sincerely to Qu Huo: “The message really was sent by accident. I made you come all the way for nothing.”
“As long as you’re fine.”
Qu Huo’s demeanor remained steady, just as it had been when they first met.
Wen Ying pursed his lips and returned a smile.
Then he opened his phone to check the time.
Seeing that long string of nonsensical characters in GooseGoose again, his face flushed with heat once more, and his steps grew slower and slower.
People had a streak of contrariness the more they wanted to erase a memory, the more they wanted to revisit it.
He really cared about that embarrassing accidental tap.
When he opened his phone a third time and closed it again, Wen Ying thought miserably.
If only that string of characters could disappear just like the mud on his shoes.
Qu Huo’s pace slowed to match his.
He folded away the umbrella that was no longer needed, took out his slightly outdated phone, and opened their chat history in GooseGoose.
Then, right in front of Wen Ying, he hid all those sprawling, unretractable embarrassing characters.
Not deleted hidden.
“It’s okay.”
He looked at Wen Ying seriously, his voice very soft.
Wen Ying froze.
He was sensitive to gazes and was certain that Qu Huo had never once looked at his phone screen.
How did Qu Huo know what he was thinking?
That was just an unreasonable thought of his.
No one should have noticed.
But being noticed wasn’t as awkward as he’d imagined.
After the initial bewilderment, the faint smile on the pink-haired youth’s face deepened.
Wen Ying took out his phone and hid that string of “w”s as well.
Even though he knew the hidden messages still existed, the weight pressing on his chest eased considerably.
“My shoes are dirty, so I won’t come into your café.”
Because he’d wandered into that dark alley, the soles of his shoes were caked with mud.
“Take care.”
Qu Huo didn’t insist, simply standing beneath the street sign.
The rain seemed to have stopped.
“Mm.”
Wen Ying peeled off his raincoat, folded the dry side outward, and held it against his chest with one arm.
“Thank you, Qu Huo.”
He hesitated, then softened his tone and asked with awkward concern: “Did you resolve things at home?”
“Resolved. See you Monday.”
“Okay.” Wen Ying smiled at him, his almond-shaped eyes curving slightly. “See you Monday.”
The youth slipped nimbly into the crowd, leaving Qu Huo standing beneath the street sign for a long while.
Only after Wen Ying had completely vanished did he turn and walk in another direction.
Qu Huo hadn’t really been looking forward to school.
But now, he was starting to.
Monday noon.
“Lunchtime!”
Students once again scrambled out to grab food, leaving only Qu Huo and Wen Ying in the classroom.
“Here.”
A brand-new lunchbox was placed on Wen Ying’s desk.
It was one Wen Ying had transferred money to Qu Huo to buy.
Wen Ying seemed hard to get along with, but he never acted superior or took advantage of anyone.
He’d thought Qu Huo would buy something serious and plain, but to Wen Ying’s surprise, though the lunchbox was mass-produced, it was cute enough.
The lid was printed with a cartoon mushroom plump and round.
Opening the lunchbox, inside was tomato scrambled eggs and pan-fried beef that still tasted good even after cooling, along with steamed rice drizzled with sesame.
Wait didn’t Qu Huo’s previous lunchbox have no sesame on the rice?
The stray thought passed in an instant.
“Thanks. I’ll probably need to wash it before returning it to you.”
He could actually heat the lunchbox at Cherry Lane, but Wen Ying didn’t feel like moving.
Anyway, even cold food was much better than a sandwich.
His attention was on the food and on Qu Huo, so he didn’t notice the sneaky tuft of messy black hair peeking from the back door.
Huo Jueyue pressed against the wall like a slug.
His eyes were bloodshot. If not for Richard and Si Haoxing gripping him tightly from behind, he would have already charged straight into the classroom.
Behind the three of them stood Gu Xiche, holding a book with a helpless expression.
Calm down, calm down
Si Haoxing had no time to worry about his mullet fringe, frantically mouthing words at Huo Jueyue while secretly sneaking glances toward Wen Ying.
Richard, who still hadn’t figured out the situation, was focused purely on holding him back, only half-heartedly mouthing along.
Gu Xiche said nothing.
He stared down at the floor as if there were thirty million dollars on it.
Wen Ying didn’t see them, but from Qu Huo’s angle, he could.
“It’s fine.”
Qu Huo’s gaze didn’t waver in the slightest, continuing to speak with Wen Ying in a tone that sounded cold but was already gentle by his standards.
“No rush.”
No rush?
He was dying of urgency!!
Seeing that Wen Ying had once again given Qu Huo a friendly look, Huo Jueyue nearly fainted from rage.
Si Haoxing and Richard seized the opportunity and dragged him away from the scene.
“He’s the one I’ve set my eyes on!” Huo Jueyue fumed in protest. “Why does he have to talk to some other pretty boy?”
“Pretty boy?” Richard blinked. “But he’s not even as fair as I am.”
“Ugh.”
Si Haoxing pressed on Huo Jueyue’s philtrum to revive him.
Suppressing a laugh, he feigned melancholy and sighed: “A young man’s heart is always like the drizzling autumn rain hard to fathom.”
“From the looks of it, Wen Ying was just having a normal conversation with him.”
Gu Xiche couldn’t bear it any longer and spoke up for Wen Ying in a calm, measured tone.
“No, I saw it!” Huo Jueyue widened his eyes and gestured. “The distance between them just now was only this close.”
“Wen Ying is as innocent as a little white rabbit. I bet that little brat Qu Huo has his eyes on him.”
He rambled on endlessly, but the other three young masters looked at him with increasingly strange expressions.
If it weren’t for the fact that their four families’ parents were having dinner together tonight, they really wouldn’t want to admit they knew Huo Jueyue.
“What’s wrong with him?” Richard asked, puzzled.
Si Haoxing wore a look of profound mystery and pulled a Brazilian turtle shell out of his bag.
Ignoring Huo Jueyue, who kept pouring his grievances out to Gu Xiche, he muttered a string of incantations.
“He’s possessed.”
Young Master Si suddenly snapped his eyes open, his violet pupils gleaming with an ominous light, and delivered the verdict with grief.
“Oh.” Richard nodded with an air of wisdom. “I get it now he’s been hit by Wen Ying’s Eastern black magic!”
“You guys keep chatting. I need to use the restroom.”
Gu Xiche, who had been listening in a daze, blinked and finally couldn’t take it anymore, making an excuse to slip away.
He needed to warn Wen Ying as soon as possible he might be in trouble.
When Wen Ying received the text from Gu Xiche, he didn’t take it to heart.
Because Huo Jueyue caused him trouble every single day, he had long since gotten used to it.
But when he was cornered by Huo Jueyue at the stairwell landing, he genuinely admired Gu Xiche’s foresight.
What he’d dealt with before were small troubles; today’s was likely a big one.
“You poor, naive little thing.”
Huo Jueyue opened with a bombshell, and Wen Ying’s fists immediately began to itch.
The young master Huo’s eyebrows danced wildly as he let out a heavy sigh and looked at him with pity: “If you’d just said earlier that you needed someone to bring you meals, I’d have had my Michelin chef deliver food to you.”
“Whether you want Japanese, Korean, or French cuisine, our family uses the freshest air-freighted ingredients.”
So it was just bringing meals.
That poor kid could do it, and he, Young Master Huo, could do it just as well!
As he spoke, he moved closer and closer to Wen Ying, almost cornering him against the wall.
But Wen Ying, who was fiercely proud, had worn elevator shoes today. Standing up straight, he was actually a bit taller than Huo Jueyue, making the attempted wall-pin look rather awkward.
“No need. Thanks, Young Master Huo.”
Wen Ying was so stunned by that “poor little thing” that he couldn’t snap back to his usual cold tone.
He made to leave, but Huo Jueyue blocked him from the other side.
Wen Ying was completely speechless.
With arms that long, was Huo Jueyue a monkey?
“I don’t want Michelin food.” His tone turned icy. “Stay away from me.”
“Don’t go.”
Huo Jueyue didn’t dare actually touch him, so he could only keep sidestepping.
“Forget lunch I have one more thing to ask you.”
Wen Ying reluctantly stopped, lowered his head, and pulled out his phone to scroll through it.
The cold glow of the screen made his face look even darker. Huo Jueyue swallowed hard and stammered for ages without getting a word out.
His patience exhausted, Wen Ying took a deep breath, which scared the already tense Huo Jueyue into rolling his eyes wildly before he blurted out like beans spilling from a tube: “It’s nothing big, I just wanted to ask.”
He inexplicably lowered his head with a bashful air, his words growing more and more mumbled: “Are you really a guy?”
Wen Ying’s movements froze for a moment, and he looked up with a face full of question marks.
“Where do I not look like a man?”
Because he was so shocked, he even forgot to be angry.
“I know it was my old man who arranged for you to keep an eye on me at school.”
Huo Jueyue still didn’t dare look at him and murmured quietly: “So when I went back that day, I asked Butler Wang.”
“When he brought up your gender, his attitude was really strange.”
Wen Ying was speechless.
He knew it Butler Wang was a robot.
Knowing his own true gender, Wen Ying was fully confident.
He laughed in exasperation: “So what?”
“So… ”
Huo Jueyue inadvertently caught a glimpse of his flat chest and jerked his gaze away as if electrocuted.
He tugged at his tie in agitation, a suspicious blush creeping up his face.
“You’re not actually a girl, are you?”
By the end, Huo Jueyue’s voice had turned into a squeaky little thing himself.
Wen Ying glanced down at his own chest and also blushed.
But his was from anger.
“Had enough looking?”
When he noticed Huo Jueyue still sneaking glances at him, Wen Ying’s head started buzzing.
“Sorry, I’m wrong!”
Huo Jueyue shrank his neck.
“Looking at it that way, you’re really not a girl.” His mind wandered as he muttered to himself, “But there are girls who are flat-chested too.”
“Huo Jueyue!”
Wen Ying couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed his flailing arm.
Listening to this kind of talk was truly polluting his ears.
He only used half his strength, yet it hurt so much that Huo Jueyue howled, his eyes bulging out.
Wen Ying clenched her molars tightly, like a cat with its fur standing on end.
“I think two men discussing this topic is ex-treme-ly rude!!”
Just like a pervert.