Jiang Chengyi steadily parked the car at the school gate, then hurriedly turned around and asked, “Xiaoyu, what nightmare did you just have? Don’t be afraid, tell Dad about it.”
Jiang Baiyu shook his head and looked at the campus from his memory. “It was just a nightmare. It won’t come true.”
Jiang Chengyi rubbed his son’s head and comforted him, saying, “Is it that after you entered senior year, the pressure of studying got bigger? Don’t worry about not getting into college. Worst comes to worst, we can go study abroad, broaden our horizons, then come back and take over Dad’s company.”
His parents protected him very well. Jiang Chengyi even worried that the driver would not drive well, and went to the trouble of sending him to school himself.
He had lived carefree for more than twenty years, never knew the hardships of the world, and had only put all his heart into Lu Qingci.
In the end, the Jiang family fell into decline, and his parents fell seriously ill. Yet he did not even have the ability to take care of his family.
“Dad, I know.”
The boy showed his father an easy smile, “You hurry to the company, I’m fine now.”
Just after Jiang Chengyi drove away, a boy not far away ran over and said, “Xiaoyu, did you forget to bring your school tie again? You’ll have to be punished by running fifteen hundred meters.”
It was his high school friend Zhou Nan.
Jiang Baiyu lowered his head and looked at the empty front of his white shirt, then gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Mm, from now on, I’ll never forget again.”
He remembered this matter.
Lu Qingci had entered this expensive high school as a special-admission student. His excellent grades and steady personality allowed him to sit firmly in the positions of class monitor and student council president. So every day, Lu Qingci was responsible for checking the students’ attire at the school gate.
In order to be able to talk to Lu Qingci every day, he deliberately came to school without his tie, and even if he was punished to run fifteen hundred meters every day, he would still gladly accept it.
He was simply asking for it.
Zhou Nan pulled off his own school tie and handed it to him. “Wear mine and get through it, anyway I’m an athlete, and I originally have to go to the playground to run laps at noon.”
Jiang Baiyu hesitated. “Th, that’s not good, is it?”
Zhou Nan directly stuffed it into the boy’s hand. “Hey, take it, put it on quickly, don’t get discovered by the student council.”
Before he could finish speaking, a familiar voice sounded, “Jiang Baiyu, stop.”
The voice was deep and sharp, and faintly carried a bit of urgency.
Jiang Baiyu’s heart thumped.
He secretly turned back, and instantly collided with Lu Qingci’s gaze, those clear eyes pitch-black and profound.
By senior year, Lu Qingci’s height had already exceeded one meter eighty-five. The tall and handsome boy also carried a cool and distant aura, giving people a noble feeling of wanting to get close yet not daring to act presumptuously.
The first time Jiang Baiyu saw such a Lu Qingci, he fell in love with him uncontrollably. In his eyes, Lu Qingci was like a deity descended to the mortal world to undergo tribulation, a favored son of heaven, clean and cold, beyond reach.
“Even this got discovered by Lu Qingci.”
Zhou Nan clicked his tongue, then shouted helplessly, “Class monitor, I forgot to bring my school tie. Mark it down.”
Lu Qingci seemed not to hear Zhou Nan speaking. He walked straight to Jiang Baiyu, his dark gaze falling on the boy’s lowered head, his somewhat flustered thin shoulders, and the hand holding the tie.
“You…..”
He opened his mouth as if to say something, his voice somewhat hoarse.
Just then, the disciplinary director also saw what was going on over here and teasingly said, “Zhou Nan, Jiang Baiyu, don’t try this on me. Say it, which of you two forgot to wear it?”
Jiang Baiyu and Zhou Nan said in unison, “I did.”
“Heh, you two have quite the good relationship. Lu Qingci, write down both their names, and at noon pack them together to run as punishment.”
Lu Qingci’s fingertips, holding the pen, tightened slightly. In the end, under the disciplinary director’s supervision, he wrote down Jiang Baiyu’s name. Each stroke was written very slowly, with great care.
“Run then.”
Zhou Nan snorted at the disciplinary director, reached out and looped an arm around Jiang Baiyu’s shoulder, leading him toward the campus inside, and said, “I’ll run with you. Fifteen hundred is nothing. We’ll be done in a bit.”
Jiang Baiyu did not remember this friend of his very clearly, because after high school the two of them went to different schools. During that period Zhou Nan contacted him a few times, and by then the Jiang family had already declined, so he took the initiative to cut off contact with Zhou Nan.
He only remembered that he took very good care of him, like an older brother.
Jiang Baiyu raised his hand and punched Zhou Nan’s sturdy chest lightly. “Thanks for earlier.”
“You really want to thank me?”
Zhou Nan exerted a little force with his arm and pinched the boy’s slender shoulder. “Then treat me to ice cream after we finish running.”
Jiang Baiyu was tickled by him and laughed while dodging. “Okay.”
Behind them, Lu Qingci looked at their figures for a long time, until the two of them turned the corner and disappeared from his dark line of sight.
In the office.
Lu Qingci handed the list of rule violations to homeroom teacher Old Xu.
Old Xu tapped the paper with his hand and clicked his tongue. “Again with Jiang Baiyu, just how many times does that Jiang family young master have to be punished by running before he’ll remember.”
Lu Qingci’s brows furrowed slightly as he suddenly said, “Teacher, Jiang Baiyu doesn’t seem to be in very good condition today. How about we just forget the punishment run for today?”
Old Xu looked at him in surprise. “You would actually help a classmate plead for leniency?”
Lu Qingci pressed his thin lips together.
Old Xu snorted. “These young masters who have food and clothing without worry, who’ve been spoiled and pampered, need to be treated strictly. What should be done, will be done. The punishment run can’t be excused!”
Lu Qingci lowered his eyes, and the palm hanging at both sides slowly clenched.
Old Xu looked at the calm and indifferent boy and asked, “I heard that you’re working two part-time jobs now. Although you’ve already been recommended into A University and no longer have to do evening self-study with the other students, working until midnight every night still isn’t something your body can handle.”
Lu Qingci said, “I know.”
Old Xu sighed helplessly and said, “Fine, if you run into any difficulties, remember to come discuss them with me. Let’s talk about the seat change this time. Which classmate do you want to sit with?”
Lu Qingci thought about it and asked, “Someone should already have applied to sit with you, right?”
Old Xu smiled. “There is someone. He said he wants you to tutor her in studying.”
Lu Qingci’s dark eyes flashed with a trace of warmth. “All right, then him.”
He knew it was Jiang Baiyu.
In the classroom.
Zhou Nan leaned back against the desk behind him and asked, “Xiaoyu, can we still sit together?”
Whether he could sit with Zhou Nan again, he didn’t know, but he absolutely would not be sitting with Lu Qingci again.
That was what Jiang Baiyu was thinking when he said, “It’s the same either way. We’re still in the same class.”
“It’s not the same.”
Zhou Nan couldn’t bear to part with Jiang Baiyu, his handsome and cute desk mate, and asked back, “Can your new desk mate let you copy homework like I can?”
Jiang Baiyu said, “I, I didn’t copy your homework every day either.”
Zhou Nan said, “You didn’t copy every day, but you still made me write it for you. Did you do yesterday’s math homework?”
Jiang Baiyu: ……
Ever since he had fallen in love at first sight with Lu Qingci, his world had only contained secret longing and pursuing Lu Qingci. He had never studied properly, and in the end he hadn’t even gotten into a proper university.
He had only been sent to one by his father’s connections and money.
This time, at the very least, he had to rely on his own ability to get into a decent university, then after graduation find a job he liked and that could earn money. Even if the Jiang family fell into decline a few years later, he would have the ability to shoulder the responsibility of supporting the family.
The boy lowered his head and rummaged through his papers. In a low voice he said, “From now on, I’ll do it myself.”
Zhou Nan pinched his reddened cheek. “Really?”
“Really.”
Jiang Baiyu spread out the science exam paper and buried his head in it.
Before long, the boy had started gnawing on the end of his pen with a miserable expression. So hard!
Zhou Nan laughed at him from the side, pulled out his own paper, and handed it to him. “Don’t make things hard for yourself. Copy it.”
After the warning bell rang.
Old Xu displayed the arrangement of the class’s new seats on the electronic screen at the front of the classroom and called out, “Everyone look carefully, this is the new seating chart. You’ve got ten minutes to change seats according to this chart.”
“Move fast, don’t delay class!”
The classroom instantly burst into chatter. The faster students had already started packing up their desks and looking for their new seats.
After carefully checking the new seating chart, Zhou Nan said with distaste, “I’ve actually been assigned behind Lu Qingci? So I have to stare at that cold face every day. What about you, where are you?”
After finding his name, Jiang Baiyu let out a sigh of relief. Very good, far away from Lu Qingci.
He remembered this seat change.
In order to sit with Lu Qingci, he had run to the homeroom teacher a few days earlier and spoken earnestly about how he wanted to study alongside the excellent class monitor, hoping the teacher could give him a chance and let him sit with Lu Qingci.
Old Xu had indeed given him the chance to sit with Lu Qingci.
But that wasn’t a good thing. Thinking back now, it was all a memory of self-inflicted suffering. So as soon as he arrived at school, he ran to Old Xu and canceled his request to sit with Lu Qingci.
On the other side.
Lu Qingci also found Jiang Baiyu’s name on the new seating chart, and his dark pupils contracted sharply.
What was going on?
Why wasn’t Jiang Baiyu sitting with him?
A girl carrying a large stack of books walked to the empty seat beside him and said hopefully yet cautiously, “Class monitor, hello. I’m your new desk mate.”
“Teacher Xu.”
Before she could finish, Lu Qingci interrupted her coldly.
Lu Qingci walked over and asked Old Xu, “Why is she my desk mate?”
“Huh?”
Old Xu was busy beyond measure and said, “Jiang Xiaoman applied to sit with you. She wants you to teach her.”
Old Xu even earnestly asked him, “Xiaoman is very diligent, and her grades are on the rise. If you can sit with her and help her a bit, it’ll let her grades improve even more.”
Lu Qingci pressed his lips together, and coldness gathered between his brows.
He had thought Jiang Baiyu had applied to sit with him, which was why he had answered that way when Old Xu asked him in the office. He never expected that just one extra sentence from him compared to his previous life could directly cause his desk mate to no longer be Jiang Baiyu.
Seeing Lu Qingci’s expression, Jiang Xiaoman instinctively sensed some pressure. The little girl carefully tested the waters and sat down beside Lu Qingci, saying, “Class monitor, you….”
Suddenly, her motion to sit froze. She had seen Lu Qingci’s sharp, cold gaze, and just one look made her whole body go cold. That was absolutely not a friendly look. Sensing danger, her entire body stiffened there without moving.
Lu Qingci was so frightening.
The joy and relief at being able to sit with the boy she admired and secretly loved vanished in an instant, replaced by fear and the urge to flee.
The girl nearly cried, hastily stood up, and said, “Teacher, can you change my seat? I, I don’t want to sit here anymore.”
“Ah, what, what’s going on?”
Old Xu was completely baffled. Looking at the cool-faced Lu Qingci below, he seemed to understand something, and let out a soft sigh. Then he asked, “Jiang Baiyu also applied to sit with you. Is that okay?”
Lu Qingci nodded.
Old Xu called out, “Jiang Baiyu, come switch seats with Jiang Xiaoman.”
Jiang Baiyu, who was carrying his textbooks and looking for his new seat: ?!
After seeing the name of the person sitting with Jiang Xiaoman, he was stunned and asked blankly, “Teacher, didn’t I already ask you to…”
Cancel the application?
Old Xu only wanted to settle this as fast as possible and waved him over. “Perfect, let Lu Qingci properly keep an eye on you, you troublemaker, and help you study hard!”
Jiang Baiyu still wanted to refuse, but Old Xu waved his hand and said, “All right, all right, move quickly, class is about to start.”
A trace of warmth flashed through Lu Qingci’s dark, shadowed eyes. As expected, he could still sit with Jiang Baiyu. At this time, Jiang Baiyu had already started to like him, hadn’t he?
Only after losing it did he know how much he liked Jiang Baiyu, only then did he taste that heart-wrenching pain.
He had been favored by heaven, given another chance to return to five years ago. This time, he would never hurt him again. He wanted to keep him at the tip of his heart, hold him in the palm of his hand, and cherish and protect him for a lifetime.