Just as he was about to make contact, Lin Zong straightened his body and stepped backward all at once, instantly widening the distance between them.
“Why is the back of your hand scraped?” he said. “I actually thought a mosquito had landed on it.”
Huo You looked down. It was indeed scraped, oozing a bit of blood, likely because he had clenched his fist too tightly just moments before.
However, he could not answer it that way, or Lin Zong would start asking him again whether he really needed to use the restroom.
Huo You fell into his habitual silence.
Right on cue, Lin Zong’s phone rang. Pulling it out to take a look, he forgot all about his previous curiosity in an instant, his fingers tapping away furiously across the screen.
“I am leaving first,” Lin Zong mumbled, crazily questioning his mother’s whereabouts in a WeChat chat box while tossing out a casual parting piece of advice. “Given your condition, you really should find someone to take care of you. This is far too inconvenient.”
Huo You glanced at him, reached out to grab the underarm crutches standing by the entryway, and pushed himself up to a standing position.
The commotion was rather loud, prompting Lin Zong to lift his eyes from the phone.
What was this supposed to mean?
Was he trying to show that he was perfectly fine on his own?
Under Lin Zong’s skeptical gaze, Huo You walked past him on his crutches and headed straight for the door.
Click.
The door opened, and Huo You turned his head to look back at him.
Lin Zong really should not have understood, but unfortunately, the please leave message in Huo You’s eyes was glaringly obvious.
Lin Zong: “Huh?”
Are you kidding me?
Was he not a universally beloved, enthusiastic, and handsome guy?
Why did Huo You find him so unpalatable?
Lin Zong stared at Huo You with a trace of annoyance. Their eyes met, and it was not long before Huo You narrowed his left eye, concealing the brilliantly bright blue of his pupil.
Very well. No eye-rolling this time.
Instead, he went mismatched-eyed.
It was not as though Lin Zong had never considered asking why Huo You kept rolling his eyes at him, but the words died in his throat every time they reached his lips.
After these two close encounters, he was firmly convinced that Huo You was trying to hide his stunning, jaw-dropping heterochromia from the world.
Though he did not understand why, his parents had always taught him that no matter how curious he was, he should never poke at someone else’s scars.
Perhaps that one-blue-and-one-brown eye color was Huo You’s scar.
Tsk.
He simply could not fathom it. How on earth could that be a scar?
That jaw-droppingly handsome aesthetic setting…
Amaterasu!
After a brief stalemate, Huo You broke eye contact first and finally opened his mouth.
“Thank you.”
Lin Zong: “Huh?”
It was his first time ever hearing someone make the word thank you sound precisely like an eviction notice to get the hell out.
He felt a sudden urge to argue the point with him.
However, his mother had just sent her live location over, meaning he had to hurry up and find out what his wandering maternal parent was up to.
Swallowing his irritation, Lin Zong walked to the door and brushed past Huo You.
The very next second, he stopped in his tracks.
“What are you dodging for?!” Lin Zong glared at him, his brow furrowed.
Just now, their clothes had merely brushed against each other slightly, yet Huo You had recoiled in such utter disgust, treating him as though he were some filthy creature.
Huo You stumbled back another step, his face utterly expressionless. “Apologies, I am not feeling very well.”
Understood. The legendary germaphobe.
“I am not dirty!” Lin Zong shouted out loud.
The moment the words left his mouth, a wave of guilt hit him, causing him to look down at his own clothes.
He seemed to have sat on the ground earlier, and even leaned against a tree for a few minutes.
To a germaphobe, he probably was not all that clean.
Lin Zong’s anger subsided a fraction. His gaze swept around before he slapped his hand hard against the wall right by the doorframe.
The entrance light flickered on in response.
Consider that a slap for Huo You. Anger level minus one.
Tap, tap, tap.
The dim ceiling light brightened, dimmed, brightened again, and repeated the cycle several times over.
Huo You leaned back against the entryway cabinet, lowering his gaze to the flickering ground as he let out a low, quiet chuckle.
My goodness, Huo You actually knows how to laugh.
Not only that, but he looked rather handsome when he smiled.
No wonder his personality was so awful yet people still lined up to hang out with him.
Sitting in the car and rushing toward the location his mother had sent, Lin Zong closed his eyes to catch some sleep, never expecting that Huo You’s laugh would keep echoing through his head.
This was a major crisis.
His standing as the number one handsome guy in school felt slightly shaky.
“Wake up, young man. The car can only go this far,” the driver suddenly announced, pointing toward a beaten dirt path lining the roadside. “Head in from here, and you will get there in ten minutes or so.”
Opening his eyes, Lin Zong looked in the direction the driver was pointing, offered a word of thanks, and stepped out of the car.
He should have anticipated this.
The destination was undoubtedly the brand-new fishing spot his mother had recently discovered.
Stepping onto the pathway, a river came immediately into view. There was no need to check navigation anymore; he simply had to follow the riverbank.
Before long, Lin Zong spotted the intensely focused Ms. Shen.
He called out, “Mom!”
Ms. Shen whipped her head around instantly. “Shh, shh, shh!”
Lin Zong’s brain felt somewhat sluggish, likely due to a lack of sleep the entire night.
“Mom,” Lin Zong strode over, his voice showing no sign of keeping it down. “Didn’t you say you had a surprise for me?”
Ms. Shen glanced at him out of the corner of her eye with mild perfunctory amusement.
“Isn’t it right in the middle of preparation?” she said. “Where is my hat? Didn’t I ask you to bring me a hat?”
Blinking once, Lin Zong shifted his gaze toward the water’s surface.
“Oh, I forgot to bring it.”
Ms. Shen finally looked him dead in the eye, wearing a look that hovered somewhere between speech and silence.
After a brief internal struggle, she asked anyway, “With this memory of yours, be completely honest with mom, did you overestimate your score when you estimated your college entrance exam results a few days ago?”
Lin Zong: “?”
“I can genuinely score six hundred twenty!” Squatting down beside his mother, Lin Zong picked up a flat stone and hurled it with a flick of his wrist across the river.
The stone skipped across the water’s surface six times before finally sinking.
“Look,” Lin Zong turned his head to show off, “Pretty impressive, right.”
Ms. Shen fell silent for a moment before reeling in her fishing rod. “You stayed up all night gaming with Jianbing, didn’t you?”
Lin Zong immediately widened his eyes, faking peak alertness. “No way.”
“You are already talking nonsense,” Ms. Shen remarked. “Go on back and get some sleep. I am going to fish a little longer before heading home.”
That statement was absolute nonsense. She would not be back until well into the afternoon at the earliest.
Still, Lin Zong turned to leave. He needed to go buy his mother a hat.
A small clothing shop lined the street, its entrance draped with racks of hats. A row of wide-brimmed straw hats hung near the front, looking thoroughly sun-protective, the kind people wore to the beach.
Lin Zong picked one adorned with a white silk ribbon wrap, accented by a pink bow tied neatly on top.
The color scheme instantly reminded him of the plush dolls piled on Huo You’s bed.
He wondered if Huo You would fancy a hat like this too.
Picturing what Huo You would look like wearing it, Lin Zong shuddered involuntarily.
The mismatch was simply too jarring.
“Handsome, that hat is twenty-five.”
The store clerk spoke as she pulled a plastic bag out from underneath the cashier counter, preparing to pack it up.
Lin Zong scanned the QR code to pay, then shook his phone. “No bag needed, thank you.”
The clerk paused for a fraction of a second before flashing a hurried, polite smile. “You have such delicate, refined features. You could totally pull this hat off yourself, you know.”
Turning his head to look at her, Lin Zong replied, “I am buying it for someone else.”
The clerk maintained her persistent smile. “Mhm, mhm. This hat is one of our bestsellers. It is completely unisex.”
Lin Zong stared right at the pink bow sitting atop the brim.
Would you like to keep talking absolute nonsense?
Never mind.
Stepping out of the storefront, Lin Zong headed back to deliver the hat to his mother.
Just as he reached the mouth of the small path, he unexpectedly ran right into her.
“Back already?” Lin Zong asked, surprised.
Ms. Shen handed the fishing gear over to him and naturally took the hat, placing it right onto her head.
“Come on,” she said with a feigned air of mystery, “Your surprise is finally ready.”
Lin Zong cast a single glance down at the empty bucket in his hands. “Are you planning to pull a living fish out of thin air for me?”