Chapter 26: It’s just so-so, and not particularly pleasant to touch; it’s actually a bit bony and uncomfortable.

Page 1 of 3

“Everyone’s gone now. Can you let go?” Xie Buchen said.

Lin Shu reluctantly withdrew her claws and smiled at him.

No matter how ingratiating and obsequious her smile was, Xie Buchen refused to be won over. He merely kept his face cold, rubbing his hand as though he were an innocent maiden who had just been molested.

Lin Shu speared a piece of matcha cake and offered it to him.

Xie Buchen turned his head away, then away again. In the end, he failed to dodge it, and the cream smeared across his face. He frowned in disgust, sighed, and ate it with an expression of profound displeasure.

Lin Shu smiled apologetically. “Brother Chen, don’t be angry.”

“You used me as part of your little play?” Xie Buchen swallowed the cake, his brows still tightly drawn.

“How could I?”

“You used one man to provoke another. Lin Shu, who taught you how to pursue someone?”

“Who was I provoking? I just want to live a peaceful life.”

“Oh? So you don’t like him anymore?” Xie Buchen said sarcastically.

Lin Shu’s fixation on Ji Xingshen was famous throughout the school. She could say she no longer liked him, but who was she trying to fool?

Lin Shu rolled her eyes. She had no desire to argue about this. It was bad luck.

Seeing that Xie Buchen was genuinely angry, she said in a small voice, “It was only one touch. Is it really necessary to get so worked up? At worst, I’ll let you touch me back.”

Xie Buchen told her to leave at once and never come again.

“Fine, I won’t come. As if I care!”

Lin Shu sprang to her feet, straightened her baseball cap, grabbed her schoolbag, and walked away.

She had not even reached the intersection before the girl glanced back furtively. Xie Buchen had not come after her. He had even taken out a mop and started washing the floor, though his movements were somewhat uncoordinated, as if his newly installed limbs were still in their adjustment period.

She was a little angry.

Angry that he had not come after her.

Yet she also thought he looked rather obedient, awkwardly mopping the floor, and felt a faint urge to hug him from behind.

Ah!

What was she thinking about hugging him for?

She had already touched him. Was he expecting her to come bearing brambles and beg forgiveness?

It was not as though she had done it on purpose.

What happened just now was called self-defense in an emergency. Had he never studied law, or even watched short videos online?

Besides, honestly, he was not particularly pleasant to touch. His joints were too prominent, and they dug into her hand.

Just some lowlife delinquent—he should not think that having a handsome face meant he could hold his tail up to the heavens.

…

“Lin Shu, what are you looking at so intently?”

Zhou Ya hugged a cushion and bumped her shoulder.

Lin Shu had come to Zhou Ya’s house for dinner. Now she was sitting in the living room eating watermelon while the evening news played on television—the only program Zhou Ya was allowed to watch at home.

Some country had come for a state visit.

Industrial upgrades, another conference being held, and so on and so forth.

Page 1 of 3

Page 2 of 3

Neither of them was taking politics, so they treated it as background music.

Lin Shu asked, “If you offend someone, what can you do to make them forgive you?”

“That depends on how serious the offense is.”

Zhou Ya was quite reliable in this area and offered a great many useful suggestions.

She said that the most important part of an apology was action. Merely moving one’s lips did not show much sincerity. It would be better to bring some food or school supplies as a token gesture.

“If it’s a girl, bring her a cup of milk tea and apologize properly. If it’s a boy… You’re not thinking of going to placate Ji Xingshen again, are you?”

Zhou Ya’s face scrunched up as she stared suspiciously at Lin Shu.

Lin Shu shook her head vigorously. “It’s Xie Buchen.”

“Oh, the delinquent?” Zhou Ya relaxed and asked indifferently, “How did you offend him?”

Xie Buchen was the sort who took revenge on the spot. This was probably just another case of Lin Shu overthinking things.

Once, someone had spread a rumor that he was extorting money from his classmates. After finding out, he had grabbed the person by the collar and dragged him to the office for a confrontation, leaving all the teachers wearing expressions of collective agony.

Zhou Ya had been waiting in the copy room for a set of test papers and watched twenty full minutes of the spectacle. If Gangzi had not urged her to leave, she would have stayed until the very end.

“Ah… He’s that intense?”

Lin Shu was stunned.

“Of course,” Zhou Ya said. “No one who crosses him gets off lightly. Otherwise, why do you think even the seniors are afraid of him?”

Oh.

Lin Shu thought for a moment, then honestly told Zhou Ya about the dramatic scene that had taken place that day.

Zhou Ya’s expression slowly transformed into that of a dragon.

Her eyes widened, her lips pressed into a flat line, and her nostrils flared slightly.

What a terrifying expression.

Lin Shu murmured, “…He really does seem angry.”

Zhou Ya patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry. He isn’t angry. But I do think you should stop doing things like that in the future.”

“Definitely. My brain short-circuited today.”

Zhou Ya nodded repeatedly.

Inwardly, she thought that the delinquent was probably not angry at all. He had most likely gone completely red-faced with embarrassment. The fact that he had only stood there stupidly and obediently mopping the floor instead of arguing with Lin Shu—or digging a hole on the spot and crawling into it—showed remarkable emotional stability.

But…

Zhou Ya asked, “Lin Shu, what exactly do you feel toward him?”

“I don’t know either.”

Zhou Ya glanced behind her to make sure her parents were not in the living room, then lowered her voice. “I think you two are getting a little ambiguous.”

Lin Shu gave a vague hum.

The gossip-loving spark Zhou Ya had just kindled was extinguished by Lin Shu’s indifference.

Lin Shu checked Xie Buchen’s social-media feed. It was still blank. Perhaps it was not actually blank; perhaps he had simply hidden it from her, much like Lin Zhou. He had a hundred different privacy groups, and not everyone was allowed to see his posts.

His QQ feed, however, contained two updates: both were shares from some shop selling dried beef.

He really did love that dried beef.

Should she buy him a packet as an apology?

Page 2 of 3

Page 3 of 3

As for how Lin Shu felt about Xie Buchen… How should she put it?

Gratitude, certainly.

There was pity, too—and quite a lot of it. If his past had happened to her, she might never have managed to escape it for the rest of her life.

But what else?

When they had not been familiar with each other, she had seemed a little shy around him, afraid to meet his eyes, much less lay a hand on him. Once they grew familiar, however, she seemed to have started treating Xie Buchen the way she treated Lin Zhou.

Sigh.

She would have to be more careful next time.

Xie Buchen seemed to have a particular fixation on emotional purity. He did not even get angry when people called him gay, yet he took romantic feelings extremely seriously.

…

The plan to bring him breakfast was canceled.

The two of them had no contact outside school.

Lin Shu went to lurk outside the class next door several times with the dried beef, but never managed to catch Xie Buchen. Instead, two flashy show-offs kept wandering in front of her, their school uniforms hanging open as they occasionally tugged up the T-shirts underneath.

What were they showing off for?

There was nothing worth looking at.

Their ribs were lined up as clearly as fence posts.

They made her hungry just looking at them.

Lin Shu returned to the classroom in disappointment, tore open the dried beef, and ate it with Zhou Ya.

Over the next few days, Lin Shu sent him messages every now and then to harass him.

[Brother Chen, are you still angry?]

[Stop sulking. I’ve realized my mistake, all right? Do you really need me to kneel down and beg for your forgiveness?]

[Stick figure kneeling.gif]

[Hmph. Just wait and see!]

[If you don’t reply, I’ll announce everywhere that we held hands. Shiba Inu waving a little handkerchief.gif]

After three consecutive hours of devilish mathematics classes, Lin Shu took out her phone.

A message had arrived.

Xie Buchen: You’re a real piece of work.

Lin Shu: Yippee!

All right, all right. She was Xie Buchen’s dad now too.

In the lifeless classroom, Lin Shu suddenly poked her head out from behind a stack of thick books and laughed happily twice.

At last, she understood why the ancients liked erecting chastity arches for women before going on to seduce them. Teasing a virtuous, self-controlled man really was a delicious experience.

Wait, no. This was not teasing.

She was sincerely apologizing to him!

Page 3 of 3