Chapter 6: He Comes to Her Aid Once More

Huang Pingting had been on the school bus the entire time and had overheard the conversation between her classmates earlier. She was clever, or perhaps one could say she knew how to play the game; she wouldn't directly confront those gossiping the way the old Lin Shu might have.

Huang Pingting stood up to call out to Ji Xingshen, wearing a perfectly rehearsed smile. "Have the classes for the Olympiad track started?"

Ji Xingshen gave a faint nod.

The bus fell abruptly silent.

Ji Xingshen set down his backpack, paused for a moment, and said as if in passing, "The tuition payment was processed late. I didn't get the materials on the day of the lecture, so I can't lend them to you."

"Oh, it's fine, it's really fine! Your family's finance department is just... how could they let something like that slip?"

Huang Pingting handed Ji Xingshen a piece of homemade seaweed rice ball, smiling brightly and charmingly.

Zhou Ya let out a disdainful click of her tongue. Had Lin Shu not told her never to bring up her family affairs at school, Zhou Ya would have stood up right then and asked Ji Xingshen exactly who he thought he was trying to impress.

Lin Shu put on her headphones, listened to music, and gazed at the scenery outside the window.

*Ugh, I was so scatterbrained this morning that I forgot to bring the breakfast Auntie made.*

...

They arrived at school.

Lin Shu and Zhou Ya dropped their bags at the flag platform and hurried off to join the morning run. Their homeroom teacher, Gang-ge, was wearing a flashy pink-and-white tracksuit today, looking full of himself as he checked the attendance sheet.

Whenever the students from the Key Class (Class 1) passed by, they would whistle at him. Lin Shu and Zhou Ya also shared a quiet laugh. Gang-ge wasn't the least bit embarrassed; he even insisted that a real man should wear something pink and tender.

It was hilarious.

Lin Shu’s hair came loose, and she bent down to retrieve her hair tie.

A hand picked it up and held it out.

Recognizing who it was, Lin Shu instinctively recoiled. After a pause, she said "thanks," took the tie, and began tying her hair while jogging.

"You're welcome," Ji Xingshen said.

The two of them trailed at the back of the line.

*Damn it,* Lin Shu thought, *keep running.*

Unfortunately, for someone who didn't enjoy physical activity, even exerting every ounce of effort only brought her a tiny bit closer to the main group.

Ji Xingshen ran at a steady, leisurely pace.

After a long while, he asked, "Lin Shu, are you angry with me?"

Lin Shu didn't react immediately. In her past life, this was a question she would often ask Ji Xingshen, always worried that he found her annoying... She never imagined that one day, Ji Xingshen would ask her the same thing.

Lin Shu pressed her lips together and stared straight ahead, pretending she hadn't heard him.

Ji Xingshen moved closer, running side-by-side with her while maintaining a polite social distance. "The time you asked me out to dinner, I didn't miss it on purpose. My grandmother had a medical episode, and I had to take her to the hospital..."

That had happened.

During the summer break, Lin Shu had gathered the courage to ask Ji Xingshen out. "Going out"—what did that even mean? It just meant grabbing a drink and walking around the park a few times. She would have been perfectly satisfied just to look at him; that was the extent of her ambition.

Unfortunately—

Lin Shu waited from eight in the morning until ten at night. Ji Xingshen never showed up, nor did he explain why.

Lin Shu went home and caught a cold. She hid in her room, eating medicine and crying. Afraid her aunt would hear, she covered herself with a quilt and blasted a comedy variety show to mask the sound.

Thinking about it now, it was truly pathetic.

...

Things that happened so long ago, and only now did Ji Xingshen think to explain? Was it because when she called him last week, she didn't rush to help him and even hung up on him?

*What is this?*

It turned out Ji Xingshen wasn't as aloof as he seemed. Perhaps he had never been aloof; it was just that Lin Shu had been too eager, so he hadn't bothered to maintain the relationship. Now that she was ignoring him and his request for money hadn't gone smoothly, Ji Xingshen had finally decided to pay attention to her.

It was a bit sickening.

Lin Shu couldn't run anymore and simply stopped. After dieting for so long, her stamina was ruined, and even her period had become irregular. Thinking of this, she laughed, more in anger than anything else—laughing at Ji Xingshen, but even more at her own pathetic past self.

...

Ji Xingshen stopped and asked if her stomach hurt.

"Keep running," Lin Shu said. "Don't stop."

Ji Xingshen was taken aback by her tone and reached out to support her. "How could I leave you behind..."

"Don't touch me!"

Lin Shu felt goosebumps rise, her voice turning uncharacteristically sharp.

Across the playground, Zhou Ya noticed the commotion and watched them warily.

Ji Xingshen hesitated, his expression darkening, but he reached out to help her again. Lin Shu grit her teeth and dodged.

The expected touch never came. She opened her eyes to see a lean, long hand gripping Ji Xingshen’s wrist, pulling him away right in front of her.

"Hey, didn't you hear the girl say no?"

Lin Shu looked up.

A blinding light flashed by.

It was Xie Buchan.

Lin Shu’s heartbeat drowned out all the surrounding noise.

Zhou Ya sprinted over like an armored car, charging in. "Lin Shu, what's wrong?!"

Lin Shu clung to her friend’s arm and slowly straightened up. Between skipping breakfast and the emotional agitation, her blood sugar seemed to have bottomed out again. The world went dark, and she felt like she was about to faint.

Zhou Ya understood immediately. She helped Lin Shu sit on the edge of the playground and raised her hand, shouting at Gang-ge in the distance. Even though Gang-ge was young, his hearing was poor, and he couldn't make out a word Zhou Ya said. Frustrated, she had to run over to explain the situation.

Lin Shu hugged her knees, curled up for a while, and then slumped over, sliding down against the wall.

"...Hey."

Someone caught her head just in time.

Lin Shu fell uncontrollably into their arms, and then lost consciousness.

There was a sweet taste in her mouth.

Lin Shu gradually regained her senses. She opened her eyes to find herself leaning against a shoulder that was unexpectedly comfortable. There was no smell of sweat from the morning run, only a faint woody scent, like perfume... a bit flashy.

Lin Shu struggled to lift her head and sucked on the milk candy in her mouth, feeling a sense of relief. Ji Xingshen stood before her, his expression cold, speaking in a business-like tone about taking her to the infirmary.

Xie Buchan squatted nearby, a smirk playing on his face.

A troublemaker would always be a troublemaker. Before Lin Shu could figure out how to refuse, Xie Buchan said bluntly, "Buddy, why haven't you left yet? You've already scared her into fainting."

...

Why couldn't someone stitch Xie Buchan's mouth shut?

Ji Xingshen leaned down, staring into Lin Shu's eyes. "Let's go to the infirmary for a check-up."

Lin Shu didn't have the energy to deal with him. Fortunately, the righteous troublemaker was still there, so Ji Xingshen didn't dare try to grab her.

Zhou Ya returned with a fragrant steamed bun and soy milk. Gang-ge, being a force to be reckoned with, had dragged a doctor over from the infirmary. The doctor took a quick look and said it was just low blood sugar, warning Gang-ge not to let students run on an empty stomach in the future.

Heaven help them.

Even Gang-ge hadn't expected that a measly eight-hundred-meter run, lasting only a few minutes, could extinguish a newborn little sun.

After sending the doctor off, the middle-aged man in the pink-and-white tracksuit scolded Lin Shu with a stern face, telling her to eat before running next time. "Oh, you kids, you’ll scare me to death sooner or later!"

Zhou Ya rolled her eyes at Ji Xingshen, then glared suspiciously at Xie Buchan, like a mother hen protecting her chick.

Xie Buchan stood up and brushed off his shoulders, his expression radiating a "you despise me, and I despise you too" nonchalance.

The morning run was over, and everyone had already rushed to the cafeteria to gobble up breakfast. Lin Shu asked Zhou Ya if she had eaten; Zhou Ya said she had, while muttering about Lin Shu skipping breakfast again. Lin Shu nodded to her friend, then gathered up the breakfast she hadn't finished, opened the plastic bag, and hooked it onto Xie Buchan’s curled pinky finger.

Xie Buchan lowered his gaze, his face still looking grumpy, but his voice sounded pleased. "For me?"

Lin Shu blinked.

Xie Buchan raised an eyebrow, opened the plastic bag, took a bite of the bun, and walked toward the teaching building as he ate.

He wasn't polite at all.

Zhou Ya let out a nervous laugh, as did Lin Shu.

Ji Xingshen had been roped in by Gang-ge to help carry exam papers to the office. The boy looked at Lin Shu, then followed her gaze toward the retreating figure of Xie Buchan, his calm eyes turning dark.

...

The morning’s commotion spread throughout the class.

Although everyone was gossiping, nobody dared to stir up trouble in front of Lin Shu.

In the afternoon, Huang Pingting could no longer contain herself, or perhaps she had finished brewing her plan, and came over to ask about the relationship between Lin Shu and Xie Buchan.

Lin Shu was busy correcting her test questions and ignored her.

The other girl was relentless, pestering her without end.

"Lin Shu, when did you and Xie Buchan get together? I really couldn't tell. Chasing one guy while keeping another in your bowl—what a time-management master you are..."

"Are you sick?" Lin Shu retorted.

Huang Pingting didn't expect such a harsh comeback. She froze, then straightened up with a cold face. "I'm just kindly reminding you. It’s not a good look for someone in the Key Class to be hanging out with a troublemaker."

"Reminding me of what?" Lin Shu flashed a sweet smile. "Reminding me not to stand out too much, so it doesn't make your own life seem so pale and empty?"

*Oooooh—*

The boys began to jeer.

Before Zhou Ya could explode, Lin Shu stood up and slammed her book onto the desk. "Ji Xingshen has nothing to do with me, and neither does Xie Buchan. Whoever keeps spreading rumors, may you guess every multiple-choice question wrong and always fill in the wrong line on your answer sheet."

...

"Holy crap, that's brutal."

The boys fell silent. A few who were smirking quickly composed themselves. Zhou Ya gave Lin Shu a look of utter approval and nodded—*yes, that's right, that's how a woman should be! Don't back down!*

The students who had been hunched over their studies looked up, confused, once the classroom quieted down. Like meerkats on the African savanna, they looked around, wondering what had happened. Only when a kind soul explained it to them did they offer an "oh," and bury their heads back into their work.