Page 19

It had been more than half a month since they had last met, but Pan Tianbo was still full of energy. The moment he saw Lu Chi, he gave him a bear hug. "Oh, my deskmate, you're finally back! You left me alone guarding an empty desk for more than half a month. Everyone else comes in pairs. I was bored to death."

"Oh, right. How are you now? Are you fully recovered?" Before Lu Chi could answer, Pan Tianbo chuckled. "Lu Chi, just look at your luck. Your first day after transferring, you ran into the monthly exam. Your first day back at school, you ran into the weekly test. If you didn't do well this time, don't take it to heart. It wasn't a fair fight!"

Watching the two chat, Yue Bin said with a smile, "You two talk first. I need to head out for something."

Then he reminded Pan Tianbo, "Don't talk to him for too long. He just finished an exam and isn't feeling well. Let him sleep a little more."

Pan Tianbo blinked his small but focused eyes and nodded. Only after Yue Bin left did he bump Lu Chi's chest with his elbow and say animatedly, "You know, Yue Bin and the others look pretty wild and arrogant, but they're actually quite nice once you get to know them. They're thoughtful too."

Lu Chi smiled faintly. "They are nice."

After a pause, he asked, "Why did we switch dorm rooms?"

Pan Tianbo, who had been chattering nonstop, abruptly fell silent. He glanced at Lu Chi and stammered, "It's nothing. Yue Bin and the others just got a sudden urge to experience dorm life. I guess they thought the two of us got along pretty well, so they insisted on having us as roommates—"

"They didn't live on campus before?" Lu Chi raised a brow at Pan Tianbo.

Pan Tianbo's expression immediately resembled that of a fat chicken with its neck pinched. He blinked his tiny, intent black-bean eyes, trying to muddle through it. Lu Chi, however, remained completely unmoved.

"Ah!" Pan Tianbo irritably scratched his head. "Yue Bin and Zhang Yang told me not to tell you."

"But it's not necessarily a bad thing for you to know!"

"The guys in our old dorm somehow heard rumors that you used to run with gangs, so you had connections with those street punks and got beaten up. And when you first transferred here, didn't you do poorly on the exam? They thought sharing a dorm with you might affect their studies... None of that had any basis, though. They were just spreading nonsense. Later, Yue Bin and the others heard about it. Yue Bin discussed it with Old Sun from our class, and they switched your dorm room."

Lu Chi had not expected there to be such a twist. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Then how did you..."

"Well, we're deskmates, aren't we?" After scratching his head, Pan Tianbo started scratching his neck, as though he were crawling with lice. "I couldn't stand hearing them talk about you like that, so I argued with them a little... They're just jealous. They can't stand that the school beauty likes you! And Yue Bin and the others are willing to hang out with you too... You should understand. Only mediocrities escape envy. If you run into those guys from now on, just ignore them. Anyway, Yue Bin has your back, so they won't dare bully you again."

What Pan Tianbo did not mention was that he had nearly been beaten up over those few arguments. Fortunately, Zhang Yang had come to their classroom to retrieve Lu Chi's backpack at the time, sparing the chubby boy from ending up like a steamed bun. Later, when Yue Bin changed Lu Chi's dorm room, he simply changed Pan Tianbo's as well. His reason was that having another classmate in the dorm who got along well with Lu Chi would help Lu Chi recover.

"So, uh, didn't you say your head hurt? Go sleep first. I need to make a trip to the library. A few books are due, so I have to return them." As Pan Tianbo spoke, he tidied the textbooks and workbooks on the desk, preparing to go study at the library. "Oh, right. The bed by the window on the right is yours. I aired out your bedding, so it's not damp at all. You can use it right away. I'm off. Bye-bye."

Lu Chi was left alone in the dorm again. He walked to his bed, silently took off his school uniform, folded it neatly, and placed it on the chair before climbing into the top bunk to sleep.

Who knew how much time had passed? When Lu Chi woke up, Yue Bin had already returned. He sat at the desk with his back to him, reading. Noticing movement from the top bunk, Yue Bin turned around and smiled. "Awake?"

Lu Chi nodded, climbed down from the bed, and immediately spotted three books on his desk—Acquired Savant Syndrome, The Autistic Genius You Don't Know, and <There Is Only a Fine Line Between Genius and Madness>.

Curiously, Lu Chi picked up Acquired Savant Syndrome and flipped through it. "What is this?"

"I don't know whether the aftereffects of a concussion include things like hallucinations appearing in your mind." Yue Bin crossed his arms and nodded toward the book in Lu Chi's hand. "But I've heard that some people who were originally quite ordinary became geniuses in various fields after suffering a concussion from an accidental blow to the head... I thought you might need these, so I went to the library to find some information. But there isn't much research on this in China, and the school library doesn't have many books on the subject either. Make do with these for now."

Lu Chi's hand holding the book paused slightly. Heat surged into his eyes, and he took a deep breath before saying in a muffled voice, "Thank you."

Yue Bin smiled faintly. "It was nothing."

"Not just for this." Lu Chi looked at Yue Bin. "Also for switching dorm rooms."

The smile on Yue Bin's face instantly froze. He said in exasperation, "Pan Tianbo and his big mouth! I knew he couldn't be trusted!"

As he spoke, Yue Bin awkwardly curled his fingers and scratched his cheek. "You don't blame me, do you?"

"What?" Lu Chi was taken aback.

"I mean, Zhang Yang and I used what happened to you to approach Old Sun and ask him to help persuade my parents to let me live on campus—well, I wasn't taking advantage of you! It just happened to work out that way! Yes, it just happened to work out that way—"

"He didn't mention that."

"What?"

"Pan Tianbo didn't mention that." Lu Chi smiled patiently. "He only said that our former dormmates really disliked me, and that you stepped in out of loyalty and pulled me out of their circle of hostility."

Yue Bin's expression stiffened. After a while, the school heartthrob cleared his throat and asked solemnly, "Can we rewind? Back to one minute ago. What did you ask me again? Right, you're welcome. It was merely a lift of the hand, not worth mentioning."