Does Chen Zhu Like You?

Li Jianming was still at the doorway, concentrating on looking pitiful. He stared at his toes and slumped against the doorframe, his head hanging low. All he needed were a few tears.

His lackeys were still egging him on and enjoying the spectacle.

When he happened to glance up, he suddenly noticed a boy walking out of Class 11.

He was tall and slim, with neat, short hair and somewhat pale skin. He had the frail look of someone unused to physical labor, something often seen in boys who did well academically.

After all, studying was the only thing they knew how to do.

But this boy's gaze was far too steady, carrying an unhurried calm.

Chen Zhu's sudden move also caught the attention of the other students. Song Shiwei's deskmate was a lively girl named Mou Jiawen, whose short hair reached her earlobes and whose smile revealed a pair of little pointed canines.

Watching Chen Zhu's retreating back, she complained, "Seriously? Why does he have to go to the bathroom now?"

Apart from Huang Bohan, nobody in the class knew what Chen Zhu intended to do.

Chen Zhu had always been practically invisible in class. He wasn't among the top students, nor was he one of the subject representatives the teachers favored. In short, he barely registered. How could he possibly stand up for Song Shiwei?

Why else would he leave the classroom now, unless he desperately needed the bathroom?

But Chen Zhu clearly wasn't heading to the bathroom. He walked up to Li Jianming and stopped right in front of him.

"Who are you?"

Apparently sensing that the other boy meant trouble, Li Jianming tilted his head up and asked.

Chen Zhu stood over six feet tall, while Li Jianming was only around five foot seven. Despite the difference in height, Li Jianming had come prowling around Senior Class 11 more than once. He knew the boys in this class were selfish and cowardly, and he looked down on them from the bottom of his heart.

Chen Zhu fixed his gaze on the space between Li Jianming's eyebrows and said with a solemn expression:

"Hello, fellow student. My name is Chen Zhu, director of the Public Sanitation System Management Committee for Senior Class 11. Your noise outside our classroom has seriously disrupted the order of our evening study session. Please leave."

"He actually said it..."

Back at his seat, Huang Bohan suddenly felt his teeth ache with embarrassment. He finally understood why Chen Zhu had changed his title.

"Director of the Public Sanitation System Management Committee" sounded much more imposing and formal than "student on cleaning duty." It also sounded more official. Someone who didn't know better really could be bluffed.

Since when did Chen Zhu become so full of tricks?

Huang Bohan wondered, puzzled.

Li Jianming was precisely the idiot who fell for it. He instinctively assumed that someone with such an impressive "director" title must be a class officer, and didn't even question Chen Zhu's right to interfere.

In reality, this director didn't even rank as a "deputy group leader." Above him were group leaders, deputy class monitors, class monitors...

"What are you trying to do?" Li Jianming asked warily.

"I just made myself perfectly clear."

Chen Zhu replied stiffly, "You've seriously disrupted our class's study session. If you don't leave, I'll go to the office and ask Ms. Yin Yanqiu to come over."

Before Li Jianming could respond, one of his lackeys snapped defiantly from behind him, "What's so great about Yin Yanqiu? Who's scared of her?"

"Excellent!"

Without wasting another word, Chen Zhu grabbed the show-off by the arm and dragged him straight toward the office. "Come on, sweetheart. Say that to her face if you've got the guts. She can't hear you from here."

Yin Yanqiu commanded considerable respect throughout their grade. With Alec Su's version of The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber all the rage, she had won the nickname "Abbess Miejue" with practically no competition.

They could curse her behind her back, but face-to-face, even the most swaggering students wouldn't dare raise their heads when she scolded them.

Seeing that Chen Zhu meant business, the boy who had just been showing off shrank back in fright. Li Jianming stepped forward to block the way. "You can talk, but why are you getting physical?"

How should someone respond at a time like this?

Not just ordinary high school students-even adults might instinctively explain, "Who's getting physical? I haven't done anything."

That wouldn't solve the problem, and might even drag them into an argument over who had struck first.

Chen Zhu was far more seasoned. At a time like this, he had to maintain his dominance and keep the initiative, leaving the other side no chance to react.

He seized Li Jianming's wrist with a smack and started dragging him toward the office too. "Now you're playing the fucking peacemaker? You can all explain yourselves to Ms. Yin!"

"Fuck!"

Why is this guy so unreasonable? Li Jianming thought. But he was a little afraid of Yin Yanqiu too, and he pulled hard to wrench his arm free.

During the struggle, a ripping sound rang out. The sleeve of Li Jianming's ill-fitting suit suddenly tore off.

"Huh?"

Both of them stopped at once.

Li Jianming looked down at his exposed arm. Now he looked like a monk wearing a gray robe.

Chen Zhu was a little embarrassed too. He politely handed over the torn sleeve and apologized with an innocent, sincere expression. "I really didn't mean to."

"Pfft..."

The sight must have been too ridiculous. Someone in the classroom cracked first, and then everyone burst out laughing.

Utterly humiliated, Li Jianming's first instinct was to get out of there.

But when he reached the stairs, he couldn't swallow his anger. He turned back and threatened Chen Zhu to salvage his pride. "You've got guts! Just you wait!"

Faced with the delinquent's threat, Chen Zhu reacted nothing like a weak, timid top student. He remained perfectly calm and paid it no mind. Instead, he earnestly advised him, "Feelings have to be mutual. Why keep pestering a girl who doesn't like you?"

Li Jianming had intended to snap, "None of your fucking business," but he noticed Chen Zhu's relaxed expression and deep gaze. The corridor outside the classroom was dimly lit, and half his body seemed hidden in shadow, blending into the night.

For some reason, the threat on Li Jianming's lips wouldn't come out. But he remembered this boy from the advanced class who had made a fool of him.

Having sent "Li Jianming's clingy pest gang" packing, Chen Zhu felt no particular sense of accomplishment. He only regretted that Li Jianming hadn't taken his advice to heart.

Only after bending down to pick up the torn sleeve and flowers scattered across the floor did Chen Zhu return to the classroom.

Immediately, he felt numerous gazes settle on him.

So this is the attention I wasn't even worthy of receiving before?

Chen Zhu joked to himself.

One of those gazes belonged to Mou Jiawen. She studied Chen Zhu for quite a while before saying to Song Shiwei with a sigh, "I really never expected it. The first boy in our class to stand up for you was actually Chen Zhu."

Song Shiwei hadn't expected it at all either. In three years of high school, she and Chen Zhu had exchanged fewer than thirty sentences. Unlike the other boys, he never kept dreaming up topics as excuses to approach her.

So why had he helped her?

"Weiwei."

Mou Jiawen voiced the answer that seemed ready to leap out. "Does Chen Zhu like you?"

Song Shiwei frowned slightly, still finding it rather inconceivable.

If they hadn't been classmates, they would have been like people living in two parallel worlds that never intersected. But aside from that explanation, what else could make an otherwise unremarkable, introverted boy suddenly become brave?

"Chen Zhu definitely likes you!"

Mou Jiawen declared with absolute confidence, then started complaining again. "Honestly, why didn't he confess sooner if he liked you? There are only ninety-odd days of high school left. What good does trying now do? He can't even get into the same university as you."

Everyone knew that Chen Zhu's grades varied wildly between subjects.

Judging by their past results, there was a gap of at least forty points between them. In his previous life, they really hadn't attended the same university: one had gone to South China University of Technology, the other to SYSU.

"Then again..."

Something suddenly occurred to Mou Jiawen, and she brightened in an instant. "Chen Zhu's grades are about the same as mine. We could go to the same university. Now that he's cut his hair... Weiwei, don't you think Chen Zhu is actually pretty handsome?"

"No."

Song Shiwei answered calmly, then opened her workbook. Her long, curved eyelashes cast faint shadows across her fair cheeks.

(For now, I can only post two chapters a day, around noon and eight in the evening. Please support the story and keep reading.)

(End of chapter)