Not many people were leaving the library at that hour, and Pei Song'an and Li Shu were both strikingly good-looking, so they were easy to spot at a glance.
The white schoolbag Pei Song'an was carrying stood out. Its owner stood beside him, hurriedly straightening the sweater beneath his down jacket.
As they approached, they heard Li Shu muttering complaints:
"Don't rush me. The more you rush me, the more flustered I get."
"It's because you hugged me for so long just now. You pulled my sweater all crooked..."
"Your fault!"
The campus streetlights hadn't come on yet, making the expression on Li Shu's refined, fair face difficult to see. His jaw was turned toward Pei Song'an, its outline clearly visible.
Xue Chen felt Chen Yannan stiffen slightly beside him, and that inexplicable displeasure swept over him once again.
The young man, only just an adult, wasn't very good at hiding his little thoughts.
So much so that the look Xue Chen gave Li Shu carried a rather impolite scrutiny.
Yet the more he felt that way, the more Xue Chen acted as though his relationship with Chen Yannan was something special. "Li Shu, what a coincidence! Did you come to study at the library with Young Master Pei?"
Finally zipping up his jacket, Li Shu looked up and met Chen Yannan's slightly cold eyes, a dark look flashing through them.
Li Shu didn't particularly want to get involved with them, especially with Xue Chen there too:
"We just happened to run into each other."
After he said that, Pei Song'an noticed Chen Yannan's gaze immediately soften considerably.
"In that case, come eat with us, Shu." As he spoke, Chen Yannan moved forward to take the schoolbag from Pei Song'an's hand, asking politely, "Would you like to join us, Song'an?"
Unfortunately, Pei Song'an had no intention of handing over the little schoolbag. Instead, his gaze swept over Chen Yannan and Xue Chen, and he slung the bag over one shoulder as though it were only natural:
"No need for the trouble, Yannan. Li Shu and I already agreed to go to the dining hall together."
"More importantly, we have other things to do after dinner."
His voice, carrying a faint hint of amusement, drifted through the chilly air. Li Shu thought Pei Song'an's words sounded a little odd. He wanted to explain, but then felt there didn't seem to be anything wrong with them, so his lips parted, then abruptly closed again.
Chen Yannan saw it all. His pupils contracted slightly as he repeated, "Other things?"
After those words, Li Shu somehow felt that all three of them were looking at him.
Being stared at like that felt strange. The last time he had experienced such intense scrutiny was a few years ago, when he had secretly watched a live basketball game during study period and looked up to meet his homeroom teacher's burning gaze.
"We do have something to do. Yannan, you two go ahead and eat."
Another crisp, decisive refusal suddenly made Chen Yannan realize that Li Shu, who had followed him around since childhood and told him everything, now had secrets.
He could feel the unspoken distance the other was putting between them, making their relationship and its boundaries clear.
These were all things Chen Yannan had wanted to see, but for some reason, an unfamiliar emotion suddenly surged through him, and even his words carried displeasure:
"All right."
"Don't forget we still have evening study. You'll lose credits if you're late."
"Oh, okay." Li Shu nodded, his head moving like an unlubricated robot.
No one saw Xue Chen's hands, hanging beside the seams of his trousers, abruptly clench, tremble twice, and only then slowly relax.
Because his awkwardness had flared up again, Li Shu hadn't noticed Pei Song'an's gaze staying glued to his face at all. Only after Chen Yannan and Xue Chen left did he belatedly register that somewhat intimate scrutiny.
What was this guy doing?
Was something wrong with his eyes?
Li Shu immediately grew uncomfortable and rubbed his face. "Don't look at me like that. It makes me uncomfortable."
"Oh." A faint smile curved Pei Song'an's lips. "So Chen Yannan can look at you like that, but I can't."
Li Shu: "."
Enough already.
Pei Song'an was a little strange. When Li Shu first met him, he had only thought the man was a little frightening, saying insincere things with such casual composure. But after getting to know him a little, he felt that the man always liked finding fault in ways Li Shu couldn't understand.
There was a nasty streak hidden in his bones, yet he was constrained by his position, so the ways it manifested always caught Li Shu off guard.
In the dining hall, Li Shu once again experienced being the center of attention.
This was different from the uncontrollable chatter of boys and girls in the first stirrings of youthful attraction. Instead, gazes came from all directions now and then, containing a complicated mixture of prying interest, curiosity, affection, and much else.
It wasn't as though no one had confessed to Li Shu before he transmigrated into the novel, but before university, he had strictly followed the rules his parents and eldest brother had laid down: absolutely no dating.
So when girls came up to ask for his contact information at university, even if Li Shu wasn't interested, he worried about embarrassing them. After reluctantly giving it to them, he had absolutely no idea how to chat.
One message from a girl would send Li Shu scurrying around the dorm room in nervous embarrassment.
In the end, several girls took his failure to reply promptly as a cold rejection, and things fizzled out.
"Pei Song'an, let me ask you something." Li Shu was intensely curious at that moment.
"Go ahead."
"How do you stay so calm and eat with all these people sneaking looks at you? Don't tell me you enjoy being the center of attention?"
Pei Song'an explained, "My time and energy are very limited. Spending my attention on these irrelevant people would be a losing proposition. They won't change their behavior because I pay attention to them. On the contrary, my efficiency would suffer considerably."
What a pretentious thing to say.
What do I do, what do I do? This is getting awkward.
Yet it made an extraordinary amount of sense.
Li Shu sighed. "If I hadn't pestered you relentlessly and tagged along, we'd really be people from two different worlds!"
Pei Song'an said, "You really like analyzing yourself?"
Li Shu said, "What's that supposed to mean? People have to reflect regularly so they don't keep making mistakes."
"It seems Chen Yannan isn't capable enough to cover for you."
"Why do you always have to compare yourself to Chen Yannan?" Li Shu looked up at Pei Song'an's handsome face, studying it over and over. "Besides, I don't need him to cover for me. I have my dad and my brother. And anyway, I can take responsibility for my own actions!"
The dining hall's warm yellow light fell across Pei Song'an's sharply defined face. His gaze settled unmistakably on Li Shu's lips, perfectly composed:
"Then you're very impressive."
"Hmph." Li Shu felt pleased with himself for a moment, then quickly caught on. "Hey! You! Why are you dodging the important part? You still haven't said why you insist on comparing yourself to Chen Yannan. Aren't your families on pretty good terms?"
Shortly after those words fell, Pei Song'an's gaze darkened. In a rare moment, the darkness hidden deep in his heart stirred, teetering as though an insignificant little crack had opened.
"Li Shu, I never let strangers step into my territory after such a short time."
"You're the first."
"I need to be very cautious and stay on guard, and constantly make sure the person in my territory is under my control."
Li Shu met Pei Song'an's dark, pool-like eyes. "That sounds terrifying."
"Marks appearing inexplicably on your body, bruises from fooling around, an excess of complicated social interactions-all of these give me an anxiety that's difficult to control. It makes me sensitive and suspicious, and leads me to show aggression toward your social circle."
Li Shu's back grew a little sweaty. "But you seem perfectly normal."
Pei Song'an abruptly withdrew that oppressive air, once again returning to his usual composure. "It's not as though I attack people anytime and anywhere. But when you're too close to Chen Yannan, I sense danger, so it's only natural that I'm unfriendly toward him."
Li Shu nodded in vague understanding, feeling as though Pei Song'an had somehow talked him in circles.
Before he could think it through, he suddenly felt his foot being pressed from both sides beneath the table. The unfamiliar sensation shot outward from his heart like an electric current.
"What are you doing!"
Pei Song'an sat in his chair, relaxed but not slack:
"I'm giving you time to think."
"If you can't accept it, keep your distance from me from now on."
Haha, people who say things like that generally settle down after a couple of years behind bars.
Before you continue