"..."
The entire class fell silent.
Song Yu tugged at the corner of his mouth. What "My Husband Brother Yu"? It was clearly "Your Husband Brother Yu." Don't play these games, girl.
He didn't want to reveal his identity simply because he wanted to avoid trouble. In real life, he wasn't remotely scared.
He lowered his eyes to meet hers, his pale eyes unconcerned and his tone infuriating. "What do you think?"
After he stared at her for a while, the girl blushed and lowered her head shyly. The star-shaped clip in her black hair glittered like the light in her eyes.
What do you think? That arrogant tone-I think it's you, aaaaaah!
Ou Yilian froze too. What Husband Brother Yu? Instead of studying hard and improving every day, what were girls these days filling their heads with?
Sure enough, Song Yu was a rotten apple-he'd better not let her catch him doing anything wrong, or she would definitely make him withdraw from school.
A restless atmosphere enveloped the classroom, and quite a few people began whispering.
Ou Yilian was beside herself with fury. "Quiet, everyone!" She looked up, fixing Song Yu with an icy stare. "Class is almost over. Stop wasting time."
Song Yu insisted on doing the opposite of what she wanted, smiling brilliantly. "Come on, ma'am. I'm afraid even a whole lesson wouldn't be enough for all the praise I have for my deskmate."
Song Yu's deskmate... was Xie Sui.
Gasp.
The sound of a group of girls sucking in a breath rang out clearly in Class One.
And so the atmosphere grew even more restless.
Ou Yilian's face nearly twisted with anger. "Song Yu-I'm giving you one minute!"
"One minute? Then I'll keep a long story short."
Song Yu smiled. Standing at the podium, he thought for a moment before saying, "My deskmate's name is Xie Sui. He ranks first in our grade. He's really good at studying, has a really good personality, looks really good-everything about him is really good."
Those final words, "really good," seemed to carry a smile, gentle and clear.
Down in Class One.
The girls: "Aaaaaaah!!!"
Their enthusiastic cheering left even Ma Xiaoding dumbfounded. What's going on? What the hell, girls? When I was making a fuss earlier, you all looked at me like I was an idiot, and now you're screaming yourselves?
Xie Sui sat in his seat, watching him with smiling dark eyes.
A really good personality... What a rare compliment, even across two lifetimes.
Song Yu walked down from the podium with everyone's eyes on him. He had attracted countless fangirls during his very first evening self-study session, and after clashing with Wang Ci, he had become the most mysterious person in all of Class One. Now his name had come out-Song Yu-and he was Xie Sui's deskmate. Combined with Brother Sadako's ambiguous revelations last night...
The girls in Class One were going crazy!
Regardless of whether their guesses were correct, the forum was probably in for another bloody storm tonight!
Ou Yilian was furious. She had planned to get the whole class to ostracize Song Yu, but what had things turned into now? Sweeping an icy gaze over the students, she snapped loudly, "Quiet! Next!"
The girls reined in their emotions a little. Xie Sui was the next to speak, and perhaps it was precisely because it was him that they could suppress the shock Song Yu had brought.
When Xie Sui went up to the podium, the classroom was exceptionally quiet. Countless pairs of eyes watched him with curiosity and excitement.
Only Song Yu wasn't looking his way.
He had no intention of listening to Ou Yilian's English lesson at all. From the beginning, he had been working through a reading comprehension workbook on his own.
Before going up earlier, he had just about finished reading an English passage. Afraid he would lose his feel for it after coming back down, he hurriedly picked up his pen to answer the questions.
After writing his name on the blackboard, Xie Sui turned around and looked in his direction.
Song Yu sat by the window, his youthful profile delicate and focused, his hair looking especially soft. When he neither looked up nor spoke, he was so well-behaved it made one's heart itch. Even the way he held his pen was cute, though he worked through the paper with an air of gritted teeth.
The glass divided the sunlight. Clear skies, white clouds, the classroom, the blackboard-all the memories of youth seemed to be here.
A world entirely opposite to the dream he had just had.
A faint, cold smile curved Xie Sui's lips. He remembered a few things.
Cramped stairwells, a filthy stench.
Rumors, pointing fingers, school days filled with oppression and silence.
The same classroom, the same classmates, yet he would never stand at the podium. Rumors about AIDS, Wang Ci's harassment, teachers deliberately encouraging it, classmates looking on indifferently.
Part-time work day after day, and never enough sleep.
Like a night he could never wake from.
"My deskmate."
Xie Sui's voice was very soft, but unlike Song Yu's youthful clarity, it possessed an elegance and composure beyond his years.
The whole class held its breath.
Quite a few girls had already secretly pressed the record button on their phones.
Even Song Yu was affected by the atmosphere. Stuck between B and D on a question, he looked up too.
He was a little curious about how Xie Sui would introduce him.
He had just made him look so good. Surely Xie Sui wouldn't repay kindness with ingratitude and bring up embarrassing incidents to mock him?
Meeting his gaze, Xie Sui smiled slightly. His peach-blossom eyes curved upward at the outer corners and dipped at the inner ones. His cold, heartless-looking face revealed a tenderness at that moment, but his looks were so strikingly aggressive that even this tenderness felt overwhelming and suffocating.
That smile struck plenty of girls right in their girlish hearts. They screamed wildly inside, their breathing uneven, their hands trembling with excitement around their phones.
The boy standing at the podium spoke slowly.
"He's very kind, very cute, and very smart."
Kind, cute, smart.
Unrestrained and dazzling as blazing sunlight, he fell into his world, dispelling the darkness and melting the frozen plains.
Song Yu had many secrets: his sudden approach, his unclear motives.
But so what?
At least for now, he didn't reject it.
Xie Sui smiled. "Perhaps we'll spend a very pleasant three years together."
Finally, he said his name, enunciating each syllable. "Song Yu."
"Aaaaaaaaaah-!!"
The screams reached a whole new level beyond the earlier "really good"!
Even the bell signaling the end of class was drowned out.
Ma Xiaoding covered his ears, nearly scared to death. Are these women out of their minds?!
Song Yu froze too, his train of thought interrupted. Fuck! Xie Sui called me smart?! That's so fucking exciting. I thought after that 720 last time, Xie Sui would stamp my brain as defective.
So he's been won over by my intelligence in just a few days? Brother Yu is too amazing!
Covering his ears and shielding his head with a book, Ma Xiaoding finally snapped. "What's the big deal about calling him cute and kind? It's not like he confessed in public. Why are they so excited?"
Xi Bowen glanced at the flushed, excited girls beside him and silently swallowed his words. Calling a guy cute is already suspicious, okay? Besides, with Brother Yu's personality, can you really call him cute? Scary, more like. God Xie's filter is way too thick.
After Xie Sui came down, his deskmate gave him a warm welcome.
"Have some candy. Have some water. If you're that good at talking, say more."
Song Yu was in an excellent mood, his face radiant.
Xie Sui laughed. "You're that happy I called you cute?"
Song Yu said, "It has nothing to do with cute. You called me smart. You really have a good eye."
Recalling it, Xie Sui said casually, "Oh, I made that part up on the spot."
Song Yu: "???"
Xie Sui stared at him for three seconds, then stopped teasing him and smiled. "Yes, smart. Very smart."
Song Yu instantly grew smug. "How else could I become the future number one in the city?"
Ma Xiaoding uncovered his ears, which had suffered terribly from the girls' screams.
Only to hear Song Yu's shameless reply.
Turning his head, he told Xi Bowen sincerely, "I've figured out one of Brother Yu's traits-give him a little sunshine and he shines; give him an inch and he takes a mile."
Before Xi Bowen could agree.
Ma Xiaoding went on with a cheeky disregard for his own life. "But wasn't he given a whole pile of green yesterday? Guess he'll be setting up his dyehouse on the green, green grasslands."
Xi Bowen: "..."
Xi Bowen: "Pfft, hahahahahaha."
He glanced ahead.
After talking with Xie Sui, Song Yu had plunged back into the sea of English studies, shutting out everything around him.
Fortunately so, or there was no telling whether Ma Xiaoding would leave the classroom on his own two feet today.
Hiding his face behind a book, Xi Bowen leaned over his desk and asked quietly, "Brother Yu really is that guy on the forum?"
Ma Xiaoding didn't even want to remember yesterday. With a world-weary look, he glanced to the side.
Though class had already ended, a group of people remained motionless in their seats, adjusting their phones' angles and frantically taking secret photos.
"You tell me," he said bleakly.
"But the forum's going to lose its mind again today, huh?"
This was the last class of the morning, followed by lunch.
Grandma Meng took care of every aspect of Song Yu's health and wouldn't let him eat in the cafeteria, so he could only walk back to the apartment to eat every day.
"Want to come upstairs and eat at my place? Auntie Bai's cooking is pretty good."
He walked out of the classroom without noticing a thing.
Carrying a book, Song Yu extended the invitation on the tree-lined path.
Xie Sui shook his head and smiled. "No, see you this afternoon."
He still had some things to deal with.
Concerning Zhu Zhixing.
"All right."
Song Yu returned to the apartment. After eating, he casually checked his phone, not bothering to look at the forum. Ma Xiaoding, however, was more anxious than he was. Over the course of a meal, he had sent several more messages, yapping nonstop, practically giving him live coverage of developments on the forum. In fact, Song Yu could guess even without being told.
Just thinking of all those "aaaaahs" gave him a headache.
The corner of Song Yu's mouth twitched.
During a break from his English work, he logged into his forum account.
The forum had personal profile pages. Clicking an avatar generally displayed the user's name and personal announcement.
Previously, Song Yu's personal announcement had been blank.
Now he decided to add a line.
[Your Husband Brother Yu]
[Stop guessing, little bro. You can't afford to mess with me in real life either, so why bother?]
The entire forum: "..."
Just. As. Fucking. Arrogant. As. Ever!
The "Finding peace with Sui and Yu" dedicated thread was piling up replies at lightning speed, along with a new hot post: "I fucking found Brother Yu!"
Song Yu couldn't even be bothered to click on them.
With a flick of his finger, he spotted a title.
[What does the personal announcement mean?]
Wasn't it obvious?
Song Yu replied.
-5F Your Husband Brother Yu: Don't interrupt my studies.
Amid the fangirls' screams.
The original poster struggled to speak.
-34F OP: ?? What?? Is Brother Yu about to quit the internet?
Song Yu glanced at the test paper on his desk.
-35F Your Husband Brother Yu: Nope, just want a perfect score. Friends on the forum, sorry for the trouble, but please all uninstall the forum and give me some peace and quiet.
-36F: ...
-37F: How can such a shameless request exist in this world?
Author's note: Thank you to the little angels who sent me Overlord Tickets or watered me with nutrient solution~
Thank you to the little angels who threw [grenades]: Little Wang Little Wang Forgets Everything, Xindenu, Big Train-1 each;
Thank you to the little angels who threw [land mines]: Sleepy Kitty 🐱 3; Wood's End, pieces; 39756806, Conic Curves Winding Ninefold, No Worries., Madman and Normal Person, Hanmo Xuan, Chenwei, 37646314, Nana nei, Other Shore · River of Oblivion, Fat Pear, Pigeon°, Gu Nian-1 each;
Thank you to the little angels who watered me with [nutrient solution]:
Bottled Xingmu 121 bottles; Young Master 117 bottles; Summer's 107 bottles; Cowardice Beyond the Skies 50 bottles; Black-and-White Photo, Flowers Bloom on Ink 40 bottles; Want to Eat Beijing Roast Duck Necks 38 bottles; Gu Yunan 27 bottles; Conic Curves Winding Ninefold 20 bottles; Yemi 15 bottles; Feng Yihan 14 bottles; A Fujoshi, Lost in Your Eyes 13 bottles; Half Understanding, Lan, Liang Quezhi, a Cooled Boiled Water, Tangtang Wants Hugs qaq, Nanxi, yolo Girl An Yaoyao, Flights of Fancy, Su Asong, Qiran, Clouds Too, Water, Ten Directions Cup Jing 10 bottles; No Worries. 9 bottles; Wiggly Fish, Year After Year Duck 8 bottles; Oh My, Seventh Strategy Young Master, ariel 6 bottles; like Shenshen, Mo You Jieyu, Pika Pika, Ah Bei, Chirpy Dreams and Candy, Jinfeng, sun.s, Ah Qi Qi Qi Qi, Diza, Green Apples and Early Crisp Pears, Qiran Isn't Qiqi, Xuanji, Qizi 5 bottles; Xindenu, Nothingness, Bun 4 bottles; My Flourishing World Your Peaceful Seas, Quietly Waiting for Xian's Return, Seven Nine, Blazing Prosperity 3 bottles; All Handsome Guys Are Big Brothers, Yugui, Hates Ginger 2 bottles; Ruolü~Meow, Smiling Dish, mmdlf, Xi Jiuming, Mint Rock Sugar Water, Watching Swords by Lamplight, Gu Qing, encounter_07, Momo, Looking for Little Dummy, A White Horse Is Not a Horse, Xiaozibuwen, Hearing Cicadas by the Clear Sea, Luoluo, Two Pieces of Wood, Little Star, Fenglan, Sige, Listening, The Lumbar Disc Selling Answers 1 bottle;
Thank you all so much for your support. I'll keep working hard!