Seeing Shen Zhong Again

The call was still going when Lu Mian saw him come out and signaled with his eyes that he could go into the room first.

Cen Xia was still lost in thought and missed the obvious signal.

"Grandma, don't worry about me. I'm really doing well."

Lu Mian's helpless voice reached his ears, plainly at a loss with the person on the other end of the call, and pulled him back to the present.

It was the first time Cen Xia had seen such intense emotion on Lu Mian's face. Usually, he had a laid-back, sleepy air about him, and his expression was mostly indifferent.

Cen Xia walked over and sat down beside Lu Mian. Under Lu Mian's startled gaze, he took his phone.

"Hello, Grandma. I'm Lu Mian's classmate. My name is Cen Xia."

There was a second of silence on the other end before Grandma Lu's delighted voice came through. "Hello, hello!"

"You don't need to worry about him. Lu Mian is really popular at school. We all like hanging out with him."

Lu Mian stared blankly as Cen Xia lied without his face changing or his heart skipping a beat.

"Yes, yes, that's right. Just focus on getting better and don't worry about him..."

"Okay, Grandma. When I have time, I'll definitely come visit you with Lu Mian."

When they were done chatting, Cen Xia handed the phone back to Lu Mian and turned away, hiding both his achievement and his name.

Lu Mian took the phone and put it to his ear. The voice on the other end sounded completely different now, both happy and relieved.

"Why didn't you tell Grandma you'd made friends? Xiao Xia is such a good boy. Once I'm out of the hospital, bring him home, and I'll cook for him myself!"

As Lu Mian listened, a smile curved his lips.

"Got it. I'll bring... Xiao Xia home."

Cen Xia lay on Lu Mian's bed, playing on his phone. He had to reply to Ding Yiheng, who had just woken up after getting drunk, and encourage Lin Jiandu, who had just started working out.

In their four-person group chat, Shi Su was also sharing a picture of a little white cat he had just run into on the street. It looked a lot like Cen Xia's chat avatar.

As Cen Xia chatted, he thought that if he added a few more friends, he'd be busy to death.

Lu Mian came in after his shower and saw Cen Xia lying on his stomach on the bed, with Lu Mian's pillow beneath him. The words Cen Xia had spoken suddenly popped into his head: "Your bro here has a wasp's waist and an ape's back."

Cen Xia did have a great figure, but he wasn't as "burly" as he claimed. The loose T-shirt had grown very soft after many washes. Pulled by gravity, it draped like water along the groove of his spine and the hollows of his lower back.

His black shorts had also ridden up because of the careless way he was sprawled, revealing the lines of his thighs. In fact, boys' legs were slimmer and straighter than girls', let alone Cen Xia's, which had no body hair.

His two legs rested over the edge of the bed, like a figurine molded from clay: white, long, slender, and straight.

I want to touch them.

Lu Mian's eyes gradually darkened, and the sound of his heartbeat rang clearly in his ears.

Cen Xia heard him come in, but heard nothing from him afterward. Finding it a little strange, he looked over.

Lu Mian was standing there in a daze, his gaze unfocused. There was no telling what he was thinking about.

"What are you standing there like an idiot for?"

Of course, Lu Mian didn't answer. He simply walked to the other side and got into bed.

Cen Xia watched short videos for a while, then suddenly remembered something and asked him, "Don't you have your part-time job today?"

"I took the day off. I'll go tomorrow."

Cen Xia said "oh" and said no more.

The two of them quietly went about their own business.

Cen Xia was watching a long popular science video, and because it was about science, it was also quite sleep-inducing. As he watched, his eyelids began to droop.

He tapped the screen to pause the video, intending to close his eyes for a little while and finish watching it later.

But once he closed his eyes, he fell fast asleep.

When Lu Mian finished what he was doing and looked down, Cen Xia had already been asleep on his stomach for a while.

His phone had fallen beside his cheek, its screen still showing the science video.

Lu Mian took the phone away and turned it off, then got out of bed and switched off the light.

The whole room went dark.

Lu Mian stood where he was for a while, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness, before slowly getting into bed.

The moment he lay down, Cen Xia rolled over. Half of Lu Mian's body stiffened for a while before he relaxed.

After the tension faded, he felt a little puzzled. Why had he reacted so strongly?

Cen Xia left the next day.

As he did every weekend, Lu Mian went to work part-time at the milk tea shop.

Because of his looks, business at the shop was especially good. The manager had hired him because he thought his face could draw in customers, and it certainly had, so he had even raised his hourly wage.

Working at the milk tea shop was exhausting, and his arms ached after a full day.

But he was used to it. Every weekend was like this: after his shift, he returned home alone.

He showered and went to bed.

After lying there for a while, he slowly opened his eyes.

Something wasn't quite right.

He turned his head to look beside him. He was lying on the far right, leaving a large empty space to his left, as though he had saved a spot for someone.

He looked at it for a while, then rolled over to sleep in the middle.

That was more like it.

The next day was Monday.

Kanlitel officially announced that a basketball competition would be held the following week.

The class monitor went around the classroom calling for sign-ups with a registration form in hand. The boys were all eager to participate.

But there were only so many spots, so in the end, they would have to hold tryouts in PE class.

Ding Yiheng was thrilled and put in a hundred and twenty thousand percent effort to make the team.

Cen Xia wasn't interested, but during PE, the teacher said every boy had to take part in the tryouts, and those who performed well would get bonus points on their final grade.

So he successfully made the team-as a substitute. Ding Yiheng did too.

Ding Yiheng wasn't upset. He didn't think being a substitute meant he wouldn't get a chance to play.

Cen Xia admired his attitude, but that was all.

When a general was picked from among dwarfs, Ding Yiheng was the one picked.

They were drenched in sweat after PE, so the two of them went to the showers.

The shower room was communal, so there were students from other classes as well as their own. But precisely because it was communal and everyone shared one changing room, more people chose to go back to their dorms to shower.

Cen Xia hadn't expected to run into Shen Zhong here.

The last time had been in the library's study room.

He had only returned from Lu Mian's house yesterday, and today he ran into Shen Zhong. Could this be called fate?

His yellow-haired underling was still following him around.

"Boss, what brings you here today?"

At nearly 1.9 meters tall, Shen Zhong had to stoop slightly to open his locker. It made him uncomfortable, and he frowned as he replied in a less than pleasant tone, "I have something else to do at noon. Going back to the dorm would waste time."

Seeing that his boss wasn't in a very good mood, Yellow Hair stopped asking questions.

Shen Zhong took off his sweat-soaked sports tank top and tossed it into the locker with a look of distaste.

Just as he was about to take off his pants, a flash of white entered his field of vision.

He looked over. The person was taking off his basketball jersey, pulling the hem up with both hands and revealing a taut waist, slender yet strong.

His abs were well defined too, evenly sized and aligned, with his navel in the center and his obliques balanced on both sides. They looked clean and well defined.

The waistband of his pants hung loosely on his hipbones. The lines of his waist extended downward, disappearing into the depths of the fabric.

Shen Zhong stared at that waist for a while, pressing his tongue against his cheek.

That body really was top-tier.

The person finished taking off his jersey and turned to speak to the person beside him.

Shen Zhong felt a little regretful. That face didn't match up to that body.