Friends

Liang Zhirou thought back to her past interviews for jobs tutoring those girls. The more she remembered, the less confident she felt.

She simply couldn't handle that sort of thing.

"Would I be tutoring your biological younger sister? What grade is she in?" she asked softly.

"Yeah, my biological younger sister. She's in her second year of high school."

"Your biological sister..."

Hearing that, the girl felt inexplicably happy, and her mood brightened considerably.

"Why don't you tutor her yourself... you're so capable," she continued.

Her words made Chen Lu feel wonderful.

"If you're going to compliment me, keep them coming."

The corners of Chen Lu's mouth were practically reaching for the sky.

"Am I really that capable?"

"You've always been amazing... there are so many things you can do." Liang Zhirou fidgeted with her fingers and murmured with her head lowered, "And whatever you do, you always seem so... at ease. It makes people want to ask you for help."

After saying that, the girl secretly pressed her lips together. She had been too embarrassed to say that he was also very handsome. That night, when their eyes met, Chen Lu hadn't been the only one left staring...

"Is that so?" Chen Lu gave no definite response and looked at her with a mischievous grin. "I didn't realize you thought so highly of me."

Liang Zhirou nodded gently. In truth, her impression of Chen Lu was a hundred times better than that.

Just then, Lin Miaomiao called again.

"Where are you guys hanging out? Come on, tell me! I've been cooped up at home so long I'm about to get sick!"

It was obvious she was calling for gossip. She wasn't even trying to hide it.

"Hello?

"What did you say? Hello? The signal's bad here. I'm hanging up!"

Chen Lu ended the call and put his phone aside.

It rang again a short while later.

Without even looking, Chen Lu handed it to Liang Zhirou. "It's Lin Miaomiao, right? Here, I'm going to the bathroom."

Watching Chen Lu walk away, the girl silently answered the call and said gently, "Miaomiao, what's wrong?"

But the familiar voice didn't come from the phone.

"Chen Lu, your sister said you ditched her and ran off by yourself..."

"Huh?" Liang Zhirou froze.

A few seconds passed before Wang Xiaoxia spoke again. "I didn't dial the wrong number."

Liang Zhirou hurriedly covered her mouth and glanced at the caller ID. The moment she realized it was Chen Lu's mother, she felt like she wanted to die.

Listening to Chen Lu's mother made her even more nervous than listening to Chen Lu.

Not just a little more. She was several times as nervous.

"Dear, who are you?" Wang Xiaoxia sounded thoroughly puzzled.

Liang Zhirou blinked, still frozen in place. She wanted to lie down and play dead, wanted to go back in time, wanted Chen Lu's phone to suddenly run out of battery, wanted aliens to invade Earth right now. The one thing she hadn't figured out was what to say.

"Did that boy lose his phone?" the person on the other end asked again, as though talking to herself.

The girl shook her head. "No..."

"Honey, honey, come here, quick. Oh, just come over here first! Look at your son!" Wang Xiaoxia said a few words in a lowered voice. After a few seconds of silence, she asked with a laugh, "Where's Chen Lu? If you're really nervous, just give him the phone and let him talk to me."

The girl secretly rehearsed what she wanted to say several times in her head before she finally worked up the courage to speak.

"Hello, Auntie." Liang Zhirou took another deep breath. Those few seconds seemed to stretch on forever. "Chen Lu just went to the bathroom... he hasn't come back yet..."

"What's your name?"

"My name is Liang Zhirou..."

Only then did the girl realize she had left something out.

She had practically worked out her introduction in her head, but once she got nervous, she had forgotten what she wanted to say again.

Wang Xiaoxia chuckled, the tone she had used when she first called to demand an explanation from Chen Lu completely gone. "You're Xiao Lu's friend, right? What a lovely name."

"Thank you, Auntie..." Liang Zhirou lay across the table, her voice sinking into the dust. "I got off work not long ago. He asked me to wait for him and said he wanted to talk about some things. We're at a café right now."

"Silly girl, why are you so honest? You don't have to tell me everything in such detail!" The woman's helpless laughter came through the phone. "Then I won't disturb you two. I just wanted to chat with Xiao Lu anyway. It wasn't anything important."

"Okay..." The girl breathed a sigh of relief.

"Come over and visit when you have time."

"Okay."

"Tell that boy to call me back later. Tell him I miss him."

"Okay." The girl obediently agreed to every request, her voice timid but gentle and well-behaved.

Liang Zhirou waited quietly for the other person to hang up first. When she heard the call end, she took a deep breath and felt as though she had finally come back to life.

Before long, Chen Lu returned from the restroom to find Liang Zhirou looking up at him with red earlobes and a woebegone expression.

"Did she ask you a bunch of weird questions? Did she upset you that badly?"

The girl shook her head.

Startled, he hurriedly sat down beside her and asked gently, "What's wrong?"

The girl pointed at the phone. "That call just now... it was your mom..."

"Look at you. I thought it was something serious..." Chen Lu suddenly paused. "What? My mom?!"

Liang Zhirou nodded, her hands clasped together as she continued to wonder whether she had said anything wrong.

"What did you talk about?" In the end, Chen Lu couldn't stay calm. Since he was going to ask Liang Zhirou to be a tutor, he would have had to introduce her to his parents anyway, but now...

Things were a little different.

Introducing her of his own accord and having them check up on him and find her were two entirely different things.

Let alone an accident like this.

"What did my mom say?" he asked softly.

After listening to Liang Zhirou recount their conversation sentence by sentence, Chen Lu felt somewhat relieved.

Only a little relieved, though, and not by much.

He had reason to suspect that his mother would mistakenly think he was sweet-talking an honest, unsuspecting girl. After all, everyone who heard Liang Zhirou's timid tone thought she was easy to bully.

"You get paid daily for handing out flyers, right?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Mm." The girl's voice was still trembling slightly. She clearly hadn't recovered yet.

This sort of thing was still too much excitement for her.

"Then take a couple of days off. You can use the time to prepare your lessons."

"Okay."

Chen Lu rested his chin on his hand and looked at the girl before him, whose face was as red as a little tomato. He continued, "I have a feeling you won't listen to me. Liang Zhirou, you have to get your priorities straight. As long as you teach well, you'll be able to earn a whole day's wages in just one hour."

His expression was solemn. "Then you won't have to hand out flyers anymore. It's really too tiring.

"Once you've gotten more experienced as a tutor, I can find you other jobs. Then you can quit your part-time jobs at the hot pot restaurant and handing out flyers too, so no one else bullies you when I'm not around."

No matter how simple Liang Zhirou was, she could hear the concern and heartache in Chen Lu's voice.

She lowered her head instinctively, gripping the hem of her clothes with both hands.

All her life, for so many years, Liang Zhirou had never lacked people who bullied her. They could even be said to be countless.

But the person who worried about her being bullied and wanted to protect her had only appeared now...