No One Can Bully You

"Huh?"

Chen Lu stared at her blankly, looking utterly confused.

"What are you talking about? How come I didn't understand?"

Then he turned to Liang Zhirou. "Did you understand?"

The girl shook her head again. She really hadn't understood.

Lin Miaomiao was speechless. For some reason, she felt like those two were on the same side. All she could do was roll her eyes at Chen Lu and push the menu in front of Liang Zhirou.

"Go ahead and order as much as you like. Get more of your favorites. After all, you've helped me out a lot."

Actually, Chen Lu, who had seemed carefree and flippant all this time, had done the most to help the drama club, but Lin Miaomiao would never admit it.

She would rather die than see the smug look on Chen Lu's face.

As she spoke, she linked arms with Liang Zhirou again. "Come on, see what you want to eat! Chen Lu and I will leave everything up to you today."

Chen Lu found it amusing to see Liang Zhirou studying the menu so seriously, looking a little nervous. Though this silly girl worked part-time at a hot pot restaurant, she surely couldn't bear to spend money on a meal there herself.

He was in no hurry. He took out his phone and scrolled through it, letting Liang Zhirou take her time.

Then he suddenly spotted a little red dot marked 99+ beside the QQ icon on his home screen. He froze.

What the heck?

As someone with an obsessive need to keep his screen free of even a single red dot, he couldn't possibly leave it alone.

He tapped it open, curious, and found that every last message was a friend request...

Quite a few people had even put swear words straight into their verification messages.

Good grief. There were pages of friend requests, all from people who wanted to curse him out because Mo Yuqing had apologized to him in public.

Chen Lu couldn't help wondering why this year's freshmen were so stupid. Even the juniors from last year hadn't been this aggressive.

A bunch of immature lemon spirits, still doing things only elementary schoolers would do.

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, and he put his phone back on the table.

When the people trying to make you angry were too stupid, you could only find it amusing.

By then, Lin Miaomiao was getting a little impatient. "Haven't you finished ordering? Just order whatever you want to eat."

Liang Zhirou interlaced her fingers, looking a little awkward. "I-I was thinking about what you and Chen Lu like to eat..."

Chen Lu poked Liang Zhirou's cheek with the end of a chopstick and chuckled.

"I like eating whatever you like. Hurry up, or I'll starve to death."

"Oh..."

After a little longer, the silly girl finally finished ordering.

Whether it was Chen Lu or Lin Miaomiao, if either of them happened to mention a favorite food in conversation, she would remember it.

Chen Lu liked baby napa cabbage and beef tripe, while Lin Miaomiao liked lettuce and dried bean curd sticks.

She alone had given no thought to what she liked.

"You have more major courses than we do, so how did you get so good at history too?" Lin Miaomiao complained after only a few bites.

"Now that this event is over, everyone in our club keeps asking if you want to come eat. Nobody's asking me."

Liang Zhirou blinked. She found it strange too.

Ever since they had met, she had felt that he seemed to know an awful lot.

When the silly girl turned her gaze to Chen Lu, he slowly replied, sounding a little helpless, "Don't you just learn it by reading books?"

"How am I supposed to learn if I can't make myself read?" Lin Miaomiao made another stupid remark.

Chen Lu was still looking at Liang Zhirou as he patiently explained, "If you can't make yourself read, it's because you've set your goal too high. Have you heard of the slide effect?

"Before doing something, don't make it too complicated in your head. Say you want to learn an instrument. Don't think about when you'll master it, or how long you'll practice this time. Just start by playing a couple of notes from the sheet music. Once you've played a couple of notes, you'll naturally want to practice a little longer. Keep doing that, and you'll soon get into the swing of it."

"No matter what you're doing, the hardest part is all the things you imagine about it before you begin."

After listening to Chen Lu's long explanation, Lin Miaomiao stopped arguing with him. She bit down hard on her straw and took her frustration out on her juice.

She had to admit that Chen Lu was a tiny bit smarter than her.

A tiny bit.

The group chatted about this and that, each taking a turn. Modern university workhorses could talk about anything.

Liang Zhirou didn't say much. Most of the time, she secretly used the serving chopsticks to put meat and vegetables in Chen Lu's bowl, occasionally giving Lin Miaomiao a little too.

Chen Lu felt like the little bowl in front of him was never empty.

No matter how fast he ate, there was always more food in it.

Lin Miaomiao watched silently, thinking that sooner or later, she would have to find a boyfriend too.

Before long, Chen Lu couldn't take it anymore.

"How much have you eaten yourself? Seems to me you've been too busy putting food in my bowl." He took an unused chopstick from the side and kept gently poking Liang Zhirou's cheek.

This time Chen Lu used a little more force, making the girl unable to keep from closing the eye on that side every time he poked her. Even so, she didn't know to dodge.

"I've eaten a lot," Liang Zhirou protested.

Chen Lu didn't believe her and kept teasing her. The girl's cheeks were soft, and her skin was lovely. Poking her was simply too much fun.

They looked so tender and dewy. He wondered what it would feel like to kiss one.

"You've finally got a little flesh on your cheeks."

It looked like his feeding plan had been a great success.

He was pleasantly surprised at first, but soon frowned again. "Are your bangs longer than they were that night?" he asked in a low voice.

"They were already long enough then. Why grow them even longer?"

Liang Zhirou lowered her head and fiddled with her fingers. "So it's harder for people to bully me..."

Chen Lu wasn't a girl, and the pretty girls around him had all been pampered and spoiled. Even if he could guess at that possibility, it was hard for him to imagine what Liang Zhirou's beautiful eyes could have brought upon her.

At first, she hadn't deliberately grown out her bangs. But later, even when she kept her head down, people would notice how pretty she was and want to bully her. Their strange looks made her uncomfortable all over, and when some came up to talk to her, she could only hurry away.

Every time something like that happened, she would deliberately let her bangs grow a little longer.

Over time, they had become what they were now.

She had no one to rely on in this city, and she was the sole pillar supporting her family. All she could do was hide herself away and pray that no one would bother her.

It had proven effective. Now, very few people looked her over with lecherous eyes.

And now she had met a boy who would smile and look straight into her eyes...

Chen Lu stopped poking her cheek and instead rested the chopstick gently against her forehead, prompting her to lift her head.

"It's okay. I told you before, I'm here," he said with a soft laugh. "No one can bully you, not even Lin Miaomiao."

"What does that have to do with me?!" Lin Miaomiao was stuffing a large piece of baby napa cabbage into her mouth, paying no attention to her table manners as she protested indistinctly.

Having protested, she went right back to eating.

Liang Zhirou gazed quietly at Chen Lu. Her eyes contracted slightly and grew a little moist.