T/n: This chapter is made possible by our geneours supporter: Safida~ Thank you so much for your ko-fi. Many more blessings to you!
Chapter 77
[Gege, my meeting is over. I’m going to check the venue now. Are you coming?]
Lin Xiu had come to the Student Union to deliver the plan for the school anniversary. Upon arrival, he found that Meng Huaiqing was not there. He replied to Chi Aibei’s message as he walked out: [I’m at the Student Union. I’ll head back to the dorm in a bit.]
Today was the first day of October, which should have been the first day of the holiday. But just a few days before the break, everyone received notice of the school anniversary, scheduled for October 15th. Due to the tight schedule and heavy workload, all personnel of the Student Union sacrificed their holiday and stayed at school to arrange the anniversary.
Lin Xiu had quit the other clubs he had joined before, leaving only the Student Union. He had been extremely busy these past few days, but Chi Aibei was even busier than him.
Just as Lin Xiu’s message was sent successfully, a burst of rushing footsteps came from behind him. Then, a sharp voice shouted at him: “Meng Huaiqing! You’re running away again, aren’t you? How can you be the president like this!”
Lin Xiu turned around and saw Li Chun screech to a halt right behind him.
Looking around, there were only him and Li Chun in the spacious corridor.
“Lin Xiu?”
Li Chun was stunned for a moment. “What are you doing here?”
Lin Xiu held up the folder in his hand. “I came to submit the plan. The president isn’t here.”
As the Student Union President, Meng Huaiqing was always mysterious. Li Chun found it harder to catch him than to catch a ghost every day. Li Chun let out an “Ah.” “He’s not here? I just mistook you for him. By the way, you two look quite alike.”
Lin Xiu hadn’t had much contact with Meng Huaiqing, but whether in personality or appearance, Lin Xiu didn’t think they were alike. “I look like him?”
Li Chun hadn’t thought they were alike before either, but she had almost misidentified him just now. She looked closely, narrowing her eyes. “Seriously, if you look closely, you do look a bit alike.”
Li Chun was the daughter of President Li, who had been invited by the Chi family during that New Year’s Eve. After Lin Xiu joined the Student Union, he got along quite well with her, perhaps because they had met before. Moreover, Li Chun was very concerned about “his partner” and often sought him out for gossip.
This woman was boisterous and sometimes erratic in her speech. Hearing this, Lin Xiu had reason to suspect she was brain-rotting over something weird again.
Lin Xiu: “Are you taking your anger out on me because you can’t catch the president? Can the ‘stand-in’ trope even be used like this?”
Li Chun couldn’t say exactly how he was like Meng Huaiqing. It might be the vibe he gave off. In that moment just now, she truly thought he was Meng Huaiqing.
Li Chun rolled her eyes at him. “What are you thinking? Am I that unreasonable?”
Lin Xiu said mercilessly, “You are. Otherwise, why would Meng Huaiqing hide from you all day?”
It was because as the vice president, she scolded people regardless of their position. Even the president was scolded when he deserved it.
Lin Xiu handed the plan to Li Chun. “Here, give this to him when you catch him. I have things to do, so I’m leaving first.”
Li Chun chased after him for a few steps. “Are you going to watch the little junior’s rehearsal?”
Lin Xiu was afraid of being pestered by her. “No. He doesn’t have a rehearsal today.”
Chi Aibei indeed didn’t have a rehearsal today. He had just finished a meeting and followed along to check the rehearsal venue.
When joining clubs, he had specifically chosen the Arts Club, which seemed to have relatively little work. In the end, he regretted it even before the October break.
As soon as the anniversary notice came out, the Arts Club gathered everyone and required everyone to contribute. Chi Aibei was even specifically named by the president to perform a program. For no other reason than that he became famous on the first day of military training—with two candidate Campus Hunks plus a former one, and even the famously flirtatious Di Zuo publicly saying he was pursuing him. Such popularity had to be exploited.
After confirming the venue, Chi Aibei was afraid of being caught by the president for immediate rehearsal. He slipped away while she wasn’t paying attention.
After walking a few steps away from the venue, Chi Aibei saw Meng Huaiqing standing there talking to a woman. When Chi Aibei saw them, the woman had just left.
“Wheelchair Gege!”
Meng Huaiqing turned around and saw Chi Aibei. Those peach blossom eyes behind the lenses smiled like a spring breeze. “Finished your rehearsal?”
“No rehearsal today. we came to check the venue.” Chi Aibei looked at the woman walking away. “Who was that?”
Meng Huaiqing: “Don’t you know her?”
Chi Aibei was stunned. “Me?”
Meng Huaiqing said, “She seems to be looking for Lin Xiu. She mistook me for him.”
Chi Aibei: “Mistook you for Gege?”
Meng Huaiqing leaned down slightly and leaned closer. “Do I look like Lin Xiu?”
Chi Aibei hadn’t thought they were alike before, but being asked this by Meng Huaiqing, he truly felt they were a bit similar. “Seems… a little bit.”
Meng Huaiqing laughed. “Meng Ying said the same thing.”
Chi Aibei: “Senior Sister? When did she say that?”
When Meng Ying first said this, Meng Huaiqing hadn’t met Lin Xiu yet. It was probably during her third year of high school when she suddenly mentioned that a junior at their school looked a bit like him.
Meng Huaiqing hadn’t taken it seriously at the time, not until he met Lin Xiu in person when Chi Aibei invited him to dinner. Only then did he understand what Meng Ying meant by “alike.” But how could this resemblance be about him?
Meng Huaiqing didn’t continue the topic. “What program did you prepare?”
“Drums,” Chi Aibei said. “By the way, Lin Xiu went to the Student Union to find you. Did you two meet?”
Meng Huaiqing: “No. Why was he looking for me? I wasn’t at the Student Union.”
Chi Aibei: “To submit a plan.”
Meng Huaiqing forgot about submitting the plan today. He let out a ‘tsk.’ He was going to be scolded by Li Chun again. He patted Chi Aibei on the head. “I’m leaving first. I’ll come watch your rehearsal another day.”
Seeing him leave in a hurry, Chi Aibei didn’t stay long either. He turned around and ran off as well.
He ran back to the dorm in one breath and threw the door open. He saw Lin Xiu standing at the door shirtless. The door nearly hit him. His slightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed when he saw it was Chi Aibei. “Being chased by a ghost?”
Chi Aibei was stunned for a moment and quickly closed the door. “…Y—You, why aren’t you wearing clothes?”
Lin Xiu took a tissue and walked over, lifting his bangs and pressing the tissue to his forehead. Chi Aibei was sweating profusely from running, and the tissue easily stuck to his forehead.
His vision was mostly blocked, but the “scenery” under the tissue was seen more clearly.
Unlike Chi Aibei, who liked to sleep naked, Lin Xiu rarely walked around without clothes. Even at home, he would immediately find a T-shirt to put on after showering. This was the first time he had been shirtless so close to Chi Aibei.
Lin Xiu said, “I was just about to change when you came back. Why were you running? Aren’t you hot?”
Chi Aibei snatched the tissue off his forehead and shifted past Lin Xiu with his eyes downcast. “I was afraid you’d be waiting.”
Lin Xiu watched the “escaping” Chi Aibei. He didn’t know what was going on these past few days, but he always felt the kid was dodging him. It wasn’t an obvious kind of dodging; he would still find him for meals, wait for him after class, and find him whenever he was free, but he wouldn’t stick to him unreservedly like before.
Chi Aibei found a topic on his own: “By the way, I ran into Wheelchair Gege just now. A woman came to school to find you and mistook him for you.”
Lin Xiu: “Who?”
Chi Aibei sat on Lin Xiu’s bed, watching Lin Xiu get dressed from a distance. “A woman who looks a bit old.”
Lin Xiu didn’t know any older women. “Don’t know her.”
Chi Aibei didn’t know her either. On the way back, he had thought about it but couldn’t think of who at that age would know Lin Xiu. but that back view felt a bit familiar. “Feels like I’ve seen her somewhere.”
Lin Xiu walked over and flicked his forehead. “Stop attracting shady people.”
Chi Aibei clutched his head and looked up. “I didn’t attract her. She was looking for you.”
Lin Xiu said nothing. Which of the people he ‘attracted’ weren’t the ones who would find him in the future? What he feared was precisely them finding him.
Although the holiday was taken up, they still took the time to go back once. The two first went to the nursing home, then met up with Lin Yang and Jiang Yu for dinner in the evening.
Knowing they had to work overtime at school during the holiday, Lin Yang sighed. “Your school is so boring. They don’t even let people go during the holiday.”
Chi Aibei felt it was fine. Anyway, he was with Lin Xiu, so it didn’t make any difference to him whether it was a holiday or not.
After dinner, the two returned to school. Zhuang Yuan and Wu Yue had both gone home, so only Chi Aibei and Lin Xiu were in the dorm. In the middle of the night, Chi Aibei suddenly sat up from the bed.
Hearing the movement, Lin Xiu asked him, “What is it?”
Chi Aibei hung his head down from the top bunk. “I remember now! That woman is the one we met when we went to buy the cake! She was also there to buy cake at the time, and she was still standing on the other side of the road when we picked up the cake.”
Lin Xiu stood up and pushed his head back. “Either come down or talk from up there. Don’t hang your head like that; it’s scary.”
Chi Aibei instinctively wanted to come down, but as soon as his foot touched the ladder, he stopped.
Lin Xiu frowned as he looked at the foot that had reached down and then retracted.
Chi Aibei sat back on the top bunk. “Gege, didn’t you also see her standing on the other side of the road at the time?”
Lin Xiu: “Didn’t see her.”
Chi Aibei: “You couldn’t have forgotten, right? You clearly saw her.”
Lin Xiu turned over. “Didn’t see her. Shut up and go to sleep.”
Chi Aibei heard the wrong tone in Lin Xiu’s voice. He poked his head down and took a look. “Gege?”
Lin Xiu ignored him.
Chi Aibei: “Gege, what’s wrong?”
Lin Xiu still didn’t make a sound.
Chi Aibei hesitated for a while, but in the end, he climbed down. However, this time just as he was halfway down, he heard Lin Xiu say, “Stay up there. Don’t come down.”
Chi Aibei, hanging on the bed halfway: “…”
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