Chapter 34
A bolt from the blue.
Ying Liu was completely stupefied.
“You… you are…”
His brain spun rapidly, but he couldn’t process the current situation no matter how hard he tried.
He could only squeeze out a sentence:
“Even if you don’t accept me, you don’t have to avoid me, right? I’m not the type to pester people endlessly.”
His intuition told him that he had to stabilize Luo Shizhen first.
Luo Shizhen: “No, you misunderstand. I’m not avoiding you.”
His tone was mild, appearing as good-tempered as ever, as he patiently explained why he couldn’t get close to Ying Liu.
He even gave an example: “Just like Zhang Cai. I’ve known her for so long, but I only touched her hand that one time when she was bitten by a zombie. My grandmother said I must respect girls and cannot touch them casually. Men and women are different.”
Ying Liu’s brain was buzzing.
“I just like men; it’s not like I turned into a woman. No, wait, I don’t like men at all, I only like you.”
“Also, who is Zhang Cai? Why are you blushing when you talk about her?”
Luo Shizhen answered the questions one by one:
“But I am a man. If you like me, you like men.”
He blushed slightly and whispered:
“Zhang Cai was a classmate from my old school. She is a very nice person. Did I blush? It seems I did a little.”
Ying Liu opened his mouth to ask, “Do you like Zhang Cai?” but fortunately, his reason came online just in time, and he stopped himself.
Looking at Luo Shizhen’s expression, he probably hadn’t thought in that direction himself.
If he asked, wouldn’t he be guiding Luo Shizhen to think that way?
Luo Shizhen actually hadn’t thought that much.
He blushed because he realized, belatedly, that someone had actually confessed to him.
Is there really someone who wants to date me?
Luo Shizhen’s face was flushed. He felt a bit shy, a bit excited, a bit confused, and a little happy.
For as long as he could remember, he knew he was a clumsy child. Except for PE, he had nothing to show for himself.
Luo Shizhen had been content with that, but as he grew up, he learned that as a boy, he would need to get married and have children in the future.
His grandmother often said she hoped he would grow up healthy. He didn’t need to live extravagantly, just an ordinary life—find a girl he liked, have a cute baby, and live a steady, down-to-earth life.
But looking at himself, Luo Shizhen felt he had nothing to attract girls.
His grades were bad, he was clumsy with words, he often couldn’t tell if people were joking, and his family was poor.
Luo Shizhen was embarrassed to even entertain the thought of dating. Even now that he had become an Awakener, his mindset remained stuck in the past. He hadn’t realized that he had joined the ranks of the “favored children of heaven” he used to look up to.
Now, receiving the first confession of his life, although he couldn’t get close to Ying Liu out of politeness, he still had a very good impression of Ying Liu in his heart.
—A friendship-based good impression.
Although same-sex confessions were unacceptable to Luo Shizhen, and he was shocked, he had no intention of discriminating.
Before entering the school, he hadn’t even heard of same-sex relationships. Was it because Awakeners repelled the opposite sex that Ying Liu liked men?
Luo Shizhen didn’t understand, but he respected it. He still cherished the fact that someone liked him.
Ying Liu didn’t know what Luo Shizhen was thinking. His wings drooped, and he looked like a listless chicken… a listless angel.
He had lost all his spirit, regretting that he had confessed so early.
Actually, when Ying Liu was building the nest, he just thought Luo Shizhen was indeed a bit cute and wanted to outshine his brother, so he rushed to confess before him.
But when Luo Shizhen patiently and meticulously sprayed medicine on his wings, seeing how gentle he was and how light his touch was, Ying Liu’s confession, originally meant for competition, gained a few degrees of sincerity.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have tried to give Luo Shizhen the gems he had saved for so long.
Now it was great. Not only did the confession fail, but he was also being kept at a distance.
Strange. Why had he never thought before that Luo Shizhen might be straight?
Ying Liu actually couldn’t say for sure if he was straight before, but he had a ton of friends before coming to school and had heard plenty of gossip.
Being listless now wasn’t just because he realized he messed up, but also because he had heard stories of gays confessing to straight men, resulting in the straight men turning pale with shock and shouting about how disgusting it was.
When Ying Liu heard those stories, he had wondered what the gay guy was thinking. Knowing the other guy was straight, why lean in to confess?
Wasn’t that asking for trouble?
But now that he was tasting this bitterness himself, he realized how awful it felt.
He felt bad about Luo Shizhen distancing himself, and he couldn’t help but guess what Luo Shizhen thought of him right now.
Ying Liu folded his wings.
Unlike his previous arrogance, spreading his wings carelessly as if wishing to occupy half the infirmary, he was now withdrawn.
He was only eighteen, after all. No matter how majestic he acted before, this was truly his first time confessing.
Encountering this situation, Ying Liu didn’t know what to do.
The folded wings were actually still quite large, but because they were gathered aggrievedly, they looked a bit pitiful.
The red feathers trembled slightly. Ying Liu lowered his head.
“Don’t hate me…”
“I didn’t know you were straight, and I didn’t mean to disgust you…”
Luo Shizhen was puzzled. “I don’t hate you, nor do I think you’re disgusting. Why would you say that?”
Ying Liu shook his wings and looked up at him. “You are a straight man. Being confessed to by a man like me, don’t you find it disgusting?”
“I don’t. You like me because you think I’m good. Why would I be disgusted?”
Luo Shizhen found it strange that Ying Liu would think this way.
“Isn’t being liked a very good thing?”
Ying Liu couldn’t believe it. He quietly scrutinized Luo Shizhen’s expression and was even more surprised to find that he really thought so.
He kept his voice low. “I thought you would despise me.”
Luo Shizhen was also surprised. “Why? You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Ying Liu stammered, repeating his previous point:
“Because you are a straight man and I confessed to you. Generally, straight men find same-sex confessions disgusting, right?”
Luo Shizhen suddenly understood. So that was a thing. He then realized why Ying Liu looked so hurt and shocked when he said he would keep his distance.
There was a male classmate who went abroad later; he had been in a wheelchair, said to be suffering from some illness, and it was rumored he might never stand up again.
But that classmate’s parents seemed very rich. They donated a building and specifically went to the office to chat with the teachers, hoping they would take care of their child.
After discussing it, the teachers arranged for Luo Shizhen to be his deskmate.
Luo Shizhen actually knew nothing about those rumors. He had just started repeating his year and was filled with the thought that since repeating cost money, he must study hard. He had no time for anything else.
So he just did his own thing as usual.
Class, breaks, meals, restroom. The only difference was that when going to the restroom, he had to take the classmate in the wheelchair with him.
Just like that, a few months passed. The male classmate didn’t seem as lifeless as when he first enrolled. He would laugh, chat proactively, and his relationship with Luo Shizhen got better and better. One day, he suddenly said that only Luo Shizhen didn’t look at him with strange eyes.
Luo Shizhen was confused at the time and asked foolishly, “What strange eyes?” He hadn’t felt anything.
The classmate’s voice was cold:
“Sympathy, pity, looking at me like I’m a cripple who is destined to live a more painful life than others. I don’t like it. Every look from them reminds me that my legs are useless.”
Luo Shizhen felt a huge shock at that moment.
It was the first time he learned that even kind intentions, if they carried a “strange” quality, could make the person involved unhappy.
Then, a few months later, the classmate suddenly said he was going abroad and wanted to take Luo Shizhen with him.
After that came Luo Shizhen’s refusal, the classmate getting inexplicably angry, then the inexplicable phone bombardment, and finally, the two inexplicably cutting ties.
Was Ying Liu thinking the same thing?
Disliking strange gazes? Being treated differently?
Because he refused to get close, did Ying Liu think he was treating him differently in a bad way?
Luo Shizhen thought for a moment, took a step forward, and gently touched Ying Liu’s red wing.
“I don’t find it disgusting. You just like me. There is nothing wrong with liking someone.”
Ying Liu froze, looking up at him blankly.
Luo Shizhen met his gaze peacefully.
“Actually, I’m also very happy that you like me. You are good-looking, powerful, and you can fly. If you were a girl, I would definitely like you too. But you are a boy, so I rejected you. It’s not because you aren’t good enough, just because you are a boy.”
Regardless, being liked was something to be happy about.
Luo Shizhen soothed the trembling red wings with his strokes.
“If my unwillingness to touch you made you feel bad, I apologize to you. I don’t despise you. I just feel that since you like men, it’s not appropriate for me to have physical contact with you.”
“Actually, your feathers are very beautiful. I like them very much. They are red, like the feeling the sun gives, warm and cozy.”
Ying Liu continued to stare at him blankly.
He opened his mouth, his voice hoarse. “Like the sun? I thought my feathers weren’t as holy and beautiful as my brother’s.”
“But red is eye-catching. I can see you at a glance.”
The young Purifier smiled, gentle and full of vitality.
“When you fly, you must be dazzling.”
Ying Liu stared straight at Luo Shizhen, hearing the sound of his own heartbeat.
He said my feathers are like the sun.
—Thump!
He said my feathers are very beautiful.
—Thump!
He said when I fly, I must be dazzling.
—Thump! Thump! Thump-thump-thump!
It’s over.
Ying Liu thought dizzily, I’m done for.
—At the base of his wings, the feather shafts that had already turned slightly black faded back to their original bright red.
The dial on his watch slowly turned, and a new value popped up on the pollution monitor.
In the principal’s office, the Principal, who was applying a face mask and humming a song while checking the spatial teleportation elevator, suddenly heard a light, cheerful notification sound.
This was a notification tone that only appeared when there was good news.
He immediately jumped up and swiped open the holographic icon.
[Beep—Student ID 4513—Ying Liu, Sequence 11—Angel—Red Wing. Corruption Index decreased by 67. Risk of alienating into Fallen Angel decreased to 16%.]
Principal: !
What happened?!
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