Part 2
Luo Shizhen gave a naive smile: “I brought deep-fried dough sticks to eat in the dorm before. I ate it twice, and every time I ate it, you would go back to your study. You wouldn’t come out until the ventilation had sucked away all the smell.”
Lu Qiujin hadn’t expected him to have actually noticed this.
During the first two days after Luo Shizhen arrived at the dorm, he hung out with Xiao Shan every day. Before morning training, the two would have the cafeteria deliver some breakfast to the door.
Lu Qiujin was actually the type who disliked arguing with people. What he liked to do was hide in the dark, peeking at everything else like a venomous snake.
So he hadn’t shown his disgust for the deep-fried dough sticks, but just naturally took his books back to his study when the two ate them.
Now that Luo Shizhen mentioned it, Lu Qiujin recalled that since then, Luo Shizhen had never eaten breakfast in the dorm again.
Every time he woke up early, he would go down to the cafeteria to eat, and come back after he was done.
At that time, Lu Qiujin didn’t have much feeling towards Luo Shizhen and didn’t pay much attention to him. But looking back now, it was as if his heart had been poked.
“You went down to the cafeteria to eat every time before for my sake?”
Luo Shizhen felt embarrassed being asked this: “It was really nothing. The cafeteria is just downstairs.”
“Going downstairs to eat doesn’t delay anything, it’s just on the way. But you dislike the smell, so why did you bring it into the dorm?”
Lu Qiujin couldn’t answer that himself either.
He just listened to Luo Shizhen’s words yesterday and felt Luo Shizhen might like this, so he just did it.
But now, he had a better answer:
“If you could go downstairs to eat for me, of course I can bring deep-fried dough sticks to the dorm for you.”
Luo Shizhen, however, looked at Lu Qiujin seriously:
“That’s different. Whether I eat in the dorm or not has no impact on me. The dorm is a public space anyway, I should be going to the cafeteria to eat. I don’t think it’s a big deal.”
“But you dislike deep-fried dough sticks, yet you are doing things you dislike for me. This is not good. It’s already making your body uncomfortable; this will make you feel bad.”
Luo Shizhen knew some people thought he was stupid because he always voluntarily took on a lot of work. But he didn’t reject doing work; in fact, he quite liked doing work.
Because when he worked, he could do it very well, and his heart would feel very happy and full of a sense of accomplishment.
Although people called him stupid, Luo Shizhen would never do anything that made himself unhappy.
Before, the reason he fawned over Big Brother like that was because he admired Big Brother’s figure and muscles, and he didn’t think there was anything wrong with helping Big Brother clean and wash clothes; it was just a convenient thing to do anyway.
If he disliked washing clothes, even if he wanted to acknowledge a Big Brother, Luo Shizhen wouldn’t wash them.
When his grandmother was young, she didn’t like doing chores and didn’t like keeping her grievances bottled up inside, but she still did them, so every time she thought of these things, she would be unhappy.
Luo Shizhen discovered when he was young that if you did something you disliked, even if you had no reaction at the moment, the unhappiness brought by this matter would still remain hidden in your heart.
Therefore, he wouldn’t do things that made him unhappy. Everything he did was what he wanted to do in his heart.
Luo Shizhen seriously told Lu Qiujin his views, and then said:
“Lu Qiujin, why are you suddenly acting like this? Are you trying to flatter me?”
Lu Qiujin froze.
Every time he felt Luo Shizhen was slow to react, he would receive a direct hit from him.
It was too straightforward, so straightforward that he felt as if all of him was laid bare in front of Luo Shizhen.
Luo Shizhen, however, stepped forward at this moment and gently gave him a hug.
A warm body pressed close to him, allowing Lu Qiujin’s relatively cold body to draw its warmth.
A hug is a very wonderful action.
It seems to naturally carry a sense of comfort.
Lu Qiujin’s body stiffened for a moment at first, then slowly softened.
Hesitantly, he imitated Luo Shizhen’s action, reaching out his arms to hold the other tightly.
Everything Lu Qiujin did was exactly what Luo Shizhen said should be done in a marriage.
Luo Shizhen also had his own thoughts.
He was a man, and Lu Qiujin was also a man. The fact that Lu Qiujin did these things for him definitely wasn’t because he treated him as a wife.
So, thinking it over, he felt there could only be one answer for why Lu Qiujin did all this.
“Is it because my words from before caused you to misunderstand? I’m sorry, I wasn’t saying you’re a bad person. You are really good, and in my heart, I also feel you are very good. I misspoke those words. Are you afraid of alienation? Afraid that I have a problem with you in my heart, afraid that before we even bond our feelings, you will have already alienated?”
Luo Shizhen patted Lu Qiujin’s back like patting a child’s:
“Don’t be afraid. I already consider you my friend. You don’t need to force yourself to do things you dislike. That’s not good, it will only make you more unhappy.”
“We still have time. I will definitely be able to properly purify you before you alienate.”
Lu Qiujin fell deep into the soft and warm embrace, even able to feel the smooth, undulating curves of Luo Shizhen’s chest beneath the fabric of his clothes.
All this was reminding him.
There was someone who, with full tolerance, had completely accepted him.
Lu Qiujin closed his eyes and let out a sigh. The cells all over his body seemed to be throbbing, wanting to completely sink into this embrace.
He seemed to be asking Luo Shizhen, and also seemed to be asking himself:
“Can I really be purified?”
Luo Shizhen heard this sentence.
He immediately treated it seriously. Letting go of Lu Qiujin, he imitated Teacher Chen’s manner, cupping Lu Qiujin’s face with both hands, making their eyes meet.
“Of course you can.”
Luo Shizhen’s slightly round eyes were full of earnestness as he stated firmly:
“You are working so hard, and I am working so hard too. Why wouldn’t you be purified?”
Lu Qiujin stared blankly at his earnest face.
He thought he knew why Chu Xiao and Xiao Shan liked Luo Shizhen so much now.
For Awakeners, having someone trust them with their whole body and soul—only after experiencing this taste would one know how much it makes people sink into it.
Lu Qiujin’s heart was a mess, yet inexplicably settled. He was confused.
But right at this moment, the watches of both of them rang simultaneously.
Almost in the next moment, Luo Shizhen received a call from Chen He’an:
“Shizhen, there’s a First-tier Anomaly case at East District Nanhua Fang. This case has been assigned to our school. Put on your combat suit and grab your gear. All students in the school will be going on this mission.”
“Okay, Teacher. Teacher, you don’t need to notify Lu Qiujin, he’s right here with me.”
Chen He’an, who actually hadn’t planned to call Lu Qiujin since Lu Qiujin had been on missions before: “…Alright, I understand.”
“You requested before to always team up with Lu Qiujin. This time, it will be just the two of you teaming up.”
He spoke warmly, wishing he could stuff all the precautions he had mentioned before entirely into Luo Shizhen’s head.
“Don’t be nervous. A First-tier Anomaly’s combat power isn’t considered strong. For safety this time, every teacher in the school will follow behind a squad. The teachers won’t interfere with your actions and will only appear when there’s danger. So, don’t be afraid, but you still have to rely on yourselves to complete the mission, understood?”
“Okay, Teacher, we will definitely complete the mission well!”
Luo Shizhen hung up the phone and turned to look at Lu Qiujin, reaching his hand out to him, his eyes flashing with an excited light:
“Lu Qiujin, this is my first time going on a mission. Can you give me a few pointers!”
Lu Qiujin fell silent for a second, then grasped his hand:
“I swear, if the Anomaly wants to hurt you, it will have to step over my dead body first.”
Luo Shizhen: “Uh, thank you.”
But he remembered the class saying that the lethality of a First-tier Anomaly wasn’t strong, right?
Lu Qiujin was already at Tier 2. Could it be he still couldn’t defeat a single First-tier Anomaly? How did it turn into having to step over his dead body?
Luo Shizhen could only interpret it as Lu Qiujin being severely polluted, his mind already somewhat unclear, and his brain not working well, unable to calculate even such a simple matter as enemy versus ally combat power.
Sigh, poor Lu Qiujin.
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