Chapter 10
#Yuan Man never admitted it, but what he liked most were Xu Jingyou’s eyes.#
Yang Meng had successfully cleared her name as a “suspect,” so Yuan Man no longer needed to stare at her.
…Wait!
Yuan Man thought, The word “suspect” doesn’t sound right at all. Having a secret crush on a handsome, cheerful, sunny, and confident boy like me isn’t a cybercrime!
Digressions aside, on Yuan Man’s little notebook, Yang Meng’s name had been crossed out, leaving only the last two names.
“Feng Lin Huijuan from Grade 1 (Class 4), and Shen Xilan from Grade 3 (Class 8). The person secretly crushing on me is definitely one of these two!” Yuan Man’s eyes gleamed. That level of excitement didn’t look like he was hunting for a secret admirer; it looked more like he was hunting for an assassin.
He considered himself the Sherlock Holmes of Normal U Attached High, and Xu Jingyou was his chosen Watson. The only difference was that they didn’t live together.
“Feng Lin Huijuan…” Xu Jingyou repeated the name, his tone suggesting it wasn’t unfamiliar.
Yuan Man: “You know her? Makes sense, you’re both in Grade 1, and you’re both top students who are regulars on the Honor Roll. You must have met.”
As a key high school, Normal U Attached High never missed a monthly exam, midterm, or final exam each semester. Every year, they also spearheaded the “Provincial Eight-School Joint Exam”—testing, re-testing, and testing again until the students were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, accidentally burnt to a crisp if they weren’t careful.
The Provincial Eight-School Joint Exam, in particular, was shockingly difficult. If one could rank in the top twenty province-wide, they wouldn’t just end up on the Honor Roll in front of the teaching building; they would also receive a scholarship.
Yuan Man’s grades were average, hovering in the middle. What little brains he had were all used on gaming, so he never paid attention to the “gods” on the Honor Roll. But ever since meeting Xu Jingyou, his gaze had intentionally or unintentionally sought out that name, and he was startled to realize that Xu Jingyou’s traces were everywhere in the school.
He was in the library, he was on the Honor Roll, and he was even in the game records of Spider Solitaire during computer class breaks.
As Xu Jingyou’s friend, Yuan Man felt quite proud by association.
Take the Honor Roll, for example. Most of the photos posted were casual lifestyle shots provided by the students themselves. Only Xu Jingyou had a white-background ID photo, clearly scanned directly from his student ID.
The boy in the photo wore his school uniform, his figure tall and straight, already possessing the look of an adult. His slightly long bangs were brushed aside, revealing distinct, perfect features. He wasn’t wearing glasses, and his eyes gazed indifferently at the lens, lips pressed tight, looking like an emotionless jade carving.
How can someone look this good even in an ID photo? It’s truly unfair!
Yuan Man thought of the photo on his own student ID; the assembly-line photographer hired by the school had made him look like a jumping macaque.
Yuan Man looked at Xu Jingyou. “Your Honor Roll photo is taken so well! You should expose your forehead normally too, and take off your glasses. Otherwise, you’re wasting such a good-looking face.”
As he spoke, Yuan Man couldn’t resist “getting handsy,” reaching out directly to snatch Xu Jingyou’s glasses.
Xu Jingyou wouldn’t let him have his way and subconsciously tried to dodge, but Yuan Man had a trick up his sleeve.
Yuan Man’s hands flew, his fingers twisting into knots as he frantically formed hand seals, chanting, “He-he-ha-ha, hocus pocus, listen to my command—Freeze!” Immediately following this, his right hand pointed like a sword at Xu Jingyou.
Xu Jingyou: “?”
Yuan Man: “Freeze! Freeze! Freeze!”
Xu Jingyou: “…”
Yuan Man reminded him, “You’re supposed to say, ‘Oh no, I’ve been frozen’!”
Xu Jingyou was helpless. “Are you an elementary schooler?”
Even elementary schoolers didn’t play such childish tricks anymore.
Yuan Man hissed at him. “Shh, you are frozen now, you can’t speak.”
Xu Jingyou: “But you just told me to speak.”
Yuan Man: “Shut up, stay frozen!”
Xu Jingyou: “…”
He froze in place.
Yuan Man walked up to Xu Jingyou with his hands behind his back in a leisurely manner. He reached out and took off the other boy’s glasses, then pushed his luck by messing up the bangs on Xu Jingyou’s forehead. Xu Jingyou’s hair length really violated school rules; the thick bangs pressed down, which, in Yuan Man’s opinion, completely lowered his aesthetic value.
Yuan Man cupped Xu Jingyou’s face with both hands, looking up at him, and spoke in the tone of a bandit meeting a pretty village girl: “Little Xuedi, be good, listen to me, Big Brother will treat you well…”
The last syllable stuck in his throat.
The boy gently rested his chin in Yuan Man’s palms, gazing at him obediently, gently, and without a shred of perfunctoriness. Without the cover of bangs or the barrier of glasses, Xu Jingyou’s perfectly standard features appeared clearly in Yuan Man’s line of sight. The distance between them was less than half an arm’s length; he could see the trembling of Xu Jingyou’s eyelashes with perfect clarity. The impact of such beauty made Yuan Man instantly forget what he was going to say next.
Especially those eyes—Yuan Man never admitted it—but what he liked most were Xu Jingyou’s eyes.
Single eyelids, with the tails ticking slightly upward. When he looked at people, a rippling light spilled from the corners of his eyes. Just looking into them at such close range made Yuan Man go numb all over, panicked to the point where his mind went blank.
Yuan Man’s heart beat like a war drum. It felt as if he was holding a ball of fire in his palms; the heat burned from his palms up his arms, burning and burning until it reached the tips of his ears.
He took a panicked step back, withdrawing his hands and shaking them subconsciously, as if trying to shake off the temperature. He threw the glasses heavily back onto Xu Jingyou.
Xu Jingyou didn’t understand why he had suddenly pushed him away. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Yuan Man said incoherently. “You’d better put your glasses on, and put your bangs down. It’s cold, don’t let your forehead catch a cold.”
Xu Jingyou: “…?”
He silently put on his glasses and tidied his hair, feeling a bit desolate in his heart.
Was there dust on my face that disgusted Xuezhang?
Yuan Man coughed twice, his gaze shifting as he forcefully changed the subject. “So, uh, where were we? Oh, right, right, we were talking about Feng Lin Huijuan. You know her?”
“Not really.” Xu Jingyou’s interest wasn’t high. “But I’ve heard of her. In the last Eight-School Joint Exam, she was third in the school and eleventh in the province.”
“You are a Study God, she is a Study Lord, and I am study slag.” Yuan Man pouted, clasping his hands perfunctorily and shaking them. “Respect, respect.”
Yuan Man got curious again. “By the way, I heard the Eight-School Joint Exam has scholarships. Is that true?”
“There are.” Xu Jingyou mentioned a number that shocked Yuan Man into shouting, “So there really are people who go to school to make money!”
Xu Jingyou asked confusedly, “Is that a lot? After the high school entrance exam, the admissions offices of several schools in the province took turns visiting my house. The scholarship they offered was twenty times that amount.”
Yuan Man pressed hard on his philtrum (to prevent fainting), looking like he was about to suffocate at any moment. “Alright, Top Scorer, shut up, I beg you.”
Seeing him begging for mercy, Xu Jingyou chuckled softly.
What he didn’t say was that after the Eight-School Joint Exam, he went to the principal’s office to collect his scholarship and happened to overhear Feng Lin Huijuan talking with the principal.
Feng Lin Huijuan was a very silent girl, with short hair and dark skin. She spoke very little and always acted alone at school.
The principal had said, “Your homeroom teacher has already told me about your family situation. But according to the rules, only the top ten in the province get the first-class scholarship. The eleventh to twentieth can only get the second-class scholarship unless someone above them gives it up.
“However, last month, a generous company contacted our school intending to set up an inspirational scholarship. Your grades and family conditions are perfectly sufficient to apply for the inspirational award, but you need to cooperate with the company’s publicity department to take a few photos, and they will also visit your home… Here are the materials. Think about it, and ask your family if they agree.”
Feng Lin Huijuan didn’t speak. It was a long time before she took the piece of paper.
During their conversation, Xu Jingyou had stood outside the office door and didn’t go in.
In school, everyone wore the same uniform, carried similar schoolbags, and wore similar shoes; you could hardly tell the difference. But once the uniforms were off, the differences between people and families were like reefs after the tide recedes—plain to see.
The conversation he accidentally overheard that day was Feng Lin Huijuan’s privacy. Xu Jingyou hadn’t told anyone, and he didn’t intend to tell Yuan Man either.
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Yuan Man; he was simply better at keeping secrets than anyone else.
Other people’s secrets, and his own secrets.
“Feng Lin Huijuan’s matter isn’t urgent right now,” Yuan Man spoke up, interrupting his deep thoughts. “You’ve been busy helping me a lot lately. To thank you for taking the interview for the Anime Club in my place, this Xuezhang definitely can’t be stingy! Is there anything you want to eat or play? Tell me freely! Although my little treasury can’t compare to your scholarship, treating you to food and fun is no problem!”
Xu Jingyou’s first reaction was to refuse; he didn’t want Yuan Man to spend money. But he quickly realized that once the “investigation” was over, the intersection between him and Yuan Man would reset to zero. He had to cherish every bit of time they spent together.
“I’m fine with anything,” Xu Jingyou replied. “I usually just go between home and school, so I don’t know what’s good to eat or play around here. If there’s something you like to eat or play, you can take me directly. Things you like, I… I will like too.”
Yuan Man thought, What does “Things I like, you will like too” mean?
Good heavens, Xu Jingyou actually said such nice-sounding words with such a good-looking face. It’s making my heart burn up again.
“Then I’ll take you to my favorite place!” Yuan Man snapped his fingers. “You’re definitely not unfamiliar with this place!”
“?”
“Let’s go to No. 1 Middle School! Your junior high alma mater!” Yuan Man hinted. “You remember that small alley at the entrance of your school, right? Go through that alley, and you’re at the No. 1 Middle School Snack Street! Follow Xuezhang, and Xuezhang will take you to eat from the start of the street to the end of the alley!”
Xu Jingyou: “…”
[Author’s Note] Good news: Wifey wants to take me to the place we first met! Bad news: Wifey doesn’t remember the place we first met at all……………… [Explosive Crying]
Translator’s note: This story is just twenty+ chapters in jjwxc. Nice.
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