ATLAS TRANSLATES

Lin Tong was following behind, eating a chocolate stick while texting, when she heard that sound and froze completely.

Chu Zhi was also stunned.

She had been close enough to hear the child’s call of “mama,” and had just started to feel relieved when the woman suddenly stood up and began making a scene, almost like she had gone mad.

Chu Zhi’s family had never agreed with the view that children should be hit as a form of education. From childhood to adulthood, her parents had never hit her. At their angriest, they would just scold her, and even then they would feel heartache afterward. She found parents who would hit without a second thought completely unreasonable.

Moreover, Lu Jiaheng hadn’t done anything – he hadn’t said a single word from start to finish.

But this was their family matter, and as an outsider, what could she say? Chu Zhi took a step forward, then forcefully stopped herself, standing in place and fearfully watching as the man slowly turned his head.

His expression was terrifying, gloomy and violent, his deep eyes pitch black, his lips pressed into a rigid line.

Yet in the next second, he suddenly smiled without warning.

Chu Zhi had felt something was off about him since she first saw him today, and now that sense of wrongness finally disappeared.

The tense coldness vanished without a trace, replaced by another emotion.

Lu Jiaheng licked his lips, his cold, mocking laugh rippling outward in waves, making people shiver all over.

“You usually act so well,” he said carelessly, “why can’t you keep up the act when Lu Hongsheng isn’t here?”

“I’d be the same way even if he were here,” the woman said through gritted teeth.

She was very beautiful and quite young, but she indeed seemed to be in an unstable state – her hair was somewhat messy, her expression almost hysterical, her eyes red.

Her lips trembled and turned pale as she looked at Lu Jiaheng with an almost venomous gaze.

Taking a deep breath, as if forcibly regaining her rationality, she finally spoke after a long moment: “You can hate me, target me, not accept me, you can direct anything at me, but what wrong has Jiayi done? He’s only four years old, he likes you so much, looks forward to seeing you every day, gets so happy just hearing you’re coming back,” her voice gradually rose uncontrollably, “I know you wish I were dead, and you can hate him too, but couldn’t you just pretend he doesn’t exist? Why did you have to deliberately take him away? Why did you give him this to eat? What happened last time when you gave him peaches? You might not have known then, but what about this time? Don’t you know he’s allergic?! Would it make you happy if both mother and son died?!”

Lu Jiaheng curved his lips in another smile, looking at her sideways with a flippant gaze: “You seem to understand quite well, don’t you?”

Beside him, Lu Jiayi started crying. He pulled at the woman’s dress, his voice pressed low as he sobbed quietly: “…Mama, Mama, it wasn’t big brother, Yiyi didn’t eat it either, Yiyi just held it, Mama don’t be angry.”

After that whole exchange, Chu Zhi naturally understood the structure of Lu Jiaheng’s family and why this woman had acted like a madwoman from the start.

She thought Lu Jiaheng had deliberately given his brother peaches knowing he was allergic, and probably thought the child had been secretly taken away by him. It seemed terribly cruel.

But that yellow peach jelly had been given by her.

This blame came out of nowhere, yet he showed no intention of explaining, ready to take the fall for her.

Not caring anymore about it being someone else’s family matter, Chu Zhi hurriedly took two steps forward. Just as she was about to speak, Lu Jiaheng quickly grabbed her.

The man looked down at her, his expression flat, showing no emotion.

His grip on her wrist was very tight, firmly holding her, almost roughly pulling her behind himself.

Chu Zhi was startled for a moment, quickly recovered, and urgently said: “It’s not—”

Lu Jiaheng’s grip tightened again, and she cried out in pain, the words on the tip of her tongue cut off.

He didn’t want her to speak.

Although she didn’t know why, Chu Zhi temporarily kept quiet. He was still holding her tightly behind him, with an almost out-of-control force that made her wrist ache.

She didn’t struggle, but frowned and pressed her lips together, raising her other hand to gently stroke his back in a soothing manner.

Lu Jiaheng’s body stiffened for a moment, and after a while, the hand gripping her wrist slowly relaxed a bit.

Chu Zhi quietly sighed in relief, not stopping the movement of her hand.

The black hoodie’s material was very good, the kind that felt expensive to touch. The warm body temperature of the person in front seeped through the fabric, touching her palm.

Lu Jiayi was crying in hiccups, pulling at the woman desperately while crying: “Yiyi won’t look for big brother anymore, Mama, Mama.”

The woman picked him up lovingly, comforting him while raising her head to glare fiercely at Lu Jiaheng one more time before leaving with the child.

The car sped away, and the school gate that had been so lively just a moment ago suddenly fell silent.

Lin Tong squeezed her eyes at Chu Zhi, pointing at herself, then made a walking motion with two fingers.

Chu Zhi nodded, and Lin Tong raised her hand to her mouth, making a zipper motion before quietly taking a detour away.

She quickly turned across the street, leaving only Chu Zhi and Lu Jiaheng at the school gate.

Chu Zhi’s wrist, still being held, moved slightly as she peeked out from behind him, looking up at his face.

The man was looking down, seemingly lost in thought, his long eyelashes pressing down darkly, the smile from earlier completely gone, the corners of his mouth drooping.

Chu Zhi couldn’t quite describe his current expression.

If she had to say, it was as if all the strength had been drained from his body, like a drowning person who had given up struggling, an empty feeling of powerlessness.

Though it only lasted for a moment.

Chu Zhi didn’t know whether it was better to speak or stay quiet now, and even if she were to speak, she didn’t know what to say in this completely unfamiliar situation. She just didn’t dare stop the motion of patting his back.

They stood like that, the young girl patting him like she would a small animal, one pat at a time. Before she had patted twice, Lu Jiaheng suddenly turned his head to look at her.

He lowered his eyelashes, his peach blossom eyes slightly raised, looking at her as if nothing had happened: “Walk you back to your dorm?”

Seeing him act so unconcerned, Chu Zhi suddenly started feeling sorry for him.

She couldn’t understand it at all.

The man’s hand holding her wrist loosened, and Chu Zhi quietly rubbed her wrist, raising her eyes to look at him carefully.

They walked in silence all the way. On the eve of the long holiday, the campus was completely quiet. Halfway there, Chu Zhi finally couldn’t hold back anymore.

She looked down at the ground as she walked forward, slowly opening her mouth: “Senior, I’m sorry, I didn’t know he was allergic to peaches…”

Lu Jiaheng lazily made an “mm?” sound: “It’s fine, that little guy is clever, he wouldn’t have eaten it even if given to him. He just really likes you and wanted to hold it to play with. You have nothing to be sorry for, it has nothing to do with you, no need to apologize.”

Now, his tone didn’t sound like he disliked that little boy anymore.

Chu Zhi kicked at small stones on the path, still feeling sorry for him: “Why didn’t you let me explain? It would have been better to clear things up,” she wrinkled her brow, “No matter what, she shouldn’t hit people like that, she should apologize.”

The young girl’s expression showed a unique sense of justice, and she seemed a bit angry, very seriously feeling indignant on his behalf.

Lu Jiaheng slowed his pace, turning his head slightly to look at her: “You’re quite angry.”

Hearing this, Chu Zhi puffed up her cheeks, suddenly raising her voice a bit: “If you hadn’t stopped me! I would have—”

Lu Jiaheng raised an eyebrow.

“I would have asked her how she could act like that without even asking what happened, it’s so unreasonable…” she mumbled dryly, her voice muffled, “And you too, don’t you care about being misunderstood?”

Lu Jiaheng laughed lazily: “Mm, seems like I don’t care much.”

“…”

How is that possible, are you a god or something?

They had almost reached the dormitory building, and for the remaining short distance, Chu Zhi kept changing the subject, chattering about random things, seemingly determined to make him forget what had happened earlier. Only when she saw Building Three did she quiet down for a moment.

Reaching the building entrance, she suddenly raised her head again, thought for a moment, organized her words, then slowly asked: “Senior, are you staying at school for the National Day holiday?”

Lu Jiaheng looked up, but before he could answer, she quickly continued: “I’m going to Mount Cangyan for National Day, do you want to come along?”

“…”

Lu Jiaheng looked at her with a very strange expression: “Go with you?”

Chu Zhi didn’t notice anything unusual and nodded very emphatically, her dark doe eyes looking at him seriously: “I want you to come with me.”

“…”

“I’m sincerely inviting you.”

“…”

Lu Jiaheng caught the key words and quickly processed them in his mind.

A single man and woman, Mount Cangyan, travel, want you to come along.

He really wanted to ask if she knew what it meant to invite an opposite-sex non-friend to travel together.

After thinking about it, he decided against it, suddenly feeling that getting slapped earlier wasn’t so bad after all.

In comparison, Chu Zhi’s thoughts were much simpler. With things turning out like this with his family right before the golden week holiday, she figured Lu Jiaheng probably wouldn’t go home.

The yellow peach jelly was given by her, but in the end, he was the one who got hit, he was the one who had bad luck.

This was too pitiful.

Chu Zhi had even imagined Lu Jiaheng curled up alone in his dorm for seven days, all his roommates gone home, lying on his bed alone and silently growing moldy.

And by now, they should be considered friends anyway.

Chu Zhi couldn’t bear it.

She stood two steps up on the dormitory stairs, which reduced the height difference between them considerably. This realization suddenly made her inexplicably happy, and seeing that the man still hadn’t responded, she put her hands in her coat pockets and jumped twice in place to urge him: “Are you coming or not?”

Lu Jiaheng stared at her meaningfully for a while, then after a long moment, gave a low laugh.

His eyes were very beautiful, slightly longer than typical peach blossom eyes, with sharp corners that looked cold and indifferent when not smiling, carrying a cool aloofness, but when he smiled they would curve slightly, like peach blossoms scattered everywhere, flirtatious and romantic.

Even though she had seen it many times, Chu Zhi still couldn’t help thinking that his smile really made him look like a heartbreaker.

And now this heartbreaker seemed to be smiling very happily, so his heartbreaker index shot straight up as he lazily narrowed his eyes: “Sure.”

Having gained a travel companion, Chu Zhi was quite happy. They immediately set a time, and she went back to report to Lin Tong.

Lin Tong had no objections. Although she hadn’t spoken much with this pink water bottle guy, she had a pretty good impression of him, and besides, having a boy along on a trip seemed to increase the safety index quite a bit.

The only issue left was tickets, and they weren’t sure if they could still get them this late.

Chu Zhi asked Lu Jiaheng for his ID number, and was just thinking about whether to call Mr. Chu for help when he texted back saying he had asked a friend to buy tickets, asking which train she wanted.

Lu Jiaheng had never gone out alone with a girl before, usually going with large mixed groups, and places like Mount Cangyan that sounded all pristine with birds singing and flowers blooming – those crazy friends of his would never even think of going to such places. He had never been very enthusiastic about these kinds of activities, but this time he was quite looking forward to it.

After spending some time together, Lu Jiaheng had finally realized that this little girl Chu Zhi really had no other intentions, or rather, her mind didn’t think in that direction at all, didn’t have that thing.

But the implications of travel were too bare, too clear, and made people unconsciously think a bit more.

Therefore, Lu Jiaheng felt this trip should be quite exciting.

Early the next morning, Lu Jiaheng packed some simple things and walked to their meeting place at the school gate.

He was genuinely coming out to play, with no real intention of misbehaving, but his mood was inexplicably good. As A University’s magnificent school gate came into view, he saw the little girl holding a small suitcase, standing alone by the road waiting for him. Lu Jiaheng whistled, hands in his jacket pockets as he walked over.

Before he got close, another person suddenly bounced out from behind the little girl’s suitcase. Seeing him, Lin Tong waved enthusiastically with a loud cheer, screaming at the top of her lungs: “PINK WATER BOTTLE!!!!”

Lu Jiaheng: “…”

This really was quite exciting.

Author’s Note:

Regarding heights, Zhi is 156cm, barely reaching 160cm with shoes, and that’s with two insoles. Young Master is 187cm, you can imagine the height difference.