Chu Zhi’s water bottle was definitely an exception, even though he ended up unscrewing the cap in the end.
But the girl’s immediate understanding look made Lu Jiaheng feel like his male pride had been thoroughly crushed.
For a moment, he doubted himself, feeling like all his years of working out had been wasted, as if his muscles were made of cream. Though this feeling only lasted for a second.
The young master had never suffered such humiliation. He decided to get even.
That afternoon, while Cheng Yi was video chatting with his girlfriend, he heard someone kicking the door outside. They were both sitting cross-legged on the couch, snacking on sunflower seeds across screens and chatting happily, their playful banter accompanied by increasingly loud door kicks.
Cheng Yi sighed, put his bag of sunflower seeds on the coffee table, and blew a kiss to his girlfriend on screen: “Probably Ah Heng forgot his key, I’ll go open the door.”
He shuffled to the door in his slippers and opened it to find Lu Jiaheng standing there expressionlessly, holding two large boxes stacked together.
Cheng Yi raised an eyebrow: “Forgot your key?”
“No.”
“Then why are you kicking the door?”
“No hands,” Lu Jiaheng glanced at him with a look that seemed to say “are you blind?”
Cheng Yi followed him inside and finally noticed the two boxes he was carrying.
Pocari Sweat, sports drink.
What was that advertisement slogan again? Something about electrolytes seeping into your body?
Cheng Yi raised his eyebrows, watching as the man put down the two boxes of drinks, plopped into the lazy chair nearby, opened one box, pulled out a bottle and opened it.
Just as Cheng Yi was about to continue chatting with his beauty, he saw Lu Jiaheng place the opened bottle on the table, then bend down to pull out another bottle and open it too.
Cheng Yi thought this one was for him.
He was both touched and creeped out by this unexpected kindness, thinking the young master must have had some spiritual awakening that morning, and eagerly moved closer.
Then he watched as the second bottle was also placed on the table.
Following that, he pulled out a third bottle.
Like opening beers, two seconds per bottle, he just sat there opening half a box, not drinking any, arranging them in a row on the table.
Cheng Yi looked confused: “Bro, what are you doing?”
Lu Jiaheng didn’t look at him, his lips twitching slightly downward in an unhappy expression as he laughed coldly: “Revenge.”
Cheng Yi: “…?”
Sometimes men can be both childish and mysterious in ways that are incomprehensible. Things that shouldn’t matter, they take extremely seriously and remain fixated on for a long, long time.
Until the end of freshman military training, Chu Zhi never saw him sunbathing again.
During this time, something happened – a girl from the neighboring Journalism department passed a note to an instructor. She was caught, and the next day their class got a new instructor. The girl was publicly criticized, becoming famous before classes even started, and the instructor who received the note would be punished by the military.
They say the girl cried and begged the captain for mercy after being caught, saying it was all her fault and the instructor knew nothing about it.
Chu Zhi was completely shocked, not understanding how someone could fall in love in just half a month.
Lin Tong seemed to understand completely, munching on a bag of chips: “Look at the guys nowadays, they’re either ugly or pretty boys, either skinny as poles or potbellied with receding hairlines at twenty, hunched over like thieves who can’t even open bottle caps. Usually it’s fine since they’re all the same, but once military training starts and you compare them to the soldiers’ straight posture and muscles – chest muscles, abs, back muscles, biceps – those love hormones get triggered instantly.”
Chu Zhi nodded while eating an orange, thinking she had a point but also feeling something was off. The senior also had trouble opening the bottle cap, but she clearly remembered his milk-white hoodie sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing nicely defined muscles on his forearms.
On the last morning of military training, there was a presentation, and in the afternoon everyone saw the instructors off.
Their class’s instructor was a young, fresh-faced guy who didn’t seem much older than them. During training his face was stern and serious, but he was actually quite lively, often playing and chatting with everyone during breaks. They got along very well.
After spending half a month together, everyone felt a bit sad when he left, with some girls crying quietly.
Chu Zhi was also affected by the atmosphere and felt a bit emotional. During training, everyone had been desperately wishing for these terrible days to end quickly, but now that it was over, they felt reluctant to part.
After more than half a month of torture, everyone had gotten darker, and Lin Tong and others pulled Chu Zhi over, puzzled about why her fair face didn’t seem to have tanned. Chu Zhi blinked, wordlessly rolled up her sleeve to reveal an arm as white as tofu, and held it next to her face for comparison: “No, I got tanned too.”
Gu Han immediately became expressionless: “I get it, her tanned color is the same as my skin with foundation on.”
The next day was the weekend. Chu Zhi’s parents had just returned from their European tour a few days ago and came to pick her up early in the morning.
At the school gate, she met Lu Jiaheng again.
She came out early, before her father’s car arrived. She dragged her small suitcase to the roadside and sat on it while waiting. Looking up, she saw him standing across the way.
Chu Zhi made a small sound, wanting to greet him. She had already raised her arm when she suddenly realized that after knowing him for half a month, she still didn’t know his name.
The sunlight was mostly blocked by the phoenix trees, breaking into small patches that scattered across him. He seemed not to notice her, standing lazily against a tree trunk, head slightly lowered, eyes a bit unfocused, as if lost in thought.
Chu Zhi’s half-raised hand stopped in mid-air.
He looked somewhat unhappy.
Chu Zhi furrowed her brows, still hesitating, when a black car slowly drove in and stopped by the road.
He raised his head, expressionless, and walked to the car.
The moment the back door opened, he looked up and saw the girl by the road.
Chu Zhi met his gaze, blinked and smiled, waving at him.
His peach blossom eyes were dark, his face still expressionless. Seeing her, he pressed his lips slightly, his gaze pausing briefly, his eyes distant. Like a silent wind sweeping past her.
Chu Zhi froze, watching him get into the car.
The black sedan sped away, and Chu Zhi tilted her head, recalling his expression and gaze just now.
He definitely wasn’t happy.
Originally Chu Zhi had planned to stay home all weekend to recover, but somehow after getting home she felt extremely energetic, not sleepy at all.
Her mother nearly cried when she saw her, pulling her to look her over: “Has my baby lost weight? And gotten darker?”
Her father was relatively calmer, smiling as he crossed his legs and read the newspaper: “Young girls these days are all into dieting, their legs aren’t even as thick as their arms, what’s there to lose?”
Chu Zhi imagined that scene and sincerely said: “Dad, legs thinner than arms would be pretty scary.”
“Oh, I meant not as thick as my arms.”
Her mother, still holding Chu Zhi’s hand, looked at him with disdain: “It would be too hard to be thicker than your arms, their waists aren’t even as thick as your arms.”
Her father wasn’t annoyed, still looking relaxed with his eyes curved in a silly smile: “You don’t even have a waist.”
Ms. Deng laughed coldly: “Your whole body is just waist.”
“Your neck is thicker than your waist.”
“Chu Yunfei, are you trying to anger me to death so you can find a young wife?”
“If I wanted a young wife, would I need to anger you to death?”
The two went back and forth in verbal sparring. Chu Zhi was used to it, calmly freed her hand from her mother’s grip, went to the kitchen to pour a glass of milk, added two spoonfuls of sugar, put it in the microwave for two rounds, then poured it over cereal in a bowl.
By the time she had almost finished her bowl of cereal, the couple in the living room had returned to their lovey-dovey state, with Ms. Deng holding Mr. Chu’s arm as they cuddled on the sofa like conjoined twins, looking at travel magazines and discussing where to go next.
Thinking about the expensive hoodie she owed, Chu Zhi sighed and walked over to sit obediently next to her mother.
“Mom,” she cleared her throat and pointed out the window, “see those clouds in the sky? Don’t they look like the five thousand yuan allowance you give me?”
Ms. Deng: “…”
Ms. Deng was a bit surprised. Her daughter had always been well-behaved, and they had always given her living expenses or pocket money as they pleased. She had never actively asked for money before.
“Do you want to buy clothes?”
Chu Zhi hesitated, thought it seemed right, and decided there was no need to tell them about such a small matter, so she nodded.
“Alright, my little cabbage has finally grown up and learned to spend money,” Ms. Deng was very moved and directly handed her a supplementary card, “Spend as much as you like, buy lots of things, get expensive ones, don’t be like your deadbeat father who buys clothes that look like torn sacks and still proudly thinks he has great taste.”
Mr. Chu, whose arm was still being held by his wife: “?”
Chu Zhi had owed someone for one piece of clothing for half a month, and her guilt had reached its peak. So after receiving financial support, she went straight to buy clothes for her creditor that afternoon since she had nothing else to do.
But after searching for a long time, she couldn’t find the same style as her creditor’s.
The mall was very crowded on weekend afternoons. Chu Zhi stood at the store entrance with a cup of milk tea and took out her phone to call her creditor.
That day she had him save his number. Chu Zhi didn’t have many contacts in her phone – she didn’t like saving numbers much. Between her parents, college roommates, and a few close friends, she only had about a dozen numbers, so the man’s phone number was easy to find.
Finally, Chu Zhi found the number in the middle of her contacts.
+86183xxxxxxxx Name – Lu Gege1
Chu Zhi: “…”
[Author’s note: Lu Jiaheng, have some shame :)]
- “Gege” (??) means “older brother,” but it can also be used ambiguously in certain contexts. It can be used flirtatiously/intimately too. ↩︎
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