Chi Yao: “Aren’t you a person?”
Lin Zhexia: “Besides me. Anyway, I feel like they’re all avoiding your classroom… Don’t you notice, sitting by the window?”
The jacket Chi Yao wore slid down. He raised his hand to scratch his hair, saying casually: “I can’t be bothered to care.”
Fair enough.
Very much in line with his style.
On her way back from Class 1, Lin Zhexia noticed many people looking at her. Feeling confused and awkward, when she returned to Class 7, several unfamiliar female classmates hesitantly asked: “Did you just go to Class 1?”
“…”
Lin Zhexia thought they were going to ask for contact information again.
She wanted to say, Why not go find Tang Shuxuan?
But looking around, she realized Tang Shuxuan wasn’t in the classroom, so she had to deal with it herself.
“Ah,” she said, “but he…” He doesn’t like adding strangers.
Before Lin Zhexia could finish, those girls continued: “So is it true? That he likes to fight on the street behind the school after classes, and yesterday after school, he beat up three thugs all by himself?”
She didn’t know where the rumor started.
But that it spread wasn’t surprising.
And… specifically speaking, this wasn’t entirely a “rumor”—a large part of it was fact.
“It’s spreading privately,” when Lin Zhexia returned to her seat, Chen Lin whispered. “Chi Yao was already getting a lot of attention. After yesterday’s fight, people now think he’s some hidden delinquent. Before, some wanted his contact info, but now they don’t even dare approach.”
Lin Zhexia: “How did it get so exaggerated? I just explained to them, but it didn’t help.”
Chen Lin: “You’re close to Chi Yao. Of course, they think you’re covering for him.”
Chi Yao’s fame took on a different flavor after this fight.
Fighting is different from climbing walls. Most people wouldn’t dare approach a boy who fights after school.
More people were interested, but fewer dared to approach.
Later, when Lin Zhexia went to Class 1 to find him several times, she always noticed other classmates’ scrutinizing gazes. Sometimes when Chi Yao carried water out, heading to the office, many people would carefully avoid him, but after passing by, they would secretly look back.
As if possessed, she logged into the school forum and clicked on a discussion thread about Chi Yao.
Recent comments were all uniform: [He’s so handsome, but now I barely dare to look at him.]
[You’re not alone.]
[Although it’s not nice to say, I’d kind of like to see a handsome guy fight…]
[Let it go, just glimpse from afar.]
…
Lin Zhexia rarely registered an alternate account, but she anonymously left a reply: He was doing the right thing, not what you all think.
But this comment went completely ignored, quickly sinking like a stone-
Summer passed, and the weather gradually turned cool.
At some point, the cicadas’ chirping completely disappeared, leaves turned yellow, and temperatures dropped sharply.
Soon, people at school dressed more heavily, switching to thick No. 2 High winter uniforms. The winter uniform consisted of only one thick red coat, and students could wear their pants.
While Lin Zhexia bundled herself tightly, Chi Yao seemed impervious to cold, wearing only a thin sweater under his coat. He still appeared slender, with long, thin legs in jeans.
“Aren’t you cold?” On the way to school, Lin Zhexia couldn’t help asking.
“Are you doing this deliberately?” she said, “when everyone is dressed so bulkily, wearing less to look cool?”
Chi Yao glanced at her.
The girl before him had buried half her face in a beige scarf out of fear of the cold, only her clear eyes exposed.
“Am I sick in the head?”
“…Maybe you are sick.”
The more Lin Zhexia thought about it, the more convinced she became: “Actually, you’re freezing, but for the sake of appearances, you’re enduring the cold, putting on an act.”
Her response was a cold laugh from Chi Yao: “In this weather, worry about whether your brain has been frozen first.”
Lin Zhexia wanted to verify herself: “Your brain is more likely to freeze. Give me your hand.”
Chi Yao found her boring but still extended one hand toward her.
Lin Zhexia touched his hand, discovering it wasn’t cold at all.
She touched it again in disbelief.
This touch lingered longer.
Long enough for her to notice the faint scar on Chi Yao’s hand, as well as the young man’s warm hand temperature.
This warmth strangely reminded her of when she had applied medicine to Chi Yao’s wound.
“…” Lin Zhexia withdrew her hand. As she spoke, her breath hit the cashmere scarf, raising a wave of heat that traveled up to her ears. “Um, the bus is coming.”