Chapter 71
Law and Finance rarely had a shared elective, so for once they could sit together in the same large lecture hall.
Looking at the empty seat beside Lin Huaixi, Liu Zhengnian asked in confusion, “Where’s Qi Wang?”
Lin Huaixi stared blankly ahead, lost in thought, and did not respond.
After asking three times with no result, Liu Zhengnian had no choice but to shake his shoulder. “Huaixi, what are you thinking about?”
Lin Huaixi turned around slowly. Only after staring at him for three whole seconds did his wandering thoughts return. “I—I wasn’t thinking about anything.”
Liu Zhengnian: “…” Could you at least pretend a little better when you lie?!
He did not dwell on that and repeated, “Where’s Qi Wang?”
It was an ordinary enough question, but Lin Huaixi’s lashes trembled lightly, and within a few breaths his face reddened at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if steam might start rising from it.
Liu Zhengnian, being as straight as a steel rod, had never seen such a reaction before and was startled. “What’s wrong with you? Do you have a fever? Why did your face suddenly get so red?”
There was no mirror nearby. Although Lin Huaixi could not see himself, he could definitely feel the heat on his face. Under Liu Zhengnian’s gaze, his shame-filled eyes grew watery, and he hurriedly looked for somewhere to hide. “I’m fine.”
Seeing Lin Huaixi bend over and curl into a ball, as though he wanted to bury his head in his bag, Liu Zhengnian grew even more worried and reached to pull him up. “Don’t be so distant. Let me check your temperature. If you really have a fever, don’t tough it out. I’ll take you to the infirmary.”
“I’m really fine.” Lin Huaixi pressed the back of his hand to his face, revealing only a pair of eyes. “Why are you asking about Qi Wang?”
A huge question mark popped up over Liu Zhengnian’s head. Finally sensing something was off, he narrowed his eyes. “That doesn’t look like a fever. What exactly happen—”
Liu Zhengnian suddenly seemed to realize something and squinted. “It’s because of Qi Wang, isn’t it? You blush the second you hear his name. Ah, I know now!”
Liu Zhengnian’s voice was loud, and the next sentence was about to come out. Every nerve in Lin Huaixi’s body drew tight as a string, his reason teetering on the edge of collapse. In a panic, he lunged to cover Liu Zhengnian’s mouth.
At the same time, Liu Zhengnian’s voice rang in his ear. “You must have had a fight with Qi Wang. That’s why your face is this red from anger!”
Lin Huaixi: “……”
His mind went blank for three seconds. He stared at Liu Zhengnian, his expression turning extremely strange, then awkwardly sat back down. “Ah. You’re so smart. You guessed it. I did have a fight with Qi Wang.”
Liu Zhengnian lifted his chin, looking absurdly pleased with himself. “My observation skills are top-tier. You can’t hide something like that from me.”
Lin Huaixi glanced at him, and his mood suddenly became complicated.
He really could not mock Liu Zhengnian for being a silly fool, because he himself used to be exactly like this.
He had not been awakened to anything at all, and his thoughts had never once strayed toward romance. Qi Wang had liked him for so long—facing someone like him, Qi Wang must have felt pretty helpless too.
After feeling sorry for Qi Wang for three seconds, Lin Huaixi let out a long sigh again.
Knowing it now was useless anyway. He could not respond to Qi Wang. After all, they were just good brothers.
“Qi Wang had something to do today, so he asked the professor for leave,” Lin Huaixi said casually.
Liu Zhengnian nodded. “And why weren’t you in the dorm last night either? Did you go to see Qi Wang?”
Given Liu Zhengnian’s way of thinking, there was no way he would take the matter in that direction. Even if Lin Huaixi accidentally said something wrong, Liu Zhengnian would probably auto-correct it for him.
Lin Huaixi relaxed. “Qi Wang got drunk last night, so I went to—”
—“Xixi, if I locked you up, would you finally stop going to them?”
!!!
Lin Huaixi’s pupils shrank sharply, and he shot to his feet.
He had been too shocked and panicked the night before. His brain had already ceased functioning over the simple fact that Qi Wang liked him, and he had not had the spare capacity to think about anything else.
Only now did he finally register the bitterness, grievance, and resentment hidden in those words. Maybe that had been the catalyst that pushed Qi Wang to do something like that while drunk.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Faced with Liu Zhengnian’s bewildered expression, Lin Huaixi’s eyes lit up. He shook Liu Zhengnian by the shoulders in excitement. “Thank you! Otherwise I would have forgotten something this important!”
“What important thing?” Liu Zhengnian asked curiously.
But Lin Huaixi had already sunk into deep thought again and no longer paid him any attention.
That line had been dripping with jealousy. Qi Wang did not want him going to them anymore.
Them????!!
A sentence simple enough for an elementary schooler to understand made Lin Huaixi’s brain crash for a full minute before he finally managed to sort it out.
Which meant there was not just one person. At least two people liked him, and they must have spent a fair amount of time around him, enough for Qi Wang to get jealous to this extent.
So was he really that popular? Then who were they?!
Stunned and confused, Lin Huaixi pressed his left hand over his slightly trembling right hand and forced himself to take a deep breath, trying to calm down.
If there was no obvious answer, then he would just use the process of elimination.
First, the three scumbag leads could be ruled out. They liked Qi Wang, not him. That meant the people who spent a lot of time around him, and who knew both him and Qi Wang, were…
Lin Huaixi’s eyes went round. Like a rusty machine, his joints emitted a tooth-aching creak as he slowly turned to look at Liu Zhengnian and Zhang Yunqiu.
It could not be those two, could it?
Liu Zhengnian had his head buried in his desk, crunching on instant noodles, while Zhang Yunqiu grinned foolishly at a video on his phone. Sensing Lin Huaixi’s stare, both turned around, their eyes full of such clear, uncomplicated stupidity that anyone could see straight through them.
Lin Huaixi turned back expressionlessly. “……”
Ever since Qi Wang had confessed, Lin Huaixi—who had previously understood nothing—seemed to have had his romantic channels forcibly opened and now possessed the ability to identify gay vibes at a glance.
Those two, however, let alone secretly crushing on anyone, probably had not even figured out what type they liked. No matter how he looked at it, it could not be them.
But once he ruled them out, the whole thing became a dead end. Lin Huaixi racked his brains until his head hurt, yet still could not figure out who “they” were.
Who exactly liked him so much that Qi Wang was jealous to this extent? Step forward already!
Unable to solve this, Lin Huaixi could not focus on anything else. He drifted through the entire day in a daze, until Sun Baiyi called him.
“Xixi, are you done with class? Do you have time to walk around with me a bit?”
Lin Huaixi froze for a few seconds before remembering that Sun Baiyi had specially come to see him, and that he had completely forgotten about him.
That was a terrible way to treat a friend.
Sounding apologetic, Lin Huaixi said, “I just finished class. Wherever you want to go, I’ll go with you.”
“Let’s walk along the seaside. I heard the view there is especially nice.”
The school was near the sea, but in a remote area, so there were few tourists around. Taking a stroll by the shore at dusk was not only scenic but also romantic, perfect for cultivating feelings.
Lin Huaixi did not see through Sun Baiyi’s little plan and agreed at once. He even bought him milk tea and snacks, afraid he might get hungry.
When Sun Baiyi accepted them, he was deeply moved, gazing at Lin Huaixi with melting affection. “Xixi, you’re so good to me.”
Lin Huaixi pressed his lips together. Feeling guilty, he forced a smile.
They walked side by side along the beach in silence. Sun Baiyi bit down on his straw and then sneaked a glance at Lin Huaixi.
The evening glow lit up the whole sky. Lin Huaixi had his head slightly lowered, his profile soft and fine, edged with a wash of orange light that gave him a fluffy, warm texture. Even his clear, bright eyes had been dyed a warm shade.
This version of Lin Huaixi was especially beautiful, the kind that made people want to draw closer against their will.
Sun Baiyi’s heart itched. The urge to confess surged up in him again, but he knew the timing was not right, so he could only swallow the words back down and look at Lin Huaixi with deep, wordless feeling. “Xixi, do you have anyone you like? Or a type you like?”
The word “like” tugged directly at one of Lin Huaixi’s heartstrings. He looked up at Sun Baiyi, his expression extremely complicated.
Sun Baiyi also noticed something was wrong with him and stopped in place.
The two of them halted at the same time, meeting each other’s gaze in silence. Waves rolled gently to shore, and beneath the sound of the sea, their heartbeats seemed to echo together. The atmosphere became completely different from before.
Lin Huaixi had spent so long without finding an answer that his instinct was to ask someone else for help. Other than Qi Wang, Sun Baiyi was his best friend, and there were some things he could only ask him.
“Sun Baiyi, I want to ask you something. It might sound a little strange, so don’t overthink it, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
Lin Huaixi licked his dry lips, his ears reddening without him realizing it. “If everyone’s just good friends, but one of them happens to like you—not anyone specific, okay, and it’s not necessarily something happening to me. What I mean is… do you get what I’m saying?”
His gaze flickered, and he looked at Sun Baiyi with cautious hope, wanting him to understand the hidden meaning and give him a little advice.
But Sun Baiyi’s reaction was the exact opposite of what he had expected.
Sun Baiyi went completely rigid, like his soul had left his body. After five or six seconds, he suddenly came back to life, chest heaving violently, face flushing redder and redder, so agitated that he could barely breathe.
A giant question mark popped up over Lin Huaixi’s head. Just as he was about to ask, Sun Baiyi suddenly stepped forward and seized his hand in a tight grip.
“Xixi, when did you find out?” Sun Baiyi’s voice was shaking so hard he nearly bit his tongue.
Lin Huaixi stopped dead, staring at him in disbelief. “Y-you—you knew too?!”
So even Sun Baiyi had realized that Qi Wang liked him, while he himself had remained completely clueless? Was he really this slow?
Sun Baiyi’s gaze traced over Lin Huaixi’s brows and eyes inch by inch, not missing a single subtle expression. Lin Huaixi looked so unbearably cute that Sun Baiyi felt as though he had been struck straight through the heart. The corners of his lips lifted, and his heart quivered.
He knew the time had come.
Taking a deep breath, he looked at Lin Huaixi with all the tenderness in the world, every word accompanied by the thunderous pounding of his heart.
“Xixi, I originally wanted to prepare myself better, but I didn’t expect you’d already noticed. Yes—I like you!”
Lin Huaixi: ……???!!!
Wait, what had Sun Baiyi just said… he liked him? Sun Baiyi liked him too?!
The three of them had grown up together and had always been so close. With his two best friends striking from both sides, Lin Huaixi’s brain finally gave up and shut down completely.
So Sun Baiyi was included in the “them” Qi Wang had spoken of. But Sun Baiyi was a scumbag lead—how could he possibly like him?!
And weren’t they just good friends? Why did they all have to go and like him?!
