Chapter 26

The commotion they caused was too loud. Eric’s companions, not far away, heard the noise and immediately stood up to check.

What they saw shocked them—their classmate had inexplicably been beaten! A black-haired, black-eyed boy had twisted Eric’s arm and pinned him firmly to the table. Another boy sat beside them, still looking shaken, with several books and two cups of drinks scattered messily on the table.

…What on earth had happened?!

The group of foreign university students immediately surrounded them. They outnumbered the others and, due to their race, were all tall and sturdy regardless of gender. But Shen Yuze, trapped right in the middle, showed no sign of fear. He stared at them coldly, without loosening his grip on the back of Eric’s neck even slightly.

Moreover, whenever one of the foreign students took a step closer, Shen Yuze twisted Eric’s arm harder, drawing pig-like screams from him.

With Eric as their “hostage,” the foreign students didn’t dare move.

Their leader was a blonde girl. She tried to calm her companions while negotiating with Shen Yuze. She spoke in English, too fast for Lu Ping’s level of hearing to follow. He concentrated hard but could only barely make out that she was threatening to call the police…

Shen Yuze didn’t take their threats seriously. Since they spoke English, he replied in English, neither humble nor arrogant, seizing control of the situation with just a few simple sentences.

Suddenly, Shen Yuze said something—and right after his words fell, the faces of all the foreign students present changed. Even Eric, who had been wailing nonstop, fell silent.

In that instant, everyone’s gazes turned to Lu Ping. It was the first time he had been stared at by so many (foreign) people, and besides feeling nervous, he found it utterly baffling.

Eric, (forced) sprawled on the table, stared straight at him and asked in accented Chinese, “…You’re a high school student?”

“Yeah.” Lu Ping didn’t understand why he was asking, but he answered honestly. “What’s wrong?”

Eric’s face turned pale. “I thought you were about my age!”

“You’re twenty, I’m seventeen. I’m just three years younger than you—we’re pretty much the same age.” Lu Ping was even more confused.

After hearing Lu Ping admit he was only seventeen, the expressions of the surrounding foreign university students grew even more “colorful.” As Eric’s friends, they naturally knew his sexual orientation, but none of them had imagined that the young boy Eric had targeted that night was a minor! According to their country’s laws, even if Eric were only eighteen, he absolutely couldn’t have any boundary-crossing behavior with a seventeen-year-old minor!

Awkwardness and silence spread throughout the café.

Finally, Shen Yuze released his grip on Eric’s hand. Without extra explanation, he gave Lu Ping a look and urged in a low voice, “What are you standing there for? Grab your stuff and let’s go.”

“Ah? …Oh.” Lu Ping had been out of the loop the whole time, but he subconsciously trusted Shen Yuze completely. As soon as Shen Yuze spoke, he immediately started packing. He swept the open textbooks and pencil case into his backpack, hurriedly zipped it up, and was about to stand and leave when he suddenly remembered something and stopped.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Lu Ping dug into his pocket and… pulled out 190 yuan.

Before heading out that day, he had specially brought the 200 yuan from his hard-earned savings. On the way to the café, he had spent 10 yuan on a crispy shrimp ball, leaving 190 yuan, which he had folded neatly before placing it all on the table.

He weighted the stack with a glass and pushed it toward Eric. “I said earlier I’d treat you to a drink. This is for the drinks. The extra is to thank you for helping me practice English for so long.”

Although Lu Ping still had no idea what had sparked or ended this conflict, a deal was a deal. He had promised to treat Eric, so he couldn’t go back on his word. Call him stubborn if you must—Eric had indeed helped him practice English, and he wanted to repay that favor as best he could.

His actions caught everyone off guard. They looked at the stubborn boy before them with complicated expressions, words piling up in their chests, yet none could capture their inner feelings.

Should they call him innocent, or foolish?

Or perhaps both?

Eric, as the person involved, felt the most conflicted. At first, he thought the boy named Louis was like him, there to find “kindred spirits” and pass the time. Then he realized Louis just wanted an English tutor, and fury surged—he felt played, and in his agitation, he had acted wrongly. If Louis’s companion hadn’t shown up, he might have made a grave mistake. And then he learned Louis was a minor… That night, his emotions had rollercoastered, his face flushing and paling repeatedly.

Now, staring at the stack of cash in front of him and the boy preparing to leave, a sudden impulse surged in Eric again.

“Louis!” he called out to Lu Ping.

Lu Ping turned back, looking at him in surprise.

Eric mustered his courage. “I’m sorry. Tonight was my fault… I’ll be in China for a long time. If you still want to learn English after you turn eighteen, come find me!”

Lu Ping blinked. “Huh?”

Before he could figure out how to respond, Shen Yuze, standing outside the crowd, suddenly spoke up. His icy words cut off their unfinished conversation: “—Lu Ping, how long do I have to wait for you?”

He stood by the door, one hand holding the open door ajar, his brows slightly furrowed.

In Lu Ping’s priorities among all people and things, Shen Yuze was always at the top.

The moment he heard those words, Lu Ping’s feet were already stepping toward him. “Coming, coming! I’m coming!”

He hurriedly caught up to Shen Yuze, trailing behind him like a little tail as they left.

Eric watched their retreating figures, one ahead and one behind, and for the first time truly understood the meaning of disappointment.

…

As night fell, the streets outside University City grew even more crowded with pedestrians.

Shen Yuze’s face was stern and silent as he strode forward on his own. Lu Ping, weighed down by his heavy backpack, dodged the surging crowds while chasing after him, looking rather disheveled.

Lu Ping had countless questions he wanted to ask.

Shen Yuze, how did you know I was here?

Shen Yuze, why did you show up right when I thought of you in my moment of crisis?

Shen Yuze, why are you so angry?

But he didn’t know how to voice any of them. It felt like saying them out loud would put him at a disadvantage again.

He could only follow silently behind Shen Yuze, like his shadow.

What he didn’t know was that his unusual quietness, without a single word, only made the Shen Yuze walking ahead even more irritated.

After school that day, Lu Ping had vanished in a flash. The more Shen Yuze thought about it, the more off it felt. He made an excuse to call Lu Mom, only to learn that Lu Ping had told her there was a school activity and he’d be home late.

Realizing Lu Ping was lying, Shen Yuze immediately had someone investigate where he had gone.

Jiaojiang City wasn’t huge, with only a few hundred thousand residents, but finding one person would be like searching for a needle in a haystack for most. For Shen Yuze, though, it was no big deal.

Soon, information from various sources reached him: Someone had seen Lu Ping board the bus toward University City after school; someone had heard him asking Chen Miaomiao about the café where the foreign university students gathered…

Unable to rest easy, Shen Yuze rushed over immediately.

Even with his swift reaction, when he arrived at the café, he still caught a heart-stopping sight—a flashy-dressed foreign youth pinning Lu Ping’s arm, with two glasses of alcohol on the table in front of them!

In a flash, Shen Yuze didn’t have time to think. He acted instantly, giving that bastard a harsh lesson.

He had thought that after something like this, the timid little mouse Lu Ping would show a panicked, aggrieved expression and run to him for comfort. Instead, Lu Ping remained his usual oblivious self and even left money for the guy!

He really was… Shen Yuze was…

Shen Yuze was about to explode with anger. He was furious at Lu Ping’s naivety and foolishness, and even more at himself for knowing full well how naive and foolish he was yet being utterly powerless against it.

When had he become such a busybody? He had intervened when a PE student hit Lu Ping with a ball; when he heard Lu Ping mocked as the Niangao Prince, he had stepped in; and this time, he had rushed over again…

It was ridiculous. At the start, he had transferred from the Capital out of sheer boredom, just to watch the drama and catch this vain little mouse’s tail. But why, the longer they spent together, did he want more and more to protect this little mouse?

“Shen Yuze… Shen Yuze!”

Lu Ping’s voice called from behind.

Shen Yuze stopped and turned, asking impatiently, “What?”

But Lu Ping wasn’t deterred by his impatience at all. The boy reached out his hand, offering something. “Your hand is hurt…”

Under the neon lights of the roadside shops, Shen Yuze saw what Lu Ping held: a Band-Aid.

Only then did Shen Yuze notice the scratch on the back of his hand, probably from the scuffle with that foreign bastard earlier.

The wound wasn’t deep—just a bit of scraped skin and a little blood. But Lu Ping fussed over this small injury, leaning in to examine Shen Yuze’s hand closely while muttering, “Such a pretty hand can’t get hurt.”

Then, the boy peeled open the Band-Aid printed with a princess pattern and carefully applied it to the back of Shen Yuze’s hand.

Shen Yuze looked down, meeting eyes with Princess Elsa on the Band-Aid.

“…Why do you carry Band-Aids with you?” Shen Yuze asked.

“Heh heh,” Lu Ping said in the tone of someone sharing a life hack, “You can’t avoid little bumps and scrapes at school.”

Bumps and scrapes? Shen Yuze thought of the bullying and exclusion Lu Ping had endured before and knew it was far more than that.

He flexed his fingers, testing a fist. The Band-Aid on the back of his hand stayed firmly in place without deforming. It was strange—clearly so childish and silly (just like Lu Ping), yet the anger about to erupt in his chest seemed sealed away by it.

Seeing Shen Yuze’s expression soften from its earlier icy glare, Lu Ping finally mustered the courage to talk about what had happened. “Shen Yuze, thanks for showing up just in time… If you hadn’t come, Eric—I mean, that foreigner—definitely would have beaten me up.”

Shen Yuze paused. “Beaten you? You think he wanted to beat you?”

“Yeah, I chatted with him for so long, wasting his time, and still had the nerve to keep asking him to tutor my English grammar. He must have gotten annoyed and wanted to hit me!”

“…” Shen Yuze thought, So he really understands nothing.

Eric’s outfit and style were very masculine. Even with the perfume and overly intimate gestures, Lu Ping chalked it up to foreign social etiquette. Of course he knew the world had “gay people”—thanks to the internet age, he saw all sorts of lives on short video apps. But those gay influencers were worlds away from his own bland, uneventful life. They passed his eyes and were forgotten; he never worried whether there might be gay people around him.

Just like he once never considered what he would do if @wonderland appeared by his side?

For a second, Shen Yuze wanted to tell him the truth. He wanted to shatter Lu Ping’s naivety, recklessness, and purity. He wanted to shout at Lu Ping: Stop being stupid! That Eric is gay—he’s into you. He’s not furious because he wants to beat you up, but because he wants to do something very lewd to you!

But when those words rushed to his lips, they spontaneously turned into something else.

“…Don’t go looking for him again,” Shen Yuze heard himself say. “If you want to learn English, you can just come ask me.”

Hearing Shen Yuze say this, Lu Ping was both surprised and delighted. He pretended to be reserved: “Wouldn’t that take up too much of your time?”

Shen Yuze laughed helplessly. He looked at the bustling University City, at the people brushing past them on the street, and then at the bandage on his hand…

“You’ve already wasted a lot of my time. This bit more doesn’t matter.”

…

That familiar Cayenne was parked in the parking lot at the entrance to University City. In the area around the school, such an expensive luxury car was truly rare. A bunch of boys crowded around the Cayenne, craning their necks and muttering about how much it cost to mod the wheels, add the interior upgrades, and install the retractable emblem.

Those prices swirled around Lu Ping’s ears. If it had been him a month ago, he definitely would have been so nervous that he wouldn’t know where to put his hands and feet.

But the current Lu Ping had evolved! He’d ridden in luxury cars so many times now—he was a mature Lu Ping!

Seeing the young master and his friend arrive, the driver hurried out of the car to open the door for them.

Lu Ping calmly followed behind Shen Yuze and got into the car.

The group of onlookers turned sour like a bunch of lemons: “Damn, whose rich young master is that?” “Which school’s? We never saw him before.” “They’re not college students! Look, they’re still wearing high school uniforms!” “It’s No. 1 High School, definitely! My little bro goes there—I’ll ask him later…”

Once the car door closed, those voices faded away.

The Shen Family’s driver was always perceptive. Seeing Lu Ping sitting in the back seat alongside Shen Yuze, the driver asked, “Young Master, should we send Lu classmate back to the North Shore first?”

How could Lu Ping accept that? He quickly said, “No need! Just drop me at the nearest bus stop—I can take the bus home myself!”

He didn’t have skin thick enough for that. Friday nights were so precious—how could he make Shen Yuze waste it on him?

But before he could finish speaking, Shen Yuze interrupted: “No, directly to Jiaojiang Haoting.”

Jiaojiang Haoting?

Lu Ping had heard of the name. It was the most famous high-rise luxury residence in Jiaojiang City. The moment it went on sale, it was crowned “Building King.” Back then, whenever he turned on the TV, it was all Building King ads. Lu Ping had even joked with his dad that once he made big money, he’d definitely buy a place at Jiaojiang Haoting for his parents to live in! Of course, a joke was just a joke.

So… Shen Yuze lived at Jiaojiang Haoting?

Lu Ping looked at Shen Yuze beside him and asked blankly, “Is there a bus stop near Jiaojiang Haoting?”

He hadn’t been there yet, so he didn’t know what buses ran directly to the North Shore.

But to his question, Shen Yuze didn’t answer directly. Instead, he said, “Lu Ping, you reek of alcohol. If you go home like this, Auntie will worry.”

“…”

“Call Auntie.” Shen Yuze handed over his phone and commanded in an unquestionable tone, “Say the school event just ended and you’re staying at my place tonight.”