Had he just healed recently?
Fu Zheng was about to explode from Tao Zhi’s distrustful look.
He ground his teeth and reached out to ruffle Tao Zhi’s face, but Tao Zhi anticipated it.
Tao Zhi covered his face and took a big step back. “Fu Zheng, don’t pinch me. It kinda hurts.”
Fu Zheng huffed and reluctantly dropped his hand. After a while, Tao Zhi scooted back over on his own.
“Anyway, forget that.” Fu Zheng changed the subject. “Let me tell you, Fu Si Heng is way too much. He won’t even let me see you. And you—you’re always so obedient to him. He says don’t see me, and you really don’t? Do you even know how long it’s been since we last saw each other?”
He had thought that with Tao Zhi studying in S City, he could hang out with him anytime.
But it turned out the opposite.
It was even worse than when Tao Zhi was still at school back home!
“He’s my guardian now,” Tao Zhi said. “My mom said to listen to him.”
Fu Zheng: “Your mom also said to get along well with me and listen to me. Did you?”
Tao Zhi: “…”
No, she hadn’t.
On the contrary, when they left home, Mom had repeatedly warned him to listen to Fu Si Heng and try not to learn bad habits from Fu Zheng.
Of course, Tao Zhi didn’t dare tell Fu Zheng that.
He scratched his cheek.
“Whatever, it’s all Fu Si Heng’s fault, not yours.” Seeing Tao Zhi hang his head, Fu Zheng felt bad blaming him and pushed all the fault onto Fu Si Heng. “If he wasn’t meddling everywhere, you wouldn’t have ditched me.”
Tao Zhi looked up again at those words.
“Right?” Seeing Tao Zhi’s expression hesitate a bit, Fu Zheng pressed immediately.
“No…” Tao Zhi wasn’t completely compliant with Fu Zheng.
At least he wouldn’t lie with his eyes wide open just to avoid getting his face pinched.
The reason he hadn’t sought out Fu Zheng wasn’t entirely because Fu Si Heng forbade it. It was also because Mom was right—hanging out with Fu Zheng made it easy to pick up bad habits. Fu Zheng always took him to places not suitable for high schoolers.
Last time it was KTV and a club…
So he needed to keep his distance from Fu Zheng and not mess around with him.
This infuriated Fu Zheng.
He retorted, “Yes, it is!”
Tao Zhi: “No, it’s not…”
Fu Zheng: “Yes!!!”
Tao Zhi: “…Really not.”
Fu Zheng: “…”
…
Fu Zheng was a very boring high schooler—Tao Zhi had always known that.
Over this little thing, he went on and on for two whole hours until dinnertime, when Fu Si Heng came to call Tao Zhi. Only then did Tao Zhi finally escape.
After dinner, Tao Zhi planned to take a walk in the manor to aid digestion. At that moment, Fu Zheng tagged along again.
Tao Zhi’s head throbbed at the sight of him now; his mind buzzed as he quickened his pace.
But at this level, how could Fu Zheng not catch up?
Fu Zheng effortlessly walked up beside Tao Zhi. Fortunately, he didn’t continue the afternoon’s topic.
Fu Zheng actually quite liked being with Tao Zhi.
Being with Tao Zhi made his mood calm and pleasant, even if they did nothing and said nothing—Fu Zheng enjoyed just quietly staying by his side.
Though he felt that way, he always worried Tao Zhi might get bored and wanted to tell him everything.
Even repeating the same line endlessly brought him joy.
Fu Zheng cherished every chance to spend time with Tao Zhi. As soon as he saw him, he stuck close.
Otherwise, he’d run off in a blink.
Wasn’t this National Day holiday just like that?
They had come home today, eaten dinner, stayed one night, and tomorrow they’d leave again.
Who knew when they’d meet next.
Fu Si Heng guarded against him like a thief.
“In mid-November, our school has a basketball game. Wanna come watch?” Seizing the moment he could still see Tao Zhi, Fu Zheng made plans in advance. “I’ll come pick you up then, how about it?”
“A game?” Tao Zhi was watering the flowers Xu Yujia had been tending. He paused at the words and looked up.
He froze.
Fu Zheng gazed at him expectantly.
The seventeen-year-old boy’s eyes burned toward him like the sun, the sincere affection and longing bursting from their depths hot enough to scorch.
So fervent it couldn’t be hidden.
Or perhaps Fu Zheng had never intended to hide it.
His mind hadn’t caught up yet—he didn’t understand why he wanted to stick to Tao Zhi so much—but his body and the emotions in his eyes had already overflowed.
Even Tao Zhi could feel it clearly.
This made Tao Zhi panic.
He hastily averted his gaze from Fu Zheng and stammered, “I-I might be busy then. Not sure if I can go.”
“Huh?” Fu Zheng froze. “Why? You just promised me this afternoon—”
“Little Zhi.”
