Chapter 21: Yu Ting’s Ears Are Very Soft.

The room was silent. Lu Jue lay completely still, making it impossible to tell if he was awake or asleep.

Yu Ting walked to the bedside. The light spilling in from the living room was shallow. Lu Jue’s eyes were closed, and the towel draped over his forehead hadn’t moved an inch, exactly the same as before Yu Ting had gone to shower.

Yu Ting removed the towel and gently pressed the back of his hand to Lu Jue’s forehead.

Still hot, but not as severe as before.

The fever was finally breaking.

Yu Ting let out a sigh of relief. Just as he was hesitating about whether to wake Lu Jue to take more medicine, a very soft sensation brushed against the back of his hand—it was Lu Jue’s eyelashes.

Lu Jue lifted his eyelids.

His pitch-black pupils were still tinged with a faint red. His Adam’s apple bobbed once, as if speaking was difficult. “Done showering?”

“Yeah.” Yu Ting withdrew his hand. “You should take your medicine again.”

Lu Jue started to sit up, his movements excruciatingly slow, each one seemingly full of pain. Yu Ting bent slightly, slipping both arms under Lu Jue’s armpits to gently lift him up.

The young man had just finished bathing. His hair and body carried the exact same scent as Lu Jue. His slightly pointed chin was practically within reach.

Lu Jue’s eyes lowered. Without resistance, he allowed Yu Ting to prop him against the headboard.

Yu Ting handed over the medicine. “I’ll come back in four hours to check your temperature.”

“Okay.”

Yu Ting left. The moment the door clicked shut, Lu Jue raised his eyes. The haze within them receded, and the corner of his mouth lifted ever so slightly.

In the dead of night, Yu Ting came back again. After confirming Lu Jue’s fever had truly subsided, he was finally able to fall asleep, relieved.

When his alarm clock went off, he opened his eyes. It took him a few seconds to remember he wasn’t at his own home.

After changing and stepping out, he was surprised to find Lu Jue already in the living room, his complexion completely back to normal.

His body might be weak, but his recovery ability was remarkably strong.

The range hood hummed in the kitchen. Lu Jue said to him, “The housekeeper is making breakfast. What do you want to eat?”

Since Lu Jue was moving in, an housekeeper came at set times to cook three meals a day.

Yu Ting asked for a bowl of noodles. The housekeeper, a very reserved and quiet woman in her fifties, brought out a steaming, fragrant bowl of seafood noodles, accompanied by a plate of crispy pickled radish strips, a plate of oyster pancakes, and a small dish of chili oil with crushed nuts.

Yu Ting ate everything in silence. Before leaving, he went to grab the boxed meal he’d put in the refrigerator.

He had brought two containers the day before. Since Lu Jue hadn’t eaten any, it could serve as his lunch today.

Opening the refrigerator, he found the spot where he’d left the containers empty.

Yu Ting carefully searched again but found no trace of the boxed meal in the fridge. A thought suddenly struck him. He walked over to the trash can, and sure enough, the boxed meal was mixed in with a pile of fruit peels and rinds.

Just then, the housekeeper walked in holding dishes. Seeing Yu Ting looking at the trash, she immediately tensed up. “Is something wrong, classmate?”

Today was her first day on a trial basis. Her duties only included cooking three meals and cleaning up. The salary was five times the local average! The only requirements were to be quiet and able to cook local Lingjiang home-style dishes—so simple it was almost unbelievable.

She had nearly thought it was a scam and almost didn’t come.

Don’t be nervous. From the moment she’d stepped in, she’d been extremely cautious, absolutely certain she hadn’t made a single mistake! Could it be… she still wasn’t meeting expectations?

Five times the salary! The housekeeper looked at Yu Ting anxiously.

“It’s nothing.” Yu Ting looked up. “Taking out the trash.”

He nodded at the housekeeper and quickly walked out.

Lu Jue glanced at his empty hands. “Where’s the boxed meal?”

“Got hungry in the middle of the night. Ate it.” Yu Ting’s expression didn’t change. “I forgot.”

Lu Jue asked, “Are you eating at the cafeteria for lunch?”

Yu Ting wasn’t a picky eater. He said, “I’ll figure it out at lunch.”

Lu Jue’s fever was gone, so he had to go to school too. It was only a few minutes’ walk from the apartment.

They were the first ones to arrive at the classroom. As soon as he sat down, Yu Ting pulled out the textbook he’d need for the upcoming class, then put his head down to catch up on sleep.

He’d only managed to sleep three hours the entire previous night and was dead tired.

In the summer, dawn broke early. By a little past seven, the sun was already brilliant, yet its warmth wasn’t scorching when it touched the skin. It bathed the young man in a crisp, refreshing light. He slept very quietly, his entire face buried in his arms, exposing only his ears.

Bathed in sunlight, Yu Ting’s ears turned translucent, glowing. Lu Jue’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Yu Ting’s ears must be very soft.

Soon, other students began to trickle in.

Seeing Yu Ting at his desk, a male student swallowed the last few bites of his oily pancake in a hurry. He put down his backpack and pulled out his workbook, flipping to the dog-eared page. With practiced ease, he turned to go find Yu Ting, but as he turned around, he was met with a cold gaze.

Lu Jue’s face wore an expression of utter standoffishness, warning everyone away. The male student shivered, suddenly remembering a thread he’d seen on Tieba the night before.

It was a photo confession thread featuring a few of the school’s most popular girls, with over ten thousand replies. Last night, he’d gone to spam it like usual.

[WTF, the senior year boss who’s been chasing after the School Beauty got beaten up and sent to the City Hospital!]

[Seriously?! Who did it?]

[Absolutely true! My mom works at the City Hospital. I saw it with my own eyes when I was bringing her dinner. A whole bunch of his friends were messed up too, looked like street thugs… If you don’t believe me, ask your senior friends tomorrow. He’s definitely calling in sick.]

[Whispering: I think I saw something… After school, the new sophomore Transfer Student followed them into the back alley.]

[You saw wrong. Taking on a whole group and sending them all to the hospital? That’s a joke.]

Whether he’d seen wrong or not, Lu Jue’s gaze just now had frankly terrified the male student. He gave up on his original plan and silently prayed for the monthly exams to come quickly.

They were seated based on their grades. The top of the grade, the top of the class, would definitely be Yu Ting. He had no chance for that spot. However, he was confident he could get the second-highest score in the class.

If Yu Ting chose the last row, he’d choose the last row too. He had to become the Academic Genius’s deskmate!

~

Yu Ting slept until the class bell rang. He glanced sideways at Lu Jue.

Lu Jue was scrambling to finish yesterday’s math homework.

Yu Ting watched for a few moments, the corners of his mouth tightening slightly.

All wrong.

The teacher hadn’t arrived yet. Sensing Yu Ting’s gaze, Lu Jue turned his head. “Need something?”

Yu Ting paused, pulled out his scratch paper, and quickly began writing. After a few minutes, he slid it over to Lu Jue.

“The correct answers.”

Lu Jue raised an eyebrow. “This is today’s homework. You haven’t done it?”

Yu Ting had finished it during breaks the day before. “I did it.”

Lu Jue asked, “Wouldn’t it be easier to just let me copy yours? Why write it all out again?”

Yu Ting replied euphemistically, “Different method for solving them. If you copy mine directly, the teacher will easily notice.”

He had spontaneously come up with a simpler solution, so Lu Jue could understand it easily.

Anyone who’d studied a little high school math should get it.

A faint smile playing on his lips, Lu Jue took the scratch paper.

Over the next few breaks, the several boys who usually flocked to Yu Ting with questions couldn’t get a word in edgewise. As soon as class ended, Lu Jue would have a problem to ask Yu Ting about.

When lunch break arrived, Yu Ting packed up his desk to head to the cafeteria. Just as he pushed back his chair, Lu Jue called out to him. “Yu Ting.”

Yu Ting looked over. “Another problem?”

“No.” Lu Jue pointed at his back with his index finger. “It hurts like hell. I can’t stand up.”

“…”

In the end, it was Yu Ting who supported Lu Jue on the walk back to the Residential Area.

The housekeeper left as soon as she finished cooking. On the table sat the freshly prepared meal. The dishes and chopsticks would be tidied when she came back in the afternoon to cook dinner.

Two sets of bowls and chopsticks were laid out on the dining table. Lu Jue shut the door behind them and, still leaning heavily against Yu Ting, coughed several times. “Stay and eat together. You’ll still need to help me get to school this afternoon.”

Yu Ting considered it for a moment, then nodded. “Okay.”

The dishes were local home-style cooking: three dishes and a soup. Only the rice stood out as special.

An incredibly rich rice fragrance. Each grain was distinct and chewy, glistening with a natural sheen of oil. Just the rice alone would be enough to eat two bowls or more.

Yu Ting ate two bowls. Lu Jue also had a good appetite and ate two bowls.

There was still some food left on the plates. Yu Ting polished it all off.

The only problem was the yam, mung bean, and spare rib soup. There was just too much. He was about to get himself another bowl when Lu Jue stopped him.

“Leave some for me. I still want to drink it this afternoon.”

Yu Ting was a little surprised.

It wasn’t a stereotype; he’d just heard Zhang Minhua mention it once. At Lu Garden, even new ingredients would be discarded if they’d been on hand for a few hours without being used, never mind leftovers.

But since Lu Jue said so, Yu Ting put the bowl down. He was about to do the dishes when Lu Jue raised an eyebrow. “If you do the housekeeper’s work, it’ll just make her more anxious and overthink things.”

Yu Ting remembered how tense the housekeeper had been that morning. He nodded and let it go.

Lu Jue’s place was just too close to the school. They’d come back, eaten lunch, and it wasn’t even half past twelve yet.

Being too full to nap immediately, Lu Jue slowly shuffled back to his room and returned with an armful of brand-new workbooks.

“Let’s do some problems to digest the food.”

Yu Ting’s eyes lit up.

Lu Jue’s collection of workbooks was incredibly complete. Several of them were perpetually sold-out hits, impossible to find in local bookstores.

They did problems right up until it was almost time for class, then Yu Ting helped Lu Jue walk back to the school.

As Yang Shuyun and a colleague were walking toward the teaching building, they spotted two familiar figures disappearing into the stairwell.

After a moment of surprise, Yang Shuyun was filled with gratification. Yu Ting and Lu Jue were getting along so well. Yu Ting would certainly help Lu Jue quickly integrate into the big collective of Grade 11 Class 3.

Her colleague said something beside her, but Yang Shuyun didn’t catch it. She turned her head with a smile. “What was that?”

The colleague also smiled. “I said you’re lucky. Your first time as a Homeroom Teacher, and you get a good class. First in the grade in every monthly exam so far. This month, the first place in the grade will definitely be Grade 11 Class 3 again.”

…

When he arrived home that evening, Zhao Rufei was waiting for him in the living room, as usual.

After not seeing Yu Ting for a full day and night, Zhao Rufei was rather unused to it. She signed, “How is Little Lu?”

“His fever’s gone.”

Zhao Rufei nodded and signed again, “He’s sick and has no one to cook. I’ll make two boxed meals tomorrow morning. You can bring one for him.”

As Yu Ting changed his shoes and walked in, he considered telling her that Lu Jue was exactly the unattainable Young Master that Zhang Minhua had spoken of, but in the end, he decided against it.

Yu Ting agreed. Just as he was about to return to his room, he remembered something. He turned back and asked, “Mom, can I take two pots of the flowers?”

Zhao Rufei nodded, signing, “What do you need them for?”

Yu Ting thought of Lu Jue’s large but empty balcony and scratched his chin. “For a friend.”

The next morning, before the sun was even up, Yu Ting went out to the yard and picked two pots of the Endless Summer Hydrangeas that were blooming the best.

His first impression of Lu Jue had been when Lu Jue wanted to plant Endless Summer Hydrangeas in his yard.

He wrapped them in paper bags, then put two plastic bags over them for good measure, and carried them to the bus stop.

He took the earliest bus. There were quite a few students and office workers on board, but it wasn’t too crowded. The flowers wouldn’t get crushed.

When the bus reached the No. 2 High School stop, Yu Ting got off and checked the time. It wasn’t even seven o’clock yet.

He found a spot near the station sign where no one was standing and set down the flowers. Then he dialed Lu Jue’s number.

The call was answered after two rings.

“Are you at home or at school?” Yu Ting said directly. “I brought two pots of flowers.”

“Home.” Lu Jue’s voice sounded like he hadn’t yet woken up.

Yu Ting hung up, picked up the flowers, crossed the crosswalk, and entered the Residential Area across the street.

Just as he was nearing Building 6, a paper airplane suddenly flew down from the sky, landing right at his feet.

It was folded from a sheet of scratch paper, covered in Yu Ting’s handwriting.

They’d been doing problems at Lu Jue’s house yesterday afternoon. There were no pencils around, so they’d used pens.

Yu Ting’s eyelids fluttered gently. He bent down to pick up the paper airplane, then looked up, accurately pinpointing the second floor.

The newly risen sun illuminated the balcony of apartment 201. Lu Jue stood there in a black tank top, the several wounds on his shoulder already scabbed over. He held a pink toothbrush between his teeth, and in his other hand was an identical paper airplane.

Just like that very first time, he cast it downward. The paper airplane, inscribed with mathematical formulas, caught the first rays of morning sunlight and flew steadily into Yu Ting’s arms.

Lu Jue pulled out the toothbrush, the corner of his mouth, still dotted with a bit of toothpaste foam, slightly lifting. He leaned on the balcony railing and greeted Yu Ting. “Good morning, Lele.”