Shen Yuze mercilessly rejected Chen Miaomiao’s study invitation, and the little girl left with a string of whimpers.
Lu Ping couldn’t stand it anymore and said, “After all, she’s a classmate. Couldn’t you leave her a bit of face? You’re way too unsympathetic toward the fairer sex.”
Shen Yuze shot him a sidelong glance. “Hmm, you’re right—I’m not as sympathetic as you. After all, you’re the one chasing after that beautiful rich widow.”
“…” Lu Ping’s face flushed with embarrassment. “Can we drop that already?!”
Afterward, the two returned to the fifth floor. Lu Ping helped Shen Yuze pick out several reference books and workbooks, all ones the teachers had recommended in class. This month’s exam covered six subjects.
When Shen Yuze saw the stack of books piled over half a meter high—a veritable “mountain of books”—even someone as unflappable as him couldn’t help but change expressions a few times.
“You’re not messing with me, are you?” Shen Yuze muttered.
“How much did you hate studying before? This amount is totally normal for high school students.” Lu Ping shrugged. “Anyway, welcome to the real world.”
Lu Ping wandered around the Library Tower a few times. He’d already bought all his own reference books long ago; he just needed to diligently work through them a few times. He felt the money in his pocket and detoured to the elementary school section to buy his little sister a bilingual set of the Princess Elsa storybook.
He’d deliberately avoided Shen Yuze while picking out the book, but he’d forgotten that the Library Tower had a single checkout counter!
So, amid a crowd of peers clutching high school reference books, Lu Ping stood out like a sore thumb—one hand holding the Princess Elsa storybook and the other an Elsa Princess umbrella.
Shen Yuze’s probing gaze shifted between his two hands.
Lu Ping stammered, “I-I can explain!”
Shen Yuze hummed. “Go ahead and explain. Whether I believe you or not is my business.”
Lu Ping: “…”
Lu Ping’s face turned red under the stares of the people around him. He wanted to put the princess storybook back, but before he could move, Shen Yuze actually took it from him and slipped it between his own reference books.
At checkout, the fairy tale book with its light blue cover blended in seamlessly among the dozen or so reference books, drawing no attention whatsoever.
He’d bought quite a few books, and the receipt printed out as a long strip. Shen Yuze pulled out his credit card and paid directly.
This was another way he differed from Lu Ping—Lu Ping used cash.
The Library Tower’s book-wrapping method hadn’t changed in decades: no plastic bags, just kraft paper wrapped around the books, tightly bound with plastic string—practical and eco-friendly.
Shen Yuze had bought so many that the staff tied them into two stacks. Lu Ping offered to carry one, but Shen Yuze dodged.
Shen Yuze: “You can’t handle it.”
“What’s so heavy about that?” Not wanting to be looked down on, Lu Ping flexed his arm in a strongman pose. “Don’t let my slim build fool you. Whenever the gas tank ran empty, I was the one hauling it to the station to refill. I can shoulder a fifty-kilo full tank, so how could I not manage a few pounds of books?”
Last year, his dad had undergone lumbar spine surgery, and the doctor said he couldn’t lift heavy objects anymore. But Lu Dad needed a gas tank for his street stall. The empty stainless steel canister weighed nearly twenty kilos, and full of liquefied gas, it was even heavier. From then on, underage Lu Ping had stepped up as the family’s “brawn.”
Lu Ping had said all this to show off his strength, but he hadn’t expected to see a flash of astonishment on Shen Yuze’s face.
Lu Ping suddenly realized something and probed, “Young Master Shen, you don’t even know what a gas tank is, do you?”
“Of course I do. I’ve seen them elsewhere.” Shen Yuze replied immediately. “I just never knew you had to take them to a station to refill.”
“Of course you have to refill them. Otherwise, where would new gas come from?”
“…” Shen Yuze paused, then answered awkwardly, “I thought you just pressed the button on the stove, and the gas came.”
This time, it was Lu Ping who fell silent.
He really wanted to mock Shen Yuze for his lack of life skills, but he quickly realized that his own “life” wasn’t “common knowledge” to Shen Yuze.
In Shen Yuze’s world, pressing the stove button brought gas, buying anything meant swiping a credit card, outings always came with a chauffeured car, and winter and summer breaks meant overseas trips.
Was such a life perfect? The old Lu Ping would have said, “Yes, that’s the perfect life I dreamed of.”
But Lu Ping thought back to Shen Yuze’s confrontation with Wang Shiya… He realized Shen Yuze’s life wasn’t as flawlessly perfect as he’d imagined.
“Shen Yuze, you’re nothing like what I thought you were,” Lu Ping said earnestly, gazing at the person before him.
This piqued Shen Yuze’s interest. “How so?”
“I used to think you were this perfect top-scorer god, but turns out you’re bad-tempered, hate exercise, don’t pay attention in class, swear and throw punches, and have zero life skills…”
Blunt Lu Ping didn’t notice that with every point he made, Shen Yuze’s face darkened a shade.
“So?” Shen Yuze forced a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Disappointed? Ideal image shattered?”
“No.” Lu Ping shook his head firmly. “I think the imperfect you feels more real.”
……
When they left the Library Tower, the drizzle had stopped. That luxury Cayenne was parked by the roadside. The driver hurried over as soon as he saw them, took their books, and loaded them into the trunk.
Lu Ping got in the car, and Shen Yuze instructed the driver to drop him at the bus stop.
Shen Yuze had originally wanted to drive Lu Ping straight home, but Lu Ping politely declined. “My place is on the North Shore. It’d take too long round-trip. Plus, your car is too flashy. We live in an urban village—no parking there anyway.”
They reached the bus stop in no time.
By coincidence, Lu Ping’s bus was just pulling out. Buses across the river ran every half hour, so missing this one meant a long wait. Lu Ping didn’t even have time to say goodbye to Shen Yuze before rushing onto the platform, swiping his card, and boarding.
He hadn’t steadied himself when the bus started moving.
He bolted from the front to the back right away. The ticket seller called out, “Young man, no running on the bus!”
Lu Ping pretended not to hear.
At the rear, he yanked open the window and leaned halfway out, waving frantically at the Cayenne by the roadside.
“Shen Yuze, goodbye—and thank you!!” Lu Ping cupped his hands into a megaphone by his mouth. Words he’d been too shy to say face-to-face now came easily from afar. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me! Thank you for beating those guys for me! Thank you for doing what I’ve always wanted to but never dared!”
Countless times, whenever those people called him “Glutinous Cake Prince,” Lu Ping had itched to punch their stupid faces. But he couldn’t—because one punch would bring the homeroom teacher, the grade director, a disciplinary record… and worst of all, it would break his parents’ hearts.
So he’d endured it all this time.
But Shen Yuze had done it all for him.
“And—thank you for inviting me to the bookstore today! I was really—so—happy!!!”
The clouds had cleared, sunlight bathing the boy’s face, making him look like a golden, fluffy glutinous cake.
Hearing his shouts, the Cayenne’s rear window slowly rolled down. Shen Yuze leaned back in his seat, a hint of helplessness and the faintest smile on his face.
He didn’t have Lu Ping’s thick skin to “confess” so enthusiastically on a bus, ignoring all the passengers’ stares.
He seemed like such a timid mouse usually—how was he so bold now?
The bus carried Lu Ping slowly away, but his vibrant voice seemed to linger in Shen Yuze’s ears.
Only when the bus vanished at the street’s end did Shen Yuze’s smile fade.
“Young Master,” the driver said from the rearview mirror, his tone exceedingly respectful, “shall we head home now?”
“Home?” Shen Yuze murmured the word, closing his eyes wearily. “Yeah, let’s go back.”
……
No city lacks for rich people.
Jiaojiang Haijing was a luxury complex on the South Shore of the Jiao River, the “king of buildings” in Jiaojiang City. All high-rises with vast spacing between them for maximum privacy—only the wealthy elite lived there.
Before transferring to Jiaojiang, Shen Yuze’s financial advisor had quickly snapped up an apartment for him: three bedrooms, two living rooms, 220 square meters. From the 270-degree panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows, he could overlook the entire Jiao River. Smart appliances throughout, plus 24-hour butler service… Yet the mansion housed only him, making it feel inevitably empty.
After he turned fifteen, his father Shen Guoning had mostly left him alone.
Shen Guoning never lacked lovers, nor children. His first wife had been a political marriage; after bearing a son, they divorced. Officially a friendly split, but really, his secretary had used her pregnancy to force her way in, producing a daughter.
