When Shen Yuze was very young, he had once eaten a certain candy at school. He no longer remembered the name of that candy, but it was completely different from the high-end sweets he had tasted before. The candy was wrapped in a layer of milky white shell, and when placed in the mouth, saliva quickly melted the outer shell, turning it extremely sour and astringent.
It was an especially cheap chemical sourness. Even Shen Yuze, who paid the most attention to table manners, couldn’t hold back and spat it out the first time he tasted that extreme sourness.
It was too sour. Besides the sourness, there was even a slight bitterness in the aftertaste.
The one who gave him the candy was a mischievous boy from his class. The boy grinned with the success of his prank and told him that as long as he endured the initial half-minute of sourness, it would become very sweet afterward.
Shen Yuze was skeptical of the boy’s words and didn’t attempt a second challenge, but that sour and astringent taste lingered deep in his mind. As he grew up, it was gradually overshadowed by more memories.
But now, that bitter sourness surged out from his recollections, instantly assaulting Shen Yuze’s senses.
This time, however, the sourness didn’t explode on his tongue but spread from the bottom of his heart.
He stared at Lu Ping’s bulging pocket where the love letter was hidden, and the whole person turned into a towering sour lemon.
——Lu Ping had actually received a love letter!
Who was the girl who gave Lu Ping the love letter? Shen Yuze racked his brains but couldn’t find a suitable “suspect.”
He was almost always with Lu Ping, coming and going together. The only girls he had spoken more than three words to alongside Lu Ping were their classmate Chen Miaomiao and senior Meng Xin from the third year.
Was it Chen Miaomiao? She had cracked melon seeds with Lu Ping and gossiped, and they seemed to get along well.
Was it Meng Xin? Lu Ping had fallen on his butt to save her, and she had lent him her notes.
It seemed like “irrefutable evidence,” yet also like “insufficient evidence.”
But if it wasn’t either of them, then who could it be?
An indescribable irritability wrapped around Shen Yuze’s heart.
This feeling was like encountering an unremarkable wildflower in the roadside grass. Everyone hurried past, ignoring it as it grew in wind and rain. No one discovered how beautiful and unique this flower was except for you. You carefully watered it and tended to it, knowing that soil and sunlight were its best nourishment, so you hesitated to pick it.
But one day, you saw someone else stop in front of it—your hidden treasure, which should have belonged solely to you, now had another admirer.
Shen Yuze was unhappy, but what made him even more unhappy was… he had no “legitimate” reason to interfere with Lu Ping’s opposite-sex friendships.
……
Shen Yuze’s bad mood was plainly written on his face. Normally, Lu Ping, the Shen Yuze mood detector, would have noticed his abnormality long ago.
But now, with a pink bomb tucked in his pocket and a secret in his heart, Lu Ping naturally had no attention to spare for Shen Yuze’s odd behavior.
Thus, the ignored Shen Yuze’s mood escalated from “unhappy” to “unhappy squared,” growing exponentially.
They finally made it to the last class of the afternoon.
The last period was self-study, and Shen Yuze had to go to the teacher’s office to prepare for the English speech contest. With a dark expression, he silently packed his bag.
He deliberately made a lot of noise while packing—pens and notebooks clattering loudly into his bag.
Yet Lu Ping was lost in a daze, not even glancing his way.
“Lu Ping, I’m leaving,” Shen Yuze said.
“Oh.” Lu Ping was miles away.
“I’m really leaving.” Shen Yuze raised his voice a bit. “Once I leave, I won’t come back.”
This time, Lu Ping finally pulled back some attention and looked at him, nodding. “Mm, see you tomorrow.”
“……”
Lu Ping! You’ve changed! You actually said “see you tomorrow” so perfunctorily!
Shen Yuze narrowed his eyes slightly. Before that inexplicable anger could intensify further, he grabbed his bag without looking back and left the classroom, his footsteps heavy.
Lu Ping watched Shen Yuze’s retreating back, his hand slipping into the desk pocket to touch the sharp edge of the envelope.
Lu Ping thought: Shen Yuze seemed to be in a bad mood today. Good thing he hadn’t given him the letter yet. Better to wait until he was in a better mood before handing it over!
……
So, that evening, Lu Ping took the letter home with him.
The next morning, he brought the heavy letter back to school.
He thought a night would improve Shen Yuze’s mood, but unexpectedly, the other’s face was even darker, the surrounding temperature dropping several degrees. If Lu Ping weren’t so thick-skinned, he would have been frozen solid.
Why was Shen Yuze in such a foul mood?
Lu Ping guessed: Maybe his mom had called him again? Shen Yuze’s relationship with his family had always been poor. Whenever his family came up, his face turned ugly.
It seemed today wasn’t suitable for delivering the letter either.
Day after day, Shen Yuze’s low pressure persisted for a full week, and Lu Ping carried that letter around every day for a full week too!
He had received the letter on Monday, but even by Friday, he still hadn’t managed to give it to Shen Yuze.
Moreover, during this week, he clearly felt Shen Yuze being even more “clingy” with him.
No, “clingy” wasn’t quite the right word. Shen Yuze wasn’t like the big black cat at the school back gate. How could he use that term to describe him?
But without “clingy,” Lu Ping didn’t know how else to explain Shen Yuze’s behavior.
When Lu Ping went to the school store, Shen Yuze followed; when Lu Ping skipped PE class, Shen Yuze also submitted a sick note and sat beside him; even when Lu Ping went to the bathroom, Shen Yuze stuck right by him, standing at the adjacent urinal!
Lu Ping: “……”
Lu Ping: “…………”
Lu Ping: “…………..”
Who could tolerate going to the bathroom with a pair of eyes staring straight at you!
Lu Ping gripped his belt tightly, his round little face scrunched up. “Shen Yuze, Brother Shen, Young Master Shen… I need to use the bathroom. Can you give me some privacy?”
“Why should I?” Shen Yuze crossed his arms, his expression unchanging. “We’re both guys anyway. I’ve already touched your butt—what else can’t I see?”
“……” Lu Ping’s face turned red. Could Shen Yuze stop saying such weird things? What did he mean “I’ve already touched your butt”? That was applying medicine! Medicine!
Fine.
Lu Ping threw caution to the wind, telling himself: Northerners were said to be very straightforward. They bathed in groups without dividers… Maybe for Shen Yuze from the Capital, seeing a friend’s body was perfectly normal?
Enduring immense embarrassment, Lu Ping dawdled through using the bathroom and then dawdled to the sink to wash his hands.
Shen Yuze stood just a step behind him, silent.
Lu Ping finished washing and turned off the water, then looked up into the mirror—only to accidentally meet Shen Yuze’s gaze reflected there.
So Shen Yuze had been staring at him the whole time.
The young man’s gaze was complex: probing, searching, with a certain ambitious determination, and a fierce fire hidden beneath the ice… But that complex look lasted only an instant before reverting to his usual calm, unruffled eyes.
Lu Ping suspected he had seen wrong.
“Pingping,” the Shen Yuze in the mirror called him, as if coaxing, “…is there anything you want to tell me?”
Lu Ping’s heart tightened.
He whipped around to face Shen Yuze, who was now within arm’s reach, and stammered, “Wh-why do you ask that?”
Shen Yuze seemed casual: “You’ve seemed a bit distracted this week. I’m just curious if something happened to you.”
Lu Ping: “I should be the one asking you that. You’ve had a sour face all week, acting all weird. Did something happen to you?”
“Heh, no.”
“Then… neither did I.”
First negotiation failed.
Seeing Lu Ping still refusing to admit he had received a love letter even now, Shen Yuze found it boring. He turned and walked toward the classroom with a dark face.
Lu Ping wasn’t in a hurry either. He limped after him out of the boys’ bathroom. Sure enough, Shen Yuze was waiting at the corner.
Seeing Lu Ping catch up, Shen Yuze started walking again, but slower this time.
Lu Ping followed behind, sneaking glances at him from the corner of his eye.
“Shen Yuze…” Lu Ping finally couldn’t hold back and called him softly. “I have something to ask you.”
“What?”
“I’m just asking casually, but don’t get impatient.” He reached into his pants pocket and touched the letter hidden there. Yes, he had been carrying it on him these past few days.
Shen Yuze frowned. “Tell me what it is first, then I’ll decide if I get impatient.”
“……” Lu Ping felt wronged. “When did you get such a bad temper?”
“When was my temper ever good?” Shen Yuze snapped aggressively. “Are you going to say it or not?”
Lu Ping shut up.
Second negotiation failed.
Two consecutive conversations that started abruptly and ended incoherently caused the atmosphere between them to slide further toward freezing.
With the secret of the love letter weighing on him, Lu Ping felt uneasy every second, unsure whether to give it to Shen Yuze. Meanwhile, Shen Yuze misunderstood the letter’s recipient, and the pair of “good friends” developed a rift just like that.
They didn’t speak a single word to each other the entire day.
Today was Friday. If Lu Ping didn’t deliver the love letter to Shen Yuze now, Ashley would surely have a tough weekend. Though Lu Ping had never felt romantic feelings for anyone, he could imagine how much courage that girl had mustered to hand over the letter.
He couldn’t let her down.
The moment the dismissal bell rang, Lu Ping grabbed Shen Yuze’s sleeve beside him.
Shen Yuze paused in packing his bag and turned to look at him.
“What?”
“Um…” Lu Ping asked, “I still haven’t asked that question from before.”
“Go ahead.”
“If—and I’m just saying if—one day a girl wrote you a letter, saying she’s been quietly watching you for a long time… but you actually don’t even know she exists…”
As he spoke, his hand had already slipped into the desk pocket.
He knew Shen Yuze had attended an international school in the Capital before, where the atmosphere was free and there was no such thing as “puppy love.” Boys and girls could date freely. With Shen Yuze’s looks and family background, plenty of girls must have liked him. He had probably received tons of love letters already! He must have plenty of experience handling them!
Shen Yuze’s gaze flicked to Lu Ping’s hand in the desk pocket; he even caught sight of the edge of the pink envelope. He glanced again at Lu Ping’s nervous expression, convinced he had figured out the truth.
——Lu Ping, receiving his first love letter, was excited yet shy, unsure how to respond, so he came to his “friend” for advice!
With that thought, Shen Yuze’s lips pressed into a tight line, and he tossed out a few words.
“—Hand it to the teacher.”
“…Huh???”
“Of course it has to be handed to the teacher.” Shen Yuze’s tone was exceptionally firm. “The task of high school students is to study hard. If you don’t devote all your energy to your studies, how can you get into the school of your dreams? You said yourself that the girl didn’t know ‘me’ before, so her feelings for ‘me’ are just superficial attention to my appearance, not a true meeting of minds. I’m very grateful for her interest in ‘me’, but I absolutely will not reciprocate her emotions—because the school rules clearly state that puppy love means calling the parents!”
Lu Ping: “……”
Was Shen Yuze actually such a stickler for the school rules? Lu Ping had known him for so long, but he’d never realized just how passionate he was about studying.
Lu Ping’s hand yanked back from the desk pocket.
No, no way.
This letter absolutely could not be given to Shen Yuze.
With Shen Yuze being so “iron-faced and impartial,” if he really turned the letter over to a teacher, Ashley would definitely be heartbroken…
So—this letter would have to be opened by Lu Ping himself.
After all, the real @fake-diaond was Lu Ping.
