Chapter 13 As a Man, There Are Only Two Things You Can Never Give In On

The curtains were pulled open a narrow crack. The glass blocked the mournful cries of insects and birds outside, yet it could not block the intermittent moonlight pouring down through the gap.

He said, “Very cute”?

The moment those three words leaped into her eyes, Luo Yi’s muddled brain felt as if a volcano had erupted—“Boom!” Her entire body’s blood expanded like a mushroom cloud. Every pulse of her heartbeat filled her eardrums, as if something was clamoring and itching to move.

Luo Yi checked the visitor records of her Moments. He had come around eight something in the evening, and the comment was left around ten.

In other words, he had lingered in her Moments for more than an hour?

Holy shit!

Then those “men remain silent, women shed tears” viral posts and extremely childish mood updates she had shared in her ignorant youth—had he seen those too?

Luo Yi wanted to cry but had no tears. She really wanted to bang her head against the wall.

Yet after seeing that comment of his, her mood took a sudden turn for the better.

The light from the phone screen reflected in her eyes. Two small, flickering fluorescent lights danced in the depths of her gaze.

She repeatedly savored that sentence, her heart twisting with all kinds of soft emotions, suddenly stirred.

What exactly did he mean? Was he teasing her again?

Luo Yi touched her own cheek. It was startlingly hot.

It seemed she would have even more trouble falling asleep.

For the first time, Luo Yi felt the impulse to peek into someone else’s life. So, as if possessed, she clicked into Ye Xiaoyang’s Moments.

His Moments content was very sparse. The only few posts were reposts—summaries of high school subject competition knowledge points and introductory basic knowledge of advanced mathematics compiled by others.

He had posted a few mood updates, but they only had photos, no text.

Luo Yi glanced at them. They were some landscape photos from traveling abroad during holidays—he had fed little deer in Japan, ridden an elephant in Thailand, teased little squirrels in America, and seen prairie dogs in Australia.

Uh… he seemed to be someone who quite liked small animals?

Luo Yi believed that people who held love for small animals all had soft places deep in their hearts.

Thinking this way, a circle of ripples spread across the lake of her heart.

Ai, so he was actually this kind of person—beautiful to the point of being almost unreal.

What should she do? She seemed to be losing a bit of control over her own heartbeat.

Ah, no. She should sleep.

She turned off her phone and forced herself to fall asleep.

Unfortunately, her mind was full of that comment of his, as well as every little interaction he had had with her these past few days.

Handsome, bad, and gentle.

Luo Yi suffered from insomnia.

She hugged the quilt, her mood anxious and unsettled, tossing and turning until two in the morning before she vaguely drifted into dreams.

The next morning, she stood in front of the mirror with two dark circles under her eyes, hating herself for why she had to touch her phone last night with her idle hands.

Luo Yi combed her hair with a comb. Her short hair had grown a tiny bit longer and was almost reaching her neck.

Her constitution was weak. Once her hair grew long, the nutrition easily couldn’t keep up, and the ends would turn a little dry and yellow. So she simply kept short hair.

But now, she felt a little like wanting to grow it long again.

Today was the spring outing, so no need to wear the school uniform.

She changed into a chiffon pleated white shirt paired with a denim overalls skirt, and stepped into a pair of white canvas shoes. This outfit was fresh and clean, and the little bow on the overalls skirt carried a touch of obedient sweetness.

She carried a small MCM studded backpack, only bringing her phone, some change, and other personal items, then left the house.

Taking the bus from the community entrance to No.1 High took half an hour. She timed it well and arrived at the school gate exactly at nine.

More than ten people were either standing or squatting at the school gate. She spotted Tang Kunyu, who was as tall as a utility pole, at a glance.

She jogged over. “Class monitor.”

“You’re here.” Tang Kunyu greeted her. “Wait a bit. Not everyone’s here yet.”

Just as they were talking, a black BMW X6 slowly stopped by the roadside.

The passenger door was pushed open, and Ye Xiaoyang got out of the car.

Today he was in a white shirt paired with jeans. His neat black short hair made his whole person look very energetic.

After the car’s trunk opened, he carried out several packs of bottled drinks.

The driver’s window rolled down. Ji Shu poked her head out and said, “I can just drive you over there. Isn’t it tiring carrying so many things?”

“That’s enough, Mom. You go.” This morning Ye Xiaoyang had originally planned to come alone, but Ji Shu insisted on driving him.

“This child…” Ji Shu smiled, then said to the classmates, “Everyone have fun. I’ll leave first.”

With that, she raised the window and drove off.

“His mom is so young and pretty.”

“The way she speaks is so gentle too.”

“I noticed her at the parent-teacher meeting yesterday. So envious.”

Luo Yi heard the classmates beside her whispering.

She was also envious of Ye Xiaoyang.

If her mother Yao Lan were still here, she should also be as gentle as Ji Shu, right?

“You bought so many?” Tang Kunyu directed a few male classmates to each carry one pack.

“Rich people can do whatever they want. Our Brother Ye doesn’t lack money.” Zhou Jiahang grinned cheekily. He had successfully made Ye Xiaoyang bleed a little and felt extremely proud.

Ye Xiaoyang glanced toward Luo Yi’s side. She immediately turned her little black head away like a shy quail.

If he knew she hadn’t slept well last night because of his three-word comment, he would definitely laugh at her again.

Ai, was he deliberately teasing her or not?

Thinking of this, Luo Yi felt he was quite hateful again.

Sun Yiman’s mother also drove her over. She had prepared a lot of ingredients and brought quite a few bamboo skewers.

Every classmate helped carry some of the supplies and discussed how they would barbecue later.

The remaining classmates arrived one after another. Tang Kunyu led everyone across the road to take the bus.

Liusha Bay was the last stop of Route 403. On Sunday morning the bus was empty and spacious. They almost chartered the whole vehicle.

The students swiped their cards and boarded one by one. Luo Yi didn’t have a bus card. She reached into her bag for change. She had specially brought a few coins for the ride.

She stood to the side, letting the other classmates board first.

Luo Yi had just pulled out the coins when she heard two “beep beep” sounds from the card machine.

Ye Xiaoyang casually withdrew his bus card and said to Luo Yi, “Don’t just stand there. Get on.”

Zhou Jiahang saw this scene and thought, good heavens. Helping a female classmate swipe a one-yuan bus card and still managing to put on the suave attitude of swiping a black card in a high-end mall.

Brother Ye, this show-off of ours… the level of the show-off is a bit low.

Luo Yi looked at him with a strange expression and silently carried her bag inside.

She saw there was still an empty seat beside a female classmate and sat over there.

“Chen Shuang didn’t come?” Sun Yiman turned her head and asked.

“She didn’t even sign up.” The female classmate beside Luo Yi was Chen Shuang’s deskmate, named Ding Ling.

Ding Ling said, “She didn’t do well on the midterm exam. Her mood hasn’t been very good lately.”

Sun Yiman exclaimed, “Eighth in the grade is considered not doing well? Can you leave us ordinary people a way to live?”

“Anyway, she just feels she didn’t do well. Her goal is to surpass a certain someone, but this time she was more than twenty points behind.” Ding Ling shot a look toward Ye Xiaoyang’s side.

Sun Yiman seemed to understand. “She’s really something. Why push herself so hard? Is the difference between first and eighth that big? In the end, won’t the college entrance exam still be Tsinghua or Peking?”

“The world of top students—we don’t understand.” Ding Ling shrugged, indicating she was already used to it.

Luo Yi caught a hint of something. So Chen Shuang had always taken Ye Xiaoyang as her target…

What was this called—wanting to compete with heaven itself? She must live very tiredly.

The bus ride to Liusha Island was about forty minutes. The bus swayed leisurely through the bustling city. The female classmates chattered like little sparrows, talking and laughing.

Luo Yi sat quietly in her seat, earphones plugged in, looping Karen Mok’s songs.

She hadn’t slept well last night and felt a bit sleepy. Her long eyelashes trembled lightly as she slowly closed her eyes.

Just as Luo Yi was dazed and her consciousness was drifting, someone tugged on her sleeve.

She startled and hurriedly removed her earphones. She saw Zhou Jiahang holding the back of her seat, grinning as he asked her, “Playing Honor of Kings? Come team up.”

Luo Yi’s gaze blankly passed over Zhou Jiahang and landed on Ye Xiaoyang, who was sitting by the window. He was holding his phone horizontally with two boys in the back row, chatting about the game.

The car window was open a crack. His side profile was bathed in the morning light. The sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up, carrying a kind of loose laziness.

Luo Yi said softly, “I’m not very good at it.”

“No problem. We’ll carry you.” Zhou Jiahang said.

Luo Yi couldn’t refuse and agreed to his invitation.

Zhou Jiahang pointed to the empty seat in front of him and said, “Come sit over here. Easier to communicate.”

Luo Yi picked up her bag and moved over.

Luo Yi opened the game. She hadn’t logged in for a long time and needed to update.

Previously in Tongze, the classmates around her loved playing. She had followed the trend, downloaded it, and played a few matches. Unfortunately her skills were terrible, so she didn’t have much enthusiasm for gaming.

Zhou Jiahang added Luo Yi as a friend. With a nervous and uneasy heart, she was pulled into the game room. Sure enough, her rank was the lowest.

Fortunately it was ranked matching, so the pressure wasn’t that great.

“What heroes can you play?” Zhou Jiahang asked.

“Xiao Qiao.”

“Anything else?”

“I don’t know any others.” She answered honestly. She only had this one hero she could play reasonably smoothly. Even if given an Angela, she often ulted in the wrong direction.

“OK, then later you go mid.” Zhou Jiahang instructed.

After the match started, she immediately selected Xiao Qiao.

The other three also locked in one after another. Only Ye Xiaoyang still hadn’t chosen.

Zhou Jiahang said, “Pick Li Bai. We’re just missing a jungler. Hurry and take out your Phoenix Seeking Phoenix skin and blind our dog eyes!”

Wang Changze corrected, “It’s your dog eyes. We don’t want to be represented by you, thanks.”

Ye Xiaoyang’s fingers slowly selected heroes on the left side of the screen. When five seconds remained, he finally “click” locked in.

“Holy shit, you picked Zhou Yu?” Zhou Jiahang jumped up from his seat, wanting to give Ye Xiaoyang two knuckle raps.

“Making a fuss over nothing.” Ye Xiaoyang said calmly. “My Zhou Yu is insanely strong.”

Your Zhou Yu is insanely strong, then at least show a red mastery Zhou Yu to convince everyone. What’s with this blank mastery Zhou Yu?

From the looks of it, you brought the Smite skill—are you planning to jungle with Zhou Yu? Even matching doesn’t troll people like this!

Didn’t we agree we were going to carry the girl?

The game began. The five each performed their duties. The situation was stable.

Although Zhou Yu jungling sounded fantastical, in the hands of someone who could play, any hero could be played creatively.

Luo Yi carefully crouched under the mid tower farming minions, not daring to wander around.

“Ye Xiaoyang, can you turn off the speaker?” Zhou Jiahang said. “It’s affecting my performance.”

“You’re the one who’s bad, and you’re blaming me?” Ye Xiaoyang sneered.

Every hero character had voice lines. Hearing Zhou Jiahang say that, Luo Yi perked up her little ears and listened for a moment.

“As a man, there are only two things that cannot yield: victory, and Xiao Qiao.”

Luo Yi’s brain buzzed. Her hand trembled, and she missed a siege minion.