Bite Your Fingertips

14th -【Neighbor】

Chu Yu opened his eyes. The sun was shining a bit brightly outside his window.

He didn’t dream all night, and for some reason, he wasn’t used to it.

Squinting his eyes, he blankly hugged the quilt for a while, then raised his hand and inexplicably punched the wall hard— Dammit, it hurts so fucking much!

Chu Yu uttered a ‘hiss’ as he gasped in pain while holding his red fingers.

Sigh, alas, sure enough, I didn’t awaken any magical powers like copper skin and iron bones.

Pity.

After sleeping, his mood had mostly stabilized.

Chu Yu rolled twice on the bed, then cheerfully jumped out to wash his face and rinse his mouth.

When he looked in the mirror, he found a tuft of hair disorderly sticking out on top of his head. Chu Yu pressed down on the tuft of hair with his left hand and held his toothbrush in his right. Recalling something, he bit his toothbrush and grabbed two glasses of water to irrigate the pot of Strelitzia in the corner.

Before leaving his room, that tuft of hair had finally been successfully suppressed, saving an intact hairstyle, so Chu Yu was in a good mood as he prepared to attend class.

As he opened the door and walked out, the neighboring door also opened at the same time.

Chu Yu looked up— Lu Shi?

Chu Yu stood in place, blinked his round eyes, then expressionlessly turned around to open his dormitory door. He entered, closed the door, reopened the door, and walked out.

He looked again and Lu Shi was still standing there.

Chu Yu murmured, “Turns out he’s not a hallucination…”

Lu Shi glanced over at the handful of wet hair on Chu Yu’s head, and inexplicably recalled the feeling of his wet, soft hair during his meeting with Chu Yu the night before.

He replied, “Hm, I’m not.”

Perhaps because he’d just woken up, Lu Shi’s voice was slightly hoarse and his countenance showed a bit of unconcealed frostiness.

After he finished speaking, he turned around and walked downstairs.

Chu Yu followed him down. He was surprised, but after thinking about it, he felt that it would be abnormal if Lu Shi wasn’t his neighbor.

Jianing Private’s luxurious, single-person dormitories had top-notch lodging conditions within its multistoried building. There weren’t many rooms available and it had always been impossible to live in one just based on money.

For example, He Zhihao had wanted to be Chu Yu’s neighbor and live next door. He cried and begged during the first year of high school, but he still wasn’t allowed in.

In Chu Yu’s case, after his mother had bought the school, her assistant had taken care of everything and specially chose the dormitory farthest from the stairs on this floor for him.

He was very satisfied. It was quiet because people wouldn’t pass by the door often so it was convenient to sleep in.

After living here for more than a year, Chu Yu knew that on this floor, each and every room counting from the back of the stairs were occupied by the top three ranking talents of each grade. As for Lu Shi – the first in his grade – now that he was attending the main school, he’d naturally also reside on this floor.

He reckoned that he was the only underachiever on this floor.

Following Lu Shi, Chu Yu hesitated if he should go up and talk to him.

But… what should he say?

I sucked so much blood from you, are you dizzy?

Do you want to take iron supplements? I’ll buy them for you!

Did you catch a cold when you went home last night?

What did you have for supper?

Before he could sort out his thoughts, Chu Yu saw a tall and thin boy wearing glasses waving at Lu Shi from the end of the second-floor corridor.

He looked familiar and Chu Yu soon recognized him as Zhu Zhifei, who he’d eaten with before.

Zhu Zhifei spoke to Lu Shi.

“Lu-Ge, did Shitou call you? I’ve already been bombarded by three phone calls!”

“No, what’s the matter?”

Lu Shi’s eyelashes drooped. He put his right hand in his pocket and slightly lowered his head as he listened to Zhu Zhifei talk; his neck, inclined to the side, drew a clean and beautiful line.

“It’s already Saturday tomorrow, we have to go back. He‘s already bought the electric stove and the hot pot ingredients, he’s also been asking around how to make the soup base.” Zhu Zhifei pushed his glasses up. “I heard Shitou’s tone and he’s a little too excited, but Lu-Ge, are you going back this weekend?”

Jianing Private didn’t strictly control the students who lived on campus. No one cared whether they were in school or not on weekends, as long as they were in the dormitory when it was time to check the beds Sunday night.

However, Zhu Zhifei knew that Lu Shi lived alone and was the only one at home. There was no one to chat with even if he went back, so he only used to visit Qingchuan Road for ten to fifteen days a year back when he still attended the branch school.

Lu Shi pinched the black gel pen in his left hand. The air around him was heavy after waking up, coupled with a face void of expression, he looked cold. “Yeah, I want to return.”

“I think Shitou gets lonely as soon as the two of us are gone because there wouldn’t be anyone to hang out with.” Zhu Zhifei suddenly caught a glimpse of the person walking two steps behind them. He was surprised and stopped to greet him. “Young Master?”

Lu Shi also stopped and turned to look at Chu Yu.

Chu Yu felt uncomfortable.

He answered dryly, “Good morning.”

Lu Shi replied, “Morning.”

“Good morning!” Zhu Zhifei saw Lu Shi’s cold face and worried that Chu Yu would feel awkward. Promptly, he enthusiastically said, “Lu-Ge and I are going to the cafeteria for breakfast. Would you like to go together? Three people are just right.”

He had a good impression of Chu Yu, and adding on his previous episode of gossiping directly in front of Chu Yu, he was a bit embarrassed even up till now.

But after he finished speaking, Zhu Zhifei regretted it again— Lu Shi didn’t seem to have the greatest of fondness towards Chu Yu since the very beginning, and it had even spread that the two of them were on bad terms on the first day of school. Wasn’t it very inappropriate of him to invite Chu Yu so recklessly?

In the botanical garden yesterday afternoon, Chu Yu drank too much blood. He didn’t have an appetite for anything and even hated the thought of sugar.

Hearing the word ‘cafeteria’, he quickly refused, “I’m not hungry, you guys can go.”

Seeing Chu Yu’s refusal, Zhu Zhifei heaved a sigh of relief. Sizing up Lu Shi’s expression with his own two eyes, he didn’t persuade him anymore. “Okay, then I’ll go with Lu-Ge first. Let’s hang out next time.”

Chu Yu entered the classroom much sooner than usual, but Zhang Yueshan and Li Hua, who sat in front of him, were both top students who’d still arrived earlier.

Seeing Chu Yu come, Zhang Yueshan inspected him. “You look a lot better compared to yesterday morning. How’s your illness, is it better?”

Chu Yu nodded. “I’m almost recovered.”

After saying that, he was taken aback for a moment.

Obviously, it had all just happened yesterday, but it felt as if a long time had passed.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, Zhang Yueshan asked in a low voice, “I was discussing with my deskmate just now, did you really faint yesterday or were you just faking it?”

Chu Yu didn’t hide it. “Faking it.”

For the first two days, Li Hua didn’t dare talk to Chu Yu, but he’d come around to. “Wow, fake fainting! Aren’t you the school director’s son though, why not be a bit unbridled? For example… like the TV dramas where you slap the table and tell the English teacher, ‘I want you to disappear from my sight! Get out at once!’ Like that?”

Chu Yu pulled out his chair and sat down. Resting his chin on his hand, he explained in a low voice, “It’s so much nicer being a weak and pitiful white flower! Think about it, if I really did what you said, the principal would’ve indeed taken care of me on behalf of my mom and expelled the teacher, but what about me? I would’ve been labeled an arrogant villain and suffered a lot of losses!

“In addition, regardless of what Ms. Wang did, everyone subconsciously sympathizes with the weak. In the end, even if it was obvious that I was bullied, others would contrarily say that it was me who bullied the teacher and caused her to lose her job. Also, I still have two years left in school. In these two years, how would other teachers look at me and how would they treat me?”

Li Hua suddenly saw the light and applauded. “How clever! Really above average!”

Zhang Yueshan also came to a realization. “But it’s different from the present. You’re the school director’s son, but because you respect teachers, even though you were ill and full of grievances, you were still punished to stand according to the teacher’s whims! In the end, you fainted while standing in the corridor, it’s so pitiful!”

“When you put it that way, I also feel I was very pitiful.” Chu Yu’s eyes revealed a bit of craftiness. “My brother and my sister taught me before that no matter how social and extroverted a person is, one can’t let their temper get the better of them when dealing with matters; one has to take every outcome into careful consideration.”

After he finished speaking, he suddenly remembered that when Lu Shi – who was cooperating with his act that time – saw him ‘faint’, he wasn’t at all surprised.

Zhang Yueshan saluted him with a cupped fist. “I’ve learned a lesson!” When he noticed Fang Ziqi from the study committee come in through the back door, he suddenly remembered something. “By the way, Chu Yu, did you do your homework?”

“Oh shit, I didn’t! Wait, there was homework yesterday?”

Zhang Yueshan: “…”

Chu Yu set himself up to copy only the multiple-choice questions, his hands were lightning fast. By the time Lu Shi entered the classroom, he’d already finished copying the answers and was holding his manga, reading it carefully.

His phone buzzed with an alert and Chu Yu clicked to open it with one hand. He took a quick glance and found that it was a message stating ‘bank transfer received’.

Exactly 100,000 yuan.

Chu Yu calculated the time. His mother was abroad so there was a time difference. Presumably, she just got off work right now.

It had been like this ever since he was a child. Whether he was sick, sad, unhappy, or even when having nightmares or suffering from insomnia, Shi Yaling would simply give him money when she heard about it.

During elementary school, when everyone still hadn’t had much of an idea about pocket money, his allowance per day was already close to five figures.

He could also remember how his classmates’ parents, including He Zhihao’s, would tell them not to cause trouble at school, study hard, and go out less to play wildly.

But Shi Yaling never told him any of that.

From his childhood up to now, she only told him to be healthy, safe, and happy.

As for him making trouble or not, whether he was studying or not, his mother didn’t care.

After staring at the content of the message on the screen for a long time, Chu Yu typed a reply. [Thank you Mom, take care of yourself.]

After thinking about it, he deleted the last four words and clicked send.

First period was Literature and Language with the homeroom teacher, Old Ye.

Old Ye taught well in his own unique style, that is, he was very long-winded. For the first five minutes of each class, he’d pour them chicken soup for the soulcouncil them with encouragement and advice. Sometimes he’d feel so emotional that he’d compose a poem on the spot.

On the podium, Old Ye was reciting a self-improvised prose poem, excellent in tone and emotion.

Chu Yu was hypnotized as he lay on his desk, feeling a little sleepy.

Suddenly, he heard the tearing sound of a page in a notebook being torn off.

Within a few seconds, there was an extra piece of paper on Chu Yu’s desk handed over from the desk behind him.

There were two words written on it: What’s wrong?

Honorable study god, when you pass notes in class, were they all written on whole sheets of paper?

After reading it, Chu Yu found a pen from within his desk and prepared to reply.

Lu Shi’s writing wasn’t classically beautiful. He wrote with a pencil and the strokes were strong and purposeful, his handwriting had a sharp beauty.

Compared to his own handwriting, Chu Yu felt that the gap between them was somewhat insurmountable.

Suddenly, he didn’t dare reply on the paper—

He really couldn’t bear the cruel contrast.

Thus, he simply turned around and spoke to the table behind him in a low voice, “I’m fine, I was just being urged by Old Ye to drowsiness.”

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a thick book in front of Lu Shi. It wasn’t the Language and Literature textbook.

“Hm.”

Lu Shi didn’t talk much, so he merely responded with a hum and continued to answer questions.

Having finished a page, Lu Shi was about to flip it over to continue when a ball of paper was thrown from the desk in front.

He opened it. The whole slip of paper was only the size of his palm.

He read the words written, ‘Classmate Lu Shi, do you think… it’s possible for me to join an organization like the Scarlet Rosicrucian order, or maybe something like Templar Knights and such will chase after me to kill me?’

The handwriting was meticulous and neat.

There wasn’t enough blank space on the paper, and Lu Shi was too lazy to write any more, so he spoke directly, “Chu Yu.”

Chu Yu turned his head and responded in a whisper, “Huh?”

Lu Shi raised his eyebrows. “What manga are you reading?”

Exposing the colorful cover of the comic book in his hand, Chu Yu answered honestly, “《The Scarlet Rose and the Templar Knight’s Taboo Love》”

He was also a little curious. “What are you reading?”

Lu Shi revealed the cover of his book, and on its surface were a few big golden characters: 《Three Thousand Questions for the International Mathematics Olympiad》

Why do I keep insulting myself?

• 1council them with encouragement and advice