WMR | Chapter 2

After Jiang Chengyi parked the car steadily at the school gate, he hurriedly turned around and asked, “Xiaoyu, what nightmare did you have just now? Don’t be scared, tell Dad.”

Jiang Baiyu shook his head and looked toward the campus in his memory. “It was only a nightmare. It won’t come true.”

Jiang Chengyi patted his son’s head and comforted him, saying, “Is it because the pressure of senior year has gotten bigger after you started twelfth grade? Don’t worry about not getting into college. Worst case, we can go study abroad, broaden your horizons, then come back and take over Dad’s company.”

His parents had protected him very well. Jiang Chengyi even worried that the driver might not drive well, so he went out of his way to send him to school himself.

He had lived carefree for more than twenty years, never knowing the hardships of the world, and had poured his whole heart into Lu Qingci.

In the end, the Jiang family fell into decline, and his parents became seriously ill. Yet he didn’t even have the ability to take care of his family.

“Dad, I know.”

The boy smiled easily at his father. “You should hurry to the company. I’m fine now.”

Just after Jiang Chengyi drove away, a boy not far off ran over and said, “Xiaoyu, did you forget your school tie again? You’ll have to run fifteen hundred meters as punishment.”

It was his high school friend Zhou Nan.

Jiang Baiyu lowered his head and looked at his bare white shirt front, then gave a self-mocking laugh. “Yeah. I’ll never forget it again.”

He remembered this.

Lu Qingci had entered this expensive high school as a scholarship student. His excellent grades and steady personality kept him firmly in the positions of class monitor and student council president. So every day, Lu Qingci was responsible for checking the students’ appearance at the school gate.

Because he wanted to talk to Lu Qingci every day, he deliberately came to school without his tie. Even if he had to run fifteen hundred meters for punishment every day, he would have gladly accepted it.

He was simply asking for it.

Zhou Nan pulled off his own school tie and handed it to him. “Wear mine and bluff your way in. Anyway, I’m on the track team, and I have to run laps on the playground at noon.”

Jiang Baiyu hesitated. “Th, that’s not good, is it?”

Zhou Nan directly stuffed it into the boy’s hands. “Come on, take it, put it on fast, don’t get caught by the student council.”

Before he could finish, a familiar voice rang out. “Jiang Baiyu, stop.”

The voice was deep and sharp, with a hint of urgency in it.

Jiang Baiyu’s heart gave a thump.

He secretly turned back, and in an instant his eyes collided with Lu Qingci’s. Those clear eyes were dark and unfathomable.

By twelfth grade, Lu Qingci was already over six foot one. Tall and handsome, yet carrying that cool, detached air, he gave off a noble presence that made people want to approach him but not dare be presumptuous.

The first time Jiang Baiyu saw that Lu Qingci, he fell for him uncontrollably. In his eyes, Lu Qingci was like a deity descending to the mortal world to endure tribulation, a favored son of heaven, clean and cold, beyond reach.

“He still got caught by Lu Qingci.”

Zhou Nan clicked his tongue and shouted helplessly, “Monitor, I forgot my school tie. Mark me down.”

Lu Qingci seemed not to hear Zhou Nan at all. He walked straight up to Jiang Baiyu, and his dark gaze fell on the boy’s lowered head, his somewhat at a loss slender shoulders, and the hand holding the tie.

“You....”

He started to say something, his voice a little hoarse.

Just then, the disciplinary director also noticed what was going on here and teased, “Zhou Nan, Jiang Baiyu, don’t try that on me. Speak up, which one of you forgot to wear it?”

Jiang Baiyu and Zhou Nan said in unison, “I did.”

“Heh, you two are pretty close. Lu Qingci, write both their names down. Pack them together and make them run at noon.”

Lu Qingci’s fingers tightened around the pen, and in the end, under the disciplinary director’s supervision, he wrote Jiang Baiyu’s name. Stroke by stroke, he wrote very slowly, with great care.

“Run then,” Zhou Nan snorted at the disciplinary director, reached out, wrapped an arm around Jiang Baiyu’s shoulder, and led him toward the campus. “I’ll run with you. Fifteen hundred meters isn’t much. We’ll finish in a bit.”

Jiang Baiyu didn’t remember this friend of his very clearly, because after high school the two of them went to different schools. Zhou Nan had contacted him a few times during that period, but by then the Jiang family had already fallen, and he had taken the initiative to cut off contact with Zhou Nan.

He only remembered that Zhou Nan took good care of him, like an older brother.

Jiang Baiyu raised his hand and gave Zhou Nan’s solid chest a light punch. “Thanks for earlier.”

“You really want to thank me?”

Zhou Nan used a little force with his arm and pinched the boy’s lean shoulder. “Then buy me ice cream after the run.”

Jiang Baiyu was tickled by him and smiled as he dodged. “Okay.”

Behind them, Lu Qingci watched their figures for a long time, until the two of them turned a corner and vanished from his dark line of sight.

-----

In the office.

Lu Qingci handed the list of school rule violations to his homeroom teacher, Old Xu.

Old Xu flicked the paper with his hand and clicked his tongue. “Again with Jiang Baiyu. Just how many times does that Jiang family young master need to be punished before he remembers?”

Lu Qingci’s brow creased slightly, and he suddenly said, “Teacher, Jiang Baiyu doesn’t seem to be feeling very well today. Maybe we should let the punishment run go.”

Old Xu looked at him in surprise. “You’d actually plead for a classmate?”

Lu Qingci pressed his thin lips together.

Old Xu snorted. “Those young masters who never worry about food or clothing and were spoiled rotten need to be dealt with strictly. What has to be done has to be done. The punishment run can’t be waived!”

Lu Qingci lowered his eyes, and the hand hanging at his side slowly clenched.

Old Xu looked at the steady, cool-headed boy and asked, “I heard you’re working two part-time jobs now. Although you’ve already been guaranteed admission to A University and don’t have to attend evening self-study with the other students anymore, working until midnight every night is hard on your body too.”

Lu Qingci said, “I know.”

Old Xu sighed helplessly. “Forget it. If you run into any difficulty, remember to come talk to me. Let’s talk about the seat change this time too. Which classmate do you want to sit with?”

Lu Qingci thought for a moment and asked, “Someone has already applied to sit with me, hasn’t he?”

Old Xu smiled. “There is someone. He said he wants you to tutor him.”

A trace of warmth flashed through Lu Qingci’s dark eyes. “Fine, then him.”

He knew it was Jiang Baiyu.

---

In the classroom.

Zhou Nan leaned back against the desk behind him and asked, “Xiaoyu, can we still sit together?”

Whether he could sit with Zhou Nan again, he didn’t know, but he absolutely would not be sitting with Lu Qingci again.

That was what Jiang Baiyu was thinking when he said, “It’s the same either way. We’re still in the same class.”

“It’s not the same.”

Zhou Nan couldn’t bear to part with Jiang Baiyu, his handsome and cute desk mate, and asked back, “Can your new desk mate let you copy homework like I can?”

Jiang Baiyu said, “I, I didn’t copy your homework every day either.”

Zhou Nan said, “You didn’t copy every day, but you still made me write it for you. Did you do yesterday’s math homework?”

Jiang Baiyu: ......

Ever since he had fallen in love at first sight with Lu Qingci, his world had only contained secret longing and pursuing Lu Qingci. He had never studied properly, and in the end he hadn’t even gotten into a proper university.

He had only been sent to one by his father’s connections and money.

This time, at the very least, he had to rely on his own ability to get into a decent university, then after graduation find a job he liked and that could earn money. Even if the Jiang family fell into decline a few years later, he would have the ability to shoulder the responsibility of supporting the family.

The boy lowered his head and rummaged through his papers. In a low voice he said, “From now on, I’ll do it myself.”

Zhou Nan pinched his reddened cheek. “Really?”

“Really.”

Jiang Baiyu spread out the science exam paper and buried his head in it.

Before long, the boy had started gnawing on the end of his pen with a miserable expression. So hard!

Zhou Nan laughed at him from the side, pulled out his own paper, and handed it to him. “Don’t make things hard for yourself. Copy it.”

After the warning bell rang.

Old Xu displayed the arrangement of the class’s new seats on the electronic screen at the front of the classroom and called out, “Everyone look carefully, this is the new seating chart. You’ve got ten minutes to change seats according to this chart.”

“Move fast, don’t delay class!”

The classroom instantly burst into chatter. The faster students had already started packing up their desks and looking for their new seats.

After carefully checking the new seating chart, Zhou Nan said with distaste, “I’ve actually been assigned behind Lu Qingci? So I have to stare at that cold face every day. What about you, where are you?”

After finding his name, Jiang Baiyu let out a sigh of relief. Very good, far away from Lu Qingci.

He remembered this seat change.

In order to sit with Lu Qingci, he had run to the homeroom teacher a few days earlier and spoken earnestly about how he wanted to study alongside the excellent class monitor, hoping the teacher could give him a chance and let him sit with Lu Qingci.

Old Xu had indeed given him the chance to sit with Lu Qingci.

But that wasn’t a good thing. Thinking back now, it was all a memory of self-inflicted suffering. So as soon as he arrived at school, he ran to Old Xu and canceled his request to sit with Lu Qingci.

On the other side.

Lu Qingci also found Jiang Baiyu’s name on the new seating chart, and his dark pupils contracted sharply.

What was going on?

Why wasn’t Jiang Baiyu sitting with him?

A girl carrying a large stack of books walked to the empty seat beside him and said hopefully yet cautiously, “Class monitor, hello. I’m your new desk mate.”

“Teacher Xu.”

Before she could finish, Lu Qingci interrupted her coldly.

Lu Qingci walked over and asked Old Xu, “Why is she my desk mate?”

“Huh?”

Old Xu was busy beyond measure and said, “Jiang Xiaoman applied to sit with you. She wants you to teach her.”

Old Xu even earnestly asked him, “Xiaoman is very diligent, and her grades are on the rise. If you can sit with her and help her a bit, it’ll let her grades improve even more.”

Lu Qingci pressed his lips together, and coldness gathered between his brows.

He had thought Jiang Baiyu had applied to sit with him, which was why he had answered that way when Old Xu asked him in the office. He never expected that just one extra sentence from him compared to his previous life could directly cause his desk mate to no longer be Jiang Baiyu.

Seeing Lu Qingci’s expression, Jiang Xiaoman instinctively sensed some pressure. The little girl carefully tested the waters and sat down beside Lu Qingci, saying, “Class monitor, you....”

Suddenly, her motion to sit froze. She had seen Lu Qingci’s sharp, cold gaze, and just one look made her whole body go cold. That was absolutely not a friendly look. Sensing danger, her entire body stiffened there without moving.

Lu Qingci was so frightening.

The joy and relief at being able to sit with the boy she admired and secretly loved vanished in an instant, replaced by fear and the urge to flee.

The girl nearly cried, hastily stood up, and said, “Teacher, can you change my seat? I, I don’t want to sit here anymore.”

“Ah, what, what’s going on?”

Old Xu was completely baffled. Looking at the cool-faced Lu Qingci below, he seemed to understand something, and let out a soft sigh. Then he asked, “Jiang Baiyu also applied to sit with you. Is that okay?”

Lu Qingci nodded.

Old Xu called out, “Jiang Baiyu, come switch seats with Jiang Xiaoman.”

Jiang Baiyu, who was carrying his textbooks and looking for his new seat: ?!

After seeing the name of the person sitting with Jiang Xiaoman, he was stunned and asked blankly, “Teacher, didn’t I already ask you to...”

Cancel the application?

Old Xu only wanted to settle this as fast as possible and waved him over. “Perfect, let Lu Qingci properly keep an eye on you, you troublemaker, and help you study hard!”

Jiang Baiyu still wanted to refuse, but Old Xu waved his hand and said, “All right, all right, move quickly, class is about to start.”

A trace of warmth flashed through Lu Qingci’s dark, shadowed eyes. As expected, he could still sit with Jiang Baiyu. At this time, Jiang Baiyu had already started to like him, hadn’t he?

Only after losing it did he know how much he liked Jiang Baiyu, only then did he taste that heart-wrenching pain.

He had been favored by heaven, given another chance to return to five years ago. This time, he would never hurt him again. He wanted to keep him at the tip of his heart, hold him in the palm of his hand, and cherish and protect him for a lifetime.