Chapter 59: Awkward

"You shout, 'Pick up your Muyin treasure!'——"

As soon as those words left his mouth, Shu Lingchen froze, his lips pressing together as if seeking to make up.

However, it was already too late.

As expected, in the next second he saw Shu Shu raise her eyebrows, while the pen in her hand spun around, her expression becoming calm and composed.

Even Pei Muyin, who had been burying her head in organizing her textbooks, looked over in a dazed manner, obviously having heard her own name as well.

"Shu Lingchen bro," Bo Luo Zai, holding a bag of chips, came over, his speech slurred: "Who did you just call treasure?"

"... Eat yours."

Shu Lingchen clenched his teeth slightly, expressionlessly shoved his face back with a palm, then pushed the chair aside, bent over, picked up the red marker by his foot, and placed it back on Shu Shu's desk.

Throughout, he kept his neck stiff, not daring to look at Shu Shu, sitting rigidly, feeling a gaze linger on the back of his head, only moving away after a moment.

The boy seemed to sigh in relief, irritably grabbing a handful of his own hair.

…

Morning classes over, the school cafeteria.

Shu Lingchen, Bo Luo Zai, and a group of people sat at one table to eat.

Several people ate like starving ghosts, only Shu Lingchen held his chopsticks and poked at the rice in his bowl, looking as if he were about to grind the rice into powder.

"Shu Lingchen bro, why aren't you eating?" someone nearby asked curiously: "The cafeteria's braised pork today is absolutely amazing."

Shu Lingchen didn't lift his head, his voice light: "No appetite."

"Huh?" That person glanced at the braised pork in Shu Lingchen's bowl, eyes greedy, eager to try: "... Can you give me some? Wasting braised pork deserves heavenly thunder."

Shu Lingchen didn't utter a sound, as if he hadn't heard at all; that person reached out with his chopsticks, watching Shu Lingchen's expression as he extended them, until a piece of braised pork entered his mouth, Shu Lingchen still showed no reaction.

So that person completely relaxed, bringing over the small bowl containing the braised pork.

Damn! You can't eat it all by yourself!

Give me a piece too!

The braised pork was instantly snatched and divided among several people, Shu Lingchen not even blinking.

In the past, Shu Lingchen would have already given each of them a knuckle on the head.

What's up with him today?

Everyone looked at each other, clueless.

Shu Lingchen kept his head down, poking away.

Suddenly, a pair of fair, soft hands appeared in his view.

A canned cola was handed over.

Shu Lingchen startled, immediately lifted his head from the bowl, meeting Pei Muyin's gaze.

The girl's peach-blossom eyes curved friendly at him: "Here."

All morning Shu Lingchen's eyelids drooped, his mood not high; Pei Muyin didn't know what had happened, but she knew Shu Lingchen liked drinking cola.

She regarded Mushi sister as her best friend, and Shu Lingchen likewise—he had helped her, and like Mushi sister, he was a very kind person.

Although it's just an insignificant drink, if Shu Lingchen gets to drink something he likes, even a slight improvement in mood is good.

Looking at the cola before him, Shu Lingchen instinctively opened his mouth to thank, then took the cola.

But the words reached his lips, he stopped, swallowed them back, and when he spoke again, they turned into a refusal: "No thanks, I've quit."

The boy turned his face to the side, lowered his eyelashes, his profile revealing a few traces of feigned aloofness.

At that moment, Bo Luo Zai sitting beside him heard Shu Lingchen's words and exclaimed in surprise: "Quit cola? When did that happen, Shu Lingchen bro? We just agreed to go buy cola after dinner at the convenience store."

"……"

After his words fell, the air fell silent for a few seconds.

Pei Muyin blinked, then understood.

—Shu Lingchen hadn't quit cola; he still liked it, he simply didn't want to drink what she gave him.

Pei Muyin is an exceptionally perceptive girl.

She combined Shu Lingchen's abnormal behavior from last night with the sentence he blurted out this morning.

Almost instantly, she realized Shu Lingchen's bad mood was because of her.

"... Sorry."

After saying that in a small voice, Pei Muyin gripped the chilled cola bottle and turned to leave.

"……"

Upon lifting his head and seeing the girl's quiet, forlorn back, a deep regret washed over Shu Lingchen, making him want to immediately rise and chase after her to apologize.

He felt he had done something utterly unforgivable, instinctively thinking the one who should apologize was him!

The boy's body rose to a stand.

But then he recalled what had kept him awake all night; ultimately, gritting his teeth stubbornly, he didn't move his feet.

Shu Lingchen's mind suddenly popped up a strange idea.

The cola can still beaded with tiny droplets of cold air, obviously just taken from the fridge; Pei Muyin held it in her hand, having waited so long, her palm surely frozen.

That guy's personality is so introverted that one can't help but want to look out for him when seeing injustice; he hardly has any close friends, and having finally met him and his mother, to be treated like this surely would upset him greatly.

So depressing!

Shu Lingchen's chest felt tight, his peripheral vision catching Bo Luo Zai happily chewing his braised pork as if nothing were wrong.

The boy's dark eyes turned sinister, his arm straightly locking around Bo Luo Zai, wanting to curse: "All you know is eat eat eat! You're the only one with a mouth, right? Blabbering all day!"

Bo Luo Zai, choked, spoke gibberish: "#￥! &%^*#@……" Shu Lingchen bro, spare me!

…

Afternoon.

Shu Lingchen always, intentionally or not, secretly glances toward Pei Muyin's direction.

Probably because he turns his head too often, there are always one or two times when his gaze meets that of Pei Muyin, who is looking at the blackboard.

However, the moment their eyes met, Pei Muyin's pupils flickered, then she silently averted her gaze, not looking at him.

Damn.

The tip of Shu Lingchen's ballpoint pen flicked across the paper, and he wrote a wrong character in the formula he was noting.

He grabbed the correction tape, wanting to cover the mistake and rewrite.

With a "crack," the correction tape snapped at the outlet.

Damn!

Damn damn damn!

…

Imperial Scenic Garden 1600.

Restaurant, at the dining table.

Shu Shu occasionally puts food on Pei Muyin's plate, saying gently, "Eat a bit more."

Shu Shu also puts food for Shu Lingchen.

This was no different from usual, but when Shu Shu gave Pei Muyin food for the third time tonight, Pei Muyin slowly spoke, looking at Shu Shu: "Sister, you don't need to serve me; I can do it myself."

"Okay." Shu Shu, seeming unsuspecting, smiled crookedly: "Then Pei Yin, you serve yourself."

After dinner.

Shu Shu had finished her homework at school; the two kids always bring it home to do.

The living room has an open study.

Unlike last night, Shu Lingchen didn't go back to his room early; instead, he sat at the desk.

The boy held a Chinese language textbook; he glanced up at Pei Muyin, who was opening her bag across from him, gave a light cough twice, and began to recite.

"……From this we see, lacking a compassionate heart, one is not human, not human……"

It got stuck.

Actually, he had already memorized this passage long ago—