Chapter 48: The Senior Who Waits to Be Fed

When the bell rang for the second period of evening self-study, the classroom's "Snowpiercer" had just reached its finale.

Li Luo was a day student who didn't live on campus, so he only needed to attend two periods of evening self-study.

After packing his bag, he glanced at the corridor outside the classroom and, seeing Ying Chanxi hadn't arrived yet, wasn't in a hurry to leave.

"Do you live on campus?" Li Luo glanced at Yan Zhusheng and, noticing she wasn't packing her bag, asked curiously.

In his impression, Yan Zhusheng's family wasn't short on money; logically, renting an apartment nearby should've been easy.

"I live on campus," Yan Zhusheng said seriously, her eyes filled with anticipation, "the school is far from home, so I chose to stay here."

Li Luo noticed the anticipation in her eyes and reasonably suspected Yan Zhusheng had never lived on campus before, so she might feel a little excited about dorm life.

Actually, if his family hadn't bought him a house, Li Luo would've preferred living in the school dorm.

Even though the dorm conditions were mediocre, living with classmates was still fun.

As Li Luo thought this, the day students in the class had begun leaving one by one.

Soon after, a slender figure appeared at the back door of Class Eight.

Ying Chanxi stood hesitantly in the corridor, peering into the classroom.

She didn't yet know where Li Luo sat and couldn't spot him at first glance.

Zhang Guohuang, sitting near the door, turned his head and spotted Ying Chanxi; he froze instinctively, then snapped to attention and tapped his desk mate Zhu Yufei's shoulder: "Hey, isn't that Ying Chanxi? She actually came looking for you."

"Huh?" Zhu Yufei turned around and immediately shouted toward Li Luo, "Monitor! Your cousin's here for you!"

At those words, the classroom, which had been noisy after class, fell instantly silent.

All the classmates turned curiously toward the back door, catching sight of Ying Chanxi's lovely face.

Ying Chanxi herself was momentarily stunned, not reacting.

Only when Li Luo, backpack on shoulder, stepped out and waved to her did she finally catch up.

On the way downstairs, Ying Chanxi frowned and pressed: "What cousin? When did I become your cousin?"

"Someone in class was just joking," Li Luo feigned ignorance and brushed it off.

Ying Chanxi didn't dwell on it; instead, her attention shifted more toward Li Luo's desk mate.

On the way home, Ying Chanxi probed cautiously: "Your class's PE monitor is really pretty, right?"

"You mean that girl?"

"Do you think I'd call a guy pretty?" Ying Chanxi narrowed her eyes. "Isn't she your desk mate?"

"Just temporary," Li Luo waved his hand. "Our teacher hasn't assigned seats yet; we'll probably switch after military training."

"I don't care about that—I'm just curious how she ended up sitting next to you."

"She's tall, so she picked the empty seat in the back row," Li Luo said, then touched his own face. "But if you think it's my charm that drew her to sit beside me, I suppose there's a bit of truth to that."

"You're so full of yourself," Ying Chanxi snorted. "She's that beautiful—why would she deliberately sit next to you?"

"Why not?" Li Luo bristled. "Tonight at the meeting, a really beautiful girl begged me to sit beside her—don't you remember?"

"Get lost!" Ying Chanxi's face flushed red; she raised her hand to hit him, but remembering they were still near the school gate with classmates leaving everywhere, she lowered it in frustration, muttering, "So shameless."

At night, the school's lights were dim, and few people noticed Li Luo and Ying Chanxi.

After exiting the school gate, they turned right, crossed the intersection, and entered the Bihai Lanting residential complex.

She had thought such after-school walks home together would end after the high school entrance exam, never imagining she'd still be walking home with Li Luo now.

Inside the elevator, Ying Chanxi glanced at Li Luo's profile and said, "Tomorrow's military training—I bought you sunscreen. Take it with you."

"Huh?" Li Luo blinked. "Why would I use that? Guys don't care about sunburn."

"It's for sun protection, not makeup," Ying Chanxi insisted. "Applying it won't hurt."

As she spoke, the elevator doors opened.

Ying Chanxi fished out her keys and stepped out first to unlock the door.

Li Luo followed behind, saying nothing more in refusal, and walked into Apartment 1502.

Inside, he immediately spotted Xu Youyu lying on the sofa, staring expectantly at the door.

"What are you doing, Senior?" Li Luo was startled by her gaze, wondering if she'd discovered his Online Novel pen name.

But Xu Youyu merely gazed at him wistfully and said, "I want fried rice."

Li Luo: "..."

"You didn't eat dinner, did you?"

"To be precise," Xu Youyu slumped on the sofa, rubbing her hollow stomach, "I didn't eat lunch either."

Since Ying Chanxi told her through the door that morning about going to school registration, Xu Youyu had slept until one or two in the afternoon.

After waking, she typed for a while and, without realizing it, it was already evening—she'd forgotten lunch.

Now her stomach was growling, so she headed to the kitchen intending to eat something, then remembered Li Luo wasn't home and no one would cook for her.

The thought of going downstairs to eat, where the food was worse than Li Luo's, made her lose all appetite.

Then she thought: it was already five or six—Li Luo and the day students got out at 8:30. She might as well wait a bit longer.

So Xu Youyu returned to her desk.

But her stomach was too hungry to focus on typing, so she turned to reading novels—once absorbed, she forgot she was hungry.

She kept reading until past eight, checked the time, saw school was about to end, and hurried to the living room to wait.

Then came the long wait of over twenty minutes—now, finally, Li Luo had returned.

"Senior, you really need to adjust your schedule," Li Luo said, exasperated, changing into slippers and heading for the kitchen. "School starts soon—you can't keep sleeping all day."

"My biological clock will fix itself after school starts—I don't need to adjust it actively," Xu Youyu moaned from the sofa. "Hurry up, little brother—I can't take it anymore."

"Coming," Li Luo chuckled, then turned to Ying Chanxi. "What about you? Want some too?"

"Hmm… just a small bowl?" Ying Chanxi hesitated, also craving Li Luo's fried rice. "But not too much—I already ate dinner."

"Alright, wait a moment."

"Then I'll go take a shower first."

Ying Chanxi went to take a shower, Li Luo fried rice in the kitchen, and Xu Youyu waited on the sofa to be fed.

More than half an hour later.

Satiated, Xu Youyu lay back on the sofa, comfortably patting his belly and letting out a burp.

"I'm doomed—my taste buds have been spoiled by you. What am I going to do during your military training these next few days?"