Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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The laboratory was being prepared non-stop, so Zhuang Li took advantage of his free time to intensify his supervision of Si Ming.
“You are not allowed to sleep in class. Pay attention to the lesson!” Saying this, he tore off the coat that Si Ming had covered his head with.
Si Ming rubbed his sleepy eyes and forced himself to stay awake for class, but his head was nodding off and he could fall asleep at any moment. The moment he heard the teacher’s voice, he wanted to lie down, and this habit was impossible to change in a short time.
Zhuang Li stared at him for a long time, then smiled strangely.
A second later, Si Ming, exhausted, said: “!!!”
“You, why are you coming so close to me? Aren’t you hot?” He frowned and looked under the desk, as if he was very impatient, but his ears had turned red as if bleeding.
Zhuang Li held his chin with one hand and gently turned the pen with the other, his eyes fixed on the podium, as if he was listening to the lecture very seriously. However, his long legs placed under the table suddenly moved close to Si Ming’s long legs, sticking closely to him.
The fabric blocked the contact of the skin, but it could not block the exchange of body temperature. The indescribable ambiguous heat was quietly transmitted in this way.
Si Ming could have avoided this overly intimate contact by simply moving his thighs to the side, but he simply mumbled a few words and remained motionless. His ears grew redder, and his intense sleepiness had long since been replaced by an inner excitement.
Zhuang Li chuckled and asked in his ear, “Are you still sleepy now?” Then he rubbed Si Ming’s thigh lightly with his knee.
Si Ming’s ears turned red like two pieces of burnt iron. He shook his head and said, “I’m not sleepy anymore. I’m not sleepy anymore.”
He glanced at the long legs pressed against him under the table, then looked at the little curly-haired boy’s red lips with a strange smile on his face. An incredible thought flashed through his mind, and then his heart began to pound.
Zhuang Li tapped the back of his hand lightly with the pen cap and ordered, “Pay attention to the lesson.”
“Oh!” Si Ming agreed in a daze, then looked at the podium with renewed energy.
Now his head was buzzing, his heart was beating wildly, and his blood was bubbling in his body. It would be strange if he could sleep.
After class, Zhuang Li took out the exercise book and helped Si Ming with his homework. He then helped him sort out the knowledge points from the most basic part. If he didn’t understand it the first time, he would explain it twice, and if he didn’t understand it the second time, he would explain it three times. He was never tired of it.
Si Ming listened to it more than a dozen times but still didn’t understand. Zhuang Li, running out of patience, gently pulled his ear and whispered with a hint of anger and laughter, “Why are you so stupid? I’ll call you Big Idiot from now on, okay?”
Si Ming’s ears immediately turned red. He turned his eyes to glance at the curly-haired boy and nodded quickly, “Good.”
The word “good” actually carried a sense of surprise and urgency.
It was obvious that he liked the nicknames Xiao Curly gave him. Only close friends would do that.
“Then I’ll call you Xiao Curly from now on?” After saying this, Si Ming immediately turned his head away and chuckled, as if he had finally fulfilled a huge wish.
Zhuang Li: “…”
“Whatever you want, big idiot.” Finally, Zhuang Li also covered half of his face and laughed uncontrollably.
Si Ming immediately leaned forward and called out on impulse, “Xiao Curly?”
“That’s enough, you big idiot. Hurry up and do the test!” Zhuang Li pushed his head away, his face full of helplessness, but his eyes hid obvious doting.
Zhong Xingyun, who witnessed all this, said: “…”
F**k you! Si Ming, do you really have two faces? You act like a big shot in front of me, but act like a grandson in front of the academic genius!
After exchanging nicknames with Xiao Curly, Si Ming was like a chicken with its blood pumped up. He worked on two pages of questions in a row, and his error rate kept decreasing. However, he would sometimes pretend not to understand, which would cause Xiao Curly to pull his ears.
It is said that in Shuzhou, men who are afraid of their wives are called “henpecked men”.
So this is what “henpecked” means.
Thinking of this, Si Ming’s ears turned red again.
Zhuang Li flicked his ear lightly with his fingertips and asked helplessly, “What are you thinking about? Can’t you just focus on your homework, big idiot?”
“Okay, I will listen to you from now on.” Si Ming replied, then lowered his head with a rare shy expression.
Zhuang Li: “…”
….
Seven days passed with laughter and fun. Then Mr. Liu called Zhuang Li and told him that the laboratory had been built and asked him when he could start developing the software.
Zhuang Li was actually very anxious, so he immediately asked Teacher Zhou for a long vacation and prepared to go to work in the afternoon.
But before that, he had to comfort the big fool Si Ming to prevent him from having wild thoughts and giving up on himself.
With such thoughts in mind, he and Si Ming went to the cafeteria to eat after school at noon.
“Bring back a bowl of braised pork elbow. Xiao Curly loves it the most!” Si Ming waved at Zhong Xingyun.
“Okay, what do you want to eat?” Zhong Xingyun picked up the tray without complaint.
“I don’t care.” Si Ming had never cared about his body.
“Get him steamed eggs, fish head tofu soup, steamed sea bass, and steamed pumpkin.” Zhuang Li spoke at the right time.
None of these dishes were Si Ming’s favorites, but he didn’t seem unhappy at all, let alone correcting the order. Instead, he smiled with extraordinary satisfaction. It was great that Xiao Curly could help him order the dishes; he wasn’t picky.
“Okay.” Zhong Xingyun made an OK gesture and rushed into the crowd, his heart pounding.
He didn’t know if he was overthinking it, but the dishes ordered by Zhuang Li were all very light in taste, soft and glutinous in texture, and had extremely high protein content, making them most suitable for daily consumption by ALS patients.
In fact, these dishes were the main ones in the diet plan that the nutritionist had prepared for Si Ming.
Zhuang Li’s casual remark took good care of Si Ming’s health. Was this a coincidence?
Zhong Xingyun didn’t think so. Due to his work, he had met many different types of people, but none of them could be like Zhuang Li, who had embedded the word “calculation” into every aspect of life.
Zhuang Li calculated test questions, calculated people’s hearts, calculated the development process and outcome of every event, and also calculated his own future. Of course, this calculation did not refer to conspiracy or trickery, but rather a kind of assessment, prediction and layout.
Everyone speculated that the expulsion of Teng Xuan and others was the work of the Si family, but Zhong Xingyun knew better than anyone that the Si family had never helped Zhuang Li.
So far, the nine families had not dealt with Zhuang Li, nor had any rumors unfavorable to Zhuang Li been spread. This was enough to explain the problem.
How could a person who nine such prominent families dare not touch be a simple character?
So Zhong Xingyun was sure that Zhuang Li must know something. He reported the matter to the old man, who just told him to observe quietly and not to do anything for the time being.
While he was lost in thought, he came back with a tray and placed the ordered dishes on the table one by one.
The three of them then sat down to eat.
Si Ming used a spoon, Zhong Xingyun used chopsticks, and Zhuang Li used both hands to grab a braised pork elbow and started to eat it.
Today’s braised pork elbow was a bit salty. So Zhuang Li raised his head, nodded at the mineral water bottle on the table, and ordered, “Unscrew the cap for me. I’m thirsty.”
Zhong Xingyun was about to help, but Si Ming couldn’t wait to pick up the mineral water bottle and try to serve the little curly-haired boy.
But he forgot that his right hand had long lost control and could not bear the weight of a bottle of water. The bowl of fish head and tofu soup was placed under the bottle, so the lid was not unscrewed but the bottle fell instead, knocking over the soup bowl and making a mess on the table. Even his chest and legs were covered with white tofu.
Everyone around looked at Si Ming with amused expressions on their faces.
Xiu Yue, who was sitting nearby, was also drawn to his gaze and shook his head with pity. This man’s health was deteriorating, and he couldn’t even lift a bottle of water.
Si Ming sat stiffly in his position, his left hand raised high, but he couldn’t lift his right hand at all. He could only place it on the soup-covered table, shaking uncontrollably.
He didn’t care about the ridicule of the people around him, nor did he care about Xiu Yue’s pity. He just looked at the opposite side in horror, waiting for the reaction of the little curly-haired boy.
Now he was like a criminal who had been falsely accused, trembling with fear because of the trumped-up charges. He did not realize that he was not at fault, but his fate was the only one at fault.
Zhong Xingyun couldn’t bear to watch any longer, so he immediately pulled him up and sent him to the infirmary. He then hurriedly told Zhuang Li, “I’ll take him to get cleaned, you can eat it yourself.”
Zhuang Li, who was still holding the braised pork elbow in his hands, said: “…”
He didn’t expect that his casual words would lead to such consequences.
….
In the infirmary, Si Ming, who refused to take a shower, had curled himself up into a ball, and hid in the corner of the bed with the curtain drawn, sobbing with his head in his hands.
He didn’t cry loudly but just let out a muffled whimper from his nose, like an abandoned puppy.
“I can’t even help him open a bottle of water. I’m of no use to him. I don’t deserve to be his friend.” Si Ming whispered in self-loathing, clenched his left hand into a fist, and hit his head hard.
He was so upset that he almost wanted to die.
“That’s not how you make friends. If you don’t make friends with useless people, what will this world become? Even beggars have friends, so why don’t you deserve them?” Zhong Xingyun tried to pull the curtain but was pierced by Young Master Si’s pleading.
“Don’t look at me, I’m ugly.” He choked and said, “I will become even uglier in the future.”
Zhong Xingyun’s hands froze. This thin curtain felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.
“I don’t want to study anymore. I want to drop out of school. I don’t want Xiao Curly to see me looking so ugly. I can’t lift my hands anymore. I have no feeling at all.” Si Ming’s desperate voice came from behind the curtain.
Zhong Xingyun sat down on the ground dejectedly, never expecting that this day would come so soon!
Eighteen years old! Only eighteen years old!
Suddenly, a slender hand passed over Zhong Xingyun’s head and forcefully pulled the curtain aside, emitting a tearing sound. Then, Zhuang Li’s unusually cold voice echoed from the infirmary: “Si Ming, you’re right. I don’t want to be friends with you at all.”
Zhong Xingyun: “!!!”
F**k you, Zhuang Li! You are not a human being!
Si Ming suddenly looked up, revealing a face stained with tears and deeply covered with despair.
He didn’t expect the moment of awakening from the dream to come so quickly…
T/N: This chapter legit made me tear up a little
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