Chapter 24

After rolling up Chen Zhijing’s pant leg, Lin Zhe found a palm-sized graze raw across her knee.

He felt a quick pang in his chest, but his voice stayed flat.

“How’d you do it?”

Chen Zhijing stared at the boy crouched in front of her—careful, serious— and her cheeks warmed.

“Took a spill during the route march...”

“Mm, no broken bones, but we’d better hit the infirmary. In this heat a scrape turns nasty fast.”

He lowered the fabric again, touching nothing swollen, then turned his back to her.

“Hop on.”

Her face flamed even hotter. A quick scan—no one nearby— and she folded herself onto him like a timid squirrel.

Luckily she was tiny; barely a burden.

Lin Zhe shifted until she sat easy, then started walking.

Every few steps a passer-by glanced over at the “new girl” carried on a boy’s back. The stares prickled like needles. Social-anxiety kicked in; she buried her face in the curve of his neck, ostrich-style.

Yet breathing the faint scent of him only made her skin burn hotter.

Embarrassing— and the safest place in the world.

When they reached the infirmary it was empty; staff had clocked out for lunch.

Lin Zhe eased her onto a bed and rummaged through the supply shelf: iodine, cotton swabs, sterile pad.

He lifted the trouser leg again and dabbed gently. The antiseptic stung; a small sound escaped her.

“Ngh...”

She scrunched her nose.

Lin Zhe looked up; she gave a tiny shake. “I’m okay.”

One quick disinfect, one taped-down pad, and the cuff was rolled back into place.

All done— except the sight of him tending her so carefully tugged at something inside her chest.

Xiao Lin was always this good, and she’d gone and forgotten everything about him.

He never asked why she’d ignored him, but the silence felt worse than any scolding.

Her amber eyes trembled; she bit her lower lip, emotions tangled.

Just as he started to stand, impulse snapped. She snaked her arms around his head and pulled him against her.

Lin Zhe froze, startled.

Cheek pressed to his hair, she whispered, shaky:

“Sorry... Xiao Lin, you’re not going anywhere, right?”

Through the rough cloth of his training jacket he felt the soft give of her stomach, the faint, clean smell of skin— no perfume, just warmth.

“I’m right here,” he answered. “Not going anywhere.”

And he stayed, motionless, in the circle of her arms.

Then a dry cough sliced the moment in half.

“A-hem. This isn’t a love-nest, kids.”

Chen Zhijing sprang back, hands clamped to her knees, chin glued to her chest. Scarlet flooded her cheeks, even the tips of her ears. The teardrop mole at the corner of her eye seemed to glow under the blush.

Lin Zhe straightened to find a doctor in a white coat, lunchbox in hand, giving them the flattest stare imaginable.

Behind her trailed a familiar silhouette.

“Oh, Xiao Lin. What are you doing here— hurt?”

Their counselor Zhou Yu blinked sleepy eyes, ever half-awake.

“I’m fine,” Lin Zhe said.

Zhou Yu’s gaze slid to the girl still studying the floor.

“Ah, the casualty is beside you.”

To her it already looked like more than first aid.

Wasn’t this kid Zhao Ge’s boyfriend?

Probably just helping a classmate, she told herself— she hadn’t seen the embrace. Still, female intuition pinged: the petite girl on the bed absolutely liked him.

Note to self: remind Zhao Ge to surface from her novels once in a while and pay attention to her boyfriend before someone else does.

Honestly, that girl...

After quick greetings Zhou explained her presence: she was friends with Dr. Gu— the white-coated woman juggling the lunchbox— and began the introduction.

“Lin Zhe is my student, and he’s the guy who’s been all over campus these past two days—Hai University’s legendary ‘No.1 Deeply Affectionate.’”

The moment Dr. Gu heard that Lin Zhe was the mysterious new heart-throb, skepticism washed across her face.

She’d lost count of how many times she’d replayed that video on Back-Alley Cat’s Bilibili channel.

The ordinary-looking boy in front of her could vanish in a crowd, yet he was supposed to be the one who sang “Mercury Records”?

In the clip, all he’d done was sweep his bangs back, ditch his glasses, and let a pair of faintly melancholy eyes meet the camera.

Zhou Yu rolled her eyes at her friend’s disbelief. “Why would I lie to you?”

Lin Zhe answered only with a soft smile.

Staying under the radar had its perks, apparently.

“We’re off, then.”

After a quick goodbye to Zhou Yu, Lin Zhe steered Chen Zhijing—who was freezing into a statue—out of the infirmary.

Her social anxiety had flared again; leave her any longer and she’d probably crumble into sand and blow away.

“Hey, Xiao Lin, explain things to this blockhead, will you?”

Teacher Zhou tried to call him back, but Lin Zhe had already vanished.

“You’ve tricked me before. I’m not falling for it again—and those two look nothing alike.”

“You’re calling a deer a horse.”

Dr. Gu sat down, popped open her lunchbox, then ignored her chopsticks and pulled out her phone. She pulled up the downloaded video of Lin Zhe singing “Mercury Records” that night.

“Perfect side dish.”

A blissed-out, almost creepy grin spread across her face as she watched the soulful, brooding teenager on-screen and shoveled rice into her mouth.

Zhou Yu stared at her hopeless friend, every possible retort dissolving into a quiet sigh that drifted into the air.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.