LFB Chapter 6

‘That’s just gross.” Jiang Xi opened her eyes wide in surprise. She never expected him to say such shameless words. She clenched her hand in anger. “You’re a man, it’s already disgusting to wear women’s clothes, yet you’re shameless enough to seduce Shang Zhao. You…”

“He didn’t.” An angry male voice interrupted Jiang Xi’s words.

Ning Gui raised his eyes and looked over. Shang Zhao strode out from the corridor next to the classroom and stood next to him.

Shang Zhao seemed to have run all the way here; his forehead and neck was drenched in sweat, glistening like crystal in the sunlight.

Ning Gui suddenly recalled a time when he came across Shang Zhao. It was a scorching evening. He was walking when he glanced up inadvertently. The young man came out of the court with a basketball, talking and laughing with his friends. His forehead and neck were covered with sweat, and even his T-shirt was soaked. He looked attractive and seductive. When he tilted his head to talk, his face was against the light, and his smile was bright and warm.

Back then, he was thinking: although Jiang Xi has a terrible personality and was annoying, at least her taste wasn’t that bad.

“I’m the one chasing him and clinging to him.”

Shang Zhao’s voice brought Ning Gui out of his thoughts. He looked at Jiang Xi; for the first time, Jiang Xi was all alone and helpless, while he had someone in front of him.

It feels—feels pretty nice.

This feeling of being protected.

Ning Gui suppressed himself from smiling, trying his best to not let the happiness be noticeable on his face as to not rub salt on Jiang Xi’s wound.

“Shang Zhao, you bastard!” Jiang Xi took a step back, the rim of her eyes were slightly red. “You lied to me…”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were gay from the start!?” Jiang Xi bit her lips. “Saying stuff like how you already have someone you like, that you were sorry that you can’t return my feelings…and even smiled at me. The way you rejected me was so gentle that I still had hope.”

“I do have someone I like, and the person has always been Ning Gui.” Shang Zhao was usually good-tempered and rarely spoke harshly to others, but when it came to Jiang Xi, he had gone from being helpless and rejecting at the beginning to being annoyed now. Even the most patient person would lose their cool. “When you insult him, you should take a look at yourself first. Chasing after me, arbitrarily acting like my girlfriend, and even targeting my friends—do you have no shame?”

He spoke really clearly when he initially rejected Jiang Xi. He also heard of the rumors spreading around school, explained them, and avoided them, but none of them had deterred Jiang Xi from giving up.

Now, Jiang Xi made him realize that he should have spoken more decisively and harshly at the beginning.

Jiang Xi seemed to have been a bit frightened. She stood stunned and tears suddenly rolled down her eyes, leaving tears streaking on her face.

She wiped her tears vigorously with the back of her hand and laughed. “It turned out I was just being sentimental.”

“You’re sure ruthless, Shang Zhao.” Jiang Xi said, “Why did I like someone like you?”

“You—” she paused, then looked at Ning Gui, “You guys, are too disgusting.”

After speaking, she turned and walked away. She endured the pain of tugging at her wound by keeping her back straight as she left.

Shang Zhao furrowed his brow, but didn’t want to argue with Jiang Xi anymore. Instead, he turned his head to look at Ning Gui. “Are you okay?”

Ning Gui looked at him, then chuckled. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

He had heard even worse, so a few more or a few less wouldn’t make a difference.

“She’s wrong.” Shang Zhao seriously said, “You aren’t disgusting, it’s not disgusting to wear women’s clothes, and being homosexual isn’t disgusting.”

Ning Gui didn’t take Jiang Xi’s words to heart, but he felt warmed by Shang Zhao’s solemn rebuttal.

He took out a pack of tissues from his pocket and drew one out to hand to Shang Zhao. “Mhm. Wipe your sweat.”

Ning Gui asked him, “Have you eaten yet?”

Shang Zhao wiped the sweat on his forehead and neck, then balled up the tissue and threw it in the trash can. “…I haven’t.”

“Then let’s eat together?”

Shang Zhao was a bit hesitant.

He had been eating spicy food with Ning Gui for a while and suffered from excessive internal heat, which caused him to have a lot of mouth ulcers. Eating together was really sweet torture.

On top of that, his roommates said that he shouldn’t chase people like what he was doing now. Giving too much would easily cause the other party to not cherish you, and they may feel burdened or even annoyed. They also compared him with Jiang Xi, saying that he was the same as Jiang Xi in pursuing him.

Shang Zhao disagreed with the tactic of playing hard to get, but he was afraid that Ning Gui would feel burdened and annoyed by him.

Thus, he didn’t come to find Ning Gui yesterday.

He thought about it—it was enough to just meet Ning Gui three out of the seven days.

But this hesitation lasted less than a second. All plans and intentions were thrown out of Shang Zhao’s mind. “Alright, what do you want to eat?”

Ning Gui walked toward the corridor and asked him back, “What do you want to eat?”

Shang Zhao scratched his hair. “I’ll whatever you want to eat.”

Ning Gui looked at him. “Be specific.”

“Let’s have hot pot with a mild broth.” Shang Zhao pursed his lips, his face a bit hot. “I have a bit of excessive internal heat.”

“Let’s go, then.”