Desk-mate, Do You Like Me? - Chapter 23

Chapter 23

That evening, Yu Wencheng and Li Mo sat at the dinner table eating frozen dumplings.

Neither of them was a good cook. Yu Wencheng usually lived alone and generally ate lunch and dinner at school, so the meals he prepared were at best basic sustenance.

“You’re going out with your classmates tomorrow? Sure, no problem. Did you tell your mother?”

“I told her. My mom even transferred me five thousand yuan,” Li Mo said, grinning.

With the money Jian Anxun gave him earlier, he was now relatively well-off.

“That’s good. Be sure to be safe when you go out to play, and call me if anything happens.”

Sure enough, nagging was an essential skill for every elder.

After a short period of nagging, Yu Wencheng said: “Hey, that noodle shop around the corner still hasn’t closed.”

Li Mo spoke with a mouth full of dumpling: “Why do you say that?”

“The owner there was beaten so badly by that father and son, yet they still let the noodle shop remain open.”

“They probably still need the noodle shop to earn money,” Li Mo scoffed. “That whole family is disgusting. Sister Liu mentioned she has a younger son who ignores the family and has an awful attitude.”

Yu Wencheng said: “With a father and older brother like that, it’s not surprising the younger son is like this.”

After dinner, Li Mo lay on the bed scrolling through his phone.

A new post on WeChat Moments:

[The Nation Owes Me 20CM: {Share Link}]

Su Yuyang was sharing this kind of link again…

After hesitating for a few seconds, Li Mo still clicked on the link.

It jumped through several pages. He chose to ignore the risks and finally landed on the video screen.

Li Mo grabbed his blanket, covering his head and his phone, and watched carefully.

…

Li Mo couldn’t take it after just a few minutes. The scale was too large, the play was too perverse, and there were too many people!

This phone is contaminated…

Li Mo exited the video and opened the chat interface with Su Yuyang.

The two had started chatting mysteriously since that one link “favor.” Su Yuyang seemed to genuinely categorize him as a “sister,” sending him various links, videos, novels, and comics daily, with more resources than certain subscription sites.

[Handsome Li Mo: Do you have anything clean and pure love? I can’t handle this direct “that thing” right from the start.]

[The Nation Owes Me 20cm: We’ve been chatting for so long, and you still haven’t gotten used to it?]

Heh heh… How could a vegetarian fall in love with eating meat in just half a month?

[The Nation Owes Me 20cm: I feel like your frequency of asking for resources has increased recently. What’s up? What’s going on? We’re sisters, feel free to tell me!]

He really did categorize me as a “sister”… Li Mo typed his reply: Nothing much, just getting more curious.

[The Nation Owes Me 20cm: Do you have a crush on someone?]

[Handsome Li Mo: …]

Such a direct question… It was hard to know how to answer.

Li Mo still didn’t know what it felt like to like someone, so he stayed up all night watching over ten short videos and reading a few comics. When he woke up the next day, he felt drained as if all his yang energy had been sucked out.

Jian Anxun was startled when he came to pick him up: “Junior, did you go save the world last night? Why are you so tired?”

Li Mo yawned widely and used a casual excuse: “I was burning the midnight oil studying yesterday…”

After getting into the car, Shen Shuyi sat in the front passenger seat, with Li Mo, Xu Qing, and Jian Anxun in the back. Li Mo sat in the middle.

He and Xu Qing both turned their heads, neither looking at the other.

Jian Anxun clicked his tongue and whispered: “Aiya, still haven’t made up?”

Li Mo pouted: “How are we supposed to make up? The last few times I messaged him on WeChat, he almost blocked me…”

Jian Anxun laughed out loud: “Poor junior~”

Li Mo: “Compared to you, what is my level of misery?” He finished with a raised eyebrow.

“…”

Yes! A complete victory!

The car was very quiet during the drive. Shen Shuyi and Xu Qing silently looked out the window. Only Li Mo and Jian Anxun occasionally made strange noises. Other than that, it was eerily silent.

The driver was also dedicated to his duty, ignoring Li Mo no matter how he tried to strike up a conversation, focusing on driving.

Li Mo leaned boredly against the comfortable leather seat. Shen Shuyi sat detached in the front, Jian Anxun leaned against the car door playing on his phone, and Xu Qing leaned against the other window, eyes open, thinking about God knows what. Li Mo was utterly bored.

“You…” Li Mo opened his mouth, searching for the right words. “Are you angry at me, Xu Qing?”

Xu Qing paused, his expression still cold: “What do I have to be angry about?”

“Because of me and Bai Sheng…”

“See, you’re embarrassed to even say it.”

“I just happened to trip and fall on him that day.”

“Happen? That’s quite a coincidence. But whatever happened between the two of you has nothing to do with me, and you don’t need to explain to me.” With that, Xu Qing leaned against the window and closed his eyes, indicating he didn’t want to talk anymore.

Li Mo gritted his teeth. Xu Qing said he didn’t care, but in reality, he cared deeply. He had stayed up all night posting several ambiguous messages on that app, clearly alluding to the incident with him and Bai Sheng. Unknowing fans in the comment section thought he had been dumped and was deeply traumatized.

Xu Qing totally thought he was with Bai Sheng.

That image… Li Mo imagined himself holding hands with Bai Sheng and instantly got goosebumps all over.

Then he imagined the hand-holding partner being Xu Qing… that was a bit terrifying.

Li Mo shook his head, pulled out his phone, and typed quickly.

[Handsome Li Mo: Why do I feel weird when I see two boys holding hands? But if it’s two other boys, I don’t feel weird. Am I getting a fever?]

[The Nation Owes Me 20cm: It means you’ve fallen for the boy you don’t feel weird about.]

[Handsome Li Mo: What kind of logic is that?]

[The Nation Owes Me 20cm: The law of love.]

…

I asked for nothing.

[The Nation Owes Me 20cm: Why don’t you be more specific? I’ll analyze it for you~]

Li Mo thought about it and told Su Yuyang the whole truth.

Su Yuyang was silent for a long time. Just when Li Mo was about to jump out of the car and kill himself on impact, Su Yuyang sent a message.

[The Nation Owes Me 20cm: You’re doomed. You’ve fallen in love.]

[Handsome Li Mo: Don’t just say that! Are you sure??]

[The Nation Owes Me 20cm: Certain and positive. Think about it. Do you feel that way about the guy named Bai Sheng? You only feel that way about the guy named Xu Qing, right?]

That sounds… very reasonable.

“Ah, junior, encountering relationship problems?”

Li Mo was startled, quickly covering his phone and meeting Jian Anxun’s gossipy gaze.

“Why are you suddenly leaning over?!”

“Seeing you so engrossed, and those occasional little frustrated expressions, I’m concerned about you, junior~” Jian Anxun smiled, hooking his arm around Li Mo’s neck, and said in a voice only the two of them could hear: “To tell you the truth, I’ve got a system for pursuing people.”

“Tsk, if you really knew how to pursue people, sows would be talking.”

Jian Anxun pulled out his phone, the screen showing a video of a mother pig talking.

“…”

“Listen to your upperclassman,” Jian Anxun put his phone away and continued. “First, you need to speak a bit cuter, use more words like ‘ya’ and ‘da.'”

Li Mo was starting to doubt Jian Anxun’s reliability: “Are you sure that won’t make me seem like an idiot?”

“Trust me. Everyone is drawn to the weaker, cuter type. This is more likely to spark a protective instinct,” Jian Anxun continued. “Once you spark his protective instinct, he’ll care about you. Then you can press on, ask him out, create small arguments—nothing too big, you won’t be able to handle that—to further spark his protective instinct.”

“Normally, just give him emotional support. You know what emotional support is, right? Then you can slowly guide him and tease him occasionally.”

“Most importantly,” Jian Anxun suddenly changed his tone, becoming much more serious and solemn. “You have to kick away the ambiguous partners around you first, eliminating them all like in Candy Crush.”

“Good! That’s the only reliable thing you’ve said!”

The car stopped in the hotel parking lot. The sky was dim, a fiery torch was cast in the sky, sustaining the last light.

“He’s really rich… This parking lot charges fees.”

Walking out of the parking lot, Li Mo couldn’t help but exclaim.

Jian Anxun waved his hand: “That driver was arranged by my dad. I don’t have to worry about the fare. He said since we’re going out to play, we should have a good time.”

What’s with that faint sadness that unexpectedly leaked out?

“Here,” Jian Anxun handed Li Mo a room card. “Fourth floor, 411, a king-size room.”

“Mhm… Huh?” Li Mo’s eyes widened. “We’re sleeping in the same room?”

“Mhm~ Save some money. We’ll pair up two by two, how about that?”

He was generous enough to stop in a paid parking lot just now, and now he’s talking about saving money? Who would believe that?

“Alright, it’s happily decided.”

Jian Anxun took Shen Shuyi and left. The two of them had grown up together, so sleeping in the same room was a common occurrence, even after several instances of confessed rejection.

Only Li Mo and Xu Qing were left looking at each other in the dark.

After a long time, Xu Qing spoke: “Let’s go. Stop standing like an idiot at the parking lot entrance.”

“Oh… Wait for me.”

Xu Qing spoke to me willingly, so that means his anger has subsided, and I still have a chance! Li Mo was very skilled at self-hypnosis and self-consolation.

The hotel room was large, with a spacious en-suite bathroom, and a large bed occupying most of the room’s area. It had a big TV and a desk.

The only drawback was that the shower partition was transparent. Simply put, if one person was washing their face, and the other was taking a shower, they could see each other clearly with just a glance.

Xu Qing stood at the door, hesitating whether to go in and take a shower. It wasn’t that he was being difficult; he genuinely couldn’t get used to someone being outside while he showered, and with only a virtually useless glass panel in between, it was equivalent to being completely exposed. Taken more seriously, it was like running naked on the street.

“You go first.” Li Mo tactfully left the bathroom, closing the door considerately.

Lying on the bed, he opened a search engine and started searching: How to be the ‘gong’ (top)…