Secretly Liking Him - Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Gu Xun actually knew that being able to maintain the current state of affairs was already very good.

This kind of state was very good, and he was also very happy.

It was just that he still couldn’t help but have a little bit of greed.

Even though he knew it was impossible, he would still think, if only A-Yan could like him back.

Gu Xun raised his hand and rubbed his nose, rubbing back that tiny bit of sourness. Taking a deep breath, he then pretended as if nothing was wrong and said, “I’m not unhappy!”

Slowly and firmly, Gu Xun said, “I am doing great.”

Shen Yanzhi hesitated to speak: “A-Xun…”

But Gu Xun was afraid that if they kept chatting, he would give himself away, so he quickly said, “Don’t just talk, let’s walk faster too!”

Then he took large strides forward, his energy abnormally lively.

Shen Yanzhi took in Gu Xun’s performance, feeling an indescribable discomfort in his heart, which made him feel sour and bitter.

After Gu Xun walked forward for a section, he realized Shen Yanzhi hadn’t caught up, so he immediately turned back and hailed him: “A-Yan! Hurry up!”

Shen Yanzhi gathered his thoughts and stepped forward to catch up.

It was just that today was the first day of the second monthly examination. After the two of them arrived at the classroom, Shen Yanzhi had to busily collect homework. By the time everything was mostly wrapped up, they had to go to different exam rooms, so there was simply no space for conversation.

Watching Gu Xun pack up his things and go to the classroom next door, Shen Yanzhi really wanted to call out to him and say a few more words.

However, he didn’t know what exactly he should say to make Gu Xun happy again, so in the end, he ultimately said nothing.

Yet, just as Gu Xun walked to the door of Class Two next door, he suddenly thought that he had at least made it to the exam room right next to Shen Yanzhi’s. As long as he slowly kept persisting like this, he would one day be able to make it to the first exam room.

Then, bit by bit, little by little, he would get closer to him. On that ranking board, their names would one day be able to lean side by side.

Gu Xun suddenly became a bit happy again, and told himself in his heart that even if he didn’t do well on the exam this time, he must absolutely not give up—A-Yan was waiting for him right next door.

If he gave up because of a single setback, then the distance between them would only grow further and further apart.

Although the possibility of dating A-Yan was basically less than or equal to zero, this didn’t stop him from liking A-Yan…

Even if it wasn’t in the capacity of a lover, Gu Xun still wanted to retain a position that belonged to him by Shen Yanzhi’s side.

Looking at his desk, where the stationery and things they had prepared together last night were laid out, the corners of Gu Xun’s mouth finally curved upward.

A-Yan was so excellent and so considerate; liking him ought to be a happy thing!

So when Shen Yanzhi saw Gu Xun again, he found that his mood seemed to have turned good again, and his originally suspended heart also settled back down.

Gu Xun had long turned the page on that morning episode, chatterboxing away to Shen Yanzhi about how the Chinese essay prompt was too much of a trap.

Gu Xun complained: “How would I know what Edison thought! Even ‘what Edison thinks of cell phones’—I think cell phones are pretty good! Can my thinking be on the same train of thought as Edison’s?!”

Shen Yanzhi smiled: “Put yourself in his shoes, think about it.”

Gu Xun wished he could roll his eyes: “If I could put myself in Edison’s shoes, I would have ascended to heaven by now.”

Shen Yanzhi had no choice but to comfort him, saying: “As long as the general meaning is there, it’s fine.”

Gu Xun instantly put on a fake crying act: “What if they deduct a whole lot of points later…”

Shen Yanzhi thought about it carefully and said, “They won’t. Remember those things I told you before; generally, they won’t deduct too much.”

Gu Xun: “…”

Handsome guy! Coax me! Hurry! Don’t be so rational and evidence-based, okay! Just praising me is enough!

But Gu Xun still wanted to save a little face in front of Shen Yanzhi, so he said, “My handwriting is ugly…”

Shen Yanzhi said, “It has already improved a lot.”

Gu Xun was actually on the verge of smiling, but still asked in a fake manner, “Really?”

Shen Yanzhi nodded: “Really.”

Gu Xun couldn’t hold it in and smiled, wishing he could roll around on the spot.

He couldn’t roll around physically, but the fat cat in his heart rolled around, and the tip of its tail even brushed against the tip of his heart, feeling fluffy and warm.

Gu Xun was happy, and his requirement for saving face was lowered. Thick-skinned, he said, “Come on, praise me a few more times, let me get a bit more confidence for this afternoon’s exam!”

Seeing how his expression looked especially expectant, Shen Yanzhi praised him in a serious manner: “Your accuracy rate in doing problems lately has been very high; as long as you perform normally, there won’t be a problem.”

Actually, it was quite ordinary; Shen Yanzhi couldn’t say any overly exaggerated praise.

But Gu Xun just felt very satisfied, probably because the person speaking was Shen Yanzhi.

Gu Xun was content, and he said, “I definitely, absolutely, will test well!”

Hearing him say this, Shen Yanzhi smiled back at him: “Good.”

…

The pace of monthly exams was always relatively fast. Because the papers were made by the school itself, the grades for the subjects tested in the morning were already out by the afternoon.

Gu Xun kept holding back and didn’t dare to go ask; he felt that if he knew he didn’t do well on the previous ones, it might affect his later performance.

During the noon break, Gu Xun put the word out in the classroom: if anyone brought his score back while asking for their own, he would scratch their face into a flower.

The girls in class teased him: “Gu Xun, are you going to scratch us too?”

No matter what, Gu Xun couldn’t scratch a young girl’s face, so Gu Xun said, “I’ll die right in front of you guys!”

The girls in class instantly burst into laughter, saying one after another that they couldn’t bear to let him go, telling him to take care of himself and not seek a short end.

The boys in the class also jeered: “Oh-oh-oh-oh!”

The sound was highly suggestive, making it seem as if Gu Xun had something going on with all the girls in the class.

Gu Xun flipped them the middle finger: “What are you blindly ‘oh’-ing about! If you have time, why aren’t you reading more books! Grinding the spear right before battle makes it bright even if it doesn’t make it sharp! Do you understand?!”

As it turned out, just as he finished speaking, someone echoed him: “Gu Xun is right.”

Gu Xun turned his face, only to see Min Yibo standing at their classroom door.

It turned out that because they were making such a racket just now, they hadn’t noticed that the preparatory bell for noon self-study had already rung. It just so happened that Min Yibo came early, and bumped right into them.

Gu Xun looked down at his own hand, and then looked at Min Yibo.

Shen Yanzhi couldn’t bear to watch him act stupid anymore, so he quickly gave him a tug, pulling him down into his seat.

The moment Gu Xun sat down, he quickly pulled his hand back.

Although Gu Xun was bold, he had never thought that he would flip a middle finger right in front of a teacher. Who knew that this time he would be caught red-handed…

Even in this situation, Gu Xun still couldn’t help but say in a small voice to Shen Yanzhi: “I feel like I’m going to faint.”

Shen Yanzhi’s expression was as usual: “Being able to say these words shows that your brain is still conscious.”

Gu Xun: “…”

Gu Xun asked very seriously: “…Can’t you just simply say that you will catch me?”

Shen Yanzhi smiled slightly: “Mm, next time I’ll know how to reply like that.”

Fortunately, Min Yibo wasn’t the kind of teacher who felt the sky was falling down upon seeing a student flip a middle finger; he very calmly ignored this matter.

Min Yibo walked onto the podium, propped his hands on the surface, and said, “Don’t give up now just because you didn’t work hard usually. Think about how maybe one more point means a passing grade, or maybe one more point puts you on the honor roll, you know?”

He spoke interestingly, and the students loved to listen. After listening, they responded one after another: “We know!”

After Min Yibo gave a few more instructions, he handed the job of managing discipline over to Shen Yanzhi.

By right, Shen Yanzhi should sit on the podium to watch the whole class, but he still preferred to stay in his own seat.

Gu Xun was extremely satisfied with this point. Seeing that Min Yibo had left, Gu Xun let himself go, whispering into Shen Yanzhi’s ear: “King Min is really interesting.”

Shen Yanzhi cast a glance at him, only smiling without speaking.

He thought, You are more interesting.

Gu Xun was already quite used to Shen Yanzhi smiling without speaking; he was a male god after all, how could he be a chatterbox like a “male lunatic” like himself.

But fortunately, Gu Xun also quieted down quickly, because he really wanted to grind his spear right before the battle, just like King Min said—maybe one more point would mean climbing up one more rank!

Thinking this way, by the time the noon self-study ended, Gu Xun even began to hate that the school’s noon self-study time was truly too short.

Anyway, no matter what, the following subjects were tested one after another. Gu Xun wrote down everything he knew, and for what he didn’t know, he also worked hard to write.

In any case, if he filled it up, he might mess around and get a few partial points; in short, he couldn’t leave it blank.

Fortunately, questions he completely didn’t know were limited, at most they were half-understood.

Once all the testing was over, Gu Xun’s spirit also relaxed. With his spirit relaxing like this, he felt his physical body also couldn’t quite hold up.

Gu Xun let out a yawn, rubbed his eyes, and said, “Why do I feel so sleepy.”

Shen Yanzhi knew he was a bit nervous when sleeping last night. Now seeing that he was sleepy, he first pulled away the hand Gu Xun was using to rub his eyes, and only then said, “Don’t rub, your hands are dirty. Go to sleep earlier when you go back today; you slept a bit late last night.”

Gu Xun gave an “oh,” and then glanced at his own hand, feeling that being managed by Shen Yanzhi like this made him quite happy…

…

This happiness lasted roughly until before going to bed at night, when Gu Xun found that his throat hurt a bit, and his head felt groggy.

Hearing him say this, Shen Yanzhi knew that Gu Xun had probably caught a cold, and his brow instantly furrowed.

Shen Yanzhi asked, “Did you take a cold shower again when you bathed last night?”

Gu Xun: “Uh…”

Gu Xun felt this question was so hard to answer…

Although the weather wasn’t hot anymore, Gu Xun sometimes still couldn’t help but crave the cold. Shen Yanzhi had already caught him taking cold showers several times.

Before, there were no problems, but these past few days, because of the monthly exams, Gu Xun had been quite nervous and hadn’t slept very well, so his body couldn’t take the toll.

The matter had already happened, and Shen Yanzhi knew that dwelling on this to lecture Gu Xun was useless, so he just said, “You wait, I’ll go find Auntie Shen to get medicine.”

Gu Xun gave an “oh” and silently leaned against the head of the bed, sitting properly.

Shen Lan and Gu Jingyuan came over along with Shen Yanzhi, both wanting to see exactly how sick Gu Xun was.

Gu Xun’s health had always been very good; usually, headaches and minor fevers were rare. Shen Lan was afraid that a sudden illness would turn into a big issue, but now seeing that it didn’t look like anything serious, she put her heart at rest.

Gu Jingyuan also saw that Shen Yanzhi was taking good care of him, so he pulled Shen Lan—who was prattling away to Gu Xun—out of the room.

After all, the two kids’ room wasn’t big; it was quite crowded with everyone crowding around, which also affected his rest.

Holding the thermometer in his mouth, Gu Xun watched Shen Yanzhi reading the cold medicine instruction manual, and felt that occasionally getting sick seemed pretty good too.

By the time Gu Xun’s time was up over there, Shen Yanzhi had also finished looking over the manual on his end.

Shen Yanzhi checked and found that the body temperature didn’t have much of a problem, so he let out a sigh of relief first, and only then gave the prepared medicine and water to Gu Xun.

Gu Xun took the medicine very obediently, and then lay down obediently again.

Shen Yanzhi hadn’t spoken the whole time. Gu Xun didn’t notice it much at first, but it wasn’t until Shen Yanzhi turned off the light and got into bed to sleep that Gu Xun realized something was off.

Gu Xun hesitated for a moment, and finally still asked: “…A-Yan, are you angry?”

Shen Yanzhi was actually quite frank: “Mm.”

Gu Xun hadn’t expected him to admit it so simply, so he was choked up for a moment, and only then asked somewhat stutteringly: “Wh-why?”

Shen Yanzhi asked him back: “What do you think?”

Gu Xun immediately gave an assurance: “…I will never take a cold shower again!”

Shen Yanzhi let out a sigh: “Go to sleep.”

Gu Xun felt that his reaction didn’t look like he had cooled down, so he reached out a finger to poke his arm: “A-Yan…”

Gu Xun was sick after all; his voice lacked that usual kind of vitality, becoming somewhat listless and a bit pitiable.

At first, Shen Yanzhi could still hold back and not reply to him, but after being called several times in a row, he finally couldn’t hold out anymore.

Shen Yanzhi said, “I told you before, but you didn’t listen.”

Shen Yanzhi felt that if Gu Xun had listened before, he wouldn’t have fallen sick today. But after the matter had already happened, obsessing over this didn’t seem to have any use.

But he still felt very angry—how could Gu Xun not pay attention to his own body at all.

Usually, wasn’t “can’t drink cold things” always hanging on his lips?

Gu Xun opened his mouth, wanting to say something to quibble, but his brain was fuzzy, and he really had no train of thought.

So much so that in the end, he only said, in a small, aggrieved voice: “I almost never get sick…”

Gu Xun himself couldn’t remember when the last time he got sick was. Because he had always been very healthy, when Shen Yanzhi told him to be careful not to catch a cold and whatnot, he only felt that A-Yan cared about him, felt quite happy, and then continued happily taking cold showers.

Who knew it would be just that coincidental…

Gu Xun felt aggrieved; he was already sick, yet A-Yan was still angry with him.

Probably when a person is sick, they easily become more fragile, or perhaps it was because the person beside him was Shen Yanzhi.

Gu Xun’s fragility came exceptionally fast. He reached out his hand again to poke Shen Yanzhi’s arm: “I’m sick, and you’re still angry with me…”

That voice sounded almost as if he was about to cry from grievance right away.

Shen Yanzhi’s heart softened all at once. Although he was still a bit angry, the heartache was still a bit more, so he said, “Alright, I’m not angry anymore, you sleep well.”

Gu Xun still couldn’t quite believe it: “Really?”

Cooled down so fast? Real or fake?

In the darkness, Shen Yanzhi gently pinched Gu Xun’s hand—the one that had been poking his arm just now: “Really, hurry up and sleep.”

Gu Xun: “…”

It’s over, I can’t sleep anymore, I want to go outside and run laps!