Secretly Liking Him - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

When Gu Xun finished his meal, Shen Lan still hadn’t finished her phone call. He wanted to go over and eavesdrop.

However, Gu Jingyuan wouldn’t let him go: “Watch out, or your mom really will beat you.”

Gu Xun thought about his mom’s occasionally unreasonable manner and felt that this wasn’t an impossibility.

Thus, neither father nor son dared to approach the Queen; they stayed honestly in the dining area watching TV.

Shen Lan’s call didn’t last much longer. When she came back, she told Gu Xun: “It’s fine. That kid isn’t in bad shape; he just has a bruise on his stomach.”

The breath Gu Xun had been holding finally deflated: “Thank God…”

Shen Lan reached out and pinched his ear: “I told you not to provoke little girls!”

Gu Xun quickly stood up and leaned in the direction Shen Lan was pulling, shouting his innocence: “I didn’t!”

Shen Lan: “Laughing and talking with little girls all day long aren’t you intentionally leading them on!”

Gu Xun hopped around: “But I haven’t even said more than a few words to Song Xinxin!”

Gu Xun felt he was being wronged to death. It was true he laughed and talked with many female classmates, but the key was that none of the girls he joked with liked him; it was the one he didn’t joke with who took an interest. What kind of logic was that!

What he remembered most clearly was back in the eighth grade; once, they were assigned to do cleaning duty together. He had only said a few words to Song Xinxin about assigning tasks, and the girl looked like she was about to cry. He was so scared that he never dared to proactively speak to her again.

Gu Xun had always thought he was too boisterous and had frightened a reserved, introverted little girl. Who knew this was a legendary secret crush!

Gu Xun felt particularly grief-stricken: “I died a wrongful death!”

Shen Lan let go and slapped him on the back: “Get lost and take a shower! You’re covered in stinky sweat!”

Gu Xun let out a very indignant “Hmph,” wanting to say he didn’t smell, but then he sniffed himself a sour, spoiled scent.

Gu Xun felt he couldn’t argue with this. He slinked off to take a shower, but then suddenly remembered something.

He turned back and clung to the dining room doorframe to act spoiled with his mom: “Dearest Mommy, let’s discuss something…”

Shen Lan’s “battle emotions” probably hadn’t settled yet, as her tone was very blunt: “If you have a fart, let it out fast!”

Gu Xun also replied very simply and clearly: “In the future, can we let Shen Yanzhi come to our house for lunch? Er, he’ll pay for the meals. No one is home at his place to cook at noon, and the cafeteria food is terrible…”

After hearing this, Shen Lan looked back at him in surprise: “What did he tell you?”

Gu Xun was confused: “What do you mean, ‘what did he tell you’?”

Shen Lan asked: “The part about no one being at home.”

Gu Xun was even more confused, so he poured everything out, describing in detail to his mother the circumstances and the situation at the time.

After Shen Lan heard it, she made a final decision: “He’ll eat at our house. We’ll cover both lunch and dinner. If he’s willing to live in the same room as you, that’s fine too—and don’t worry about money!”

Gu Xun suddenly felt a sense of crisis: “Mom! You don’t see someone else’s son as better and want to snatch him to raise him, do you? I’m your biological son!”

Shen Lan replied directly: “Yeah, so what? Scared?”

Gu Xun: “…A little bit.”

Unexpectedly, the Shen Lan opposite him suddenly sighed and said to him: “Little Shen is all alone in his family now. If Mom shows a bit of favoritism later on, don’t take it too much to heart.”

There was a “buzz” in Gu Xun’s brain. What did she mean by “Little Shen is all alone in his family”?

Seeing her son’s completely dazed expression, Shen Lan thought for a moment and then whispered: “Little Shen’s parents were in a car accident; both are gone. They left him a sum of money, and his relatives are currently fighting for custody of him.”

At this point, Shen Lan stopped. She didn’t describe to her son the things she had heard; she just sighed again.

Gu Xun’s throat choked up. He felt an immense tightness in his chest.

The image of Shen Yanzhi’s faint smile seemed to be right before his eyes, but yet…

Gu Xun blinked, feeling his eyes grow hot.

Shen Lan patted her son’s shoulder and instructed him: “Don’t spread this around.”

Gu Xun nodded and turned to walk toward his room like he’d lost his soul, but after a few steps, he suddenly stopped.

He took a few deep breaths, spotted his backpack still on the living room sofa, rushed over to grab it, and ran out.

Shen Lan was startled and shouted: “Where are you running to!”

Gu Xun roared back without turning his head: “I’m going to find A-Yan to do homework together!”

Gu Xun ran all the way to the Shen family’s small Western-style building. Even though the sky hadn’t darkened yet, Gu Xun felt the path was incredibly dark.

When Gu Xun stopped in front of the small building, he felt that this originally beautiful house also seemed to be shrouded in a cloud of gloom.

Gu Xun felt he was acting a bit crazy right now, but he couldn’t stop. He roared loudly: “A-Yan! A-Yan! It’s Gu Xun! Come open the door for me!”

After Gu Xun roared a few times, he finally saw a window on the second floor being pulled open from the inside. Shen Yanzhi poked his head out to look down, his hair dripping wet with water. His expression was one of great shock when he saw him: “Gu Xun?”

Enduring the sour feelings in his heart, Gu Xun waved at him with a grin and shouted: “Come open the door for me!”

Shen Yanzhi hesitated for a moment before saying: “Wait a minute.”

Then he pulled back from the window. In a short while, he came downstairs and opened the outer perimeter gate for Gu Xun.

Gu Xun thought that since he was already here, he couldn’t just not go in, so he very shamelessly walked inside.

Shen Yanzhi, the host, instead walked behind. It wasn’t until Gu Xun finally entered the main door of the small building that he asked: “Why did you come over?”

Gu Xun didn’t know what to say now. Could he really tell Shen Yanzhi: “I found out your parents are gone and I feel terrible, so I wanted to come accompany you”?

Gu Xun wanted to make up some nonsense to get by, but the water droplets hanging from Shen Yanzhi’s forehead hair fell onto the tail of his eyebrow. The droplet slid past the corner of his eye and down his cheek, finally leaving a water trail on Shen Yanzhi’s face.

It looked just like… just like a tear.

Gu Xun couldn’t say any nonsense now. He felt that telling a lie to Shen Yanzhi would surely result in being struck by lightning.

Shen Yanzhi raised his hand and wiped away the water trail, saying to him with a smile: “I was just showering. Wait for me a moment; I’ll go get a towel to dry my hair.”

In the past, when Gu Xun looked at Shen Yanzhi, he only thought his smile was beautiful and wished he would always smile at him. But seeing him smile now, he only felt sad.

Gu Xun grabbed Shen Yanzhi and said in a small voice: “Don’t smile.”

Shen Yanzhi was stunned: “Huh?”

Gu Xun: “Don’t smile. If you don’t want to smile, then don’t.”

The smile at the corners of Shen Yanzhi’s mouth flattened out bit by bit. His voice was faint, as if from very far away: “Auntie Shen told you?”

In an instant, Gu Xun felt he was particularly bad. He felt his act of running over here regardless of anything was simply brainless.

It was as if he had personally dug up a hidden secret and broken open a wound that had finally begun to heal.

Gu Xun had never hated his impulsive “act-the-moment-he-thinks” personality so much. If only… if only he hadn’t come…

Shen Yanzhi’s overly beautiful face was right in front of him without any expression. If it weren’t for the occasional water droplets falling from his hair, he would have looked like a still painting.

Only then did Gu Xun notice that although Shen Yanzhi’s hair was very black, his pupils were somewhat light in color. So, when he looked at someone without emotion like this, there was an indescribable feeling.

It was as if they were very strange to each other, their relationship very indifferent as if he, Gu Xun, meant nothing to Shen Yanzhi.

Gu Xun also realized in hindsight that it was originally supposed to be this way.

Today was only their second time meeting; they had only spent one day together. At most—at most, they were just classmates who had met early.

Perhaps to Shen Yanzhi, that was exactly what it was.

This realization made Gu Xun’s face feel a bit uneasy and his heart feel empty. He couldn’t help but take a step back: “I didn’t mean anything else. I just… I just wanted to see you.”

Shen Yanzhi didn’t speak for a long time. Just when Gu Xun thought he wouldn’t answer, he heard him say: “Then you have already seen.”

Gu Xun heard the subtext: You’ve seen, so you should leave.

Gu Xun didn’t want to leave, yet he couldn’t find a reason to stay. Their friendship wasn’t deep, and he had recklessly come to poke at someone else’s wound.

Shen Yanzhi probably didn’t want to continue this standoff with him, so he said: “I won’t see you out.”

After saying that, he intended to go upstairs.

Gu Xun’s hand moved faster than his brain, and he suddenly grabbed Shen Yanzhi’s arm.

Shen Yanzhi turned to look at him, waiting expressionlessly for him to speak.

Gu Xun felt like he was having a neurotic episode, but he felt some things had to be said. He took a deep breath and said with a somewhat hoarse voice: “I told my mom. In the future, you can come to our house for lunch, and we can solve dinner together too. If you don’t mind, you can stay over with me at night as well.”

Shen Yanzhi didn’t answer. He had heard words like this too many times.

Many promises, many, many instances of “I will be good to you,” “Our family will be very good to you.”

While they weren’t necessarily all fake, it was just… just that he didn’t need them.

But seeing Gu Xun’s eyes, which had turned somewhat red, Shen Yanzhi ultimately said softly: “I am not as pitiful as you think.”

Shen Yanzhi said: “I am also not as sad as you imagine.”

“They were very busy, so the feelings weren’t that deep.”

“The inheritance is large; it’s enough for me to live on.”

Shen Yanzhi finally said: “So, I don’t need.”

Before he could finish, he felt the strength in Gu Xun’s hand gripping his arm increase.

Gu Xun blinked fiercely, his breathing becoming faster and faster, as if he were deprived of oxygen, but he just gripped Shen Yanzhi’s arm deathly tight and refused to let go.

He didn’t know why, but the more Shen Yanzhi spoke, the more miserable he felt, as if something were churning in his heart.

Gu Xun said: “Stop talking.”

Then Shen Yanzhi watched as the boy opposite him who had been grinning all day, looking as if he wouldn’t care if the sky fell, cried.

He hadn’t cried himself, yet the other boy did.

Clearly he hadn’t, yet Shen Yanzhi had the illusion that he had bullied someone.

Gu Xun didn’t move, nor did he let Shen Yanzhi go. He just said in a small voice: “Stop talking.”

Then, tears slid down Gu Xun’s cheeks, mixing with the sweat on his face and neck.

Shen Yanzhi thought: When he came over, he must have run very fast; otherwise, why would he have sweated so much?