Chapter 12: Bringing Breakfast Is Fine, But No Secret Crushes

(Page 1 of 3)

Is this right?

For the entire evening self-study period, whenever Lin Shu was not working through problems, those three words kept circling through her mind. She was practically obsessed.

During the latter half of the period, the teacher finished her lesson, dusted off her hands, and left them to study on their own.

Zhou Ya made her way to the front row and asked Lin Shu for the online course on written translation.

Lin Shu gave a distracted hum. “Just search for one. I’ve never actually watched an English course online.”

“Then this morning…”

“I was just humoring the teacher. Otherwise, her expectations of me would suddenly shoot up, and I wouldn’t be able to breathe.”

“You little—!”

Zhou Ya pretended to throttle her. Lin Shu obligingly stuck out her tongue. Just as the two of them were fooling around, the bell rang.

Phew. Another day survived.

They stopped fooling around and, in perfect unspoken agreement, packed up their textbooks.

Time to go home!

The school did not provide a bus for evening self-study. Zhou Ya boarded one, while Lin Shu still had to walk a ways. It would not really matter if her classmates saw her riding in a Bentley, but this was a public school, after all. Lin Shu was not like her older brother, Lin Zhou; she disliked drawing attention.

With her schoolbag on her back, she strolled along the deserted sidewalk and sneezed.

A mountain bike passed by, then turned back.

Its bright metal bell rang out: ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling.

Lin Shu turned her head and found herself looking straight into Xie Buchen’s pale, aloof eyes. Sometimes, he was genuinely irritating.

“What do you want?” Lin Shu asked, clutching her bag strap.

Xie Buchen held the handlebars and pedaled slowly. “Breakfast was delicious. There was just a little too much.”

“Well, if you’re feeding a pig, shouldn’t you give it a little extra?”

Xie Buchen laughed, but only a breathy sound escaped him, without any real voice behind it. He told Lin Shu not to bring him breakfast anymore. What he had said last week had only been something he had blurted out in anger. If she kept bringing him food, people at school would start spreading rumors.

Lin Shu kicked a stone out of her way and looked at him through the indistinct greenery.

They walked—or rather, rode and strolled—along for a while.

In the end, she could not hold it in any longer.

“Why did you delete me?”

“…There was no point keeping you.”

“If you kept me… I could tell you where to go to pick up your breakfast.”

“Do you really like bringing people breakfast that much?” Xie Buchen veered off course. His wheels rolled into a drainage channel, producing several clanking metallic sounds. He guided the bike back inside the white line and continued, “Girls shouldn’t be so devoted to self-sacrifice.”

Lin Shu rushed two steps off the sidewalk.

Under the dim yellow streetlamp, she stared straight at him and, for some reason, said, “But this is the only thing I can do for you.”

There was nothing she could do about his family situation.

She had wanted to offer him financial help, but Xie Buchen was not Ji Xingshen.

His world and hers were like two identical poles of a magnet—similar, yet repelling one another. There was simply no way for her to break through.

She had never been able to repay him.

Instead, he had cleaned up her mess twice.

Everyone else who was reborn seemed to return the debts of gratitude they owed. Only Lin Shu kept owing more and more. Thinking about it left her rather defeated.

Xie Buchen squeezed the brake lever. After a brief silence, he asked strangely, “You don’t owe me anything. Why would you say that?”

(Page 1 of 3)

(Page 2 of 3)

Lin Shu turned her head away.

She drew in her hands and feet, retreating onto the sidewalk like a mouse shamefacedly crawling back into its dark burrow.

Xie Buchen performed a little trick. His mountain bike hopped onto the steps, then came to a stop right in front of her.

Good grief.

Lin Shu had seen BMX riders jumping like that in specially designed park courses, but she had never seen anyone do it on an actual road. Weren’t boys afraid of falling?

Right in front of her, Xie Buchen added her back to his contacts.

A message popped up.

Lin Shu opened it. Xie Buchen had sent a sticker: a shiba inu with one eye slanted in a deadpan glare.

Don’t go too far out of character.

What kind of delinquent bro was so fond of dogs?

Lin Shu scrolled through her saved stickers and sent back a dairy cat wearing the same slanted-eyed expression.

Xie Buchen laughed and asked where she was going to catch the bus.

Lin Shu said, “The intersection up ahead.”

Xie Buchen said they were already a street away from the school. “Are there even any buses at this hour?”

“An adult is coming to pick me up.”

Xie Buchen fell silent for a moment. He escorted her to a spot near the intersection, then turned his mountain bike and slipped into a side road. Lin Shu assumed he had not noticed the steps ahead and shouted after him.

Who would have thought that the delinquent bro would rise from his seat and race straight down the stairs?

The wind lifted the hem of his school uniform.

Like a stunt performer…

Don’t be ridiculous.

Lin Shu wondered how riding a bicycle could look even flashier than riding a motorcycle. Sure enough, his obediently sticking to the bike lane and waiting at traffic lights during the day had all been an act. At night, flying over walls and leaping across eaves was the real Xie Buchen.

Lin Shu got into the car without noticing the person standing in the shadows, dressed in the uniform of First High School.

The other person seemed to have been waiting there for some time.

After confirming that Lin Shu had gotten into the car, they looked toward the intersection where Lin Shu and Xie Buchen had gone their separate ways.

The wind did not lift the boy’s uniform. It merely stirred the emotions that had settled heavily in his heart.

…

Lin Shu returned home, washed up, and got into bed.

She messaged Xie Buchen to ask where they should meet the next day.

Xie Buchen asked where she lived.

The neighborhood where Lin Shu’s family lived was known by every local as an affluent district. After thinking it over, she gave him the name of an ordinary residential complex nearby. Xie Buchen said they could meet on West River Road, where there was a school-bus stop just around the corner.

Lin Shu asked what he wanted to eat.

Xie Buchen said he was not picky.

Lin Shu: Is there nothing in particular you want?

Xie Buchen: Anything is fine.

Lin Shu: …

Xie Buchen: Bringing breakfast is fine, but don’t secretly fall for me.

Lin Shu: You’re insane.

Xie Buchen: [Transfer initiated]

(Page 2 of 3)

(Page 3 of 3)

Lin Shu: Don’t do that, bro. If you do, I’ll feel guilty.

Xie Buchen: So you really do have a crush on me?

Lin Shu: Don’t be so full of yourself. Please.

Xie Buchen: What exactly are you after?

Lin Shu: Nothing at all. I feel nothing but pure gratitude toward you. After all, you know that the students in our class wouldn’t dare covet your good looks.

Xie Buchen: So that’s how you’re going to talk to me?

Lin Shu: Once at school, once at the bookstore—you’ve helped me twice. It may have been effortless for you, but it means a great deal to me. You also know that, because of what happened with Ji Xingshen, I’m not exactly well liked at school. I’ll have to rely on you if anything comes up in the future.

Xie Buchen: …

Lin Shu: [Slanted-Eyed Dairy Cat.jpg]

Xie Buchen: I’m going to sleep.

Lin Shu: Good night, bro.

Xie Buchen: …

Lin Shu turned off her phone, rolled over, and closed her eyes. Ten minutes later, she unlocked the phone again and read through her entire chat history with Xie Buchen several times. She had managed to leave him speechless so many times. It was rather gratifying.

Lin Shu laughed twice, cleared her throat, stuck out her backside, and went to sleep.

The next day.

After breakfast, she packed the portion meant for Xie Buchen and hurried out.

It took only five extra minutes of walking to reach West River Road.

Xie Buchen was leaning against a white stone bridge with his bicycle.

Lin Shu hung the breakfast from his handlebars. He glanced at her, then rode away.

The two of them looked like spies making a clandestine rendezvous.

Lin Shu boarded the school bus without a hitch. Her eyes followed Xie Buchen until, after only a few stops, Zhou Ya got on and began watching with her.

“Hey, where did Delinquent Bro buy his breakfast? Why does that bag look so familiar?”

Lin Shu turned around and said solemnly, “Those delivery bags are everywhere.”

“Are they?” Zhou Ya asked suspiciously.

Lin Shu pressed her lips together and hugged her schoolbag, rocking slightly in her seat.

Good grief.

Why did this feel so thrilling? It was almost like cheating, though she had never cheated herself. But she suddenly understood why Ji Xingshen had become addicted to cheating on her in his previous life.

Tsk.

Lin Shu clicked her tongue.

If she were a man and Ji Xingshen were a woman, then after being reborn this time, Lin Shu probably would not have chosen to stay away. Instead, she would have done everything possible to trick the female version of Ji Xingshen into falling for her, then toy with her and abandon her, letting “her” taste what it felt like to be used and deceived.

When all was said and done, as long as she remained a woman, there was simply no way to get revenge. She could not even personally beat him up twice.

Ah—she had suddenly thought of something.

Lin Shu’s eyes flew open. (Page 3 of 3)