128. Counselor
Lin Nan had a strong aversion to questions about his father.
He had no clue how he would face his father if they met again in the future, or how his father would treat him.
Right now, he didn’t even dare to think about it, fearing that even a little deep thought would plunge him into a pit of despair. So, he had taken an avoidance approach to this matter.
Similarly, Lin Nan felt the same about his future. He couldn’t dare to imagine that one day he might fall in love, get married, and have kids as a woman. If he had bad luck, he might end up in a situation similar to his mother’s.
His parents’ failed marriage had already made him wary of marriage. He deeply understood what it meant to be an inadequate parent from his own experiences of neglect… Therefore, he didn’t want to get married, nor did he want any potential future children to go through the same things he was currently experiencing. After all, he couldn’t guarantee he would be a good parent.
Silently, he sat in the last row with his roommates, too distracted to pay attention to what the teacher was saying up front, his head bowed in defeat.
Chen Yao knew that Lin Nan’s current dejection was tied to something he had brought up during lunch, but he didn’t dare say much more. While playing with classmates, he occasionally stole glances at Lin Nan’s expression.
Should be okay, right? If I had known, I wouldn’t have been so stupid.
Chen Yao was panicking inside; if Lin Nan fell into another bout of gloom, he honestly wouldn’t know how to comfort him.
Fortunately, Lin Nan quickly realized that thinking this way could lead to short-term depression and hurriedly stopped that spiraling thought.
Once he lifted his head to look at the teacher lecturing, he discovered that, of course, it was another soul-sucking class on Marxist philosophy.
He loathed these purely theoretical subjects that required rote memorization. It wasn’t that he studied in advance; rather, he crammed everything in a month before finals—or sometimes even in the first half of that month.
Should I find some magic for superhuman memory?
Lin Nan perked up at the idea and immediately tossed aside his previous worries.
Before he could even start his search, he suddenly heard a tapping on the glass from the window. Turning around, he saw his counselor standing outside with a serious expression, peering in.
For a moment, it felt just like those high school days when the homeroom teacher was peeking at him. Time seemed to freeze for a second, and his classmates scrambled to hide their phones. That’s when Lin Nan suddenly realized he hadn’t even been playing on his phone at all.
His counselor, in his early thirties, had a buzz cut similar to Chen Yao’s. His face was a bit softer than Chen Yao’s and resembled that of a character from a certain popular series—those mysterious male leads. He probably got attention because he was good-looking, even though the students rarely saw him.
Despite having been in class for over a year, Lin Nan still hadn’t remembered his counselor’s name.
The counselor shot a glare at the students who were caught playing with their phones. Then he walked to the front door, smiling apologetically at the lecturer: “I need to talk to the students about something; it’ll just take five minutes.”
The teacher nodded and went out to the hallway for some fresh air.
Then, the counselor strolled to the podium, glanced at the class, and said, “Next Tuesday afternoon, we have a medical examination. We’re scheduled for three o’clock, so you need to gather in front of the academic building at two-thirty. The class monitor will hand out forms, so remember to fill out any serious past medical history.”
A medical examination?
Lin Nan was taken aback. Although surprised, he recalled that there was also a school-organized medical exam around November last year. Upon deeper reflection, he remembered it wasn’t that intense—mainly vision tests, bl**d pressure checks, height and weight measurements, and occasionally bl**d draws. But the thing that made him uneasy was the internal check-up.
You know, the one where they lift your shirt and poke around your belly. No clue what they’re looking for, but his chest…
“The examination is free, just don’t eat breakfast,” the counselor continued, moving on to recent activities. “Our school is participating in an essay contest, one entry from each dorm. The theme is ‘70 Years,’ and it should be about a thousand words. If any dorm fails to submit, they’ll lose credits.”
Lin Nan had once cared about this credit deduction threat when he first entered school. Back then, the counselor would threaten them with credit losses for any tasks he assigned. But then the students discovered it was all bark and no bite.
Though he talked about losing credits, the counselor didn’t actually have the power to carry it out.
So this semester, Lin Nan completely skipped any activities the counselor mentioned, including the initial class meeting. He would just give a heads-up to the class monitor to mark him present.
However, the girls seemed to hang on the counselor’s every word, being easily swayed by the handsome guy—understandable, really.
After outlining the tasks, the counselor started to ramble on like a worried parent, droning on until the class bell rang. Only then did he realize, turning to the hallway, that the teacher had already slipped back to the office.
“Alright, class dismissed! Try not to eat too much takeout; the cafeteria is cleaner,” the counselor added, a bit awkwardly.
After spending time with this counselor, his initial authority melted away. The girls in the front chimed in teasingly, some complaining about metal wires in the cafeteria food, while others joked that the counselor made the lecture disappear.
Lin Nan, however, had zero interest in all this chatter, though he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy toward those who could joke and laugh with the counselor.
“Hey, wait, who’s Lin Nan?”
As he walked by the counselor, he suddenly heard his name. Blinking in confusion, he noticed his classmates were all staring at him, clearly having uncovered his identity.
“So you’re Lin Nan?” The counselor looked at him, puzzled for a moment, trying hard to recall any memories about a student with that name but couldn’t place a boy in the class named like that… wait, this should be a guy.
Scratching his head in confusion, he mumbled, “No wonder the dorm supervisor constantly complains about a girl named Lin Nan living in the boys’ dorm… I remember you’re a boy, right?”
Since the dorm supervisor frequently brought him up, he had checked the student list multiple times, explained that Lin Nan was a male several times, yet the dorm supervisor still found the need to report again and again, making him think he’d somehow offended that supervisor.
Turns out it wasn’t the supervisor’s problem; it was just that this student truly looked like a girl. Most of the girls in class couldn’t compete with this guy’s looks.
“What’s up?” Lin Nan asked curiously.
“Nothing much, now I get why the dorm supervisor is always looking for me to complain about you.”
Laughter erupted among the classmates, and Lin Nan’s face flushed red. He shot the counselor an annoyed glare before hurriedly leaving the classroom.
This guy, quite interesting…
Even though he hadn’t been a counselor for long, he had never encountered such a pretty boy before; that glare was practically akin to what a woman would give… oozing charm?
———
Currently, I have fifteen chapters saved up and expect to have about twenty-five by the time of release, so maintaining ten updates for two or three days should be easy!
