Extra Chapter
6. Misunderstanding
==============================
“Lin Nan, what kind of girl do you like?”
During break time, Lin Nan took Chen Yao’s desk, resting his head on it, looking a bit puzzled by the question: “Girls?”
For an eleven-year-old, this topic seemed a tad too early for him.
“Yeah, there are several couples in our class already,” Chen Yao said, supporting his chin with one hand and glancing around at their classmates, his eyes often lingering on the girls.
“Early romance is bad,” Lin Nan replied, his little face serious.
Unlike the maturing Chen Yao, Lin Nan had no urges or fantasies about girls. In fact, thanks to a few beatings from the neighborhood big sister when he was younger, he held a certain reverence for them.
“What about that girl?” Chen Yao’s eyes sparkled as he pointed to a girl sitting in the fourth row.
She was a bit chubby but quite pretty.
After thinking for a moment, Lin Nan answered, “Her grades are bad; she can’t even score forty in math. She gets called out and scolded by the math teacher daily; she’s not that great.”
“Hmm…” Chen Yao realized that his conversation with Lin Nan might be occurring on different wavelengths.
“She’s a bit heavy, and her legs aren’t great,” he mumbled to himself, then turned his gaze to a classmate who had been dancing since elementary school, “What about her?”
“She’s a bit silly too. Last time she scored thirty in English,” Lin Nan commented.
“Her legs look nice, but what a shame about her face,” Chen Yao mused aloud.
He understood now; Lin Nan probably didn’t have a concept of females in his brain.
Lin Nan, resting his chin in his hand, didn’t quite get Chen Yao’s reactions and had no idea what he had said wrong, so he quickly changed the subject: “Chen Yao, I have facial hair now.”
“Oh?!”
Chen Yao, surprised, immediately looked at Lin Nan’s face.
“Look! Facial hair!” Lin Nan proudly tilted his chin, showcasing the translucent fluff at the corner of his mouth, “I’ll be able to use a razor too!”
“Don’t shave it! If you start now, it’ll grow thicker, and you’ll have to shave every day,” Chen Yao warned, recalling his own painful lesson.
When he first hit puberty and started growing facial hair, he quickly stole his father’s razor, and now it had become a wild bush that reminiscent of a caveman if he missed a few days of grooming.
Plus, Lin Nan was such an adorable little boy; imagining him with facial hair…
Chen Yao pictured a version of Lin Nan with a full beard and felt it was even more unsettling than a muscular Nezha.
“Really?” Lin Nan gently touched the fine little fuzz he had just grown.
Honestly, it looked more like the barely noticeable fuzz that both boys and girls have; you wouldn’t really see it unless you were looking closely.
The school bell rang, prompting Lin Nan to quickly get up from his chair and run back to his seat.
Although he was shy and not very talkative, after some time, he had become somewhat familiar with his classmates.
His desk no longer felt like a no-man’s land. The girl who once held herself aloof now always tried to chat with him during class, attempting to influence his study habits.
Truly, the heart of a woman is as unpredictable as the weather.
This class was math.
Ever since Lin Nan had stayed up all night playing games with Chen Yao, he found himself increasingly lost in math class.
He had to listen more intently each day, trying hard to keep up with the class.
As he dug through his backpack for his math book, Lin Nan suddenly found a heart-shaped folded piece of homework paper in his drawer.
“What’s this?” he mumbled, lifting the paper to his desk and turning to his female desk buddy, “Who put this here?”
“No idea! Open it and see?” The girl leaned in with an excited, nosy face, “Is it a love letter? A love letter?!”
“Huh? A love letter?”
In middle school, most boys and girls hit puberty during these three years, awakening their awareness of gender. The students at this age, even in the first year, seemed to have a certain buzz about romance gaining popularity.
It almost felt embarrassing if you weren’t dating.
But honestly, Lin Nan never expected to receive anything like a love letter.
He glanced at his desk buddy, whose face turned red with excitement, and stuffed the letter into his drawer.
He’d look at it later.
——————
As usual, after school in the afternoon, Lin Nan followed Chen Yao, both of them messing around outside with their backpacks.
After dinner, they headed toward the internet cafe.
“By the way, I got a love letter,” Lin Nan suddenly remembered the letter he found in class today.
“Seriously? Nice going!” Chen Yao’s eyes widened, he patted Lin Nan on the shoulder, “Who was it? Which girl sent it to you?”
“I haven’t opened it yet,” Lin Nan replied, pulling the heart-shaped piece of paper from his pocket and casually showing it to Chen Yao, “Can you have a look?”
He was much more interested in grinding ranks with Chen Yao than dating.
And why did Chen Yao’s tone sound a bit strange?
“Let me see~” Chen Yao opened the love letter, reading as he walked, gradually scrunching his brow, before finally looking up at Lin Nan with a peculiar expression.
“What’s wrong?” Lin Nan asked, confused.
“It’s from a senior in ninth grade… She says she likes your type of little puppy,” Chen Yao’s tone dripped with jealousy.
Anyone could see that a sporty, nice-looking, slightly cheeky boy like him should be the one getting love letters! Why was Lin Nan, with his cute round face, the one attracting attention?
“???”
Little puppy? What kind of insult is that? Your whole family’s a dog!
Although Lin Nan played games now, figuring out internet slang still posed a challenge for him; he barely understood the memes circulating online.
Lin Nan paused for a moment, then frowned, hesitating to ask, “You seem… a bit mad?”
“What? I’m not mad?!” Chen Yao vehemently denied any jealousy he might have toward Lin Nan.
A senior in the third year…
He imagined a stunning girl, around five foot seven, with ample assets and legs for days.
Then he looked at Lin Nan, who was blissfully unaware, still thinking about gaming at the mention of receiving a love letter, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit inexplicably annoyed.
Lin Nan keenly sensed Chen Yao’s anger.
Confused about Chen Yao’s feelings, he furrowed his brow and thought for a bit before suddenly realizing.
Was Chen Yao worried that if he went off to date, they wouldn’t have time to play games together anymore?
“Don’t worry! I’m not interested in seniors!” Lin Nan reassured him.
“Not interested…”
d*mn, even more sour now.
Chen Yao huffed in irritation and turned to leave.
But Lin Nan still had no idea what had made Chen Yao angry, staring at him with a perplexed expression as he walked away. He scratched his head and sighed.
After watching Chen Yao board the bus, Lin Nan turned to head back towards the urban village.
“What on earth was he angry about?”
Feeling confused, Lin Nan returned to his chilly home.
Or maybe it wasn’t quite a home; this rental felt more like a private space where he could sleep soundly.
School and the internet cafe felt cozier, simply because they held the presence of friends.
Thinking about friends, Lin Nan’s mood quickly soured. With his head hanging low, he slowly walked into his bedroom.
What exactly had made Chen Yao upset?
He wouldn’t just ignore me from now on, would he?
Even when he trolled him during ranking matches, Chen Yao never acted this way.
Over the years, Chen Yao’s attitude towards him had always been gentle, and the occasional squabbles were just typical friend banter. Thus, Chen Yao’s unexplained anger made Lin Nan extremely concerned, leading him to reflect continuously on his own actions.
Could it be that I ate too much when I treated him to dinner?
Or was he just in a bad mood to begin with?
After thinking for a while, Lin Nan suddenly slapped his thigh: “Could it be that Chen Yao likes that ninth-grade senior?!”
So it’s jealousy!
No wonder his words sounded like a vinegar jar had been knocked over. Talk about a sour vibe.
Lin Nan quickly got up and called Chen Yao.
Meanwhile, Chen Yao was sitting impassively on his home sofa. Lin Nan’s future mother-in-law was smiling broadly as she handed out red envelopes to the two parents standing beside her.
“This is for medical expenses and some nutrition costs.”
“Hmph!” Perhaps noticing Chen Yao’s sour attitude, the parents took the money and stormed off, faces grim.
It was then that Chen Yao’s mother turned to him and waved two hospital price lists at him.
“Now, tell me why you broke your classmate’s nose?”
“Who knows they were so fragile!” Chen Yao crossed his arms defiantly, but just then, his phone started vibrating. He was about to pick it up when his mother grabbed it and hung up.
Chen Yao turned away in dissatisfaction, arms still crossed. Those two were the same bullies who had tormented Lin Nan and whom he had knocked out with a punch.
But perhaps he had used a bit too much force; his nose had ended up broken, and their parents had been squabbling for months before finally reaching a settlement.
Seeing Chen Yao’s unapologetic and rebellious demeanor, his mother took a deep breath, dizzy with anger.
She rolled up her sleeves and grabbed the feather duster from under the coffee table.
Chen Yao’s expression changed: “I was just doing a good deed! They totally had it coming! I was just acting heroically…”
“A good deed! What good deed can you do! They deserved it! Do you know how much it cost?” his mother swung the feather duster.
Chen Yao jumped up from the sofa, covering his head and squealing, “You’re unreasonable! Can’t you even let me explain?!”
“Stop right there! And don’t lecture me?! I’m going to beat you today!”
——————
“Chen Yao is really angry; he even hung up on my call…”
Lin Nan, feeling dejected, flopped down on his bed, lamenting, “He won’t ignore me forever, will he?”
