BTMDY Chapter 130

Twelve years ago · Huanghe Road No. 2 Elementary School, Ningchang City

 

“All right, everyone, that’s it for today’s lesson. Class dismissed.”

 

“Goodbye, teacher!”

 

The homeroom teacher, the language teacher, gathered her textbook and lesson plan and left the classroom. With the first two periods of Chinese over, the students finally had their break. In elementary school, nothing felt more precious than those twenty minutes of free time.

 

It seemed like people had the most energy at this age.

 

Students between six and twelve didn’t care at all that snow was falling heavily outside. As soon as the bell rang, groups of boys would rush out, chattering and laughing, ready for an all-out snowball fight. Before long, they were completely lost in the fun.

 

Lin Shen had dashed out to play in Ningchang City’s first snow of the season, getting his clothes and shoes soaked, and stayed out in the cold wind without a second thought. Unsurprisingly, he caught a cold.

 

The doctor had seen him, medicine had been taken, and logically, he should have gotten better quickly.

 

But Lin Shen was never one to make things easy.

 

Even sick, his love for fun didn’t fade. The moment a friend invited him out, he would run straight back into the snow. Sweat, cold wind, repeat—and naturally, his cold got worse.

 

By the time his throat felt swollen and fiery, making it hard to speak, and his nose was constantly blocked and dripping, his body finally forced him to acknowledge the seriousness of his condition.

 

After countless reminders from his mother, he finally settled down and decided to take care of himself instead of causing more trouble.

 

His body obeyed—but his heart didn’t.

 

After coming back from the bathroom, Lin Shen sat at his desk, spinning his mechanical pencil between nimble fingers, propping his chin on his hand, and staring off at a spot just ahead.

 

During recess, girls usually played elastic rope, kicked shuttlecocks, or tossed beanbags. But with the snow outside making the ground slippery, and many girls caring about their appearance, most stayed inside rather than braving the cold.

 

At the end of Lin Shen’s gaze, a particular desk was surrounded by a group of girls.

 

Sitting there was a transfer student who had just arrived recently: Lu Chengxuan.

 

This kid was hard to miss. His naturally blond hair stood out in any crowd, and his striking looks made him even more eye-catching. From the day he transferred, he had drawn the attention of nearly every girl in the school—starting with this class.

 

‘Proximity gets you the advantage’ seemed to apply at any age.

 

But Lu Chengxuan didn’t go outside. He never joined outdoor activities; besides using the bathroom, he stayed seated quietly, reading or studying.

 

This made it almost impossible for students from other classes to meet him. No matter how curious they were, all they could do was pretend to pass by and steal a glance.

 

For the girls in his class, getting close was naturally much easier.

 

Only… it didn’t matter at all.

 

Lu Chengxuan seemed to have some kind of invisible barrier separating him from everyone else. He ignored any attempts at conversation, stayed completely focused on his own work, and carried an air of cool detachment that no one could breach.

 

The more he acted like that, the more the girls thought he had character.

 

After all, boys his age were always loud, jittery, running around like headless chickens—basically some of the most annoying carbon-based lifeforms on the planet. This was a truth universally agreed upon across nationalities and even species.

 

In plain terms… even dogs would roll their eyes.

 

But Lu Chengxuan, with his good looks, quiet personality, and serious attitude toward studying, was the total opposite. He was the knockout, the kind of kid everyone instantly liked the moment they saw him.

 

So, naturally, the girls in the class were relentless in their pursuit of talking to him, trying to become his friend.

 

Fail, try again. Fail, try again.

 

Before Lu Chengxuan transferred, Lin Shen had been the undisputed star of the class. He got along well with the boys and could hang with the girls too.

 

But once Lu Chengxuan arrived, all attention in the class shifted to him.

 

This did not sit well with Lin Shen, who loved being the center of attention.

 

His personal judgment of Lu Chengxuan?

 

‘A pretentious blond brat.’

 

At first, Lin Shen even tried a ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ strategy—acting aloof, pretending to be some kind of genius. No matter who tried to talk to him, he ignored them, buried his head in his homework, pretending he was destined for Tsinghua University.

 

Reality, however, had other plans: you can’t fake being cool just because you want to.

 

Clearly, Lin Shen hadn’t reached that level. When he tried to act deep and mysterious, his classmates just found him weird and ignored him.

 

Lin Shen sat in the fourth row; Lu Chengxuan was in the second row, diagonally ahead.

 

From his spot, Lin Shen could easily watch the front of the class. Spinning his pencil out of boredom, he kept his eyes on Lu Chengxuan. Soon, he saw him open his pencil case and start rummaging inside. Failing to find what he wanted, Lu Chengxuan glanced up.

 

The moment their eyes met, Lin Shen smirked slightly, a victorious glint in his eyes, then deliberately looked away.

 

The girls around Lu Chengxuan’s desk noticed he couldn’t find the item and offered to lend him one—but he didn’t take anything from anyone. Instead, he stood up and walked straight to Lin Shen, stopping at his desk and holding out his hand.

 

Lin Shen’s cold hadn’t cleared yet; his voice was hoarse and nasal as he propped his chin in his palm and squinted at him. “What do you want?”

 

“An eraser,” Lu Chengxuan said.

 

Lin Shen grinned, not hiding anything, and pulled a white eraser out of his drawer, waving it in front of him.

 

As Lu Chengxuan reached for it, Lin Shen quickly pulled it back, letting him grab nothing. He teased knowingly: “I just picked this up off the floor. Is it yours?”

 

“It’s mine.”

 

“How can you prove it?”

 

“…”

 

At only eight years old, Lu Chengxuan had never met anyone like Lin Shen before. Standing there, he experienced firsthand what it felt like to face someone impossible to reason with—a true ‘scholar meets soldier’ moment.

 

He wasn’t good at dealing with people, and he had no idea what Lin Shen was up to. Standing there, he realized he had no way to prove the eraser was his, so he gave up without hesitation.

 

“Take it if you want it,” he said.

 

Just as he was about to walk away, Lu Chengxuan was suddenly grabbed from behind, and something was shoved into his hand.

 

Turning around, he saw Lin Shen grinning, stretching his raspy voice to laugh: “Treat me to a sausage after school, and don’t lose it next time.”

 

Lu Chengxuan looked down, opened his hand, glanced at the eraser, said nothing, and returned to his seat.

 

He hadn’t planned on buying Lin Shen anything in the first place.

 

This wasn’t the first time Lin Shen had done something like this. Before, when it came to books or other things with names on them, he always managed to get them back.

 

This time, Lu Chengxuan couldn’t prove it was his, yet Lin Shen still gave it to him.

 

The idea of treating him to a snack seemed strange. The eraser was already his; there was no reason to.

 

But this time, things were different.

 

When the final bell rang and everyone was getting ready to go home, Lu Chengxuan had just reached the school gate when someone suddenly looped an arm around his neck and half-dragged him into a convenience store.

 

Through the glass, Lin Shen was pointing at a glistening, juicy sausage.

 

“I’ll take that one.”

 

“Sure thing.”

 

The sausage only cost one yuan, easily affordable for most elementary school students. The shopkeeper didn’t think twice and skewered the sausage Lin Shen pointed at with a bamboo stick, handing it to him.

 

Lin Shen blew on it a few times, then bit into it casually.

 

The shopkeeper watched the two kids, waiting for payment.

 

But Lin Shen had no intention of paying, and it took Lu Chengxuan, who had been dragged there, a moment to realize what was happening.

 

“Pay up! What are you standing there for?” Lin Shen asked confidently.

 

Lu Chengxuan wasn’t short of money.

 

He had simply been raised to never pay for something without reason.

 

“That eraser was mine to begin with,” Lu Chengxuan said.

 

“But I picked it up,” Lin Shen said, swallowing the sausage. “You lost it by accident. I found it and returned it. Is it too much to ask you to treat me to a sausage?”

 

Because Lin Shen had a history of these antics, Lu Chengxuan stared at him silently for a long moment. Then he tilted his head and asked seriously,

 

“Didn’t you take it on purpose?”

 

Hearing that, Lin Shen frowned a little. “When I returned something I took on purpose before, did I ask you to treat me? I’m telling you, this time I found it.”

 

Hearing this, Lu Chengxuan’s expression grew complicated.

 

Although he was still young, his upbringing had been advanced, and he had seen enough people to understand them. Most kids his age—even older ones—he could usually read their intentions with precision.

 

But Lin Shen’s behavior was just too strange and complicated.

 

He had no idea what Lin Shen was thinking.

 

Sometimes he felt like Lin Shen didn’t like him.

 

Yet when he looked into Lin Shen’s eyes, he couldn’t detect any trace of dislike.

 

Lin Shen had often taken his things before just to make him search for them, but this time with the eraser, he truly didn’t know when he had lost it.

 

He had no evidence to prove that Lin Shen had taken it on purpose.

 

The convenience store owner, who had been happily watching two elementary school kids bickering, suddenly noticed that neither of them seemed ready to pay. He assumed they really had no money and, to prevent bad habits, deliberately put on a stern, intimidating expression.

 

“What’s the matter, trying to eat for free? Pay up!”

 

But one kid was naturally calm, and the other was young and fearless. Neither was fazed.

 

By now, Lin Shen had almost finished his sausage.

 

Seeing Lu Chengxuan just standing there, motionless and deep in thought, Lin Shen felt bored and didn’t say anything.

 

He pulled a coin out of his pocket—one he had been holding all along—and slapped it on the counter. Then he loosened the arm draped over Lu Chengxuan’s shoulder.

 

Just as he was about to retract his hand, the shopkeeper moved to take the coin—but was stopped.

 

A blond kid, whose height barely reached the counter, stretched out his short arm and held a hundred-yuan bill in front of the coin.

 

“I’ll pay,” he said.

 

The moment he spoke, Lin Shen froze, then turned to stare at the impassive Lu Chengxuan. After a brief pause, he smirked, tightened his arm around Lu Chengxuan’s shoulder, tilted his head, and looked arrogantly at the shopkeeper.

 

The shopkeeper’s expression twisted in confusion.

 

“This is too much trouble, just use the coin.”

 

He reached for it—but Lin Shen slapped Lu Chengxuan’s hundred-yuan bill on the counter, along with his own coin, pushing both forward.

 

“This one’s on him. If I get another, I’ll pay—keep the change.”

 

Finally, the shopkeeper had nothing to say. He silently accepted the bill and coin, grabbed a second sausage from the machine, handed it to Lin Shen, and gave Lu Chengxuan 99 yuan in change.

 

The two walked out of the store side by side. Lin Shen handed the second sausage to Lu Chengxuan.

 

“Here, this one’s for you. Consider our little feud wiped clean from now on.”

 

Lu Chengxuan stopped walking. His eyes first lingered on the sausage in front of him, then slowly shifted to Lin Shen.

 

He never ate unidentifiable food outside.

 

He never accepted anyone’s kindness.

 

This was his father’s rule, one he had always kept in mind and never thought to break.

 

Yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find a reason to refuse Lin Shen.

 

Lin Shen’s thinking was simple. Seeing that he still hadn’t taken it, he shoved the bamboo skewer into his hand.

 

“What’s the matter, not happy now?”

 

When faced with something he didn’t understand, Lu Chengxuan instinctively asked directly: “Do you not like me?”

 

Lin Shen shrugged carelessly, admitting it openly: “Yeah. I don’t like you.”

 

“Why?” Lu Chengxuan asked again.

 

Lin Shen couldn’t understand Lu Chengxuan’s mind, and he couldn’t explain: “Why does it need a reason? You don’t need a reason not to like someone.”

 

For Lu Chengxuan, everything had a process.

 

He didn’t understand why disliking someone didn’t need a reason. He had never disliked anyone without cause, and in fact, there weren’t many people he disliked at all.

 

Looking at the sausage in front of him, lightly steaming in the cold winter air, Lu Chengxuan asked Lin Shen, “Then why are you giving this to me?”

 

“Because suddenly, I don’t dislike you anymore,” Lin Shen said.

 

Lu Chengxuan didn’t reply. After a moment, he raised the sausage and took a small bite.

 

The food outside wasn’t as bad as he imagined—it was even kind of tasty.

 

At that moment, Lin Shen had no idea.

 

A small, unremarkable eraser, a one-yuan sausage.

 

And yet, it had consumed the focus of the person beside him for two whole lifetimes.

 

*

 

Lu Chenghan: I thought my son only started defying me at eighteen… and now you’re telling me it was eight? (smiles)

 

Lin Shen: I know you’re anxious. Don’t worry.

 

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