BTMDY Chapter 131

A small school can’t keep secrets for long.

 

Soon, almost everyone knew that the new transfer student in Class 3-2 had started hanging out with Lin Shen.

 

Lin Shen had always been ahead in school—he was in third grade at just seven. Though a bit younger than his classmates, he grew fast and wasn’t short at all. With parents who were busy and rarely strict, he had plenty of pocket money and got whatever he wanted. Cards, marbles—he never ran out. And yes, he could even hold his own in a fight.

 

At this age, someone like him naturally became the ‘kid boss.’

 

Lin Shen was popular, too. Every day, a little crowd of followers trailed behind him. Influenced by gangster TV shows and novels, the kids—no matter their age—cheerfully called him ‘Brother Shen.’

 

So, in this group, Lu Chengxuan didn’t really stand out.

 

Though, to him, Lin Shen was his only friend.

 

But Lin Shen had way too many friends.

 

The classmate he got along with best was his deskmate, who had known him longer than Lu Chengxuan had. Beyond that, a few kids from his neighborhood who’d grown up together also went to the same school—just in different classes.

 

Every age group has its social circles.

 

With Lin Shen’s personality, he could fit in anywhere.

 

His thinking was simple: if he liked someone, he’d be friends with them; if he didn’t, he’d keep his distance—or even go against them.

 

In his eyes, the coolest person in the world was always himself.

 

At first, he didn’t think much of Lu Chengxuan—just another slightly annoying classmate who, after a bit of interaction, was tolerable enough to hang out with.

 

Lin Shen only started getting genuinely interested in Lu Chengxuan the day the first midterm results came out after the transfer.

 

Lin Shen was smart and had tutoring. When he got his test paper and saw his progress, he was so sure of himself that he half-jokingly pretended to pop champagne, thinking he was going to rank first in the class.

 

But when the results came out, Lu Chengxuan’s perfect scores in every subject blew him out of the water.

 

Keep in mind, starting in third grade, students had to study two languages.

 

For ten-year-olds, English was basically a brand-new world. They had to start from the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, and even the simplest tests involved a lot of English words—it could easily leave a kid confused.

 

Lin Shen had been so confident because he had taken extra English classes outside school and thought his foundation was way stronger than everyone else’s. He felt he had a huge advantage.

 

But he had underestimated something crucial.

 

True talent is an unbeatable advantage.

 

It was the first English test. Full marks were 100, and the class average didn’t even reach 70. Lin Shen scored 85, thinking that combined with his 90+ scores in other subjects, first place was basically guaranteed.

 

But Lu Chengxuan didn’t just get 100 in English.

 

He got 100 in Chinese, Math, Morality, and Science as well.

 

Scoring full marks in every subject was incredibly rare in the school’s history—something you could basically count on one hand.

 

So, Lu Chengxuan’s perfect-score achievement was posted on the school bulletin board for public recognition, causing a huge stir throughout the school. This already well-known transfer student suddenly became the focus of widespread attention, and his indifferent, aloof personality added a layer of mystery to him.

 

Lin Shen, who came in second in the class, completely lost the spotlight.

 

He was extremely unhappy about it and began to find Lu Chengxuan annoying all over again.

 

But beneath that surface irritation was an even stronger admiration for the talented.

 

Seeing someone better than him made him restless.

 

That didn’t mean he disliked Lu Chengxuan.

 

In fact, he didn’t push him away at all. On the contrary, he couldn’t help paying even more attention to him. Especially after the incident with the missing eraser, Lu Chengxuan started interacting with him—sometimes deliberately, sometimes not.

 

Once more people noticed this, many of them started treating Lin Shen differently, especially the girls.

 

Gradually, little girls began to approach him to play and even handed him their shy love letters, asking him to deliver them to Lu Chengxuan. Lin Shen noticed that Lu Chengxuan’s attitude toward these letters was very clear—almost rude.

 

He wouldn’t read them. He wouldn’t take them.

 

If the letters were handed to him directly, he would pretend not to see and walk past.

 

If they were secretly left on his desk, he wouldn’t throw them away, but he would act as if they didn’t exist, leaving them untouched until the sender sneaked them back when no one was looking.

 

Thanks to some TV shows and adults around them, combined with natural curiosity and psychological development, early crushes among elementary students were completely normal.

 

Only, kids expressed their feelings in very simple ways.

 

Girls instinctively gave something that could show their affection to the person they liked—sometimes a letter, sometimes origami.

 

Boys seemed clumsier, showing off, acting loud, or even teasing others to get attention.

 

Lin Shen couldn’t figure out what Lu Chengxuan was thinking.

 

He didn’t bother to.

 

He just felt proud that he could deliver something to someone nobody else could reach.

 

So, he almost never refused when girls asked him to hand something over—letters, origami, or carefully made little notebooks, he delivered everything faithfully to Lu Chengxuan.

 

The first time Lu Chengxuan actually opened a letter that Lin Shen brought, it was unprecedented in class.

 

Though he had no reaction after reading it, from that moment on, Lin Shen seemed to become Lu Chengxuan’s messenger to the outside world, constantly being asked to deliver things.

 

Lu Chengxuan, as before, wouldn’t read them but would accept them.

 

The girls who successfully got their feelings across were naturally happy—but Lu Chengxuan remained distant, keeping everyone at arm’s length, only ever responding to Lin Shen.

 

Over time, even Lin Shen started finding this strange.

 

One day after school, while walking home together, Lin Shen kicked an empty soda bottle down the street like a soccer ball and casually asked, “With all those love letters, have you even looked at them? Why ignore everyone like that?”

 

Lu Chengxuan walked neatly beside him, backpack on his shoulders, and shook his head. “I didn’t read them.”

 

“No way,” Lin Shen pouted, not believing him. “I saw you putting them in your backpack and taking them home.”

 

“My mom said I can’t just leave them lying around. If someone finds them, they’d feel bad. So I brought them home to deal with them,” Lu Chengxuan explained.

 

Lin Shen blinked in surprise for a long moment before finally muttering two words:

 

“Badass.”

 

The winter break was almost here, and the coldest air of the year was about to hit Ningchang City. Everything he could see—the trees, the rooftops—was blanketed in white snow. Many cars on the roads had snow chains on, moving almost slower than walking.

 

After asking that, Lin Shen stopped talking, just opening and closing his mouth, exhaling continuously toward the cold air in front of him.

 

Odd little habits like this were always part of Lin Shen.

 

Lu Chengxuan quietly observed him for a long time, still not quite understanding what he was doing, and asked, “What are you doing?”

 

“I’m copying how adults blow smoke rings. It looks cool,” Lin Shen said.

 

His throat was a bit dry from all the frequent breaths, and after a few coughs, he looked puzzled. “Why can’t I make rings? The stuff I blow out looks like smoke.”

 

“Because the air humans exhale contains water vapor. When it hits cold air, it condenses into tiny droplets, so you can see it in winter,” Lu Chengxuan explained. “Water vapor and cigarette smoke are two different things.”

 

Lin Shen only understood half of it and summed it up accurately.

 

“So, I can only blow rings if I smoke?”

 

“Yes,” Lu Chengxuan nodded, then looked at him and added, “Kids shouldn’t smoke.”

 

Lin Shen kicked the empty bottle far down the road and scoffed. “I know. I tried to buy one at the store downstairs before, but the owner wouldn’t sell it and said I was just a little brat. Hmph, I’ll wait until I’m as tall as my dad.”

 

Lu Chengxuan lowered his eyes and quietly said, “Smoking is bad for your health.”

 

“So many people smoke, and they’re not dead,” Lin Shen replied nonchalantly.

 

From far ahead, Lin Shen suddenly noticed a familiar figure. Recognizing it as his neighbor, he ran straight toward them without a second thought. Passing the empty bottle he’d been kicking along the way, he bent down, picked it up, and tossed it into the recycling bin.

 

Straight ahead was a small public square. On warm days, people exercised here daily, and in the evenings, there were even dance sessions.

 

Now, with the snow falling, all the gym equipment was covered in ice. Only a few kids were running and playing.

 

As they approached, Lu Chengxuan saw four or five boys about his age squatting in the snow, playing marbles.

 

The best place for marbles was usually dirt or sand.

 

But a heavy snowfall had just hit a few days ago, covering and freezing all the soil and sand, leaving no proper place to play.

 

But with no sand, the snow worked just fine.

 

A little cold like this couldn’t stop the boys’ excitement for the game.

 

The circle of kids squatting on the ground had ears and noses bright red from the cold. Their expressions changed with wins and losses, but their mood was always cheerful.

 

When Lin Shen approached, a boy wearing a knitted hat immediately waved.

 

“Lin Shen! Wanna play?”

 

Lin Shen instinctively reached into his pocket—only to find it empty. He sighed, disappointed.

 

“I didn’t bring any.”

 

Hearing this, the group felt a bit let down too, then bent back down to continue playing.

 

Lin Shen wanted to join but couldn’t, so he had to stand there, watching. After a moment, he realized someone had been standing beside him—it was Lu Chengxuan.

 

Making eye contact with Lu Chengxuan, Lin Shen’s eyes lit up. He bent down and patted the back of the boy in the knitted hat. “Dongzi, lend me two marbles.”

 

The boy, called Dongzi, dug into his pocket and pulled out three or five marbles, hesitating. “I don’t have many left.”

 

“These are all the ones I won from you! I recognize every single one!”

 

Pointing to the marbles in Dongzi’s hand, Lin Shen insisted, “Just lend me two, only two. I’ll give you four back later.”

 

Dongzi clearly got along well with Lin Shen. Without much thought, he handed over two marbles and asked, “Two enough?”

 

The rules of marbles were simple.

 

In a free-for-all, each player needed at least two marbles: one as the ‘mother’ marble placed inside a marked circle, and one as the ‘shooting’ marble used outside the circle to attack.

 

The mother marble in the circle couldn’t be moved, and to participate, a player had to have their own mother marble inside the circle. Shooting marbles could hit others’ mother marbles in the circle or attack other shooting marbles outside.

 

Any marble knocked out of the circle or hit by another marble became the property of the collector.

 

So the game required at least two marbles. Played well, a kid could get rich fast. Played poorly, you were just the one handing out prizes to others.

 

Lin Shen was that prize-giver.

 

Lu Chengxuan had noticed this a long time ago.

 

Not just marbles—Lin Shen lost at every similar game he played.

 

He was bad at games but addicted to them, and with all the pocket money his parents gave him, he could always buy cards, marbles, or anything else he wanted to play.

 

Bad at games, but rich enough to keep playing.

 

He’d get upset when he lost, maybe even angry—but the next time, he’d happily play again, never holding a grudge.

 

That’s why boys in school and around the neighborhood loved playing with him. Just one Lin Shen was enough to supply almost every boy in the area with the most popular games of the moment.

 

But that was all in the past.

 

Lin Shen was still terrible at games—but now he had someone who actually knew how to play.

 

Ever since their friendship grew closer, Lin Shen started bringing Lu Chengxuan along during school breaks to play these games.

 

Although Lu Chengxuan had never touched them before, he was smart. Whether it was marbles or card games, the rules were basically tied to physics. With a little understanding of physical principles, Lu Chengxuan was almost like having a cheat code.

 

Once he gained enough experience, he could effortlessly calculate the exact angle and force needed to hit someone else’s marble.

 

He could even figure out, using the wind direction, how to flip someone else’s cards.

 

This made Lin Shen unstoppable in school team competitions.

 

The other boys were young but not dumb—they knew who the real talent was.

 

But Lu Chengxuan never teamed up with anyone except Lin Shen.

 

If Lin Shen didn’t play, neither did he.

 

Once Lin Shen borrowed marbles, he immediately handed them to Lu Chengxuan and proudly introduced him to the others as his ‘little brother,’ saying he didn’t need to play—the little brother would handle it.

 

Lu Chengxuan understood instantly and crouched down to join without a word.

 

Half an hour later, when everyone checked their pockets and realized their marbles were almost gone, they finally recognized a true expert was on the field. One by one, they waved off, deciding to go home, each casting an admiring glance at Lin Shen—the one who had shouted the loudest but never once shown his real skill.

 

Lin Shen beamed, his pocket full of loot, grinning wildly.

 

Because it had been too long since going home, the neighbor Dongzi was grabbed by his family and taken back.

 

Lin Shen and Lu Chengxuan continued walking home, shoulder to shoulder.

 

Night slowly fell, and the soft glow of the streetlights spread across Lu Chengxuan’s fine golden hair.

 

Lin Shen stared at him for a long while, suddenly realizing he needed to do something—like those brave little girls—to show appreciation and maintain their friendship.

 

After thinking for a long time, he put on the knitted gloves from his pocket and began rolling snow in his hands.

 

Lu Chengxuan didn’t know what he was up to until they reached home and were about to part ways. That’s when he saw Lin Shen raise his palms, revealing two vivid little snowmen standing in his hands.

 

The snowmen were made from two tiny snowballs each, with no eyes. Their arms were small twigs picked up from the roadside.

 

One had a red bottle cap on its head, the other green.

 

Clearly, they came from the iced tea bottles Lin Shen had kicked along the way from school.

 

“Here, for you. From now on, we’ll be best friends for life.”

 

“Which one’s me?”

 

“The green cap is yours.”

 

*

 

Lin Shen’s essence: Admiring strength, drawn to those who are truly amazing.

 

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