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The strawberry seedling that Ye Zhou had gifted Shang Jin was placed on the window sill, and Ye Zhou’s own was also placed side-by-side with it.
When they found out that Ye Zhou’s gift to Shang Jin was a strawberry seedling, Zhou Wendao took advantage of when Shang Jin was in the bathroom to pull Ye Zhou aside and whispered, “Zhou, tell us if you have no money. We could raise a lot through crowdfunding. How could you send such a casual gift?”
“Casual?” Ye Zhou asked a question in reply. He didn’t think it was the least bit casual. He bought two seedlings from the old lady and on that day, he went to the supermarket to choose the flowerpots, and finally, worried that the soil dug from the roadside wasn’t very good, he specially went to the flower and bird market to buy some soil. The strawberry seedlings were transplanted into the new pots, and the leaves were also wiped spotless. He couldn’t have been more attentive, so how could it be called casual?
“How much value is your lousy grass? The agricultural institution has a dime in a dozen.” Zhou Wendao, ‘hating iron for not being steel’, said, “Don’t you know that the gift’s value shows how much you have the other person in your heart?”
Ye Zhou looked at him distrustfully and said, “Where did you hear this sophistry?”
“I heard it from our class love expert! He can be with his girlfriend for so long is because he’s deeply-versed in the way of lovers.”
Love expert… If Ye Zhou wasn’t mistaken, he should be the only classmate with a girlfriend. The classmate’s name was Jiang Wenchao. When he entered university, he got a girlfriend and what’s more, they’ve dated for almost two years and they still looked very sweet. Because he was the only person with a girlfriend, he was naturally considered a love expert by the group of bachelors who wanted to find their own partners.
It was sad enough to think about it: the whole class totaled twenty-three boys, but incredibly, there was only one who wasn’t single. Obviously, his group of roommates’ personalities and looks were all quite good, and there wasn’t a reason why they wouldn’t get along with girls. He—the only one with affinity with girls—was gay, and the recognized male god, Shang Jin, had no interest in love.
Seeing Ye Zhou’s hesitant look, Zhou Wendao disdainfully said, “Your gift is really too cheap.”
Ye Zhou just recalled that the love expert didn’t contemplate his gifts at all. Not wanting to be entangled with Zhou Wendao, he perfunctorily said, “It’s fine if you put your thought in when sending gifts. It doesn’t matter if it’s expensive or not. Besides, if others want to give expensive gifts, I’d feel burdened when receiving it.”
When Shang Jin came out, he just heard this sentence. He washed his hands and, pretending he hadn’t heard anything, asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” Zhou Wendao said in embarrassment, his eyes constantly turning between Ye Zhou and Shang Jin.
Shang Jin looked at the time and said, “It’s almost time for class. Not going to the classroom?”
“Go go go.” Ye Zhou pushed Zhou Wendao toward the door and whispered in his ear, “I say, can you guys gossip less every time? Shang Jin and I are very normal, but got messed around by you guys until it’s uncomfortable.” This could also be counted as taking out his anger for last night. Ye Zhou was now most afraid of hearing people pairing him up with Shang Jin. This fear wasn’t the same as in the beginning when he was both annoyed and anxious, wishing he could immediately drag Shang Jin to hold a press conference and make it extremely clear that there wasn’t any relationship between the two people. Rather, this kind of strange feeling that he couldn’t explain clearly, Ye Zhou was unwilling to think deeper on it and also didn’t dare to think carefully about it.
At the Shang Ye number, Ye Zhou was ready to go to the driver’s seat, but unexpectedly, Shang Jin entered one step ahead of him.
Ye Zhou asked, “Wasn’t today my turn to drive the car?”
Shang Jin didn’t answer directly, but said, “Whoever drives is the same.”
Although they’d negotiated when they’d made the purchase that they’d alternate days to drive, but it actually wasn’t very strictly carried out. Ye Zhou didn’t think too much and got into the backseat. It just happened that he hadn’t slept too well last night.
At noon, they went to the third floor of the canteen.
Going down memory lane, Ye Zhou immediately recalled that when Shang Jin met him that day, he’d ‘coldly’ nodded at him. Ye Zhou and Shang Jin came to a nook seat and sat down. A sentence had brought the matter to a close last time, but Ye Zhou suddenly wanted to know more.
“Eh, your family’s genes are really good. The little cousin from your father or mother side from two days ago looks like a little princess.” That day, Ye Zhou’s attention in the beginning had completely been drawn to Shang Jin and the beauty behind him. As for the little girl in Shang Jin’s arm, she’d been focused on Shang Jin for the most part and he hadn’t seen too clearly. Later when Shang Jin passed him, the little girl turned her head and Ye Zhou was able to see the appearance of the little girl. At that time, he lamented: worthy of being brother and sister with Shang Jin. When she grew up, she’d definitely be a goddess.
“She…” Shang Jin paused for a moment and continued, “is my younger sister.”
“Your sister?” Recalling what Shang Jin had said that day, that the two people were his younger sister and aunt, Ye Zhou roughly understood in his heart and didn’t dig deeper. Instead, he said, “It seems like God has also shut the door on you.”
This was for that Christmas Eve day when Ye Zhou had said “did God not only help you to open the door and open the window,  but also helped set you up with a pair of awesome wings”. Not wanting to see sympathy in Ye Zhou’s eyes, Shang Jin said, “In fact, our relationship isn’t bad.”
“I also think so. Otherwise, why would you hold your sister all the way.” Ye Zhou poked the rice and said, “Actually, I really like kids, especially beautiful and well-behaved kids.”
Hearing Ye Zhou’s tone, Shang Jin, not knowing what demons and gods were at work, said, “If you like, I’ll bring my sister over the next time?”
“Sure, isn’t there the sports competition next month? Bring her to come play.” Bringing up the sports competition, Ye Zhou asked tentatively, “Right, what event are you participating in the sports competition?”
“I don’t want to participate in anything.” During the freshman year, because no one signed up for the 5000-meter in the faculty, Shang Jin filled in for the shortfall. Who knew that Shang Jin had just finished signing up when Ye Zhou also put in his name. After knowing that Ye Zhou had enrolled, he ran over to the sports committee to withdraw his name. As a result, the sports committee had seen that they’d been able to sign up two people with great difficulty, and had been afraid of them reneging so they’d eagerly reported the list of participants up to their superiors.
Even if Shang Jin’s physical fitness wasn’t bad, but running the 5000-meter wouldn’t be a small task for him, not to mention that he’d also have to spend a lot of time practicing before the competition.
“Why don’t you participate in one?” Ye Zhou took out his cell phone and opened the program for the sports competition. “This time, you don’t have to run the 5000, but running the 1000-meter is also good.”
Shang Jin shook his head. “This kind of golden opportunity to shine can be given to others. With this time, I might as well play games in the dorm.”
Ye Zhou snorted and said, “Really no sense of team honor. This time, I signed up for the 1000-meter. Last year’s 5000-meter was really unbearable.”
“Unbearable? But you still signed up for it last year?”
Ye Zhou replied without thinking, “Wasn’t that because you were participating?”
Shang Jin suddenly realized, “It turns out that you’ve fallen for me since then.”
“Absolutely not, okay?” Ye Zhou said blankly, “At that time, I just wanted to swat to death the irksome flea that had always been jumping in front of me.”
The flea classmate calmly said, “It seems like I will have to continue being irksome in the future. I hope you get accustomed to it as soon as possible.”
Ye Zhou reported his name to the sports committee in the evening. The sport committee enthusiastically asked, “You and Shang Jin will sign up for running again?”
“Not Shang Jin, only me.”
The sports committee nervously said, “What happened? Did you quarrel with Shang Jin again?”
Ye Zhou was unable to make head or tail of it and said, “No, where did you hear that?”
“Then why are you registering alone?”
Ye Zhou told it as it was: “He doesn’t like running because it’s too tiring.”
The sports committee breathed a sigh of relief and said, “That’s good.”
Ye Zhou was at a loss and quickly threw this matter to the back of his mind.
As the weather gradually grew warmer, he donned his sportswear and practiced on the sports field every morning and evening.
If Shang Jin didn’t participate this time, then he wouldn’t be polite and take the first place throne.
On this day, after Ye Zhou finished running, he was slowly calming down his breath on the sports field when the sports committee member ran over with an ‘I’ve seen through everything’ evident expression and said, “You lied to me two days ago. Obviously quarreled with Shang Jin but said you didn’t. Shang Jin came to register today.”
“What?” Ye Zhou said in astonishment, “Registered? Registered for what?”
“What else can it be? Of course, it’s the 1000-meter.” The sports committee member patted Ye Zhou’s shoulder and said, “Don’t quarrel later. You guys are too obvious.”
Ye Zhou sincerely said, “we really didn’t quarrel. Why don’t you believe it?”
“Two people would act separately without quarreling?”
Ye Zhou pulled his mouth and said, “If I remember correctly, I didn’t cooperate with Shang Jin for the entire freshman year.”
“No wonder you’d be inseparable in your sophomore year. It was originally to make up for the time wasted before.”
Ye Zhou rolled his eyes toward heaven and didn’t want to explain anymore. He used the towel hanging from his neck to wipe the sweat on his forehead and said to himself, “Really, this Shang Jin, didn’t he say two days ago that he wasn’t going to register? Suddenly changing his mind now…”
He walked back to the dorm and just opened the dorm door when he met face-to-face with Shang Jin who was about to go out.
Ye Zhou grabbed his sleeve and asked, “Didn’t you say two days ago that you weren’t participating in the sports competition?”
Shang Jin took off his headphones and deadpanned, “I thought about it carefully. Rather than letting you lose in someone else’s hand, I might as well let you lose to me.”
Ye Zhou froze for a moment, then curiously said, “How can you be sure that I’d lose to others without you there? Besides, how can you already be sure that you can win the championship before the competition starts?”
“It’s not that I don’t believe in your strength; I just don’t believe in your luck,” Shang Jin said this sentence without a trace of mockery, genuinely and simply stating his point of view. As for the question at the end, he directly ignored it. Such an obvious thing didn’t need to be answered at all.
Ye Zhou choked on this remark. There really was a defeated ‘what he said is too reasonable, I actually have no way to respond’ kind of feeling.