This incident seemed to be only one episode in the lives of Chen Qianqing and Lu Zhengfei.
The next day, Chen Qianqing returned to normal. It was like Lu Zhengfei had done to him did not affect him at all. But in truth, Chen Qianqing may be the only one who knew what he was truly feeling.
Lu Zhengfei thought that Chen Qianqing would ignore him for a few days, but he never expected that Chen Qianqing would only be down for a short period of time. It was so short that Lu Zhengfei was starting to doubt whether it had all just been a hallucination.
After he came out of the hospital, Chen Qianqing had been very compliant with what the doctor’s orders when it came to getting his leg better. He took his medicine on time, and did not throw any tempers. It was as if his whole person had changed ever since his leg was broken.
Lu Zhengfei had also kept his promise and sent Chen Qianqing back to school after two weeks.
But because of Chen Qianqing’s leg, he told Chen Qianqing not to stay in campus. He told him he would ask someone to send him to and from school every day.
Chen Qianqing knew that things would be inconvenient for him with the state his leg was in anyway, so he agreed to it.
The original Chen Qianqing was a financial management major in school, and the things he had to study on the course were relatively basic. Chen Qianqing was not worried about failing his tests and being unable to graduate either. But when it came to whether he could get a scholarship or not, that might not be very likely.
When Chen Qianqing walked into the classroom on his crutches, everyone’s eyes were on him.
It had to be said that the old Chen Qianqing was a very popular figure within the school. He had the looks, the grades, the skills on the piano, and he was even a gentleman. He practically satisfied all the requirements a girl could have for their dream boyfriends.
The only shortcoming he had was his weak body. He would often be absent due to illness, and he had even taken several leaves of absences due to his health. But this actually had nothing to do with Chen Qianqing, it was all Lu Zhengfei’s work.
“Qianqing, over here!” The voice of a guy rang out. Chen Qianqing raised his head and saw a familiar face, but that was all that was familiar to him about him. The one who called out to Chen Qianqing was one of his roommates, and had always had a pretty good relationship with Chen Qianqing. Lu Zhengfei had seen him several times because of Chen Qianqing, so he knew that his name was called Zhu Mao.
Chen Qianqing shuffled over with his crutches and sat next to Zhu Mao.
“How did you break your leg?” Zhu Ma was curious: “It’s been months since I’ve seen you……”
Chen Qianqing put his books on the table and responded: “I got into a car accident.”
“A car accident?” Zhu Mao was surprised: “Was it serious? Then why were you on leave before that? Did you get sick?”
Chen Qianqing pondered on it for a moment, and responded: “I was sick.”
Zhu Ma looked at Chen Qianqing with sympathy and continued: “I thought you’d never come back to class again……”
Just as he spoke, the bell rang. Zhu Ma offered: “It’s been more than half a semester since you’ve studied, will you be fine for the term? I could lend you some of my notes if you’d like.”
Zhu Mao was also a top student who was practically never absent from class. Not only was he very serious when taking notes, he would always bring up some questions to the teacher outside of the class. He was simply a wonder in college. And because of that, he would also get a scholarship from the school every single year.
Chen Qianqing had also once been one of those contenders for the scholarship, but now, it was clearly not the most likely goal he could achieve. He could already be thanking the Heavens if he did not fail a class.
As soon as the lecturer began to speak, Zhu Mao kept quiet. Chen Qianqing took out his books and had also started to listen.
The only thing Chen Qianqing could feel fortunate about was the fact that the course he took was the finance related financial management course, rather than a demanding art or engineering major that he would be very unfamiliar with. Otherwise, he might end up a flunky even if he paid attention in class. He would be able to understand the words spoken by the lecturer, but he might as well have been listening to gibberish instead.
Each lecture lasted fourty-five minutes, and each lecture would be broken down to two periods with a break in-between. There were many classes within this particular profession and the first two terms were not much different from high school. Besides that, most teachers would even leave them with homework. Naturally, those who wanted to do well in school would naturally work hard, but just passing the exams were not too tiring.
Naturally, Chen Qianqing did not feel as energetic as the usual twenty year old. He liked lectures, he did not have to think about anything else and nobody would bother him, all he had to do was listen to class while the lecturer explained the syllabus at the front, it felt nice.
He had two lectures at noon, and this was the first one. A little while later, he would have to head to another classroom for his next lecture.
“Qianqing.” During the break, Zhu Mao helped Chen Qianqing with his books and followed behind Chen Qianqing as he walked with his crutches: “Will you be returning to the dorms?”
“No.” Chen Qianqing responded: “It’s not very convenient for me with my leg.”
After a quick pause, Zhu Mao continued: “Are you still angry with Liu Jingyang? You know how his temper is……Don’t mind it.”
“……” Liu Jingyang? Who? Chen Qianqing had not heard this name before, so after hearing what Zhu Mao had said, he only responded to him with a hum to acknowledge that he had heard him. He did not show any other reactions at all.
“You’re still angry?” Zhu mao sighed: “I’ll agree he’s got a nasty mouth, but he didn’t mean anything bad by it.”
Chen Qianqing: “……” He really did not know who Liu Jingyang was, nor what he did.
“You should come back when your leg’s better.” Zhu Mao went on: “He felt really guilty too when he found out you took a leave of absence. We should have a meal together when you come back, then he could apologize to you……”
Zhu Mao thought that Chen Qianqing would eventually give him an answer after all he said, but after a long time, he turned to find that there was not even a single hint of reaction on Chen Qianqing’s face. It almost looked as if he did not hear him at all.
“Qianqing?” Zhu Mao misunderstood and thought that Chen Qianqing had gotten angry. With some hesitation, he said: “I……Please don’t be angry with me, I’m not trying to side with him, I just don’t think we should hold any grudges with each other since we’re all classmates.”
Chen Qianqing knew that Zhu mao had misunderstood, so he responded: “Mm, don’t worry, I understand, I’ll deal with it.” Only then did Zhu Mao breathe a sigh of relief.
Unlike Zhu Mao, Liu Jingyang was the most ordinary college student you could find. His family’s situation back at home was not very good, so he would often skip his lectures to do part-time work. His lecturer for their first class did not have a habit of roll calling, so he never goes. But for this class, the lecturer would do a roll call every single time, thus when Chen Qianqing entered the classroom, he saw the person who was waving towards Zhu Mao.
“Liu Jingyang!” Zhu Mao called out: “Qianqing came to class.”
The one sitting opposite to them looked stunned, then his smile faded. With a hypercritical eye, he observed Chen Qianqing’s broken leg. His stare made Chen Qianqing feel very uncomfortable.
It seems that Zhu Mao’s words may not necessarily be true. Because, with Chen Qianqing’s many years of dealing with people, the look in his eyes showed that he really hated him.
And sure enough, Liu Jingyang’s next words were: “Chen Qianqing? Why did you come?”
Zhu Mao had just tried to put in a good word for Liu Jingyang, but he had been bitten back in an instant. With much embarrassment, he told him: “Liu Jingyang, how could you say that? Why can’t Qianqing come?”
“Heh.” Liu Jingyang’s eyes when he looked at Chen Qianqing were full of contempt, and even disdain. He said: “You should stay away from guys like him, Zhu Mao. How can a noble prince like him find the time to care about normal civilians like us?”
Towards such a confrontation, Chen Qianqing was too lazy to even try to speak with him. So what if he won the argument? The most he would get out of it was to receive praise for having a sharp tongue.
He only smiled to Zhu Mao and said: “So this is the guilt you mentioned, Zhu Mao?”
Zhu Mao’s face became tense. He had always held a good relationship with his roommates, but he had no idea what came over Liu Jingyang. He suddenly started to ridicule Chen Qianqing, and saying very unpleasant things about him. But after Chen Qianqing took a leave of absence, Liu Jingyang had calmed down a lot, even showing some regret. How would Zhu Mao know why Liu Jingyang hated Chen Qianqing so much?
Chen Qianqing did not care at all if anyone hated him, there were plenty of them out in the world, so many that he had lost count, so why would he care what a single person thought about him?
And at most, Liu Jingyang was just barking nonsense.
Liu Jingyang had originally reserved a seat for Zhu Mao, but when Zhu Mao saw how Liu Jingyang was treating Chen Qianqing, he did not feel like sitting with him anymore. Instead, he went to the row at the very back and sat next to Chen Qianqing.
Chen Qianqing joked: “Hey, you’re a top student, this seat is an insult to your reputation.”
Zhu Mao looked helplessly at Chen Qianqing: “Qianqing, did something good happen? To think you knew how to joke as well.”
It was true, the old Chen Qianqing was not one to make jokes. He would not get too close to anyone, and would generally leave them alone. Even while he was speaking with his roommates, he brought with him the aura of a gentleman.
But his personality was not unpleasant. Keeping an acceptable amount of distance between himself and his roommates made them like him more instead.
“Mm.” Chen Qianqing responded: “Something great happened.”
Hearing this, Zhu Mao smiled.
During the lesson, Liu Jingyang would look over at Chen Qianqing every now and again. He had a really bitter expression, and more could be said about his unkindly gaze. From his face, you could tell he really did not wish to see Chen Qianqing sitting in the same class as him.
Chen Qianqing noticed that Liu Jingyang was looking over, so he met his gaze with a straight face, only looking away when Liu Jingyang could bear it no longer, and averted his gaze.
When the period was nearly ending, Chen Qianqing received a mysterious text message from an unknown sender. He opened it, and could instantly tell that Liu Jingyang had sent him this, because the text message wrote: ‘Chen Qianqing, if I were you, I would not have the face to come to class.’
Chen Qianqing’s face turned cold in an instant. He could endure the silly provocations from other people, but he did not feel that such threatening text messages were appropriate.
Chen Qianqing responded to the message: ‘Why wouldn’t I?’
Liu Jingyang: ‘Do you want me to tell everyone everything?’
Tell the other students? Chen Qianqing would be a fool if he still did not understand the implications of Liu Jingyang’s words. Thus he responded: ‘Lunch after class?’
Liu Jingyang thought that Chen Qianqing had caved when he received this message, so he quickly responded: ‘Sure.’
With an apathetic expression, Chen Qianqing put his phone away.