Author's Note:

High School Extra

This chapter can be skipped. It was originally written to add to the word count during revisions, so I wrote a little high school extra. It doesn't affect the main plot, so feel free to skip it. It basically covers events from the first month of their freshman year, things that happened before the sports meet, and how the two of them got together, told from two perspectives.

(Lu Huaizheng)

The first time Lu Huaizheng saw Yu Hao wasn't actually during military training, but even earlier.

In middle school, he represented his school in a history knowledge competition and met Zhou Siyue. Among the group of students who were racing against the clock, even memorizing the question bank while going to the bathroom, the two of them were a bit too calm and leisurely.

When Lu Huaizheng came back from the bathroom, he found Zhou Siyue sitting on a chair with his legs crossed, leisurely flipping through a basketball magazine. He bought every issue of that magazine too, and that issue's cover featured his favorite basketball star, Tracy McGrady. He couldn't resist, so he dragged a chair over from the side, sat on it backward, crossed his arms over the backrest, and struck up a conversation: "You like to play ball too?"

Zhou Siyue glanced at him and said calmly, "Yeah, I do."

"What position?" Lu Huaizheng's interest was piqued.

"Just mess around, play whatever position is needed." Zhou Siyue leisurely flipped through the magazine. "What, you play professionally?"

Lu Huaizheng was only 175cm in middle school and had just barely grown to 180cm by his first year of high school. He didn't look short on a normal day, but that height was still a bit shabby for playing professionally. He chuckled, quite self-aware: "No way, just for fun. How about a match sometime?"

"Sure." Zhou Siyue readily agreed and introduced himself: "Yansan Affiliated High School, Class Two, Zhou Siyue."

Lu Huaizheng gave a crisp smile, "Zhaohui Foreign Language School, Class Three, Lu Huaizheng."

After introducing themselves, the two chatted calmly for a while and found they got along better and better. Besides both liking Tracy McGrady, they also both liked collecting Jordan series sneakers. Their main positions were also similar, and they even liked the same soccer team. It felt like they had found another version of themselves in the world. They couldn't stop talking, and only reluctantly stopped when the competition was about to begin.

Afterward, the two became basketball buddies. Whenever he had time, Zhou Siyue would go to Zhaohui to play ball with Lu Huaizheng. He then discovered that although this guy's height wasn't outstanding, his skills were really good. Back and forth like this, the two became familiar and became good friends.

In the third year of middle school, Zhou Siyue attended a training camp for the Math Olympiad. He realized he might have left a few workbooks at Lu Huaizheng's school while playing basketball. The training camp was completely closed off, so he couldn't leave and could only send a text message to Lu Huaizheng.

Lu Huaizheng was still in class when he received the text. Without a second thought, he asked the teacher for leave and ran to the basketball court to help him look. He found them in a thorny bush nearby and immediately went to deliver them.

Zhou Siyue was waiting for him inside the side gate's fence. The dark blue-green fence gate was corroded with faint patterns, giving it a sense of age. The guardrail had spear tops, standing straight, sharp and pointed, to prevent students from escaping.

Lu Huaizheng was used to being free and undisciplined, and felt that place was a student 'prison'. Passing the items through the fence, he joked, "Look, doesn't this look like a prison visit?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a girl and a tall, slender boy standing under an old pagoda tree outside the fence.

Sunlight filtered through layers of leaves, passing through the gaps, with a few scattered sunbeams landing on the girl. It cast mottled light and shadows on her clear and bright face, making her skin look even fairer and more delicate. The back of her neck shone with a white light.

The boy in front of her smilingly handed over a cake.

Lu Huaizheng asked curiously, "Are they also from your competition class?"

Zhou Siyue took the notebooks, glanced over, and recalled, "The girl is, the boy isn't."

Lu Huaizheng grinned, with an expression of watching a good show: "Even good students have puppy love—"

The next second, he saw the girl take the cake with one hand and, without hesitation, smash it upside down on the other person's face. It didn't miss, hitting right on target. She dropped a "Don't bother me again" and then walked into the school gate with a commanding presence. The boy got a face full of cake. He subconsciously wiped his face, only to spread it evenly, leaving his entire face covered in greasy cream. Watching that slender figure quickly and steadily enter the school gate, the boy finally turned red with anger and cursed, "Yu Hao! You get back here! What are you so arrogant about! Who do you think you are!"

The girl turned a deaf ear, her figure resolutely disappearing into the sunlight.

Zhou Siyue tapped the fence with a notebook, "Alright, I'm heading in. You still have class this afternoon, right?"

Lu Huaizheng grunted in affirmation and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Contact me when you get out. I'm off."

While riding the bus, he ran into that boy again. His face and hair were still stained with a lot of cream, like a clown who had just finished a performance. No one dared to sit in the seat next to him, but Lu Huaizheng didn't mind and went over to sit beside him.

The boy gave him a suspicious look, then turned to look out the window on his own.

Five minutes later, the boy asked him, "Bro, got any tissues?"

"What guy carries tissues with him?" Lu Huaizheng smiled and retorted, "Do I look like the type to carry tissues?"

The boy said nothing more.

After a short while, a female passenger next to them suddenly handed over a tissue. "I have some here."

The boy took it and said thanks with a stiff expression.

Lu Huaizheng leaned back in his seat with his arms crossed, turned his head to look at him, and asked leisurely, "Celebrating a birthday? What kind of grudge is this, getting smeared like that?"

"No," the boy said as he wiped. "It's the birthday of the girl I like."

Lu Huaizheng didn't reply.

Perhaps driven by emotion, or perhaps thinking that someone who looked like Lu Huaizheng must be surrounded by girls, and plus, no one would know each other after getting off the bus, the boy couldn't help but ask another question: "Bro, do you understand girls?"

Lu Huaizheng shook his head.

The boy didn't give up and asked again, "Then have you ever liked a girl? Do you know what they're really thinking?"

Lu Huaizheng still shook his head.

"No way, are you kidding?"

Their class president is so handsome, he changes girlfriends faster than he changes clothes, okay?

Lu Huaizheng burst out laughing. "I may not be a good student, but it's not like I have 'Casanova' written on my forehead, right? Besides, I've never pursued anyone, so I can't give you any advice."

"Then do a lot of girls pursue you?"

"Not many."

"As long as there are some. Are there any that left a special impression on you?"

Lu Huaizheng put a hand on his shoulder, very sincerely. "Bro, really, there haven't been any. I think you're pretty great, really."

The boy suddenly didn't dare to speak again. Until Lu Huaizheng got off the bus, the fresh and airy phrase 'I think you're pretty great' kept replaying in his mind, and he couldn't help but shiver.

——

(Yu Hao)

The second time Yu Hao met Lu Huaizheng was at the school store. During the break between classes, Yu Hao went downstairs to buy a notebook. But that week, the store owner's mother had passed away, and he had gone back to his hometown for the funeral, so his young son Ah Qi was watching the shop for the week. Everything was sold out, and he hadn't had time to restock. There was only one notebook left.

Lu Huaizheng had already taken that notebook and was at the counter paying. Yu Hao stared longingly at it but didn't say anything.

Ah Qi asked Yu Hao, "Buying a notebook?"

Yu Hao nodded.

Ah Qi said regretfully, "There are no more. We'll have to wait until next week when my dad comes back to get more." After saying that, as if he thought of something, he said to Lu Huaizheng, "Brother Huaizheng, you don't do your homework anyway. How about you give this one to this young lady?"

Lu Huaizheng had a hundred-yuan bill halfway out of his wallet. Hearing this, he closed his wallet directly, tapped Ah Qi on the head, and hissed, "If I don't do homework, am I buying a notebook to eat?"

Ah Qi scratched his head pitifully. "Okay."

Only then did Lu Huaizheng turn his gaze to Yu Hao and give a polite smile. "What a coincidence."

Yu Hao also nodded, sparing her words as if they were gold: "Coincidental."

Lu Huaizheng pursed his lips and handed the money to Ah Qi again. "Normally, I definitely wouldn't fight you for it, but I need it urgently today. My apologies."

Yu Hao actually didn't get a good look at his face that day. Under the lights of the school store, the first thing she noticed was his pair of clean, slender hands. Even his nail beds were clean, unlike her deskmate, who was full of grime, liked to pick his nose, and then stick the boogers under the desk.

She said "Oh" and then lowered her head and walked out.

But she had only taken a few steps before someone caught up from behind.

It was Ah Qi.

The little boy scratched his head and said, "Sister Yu Hao, Brother Huaizheng said to give this to you for now."

Yu Hao turned around and saw the teenager leaning against the store's doorframe, silhouetted against the light with his hands in his pockets, giving her a faint smile. Without waiting for her response, he straightened up and walked away, leaving her with a view of his slender back.

——

(Lu Huaizheng)

That day, Lu Huaizheng returned to the classroom empty-handed. The boy at the front desk found it strange. "Didn't you go to buy a notebook?"

"They're gone."

His deskmate in front looked at him with schadenfreude: "Then you're screwed. The Old Hag is going to check homework later. You don't even have a notebook. Watch out for her Nine Yin White Bone Claw."

Lu Huaizheng was looking down, playing on the Little Tyrant* he'd snagged from next door. He scratched his eyebrow and said nonchalantly, "Whatever."

*T/N: China's gameboy alternative to the NES

His front-deskmate pushed his shoulder.

"Don't just focus on playing! The old witch really said it, she's targeting you! Hurry up and go next door to borrow one from any girl."

"Don't be more anxious than the emperor, you eunuch—" The teenager was too lazy to be distracted, focusing on his game, and refused again, "Not going." After speaking, he shot the person a sidelong glance. "Who do they know you as to lend you one? And 'any girl' at that."

His front-deskmate made a 'tch' sound and even imitated a eunuch's tone: "Your Majesty, with your popularity, believe it or not, if I post on Baidu Tieba, there'll be people lining up to deliver them to the entrance of our Palace of Heavenly Purity."

And he really was capable of doing something like that; he had a history. Lu Huaizheng put down his game console, turned around, and smoothed his hand over his deskmate's head. He held it seriously, looked at him with utter sincerity, and said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes:

"To be honest with you, this Emperor actually bought the last one just now. But, it just so happened that another girl wanted to buy it too. You tell me, this Emperor is a model among men, how could it be right to fight with a girl over something?"

The 'eunuch' deskmate's eyes widened. "May I ask which noble lady it was? Her name? So I can have the Imperial Household Department make a nameplate immediately."

Lu Huaizheng couldn't be bothered with him. Hu Siqi got annoyed every time she saw the two of them act this out. She picked up a book from Lu Huaizheng's desk and threw it at them. "In your dreams! You've been watching too much Wei Xiaobao!"

The book hit Xiao Lizi on the shoulder, and he yelped in pain. Extremely indignant: "You can't play like this. You can't bear to hit your deskmate, so you hit me?" This provoked Lu Huaizheng to kick out his leg at him again. "Why are you dragging me into this!"

His front-deskmate quietly leaned over and whispered in his ear, "Can't you tell that Hu Siqi likes you?"

Lu Huaizheng's emotional intelligence was decent, especially with girls. He could tell who liked him and who didn't with just a glance. At that time, school had only started a few weeks ago, and he really didn't think Hu Siqi liked him. Hu Siqi just liked to hang out with guys, especially the kind who could give her a sense of superiority.

That's why she changed boyfriends faster than she changed clothes. She'd gone through four in just four weeks.

"Can't tell."

His deskmate went 'Wow,' but out of consideration for Hu Siqi, he decided to talk about it after class.

As soon as class was over, Hu Siqi ran off to another classroom.

He sat down in Hu Siqi's seat and asked gossipily, "I feel like every time she finds a boyfriend, he's a composite of you, really."

After hearing this, Lu Huaizheng felt his skin crawl with disgust. He shifted to the side, putting half a meter between them. "Can your train of thought not be so bizarre? Stay away from me, it's too disgusting. Also, don't be so gossipy, you're like a woman."

He didn't mean anything else by that, nor was he discriminating against women. He just felt that since the world has distinctions between men and women, there should be clear boundaries, but without gender discrimination.

His deskmate raised his hand in an effeminate gesture, acting coquettishly, "What's wrong with being like a woman? I'd quite like to be a woman, because then I could marry you."

After speaking, he even blinked alluringly.