Chapter 30 Part 3

"Lu Xixiao," Zhou Wan turned her head and asked, "Are you coming to school on Monday?"

"Why?"

"No reason." Zhou Wan paused. "Just asking."

He answered carelessly, "We'll see."

Zhou Wan: "Don't you have to take the college entrance exams in the future?"

He smiled. "What, you want me to study hard?"

"Mhm."

Lu Xixiao raised an eyebrow, a wicked smile on his lips, "Studying requires a reward. Otherwise, I'm not interested."

Zhou Wan asked, "What kind of reward?"

Lu Xixiao's pupils glowed with an amber light under the streetlamp. He let out a lazy, soft laugh, his tone flippant, "For example, if I move up a few ranks, I can kiss you?"

Zhou Wan's whole body stiffened.

She never would have thought that even studying could be linked to this.

Zhou Wan's face was a complete mess of red. Unable to bear it, she turned her face away, truly at her limit, "Lu Xixiao!"

But he just laughed.

As if he had found something immensely amusing, he laughed so hard his shoulders couldn't stop shaking.

"Are you cursing me in your head again?"

Zhou Wan didn't speak.

Lu Xixiao raised a hand, wrapped it around Zhou Wan's shoulder, and pulled her into his arms with a tug. He held her neck firmly, forcing her to lift her chin.

He looked down at her from up close, raising an eyebrow, "Getting bolder and bolder. It seems you still have some misconceptions about me. You really think I'm a pushover?"

Zhou Wan's face grew redder and redder as she struggled awkwardly. "Lu Xixiao, let go of me first."

"My girlfriend, I'll do whatever I want with her." He sounded just like a hoodlum.

The sense of pressure from the boy's presence grew heavier.

The difference in strength between her and him was too great; she couldn't break free at all.

Even if he really did lean down and kiss her right now, Zhou Wan wouldn't be able to dodge.

"Lu Xixiao." Zhou Wan averted her eyes wretchedly, her breath and voice trembling. She even tried to reason with him, "We just got together. This is too fast."

"We're already together and I can't kiss you?"

In truth, Lu Xixiao had never been someone who liked these kinds of intimate gestures, but seeing Zhou Wan like this, he couldn't help but want to tease her.

"Then how long isn't considered fast?"

"At least... at least... a year." Zhou Wan randomly blurted out a safe time frame.

'In a year, Lu Xixiao would definitely not like her anymore.'

He let out a soft laugh, his tone frivolous, "A year? That's long enough to have a kid."

Zhou Wan suspected she had misheard and her eyes widened, "What?"

Lu Xixiao glanced at her.

The little girl was staring with a pair of round, doe-like eyes, stunned and shocked.

Afraid he had truly angered her, Lu Xixiao pressed his lips together and chuckled, "It's nothing."

The arm restraining her neck finally loosened. Zhou Wan quickly took two steps to the side, straightened her collar, and smoothed her messy hair.

Lu Xixiao watched her for a moment, then asked, "What did that Yellow Hair tell you earlier?"

"...Nothing." Zhou Wan lowered her head. "I just think that you're so smart, if you study seriously, you can definitely get into a good university."

"What, you want me to get into the same place as you?"

"Not really." Zhou Wan maintained a safe distance from him and said softly, "I just feel that this is how you were meant to be."

The lazy smile on Lu Xixiao's face faded slightly after hearing her words. He took a drag from his cigarette and said languidly, "Get into university, and then what?"

"And then you can leave this place."

Lu Xixiao's eyelashes lowered, and his jaw tightened. He didn't speak.

"I think you're a very free person. You shouldn't be trapped here by the past, nor should you walk the conventional path that others have forced upon you."

Success and fame in the conventional sense would feel unfitting and clichéd if applied to Lu Xixiao, Zhou Wan felt.

He should be unrestrained, he should venture out, and walk a path with no foreseeable end or destination.

He didn't say anything. The two of them continued walking along the quiet path.

When they reached the entrance of her residential complex, Lu Xixiao stopped and smiled indifferently, "Forget it."

Zhou Wan looked up at him.

The corners of his mouth were lifted, but there was little mirth in them. His eyes were dark and deep.

Zhou Wan didn't know how to persuade him, or how to comfort him.

Those traumas stemmed from wounds far too old. Even if Zhou Wan could now glimpse a corner of them, it was like scraping the bone to remove the poison—not so easy.

"I'm going back," Zhou Wan said her goodbyes. "Good night."

"Mhm."

She walked a few steps in, then suddenly stopped and turned around.

Lu Xixiao was just about to ask "What's wrong?" but before he could make a sound, Zhou Wan suddenly ran towards him.

The girl's slender waist was outlined by the wind as she ran, her soft black hair bounced, and the unique floral scent of laundry detergent from her clothes rushed towards him like a surging wave.

The moment Zhou Wan threw herself into his arms, Lu Xixiao's mind went blank. He only had time to move the cigarette between his fingers away, so as not to burn her.

After just two seconds, Zhou Wan let him go and took a step back.

She kept her head down, her blush reaching her neck.

"Lu Xixiao." She didn't dare to look up at him, her head still lowered. "What you said... that thing, I really can't do it. Can it just be like this instead?"

Lu Xixiao silently ground his back teeth, feeling as if his heart had been scratched by a small paw.

Zhou Wan's voice was as faint as a mosquito's buzz, "You study hard, and I'll hug you. Okay?"

Lu Xixiao raised an eyebrow, feeling an itch everywhere, from his throat to the tip of his heart.

"That hug was too short. I didn't feel anything," he said.

Zhou Wan's eyelashes trembled. Keeping her head down, she took another step forward and opened her arms.

This time, the hug lasted for three seconds.

Her face was even redder.

Lu Xixiao figured its temperature could probably scald his hand.

He laughed, his voice magnetic and deep. In a slow, deliberate, and wicked tone, he said, "Just this? Then it seems I'm still on the losing end."