HRCMF Chapter 23

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🍋‍🟩 Completed Chapter

"Here."

Shen Yan waved.

"Did you wait long?" Liao Jing glanced at her watch. "I shouldn't be late."

"No, I arrived early."

This was a dessert shop near the school. Shen Yan had asked Liao Jing to meet him alone, saying he wanted to go over the presentation draft face-to-face.

Liao Jing was the group leader, so she readily agreed.

Shen Yan took out his notebook and went through the draft with her.

Perhaps because Huang Mengxuan wasn't present, Liao Jing didn't seem as sharp-tempered. Overall, she gave off a very gentle, intellectual, and thoughtful vibe, offering Shen Yan a lot of constructive feedback on his presentation draft. Shen Yan planned to revise it when he got back.

After going through the draft, Shen Yan took out the cake he had bought in advance.

"Thanks for making the trip."

Liao Jing wasn't buying it. "You're a bit of a player, aren't you?"

"Huh?"

Shen Yan held the cake, unsure what to do, and looked at Liao Jing in surprise.

Liao Jing said, "We could have gone over the draft during the group meeting. Why did you specifically ask me to meet you alone?" Her eyes behind her glasses flickered towards the chocolate cake Shen Yan was holding. "Last time you bought coffee for Huang Mengxuan, and this time you bought cake for me. Are you like this with every girl?"

Shen Yan was momentarily stunned by her words. Then he thought, since Liao Jing was so perceptive, she probably wouldn't be fooled by Zhang Qian. So why could she tolerate Zhang Qian, such a scheming person, hanging around her?

"I didn't mean anything by it…" Shen Yan smiled. "This is for Huang Mengxuan. I wanted to trouble you to give it to her."

Liao Jing's expression changed slightly. "For her? Then why don't you give it to her yourself?"

"I'm a bit embarrassed."

"Then I misunderstood you, I'm sorry," Liao Jing said stiffly, taking the cake from Shen Yan's hand.

Shen Yan said, "You've been roommates for over a year, right?"

"How do you know?"

"Huang Mengxuan told me."

Liao Jing didn't speak, and the atmosphere around her felt a bit heavy.

"Living in the same dorm for so long, you must know her pretty well, right?"

"We don't have a good relationship," Liao Jing said coldly.

"Is that so? I think your relationship is quite good, you often bicker with each other. My friend and I—" Shen Yan paused and continued, "are like that too."

Liao Jing was silent for a few seconds, then looked up. "Is there something you wanted to ask me?"

"I wanted to ask you…" Shen Yan said tentatively, "If I were to pursue Huang Mengxuan, what do you think?"

Liao Jing's expression instantly stiffened.

"Do you think I have a chance?"

"…"

"I don't know," Liao Jing suddenly stood up. "Go ask her yourself."

After saying that, she hurriedly left with her bag and the cake.

Shen Yan watched her obviously flustered and out-of-sorts back, and mentally snapped his fingers. There was something there!

Huang Mengxuan received Shen Yan's cake and immediately sent him a private WeChat message.

【Dreaming: Handsome, thank you for the cake. Are you home? Can we meet up alone?】

【sy: I'm still at the shop】

【Dreaming: Wait for me】

Shen Yan waited patiently at the dessert shop. After waiting for about another twenty minutes, Huang Mengxuan arrived, dressed up.

Huang Mengxuan was dressed too formally, making Shen Yan feel a bit uneasy. Could it be that damn superpower was going to cause him trouble again?

But it was just a cake, it shouldn't lead to too much misunderstanding.

While Shen Yan was internally debating, Huang Mengxuan said, "Let's go outside to talk."

Shen Yan went out with her. As soon as they were outside the shop, Huang Mengxuan said, "You found out?"

Shen Yan looked at her. Huang Mengxuan gave him a sweet smile. "She was so angry, she almost smashed the cake in my face."

"…"

"Are you okay?" Shen Yan asked.

"I'm fine, let's talk while we walk."

The street outside the school was lively. Huang Mengxuan led him for a while and then turned into a quieter side road. "Is it that obvious?"

Shen Yan asked tentatively, "What?"

"That I like Liao Jing," Huang Mengxuan said directly.

Although he had somewhat guessed it, Shen Yan was still taken aback for a moment by Huang Mengxuan's straightforwardness.

"Even someone like you who's only met us twice can tell, how could she not?" Huang Mengxuan lowered her head slightly, her fingers brushing against the drooping leaves of a roadside tree.

Shen Yan said with complicated feelings, "How do you know I could tell?"

"For no reason, why would you give me cake? If you wanted to pursue me, you wouldn't need to go through her. Our relationship has always been 'bad'," Huang Mengxuan smiled at him again. "Most importantly, I'm very smart."

"Although I don't know why you helped me test her, thank you, but it wasn't necessary."

Huang Mengxuan's tone was quite calm when she wasn't being cutesy. "I've tested her many times, she's not our kind of person."

Shen Yan: "…"

Wait.

"Our?" Shen Yan asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Huang Mengxuan looked at him again, "Aren't you gay?"

Shen Yan: "…"

"Absolutely not!"

Shen Yan immediately raised both hands to show his innocence.

Huang Mengxuan looked him up and down, then nodded. "I was wondering why you were pretending so well, so you're really not. Then how did you figure it out? Straight guys usually have a hard time telling."

Shen Yan thought to himself that this was one of the few useful moments of his superpower.

"It was unnecessary of me, but Zhang Qian really isn't suitable for Liao Jing…"

"Of course," Huang Mengxuan sneered, "Someone like him can dream on if he thinks he can touch even a finger of Liao Jing."

"But I saw that Liao Jing didn't seem to reject his advances very much."

"Who knows," Huang Mengxuan's tone was a bit dim, "Although I really dislike him, the truth is, as long as he's a guy, he's completely won against me in this matter."

Huang Mengxuan probably had never told anyone about this before, and her aura was very low at this moment.

Shen Yan inexplicably felt a bit lonely too. He didn't know how to continue organizing his words and walked in silence for a while. He suddenly felt that this small road was a bit familiar, as if he had walked it sometime before.

A scene suddenly flashed in his mind.

He seemed to be hitting someone's head?

"But still, thank you. At least just now when she was angry, I was really happy," Huang Mengxuan stopped and made her girlish hand-clasping gesture. "If I liked guys, I think I would definitely like you."

Shen Yan smiled awkwardly. "Sorry."

Huang Mengxuan narrowed her eyes and smiled. "How about I start trying to like guys from now on?"

"…"

"Just kidding, look how scared you are—"

Huang Mengxuan laughed heartily, but Shen Yan felt that her smile looked a bit lonely.

"So you're worried that Liao Jing will be deceived by Zhang Qian."

Shen Yan subtly mentioned the part about Zhang Qian again.

Huang Mengxuan nodded at what he said.

"Yeah, that's quite a roundabout way," Huang Mengxuan blinked her thick, curly eyelashes. "Could it be that you've also taken a fancy to Liao Jing?"

Shen Yan silently waved his hand again.

"Haha, that's good. Don't worry, I won't let him deceive Liao Jing. But if it were you," Huang Mengxuan smiled, "maybe letting it happen wouldn't be a bad thing."

Shen Yan walked Huang Mengxuan back to her dorm building.

"I originally didn't want you to walk me back, but I said I was going on a date with you before I left, so I'll have to trouble you, otherwise I'll lose face."

Shen Yan readily agreed. Honestly, he quite liked Huang Mengxuan's personality—quirky, cute, like a little girl.

"It's okay, I have nothing else to do anyway."

"There will be rumors."

"That kind of thing will disappear on its own in a few days."

Indeed, many people cast glances at them on the way, but both of them were very open and didn't care about any rumors, still walking together. When they reached the dorm building, Huang Mengxuan even joked about whether to kiss him to make the rumors spread more wildly. When Shen Yan heard this, he subconsciously leaned his head back.

Huang Mengxuan laughed so hard her stomach hurt. "Please, could it be that you still have your first kiss?"

Shen Yan: "…"

Damn it, the first kiss was sacred, what's wrong with keeping it!

"Haha, looks like it's true!"

"They say group assignments lead to couples, aren't the four guys in our group a bit too miserable?"

The group member turned the phone screen towards everyone, showing them the eye-catching handsome man and beautiful woman.

"Walking together means they're dating?" another group member scoffed.

"Let's see where they're going, the Lovers' Lane outside our school."

The handsome man and beautiful woman walked into the tree-lined path, their backs looking like a tall, slender figure and a petite figure, appearing very well-matched.

"Oh… then they might really be dating… sigh," that person turned his face. "Academic god, you and Shen Yan are iron buddies, do you know about this?"

Zhao Linsu typed on the keyboard without speaking.

"You're stupid! It's obvious that the brother values romance over friendship and abandoned his teammate. Otherwise, how could we have picked up the academic god as a leftover?"

"Don't talk nonsense. Um, Zhao Linsu, do you want some coffee?" Tang Chen came over with coffee, wanting to sit down.

"I've finished the draft," Zhao Linsu closed his laptop and stood up. "Check your email. Let me know if there's anything that needs to be changed."

"Are you leaving already?" Tang Chen said.

Zhao Linsu nodded slightly, not knowing if he was responding to him or saying goodbye to the other two. He turned and left.

Tang Chen could only sit down regretfully.

The other two group members laughed. "Forget it, save your energy. The academic god isn't that easy to curry favor with. We've already burned incense for getting one assignment with him."

Tang Chen smiled. "We're all classmates, we can be friends."

"Stop joking. Doesn't the academic god only have two friends? Don't waste your time. You've been in the same dorm with him for half a semester, and you haven't become friends either, have you?"

Talk about hitting a sore spot.

Tang Chen was so angry that he mentally dismembered these two sharp-tongued straight guys one hundred and eight times, but still maintained a smile on his face. "Hehe."

When Tang Chen was assigned to the dorm during freshman year, he was so excited to find a top-tier handsome guy in the dorm that he couldn't sleep for several nights.

The handsome guy was good-looking, excelled in his studies, and had an extremely aloof personality, treating everyone with a dismissive attitude, hitting all of Tang Chen's sweet spots.

Unfortunately, he was too aloof. Tang Chen was in the same dorm with him and hadn't managed to exchange a single word.

Until the day of the official start of school, Tang Chen actually saw Zhao Linsu talking to another handsome guy at the stairwell.

It was the first time he saw Zhao Linsu smile, and it was the kind of smile that was arrogant yet cool, cool yet playful, and playful yet subtly gentle.

Don't ask him why he analyzed it so thoroughly, he had a lot of secret crushes, and his heart was that delicate.

The cool guy's tenderness was actually given to a straight guy who didn't understand anything.

Tang Chen was both angry and regretful, but there was nothing he could do.

To summarize it in the words of the variety shows he watched, Zhao Linsu was an "iron wall man"!

He wasn't being impolite, on the contrary, he was very polite, but that politeness contained a very obvious "keep away" politeness.

Don't bother me, otherwise, you won't even get this bit of politeness.

In the second half of the semester, Zhao Linsu even moved out of the dorm.

After being in the same dorm for half a year, when Tang Chen plucked up the courage to invite Zhao Linsu to join their group, the first thing Zhao Linsu said to him was "You are?", having absolutely no impression of him.

It infuriated him!

Tang Chen touched up his makeup in the bathroom stall, looking at the "rumors" on his phone that were causing discussion. He thought, very good, these two finally separated. Straight guys dating, that's a fatal move. It looked like Zhao Linsu could only give up, and then he would have a chance!

Splash—

A tall, slender figure plunged into the water.

Warm water enveloped his body, and his ears seemed to enter another world, low and echoing with water.

"Did you even watch that video last night?"

"When did you even come to the gym?"

"Are you really going to spend the night here?"

"Sexual orientation and stuff, it really doesn't matter, no matter what… we're still… good brothers…"

"Right?"

"Right?"

"Right?"

……

Over and over again, along with that cautious, doubtful, probing smile, replaying in his mind.

Zhao Linsu swam for a long time, until he was exhausted before getting ashore.

【Yan: The counselor has been needing my help with things lately, so I won't be needing a ride in the mornings or evenings】

Tap—

Water droplets seeping from his hair fell on the phone screen, meandering down to the blank dialogue box. The cursor blinked, once, then again, contrasting his heartbeat, making it so disordered and chaotic.

That afternoon, Zhao Linsu sat by the pool looking at his phone for a long time, ultimately not sending a single word.