Chapter 12

"I have a part-time job from 2:00 to 8:00."

"All right."

Zhu Shiyan let go of his hand and stretched his body fully. "How about having a meal before you go?"

Xi Fei opened his mouth to refuse, but Zhu Shiyan anticipated it and spoke before him: "It's only 12:00, there's enough time." He then added, "No refusal allowed."

Xi Fei, left with no choice, set his backpack down. "Okay."

Lin Jin, worried that Zhu Shiyan wouldn't eat well living alone, had stuffed his refrigerator with plenty of food and arranged for a housekeeper to come over regularly. By the time the two finished their tutoring session in the bedroom, the housekeeper had already prepared a meal.

After eating, Xi Fei took the initiative to wash the dishes. Zhu Shiyan didn't compete with him, instead lounging lazily on the sofa and asking, "Are Zheng Xingyan and his group still giving you trouble lately?"

Xi Fei skillfully arranged the clean dishes and replied without changing his expression, "No, I haven't run into them again."

"That's good."

Zhu Shiyan rolled over. A folded quilt lay at the edge of the sofa; he grabbed it to cover himself, then comfortably clicked on a movie to watch. Before long, his eyelids began to fight, and he soon drifted off to sleep.

After washing the dishes and drying his hands, Xi Fei turned around and said, "I'm finished, I’ll be—"

The rest of his words were silenced when he saw Zhu Shiyan’s sleeping face. He softened his footsteps, stood by the sofa, and watched him quietly for a long time. Then, he gently tucked the quilt that had slipped off back over him, closed the door, and left.

Xi Fei came every two days, sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. Even though Zhu Shiyan told him he could just walk in, he would still ring the doorbell and wait quietly.

The scheduled time for this day was 6:00 PM. A torrential downpour had been raging outside since 4:00. Zhu Shiyan wanted to tell him not to come, but Xi Fei didn't have a mobile phone, so he couldn't reach him. He could only watch the outside with concern, praying the rain would stop by six.

Unfortunately, at six o'clock, the rain had not stopped.

At 6:10, the doorbell rang.

Zhu Shiyan rushed to open the door. Xi Fei stood outside, soaked to the bone, his slightly long hair dripping constantly. The first thing he said upon seeing him was, "I'm sorry, I'm late."

He looked pitiful, like a drowned puppy.

Zhu Shiyan felt an inexplicable discomfort and pulled him inside. "Are you stupid? Didn't you know to come later in such heavy rain? You didn't even bring an umbrella."

Xi Fei lowered his eyes and followed behind him, letting him scold him.

Zhu Shiyan tossed him some pajamas. "Go take a shower first. Be careful not to catch a cold."

Xi Fei nodded, set his backpack down, and took the clothes to the bathroom.

Zhu Shiyan picked up the backpack from the floor to move it to the bedroom. It felt strange when he lifted it; he lowered his head to look. Good grief, he was soaked to the skin himself, but he had protected this bag well. Aside from a few unavoidable splashes, it was completely dry.

Moreover, the bag was bulging, not looking like it only contained books. Zhu Shiyan was curious and wanted to open it, but he held back, placed it honestly to the side, and took out his textbook to preview.

Xi Fei showered quickly. He came out before Zhu Shiyan had finished a single major problem.

Zhu Shiyan had expected his own clothes to be too big for him, but they fit perfectly, perhaps even a bit snugly.

Zhu Shiyan gestured in surprise, "You've grown this tall?"

When he first came to his house, he was clearly a few centimeters shorter than him. In just a few months, he could now look him in the eye. His body had also become much sturdier; he had even caught a glimpse of the outline of his abdominal muscles earlier. Except for his slightly long hair still veiling his brows and eyes, the Xi Fei of today was like a completely different person compared to when he first arrived in this world.

In contrast, he was well-fed every day, yet had only grown one centimeter in several months, and his physique was still like a "white-cut chicken."

Truly, comparisons are odious.

Zhu Shiyan took the hairdryer to help him dry his hair, unable to resist asking again, "Are you really not going to get a haircut?"

If he didn't cut it soon, the bangs would cover his eyes completely.

Xi Fei didn't make a sound, and Zhu Shiyan didn't press further. After drying his hair, he tidied up his bangs and said, "It's fine if you don't want to cut it. This looks pretty good too."

With his hair smoothed down, he looked exceptionally well-behaved.

He stood up. "Alright, let's start the lesson."

He passed by Xi Fei to put away the hairdryer, but his gaze stopped abruptly as it swept across his chest, his expression changing instantly.

He hurriedly put the hairdryer away and, without a word, pulled open his shirt, asking nervously, "What is this?"

Xi Fei hadn't buttoned his shirt properly. When Zhu Shiyan had glanced over earlier, he saw a mass of black matter over his heart. He hadn't seen it clearly in the brief moment, but now that he pulled the shirt open, he was stunned.

It was a mass of black, unidentified matter floating in the air right at the location of Xi Fei's heart. It was about the size of a palm, with intense blackness swirling together as if wrapping something, and the object inside was still rolling up and down.

Something so far beyond Zhu Shiyan's cognitive range left his brain blank. He stared blankly at the object, then looked up at Xi Fei, unable to react for a long time.

Perhaps his expression was too shocked, for Xi Fei looked down at himself, seeing nothing.

He asked with a puzzled look, "What's wrong?"

Zhu Shiyan was even more surprised. "You can't see it?"

Xi Fei was bewildered. "See what?"

Zhu Shiyan pointed at his chest. "Here! Such a big mass, you can't see it?"

Xi Fei followed the direction of his finger and only saw his own slightly bulging chest muscles.

A flush of red instantly spread from his face to his ears. When he spoke again, his voice was much quieter: "I... I just started training."

To avoid being so passive in fights, Xi Fei had been intentionally or unintentionally exercising his body recently. Coupled with the manual labor he did for his part-time job, it had indeed helped him build a thin layer of muscle.

He just hadn't expected Zhu Shiyan to be so surprised, and to pull open his shirt to look at it directly.

Xi Fei felt a bit embarrassed, but also felt an indescribable, secret joy. He stammered, "You... you can wait until I've trained for a while longer, then... then you can look again."

Zhu Shiyan: "?"

Look at what? This thing was something he trained into existence???

No.

Zhu Shiyan slowly realized that they might not be talking about the same thing.

If Xi Fei could actually see it, he wouldn't have this reaction. This kind of anti-reality thing was more likely related to his mission.

He tentatively reached out to touch it. Sure enough, his fingers passed directly through the black mist, and the object inside rolled once before lying still.

He stared at the little thing in deep thought. If he wasn't mistaken, this should be the key indicator for whether his mission was a success or not. But what on earth was this pitch-black thing used for?

He became lost in his own thoughts, completely unaware that his current behavior could be considered sexual harassment. Xi Fei’s face grew redder and redder under his gaze, and fine beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

He curled his toes and said, his face beet red, "Let... let's just start the tutoring."

Zhu Shiyan snapped back to reality. Realizing what he was doing, he scrambled back several steps, trying to explain, "No, I didn't, I wasn't trying to..."

But the more he explained, the redder Xi Fei’s face became, making his explanation seem particularly weak. In the end, he gave up and pretended nothing had happened: "Right, tutoring. Time for tutoring."

The two sat at the desk, and the atmosphere became a bit strange for a while.

Zhu Shiyan said dryly, "There's a problem on the last test paper I didn't quite understand. Could you explain it to me again?"

"Okay."

Xi Fei opened that bulging backpack, carefully taking out a piece of clothing first, before taking out his textbook and test paper.

Zhu Shiyan froze when he saw the garment.

That was the piece of clothing he had bought for Xi Fei...

So, the reason he was so protective of this backpack was because it contained the clothes he had bought for him, which was why he would rather be soaked through than let a single drop of rain touch the garment.

Zhu Shiyan found it hard to describe his current mood.

It was as if his heart had been lightly scratched by a kitten's paw—itchy, making him inexplicably flustered.

He forced himself to look away and randomly pointed to a question: "It's this one."

After the lesson, the wind and rain were still raging outside.

Zhu Shiyan asked Xi Fei to stay the night, and this time, Xi Fei didn't refuse.

But when Zhu Shiyan said they would sleep together, Xi Fei was clearly hesitant. "I can just sleep on the sofa."

"The temperature is low today, and you got caught in the rain; you'll easily catch a cold on the sofa," Zhu Shiyan said as he moved the quilt from the sofa to the bed. "Don't worry, my bed is big enough, I won't crowd you."

The refusal Xi Fei was about to utter was swallowed back. The temptation of "sleeping with Zhu Shiyan" was too great; he simply couldn't refuse.

Zhu Shiyan was right; his bed was indeed big enough. With each of them having their own quilt, they essentially didn't disturb each other.

But an hour passed, and Zhu Shiyan didn't feel the slightest bit sleepy. He guessed that Xi Fei wasn't asleep either, because his breathing was not steady.

He whispered, "Are you asleep?"

Xi Fei shook his head, then realized Zhu Shiyan couldn't see, so he said, "No."

"Neither am I," Zhu Shiyan said, pillowing his head with one hand, sighing, "This is my first time sleeping in the same bed as someone else."

He had never been in a relationship. In his original world, he had a few friends, but it was limited to eating together at home, and after that, everyone would go home; he had never stayed over.

If Zhu Shiyan hadn't, Xi Fei had even less experience. He didn't even have the experience of eating with others, let alone sleeping together.

Unable to sleep, Zhu Shiyan turned over and asked, "Which university do you want to go to in the future?"

Xi Fei had never thought about it.

He entered this high school because the school saw his good middle school exam results and was willing to recruit him with a full scholarship. The person he called "father" only begrudgingly agreed to let him continue his studies because he saw profit in it; otherwise, he might have gone to work right after junior high.

That person not only took all his scholarship money but also pushed for more, demanding the school increase the amount, causing a scene at the school several times. In the end, the school had no choice but to promise him two years of full scholarships.

This was also one of the reasons why the teachers at the school didn't like him.