NASAY CH 66

Luo Xing didn’t move.

Huo Xingzhou spread his hands, leisurely waiting for him to come over on his own. He let out a cold snort,
“Do you know how hard this game is? I died just because you touched me. Do you have any idea how long it’ll take me to get back to where I was? And you dare to touch me.”

“Sorry.”
Luo Xing shrank his shoulders slightly and whispered,
“I won’t touch you next time.”

“Next time you just won’t touch me, and that’s it?”
Huo Xingzhou snorted coldly, continuing to bluff,
“You think it’s that easy? Come over and make it up to me. I lost so much progress, it’s gonna take me half a month to catch up. How am I supposed to study now?”

Hearing this, Luo Xing slowly moved closer. He leaned in, gave him a quick peck, then immediately pulled back, fiddling nervously with his fingers as he asked in a soft voice,
“I-Is that okay?”

“It’ll do, I guess.”
Huo Xingzhou checked the time on his phone, just as Feng Jia sent a WeChat message asking when they’d arrive—the food was already on the table.

“Let’s go, time to eat.”

---

After dinner, Luo Xing and Huo Xingzhou didn’t leave with Feng Jia.

“Where are you two going? You’re really squeezing in a date even with such little time? Take us with you, it won’t affect you, I promise. I’ll even keep watch for you.”
Feng Jia elbowed Li Lefan, heavily hinting,
“Right, Fanfan gege?”

“…Just talk normally.”

Feng Jia muttered an “oh” before turning back. “Ge, take us along.”

“Why would I take you on a date?”
Huo Xingzhou shot him a sideways glance and chuckled,
“You wanna watch a live stream?”

“No.” Feng Jia hesitated for a moment, thinking to himself: I just stirred things up this morning with my chopsticks. If you run into that girl from Class 11, I’ll be dead.

Li Lefan, seeing Feng Jia looking utterly miserable and on the verge of despair, nearly burst out laughing. His shoulders shook as he held it in, but he still got kicked by Feng Jia under the table.

“We’re going to find Xue Jian for something. You coming?”
Huo Xingzhou tilted his head, glanced up at the sky, paused for a moment, then added,
“Can you hold back from picking a fight with him?”

“I probably can’t… but I’m still going. My ge is going to negotiate with someone, he can’t go without backup. We need to keep up appearances.”

No way I’m missing this.

Class 11 and Class 13 were only separated by a single classroom. If this mess stirred up a big enough commotion between him and Xue Jian, even if someone didn’t witness it firsthand, word would spread instantly.

That would be disastrous.

“You’re looking for Xue Jian?”

Lu Qinghe walked over at some point, catching part of their conversation. His voice was calm as he said, “He’s not here today.”

Lu Qinghe was also in Class 11, so his intel was reliable. He paused and added,
“The teacher said he took a week off due to family matters. Do you need something from him?”

“Just something from before.”
Huo Xingzhou didn’t say much to Lu Qinghe, only asking him to let them know when Xue Jian returned. Then, he took Luo Xing back to the classroom.

He isn’t here, but the photos made it. Guess he’s got his priorities straight.

Luo Xing let out a soft breath but didn’t say much either.

Evening self-study was about to begin, and to him, even ten Xue Jians weren’t as important as a single test paper from the bank. If Xue Jian didn’t have the guts to show up, then they’d deal with him when he did.

“How’s your ear been lately?”
Huo Xingzhou suddenly asked, as if something had just come to mind.

Ever since Huo Jiayu slapped him, he’d been worried. But Luo Xing never said anything, always insisting he was fine. From what Huo Xingzhou observed, though, it seemed to have gotten worse.

He wasn’t sure if it was from the slap or just his condition worsening.

“It’s nothing, just the same as always.”
Luo Xing subconsciously raised his hand to touch it and smiled.
“It doesn’t really affect me. I can read lips just fine, and we have WeChat for everything else, so it doesn’t matter. Don’t worry.”

“Mm, but you should still get it checked. You’ll need to take the English listening exam eventually. And don’t tell me that even without the listening section, you’d still score higher than me. If you make me mad, I might find someone else to tutor me.”

Luo Xing pursed his lips into a smile.
“You wouldn’t beat me anyway.”

Huo Xingzhou clicked his tongue, raised his hand, and flicked Luo Xing’s forehead with a cold snort.
“And how would you know?”

Luo Xing dodged slightly, his smile lingering but more subdued. He tilted his head back, exhaled lightly, but without the usual weight. His tone was relaxed as he said, “Honestly… I don’t want to keep using Auntie’s money. My ear is my own problem. I want to take care of it myself.”

He knew—even though Wu Suyan never mentioned it to him—that Huo Xingzhou’s parents had always kept this matter in mind. They had even scheduled appointments with specialists, but they just hadn’t gotten an opening yet.

They had already done so much for him.

He didn’t want to rely on them for everything. He had also saved up some money himself—not a lot, but at least it was his own.

“What, are we really drawing a line between ‘yours’ and ‘mine’ now?”

“It’s not about that,”
Luo Xing lowered his gaze slightly.
“I just feel like… I’m already receiving care from you and Uncle and Auntie, and if I use your money for treatment too, it’ll seem like I’m only with you for what I can get.”

He couldn’t shake the feeling that, with so much financial involvement, others might think he was trying to gain something from the Huo family.

Huo Xingzhou was silent for a moment.

He hadn’t expected Luo Xing to still have such concerns after all this time. Pressing his lips together, he didn’t respond immediately.

“Don’t tell Uncle and Auntie,”
Luo Xing glanced at his expression, sensing that he wanted to say something but was holding back.

He didn’t ask.

After a long pause, Huo Xingzhou chuckled and said,
“Yeah, definitely can’t tell them.”

Luo Xing let out a small sigh of relief. Honestly, after all they had done for him, here he was still insisting on independence—what an ungrateful little brat.

“They’d probably just end up doting on you even more,”
Huo Xingzhou flipped open a test paper and smiled.
“My parents would definitely think: ‘How could this child be so considerate? Instead of getting carried away by all this sudden affection, he still knows how to think about others.’”

“Huh?” Luo Xing blinked. Is that how it works?

Huo Xingzhou thought to himself—yes, that’s exactly how it works.

If Wu Suyan knew how thoughtful you were, she’d probably melt on the spot. She’d kick me out of the house without a second thought and put your name straight onto the property deed.

People are just like that sometimes—highly subjective, yet still making judgments based on reality.

Huo Xingzhou watched as Luo Xing quietly began working on his assignments. He, on the other hand, pulled out his phone and started reading the pre-examination preparation guide Wu Suyan had sent him, going through it word by word.

He had never been one for reading, especially those long-winded articles that stretch a single fact into five thousand words. Two minutes in, and he was already tempted to throw his phone away.

The text on the notice was tiny, so he kept zooming in and out, shifting the screen back and forth—repeating the process so many times that he was starting to feel dizzy.

By the time evening self-study ended, Huo Xingzhou let out a long sigh. Even the classroom’s fluorescent lights looked green to him.

Luo Xing reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of candy for him. He had received it earlier from Ye Qiaoqiao when they ran into Lu Qinghe. She had whispered that it was a handmade candy her father brought back from abroad.

He had eaten one himself—it was delicious—so he had saved the other for Huo Xingzhou.

Huo Xingzhou took it between his teeth, and the rich sweetness instantly filled his mouth, making his dizziness even worse. He shamelessly demanded,
“Carry me back to the dorm.”

Luo Xing was a full head shorter than him and much thinner. If he really tried to carry him, they’d probably both end up rolling down the stairs.

Seeing Luo Xing remain unmoved, Huo Xingzhou pressed on,
“Fine, no carrying, but when we get back, you have to show me what’s in that little metal box of yours.”

Luo Xing looked at him, caught between amusement and exasperation. When they first met, this guy practically had “cold and aloof” carved into his forehead. But ever since they started dating, he had only gotten more and more childish.

“Are you going to show me or not?”

“Fine, fine. Now get up already.”

Huo Xingzhou had achieved his goal, and his dizziness magically disappeared. He cheerfully slung an arm around Luo Xing’s shoulders like they were best buds.
“Alright, let’s go back to the dorm.”

Luo Xing didn’t actually have much stuff in his box. He wasn’t the type to be very social or outgoing, so he didn’t have a lot of friends helping him collect someone else’s personal belongings.

He had just happened to come across these things over time—things that Huo Xingzhou had “discarded” without a second thought.

The only reason he had even come to this school was because of a scholarship program. That, and the fact that he didn’t want to attend No. 1 High School, where Zhao Jiulan was.

This was probably the most proactive decision he had ever made in his life, and by sheer coincidence, it had led to this moment.

Back at the dorm, Luo Xing climbed onto his bed and retrieved the slightly worn-out metal box. Placing it on the desk, he took a deep breath and, with the soft sound of metal scraping against metal, lifted the lid.

Huo Xingzhou was stunned.

Inside, it was nowhere near as full as he had imagined. There was only a neatly pressed candy wrapper, an old scrap of paper torn from a notebook, a keychain, and something he couldn’t quite identify.

“These are… all mine?”

What even is this stuff?

“Yeah.” Luo Xing picked up the now nearly transparent candy wrapper, smiling sweetly. “That time you gave me this candy, it was colorful. When the sunlight hit it, it looked just like a rainbow—so bright and beautiful.”

Huo Xingzhou opened his palm, and Luo Xing carefully placed the fragile candy wrapper into it. The tiny piece of plastic, crinkled with time, looked like a delicate butterfly wing. The folds had been flattened so thoroughly that only faint traces remained—strangely mirroring the lines on his palm.

“Five years ago, I went to your school for a competition and saw you coming out of the office with a cold expression. I wanted to ask you for directions, but before I could even open my mouth, I saw you angrily throw this away. I picked it up and saw that it was your self-reflection essay.”

Luo Xing handed it to him a little awkwardly.
“Later, when my competition ended and I was leaving, I saw you surrounded by a group of classmates… Your eyes were bright, full of confidence and pride. You looked really good.”

Huo Xingzhou felt a pang in his heart as he looked down at the now yellowed and slightly faded self-reflection essay. He had already forgotten why he had written it in the first place and had no memory of that brief encounter with Luo Xing.

If only he had been a little less hot-tempered back then, if only he had taken a moment to really look at him.

Back then, Luo Xing must have really hoped he would look at him, say a few words to him, and point him in the right direction.

But he hadn’t. He probably hadn’t even spared him a glance, might have even found him annoying and snapped at him to get out of the way.

He couldn’t remember.

For the first time, Huo Xingzhou realized how terrible his memory was. It had only been five years, yet he had already forgotten so much.

“Thank you.”

Luo Xing was stunned. “What?”

Huo Xingzhou gave a small smile, placed the self-reflection essay back into the box, and looked up at him.
“Thank you for not giving up on me.”

Luo Xing smiled shyly, pursed his lips, and lightly licked them. He opened his mouth as if to say something but ended up just nodding. “Mm.”

He then picked up a keychain. “There used to be a bunch of keys on this. I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to get home, so I secretly took off the keychain and mailed the keys back to you in an envelope. Did you receive them?”

Huo Xingzhou thought about it. There was something like that… Back then, he had wondered which idiot had returned his lost keys. He had just changed the locks as soon as he got home.

“…Yeah, I got them.”

Luo Xing let out a breath of relief. “That’s good.”

Huo Xingzhou chuckled. He had held onto this for so many years, only now letting out a sigh of relief. If he had never mentioned it, was he really planning to carry this guilt for a lifetime? How silly.

He looked at the keychain in his palm. It was a limited-edition collectible back then, but now it looked outdated and childish. Still, he had loved it at the time. Feng Jia had pestered him for a long time before finally giving him one, and then he lost it the next day.

So, it had actually been kept safe by someone all these years.

“And this?”
Huo Xingzhou picked up an unidentifiable, blackened lump and frowned, holding it between two fingers.
“Don’t tell me this is a dung ball?”

“…It’s your homework.”
Luo Xing replied helplessly.

“Homework?”
Huo Xingzhou was confused for a long moment before asking,
“Which unlucky teacher assigned us to make dung balls for homework? Did I actually do it? No way, you must have mistaken me for someone else.”

Luo Xing, seeing him dismiss it so casually, carefully took it back and held it in his palm like a treasure.
“It’s not a dung ball. It’s your art assignment. I think you made a snowman out of clay and even tricked your classmates, telling them the snow in your hometown was black.”

“…Oh.” Huo Xingzhou couldn’t help but laugh.
“I really was that cringey back then, huh? Let me see this so-called snowman. Is this the head or the butt? Where’s the rest of it?”

Luo Xing paused, blinked, and said,
“You threw it in the trash. I wanted to pick it up, but an old lady dumped her garbage on it first. I only managed to save this half… It should be the body.”

“Oh my god.”
Huo Xingzhou returned the “dung ball” to him, laughing in disbelief.
“You held onto these random things for years? You should’ve just come to find me sooner.”

“I never planned on disturbing you.”
Luo Xing thought about it. Ever since he had opened his heart to him last time, it didn’t seem so hard to say anymore. He smiled and continued,
“When I transferred to No 2 High school, I only hoped that I could occasionally see you during morning exercises or between classes. Just being at the same school was enough for me. I never expected the teacher to place me in Class 9, let alone that you would come to pick me up.”

“Really?”

“Mm.”

Huo Xingzhou chuckled, ruffled his hair, and said,
“Why were you so reserved? Even the heavens couldn’t stand it anymore and sent me straight to you. This time, don’t let go, got it?”

“Mm.”

Luo Xing grasped his fingers and picked up the last item—it was a book that Huo Xingzhou had given him at the gymnasium shortly after he transferred schools.

Back then, he hadn’t known that Huo Yansheng was his father. He had simply treated this as the first gift Huo Xingzhou had given him and cherished it like a treasure, reluctant to even flip through the pages. When he did, he would carefully wash his hands several times before touching it.

There was a line in the book that read: Some people have the wind within them, destined to drift.

Luo Xing thought that he was much luckier than the protagonist of the story. In his life, the things he pursued had seemed within his grasp at times, but in truth, he had never truly possessed any of them. The path he had spent half his life chasing had always remained just out of reach.

He had spent his whole life yearning for freedom, yet reality had forced him to compromise time and again. After decades of hardship and difficult choices, even until his death, he had never truly obtained what he wanted.

Luo Xing thought, I am so much luckier than him.

He had already gained what he had once longed for—things he had never even dared to dream of, yet the heavens had granted them to him anyway.

See? Fate had not treated him unfairly.

He had no father, and Zhao Jiulan had been unkind to him, but when he thought about it, there were many who had suffered far worse than him. Some had already given their all just to survive. Compared to them, he was already fortunate.

A single roof over his head.

He asked for nothing more.

Huo Xingzhou remained silent for a long time. Luo Xing was also quiet. There was no sound between them, yet it felt as if countless unspoken words were being exchanged over and over again.

Someone had quietly etched every word—spoken and unspoken—deep into their hearts, in the most visible yet hidden corners.

A reminder: Never forget. Not even for a second.

As the final semester of senior year began its countdown from 100 days, time seemed to speed up unnaturally. In the blink of an eye, what once felt like a distant college entrance exam was now less than three months away.

The classroom was a battlefield, students sharpening their minds like weapons. Yet outside of class, gossip still thrived on campus, as lively as ever.

After talking to the two of them, Teacher Cheng had kept a close watch for some time. He noticed that both were serious in their studies, especially Huo Xingzhou, who had turned over a new leaf. His grades had climbed to the top 90s in the entire grade—still over a hundred places behind Luo Xing, but with a bit more effort, getting into the same university was entirely possible.

Feeling reassured, Cheng was just thinking that these two hadn’t let him down when rumors started circulating—people were saying that Luo Xing and Huo Xingzhou were dating.

The principal called him into the office and scolded him furiously, slamming his hands on the desk.
“Didn’t you say this was taken care of? Didn’t you say they were just classmates? Now there are even dating rumors spreading!”

“I attended a meeting today, and the principal of City No. 1 High asked me about it. Everyone knows we don’t get along, and he deliberately asked how Luo Xing and Huo Xingzhou were doing academically—clearly trying to embarrass me! Now the school’s reputation is being ruined outside of campus! You tell me, what the hell is going on?!”

The principal’s face was livid with anger. He took a sip of tea to calm his throat before continuing his tirade.
“Even if he were dating a girl, it wouldn’t be this disgraceful. But a boy?! How am I supposed to answer that?!”

Cheng Limin was unaware that the principal of City No. 1 High was actually Huo Xingzhou’s uncle. The man had only asked out of genuine concern for their grades, but with the recent gossip and even photos circulating, the principal had jumped to conclusions.

“Is Teacher Huo coming to school in the next few days? Inform him to come in. I need to have a talk with him.”

Cheng quickly replied,
“He is! He has an open lecture tomorrow. I’ll notify him to come earlier.”

“Good. Also, call a meeting for all homeroom teachers in half an hour. If they have class, they can reschedule it.”

Though Luo Xing and Huo Xingzhou had been focused on their studies, they had still caught wind of the rumors. Especially with Feng Jia, the class gossip, sitting right in front of them—he never missed a single piece of news.

Hearing that people were saying he and Luo Xing were dating, Luo Xing paused, put down his pen, and looked at Feng Jia. Huo Xingzhou noticed Luo Xing’s pause and followed his gaze.

“Don’t look at me!”
Feng Jia raised his hands in surrender.
“I swear, I didn’t do anything! I just heard it from someone else.”

“We’re not accusing you,”
Huo Xingzhou lowered his gaze again and continued writing, not even lifting his head.
“Just take a deep breath and calm down. Otherwise, we won’t be able to finish our homework.”

“Xingzhou, someone’s looking for you.”

A voice called from the back door. The group looked up. Luo Xing, noticing their reactions, belatedly turned his head as well.

A fair-skinned, delicate-looking girl stood at the door, holding a small box in her hands.

Meeting their gazes, she blinked and gave a bright smile.

“Crap, this is bad!”
Feng Jia blurted out instinctively. Li Lefan shrank his head back, trying to make himself as small as possible, while Luo Xing immediately understood the situation—this must be the girl from Class 13 who had given Huo Xingzhou chocolates.

Huo Xingzhou was the only one left in the dark. He glanced at the girl in confusion.
“You’re looking for me?”

She nodded, her delicate face tinged with a bit of pink, her smile sweet and her eyes curving adorably. “Yes.”

“You’ve got the wrong person. Go back.”
Huo Xingzhou furrowed his brows and withdrew his gaze, picking up his pen to continue his work. Then, noticing the strange expression on Luo Xing’s face, he hesitated.
“What? Do you know her?”

Luo Xing hesitated for a moment before nodding slightly.

“?” Huo Xingzhou was even more confused. Someone you know… came looking for me?

“Is she here to give me another love letter?”

Huo Xingzhou still wasn’t aware that Luo Xing had once unknowingly intercepted a love confession on his behalf—so effectively that he had even made the girl cry.

“No, no.” Luo Xing glanced at Feng Jia and decided to be honest.
“On the first day of school, she wanted to give you chocolates. Maybe she was too shy to hand them to you directly, so she asked Li Lefan to pass them on. But Feng Jia didn’t realize they were meant for you—he thought they were for Li Lefan and took them instead.”

Huo Xingzhou’s brows knitted tighter and tighter, his expression on the verge of explosion. Sensing the impending storm, Feng Jia hunched his shoulders, trying to minimize his presence as he slowly inched toward the exit, hoping to slip away unnoticed.

“So now, she’s basically your… unintentional girlfriend.”
Luo Xing cautiously observed his expression and whispered.

“FENG JIA!”
Huo Xingzhou called out to the escaping Feng Jia, taking a deep breath, his eyes dark with fury.
“You better think carefully about how you want to die.”

With that, he got up and strode toward the back door.

“Come with me,”
he ordered and, without waiting, walked ahead with a dark expression, heading straight downstairs to the stairwell on the first floor.

“Xing… Xingzhou.”
Chen Yiyi looked at his stormy expression, which barely concealed his barely restrained rage. Startled, she shrank back slightly and cautiously asked,
“Are you mad that I came to your class? I just…”

“Miss, I think there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding between us. You do realize I never actually received your chocolates, right?”
Huo Xingzhou didn’t bother with polite formalities and got straight to the point.

Chen Yiyi hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded.

“It was Feng Jia who took them. He said you—”

“I don’t know exactly what he told you, but whatever it was, I didn’t say it. I also never intended to accept your chocolates without reason. As for whatever ‘relationship’ people think we have, I need to clarify something.”
Huo Xingzhou tried to suppress his irritation. Thanks to Feng Jia’s stupidity, he was now in an awkward situation where he couldn’t blame the girl too harshly.

“I didn’t know you before this, and I don’t want this to affect your reputation. Do you understand what I mean?”