PSWHNC CH18

Chapter 18 The Road to Redemption

Zhang Shu’s pencil case fell to the floor with a clack. Fan Yue muttered a quiet “fuck,” and Tang Yuan, looking utterly distraught, picked up his teacup and took a sip, as if trying to drown his sorrows. The three of them looked at Xiao Yan with barely concealed resentment on their faces.

Xiao Yan: “……”

The classroom was in chaos. Everyone thought they were whispering, but really, they weren’t.

“? It’s almost evening self-study and your class is still this lively?” Luo Zhiyu sounded a little envious of Class 2-3’s energy. “Such a good vibe, it makes me jealous. What are you talking about? Mind if I join in?”

Class 2-3 fell completely silent. 

Luo Zhiyu: “?” Seriously? This unwelcoming?

Xiao Yan walked from the front door to the back, where Luo Zhiyu was standing. “Luo Zhiyu, what happened to you?”

It had only been a short while since they last saw each other, but the guy who was darting out of the canteen earlier was now limping.

“What’s wrong with your class?” Luo Zhiyu took two small hops and leaned close to Xiao Yan’s ear to whisper, “Did you all get stupid in just your second year of high school?”

His foot was still hurting, and he wasn’t standing steadily, so Xiao Yan reached out to support him, specifically avoiding the gauze wrapped around Luo Zhiyu’s palm and wrist. The care he took was obvious.

Again, several people in the classroom gasped.

Luo Zhiyu: “?” Do you guys have a ventilation fan running or something?

“They might be…” Xiao Yan wasn’t sure how to describe it. “A bit startled.”

Luo Zhiyu frowned. “Second-year students are this delicate now?”

Xiao Yan still didn’t know how to explain it.

“I’m not here for you,” Luo Zhiyu waved him off. “I’m here for your roommate.”

“Me?” Fan Yue pointed at himself.

A couple dozen eyes turned to stare at Fan Yue, making him break out in a cold sweat.

“Yeah, you.” Luo Zhiyu followed the voice and found him. “I came to pick up an application form approved by the student council. The interview process starts tonight.”

“Oh, right.” Fan Yue finally remembered. “You came just to find me?”

“What else?” Luo Zhiyu said. “My approval form was sent to your end. I couldn’t possibly have bounced over specially to find Xiao Yan? How much would I have to like him to show up twice in one day?”

Class 2-3: “Huh?”

The preparatory bell for evening self-study had already rung. Teacher Li, who was supervising his Class 2-3’s evening self-study, saw Xiao Yan at the classroom door, along with Luo Zhiyu from a downstair class. “Xiao Luo, what’s going on? Did you two get into a fight again?”

“Huh? Not today,” Luo Zhiyu replied. “Today I unilaterally annoyed him. He didn’t even get the chance to hit back.”

Teacher Li: “…Then what happened to you?”

Since he’d provoked Xiao Yan and was worried about getting chased down in revenge, he’d taken an old, rarely used path.

Because he took that path, he ended up stepping on a broken storm drain cover and falling hard enough to see stars.

It wasn’t the kind of thing that could be told to outsiders.

“Karma,” Luo Zhiyu said, taking the application form Fan Yue handed over. “I brought it on myself. It has nothing to do with him. I’m off now. Goodbye, Teacher.”

With that, he propped himself up on the windowsill and slowly made his way toward the west stairwell, the same way he came.

Back in the classroom, a bunch of students looked at Xiao Yan with clear guilt in their eyes.

“I have to go to the student council interview tonight anyway. I’ll go with him and help him out a bit,” Xiao Yan said, tossing out the comment as he followed after Luo Zhiyu.

“Go ahead,” Teacher Li said. Xiao Yan was truly a good student, quick to understand and effortless to teach. “You’re both from the same school. Get along. You’re a year older than him, so be patient.”

“I’ll try,” Xiao Yan replied.

“See? Even with a 0% pheromone compatibility, people can still get along just fine,” Teacher Li said as he walked into Class 2-3. “I’ve been teaching for years, so I’ve encountered all kinds of students, and every kind can be taught.”

“At our No. 1 High, we don’t just teach academics. We also teach students how to be a human,” he added, seizing the moment to give a moral lesson. “Don’t judge people so harshly. Read more, broaden your thinking, and try to see the good in things. Nothing is absolute. You have to believe that miracles do happen.”

Every student in Class 2-3, except Xiao Yan, lowered their heads in shame.

Over at the west stairwell, Luo Zhiyu, who was about to head downstairs, realized that his sprained ankle might be worse than he thought. Climbing up earlier had already drained his energy, and now the thought of going down the stairs felt exhausting.

Luo Zhiyu wanted to sit at the stairwell for a bit. As soon as he did, someone sat down next to him.

The evening self-study bell had already rung, and classrooms had quieted down. The two of them, in different-colored uniforms, sat on the stairs, completely without regard for their image. While the scratching of pens in classrooms marked the steady passing of time, this moment at the stairwell felt as if time had been paused.

“Where did you fall?” Xiao Yan had more or less figured it out earlier from Luo Zhiyu’s ‘karma’ comment.

“That scenic little path on the west side of the academic building.” Luo Zhiyu was flipping through his student council application form. In the section for committee approval, the word ‘Approved’ looked very familiar. “You did this.”

“Yeah, I did. But with your qualifications, anyone would’ve approved it.” Xiao Yan brushed Luo Zhiyu’s hand aside and looked at his spotless uniform. “Luo Zhile, are you dumb or what?”

Luo Zhiyu: “? Didn’t you say it’s easy to borrow and return a uniform? If I tore yours up, wouldn’t you be nagging me nonstop about it?”

Even in the split second before he tripped, Luo Zhiyu’s last thought was still about Xiao Yan’s uniform.

He was about to argue back when something cold was pushed into his mouth by Xiao Yan. Instinctively, he bit down, and a burst of cool citrus spread across his tongue, followed by an almost unbearable sourness.

It was the same sour mandarin he had thrown at Xiao Yan earlier. 

“You’ve already borrowed the uniform. Do whatever you want with it. I’m not that petty,” Xiao Yan said. His second attempt to feed Luo Zhiyu a mandarin wedge failed. Luo Zhiyu bit him. “…You really are a leopard that can’t change its spots.”

“It’s way too sour.” Luo Zhiyu slapped Xiao Yan’s hand away. “Take it back! I’m not eating that!”

“Come on, I’m heading to the student council office too.” Xiao Yan stood up and popped the mandarin into his own mouth. “Stop hopping around. I’ll carry you.”

“That generous?” Luo Zhiyu swallowed the mandarin suspiciously and reminded him, “You still haven’t gotten back at me for throwing that at your head.”

“I went to your class to corner you, but missed my chance.” Xiao Yan bent down. “So I’m trying a different approach.”

Luo Zhiyu’s foot hurt, and since someone was volunteering to carry him, he wasn’t about to refuse. He wrapped his arms around Xiao Yan’s neck and lay on his back. “What approach?”

He was leaning in close, his head resting against Xiao Yan’s shoulder. The faint mandarin scent of Xiao Yan’s pheromones clung to his clothes. It was so much cleaner and nicer than that cheap fruit from earlier.

“Luo Zhile, listen,” Xiao Yan said as he adjusted Luo Zhiyu on his back and supported him with one hand. “I need to save what’s left of my reputation.”

Luo Zhiyu: “?”

Luo Zhiyu: “And what does your reputation have to do with me?”

“A lot. You’re the root of the problem. To keep my reputation from getting any worse, I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf and treat you better. From now on, I won’t pick on you. I’ll only be good to you.”

Luo Zhiyu waved his bandaged hand in front of Xiao Yan’s face. “Yan-ge, did that mandarin knock something loose in your head?”

“And how exactly do you plan to be good to me?” The intuition honed from countless fights since childhood made Luo Zhiyu doubly wary.

Class 2–3 was on the third floor. The student council office was on the first. It normally took a minute to walk down the stairs, but—

Xiao Yan took the long way. Instead of going straight down the west stairwell, he walked through the hallway, passing Class 2–1 through 2–7, and went down the east stairs.

Luo Zhiyu: “……”

Ignoring all objections, Xiao Yan carried him along an S-shaped route, passing the windows of over twenty classes across both year levels. By the end, two-thirds of the student body had witnessed this legendary 0% pheromone compatibility camaraderie. By the end of the night, the image of their unity and friendship was thoroughly cemented in everyone’s minds.