Xiao Yan lived not in a housing estate but in the most common alley houses in the old part of Nancheng, that is, the old, shabby, small residential buildings that are often referred to.
He walked his bicycle into the uneven stone road and parked it at the entrance of the first floor alley, then led Lin ChuSui upstairs to the second floor.
Lin ChuSui could even smell the raw musty wooden odor in the air.
Although the environment outside was not very good, the house was very clean, brightly lit, and even the corners of the furniture that were most prone to dust were cleaned spotless.
There were two bedrooms, one for Xiao Yan and one for his sister.
Coming to his place suddenly, Lin ChuSui felt a little uncomfortable.
At school, they were just the most common classmates, not even good friends.
Now coming to his home, seeing his real life, seeing Xiao Yan's completely different side from the clean and handsome top student at school.
Lin ChuSui felt that the distance between them... was suddenly reduced a lot involuntarily.
Xiao Yan went into the bedroom to change the sheets without saying a word.
Lin ChuSui stood awkwardly at the door, watching his back, and asked, "Is Sister Xiao... your real sister?"
They didn't look much alike.
Xiao Yan leisurely said while changing the sheets, "We met in the orphanage. She was my sister there, and she has always been my sister since."
Lin ChuSui nodded very understandingly and didn't ask any more.
...
That night, after Lin ChuSui took a bath, she put on the white T-shirt Xiao Yan had prepared for her to sleep in.
"The clothes are so big, are they your sister's?"
"My sister is in class with her phone on silent. I didn't want to take her clothes without permission. This T-shirt is mine."
"Oh."
Quite the gentleman, much better than a certain fake foreign devil.
Xiao Yan was doing homework at the desk. He turned his head slightly and glanced at her.
The little madam had just taken a bath. Her black hair was still damp and draped over her slender shoulders. Her small face was whiter than usual, and her lips were lightly flushed.
Her features were extremely beautiful and bright. It was just because she always looked depressed and wore sportswear to play with boys that her lovely features were obscured.
Xiao Yan's gaze moved down and fell below the V-neck of her collarbone. He glanced over it briefly before shifting his eyes away.
Lin ChuSui saw him doing homework, so she sidled over and leaned over the table to watch him do the questions.
"You got the third multiple choice question wrong. This one, you chose C. It should be B." Lin ChuSui pointed at the options.
Xiao Yan casually said, "Choosing C is not wrong. Xu Jia Ning is the one who got it wrong."
"How do you know it was something Xu Jia Ning said?"
"Among those around you... who else could point out a mistake to me besides your arrogant stepbrother?"
"You're so smart." Lin ChuSui flicked the corner of the page sullenly. "And he's not my stepbrother."
She didn't acknowledge it anyway.
Xiao Yan didn't argue with her about it. He just kept doing his homework.
Lin ChuSui leaned over the table. She hesitated for a moment before saying, "About what happened just now, don't tell anyone."
Xiao Yan continued calculating on the draft paper while saying, "You mean the thing about your bath not exceeding fifteen minutes?"
"No! What I told you when I came back... forget it." Lin ChuSui sullenly turned around.
He didn't care anyway.
That's right. It was just her own nagging secret that was hard to let go. How could others... take it to heart.
Xiao Yan's pen paused for a moment. "I won't say anything if you don't want me to."
As soon as Lin ChuSui heard this, she felt it was ominous. She looked at him warily, "Are you trying to threaten me again?"
Xiao Yan quickly wrote a math question on the draft paper and said to her, "Do this question correctly, and I'll keep your secret."
Lin ChuSui's mouth twitched. "Isn't that going overboard?"
Are top students' demands always this hardcore?
"You can choose to self-study from the textbook using formulas to derive it, or ask your stepbrother or someone else for help, or... me."
Lin ChuSui took a cursory look at the question and tragically found that she seemed to not even understand what the question was asking.
"I choose to ask you to teach me." Lin ChuSui didn't bother arguing anymore. She handed the draft paper directly in front of him, "Explain it to me."
Although she put on an expression like "the young miss is already giving you face by asking you to teach me", she shamelessly asked him to "help", Xiao Yan still conscientiously drew a parabola and patiently explained it to her step-by-step—
"F(x) is an odd function, so f(-x) = -f(x)... "
After listening for a while, Lin ChuSui started to doze off, then started daydreaming. Her gaze moved from the pen tip and fell on his fair hand, then along his arm, saw his sexy Adam's apple and his neck with protruding veins, and upward, his thin lips...
Sexy.
"Do you understand?"
She blinked, staring at his lips. "Not at all."
"Then I'll explain it to you again."
Lin ChuSui slumped over the table. "Scholar Xiao, why do you insist on going against me when you're so good-looking?!"
"I'll explain it to you again."
"I don't want to listen."
"When X is less than zero, -f(x) = f(-x) = -[-(negative x) minus 1] = negative x plus 1 greater than 0..."
Lin ChuSui yawned one after another.
Xiao Yan's gaze lightly fell on the draft paper. He paused for a few seconds, then took back the draft paper and continued doing his own exercises, no longer forcing her. "In life, only you can fulfill yourself. Friends can indulge you but can't live your life for you."
Seeing that he seemed a little angry, Lin ChuSui took out her phone and browsed her home screen for a while. Then she looked up at him again, feeling guilty. "I don't need anyone to fulfill me."
He continued calculating expressionlessly, not saying another word, looking as if he really was...
Angry.
Lin ChuSui felt a little bad. She finally picked up the draft paper from before, took a red pen from beside him, and earnestly looked at it for a while.
Look, of course she wouldn't be able to understand it.
But... in order to appease her conscience, she would pretend to be very serious first.
A few minutes later, Xiao Yan went out to the balcony to get some cold air to refresh his mind.
Through the glass window, he could see the little madam still leaning over the table with her legs curled up on the chair, staring blankly at the draft paper.
Xiao Yan turned around and closed his eyes.
The night wind was blowing gently. Leaning against the balcony railing, looking at the dilapidated houses around, listening to the woman next door watching family ethics dramas at max volume.
In the distance, occasional dog barks could be heard from time to time.
Life was this harsh reality.
He had been struggling since birth. At the orphanage, each child could only get one piece of candy per day. Because he was withdrawn and studious, the other kids banded together to take his candy.
He fought them, bit them, protecting his only piece of candy.
Later, in the private hospital abroad, after being drugged... he lost half his liver. He endured the intense pain, eating a lot every day, working hard to recover.
He knew how thick the clouding gloom was, so he decided to take revenge on them with death.
He had always been struggling, trying to crawl out of the mire.
This time was the same. He wanted to survive.
At night, Xiao Qian came back from night school and saw Lin ChuSui staying at home. She was quite surprised.
However, the look of surprise flashed by instantly. Seeing that Lin ChuSui was already yawning with sleepiness, she told her to sleep first.
"Sister Xiao, aren't you going to sleep?"
Xiao Qian took out her review books and turned on the desk lamp, dimming the light. "I'll do some questions first. Go to sleep first, Little Chu."
Lin ChuSui hugged the soft quilt, looking at her slender figure, and marveled, "Sister, how can you all work so hard?"
Xiao Qian gently smiled and said, "If I don't work hard, how can I find a wife for Yan in the future?"
"Wow, you're even worried he won't have a wife!" Lin ChuSui quickly said, "You don't even know, in our school, girls confess to him every few days. He's so popular!"
Xiao Qian smiled and asked, "What about you? Do you like him too?"
"Me..." Lin ChuSui drew out the tone, "Of course not."
"Why not?"
Lin ChuSui was a little embarrassed to discuss this with her. She burrowed into the quilt, "Sister, I'm going to sleep now. Good night!"
In the quilt, Lin ChuSui took out the crumpled draft paper and looked at his powerful handwriting under the light of the desk lamp.
It had been so long since she had forgotten what it felt like to work hard for a goal.
Soon, Lin ChuSui fell asleep, and slept like a pig.
In the past two years sleeping in class, internet cafes, and even 24-hour convenience stores, she had gotten used to it. She could easily fall asleep anywhere, anytime.
The next day when she woke up, it was already seven o'clock.
Morning reading class started at 7:30. Today it was Chinese morning reading. The Chinese teacher was an eccentric old man who always thought of weird ways to "torture" students.
The last time Lin ChuSui was in Chinese morning reading class, she was punished to recite "Ode to the Oak Tree" passionately to the student leading morning exercises during break time.
Losing face publicly didn't matter. This was about having thick skin. As long as she wasn't embarrassed, it would be embarrassing for others instead.
But the key was... the student leading the exercises was a first-year high school student, a little fat boy who had not experienced storms of life. He was deeply moved by Senior Sister Lin ChuSui's passionate recital of "If I loved you, I'd never copy the infatuated bird's monotonous song."
Ever since then, he resigned from being the leading exercises student. Whenever he saw Lin ChuSui, the fat boy's face would show a bizarre flush, and he would avoid her when he saw her.
Lin ChuSui didn't want to hurt a second leading exercises student anyway, so she had never been late for Chinese morning reading class.
She shot up from bed like a carp, hurriedly changed into her school uniform, and rushed out of the room.
Xiao Qian had already gone to the shop, and there was no sign of Xiao Yan either. He seemed to have gone out already.
Lin ChuSui casually splashed some water on her face, then stumbled out the door. She immediately saw Xiao Yan walking his bike out of the alley entrance.
The mellow morning sunshine fell on him, clean and spotless.
Lin ChuSui called out to him, "We're almost late! Why didn't you wake me up!"
Xiao Yan raised his head, his beautiful eyes filled with light, and his pupils showed a hint of light brown: "Do you need it?"
"The goddess lived a life of unrestrained freedom and love, but when under someone's roof, she had to bow her head, especially for that old fogey Tang's Chinese reading class!"
Lin ChuSui rushed down the stairs in a gust of wind and fire, and Xiao Yan had already gotten on his bike, his back disappearing into the morning glow of the alley.
"Anti-inflammatory medicine, wait for me!"
Lin ChuSui jogged to catch up, and Xiao Yan seemed to deliberately wait for her, yet not let her catch up, riding neither fast nor slow, leisurely going down the road.
Nearing the school gate, Lin ChuSui finally grabbed the corner of his clothes, panting: "Caught...caught you!"
Xiao Yan hit the brakes: "Why catch me?"
"Give me a ride to school, or I'll be late!"
He looked up, expressionless: "Goddess only needs to lift her noble legs and walk ten more meters to enter the school gate."
"..."
Lin ChuSui looked at the school gate within reach and gritted her teeth, reluctantly saying: "But I chased you for two kilometers!"
"So?"
"So I have to sit on your bike, otherwise I chased you for nothing!"
"Actually you could also take a taxi, maybe even faster than me..." His words had not fallen, and Lin ChuSui was already sitting on the back of his bike, urging: "Hurry hurry, only five minutes left!"
Xiao Yan helplessly could only take her into the school.
Facing the morning light, wearing a clean blue and white school uniform and riding a bike, he was very eye-catching all the way.
Lin ChuSui kicked the fallen leaves and shadows of the trees on the ground, and looked up at his back again.
"Anti-inflammatory medicine, why did you come to be my deskmate?"
"Because I like you, don't I?"
"You really like me?"
"You're finally doubting your own charm."
"No!" Lin ChuSui heard the ridicule in his tone and stubbornly said, "Your love for me, I still have no doubts, and I'm complacent and smug about it!"
Xiao Yan chuckled lightly—
"Oh."
Seeing his clean smile, Lin ChuSui was somewhat stunned.
This was the first time she had seen such a relaxed expression on him.
...
During morning reading class, Lu Chi leaned over from behind and whispered in her ear, "Going into the classroom together, you didn't really spend the night together, did you?"
"Yeah, I stayed over at his place for a night."
"Holy crap! The grade's number one, how was it?"
"How was what?"
"His ability! Is he good?"
"The grade's number one is of course good."
After saying this, even Lu TianBai looked back at them, her expression horrified.
To avoid corrupting minors, Lin ChuSui added, "The grade's number one is of course good, you were very happy copying his math homework, weren't you?"
"Don't say he tutored you all night."
"He really did."
"Lame~ Boring."
Xu JiaNing held a book of ancient poems and proses in his hand, mockingly said: "Not going home for the night, running to a boy's house to sleep at night, if your dad knew, he'd probably be so angry he'd jump up."
"None of your damn business." Lin ChuSui said very rudely, "And stop mentioning my dad!"
Xu JiaNing sneered coldly: "Clinging to someone who is already dead and unwilling to let go, making the living hurt and disappointed. You feel the whole world owes you, then who do you owe?"
Lin ChuSui's hand holding the Chinese textbook tightened: "To point fingers at my life...who do you think you are?"
"Sorry, my dad married your mom, so now I'm your elder brother, legally anyway." Xu JiaNing finally put down his book and looked up at her: "I'm polite to you because you took the initiative to take down the photos yesterday, so I feel you're not completely beyond redemption yet."
"Thanks, but I don't need your evaluation."
"I'm too lazy to evaluate you. Oh yes, by the way, they slept in the master bedroom last night."
Lin ChuSui's heart thumped rapidly, blood rushing to her head, her hands clenched tightly into fists: "You...say that again."
Xu JiaNing lifted his chin and sneered coldly: "Kid, do you think you can influence your parents' lives just by rebelling? Immature."
Xiao Yan glanced at Lin ChuSui, her face was already flushed red.
When anger reaches an extreme, it turns into deep helplessness.
Xu JiaNing had poked her most vulnerable spot.
Even Lu TianBai in the front row felt the tense atmosphere and looked back at them worriedly: "Girlfriend, calm down a bit."
Lu Chi's blood was also boiling, ready to be the first to rush up and fight with her if Lin ChuSui started a fight.
Lin ChuSui's voice trembled as she stared fiercely at Xu JiaNing: "My legal 'elder brother', you're very capable, better than me in every way, more sensible, more liked by the family, you enjoy this sense of superiority, don't you?"
Xu JiaNing sneered coldly: "If I have to get a sense of superiority from a loser, wouldn't that make me a total failure?"
"What are you saying!" Lu Chi finally couldn't stand it anymore. He stood up and grabbed Xu JiaNing by the collar: "Just because you can spout some English makes you awesome?"
He and Lin ChuSui had been best buddies since childhood, so of course he couldn't stand seeing Lin ChuSui bullied.
"Use your fists when you can't win with words?"
"Can't win? When ChuSui was awesome, you were still pretending to be a gentleman in some rubbish Eton school!"
Xu JiaNing sneered mockingly: "How awesome could she be? Did she finally pass math? Or did she finally get one question right in English listening?"
"Don't look down on people!" Lu Chi was so angry that smoke seemed to come out of his throat: "From elementary to middle school, ChuSui's grades were always good. She even went on TV!"
"You're joking, right?"
"Joking? Go find out for yourself, the genius girl with a photographic memory from Nancheng Affiliated High School, won so many prizes her hands went soft, and participated in the national memory competition on CCTV, beating down a bunch of Harvard and Oxford college students..."
Xiao Yan glanced at Lin ChuSui.
"Shut up!" Lin ChuSui sharply cut Lu Chi off.
Lu Chi was unwilling, wanted to say something more, but the knife-like gaze forced the words that had welled up in his throat back down.
He sat back down awkwardly, irritably opened his Chinese textbook, and didn't say any more.
Xu JiaNing also sat down, coldly mocking: "Boasting without preparation makes a fool of oneself. If she's so great, I'll call her brother."
Lin ChuSui's mood had calmed down again. She turned around and stared at Xu JiaNing for a long time.
Xu JiaNing felt goosebumps under her gaze and very rudely said, "What?"
Lin ChuSui casually pulled over his math exercise book on the upper left corner of his desk and pointed to the third question: "You got this question wrong, choose B, not C."
Xu JiaNing sneered and curled his lips mockingly: "Impossible."
Lin ChuSui recited aloud: "f(x) is an odd function, then f(-x)=-f(x)."
Xiao Yan slowly turned his head to look at her.
This question was one he had taught her last night, but she didn't understand at all...
The little auntie's jet black eyes were filled with a resolute light. She didn't even bother to use draft paper, directly saying: "When X is less than zero, -f(x)=f(-x)=-[-(negative x) minus 1]=negative x plus 1 greater than 0, so B should be chosen, and C is wrong because f(x) multiplied by f(-x) equals (x minus 1)(negative x plus 1) which is less than 0."
As Xiao Yan listened to her steps, his mind was also quickly calculating.
The corner of his mouth faintly curled up.
A learning disability student with no high school math foundation had actually...memorized all the steps to solving this problem.
...
"Holy crap!"
Before Xu JiaNing could react after Lin ChuSui finished speaking, Lu Chi and Zhang Cheng Yu clapped at the same time, their blood boiling—
"ChuSui is awesome! Serve tea for ChuSui!"
"Goddess ChuSui is back!"
Xu JiaNing picked up his pen and started furiously calculating on the draft paper. Soon, the answer was verified.
It was the same as the steps Lin ChuSui had recited. Choose B, not C. He had been careless.
Xu JiaNing looked at her uncertainly, seeming to start believing what Lu Chi had said earlier.
"Forget calling me brother, I don't lack little brothers." Lin ChuSui nobly and coldly turned around—
"Call me Lord ChuSui."
Follow current novels on ALL NOVEL BOOK
