After sitting in math class for a while, Gu Kaifeng opened his notebook and wrote something down. He pushed the book to the edge of his desk towards Lin Feiran and tapped it with a slender finger, hinting at him to look.

Lin Feiran lowered his head, admiring the beautifully written characters with envy as he read—”Do you want to be near me that badly?”

Lin Feiran blushed hard. When the teacher wasn’t paying attention he grabbed the notebook, quickly scribbled a reply, and threw it back.

—”No! I want to sit at the back because it’s more convenient to play on my phone!”

Lin Feiran’s handwriting was originally quite bad and now that he wrote in a rush and without a desk for support, his characters became so ugly they looked almost like a dog wrote them with its paw. Gu Kaifeng stroked his chin and moved closer to the page, furrowing his brows as he seriously tried to decipher Lin Feiran’s handwriting.

“......” Lin Feiran was so embarrassed he wished he could turn back time to write those characters over!

Gu Kaifeng pointed at the words “I want to sit”and asked with a soft voice, “What does this say?”

When the math teacher turned around to write on the blackboard, Lin Feiran bent over and whispered slowly in Gu Kaifeng’s ear: “I——want——to——sit——”.

Gu Kaifeng let out a chuckle.

Wang Zhuo looked like he couldn’t restrain himself anymore and teased, “Damn, you two are still at it...?”

Lin Feiran was dumbfounded and reacted on impulse; he couldn’t help but willingly provoke his protective talisman. In a fluster, he stepped mercilessly on Gu Kaifeng’s pair of at-least-15000-yuan limited edition basketball sneakers!

He even ground down several times on Gu Kaifeng’s toes...

In any case, if he was going to stomp once, he may as well stomp until he was satisfied — after all, he’d been wanting to do this for a while! The petty Lin Feiran was both happy and free of regrets.

Gu Kaifeng bit his lip and endured. It wasn’t until the math teacher finished writing and turned around that Lin Feiran reluctantly withdrew his foot.

Time flew by quickly and the bell rang, announcing the lunch break at noon. The math teacher tidied up her teaching materials and left the classroom. Just when the students were about to sprint to the cafeteria as if they were in a one-hundred-meter race, the homeroom teacher suddenly appeared at the classroom door. Popping her head in, she said, “We’re going to change the seating arrangement, Li Ze.”

Li Ze was the student sitting behind Zhang Xu; he sat in the second row from the back.

The homeroom teacher said, “Li Ze, you sit at Lin Feiran’s seat. Wang Zhuo, you sit at Li Ze’s seat. Lin Feiran, sit at Wang Zhuo’s seat. Finish moving during the break.”

Finally, I won’t have to stand in class! Lin Feiran could hardly conceal his excitement as he practically skipped to his desk, preparing to move.

“Li Ze, let’s change seats now, hurry let’s change seats.” Lin Feiran was so excited he was speaking too quickly. He poked at Li Ze then turned his head to look at Wang Zhuo. “Wang Zhuo, Wang Zhuo, how about we just swap our desks directly?”

Li Ze and Wang Zhuo agreed to Lin Feiran’s suggestion. The students’ desks were just independent small square tables — ‘deskmates’ actually just referred to a pair of adjoining desks, not two students sitting at the same table. Lin Feiran happily went to carry his desk over to Wang Zhuo’s spot, but only made it two steps before dropping his desk with a thud. It was just too heavy. Just as he was trying to move it again, the desk in his hands suddenly became light. Gu Kaifeng had come to help him carry it over.

The sleeves of Gu Kaifeng’s school uniform were rolled up to his elbows, exposing a pair of slender and toned forearms. Because of his exertion, the muscles in his arms were stretched taut and the blue veins on the back of his hands were protruding a little. A strange yet fleeting feeling arose in Lin Feiran’s heart at this sight. However, he didn’t think much about it and easily ignored it.

While moving Lin Feiran’s desk to the back row, Gu Kaifeng noticed Wang Zhuo still hadn’t left his seat and urged him, “Hurry up, hurry up.”

“What’s with the hurry, did you get yourself a bride?” Wang Zhuo joked as he quickly obeyed and moved his desk.

The corners of Gu Kaifeng’s lips pricked up as he smoothly replied, “That’s right, so what if I did?”

Lin Feiran protested, “Hey!”

“Nothing.” Wang Zhuo started to laugh. Ignoring Lin Feiran’s protest, he ran his mouth and said, “I support my comrades, I won’t discriminate. I wish the two of you a long and happy life together.”

Lin Feiran shouted, “Hey hey!”

Gu Kaifeng said with a composed face, “Thanks.”

Lin Feiran’s face was flushed red. “Hey hey hey!”

Wang Zhuo was baffled by Lin Feiran’s blushing expression and paused for a moment before saying, “We’re just joking.”

Lin Feiran: “......”

Between straight men, sometimes jokes can be quite unrestrained. Because they are just jokes, what does it matter what is said? If you take them too seriously or require an explanation, it makes it seem as though you have something to hide. Lin Feiran understood this reasoning and choked a little as he swallowed back the indignant words that were surging in his throat. Instead, he squeezed out a gloomy “I know.”

After Lin Feiran finished moving his desk, he went back to his old seat, grabbed his bag, and said to Zhang Xu, “I’m going.”

Zhang Xu absent-mindedly waved his hand and said, “Bye bye.”

Lin Feiran looked at Zhang Xu with a somber expression and sincerely advised, “You should study hard. Seriously.”

It must be really miserable to have a ghost hovering over him everyday ah. Besides, what if the ghost could make Zhang Xu sick? How unlucky, ah. Previously, when Lin Feiran’s Yin Yang eyes were active and he looked at Zhang Xu, he had found that Zhang Xu’s yang energy wasn’t very strong.

Zhang Xu: “......”

Gu Kaifeng was standing in the back as he watched Lin Feiran’s little figure sincerely encourage his deskmate to take his studies seriously. Gu Kaifeng shook his head and laughed.

Lin Feiran gave Zhang Xu a thumbs-up and said confidently, “You can do it!” Then, he happily ran away in front of Zhang Xu’s completely bewildered gaze.

Since finally solving his big problem of not being able to touch Gu Kaifeng during class, Lin Feiran’s mood had been very good. Throughout lunch, he never lost his joyful expression. Lin Feiran even fixed the chunks of meat on his plate with a serene and benevolent look, the corners of his soft lips raised slightly.

As Wang Zhuo ate, he nudged Gu Kaifeng with his left elbow and gestured to Lin Feiran with his chin.

Gu Kaifeng looked at the happy Lin Feiran on his left and smiled. He said nothing and continued to eat, head bowed.

Wang Zhuo asked Gu Kaifeng in a small voice, “What’s that guy smiling stupidly to himself about over there?”

Gu Kaifeng countered with self-confidence, “Why do you think?”

Wang Zhuo guessed, “Is it because we just changed seats?”

Gu Kaifeng replied, “Why else?”

Wang Zhuo’s face was full of disbelief. “You’re like money ah, that’s why he’s so happy to be near you. Looking at him this happy makes me feel like I’ll be missing out.”

Gu Kaifeng laughed and didn’t say anything.

Wang Zhuo stretched his long neck to look past Gu Kaifeng again and stared Lin Feiran up and down for a moment. He whispered to Gu Kaifeng,“Hey, hey.”

Gu Kaifeng asked him, “What are you doing?”

Wang Zhuo whispered, “I just realized that he’s really good looking. Actually looks a bit like a girl.”

Gu Kaifeng: “......”

Wang Zhuo continued, “He has dimples when he smiles. What a waste ah, if he were a girl he’d be a lot cuter.”

Gu Kaifeng clicked his tongue in displeasure, grabbed a tray, and used it to obstruct Wang Zhuo’s gaze that was still fixed on Lin Feiran. Annoyed, he said, “Eat your food, what the hell are you looking at.”

Wang Zhuo bounced a bit in his seat as he tried to look over the tray and raised a ruckus as he exclaimed, “Am I not allowed to look at your wife? Just look! Aiya, my brother’s wife is so good looking!”

Gu Kaifeng cursed at him while laughing, “Asshole, are you looking for a fight?”

Lin Feiran’s ears heated up. He turned his head away uncomfortably and pretended not to hear.

After eating lunch, the two returned to class.

Lin Feiran sat down at his new seat. Using the tip of his foot, he lightly pressed against Gu Kaifeng’s shoe to absorb Yang energy. Now that he had the protection of his human-shaped talisman, he sat upright with his back perfectly straight. He had the appearance of someone who liked to use his powerful connections to intimidate others, and openly showed his disdain for the ghosts.

Come on, scare me ah! If you have the ability, scare me ah! Come on!

He’d been dying to say this phrase!

Gu Kaifeng looked with interest at Lin Feiran’s perfectly straight back and eyes that were bright and full of expression. Using his pen, he jabbed the tall student sitting in front of Lin Feiran and said, “Crouch down a little bit.”

The tall student in front: “......”

Lin Feiran quickly waved his hand and said, “No need, no need, I can see the blackboard.”

Gu Kaifeng didn’t say anything. Instead he stood up, walked to the teacher’s desk, and crouched down to search through the drawers. Retrieving a pair of pliers, he went to the side of the tall student who sat in front of Lin Feiran, knocked on his desk, and commanded, “Dude, stand up.”

The tall student stood up. Gu Kaifeng dragged his chair to the aisle so he could turn it over. Using the pliers, he undid each of the screws that controlled the chair’s height and moved them to their shortest setting. This way, the student would be several centimeters lower when sitting on the chair.

After adjusting its height, Gu Kaifeng put the chair back and patted the tall student’s shoulder. He justified himself disingenuously, “It’s sturdier when it’s shorter.”

The tall student: “......”

The world before Lin Feiran’s eyes thus became even brighter and more spacious!

The afternoon – including another two hours of self-study in the evening – went by without Lin Feiran seeing any ghosts. With the help of his human-shaped protective talisman, Lin Feiran’s learning efficiency was very high; he was even able to compensate for his failure to properly pay attention in class over the past two days when he was seeing ghosts. Immersing himself in a sea of knowledge, he was extremely enriched.

At eight o’clock, the two teens returned to their dorm room side by side. Upon their return, Gu Kaifeng collected his body wash, shampoo, and a towel; it seemed as though he was about to go shower.

“That... Wait.” Seeing this, Lin Feiran also grabbed his bathing things and said with embarrassment, “I also want to go.”

The communal shower room was located in the Student Life building adjacent to the dormitories. This was where students would ordinarily go to bathe. After transferring to the school, Lin Feiran would usually go every day; at most, he would go one day without showering. However, he hadn’t showered since Monday, the day he got the call from his dad. It had been three and a half days since he last showered. Yesterday, out of desperation, he filled his washbasin with warm water and wiped down his body in the bathroom. He could not neglect this opportunity to bathe now. Although it seemed very awkward to go to the showers with Gu Kaifeng, if he failed to take a shower today, how could he have the face to sleep in someone else’s bed?

Gu Kaifeng knew that this little sticky cake would definitely want to go with him. His eyes swept unobtrusively over Lin Feiran from head to toe and with a smile that was not a smile said, “Then let’s go.”