GBROTAH CH83

The bell rang, signaling the end of class. The students in the classroom began to file out. Xie Yuanxing rested his chin on his stacked fists, lost in thought.

People continuously passed by his seat, tapping on it or patting him.
“Let’s go, it’s gym class.”
“Xingxing, aren’t you going down yet?”
“Let’s go, let’s go.”

Xie Yuanxing answered each one, but his body didn’t move an inch. His dark eyes watched the people passing by, occasionally glancing at the clock on the front wall.

Zhou Chao from the back row walked over to him and spoke in a hushed, conspiratorial tone, “What’s up? How’s your online romance plan going?”

Xie Yuanxing looked disinterested. “It’s whatever.”
“I haven’t even spoken to him today.”

Zhou Chao clicked his tongue. “Tsk, you should put some effort into it.”
“Don’t you want to pull him down from first place in the grade?”

Xie Yuanxing stared at him. “I’m not even anxious, what are you anxious about?”

After saying “Then just delete me” yesterday, Xie Yuanxing had lost interest in the matter. He felt it was too much trouble; he would have to find ways to please Shen Bianye.

Why should he have to please Shen Bianye? It was a waste of time with no guaranteed reward. With that effort, he might as well do a few more practice problems.

The reason Xie Yuanxing had agreed to Zhou Chao’s proposal was because he was angry about being made to write a self-criticism yesterday because of Shen Bianye. To actually have to suck up to Shen Bianye for this matter, he was quite unwilling.

In all his life, Xie Yuanxing had never had to suck up to anyone.

A shrewd glint flashed in Zhou Chao’s narrow eyes. He smiled. “Aren’t I just trying to watch the fun?”

Shen Bianye, returning from the office, walked in through the front door and spoke naturally, “What are you talking about?”
“It’s time for gym class. Aren’t you going down yet?”

Seeing Shen Bianye looking like he was about to head downstairs, Xie Yuanxing didn’t want to go down with him. He pretended not to hear and continued to rest his head in his hands.

He didn’t speak. Zhou Chao patted Shen Bianye. “Let’s go.”

Shen Bianye glanced at Xie Yuanxing. “Watch the time. Don’t be late.”

Xie Yuanxing’s head bobbed back and forth. He was wearing a down jacket, which made him look round and plump. Nodding his head like this, he resembled a clumsy, silly penguin.

Shen Bianye smiled silently and followed Zhou Chao out of the classroom.

Watching the two of them leave together, Xie Yuanxing tilted his head, a contemplative look in his eyes.

In class, Shen Bianye’s relationship with everyone was just average.
Because Shen Bianye was cold and indifferent to everyone, he was only now belatedly realizing that Shen Bianye’s and Zhou Chao’s relationship didn’t seem to be bad.

If he had to pick someone in the class who had a good relationship with Shen Bianye, it would only be Zhou Chao.

Just now, Zhou Chao was asking about the online romance. Could this be a set-up the two of them planned together to mess with him?

Otherwise, why would Shen Bianye agree to date his alternate account without knowing anything about it?
And he was so eager, as if afraid he would back out.

But if it was a deliberate prank…
Xie Yuanxing thought of the extremely revealing apology photo Shen Bianye had sent. The sacrifice Shen Bianye made would be too great.

How did Shen Bianye plan to tease him?
Let others know he was being played for a fool?
But if the matter got out and he sent that photo, the one who would be fiercely discussed should be Shen Bianye.

Xie Yuanxing slowly stood up, still thinking about this as he walked out of the classroom.

A cold wind hit him as soon as he stepped out of the classroom. Outside the school building, the cold wind was even stronger, whistling into his clothes and instantly waking Xie Yuanxing up.

Why do we have to have gym class in winter? People are going to freeze to death.

Xie Yuanxing complained internally. He had just taken a few steps towards the sports field when he ran into Shen Bianye and Zhou Chao, who were also heading there.

Xie Yuanxing wasn’t walking fast, but it seemed as if he had caught up to them. “You guys are walking so slow.”

Shen Bianye looked at Zhou Chao. “Didn’t you hear? Walk faster, we’re about to assemble.”

Zhou Chao turned to look at Shen Bianye. The latter’s expression was calm, natural, and flawless.
He opened his mouth to speak, but a gust of cold wind filled it, and he silently closed it again.

Zhou Chao: …Fine, so it’s his fault for walking slowly.
Xie Yuanxing had better continue to ignore Shen Bianye. It wasn’t him who was getting anxious.

There were quite a few people standing on the sports field, huddled together in clumps here and there, as if squeezing together would make it warmer.

Shen Bianye stood on the windswept field and looked at his penguin. “Are you cold?”

Xie Yuanxing gave him a puzzled look, unsure if he was talking to him.

Shen Bianye: “This is for you.”

A palm-sized hand warmer was stuffed into Xie Yuanxing’s hand. It was warm, but his expression became even more bewildered.

Shen Bianye averted his gaze slightly. “I don’t need it. You can hold it for me.”

Just as Xie Yuanxing was about to say something, he heard the gym teacher’s whistle.
The huddled groups of people, like startled sparrows, suddenly formed a larger, neater line.

“…laps. Run two laps first.”

A chorus of groans rose from the crowd, but they started moving under the urging, one after another running out.

Xie Yuanxing’s face was flushed. After running less than one lap, he started to slack off, his pace getting slower and slower until he was basically walking.

He had to admit the hand warmer was very comfortable. It was light and didn’t take up space, so he could even hold it while running.
Xie Yuanxing’s face was delicate. After running one lap, the wind made it sting. He held the hand warmer and pressed it to his face.

Shen Bianye, who had long since finished his two laps, watched his flushed face, saw him rubbing the hand warmer against his cheek as he walked towards him, and his Adam’s apple bobbed.

He couldn’t help but step forward, as if to welcome him, and walked up to Xie Yuanxing. “What happened to your face?”

Xie Yuanxing gave him a strange look. “It’s too cold from the wind while running.”

Shen Bianye really wanted to reach out and touch Xie Yuanxing’s face. It was smooth, soft, and looked pink.
So tender. So beautiful, baby.

His hand, hanging by his side, silently rubbed his fingertips together, relieving the restlessness in his heart. “Does the hand warmer still have power?”

Xie Yuanxing nodded. “It does.”

Shen Bianye: “Let me see.”

He reached out naturally. As Xie Yuanxing handed it to him, his large, well-defined palm almost completely enveloped the hand warmer. His fingers caressed it before he handed it back to Xie Yuanxing.
“You use it. Give it back to me when it runs out of power.”

Xie Yuanxing glanced at him again. “Okay.”

Not long after he had walked out of the school building, this hand warmer was in his hands. Shen Bianye had asked him to hold it, but told him he could give it back when it ran out of power.
It was as if…
This hand warmer had been specially charged for him, specially brought to the sports field for him.

The stragglers from the run arrived late. The group reassembled, and the gym teacher called a few people to move the equipment. The rest of the students formed a line and began some useless warm-up exercises.

Xie Yuanxing watched Shen Bianye’s departing back, his eyes growing more and more puzzled.
The cold wind cleared his head. Xie Yuanxing set aside the prejudice he had against Shen Bianye from the bottom of his heart and thought about the things Shen Bianye had done.

So strange… let me think again.
Thinking again… still so strange.
Maybe I should do an experiment…

After the sports equipment was brought over, this gym class basically became free activity time. Besides not being allowed to go back to the classroom, they could do anything else.

Xie Yuanxing walked up to Shen Bianye, his chin slightly raised. “I want to drink some water.”

Someone nearby called for Shen Bianye to play basketball. Shen Bianye didn’t look at them. He asked Xie Yuanxing, “What do you want to drink?”
“Isn’t your face cold? Should I buy you a hot drink?”

Xie Yuanxing frowned. He just wanted Shen Bianye to get him water, just to make him run an errand to the school building.
He had a bit of a mischievous, probing thought. Hearing this, he deliberately said, “Aren’t you very poor? You’re willing to buy a drink?”

Shen Bianye: “I lost the bet. A bet is a bet.”
“You want to drink water. If we’re in the school building, I’ll get you water. If we’re outside, I’ll buy you water.”

He didn’t directly answer Xie Yuanxing’s question, but the look in his eyes as he looked at Xie Yuanxing darkened.

Shen Bianye wasn’t actually that poor. He had been scouted by this school. To recruit him, they had given him 100,000, and the school promised that if he got into a top university, there would be another 200,000 in scholarship money.

He himself wasn’t very interested in studying. It was only in middle school that he learned that good grades could be exchanged for money. He was too poor back then, he had no choice but to study hard.
Coming to this school was also just to get the money.

But this person before him, beautiful and delicate, Shen Bianye looked at him, and a craving always rose from the bottom of his heart. 100,000 was not enough, 200,000 was not enough either.

He could tell that Xie Yuanxing’s family was well-off. If nothing unexpected happened, after they graduated, they would each go their separate ways.

Shen Bianye could not accept this outcome. So, he was now studying harder than anyone else. He had to widen his own narrow path, widen it enough to connect to the smooth, broad road of Xie Yuanxing’s life.

Xie Yuanxing didn’t know what he was thinking. Hearing him say that, he sent Shen Bianye to buy water. “You’d better be quick. I won’t drink it if it gets cold.”

Their school had a small milk tea shop, a bit far from the sports field. Xie Yuanxing sat by a tree, holding the hand warmer, and watched as Shen Bianye hurried back with the milk tea, the corners of his lips turning up.

He inserted the straw, took a sip, and said with a straight face, deliberately, “It’s cold. I don’t want it anymore.”

On a cold day, he had run back and forth to buy the milk tea, and he didn’t want it after one sip. Anyone with a slightly worse temper might have gotten angry.
Xie Yuanxing just wanted to see if Shen Bianye would get angry.
This was his experiment.

Shen Bianye stared at the cup of milk tea and reached out to take it. “You really don’t want it?”

Xie Yuanxing: “I don’t.”

Shen Bianye: “Then I’ll deal with it myself?”

Xie Yuanxing: “Do whatever you want.”

Still not angry?
He’s not even angry about this?

In the next second, Shen Bianye bit down on the straw, his voice muffled and sticky. “Thank you, baby.”
The last two words were very soft, almost like a dream-like murmur, disappearing between his lips and teeth.

Xie Yuanxing didn’t hear clearly, but he was dumbfounded.
Why thank him?
Wasn’t he making things difficult for Shen Bianye?
Didn’t Shen Bianye buy this milk tea, running back and forth to get it, paying for it himself? Where did he deserve a thank you?

That “thank you” was so shocking to Xie Yuanxing that he didn’t even react to the fact that Shen Bianye was drinking from the same straw he had just used.

Xie Yuanxing’s dark eyes widened slightly. “Thank you?”
“I’m messing with you, and you’re thanking me?”

Shen Bianye’s eyes were dark. He let out a low laugh. “It’s okay.”
“You can mess with me like this next time too.”
Reward me again, baby.

The tall figure stood in front of Xie Yuanxing. Even holding a cup of milk tea, when he looked down at someone, it didn’t diminish his sense of pressure at all.

For some reason, as Xie Yuanxing was being watched by him, a strange sense of unease suddenly rose from the bottom of his heart.
It was like being stared at by a snake.
An instinctive sense of danger.