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Chapter 22
Editor: Princess
Last night, Yu Pei went to bed early, so Luo Changzhou didn’t get a chance to chat with him properly. He wasn’t really sleepy either, so he just finished all his weekend homework, planning to wait for Yu Pei to wake up the next day and ask him how to do the problems.
But he waited all morning and still didn’t see Yu Pei. That little troublemaker only sent him a “Good morning” text and then disappeared, leaving him so distracted that he couldn’t even focus on his exercises.
For the first time, Luo Changzhou felt like having too little homework or finishing it too fast wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Because now he had absolutely nothing to do.
He stayed bored like that the whole morning. By noon, when he was making lunch, he even forgot to add salt to the soup. After taking one sip, Father Luo and Mother Luo were both shocked and asked, “Changzhou, are you feeling unwell or something?”
“No, not at all.” Luo Changzhou was confused.
“Then why didn’t you put salt in the soup?”
“No way right?” He frowned, scooped up a spoonful of soup, and tasted it. Only to realize that he really had forgotten to add salt.
He stood there, stunned, unable to believe that Yu Pei’s influence on him was this strong.
Mother Luo glanced at him and asked again, “You’re really not feeling sick?”
“No.” Luo Changzhou said. “I was probably thinking about something while making the soup and just forgot to add salt.”
Hearing this, Mother Luo was finally relieved. As she continued eating, she casually added, “Our hot spring resort is finally finished. It’s right behind the ranch. You can invite your classmates over to hang out on the weekends.”
“It’s done already?” Luo Changzhou looked up at her.
After selling their house and ranch in their old hometown in the Imperial City up north, they bought a small hill here in South City. The housing prices here were way cheaper compared to the Imperial City. The money from selling the ranch was more than enough to build a new ranch and a hot spring resort in South City, and there was still plenty left over. Luo Changzhou had always had a generous amount of pocket money, which was why that day, he just went ahead and bought Yu Pei the most expensive Aoki soda from Yu’s Icing Sugar Milk Tea Shop without a second thought.
“Yes.” Mother Luo said in response. “Didn’t we start building it before we even moved here? It should be done by now. You guys can start using it tomorrow. It’s ours anyway, so if you bring your friends over, you won’t have to pay a cent.”
Luo Changzhou kept his head down, eating quietly, but in his mind, he had already started thinking about whether or not he should invite Yu Pei… over to his place to hang out.
He remembered that there were a bunch of tropical maple trees planted near the resort. If he did the math, in about a month or two, the leaves would start turning red. If he invited Yu Pei over by then, they could admire the autumn scenery together. Yu Pei’s skin was so pale—if he soaked in the steamy hot spring, would his body turn a little pink…?
As Luo Changzhou kept thinking, his thoughts started drifting into dangerous territory. Then, all of a sudden, he felt a rush of warmth in his nose, as if something was trickling out.
He froze, still lost in thought, when Mother Luo suddenly shouted, “Changzhou! You’re having a nosebleed!”
She jumped up from her seat, grabbed a handful of tissues, and pressed them against his nose. Luo Changzhou quickly raised a hand to stop her, tilting his head back as he wiped the blood away. “…I’m fine.”
Mother Luo frowned. “You still want to say you’re fine? You’re literally bleeding from your nose.”
Luo Changzhou: “…”
“I’m really fine.” He said helplessly. “Maybe it’s just because I’ve been eating too much sugar lately.”
But instead of being reassured, Mother Luo got even more worried. “Sugar? But I remember you don’t even like sweets!”
Luo Changzhou was stunned for a moment, only now remembering that he really didn’t eat sweets at home. Every piece of candy he had was from Yu Pei. So, he could only explain, “I ate it at school. A classmate gave it to me.”
Mother Luo asked him: “A girl?”
Luo Changzhou glanced at her. “A guy. My desk mate.”
Father Luo, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke up. His voice was deep, his expression blank, and he looked pretty serious. “What kind of male desk mate?”
Luo Changzhou said flatly, “What else could it be? The kind of male desk mate you’re thinking of.”
“You—” Father Luo frowned. “How could you—haven’t you learned your lesson from Qin Yilin?”
“What do you mean ‘again’?” Luo Changzhou looked up, tossing the blood-stained tissue into the trash. “Don’t compare Ah Pei to someone like Qin Yilin. Just hearing it makes me sick.”
“You feel sick?” Father Luo almost laughed in frustration. “You’re the one who likes men and you think you have the right to feel that way?”
Luo Changzhou’s face remained expressionless. “What’s wrong with liking men? Sexual orientation is something you’re born with. I can’t change it.”
“Liking men is just wrong!” Father Luo’s eyes widened as he slammed his hand on the table. Mother Luo was startled and quickly grabbed his arm, afraid he and Luo Changzhou might start fighting. “If it weren’t for Qin Yilin, were you never planning to tell us?”
Luo Changzhou looked speechless. “That’s just because I hadn’t met anyone I liked yet. Besides, it’s not like I ever told you I liked women either.”
Mother Luo couldn’t hold it in and let out a quiet laugh.
Father Luo was completely shut down by their conversation, unable to say a word.
Qin Yilin used to be Luo Changzhou’s desk mate back when he was studying in Imperial City. He was a delicate-looking guy. Father Luo had seen him once when he attended one of Luo Changzhou’s parent-teacher meetings, and at the time, he had felt like something about the kid was… off. Later, he finally figured out what it was—he was gay.
But he never expected that his own son—the one he had watched grow up under his nose, who never seemed any different from other boys—would turn out to be gay too. And before this, he hadn’t even noticed a single sign.
Thinking about this made him want to sigh. He and Mother Luo were both normal people, so how did they end up with two kids who were so different from everyone else?
His daughter might have been a girl, but she was fiercer than most men. Right after graduating high school, she had gone straight into military academy without even telling the family. And now his son—cold-faced and emotionless since birth, excellent in his studies—turned out to like men. And the only reason they even found out was because of Qin Yilin.
Even though Luo Changzhou’s words weren’t exactly pleasant, Father Luo secretly agreed when he said Qin Yilin was disgusting. That kid was the worst—he had never met someone so bad before. He had no idea what kind of upbringing he had.
When schools assigned seats, they usually considered the students’ academic performance. Either they grouped the top students together to keep them from being distracted, or they paired a weaker student with a stronger one so the better student could help the other catch up.
Qin Yilin’s grades were terrible, so Luo Changzhou’s former homeroom teacher paired them up, hoping Luo Changzhou would help him study. But Luo Changzhou wasn’t just cold-faced—his heart was even colder. At first, he followed the teacher’s instructions and helped Qin Yilin with a few problems, but when he realized that Qin Yilin only wanted to copy his homework and had no intention of actually learning, he gave up on him completely. Since Qin Yilin wanted to copy, he just let him copy, but beyond that, he didn’t care about him at all.
Qin Yilin was into men to begin with, and Luo Changzhou was good-looking, so it wasn’t surprising that he developed feelings for him. But for some reason, he got it into his head that since Luo Changzhou let him copy his homework every day, that must mean he liked him too. So he went around bragging about it in his little gay friend circle, and soon enough, the rumor spread.
Luo Changzhou was basically the school heartthrob in his old school, and a lot of people paid attention to him. So when a few girls who secretly had a crush on him overheard the rumor, they lost it. They blocked the classroom door and demanded answers from him.
Of course, Luo Changzhou denied it. Qin Yilin was embarrassed at the time, but later, when he saw that Luo Changzhou was still letting him copy his homework, he convinced himself that Luo Changzhou really did like him. He was just too stubborn to admit it.
Then came the midterm exams. Qin Yilin sat behind Luo Changzhou and tried to cheat off his paper, but Luo Changzhou didn’t let him. A girl in their class who had a crush on Luo Changzhou saw the whole thing, and the moment the exam ended, she started mocking Qin Yilin for spreading lies.
And that pissed Qin Yilin off. He was already mad that Luo Changzhou wouldn’t let him copy his test, and now, with the girl provoking him, he snapped. Right in front of her, he turned to Luo Changzhou and demanded, “If you don’t like me, then why do you let me copy your homework?”
Luo Changzhou hit him with a classic comeback: “You don’t want to study properly, and I’m not your teacher, so I’m not going to bother with you. But I let you copy my homework, and instead of being grateful, you turn around and dump this pile of crap on me?”
Basically, he was saying that Qin Yilin’s claim that he liked him was a load of bullshit.
Qin Yilin was completely humiliated. Furious, he rounded up some so-called “street friends” and planned to jump Luo Changzhou as payback. But Luo Changzhou called the cops and got them all arrested in one go. The whole thing blew up, and both families were called in.
When Father Luo found out, he asked Luo Changzhou what had happened. Luo Changzhou explained everything from start to finish.
Teachers always sided with the top students over the weaker ones, so the teacher immediately spoke up for Luo Changzhou, saying there was no way he’d like guys. They brushed it off as just some minor conflict between boys, and since Luo Changzhou wasn’t hurt, they tried to downplay the situation and let it go.
Who knew that Luo Changzhou would say casually, “Hmm, I indeed don’t like him.”
However Father Luo knew his son well. Luo Changzhou had only denied liking Qin Yilin, but he hadn’t denied liking men. So as soon as they got home, he confronted him: “Do you like men?”
Luo Changzhou admitted it without hesitation.
Since the whole mess with Qin Yilin had gotten so big, it was impossible for Luo Changzhou to stay at his old school. And since they were already planning to move, Father Luo simply transferred him to a new school.
But who would’ve thought that after transferring, Luo Changzhou would immediately fall for his new male desk mate? Father Luo, who was still holding onto the hope that his son could be “saved”, was absolutely furious.
“So what you’re saying is, you’ve found someone you like now? That desk mate of yours—what’s his name, Ah Pei?” Father Luo let out a cold laugh. “Ha! Who knows if he even likes you back? Careful—if he finds out you’re gay, he might get so scared he transfers schools himself.”