Chapter 2

We locked eyes for a few seconds, then I turned my head to face forward. After a few more seconds, I looked at him again and found that he was still looking at me.

“What are you looking at?” I asked him, while touching my face with my hand. The way he was looking at me made me wonder if there was something dirty on my face.

Lu Haoyang made a hesitant sound, looking a bit embarrassed, and opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something.

After a few seconds, he finally said what he wanted to say, “Who are you?”

“…” I was speechless.

On second thought, it was normal. Lu Haoyang didn’t actually know Han Xiaoya, he only knew the three words “Han Xiaoya.”

I shook my phone at him, and on the screen, the message he had just sent me was still visible. Lu Haoyang seemed to suddenly understand, feeling embarrassed, “Sorry, I don’t know you.”

You don’t know me, no need to say it, I figured that out long ago… I thought to myself, smiling at him and pretending to be mysterious, “But I know you.”

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

Mbyv pvyvlxldv alxkdele Nw Tysuydt, “Sktbv, bso eke usw jdso vbyv R’x Nw Tysuydt?”

“R’hl plld usw clqsal.”

“Xb, alyzzu?”

Nw Tysuydt pvawttzle vs alxlxcla, vbkdjkdt qsa y obkzl cwv nswzed’v alnyzz yduvbkdt, yde elflnvlezu pyke, “Ebld oyp vbyv? R esd’v byhl ydu kxralppksd yv yzz.”

R pxkzle yde eked’v pyu yduvbkdt. R vssj cynj vbl rbsdl vbyv R bye rzynle kd qasdv sq bkx. Gv vbyv xsxldv, vbl bspv sd pvytl yddswdnle vbl cltkddkdt sq vbl yoyae nlalxsdu.

Nw Tysuydt vwadle bkp blye vs zssj clbkde xl, clusde xu qklze sq hkpksd. R blyae bkp zsolale hsknl yp bl prsjl vs psxlsdl kd swa cynj aso, “R qsatsv… Uyd’v usw qsatkhl xl?” Gzvbswtb vbl rlapsd bl oyp vyzjkdt vs yzps prsjl kd y zso hsknl, kv oyp pvkzz ywekczl vbyv kv oyp y tkaz.

Gqvla Nw Tysuydt yrszstkgle, bl kxxlekyvlzu vwadle cynj vs xl. R vwadle xu blye vs zssj yv bkx, yde bl zssjle yv xl vss. R iwknjzu yhlavle xu tygl, vbkdjkdt ycswv bso vs yrrasynb bkx ycswv ekhkekdt vbl osaj qsa vbl okdvla calyj alplyanb. Tsolhla, bl nswzed’v pvyu kezl. Jlqsal R nswze qktwal kv swv, bl vwadle yaswde ytykd yde pvyavle vyzjkdt vs vbl rlsrzl clbkde bkx. Mbkp vkxl, kv oyp vbl pyxl taswr sq twup bl bye tallvle lyazkla, yde bkp vsdl oyp iwkvl nypwyz, “Tso xydu osaep eke usw twup oakvl?”

R nswzed’v blya nzlyazu obyv vbspl twup alrzkle, cwv vbld R blyae Nw Tysuydt’p raswe hsknl, “8000 osaep, kxralppkhl, aktbv? R pvyavle oakvkdt yv 1:30 yde oasvl wdvkz 5 s’nzsnj.”

5 o’clock… I increasingly felt that he was eccentric.

Then there was a bunch of nonsense and commotion, Lu Haoyang and his buddies, but they kept their voices low, considering they were in a venue.

After exchanging emotions, Lu Haoyang finally turned back with reluctance. I thought to myself, if I don’t speak up now about the winter break research, he’ll immediately find someone else to chat with. So I called out to him immediately, “Lu Haoyang!”

“Yeah?” He responded, turning his head to look at me.

“I want to talk to you about the winter break research.”

“Oh…” Lu Haoyang continued to look at me, unwavering.

I stopped looking at him and continued, “I have two ideas. One is that we actually go for the research, which will require setting a time. The other is to skip the research and write the report directly. You know, in the end, the school only looks at the report for grading. What do you think?”

“Uh…” Lu Haoyang hesitated and said, “Then, should we just breeze through it?”

I nodded, “Sure, let’s skip the research and write the report directly. It’ll save a lot of trouble.”

“Yeah!” He felt relieved, and after a moment, he remembered something else, “But the school requires us to submit the contact information of the subjects being investigated…”

So you know the school’s requirements too. I thought you didn’t know anything and relied on me… I muttered to myself in my mind, then I answered him, “It’s okay, I’ll let you know when we need you to do the work.”

Upon hearing this, Lu Haoyang became immediately happy, “Okay, just let me know what I need to do!”

I chuckled, but in my heart, I thought, as long as you don’t make things worse, it’ll be fine.

I’ve always felt that this guy named Lu Haoyang is smart in other matters but acts foolishly when it comes to dealing with girls, and it has been like that from the very beginning.

For example, on the day of the scholarship ceremony, my attitude was clearly not good, obviously displeased with his laziness, but he seemed completely oblivious to it. After we reluctantly discussed the winter break research, he started talking endlessly in my ear, ignoring my indifference.

Another example, after the conference ended, a girl approached him and coquettishly said, “Lu Haoyang, if next time I ask you to save a seat for me and you forget, I’ll make you regret it!” But he completely failed to realize that she was interested in him and responded, “We’re good buddies, no need to be so calculative!”

The scholarship ceremony ended, and I followed everyone as they left. With keen eyes, I spotted a senior whom I hadn’t seen in a long time in the crowd and was about to catch up with him when Lu Haoyang blocked my path.

“How are you getting home?”

I turned my head to look around me, but there was no one else. It turned out he was asking me.

“My dad is coming to pick me up,” I answered him, but my heart had already flown to the senior who was a few meters away.

“Oh… So someone is coming to pick you up…”

Then, I heard a sarcastic sigh from someone standing beside Lu Haoyang. They were all looking at me, their smiling faces sending shivers down my spine.

Lu Haoyang wanted to say something, but I couldn’t wait. I interrupted him, “Sorry, please let me through. My senior is ahead, and I want to talk to him for a few minutes.” Without waiting for his response, I bypassed them and went straight ahead to catch up.

I caught up with the senior and we chatted at the school gate for a long time. Meanwhile, Lu Haoyang and his group of friends walked past us in a cool manner. The senior greeted Lu Haoyang, and that’s when I realized they knew each other.

After finishing the conversation with the senior, I waited at the gate for a while before my dad’s car arrived. On the way back, I saw Lu Haoyang again. This time, I was in the car, and he was on the sidewalk, surrounded by a group of people. Suddenly, I remembered hearing them talking about going to have lunch together. This group of people teased Lu Haoyang because they all knew he was wealthy.

Actually, I knew it too. A handsome and rich guy from Microsoft, how could he not be wealthy?

In the afternoon, I went out to play with my classmates. It happened to be my birthday, so we had a crazy time and didn’t return home until late at night.

When I got back home, feeling bored, I logged into Renren (a Chinese social networking site) and noticed that someone had visited my profile earlier in the day—it was Lu Haoyang.

I had been lurking on Renren, rarely sharing or posting updates, so it was rare for anyone to visit my profile. Since Lu Haoyang had visited, it was only polite for me to return the visit.

Glancing at his profile, I noticed that he was just like me—not an active Renren user. His latest activity on his profile was from ten days ago.

Time passed day by day, calm and uneventful.

The Spring Festival was still peaceful and warm, but this year, the name Lu Haoyang appeared in the list of people who sent me New Year’s greetings. Every time he sent a text message, he seemed lively and energetic, which inadvertently lifted my mood.

After the Spring Festival, I returned to school early. On one hand, it was to diligently complete the research report during the winter vacation, and on the other hand, a junior from my high school wanted me to accompany her to participate in the autonomous enrollment exam at F University.

When the research report reached around five to six thousand words, I encountered a technical problem: I needed to perform a correlation analysis on two sets of data, which required the use of statistical software. Unfortunately, it was beyond my capabilities.

It was 7 PM at that time, and my first instinct was to seek help from a senior who was usually helpful. However, he was in the United States, and the eleven-hour time difference made it impossible to contact him. When I couldn’t think of a solution, the name Lu Haoyang popped into my mind once again.

I checked QQ(a social media platform), but Lu Haoyang was not online. I sent him a text message, but he asked me to talk on QQ. It turned out he had a habit of being invisible on QQ. I explained my problem to him and asked for his help in analyzing the data using a software called STATA. He hesitated, saying, “STATA? I don’t know how to use it.”

“Okay, then I’ll think of another solution,” I replied, not wanting to waste too much time with him.

He immediately added, “Why does it have to be STATA? I know how to use MATLAB!”

MATLAB? At that time, I didn’t know what that was, so I casually reassured him, “It’s alright, I’ll find a science student to help me.”

Lu Haoyang suddenly became displeased. “But I am a science student!”

I was stunned for a moment. He had been participating in computer Olympiad competitions throughout high school, which could be considered as a science student? So I honestly said what was on my mind, “I meant the traditional science students, those who study math, physics, and chemistry.”

As soon as Lu Haoyang saw my response, he became even more excited. “That’s me!!! I also chose the science track in high school!”

Why was he getting so worked up? I wondered, so I had to soften my tone, “Oh, I see… because you were admitted to T University in your second year, I thought you didn’t need to study these basic courses.”

The term “admitted to T University” pleased Lu Haoyang, and he continued to boast about how good he was at math. I wasn’t sure about his math skills, but his typing speed was truly impressive.

I couldn’t get a word in, so I let him ramble on while I continued writing my research report. Occasionally, I glanced at the screen to make sure I didn’t miss anything interesting. And indeed, I did catch something:

“I actually took the college entrance examination too, but I only went to take the first test, Chinese, and then left.”

So, a student admitted directly to university went to experience the college entrance examination? That was quite novel. Thinking back to how I had earnestly and diligently taken the exam on a scorching hot day, while these people watched from the sidelines with leisure, my tone turned unfriendly, “Oh, how interesting.”

Lu Haoyang didn’t seem to notice my tone at all. He enthusiastically invited me to watch his “Steven’s Exam Journey” video. I opened the video and saw his proud face.

This was the third time I saw Lu Haoyang.

The first time, he was on stage speaking while I was in the audience, too far away to see anything clearly. The second time was at the award ceremony, where he sat next to me.

But I felt that the Lu Haoyang in the video was somewhat different from the one I saw at the award ceremony. What was different? I pondered for a moment, and then it hit me—it was his demeanor!

The Lu Haoyang in the video was the same as the one I chatted with through messages and QQ: confident, arrogant, with eyes on the top of his head. But the Lu Haoyang sitting next to me at the award ceremony, although lively, always made me feel… reserved.

Yes, reserved. Could it be that this guy also knew how to be shy?

Thinking of this, I felt like laughing. So, I playfully teased him and answered, “I think, Mr. Genius, you look so handsome!”

As soon as I said that, Lu Haoyang, the king of typing speed, didn’t react for a whole minute. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.

My roommate Jiejie saw me like this and curiously ran over to take a look. She exclaimed, “Oh! It’s Lu Haoyang again!” She mischievously leaned close to my ear and whispered, “Xiaoya, what’s your relationship with him?”

I turned my head and saw her winking at me, so I pretended to threaten her, “What relationship? Every time you see me talking to a guy, you come running like a matchmaker. You have too much free time!”

She scoffed and took a few more glances at my computer screen before leaving.

After sending her away, I planned to continue teasing Lu Haoyang, but then I saw his response, “No… I look so ugly now, but you really are a little beauty.” He added a blushing emoji with a drooling face.

I suddenly found him more amusing, and I was about to compliment him further when his message came in again, “You know, I actually saw a report about you in the newspaper, right after the college entrance examination. The headline read: ‘The top students in both science and humanities in City A this year are two little beauties.'”

I didn’t understand what he was trying to say, so I asked, “And then?”

He calmly replied, “Actually, I didn’t know at the time that you were the top scorer that year. It was Pan Zicong, you know, the one who was standing next to me at the award ceremony. When I mentioned you to him, he told me.”

I remembered, there was indeed such a person. That day, I stood next to him and let out a strange sigh, “So, someone is picking you up.”

Lu Haoyang spoke again, “How about it? Do you feel that my high school life is completely different from yours, little top scorer?”

Little top scorer?

“You’re the little one!” I immediately retorted.

He became proud again, “You’re a year younger than me, so what else would you be if not a little one?”

“…”

This guy was going too far!

“You stalked me?!” I immediately questioned him, full of anger.

Lu Haoyang became embarrassed this time and regretted revealing his true intentions too quickly, “I didn’t mean to stalk you…”

Still trying to argue! I confronted him with a forceful aura, “Then what was it? Accidentally stumbled upon Han Xiaoya’s name and found out my information?” I didn’t even know how to lie convincingly.

Seeing this, Lu Haoyang couldn’t come up with any more excuses and immediately tried to placate me, “Okay, okay, it’s my fault. As compensation… I’ll show you my embarrassing photos!”

“Who wants to see your embarrassing photos? It’s not like they’re celebrity pictures that can be leaked to the paparazzi.”

“They’re really funny, I guarantee you’ll feel better after seeing them! Come on, don’t be shy, I’ll send them to you!”

…

I looked at the photos, we argued, and then I checked the time. It was almost 10 o’clock, three hours had passed without me realizing it. Lu Haoyang said it was getting late and that he had to go do some work. I asked him, “Where are you?” and he said he was at the company.

Company. Microsoft, I thought. Curiosity sparked within me, and I asked him to take a few pictures of the company to show me.

In short, after this conversation, besides being shameless, Lu Haoyang gained another label in my mind: always willing to oblige.

I had to admit that I was starting to enjoy talking to him more and more.