During the lunch break, Mao Silu looked around the cafeteria but couldn’t find Lin Shiyu. However, he did spot their dormitory teacher. He then hurriedly grabbed his tray and squeezed through the crowd to sit next to the teacher.

“Teacher, is Lin Shiyu okay after last night?” Mao Silu asked cautiously. “He’s not still angry, is he?”

The teacher, while eating, said, “No, I feel like he’s pretty calm. He’s even sitting there eating teddy bear cookies.”

Mao Silu was puzzled. “Teddy bear cookies?”

“Yeah, two boxes of them. He even gave me one,” the teacher replied. “He also slept quietly. I even thought of letting him stay with me for a while since I get scared sleeping alone at night.”

Mao Silu put down his chopsticks, looking disheartened. “But, teacher, you’re in your twenties, how can you be scared to sleep alone?”

“Is that related to age?” The teacher seemed confused.

Ignoring the teacher’s question, Mao Silu’s disappointment grew. He got up, picked up his tray, and ran away while the teacher looked puzzled.

“Is it true that Lin Shiyu doesn’t want to live with us anymore?”

Mao Silu sat side by side with Ruan Zhikai on a steel pipe, feeling down. “The teacher said he’s quite happy after moving out, and they even shared teddy bear cookies.”

Ruan Zhikai asked, “Teddy bear cookies?”

As more students gradually gathered on the field, Zhong Qi glanced at the crowd and spotted Lin Shiyu. Lin Shiyu had a slender figure, long legs, and a striking face. His demeanor, even without speaking, carried a touch of arrogance that made him stand out in the crowd.

Mao Silu also saw Lin Shiyu and immediately jumped down from the cement pipe. He jogged towards him, panting. “Shiyu!”

Lin Shiyu heard the call and turned to see Mao Silu rushing towards him, glancing back to see that Zhong Qi was also looking at him.

Lin Shiyu shifted his gaze back to Mao Silu. “What is it?”

“Shiyu, are you still mad?” Mao Silu walked beside Lin Shiyu. “Don’t be angry.”

“I’m not mad.”

Mao Silu cautiously asked, “So, are you coming back to live with us?”

“I’m not coming back.”

Mao Silu uttered a disappointing, “Oh.” 

When Lin Shiyu saw his expression, he didn’t understand why Mao Silu wanted him to return so badly. So, he explained, “If I come back, it might make everyone uncomfortable.”

“But you and Zhong Qi used to get along so well,” Mao Silu looked puzzled. “He cares about you so much, and I thought you two were a great match.”

Lin Shiyu almost choked. “A great match?”

“Yeah, you and Zhong Qi. I always thought you had a good relationship.”

“Please stop talking,” Lin Shiyu couldn’t tell if he was overheating or just annoyed, but he felt exhausted.

The students of Class Seven continued their military physical training with increasing precision. After more than a week of rigorous training, even Black-Faced Instructor had to correct them less frequently. Occasionally, other drill instructors would come over to watch them practice, praising their excellent training.

Then black-faced Instructor, in an unusually good mood, allowed them to go to the cafeteria for dinner earlier than usual.

The cafeteria was crowded, and the four of them found an empty table to sit at. They had just started eating when two girls sat down at the adjacent seats.

“Hey, it’s rare to see you guys disband on time,” one of the girls remarked.

“Don’t mention it. In the past, we couldn’t even get our share of meat in the cafeteria. Today, we finally get to enjoy a good meal.” Gao Jie replied.

Shen Ziyi placed a bottle of iced tea in front of Zhong Qi and said, “Here, a bottle for you.”

Then, she quickly pulled out a pack of AD calcium milk and handed it to the other male students. The guys started opening the pack of calcium milk. Zhong Qi pushed the iced tea back, saying, “You don’t need to give it back to me.”

However, Shen Ziyi pushed it back to him and said, “I’ve already bought it, so just take it. It’s not like it’s expensive.”

Shen Ziyi then put her food tray on the table and started applying ointment to her hand, ignoring her meal. Mao Silu noticed and curiously asked, “Is that sunscreen?”

“No, it’s lotion for sunburn,” Shen Ziyi replied casually. “Haven’t any of you guys gotten sunburned?”

“No, our skin isn’t as delicate as you girls.”

“What do you mean? Delicate skin isn’t determined by gender.” Shen Ziyi replied. After finishing applying the lotion, she put the tube back in her pocket. “Lin Shiyu got sunburned a while ago. I lent him this lotion, and he was too shy to use it. He also seemed quite shy when we talked. It was really interesting.”

“Lin Shiyu is shy?”

“Yeah, he’s shy.”

Shen Ziyi scanned the area with her chopsticks before spotting her target. “Lin Shiyu!”

Her loud voice echoed through the cafeteria, startling Lin Shiyu, who had just inserted a straw into a milk bag, making him nearly squeeze the milk out of the bag due to the sudden surprise.

Shen Ziyi waved at him. “Come over here!”

Upon seeing the people at her table, Lin Shiyu hesitated for a moment, not wanting to approach them instinctively. Then he thought there was no need to avoid them like this since he had already moved out, and they wouldn’t argue anymore. He grabbed his milk bag and walked over.

Gao Jie and Mao Silu were both looking at him. “Shiyu, have you eaten?”

When Lin Shiyu reached their table he replied with a simple, “Yeah.”

“How’s your neck?” Shen Ziyi took a tube of ointment from her pocket and handed it to him. “Put on some more.”

“No need, it’s much better now.”

“It looked pretty bad earlier…”

Lin Shiyu adjusted the collar of his military training uniform by pulling it up a bit and said, “It’s almost healed.”

Then he took a sip of milk and turned to leave.

Shen Ziyi waved her hand at their group. “See? He’s so shy.”

Tao Chen couldn’t help but laugh. “Are you playing with a cat?”

Zhong Qi put down his chopsticks, picked up his tray, and stood up.

Gao Jie asked, “Are you finished eating?”

“Yeah, I’m leaving.”

Zhong Qi bypassed the chairs, and Tao Chen quickly picked up the iced tea on the table. “Hey, take your tea.”

Zhong Qi had already walked away.

Not far from the cafeteria, in the shadow of a building, Lin Shiyu stood with the dormitory teacher. They seemed to be talking, and the teacher said something to Lin Shiyu, who nodded before walking away. Then the teacher continued to walk towards the cafeteria and looked up to see Zhong Qi.

“Zhong Qi, are you finished eating?”

Zhong Qi nodded, stayed silent for a few seconds, then stopped the teacher.

“Is Lin Shiyu staying with you?”

“Yeah, where else would he stay?” The teacher stopped and said to Zhong Qi, “I just talked to him and asked if he felt uncomfortable staying with me. He said it’s fine. So, I’ll let him stay with me for the next week.”

“Is it okay for a student to stay in the instructor’s dorm? Won’t there be any checks?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. There aren’t so many rules. It’s just an empty dorm anyway. Besides, it’s not like he wants to live with… too many people.”

Zhong Qi didn’t speak for a while. The teacher, afraid that he was overthinking added, “I asked him what happened, and he just said it was an argument with no special reason. I think it’s normal for kids to fight and then forget about it after a few days. Moreover, considering Lin Shiyu’s personality, he probably just prefers being alone. People are different, some adapt to group living, while others don’t. Don’t take it to heart.”

However, people were not like stars, separated by light-years of distance.

The distance between people was very close. Even with walls, roads, and tall buildings, their consciousness would uncontrollably cross these barriers, trying to establish a connection within the social network with a specific point.

Lin Shiyu sat in a chair, eating the last bit of a small bear-shaped cookie. After taking a shower and changing into loose short sleeves and capri pants, his skin, rinsed with warm water made him relaxed, and the soreness in his muscles gradually eased. He slowly put a cookie into his mouth, looking out the window at the distant starry sky.

The teacher finished his shower, sat on the edge of the bed while drying his hair, and noticed the large red area on Lin Shiyu’s neck. He asked: “Is your neck sunburned?”

“Yeah.”

“Why don’t you put some medicine on it?”

“I don’t feel it anymore.” Actually, it still itches a little, but for Lin Shiyu, it was tolerable. Not hurting was almost equivalent to recovery.

The teacher hung the towel on the side and said, “Today, Zhong Qi talked to me and brought up the topic of you.”

Lin Shiyu stopped chewing for a moment. “What did he say about me?”

“He asked if you’re still staying with me. He seems quite concerned about you.”

Lin Shiyu finished his cookie, threw the box in the trash can, and said, “I have a bad temper, and I can’t get along with him.”

“Really? I thought you had a good temper. Is there a misunderstanding?”

Lin Shiyu replied in a low voice, “There might be a misunderstanding, but it doesn’t matter.”

His voice was not loud, and the teacher couldn’t hear it clearly, so he asked again what Lin Shiyu was saying, but Lin Shiyu remained silent. He never liked explaining himself, and most of the time, except for getting angry with others, he didn’t engage in any form of “communication.”

Even for Lin Hui, communicating with Lin Shiyu was a difficult task. He would protect them at all costs but never talked about pain, discomfort, or happiness. Most people thought Lin Shiyu was difficult to deal with to the point of being unreasonable.

Lin Shiyu also thought he was beyond help.

 

 

Edited by: Jaisland

Proofreader: 

 

Support translation: