Chapter 16

"I see you haven't brought your lunch box lately," Lu Bai had already cleared the table before the teacher left, ready to run out to eat as soon as the bell rang. "What's wrong? Your mom doesn't bring you lunch anymore?"

"She's busy lately." Zhang Xiaotian answered him without putting down the pen in his hand.

"Then come and have dinner with us." Lu Bai gently touched Zhang Xiaotian's shoulder with his fist.

"I don't know him." Zhang Xiaotian hesitated. It was awkward to eat with someone whose name he didn't even remember. "It's not like I can't find a place to eat."

"We'll get to know each other sooner or later. We'll be in the same class." The bell rang, and Lu Bai jumped up and stood next to Zhang Xiaotian. "Let's go, Tian'er, let's go together."

There were two men and one woman waiting for Lu Bai at the front door. They didn't say anything when they saw Lu Bai and Zhang Xiaotian coming over. Zhang Xiaotian walked beside Lu Bai and secretly looked at the three people. One of the boys was Jiang Yan, the girl seemed to be his girlfriend, and there was another boy who looked unfamiliar. As soon as Lu Bai walked over, the others surrounded him, and even surrounded Zhang Xiaotian in the middle. Zhang Xiaotian was not used to it, so he deliberately fell behind them a few steps, trying to keep a distance from them, but was discovered by Lu Bai.

"Why are you running so far?" Lu Bai pulled him over. "Stay closer to me."

"What are you doing?"

Zhang Xiaotian struggled a little harder, and Lu Bai let him go: "You're too far away, I can't hear you talking to me."

Who wants to talk to you? Zhang Xiaotian was puzzled, but still walked beside Lu Bai.

Lu Bai talked with them as they walked, and Zhang Xiaotian listened quietly on the side. As he listened, he began to lose his focus, remembering that he hadn't seen his mother for several days.

Since that night, his mother had been even busier, too busy to even come home. The few times she did come home were always late at night. After hearing what she had said, Zhang Xiaotian hadn't known how to face her. Now that they couldn't see each other anymore, he felt a bit relieved. He hadn't seen her in years, and they didn't have much affection to begin with. Now, suddenly forced to accept her financial support, he felt a bit ashamed in her presence. But she was his mother after all, and even if they couldn't be close, Zhang Xiaotian wanted to make things less awkward between them, but he just didn't know how.

He knew he was never the type to please others.

"...Jiang Lei said there's a new maocai restaurant across the street. Do you want to go?" Lu Bai was originally talking to Zhang Xiaotian, but seeing that Zhang Xiaotian was distracted, he bumped him with his shoulder. "Tian'er, are you listening to me?"

Zhang Xiaotian was startled: "What are you doing?"

"What's wrong with you?" Lu Bai asked him, "You're not actively eating. Is there something wrong with your thinking?"

"Go to hell." Zhang Xiaotian smiled. "What did you want to tell me just now?"

"Ask you if you want to eat maocai."

"I can do anything."

"Then follow me!" Lu Bai said and ran forward, not caring whether Zhang Xiaotian followed or not. "Tian'er and I will go and grab a seat first!"

The other people all looked at Zhang Xiaotian.

Zhang Xiaotian felt a little embarrassed by those gazes, so he ran out after Lu Bai.

Lu Bai stopped running after a few steps, and Zhang Xiaotian quickly caught up with him.

"Here you are." Lu Bai saw Zhang Xiaotian catching up and put his arm around his shoulders. "You run pretty fast."

"Why did you suddenly run?" Zhang Xiaotian was still a little out of breath.

Lu Bai smiled and said, "That's because you seem uncomfortable in a crowd. And that place has only been open for a few days. If you don't get a seat early, there will definitely be no room left."

This guy is quite good at reading people's expressions.

Zhang Xiaotian looked at Lu Bai, feeling a little uncomfortable. He found that Lu Bai could be carefree and unrestrained at times, yet at other times overly sensitive. If he hadn't known he had no ill intentions, he would have thought he was deliberately doing this to tease him.

A few minutes after the two of them arrived, the other three also arrived. Five people sitting at one table was too crowded, so the three light bulbs took the initiative to sit at another table.

"Our class teacher is out, so we've been studying and watching movies every day these past two days." The unfamiliar boy winked at Lu Bai. "I heard from Jiang Lei that Old Zhang has been keeping a close eye on him these past few days."

"Why don't you ask where Jiang Lei is sitting now?" Lu Bai opened a pair of disposable chopsticks and handed another pair to Zhang Xiaotian. "He's sitting right under Old Zhang's nose. If Old Zhang doesn't care about him, who will he care about?"

"Hahahahahahahahaha, he's so unlucky."

"Why are you so unlucky? They're so sweet." Lu Bai said with his eyes, "Look at how affectionate they are. Why don't you take them to dinner next time? Let them eat alone."

"I'm not deaf, Lu Bai!" Jiang Lei raised his fist at Lu Bai at the table, "Wait for dinner later, and I'll teach you a lesson!"

"Oh, I'm so scared!"

Zhang Xiaotian listened to their banter while eating his meal. The meal went by quickly, and it wasn't as awkward as he'd imagined. He picked at the few remaining dishes in his bowl, unable to eat any more. But seeing that they hadn't finished yet, he put his chopsticks aside and waited.

"Tian'er, have you finished eating?" Lu Bai was still eating and chatting, and asked when he saw Zhang Xiaotian put down his chopsticks.

Zhang Xiaotian nodded.

"Wait for me then." Seeing him nod, Lu Bai quickly ate the rest of the bowl. "Shall we go first?"

"Aren't you going to play ball with me, Old Lu?" the boy sitting opposite him looked up and asked him.

"Brother, we have an exam tomorrow." Lu Bai said as he pulled Zhang Xiaotian out, "Why don't I review for a bit?"

But after leaving the store, Lu Bai pulled Zhang Xiaotian into the supermarket again.

"Didn't you say you were going back to review? Why are you in the supermarket?" Zhang Xiaotian watched Lu Bai hesitate. "Which flavor of potato chips is better?"

"Well, I like the barbecue flavor." Lu Bai said, but took a bag of original flavor and went to pay.

Is that the smell of barbecue? Zhang Xiaotian was curious but didn't ask. He just urged him to go back to class quickly. It was indeed time to review.

Perhaps because exams were approaching, more and more people were returning to class early for dinner, especially on the eve of the exam. By the time they returned, more than half the class was already seated. Zhang Xiaotian sighed inwardly, "This is truly a top class!" and quickly sat down to open his book. The classroom was completely silent, with only the sound of pages turning. This silence lasted until the bell rang at the end of the night, when the usual bustle returned.

"I'll go get some water." Lu Bai took out the water cup. "Will you come with me?"

Zhang Xiaotian lowered his head and waved at him. He wanted to finish reading the last bit of this page.

"Then I'll go." Lu Bai got up and went out, but Zhang Xiaotian still kept his head down.

After a while, someone came over, and the footsteps didn't sound like Lu Bai. Zhang Xiaotian didn't take it seriously at first, until the person sat on Lu Bai's stool. Zhang Xiaotian looked up at him and saw it was Li An.

Li An first chatted with other students next to him, and then spoke to Zhang Xiaotian as if he had just noticed Zhang Xiaotian.

"I see you're studying pretty hard," Li An said. "Who knows, you might end up in my class."

Zhang Xiaotian looked at him, waiting for his next words.

Perhaps because Zhang Xiaotian's stare made him feel uneasy, Li An took the initiative to bring up the incident that day when he applied for the project: "I didn't mean that that day, please don't misunderstand."

"Yeah." Zhang Xiaotian nodded.

"I'm also considering the class," Li An explained. "If I apply for a project and no one comes..."

"Li An, why are you sitting here with me?" Lu Bai walked in with two cups of water. Zhang Xiaotian turned to look at him and found that he had taken his cup to fill it with water. "Get out of here, it's scalding hot."

Li An couldn't stand Zhang Xiaotian's attitude anymore, so he stood up and left, mumbling something.

Lu Bai quickly sat down and placed Zhang Xiaotian's water cup on the corner of his desk. "Why is he here? What did he say to you?"

"Nothing." Zhang Xiaotian stroked the water cup, "Thank you."

"It's just something that comes naturally." Lu Bai took out the potato chips he bought that night, opened them, took a piece for himself, and pushed it in front of Zhang Xiaotian: "Help yourself."

Zhang Xiaotian said "hmm", but did not touch the potato chips. He just opened the water cup, blew on it and took a sip.

"After the exams, I'll call them over to rehearse." Lu Bai chewed potato chips with a crunching sound. "It will definitely be better than last year's show." After saying that, he let out another "Ouch" and slapped his thigh exaggeratedly.

"I forgot I even signed up for the sports meet and haven't practiced at all."

Zhang Xiaotian took another sip of water as Lu Bai muttered to himself. The exam is almost here, and he's still thinking about this.

Lu Bai chewed for a while, then picked up the water cup beside him, blew on it a few times, and drank it, feeling the heat. He fanned his mouth and said, "After the exam, don't we need to practice a little bit on the projects we signed up for?"

"Let's practice." Zhang Xiaotian put down his water cup. "Let's talk about it after the exam."

"Are you nervous?" Lu Bai seemed to be waiting for him to mention the exam, and asked him impatiently, "The exam is tomorrow."

"Not nervous."

What exactly did he want to say? Did he want to ask me this? Zhang Xiaotian looked at him with a bit of amusement, "Didn't you ask me that last time?"

"You're really good. If it were me, I'd be afraid I wouldn't be able to keep any." Lu Bai wiped his hands with a tissue and pushed the potato chips towards Zhang Xiaotian. "Hurry up and grab one. We'll have to put it away before class starts."

Zhang Xiaotian reached out and took a piece. Before eating, he said, "If I can keep it, I'll keep it. If I can't, forget it."

"You can definitely stay." Lu Bai said firmly.

I myself am not that confident. Zhang Xiaotian put the potato chips in his mouth and couldn't help but complain in his heart when he heard this.

"You..." Zhang Xiaotian suddenly wanted to ask about the potato chips he had just bought in the supermarket, but the moment he saw Lu Bai, he felt that he was being too sentimental.

"Ah? What did you want to say?" Lu Bai didn't wait for the next words or ask any further questions. He handed the bag of chips over again and said, "Eat some more. I saw I bought so many flavors last time, and you only ate two bites of this."

Zhang Xiaotian didn't say anything after hearing this, but just obediently took the bag of potato chips.

Lu Bai didn't expect him to answer so readily this time, and seemed very happy: "Why so readily? Are you hungry? No wonder, you ate too little for dinner. Come on, eat something more, you'll have to study later."

Zhang Xiaotian sighed and put the potato chips in his mouth.