Chapter 74 P - Soaring Prices
Chu Beiling's heart sank, and she felt inexplicably uncomfortable.
My heart feels like a rotten, bursting blueberry, its juice squeezed out with every heartbeat, the sour, bitter juice flowing everywhere with the blood.
Faced with Xing Yu like this, Chu Beiling felt only heartache. For a moment, he doubted whether what he was doing was really right, whether it was right to hurt Xing Yu and refuse to face him, since he had clearly done nothing wrong.
Just because he and Xing Yu are both boys, does that mean they can't like each other?!
Chu Beiling was unsure and didn't know anything. The only thing she had seen and experienced was the outcome of two boys being together, which had already given them a negative example and presented them with a terrible reality.
Ms. Li does not allow him to have a relationship too early, let alone allow him to have a relationship with Xing Yu.
Once Li Shuying finds out, her relationship with Xing Yu won't end up any better than that of Su Beichen and Shen Zhi.
Two boys!!
This path is impossible to walk, and he cannot fall in love with Xing Yu.
So he and Xing Yu had no choice but to go back, even though they might not be able to return to the past. They had to go back and couldn't continue like this.
There's still time before anything begins.
There's still time.
Chu Beiling was deceiving himself.
It was raining outside and the lights were off, making the room dark. Even though it was noon, it felt more gloomy than five or six in the evening. In the dim light, Chu Beiling felt that Xing Yu was like a ceramic jar that would shatter with a "crack" if she wasn't careful.
Their eyes met, and the color drained from Xing Yu's face little by little.
Chu Beiling suddenly felt a churning in his stomach, followed by waves of nausea rising in his throat. He covered his mouth, quickly got out of bed, and staggered into the balcony to vomit violently.
He hasn't eaten much since last night, only vomiting up dark green bile, which was so bitter it made him tremble all over.
Xing Yu watched him gasp for breath, tears welling up in his eyes. He raised his hand, which was about to pat Chu Beiling's back, but it remained suspended in mid-air and did not fall.
After a while—
Xing Yu withdrew his hand, took two steps back, turned around and went to the storage cabinet to get a bottle of mineral water. He walked up to him, unscrewed the cap, and handed it to him.
Chu Beiling glanced down at it, reached out and took it, then drank the whole bottle in one gulp.
Xing Yu lifted his eyelids and looked directly at him. He didn't know if Chu Beiling had just vomited or was really upset. He leaned against the glass, tilted his head slightly to look at him, revealing his fair neck. His eyes were slightly watery and looked broken.
The balcony was quiet. The two stood facing each other, neither of them speaking, just looking at each other.
Xing Yu suddenly spoke up: "Have you not been eating properly these past two days?"
Chu Beiling's throat felt dry and itchy, and a bitter feeling rose from his throat again. He paused for a moment and said, "I ate my food obediently." He wasn't telling the truth.
Xing Yu nodded, trying to control his breathing: "My stomach isn't feeling well. Should we go to the infirmary?"
Perhaps it was just the right time, but Chu Beiling felt another wave of nausea and vomiting. He leaned against the sink and kept dry heaving.
Xing Yu reached into his school uniform pocket, pulled out a packet of preserved plums, and handed it to him. Chu Beiling took it, unwrapped it, and popped two salted plums into his mouth.
Outside the window, the rain pattered softly, and the balcony once again fell into a silent vacuum.
After a moment of silence, Xing Yu finally couldn't help but say, "Is it true that if I transferred schools and completely disappeared from your sight, you wouldn't feel so bad, so disgusted that you would want to vomit?"
Chu Beiling froze, standing there staring blankly at him.
Xing Yu's Adam's apple bobbed, but he remained silent.
They were classmates, deskmates, roommates, neighbors living on different floors, and mutual friends. They spent almost 24 hours a day together, living and studying together, almost to the point of being inseparable.
There's no way to just hide from it; you'll always run into it and see it.
He restrained himself from getting close, because it would make Chu Beiling uncomfortable, and he would feel the same discomfort if he couldn't help but get close to him.
He couldn't bear to see him suffer like this, so this was the only solution Xing Yu could think of.
After a while, Chu Beiling seemed to realize what was happening and belatedly asked, "What did you say?"
"Isn't it true that you wouldn't feel so bad if I transferred schools and disappeared from your life?" Xing Yu repeated.
"No," Chu Beiling said instinctively without thinking, reaching out to grab him, "Don't go."
The preserved plum melted in his mouth, both sour and astringent. Chu Beiling unconsciously tightened his grip on Xing Yu's wrist, afraid that if he let go, Xing Yu would disappear in the next second; "I don't want you to leave."
Xing Yu tried to move his fingers to break free, but they were held even tighter.
Chu Beiling took a deep breath, closed her eyes and then opened them again, meeting Xing Yu's burning gaze, and said earnestly, "Xing Yu, I, I don't hate you, nor do I dislike you, and it's not that I don't want to see you."
He simply didn't know what to do, and couldn't face the situation.
"I just want to restrain myself from getting too close to you and my selfish feelings for you. I want to correct this inappropriate emotion," Chu Beiling thought to herself.
Xing Yu smiled and said, "I know."
He asked the question precisely because he knew this and also had his own selfish motives; otherwise, he might have just left without bothering to ask.
Xing Yu opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something more.
The sound of a key turning came from the dormitory door, and the two looked over at the same time.
Xue Ziang carried his luggage into the dormitory and turned on the main light. The room was suddenly bright, and it seemed that all his emotions had nowhere to hide.
Chu Beiling immediately released his grip, and Xing Yu glanced down at him.
They noticed each other's movements, glanced at each other, and quickly looked away.
Their relationship with Xue Ziang was just so-so. Even though they lived in the same dormitory, they would only greet each other when they met, occasionally asking a polite question, and they basically didn't have any conversations.
But it was just that we had nothing to talk about, and I had some complaints about some of his behavior. I was unhappy, but I did what I was told. I didn't really dislike him.
During the training camp, Xue Ziang did two things that really angered Chu Beiling, and he didn't even want to greet him.
I didn't want to ask him, who usually doesn't arrive at school this early, why he came at this time, just to ease my discomfort.
They simply ignored him as if he were invisible.
Chu Beiling glanced at Xing Yu and said, "I'll go to the school clinic."
Before he could respond, Chu Beiling walked past him, picked up the toolbox beside the bed, and headed out.
Xue Ziang said a few words against Chu Beiling to him, but Xing Yu silenced him with a sharp and cold gaze.
After classes officially started, Chu Beiling stopped avoiding Xing Yu like he had done at the training base. He figured that if they were going to be normal friends, they couldn't be too secretive about each other. However, he didn't spend any more time alone with Xing Yu.
He lacked self-control and didn't want Xing Yu to be too upset.
After returning from the training camp, the two returned to their original state without much change, so Xu Tunan firmly believed Chu Beiling's previous explanation that he had gone mad with drawing.
Now that he has returned to normal study and life, his mental illness has been cured.
Xu Tunan expressed her relief, saying that she was still unconvinced when Li Dong called her a fool. She added that if it weren't for the fact that she didn't hit girls, the foolish Hu Tutu would definitely have fought with her.
Although he simply couldn't believe he couldn't beat Li Dong.
Xing Yu glanced at him and said, "Li Dong is lying to you, don't be a coward."
Chu Beiling chimed in, "Hu Tutu, I have high hopes for you. Good luck!"
Li Dong reached out and gripped his shoulder tightly: "Hu Tutu, I'm telling you this, if you don't hit me, you're a coward."
Xu Tunan rolled up his sleeves, ready to fight, but Sheng Xia couldn't stand it anymore: "Hu Tutu, Tangtang has a black belt in Taekwondo. If you fight her, you'll be the one who gets beaten up."
"Really?" Xu Tunan asked incredulously, but his hands betrayed him as he slowly lowered his sleeve.
Xing Yu said calmly, "I already told you, I was just kidding."
Chu Beiling chuckled: "Hu Tutu, why don't you give it a try? You'll know the truth once you try it. Where did you learn the content of 'The Little Horse Crossing the River'?"
Seeing the two of them talking in unison, Xu Tunan realized that what Sheng Xia said was probably true.
He pointed at the two cunning and treacherous bandits: "So, you two have made up and started ganging up on people? Isn't my life a life too?!"
Xing Yu: "No."
Chu Beiling: "That's really not it."
The two spoke almost in unison.
Xu Tunan rolled his eyes so hard they almost reached the sky: "That's too much! You just want to see me get beaten up, don't you! Xiaxia is so much better, Xiaxia is so well-behaved. You three are absolutely wicked."
Li Dong forbade Xu Tunan from approaching Sheng Xia and pulled him back to his original position, saying, "You'll be a pillar of strength, just right to suppress the heat in the middle."
Xu Tunan looked at Li Dong and Sheng Xia in front of him, then at Xing Yu and Chu Beiling behind him, and roared, "Why am I always the one who gets hurt!"
Suddenly, Sheng Xia blurted out, "Maybe you have sensitive ears!"
After a two-second pause, the boys and girls couldn't help but burst out laughing. They teased and joked with each other all the way back to the classroom.
They returned to school just in time for the end of the semester. In just over ten days, they would have their final exams. The school would not lower the difficulty of the exams just because they had gone out for intensive training.
Their learning progress was similar to that of the military training class. They had already completed all the courses for the semester before leaving, and they were able to come back just in time for review.
However, after being away for a while, they had long forgotten all that knowledge. With the end of the semester approaching, this week, teachers from all subjects distributed stacks and stacks of test papers as if they were free, trying to get them to pick up their cultural knowledge again.
They wrote page after page of exam papers that could be used as bed sheets, and a group of people were swimming in the ocean of knowledge every day.
They wrote with great 'joy,' each of them transforming into screaming chickens, cheering everywhere.
The last two periods on Saturday afternoon were self-study periods. After English class, the English teacher handed out two test papers to them, and the whole class groaned. She interrupted the group of brats: "Don't yell. I don't have much homework. It's just two test papers. You can finish them in two self-study periods."
Little did they know that every teacher who walked in said the same thing.
With so much humanities material, most people were writing furiously, a few were drawing, and a very few were playing games on their phones hidden under their desks or chatting on QQ. The rhythm was so orderly it was almost monotonous.
Beside him, Chu Beiling heard the sound of Xing Yu turning over papers. She put down her pen and looked out the window.
The sky remained overcast, with thick, gray clouds covering the entire sky. A downpour seemed imminent but hadn't yet begun, adding to the oppressive and gloomy atmosphere.
This intermittent rain has been falling for almost two weeks, and I don't know when the sun will finally come out.
Ke Jincheng turned around and tapped his desk: "Little Prince Fanfan, have you finished your English test? Can I copy it?"
Chu Beiling turned around: "Copying is fine, but I don't want to see almost half the class named Chu Beiling."
Ke Jincheng wanted to laugh, but he also felt very embarrassed and ashamed.
Last time, when I copied Chu Beiling's homework, I was so focused on copying that I didn't pay attention to anything else. I even copied Chu Beiling's name from the English essay. Now, everyone in the class is copying each other's homework.
That day, the English teacher stormed into the classroom in high heels and asked them, "Are there many people in your class named Chu Beiling?"
Then came a barrage of insults.
Ke Jincheng explained, "That was a mistake." He then took the English test paper from his desk.
The next second, a deafening "Holy crap—" startled a bunch of people in the class, and some even jumped up from their chairs thinking something terrible had happened.
"Corgi, what are you doing?"
"What's all that noise?! It startled me."
"What happened?"
"Don't be so alarmed, okay?"
Ke Jincheng was stunned. He looked at the test paper in disbelief, then looked at Chu Beiling with a head full of question marks.
Chu Beiling asked in confusion, "Something's wrong."
"Something's up, of course something's up," Ke Jincheng was about to speak when Xue Ziang spoke up to maintain discipline during the self-study period. He had no choice but to hand over the test paper and say in a low voice, "Little Prince Fanfan, take a look for yourself."
Chu Beiling lowered her eyes and saw Xing Yu's name filling the entire exam paper. Her thoughts froze, and she was instantly stunned.
He was clearly writing his English test paper seriously, so how could he have written Xing Yu's name on the English answers, and the whole paper was covered with it? Chu Beiling had no recollection of it and found it hard to believe.
He caught Xing Yu glancing over out of the corner of his eye, and a wave of guilt washed over him. He quickly crumpled up the test paper and threw it into his desk, then asked the class representative for an extra one.
Ke Jincheng leaned over and said, "Little Prince Fanfan, what's going on with you? You're not doing your homework, but you've filled the entire test paper with Xing Yu's name."
His voice wasn't loud, but it was enough for those around him to hear. Chu Beiling glanced at Xing Yu, who was still writing his exam paper and seemed to be doing nothing.
Chu Beiling turned Ke Jincheng's head back: "Go write yours."
Ke Jincheng turned to look at Xing Yu, and then, driven by curiosity, leaned closer again after a couple of seconds: "You and Xing Yu... you two aren't really dating, are you!"
Because of the training base issue, he added: "Let me state in advance that I don't mean to say that homosexuality is bad. Who cares about gender? What's wrong with liking someone? Anyone who dares to say anything, just drag them to the tea garden behind the school and bury them."
Chu Beiling pursed her lips and murmured softly, "There's nothing wrong with liking someone..."
His voice was too low for Ke Jincheng to hear clearly, but he did hear the mistake: "Of course it's right, it's just liking someone." He asked quietly, "So is that right? I promise, I will never say anything wrong."
Chu Beiling: "No."
“…Okay.” Ke Jincheng was a little disappointed that he had guessed wrong. After thinking for a moment, he added, “Don’t be angry if it’s not true. I was just asking casually. I didn’t mean to joke or tease you.”
Chu Beiling looked at him: "So serious?"
Ke Jincheng: "Because of anything related to Xing Yu, you get quite agitated and might explode at any moment. If I don't say a few more words, you'll silence me."
Chu Beiling raised her eyelids slightly: "Really?"
"Although the class monitor was indeed a bit unfair that day," Ke Jincheng asked earnestly, "if it were someone else, would you still be so angry that you would kick him away and be so rude to him?!"
If one day Xue Ziang were replaced by someone else—Chu Beiling suddenly fell silent.
He knew that the probability of him not being able to do it was low.
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