19. The little dog
Alike got a perm and dyed his hair grayish-blue, making him look like a delinquent. Especially his malicious gaze, which was fixed on Lin Jiang, was full of malice.
Realizing this person was there to cause trouble, Shen Ju's first reaction was to put down his backpack and stand at the front of the line. "What do you want?"
Alike is just a scoundrel; he's not as fierce as Shen Ju.
Moreover, He Gu had warned him that he could mess with anyone in this circle, but he was better off not messing with this mad dog.
After all, it takes more than a day or two to recover from being bitten by a rabid dog.
Alike walked past him and provoked Lin Jiang again: "They're all your old teammates, aren't you afraid to come up?"
Song Zhixu grabbed Lin Jiang, "Captain, don't fall for his tricks."
Shen Ju also blocked his way, preventing him from passing.
Lin Jiang and Alike stared at each other for a long time.
During those three years, he had countless times wanted to crush Alike into the mud and prove that he was a thousand times, a hundred times better than him.
But after his actual rebirth, he rarely even thought of Alike.
Ultimately.
Alike is simply not qualified to be his rival.
Lin Jiang put his hand on Shen Ju's shoulder, gently signaling him not to act impulsively.
Then, smiling, he looked at Alike and said, "My teammates are right here. Sorry, I have to take them back to training."
He didn't give them any face after he finished speaking, and really left with his teammates, leaving them with a car full of exhaust fumes.
Alike's already unpleasant mood became even more irritating. "Screw this act!"
He hated Lin Jiang's fake smile the most, like a saint, so pretentious, but his brother just happened to fall for it.
"Just wait, we'll kill him sooner or later."
He sat back down, and his teammates gathered around to compliment him.
Only Zeng Yuan, sitting far away, secretly messaged Lin Jiang: "Do you know why Alike came to KUG? I heard he was personally signed by Young Master He; he's Young Master He's cousin. You were right to leave; you wouldn't be able to beat him if you stayed at KUG..."
Lin Jiang glanced at the message and turned off the screen.
He leaned against the window, watching the traffic flowing outside.
Actually, he already knew about this.
From that moment on, he suddenly realized his position relative to He Gu. Four years of friendship had ultimately amounted to nothing more than a stepping stone for his cousin.
Lin Jiang's wrist started to hurt again, and he clutched it tightly.
Some injuries, once they appear, will surface on their own, even if they are hidden under the skin.
When the bus returned to the base, they were warmly welcomed by the staff as soon as they got off. Even amidst the festivities, Shen Ju still keenly sensed that Lin Jiang's mood was off.
He caught a glimpse of Lin Jiang disappearing at the top of the stairs, the door slightly ajar, and he couldn't help but follow him.
What can Lin Jiang do by himself?
What does he do when he's in a bad mood?
Shen Ju gently pushed open the door to the stairwell and walked down the stairs following the light. In the dim light of the stairwell, he saw Lin Jiang leaning against the railing, smoking absentmindedly.
His steps suddenly stopped.
He had never seen Lin Jiang like this before.
Amidst the swirling smoke, a glance was taken in, and his chin was slightly raised. The curve of his neck could unleash the deepest malice in a person's heart, like a creature living in decay.
"Knock knock, knock knock—"
My heart was pounding.
Shen Ju felt himself getting infinitely closer to the other side of Lin Jiang.
He slowly walked towards the smoke. This time, Lin Jiang did not extinguish the cigarette in his hand. He looked up at Chen Ju, as if he was also testing something.
Shen Ju stopped in front of him, his eyes lowered.
Looking at the cigarette in his hand, she asked, "Do you have any more?"
Smoking is not a good habit.
Lin Jiang opened the cigarette pack to show him; there wasn't a single cigarette. "That's all."
Shen Ju was still staring at his hand; the boy's eyes were deep, and it was unclear what he was thinking.
Lin Jiang advised him, "Smoking is harmful to your health."
"And what about you?"
“I’m an adult,” Lin Jiang smiled and took another puff. “You’ll understand when you grow up.”
Shen Ju looked up at him. There was a moment of silence in the stairwell. Although he was a little kid two years younger than Lin Jiang, Lin Jiang felt a sense of pressure from an adult.
Just as he was about to say something, the lights above his head suddenly went out.
In the darkness, Shen Ju reached out and took the half-eaten cigarette from his fingertips, taking a deep drag.
The sparks instantly brightened, and in the dim light, Shen Ju's lips parted slightly: "Captain, I turned 18 last year."
Smoke swirled around the stairwell, and low voices echoed.
Lin Jiang was stunned for a moment.
Something touched his toes in the darkness, and Lin Jiang took a half step back, his heel touching the railing.
There is no turning back.
In the darkness, he felt Shen Ju approaching him, their toes barely touching, the distance between them closer than ever before.
Lin Jiang knocked on the railing, and the lights instantly brightened.
Shen Ju retreated to his original position, as if the contact in the darkness was just a hallucination created by Lin Jiang.
Lin Jiang saw the cigarette in his hand and felt inexplicably embarrassed: "I've already smoked those cigarettes."
Shen Ju glanced at it, then raised his hand and returned it to him.
This made things even more awkward.
But Shen Ju didn't feel embarrassed at all. He looked straight at him, his bright eyes showing no malice, as if it were just a simple gesture.
Lin Jiang had no choice but to say, "You can smoke it, I'll go downstairs and buy some later."
Shen Ju grunted in response, then lowered his head and continued smoking, his drooping earlobes glowing faintly red in the dim light.
He dared not look at Lin Jiang.
He was afraid that if he looked at too much, he would lose control of his reason, just like he had done in the dark earlier.
Feeling bored without a cigarette, Lin Jiang leaned against the railing, trying to find something to talk about: "You played Lucian very well. I can tell you've put in a lot of effort to practice. Keep it up."
Shen Ju hummed in agreement again.
The topic we just started has died again.
This was the first time Lin Jiang had encountered a social situation that even he couldn't handle, but when he thought about how Shen Ju was someone the entire league couldn't manage, he suddenly smiled with relief.
"You know what? When I first joined OT, I always felt like I couldn't handle you, so I even signed a contract with the boss that I had absolute say. But I never expected you to be so obedient and compliant."
As he spoke, he patted Shen Ju's head. Shen Ju was standing at a relatively high position, so Lin Jiang had to stand on tiptoe slightly to reach it.
After he finished touching him, he saw Shen Ju staring at him.
Her beautiful eyes shone like jewels, her pupils fixed intently on him for a single glance. "You must listen to the captain."
Lin Jiang couldn't resist and stood on tiptoe to rub his head again, saying, "He's so well-behaved, like a Samoyed."
Her ears, hidden in the dim light, turned red again.
The smoke choked him, causing him to cough. The cigarette was taken from his fingertips.
"If you can't smoke, then don't smoke. Look at you, you're smoking packs of cigarettes."
Lin Jiang took the cigarette, feeling it was a waste to throw it away, and smoked the last puff before throwing it away.
The lights went out again at that moment, and the lingering firelight fell on Lin Jiang's lips, carrying a faint dampness.
Shen Ju coughed even more violently, his ears turning bright red.
A soft laugh came from beside me: "I told you, if you can't smoke, then don't smoke..."
A warm hand landed on his head again, and for the first time in two and a half years, Shen Ju, who had been in the industry, felt his feet firmly planted on solid ground.
Lin Jiang...
Shen Ju slightly raised his eyes.
Just when he felt his emotions were about to overflow.
Lin Jiang suddenly knocked on the railing, and the lights came on again. "Did you change your name? I saw in last year's records that your name was still Shen Ju'an."
"Your family probably named you this in the hope that you would be prepared for the worst, but they didn't expect that you would grow up to be quite different from what they thought."
Shen Ju looked up, looking a little uncomfortable. "Captain, I haven't used that name for a long time..."
"What a pity, I quite liked it." Lin Jiang looked at him with a smile. "Shen Ju'an, it sounds very poetic, why would you change it?"
Shen Ju turned his face away. "This name... was given to me by my maternal grandfather. I didn't like it, so I changed it myself after I came of age."
Then, as if remembering something, he pursed his lips slightly and said, "Captain, don't use that name. It sounds too effeminate."
Lin Jiang burst out laughing.
He wondered why he didn't like it; it turned out he thought the name was too effeminate.
"So you changed it to Shenju? Hahaha... It sounds cute and fierce."
"...Captain, can I not heal? I'm very fierce."
"Then show me how fierce you can be?"
Lin Jiang poked his lip with his finger, revealing his canine teeth, and even imitated his "woof" sound twice, "Little dog, try biting me."
Shen Ju, who kept saying he was fierce, turned his face away shamefully.
call--
That's so unfair.
That kind of captain is too unfair!
I really want to bite him.
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