Chapter 52 Chapter 52 I want you not to fall in love too early.
In the evening, Chen Lu and Tao Dacheng came to Lin Shifei's house to eat hot pot. Bian Yuan looked at Chen Lu who was drinking beer one glass at a time and asked: "What's wrong with you today? Are you thirsty?"
Tao Dacheng gloated, "He's not thirsty, he's burning with anger. His secret crush failed, and the object of his love has become his brother."
Lin Shifei didn't understand: "Brother? Who? Young Master?"
Even Tao Dacheng couldn't stop him from eating. "Who else could it be but the young master? It was just a coincidence today. Chen Lu's parents were called in today, and Ji Maili's sister came to pretend to be his parent. And then, for some reason, Ji Maili beat someone up at school. It was such a shocking beating that the teacher pinned him down on the spot and told him to call the parents. Ji Maili's sister happened to be there, so now they're brothers from the same sister."
Bian Yuan hadn't heard of such a lively event in a long time. He asked Chen Lu, "What did Ji Maili say?"
Shen Lu smiled bitterly: "He said we are called relatives and friends."
Bianyuan could probably imagine the young master's expression when he said this. He smiled and said, "Only when we're close can we be called relatives and friends. You guys are just good friends at best."
Tao Dacheng slammed his hands on the table and laughed, "Hahahaha, Brother Yuan is indeed a seasoned veteran. His ideas are profound. Chen Lu, tomorrow you can use Brother Yuan's words to teach your clueless childhood friend a lesson."
Lin Shifei also laughed. He asked Chen Lu, "Based on your understanding of the young master, do you think he has potential in that area?"
Shen Lu asked the person who had experienced it: "Do you think he has it?"
Lin Shifei: “It’s hard to say.”
Chen Lu thought he would say no, so he looked at Lin Shifei. Lin Shifei said, "Cheng Zi is right. That kid is obviously clueless. Let alone you, even if he were given a girl, he probably wouldn't be able to tell that someone else likes him."
Tao Dacheng thought it was unlikely: "If he could say such things to his friends and family, could he be gay even if he finally came to his senses?" Tao Dacheng asked Bianyuan: "Has Brother Fei said such things to you before?"
Bian Yuan placed the cooked dish in Lin Shifei's bowl: "How is that possible? He was the one who pursued me back then. If he was so straightforward and still pursued me, wouldn't he be crazy?"
Just as Shen Lu picked up the wine glass, his cell phone rang a few times. He immediately put down the glass and picked up the phone.
Tao Dacheng tsk-tsk-ts a few times: "Sometimes I even wonder if Ji Maili is doing this on purpose. She pretends to know nothing, yet she's teasing him like she's training a dog."
-Mai Mai: Have you eaten?
-Mai Mai: Let me tell you, I’m in such a bad state. I just got taught a lesson by the two women in my family. That guy Ji Huan has been instigating my mother to deal with me. I haven’t even eaten yet. Do you want to come out and let’s go eat hotpot?
Shen Lu took a photo of the table and sent it over: I’m at Brother Fei’s house, do you want to come?
Ji Maili followed up with a voice message: "You guys are having hotpot and didn't invite me! Send me the address, I want to go too!"
Shen Lu sent him a location.
Chen Lu: "Let me know when you're there, and I'll pick you up."
Ji Maili: "That's great! I thought you would come to pick me up on a motorcycle."
Shen Lu: "You've been drinking. It's not safe to ride a bike. Come on your own."
Seeing that Ji Maili didn't reply, Lin Shifei said, "You can't ride a bike to pick him up after drinking. This is probably the highest level of rejection you can give him, right?"
Shen Lu pushed the wine glass beside him aside: "I guess so." But what could he do? How could he bear to refuse that little idiot?
Ji Maili came quickly, and Chen Lu went downstairs to pick him up.
Lin Shifei came out of the kitchen with a set of dishes and chopsticks, and looked at Ji Maili who came in: "Why are you here with your schoolbag?"
Ji Maili threw his schoolbag at the door: "I won't be home for a while. I'll stay at Shen Lu's house after dinner."
Shen Lu didn't know that he had such a plan. He paused in changing his shoes and glanced at Ji Maili.
Tao Dacheng: "As for the bed in Shen Lu's house, are you sure it can accommodate two people?"
Ji Maili said, "Let's squeeze in. We've been sharing a bed together since we were young. Besides, it's cold now, so it's warmer if we cuddle together."
It's really a headache when this ignorant little straight boy becomes naive. Lin Shifei looked at Chen Lu with sympathy.
Bian Yuan laughed and said, "That's right. Hug Chen Lu as much as possible while he's still single. It won't be appropriate to hug him when he has a partner."
Ji Maili looked at Chen Lu: "What object?"
Lin Shifei and Bian Yuan were indeed a couple and immediately understood his intention: "What do you mean by 'object'? An object is an object. Don't you understand?"
Ji Maili understood, but he never thought that Chen Lu would find a partner. He asked Chen Lu, "Do you want to find a partner?"
Shen Lu pulled him over to sit down, and kicked Lin Shifei's stool: "No."
Bian Yuan straightened the stool he had kicked off the side and said, "Just because it doesn't exist now doesn't mean it won't exist in the future. It's only a matter of time."
After dinner, when they left Lin Shifei's house, Tao Dacheng found an excuse not to go with them.
The weather was getting colder and colder. There were no more people on the road at this time. The street lights stretched Ji Maili's shadow very long. He swung his schoolbag in his hand, looking like he was about to take off. As he walked, he suddenly sighed.
Chen Lu: "What are you sighing for?"
Ji Maili: "I don't know either, I just feel a little sad all of a sudden."
Shen Lu smiled: "Little fools also worry?"
Ji Maili threw his flat schoolbag at him and said, "You're the fool! I just suddenly remembered what Brother Yuan said just now."
Shen Lu didn't ask what he was talking about.
Ji Maili asked him, "Chen Lu, what kind of girls do you like? Just now, Brother Yuan said you were looking for a partner. Do you have someone you like? Who is it? Do I know them? If you have a partner, will I not be able to be with you like this every day?"
Ji Maili said to herself: "That would make me look like a third party, but she came later, which is not fair at all."
Chen Lu felt that Tao Dacheng was right. He also suspected that Ji Maili was deliberately playing dumb to keep him hanging. "You want fairness?"
Ji Maili: "No, I don't want you to fall in love too early."
Ji Maili's words stopped Chen Lu from saying anything further: "Just not falling in love too early?"
Ji Maili thought for a moment and said, "It's best not to date after you go to college. It's better to wait until you graduate and settle down before looking for a partner."
Shen Lu: "What about you?"
Ji Maili: "What's wrong with me?"
Shen Lu: "When are you going to look for one? Are you going to wait until graduation?"
Ji Maili said, "I can't say for sure. My sister said I'm too much of a problem and that no one can stand me except you. Last year during the Chinese New Year, she even used playing cards to tell me my fortune and said I would die alone."
Sometimes Chen Lu really felt that Ji Maili and Ji Huan were indeed siblings. They said whatever they wanted to say without any taboos.
Ji Maili suddenly came up with a good idea, "Why don't you just stop looking for a partner? When we make money in the future, we can buy a house together. We can spend the rest of our lives together in loneliness and still have each other as companions. How wonderful."
Ji Maili was carrying his schoolbag as he walked, imagining the future. When he turned around, he found Shen Lu standing there and not following him: "What are you doing standing there?"
Shen Lu sighed: "Nothing."
He walked over and looked at Ji Maili: "Sell the house together and live together? Like Bian Yuan and Lin Shifei?"
Ji Maili nodded: "Yes, this way we can always be together, isn't it perfect?"
Seeing that he dared to say he was right, Shen Lu laughed angrily: "Perfect ass, idiot."
This was the second time he had called him an idiot. Ji Maili was angry: "...Fuck, why are you scolding me? If you don't like it, forget it. From now on, even if you beg me, I won't live with you!"
Ji Maili said this, but he still went to Shen Lu's house and squeezed in for the night.
Although it was crowded, Ji Maili was indeed the only one sleeping in the bed. Chen Lu said he wanted to do his homework, so Ji Maili went to sleep first. Chen Lu was distracted while doing his homework, and it was almost one o'clock when he finished his homework. He went outside to smoke a cigarette and then spent the night on the sofa.
Ji Maili woke up the next day and looked at the cigarette butts in the ashtray: "You must have been sitting here smoking all night, right? You must be addicted to smoking now, Shen Lu!"
Shen Lu cooked noodles: “I didn’t smoke all night, that’s because I didn’t fall down before.”
Ji Maili walked to the table and looked at him: "Have you been worried about something recently? I feel like you're a little abnormal, making an appointment to fight with someone and smoking. You didn't even sleep in the room last night."
Shen Lu smiled and said, "I wanted to sleep in the room, but you occupied the whole bed. I was afraid that you would kick me down and sleep on the sofa."
Ji Maili glanced at the incredibly small sofa and asked, "How do you sleep on such a short sofa?"
Shen Lu: "How about you try it next time?"
-
The rumors about their relationship had spread in the school. Although they were a bit outrageous, it did not prevent the rumors about their discord from being completely shattered.
When going to school, Ji Maili no longer deliberately walked separately from Chen Lu. He found that there seemed to be more eyes staring at them than before. He cursed under his breath: "What the hell are you looking at!"
Shen Lu: "See brothers going to school together."
Ji Maili: "I've already told them who are the real brothers."
Shen Lu glanced at him and asked, "Did you say that?"
Ji Maili: "Yeah, the girls in our class came to ask me, and Zhou Luyang was annoying me with his constant chatter, so I told him."
Class One and Class Ten were heading in different directions. When they separated, Ji Maili grabbed Shen Lu and said, "If Chen Yu causes trouble for you, just let your classmates come find me... Forget it, I'll find you after class. You go to class."
For the next half month, Ji Maili ran to get out of class 1 as soon as the get out of class was over, just like when he was a child. As soon as the bell rang, no matter which class the teacher was in, as soon as the teacher opened the door, he would definitely see Ji Maili reporting in on time.
Every time Qian Dali saw him, his eyelids would twitch and he wanted to say something, but when he thought of his relationship with Shen Lu, Qian Dali would just sigh in the end.
Whenever there was a physical education class, Ji Maili would appear on the playground on time even before the other students in Class 1, and he would squat at the foot of the wall to watch them run laps.
Tao Dacheng ran out of breath and said, "No, what is he doing? He comes to our class every day to stare at you."
Shen Lu was used to it: "Protect me."
Tao Dacheng tripped and almost fell: "What the hell?"
Chen Lu glanced at Ji Maili, who was squatting at the base of the wall. "He was afraid I'd be bullied. He's much better now than when he was little. At least he doesn't bring a stool to our class."
Tao Dacheng didn't know for a moment whether he should be surprised that Chen Lu was bullied, or curious that Ji Maili could protect Chen Lu. Ji Maili was a stupid guy who was beaten black and blue at the slightest provocation. Who could he protect?
...
The weather was getting colder, so Chen Lu stopped taking Ji Maili to school for evening self-study. He asked Ji Maili to go to his house to do homework after school every day.
Ji Maili was lying on the small sofa in Shen Lu's house. Shen Lu had asked him to try it before, so he really tried it. The result was that the sofa was too short and he couldn't put his legs up to use as a pillow. Shen Lu put a stool next to the sofa for him.
Ji Maili was lying there flipping through a book. "Do you think Director Zhu has been looking at us a little strangely lately?"
Shen Lu: "Maybe he's regretting it."
Ji Maili looked at him, "What do you regret?"
Chen Lu said, "Have you forgotten that I locked Zhou Bingcheng in the bathroom? He thought we had a bad relationship, so he didn't believe Zhou Bingcheng. Now that he knows we have a good relationship, he's probably starting to doubt me."
Ji Maili sat up and asked, "What should we do?"
Shen Lu glanced at him and said, "It's okay. As long as I don't do anything wrong, he won't hold on to this matter."
Ji Maili sighed: "Alas, just say that my bad reputation will affect you."
Shen Lu smiled. This little influence was really nothing to him. If possible, he hoped that he could have a deeper impact.
Shen Lu asked him: "Do you have anything to do tomorrow?"
Ji Maili lazily lay back on the sofa, "What can happen to me?"
Shen Lu said: "Then go shopping with me."
Ji Maili looked at him, "Shopping?"
Shen Lu: "Well, Brother Fei's birthday is next week, go pick out a gift for him."
Ji Maili had never celebrated anyone else's birthday except Chen Lu and his family. He asked, "Should I give a gift too?"
Shen Lu: "No need, we can just send one each."
Ji Maili hesitated, "Not so good, right?"
"There's nothing wrong with it," Shen Lu said deliberately, "We are a family after all."
Ji Maili sneered, "What do you mean by family?"
Chen Lu: "Didn't you say you wanted to partner up with me? Since we're partners now, of course I can only give you one gift."
Ji Maili thought for a moment and said, "That makes sense. You are still frugal and thrifty."
Ji Maili was ready for a day of shopping, but the next day Chen Lu took him directly to the store where he bought the helmet last time and bought some motorcycle accessories. The owner had assembled them in advance, and it was said that they were ordered by Chen Lu before.
Coming out of the store, Ji Maili nags, "Why did you ask me to come shopping with you when you've already decided what to buy?"
Shen Lu said: "You are fine anyway, so take a look at something else."
After buying everything, Ji Maili was too lazy to continue shopping. "What are you looking at? Is there anything else you want to buy?"
Shen Lu: “Yes.”
Chen Lu took Ji Maili to a chain art supply store. Ji Maili stood at the door and asked, "What are you doing here?"
Shen Lu pulled him in and said, "Pick out some that you can use. I haven't learned to paint, so I'm afraid the ones I buy won't suit you. You can choose them yourself."
Ji Maili looked at him.
Shen Lu said, "I've learned to paint for so many years, it would be a shame not to continue."
Ji Maili didn't say anything.
Chen Lu: "I know that your uncle asked you to learn painting. I understand that you feel wronged and unhappy, but you can't waste all these years of hard work. Besides, I'm counting on you to become famous in the future so that I can show off everywhere."
Ji Maili threw away all his drawing boards and brushes after the summer vacation. It was indeed like what Chen Lu said, he stopped painting because of his father. After his father had an accident, he didn't want to paint anymore. It was right that he gave up on himself.
Ji Maili looked at the rows of familiar drawing boards and watercolors and said, "What's the point of knowing how to paint? It's just a waste of money."
Shen Lu put his hand on his shoulder and took out a watercolor palette that Ji Maili was staring at. "Uncle and aunt never sent you to learn painting because they had a lot of money. They let you learn because you like it. Take it. I'll buy it for you this time."
Ji Maili didn't say whether he still liked painting. He asked Chen Lu, "Why did you buy it for me?"
Shen Lu smiled and said, "A seventeenth birthday present."
Ji Maili: “…”
Ji Maili looked at him, wanting to say something but stopping for a long time, and finally gritted his teeth and said, "If you still fool me like this on my birthday next year, we'll break up."
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