Chapter 51
The private room was quiet, with the air conditioner's outdoor unit humming outside the window and the sound of condensation dripping clearly audible.
Lu Mingxiao's fingers tentatively touched the bruise, his fingertips slightly cool as he gently rubbed the wound.
Actually, it doesn't hurt anymore. Jiang Huaiyu has this kind of constitution; she is prone to subcutaneous bleeding after bumps and bruises. The period before the bruises fade is often frightening, with small blood spots in the bruises, but it is actually almost healed.
Feeling a little ticklish from being touched, Jiang Huaiyu put down her clothes, turned around, grabbed Lu Mingxiao's hand, and stroked his wrist with a half-smile: "Brother Xiao, are you worried about it?"
Lu Mingxiao lowered his eyelashes, but his hands clenched into fists silently at his sides.
Jiang Huaiyu pinched his chin, lifted his head and shook it from side to side: "It's good that you feel sorry for him. Let me show you how anxious I was that night. Okay, let's go back. We have something this afternoon..."
Before he could finish speaking, Lu Mingxiao had already reached out and hugged him.
The fluffy head buried itself in the crook of his neck, its voice hoarse: "I was wrong."
Jiang Huaiyu smiled and patted his back: "I know you're sincere. There won't be a next time."
Lu Mingxiao mumbled, "Mm."
...
The two returned to school and entered their respective examination rooms. Jiang Huaiyu sat in the front row of the first examination room. This seat had never changed since he arrived. Seat number 2, however, was frequently changed. Last time it was a round-faced girl, and this time it was a boy with stubble on his chin and balding temples—a typical look of a science and engineering genius.
The proctor came in and waited for the bell to ring to hand out the exam papers.
Unlike exam room number 1, exam room number 4 was proctored by the former math teacher of class 5, who was now out causing trouble for the first-year high school students. However, despite not seeing him for so long, her hostility towards Lu Mingxiao had not diminished at all. She kept her eyes on Lu Mingxiao the whole time, and would occasionally walk around him, her high heels clicking.
Anyone who has taken an exam knows that the frequent passing of proctors can be very disruptive to one's mindset. The boy in front of Lu Mingxiao was clearly distracted and kept shifting his chair back and forth.
But Lu Mingxiao remained calm, ignoring the figure pacing back and forth as if it were invisible, and focused solely on answering the questions.
The bell rang, and the students in the first row collected the papers from each group. Lu Mingxiao was just checking the last question on his draft paper when he happily capped his pen.
It has a kind of dashing feeling of a chivalrous swordsman sheathing his sword.
He picked up his school uniform and paused slightly as he passed his former math teacher.
“Teacher Wu, you’re really boring.” Lu Mingxiao turned his head and smiled. “But I won’t argue with you, because I know that’s all you can do, while I have a long, long way to go.”
...
"That's what you told her?" Jiang Huaiyu lay on the pillow, playing a game on her phone. "Didn't Teacher Wu grab you by the collar and drag you to her office?"
“Why did you pick on me? I didn’t scold her. Most of the teachers in our school are quite responsible. It’s just her who keeps harping on trivial matters every day…” Lu Mingxiao knelt by the bed, rubbed the medicated oil in his palms to warm it up, and then gently placed it on Jiang Huaiyu’s lower back.
Her waist is so slim.
He coughed, pulling himself back from his wandering thoughts: "You didn't even spray Yunnan Baiyao so I wouldn't find out you were injured?"
"Hmm..." Jiang Huaiyu was wreaking havoc in the arena, but she didn't forget to answer Lu Mingxiao, "Yunnan Baiyao has a strong smell."
Lu Mingxiao applied a little force with his hand: "If it hurts, just say so."
Jiang Huaiyu: "I already told you it's almost healed, it doesn't hurt anymore."
The medicinal oil had a strong smell that many people couldn't stand, but Lu Mingxiao liked it. His hand roamed over that slender waist, and the warmth of his palm gradually warmed the bluish-purple skin.
Jiang Huaiyu started to drift and lose his footing, giving away two kills in a row. He didn't even bother to read what his teammates were saying.
"Alright, Lu Mingxiao..." His voice trembled slightly as he called him by his full name, "It really doesn't hurt, you don't need to rub it for so long."
Lu Mingxiao was confused: "It hasn't even been a minute yet."
He gripped Jiang Huaiyu's side with four fingers, his two thumbs circling over her skin: "I've studied massage, don't worry, I'm very professional. There are acupoints here, it's good to massage them regularly..."
Jiang Huaiyu gripped the bed sheet and gently bit her lip.
He tried hard to suppress some of his unusual reactions, but the more he tried to suppress them, the more pronounced the tingling sensation in his waist became. He endured it with great difficulty, unable to express his feelings, and even the corners of his eyes turned slightly red.
"Stop pressing." He buried his head in the pillow. "It's really okay now."
Lu Mingxiao then stopped. He washed his hands and came back to find Jiang Huaiyu still lying there.
"Okay, you can get up now. Is your neck comfortable lying like that?"
Jiang Huaiyu didn't dare to get up at all, so he lay face down on the pillow pretending to be dead. The culprit, who was still annoying, quietly approached and squatted down to check his lower back.
"This medicated oil works incredibly fast; I guarantee it will be completely gone by the day after tomorrow!"
As he spoke, he inexplicably lowered his head.
A light kiss landed on Jiang Huaiyu's lower back.
Lu Mingxiao smelled the medicinal oil all over his nose. The menthol hit his brain directly through his nasal cavity, instantly waking him up. He jumped up in a fluster, almost knocking over the desk behind him.
"I... um... cough..."
And Jiang Huaiyu...
He was so engrossed in his pillow that he wanted to crawl into it. His ears were so red they looked like they were about to burst into flames, and he was completely oblivious to Lu Mingxiao's stammering.
A voice broke the awkward silence in the room. Lu Chuan, carrying a bag of assembled toys, was passing through the living room when he curiously glanced at the two of them: "Da Bao, Xiao Bao, what are you doing?"
Lu Mingxiao quickly closed the door.
“Dad, we’re fine…” His voice came through the door, a little hoarse: “Jiang Xiaobao twisted his lower back, I put some medicine on him.”
Lu Chuan: ? ? ?
Why are you being so clumsy when you're applying the medicine?
He vaguely sensed something was off, but he was busy handing over the work and didn't think about it any further.
...
When the midterm exam results came out, everyone was already looking to see who came in second, because the first place was unsurprisingly Jiang Huaiyu, who still scored more than fifty points ahead of the second place.
Lu Mingxiao found his name on the list, glanced at his score, and couldn't help but frown.
He scored only twenty-odd points higher than in the last monthly exam.
When Jiang Huaiyu received her report card, the first person she went to was Lu Mingxiao. She looked at the nouns first, then the scores. When she turned around and saw Lu Mingxiao's expression, she knew what he was thinking.
"The questions were difficult," Jiang Huaiyu said. "Your ranking has improved a lot."
Lu Mingxiao sighed softly: "It's nothing, he just bragged too much. He won't be able to get into the second exam room next time."
He said "I'm fine," but he was rather sullen all afternoon. He hid it well and continued to joke around with his classmates as usual, teasing Jiang Huaiyu from time to time.
But throughout the afternoon, apart from going to the toilet, he didn't go out much. He copied the wrong questions from the test paper into his error notebook one by one, and corrected them himself before the teacher explained them.
Jiang Huaiyu watched silently.
Today, Li Qing's renovation team was very busy and she wouldn't be home until very late. As usual, the two of them went to eat at the cafeteria. After crossing the playground, Jiang Huaiyu suddenly grabbed Lu Mingxiao's wrist and started running quickly.
Completely bewildered, Lu Mingxiao and Jiang Huaiyu entered a blind spot of the surveillance cameras. It was a small alleyway formed between the stadium and the wall. Jiang Huaiyu stood under the wall and looked up at it.
Lu Mingxiao snapped out of his daze, looked at the wall in disbelief, then at Jiang Huaiyu: "The food at our school isn't that bad, is it?"
"That's awful, and I don't want to eat strawberries and eggplant." Jiang Huaiyu looked at the wall, then at Lu Mingxiao, a faint smile in her eyes: "Brother Xiao, shall we skip class?"
Lu Mingxiao: ? ? ?
Before he could react, the academic genius Jiang Huaiyu had already taken two steps back, taken a running start, and reached up to the wall with his arm...
However, he didn't have enough arm strength and couldn't flip over. He slid down softly, like a melting cat.
Young Master Jiang was a little embarrassed. He touched the tip of his nose and tried again.
He still didn't have enough strength. Just as he was sliding down, a pair of hands grabbed his lower back and lifted him up with force, suddenly allowing his vision to pass over the wall.
The principal had always wanted to hang Jiang Huaiyu's photo on the honor wall, but before he could even get it there, he climbed onto the top of the wall. The top student, Jiang Huaiyu, sat on the top of the wall and looked down to make sure it was safe.
Meanwhile, the convex lens, who was supposed to be out on patrol, was in the office reprimanding Liang Jing and Li Rui.
"Come here! You two brats, especially Liang Jing, what are you doing wearing a wig? I'm asking you, what are you trying to do?!"
"Haha~ That director, well... well, he's just... well, let's just say he's a bit of a jerk..."
"What are you detaining me for? You two were sneaking around in the woods, one of you even wearing a wig like a girl, and you ran away when I called you? I'm asking you, what are you doing?! Get out of here and stand in the corner!"
Li Rui calculated the time and figured that Yu Ge should have already climbed over the wall. He looked at Liang Jing with disdain: "You actually wore a wig!"
Liang Jing said smugly, "Don't think I don't know you actually wanted to wear it, right? I had no choice, the academic genius gave me just too many!"
Li Rui retorted indignantly, "I'll wear it next time!"
"You little brat, you just want to wear it, don't you!"
...
Lu Mingxiao, who was standing under the wall, was unaware of Jiang Huaiyu's "luring the tiger away from the mountain" strategy.
He was quite the expert at scaling walls; the wall had even been raised a few inches because of him. But he never imagined that one day he would be scaling walls with Jiang Xiaoyu.
Jiang Huaiyu sat on the wall, smiling and reaching out to him. Her clear voice drifted down the wall with the night breeze and landed on Lu Mingxiao's heart.
"Want to skip class, Xiao-ge?"
Lu Mingxiao looked up at Jiang Huaiyu, and after a moment he chuckled softly.
"Okay, I'll skip class with you."
He took two steps back, then ran up, and jumped...
He grasped that slender, well-defined hand and was gently pulled up onto the wall.
The smell of barbecue and the noise of people wafted in from outside the wall. The little fish beside him nimbly jumped off the wall, not forgetting to turn around and reach out to him.
"Should I catch you, Lu Mingxiao?"
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