Ch55 - No Hiding

The result of thinking too much at night was that it took Duan Jiayan till 1 to 2am in the morning to successfully fall asleep.

After he got to class, Lu Xingci saw him yawning a few times and asked, “Sleepy?” 

Duan Jiayan nodded his head.

Lu Xingci, “What were you doing last night?”

He was just casually asking but he did not expect Duan Jiayan to aggressively turn around and stare at him.

This stare lasted for three to four seconds. 

Duan Jiayan guiltily replied, “Nothing.”

He couldn’t possibly confess that he was up all night thinking of nonsensical stuff, in the end he seemed to even have had a dream that involved Lu Xingci.

Lu Xingci saw him like this and laughed.

Even though he felt fatigued, this was still his first day of being Lu Xingci’s deskmate. After thinking of this, Duan Jiayan felt excited and studied his timetable, the first lesson was biology.

He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to stay awake and so took out a box of sweets from under his table, prepared to eat one when he felt sleepy.

Duan Jiayan’s mouth had a sweet while he held a pen in his hand.

Initially, he still fared fairly okay, as his biology teacher was explaining the two multiple-choice questions, he could still understand most of them.

The moment the teacher moved on to another question and he saw it projected on the screen, Duan Jiayan seemed to see black patches no matter how hard he looked. 

Before he knew it, Duan Jiayan had finished his sweet and his pen had dropped onto the table.

His head was steadily drooping down.

Lu Xingci was done writing down a series of solutions and glanced sideways to see Duan Jiayan with his head down, seemingly falling asleep.

Lu Xingci reached out and lightly tapped him on the shoulder. 

Duan Jiayan mumbled a reply after being tapped and used all his strength to blink twice before gathering his energy to look at the blackboard.

He whispered, “If I fall asleep again, just tap me.”

Lu Xingci agreed to do so.

After another question was done, Lu Xingci turned to look beside him and saw the previously energetic youth once again with his head down. 

He hesitated for a moment before following Duan Jiayan’s request to wake him up. After the latter was caught off guard and woken up, he subconsciously glared at Lu Xingci before belatedly realising what was going on. Duan Jiayan felt that Lu Xingci was wronged by his angry glare and tried to appease him, “Lu-ge, you aren’t tired this morning?”

“I’m usually not tired.”

“I always want to not be tired,” Duan Jiayan said as he picked up his pen. “I want to be as awesome as you.”

Not long after he said that, Lu Xingci heard the sound of a pen falling on a table as he was solving a question. 

He turned to his side and saw his new deskmate with his eyes closed.

Probably because he did not sleep well, the colour of Duan Jiayan’s eyebags was a faint green colour. His side view was very easy on the eye, with his brow bone and nose bridge having an exceptional sense of youthfulness. His skin, under the classroom’s light, was very fair and white.

Lu Xingci saw his head nodding every now and then, his hand clumsily holding up his jaw. In the end, he could not resist laughing.

His family’s kid was trying very hard to not fall asleep. 

He saw Duan Jiayan’s arm trembling non-stop and knew he would fall soon.

Lu Xingci reached out to support his jaw and slowly laid him down on the table.

Duan Jiayan could feel that someone was taking care of him, he cracked open an eyelid and stared blankly to the side.

“Sleep,” he heard a promise that made him relax. “I’ll teach you today’s lesson after class.” 

After his English teacher was done explaining a question, they swept their gaze around the class and said, “Duan Jiayan, stand and give your answer for question eight.”

Duan Jiayan studied the question and hesitatingly said, “The blank is used to indicate a location, so the answer is ‘where’.” 

“Great!” The English teacher said excitedly, they honestly never taught they’d see such a day. “Everybody come, give him a round of applause.”

The whole class clapped for him, Chen Yue and the gang even gave some whistles.

Duan Jiayan sat down, feeling both shy and pleased from getting the question correct.

Compared to sitting front and back, sitting beside one another is indeed much more convenient. Anytime a teacher said something he did not understand, he would ask Lu Xingci. After the other explained the question, he would then be able to catch up with the teacher’s lessons. 

Apart from concentrating during class in school, Duan Jiayan would also work on his assignments after returning to his dorm.

Song Yi had been shocked on the first day he saw Duan Jiayan taking out his revision notes. Nowadays he had already gotten used to the sight.

After seeing Duan Jiayan wasting a whole sheet of paper and still not being able to solve a question, Song Yi reminded him, “Why not give the class monitor a call?”

Duan Jiayan hesitated. 

He figured he could be spend a whole night on the question and still would not be able to solve the question, plus he himself selfishly wanted to hear Lu Xingci’s voice in such a situation where he was stumped by a question. Duan Jiayan sent Lu Xingci a message.

[What are you doing?]

Not long later, he received a reply: [Solving questions.]

Duan Jiayan was torn about whether he should disturb him when the other side sent him another message: [What’s up] 

[There’s a question that I can’t seem to solve, I’ve already tried it twice.] Duan Jiayan asked: [Can I give you a call?]

Lu Xingci called him.

Duan Jiayan accepted the call, his arms and legs fumbling around, “Wait a minute, I’m looking for an earpiece.”

As he spoke, he hurriedly went to search his jacket’s pocket and after finding his earpiece, Duan Jiayan took a photo of the question and sent it over. 

Lu Xingci did not immediately look at the question and instead asked, “It’s so late, you still aren’t going to rest?”

“Aren’t you the same?” Duan Jiayan subconsciously fiddled around with his earpiece. “I was still under the impression that you never studied after going home.”

“Even I’m not that confident,” Lu Xingci seemed to have chuckled before he studied the question. “Regression equation?”

Duan Jiayan hummed in acknowledgement. 

It started to drizzle outside. The air on a rainy winter night carried along with it a particularly misty chill.

Duan Jiayan listened to the voice over the phone, as the boy patiently explained the question to him, till he could finally understand the steps to solve the question.

When Lu Xingci was almost done explaining the question, Duan Jiayan suddenly could not bear to end the call just like that.

His thoughts started to wander. The boy on the other side waited for a long while and did not get a response, he softly asked, “Ah Ye?” 

“……” Duan Jiayan got startled and blurted out, “I want to go on a video call with you.”

After he said that, Duan Jiayan was a little embarrassed.

The other person was kindly explaining the question to him yet he was distracted, his brain filled with stuff that are not related to his studies.

Lu Xingci could more or less sense that he was distracted and after hearing his request, did not give a response. 

Duan Jiayan was on edge for a moment before the request for a video call came.

Song Yi had already gone to shower so he was the only person in the dorm, Duan Jiayan hurriedly accepted the call.

He adjusted his table lamp, allowing the light to shine on him more. At the same time, he could clearly see the other person’s environment.

Compared to the school dorm, Lu Xingci’s room was much more spacious. 

His white room was both clean and tidy. From Duan Jiayan’s angle, the first thing he noticed was the practice books on the table, and the corner of a bed in the far corner of the video.

Lu Xingci was holding a pen, a smile in his eyes as he looked at him.

He should have just showered as his soft black hair was down. The corner of the boy’s eyes were long and sharp. Perhaps because he was at home, his demeanour was both relaxed and calm.

This was the first time Duan Jiayan saw him like this and unconsciously swallowed his saliva. 

He did not know if it was due to the earpiece but the sound of him swallowing his saliva was heard by the other person. He could clearly hear Lu Xingci laughing.

The other person even teased him on purpose, “Are you hungry?”

With his earpiece on, Lu Xingci’s voice filled his ears. Duan Jiayan could feel his ears heating up under Lu Xingci’s laugh.

In the end, Duan Jiayan got annoyed by Lu Xingci’s laugh and decided to turn the tables on him. 

“You look really good,” Duan Jiayan purposely spoke with a casual tone. “Such a good looking lad, which family are you from?”

He did not know what he looked like when he was teasing someone.

Song Yi was afraid of the cold and so the heater in the dorm was turned up really high. Duan Jiayan had decided to just wear his summer clothes.

A lot of fair white skin was exposed. Furthermore, Duan Jiayan would slightly cock his head to the side while talking, his lightly-coloured lips opening and closing. 

Lu Xingci saw him having fun and suppressed the emotions in his eyes.

Duan Jiayan saw him not talking and thought he had managed to make the other speechless. He suddenly thought of something and laughed evilly, “Haven’t I been studying hard recently?”

“You have indeed been studying pretty hard,” Lu Xingci agreed.

“Then shouldn’t you reward me a little?” Duan Jiayan leaned forward slightly and lightly tapped on his phone’s screen. “I want a reward.” 

His random movement caused his collar to slip down, exposing more of his skin and collarbone which was bent, creating a zigzag-ed shape.

Lu Xingci saw him smiling and the ** buried in his heart surfaced bit by bit.

His throat went dry and he asked hoarsely, “What do you want?”

Duan Jiayan did not realise anything and even brazenly requested, “I want you to give me a kiss in school tomorrow.” 

Duan Jiayan thought of how Lu Xingci quietly agreed to his request and felt satisfaction from thinking that he had won in tonight’s interaction.

After he woke up on the next day, he thought back to his impromptu actions from the previous night and still felt pretty satisfied.

This satisfaction lasted all the way till he entered class ten.

Song Yi saw him slowing down when they were right about to reach the classroom and asked curiously, “You sprained your foot?” 

Duan Jiayan aggressively shook his head, he did not want to loiter any longer and so decisively strode into the classroom.

After going in, he saw his deskmate who was playing a game on his phone.

“Morning,” Duan Jiayan greeted.

Lu Xingci replied his greeting. 

Duan Jiayan could not see any hints on Lu Xingci’s face and could only wonder if Lu Xingci had forgotten what happened while he pulled his chair out.

“Last night you said that you wanted me to kiss you,” Lu Xingci suddenly asked. “Can I touch your tongue?”

Duan Jiayan was caught off guard and stopped in the midst of his motion of pulling out his chair.

He glanced away and neither denied nor agreed, “Then why don’t you ask if you’re kissing me on the face or the lips?” 

“Can’t you tell that I would rather kiss you on the lips?” Lu Xingci words were light yet stimulating. “When do you think is a good time?”

Duan Jiayan did not reply.

He ruminated on it for a long time before mumbling, “Wait for me to give you a hint.”

“Alright,” Lu Xingci nodded. “Don’t take too long, I’m a little anxious.” 

“……”

It had not stopped raining since the previous night. After the sky turned dark, the rain outside the window suddenly turned majestic.

Thunder and lightning tore through the sky. Even though the door was closed, one could still hear the sound of the heavy rain.

With their exams coming soon, Zhao Minjun’s language class became the class’ self-study period. Duan Jiayan was squeezing out his brain juice to solve a problem but as his brain did not have much juice to begin with, he still could not solve the question after a long time. 

While he was getting frustrated, his ballpoint pen was accidentally pushed off his table.

Duan Jiayan looked down for a long while and still could not find his pen so he could only pull his chair back and bend down to get a better look.

His movements weren’t small and Lu Xingci, who was solving questions beside him, saw him squatting beneath his table and glanced at his face.

As his head was tilted downwards, his light brown eyelashes were drooped and his lips were light in colour, he looked beautiful. 

Duan Jiayan finally found his pen. He did not hesitate to pat Lu Xingci’s thigh and when the other person looked down, he pointed to his ballpoint pen that was beside Lu Xingci’s feet, “Kick it over.”

The pen rolled over after much difficulty and just as he was about to stand up, Lu Xingci leaned down and kneaded his nape.

“Do you think there is something that you still have not done?”

Duan Jiayan was a little uncomfortable from being pressed under the table and asked, “What thing? Wait for me to stand up and we’ll talk.” 

Lu Xingci laughed and slowly reminded him, “I’ve waited an entire day for your hint.”

Duan Jiayan froze and whatever he wanted to say was stuck in his throat.

He spoke those words in the heat of the moment last night but now he felt embarrassed while waiting for the actual thing to happen. For the whole day today, he had unconsciously tried to avoid the topic.

Duan Jiayan guiltily tried to look for an excuse, “Why not we forget it. You see, school is almost over— Lu Xingci!” 

Chilly fingers had wrapped themselves around his wrists.

Both his wrists were caught and were pulled to the side.

Duan Jiayan did not dare make too much noise so he could only let himself be tugged along.

Even though they were at the last row in class, and Lu Xingci bending over would cover most of his body, and there was almost no possibility that anyone would see what they were doing, Duan Jiayan still felt flustered. 

He really did not think that Lu Xingci would be this brave.

In the bright classroom, there was the sound of the rustling of pages and the scratching of pen on paper. The other person’s pheromones seemed to surround the both of them, carrying the warning-like aggressiveness of an alpha.

Duan Jiayan froze and wanted to inch backwards. However, there was a hand on his back, slowly caressing it inch by inch.

He then understood, Lu Xingci’s previous mention of being anxious was not a joke. 

This fierce possessiveness that seemed ready to leak out was overwhelming.

Duan Jiayan was a little light-headedness from the other’s pheromones and was about to ask him to stop when the other softly kneaded his lips and said gently and dangerously, “You wanted this, no hiding.”

After saying that, Lu Xingci’s hands cupped the back of his head and aggressively pulled him into a kiss.

The author has something to say: There is no use hiding. 

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