The sentence ran through Lin Le’s mind once, leaving him completely bewildered.
He could not believe Fu Ji had sent it. He replayed it again and again, listening several times, and still could hardly believe those words had come from Fu Ji.
Before Lin Le could reply, Fu Ji unsent the message in the next second.
When the System notification announced that the message had been withdrawn, Lin Le also breathed a sigh of relief. See? He had known it. Fu Ji had sent it to the wrong person. Maybe it had been meant for Han Jinyan. Honestly, he had worried for nothing.
Once everyone had finished washing up, they started doing homework. Lin Le was clever at schoolwork and basically understood anything the teachers had taught. Only when it came to interpretation did he sometimes need to come back and puzzle things out himself.
This was still a large group environment, after all. No matter how much the teachers tried to accommodate Lin Le, they could not stop after every single question and wait until he fully understood before continuing. So Lin Le could only remember the questions he did not understand and continue studying them after returning to the dorm.
The dorm was frighteningly quiet. Apart from the sounds of pages turning and pens writing, there was nothing.
Lin Le studied seriously, unaware that the others’ gazes kept drifting toward him from time to time.
Lin Le had plenty of little habits while studying. Whenever he encountered a question he could not solve, he liked to bite the end of his pen, or tug at his hair while thinking with a troubled expression.
Zhou Zhongshe’s bunk was beside Lin Le’s. Lin Le’s bunk was in the middle, sandwiched between Zhou Zhongshe and Han Jinyan, while Xiang Chi and Fu Ji were across from them.
Not the slightest movement from Lin Le escaped Zhou Zhongshe’s ears. Seeing Lin Le bite the pen again, he asked, “Lin Le, did you run into a difficult question?”
Lin Le’s ears perked. He turned his head toward the voice. “Mm. There’s a question here I don’t really know how to do.”
Zhou Zhongshe left his seat with movements that carried a hint of urgency, as though afraid someone might get there before him.
“I’ll teach you.”
Lin Le’s eyes lit with surprise. “Really? Won’t I hold you up?”
Zhou Zhongshe laughed softly, his tone overflowing with confidence in himself.
“My grades are number one in the entire school. Lin Le, what could you possibly do that would hold me up?”
Lin Le’s face instantly turned red. He had not expected Zhou Zhongshe to be a top student too.
He murmured, “If I won’t hold you up, then I’ll have to trouble you.”
The dorm was no longer quiet after that. Zhou Zhongshe’s patient, gentle voice explaining the problem mixed with Lin Le’s obedient responses.
Whenever Zhou Zhongshe spoke, Lin Le answered. He never let a single thing Zhou Zhongshe said fall unanswered.
Xiang Chi listened for a while, then simply turned around to look.
He swept his gaze across the dorm and let out a soft laugh.
Han Jinyan, that fake serious guy, looked as though he were reading intently, but half his body was practically leaning into Lin Le’s bunk.
He glanced at Fu Ji too. Another fake serious one. Tch. All of them were so timid.
Xiang Chi looked down on them all, stood up, and said, “I have a question I don’t know how to do either. Can I study with you too, Lin Le?”
Lin Le turned around. “Hm? Of course.”
Wanting to study was a good thing. Of course he could join.
Xiang Chi’s words seemed to flip some kind of switch. Han Jinyan immediately followed. “Then I’ll join too. I just happen to have a question I don’t understand.”
The gentle smile on Zhou Zhongshe’s face could no longer be maintained. He looked at Xiang Chi, then at Han Jinyan.
The three fell silent. Lin Le did not hear Xiang Chi or Han Jinyan coming closer and asked, “What happened? Aren’t you coming over?”
Han Jinyan stared at Zhou Zhongshe, then suddenly smiled. “We want to, but Zhou Zhongshe doesn’t seem very interested in studying with us.”
Hearing that, Lin Le turned his head in confusion. “Zhou Zhongshe? Why don’t you want them to study with us?”
Zhou Zhongshe could no longer keep the smile on his face. He gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. “I don’t. I never said they couldn’t come. It’s just too cramped here. We’ll have to move out into the open.”
Lin Le had no idea what kind of silent battle of gazes had passed between them. He was actually rather interested in studying together. Discussing things and working them out together sounded fun.
The dorm desks could be moved. Once they tidied the things on top, they pulled them out, and five desks pushed together provided exactly enough space.
Xiang Chi and the others were still silently communicating over who would get to sit beside Lin Le when Fu Ji, who had remained silent the entire time, dragged over a chair and sat down beside Lin Le. He even had Lin Le move into the innermost seat.
Fu Ji sat on Lin Le’s left, which meant only Fu Ji could sit directly beside him now.
Fu Ji said, “Sit here. I’ll sit next to you.”
Lin Le said, “Oh, okay.”
Xiang Chi, Zhou Zhongshe, and Han Jinyan: “…?”
So while the snipe and clam fought, the fisherman profited?
Fu Ji really was a crafty bastard.
Lin Le was good at science subjects, but not very good at the humanities, especially Chinese reading comprehension. He had no relatives and no friends, so relying on text alone, he often could not quite understand what it meant.
Whatever interpretation he came up with always carried a cold, realistic slant, as if he were solving a science problem and needed a formula before he knew what to do.
Lin Le parted his lips, habitually about to bite the end of his pen again.
Only this time, what he bit was not the hard, cold pen, but a soft, warm finger joint.
Fu Ji did not even raise his head. His voice was flat. “Don’t bite that. It’s unhygienic.”
Realizing what he had bitten, Lin Le hurriedly let the finger go. “S-Sorry.”
Fu Ji said calmly, “It’s fine.”
Lin Le’s face turned scarlet. “I-I didn’t notice. Did I bite you hard?”
Fu Ji lowered his eyes and looked at the finger joint. There was not even a tooth mark. Lin Le did not have any strength even when biting someone.
“There isn’t even a mark.”
Even after Fu Ji said that, Lin Le was still not reassured. “Let me feel it.”
Lin Le sounded worried. He felt as though he had bitten very hard. If it was not handled properly, it might even bleed and get infected.
Fu Ji looked at him. Only after several seconds did he hold out his hand. Lin Le felt over all ten of his fingers, up and down, before finally relaxing.
At the end, he even reminded him, “Don’t put your hand in front of other people for them to bite in the future. There are bacteria.”
Fu Ji smiled faintly. “It’s fine. Only you can bite me.”
Lin Le did not understand. He assumed Fu Ji simply did not take the matter seriously, so he put on a stern expression and said earnestly, “Even if it’s me, you still can’t do that. Besides, why would I bite you?”
Fu Ji’s smile grew wider. He said nothing more and only shook his head.
Xiang Chi rolled his eyes. “Lin Le, maybe you don’t have bacteria, but you should be careful Fu Ji does. You just bit him.”
Before Lin Le could speak, Fu Ji said, “I wiped my hands before letting him bite me.”
Xiang Chi said, “Does wiping your hands mean there are no bacteria? What if the thing you wiped them with had bacteria on it?”
Fu Ji looked at him for a second. “I said there aren’t any, so there aren’t any.”
Xiang Chi mocked him in a singsong voice. “‘I said there aren’t any, so there aren’t any~’”
Fu Ji frowned. Sensing the atmosphere had turned strange, Lin Le hurriedly spoke up in alarm. “I-It’s fine. I don’t think Fu Ji’s hands have bacteria. They tasted sweet when I bit them.”
Lin Le’s words shattered the tense atmosphere, only to replace it with an entirely different one. Everyone looked at Lin Le strangely.
Fu Ji’s tone darkened. “How do you know my finger is sweet?”
Lin Le was still explaining seriously. “When I bit you, I accidentally licked it. It was sweet.”
Han Jinyan laughed. “Then you really are a pervert. Biting someone’s hand is one thing, but you even licked it.”
Lin Le flushed as he explained, “I wasn’t trying to bite him! I was trying to bite my pen. Fu Ji was the one who put his hand there for me to bite.”
As he spoke, he started feeling wronged. “Why are you saying things about me…”
The moment Han Jinyan saw Lin Le’s expression, he raised both hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, I’m not saying anything about you. Let’s study. Study.”
Lin Le wrinkled his nose and scolded Han Jinyan. “You’re teasing me again. You’re so annoying.”
After saying that, he thought for two seconds and added, “Ptooey!”
Han Jinyan burst out laughing. It was not just him. Lin Le’s tiny gesture amused everyone.
Han Jinyan said, “Hey, you dare spit at me?”
Lin Le did not dare respond to that topic. He knew Han Jinyan was sitting in front of him, so he reached forward, found his hand, and grabbed it. “Pick up your pen and study. Stop talking about things that have nothing to do with studying!”
Lin Le successfully steered the atmosphere back onto the right path. The undercurrents in the dorm sank underground again. For now, it was a dorm filled with the atmosphere of studying.
After finishing their homework, Lin Le previewed the next day’s lessons with everyone. From their casual conversation, he also learned more about the protagonist group.
For example, in all the school’s exams, big or small, Fu Ji and Zhou Zhongshe competed for first place, constantly overtaking one another. Xiang Chi’s grades were average—not impressive, but not poor either—while Han Jinyan ranked in the top five.
He also learned a little about their family circumstances. After hearing everything, Lin Le could only sigh. As expected of the protagonist group. Every single family was either wealthy or noble, with enormous power and influence.
Every one of them had either a business-owner father or mother. Lin Le could only sit to the side with his mouth open, going wow again and again.
As they chatted, time quietly reached ten o’clock. Lin Le’s biological clock started ringing. He yawned, rubbed his eyes, and asked, “What time is it?”
Han Jinyan checked his phone. “Ten-oh-five.”
Lin Le said, “Then I’m going to sleep. We still have class tomorrow.”
Everyone stood up. Zhou Zhongshe said, “Then I’ll sleep too. Let’s move the tables back.”
Once they had put the desks and chairs back in place, everyone climbed into bed to rest.
Tonight’s conversation had been unusual and interesting for Lin Le, but it had been the same for Fu Ji and the others.
The fact that they lived together and were in the same class was actually the result of quiet arrangements made by their families, all in preparation for the future. It was always better to have good relations than to become enemies.
They rarely had a chance like this to sit down and talk properly. Fu Ji, Xiang Chi, Zhou Zhongshe, and Han Jinyan might look fairly close to outsiders, but only they themselves knew that they were not actually that close. There was more distance between them than anything else.
Tonight, however, Lin Le had somehow made all of them understand one another a little better—especially Lin Le himself.
When Lin Le said he was going to sleep, he slept. He was already exhausted. The moment he touched the bed, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
He did not notice that Fu Ji and the others were still awake, sitting on their beds with their gazes all directed toward him.
Half asleep and half awake, he heard the familiar System voice. 【Ding! Mission Five! Host, please randomly choose the bed of Fu Ji, Xiang Chi, or Zhou Zhongshe and sleep together with him, strengthening the bond within the small group and preventing Han Jinyan from joining
