The afternoon legal-outreach event was drawing to a close. Once they’d finished with the last person seeking consultation, everyone busily packed up the pull-up banners, the flags, and the consultation tables. The group set off together toward the bus stop under the evening glow, chattering away about the legal questions they’d encountered that day, marveling at the gap between the law as written and the law as actually applied.
Lu Xun had fallen a little behind the main group, deep in discussion with one of the guys about how to handle a case that had come up earlier, so Qian Wei and the other girls reached the bus stop first.
Several of the girls kept sneaking glances at Qian Wei. After a while, one of the bolder ones finally worked up the nerve to ask, “Qian Wei, are you and Lu Xun together?”
“Yeah.”
That opened the floodgates of gossip. A few of them immediately took on an envious tone. “Did you chase after him? My close friend from the business school actually went after him too — wrote him love letters for a whole year, but he turned her down…”
“I’m the one who chased her.”
Just as the girls were chattering away, a familiar low voice sounded behind Qian Wei, and a pair of arms reached over to wrap intimately and naturally around her shoulders.
Lu Xun normally wasn’t one to engage with girls, and this was the first time several of them had been this close to him. A few couldn’t hide their surprise. “Whoa! No way!”
“So, how long did you chase Qian Wei?”
“Quite a while. She’s pretty slow on the uptake.”
Qian Wei looked up at him in some surprise. Lu Xun was still the same as ever — that same cool, detached tone — but he was, remarkably, patiently answering the other girls’ nosy questions.
“Did you two just get together?”
“We’ve been together for a while now.”
“You really kept it under wraps! We had no idea!”
The other girls kept firing off questions, and Lu Xun, uncharacteristically good-natured, answered them one by one, until the bus finally arrived and everyone let him off the hook.
It was rush hour, and the bus was packed like a can of sardines. Everyone was quickly swept apart among the other passengers, but even in the crush, Lu Xun kept a firm grip on Qian Wei’s hand, using his own tall frame to carve out a bit of space so she wouldn’t get jostled.
“Why are you being so agreeable today?” Qian Wei muttered. “Answering every single question. Do you realize you’re going to get even more popular with the girls this way? I might start feeling insecure, you know.”
“It’s for your sake.” Lu Xun tapped her lightly on the head.
“Huh?”
“Building up goodwill for you.” Lu Xun blinked. “Don’t you girls always have those little cautionary tales going around? Remember that senior from a few years back in our law school, Chen Xun? Tons of girls used to chase him. He ended up dating a girl in a lower year, and then she got targeted and frozen out by the other girls — the pressure got so bad she dropped out, and she and Chen Xun broke up too.” He looked straight into Qian Wei’s eyes. “I don’t want that happening to you.”
Qian Wei couldn’t help feeling amused. “So what you’re saying is, I’ve now hogged the campus heartthrob and made myself a target? Didn’t realize you thought so highly of your own market value.”
Lu Xun shot her a look, though his tone came out unexpectedly gentle. “I want to give you the best of everything. I want everyone to treat you as well as I do.”
Qian Wei couldn’t help but smile. Silly — didn’t he realize he’d already given her the best thing there was: the best kind of love.
Traffic during rush hour was brutal, and the bus kept starting and stopping. Before Qian Wei could say anything else, a hard brake threw her off balance and sent her crashing straight into Lu Xun. He’d carved out a little pocket of space free from other people’s jostling, but there was nothing to hold onto above or around it, so she had to be careful not to be thrown around by the bus’s lurching.
She instinctively tried to pull herself off his chest, but a hand came down over her head and pressed her right back against it.
“No handrail. Just hold onto me.”
As if to prove his point, right as he said it the bus jolted to another sudden stop. So through all the starting and stopping, Qian Wei ended up with her head resting gently against Lu Xun’s chest, his heartbeat right against her ear, his breath at her neck, his arm around her waist. All around them was noise and chaos — phones playing videos out loud, people chatting, ringtones going off, the bus’s stop announcements — the crowded cabin stuffy and thick with the press of bodies. But curled against Lu Xun’s chest, Qian Wei felt only safe and warm.
A packed bus wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience, but Qian Wei thought that as long as this person was beside her, even the ride could go on forever and everything ordinarily unbearable would somehow become bearable.
The bus finally reached the A University campus stop, having taken twice as long as usual. The group filed off one by one. This stop was the main hub students used to get anywhere on campus, so it was always packed, and Lu Xun’s appearance immediately drew the attention of quite a few girls. Lu Xun, as ever, kept his usual cool expression and walked straight through the crowd without so much as a glance to either side, while Qian Wei found herself swept up in his arms in a princess carry. Her legs weren’t so injured that she couldn’t walk at all, but Lu Xun scooped her up without giving her any say in the matter.
Earlier, Lu Xun had only gone public with their relationship in front of a dozen or so law school classmates. But now, at the bus stop, under dozens of pairs of eyes, Qian Wei realized that what had happened back at the community center had been nothing more than a small skirmish — this was the real battlefield.
It was only now that Qian Wei truly grasped just how popular Lu Xun was on campus. She felt herself weathering a barrage of curious, sharp-edged stares from every direction.
At the campus gate, Lu Xun finally set her down, then casually put an arm around her. “Wait here for me a moment, I’m going to pick up a package at the mail room.” With that, in front of all the passing students, he kissed her on the forehead — thoroughly putting to rest any lingering hope among the girls that she might just be “Lu Xun’s little sister.”
Plenty of guys would feel shy about showing affection for their girlfriends in public, but not Lu Xun. He always carried himself with a kind of unashamed, almost defiant openness about it — much like his features, delicate yet undeniably commanding.
If even Lu Xun wasn’t afraid, what did she have to be afraid of?
Qian Wei straightened her back, lifted her chin, and looked straight back at all those probing stares.
“Qian Wei.”
Amid the crowd of onlookers, Qian Wei turned and saw Li Chongwen standing a short distance behind her.
Ever since she and Lu Xun had gone back to the community center, Li Chongwen had gone somewhat quiet. At the time everyone had been busy with consultations, so Qian Wei hadn’t thought much of it, but now that the event was over and she was face to face with him again, she noticed the low mood in him.
He stepped forward, his manner still gentle. “I didn’t get the chance to ask earlier — how bad is the injury on your foot?”
“Just a minor injury. It’s been disinfected and bandaged.”
Li Chongwen lowered his head briefly, then smiled at Qian Wei. “Good, as long as you’re okay. From now on, with Lu Xun looking after these things — well, thinking about it, that’s probably for the best.” He paused. “I just don’t know whether our criminal law study group should keep going.”
“Keep going,” Lu Xun’s voice came from behind Qian Wei. “Qian Wei says you’re especially patient when it comes to teaching criminal law, and that you make things easy to understand. I might occasionally score a few points higher than you on exams, but that doesn’t mean I’d be any good at teaching it. Thank you for looking after Qian Wei all this time — you’ve helped her a lot, and she’s mentioned to me more than once how grateful she is, that she thinks of you as both mentor and friend. And since the study group has always been a habit of yours two, if the timing works for you, you should keep it up.” Lu Xun’s tone was even, no longer carrying the earlier edge it had held around Li Chongwen. This time there was even a faint smile on his face. “Though, honestly, there are some points on legislative intent in criminal law lately that I don’t fully grasp — would you mind if I joined your study group too?”
Li Chongwen blinked, startled, then glanced at Lu Xun, a faint smile spreading across his own face too. “Having a top student like you join and strengthen our study group — I couldn’t ask for more. Actually, I looked into a case in criminal law recently and couldn’t quite work out the reasoning behind the verdict. We could discuss it together.”
“Anyway, Qian Wei’s friends are my friends too. If you ever need anything, just say the word — no need to be polite about it. We’re all classmates in the same school after all.”
Qian Wei just stood there watching Lu Xun and Li Chongwen wrap up their conversation on such friendly, harmonious terms — the first time she’d ever seen this side of Lu Xun, so willing to bring classmates together…
After Li Chongwen left, Qian Wei finally looked up at Lu Xun, rather pleased. “So you’ve finally stopped thinking of Li Chongwen as some imaginary rival. Seeing the two of you like this now genuinely makes me happy.”
“Who said he’s not an imaginary rival?”
“Huh? Then why’d you just tell me to keep going with the study group?”
“That’s called uniting every force that can be united,” Lu Xun said with a cold snort. “It’s precisely because he’s an imaginary rival — a potential love rival — that I need to bring him in like this. Once he’s my ‘friend,’ let’s see if he still has the nerve to steal his ‘friend’s’ girlfriend.”
“…”
“Now that I’ve secured my position, I need to show a bit of magnanimity every now and then, being the legitimate one.” Lu Xun mused for a moment. “Besides, I’ll be at every single study group session from now on anyway. If he’s got any ideas, he can dream on.”
“…”