In a moment of urgency, Shen Xingruo uttered these words, feeling that although Lu Xingyan might not be good at studying, he still gets shy when he sees a girl wearing a camisole, which suggests deep down he’s quite innocent.
To her surprise, after she finished speaking, Lu Xingyan not only didn’t let go of her hand but also tightened his grip and leaned in closer. His face blatantly expressed, “Hurry up and kiss, not kissing is un-Chinese!”
Coincidentally, Shen Xingruo happened to be a very strong-willed and extremely stubborn girl. She was resolute and unwavering, sticking to her decisions without hesitation.
She stood on tiptoe and, with lightning speed, bumped into Lu Xingyan’s face—a very forceful bump, right on his face. Her lips may have barely grazed his face for a second. However, in that second, the innocent virgin let go.
Lu Xingyan felt like he had been struck by lightning, his whole body tingling and numb. He couldn’t regain his senses for a while. His hand had instinctively loosened its grip, as if it had suddenly lost strength, like being hit by some potent martial arts move.
Shen Xingruo was also stunned, feeling like something was off. It seemed like… hmm, not right.
The background music in the room was still very loud, perhaps changing positions or feeling something. The woman’s voice was getting louder and louder, and the man’s intense growls were audible.
The air felt thin, strained by the weight of the sound.
Shen Xingruo felt like she couldn’t bear it for another second. Stiff as a puppet, she took two steps forward, only to realize she had gone the wrong way. She quickly turned back.
But Lu Xingyan, for reasons unknown to Shen Xingruo, suddenly grabbed her wrist again. Shen Xingruo looked up at him, unable to comprehend the longing for “one more time” in his eyes.
She was about to say something to humiliate him when suddenly there was a knock at the door—”It’s me, I’m coming in.”
Pei Yue.
It was Pei Yue again.
As soon as the words fell, the door lock clicked open.
Shen Xingruo’s lifetime of quick thinking was probably all used up in dealing with this mother-and-son duo. Without hesitation, she broke free from Lu Xingyan’s grasp and, without even a gasp, walked calmly towards Pei Yue, pointing at Lu Xingyan, and said, “Auntie Pei, I was tutoring Lu Xingyan, but he wasn’t paying attention. He, he was watching that kind of stuff…”
Shen Xingruo’s face flushed slightly, her eyes avoiding contact, her tone calm with a hint of shyness and a touch of indignation. She accurately portrayed the standard response of a model student facing a delinquent student using adult videos to resist tutoring.
Spot on, another flawless performance, depicting the typical reaction of a well-behaved girl when confronted with a misbehaving student using adult videos to evade studying.
Pei Yue shielded Shen Xingruo behind her without a trace of doubt.
Hearing the sound coming from Lu Xingyan’s phone on the bed, her face turned red, and she quickly walked to the bedside, turned off Lu Xingyan’s phone, then grabbed a pillow and pounced on Lu Xingyan’s back—”What are you doing? I’ll kill you, what are you doing?!”
“If you don’t study well, then don’t study at all! You don’t seem like someone cut out for studying anyway. Xingruo went out of her way to help you with tutoring, and how do you repay her? By engaging in such inappropriate activities?! Is your brain a trash can? Huh? You’re almost an adult at sixteen or seventeen, yet you still act like a child!”
After a hearty scolding, Pei Yue turned back to Shen Xingruo to explain, “Ruoruo, don’t mind him. He drove away three tutors in elementary school and five in middle school. This kid is just being deliberate. Don’t worry about him in the future. Let him revel in his score of just over three hundred!”
Then, she pressed down on Lu Xingyan’s head, sternly lecturing him, “Don’t think I can’t discipline you, Lu Xingyan. You just wait and see if I’ll give you pocket money this semester!”
Originally, when Pei Yue reprimanded Lu Xingyan, Shen Xingruo only needed to stand by. But when Pei Yue threatened his pocket money, indirectly threatening hers as well, it became a serious matter.
Her investments were indeed due soon, but she had never withdrawn any money. Who knew which would come first, the shortage of funds or the inability to withdraw them?
Moreover, Lu Xingyan was her debtor, and if he ran out of money and came to collect the debt, it would be troublesome. Thinking along these lines, Shen Xingruo gently tugged at Pei Yue’s sleeve and whispered, “It’s not that serious, Auntie Pei.”
“Lu Xingyan, he… he didn’t mean to look at those things. It was just an accident,” Shen Xingruo explained softly.
Pei Yue patted her hand reassuringly, “Ruoruo, don’t worry. You don’t need to defend him. If I don’t teach him a lesson today, he won’t even know whose money he’s spending!”
Shen Xingruo remained silent.
So Pei Yue launched into a twenty-minute lecture directed at Lu Xingyan.
During the lecture, Lu Xingyan demonstrated good manners when faced with criticism from his elders.
But there was nothing else, he was simply immersed in the kiss of the peacock and couldn’t snap out of it for a long time.
That night, the restless young man fulfilled his wish and had a beautiful dream, a dream within a dream, with a hint of fantasy.
First, he dreamed of being outside on a lawn. The weather seemed nice, and a few white peacocks were strolling around the lawn. Now and then, one would fan its tail feathers. Just as he went over to take a closer look, the white peacocks disappeared and turned into Shen Xingruo.
In his dream, he was quite self-aware and knew it was a dream, so he quickly tried to wake himself up.
Upon waking, he found himself in bed, with Shen Xingruo also there, and he was doing something not quite describable on top of her. Shen Xingruo was still embracing his neck, actively kissing his lips, caressing his brows and eyes, and occasionally letting out delicate moans.
Dreams had become quite routine for him, but this one was the most complete, with foreplay, climax, and even a post-coital cigarette.
When Lu Xingyan woke up, his eyes were vacant. His first thought was to pull the covers over his head and go back to sleep, trying to continue the dream. Of course, if dreams could be continued upon demand, he’d probably be dragged to a lab for brain research.
Seeing it was almost midnight, Lu Xingyan didn’t insist further and got up from bed.
Just then, Shen Xingruo came to call him for dinner. He opened the door lethargically, leaning against the frame lazily, and responded, “Got it. What’s for lunch today?”
Shen Xingruo glanced him up and down, “There was an earthquake in Xingcheng last night. Aunt Zhou didn’t go out to buy groceries, so we’ll just have porridge for lunch today.”
Lu Xingyan paused for a moment, his hand on his neck, and raised an eyebrow, “An earthquake? How come I didn’t know?”
“Don’t even mention an earthquake. If there was an earthquake, landslide, or tsunami burying you alive, you wouldn’t even know. With your good sleep quality, what else would you want to know?”
Lu Xingyan remained silent.
“Well, isn’t it all because you kissed me yesterday!”
Shen Xingruo had no idea what kind of rubbish was swirling in his mind again. She gave him a cold glance, made the notification, and didn’t say anything more before turning and heading downstairs.
As Lu Xingyan walked towards the bathroom, he felt something was off. What did last night’s earthquake and Aunt Zhou not going grocery shopping have to do with each other? Aunt Zhou wouldn’t go grocery shopping in the middle of the night.
He glanced out the window. The sun was shining brightly, and everything seemed lively and vibrant. Sparrows were chirping and flying around joyfully.
He belatedly realized something was amiss and searched the keyword “Xingcheng earthquake” on his phone.
—What an absolute joke.
Shen Xingruo’s talent for spouting nonsense with her eyes open was becoming increasingly refined.
As he entered the bathroom, he couldn’t help but think again: she was indeed the girl he liked, so capable and clever.
With these thoughts in mind, Lu Xingyan inexplicably felt a sense of pride. As he brushed his teeth, he hummed a little tune happily, while also reminiscing about last night’s kiss and dream. It was apparent that Shen Xingruo’s initiative in kissing was not something that happened frequently.
In the new week, Lu Xingyan provocatively stirred trouble with Shen Xingruo four or five times. Each time, Shen Xingruo would coldly glare at him with a look of disdain and warn him that if he continued to act foolishly, she would request a seat change with Wang Youfu.
Life without kisses was as lonely as snow, but Lu Xingyan didn’t want to lose his desk mate, so he reluctantly suppressed his mischief.
Besides Lu Xingyan, Li Ting also refrained from causing trouble anymore. She moved out of the dormitory when nobody was around during the weekend. On Monday, she read out a self-criticism letter during self-study class, then quietly kept to herself in a corner, never daring to provoke Shen Xingruo again.
The harsh reality combined with the mixed doubles in her dreams left Li Ting with quite a psychological shadow. From then on, whenever she saw Shen Xingruo, she would hide, even if it meant going upstairs to find the restroom.
Her gossiping friends were also influenced by her behavior, automatically categorizing Shen Xingruo into the “difficult to mess with” zone. Whenever they saw Shen Xingruo on weekdays, they were as quiet as woodpeckers with their mouths shut.
After Li Ting refrained from causing trouble and focused on her studies, her grades improved significantly, even after the second and third monthly exams. Her ranking in the class also improved considerably.
Her parents were pleased with her progress and decided to continue implementing their supervision measures of confiscating her phone and giving her pocket money daily.
This caused Li Ting to feel even more distressed whenever she saw Shen Xingruo, as she was reminded of her lost phone and pocket money. The psychological impact became more profound, and she wouldn’t even dare to pass by Shen Xingruo in normal circumstances.
It’s worth mentioning that after the third monthly exam, Zhai Jiajing invited Li Ting to have a meal together. Zhai Jiajing first praised her recent academic progress and expressed how she felt like something was missing in the dormitory without her, indicating that she missed her.
Li Ting felt warm-hearted hearing this. Despite her misdeeds, while her classmates didn’t openly treat her differently, they gossiped about her behind her back. It was rare for someone to still care about her.
However, what Zhai Jiajing said next dampened Li Ting’s spirits.
“Li Ting, are you stupid? How could you do that to Xingruo? And tearing up the exam paper, you even tore it incorrectly, offending Lu Xingyan.”
“You acted too impulsively. If there’s any issue, you should communicate with Xingruo first. Even if you wanted to prank her, you shouldn’t have done it like that. Of course, what you did was wrong, but we’ve been roommates for a while, and I still don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
Li Ting felt annoyed. “Can you stop bringing this up? I don’t want to talk about it. I admitted my mistake, so please stop lecturing me.”
“I’m not trying to lecture you. I’m saying you need to plan things out. Regarding Xingru…”
Li Ting interrupted her, “Stop. Why do I feel like you want me to go cause trouble for Shen Xingru?”
“Last time, it was because you said there was no evidence in the Yang Fang incident that I got distracted! I don’t want to provoke Shen Xingruo again. Zhai Jiajing, do you just not like Shen Xingru? You’re strange!”
After saying this, Li Ting got up directly and returned to school in frustration.
Zhai Jiajing, who was still behind her, hadn’t quite reacted yet. Her face turned red for a moment and then pale.
Shen Xingruo was unaware of Li Ting’s tortuous journey of the heart. She only felt that these days were particularly peaceful without anyone bothering her, and she was especially comfortable.
Li Ting’s grades improved, but she seemed to be at a standstill, casually ranking first in the grade a couple of times.
In the past two monthly exams, Lu Xingyan’s total score had hovered around 390, which was a bit of progress, as the monthly exams were much harder than the midterms.
With one exam after another, time unknowingly entered June.
The senior students in their final year had already geared up to prepare for the college entrance examination. They still had over half a month to go before they would bid farewell to their sophomore year.
Mingli has always been the venue for the college entrance examination, so the whole school would be off for those three days.
During the last two nights before the break, the freshmen and sophomores organized cheers during break time to cheer on the seniors for their upcoming exams.
The two teaching buildings also displayed lights, first spelling out “Mingli,” then “Go for it.”
If we talk about getting into the spirit of things, Li Chengfan, Zhao Langming, and the others were the most active, not only being active themselves but also not allowing others to be inactive.
Seeing Lu Xingyan sitting at his desk, looking disinterested, Li Chengfan pushed him, “What’s wrong with you, Yan Ge? You’ve been like you lost your mind lately, what are you thinking about?”
“I dreamt of a white peacock.”
He glanced at Li Chengfan, casually replied, and then yawned, feeling sleepy again.
“Just because you dreamt of a peacock, you’re like this?”
Li Chengfan was idle, so he took out his phone and searched for it.
After searching, Li Chengfan suddenly got excited, pushed Lu Xingyan again, and exclaimed, “Yan Ge, the internet says in the ‘Zhou Gong’s Dream Dictionary,’ dreaming of a peacock is very auspicious, it signifies good things happening.”
“Good news my foot.”
Li Chengfan stared at the screen and teased him, “Hey hey hey, what did you dream about? Did you dream of unlocking your phone? It says here that unmarried men who dream of unlocking their phones will soon find a partner!”
Upon hearing this, Lu Xingyan finally moved, lifting his eyelids to glance at him.
“I’m serious! I’m not kidding you!”
Li Chengfan handed him the phone to take a look.
Lu Xingyan had dreamt of a peacock unlocking its screen, but it didn’t say anything about the peacock turning into a person, let alone a dream within a dream situation.
Zhao Langming, upon hearing them mention peacocks, suddenly remembered something. “Hey, my uncle’s family even raises a peacock. My aunt treats it like a treasure, walking the peacock every day.”
Li Chengfan retorted, “Are you bragging? Since when can you raise a peacock?”
“What’s there to brag about? It’s true. Peacocks can be raised. It’s that…,” Zhao Langming recollected, “The green peacock is a protected species, not allowed for private ownership, but the blue peacock can be raised. You can even buy those mutated white peacocks online, just a bit more expensive, around one or two thousand.”
“So cheap?”
“Hey Yan Ge, isn’t your birthday coming up? How about Li Chengfan and I give you a peacock? Who knows, you might find a girlfriend.”
“Shut up.”
Lu Xingyan frowned, showing signs of annoyance at their incessant chatter.
But then, a bold idea popped into his mind.
As the evening self-study was coming to an end, Lu Xingyan was still buried at his desk, typing on his phone under the table, engrossed in a conversation with a seller on a certain e-commerce platform.
He had already thoroughly understood the methods of raising peacocks; it seemed hassle-free, and his mom would take good care of it.
He was discussing the logistics of how to pick up the goods.
Shen Xingruo called him twice, but he didn’t hear.
“Lu Xingyan, what are you buying? Are you buying resources for adult films?”
Shen Xingruo glanced at the screen of his phone under the table from a distance, unable to see the words clearly but could vaguely make out that he was chatting with a seller on a certain e-commerce platform.
Lu Xingyan had finalized his chat, heaved a sigh of relief, and finally heard Shen Xingruo speaking. He put away his phone, stretched his neck playfully, and jokingly replied, “No, I’m buying you.”