I’ll Walk Her Back
They all had class for the second period in the morning, so they packed up and left the library as class time approached.
After walking out of the main entrance, He Mingyu turned his head and saw the girl behind him, whether intentionally or not, walking side by side with Chen Luobai.
He paused his steps: “Zhou Anran.”
Zhou Anran also stopped: “What is it?”
He Mingyu, holding several books, looked at her: “See you at the cafeteria at noon.”
Zhou Anran: “…”
She had almost forgotten about this.
Feeling a gaze fall on her from the side, the guilt that had been swirling in Zhou Anran’s heart all morning suddenly peaked at this moment.
Under that gaze, she stiffly nodded.
Chen Luobai’s voice immediately sounded by her ear, his tone very flat: “You two have plans to eat together at noon?”
He Mingyu looked at him: “She helped me with something, so I’m treating her to a meal.”
“It was just explaining a few problems,” Zhou Anran added softly, “It hardly counts as helping.”
Chen Luobai’s gaze shifted from the girl with her head lowered beside him to He Mingyu, and he smiled: “You don’t mind one more person, do you? I happen to be eating alone at noon. Since she says it doesn’t count as helping, you don’t need to treat her. Let me treat you both. We three haven’t had a chance to get together alone since the start of the semester.”
He Mingyu’s gaze was neither avoiding nor confrontational: “She says it doesn’t count as helping and I don’t need to treat her, so what’s your reason for suddenly offering to treat us?”
“We’re all classmates, do we need a reason to treat each other to a meal?” Chen Luobai paused, his gaze falling back on the girl beside him, seeing her fair earlobe tinged with a faint red, “Don’t you agree, Zhou Anran?”
Zhou Anran: “…?”
She didn’t know if it was her imagination, but she felt like he had emphasized “We’re all classmates” a bit more than necessary.
Was he using her words to block her from eating alone with He Mingyu?
Zhou Anran didn’t know if she was overthinking again, and didn’t dare to respond to his question.
But whether it was true or not, she quite wanted to eat with him.
However, this way, it wouldn’t be right to let He Mingyu treat anymore. She felt He Mingyu didn’t need to treat her.
Zhou Anran thought for a moment, then raised her head: “How about I treat you both?”
He Mingyu’s fingers tightened on his books.
“We agreed that I would treat you,” he paused, then looked at Chen Luobai, “If you want to join, you’re welcome to come along.”
Chen Luobai raised an eyebrow slightly: “Alright then, thanks in advance.”
He Mingyu: “…”
Yu Xinyue, standing to the side, raised her hand to look at her watch: “Anran, are you done chatting? We need to get to the classroom.”
Zhou Anran: “Almost, wait for me a moment.”
After saying this, she turned her head to look at the tall young man beside her, her gaze slowly moving from his handsome, attractive face down to those long, beautiful hands.
He was still holding her pen and notebook.
“You—” Zhou Anran said one word, then stopped.
Chen Luobai looked at her leisurely, his pitch-black eyes carrying a smile, as if feigning ignorance: “I what?”
Zhou Anran: “…”
With He Mingyu and Yu Xinyue still there, she felt too embarrassed to ask him why he was keeping her things in front of them.
Besides, it was good that Yu Xinyue had come with her today. If it had been Bai Lingyun or Xie Jingyi, she would probably have been teased again.
Forget it.
If he wasn’t going to mention it.
She might as well play dumb too.
After all, the notebook she had brought today was new, with no notes in it.
After all… she didn’t want to give his notebook back to him either.
Zhou Anran averted her gaze: “Nothing, I’m leaving first.”
After saying this, the girl quickly left, pulling her friend along.
He Mingyu glanced at the things in Chen Luobai’s hand, his eyelashes lowering: “My classroom is that way, I’m leaving too.”
Chen Luobai was holding his books with one hand and looking at his phone, which had just made a sound, with the other. Without raising his head, he casually made an “Mm” sound: “See you at noon.”
He Mingyu: “…”
Chen Luobai stood at the library entrance for a moment.
Yuan Song ran out from inside.
“You waited for me,” Yuan Song said, tilting his head to look at him, “Didn’t you stay up until 3 AM last night? You got up so early today, but you look quite energetic.”
Chen Luobai put his phone back in his pocket and started walking: “I had a cup of coffee.”
“No wonder,” Yuan Song followed him towards the classroom, his gaze inadvertently glancing over, and his expression suddenly became a bit hard to describe, “Chen Luobai, I didn’t realize you had this kind of aesthetic.”
Chen Luobai turned his head: “What aesthetic?”
Yuan Song pointed at the pen and notebook in his arms: “This cute style, I thought only little girls liked this kind of thing.”
Chen Luobai followed the direction of his finger and also lowered his gaze to look at the things in his hand. That faint, elusive fragrance seemed to still linger.
The corner of his mouth curved: “Is there a possibility that these are a little girl’s things?”
Yuan Song: “…?”
Yuan Song was stunned for a moment, and after a few seconds, he realized: “Oh, they belong to that female classmate of yours? What’s the situation between you two now?”
Chen Luobai neither confirmed nor denied, casually changing the subject: “I won’t be eating with you guys at noon today.”
“Didn’t we agree that after finishing this group assignment, you’d treat us to a meal?” Yuan Song couldn’t care about gossip anymore.
Chen Luobai: “I’ll treat next time.”
“No way,” Yuan Song disagreed, “I’ve been looking forward to this meal for a long time. I barely ate anything for breakfast, waiting for this lunch. If you don’t give me a reasonable explanation, I’ll go have a chat with that female classmate of yours, and tell her that someone one day—”
“What do you want to eat?” Chen Luobai interrupted him, “I’ll order delivery for you guys.”
Yuan Song rubbed his chin: “Let me think… Nothing less than Australian lobster or king crab will be enough to shut me up today.”
Chen Luobai laughed: “Even sneakers couldn’t shut you up.”
Yuan Song pretended not to hear this: “Let’s go with Australian lobster then. If I get to eat that, I promise not to say anything I shouldn’t for the rest of the semester.”
“Get lost,” Chen Luobai cursed with a laugh.
*
When Zhou Anran and Yu Xinyue arrived at the classroom, Bai Lingyun and Xie Jingyi were already there early, having saved seats for them.
There were two seats next to the aisle.
Zhou Anran went in first, and as soon as she sat down, Xie Jingyi, sitting next to her, leaned over and asked in a low voice: “I heard Chen Luobai went to the library with you today, what was he doing at the library?”
“What else would he do at the library besides studying?” Zhou Anran said this with slightly less confidence.
However, apart from passing “notes” with her for a short while at the beginning, after keeping her notebook and pen, he had been seriously reviewing “Jurisprudence” the whole time.
Saying he went to study was indeed the truth.
“Doesn’t he usually not go to the library to study?” Xie Jingyi was surprised, “I thought he might have something to discuss with you.”
Zhou Anran was also surprised: “He doesn’t go to the library to study?”
Xie Jingyi: “You didn’t know?”
Zhou Anran shook her head.
But she indeed had never run into him at the library before.
“I only heard about it these past couple of days. He went once during the first few days of the semester,” Xie Jingyi said, “I heard he stayed for less than half an hour before four girls asked for his WeChat. After that, he never went again, always studying in his dorm room instead.”
Zhou Anran: “He never told me about that.”
It seemed that apart from that day when she actively asked him why he was studying law, he hadn’t told her much about himself.
The uncertainty in Zhou Anran’s heart suddenly grew a bit larger.
“Never mind, let’s not talk about this,” Xie Jingyi saw she couldn’t get any information and changed the subject, “Which cafeteria are we eating at for lunch?”
Yu Xinyue quietly interjected: “She’s not eating with us at noon. Chen Luobai and that classmate from the Physics Department are treating her to lunch.”
Xie Jingyi and Bai Lingyun both turned to look at her.
Zhou Anran silently nodded.
Nie Zizhen, who had somehow ended up sitting in front of her again, suddenly turned around: “Zhou Anran, didn’t you say you were just ordinary classmates with Chen Luobai and that handsome guy from the Physics Department? How come you’re going to the library with them and eating with them? If you’re just ordinary classmates with them, shouldn’t you keep some distance? Otherwise, it’s not fair for other girls to approach them.”
Zhou Anran was stunned for a moment.
The class bell suddenly rang.
Nie Zizhen turned back around.
Xie Jingyi leaned over slightly, lowering her voice: “Don’t mind her. It’s none of her business who you eat with.”
Zhou Anran shook her head: “It’s fine.”
Apart from her unpleasant tone and exaggeration of the facts, what Nie Zizhen said wasn’t entirely wrong.
But she and He Mingyu weren’t keeping their distance. They barely exchanged WeChat messages, and running into each other at the library was always by chance.
As for Chen Luobai—
If he only saw her as an ordinary classmate, then she should indeed keep some distance from him.
But…
Would an ordinary classmate care if she brought an extra cup of coffee for another male classmate? Would they keep her notebook and pen for no reason?
Zhou Anran’s gaze slowly fell on his notebook on her desk.
A plain black cover, a very simple notebook.
She didn’t want to give this notebook back to him because she liked him.
Zhou Anran’s fingertip lightly poked the cover of his notebook.
What about him?
What was he thinking?
*
After two class periods, when Zhou Anran arrived at the cafeteria entrance, Chen Luobai and He Mingyu were already waiting outside.
Both were playing with their phones, looking as if they hadn’t been talking to each other.
As Zhou Anran approached, He Mingyu put his phone back in his pocket and asked her: “Where do you want to eat, first floor or second floor?”
The second floor of this cafeteria was the ordering area, which would be more expensive than the first floor.
Zhou Anran didn’t want him to spend too much: “Is the first floor okay?”
He Mingyu turned to Chen Luobai: “What about you?”
The young man was playing with his phone using both hands. Hearing this, he jerked his chin slightly towards Zhou Anran: “Let’s go with her choice.”
Zhou Anran: “…”
After getting their food on the first floor and sitting down to eat, Zhou Anran regretted her decision a bit.
Because someone had boldly taken the seat next to her, and as she lowered her head to eat, she could see from the corner of her eye that he had barely touched the food on his tray, seeming to have only eaten a few bites of rice.
Did he not like the food?
That time, Senior Yu seemed to have mentioned that he was very picky about food.
Zhou Anran ate rather slowly.
By the time He Mingyu had finished all his food and put down his chopsticks, she still had almost half of her meal left, while the person next to her seemed to have never been interested in eating, looking like he could put down his chopsticks at any moment.
Zhou Anran didn’t like making others wait, so she unconsciously sped up her chewing.
Chen Luobai’s familiar voice suddenly sounded in her ear: “No rush, eat slowly.”
“There’s no hurry,” He Mingyu also added, “Take your time.”
Zhou Anran slowed down again.
Then she heard He Mingyu ask her: “After you finish eating, are you going back to the dorm or continuing to the library?”
Zhou Anran looked up: “Back to the dorm, why?”
“I have two more English problems I wanted to ask you about,” He Mingyu said.
Zhou Anran nodded, about to say she’d take a look after finishing her meal when she heard that clean voice beside her speak up again.
“Ask me.”
Zhou Anran: “…?”
Chen Luobai put down his chopsticks: “My English is only slightly worse than hers. What she knows, I should know too. Since she hasn’t finished eating yet, why don’t I take a look for you?”
He Mingyu: “…”
Zhou Anran: “??”
Since when was his English only slightly worse than hers?
Apart from that time in their first year of high school when she overheard that he couldn’t even remember her name, she had only outscored him once after that. Most of the time, his grades were higher than hers.
Chen Luobai raised his eyes to look at the young man across from him: “Or do you not want my help?”
He Mingyu heard the unspoken second half of his sentence: “No, that’s not it. Thank you for your help then.”
Chen Luobai got up and moved to sit across from him.
By the time Zhou Anran finished the rest of her meal, they had just finished discussing the problems.
“Finished eating?” He Mingyu asked her, “Are you going back to the dorm?”
Zhou Anran nodded and casually asked them: “Are you two going back to the library?”
“I’m going back to the dorm too,” He Mingyu paused, then looked at Chen Luobai, “What about you?”
Chen Luobai was casually playing with his phone, sitting in a relaxed posture. Hearing this, he raised his chin towards Zhou Anran again, his tone lazy: “I’ll walk her back.”