I Like Your Pheromones - Chap 61
He Yunsheng’s condition gradually stabilized by the time the year turned over. At the beginning of March and then through April, Fu Yuan specially took a leave and went over to Ning City.
In the second semester of the second year of high school, teachers of all subjects began a round of general review.
Duan Jiayan showed extraordinary perseverance in studying like this. Though Song Yi and the others still managed to joke about it at the start, by the end even Shen Chilie was not laughing.
Once the final exams were completely over, they would all be moving to the senior high school building.
“Son,” Shen Chilie patted Duan Jiayan’s shoulder from the back. He glanced at the learning guide in his hand and sighed with deep emotion: “When you graduate, you are going to be the fresh example of a prodigal son!”
“…you are the fresh example.”
“I started to make up for my English classes last week,” said Shen Chilie. “I hope I can still be saved.”
Duan Jiayan looked at him strangely: “Didn’t you claim to be a talented player. Do you really need to make up classes in this life?”
“Just treat all that as nonsense.” Shen Chilie said frankly: “I have found that everyone except your boyfriend is not a talented player.”
Duan Jiayan nodded in agreement: “Thank you for the praise.”
Seeing that Duan Jiayan was still continuing to move forward, Shen Chilie laughed: “Stupid? Your new classroom is here.”
Duan Jiayan snorted a laugh and turned back.
He glanced at the classroom door.
Class 30.
They had become the senior most students of highschool.
The autumn breeze swept across the stadium, the sky was bright, and the air was filled with the scent of sun-heated flowers and plants.
The basketball in Zhou Xingyu’s hand repeatedly bounced on the ground. And as he finished playing with the other boys in the class, there was a noisy atmosphere all around.
“Is the answer for the last question of mathematics b?”
“Isn’t it c?”
“I just asked Lu-ge and he chose b. My heart has gone cold.”
“I marked five wrong answers out of the ten questions. It’s over, I’m finished.” It was unknown who sighed: “The difficulty of this monthly test is really too much.”
The first monthly exam of the third year of high school has just passed, and according to the usual marking speed of the school, all the results would be released tomorrow at the latest.
Zhou Xingchen looked back, but didn’t see the figure behind him: “Where’s Duan Jiayan?”
“Supermarket.” Chen Yue raised his chin: “He went to buy water with Lu-ge.”
“Have you brought your cell phone? Ask him to bring me a bottle of Coke. I left my cell phone in the classroom.”
Chen Yue looked at him sideways while sending a message.
Seeing that Zhou Xingchen’s face was not looking very good, he hesitated for a moment: “How have you been getting along with Gu Li recently?”
Zhou Xingchen pursed his lips, and there was a trace of anxiety in his eyes.
After a long time, he answered vaguely, “It’s okay”
When Duan Jiayan came back, in addition to his own sports drink, he also handed Zhou Xingchen a bottle of Coke.
He put the Coke on the corner of Zhou Xingchen’s table, who was laying down on it and just thanked him listlessly. Duan Jiayan glanced at him a couple of times before leaving.
After returning to his seat, Duan Jiayan turned over the exam papers for the next class and asked his deskmate, “Xiao-Zhou has been very mournful recently?”
Lu Xingci saw that he had messed up the desk, and took out the test paper from the book for him: “You put the test paper in the physics book last week.”
Duan Jiayan looked at the test paper that he had been searching for for a long time and his eyes widened in surprise.
He reached for the test paper in his hand and leaned forward slightly. Lu Xingci took this oppurtunity and raised his hand, hooking his chin with his fingers like he was a cat. Then he answered his previous question: “He’s been unable to lift his spirits recently, it seems to be because of Gu Li.”
Hearing this, Duan Jiayan looked at the depressed Zhou Xingchen with some sympathy.
Gu Li is an art student. In the second semester of high school, she went to another place for training, so she and Zhou Xingchen were in a long-distance relationship. At the end of last semester, the two seemed to almost break up due to academic pressure.
Perhaps because this was the first monthly exam for the third year of senior high school, the marking speed of the first high school was exceptionally fast. That afternoon, people came to the office one after another to check the results, saying that they were looking at the ranking table and the total score had come out.
At the end of class, the school committee posted the new ranking list on the classroom wall.
Chen Yue went to take a look at the results, and when he came back, he couldn’t help but say to Lu Xing: “You are really terrifying. This time you can stabilize above 700. Is it that you are a special beast?”
This monthly exam was very difficult. Only Lu Xingci out of all the classes had a total score of 700. When Zhao Minjun told him his total score in the morning, Lu Xingci smiled and asked, “How much was yours?”
“632, I ranked tenth in the grade.” Chen Yue answered, then remembered something: “Shen Chilie is also fine, just one behind me. He didn’t hold back his English this time.”
Duan Jiayan was taking a nap with his head down since he was sleepy from doing the questions. But he could vaguely hear them discussing their grades.
Seeing Duan Jiayan open his eyes and look over, Chen Yue snorted: “I forgot to check your score, you go and take a look?”
Duan Jiayan just happened to want to go to the toilet, as such, he yawned lazily and stood up.
When looking at the results, Duan Jiayan was used to looking for his name somewhere around the middle. But after not finding it even after looking for a few seconds, he kept scanning down, only to see his name in the lower segment.
English 108, Mathematics 88, Chinese 102, Science 140.
438.
This score, he couldn’t even touch the middle line.
Duan Jiayan was silent for a while.
Although he had long felt that he did not perform well in this monthly test, when he actually saw the score, he couldn’t help but feel that it really was too unsatisfactory.
On the way to the toilet, Duan Jiayan was somewhat irritable thinking about his grades. Since the second year of high school, with Lu Xing’s guidance he has studied as hard as possible. This was the first time he had performed so badly in the test.
In the toilet, after he was done washing his hands and was just closing off the water, he heard Zhou Xingchen’s voice.
Because he was standing at the entrance of the stairs, Zhou Xingchen’s voice was a little unclear. Duan Jiayan only heard him raise his voice slightly and say something, and then he seemed to hang up on the phonecall.
Duan Jiayan saw that his mood did not seem to be right, and called out, “Zhou Xingchen?”
But the boy with his back turned to him didn’t respond.
Duan Jiayan called his name again.
This time Zhou Xingchen answered sullenly. Duan Jiayan went down the stairs taking two or three steps at a time, and was about to go around to Zhou Xingchen and ask him what was wrong, when the latter turned around himself.
His eyes were red.
And he was crying.
Duan Jiayan was dumbfounded.
Zhou Xingchen cried even harder when he saw him: “Just now, the Gu-Li broke up with me.”
Duan Jiayan was stunned: “But…why did you break up?”
“Long distance relationship, she said she can’t stand it. Saying she’s tired every day, I’m fucking tired…aren’t I fucking tired too?”
“Don’t cry,” Duan Jiayan patted him on the back: “It’s alright, speak slowly.”
“She said that she was under a lot of pressure, and she was afraid that she would not be able to get into a good school, or that she would not be in the same city as me.” Zhou Xingchen looked at him, and his suppressed emotions seemed to have found a breakthrough, and his voice choked: “She also said that the gap between our families is too great, she said my parents are ordinary people. Who cares about that, I think she’s just trying to find an excuse to dump me… Are all women like this?”
Duan Jiayan hesitated for a moment, then stretched out his hand to embrace Zhou Xingchen’s shoulder: “Brother, if you really want to cry, then cry to your heart’s content. I’ll accompany you.”
Zhou Xingchen was taller than him, and he had to lift his head up to his shoulders to hug him.
Duan Jiayan pondered silently, this scene should be like comforting a huge husky.
While Zhou Xingchen was crying, he still barely kept his sanity: “No, don’t hold me for too long, Brother Lu will kill me if he smells my pheromones.”
Duan Jiayan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and let go of him.
Zhou Xingchen sniffed and suddenly said, “Sometimes I think you are really awesome. You don’t seem to be afraid of anything.”
Duan Jiayan was slightly at a loss: “What should I be afraid of?”
“You and Brother Lu,” Zhou Xingchen paused, but still couldn’t hold back: “Aren’t you afraid of being separated from him?”
When Duan Jiayan heard this, he couldn’t answer for a while.
The scores of this monthly test passed through his mind, as if a conditioned reflex. The question that has been buried in his heart and had never surfaced in the past six months was brought up suddenly.
If he failed the college entrance examination fails, will he separate from Lu Xingci?
He felt that according to his and Lu Xingci’s personalities, it was impossible for them to be separated directly, but this did not mean that there was no possibility of a long-distance relationship.
After a long time, would they both feel tired like Zhou Xingchen and Gu Li?
The three words of ‘long-distance lovers’ touched his nerves.
Something distant, which he had almost forgotten, suddenly became clear again. When he was young, the big empty house, his parents who were always busy with work, when Fu Yuan divorced, she repeatedly mentioned the word ‘separation’ to the lawyer…
Seeing that Duan Jiayan didn’t speak, and remembering that Duan Jiayan also seemed to have failed the monthly exam, Zhou Xingchen’s face flashed with a trace of apprehension.
“That’s not what I meant,” Zhou Xingchen said a little uneasily, “I just don’t think these things about the future are set in stone yet.”
He scratched his head and added, “You and Brother Lu will definitely not be separated. He won’t let this happen.”
Zhou Xingchen was quite serious when he said this, and Duan Jiayan looked at him with mixed feelings for a while.
After all, even Lu Xingci cannot guarantee that the future will follow the expected direction.
Back at the clsssroom, in the afternoon Lu Xingci could vaguely felt that Duan Jiayan’s situation was not the same as usual.
Usually the other party would listen carefully, but today he was uncharacteristically in a daze for most of the class.
Lu Xingci saw that he had been twirling the pen with a blank face for quite a while, and he could only think of Duan Jiayan’s monthly test results: “Are you in a bad mood?”
Duan Jiayan nodded.
“Is it because of the monthly test?”
Duan Jiayan nodded and shook his head again.
Compared with the monthly exam, what he cared more about was the question that Zhou Xingchen had raised unintentionally. He has been wandering for so many years, and it is only now that he really feels regret.
When Lu Xing had more than 700 scores in his monthly test, he could only wander under the bottom line. If he had been a little more interested in learning since he was a child, he wouldn’t be as bad as he was now.
It seems that it is really not that easy to catch up with each other’s footsteps.
Lu Xingci saw that he was suddenly listless, and for a moment wanted to ask if he was infected by Zhou Xingchen.
He stopped writing and was about to have a serious chat with Duan Jiayan when the latter suddenly said:
“Zhou Xingchen and Gu Li have been in different places for several months, and they split this afternoon.”
Lu Xingci was slightly startled, a little surprised: “Why?”
“The academic pressure is too great, the family gap is too big, and it is a long-distance relationship. Zhou Xingchen said that they basically have no time to talk every day, and feel that they have no future.”
He spoke a little faster, as if he had already thought about what to say. Lu Xingci did not interrupt, waiting for him to continue.
Duan Jiayan paused for a few seconds, with a hesitant expression on his face: “If I fail the college entrance examination and I go to another place, will we…”
He didn’t say those words.
“No.” Lu Xingci reassured him: “This time the questions were very difficult, Mr. Zhao told me privately that the teachers of the grade group were afraid that most people would not be able to accept the level of questions when they were just entering the third year of high school, so they deliberately asked the questions in this way. It’s very difficult because they want to sound the alarm for everyone. You didn’t pass the exam this time, it doesn’t mean that the college entrance examination will also be like this. “
“Even if I did well in the college entrance examination.” Duan Jiayan hesitated: “It seems that it is still uncertain about things in other places.”
“Then you can study hard in the last year.” He patiently comforted: “If you continue to study like this, you will be able to pass at least one course in the end. Then there will be many universities to choose from.”
“Well,” Duan Jiayan answered vaguely after listening to him, “I’ll try.”
Lu Xingci narrowed his eyes slightly when he heard his inexplicable answer.
He didn’t know whether Duan Jiayan really was listening to him, or was simply agreeing with him. The other party’s ambiguous answer made him feel powerless.
After dating for such a long time, it was the first time he saw Duan Jiayan’s listless appearance. While helpless, he was also a little worried.
He helplessly asked: “Do you not believe in yourself, or do you not believe in me?”
“It’s not whether I believe it or not.” Duan Jiayan paused for a while: “What will happen in the future, I don’t seem to be sure…”
Lu Xingci’s eyelids moved, and he asked softly, “Then what do you think is uncertain?”
Duan Jiayan didn’t answer immediately.
After a while.
“Lu Xingci.” Duan Jiayan suddenly called him and murmured, “Will we also break up?”
This mindless question made Lu Xingci’s lips curve down, and his eyebrows raised slightly.
He endured, trying to control his anger and his tone was cold: “What did you say?”
He really didn’t expect that he would be provoked because of this kind of thing. It was obvious that Duan Jiayan was not in a good state right now.
He would’ve understood him. But it was probably due to an alpha’s nature, or maybe it was because of his inherent strength. Once Duan Jiayan hinted any intention to leave him, no matter the reason, he would have the urge to bind him up for the rest of his life.
Duan Jiayan was under pressure, but so was he.
Before entering the third year of high school, his father had asked him seriously if he planned to go abroad after graduation.
Jiang Yao knew that he wouldn’t let Duan Jiayan go, and kept hinting to his father to dispel this idea. The latter saw Lu Xingci’s firm attitude and did not persuade him again.
He never mentioned these things to Duan Jiayan.
Duan Jiayan saw that there was no expression on his face, and suddenly realized what nonsense he had said to him.
It was as if he was waking up from a dream.
Duan Jiayan almost had the urge to punch himself, and he opened his mouth to explain.
However, Lu Xingci turned his eyes and ignored Duan Jiayan.
He was holding the pen in his hand and his knuckles were white, his grip was so strong that it seemed the pen would break. It was obvious that he was holding back his anger.
Seeing him like this, Duan Jiayan slowed down, his voice a little hoarse: “I just…”
The chemistry teacher on the podium couldn’t help but slam her hand on the blackboard twice.
“Duan Jiayan, are you still in the mood to chat with others in class?”
“Look at what you did in the exam this time. You finally made some progress last semester. Teachers in several subjects have praised you before. Why do you want to relax at the most critical time?”
The teacher frowned when she saw his head bowed, and finally sternly admonished: “Listen to the class well and stop gossiping.”
Being scolded like this, Duan Jiayan could no longer continue talking.
When the class bell rang and the teacher left, he hurriedly called out to Lu Xingci. The latter lifted his eyelids and gave him a cool look.
Lu Xingci’s eyes were pitch-black and clear, coupled with his single eyelids, it made him seem extremely alienated and indifferent.
For a moment, Duan Jiayan’s mind went blank.
Seeing him staring at him blankly, Lu Xingci tutted in his heart: “Speak if you have something to say.”
“…”
Realizing that the other party was really angry, Duan Jiayan awkwardly cleared his throat, the explanation he had thought about earlier choking in his mouth.
He didn’t know if saying those words now would make the other party even more angry.
He didn’t speak for a long time, and the trace of expectation in Lu Xingci’s heart was also worn away, so he simply withdrew his gaze and didn’t look at him again.
Duan Jiayan looked at his profile blankly, almost at a loss.
From the second year of high school to now, Lu Xingci has never lost his temper with him. The last time he was angry was because of his stress disorder, but they were not a couple at that time, and in the end, Lu Xing gave in to coax him.
Duan Jiayan sighed in his heart, and the emotions of regret poured out overwhelmingly. If time could be reversed, he would definitely rush to stop himself from talking nonsense.
He clearly knew Lu Xingci’s feelings better than anyone else, how could he say such stupid words?
He blinked, staring at Lu Xingci for a moment.
But it’s still handsome when angry…
Duan Jiayan felt that he might be brain damaged . He threw away those inexplicable thoughts and began to think hard about how to coax people.
If my boyfriend is angry, what should I do?
After thinking about it for a long time, Duan Jiayan had a flash of reason in his mind, and he suddenly came up with a solution that was not really a solution.
When the school bell rang, Chen Yue glanced at the back row.
Usually during this time period, Duan Jiayan would squabble with Lu Xingci, and sometimes he would send the other out of school on a whim.
But today, the two are uncharacteristically silent. This silence made Chen Yue in the front row extremely uncomfortable.
Recently, because of Zhou Xingchen’s affairs, Chen Yue was very sensitive to the couples around him. He asked in a low voice, “What happened to them?”
Song Yi also lowered his voice: “I don’t know. Why doesn’t the class leader speak?”
Only looking straight ahead.
Duan Jiayan stood up suddenly, speaking very fast: “Lu Xingci, come to the rooftop later.”
After he finished speaking, he walked out with his schoolbag on one shoulder.
Chen Yue was almost dumbfounded, and he said, “Fuck me, what kind of plague have the couples around me contracted recently?” How come they were also fighting?
Not to mention, Lu Xingci is different from that fool Zhou Xingchen. What is wrong with Duan Jiayan and him? He wasn’t sure as of what was happening.
Song Yi’s thinking was not as complicated as Chen Yue’s, he looked at Lu Xingci in a weird manner, and based on his understanding of Duan Jiayan, he vaguely expressed his true thoughts: “Is Xiao Duan finally going to have a scene of domestic violence… “
In the second half of the sentence, Song Yi swallowed it with his remaining string of rationality.
He thought to himself, Sure enough, Duan Jiayan was still ruthless.
With any other omega, facing Lu Xingci, how could it be possible to behave like this.
Lu Xingci, who was being watched by them, was expressionless and his voice came out cold and flat: “Who knows what he is going to do.”
Song Yi looked at him like this, and after he finished saying that, the class leader didn’t speak further.
Although he din’t know what had happened to the two of them, according to Duan Jiayan’s character, being irritated at such a critical moment will definitely be a disturbance for a while.
Lu Xingci threw his homework into his schoolbag and walked to the door of the classroom.
Seeing this, Chen Yue quickly asked, “Hey, where are you going? Why don’t we go back together?”
Lu Xingci glanced back at him: “I’m going to the rooftop, you go back by yourself.”
Chen Yue: “…”
Chen Yue had just felt that he was cold and indifferent just now, but when that someone called him, he still went right away?
When he left, Chen Yue sighed: “Fuck, my father is going to go crazy. I suggest you call Duan Jiayan in half an hour to make sure he is still safe.”
Song Yi was terrified: “Is it really so serious?”
Chen Yue: “I think it’s quite serious.”
After Duan Jiayan left the classroom, he couldn’t help sticking to the wall and peeking into the classroom.
He wanted to be as serious as possible just now, but as soon as he left the classroom, he felt that he was too serious, as if he was asking Lu Xing to break up.
He was afraid that Lu Xingci would ignore him, then he saw that Lu Xingci had finished collecting his things, he seemed to be leaving, and Chen Yue had not moved. Duan Jiayan breathed a sigh of relief and started running towards the rooftop.
The roof of the third grade teaching building is locked all the year round to prevent accidents, but there is a gap in the stairs, and it is possible to come up by turning it over.
On the night of early autumn, the sky seems even higher and distant, and when you look up, you can vaguely see the twinkling stars faraway.
On the rooftop, Duan Jiayan hesitated for a while, then reached out to touch his schoolbag.
He thought about it for a long time in the afternoon and felt that this matter could not be left like this, he had to have a serious talk with Lu Xingci.
He went to the supermarket to buy seven or eight cans of beer and filled his entire schoolbag. Duan Jiayan took out a beer and felt that this was probably the most profitable time of his three years in high school.
The beer is strong but seems cowardly.
He didn’t expect that one day, he would also be that coward.
“I don’t want to break up with you, I’m just afraid of a long-distance relationships. To tell you the truth, my parents divorced because of long-term separation. Of course, even if we are really in different places, I will come to see you.” Duan Jiayan said to himself. He rehearsed in a low voice to himself: “What do you think about meeting once every two weeks? You fly over once, and I fly over once? How about once a week, and I’ll pay you for airfare.”
When he said this, he couldn’t help laughing, and finally found something interesting after a night of frustration: “I almost forgot, you are a person with a private jet.”
He was pressing down in a low voice, when footsteps came from the door of the rooftop.
He stood up and saw Lu Xingci approaching. The latter’s eyes swept across the neatly arranged row of beers and he silently grinded his back molars.
So neat.
Pretty well prepared.
Seeing that he didn’t speak, Duan Jiayan just glanced at the beer at his feet, this situation was making him feel both nervous and a little shameful.
Lu Xingci walked over to him, lowered his body and picked up a can of beer. He hooked his index finger, and opened the easy-to-pull loop with one hand.
Then he simply lifted it up to his mouth, making his sharp jaw line visible, and his Adam’s apple bobbed.
The faint smell of beer floated in the air, Duan Jiayan was about to say he was drinking too fast, but Lu Xingci held the empty beer can in his hand, his emotions were unclear: “What, you want to use the strength of the wine to break up?”
He knew that Duan Jiayan would not break up so easily, but he still couldn’t help guessing the worst outcome.
Emotions seem to always be a dilemma.
He will also be so straightforward and unprepared, and put the question that frightens him the most before Duan Jiayan.
Duan Jiayan was stunned: “I…”
“We can discuss other things.” Lu Xingci interrupted him.
Duan Jiayan was about to say that there is no need to discuss, that he had no such ideas. However, Lu Xingci flattened the beer can in his hand and smashed it on the roof wall.
A crisp and harsh sound.
It was the sound of metal hitting the cement surface.
The beer can, which was completely flattened into a ball, bounced off the ground and rolled twice. Duan Jiayan was stunned, and the boy standing in front of him had a warning in his tone: “Only this, don’t even think about it.”
Duan Jiayan saw that he was so imposing, and felt that he, who took the initiative to invite someone to talk, couldn’t be acting so fishy.
He imitated Lu Xingci and drank an empty can of beer in one breath. Probably because of the atmosphere, or because the alcohol had an effect, an inexplicable impulse surged up.
His blood boiled.
After all previous drafts that he had prepared before were thrown into the brain, Duan Jiayan raised his eyebrows and asked sincerely: “In your eyes, do I look like a fool?”
“…”
Lu Xingci had thought about countless possibilities, but did not expect him to say this.
Without waiting for Lu Xingci to speak, Duan Jiayan answered his question himself.
“Whoever breaks up with you is an idiot,” Duan Jiayan spoke quickly: “I’m not an idiot.”
