Chapter 11: I’m Really Not a Scumbag
“Lu Li, are you in there?”
No! Lu Li desperately wanted to shout it out. The person he least wanted to see was An Baili. But upon hearing An Baili’s call, Silly Goose foolishly prepared to answer. Lu Li quickly covered the girl’s mouth, holding her close, enveloped in her sweet fragrance.
“Shh, don’t let her find us.”
The Silly Goose in his arms struggled for a bit, then quieted down. Just as Lu Li was about to let go, An Baili’s dragging footsteps came from outside the door.
An Baili’s footsteps were particularly sluggish, as if she were wearing ill-fitting rain boots, trudging through the muddy ground after the rain. Lu Li held Chu Jingyi and crouched by the wall, effectively hiding from An Baili’s sight. He felt like a thief, a shameful one at that. When faced with something he couldn’t handle, Lu Li’s subconscious reaction was to avoid it. This was the case now. He couldn’t deal with An Baili’s unreasonable persistence, so he could only try his best to avoid her.
The superpower Lu Li desired most was mind-reading, because then he would know what was going on in An Baili’s head.
He felt warmth on his arm, the girl’s breath against his skin. Even through the school uniform, he could feel the beating of Silly Goose’s heart. It was beating fast, like a war drum, or like continuous heavy rain. Lu Li lowered his head and made a silent gesture to Chu Jingyi, but when his gaze fell on Silly Goose, he couldn’t look away.
Chu Jingyi’s skin had a pinkish hue, her eyes were misty as she looked up at him, her small mouth moist and glistening, like ripe cherries that made one’s mouth water.
He felt his breathing quicken slightly: “Don’t speak.”
The Class Monitor nodded obediently, like a docile lamb.
Don’t be so obedient, okay? Lu Li thought to himself. It would make him want to bully her.
“Lu Li, are you there?” An Baili’s voice came from the classroom. She looked inside from the window. “Hey, where are you?”
Chu Jingyi subconsciously wanted to push Lu Li away, but another voice in her head told her that it was normal for good friends to hug each other. Was it? The last vestiges of her reason rebelled, but in the end, they were swallowed by emotions she couldn’t understand.
Being held… felt so comfortable, so warm, so safe, and… sleepy.
Lu Li didn’t dare look at Chu Jingyi in his arms anymore. In his panic to avoid An Baili, he had created an even more awkward situation. If An Baili found them in this state, it would be impossible to explain, especially since Silly Goose had lost her mind for some reason, her eyes watery and affectionate, with the infatuated look of a young girl. He couldn’t help but slap himself. He was a grown man, was it necessary to hide like this?
“Don’t hit yourself, okay?” Silly Goose’s voice was very gentle. Usually, Silly Goose’s tone was generous and gentle, although soft, but completely different from the atmosphere of this sentence.
If she had a peaceful family, she would definitely be the typical virtuous wife and good mother, gentle and considerate, dignified and generous. The noble ladies in traditional culture who were devoted to their husbands and children, virtuous and kind, were probably nothing more than this. It was only then that Lu Li realized that Chu Jingyi was the perfect image of a partner in his mind, except for… the insurmountable class gap between them.
“I don’t want An Baili to find me.”
“Mmm…” A soft response, filled with a woman’s infinite tolerance and compromise. Nothing is more amorous than this, lost in the tenderness of love. This single “mmm” contained too much information. Lu Li realized that Silly Goose wasn’t silly at all. She had actually understood a lot, but she deliberately acted silly in front of him.
Even heroes succumb to the charms of beauties, let alone Lu Li, who wasn’t a hero. He felt his own heart pounding, a red carp named Chu Jingyi leaping in the lake of emotions that had been dormant for many years.
The next second, Chu Jingyi felt her lips being covered, her delicate body suddenly stiffening.
It’s, it’s normal for good, good friends to, to kiss…
She had completely lost her mind, thinking nonsense. She felt like she had done the most unimaginable thing in her life.
Outside the window, An Baili’s anxious calls continued. She felt inexplicably guilty, as if she had wronged An Baili, as if she were a despicable thief.
An Baili’s voice gradually faded away.
Silly Goose was now truly a silly goose, staring blankly at Lu Li, without any reaction. It seemed her brain had crashed.
Lu Li took a deep breath, inhaling the girl’s sweet scent into his lungs, and only then did he realize he had gone too far. He had been touched by Chu Jingyi’s expression in his panic, and in his infatuation, he had actually thought of spending his life with her, and then kissed her without thinking about the consequences. After calming down, he realized he was just being lustful!
He found excuses for himself in his heart. It wasn’t his fault, it was the fault of young people having too much hormone secretion and being unable to control themselves. It was also because the Class Monitor’s expression was too charming, anyone would be unable to resist.
“Kiss… that… why… did you… stick your tongue out…” Silly Goose asked hesitantly.
Is that what you’re asking? Shouldn’t you be slapping me?
Lu Li said: “Well, that’s how it’s done. It’s always like this. Mmm. That’s right.”
“…Is it… normal for… good friends… to do this…?” The little girl suddenly became worried.
Seeing her pitiful appearance, Lu Li couldn’t bear to lie to her: “No, it’s not.” He believed that if he said it was normal, this girl would definitely take his words as gospel and then ask for whatever she wanted. But the last bit of conscience Lu Li had left made him choose to tell the truth.
As expected, upon hearing this answer, Chu Jingyi’s eyes suddenly reddened: “Then, then what should I do? Did, did I make a big mistake…”
“I was the one who kissed you. I’m the one who made the mistake.”
Silly Goose’s small pink fist suddenly came up: “It’s all your fault! You bad guy!” Her fist was soft and had no strength at all. Lu Li puffed out his chest, letting her hit him more comfortably.
“You’re the biggest bad guy in the world! It’s all your fault! Wuu…”
When Silly Goose started to cry, Lu Li panicked. He reached out to hug and comfort her, but felt it was too intimate, so his hands hovered in mid-air, neither advancing nor retreating. It wasn’t Silly Goose who stopped him, but the image of Chu Jingyi’s family background that flashed through his mind.
Suddenly, Silly Goose stood up and rushed out the door, suppressing her sobs. Her face was a mixture of three parts regret, three parts panic, three parts bewilderment, and one part joy that only she knew. Lu Li stood up as if possessed, and shouted at her back: “I’m not a scumbag.”
Then, as if afraid his self-defense wasn’t strong enough, he shouted again: “I’m really not a scumbag!”
***
When Lu Li returned to the classroom of the second year (1) class of liberal arts, the seats of the two girls behind him – Chu Jingyi and An Baili – were both empty, their fragrant presence gone. His unknown female deskmate teased him: “Did you offend them?”
Lu Li gave a dry laugh, not knowing how to answer. He opened his school bag and suddenly his face changed color. The document Chu Xiaodong had given him was gone!
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