MM | Chapter 48

Exchange

In “Magpie Bridge,” countless winding cobblestone paths crisscross like vines. Whoever designed them must have had a clever idea, as they certainly provide convenience for the campus couples.

Sometimes, Big Mouth Xu would bring people to patrol, but there were too many paths. Block the east, and the west would be open. The kids were nothing if not alert; they’d run at the slightest hint of trouble, making it hard to catch them.

Plus, there were non-couples who took shortcuts through there, so even if a few students were caught, conclusions couldn’t be hastily drawn.

This gave Big Mouth Xu a headache, and he had to coordinate with homeroom teachers for joint education efforts.

Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian chose the nearest path and quickly left the grove.

As they were about to exit, Sheng Wang glanced to the side and happened to see two figures walking together in the distance. The boy was wearing a wide-striped T-shirt. The shirt seemed familiar, but Sheng Wang couldn’t place it and didn’t have the mind to think about it.

On the way back, he didn’t talk much.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to; it was just that every topic seemed a bit abrupt or silly. Jiang Tian was also quiet, his long fingers tucked into his pockets, a bag slung over his left shoulder. It wasn’t even his bag, yet he carried it so naturally.

He always seemed so natural, only occasionally lowering his eyes, lost in thought.

For the first time, Sheng Wang realized how long Road No. 3 was. It felt like a century had passed without reaching the end. Fortunately, as they passed the sports field, someone finally saved them from the strange atmosphere.

“Sister Jing,” Sheng Wang greeted.

Yang Jing, with her high ponytail, was wearing running gear and coming from the side gate of the sports field. She waved at them while removing her sweatband.

“It’s only been a few days, and you’re eager to come back? Miss class that much?” Yang Jing asked.

Sheng Wang quickly seized the legitimate reason, replying, “Yes, I’m afraid if I rest for half a month, my grades will fall back to square one.”

“That’s impossible,” Yang Jing said, knowing he was just being cute. She rolled her eyes and added, “You’ve got the foundation and the brains. Even if you don’t study, you won’t fall too far behind.”

She was always straightforward but added, “I’m not saying you should slack off. When it’s time to work hard, put in the effort. The results will always be better than not trying, right?”

“Of course,” Sheng Wang replied.

“But don’t push yourself too hard,” Yang Jing said, looking down at his ankle. “I sprained my wrist last semester, and it took over a month to heal. Even now, it still hurts if I grade too many papers. Is your foot fully healed? Walking around like this, don’t leave any aftereffects. I’m telling you, if it’s not healed, it’s easy to sprain it again. Do it a few times, and you’ll end up with a permanent limp.”

Sheng Wang turned a bit pale at her words.

“Don’t scare the students,” a voice interjected. Sheng Wang turned to see Teacher Zhuang Heng, whom he’d met at the clinic. He was also in running gear, holding two bottles of water, coming from the direction of Xi Le.

Yang Jing took a bottle from him and said, “Who’s scaring him? Tell me where I’m wrong, and correct me.”

Even the school leaders wouldn’t dare correct her, let alone Zhuang Heng. He quickly said, “No, no, Teacher Yang is right—”

He cleared his throat and turned to Sheng Wang, saying, “But do be careful. If you sprain it too much, your foot will be beyond saving. Such a handsome face with a limp, what a pity. Imagine that, isn’t it true?”

“…”

Sheng Wang didn’t want to imagine.

Seeing Zhuang Heng’s quick change of allegiance, Sheng Wang thought Gao Tianyang’s complaints were spot on—people in love or about to be in love have something wrong with their heads.

Yang Jing tapped Zhuang Heng’s arm with the bottle and said, “I wanted it cold. Is this cold?”

The bottle had no condensation, clearly room temperature.

Zhuang Heng said, “The store ran out of cold ones. They just stocked a new batch, and I got the ones from the back.”

Yang Jing looked at him suspiciously, but Zhuang Heng remained calm.

Sheng Wang thought, “Who are you kidding?” The Xi Le Convenience Store, next to the sports field, always had plenty of cold drinks. Sister Jing isn’t stupid; how could she believe such nonsense?

Yet, after a moment of staring him down, Yang Jing reluctantly opened the room temperature bottle and said, “Fine…”

Sheng Wang: “?”

At that moment, he saw “soft-heartedness” in this iron lady.

Maybe Sheng Wang’s expression of watching gossip was too obvious. After taking a sip of water, Yang Jing felt a bit awkward. She nodded toward Road No. 3 and said to the two boys, “Alright, if there’s nothing else, get going! The power’s back, so hit the books. I’m telling you, don’t just focus on physics and chemistry, especially you, Jiang Tian. Spending some time on English won’t kill you.”

Jiang Tian never expected to be criticized for doing nothing. He had no intention of reflecting and simply said, “Oh,” as if he heard her.

“Oh, my foot. Will you change after ‘oh’? You won’t,” Yang Jing retorted mercilessly. “Anyway, there’s training next month, followed by exams. Since you made it to the semifinals, bring back a higher prize, or see how I deal with you.”

“Got it. Then, teacher, we’re heading back to the dorm,” Sheng Wang said, nudging Jiang Tian to hurry up.

After walking a few steps, Sheng Wang analyzed like an expert, “I suspect Sister Jing was embarrassed, trying to cover it up.”

“What are you talking about, Sheng Wang?” Yang Jing asked sharply.

Oops, she’d heard.

Sheng Wang was about to run, but then remembered his “condition,” so he turned running into hopping on one foot. Jiang Tian even helped him along for a few steps.

His strong survival instinct was thwarted by reality. The scene was too comical to think about. As they hopped past the corner of Duxing Building, Jiang Tian couldn’t hold back his laughter. Sheng Wang, sitting on the edge of a flower bed, laughed so hard he almost fell into the bushes.

He leaned on his knees, shaking with laughter for a while, finally stopping with a curse. He pointed at Jiang Tian and said, “Shut up, no laughing. It’s your fault; couldn’t you hold it in?”

Jiang Tian composed himself, but his eyes still sparkled with amusement. He adjusted his backpack strap and looked down, asking, “Whose fault is it again?”

“Yours,” the young master shamelessly insisted. “Aren’t you supposed to be aloof? What kind of aloof person laughs so easily? Normally, you don’t have such a low laugh threshold, but with me, you break. What’s up with that?”

Jiang Tian was a bit helpless. He turned his head, chuckled briefly, then turned back and asked, “Do you even make sense?”

Sheng Wang shrugged, indicating he didn’t.

Jiang Tian laughed in exasperation.

Sheng Wang’s mood instantly lifted, sweeping away the boredom and gloom from being cooped up at home for days.

After laughing together for a while, his expression gradually faded. He suddenly realized that whenever Jiang Tian showed that helpless look, he felt incredibly happy.

Maybe it was because Jiang Tian was so cold to others that these reactions seemed exceptionally special, and he enjoyed this uniqueness.

Why was that?

Was it because there had always been too few people he could get close to? Or was it something else?

Only the top-floor offices of Duxing Building were lit, and the garden in front was shrouded in deep night, so dark that you could see the occasional firefly flicker through the bushes, or maybe it was just a trick of the eyes.

Perhaps tired from laughing, neither of them spoke. After a while, Jiang Tian withdrew his gaze from some distant void, glanced at Sheng Wang’s lowered eyes, and after a moment of silence, asked, “Rested enough?”

Sheng Wang was a bit lost in thought and only responded after a pause, “Hmm?”

“Let’s head back to the dorm,” Jiang Tian said.

“Oh.”

Sheng Wang replied and saw Jiang Tian extend his hand, tilting his head slightly, saying, “Let’s go.”

His hand was large but not thick, with long, straight fingers that felt dry and slightly cool. Sheng Wang’s fingers curled as he braced against his knee, grasping Jiang Tian’s hand to stand up.

Jiang Tian didn’t immediately let go, steadily supporting him as they walked a bit. It wasn’t until the noisy voices of the dorm and the bright lights hit their eyes that Sheng Wang snapped back to reality.

He withdrew his hand and changed his grip, holding Jiang Tian’s arm. Under Jiang Tian’s sidelong glance, he said, “Support me a bit. Luckily, we’re going up six floors, not down. I find going up is okay, but going down hurts a bit.”

“Did you bring the anti-swelling medicine?” Jiang Tian asked.

“I almost forgot it when I left, but Aunt Jiang stuffed it in my bag,” Sheng Wang said sheepishly.

Jiang Tian had an “I knew it” look.

When the dorm door opened, Qiu Wenbin quickly came over: “Why are you back?”

Sheng Wang joked, “Why? Not welcome? Am I interrupting your three-person cohabitation?”

“No, no,” Qiu Wenbin said. “We’re glad you’re back.”

After saying that, he realized his words had a double meaning, as if he couldn’t stand being with Jiang Tian and Shi Yu.

So, the slow-witted Qiu Wenbin added, “We’re all glad you’re back.”

Which sounded even weirder.

Qiu Wenbin thought for a moment and added, “Just now, the master rushed down when he heard you were back.”

Jiang Tian: “…”

He finally couldn’t hold back and turned to the clueless one, saying stiffly, “Have you showered? The power’s back.”

In other words, go away.

Qiu Wenbin grabbed his clothes and sheepishly headed to the bathroom.

*

Shi Yu returned after 11, just before bed check.

Sheng Wang took a call from Sheng Mingyang, who nagged about taking care of his foot, and finally said, half happy, half sentimental, “Seeing you and Xiao Tian getting along so well makes Dad and Aunt Jiang very happy.”

“Really, very comforting,” Sheng Mingyang said, then added, “But don’t take advantage of your foot to boss him around. He’s your brother, not a housekeeper.”

“Oh—” Sheng Wang replied perfunctorily. Returning from the balcony, he saw Shi Yu and exclaimed, “So it was you I saw earlier! I wondered why that striped T-shirt looked so familiar.”

Shi Yu seemed in a good mood and was momentarily confused, asking, “What about me?”

“Were you walking from Xiushen Garden earlier?” Sheng Wang asked.

Shi Yu was stunned for a moment, then his face turned red like a cooked shrimp: “Ah? Well… yeah. I had something to discuss with He Shu.”

Seeing his reaction, Sheng Wang suddenly realized he’d accidentally stumbled upon some gossip.

He quickly waved his hand, saying, “No, don’t be nervous, I was just saying.”

Shi Yu’s face reddened further, and he defended, “I’m not nervous, who’s nervous?”

To prove his point, he immediately retorted, “You’re talking about me, what about you? Why were you there?”

The question seemed to shift the focus of the gossip, and he immediately smirked mischievously: “Who lured you over there?”

Sheng Wang instinctively hesitated, not immediately answering, but instead glanced at Jiang Tian.

It was the straightforward Qiu Wenbin who said, “He came back to school, and the master went to pick him up.”

Hearing this, Shi Yu pouted in disappointment, “Tch… I thought you had something going on too.”

The “too” was quite telling. After saying it, he immediately realized and turned to rummage for a towel and T-shirt, shouting about needing a shower.

The slow-witted Qiu Wenbin finally caught on: “Wait, Yu-ge, you went to Magpie Bridge with a girl to talk?? Are you in a relationship?”

“Like hell I am!” Shi Yu finally snapped, blushing from the neck up as he dove into the bathroom, slamming the door.

Qiu Wenbin scratched his head and said dryly to Sheng Wang, “Sheng-ge, should I remind him?”

“Remind him of what?” Sheng Wang asked.

“Early romance affects grades,” Qiu Wenbin said earnestly.

“…”

For a moment, Sheng Wang didn’t know how to respond, so he chuckled and said, “True, but if you say it, you might get hit.”

Qiu Wenbin sighed.

Seeing him like that was amusing, yet somehow unsettling. Sheng Wang wanted to turn and talk to Jiang Tian, but saw his cold-faced brother moving Sheng Wang’s PSP, headphones, notebook, and other clutter from the bedside.

“What are you doing?” he asked, puzzled.

Jiang Tian casually tossed his notebook onto the upper bunk and replied, “Switching beds. You sleep below.”

Sheng Wang glanced at Jiang Tian’s bed and instinctively said, “Is that necessary? I’ve already climbed six floors; am I afraid of a few metal bars?”

Logically, he shouldn’t be climbing to the upper bunk. After walking six floors, his ankle was starting to feel warm and swollen again, but he couldn’t help being stubborn, wanting to show he was strong.

But his brother didn’t give him a chance—

Jiang Tian calmly asked, “Do you think I’m negotiating?”

Sheng Wang: “…”

Hmm, apparently not.

That night, whether due to the new bed or something else, Sheng Wang found himself unable to sleep.