Yan Sui ruffled Meng Ting’s hair, glanced at his watch, and finally let go of him. “Come on, I’ll walk you in.”
“Mm,” Meng Ting replied, then looked at Yan Sui’s profile, kissed him again, and finally let go.
The class Meng Ting was going to now was taught by the Chinese teacher who had given him extra lessons for most of the summer vacation. She was relatively familiar with Meng Ting’s situation and also knew the Yan family. She would never allow anyone to bully Meng Ting in school, and even if something happened, she would promptly contact Yan Sui.
Moreover, the class she teaches is full of top students. By the time they reach their senior year, most of them are focused on their studies, and there are hardly any students left who are bored enough to go around causing trouble.
Yan Sui didn’t accompany Meng Ting all the way to the classroom door. They met the Chinese teacher Wang Qiuyu, who had come downstairs to pick up the student, at the bottom of the teaching building. After handing the person over to her, Yan Sui returned.
Meng Ting watched Yan Sui’s figure disappear before following Wang Qiuyu upstairs.
He glanced around at many people in the same school uniform as him, but his gaze mostly fell on their clothes, not reaching their faces, and then he looked away. He came to school to study, and their attitudes and opinions about him were not important.
From seven o’clock to ten past seven in the morning, this period is when the school sees the most foot traffic. Most students rush to school during this time. As Yan Sui and Meng Ting walked from the school gate, many curious eyes fell on them.
Yan Sui was tall and handsome, while Meng Ting was delicate and beautiful. The two of them were particularly pleasing to the eye when walking together. Naturally, there were many students gossiping about them. Meng Ting was wearing their school uniform, so many people also discussed which class Meng Ting was in and what the relationship between him and Yan Sui was, and so on.
However, this is the best high school in Haicheng, and there are quite a few children from wealthy families here. The students have different perspectives; they may be curious, but they will forget about it as soon as they turn around, so it didn’t cause any trouble to Meng Ting.
Meng Ting’s backpack was very large and heavy. It contained almost all the textbooks he would need. Wang Qiuyu first took him to the office and gave him some serious instructions. Only when the morning reading bell rang did she take him to Class 2 of the third year.
“Class, quiet down,” Wang Qiuyu, who is in her forties, has rich teaching experience and a very approachable demeanor. As soon as she said this while standing on the podium, the buzzing noise of reading quickly subsided.
She smiled gently, then continued, “Let me introduce the new student, Meng Ting. He arrived a few days late due to illness. Please give him a round of applause.”
The sound of ‘clap clap clap’ was heard, not very loud, but there was no expression of impatience or rejection either. It was just that when they saw Meng Ting, they were all amazed. Since they started school, they would encounter one or two transfer students or new students every year, both male and female, some good-looking and some not so good-looking. But it was rare to see someone as good-looking and outstanding as Meng Ting.
Under Wang Qiuyu’s expectant gaze, Meng Ting also stepped onto the podium, “Hello everyone, I am Meng Ting.”
After he finished speaking, he came down. This self-introduction was shockingly simple.
Wang Qiuyu had interacted with Meng Ting and knew he spoke little, so she lightly nodded, letting it pass. After the students who had reacted finally finished their sparse applause, Wang Qiuyu raised her hand again, and the buzzing sound of studying resumed.
Meng Ting has grown another two centimeters recently and is now about 1.78 meters tall. He is not particularly tall, but not short either. He was assigned a seat by the window in the second-to-last row, and the people over there didn’t need to move. This arrangement was made by Wang Qiuyu at the beginning of the school year.
Meng Ting’s deskmate came out, and Meng Ting went in. Wang Qiuyu continued to move around the class. Although she paid attention to him, she didn’t make it too obvious.
Meng Ting took out the books and papers from his backpack and stuffed the backpack into the drawer. He casually pulled out a Chinese textbook and immediately began to read it seriously. His deskmate next to him finally looked over. He glanced at Meng Ting, was stunned for a moment, and then turned his gaze back.
Meng Ting never had the habit of taking the initiative to strike up a conversation, and even now he had no intention of doing so. He doesn’t greet anyone and is deeply engrossed in his book, looking quite serious. There were people sitting in the tables in front and behind him who originally wanted to get to know him, but seeing how serious he was, they didn’t feel it was appropriate to disturb him.
***
After class, Meng Ting tilted his head to look out the window. There was a small pond and an old tree. He stared at them blankly for ten minutes. When the class bell rang, he consciously turned his gaze back to reading or looking at the blackboard with the same focused expression. The morning passed just like that.
The people around him who kept an eye on him felt that this beautiful new classmate was particularly cold, so cold that they didn’t even know how to start a conversation with him. A bit temperamental, Meng Ting didn’t take the initiative to speak, so they didn’t either.
Actually, Meng Ting didn’t do it on purpose; it was just that he was like this most of the time at school. In his eyes, there were only textbooks and the blackboard, and for the classmates he spoke to, there was only the distinction between fighting and not fighting.
When he is too focused on one thing, even if someone talks to him, he can’t really hear them. Yan Sui has experienced this too.
At lunchtime, he took out a lunch box from his backpack, then got up and went downstairs to the teaching building, where he found a secluded corner and started eating. Nanny Wang had prepared a rich meal for him, with meat, vegetables, vegetarian dishes, and bone soup with medicinal herbs. After eating, he took a stroll and returned to the classroom. He took out paper and pen and did some writing and calculations, and the lunch break was over.
In the third year of high school, excluding morning study sessions and lunch breaks, there are four classes in the morning and four classes in the afternoon. Students arrive at school at seven in the morning and can only leave at six in the evening. The day is filled with classes. It really isn’t easy to stick with it for a whole year. There’s still a lot of homework to do at home. Just today, Meng Ting received four test papers. Although he was not required to finish all of them, doing even half of each one still takes a considerable amount of time.
Meng Ting plans to retake the year because he wants to go to university, wants to study under his teacher again, wants to have his own laboratory to continue the experiments he couldn’t finish in his previous life. But right now, spending time on things he has already learned or will never learn, he suddenly hesitates whether this decision is right.
“Hey, I’m Xiao Mu.” Meng Ting’s deskmate, Xiao Mu, had endured a whole day and finally spoke to Meng Ting just before school was about to end. His gaze was relatively clear, but it didn’t hide the peculiarities in his eyes.
At the high school stage, whether one is precocious or late maturity, the vast majority of people have a clear understanding of their sexual orientation. Xiao Mu was no exception; when he saw Meng Ting at the school gate, he felt a rush of emotions, and he sensed that Meng Ting was the same type of person as him.
If they had been born a few decades earlier, he might have chosen to suppress his feelings, after all, he didn’t want to be seen as different. But now that same-sex marriage laws have passed and public perception has largely changed, wanting to pursue Meng Ting is as normal as wanting to date a girl.
However, Meng Ting was unusually cold. Since he arrived in this classroom, he hadn’t even glanced at anyone, including his deskmate. Now that Meng Ting was packing up to leave, he couldn’t hold back any longer.
Meng Ting, upon hearing the words, continued to pick up his backpack and put it on his back. Meeting Xiao Mu’s gaze and confirming that he wasn’t looking for a fight, he gently nodded and said, “Hello.”
After saying this, he immediately added, “Goodbye.”
Then, with a gentle leap, he jumped onto the table, flipped over, and exited the position without needing Xiao Mu to make way for him. His movements were quite impressive.
When many of his classmates hadn’t reacted yet, he strode out of the classroom and quickly descended the stairs, knowing that Yan Sui would definitely come to pick him up.
As he walked out of the school gate, he saw Yan Sui leaning against the car door, his gaze happened to meet his. Meng Ting raised his hand slightly and quickened his pace a bit.
Yan Sui stood up straight upon seeing Meng Ting, waiting for Meng Ting to approach quickly.
Meng Ting stopped half a step in front of Yan Sui; if he got any closer, it would be no different from throwing himself into Yan Sui’s arms. He looked at Yan Sui, his eyes gradually curving up. He hadn’t thought about Yan Sui during class, but as soon as class was over, he would think about him. Now that he saw the person, he missed him even more.
“Yan Sui, I miss you.”
Meng Ting’s voice wasn’t loud, and in front of the noisy school gate, it was even somewhat drowned out, but it didn’t affect Yan Sui’s ability to hear it.
Yan Sui reached out and gently hugged the person, whispering, “I miss you too, let’s go home.”
Meng Ting nodded, Yan Sui opened the car door, and he got in first. After Yan Sui sat down, and before the door was even closed, he was bear-hugged by Meng Ting. His thoughts were genuine, with no hint of pretense. He didn’t hide his affection at all; if he wanted to hug, he hugged, and if he wanted to be affectionate, he was affectionate.
Yan Sui continued to close the door, turned around to embrace the person, and the smile at the corner of his mouth grew a bit stronger. To be honest, sending Meng Ting to school made him feel reluctant and worried. But at the moment, being held so affectionately by Meng Ting, those worries temporarily vanished.
[dropdown title=”List of Idiom in Chapter 053.1″]
按捺不住 (àn nà bu zhù): unable to control oneself; unable to contain one’s feelings; to be unable to hold back; beside oneself; unable to contain any longer; being impatient and unable to control oneself.
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