TYMRHBDES Chapter 96

Chapter 96: The Cold, Crazy School Prince x Spoiled, Delicate Little Brat (4)

During afternoon club activities, the Original Owner, determined to pursue Mu Jianian, followed him into the calligraphy club.

Pulling out crumpled Xuan paper and a frayed brush from his desk drawer, Jiang Luoluo stuffed them into his tote bag and happily followed Mu Jianian to the calligraphy classroom.

“Mu Jianian, wait for me!”

Jiang Luoluo trotted after Mu Jianian, his short legs pumping furiously.

Mu Jianian was tall and exceptionally well-proportioned. Even in the standard school uniform, his impossibly long legs stood out in the crowd.

He didn’t wait for him, leaving Jiang Luoluo panting and breathless.

The cold school prince’s reputation was so widespread that Jiang Luoluo wasn’t the only one who had signed up for calligraphy just to be near him.

When he arrived, someone was already sitting at the desk next to Mu Jianian.

A girl with a delicate oval face had just placed her bag on the table and was looking at Jiang Luoluo with a smug expression.

After running all the way, Jiang Luoluo’s face was flushed red. He looked at Mu Jianian, his voice tinged with grievance:

“Mu Jianian, I’ve been calling you all the way! Why didn’t you wait for me?”

The other students in the classroom turned to look. After all, they’d all heard about the school bully, Jiang Luoluo, chasing after the aloof school heartthrob, Mu Jianian.

Mu Jianian remained indifferent. “I didn’t hear you.”

A fair, slender hand appeared before him. Jiang Luoluo opened his palm, revealing a set of keys. His voice was still breathless. “Here, you dropped your keys.”

So that’s why he’d been chasing him.

Mu Jianian reached out to take the keys, his cool fingertips brushing against Jiang Luoluo’s warm, sweaty palm.

He’d thought…

Before he could fully retrieve the keys, Jiang Luoluo’s fingers unexpectedly closed around his.

The small hand, soft and delicate like a kitten’s paw, enveloped half of his finger.

Mu Jianian forgot to struggle, looking at Jiang Luoluo with confusion.

Jiang Luoluo’s delicate face, usually spoiled and arrogant, now wore a cautious expression.

“Mu Jianian, if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be able to go home! So, how are you going to thank me?”

Half a minute later, Jiang Luoluo gathered all the stationery from Mu Jianian’s desk in his arms and moved it to the desk beside him.

The melon-seed-faced girl glared at Jiang Luoluo, a mixture of anger, resentment, and jealousy in her eyes.

Jiang Luoluo smiled at her, his eyes curving in amusement, then pulled Mu Jianian’s arm and pressed him down onto the stool next to him.

After demonstrating on the grid on the blackboard, the teacher left.

Jiang Luoluo pulled out his own bristly brush, feeling a bit helpless as he looked at the teacher’s assignment.

The Original Owner had taken calligraphy class solely to flirt with Mu Jianian and had never bothered to learn properly. As for Jiang Luoluo himself, he had studied dance before and had never even held a calligraphy brush.

He didn’t even know how to hold it.

Jiang Luoluo turned his head to see Mu Jianian, his eyes lowered in concentration as he wrote.

His slender fingers held the dark wooden brush handle, the cuffs of his white shirt rolled up to reveal a delicate yet powerful wrist.

A graceful gentleman, as gentle and refined as jade.

His long, straight eyelashes cast cloud-like shadows beneath his eyelids, making him appear exceptionally calm and serene.

Jiang Luoluo imitated his actions, dipping his brush in ink and beginning to write.

Half a minute later, he scratched his head at the brushstrokes on the paper, which looked like they’d been swept across it with a broom.

He gave up.

Then, resting his cheek in his hand, he began to watch Mu Jianian write.

Li Chuan had once said his greatest asset was his good looks.

People were visual creatures, after all.

All he had to do was spend more time with Mu Jianian, flaunt his handsome face in front of him, and ideally, even manage some physical contact.

These seemingly trivial tactics would be more than enough to handle Mu Jianian, who had never even been in a relationship.

Jiang Luoluo still remembered the smug self-assurance on Li Chuan’s face as he said those words.

When Mu Jianian put down his brush, Jiang Luoluo leaned in and let out a soft “Wow!”

“Mu Jianian, you’re so amazing!”

The boy’s soft, milky voice was filled with undisguised admiration, as if Mu Jianian had accomplished something extraordinary.

Mu Jianian lifted his eyelids to glance at him, then glanced at Jiang Luoluo’s own handwriting, which looked like a centipede crawling across the page.

Jiang Luoluo wasn’t embarrassed in the slightest. He held up his work for Mu Jianian to see with perfect composure. “I think it’s a bit ugly too.”

He tilted up his small, jade-like face, his watery eyes sparkling like rippling waves. “Mu Jianian, could you teach me?”

As he spoke, he casually took Mu Jianian’s brush and pulled Mu Jianian’s hand over, placing it on top of his own small hand.

“Could you teach me hand-in-hand?”

The small hand beneath his palm was delicate and snow-white, yet Mu Jianian felt as if he were holding a burning ember, setting his whole body ablaze.

Unfortunately, the other person seemed completely oblivious to the impropriety of their actions, continuing to rub his small hand against Mu Jianian’s palm and urging him coquettishly, “Mu Jianian, hurry up~”

“The teacher will be here soon~”

He should have refused.

Jiang Luoluo already harbored feelings for him. Every calligraphy class they attended together was clearly motivated by ulterior motives.

He wasn’t there to learn; he was there to seduce him.

Yet Mu Jianian’s ears flushed crimson, but he still didn’t refuse.

He felt as if he had been bewitched.

Bewitched, he showed Jiang Luoluo how to hold the brush, then, stroke by stroke, hand-in-hand, guided him through writing the characters.

In the restroom, Mu Jianian splashed cold water on his face, trying to cool the heat in his ears.

But the soft, smooth sensation in his palm wouldn’t wash away.

It felt as if the small hand was still nestled obediently in his palm, under his control, moving up and down, left and right, making horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and curved strokes on the rice paper…

When Jiang Luoluo returned to the calligraphy classroom, the teacher had already checked their homework and let them have free time.

Jiang Luoluo wasn’t the type to sit still and practice calligraphy. The moment Mu Jianian left, he grabbed his phone to take a picture of the calligraphy he’d just written and posted it on WeChat Moments.

Within moments, notifications began chiming incessantly.

His dad had liked the post.

His mom had liked it and commented: “My baby is so amazing! 👍👍”

Li Chuan: “Whose calligraphy did you steal to post? =????(●???● |||)”

Jiang Luoluo tapped on Li Chuan’s profile and sent him a private message: “Mu Jianian taught me how to write it~”

“Hand-in-hand, you know~~~”

A rustling sound came from the chair beside him. Jiang Luoluo quickly put away his phone and chirped like a little bird, “Mu Jianian~”

Mu Jianian glanced at him, his phoenix eyes shifting from Jiang Luoluo’s smiling eyes to his soft, small hands. His voice was cool: “What?”

“Mu Jianian~ Are you tutoring Wanwan and me again today? I don’t want to walk home. Can you give me a ride on your bike?”

Mu Jianian was packing his things. “Not today. I already arranged with your aunt. Tutoring is on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays—four days a week.”

The boy beside him looked disappointed, letting out a small “Oh.”

“Then I won’t see you after school…”

After speaking, he pursed his lips.

Was it really that important to see him?

Was he disappointed because he couldn’t?

His heart skipped a beat, and the thought stirred within him.

Mu Jianian paused in his packing, unable to describe the feeling.

He felt that Jiang Luoluo had been different lately.

If he could stay this way…

That would be nice too.

After Jiang Luoluo forced him to add him on WeChat, Mu Jianian went home.

He rode his bicycle through the bustling city center and turned into a cluttered old residential area.

Someone had spilled water on the cement road, and vegetable scraps lay uncleaned on the ground.

The heat had brought out swarms of tiny flies and mosquitoes.

Pushing his bicycle into the stairwell, Mu Jianian climbed the stairs.

His apartment was on the fifth floor, and the old building had no elevator. He had to climb every step.

Many of the families who had moved in together back then had moved to newer complexes, renting their apartments to outsiders. The stairwell was crammed with belongings, poorly lit, and gloomy.

By the time he got home, it was already seven o’clock.

Yet the apartment remained eerily quiet, completely empty.

Mu Jianian seemed accustomed to this. He washed his hands and went to his room.

He opened his laptop and began preparing for the upcoming youth online skills competition he would be participating in during the summer vacation.

The lights in the neighborhood flickered on one by one. Mu Jianian stared intently at his screen, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

The sound of a door opening echoed from outside, followed by the click of high heels on the floor. A keychain clattered onto the cabinet with a sharp “clack,” and a woman’s voice, laced with resentment, filled the air:

“What’s the point of raising you? You’re this old and can’t even cook a decent meal?”

“I work my tail off all day, and when I come home, there’s not even a hot meal waiting for me?”

“I’d be better off raising a dog. At least a dog would wag its tail at me!”

The woman’s voice continued to rant, but Mu Jianian remained unfazed, continuing to work on his own projects.

His silence seemed to infuriate her further, or perhaps she was already simmering with anger. Her voice rose to a shrill pitch:

“Lost all afternoon again! Nothing but bad luck!”

“Why does everyone else keep getting winning hands, while I can’t draw a single good card?”

“It’s all because of you and your useless father! You’ve cursed away all my good fortune! That’s why I’m stuck with you two!”

“You little brat! If it weren’t for you, I would have divorced your good-for-nothing father long ago…”

Before she could finish, the door to the second bedroom slammed open.

Mu Jianian had grown too tall. Looking at him now, she felt a sense of aloof indifference from his towering height.

Under the dim yellow lamplight, his youthful face held a pair of ink-black eyes, cold and emotionless.

“It’s you who can’t bear to divorce. Stop pretending it’s for my sake.”

His tone was chilling, devoid of any warmth.

Startled by his terrifying gaze, the woman took a step back, forcing herself to mumble guiltily:

“Ungrateful wretch!”

“I should never have given birth to you!”

Mu Jianian closed the door and emerged from the bedroom.

He boiled water for himself, preparing to eat instant noodles.

Fortunately, he had finished his homework at school. Otherwise, between the online competition and his assignments, he would have been overwhelmed and wouldn’t have known when he’d finally finish.

As he poured boiling water into the noodle bowl, his phone on the table vibrated.

Mu Jianian unlocked his phone and saw a new message.

Jiang Luoluo: [Mu Jianian~ Have you eaten yet~(?>?<?)]

Followed by a cartoon rabbit emoji peeking around a door, clutching a carrot.

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Featuring: one emotionally constipated man, one expert-level pout, and one translator wondering why they signed up for this.
Buy me a Ko-fi or I’ll start using Google Translate for the spicy scenes. ☕🔥