Ch10 - Eating Vinegar

The messages kept flashing, and it was all ramblings about another person.

Lu Xingwang used to find Jian Mei’s words boring, but it was far from the displeasure that these words brought him today. Although he felt that making friends was natural and was indeed a good thing, as he looked at Jian Mei being excited as if having a friend was his whole world, for some reason, he panicked slightly for some unexplainable reason. 

However, for someone as naive as Jian Mei, he didn’t notice it at all and still continued to talk about it:

“He said he had a good impression of me when I first transferred in at the beginning of the school year.”

“He’s very willing to be friends with me.”

“He also said that he can take me along to play with him in the future.” 

“What do you think?”

Lu Xingwang leaned back on the chair. The youth’s posture was elegant, and the black brocade collar on his body was slightly open. At this moment, while he was looking at the words on the information screen, a trace of coldness flashed across his eyes. He raised his eyebrows and asked him: [how long have you been in school]

Jian Mei was taken aback, he didn’t expect Lu Xingwang to ask him this question, but he still answered honestly: “It’s been half a month. ”

Lu Xingwang sneered: [Then he just came to ask you today?]

Jian Mei’s breath hitched.

It was like a heavy punch to his heart and lungs, the shock reverberated in his heart, and it didn’t stop immediately. It was like the sky, it was originally clear blue then a heavy rainstorm suddenly fell, which caught him off guard, then he was immediately drenched, which made him a little helpless.

“Maybe……” Jian Mei softly said, “Maybe he didn’t find a suitable opportunity before?”

Lu Xingwang averted his gaze with some disdain. He didn’t want to pay attention to Jian Mei anymore. 

He was born in a royal family, a place where people fight and scheme against each other, then die. These people were best at saying beautiful and flowery words, but secretly conspire and do all bad things. Although he had never seen Jian Mei, he could feel that he was a pure and simple-minded child even through the screen. Perhaps, Jian Mei was right. Perhaps that person wasn’t able to find any suitable opportunities and wasn’t as dark as he thought.

He could disregard it, but even with such a one-in-ten thousand chance, he still reminded Jian Mei. Maybe it was because of the gentle voice in his ears, or maybe it was because of the silly behavior of begging for Buddha in the temple, maybe……Maybe there were many reasons, but Lu Xingwang still said it out. This wasn’t in line with his character, but once again, Jian Mei was an exemption.

[Pay more attention to yourself in the future] In the end, he still said it: [If you are really friends, get along well]

Jian Mei was nevertheless obedient, “Okay, I know.” 

He was very happy and excited when he made friends, but Lu Xingwang’s words sobered him up a lot. Perhaps, what Cheng Yu’s said were just polite words. Cheng Yu was very popular and friendly to many people, and he was just being polite to him. He couldn’t just take it seriously if he said he wanted to teach me and be friends with me. It was better to be sensible.

Jian Mei thought of this and was about to put down his phone and do his homework.

He was just thinking about it when a ‘ding’ rang and he received a new message.

Jian Mei moved slightly and found that it was from his penguin. He opened it, and saw that it was actually sent by Cheng Yu: “Are you there?” 

Jian Mei was longer full of himself because of Lu Xingwang’s words. This time, he replied politely: “Yes, I’m here. Is there any problem, class representative?”

Cheng Yu was taken aback.

When the classes ended, Jian Mei was obviously not polite to him. Why did he change so much in just a short time?

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“Aera mjii wf Jtfcu Te, vbc’a yf rb qbilaf.” Lf asqfv: “Cgf sbe ublcu ab vb sbeg tbwfkbgx? Lbk lr la? Kbvjs’r defralbcr lc atf fzfgmlrf ybbx rffwfv j ilaaif vloolmeia. Cgf sbe vblcu ubbv?” 

Aljc Zfl gfqilfv ab tlw jcv rjlv, “P tjnfc’a kglaafc la sfa. ”

Jtfcu Te kjr ralii fcaterljralm: “Po sbe tjnf jcs vloolmeialfr, sbe mjc olcv wf. Gbc’a yf qbilaf.”

“It’s okay, my parents will check my homework for me later.” Jian Mei replied with some alienation: “Thank you.”

Cheng Yu unconsciously frowned. It was obviously not like this during the day, what went wrong? 

Afterward, no matter how he led the topic, Jian Mei was still polite, as if separated by a line of cordiality. It was like he wasn’t there the whole time and still didn’t trust him very much.

“An autumn outing activity will be organized for the class in two days. Are you going to come?” Cheng Yu took the opportunity to throw out the temptation: “It’s just to go out and play together. We don’t usually have much time after school. Everyone in the class basically goes and will go out together on weekends to play together. ”

Group activities.

Jian Mei hesitated a little after seeing it: “I’ll go too, but this is a group activity, I…” 

Cheng Yu hurriedly said: “Just right, there will also be some interactive games or something. You can make friends and integrate into the class ah. You don’t have to worry, I will go.”

Integrate into the class.

This was something Jian Mei had been thinking about all the time. He was moved by what Cheng Yu said. After thinking about it, he agreed: “Okay then. ”

Cheng Yu’s mouth curled up with a triumphant smile: “Then I will send you the address and see you this weekend. ” 

“Okay.”

After Jian Mei finished chatting, he closed the chatbox. For some reason, he actually felt tired. It was really difficult to integrate into the group. Sometimes being alone by himself wasn’t that bad, but his mother would ask him if he was doing well in school or if he had made new friends. If wasn’t doing well, his mother would definitely worry. He made his family worry too much since he was a child. At the very least, he must do well in this kind of thing.

Weekend

It was a sunny day, and the big sun occupied the sky. It was an autumn outing yet it was still very hot. The place where the group camp was built was in the mountains, and everyone planned to climb the mountain in groups. 

“Hey! Are you here to climb the mountain too?”

Someone’s voice came from behind.

Jian Mei turned around and found that it was Wang Can who always followed Cheng Yu. He greeted him politely: “Hello.”

Wang Can smiled and said, “Hello, hello. ” 

The two people didn’t know each other well and didn’t have much to talk about. After waiting for a while, Cheng Yu also arrived. There were roughly about a dozen of a group in twos and threes, including four or five girls and seven or eight boys. The more people a group had, the more it highlighted who was in the center. When Cheng Yu arrived, the originally scattered people gathered together.

“There are many gardens on this mountain. Everyone can choose their favorite route they want to go to, but we have to gather on the mountainside at noon to eat together.” Cheng Yu ordered, “Group in twos or threes, don’t fall behind.”

Everyone responded together.

Cheng Yu had natural leadership ability, and everyone followed his words. After he finished speaking, his gaze landed on Jian Mei, “Then, everyone, form groups on your own.” 

Jian Mei was wearing a yellow duckling sun hat and light sportswear. He had pale skin and looked like a carved jade doll in the sun. He was also carrying a light-colored school bag on his back, and a twist lid small water bottle on his waist. He was obviously a second year in high school, but no matter how they looked at it, he looked like a lovely primary school student.

When Jian Mei noticed Cheng Yu’s gaze, he hesitated to go over there. He stepped forward and softly said, “Then I……”

Then a girl beat him to it: “Then I will be in the same group as the class representative!”

“I will also be in the same group as Brother Yu.” 

“Take me along.”

“Hehe, I also brought homemade sandwiches from home. Let’s eat together with Brother Yu later.”

In just a short time, three or four people gathered around Cheng Yu. The crowd was noisy and looked very lively. Jian Mei, who originally wanted to come over, stalled in his steps. However, it was as if Cheng Yu didn’t notice his embarrassment. He still continued talking to the girl in front of him and didn’t look over in his direction.

Jian Mei paused and finally chose a group that had a relatively small number of people and walked away. However, he just turned around and failed to notice that Cheng Yu had cast a calculating gaze on him. When he saw the youth’s lonely figure, an unknown emotion flashed across his eyes. He lowered his head and continued talking to the people around him. 

……

Mountain climbing was physical activity and would consume stamina.

The group that Jian Mei joined was full of energetic boys. Each and one of them tirelessly wanted to run up the mountain. This made Jian Mei, who originally had poor endurance, walk exhaustedly. The beads of sweat slipped on his cheeks, his face turned red, he was slightly panting, and his legs were so sore that he couldn’t walk anymore.

His classmates in front said, “Jian Mei, why don’t you take a break here? We will play in the woods in front of you, and come to us once you’re done resting.” 

Jian Mei obediently nodded. Even though he was very tired, he still showed a smile, “Okay, thank you.”

Several students slipped into the woods as if they finally got rid of their burdens. Jian Mei took a rest on a rock, he waited until he had relaxed and walked forward but every tree in this forest looked the same. He walked along the path, but he would always arrive at the place he originally was. This mountain wasn’t a well-developed tourist attraction, and there weren’t many people in this group on weekdays. The boys in Jian Mei’s group were naughty and picked out some rare places to go. As a result, Jian Mei wandered around and didn’t find anyone.

“Impossible……”

Jian Mei sat on the stone in despair. He was born with no sense of direction. He thought that he would be fine if he followed his classmates, but he didn’t expect he would get lost. It was already 11:40 in the morning, and he had agreed to eat on the mountainside at 12 in the afternoon, but now he didn’t even know where he was. As he thought of this, Jian Mei wanted to cry without tears. 

He took out his phone and was going to ask the class group in penguin, but after turning on the data connection, the signal didn’t show. The location of this mountain wasn’t relatively remote, but who knew that there would be no signal here! He didn’t know if his classmates would look for him if they found that he hadn’t been following them. The birds crowed from time to time, which was a little creepy in such a quiet environment. The unmanned path would lead to the unknown, and time passed. He didn’t how long he had waited, but no one came and the hope in his heart was fading.

Jian Mei was finally scared.

The water in his water bottle was almost gone, and the things in his schoolbag would last till the afternoon at most. What should he do if no one found out that he had lost? There was no signal on the phone and no message could be sent out……

He panicked and sat down. He huddled his arms around his legs and held the phone in his hands. Many possibilities crossed his mind till he scared out himself. If Lu Xingwang knew about it, he might laugh at him…… 

Wait a minute!

Jian Mei suddenly raised his head and tried to turn on WeChat on his mobile phone. If there was no signal, he wouldn’t be able to send out a message. He didn’t know why, but this time, he pinned his hopes in this weird account of a stranger, maybe……maybe?

…

On the other side, Stan Star. 

There was constant heavy rain recently, and the palace was very quiet. The rain hit the branches outside the window, and a cold wind blew in. The person sitting by the window reading a book was only wearing a thin shirt. His handsome eyebrows were cold and straight, but his face was much paler and looked a little sickly.

A Ruo came in with official documents and said, “His Majesty is going to visit Galaxy B. In the past, His Highness helped the Crown Prince to deal with some domestic official documents and government affairs. Now that Your Highness is sick, they are all sent to the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince only simple ones, and all difficult matters were left to his Royal Highness to solve, and it earned him a good reputation on His Majesty’s side. Now he doesn’t have the help of Your Highness. I heard that the pile of documents has caused him to be overwhelmed. The prince has been very irritable in the past few days and punished many attendants.”

Lu Xingwang didn’t react much, “Don’t worry about it.”

Since the master had spoken, the servants didn’t dare to say anything. Aruo came over and closed the window, “I’m just worried that the Crown Prince will make trouble…” 

Lu Xingwang turned a page of the book with his slender and pale fingers: “The empress is here, it’s impossible for the prince to be in trouble.”

This was the advantage of having a mother to rely on. Even if the prince was useless and really couldn’t handle things, the empress wouldn’t stand idly. Some of the forces cultivated over the years, wouldn’t make the Prince look too bad. A Ruo obviously thought of this and looked at Lu Xingwang, who was sitting in a chair with a thin figure, and she couldn’t help but feel distressed. She didn’t know what happened these days. Although His Highness didn’t show it, he seemed to be in a bad mood. Unfortunately, he liked to keep everything tight to himself. If he didn’t say it, others would naturally be unable to know.

The only difference was His Highness had never asked what time it was recently. Everything was back to the way it was before as if nothing was different, but yet something had changed.

A Ruo was tidying up his desk when she saw a pile of mathematical materials that seemed to have fallen in the corner, “Do you want me to put these away for Your Highness?” 

Lu Xingwang looked up and stared at it for a moment, then he turned his attention back to the book, and indifferently said, “Throw it away.”

“……Yes.”

A Ruo was packing up the things when Lu Xingwang’s information terminal placed on the window rang, and it was different from the previous message prompt tone. Unexpectedly, it was a tone for a phone call, which showed Jian Mei.

They rarely contacted these past few days, especially after Jian Mei said that he had made friends and rarely checked the messages sent. After all, he already had someone with him, and he himself was very busy, he didn’t have time to listen to a child’s troubles. The less time wasted, the wrong things would end at the right time. 

The phone rang, but Lu Xingwang didn’t answer it.

He lowered his head to continue reading, but the other person seemed anxious. If a call wasn’t answered, he would call once again. The caller interface kept flashing as if silently telling him how anxious the other party was.

Did something happen to him?

Lu Xingwang put down the book and looked at the ‘calling’ interface with his black eyes for a moment. His intuition told him that if he answered this call, everything would change again. 

“Rumble”

Outside the window, there was a thunderstorm, heavy rain was continuously pouring down and the interface of a phone call kept flashing.

He wasn’t ready to answer the call, but in such a noisy environment, he suddenly remembered word by word what Jian Mei had seriously said to him before.

“No one has ever treated me like this. ” 

“I am so happy. ”

“I always thought you didn’t like me before. ”

“I prayed for you, and I will help you in the future……”

At last, when the call was about to hang up automatically, he pressed the answer button and a touch of annoyance flashed across his heart. However, before he could even pay attention to his emotions, he heard a slightly confused voice on the other end of the phone. After confirming that the call was connected, the youth’s mentality suddenly collapsed, he burst into tears and cried out pitifully: “You finally answered the phone. What took you so long to answer the phone? Waah , I’m scared to death.” 

Lu Xingwang: ……