Chapter Ninety-Seven: Brother, Sorry to Keep You Waiting

Wen Yichen did not make clear what he meant by “something complicated,” and that only made Xia Manman feel all the more uneasy.

Before Xia Manman could even speak, Wen Yichen had already set off, striding quickly toward the classroom.

Although there were not many people helping with the cleanup, the classroom was already almost spotless.

“The teacher said the ceiling fans need to be wiped too,” Gu Nianxi said, setting down her broom and then pushing the desks together.

At first, she had thought Yin Luzhe would volunteer and rush over to wipe the fans, but unexpectedly Jiang Muwen beat him to it. “Let me do it.”

As she spoke, she walked toward the cluster of desks Gu Nianxi had arranged. Her steps were a little awkward, likely because she had twisted her ankle two days earlier.

Seeing Jiang Muwen inching her way toward them step by step, Gu Nianxi could not help but worry. “Little Wenwen, are you sure? Maybe let one of the boys do it.”

“Of course I can,” Jiang Muwen said cheerfully. She dragged out the chair tucked beneath the desk. Since this was her first time wiping a ceiling fan, a strange sense of novelty rose in her heart. With some effort, she placed the chair onto the desk, then pulled out another chair.

Yin Luzhe, who had been mopping just moments before, looked up at the sound. Seeing Jiang Muwen like that, he instinctively set down the mop and quickly walked over to her side. “Hey, can you manage? Let me do it.”

“I can.”

Wen Yichen’s hand was braced on the desk. The next second he lifted a foot, ready to step onto the chair.

“No, I mean I’m taller, so it’s easier for me to wipe it. That’ll be so much harder for you.”

Just as Jiang Muwen was about to step onto the chair, Yin Luzhe had no better way to pull her down, so he could only reach out and steady the chair.

At the very moment her foot landed on the seat, Wen Yichen’s voice came from behind her. “Jiang Muwen, get down.”

His voice was calm, neither warm nor cold, yet it made her whole body tremble.

His tone was not harsh at all, but it carried the force of an order, one no one dared to disobey.

And even so, Jiang Muwen stubbornly kept her position. “No.”

Then she lifted her other foot as well, ready to step up.

But before Jiang Muwen could even raise her foot, her waist suddenly tightened. In the next instant, a force drew her backward, and when she came to herself, she had already landed safely on the floor. It was Wen Yichen who had carried her down.

His movements were smooth and decisive, leaving the friends nearby staring in shock.

Of course, Jiang Muwen was just as stunned. She had never imagined Wen Yichen would actually lift her down.

“You twisted your ankle two days ago, and today you’re still darting around like a monkey,” Wen Yichen said in a low voice. Then he raised a foot and climbed onto the chair. “I’ll wipe it.”

When everyone had finished the cleanup, the sky had gradually grown dim. After saying goodbye to the others, Gu Nianxi turned and walked off in the opposite direction.

Strangely enough, on this path she was usually alone, but today there seemed to be someone beside her. A boy walked quietly at her side, as though he had always been taking this road home.

At last, Gu Nianxi could not help but ask, “Yin Luzhe, do you go home this way?”

Hearing that question, Yin Luzhe could not help but freeze inwardly. Of course he did not usually take this road. He had only been worried, as the sky was darkening, that it would not be safe for Gu Nianxi to walk alone.

“Mm?” Seeing no reaction from Yin Luzhe, Gu Nianxi asked again. Tilting her head, she looked at him curiously.

Spring was such a gentle season. The warm breeze brushed softly through the bangs over Yin Luzhe’s forehead, and the streetlights at dusk fell tenderly upon him, as if they could smooth away every sharp edge of his face. The boy before her gave a sheepish smile. “Y-yes.”

Whether it was her imagination or the truth, she seemed to see a faint blush on Yin Luzhe’s face.

When Gu Nianxi saw him smile, she smiled too. In her memory, the boy before her was slick-tongued and mischievous, carrying a natural air of roguishness. A boy like that was hardly the sort one would ever describe as cute. And yet today, she sincerely found him cute in a way unlike the kind she usually saw.

“Oh? Then why have I never seen you take this road before?”

“I usually take another route. I don’t often go this way.”

“Then why aren’t you taking the other way today?”

“It’s because it’s dark, and I was worried you might run into some bad—”

Before he could even say the word “person,” Yin Luzhe abruptly stopped.

He never would have imagined that, led on by Gu Nianxi, he would end up spilling the truth so completely.

The air instantly fell silent. Yin Luzhe seemed to have blurted out a secret he should never have said. Embarrassed, he lowered his eyes and deliberately looked down at the tips of his shoes, pretending he had never said a word.

At that moment, Gu Nianxi also lowered her gaze. After Yin Luzhe finished speaking, her heart seemed to miss a beat. The evening breeze brushed her face, leaving her slightly flushed, and a suspicious pink color rose onto her fair cheeks.

“Actually, you didn’t need to see me home.”

At last, Gu Nianxi broke the silence.

“Mm?” Yin Luzhe lifted his eyes in confusion, his gaze falling on her once more.

“My brother is coming to pick me up today.”

“Your brother is picking you up? Where is he meeting you?” As soon as Gu Nianxi said that, Yin Luzhe’s heart tightened, and an inexplicable nervousness rose in him. He did not even know what he was nervous about. It was only her brother picking her up, and yet he felt as if he were going to meet the family.

“Right at the intersection ahead,” Gu Nianxi said, lifting a hand to point toward the car beneath the traffic light not far away. Beside it, it seemed, stood a man.

As the two drew closer and closer, the man’s features finally came clearly into Yin Luzhe’s sight. The streetlight was dim, falling softly across Gu Niansong’s sharply defined face. He stood straight and still there. After his gaze lingered on Gu Nianxi for a moment, it shifted to Yin Luzhe. There was five parts sternness, three parts weariness, and two parts laziness in his eyes. He did not say a single word, yet he made Yin Luzhe feel an aura of authority that needed no anger to command respect.

“Brother, have you been waiting long?” Seeing Gu Niansong, Gu Nianxi quickened her pace and, in the same motion, took off the backpack from her shoulder and handed it to him.

Watching her address him that way, Yin Luzhe forced out a polite smile and awkwardly echoed, “Brother, sorry to keep you waiting.”