Chapter 70

At dinner, the object of Qiao Shao’s unrequited love sent him a picture.

It was a freshly roasted, sizzling, dripping with oil, fatty beef. With a single glance, you could tell that it was roasted until it would just melt in your mouth.

Without Friday: “Now, do you regret rejecting such a delicious dinner?”

Qiao Shao looked blankly at the four thousand yuan worth Australian lobsters on his table—En, he really regretted it.

Qiao Zongmin saw that he wasn’t moving his chopsticks and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Qiao Shao restrained his hand that wanted to take a photo, and said, “My seatmate is having delicious food at a restaurant and he sent me a photo.”

Qiao Zongmin was interested. “Let me see.”

Qiao Shao passed his cell phone to him without thinking.

As soon as Qiao Zongmin was about to open it, Qiao Shao stood up again and snatched the mobile phone from over the dining table.

Qiao Zongmin froze.

Qiao Shao blushed and said, “… I … I’ll find it for you.”

Qiao Zongmin was very astute and he suddenly smelled something fishy!

Qiao Shao opened the photo, zoomed it and showed it to Qiao Zongmin.

How could Qiao Zongmin still care about this picture? With eyes bright and piercing, he asked, “Is it a girl classmate?”

Qiao Shao: “………”

Qiao Zongmin was bursting with joy. “I’ve never heard you talk about her. What kind of girl is she?”

Qiao Shao put away his cell phone and said, “Nothing, this is from my seatmate.”

Qiao Zongmin didn’t ask much and responded with a smile: “Mm-hmm, it’s your seatmate…”

As it so happened, Qiao Shao was feeling guilty and now he felt even more uneasy.

He Shen didn’t stop, and sent another WeChat message. “Want to come over? It’s not too late.”

Qiao Shao said, “I’m not going!”

He Shen said, “You don’t want to eat your favorite barbecue?”

Qiao Shao texted He Shen under his dad’s watchful gaze. “I like lobster more.”

He Shen said, “Then, come. I’ll take you to eat Australian lobster.”

Qiao Shao: “No need. I’m already having some right now.”

He Shen said, “Although they’re both called lobsters, Australian lobster and crayfish are not the same thing.”

Qiao Shao stopped talking nonsense and directly sent him a photo.

He Shen said, “Which site did you take this from? This picture sucks.”

Qiao Shao: “………………”

On that end, he was angered to death by the object of his unrequited love, and on this end, his no-good old man said, “If this isn’t a female classmate, your father will change his name to Minzong Qiao.”

Neither of them believed him!

Although he couldn’t explain clearly…

Naturally, Qiao Shao didn’t go to see He Shen, but because of this silly incident, he thought that the lobster was particularly delicious tonight. He ended up eating more than Qiao Zongmin.

There was no need to mention how pleased Minzong Qiao was.

When they were having after-dinner tea, a scene suddenly flashed in Qiao Shao’s mind.

He hesitated, put down his cup of black tea and said to Qiao Zongmin, “Did you talk to me about what to look for in a spouse before?”

Qiao Zongmin did not respond at first. After his senses returned, he looked earnestly at him. “Did you remember something?”

“En…” Qiao Shao said, “a bit.”

It seemed to have been on an island. He and Da Qiao were basking in the sun on the beach. He didn’t know what they had been talking about before, he just remembered his dad saying, “When looking for a wife, you don’t need to compare yourself to me, stinky brat. Being tall and beautiful, these don’t matter. What’s important is that she has a good personality. The key points to look for are that she’s gentle and sweet.”

Qiao Shao was only eleven or twelve years old and he listened very attentively.

Qiao Zongmin continued his sincere and heartfelt lecture. “Of course, the least important thing is her family background. Regardless of her background, as long as she’s a good person, she can be our Qiao family’s daughter-in-law!”

Qiao Shao described these things. Comrade Da Qiao almost burst into tears. “Yes … That’s how it went.”

Every winter, their family of three would go to the tropics to winter over. It was after they returned that Qiao Shao disappeared…

Even as Qiao Shao rejoiced at being a bit more “normal”, he felt even more depressed.

Not good.

It didn’t matter if they were ugly or short. The point was that they had to have a good personality and they needed to be gentle and sweet.

Except for the family background, He Shen scored negative on every other standard.

Especially the gentle and sweet one, totally negative!

En……

Qiao Shao was thinking too much.

His was already a failed love, why worry about this!

On Sunday, Qiao Shao’s mobile phone was even livelier.

But it wasn’t He Shen messaging him again, but that the Math Society had announced the results.

Although he had already known his score for a long time, seeing that he had claimed first place with his own eyes made Qiao Shao swell with pride!

First!

He got first among this sea of top students!

Qiao Shao took a screenshot and sent it to He Shen.

He Shen replied, “Awesome.”

Qiao Shao was well aware of the real situation. “You predicted the contents of the assessment for me.”

The last two questions were obviously ones that He Shen had been prepared for. And his predictions had been very accurate. This was why Qiao Shao managed to get the answer right.

He Shen said, “Even without those two questions, you would have still gotten the highest score.”

This was…

Qiao Shao was elated.

At this moment, Top Pillar sent him a private message. “Brother Larry, congratulations!”

Qiao Shao sent him a smiley face.

Top Pillar said, “The schedule for the league competition has been set. It will be on the second day after the final exam.”

Qiao Shao hesitated. “This day …”

Top Pillar said: “It’s always difficult to arrange before the final exam. But the final exam’s a small matter, not something we should worry about.”

No no no … Qiao Shao was very worried!

Top Pillar continued, “Of course, I also look forward to competing against you in the final exam.”

Qiao Shao was silent, typing. “I can’t.”

Top Pillar: “Don’t be humble. You’ve learned math so well, I’m sure nothing else stumps you.”

Qiao Shao honestly said, “In fact, there are quite a lot. Like, Chinese Language, Physics, Chemistry, Biology…”

Top Pillar sent out a smiley, “Brother Larry, you’re so funny.”

Qiao Shao wasn’t trying to be funny at all. He was just telling the truth!

What’s going on these days? Why was it so difficult to tell the truth!

He called He Shen to commiserate and He Shen grasped the key point firmly. “Aren’t you forgetting that you just won first place? Shouldn’t you celebrate?”

Qiao Shao: “???”

He Shen said, “I’m inviting you to eat lobster for lunch.”

Qiao Shao only ate yesterday but he was, unexpectedly, still a little bit tempted. But he calmed down. “It’s not an actual exam, there’s nothing to celebrate.”

He Shen said, “If you firmly seize the start, there will be a better future.”

It made sense, but Qiao Shao didn’t want to see him. “We’ll celebrate in the cafeteria at noon tomorrow.”

After a while, He Shen returned to him, “You lied to me.”

Qiao Shao sent him a question mark.

He Shen replied back with a screenshot. It contained a sentence that made Qiao Shao absolutely hated. — The first day without He Shen Shen. I miss him to (T ^ T)

Qiao Shao flushed and his fingers trembled. He typed for a long white but still couldn’t send back a single word.

He Shen: “You said you missed me but you don’t want to see me at all.”

Qiao Shao tried hard for a long while put still put the phone aside.

— This scoundrel of a straight man! Can you be a little more self-aware!

Qiao Shao’s cell phone rang with an incoming call.

He took a look and as expected, it was He Shen.

Qiao Shao stared at his avatar for a while. His heart was all jumbled. He hung up.

He breathed a sigh of relief and edited the text in the dialog box. Who knew that the other party would call once again.

Qiao Shao hung up again and He Shen persevered…

Qiao Shao knew that he wouldn’t be able to say it and could only rely on messaging so he hung up again.

He Shen, who was leaning against his chair, stared at the mobile phone for a while, but didn’t call again. Forget it. If he continues, it will just annoy the other into hating him.

He Shen put down his phone and continued working.

As for lunch? He lost his appetite.

Just then, his phone rang again.

He Shen didn’t look at it, certain that it wasn’t from Qiao Shao. Most likely, it was from Xie Qing.

Does this aunt of his think that it isn’t obvious what she’s planning?

She said that she cared about him, but in fact, she had never once looked at him and his mother during the past ten and more years.

Now that Xie Chengyu had brought his illegitimate child home, she had begun to worry. She thought that woman wasn’t easy to deal with and wanted to use him.

He Shen thought about these things, and he wanted to vomit from disgust.

He wanted to see Qiao Shao. He felt like seeing him would make this disgusting mess disappear like smoke.

But……

Qiao Shao didn’t belong to him.

He might even belong to someone else in the future.

He Shen looked down at his palm.

His mother once said, “Your hands look so nice. So, please hold on tightly to what you want.”

He Shen curled his fingers into a first and then opened his palm. He only felt like he couldn’t grasp anything.

After Shao Qiao sent a message to He Shen, he set aside his phone.

He went to wash up and stared at his pile of clothes in his wardrobe.

Ok……

Auntie Wu said he was particularly handsome in Gucci’s summer collection.

Burberry looked good too, low-key and clean.

Givenchy seemed a bit too gaudy…

And Versace …

Hold on a minute!

Qiao Shao stared at himself in the mirror and cursed. “What are you thinking!”

He wasn’t going on a date! What was he dressing all fancy for!

Besides, how could he wear these clothes? If he did, he’d scare He Shen to death!

Qiao Shao was conflicted for a while and finally found out the new T-shirts and shorts Aunt Wu bought for him.

Right now, he was doing rather well in East High. He no longer had to worry about preparing all these stuff to keep up his ‘poor student’ persona by himself. Aunt Wu would arrange it for him.

In fact, when school had just began, if he had asked for it, his family would have helped him with it. But at the time, he didn’t have the confidence and was embarrassed to trouble others, so he bought it himself.

Then he met He Shen, who sold him a women’s shirt!

Thinking back on it now, Qiao Shao just thought it was funny.

He was neatly dressed and he picked up his cell phone to find that He Shen had yet to reply to him.

Never mind, he’ll just go to the restaurant and wait for him.

He Shen kept himself busy with work for a while. Still thinking of Qiao Shao in his heart, he decided to look at their chat record to cheer up.

Then he saw that an hour ago, Qiao Shao sent him a WeChat message. “At eleven thirty, I’ll wait for you at xx Barbecue Restaurant. You don’t always have to be the one to treat me. This time I’ll be the one treating you to lunch.”

He Shen was startled and he looked at the time — 11:25.