5
Lâm Chi Việt greeted him without the slightest hesitation. “Hello, Mr. Vương.”
So it was old Mr. Vương, our homeroom teacher.
No wonder his voice had sounded familiar. He’d just shown up at the worst possible time. I thought lazily.
“Lâm Chi Việt, who’s the person you’re holding? Is she a student at our school?”
Lâm Chi Việt replied with impeccable courtesy, “I’m sorry, Mr. Vương. She isn’t.”
Old Mr. Vương had now come up to Bạo Tẩu. “All right, all right, she isn’t, is she? I’ll deal with you tomorrow.”
After delivering his threat, he left once the rain let up. He might even have forgotten that he’d come out to take shelter from it in the first place.
The next day, after class, our homeroom teacher said to Lâm Chi Việt, “Come with me to the office.”
As Lâm Chi Việt passed my desk, I grabbed his wrist and looked up at him anxiously.
He turned and smiled gently at me. “Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”
Not long after he left, I couldn’t sit still anymore. I got up and headed to the office too.
I’d barely reached the door when I heard the principal’s anguished voice from inside. “At your age, you should be studying hard. How can you be dating? What if your grades start slipping?”
By comparison, Lâm Chi Việt seemed remarkably calm. His voice was level, his words unhurried. “Mr. Lý, please don’t worry. I promise my grades won’t fall.”
The principal continued, still anguished. “Even if you can guarantee your own grades won’t slip, can you guarantee that girl’s grades won’t be affected?”
Old Mr. Vương hastily chimed in. “Exactly. If you really end up affecting her future, you’ll be hurting her, not loving her.”
The two of them were too much for me. Afraid Lâm Chi Việt wouldn’t be able to take it, I pushed the door open and said, “Mr. Vương, you don’t need to worry about my future. After the college entrance exams, I’m going abroad to study.”
Old Mr. Vương started stamping his feet again. “Which smart-mouthed kid said that to me?”
He turned around, scolding with confidence, but when he saw it was me, he seemed unsure whether he should keep being angry.
When I transferred schools, my parents had already spoken to them. Both the homeroom teacher and the principal knew all about my family background, so they were both wary of me. There was really no need to worry about my future.
In the end, he found a devious argument and tried to drive a wedge between Lâm Chi Việt and me. “See? See? Giang Ti Vũ isn’t even willing to take the college entrance exams here in the country for your sake!”
I laughed and was about to argue back, but Lâm Chi Việt said softly, “But why should she have to give up her plans for the future for me?”
“I love her, so I’ll support her. I won’t break her wings and keep her by my side in the name of love.”
My heart pounded. I looked over at Lâm Chi Việt in a daze.
He happened to be looking at me, too.
A hint of a smile glimmered in the boy’s clear, dark eyes—tender, yet resolute.
I thought in a daze.
So this was what all those novels meant by your heart pounding.
6
Some time later, our midterm exam results came out.
Not only did Lâm Chi Việt hold on to first place, but my score also went up by more than a hundred points, putting me in the top fifty in the grade.
Old Mr. Vương had nothing left to say, so he simply turned a blind eye to us.
No one knew what Lâm Chi Việt had given up to help me raise my score by more than a hundred points.
In the quiet study.
Whenever I solved a particularly difficult math problem, I’d go to Lâm Chi Việt for a reward. Over the years, I’d read plenty of books and picked up all sorts of tricks, and I used every one of them on him.
That day, I’d finished all the problems. When I turned my head, I saw Lâm Chi Việt in profile. The desk lamp cast a soft glow over his sharply defined jawline. He was practically a work of art.
He wore silver-framed glasses when he read.
They were an ordinary style, but perched on his straight, high-bridged nose, they instantly looked refined, giving him a quiet, scholarly air.
Noticing me watching him, he looked over and asked softly, “Are you tired?”
I wasn’t really that tired.
But I wanted to be pampered, so I nodded with a wounded look. “I’m exhausted. I want a hug.”
Lâm Chi Việt stood and came over to me, then bent down and gently gathered me into his arms.
I thought he was just going to hold me like that, but the room suddenly spun. He’d picked me up. “I’ll carry you to the sofa so you can rest a bit.”
I quickly wrapped my arms around his neck, afraid he’d drop me and I’d fall to pieces.
My fear of falling must have been obvious. He chuckled softly as he carried me, his voice perfectly calm. “Ti Vũ, I’m not as weak as you think.”
That gave me the urge to tease him. I leaned toward his neck on purpose and said in a coquettish voice, “You boys love to brag. I can’t believe a word you say.”
As I spoke, my soft breath brushed the skin of his neck.
I watched as his neck turned bright red from a single “bite.”
He stopped in his tracks, his whole body stiffening.
I grinned, about to keep teasing him, when someone suddenly pushed open the study door. Từ Khoảnh Dã charged in like a wild bull. “Giang Ti Vũ!”
Seeing me clinging to Lâm Chi Việt, he stared wide-eyed and shouted, “What are you two doing?”
7
The living room. A three-way meeting.
I introduced them to each other.
“My boyfriend, Lâm Chi Việt.”
“This is my cousin, Từ Khoảnh Dã.”
Từ Khoảnh Dã immediately protested. “I’m not your cousin! We’re not blood-related. I’m just the Trần family’s adopted son, okay? I’m not even on the Trần family’s household registration.”
Từ Khoảnh Dã was the son of my maternal aunt’s best friend. After his mother died, she entrusted him to my aunt’s care. He was seven when he came to live with the Trần family, so he remembers everything.
Since Trần Gia Nghi and I were close, he and I were close, too. You could say we grew up together.
He glared at Lâm Chi Việt, seething with resentment, and said to me, “You said before that you liked relationships between equals—strong man, strong woman. Fine! I accept that. The Từ family really isn’t as powerful as the Giang family, after all.”
“Don’t lie to me. I just looked into everything. Lâm Chi Việt is an orphan!”
All the color drained from Lâm Chi Việt’s face. His lips turned as white as paper. He lowered his eyes to hide his feelings and said nothing.
It was the first time since we’d started dating that I’d seen him look like that.
My heart hurt so much I could barely breathe.
He knew perfectly well how different our backgrounds were. I was the high-and-mighty young lady of a wealthy family, and he was an orphan abandoned by his parents. A vast gulf lay between us, yet he had still accepted my confession.
With me, he was always composed, calm, gentle, and endlessly patient. He’d never let me see his insecurity or his wounds, and he’d never burdened me with them.
But today, Từ Khoảnh Dã had laid it all bare, exposing the wound for everyone to see.
I slapped Từ Khoảnh Dã across the face and said coldly, “You don’t even understand basic respect. What about you is there to like? Your aunt and uncle raised you for more than a decade, and Trần Gia Nghi treats you like her own brother. But what do you do? You keep insisting you’re not part of the Trần family at the slightest provocation. Từ Khoảnh Dã, you’re one of the most shameless ingrates I’ve ever seen.”
A handprint stood out on Từ Khoảnh Dã’s face. He looked at me with sorrowful eyes.
My expression cold, I went on, “If you insist on asking why I didn’t choose you, the answer is simple: I don’t like you. I like Lâm Chi Việt. Is that reason enough?”
Từ Khoảnh Dã shot Lâm Chi Việt a furious glare, then turned and ran.
After that, I began to feel as though Lâm Chi Việt was avoiding me.
One day between classes, I finally couldn’t take it anymore and stopped him. “Lâm Chi Việt, why are you avoiding me?”
“Từ Khoảnh Dã is crazy. You don’t have to take anything he says seriously. He’s been an idiot since he was a kid—not even a thousandth as smart as you—and he’s always blurting out whatever comes to mind. I’m sorry on his behalf. Please don’t be mad, okay?”
Lâm Chi Việt’s voice was perfectly calm—so calm it struck me as a little cold. “It wasn’t your fault. Why should you apologize for him?”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a self-mocking smile. “Besides, he wasn’t wrong. The truth just isn’t always easy to hear.”
I felt awful.
His expression right then irritated me.
His attitude irritated me, even the tone of his voice.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. “So, do you want to break up?”
Lâm Chi Việt fell silent?
He’d gone silent again!
A dull ache throbbed in my chest. Frowning, I asked, “I’ll ask one more time: do you want to break up?”
A flicker of pain crossed Lâm Chi Việt’s eyes. The corners of his eyes grew red as he held back his tears, and he spoke softly.
“Ti Vũ, give me a little time.”