And so, Lu Chengsha became even more relentless in urging her to study.
Not long ago, she was still upset because Lu Chengsha seemed indifferent to her grades. Now, as she stared at the message he sent asking for a screenshot of her test papers, she began to feel like she had shot herself in the foot.
Could he maybe… go back to being indifferent?
The kittens had been brought back too, but since they were high school students, it wasn’t convenient to keep them. So, they were left at a nearby pet store.
Because it was close, Hua Yan would occasionally arrange to visit the kittens with Lu Chengsha. The two little ones grew quickly, and after being well-fed and cleaned, their fur colors became apparent. One had black and white stripes, and the other was orange, looking like two fluffy, soft furballs.
There was always a magical feeling about having picked them up.
The two of them even gave the kittens names: the orange one was named Huahua, and the black-and-white one was named Lulu. Hua Yan felt a bit embarrassed when naming them, but since Lu Chengsha had no objections, they went with those names.
The orange kitten was bigger and, within a few days, dared to pin the black-and-white kitten down, waving its paws in a playful fight.
Hua Yan separated them and couldn’t help but comment, “Lu Chengsha, your son is so weak.”
Lu Chengsha: “…”
Hua Yan picked up the triumphant orange kitten and continued, “My daughter is still the stronger one.”
However, a few days later, she found the black-and-white kitten pinning the orange one down, meticulously licking its fur.
Hua Yan: “…”
Lu Chengsha still didn’t dare to touch them much. His appearance indeed clashed with the tiny kittens, and whenever they stood together, Hua Yan found it hilarious, often pulling out her phone to snap several pictures.
One time, when he bent down to tease the orange kitten, he softly called, “Huahua.”
Hua Yan, who was teasing the other kitten nearby, turned her head, “…Huh?”
Lu Chengsha was equally stunned, “Hmm?”
Realizing what happened, her face turned crimson.
They visited so often that the pet store owner couldn’t help but tease them, “Ah, youth is wonderful… Let me get you two some sodas to reminisce about my younger days.”
Soon, they changed into their autumn and winter uniforms. After the second monthly exam, Hua Yan’s grades not only didn’t drop but improved. The class teacher called her in for praise and asked her to share her study methods with her classmates.
Hua Yan smiled awkwardly and politely declined…
She couldn’t exactly say it was because she had added a particularly useful educational app!
This app not only handled question generation, problem-solving, and explanations, but also supervised her progress. Sometimes, it even served as an alarm clock. Recently, Lu Chengsha had been working on competition questions and seemed eager to pull Hua Yan into it as well.
Hua Yan hadn’t intended to work so hard, but since Lu Chengsha had sent her messages, she couldn’t just say she hadn’t looked at or done anything.
Over time, she slowly got used to it.
With nothing much to do on weekends, the two of them arranged to go to a café on the second floor at the corner of the shopping street to work on questions.
Lu Chengsha even brought a stack of books for her. Hua Yan suddenly remembered these were the essay collections she had lent him earlier.
“You finished them all?” She almost forgot. “How did you find them? Did they help with your compositions?”
Lu Chengsha nodded, hesitating a bit.
He had finished them, but some parts still didn’t make much sense to him.
For example, the logical connections between paragraphs and the seemingly pointless emotional expressions—he couldn’t see their substantial meaning.
“Still not quite getting it? I’ll lend you some more then. I have plenty of these kinds of books!” Hua Yan said, leaning on her hand to look at the questions, then couldn’t help but complain, “Don’t you get tired of doing questions every day?”
Lu Chengsha could answer this one: “No, it’s quite interesting.”
“Interesting?”
Lu Chengsha nodded, “Every question has its own logic. If you follow the correct process, you get the answer. The logical relationships are fascinating…” He thought for a moment, “And it’s very fulfilling.”
Hua Yan looked at him skeptically, “You’re not just messing with me, are you?”
Lu Chengsha immediately pushed his exercise book in front of her, covering the answers and only revealing the question, encouraging, “This question is very interesting. There are three ways to solve it, each with a different approach. Give it a try.”
Hua Yan: “…”
Don’t use that sales pitch tone!
It feels so weird!
And why are you suddenly talking so much?
Despite her reluctance, Hua Yan glanced at the question. Just seeing the words “competition question” made her head spin.
Lu Chengsha seemed to notice too. He awkwardly tried to cover it up by placing an eraser over those words, “Try it. If you don’t know, I’ll explain.”
Hua Yan was still struggling. She hadn’t even finished her own questions yet and didn’t really want to take on more.
“How about this…” Hua Yan thought for a moment, “I’ll do it, but you have to accompany me to do something next week.” She took out her phone and pushed it in front of Lu Chengsha, her eyes shining brightly, “Watch this with me!”
On the screen was a movie premiering the next weekend at midnight.
“I want to watch the midnight premiere. I haven’t seen a movie in a long time, and it’s not convenient to find a girl to go with at that time, so…”
Lu Chengsha was stunned and looked up at her, his eyes seemingly saying, “High school students don’t have time for movies.” Hua Yan pretended not to understand and continued to plead with her hands clasped together, “Please, it’s just a little over two hours. There’s a screening at the nearby cinema, and we can come back right after!”
Seeing that Lu Chengsha was still unmoved, Hua Yan felt helpless. Her request was indeed a spur-of-the-moment idea.
Considering Lu Chengsha’s level of focus, he might have never even watched a movie.
Disappointed, Hua Yan pulled back, “Forget it… it’s okay. If you can’t, I’ll find someone else to watch it with.”
Who would you find?
Lu Chengsha instinctively wanted to ask.
He looked up and saw the girl biting her lip, poking at her pen with a look of disappointment, the smile fading from her face. Something stirred in his heart.
Hua Yan, dejected, lowered her head and was about to push Lu Chengsha’s exercise book away when she heard him say softly, “I’ll go.”
She raised her head abruptly, thinking she had misheard.
Lu Chengsha’s expression was also a bit surprised, as if he hadn’t fully processed it himself before he had already spoken.
Hua Yan confirmed doubtfully, “Are you really going or not…”
Lu Chengsha, trying to cover up his embarrassment, scribbled a couple of formulas on his draft paper and lowered his gaze, saying, “…I’ll go.”
***
Hua Yan had been eagerly anticipating this movie for a long time. It was an indie art film by her favorite director, and she had been waiting for the release date.
Initially, she was just excited about the movie, but ever since Lu Chengsha agreed to go with her, she found herself looking forward to something else she couldn’t quite identify. She was excited all week, feeling motivated and energized even while working on questions late at night, counting down the days.
Her deskmate found out and was a bit worried, “Are you really going to see the premiere in the middle of the night? Isn’t that a bit dangerous?”
“Don’t worry, I’m going with someone!”
“Who?”
Hua Yan felt a bit shy to say.
Seeing her hesitation, her deskmate hesitantly guessed, “It wouldn’t be Lu Chengsha from the next class, would it?”
Hua Yan: “Uh…”
Her deskmate screamed and immediately covered her mouth, looking around before leaning in and whispering, “Are you guys going on a date? Oh my gosh, and to see a movie at night… By the way, Huahua, be careful.”
Careful of what?
But as she chewed on the word “date,” her face silently reddened a bit. For some reason, she didn’t refute her deskmate.
Although Hua Yan quickly reminded herself that Lu Chengsha was just being dragged to the movie by her!
And he was reluctant about it.
Before setting out, Hua Yan spent a long time picking out clothes in her closet—mainly because the weather was getting colder, and she wanted something both nice and warm. She finally chose a knee-length light red plaid skirt, paired it with boots, and picked a matching scarf.
As she neared the cinema where she and Lu Chengsha had agreed to meet, she couldn’t help but shiver from the cold, rubbing her slightly reddened hands, then glanced at her phone.
Teaching App: I’m here.
Teaching App: Buying tickets.
It still felt quite unreal.
However, as soon as Hua Yan walked in, she saw a tall boy by the counter.
He was wearing a black jacket with a hood, a thin sweater underneath, and dark blue jeans. He stood tall, his profile focused and serious, talking to the ticketing staff.
Hua Yan’s heart inexplicably skipped a beat.
—It really feels like a date.
Lu Chengsha quickly finished buying the tickets. His eyes scanned the surroundings and landed on Hua Yan. He paused slightly before leaving the counter and walking towards her, holding a large bag of popcorn and two drinks.
Hua Yan was surprised.
He’s quite experienced!
But before she could dwell on it, she saw the full-price tickets Lu Chengsha handed her and was instantly relieved.
Ah… full-price tickets, he really doesn’t watch movies often.
Hua Yan looked down and took a drink from his hand, saying, “You even knew to buy this…”
Lu Chengsha pointed to the counter, “The staff recommended it… What else should we do?”
Hua Yan inserted the straw and took a sip, whispering, “Just wait!”
She looked around and realized that not many people came to the midnight premiere, but almost all were couples, hugging or holding each other closely. Only the two of them stood there awkwardly, feeling particularly out of place.
Unable to bear it, Hua Yan tugged on Lu Chengsha’s sleeve, “Should we find a place to sit?”
Lu Chengsha responded with a slight “hmm” and asked, “Where?”
Hua Yan noticed that his voice sounded subtly tense.
“Are you nervous?”
It took Lu Chengsha a moment before he answered with another “hmm.”
He didn’t know why he felt nervous.
If one were to check Lu Chengsha’s phone at that moment, they’d find among the academic-related searches a mismatched entry: “Things to note when watching a movie with a girl.”
One of the tips was to buy the movie tickets in advance.
“I’m a bit nervous too… What should we do?”
Lu Chengsha paused, then handed her the popcorn.
Another tip was to prepare snacks in advance.
Hua Yan: “…”
Alright, eating popcorn did help a bit, but not much.
Especially after the two of them entered the theater and found that the couple in the front row was already getting overly affectionate as soon as they sat down.
“Honey, do you think this movie will be good?”
“Sweetie, I don’t know if you’ll like it, but if you don’t, you can just sleep on my shoulder.”
“You’re so sweet, honey.”
The girl then leaned over and gave the boy a kiss on the cheek.
Hua Yan: “…”
Lu Chengsha: “…”
Hua Yan’s face turned slightly red. The movie hadn’t even started yet; was this really necessary?
Unconsciously, she stuffed a few more pieces of popcorn into her mouth, feeling a bit thirsty. She picked up the drink next to her and took a sip, then…
“Why are you looking at me?” Hua Yan asked nervously, glancing at Lu Chengsha.
She didn’t intend to ask him if the movie would be good.
Lu Chengsha looked at the drink she was holding tightly, his drink, hesitating whether to remind her.