I Am Pursuing You

There were five people in the booth; four were wearing headphones playing games, and one was buried in schoolwork. The scene was bizarre yet harmonious.

Furthermore, Shi Sui was sitting right next to Lu Huaizhi, his hand speed incredibly fast as the keyboard clattered loudly. Lu Huaizhi, however, didn’t change his expression, his pen rarely pausing. It was clear that the noise Shi Sui made didn’t affect him much.

As a round ended, Shi Sui reached out to take a sip of water.

Lu Huaizhi stopped writing at the perfect moment and handed a brand-new bottle of mineral water to his hand.

Shi Sui didn’t pay much attention, naturally opening it and taking a sip while reviewing the game with Wang Cheng and the others. “Were you serious about that flash into the wall just now?”

Wang Cheng immediately hung his head. “You already scolded me in the game, let me go now!”

“I know I’m bad, but I’m not completely useless, right?”

Shi Sui glanced at him. “Mhm, you’re useful.” “I can’t start a five-man queue without you.”

Wang Cheng let out a wail and collapsed onto the table, completely motionless, clearly devastated by the blow.

Shi Sui took another gulp of water and wiped his mouth, only to realize something was wrong a second later.

He looked down; only a small portion of the water was gone. When he started drinking, it should have been sealed, yet he hadn’t felt that resistance when twisting the cap.

Shi Sui looked up and found that his original bottle was empty. Lu Huaizhi, on the other hand, had several brand-new bottles prepared by his side, the exact same brand as the one in his hand.

…

With a thud, Shi Sui slammed the bottle onto the table.

Wang Cheng jumped in fright. “Dad, even if I’m bad, you don’t have to get this angry, do you?”

Shi Sui ignored him and looked coldly at Lu Huaizhi. “When are you going back?” He couldn’t smoke, and he had to watch his language; the thought alone was frustrating.

Lu Huaizhi’s pen paused. “Soon, I’m almost finished with the English worksheet.”

Shi Sui’s face was wooden. “This is the fifth time you’ve said that.” Every time it was a different subject.

“Stop loitering here.” His tone was cold, clearly kicking him out.

Wang Cheng didn’t know what was wrong with Shi Sui or why he was suddenly lashing out. Anyone with a bit of self-respect would probably find it hard to save face. He was about to smooth things over when he saw Lu Huaizhi stand up. “I almost forgot, my time is running out. I’ll go to the counter to renew for another three hours.”

His expression didn’t change at all as he went to pay for more time. Now, Shi Sui had no way to kick him out again.

“Pfft…” Wang Cheng couldn’t hold it back and laughed.

After Lu Huaizhi left, he patted Shi Sui’s shoulder. “Hey, man, why do you keep making things difficult for him?”

Shi Sui’s eyelids felt heavy with annoyance. “Forget it, you guys play. I’m going home.” This Lu Huaizhi was truly immune to both soft and hard tactics.

By the time Lu Huaizhi returned, Shi Sui was nowhere to be found in the booth.

Wang Cheng explained: “Shi Sui said he was tired and went back first.”

Lu Huaizhi looked at the leftover water bottle on the table and gave an “mhm.”

Seeing him start to pack up the worksheets, clearly not planning to stay long, Wang Cheng rubbed his nose. “Um, top student, can I borrow the rest of the subjects to copy?”

Shi Sui’s home was very close to the net cafe, only a ten-minute walk.

He looked at the lights flickering in the old residential area ahead. After a moment, he stepped inside.

Shi Sui lived on the fourth floor. The plaster on the hallway walls was yellowed and peeling. Whenever it became humid in the afternoon, the walls emitted a damp, moldy smell that fermented in the high heat—stuffy and unpleasant.

However, Shi Sui was clearly used to this scent. He walked to the fourth floor with an expressionless face and took out his keys to open the door.

“Sister Chen, please look after my daughter after she starts school. I think this necklace suits you very well, please accept it.” A conversation drifted down from the floor above.

The speaker was a young woman living across from Shi Sui. Her daughter was about to start kindergarten, and the resident on the fifth floor was a teacher at that kindergarten.

Soon, footsteps sounded in the hallway. When the woman saw Shi Sui standing at his door, her movements paused almost imperceptibly.

She hadn’t seen Shi Sui many times. Even though he was a student, he always came home late at night, and occasionally when she ran into him, he was covered in injuries.

The woman instinctively shielded the child in her arms.

But the little girl wasn’t afraid of Shi Sui at all. She broke free from her mother’s embrace, ran down the stairs, and grabbed Shi Sui’s leg.

Shi Sui didn’t expect to be “ambushed” like this, and his body went rigid instantly. The little girl didn’t forget to reach out and snag his backpack strap as well.

“Brother! When are you going to eat breakfast? I haven’t seen you lately.”

The woman reacted first, prying the little girl’s hands away and scolding her. “What are you talking about? And don’t just jump on people!” After speaking, she didn’t forget to apologize to Shi Sui: “I’m sorry, Xin’er is still small and often talks nonsense.”

Shi Sui didn’t say anything for a moment. He knew what the child was talking about.

Once, when he was buying breakfast downstairs, he ran into the little girl. At the time, she was staring at the soup dumplings at the stall with drool almost dripping out, but since her mother wasn’t around, she could only stare.

Shi Sui had casually given her one of his soup dumplings.

The little girl had immediately beamed, her voice crisp. “Brother, next time I’ll treat you to breakfast too.” He just hadn’t expected the little girl to still remember.

Seeing her daughter refusing to let go of Shi Sui’s backpack, the mother felt a bit embarrassed. “Um, we just finished making dinner, would you like to try some?”

Shi Sui didn’t miss the wariness in her eyes and quickly replied: “No thanks.” He actively brushed the little girl’s hand away, turned the key, and entered his home.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. He had always understood this principle.

This principle applied to Lu Huaizhi just as well.

After entering, he tossed his backpack onto the sofa in the living room and went to take a shower.

Just as Shi Sui came out drying his hair, he heard the phone on the coffee table buzzing incessantly.

[Wang Wang: Brother Shi, look at the good stuff I got?]

Then Wang Cheng sent several photos. Shi Sui looked and saw they were all the answers for this week’s homework.

However, the handwriting on the assignments was bold and powerful, clearly not produced by Wang Cheng’s messy scrawl.

Before Shi Sui could ask, Wang Cheng provided the answer.

[Wang Wang: It’s from the top student! I asked, and he just gave them to me.] [Wang Wang: But the top student said there are still two subjects unfinished. He’ll take photos and send them when he’s done.] [Wang Wang: I’ll probably be busy copying, so I won’t have time to share new ones. I pushed your WeChat to the top student.]

Reasonably, Wang Cheng should have given Lu Huaizhi’s WeChat to Shi Sui instead.

But earlier at the net cafe, when Lu Huaizhi gave him the homework, he had suddenly asked: “Does Shi Sui need these as well?”

He also said he was afraid that if Wang Cheng forwarded the images, the order might get mixed up, so it would be better if he sent them to Shi Sui personally.

Although Wang Cheng found it strange at the time, he still shared Shi Sui’s WeChat contact.

After reading the messages, Shi Sui exited the chat interface. Sure enough, there was a red dot on the “Add Friends” section.

[Lu requested to add you as a friend.]

He stared at the message for a few seconds, but his mind was on something else.

In the pursuit guide Lu Huaizhi had searched for, the next step after giving milk tea was— [Get his contact information.]

Shi Sui’s eyelid twitched, and he decisively tapped “Decline.”

The consequence of acting tough was that Shi Sui was pulled to the back row by Tian Hongjun during Monday’s flag-raising ceremony and scolded for ten straight minutes. He even mentioned that Wang Cheng had finished his homework well this time, while only Shi Sui had a terrible attitude and refused to change.

“Also, where is your school uniform?” Tian Hongjun looked at his outfit, his heart pounding with anger. “You don’t wear your uniform for the flag-raising?”

Shi Sui said: “It’s washed and hasn’t dried.” He was also sick of wearing it.

Tian Hongjun was irritated just by looking at him. “After school, you clean the media classroom on the first floor. I have to inspect it before you can leave!”

That media classroom hadn’t been used all year; the desks and chairs were covered in dust. Tian Hongjun was clearly determined to teach Shi Sui a lesson this time.

When he returned, Wang Cheng immediately turned around to ask: “The top student didn’t send you the answers yesterday?”

Shi Sui was a bit annoyed: “Too lazy to copy.” Even lazier to add someone as a friend.

At this moment, Lu Huaizhi was giving a speech on the podium. His tone was steady and his demeanor calm; clearly, he had done this often at Qinghe.

Shi Sui looked up, and across the sea of people, his eyes happened to meet the gaze of the person on stage.

Lu Huaizhi’s voice faltered almost imperceptibly.

After the speech ended, Lu Huaizhi returned to the end of the class line.

Shi Sui kept a stiff face and didn’t give him a single glance. A minute later, the hem of his clothes was pulled.

Shi Sui ignored it. The clothes were tugged again.

Shi Sui reached his limit and turned back to glare at him.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Huaizhi lowered his voice.

Being asked this, Shi Sui actually got stuck. Could he say it was because he didn’t copy the answers and was singled out by Tian Hongjun for a scolding? And punished with cleaning?

Of course he couldn’t say it. So, he kept a stiff face. “None of your f*cking business.”

After school, under Tian Hongjun’s supervision, Shi Sui took a bucket and a mop to work in the media classroom.

He pushed the door open, and a clear handprint was left in the dust on the door.

Shi Sui looked at the nearly one hundred desks and chairs before him, all thick with dust, and a crack finally appeared in his expression.

He threw the mop on the floor. “I’m not doing it.” He didn’t want to die of exhaustion here.

Tian Hongjun seemed to have anticipated his reaction. He took his phone out of his pocket and scrolled through it. “Your grandmother called me yesterday to ask how you were doing at school. I don’t think I answered clearly enough then, maybe I should call her back…”

Before he could finish, Shi Sui swiftly bent down to pick up the mop: “I’ll call you when I’m done cleaning.” He knew when to yield.

Tian Hongjun put his phone away with satisfaction. “I’ll be in the office. I’ll come to inspect when you’re finished.” After speaking, he left humming a little tune.

Shi Sui looked at the massive classroom and resigned himself to the work.

Just as he finished wiping one desk, footsteps came from the doorway.

Shi Sui thought it was Tian Hongjun and didn’t even turn his head: “Don’t worry, I won’t run away.”

“I’ll help you.”

Hearing the familiar voice, Shi Sui turned around to see Lu Huaizhi also holding tools, walking to the other side to start cleaning voluntarily.

His expression was serious and his movements efficient; he was clearly here to help for real.

Shi Sui truly couldn’t understand. “Lu Huaizhi, what do you mean by this?” Their relationship wasn’t nearly good enough for this.

Lu Huaizhi wiped the dust off a table and said: “If I hadn’t given the answers to Wang Cheng, you wouldn’t have received such a heavy punishment.”

Several people in the class knew Wang Cheng had the answers and came for help; Wang Cheng hadn’t been stingy about sharing them.

This resulted in Shi Sui being the only one who didn’t hand in the homework today.

“I won’t let him copy my homework anymore.” Lu Huaizhi wiped the tabletop clean with a handkerchief. “I’ll only give it to you.”

Shi Sui: “…” He actually didn’t know how to react to Lu Huaizhi’s statement for a moment.

“Lu Huaizhi.” Shi Sui felt it was bizarre. “What exactly do you want to do?”

Lu Huaizhi took the dirty rag from Shi Sui’s hand, washed it in the bucket, and handed it back to him. “I thought I was making it very obvious.”

Shi Sui suddenly had a very bad feeling. “Wait—” But he was one step too late.

Lu Huaizhi spoke: “Shi Sui, I am pursuing you.”