03 - We aren't close

"To the short girls you say you like long legs, and to the gentle girls you say you like the wild types. It’s a conundrum that the girls of Ancheng No. 1 High School will never be able to solve, what is Luo'ge’s type?" Han Junsong teased Luo Tang.

As Han Junsong finished speaking, Wang Silai on the side cut in and said, "Wouldn’t that just be the type who is wild and has long legs? Luo'ge likes difficult girls."

Luo Tang's face could bring disaster to a country and its people, and coupled with his identity as a straight A student, no girl could resist his charm. He received more love letters than test papers every day, and the girls who lined up to confess to him were like an endless stream.

However, although Luo Tang had a good life, good looks, a rich family, and fought fiercely, they need not envy him for having a girl.

There were only the three of them left in the table tennis room. When Li Yawen saw Han Junsong and Wang Silai she was embarrassed to be caught asking such a question, and felt even more ashamed after hearing Luo Tang's answer. But the goddess was the goddess after all and she didn't even look at either of them as she left coldly.

However, girls who knew how to stand tall and make boys worship them were more popular. Knowing that she was out of their league, they naturally paid more attention to her.

Looking back from the window, Luo Tang turned around and noticed the wounds on the faces of Han Junsong and Wang Silai. His dark eyes seemed to be bottomless, as he ignored their discussion about girls, and said in a deep voice: "Next Saturday, Xu Lingzhou will be at the arcade in the Golden Palace International Mall."

The Xu Lingzhou Luo Tang mentioned was the boss at Ancheng Sports School which was on the same street as Ancheng No. 1 High School. There was currently beef between Luo Tang’s friends and Xu Lingzhou's group.

It should be mentioned that the conflict between the two was actually because of Li Yawen. Xu Lingzhou had been after Li Yawen since their first year of high school and hounded her from time to time. During their exams last semester, Xu Lingzhou went to find Li Yawen, but Luo Tang and the others happened to see him, so they beat Xu Lingzhou up.

As a result, when they entered their second year of high school, Xu Lingzhou brought a dozen friends and confronted Luo Tang and the others in the gymnasium.

The details of the brawl need not be repeated. The students from the sports school were physically strong, and in large numbers Luo Tang’s group almost all got injured, with the exception of Luo Tang. In the end, someone reported the fight to the principal and the brawl was ended.

When the principal arrived all the students from No. 1 High School were kept back and Xu Lingzhou’s group swaggered away. Before leaving, Xu Lingshou went to the art class to find Li Yawen and tell her that he’d wait for her at the arcade in the Golden Palace International Mall on Saturday, which was where she tutored dance.

Li Yawen had come to Luo Tang to tell him this.

As soon as Luo Tang finished speaking, Han Junsong instantly forgot Li Yawen and the long legs, and kicked on the table with anger, shouting, "Fuck! I'll bring a crew to meet him Saturday, just fucking kill him!"

"I’ll head over too." Luo Tang said with a calm expression.

"Ah?" Han Junsong put away his anger, and touched his nose, then said with a dry cough, "Luo'ge, you’re allowed to go out on weekends?"

When they were in the first year of high school, some students from the sports school tried to mug a student from their high school. The student tried to call for the police to no avail but found Luo Tang instead. Luo Tang went with them and beat up the head of the group in the courtyard.

There was a big fuss made about it at the time and Luo Tang was grounded by his father.

Even so, this time the sports school had gone too far, they needed to settle this.

Luo Tang didn’t answer Han Junsong, just got up and left the table tennis room.

After leaving, Luo Tang returned to his classroom first. As soon as he entered the door, he looked up and saw the three characters that had been written on the blackboard. Behind him, Han Junsong also walked through the door, and after an ‘ouch’, he turned to ask his deskmate Chen Jialiang.

"Is Wei Ruxia a transfer student? Cute, hot?"

Chen Jialiang pushed up his glasses and answered, "She’s a girl."

Han Junsong's face was strained, and he knocked his head against Chen Jialiang's.

"You moron, what boy would have a name like that, I asked you if she’s hot!"

Chen Jialiang’s brain hurt from the bump. He clutched his head and muttered, "She’s hot." After he finished speaking, he pointed to the door and said, "She’s the one behind Hu Yinyin."

As Chen Jialiang's words fell, Luo Tang, who was sitting in his seat, looked up.

Han Junsong looked up, shouted, “Wow.” His eyes stuck to the girl's legs as he whistled.

As soon as the whistle sounded, Hu Yinyin's originally smiling eyes narrowed, she pointed directly at Han Junsong and said, "Han Junsong, you’re shameless, watch where you’re looking!"

Han Junsong smiled and said to Luo Tang, "Your favorite long legs are here."

As he said this, Wei Ruxia had just walked to her desk. She was tall and she sat in the second last row with Hu Yinyin, behind them were Han Junsong and Chen Jialiang and next to Han Junsong was Luo Tang and Wang Silai.

This close, Wei Ruxia could easily hear what Han Junsong said.

Seeing Luo Tang, Wei Ruxia determined that the super handsome Luo Tang that Hu Yinyin mentioned was the same Luo Tang who lived next door.

Despite this, when looking at Luo Tang's clean and handsome face, Wei Ruxia still felt a bit of dissonance.

She only regarded Han Junsong’s words as nonsense, but since she was mentioned, she figured she’d take the opportunity to say hello to her neighbour.

Wei Ruxia's greeting was very restrained, she only smiled at Luo Tang, nodded, and then sat down in her seat.

However, even such a restrained greeting made Hu Yinyin clue in.

As soon as she sat down, Hu Yinyin glanced at Luo Tang behind them and found that he was already looking down at his comic. Hu Yinyin took Wei Ruxia's arm and asked in a low voice, "Do you know Luo Tang?"

She had also only just met Hu Yinyin, so Wei Ruxia didn't say much, just, "We’ve met, but we aren't close."

Her words weren’t too loud or too soft, and the boy who was originally looking down at his comic raised his eyes and glanced over.

"Ahh, how did you meet him?" Hu Yinyin's gossiping heart burned.

To say something of Luo Tang, he really was like a Chinese legend at their school. He looked good and was handsome when he fought. The hearts of the girls at No. 1 High were strung together to follow him, but he didn't seem to have a girlfriend. Occasionally one would hear about some girl he had a connection with, but chasing him was like trying to catch the wind.

For example, the one who’d gotten the nearest, Li Yawen.

So when she heard that Luo Tang and Wei Ruxia knew each other, even if they weren’t familiar, Hu Yinyin wanted to know everything.

Wei Ruxia stopped spinning the pen in her hand, looked over at the raging gossip’s heart that was burning in Hu Yinyin's eyes, and asked, "You were saying that I should wear men's clothing if I joined your Hanfu club?"

Sure enough, as soon as Hanfu was mentioned, Hu Yinyin’s sense of responsibility as the vice president of the Hanfu Society defeated her gossiping heart. She nodded repeatedly and said to Wei Ruxia: "Yes. You’re tall, you’d look so good in men's clothing. There’s a young pretty boy with red lips and white teeth that fascinates hundreds of fans!"

Wei Ruxia smiled, spun the pen in her hand again, and listened to Hu Yinyin's babble. She was becoming more and more interested in Hanfu.

Although they were in the same class as Luo Tang and were sitting very close, the two thoroughly reinforced Wei Ruxia's statement regarding the relationship between them - they weren’t close.

Except for the nod in the morning, the two didn’t communicate until the end of school.

It was the first day of classes and the textbooks she used at Dongzhen were different from the ones at Ancheng. Wei Ruxia felt a little dizzy. As she packed up her schoolbag after school and was about to leave, Wei Ruxia, who had just received a call from her grandma, suddenly became sober.

Originally for Wei Ruxia’s first day of school, Li Suhe was going to come to pick her up, but who could have expected that a good friend of hers suddenly died in the afternoon. The doctor gave notice but her friend didn't even have a family member left to stand beside her, so she couldn't be sent off for a while.

"I called Aunt Yang who lives next door. She said she would have Luo Tang take you home by subway." Li Suhe’s voice was tired and hoarse. "Aunt Yang mentioned that Luo Tang was also in Class 15. Have you two met in class?"

There was some worry in her Grandma’s words that she might be embarrassed to go home with Luo Tang.

Listening to her grandma's voice, Wei Ruxia glanced down at her schoolbag and said, "I said hello, and I can take the subway with him. Don't worry about me, stay with your friend."

On the phone, Li Suhe spoke a little longer, and when a doctor called her, she hung up.

Wei Ruxia put her phone away and slipped her schoolbag onto her back.

She didn't have a kind of personality that was very dependent on other people, but...she had never taken a subway before.

For the first time today, Wei Ruxia turned her head to the direction of Luo Tang. As she looked, Luo Tang was holding a comic book with his left hand and his mobile phone in his right.

"Why should I take her home?" The boy's eyes were frosty, and his words felt like they came from the depths of the ocean, cold and piercing.

On the other end of the phone, Yang Shuru listened to Luo Tang and expected his question.

Although Luo Tang looked prickly on the surface, he wasn’t a hard-hearted person, he was only cold on the outside but warm on the inside.

"We’re neighbours, and you two are in the same class, you should help each other out." Yang Shuru said.

"I have a condition." Lou Tang said, "I'm going out on Saturday."

As soon as her son responded, Yang Shuru smiled and thought in her heart, So this kid was stalling for this.

"Fine." Yang Shuru readily agreed.

Waiting until Luo Tang hung up, Wei Ruxia walked to his desk, looked at the comic in his hand, and raised the corners of her mouth into a smile, "Can I go back with you..."

Before she could finish her words, Luo Tang closed the comic and put it into his schoolbag. Then he got up and picked up his bag, looking down at Wei Ruxia, and said flatly, "Let's go."

The two of them took some on their phone calls and no one was left in the classroom. They went out together, and no one even noticed.

Wei Ruxia grew up in Dongzhen, and the only public transportation she took was the county bus and the plane she’d taken when her grandmother came to pick her up to move to Ancheng.

Compared with her, Luo Tang was much more experienced. First led her into the subway entrance, then after buying a ticket, he took her into the subway station and took the elevator down two floors to get onto line 9.

Wei Ruxia remembered that Hu Yinyin said that Luo Tang wasn’t called out at school today because supposedly his family was rich. Being able to live in a villa in a rich suburb in Ancheng, also proved that his family was rich.

Even though they were so rich, Luo Tang still took the subway...Wei Ruxia thought, it must be because the subway is very comfortable.

However, this idea was thrown out the window as soon as Wei Ruxia got on the subway.

The time school was out was also peak hour for those getting off of work. Line 9 was a main line that went directly to the center of Ancheng. During peak hours, it was more than just a squeeze to get into the subway.

Wei Ruxia followed Luo Tang and squeezed in. She was tall and thin and swaying in the crowded carriage she was almost unable to stand firmly. Luo Tang was obviously used to it. He stood at the door and held the handrail near the exit.

There were a lot of people getting on and off the subway and two stations in Wei Ruxia was crowded in from all sides. While they were between stations, Wei Ruxia seized the opportunity and reached out to grab onto the handrail which Luo Tang was leaning against.

But she took a shot late, and just when her hand was five centimetres away from the rail, people started to flood in from the doors. Wei Ruxia frowned, a little discouraged.

At that moment, her wrist was grabbed by a hand.

Wei Ruxia raised her eyes and saw that the hand on her wrist was white and slender with distinct joints.

After confirming that it was Luo Tang's hand, Wei Ruxia only felt that her body was pulled up, and she was dragged into the corner beside the carriage door.

She was in the inside of the corner and around her was a small but sufficient space that Luo Tang created between his arms and handrails.

The rush of the crowd just now had caused Wei Ruxia to become a little flustered, her face and earlobes were a little red, and her fringe was a little loose and messy.

The subway was still crowded, and Luo Tang's chest was only a small distance from the tip of her nose.

"Thank you." Wei Ruxia looked up at Luo Tang and said gratefully.

After speaking, she noticed Luo Tang was still being squeezed by the crowd, she tucked herself closer into the corner and said, "You can lean a little closer to me."

The young man was half a head taller than her. Hearing Wei Ruxia's words, he looked down at her. Wei Ruxia couldn’t understand the emotion in those eyes that were as deep as a cold pond.

"Are we close now?" Luo Tang asked.

The author has something to say:

Wei Ruxia: Why did you only save me after I was crushed twice in the subway?
Tangtang: Who told you to say that we aren’t close.

Okay, I promise to stop spamming y'all with Hanfu pics now.

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