The girl was overwhelmed by Lin Tiao's imposing aura, which was as powerful as that of a legitimate wife. Surprised and embarrassed, she pulled her friend away, muttering quietly as they left, "What a terrifying woman."
Her friend patted her arm in comfort, saying, "You can tell with your toes that if she weren't terrifying, how could she sit next to the school bully?"
"Not only did she sit next to him, but now they're even a couple. Her aura must be strong enough."
"..."
Without probing further into their conversation, Lin Tiao and the others walked away. She grabbed Jiang Yan's arm, her eyes full of disbelief. "So this is the reason you didn't want me to come with you?"
Jiang Yan put away his phone, glancing at the hand she had on his arm. He smiled. "Didn't I tell you to rest in the classroom?"
"..." Lin Tiao's fingers tightened as she pinched the flesh on his arm, speaking fiercely, "Don't try to change the subject. I know now—you didn't participate in the basketball game to clear your name."
"..."
"You just wanted to attract attention," Lin Tiao said, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "Men, huh? The best ones are always the ones you can never have."
"..."
Jiang Yan had just played a match, sweat on his forehead and damp strands of hair. He raised his hand to brush back his hair, revealing his sharp brow bones, speaking in a calm tone, "Who exactly do I need to attract?"
He leaned in closer to her, his warm, youthful breath overwhelming her like a wave, fresh as a pine tree. His voice was low and deep. "The best one has already been caught by me."
Lin Tiao felt her whole body go numb from the sound of his deep voice. She instinctively took a step back, but still stubbornly muttered, "You dog."
"..."
Jiang Yan chuckled softly, straightening up and blocking her view with his tall frame. His voice was indulgent and doting. "Call me a dog if you want. Who told you that you’re so charming that you’ve got me, this dog, tied down so tightly?"
Lin Tiao genuinely didn’t know where this person had learned such heart-thumping, embarrassing sweet talk. It seemed to get more flirtatious every day.
Flirtatiousness aside, the key point was that she could never outdo him in flirtation.
Around them, both boys and girls had gathered in several circles, and many had already turned their attention here. Jiang Yan, blocking her view, looked down at her and asked, "Shall we go back?"
"Are you still playing?"
Jiang Yan glanced at the time, noticing there was still a bit before class started. "Let’s play."
"I’ll wait for you here." Lin Tiao put her hands in her pockets, purposely teasing him. "And watch you."
Jiang Yan smiled, handed her his phone, and said, "Go ahead and watch."
Several boys quickly returned to the court.
Lin Tiao, holding his phone, stood by with Meng Xin. After a while, Meng Xin received a message from a classmate and left early.
The cheers from the court grew louder and louder. The boy in the bright red jersey moved agilely among the crowd, passing the orange ball from his hands one after another.
His teammates, in perfect sync, caught the ball and jumped to make a beautiful three-pointer.
The crowd erupted in even louder cheers.
The boy ran over, smiling as he high-fived his teammate. His sharp hand grabbed his hair behind him, revealing his well-defined features, with the bright and passionate sunlight shining on everyone, creating an image full of youthful vigor.
The youth in their prime.
Lin Tiao couldn’t help but take out her phone to snap a picture.
The informal warm-up match ended amid the escalating cheers.
Jiang Yan threw the ball to Hu Hanghang, flared the hem of his shirt and fanned himself, revealing a glimpse of his slender waist.
He was covered in sweat, which slid down his face to his chin. When he spoke, his jaw moved slightly, and sweat dripped to the floor. "We’ll discuss the details when we get back."
After saying that, Jiang Yan turned and walked a few steps to Lin Tiao, breathing lightly. "Got water?"
"I’ve already drunk some." Lin Tiao handed him the half-drunk bottle of water. "Want some?"
"Mm." He took it, twisted the cap off, took a sip, then held the bottle in his hand. "Let’s go back."
The two of them left the court, one in front and one behind.
—
In the early spring, the phoenix trees on both sides of the shaded path were sprouting new buds. The tender green leaves swayed in the wind. The two figures occasionally walked close to each other, then separated, as sunlight filtered through the branches, casting varying shadows. The breeze was warm and gentle, the peacefulness of late autumn settling in.
The first afternoon class was physics. Mr. Yang continued his fast-paced lecture on the new topic, speaking as quickly as a machine gun, non-stop.
Lin Tiao hadn’t rested at lunch, so she wasn’t very energetic. She struggled to stay awake but eventually couldn’t fight off the drowsiness and fell asleep with her head resting on the desk.
At first, Jiang Yan didn’t notice, but by the time he did, she was already sound asleep, her eyelids closed, her curled eyelashes fluttering slightly, and her breathing steady.
He watched her for a while, then quickly withdrew his gaze, his eyes drifting to her open notebook on the desk. After thinking for a moment, he reached over and took it.
Lin Tiao’s handwriting was beautiful and bold.
The characters were neat and orderly, the strokes were elegant and precise, and the writing had a confident strength to it. At first glance, her handwriting didn’t seem very much like a girl’s.
Jiang Yan casually flipped through a few pages, then continued writing in the section where she hadn’t finished.
He didn’t often take notes himself; usually, he would just highlight and mark things in the textbook. But Lin Tiao was different. Physics was one of her weaker subjects, so her notes were very detailed. However, when Jiang Yan skimmed through them, he realized that many parts were repetitive, and some of the steps for certain formulas were too complicated.
He jotted down a few points in his own style, then took a red pen to highlight parts of her previous notes.
When Lin Tiao woke up, he was still writing.
The sunlight outside the window was intense and bright, pouring in and surrounding the boy. The curve of his profile seemed perfectly chiseled, his sharp brow bones, deep eye sockets, and small upward curve at the edge of his eyes were framed by light. The light gathered along his high nose bridge, and his thin, slightly red lips were pursed. His jawline was tight and sharp.
He was leaning over, holding the black pen with his pale, beautiful hand, the black and white colors contrasting clearly, his expression focused.
Lin Tiao’s gaze dropped, and she noticed he had been writing in her notebook. She sat up, leaning over, her voice still lazy from just waking up. "You’re helping me take notes?"
Jiang Yan glanced at her, let go of the pen, rubbed his thumb against the base of his hand, then picked up the pen again. "You’re good at math, so why aren’t you good at physics?"
Lin Tiao licked her lips and honestly said, "Because physics is hard."
"..." Jiang Yan stopped writing and looked at her. "Isn’t math hard?"
"It is, but it’s not as hard as physics."
Lin Tiao had once read a post on a forum asking, "If you could cancel one subject in the college entrance exam, which one would you cancel?"
Her answer had been physics.
Thinking of the forum, Lin Tiao remembered that she had been too busy lately to update that post.
Since there was nothing urgent now, she took out her phone and logged into the forum.
It had only been about half a month since she last visited, and the post had accumulated thousands of new comments, and the number of likes was about to reach one million.
The traffic was almost like that of a popular platform.
Lin Tiao clicked into the post but couldn’t think of what to update, so she decided to open her photo album and post a sticker.
The first image in her album was the one she had taken earlier that day in the court, a shot of the boy in a red jersey.
In the still moment, the boy’s tall figure and his defined features were captured mid-motion, full of youthful energy.
On a whim, Lin Tiao edited the photo, erasing the extra people around and adding a funny sticker to Jiang Yan’s face before posting it.
After posting, the system immediately began flooding her with notifications. The numbers in the comments and likes area increased rapidly, almost in real time.
"Ah, I can tell from just a glimpse of his jawline that he’s a handsome guy."
"His skin is so white, damn."
"Ahhh, he even showed his waist, is our sister next?"
"Damn, that waist! I’m screaming like a groundhog!"
"For those who want the unedited, HD, no stickers—hint, hint."
"Today’s just one of those sour moments."
"I’m covering my mouth, afraid I’ll accidentally bark like a dog."
"It’s just being single, so what? A graceful woman doesn’t cry easily, lol."
"The stories belong to others. My life is nothing but a smile and peace."
"It’s fine, I’ve already gotten used to it."
"Other people’s desk mates are always good-looking, smart, great at basketball, and loyal. My desk mate—never mind, better not say."
Lin Tiao smiled while scrolling through these comments. It wasn’t the first time, and Jiang Yan had noticed before, though he hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time.
But after seeing it again and again, even if he wasn’t curious, he couldn’t help but be curious. He stopped writing, casually rotated his wrist, and asked in a low voice, "What are you looking at?"
Who knew that when Lin Tiao heard his voice, she quickly covered her phone, looking guilty, and said, "Nothing, just casually looking."
Jiang Yan looked at her with amusement, his eyebrows slightly raised. His tone was indifferent, "Do you know what you look like right now?"
"What do I look like?"
"You look," he said, glancing at her with a meaningful smile, deliberately elongating his tone, "like you’ve been doing something behind my back that’s not very respectable."
"..."
"Something related to me."
"..."
Although posting wasn’t exactly something to be ashamed of, the content was indeed related to him. Lin Tiao felt a bit awkward as she scratched her nose, turned her gaze away, and quickly denied it, "It's not me, I didn’t do it, stop making stuff up."
Before she could finish her sentence, something flashed in front of her eyes. The boy suddenly reached out, catching her off guard.
Fortunately, she had her hand firmly holding the phone and didn’t let him grab it. However, they both forgot that it was still class time.
Standing at the front of the classroom, Teacher Yang quickly moved toward them, his smile holding an edge, "What are you two doing? Not paying attention in class, causing a scene?"
Lin Tiao and Jiang Yan froze.
Teacher Yang was not as easily fooled as Teacher Yu, and he didn’t even give them a chance to explain. He scanned both of them and then fixed his gaze on Lin Tiao, locking eyes for a few seconds before understanding, extending his hand, "Hand it over."
As Lin Tiao hastily stood up, she subconsciously hid the phone behind her, but now there was no place to hide it. She could only smile awkwardly and say, "Teacher Yang, what are you talking about?"
"Don’t play dumb with me," Teacher Yang said. "Hand it over now, and I won’t say anything more."
They stood in a tense standoff for a while.
Finally, Lin Tiao, defeated, lowered her head and handed the phone over, "Teacher Yang, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be using my phone in class."
Jiang Yan defended her, "It’s not her fault, Teacher Yang. My phone died, and I asked her to help me look something up."
Teacher Yang gave them both a look, "Looking something up, huh?"
Jiang Yan nodded, "Yes."
"Alright." Teacher Yang handed the phone back to Lin Tiao.
Lin Tiao felt a glimmer of hope, but before she could take it, she heard Teacher Yang coldly say, "Unlock it. Today, I want to see what you were looking up."
Lin Tiao, "..."
Oh no.
Lin Tiao was reluctantly reaching to unlock the phone. She still held onto a shred of hope that maybe Teacher Yang wouldn’t realize that it was the post she had written. At most, he’d just give her a small lecture.
Once she started unlocking the phone, she felt a little less nervous, thinking it would be fine.
The unlocking process took a while, the phone still in Teacher Yang’s hand. Once it was unlocked, he quickly took it back and lowered his head to look at the screen. His expression suddenly became very strange.
Lin Tiao was confused. It was just a post asking for emotional advice, it couldn’t possibly be that serious, right?
She exchanged a glance with Jiang Yan, who was just as puzzled.
Jiang Yan didn’t know what she had been looking at either, but under normal circumstances, he thought it would be easy to explain.
But neither of them expected this.
And neither did Teacher Yang.
The situation unfolded in a way no one could have predicted.
After a long silence, Teacher Yang finally raised his head, this time looking at Jiang Yan with a somewhat perplexed expression, "Are you sure you just asked Lin Tiao to help you look something up?"
"Was it really something you wanted to look up?"
"Are you sure it’s the information you were looking for?"
Teacher Yang bombarded him with three pointed questions. Jiang Yan’s confidence wavered, and after a pause, he hesitantly nodded, "Yes, I asked her to help me."
Once he confirmed it, Teacher Yang’s expression became even more unreadable.
After a moment, he sighed, and his gaze towards Jiang Yan became more complicated. "You two come to Teacher Yu’s office after class. This isn’t a small matter."
Both Jiang Yan and Lin Tiao were baffled.
Teacher Yang placed the phone on the desk and turned to walk back to the podium.
They both instinctively looked down at the phone.
The screen was still on the forum Lin Tiao had been browsing earlier, but for some reason, the post wasn’t the same as before. The title now screamed at them in bold letters:
"Why Can’t Boys Like Boys?"
Jiang Yan: "..."
Lin Tiao: "..."
Oh no.
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