CH 32.3

Joined Abuse (3)

When Ruan Qingmu and Qin Yuan returned from the fourth floor to 106, the light had just turned off.

Groping around in the darkness, Ruan Qingmu hurriedly took a shower and climbed into bed.

Qin Yuan sat leaning against the wall in the darkness. Seeing him climbing up the bed, he casually turned on that small rechargeable lamp.

They didn’t discuss it anymore these days, but it became a silent agreement. After the light was turned off at night, they would open the small desk lamp on the bed and read together.

The first floor’s dorm light was easily seen from outside the window. Qin Yuan found a thick bedsheet and he would add a layer to the curtains every time before the lights went out, carefully tucking in all the window slits. So, they would open the bedside lamp at half-past ten and wouldn’t be easily found out by the dorm administrator again.

Ruan Qingmu looked at his own English and Chinese books every night while Qin Yuan made a small desk on his bed and did his competition questions.

Ruan Qingmu didn’t like to ask questions, so he would often silently look and memorize by himself. Qin Yuan also wouldn’t actively come to ask whether he had something he didn’t understand. The days of sitting close next to each other through the mosquito net, reading, and studying together in silence, seemed to pass between the two boys compatibly.

But tonight, the two people reading books seemed slightly absent-minded.

Qin Yuan didn’t turn the book’s page in his hand after a long time and Ruan Qingmu also didn’t finish the English papers in front of him.

Ruan Qingmu was in a daze for a while and suddenly patted his own face, concentrating on doing the test papers.

Forcing himself to concentrate was still effective. The remaining questions were finally done twenty minutes later.

Qin Yuan, beside him, suddenly reached out his hand and picked up his test papers. “I’ll help you take a look.”

Under the small dim desk lamp, his face looked cold but focused. The pen in his hand would occasionally draw light circles on certain questions.

The pens commonly used by the students were black felt-tip pens. A few girls who liked stationery would buy some special colored inks to go with their fountain pens, but boys would rarely use fountain pens.

Meanwhile, Qin Yuan would always use a black fountain pen with a cluster of tiny golden sword plumes engraved on it, appearing low profile but exquisite.

After a short period, he returned the papers to Ruan Qingmu. “I’ve marked the places with mistakes, but I didn’t put in the correct answer. You can try to do it once again.”

Ruan Qingmu let out an “oh” and accepted it. He looked at it again for a moment and scribbled out the answers again. He redid the two cloze questions where Qin Yuan had drawn wavy lines and handed it back to him again.

Qin Yuan silently glanced at him with a flash of astonishment in his eyes.

“You can try to make a collection of the wrong questions, cut them, and stick them in a book. Although it’s a little troublesome, it’s still effective,” he muttered.

Ruan Qingmu carelessly replied, “No need, I’ve memorized them.”

Qin Yuan let out a soft sigh and finally said in a deep voice, “Your calculation of the cards is also excellent.”

Ruan Qingmu met his gaze with his bright eyes. “Of course. Who am I, ah?”

In his previous life, he was a little devil known for being cunning and knowledgeable in the Jianghu. Even those enemies who loathed him didn’t dare to belittle him despite his young age.

“So, do you want to make up a little for math?” Qin Yuan tilted his head and seriously looked at him.

Ruan Qingmu lazily smiled. “Just because I can calculate cards doesn’t mean I’m good at math, right?”

Qin Yuan looked at him deeply. “You certainly can get it done.”

Ruan Qingmu didn’t react, but his crossed legs involuntarily shook, feeling slightly smug.

Qin Yuan didn’t want to abandon the topic. “Not many people can speedily grasp a new category of card games in more than ten minutes. Not many people can also remember how many 8 cards have been sent out during an entire card game. Since you can remember how many 8 cards have come out, you must’ve probably remembered the remaining cards in the deck, right?”

Ruan Qingmu smiled wryly. “Can’t you do the same thing too?”

Qin Yuan looked at him and slowly said, “That’s why I’m the first rank in the grade and can win those competitions.”

The remaining sentence didn’t need to be continued, but the meaning was extremely clear.

Since you and I are the same, why couldn’t you do it while I could?

Ruan Qingmu’s eyes slightly squinted. There seemed to be a little sharp light in them at this time. “Big class monitor Qin, here you go again. If everyone in this world takes the same path, how boring will it be?”

Qin Yuan was silent.

Yes, ah. He had overstepped again.

“Next week… will you go to live upstairs?” Qin Yuan abruptly said after a moment of silence.

It was almost midnight and the entire male dormitory building had fallen into silence. All the boys on every floor had already fallen into a deep sleep and talked in their sleep.

Ruan Qingmu looked down at the test papers in his hand. After a long time, he faked a laugh. “Yes, ah. Formerly, Old Jian had said I would go back to our class group’s dorm once my leg got better.”

Qin Yuan mechanically spun the black pen in his hand, the small cluster of gold plumes glittering.

The dim small desk lamp shone on his handsome face like the ice and snow on a distant mountain as a beautiful sun setted, quiet and cold over the horizon.

Did he want to leave already? He not only wanted to leave the competition class but also wanted to move several floors away.

But if it was so effortless and unemotional for him to leave, why would this person try to get close to him?

So close that it was within his reach and so close that he would be suddenly woken up by a dream every night, seeing the face in his dreams when he turned his head.

Under the peach blossom tree, dressed in extravagant clothes and high spirited.

… Can you not move out?

After a long time, he suddenly realized that he seemed to have spoken this sentence out aloud.

“Can you not move out?” he heard his hoarse voice asking inside the quiet dorm.