You’re A Liar

The last period of the day was English.

Ling Song was in a sluggish state the entire period. With difficulty, he managed to stay up until the last bell rang and collapsed onto the table, not even having the energy to say a word. 

……It’s too difficult, too difficult. 

Wen Yuanchu glanced over and his gaze fell onto the top of his fluffy head. Just as he was about to speak, Wang Zide came over and hastily grasped Ling Song, “Let’s go, Lao Da, let’s go for lunch.” 

Zhang Chang stood up as well and together with Wang Zide, they bridged Ling Song, one on each side.  

Wen Yuanchu swallowed back his words and packed his things silently. 

Wang Zide and Zhang Chang dragged Ling Song out of the classroom.

Several other students lived closeby, so they would go back home for lunch. The three of them had to settle their meals in school and they were always together. 

As soon as they went downstairs, the phone in Ling Song’s pant pocket rang. He frantically fished it out, recalling what his mother had taught him last night, and pressed answer. 

Mother Ling’s voice sounded from the other end, “Xiao Song, has school ended?”

“En, just ended, going to eat now.”

As he spoke, he felt deeply moved by how sounds could be transmitted thousands of miles away in this world. How amazing. 

Ling Song replied with ‘En’ and ‘Ah’, said a few sentences to relieve his mom’s heart and ended the call.

“You actually dare to bring your phone to school, be careful of letting Hai ge find out.” Zhang Chang reminded him.

Such a useful thing, why can’t I bring it?

Ling Song boldly said, “I have memory loss. My mom and dad are worried about me, so I must bring this along.”

Fine, memory loss is really a good universal excuse.

Wang Zide laughed mischievously, “Lao Da, I brought my phone too. Let’s play two rounds after lunch and help your little bro level up?”

Ling Song asked, “What’s level up?” 

Wang Zide choked. 

Forgot it, take it as he didn’t say anything.

They didn’t go to the school’s cafeteria and directly left the school. Outside the west gate of the school was a food street lined with all sorts of small food stalls on both sides. 

Ling Song picked and chose; this shop wasn’t clean, that shop was too crowded. Finally, they entered a newly opened dumpling house.

He studied the menu in high spirits. 

In such a small restaurant, there were quite a lot of dumpling types. 

Wang Zide and Zhang Chang each ordered a bowl and added a few side dishes. Ling Song finally chose seaweed shrimp dumplings. 

After ordering, Wang Zide blurted out, “Lao Da, you really don’t remember anything? You’re not lying are you?” 

“I don’t remember means don’t remember, why would I lie to you guys.”

Zhang Chang winked, “You don’t even remember school grass Wen?”

Ling Song didn’t understand, “Who’s school grass Wen?” 

“Wen Yuanchu,” Wang Zide said looking pleased, “You previously said you liked him and chased after him daily, and even went to the school’s small forest to stop him, saying that you wanted to confess, only for him to entirely ignore you without sparing a single glance and left. You were so angry that afternoon that you didn’t even attend Hai ge’s class. After that, you fell into the river and gave everyone a big scare. To tell you the truth, we thought that you decided to commit suicide because you couldn’t handle being rejected after the confession.”

Ling Song, “……”

I’m not… I didn’t… that’s not me.

So the original Ling Song jumped into the river to commit suicide after feeling broken-hearted and frustrated when Wen Yuanchu rejected his feelings, hence why he was now here? This was too……

Fortunately, Wen Yuanchu wasn’t Wen Che. If not, he would rather just die again. 

Seeing Ling Song’s unreadable expression, the two exhaled in relief. 

It seemed that Ling Song’s amnesia really wasn’t fake. Perhaps he really did take things to heart that day and did something stupid. It’s better to accept and forget about it now. 

Besides Wen Yuanchu having good looks, good grades, and having money, there was nothing else about him. How could all the girls go blind and become obsessed with him? 

Even Ling Song, as a boy, was also like that. Simply amazing. 

Tsk.

As they were talking about Wen Yuanchu, that boy suddenly appeared, entering this dumpling house alone and sat down at the table behind them. 

Wang Zide and Zhang Chang shut up at the same time. 

Ling Song felt completely uncomfortable. How could this person appear everywhere? 

Zhang Chang lowered his voice and asked, “We are all classmates, isn’t it quite mean to let him sit over there by himself?”

Wang Zide also nodded, “It’ll seem like we don’t love our classmates and are unreasonable.” 

They looked at Ling Song. 

The corner of Ling Song’s mouth tugged. Even if Wen Yuanchu wasn’t Wen Che, he was still extremely embarrassed at the moment. After all, in others’ and Wen Yuanchu’s eyes, he was the one who confessed. 

If he didn’t show at least a little bit of generosity, would others think he still cared about the situation? 

That would be too embarrassing.

“I’m fine with anything.”

Ling Song threw out this sentence, pretending not to mind.

Therefore Zhang Chang called out to Wen Yuanchu, “Wen Yuanchu, come sit with us.”

In fact, whether it was Zhang Chang or Wang Zide, neither of them felt that Wen Yuanchu would acknowledge them. This person wasn’t close to anyone and wouldn’t respond to anyone. He was used to being alone, it would be weird if he actually came and sat with them.

They had already invited him anyway, if he wasn’t willing to come over then it’s his own decision.

However, right after Zhang Chang asked, they didn’t expect Wen Yuanchu to walk over to their table and sit beside Ling Song.

Zhang Chang & Wang Zide, “……”

Ling Song also didn’t expect him to actually walk over. Didn’t Zhang Chang and Wang Zide say that he loved to ignore people without bothering to spare them a single glance? 

What’s going on?

Wen Yuanchu sat down and silently ate his food without saying anything.

Because of his strong sense of presence, the rest also no longer spoke.

Ling Song looked at the condiments on the table and learnt from Zhang Chang and Wang Zide before adding them into his bowl.

Wen Yuanchu suddenly spoke up, reminding him, “That’s chili oil, it’s very spicy, don’t add so much.”

The pair sitting opposite looked like they had seen a ghost. Wen Yuanchu paid them no mind, only looking at Ling Song.

Ling Song awkwardly voiced out an ‘oh’, retracting his hand.

No one said anything after.

Four people silently ate their dumplings.

Then silently went back to school.

When passing by the staff room, Ling Song was called over by Ma Guosheng.

Ma Guosheng asked how he felt during class that morning.

Ling Song thought about it and decided to answer truthfully, “I couldn’t understand.”

“Couldn’t understand?”

“Apart from language class, I couldn’t understand the rest, not at all.”

Ma Guosheng was left speechless.

He had lost his memory completely? 

Ma Guosheng adjusted his glasses and said with difficulty, “We don’t know how long your situation will last. Why don’t you read the past textbooks and relearn them? I’ll let your parents know about this.” 

Ling Song voiced out an ‘Oh’ and nodded, “Okay, thank you teacher.”

Ma Guosheng patted his shoulders, “Don’t fret, you’re only in your sophomore year, there is still time. If you have the heart to learn, you will definitely be able to relearn everything.”

In the past, Ling Song wasn’t a person who liked to study, it was normal for him to be late and leave early and often cause trouble outside of school. After going through amnesia, he now had the heart to study, this might be a good thing instead.

He continued, “Your deskmate cares for you a lot. This morning during class he asked me about your situation. He has good grades, if there is anything you don’t understand you can ask him.”

Ma Guosheng actually found this rather strange. Wen Yuanchu performed well in school, but had an antisocial character and did not get close to anyone. It was his first time seeing this student take the initiative to care for his classmates. 

If Wen Yuanchu and Ling Song can mutually help each other by improving Ling Song’s grades all while making Wen Yuanchu a little livelier, how great would that be.

“I got it.”

Although Ling Song answered, he didn’t bother taking it to heart.

Although Wen Yuanchu wasn’t Wen Che, he still felt uncomfortable whenever he saw him. Not to mention the rejection of his confession, he was stupid to get into another difficult stiuation again. 

The three periods this afternoon would be physics, chemistry and biology respectively.

Taifu used to always compliment him for being smart. Now he realized, he actually wasn’t smart at all, not one bit.

Ling Song looked over in surprise at the note that was suddenly given to him by Wen Yuanchu.

Wen Yuanchu’s eyes were lowered as he continued working on his assignments as if the note wasn’t given by him.

Ling Song was dumbfounded and opened the note.

【You can ask me things you don’t know, I will teach you.】

Eh?

This was different from what Zhang Chang and Wang Zide have said. Were they really not duping? 

……Was it possible that he also suspected Ling Song of commiting suicide because of love, hence he felt guilty, and wanted to patch up?

Ling Song stared at the note for three seconds before crushing it in his palm.

With his head down, he once again laid on the table, falling back asleep.

Zhen1 is tired. The issue of studying, let’s talk about it another day.

Wen Yuanchu stared at Ling Song’s side profile for a period of time.

The ceiling fan spinned with a creaking sound, the sleeping Ling Song was senseless. The hair on the top of his head was quivering softly, his complexion was rosy and full of vitality.

Once the bell rang, Ling Song immediately became awake.

Seeing his classmates starting to leave in twos and threes, Ling Song quickly packed his bag before leaving the classroom.

In the morning, his brother told him that the family’s driver would fetch him after school and instructed him not to dawdle around and immediately leave the school’s gate.

While waiting for the traffic light, Ling Song leaned against the car’s window looking out at the heavy traffic and the great amount of tall buildings in astonishment.

It had only been over 400 years and this world had completely changed its appearance?

Deeply absorbed in seeing the view outside, the sight of Wen Yuanchu riding his bicycle rushed into his field of vision.

Ling Song stared blankly at Wen Yuanchu speeding on his bike, shuttling back and forth between traffic until his back view was completely out of sight.

He suddenly felt a sense of familiarity in his heart, like he had seen this scenario somewhere before.

……Where was it from?

After getting out of the car in front of his house, Ling Song once again saw Wen Yuanchu.

He just arrived as well.

Ling Song finally knew where that sense of familiarity came from. The person he saw riding his bike out of the courtyard beside him this morning was Wen Yuanchu.

Wen Yuanchu stopped his bike and called out to him, “Ling Song.”

Ling Song was surprised, “You live here too?”

Wen Yuanchu nodded, “En, we’re neighbors.”

Ling Song, “……”

So the person he saw at the level opposite his room was not an illusion but actually Wen Yuanchu.

Heh, what a coincidence.

Without talking much, Ling Song casually voiced out an “Oh” and rushed through the door.

When the door was shut, Wen Yuanchu retracted his gaze and rode his bike to the ridgepole beside the residence, restraining himself from looking back.

Footnotes

朕乏了: Zhen is the imperial use of “I”