Chapter 554: Chapter 554

Lin Mu caught up with Zhou Mo, grabbing his arm and refusing to let him leave, "Hey, be clear with what you’re saying, just now,"

"Wasting is disgraceful, got a problem?"

Zhou Mo threw him a look of disdain, seemingly asking, are we still not done here?

Lin Mu’s eyebrows twitched, "It’s not that, but is this really okay? I told you to serve yourself, and you didn’t, then ended up drinking leftovers. Is that appropriate? What would Yiyi think? Look, you’ve scared her away."

Zhou Mo turned around and, indeed, didn’t see Yiyi’s figure; he felt a bit disappointed but didn’t think he had done anything wrong, so he simply turned and walked away.

Lin Mu didn’t know why he reacted so intensely, but he just felt that Zhou Mo’s behavior was somewhat improper.

When the two returned to the dormitory, seizing a moment when no one was around, Lin Mu again grabbed Zhou Mo’s arm, pressing him with a scrutinizing attitude.

"Hey, are you starting to like her or something?"

Zhou Mo lay on his bed, holding a novel and flipping through it nonchalantly, completely ignoring Lin Mu’s question.

"Don’t you think your actions earlier were too abrupt? You could scare her. What if she decides to ignore you next time?"

Lin Mu’s words caused Zhou Mo’s hand to momentarily freeze, but he quickly masked it. As Lin Mu observed and pondered how to further pry, Zhou Mo suddenly got out of bed, gathered his dirty clothes, and without giving Lin Mu a chance to speak, headed to the laundry room with a basin and detergent.

Pouring in the detergent, turning on the tap, as the water from the tap gushed out, Zhou Mo thought of the summer when he first saw Yiyi in the Y city Market.

Her hair was tied up high, revealing a smooth neck, and regardless of which elderly person she encountered, she would blossom into a smile.

Grandma told him that the girl was very pitiful, her family seemed to have suffered some significant misfortune, forcing her to sell vegetables and snacks to earn a living.

"Is she not going to school anymore?"

"She is, at First Middle School, no less. But she doesn’t attend evening self-study, probably to free up more time to help with living expenses. She’s not having an easy time."

That was the first time Zhou Mo saw Yiyi; afterward, whenever he went to his grandma’s house, he always made an effort to accompany Grandma to the market. About five out of ten times he would see that young girl.

It never occurred to him that she would attend the same high school as he did, and after a short time getting to know her, it was clear she was a good student, both academically and morally.

One day, he overheard her conversation with Chen Yaoyao as he was passing by the restroom, which reminded him of the boys in the laundry room mocking Chen Yaoyao.

"She’s so ugly, yet she wants to borrow my clothes. What if she dirties them? She wishes!"

"Exactly, if Nana Xie or Tian Xin asked me, I would definitely lend it to them."

So, Yiyi’s understanding nature came from seeing Chen Yaoyao being humiliated?

This is why Zhou Tian, upon encountering her, had chosen to proactively offer his clothes.

Yet, he also harbored a selfish little desire for Yiyi to wear his clothes, while the one given to Chen Yaoyao was borrowed from his cousin’s house.

With both their heights in plain sight, he was confident that she would choose his; during Monday’s dress rehearsal, indeed, everything unfolded as he had expected.

Her hair smelled wonderful and was incredibly soft. Sometimes, she would tie it into a high ponytail that would brush against his pencil case during class, and occasionally, it even swept against his hand. When she gathered her hair up high, he would, surprisingly, feel a bit of disappointment.

At fifteen, he naturally understood what these feelings meant, but he refused to believe it was the so-called love at first sight. Fortunately, they had plenty of time ahead, enough to last until high school graduation, and now, the most important thing should be to focus on studying. Perhaps this was also why she was so tenacious and striving to improve.

Zhou Mo quickly moved on, while Yiyi wouldn’t allow herself to be so sentimental. In her eyes, it might simply be an aversion to waste. She shouldn’t idealize Zhou Mo’s intentions too much; after all, they were just high school freshmen in their teens—why complicate things? Check latest chapters at Nov3lFɪre.ɴet

So, she returned to the dorm and slept without a care in the world. When she woke up thirsty, she finished the yogurt Zhou Mo had given her in one gulp.

At 7 PM for evening self-study, she arrived by 6:30, having slept less than an hour and still feeling drowsy. When she got there, she saw a couple of boys playing basketball on the playground. She pulled out her error notebook and copied from the photos Zhou Mo had taken at the bookstore, working through the problems one by one.

Using this method, she saved quite a bit of money on study materials. What could she do? Who would want to be poor?

As the bell for class rang, the boys rushed in, reeking of sweat, their first action being to gulp down water from their cups.

Zhou Mo was still concerned about Yiyi’s attitude. While drinking water, he glanced at her and saw her discussing problems with her desk mate, showing no difference in her demeanor, which made him think about finding an excuse later to probe her feelings toward him.

Unexpectedly, Lin Mu beat her to it, opening the conversation with, "Quick, let me copy your English homework."

Yiyi repelled his hand with her fountain pen, "Your English isn’t bad, why copy mine? Write it yourself."

"Ah, but isn’t that because I’m out of time? Old Wang will come to discuss the test papers in the latter half, just let me copy," he argued.

Yiyi gestured with her chin towards Zhou Mo, "I won’t lend it. If you want to borrow, borrow from Zhou Mo. His accuracy is even higher than mine."

"Are you crazy? What do I need such high accuracy for? Just yours, come on, give it to me."

Yiyi stuck out her tongue at him playfully, "No way, we’re already in high school, kid, still copying? Think you can copy all the way to twelfth grade? Write it yourself!"

Lin Mu couldn’t get his way with her and turned to look at Zhou Mo, who ignored him completely. The familiar ones were just these two, and those around him didn’t score as well as he did, so he resigned himself to writing his own. He could do as he pleased in the first half of the study period, while in the second half, the English teacher would come to go over the test papers, as their first monthly exam was scheduled for the following Monday. With both the school anniversary and National Day Gala happening on Saturday afternoon and the national holidays thereafter, the exams were arranged before the break.

After finishing her math problems, unsure if they were correct, Yiyi turned around and handed her notes to Zhou Mo.

"Zhou Mo, help me check if these problems are correct when you’re free, will you?"

Yiyi casually placed her homework on the right corner of Zhou Mo’s desk and then took out her English book to quietly memorize words.

Zhou Mo glimpsed at the notebook on the corner of his desk, his lips curving into a faint, almost imperceptible smile. Looking at her homework was like admiring a piece of art; her writing was exquisite, no wonder every subject teacher treasured her work as if it were a prized jewel. It was truly pleasing to the eye. How did she manage it?

She was beautiful, academically strong, her handwriting was like art, and above all, she was kind and lovely—it was quite rare and precious indeed.