Chapter 138:  Extra- Modern Campus (3)

Lin Ting didn’t wait outside the room for Duan Ling.

She went back to Duan Xinning’s room and told them to just ride their bikes to the street corner to find her later.

Then she would go downstairs to get her backpack and ride the already repaired bicycle to buy breakfast.

Since she hadn’t asked Duan Ling what he wanted to eat, she just bought some random stuff.

While waiting for them, she parked the bike and squatted by the roadside, lost in thought.

Perhaps it was the first time she had seen a boy’s morning erection up close, because the scene kept flashing in her mind, refusing to disappear.

The difference between written descriptions and reality was indeed huge.

She could read lewd novels without batting an eye, discuss them calmly with others, but seeing a boy’s private parts in person made her temporarily unable to keep her composure.

Lin Ting sadly realized she was just all talk.

But that wasn’t the point.

The point was—why was the boy she saw none other than Duan Ling?

They ran into each other all day long, easily reminding her of this incident.

Even if she could erase the memory, she couldn’t erase his.

Lin Ting silently repeated to herself that it was a normal physiological reaction, then tapped her own head, telling herself to stop thinking about it.

To distract herself, she took out a meat bun from the plastic bag and started eating.

She hadn’t taken many bites when they arrived.

Duan Xinning was riding in front, while Duan Ling followed at a leisurely pace.

Lin Ting noticed his hair was a bit damp, probably from showering and washing his hair.

“Tingting.” Duan Xinning stopped her bike with a flick of her hand and slowly came to a halt in front of her.

Lin Ting glanced at Duan Ling without showing any reaction.

When he looked over, she quickly averted her eyes and acted nonchalant, finishing the meat bun in big bites before handing the breakfast to them.

“The meat buns are really good today, I bought one for each of you.”

Duan Xinning sniffed it and said, “Smells delicious.”

Duan Ling took the transparent plastic bag from Lin Ting.

Her gaze casually drifted to his hand, noticing an unusual redness at his fingertips.

Lin Ting didn’t look further, turned around, got on her bike, and started pedaling toward the school.

“Let’s go.”

Duan Xinning followed her, hesitant to speak.

“Tingting, bro, I have something to do today, so I won’t eat lunch with you guys at the cafeteria.”

Duan Ling hummed in response.

Since they were kids, he rarely asked about Duan Xinning’s matters.

Lin Ting looked back at Duan Xinning and asked, “Xinning, are you hiding something from us?”

She was sure that today at noon, Duan Xinning planned to avoid them again to have lunch with that guy.

“No, I—I don’t have anything to hide from you guys,” Duan Xinning, not used to lying, blushed heavily and stammered.

Duan Ling didn’t interrupt.

Lin Ting seriously suspected Duan Xinning cared more about romance than friendship but didn’t call her out, only asking, “You won’t stop eating with us from now on, right?”

“I just have something for the next couple of days, next week I’ll eat with you again.” Duan Xinning only promised to eat with Xia Zimo for a few days; she preferred eating with Lin Ting.

Lin Ting pressed further, “Are you really not hiding anything from us?”

Duan Xinning lowered her head and replied, “Really not.”

She was shy and hadn’t figured out how to tell Lin Ting and Duan Ling she was in a relationship.

Lin Ting didn’t ask anymore.

It seemed Duan Xinning wasn’t going to reveal the truth today.

The first class was Chinese.

The teacher was lecturing about essay writing.

Lin Ting sat at the back, stacking books high to hide her head, resting her face on her hands with droopy eyelids, feeling drowsy.

Chinese was her weak subject. Logically, she should be studying hard, but the moment she started listening, she felt sleepy.

The teacher stood at the podium: “You absolutely cannot go off-topic in essays. Once you do, your score will be very low. Think about it—if a 60-point essay gets 50+, and you get only 30+, that’s a 20-point gap, hard to catch up.”

He spoke incessantly, saliva flying about.

“Use idioms and closely tie your essay to the topic. Scoring over 40 points won’t be a problem. Also, I beg you, write your characters neatly. Some of you write like drawing symbols. Are you afraid the grader won’t understand and you want to ‘steal the art’?”

The classroom was silent, only the teacher’s voice and the old fan’s clicking sound could be heard.

Lin Ting’s head drooped and suddenly jolted awake.

Luckily, the teacher was lost in his world of essay grading and didn’t notice she had dozed off.

She twisted open her water bottle and took a few sips of strong tea, then covertly glanced sideways at Duan Ling.

They hadn’t exchanged many words this morning, which was unlike before.

Was he upset that she saw his morning erection?

Did he not want to talk to her anymore?

Lin Ting let her thoughts run wild.

“Duan Ling.” Nervously, she tentatively tapped his arm.

Her hand was a little cold, which felt nice on such a hot day, making one want to hold on to it.

Duan Ling glanced sideways, quietly waiting for her to continue.

Feeling a bit awkward, she found an excuse to talk: “I have a question for you.”

“What question?”

He was as gentle as ever.

Lin Ting randomly pulled out a physics test paper and pointed to the last big question, whispering just loud enough for them to hear, “This one.”

It wasn’t the first time she was doing another subject’s test during Chinese class.

Duan Ling picked up a pen, opened his notebook, and wrote down detailed steps to solve the problem.

Watching him solve the problem methodically, Lin Ting thought she was overthinking.

He didn’t seem to mind what happened this morning.

Maybe he just didn’t have much to say today.

Feeling better, she leaned on the desk and said, “Duan Ling, let’s order an extra dish for lunch, my treat.”

He smiled softly and replied, “Aren’t you out of money? Why are you ordering extra and treating me?”

Lin Ting casually circled a few things on his notebook and said, “I just borrowed 600 yuan from you last night—500 for books, leaving 100 to buy food.”

She had borrowed an extra 100 yuan, knowing she’d crave snacks.

Though it was borrowed money, it was still hers because she had to pay it back later.

There was no using Duan Ling’s money to treat him.

Duan Ling nodded, “Alright.”

Lin Ting hesitated a moment, then subtly said, “I feel like you’ve said less today.”

His smile faded a bit and he replied by saying, “You’re the one who’s quiet today. You used to talk nonstop as soon as you came into the classroom. Today, not a word. Just took out your test paper and started working until Chinese class.”

Lin Ting blinked, then smiled in relief.

“Let’s not talk about this. What extra dish do you want at noon? Never mind, we’ll decide at the cafeteria.”

The school cafeteria’s menu wasn’t fixed.

Dishes from yesterday might not appear today.

Duan Ling handed her his notebook and said, “Solved it. Take a look and see if you have questions.”

She glanced at it and returned the notebook to his desk.

“No problem. Your steps are detailed; I understand them at once.”

From the podium, the teacher glanced at them, not naming anyone but obviously targeting them: “Ahem, good grades don’t mean you can whisper at the back of the class.”

Lin Ting immediately shut up.

At noon, the bell rang, and she threw down her pen, pulling Duan Ling to rush to the cafeteria.

She was afraid if they came late, all the good dishes would be taken.

Lin Ting ran fast.

There weren’t many people yet in the cafeteria.

She quickly grabbed a tray and took a portion of chicken cutlet and green pepper stir-fried with pork… though there was only green pepper and no pork.

Her eyes landed on the tomato scrambled eggs.

She asked Duan Ling, “Which dish do you want?”

“Tomato scrambled eggs.”

“Okay.”

Lin Ting immediately asked the auntie to serve a portion of tomato scrambled eggs, then found a seat.

Before they started eating, she shared half of her dishes with him and took half of his.

This way, with minimal money, they could try five dishes, which was very cost-effective.

They had barely started eating when two boys sat down beside them.

Lin Ting kept her eyes on her food, not glancing their way.

A refined-looking boy said, “Look, they have tomato scrambled eggs.”

The other boy was in a bad mood, speaking coldly, “Who told you to come so late? Even tomato scrambled eggs were all taken. If you want some, run faster next time. Don’t dawdle.”

Xie Qinghe said, “I can’t run fast.”

Jin Anazi almost forgot Xie Qinghe had zero athletic ability.

He couldn’t help Xie Qinghe get the dish anyway because he was busy adjusting to the new school’s intense training, often leaving class a few minutes late.

Hearing this, Lin Ting glanced at them, realizing neither was wearing the school uniform.

Jin Anazi felt someone was watching them and looked at Lin Ting.

Lin Ting saw an opportunity to make some money.

“Do you guys want me to help you get tomato scrambled eggs? Even one yuan is one yuan.”

Xie Qinghe blushed, “Who are you?”

Lin Ting got straight to the point.

“Don’t care who I am. If you want me to get tomato scrambled eggs for you, three yuan for the delivery.”

Duan Ling was used to this.

Jin Anazi thought, ‘Is this person here to study or to do business?’

Xie Qinghe was surprised, “Three yuan?”

Lin Ting frowned, “Too expensive?”

He waved his hand, “Not really.”

Just surprised someone would charge money to get food for others.

She planned it out. “Tomorrow’s the weekend; we have a day off. You don’t have to eat here. I’ll get it for you next Monday and put it on this table where we’re sitting. How about that?”

Xie Qinghe didn’t want to refuse and pulled out three yuan from his pocket.

“Thanks.”

“No trouble.” Lin Ting took the money and continued eating.

Jin Anazi was speechless.

Didn’t Xie Qinghe worry about getting scammed?

But he didn’t bother to say anything.

Xie Qinghe didn’t know what Jin Anazi was thinking.

“On my way to the cafeteria, I passed the honor roll. Guess what I saw?”

Jin Anazi didn’t guess.

Xie Qinghe was unembarrassed, continuing, “This school is amazing. I counted, and a few people scored over 700 points.”

The test was out of 750 total points.

“Xie Qinghe, with your short hair and short sight, this is a Key High School. Isn’t it normal to have good students?” Jin Anazi rolled his eyes.

“Shut up and eat.”

Lin Ting pursed her lips.

Xie Qinghe’s name sounded familiar.

Was he the new transfer student?

No wonder they weren’t wearing uniforms—it seemed they had just arrived and hadn’t had time to buy them.

After lunch, back in the classroom, Lin Ting wasn’t sleepy and didn’t plan to nap.

She borrowed the perfect-scoring essay book Duan Ling bought.

Duan Ling leaned against his chair, eyes closed, resting.

Lin Ting read a few essays but found them dull and boring.

For some reason, she just couldn’t focus.

Her gaze drifted around until it landed on Duan Ling beside her.

Looking closely, his skin seemed better than hers.

She withdrew her gaze.

***

Senior year flew by quickly.

In the blink of an eye, they had finished the college entrance exam and graduated.

After graduation, Lin Ting felt many things had changed—no more waking up early to ride a bike to school, for example.

The only thing unchanged was the three of them attending the same university.

Duan Xinning was an art student; her academic scores were a little lower but still enough for Qing University.

Their parents were even happier than they were.

On the day they received their acceptance letters, the two families went out to a hotel for a meal and ordered several bottles of alcohol.

Curious, Lin Ting took a bottle, poured a cup for Duan Xinning and one for Duan Ling.

Ying Zhihe saw her pouring and warned them, “You’re still young; don’t drink too much. Just try a sip for the taste.”

“Got it, Dad.” Li Jingqiu divorced when Lin Ting was a child and later married Ying Zhihe.

Lin Ting quickly adapted and started calling him Dad soon after they married.

Li Jingqiu didn’t mind and said, “Let her drink. If she gets drunk, throw her out on the street.”

Lin Ting: “…..”

Aunt Feng still treated Lin Ting like a little kid.

She patted her head with a gentle smile.

“Don’t worry, Auntie will pick you up and take you home.”

They only returned home at half past nine at night.

After showering, Lin Ting went to find Duan Xinning and Duan Ling to play cards.

Finally, after graduating high school and getting into university, she wanted to let loose a little.

Later, feeling thirsty, she went to the fridge to grab a bottle of juice but didn’t drink it because it was her turn to play a card.

So she sat back down on the clean floor, placing the juice beside her, planning to finish it after this round.

Duan Xinning didn’t see the juice and accidentally knocked it over.

The juice spilled everywhere, soaking Lin Ting’s feet and the hem of her skirt.

“I’ll go get the mop.” Duan Xinning immediately got up and went downstairs to find the mop.

Lin Ting grabbed some tissues to wipe her skirt.

Duan Ling took a few tissues and helped wipe Lin Ting’s feet.

As he did, he bent lower and lower.

When he realized he wanted to lick it, his eyelashes twitched, and he let go of her.