Chapter 91 - Little Liar x Little Trash (1)

Qin He didn't pay much attention to Xia Yuan at first.

Although they were deskmates, Xia Yuan didn't seem to like talking to people.

Xia Yuan's hair was a bit long to the point of almost covering his face. It made it difficult to see what he really looked like.

At the beginning, Qin He only remembered Xia Yuan as a somewhat short, pale and thin person.

Oh, yes, one more thing: Xia Yuan's lips were pale pink, just like the clouds in the evening sky when he first appeared.

Xia Yuan was much worse at science than liberal arts.

He seemed to struggle to keep his eyes open in math class every afternoon. Alas, his head bobbled as he nearly nodded off.

Every time that happened, Qin He would see Xia Yuan use a compass to jab the tender flesh on the inner side of his arm.

When Qin He first noticed it, Xia Yuan misjudged his strength and accidentally pierced his arm with the sharp end of the compass. Qin He inadvertently turned his head to see Xia Yuan's pale, tender inner arm and the compass were all stained with blood.

The bright red blood stained Xia Yuan's snow-white arm, creating a stark contrast.

Qin He was stunned for a moment before he hurriedly reacted. He almost frantically took out two tissues and handed them to Xia Yuan.

The pain also chased away any drowsiness Xia Yuan was feeling. His eyes sharpened.

He took the tissue Qin He handed him with a quiet thanks. Then he ripped one of them in half and wiped away the blood on his arm and the compass.

From beginning to end, he didn't even bat an eye. In fact, he was almost expressionless. Then he sat up straight and stared unblinkingly at the teacher and the blackboard, continuing to pay attention to the math lesson.

He studies really hard.

Qin He sighed silently in his head.

Yet when Xia Yuan's math grade came out.

He got a 42.

Xia Yuan didn't leave when class was over. He just stared blankly at the math test full of red X's in a daze.

Qin He hesitated before carefully touching his arm.

Xia Yuan turned to stare at him blankly.

Qin He: "Is there a question that you don't understand? I can explain it to you."

Xia Yuan glanced at Qin He's perfect score on his test. He silently pushed his own unbearably wrong test across the table to Qin He.

Qin He was a little happy.

He didn't know why he was happy.

But Xia Yuan had always ignored him and refused to speak to him. Maybe that's why Qin He was so pleased that Xia Yuan was willing to have him explain questions.

The state establishes subsidies for poor students every year, but the number of spots were limited. Applicants needed to write an application and then go through a screening based on their rank in class.

Qin He, along with three other classmates and four teachers, sat in the office during gym class to screen these applications.

That's how he accidentally saw Xia Yuan's.

It turned out that Xia Yuan lived only with his mother, who couldn only wash and peel potatoes in the back of a restaurant every day due to her limited education background. Her originally slender hands became swollen and callused. She lost her smile and became very ill as well.

At the end of the application, Xia Yuan wrote: “My mother and I live in a 30 square meter house. You can see every corner of the house at a glance. It’s crowded and dirty. The walls are covered with grease stains and there are no windows. So when I lie in bed, I sometimes mistaken my home for me and my mother's coffin."

The homeroom teacher quietly wiped away her tears before instructing them to keep everything on the applications a secret from the other students.

They nodded quietly.

After a while.

Xia Yuan received a special poverty subsidy of $5000.

Yet as a result, during one of the breaks between classes, a classmate came up and asked: "Xia Yuan, is what you said is true? Is your family really that poor? Is your house really only 30 square meters? How do you even live in such a cramped space?"

Qin He was packing up his things at the time. Hearing this, he paused for a moment, frowned, and looked at the classmate.

The fact that Xia Yuan's home was only 30 square meters was something written on the poverty application form, and the only people who read the application form aside Qin He were the teacher and three other classmates.

Qin He was about to speak up and drag this student outside when he saw Xia Yuan suddenly smile.

Xia Yuan seldom smiled. Most of the time he was expressionless. Even if he did smile, it was only a minor quirk of his lips.

But right now, his eyebrows, eyes and lips all radiated an extremely bright smile.

Qin He had never seen such a beautiful smile before.

To the point that he was taken aback by Xia Yuan's expression for a moment.

Immediately afterwards, he heard Xia Yuan say: "You really believed it? If I don't write that way, then how can I get money?"

The classmate was stunned for a moment: "...Then you're a really good writer. I heard that even the homeroom teacher was crying."Xia Yuan shrugged. "See the advantage of being good at writing?"

So he was just trying to fraudulently get the poverty subsidy.

Qin He tightly pursed his lips. Unwilling to look any longer at that smile on his face, he shot Xia Yuan a cold look before turning and leaving the classroom.

Actually, Qin He had calmed down by the time the school day ended. He thought, "Maybe what Xia Yuan wrote in the application was true."Maybe he just lied to the classmate and said he made everything up due to his pride.

Moreover, Xia Yuan was indeed very frugal.

He also didn't seem like the kind of person to fradulently collect poverty subsidies.

Thinking that, Qin He felt like he might've misunderstood Xia Yuan.

Qin He glanced at Xia Yuan, who was walking all alone with his head down not far away. He hesitated before quickening his steps to catch up to him.

Yet before Qin He had time to pat Xia Yuan's shoulder, he saw a woman wearing heavy, flamboyant makeup waving at Xia Yuan with a bag on her back. "Xiao Yuan, come to Mommy!"

The woman had delicate features and slender hands.

She wore brand new clothes with a bag that wasn't cheap hanging off her arm. Her smile was exaggerated and bright.

……There was no resemblance between her and the hardworking mother Xia Yuan mentioned in his application.

The woman reached towards Xia Yuan and said with a smile: "Has the poverty subsidy for this semester been handed out?"

Xia Yuan handed the card issued by the school to the woman.

He really is a liar.

Qin He sneered as he brushed past Xia Yuan. When he came to school the next morning, Xia Yuan rubbed his eyes lazily as he took out last night’s math homework from his schoolbag. He pointed to a question and asked Qin He as usual:

"Qin He, I couldn't get this question even after working on it for so long last night. Can you take a look at what I did and tell me where I went wrong?"

Qin He didn't speak.

Xia Yuan thought he hadn't heard, so he poked his arm with the pen in his hand.

Qin He looked upp at Xia Yuan, then slowly said:

"It's not my problem if you don't know how to do a question."

Xia Yuan was stunned for a moment. Then his face slowly drained of all emotion.

From that day on, Xia Yuan stopped asking him about math problems.

A month later, there was another provincial poverty subsidy quota.

After Qin He came back from playing basketball, he saw Xia Yuan sitting in his seat again, working on an application.

Qin He suddenly ripped his application from his hands.

The contents didn't change much from last time, but the word choice and sentence structure have been refined.

Xia Yuan tried to grab it back.

But Qin He held it high over his head.

Qin He was a half head taller than Xia Yuan. He looked at Xia Yuan condescendingly from above and said, "Xia Yuan, the poverty subsidy issued by the government is meant for those who actually need it. Don't you feel ashamed for scamming someone else of their poverty subsidy like this?"

Xia Yuan's expression faltered before he continued to jump and try to grab it.

Qin He held the poverty application form very high up before tearing it to pieces in front of Xia Yuan.

Then Xia Yuan and Qin He started to fight.

Xia Yuan was no match for Qin He. But when Qin He was about to beat him up after pressing him to the floor with both hands secured, he saw the tears in Xia Yuan's eyes.

Qin He was taken aback, his raised fist stopped in midair. Xia Yuan took the opportunity to suddenly knock Qin He to the ground and start beating on him mercilessly.

... Xia Yuan's beating really hurt.

After the fight was over, Xia Yuan stood up and glanced at him coldly. He mockingly spat. "Trash."

Xia Yuan rewrote his application, and received the poverty subsidy again.

After Xia Yuan got the money, he even came over to show off to Qin He.

Qin He cursed Xia Yuan out coldly: "You damned liar."

Xia Yuan also cursed him out: "You stinky piece of trash. "

Qin He originally thought he and Xia Yuan would be like this forever.

Mortal enemies like fire and water.

But when he saw Xia Yuan curled up on the ground in the mall, surrounded by a group of people as a woman cursed and beat him, his mind went blank. Before he could even think, he rushed forward, took Xia Yuan's hand, and ran out of the crowded mall with him.

He didn't stop until they reached an empty alleyway.

Sweat dripped from his forehead. A sweet taste rose from his throat as his heart beat rather quickly. He bent down and gasped heavily.

Yet Xia Yuan suddenly threw off Qin He's hand.

His eyes were cold as a mocking smile painted his lips. Then he turned and left.

Qin He stood there blankly, staring at his departing figure for a long time.

He hesitated, before turning back to the mall.

He wanted to know why those people wanted to beat Xia Yuan.

Yet as soon as he arrived, the woman who had just been beating Xia Yuan stopped him.

"You're with that thief, aren't you? Pay up! He didn't get away with my clothes just now, but he's the one who stole a dress from my store last time!"

Qin He tried to break free but couldn't.

In the end, the woman didn't let him go until he had given her all the money he had on him.

The crowd from before hadn't fully dispersed yet. They gathered around and started gossiping.

They said the kid just now was a habitual thief who had been caught three times in this mall alone.

They said that kid always stole women's clothes and jewelry, as if forced by his mom. But his mom was really ruthless. When the kid was caught one winter day and the shopkeeper took him to the police station, she didn't show up to get him for an entire day and night. The police originally wanted to send him back home, but the kid refused to answer when asked where he lived or what his parents' phone numbers were. In the end, they were left with no choice but to let him go home by himself.

Someone sighed and said that kid was rather pitiful.

Someone shook their head and said, "What's there to pity? Everyone has their own life to live. If this kid's like this already, he won't amount to anything much as an adult."

Qin He couldn't sleep for half the night when he returned home.

He tossed and turned, thinking about how Xia Yuan looked being kicked and abused on the floor.

He also remembered the wet, red-rimmed eyes that had peered at him when he tore up Xia Yuan's poverty application and pressed him to the floor.

He also remembered Xia Yuan's mother, who was wearing heavy makeup and flamboyant clothes that day in front of the school gates.

It turned out that her clothes, her shoes, her bag...

...Were all things she forced Xia Yuan to steal?

It turns out that Xia Yuan...actually lived like this?

Qin He went to school with dark circles under his eyes. He kept dozing off during the morning self-study.

As a result, he was just about to lay down to sleep some more once morning self-study was over when someone pulled his chair out from under him. Qin He fell to the floor.

Before he could react, Xia Yuan punched him with red-rimmed eyes.

Actually, Xia Yuan only punched him once or twice before Qin He caught his wrist.

Perhaps because of malnutrition, Xia Yuan was a little shorter than his peers. His wrist was also thinner than everyone else.

Qin He was distracted for a moment by this.

Why's Xia Yuan's wrist even thinner than a girl's?

The next moment, Xia Yuan broke away from his grip, picked up his schoolbag, and walked out of the classroom.

...He seems to be crying.

Why's he crying?

Qin He suddenly wanted to run out after him.

But as soon as he stood up, the homeroom teacher walked into the classroom with the textbook in hand.

So Qin He had to sit back in his seat again.

Xia Yuan didn't come to school all morning.

Qin He heard a group of girls whisper between classes, "I heard Xia Yuan's a thief who's been arrested before. And did you know? I heard his mom does that kind of work."

Qin He walked to the group of girls.

He looked down at them with a somewhat twisted expression. "Who told you that?"

Qin He was tall for his age. He was already 1.8m before his 14th birthday. Although he was good-looking, the girls still shuddered when he coldly looked down at them like this. "...Zhao...Zhao Feng, Zhao Feng said that."

That day, there was a vicious fight in eighth grade class three.

Qin He was penalized and suspended for one week.

And Zhao Feng spent a week recovering from his injuries at home.

Qin He actually got off easy because he was a good student who often represented the school at Olympiad competitions. Normally, a student who did what he did would be expelled.

On the day Qin He returned to school after staying at home for a week, Xia Yuan silently buried his head in his book for the entire morning self-study.

It wasn't until morning self-study was about to end that he took out a carton of chocolate milk from his desk.

He put the carton on the table before slowly pushing it over to Qin He.

“...I'm sorry."

Xia Yuan whispered.

Qin He picked up the carton of chocolate milk, put the straw in, and drank it.

"And...thank you."

Xia Yuan had his head down, his fingers curled up against his thighs.

Qin He shook the empty milk carton and grinned at Xia Yuan.

"You're welcome. The milk's pretty tasty."

From that day on, no one at school dared to gossip about Xia Yuan.

And Qin He started picking up Xia Yuan's math test again. "I'll explain math to you, so can you teach me how to write essays?"

Xia Yuan finally had a small smile on his face.

He even teased Qin He and left him no choice but to put on Snow White's costume in front of thousands of students in the school.

In return, Snow White left a huge bite mark of Xia Yuan's cheek in front of thousands of witnesses.

At the end of the performance, Xia Yuan pointed to the bite mark on his face as he settled the score with someone. "Little Trash, what do you think should be done about this bite mark on my face?"

Qin He blinked before suddenly leaning his face over. "Why don't you bite me back?"

Because he suddenly leaned over, Xia Yuan's nose was now nearly touching his face.

Xia Yuan felt his heart suddenly skip a beat. His breathing also became disordered for some reason.

But he quickly calmed down again, thinking that an eye for an eye was a good way to settle things.

So he stood on tiptoe, leaned over, opened his mouth and chomped down on Qin He's cheek.

Qin He's entire body froze.

Xia Yuan's lips were very soft and warm. Qin He could even feel Xia Yuan's teeth solemnly bite down on his cheek.

Ba-dump, ba-dump,ba-dump.

Qin He felt something fluttering uncontrollably.

Xia Yuan quickly leaned back. He looked at Qin He and asked, "Does it hurt?"

"No, it doesn't hurt." Qin He stumbled out a response.

Xia Yuan reached over and touched his cheek. He sighed in frustration. "I knew it wouldn't hurt. Look at how shallow the bite mark is. It's barely visible."

Qin He: "T-then why don't you bite me again?"

"No need." Xia Yuan drew a circle around the bite mark and replied with a smile, "Even though it's not deep, my bite just now was perfectly round, see?"

Until Xia Yuan mumbled he was hot and went backstage to take off the apple costume.

Qin He still blankly stood there in shock.

His hand reached up to touch the spot Xia Yuan just bit.

He felt his heart beating so wildly it might fly out of his chest.

During the winter break, Qin He and Xia Yuan agreed that Xia Yuan would come to Qin He's house everyday to do his homework.

And Xia Yuan came right on time with his backpack everyday.

But when it was almost Chinese New Years, Xia Yuan stopped coming.

Qin He didn't know where Xia Yuan lived or even Xia Yuan's phone number, so he could only sit at home and wait day after day.

Half a month had passed by the time Xia Yuan reappeared.

Qin He asked: "Where have you been all this time?"

Xia Yuan pursed his lips. "Busy."

Seeing that he didn't want to say more, Qin He didn't push.

They grabbed their textbooks and started doing their homework.

Qin He didn't write a single word for the past two weeks because he was waiting to do it together with Xia Yuan.

And Xia Yuan didn't say anything. He just quietly sat by the desk and did problem after problem.

But as he wrote and wrote, tears suddenly fell onto his notebook.

Qin He was stunned for a moment. Then he frantically handed Xia Yuan a tissue.

But Xia Yuan didn't take it. He looked up at Qin He. "I didn't cry."

His eyes weren't red-rimmed, and there were no tear marks on his face.

... But if he didn't cry, then what were those droplets on his workbook?

Qin He didn't ask, he just made a dumbfounded sound of acknowledgement before taking back the tissue he was offering.

Xia Yuan continued to do his homework.

Usually, he would only stay and do homework at Qin He's house for three hours.

He came at two in the afternoon and left at five.

But today, he didn't bring up leaving even though the hour hand was pointing at eight.

Naturally, Qin He didn't take the initiative to mention it.

The two of them continued to quietly do their homework together.

Luckily, it wasn't easy to slog through half a month's worth of homework.

Xia Yuan only started packing up when it was nine o'clock.

He slowly unzipped the zipper of his backpack, organizing all his textbooks, papers and homework at a snail's pace.

Only then did he slowly put everything into his bag.

"I'll be leaving." Xia Yuan quietly said.

"En." Qin He said.

Xia Yuan stood up and headed for the door. But he paused when his hand was on the doorknob of Qin He's door.

He hesitated before turning around to face Qin He. His eyelashes trembled somewhat nervously before he asked, "Can I...sleep at your house tonight?"

Qin He was taken aback. He nodded. "Of, of course."

Xia Yuan ended up sharing a bed with Qin He.

Xia Yuan seemed to fall asleep very quickly.

Qin He secretly looked at Xia Yuan's face in the moonlight. He found that Xia Yuan was sleeping very deeply, while he couldn't sleep at all.

As Qin He continued to look at Xia Yuan, Xia Yuan started crying in his sleep.

He cried so hard his entire body trembled. Even his teeth seemed to be chattering. In the darkness, he opened his mouth and hoarsely, quietly cried for, "Mommy".

He only called out once before tightly closing his mouth again. His tears seemed to be endless, quickly wetting the pillow.

Qin He didn't know what to do. He wiped at Xia Yuan's tears, but there seemed to be no end to them.

He didn't dare to move too much, nor did he dare to wake Xia Yuan up.

But no matter how much he wiped at Xia Yuan's tears, he couldn't stop them from falling.

In his panic, Qin He suddenly wrapped his arms around Xia Yuan.

Only then did Xia Yuan stop trembling.

Qin He stiffly imitated what he had seen on TV, using his left hand to softly and slowly pat Xia Yuan's back.

Only then did Xia Yuan gradually stop crying.

Only when Qin He heard Xia Yuan's cried slowly weaken and then fade, only when he heard Xia Yuan's breath even out did he slowly release Xia Yuan.

Inexplicably, he felt a sense of loss at that moment.

He quietly looked at Xia Yuan's face.

Then he reached over and carefully wiped the tears from Xia Yuan's face.

As he looked at Xia Yuan's wet eyelashes and red-rimmed eyes, a strange thought popped up in his mind.

He wanted to kiss Xia Yuan's eyes.

This thought began to double in size from the moment it was conceived. His desire continued to grow, until it felt like he wouldn't be able to sleep a wink tonight and his heart wouldn't stop pounding unless he gave in.

So he slowly leaned over.

But his heart beat louder and louder, until he was afraid it would wake up the sleeping Xia Yuan.

He leaned over and planted a lightning fast kiss on Xia Yuan's eyelid.

He was so frantic that he didn't even know if he had made contact.

But his heart beat stronger all the same. It slammed into his chest again and again.

Qin He laid straight as a board in bed.

With both hands by his side, tightly clenched into fists.

He stared unblinkingly at the ceiling, tracing the outline of the lamp there with his eyes, taking in the lights and shadows cast by the gap in the curtains there.

His heart finally, gradually calmed down.

But after it did, he actually detected a hint of joy hidden at the very bottom.

From this day on, Qin He knew...

He had fallen in love with Xia Yuan.