My Underachieving Seatmate Doesn't Need Any Comforting

Chapter 16

Great plans can be ruined by just a touch of impatience. Qiao Shao ignored the emoticon and asked him, “Promise you what?”

Without Friday: “Eat with me.”

Qiao Shao sent back a question mark.

What was going on?

He Shen leaned on the balcony and typed under the starry sky. “I don’t eat regularly, and my appetite’s pretty bad. But I’ve been eating well with you these past two days. So I want to keep eating with you.”

He has to keep an eye on this kid and coax him to eat. Otherwise he’ll eat pigwash every day and then how could he ever put on any meat?

Seeing this long string of words, Qiao Shao was dumbstruck for a while.

He Shen has a bad appetite?

There was no one who knew the feeling of not having any appetite better than Qiao Shao.

Every day, he never ever wants to eat. He was tired of sitting at the dining table, forcing himself to take a bite or two. Everything seemed tasteless. The pit of his stomach felt unbearably hot, like he had swallowed down fire.

Qiao Shao gripped his phone tightly.

He asked He Shen, “Why do you have an appetite when you eat with me?”

Qiao Shao also wanted to know about this problem. He and He Shen had two meals together. He didn’t know if it was because he was distracted by the chatter or what, but he had eaten well.

Qiao Shao was a little nervous, staring at the dialog box.

Without Friday: “How can I waste food when I see you doing your best to eat?”

Qiao Shao:???

Without Friday: “You make such a good point of comparison. Whenever I see you, I think of how I’d end up thin and scrawny like you if I don’t eat properly. It gives me a good appetite.”

The slight tightness in Qiao Shao’s heart vanished in an instant. He angrily typed out two words, “Go away!!!”

Young Master Qiao was trained well and didn’t know how to curse at people. So, he could only use exclamation points to vent his anger!

He Shen was relieved from his pent up worry.

He sent another message, “So, do we have a deal? ☆ ▽ ☆.”

Qiao Shao: “.........”

At this time, Qiao Shao should really take a picture and send this starry-eyed emoticon to the school forum. It would simply shock thousands of young men and women.

Who would have dared to think?

The year-round no. 1, the domineering Olympiad, known throughout to be cold and aloof, the god He Shen, who even teachers gave way to because of his superior strength, was actually a master of emoticons!

Unfortunately, Qiao Shao didn’t know He Shen’s true identity at this time.

He wasn’t feeling up to posting in the forums about this delinquent slackers’ bad hobby.

Qiao Shao struggled for a long time, and finally said, “You tell me first how you can prove Chen Su’s innocence.”

Qiao Shao thought and thought about this problem but couldn’t find a way out.

It’s been six months, and no one has witnessed anything at that time. The person who threw away his schoolbag wouldn’t admit it. This was completely hopeless.

He Shen easily broke this with a single sentence. “There was a security camera.”

Qiao Shao almost jumped out of the bed.

“That’s right! The security camera!” Qiao Shao cried out in his heart.

He Shen said, “Then, can you promise me?”

Qiao Shao then remembered. “It’s been half a year. Would they still have the surveillance records?”

He Shen said. “They do.”

Qiao Shao quickly became disheartened once again. “That’s impossible. The teachers won’t let us check surveillance records from that long ago.”

This matter was very important for Chen Su, but would the teachers understand?

Qiao Shao was not so naive as to take for granted that these busy adults would take such things seriously.

He Shen returned with, “It’s possible.”

The more Qiao Shao thought about it the harder he felt it was. He subconsciously typed out a reply. “No, it’s impossible...definitely impossible...”

He could ask Dad for help. As long as he wanted it, let alone monitoring from half a year ago, he could even get monitoring from ten years ago.

But if he did it this way, coming here to school all by himself would lose all meaning.

All along, he couldn’t...

“Little Qiao,” He Shen sent over a voice message, “You shouldn’t tell a man ‘it’s impossible’.”

Qiao Shao entire mind had been in a mess but he suddenly choked at hearing this.

There were too many grooves in this sentence. After listening to it, Qiao Shao said angrily, “Don’t call me that!”

What ‘Little Qiao’! He’s not a girl.

He Shen sent another voice message. “Are you wearing earphones? I’m not going to type anymore.”

Qiao Shao couldn’t fall asleep without his earphones. Of course, he wasn’t going to tell that to He Shen.

“Is it really ...” He couldn’t bring himself to send the word ‘possible’, so he changed it to, “Can you really get the surveillance video?”

He Shen said, “Trust me.”

Listening through his earphones, the low voice seemed to be speaking right against his ear. Qiao Shao felt that his ear had been tickled.

He rubbed his earlobe and typed, “I’ll believe you for now.”

He Shen asked again. “Have the terms been agreed upon?”

Qiao Shao didn’t make much of it. He said, “What kind of condition is that? Isn’t it just eating together?” It’s just eating. Even he wanted to rely on East High’s meals to grow taller.

He Shen said with a smile in his voice. “It’s settled then.”

Qiao Shao: “En.”

Now that they’ve finished talking about it, Qiao Shao should sleep.

But he stared at his mobile phone for a while and couldn’t help but send another message, “There is something ... I want to ask you about.”

It was something he couldn’t figure out, but kept thinking about nonetheless.

He didn’t expect He Shen to give him any answer, but someone had told him that talking to someone could help in organizing your thoughts about things you don’t understand.

He Shen was about to bid him good night when he saw this message. He replied, “What is it?”

Qiao Shao hesitated for a long time, typing on and off a few times. For a long time, He Shen only saw “the other party is typing”. What was it that he wanted to say that has got him all tangled?

He Shen leaned back and looked up at the night sky.

It was already eleven o’clock, and the night was quiet. A layer of dark clouds had gathered together, covering the stars.

When the message came in, He Shen bowed his head. And when he saw the message, his thin lips curved like a crescent moon.

Qiao Shao, “I have a friend, uh ... you don’t know him. He encountered a situation. His family’s condition isn’t very good, they’re kind of poor. Alright, he’s very poor. He made a new friend, this new friend of his... might be rich. What do you think my friend should do? ... after knowing that his friend is rich, can he still be friends with him ... ”

Qiao Shao asked about him and Chen Su. He had only wanted to be an ordinary student. Who knew that he had chosen the wrong object of reference? He followed Chen Su all the time to study and now he had turned into an impoverished student.

What’s was even worse was that Chen Su treated him as someone just like himself. Chen Su was so rarely in high spirits that Qiao Shao simply wasn’t willing to upset him. He could only toughen his scalp and pretend.

But there were hidden dangers in this.

He can’t pretend all his life. Someday, he’ll be exposed. When that time comes, what would Chen Su do?

Would he break off relations with him because of anger?

Qiao Shao was uneasy just thinking about it. He couldn’t find anyone to ask, so he asked He Shen in a roundabout way.

However, there was an error due to a strange combination of circumstances. When He Shen saw this story, he thought it meant something else.

What friend? Obviously, this was about the little kid himself.

The so-called poor friend was Qiao Shao, and the new friend must be He Shen himself.

Did the little shorty think of him as a rich man?

It’s understandable. It doesn’t matter if he was poor, he would never treat himself shabbily. It was hard to avoid making the little shorty nervous.

He Shen replied back. “Making friends is a matter of having an affinity for each other. What does having or not having money have to do with it?”

To have an affinity with each other?

Qiao Shao felt that He Shen was using idioms indiscriminately, but could not find any evidence.

He Shen asked him again. “Does your friend and his new friend get along well?”

Qiao Shao immediately responded. “Of course!”

He Shen’s eyes were full of smiles. “So, your friend likes his new friend a lot?”

Chen Su must like him, so Qiao Shao said, “Yeah!”

He Shen also said, “Then, that’s it. If you like someone a lot then they’re your friend. Just saying they won’t be friends anymore doesn’t make it so.”

Qiao Shao hesitated and listened to this sentence several times.

Yeah ... it was he who wasn’t thinking straight.

He can’t tell Chen Su the truth right now, because it might deal a psychological blow to Chen Su and push him away. Chen Su would lose a companion and source of support.

But he can tell him later.

If they stay together for a long time, he could prove to Chen Su what kind of person and friend he was, so that even when he tells him the truth, Chen Su can accept and even forgive him!

Ok!

Qiao Shao has figured it out.

The top priority was to build Chen Su’s confidence in himself; get him to leave behind his feelings of inferiority; be less sensitive, and refresh his life and mentality!

“Thank you!” Qiao Shao happily replied to He Shen.

He Shen felt suitably reconciled in his heart. He wanted to say thank you to him as well–

How long has it been since he’s had someone to talk to in the middle of the night?

He held himself back and sent a voice message saying, “Can you sleep now?”

Before waiting for Qiao Shao to reply, he sent another message. “Would you like the ‘coax to sleep’ service? I will sing you a lullaby.”

Qiao Shao was silent, and quickly typed: “Don’t!”

However, a ten-second long voice message had already been sent over.

Qiao Shao stared at it for a while. With his thoughts still jumbled, he opened the message.

The melodious sweet-sounding male voice rang in his ear: “Go to sleep ... Go to sleep ... my dear baby ...”

For the first time, Qiao Shao took off his earphones at 11 o’clock in the evening!

He Shen, this bastard, just what won’t he do!