Chapter 10: Be a warm girl

A fragrant bowl of beef brisket noodles was lunch for Lin You and his grandmother.

“Wow, Grandma, the portion is so big! There’s enough for both of us to get full!”

When the shop owner brought over the brimming bowl of noodles, Lin You’s clear eyes practically lit up.

“Grandma’s not hungry. You’re a growing child, eat more meat so you can grow big and strong.”

Grandma Lin didn’t want to eat at first, but she couldn’t persuade her grandson, so she had no choice but to join him.

“Grandma, where are we going to collect bottles later?”

Lin You was full of energy. He loved collecting bottles with his grandmother, much more than going to school.

After all, school cost money, while collecting trash made money.

“You should rest well at noon, you still have school in the afternoon. From now on, Youyou doesn’t need to collect bottles with me anymore.”

His usually gentle grandmother became uncharacteristically firm, absolutely refusing to let her good grandson accompany her to collect scrap.

“Hey, Grandma…”

Lin You wanted to argue, but he retreated in the face of his grandmother’s silent yet loving gaze.

“Be good and study hard. Grandma is counting on Youyou to become a big boss in the future, so I can live a life of leisure.”

His grandmother couldn’t provide Lin You with the best material conditions, but she had always given her grandson the best she could afford, both materially and educationally.

Studying hard was the only way out; this was the concept his grandmother had always emphasized to him.

“Mhm, I’ll listen to whatever Grandma says.”

Other children might let it go in one ear and out the other, but the precocious and sensible Lin You took these words to heart.

After lunch, the pair went home.

“Thank you, ma’am!”

Before leaving the noodle shop, the boy expressed his gratitude to the kind owner.

If she hadn’t sold them a two-person portion of beef brisket noodles for the price of one, they certainly wouldn’t have eaten so contentedly.

“What a sensible child. If you want to eat noodle soup in the future, just come to my shop.”

The owner’s honest face was wreathed in a smile. She was also happy to help this lonely pair of scavengers.

One o’clock in the afternoon.

Lin You remembered the time for school. It was time to leave.

“Grandma, you don’t need to walk me. I can go by myself.”

His grandmother’s legs weren’t nimble, and she still had to collect bottles to support their fragile home. Lin You did his best not to cause her any trouble.

“Then you must take an umbrella. The sun is strong outside, don’t let your skin get burned. Also, be careful of the traffic…”

His grandmother really couldn’t pick him up and drop him off every day, so she agreed to her good grandson’s request with a sense of relief.

“I know, Grandma. You can rest a hundred percent assured.”

Lin You put on his small backpack, took an umbrella, and left the house alone.

Without his grandmother’s company, he no longer walked the main, sunlit roads. Instead, he slipped into the narrow gaps between the houses, weaving through the shadows.

It was a good thing he was a six-year-old boy with a small frame. An adult would not be able to take such an unconventional path.

Doing this not only kept him out of the sun but also allowed him to avoid many of the other students who were also on their way to school.

When Lin You arrived at the school, the gates had just opened.

He was the first student to arrive at the classroom of Class Two.

‘I’ll go pee first, so I don’t have to hold it during class. And I can familiarize myself with the surroundings while I’m at it.’

The campus was deserted at this time, which gave Lin You the courage to move about freely.

He wanted to empty his bladder beforehand so he could stay in his seat during class and breaks without going anywhere.

There was another thing: Lin You had a strong curiosity about the school environment, but his sensitive emotions suppressed it.

Wandering alone through the school buildings, the boy looked left and right, his eyes occasionally widening at something new.

If he heard any sound, he would, like a frightened rabbit, immediately find a place to hide.

In him, one could see both the characteristics of a child and a caution that was unbefitting of his age.

After wandering around the campus for five or six minutes and noticing more and more students arriving, Lin You reined in his curiosity and hurried back to the classroom of Class Two.

Perhaps because it was the first day of school and the feeling of resistance was strong, there were still very few people in the classroom.

Besides Lin You, the only other student present was… his deskmate.

Lin You’s instinctive reaction was to glance at his deskmate, then he quickly averted his gaze.

She was like a carefully cultivated flower in a pot, while he was like an inconspicuous blade of grass by the roadside.

“Good afternoon, Classmate Lin.”

Zhong Yuxiu took the initiative to greet him. The light above her head, visible only to Lin You, had turned green again.

It turned out that after being enlightened by her mother, the girl no longer wanted to be a bystander; she wanted to help the isolated boy.

“Good afternoon to you too.”

Lin You was flattered, nervously gripping the side of his desk.

‘Why did she turn green again?’

Due to his special ability, the boy could most directly observe how others felt about him.

Green represented friendliness, while white represented unfamiliarity. He had figured out this information long ago.

“It seems you haven’t made any friends with our classmates?”

The girl was even more enthusiastic than in the morning and continued the conversation.

This was also at her mother’s urging, who hoped she would be a warm-hearted girl and help the boy who was about to be isolated.

“I… I came to school to study, not to make friends.”

Lin You felt a sourness in his heart. All the students disliked him, so how could he make friends?

“It seems so boring without friends. Classmate Lin, can I be your friend?”

Zhong Yuxiu looked at Lin You seriously, her pupils taking in his scarlet birthmark, and his entire face.

To be fair, if one ignored that part of his face, Lin You was the most handsome boy she had ever seen.

“No, I don’t need friends.”

Lin You refused flat out.

The reason wasn’t that he disliked his deskmate, but that he didn’t want to drag her down with him.

The sensitive boy already understood his situation in the class.

He was an outcast, not in the same circle as Zhong Yuxiu. Forcing an intersection would only cause her to suffer as well.

“Wh… why? Is there something wrong with me?”

Zhong Yuxiu was a bit more sensible than her peers, but far less so than Lin You. Therefore, she couldn’t understand his intentions.

She felt wronged, as if her kindness was being unappreciated.

“I don’t make friends with girls.”

Lin You gave a very childish yet irrefutable reason.

“But the boys don’t want to be friends with you. What right do you have to reject me?”

Zhong Yuxiu grew anxious, gradually becoming emotional like a child.

“If there are none, then there are none. I don’t need them.”

Lin You lowered his head to look at the crooked scratches on his desk, probably the work of the previous owner.

“Fine then. If you don’t want to be friends, then we won’t. I have lots of friends anyway.”

Zhong Yuxiu’s pretty little face flushed red with frustration, and her cheeks puffed out angrily.

She had originally felt that Lin You was pitiful, but now, he seemed incredibly annoying.

‘Why is it still green?’

After heartlessly rejecting his deskmate, Lin You had prepared himself to be disliked.

He hadn’t expected the light above Zhong Yuxiu’s head to still be a friendly green, instead of white or gray.

It turned out that after her mother had explained the dangers of school bullying, the kind-hearted girl had made up her mind to help Lin You.

The current setback, though disheartening, was nowhere near enough to extinguish her resolve.