Chapter 42: After the Exam

The driver sat in the car, gripping the steering wheel. He was worried about Shen Zheming but had to obey his orders. Soon he was frantic with anxiety.

Fortunately, ten minutes later, Shen Zheming’s figure appeared at the exit of the alley. The middle-aged man he had dragged in did not come out.

As soon as Shen Zheming opened the door, the driver felt the temperature inside the car drop a few degrees. When he saw the small knife Shen Zheming casually tossed onto the seat, cold sweat broke out on his back.

“Young Master, who was that man? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

The driver kept glancing at the rearview mirror. Seeing that Shen Zheming seemed to be in a bad mood, he didn’t ask further.

After a while, the driver chattered to break the heavy atmosphere in the car. “The sky is gloomy, and the wind is strong outside. When you meet your friend for dinner, take the scarf in the car with you in case it gets cold at night. Send me a message before you finish, and I’ll turn on the car heater early.”

“Mm.”

A harsh bell rang from the school. The Aobei Cup exam at this test site was over.

Soon, people began to walk out of the campus one after another.

Most of them were college students carrying backpacks. Lu Shi, who only had a pen in his pocket and came out empty-handed, looked a bit conspicuous, even a little showy.

But the truth was, he really didn’t have a pencil case or a backpack. He was too lazy to buy one, since he wouldn’t need them in the future anyway.

He came down from the upper floor and had just reached the entrance.

“Hey, classmate, is this yours?”

Someone tapped Lu Shi’s arm. He turned around. The girl who tapped him held a dark blue leather card holder.

“Huh? Not mine.”

But the card holder looked familiar. He felt he had seen it in his exam room.

His eyes searched through the crowd heading out.

The girl watched as the handsome guy quickly threaded through the gaps, then precisely grabbed someone’s hat from behind. “You dropped something.”

The bespectacled boy turned around in confusion. Seeing his card holder, he paused, felt his pocket, and indeed it was missing. “Thank you! Thank you!”

He quickly took it, thanking profusely.

Having helped the card holder find its owner, Lu Shi was about to slip away without a trace.

The girl and her friend walked over. “Classmate, which school are you from nearby?”

Lu Shi paused, thought for a moment, and said, “UC.”

“UC?”

They exchanged glances. Could it be a university in Canada?

Lu Shi chuckled. “University of California, Davis. UC for short.”

The girls burst into laughter. They didn’t expect the handsome guy to be humorous. Their liking for him instantly increased.

From inside Shen’s car, the situation at the gate was clearly visible.

The driver tapped his fingers on the steering wheel and said sincerely, “Young Master, your friend seems quite popular.”

Shen Zheming didn’t speak. He tapped the side of his phone with his finger.

“Want to add each other on WeChat? We can hang out sometime.” The girl was enthusiastic.

Lu Shi was a little taken aback. He raised his hand and lightly scratched the tip of his nose. “Sorry, my phone is dead.”

“Oh, I see…”

Just as he finished, the phone in his pocket buzzed with a vibration.

Silence is the most awkward thing.

Lu Shi: “…”

The girl was smart enough to understand his polite refusal. She quickly pulled her friend away. “Ah, it’s fine. If it’s inconvenient, forget it.”

Her friend was still a bit reluctant, whispering, “Why are you leaving already? What if he just said that because his phone was almost dead and he didn’t want to take it out?”

The girl tugged hard. “Come on, saying something like that usually means he has a partner.”

[Shen Zheming: At the gate, look to the right.]

Lu Shi looked up and saw Shen Zheming get out of the car and wave at him.

Maybe because he got caught lying so quickly, Lu Shi felt his ears burning.

He ran toward Shen Zheming.

“You actually came. I thought you were joking. The place we’re eating isn’t far. I could have walked.”

Lu Shi ran a bit fast. He hadn’t exercised recently, and his previously injured ankle couldn’t take it.

Just as he got close, before his joints could warm up, a flash of pain like an electric shock shot through him. He stumbled, but someone caught his arm in time.

The driver watched as his young master, who was usually cold and disliked physical contact, steadily caught the guy without minding him leaning against him.

If Lu Shi had been running any faster, he would have crashed straight into his arms.

Shen Zheming’s voice was low. “Even though it’s healed, you shouldn’t run or jump violently for a while. Do you want to sprain it again?”

Lu Shi steadied himself by holding Shen Zheming’s arm, then stepped back. “I was just too moved seeing Brother Shen waiting for me outside the exam hall. I didn’t want to waste time.”

As he spoke, his lips curled slightly, his brows relaxed, and a faint smile settled in his eyes.

Shen Zheming’s gaze fixed on him.

Lu Shi often smiled, but most of the time it was just a casual twitch of the lips to be polite, not wanting to say more, or to indicate he heard, sometimes even seeming carefree.

But this time, because they had been so close, Shen Zheming caught a faint minty scent sneaking out from under the gland patch on his nape.

Pheromones don’t lie. The little mint told Shen Zheming that its owner was genuinely happy.

“Judging by your expression, you must have done well on the exam.” Shen Zheming’s expression softened.

“That’s because you taught me well. A lot of my previous solutions were too complicated. The methods you taught saved me a lot of time.” Lu Shi directly credited all the success to Shen Zheming. “Brother Shen, I think I need to change my opinion of you.”

Shen Zheming raised an eyebrow. “What was your opinion before?”

Lu Shi said, “I used to think you were very cold, with a rich person’s sense of superiority. You seemed hard to approach.”

Shen Zheming asked, “And now?”

Lu Shi said seriously, “Now I think I was being petty and judging a gentleman’s heart. You’re a good person.”

For some reason, after saying this, Lu Shi felt Shen Zheming’s expression turn a little cold.

Lu Shi reflected. It must be that the words ‘good person’ were too simple.

But his Chinese wasn’t very good. He racked his brain and came up with a few more: “Helpful, kind-hearted… um, timely assistance, supporting those in need…”

The rest of his words were muffled.

Because Shen Zheming, at some point, had raised his hand and wrapped the scarf around Lu Shi’s neck, effectively sealing his mouth.

It was a gray cashmere scarf, thin and warm.

This was probably one that Shen Zheming often wore. It still had the faint scent of camellias, and Shen Zheming had hung it on his arm earlier, so it had picked up a bit.

The scarf covered half of Lu Shi’s face. He raised his hand to pull it down, but his movement paused. Instead, he sniffed lightly.

He looked up in slight confusion. “Brother Shen, don’t you think your pheromones are a bit restless today?”

Hadn’t he just gone through his rut? Why was the residual pheromone concentration so high?

Shen Zheming didn’t tell Lu Shi that twenty minutes ago, Lu Jinguo had been lurking at this very gate.

He reached out and tucked the scarf under Lu Shi’s chin.

“It’s nothing. I ran into a dog. Already dealt with.”

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