Chapter 45: A Grueling Lesson and a Secret Burden

After class, Lin Duo waited and waited, yet Sun Shida made no move to approach her. Swallowing her pride, she finally left her seat to find him. “Um, Student Sun, the teacher said we needed to be language partners…”

“Oh,” Sun Shida replied, barely lifting his head from his book.

Since re-enrolling, Lin Duo had rarely been treated with such indifference by a male peer, and she felt a blush of embarrassment creep onto her face. A boy in front of Sun Shida seemed unable to bear it, turning to tease, “I say, Little Sun, are you naturally queer? You’re completely ignoring our class beauty, Student Lin.”

“You’re the queer one!” Sun Shida finally tore his gaze from his book, glaring at the boy. Then, he slowly turned his attention to Lin Duo. “After evening self-study today, don’t go back to the dorm. Come with me to the small grove, and I’ll teach you some things you don’t know.”

His words seemed to invite misunderstanding. The boys in the front row began to whistle, and Lin Duo’s small face flushed even deeper. “Can you stop being so sarcastic?”

Sun Shida, looking quite impatient, retorted, “If the teacher hadn’t insisted, I wouldn’t waste my time on you. Anyway, if you don’t show up, I’ll just assume you don’t want to learn from me, which saves me the trouble.”

“Hey, hey, do you really dislike being with me that much?”

Sun Shida snorted, exhaling sharply through his nose, and returned his gaze to his book. Lin Duo could only stomp her foot in frustration before returning to her seat.

Shen Jing’an, never one to shy away from gossip, dragged her chair over to Lin Duo’s side. “So, Sun Shida is a tsundere uke, after all!”

Lin Duo suddenly remembered she had a fujoshi roommate and asked curiously, “How are you so sure he’s the uke?”

“Guys who look like him are usually the uke!” Shen Jing’an seemed quite experienced. “Ah, I’d love to see him and Cai Jingyao together! It would definitely be super eye-candy, right?”

“I’m not interested in boys getting together…”

****

When evening self-study ended that day, Sun Shida slung his backpack over his shoulder and left the classroom without a backward glance. Lin Duo had no choice but to jog after him.

Fortunately, he hadn’t forgotten their actual purpose, leading the way to the Pavilion of Knowledge on the north side of the school. Because the pavilion was surrounded by lush greenery, students commonly referred to the area as the small grove.

Lin Duo entered the pavilion and sat across from Sun Shida. Noticing the unusual silence around them, he felt a pang of apprehension. However, he then carefully observed the other person, who seemed utterly harmless, and his heart felt a little lighter.

Sun Shida set down his backpack, still wearing an expression of impatience. “I looked up oral English teaching methods on my phone, and they all start with self-introductions. You, introduce yourself in English.”

“I… I am…”

“Stop, stop!” Lin Duo had barely spoken two sentences before Sun Shida impatiently cut her off. “Is that a Papua New Guinean accent or a Johannesburg accent? It’s dreadful!”

“I… I haven’t practiced speaking much… that’s why I need you to teach me!” Lin Duo looked wronged.

Normally, if a boy saw Lin Duo looking so delicate, they would cherish her, but Sun Shida was an exception, completely unmoved. He frowned deeply for over ten seconds before an idea finally struck him. He pulled out his phone, looked up a word, and played its standard pronunciation. “Here, repeat after this.”

Unfortunately, Lin Duo tried reading it several times, but Sun Shida remained unsatisfied. He decided to start by teaching phonetics, insisting that each sound be perfectly standard before moving to the next. Thankfully, Lin Duo was also quite patient with learning, diligently practicing.

By the time all the phonetic symbols were covered, an hour had already passed, and it was nearly time for showers and sleep. Yet, Sun Shida’s academic tyrant personality emerged at this point; he insisted that Lin Duo complete a fluent English self-introduction. In the end, after being put through the wringer until midnight, Sun Shida was finally satisfied enough to let him leave.

Lin Duo returned to the dorm, feeling utterly exhausted. The room was pitch black, but Shen Jing’an, already in bed, was staring intently at him, her large eyes glowing like ghostly flames in the darkness. “Lin Duo, tell me honestly, what exactly did you and Sun Shida do?”

“Nothing, just studied,” Lin Duo said tiredly as he put down his backpack, tossed his pajamas and toiletries into a small basket, and picked up his thermos to drink some warm water, preparing for a shower.

After a moment of silence, Shen Jing’an spoke again from her bed. “You know, if a girl and a boy spend too much time together, the girl can get pregnant, right?”

“Pfft!” Lin Duo sprayed out all the water he had just drunk. “Cough, cough… Are you serious?”

“Of course not!” In the darkness, Shen Jing’an’s large eyes narrowed slightly. “I was just testing whether you’re truly innocent or just pretending. Hmph, you actually know how boys and girls make babies, don’t you?”

With how advanced the internet was now, such information was easily accessible. Lin Duo’s small face began to flush, but he stubbornly insisted, “I… I don’t know anything!”

“Really don’t know? Heh heh, want me to explain it to you in detail?”

“I… I’m going to take a shower!” Lin Duo found an excuse to flee the dorm room.

The shower stalls in the girls’ dorm building were partitioned, and the door locks were relatively new, making them quite secure. Lin Duo would usually choose to hide inside when changing clothes, especially when changing underwear. If it was just outer clothing, he would simply change under his blanket. In truth, there were some girls, like Lin Duo, who were particularly concerned about personal privacy and never changed in front of others, so Shen Jing’an had never been suspicious.

Soon it was Saturday, and Lin Duo could finally leave the dorm and return home. In fact, Shen Jing’an missed home even more than he did; her father picked her up by car around 7 AM. Although Lin Duo’s foster father owned a car, he also used it for hauling goods.

Indeed, the work of sourcing fruit for the shop was incredibly arduous. They had to drive to the wholesale market at 3 AM, meet with familiar wholesalers, negotiate the day’s prices, and inspect the goods. By 6 AM, when many people were just groggily waking up, foster father Yue Renhui had already driven back. Consequently, he was typically not in the shop during the morning, instead going upstairs to catch up on sleep. Of course, he would still come down to help in the afternoon.

Especially now that Lin Duo was not home, his foster parents’ workload was even heavier. When customers were plentiful, they were constantly on their feet, not stopping until the roller shutter was pulled down at 8 PM. Only then did they have a bit of free time to grab a simple dinner, watch some TV, shower, and sleep, only for a new cycle to begin the next day. More critically, while office workers had holidays, Lin Duo’s foster parents, running their small fruit shop, basically worked year-round without a single day off. Even if they fell slightly ill, they still had to sit at the cash register; only those experiencing it could truly understand the hardship.

It was precisely because he knew the difficulty of his foster parents’ work that Lin Duo was especially mindful of their feelings, always acting dutiful and compliant, but also daring not to reveal his deepest secret.