Chapter 75

Chapter 75

In the second week after the start of the semester, everything had fallen into place.

Ji Mian woke up a little late today and happened to run into Xie Hang on the way to school, who was carrying Ji Mian's breakfast.

"Xie Hang," Ji Mian walked over.

Seeing Ji Mian, Xie Hang handed over the breakfast he was holding without a word.

Noticing Xie Hang was lost in thought, Ji Mian casually asked, "What's on your mind?"

"...I'm thinking about whether to give up my dorm spot." Although the school's accommodation fee for one semester isn't high, it adds up over four years, though.

If I were to give up the dorm, I should decide early.

"Oh," Ji Mian poked open the soy milk, "You could give it up. You only occasionally go back to the dorm for a nap, so keeping the bed for a semester and spending a few hundred yuan extra isn't really necessary."

"Yeah."

Ji Mian and Xie Hang walked together, finishing their breakfast as they went, just managing to finish their soy milk a few seconds before entering the classroom.

As soon as they stepped into the classroom, Ji Mian immediately sensed something was off. There were still about five minutes before class, but the room was unusually quiet.

Only He Zhikai, in the back corner of the classroom, was laughing loudly about something, his tone odd.

What’s happening?

Just as Ji Mian was puzzled, his gaze shifted back and he saw Song Yu in the front row on the right, looking pale.

Song Yu was holding a pen, his fingers gripping it so tightly his knuckles turned white.

He was staring down at the textbook on his desk, but it didn’t seem like he was actually reading it, not moving for a long time.

Ji Mian frowned immediately.

Two days ago, when he went to the library with Song Yu, everything was fine.

He tossed the plastic bag into the trash and walked over, "Song Yu."

Xie Hang's gaze followed Ji Mian's back, but he didn't step forward.

Song Yu looked up, his lips slightly trembling.

"Are you okay?" Ji Mian asked with concern.

As soon as he spoke, he felt the entire class’s eyes turn toward him, and He Zhikai's voice also stopped.

"No," Song Yu forced a smile, "You should grab a seat, class is about to start."

There are still five minutes, what class?

Ji Mian felt more and more that something was wrong, but hearing the dismissive tone in Song Yu's words, he had to go up with Xie Hang.

Next to him sat Fan Tao, the class monitor of Class 4, her lips tightly pressed, a hint of anger on her baby-faced cheeks.

Ji Mian asked in a low voice, "Peach, what's going on? Why does it feel so weird in here..."

Seeing it was him, Fan Tao's expression softened a bit.

She lowered her head, covering her mouth with her palm, and whispered, "Haven’t you checked our department’s casual chat group?"

"No, what happened?"

Fan Tao said, "Just... check it yourself, the messages from after 8 PM last night."

Ji Mian opened his phone and entered the casual chat group set up by the Economics Department freshmen.

He scrolled back to the messages from around 8 PM the night before.

The casual chat group of the Economics Department was only active in the first few months after the freshmen enrolled. After a winter break, the group had long become inactive.

After 8 PM, the most active poster was someone with an anime-style male profile picture, but his posts were a stark contrast to the serene avatar.

[Damn, there’s a gay guy in our dorm—it’s so gross.]

Reading this, Ji Mian thought of Song Yu’s earlier expression, and his heart sank.

Below, a few people replied with question marks, while others asked who it was.

[Song Yu. Ugh, I can’t believe I shared a dorm with him for half a year!]

[I’m gonna throw up—no wonder he acted so girly in the dorm...]

A barrage of vulgar language followed, making Ji Mian feel sick just reading it.

Someone replied, arguing that sexual orientation is a private matter, but this only made the guy even more aggressive.

[What do you mean it’s his privacy? He’s into guys, and I can’t say anything?]

[You don’t even live with him—why are you so quick to defend him?]

[Let me tell you, I don’t care about moral guilt trips.]

A few people in the group who couldn’t take it spoke up, but they were quickly shut down with curses, and he started attacking anyone who spoke up.

Likely fed up with the guy’s ranting, no one else chimed in.

Ji Mian took a deep breath, his anger boiling over.

He held back his anger and asked Fan Tao, "That’s He Zhikai talking, right?"

"Yes," Fan Tao nodded.

No matter how vile He Zhikai’s words were, Ji Mian could only see him as crude, but now, He Zhikai had aired this in the entire grade’s chat group. Back then, Song Yu had been terrified of being outed to his parents, and now, all five classes in the department—over a hundred people—knew about it.

He clenched his teeth unconsciously, the veins in his neck popping.

"Lu Zhou, take it easy," Xie Hang said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder, his brows knitted.

The chat group wasn’t very active, so it’s unlikely the whole department knew. If it was just He Zhikai saying these things in the group, the classroom wouldn’t be so quiet.

As he thought about it, sure enough, He Zhikai’s voice came from behind a few seconds later: "Fuck, I even want to change dorms."

It seemed that before they entered, He Zhikai had been spreading similar words for a long time. He Zhikai usually skipped classes, but today he came unusually early, just to embarrass Song Yu for such a trivial reason.

In front of He Zhikai, a few girls showed expressions of disgust, but these expressions weren’t directed at Song Yu. They were simply disgusted by He Zhikai.

Song Yu was usually reserved, but he actually had good relationships. There were also people in the classroom who wanted to stand up for him, but they didn’t know how to speak up. It takes a lot of courage to speak up for someone in a large classroom.

Moreover, while people are aware of homosexuality's existence, this small group often remains hidden in real life, and most have only heard about it online, not sure how to help in such cases.

At this moment, the teacher for the class walked in.

It was the same teacher from last semester's microeconomics course, now teaching their macroeconomics class this semester.

The macroeconomics class wasn’t in a big lecture hall; only students from Class 3 and Class 4 were in the classroom.

When the teacher arrived, He Zhikai finally shut up.

He hadn’t come to class to actually attend, so he grabbed his cup, pretending to go get water, planning to sneak out.

As he walked past the middle row of the classroom, he saw Ji Mian and, in a weird tone, "kindly" warned him, "Be careful not to get too close to some people; they might like men."

"Huh," Ji Mian scoffed angrily.

In front of the entire class, he spoke up, "What’s the problem with liking men?"

"I like men," he said calmly, but loud enough for the whole class to hear.

The classroom went dead silent.

In the front row, Song Yu turned around, stunned, looking at the young man in the middle of the room who had just dropped a bombshell.

The female teacher at the podium was confused but, seeing it was a student she liked, didn’t intervene.

He Zhikai was speechless, "You..."

At that moment, a deeper voice chimed in.

"I like men too, so what?" This voice also came from the middle, calm and steady.

Ji Mian instinctively glanced at the person next to him, blinking slowly.

In the silent room, after the initial hush, voices from both men and women started to rise.

"Exactly, what’s the big deal about liking men? I like men too," a straight guy nudged his buddy, winking.

"Sure, me too." Both were from Class 3 and knew Song Yu.

Fan Tao rolled her eyes, "Some people really stick their noses in too far. Looking like the sole of a shoe, do they think someone would fancy them just because they like the same sex?"

"Pfft—hahaha, the sole of a shoe..."

"Exactly, don’t they know what they look like? How shameless can they be?"

Faced with the disgusted looks from about sixty people across two classes, He Zhikai was flushed with anger, his expression extremely unpleasant.

He glared at the two who had put him in such a spot, "Was it necessary for you two to make such a joke?"

"Joke?" Ji Mian raised an eyebrow at the remark, pulling Xie Hang into a close embrace, his head brushing against Xie Hang’s jaw due to the height difference, "Who’s joking with you?"

Xie Hang paused slightly, then naturally lowered his head, gently kissing Ji Mian’s hair in cooperation.

It was more of a light touch than a kiss, and he felt the young man holding his shoulder suddenly stiffen.

"Whoa!!!"

In the classroom, a wave of excitement erupted, mostly girls' voices. Although they knew there was nothing going on between Ji Mian and Xie Hang, and they were just helping Song Yu out of a tough spot, seeing two handsome guys being so close still made them couldn't help but get excited.

The few straight guys who had earlier joked about liking men got the creeps at the sight. Talking the talk was one thing, but they really couldn't do this.

On the podium, the female teacher coughed.

In public, they should tone it down a bit.

However, she had pretty much figured out the situation.

The female teacher glanced at He Zhikai, who was holding a cup, "This student seems new, is he from our class?"

"..."

Someone in the back burst out laughing.

He Zhikai had hardly shown up to any microeconomics classes last semester, of course, he seemed new.

The class bell rang.

"If you need to get water, wait until the break."

He Zhikai reluctantly returned to his seat, his expression twisted in embarrassment.

Class began.

"Does everyone remember what we covered last class? I'll ask a few simple questions." The teacher smiled and looked at the back row, "You, the new student, why don’t you answer?"

The class burst out laughing, and for a moment, everyone's attention shifted from Song Yu to He Zhikai.

Ji Mian, however, didn’t laugh. He was preoccupied with something else.

He was buddies with the admin of the water group chat and immediately sent a message filling him in on the situation, asking him to help delete the messages He Zhikai had sent last night.

The other party quickly replied.

[Damn, I haven't checked the group for a couple of days.]

[Right away, that idiot spammed the group.]

A few minutes later.

[OK, I’ve booted that idiot out too.]

[My bad, Xiao Zhou, but this group isn't very active, so most people probably didn't see it. I hope it doesn’t cause too much of a headache for your friend.]

Ji Mian replied with a "Thank you" and then turned off his phone to start listening to the class.

Xie Hang watched him the whole time, "All good?"

"Yeah."

A couple of minutes later, Ji Mian let out a sigh, "Nah, Brother Heng..."

"Hmm?"

"I’m still so mad, I could punch someone." Ji Mian said, then plopped his chin on the desk, breathing heavily from frustration.

Xie Hang's lips curved slightly as he reached out to run his fingers through Ji Mian's hair.

Ji Mian turned to look at him but didn't pull away from his touch.

Xie Hang gazed at the soft, fluffy strands of black hair beneath his palm, recalling the sensation when he had kissed Ji Mian's hair.

He had thought it would be hard to accept, but the moment his lips touched the fine strands and his nose caught the faint scent of Ji Mian's hair, he felt his mouth go dry.

This person was clearly defending someone else, so why... was it his own heart that was racing?