Chapter 30: Childhood Friend III (Part 2)

Chapter 30: Childhood Friends III (End)

It was barely light out.

Everyone was already awake.

Sleeping on the ground was too uncomfortable, so they decided to just stay awake, hoping to find gas and a boat and get out of there fast.

They had all thought this would be a short expedition, so they hadn't packed much water in their backpacks. Soon someone was so thirsty they kept whining about it.

Song Wuyi fed Li Su the last sip of water from his cup.

"I'll go find some edible fruit. Li Su, come with me. Everyone else, stay put."

As Song Wuyi arranged this, Lin Qiushuang suddenly stood up and said he wanted to go too.

Tao Tao was already too thirsty to move. Even though she wanted to stick close to Li Su, she could only wave and tell them to come back soon.

.

Song Wuyi kept holding Li Su's hand as they walked together, quickly leaving Lin Qiushuang behind.

Lin Qiushuang somewhat regretted following them. The two ahead had already disappeared into their own world.

"I think this is clearly a love—not Uncle Song's love child, but Song Wuyi's own. Who keeps such a close eye on him? Holding hands while walking—like he's gonna trip on flat ground or something?"

Lin Qiushuang complained loudly. As soon as he finished, he heard Li Su's hoarse scream.

Catching his breath, Lin Qiushuang ran toward the sound.

Song Wuyi was pulling Li Su up from the ground by his hand.

He really had tripped.

Li Su's pant leg was torn by a branch, and his calf had hit the ground, leaving a bloody scratch from a sharp rock sticking out of the dirt.

Song Wuyi's expression turned dark. He was about to carry Li Su back.

Lin Qiushuang jogged over.

"Brother Song, let me carry him. Don't you still have to find fruit? We're already out of water. If we don't find some fruit to eat, we won't have the strength to keep searching for gasoline."

Song Wuyi knew this well.

He was the only one in the team with experience, knowing where to find edible fruit. If he didn't go, the team wouldn't be able to move forward.

Song Wuyi steadied Li Su and said to Lin Qiushuang, "Carry him back nice and careful. Don't drop him again. There's a basic medical kit in my backpack. Clean and bandage Li Su's wound. I'll be back soon."

Lin Qiushuang was about the same build as Song Wuyi and athletic, so he had no lack of strength.

Song Wuyi helped lift Li Su onto Lin Qiushuang's back.

Li Su hadn't expected Lin Qiushuang to be so kind as to help him. Thinking of his previous misunderstandings about Lin Qiushuang, he felt both awkward and guilty inside.

Song Wuyi headed off in the opposite direction.

Lin Qiushuang adjusted him on his back: "You're heavier than you look, huh? You must eat a lot."

Li Su asked in a muffled voice, "Why are you still willing to carry me?"

Lin Qiushuang let out a cold laugh without a word and carried Li Su back along the path they'd come from.

When they reached a fork in the path they had taken earlier, Lin Qiushuang turned onto a trail he hadn't been on before.

Li Su was unfamiliar with this road and asked if Lin Qiushuang had taken a wrong turn.

Lin Qiushuang suddenly started jogging. Li Su was jostled and had to hold tightly around Lin Qiushuang's neck.

When they reached a densely wooded area, Lin Qiushuang shook Li Su off his back, dumping him on the ground.

"Stay here. I'm leaving you here."

"What?" Li Su was stunned.

Lin Qiushuang kept backing away: "I know why you joined this competition. You want the credits so you can test into Class A at the start of the semester, right? Well, I'm in Class A. You don't like me, so I don't like you either. I don't want to see you, so you don't see me either. I won't let you get in!"

Li Su's eyes went wide. He had never expected this.

"How can you do this!"

"Why not? Who told you to kick me? Fine, you kicked me, and then you said I was isolating you. You're the one who stopped talking to me first. You talk to Song, you talk to Tao Tao, but you won't talk to me. What's your deal?"

Li Su was genuinely terrified of being abandoned. He dragged his injured leg to chase after Lin Qiushuang.

"I didn't—it's not that I didn't want to talk to you. It's just that I... Ah!"

Li Su fell again, this time face-first, face-planting into the dirt.

Lin Qiushuang stopped retreating.

Li Su looked like a dirty stray cat by the roadside, with a broken leg, pitifully crawling on the ground, looking up at him with a trembling, pleading gaze.

"You didn't what?"

Lin Qiushuang just wanted to hear Li Su make excuses, and then he would walk away without looking back, hard and fast.

Li Su felt so humiliated. His leg hurt badly too. He couldn't help but cry, his voice breaking between sobs.

"I thought... you were going to make fun of me about that thing... That's why I stopped talking to you. I know... you wanted to be friends with me. I was looking for a chance... to apologize to you..."

Lin Qiushuang looked puzzled. He walked over and crouched in front of Li Su.

"What would I make fun of you about?"

Li Su suddenly flopped down, burying his face in his arms.

Lin Qiushuang felt that Li Su's words didn't seem fake, and his crying was so sincere.

He circled around to Li Su's side, grabbed him by the waist, and lifted him off the ground.

Li Su's tearful face was fully revealed.

His wet face was covered in dirt, yet it was like a clear, pure pool, each sob stirring ripples on the surface.

Lin Qiushuang suddenly felt that he really was bullying Li Su. His breath caught.

"Come on, is it really worth crying over?"

Li Su had only ever cried once for a friend before—when he came back to school and found his friends had pulled away because of rumors. After that, he never wasted any more tears on them.

But Li Su longed deeply to restore the friendship; being alone didn't feel good.

There was still someone willing to approach him, calling him Gu Zi, and in his heart, though, Lin Qiushuang was somehow different.

But he was afraid that Lin Qiushuang would also distance himself because of those rumors.

Li Su buried his face in his palms and cried, while Lin Qiushuang forcefully pried his hands apart, insisting on seeing his face.

"Alright, alright, I won't leave you here."

"Sniffle sniffle."

"You're exaggerating, I was just joking with you."

"Sniffle sniffle."

"Can't take a joke? You nearly kicked me in the face, you almost kicked away my dignity!"

"Sniffle sniffle sniffle, I'm sorry."

Lin Qiushuang was stunned—Li Su actually apologized to him in such a situation!

This made him go from bewildered to flustered.

He pried Li Su's hands open and used his own fingers to wipe away Li Su's tears.

"I forgive you, okay? Are your eyes leaky faucets? How can you cry so much?"

Li Su felt he was being a bit melodramatic as he cried, so he forced himself to stop the waterworks.

"I, I also know you weren't the one who started isolating me."

"I wouldn't stoop to that."

"I thought you hated me, so I didn't come to talk to you."

"How could I hate you? From the first time I saw you, I quite... liked how you looked."

Lin Qiushuang was also a bit embarrassed, blushing and turning away awkwardly.

Li Su sniffled and put his hand on Lin Qiushuang's shoulder.

"Why did you call me Gu Zi when we first met?"

Lin Qiushuang suddenly laughed, then pretended to be serious and cleared his throat.

"Actually, I wanted to call you Xiao Xi Mi, because you look like a little tangyuan... but that felt too cheesy. Su just means unhusked grain, doesn't it? Gu Zi doesn't sound as mushy, so I went with that."

Li Su asked, "Why didn't you just call me by my name?"

Lin Qiushuang was a little annoyed by the question, gritted his teeth, turned, and shouted at Li Su.

"I want to be closer to you! You ask too many questions—do you ever stop?!"

Li Su was stunned by the outburst.

"So, so that's how it is... Then, then do you still want to get close to me?"

This was Li Su's first time actively making a friend, and he was a bit shy, lowering his head after speaking.

"Asking questions again... What did you say?" Lin Qiushuang was dumbfounded.

Li Su felt that Lin Qiushuang's attitude didn't seem like he wanted to reconcile, and he wished the ground would swallow him up.

Li Su decided to walk back on his own, bowing his head, silently taking small steps homeward.

After a few steps, his body suddenly lifted off the ground.

Lin Qiushuang picked him up from behind, with great strength.

"You just said you thought I would mock you. Why? Give me an explanation, and I won't be angry anymore."

Li Su bit his lip, hesitated for a long time, and then shared a little of his past, vaguely.

He only said that because he had been in close quarters with a corpse during a kidnapping, a ridiculous rumor spread that he had contracted cadaveric spots, leading to him being ostracized by the whole school, hated and feared like a pathogen.

Lin Qiushuang realized, "So that's it. The so-called cadaveric spots are just that patch of skin under your mouth with a different color? How is that scary? It's actually quite... distinctive."

Li Su wrapped his arms around Lin Qiushuang's neck and said softly, "It's not that I care about that; I was afraid that you would have a different view of me because of that incident."

Lin Qiushuang smiled, "No way. Don't worry, not only will I not stay away from you, I'll get closer to you. I'll protect you, won't let anyone talk bad about you, and won't give anyone a chance to bully you."