Proactively Attracted chapter 29

Fish Balls Are Delicious

The warm touch on his head disappeared in a flash—so heavy, yet so unreal.

Lu Xingjia stared blankly at Qin Mudong for a while before he realized it wasn’t a dream.

“I—I… you—you…” he stammered, his face slowly turning red.

“You two over there!”

An invigilating teacher stood near a classroom doorway not far off, frowning and waving them over. “The exam is about to begin! Stop chatting and get inside quickly!”

…The sweet, almost romantic atmosphere popped like a bubble.

But of course—this wasn’t the right time for talking. Lu Xingjia sighed softly and adjusted his mood. “Let’s go in.”

Qin Mudong nodded slightly and stuck one hand back into his pocket as he headed for the stairs.

“Wait!”

Lu Xingjia suddenly thought of something and quickly stepped in front of him.

Qin Mudong looked up at him and saw him clenching a fist over his chest, making a cheering gesture.

“Good luck on the exam!”

His voice was bright and full of energy.

That fleeting, brilliant smile made Qin Mudong freeze for a moment. By the time he came back to his senses, Lu Xingjia had already run up the stairs toward his classroom.

Watching the boy’s back as he left, a faint, indifferent smile curved the corners of Qin Mudong’s lips.

…..

Lu Xingjia’s exam room was in the innermost classroom on the top floor. He hurriedly found his seat, and just as he sat down, the teacher closed the classroom door.

Luckily, he made it in time.

Lu Xingjia let out a long sigh of relief and placed his exam pass and stationery on the desk.

While waiting for the papers to be handed out, he still wore a silly grin on his face. The overwhelming nervousness from earlier had somehow miraculously subsided.

What were these questions, really? He had the encouragement of his Mudong Ge!

Maybe Qin Mudong’s encouragement really worked, because the entire exam went very smoothly for Lu Xingjia. Except for two of the most difficult problems where he only managed to do the first part, he even had time left over to carefully check all the smaller questions at the beginning.

When the exam ended, students poured out of the building like a flood. From a distance, they looked like tiny moving black dots.

Lu Xingjia tucked away his exam pass and pen and joined the swarm of black dots.

The stairwell in Second High was narrow, and everyone was crammed together.

The examinees gathered in dense clusters, discussing the test just taken.

One student with a loud voice stood out clearly at the staircase entrance, where people were shoulder to shoulder: “Damn! I just remembered! The answer to question three in the multiple-choice section should be A! You have to apply the shell theorem for gravitational force inside and outside a spherical shell—ow!”

Before he could finish, his friend pinched him hard at the waist.

“Shut up,” the friend said. “The exam’s over, stop discussing the answers!”

That person shut up, but plenty of other students kept talking—one moment passionately discussing the Bernoulli equation, the next switching to simple harmonic motion and energy.

Caught in the middle of this crowd of overachievers, Lu Xingjia listened as they spouted term after term. His earlier sense of accomplishment completely vanished. He even began to wonder: Were we really taking the same test?

But the exam was already over—thinking about it now wouldn’t help. He adjusted his mindset, shrugged his shoulders, and pushed through the crowd to speed up his steps.

His exam room had been far from the school gate and on the highest floor. By the time he got back to the bus, most of the seats were already taken.

No one was sitting in their original seats, and someone had already taken his previous spot.

With no other option, Lu Xingjia glanced around, planning to sit wherever he could. Suddenly, his eyes lit up—he saw Qin Mudong sitting by the window in the very last row.

And next to Qin Mudong was an empty seat.

Could it be… was that seat saved for him?

Lu Xingjia’s heart skipped a beat, his fingers tightening around the stationery pouch. He awkwardly walked to the back row, trying to act casual as he asked, “Is someone sitting here? Can I sit here?”

“Mm.”

Qin Mudong gave a slight nod and moved the backpack that was on the seat beside him.

The nearby students gave them surprised looks—clearly no one expected Qin Mudong to save a seat for someone. Their gazes at Lu Xingjia now carried a hint of admiration.

Lu Xingjia couldn’t stop the corners of his lips from curving upward. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, he sat down beside Qin Mudong.

After a while, most people had arrived. Zhang Chuchu did a headcount, and once he confirmed everyone was there, the bus slowly started moving.

The back of the bus was a bit bumpy—they would get jolted from time to time. Lu Xingjia held onto the seat in front for support, and his gaze kept drifting toward Qin Mudong.

The exam was over, and now all those buried emotions began to stir quietly.

He wanted to ask what Qin Mudong meant by what he said before the exam. He wanted to ask if he really didn’t hate him. He wanted to know why he had been so cold to him lately, and whether they could still be good friends going forward.

But remembering Qin Mudong’s previous coldness, every time he opened his mouth to speak, he hesitated and said nothing.

As he was still caught in this internal struggle, a half-opened pack of Oreos suddenly appeared in front of him. The boy sitting on the other side of him asked, “Want some?”

“Thanks.” He was indeed a little hungry, so Lu Xingjia casually took one.

The boy was known in their class for being a chatterbox and could strike up a conversation with anyone. Since no one in the back row was talking, he naturally started chatting with Lu Xingjia.

“How do you think you did on the exam?”

“Not bad. You?”

“Eh, so-so. Do you think you’ll pass?”

“…Not sure.”

“You’ve made a lot of progress lately. You’ll probably be fine.”

“…Thanks. You’ll definitely pass too.”

…

The two weren’t particularly close, so their conversation was just a series of short, awkward exchanges. Lu Xingjia’s head was already a mess, and now he had to spare mental energy to make small talk, which only made him feel more restless.

Just as they finished one dull topic, Lu Xingjia quickly lowered his head, pretending to fall asleep—when suddenly, the arm on his other side was tapped.

Qin Mudong cleared his throat a couple of times, then casually asked, “How do you think the exam went?”

He had been watching them the whole time. Ever since getting on the bus, Lu Xingjia had only said one sentence to him, but had chatted enthusiastically with that other boy for half an hour.

Finally!!!

Lu Xingjia finally heard the words he’d been waiting for, and quickly turned his head toward Qin Mudong’s side. But the movement was so sudden that his upper body nearly did a full ninety-degree twist—

And he met Qin Mudong’s eyes directly.

Qin Mudong had very attractive eyes—narrow and long, yet not feminine in the least.

Unlike the more common brown-toned eyes, his irises were a deep, pure black. Like the most absolute darkness before dawn, or the deep sea far below the surface, where no light could reach.

Lu Xingjia’s heart skipped a beat—twice. He awkwardly answered the question from earlier: “It, it was okay.”

It was clearly the same boring, meaningless question as before, but coming from a different person, it felt completely different.

It was like a soft kitten paw was tickling his heart—fluffy and itchy in the best way.

“Mhm,” Qin Mudong nodded slightly and analyzed calmly, “This exam had more basic questions. The topics covered were mostly the ones you reviewed. Based on your current level, you should’ve been able to solve the first part of the last two harder problems as well. You probably even had time left over to double-check the smaller questions at the start. Overall, there shouldn’t be any major issues, so don’t stress about it too much.”

His reasoning was clear, unhurried—and his guesses matched Lu Xingjia’s real experience exactly.

Lu Xingjia started to suspect he might have a third eye.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Lu Xingjia suddenly had a lightbulb moment. “How do you know I reviewed those specific topics?”

In the past, he might’ve constantly talked to Qin Mudong about his study progress. But lately, Qin Mudong had been so distant. He barely even asked him for help with questions anymore, let alone shared anything else.

Unless…

Lu Xingjia tilted his head and blinked at Qin Mudong like a little fox, not quite sure what to think.

Had Qin Mudong actually been secretly paying attention to him this whole time?

Qin Mudong suddenly turned his face away, avoiding Lu Xingjia’s gaze.

After a moment, he said quietly, “I’m sorry.”

Lu Xingjia froze.

When Qin Mudong first started ignoring him, he’d imagined a lot of things.

He wanted to grab him by the collar, shove him against the wall, and demand to know what the hell was going on. He’d also imagined just giving up and letting him be. He’d even thought, If he tries to make up with me, I’m going to throw a fit and refuse to forgive him easily.

But as the months passed, the initial anger faded, leaving behind only confusion and hurt.

He’d thought that if they could ever make up, just understanding what had happened would be enough.

Now that it was really happening, he didn’t know what to do.

Lu Xingjia hesitated for a long while, suppressing his mess of emotions and asking the most important question: “So… what happened before? Did something happen?”

“…I’m sorry, I…”
Qin Mudong’s hand clenched and unclenched. “I can’t say.”

His voice was so hoarse it sounded like it had scraped over sandpaper. His lowered eyes were filled with restrained pain and bitterness.

Lu Xingjia’s heart softened instantly, and he tossed aside all his little grudges.

Forget letting him fend for himself. Forget throwing a fit. Whenever it came to Qin Mudong, all of Lu Xingjia’s so-called principles just evaporated.

“Alright, alright,” Lu Xingjia said with a little sigh. “If you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t ask. But if you ever randomly ignore me like that again, I’m not forgiving you next time.”

Qin Mudong looked up in shock. “Just… like that?”

That’s it? He was forgiven?

Forgiven for being cold and distant, forgiven for being selfish and cold?

“What do you mean, ‘just like that’?” Lu Xingjia muttered. “You’re not happy with that? Then I won’t forgive you so easily!”

Qin Mudong’s breath hitched. He opened his mouth to explain, but then saw Lu Xingjia’s eyes curve up in a sly grin, like a little fox: “On second thought, you have to treat me to something delicious before I’ll consider forgiving you.”

Qin Mudong froze again.

At that moment, the bus made a turn and arrived at the subway station in the city center.

From the front row, Zhang Chuchu called out, “Anyone getting off here?”

It was a Saturday, and their school was way out in the suburbs. Quite a few students raised their hands—it was more convenient to get home from here.

Before Qin Mudong could react, Lu Xingjia grabbed his hand and raised it high. “Teacher, us too!”

The driver pulled over, and the two of them got off with the other students who were heading home.

Near the subway entrance was a busy shopping district. The pedestrian street was bustling, and not far off was a little side street with a big sign that read “Snack Street.”

Lu Xingjia blinked expectantly: “Buy me something to eat.”

“…Okay.”

Those eyes were too bright. Qin Mudong swallowed and looked away.

Snack streets were all the rage these days, with tons of trendy foods. After one round, both of them had their hands full.

Fish balls, spicy potato wedges, tornado fries, candied hawthorns…

Lu Xingjia held a long skewer, chomped down on a fish ball, and smiled with total satisfaction—his face completely free of gloom.

He held the skewer up to Qin Mudong’s face and mumbled through a full mouth: “Mmf, you have one too! Hiss…!”

He’d accidentally bitten his tongue.

Qin Mudong stared silently at the oddly-shaped handmade fish ball on the skewer. Then, without a word, he lowered his head and quickly bit it off.

At first bite, the tangy sweet sauce wrapped around the outside burst into the mouth, followed by the springy texture of the fish ball.

Lu Xingjia popped another one into his mouth, frowning slightly and complaining, “This place doesn’t taste as good as before. And the portions are so much smaller.”

Qin Mudong chewed silently on the fish ball, not responding.

To him, this was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted.

His cheeks were puffed up as he focused intently on chewing, wearing a serious expression like he was studying some profound theory.

Lu Xingjia withdrew the skewer, then secretly pinched himself with his other hand just to make sure this wasn’t a dream.