chapter four

When Gu Zhen returned home, it was completely dark, and when he opened the door to the house, the sound of a variety show from the television intermingled with the nanny’s exaggerated laughter. The new nanny was young, only in her 20’s, and was barefoot as she nestled on the sofa, holding a large bucket of popcorn in her hands and occasionally digging through the open bag of potato chips on the table.

Hearing someone come back, the nanny looked up and saw that it was him. She didn’t even bother getting up, only pointing to the kitchen and saying, “Made you some tomato scrambled eggs and a bowl of millet congee. You can heat it yourself if it’s gone cold.”

Gu Zhen silently went to the kitchen to heat his meal up, eating the salty tomato scrambled eggs soon after, and then finally drank only half of the bowl of millet congee. He stood up, put down the bowl, and then returned to his room. The nanny was still watching, eminent in the lively sound of the variety show in the background, and she didn’t even glance back at him anymore.

In fact, back when she first came, she wasn’t like this at all. When she first accepted the job, she was very adamant about taking care of Gu Zhen. She would cook each and every meal carefully and clean the big house spotlessly.

Then, she gradually realized the extent of Gu Zhen’s condition: he really couldn’t speak at all, like some wooden statue of a person. He was just living here alone, with no one to look over him and no one to talk to, even though he lived in such a grand and large house. The nanny thought about the salary offered by her employer, and she suspected that Gu Zhen was some rich businessman’s illegitimate son, but he didn’t dare let him join the family, only taking care of him from afar. However, this illegitimate son only had limited abilities, and not only was he weak and incompetent (t/n, literally: 软如无能), he also couldn’t even say a single word out loud.

Once, she had woken up late in the morning and forgot to get up to make breakfast for Gu Zhen. She was frightened that something might happen to her or her job, only to realize that nothing had happened at all, and she was neither fired nor were her wages deducted.

She looked at Gu Zhen’s pale face, who was staring at the empty air with a dull gaze, and thought for a moment if he also had some other problem, yet he didn’t seem to have any more problems with his brain. She smiled contemptuously.

From then on, she began to get bolder with her actions and became more unscrupulous. She chose a large room to stay in and filled the cabinet there with her clothes. She began to trot around the house as though it was her own. If she was in a good mood, then she’d cook a meal for Gu Zhen. If she forgot about it, then she forgot about it, Gu Zhen may as well remain hungry.

The next day, Gu Zhen went to the classroom and sat down on his seat. There was a blushing girl who was secretly putting a carton of milk and a small bag of bread on Li Yuechen’s desk. Noticing Gu Zhen, she put her finger on her mouth, as though to tell him to keep it a secret. Then, she realized that Gu Zhen wasn’t even looking at her at all, and she straightened up with some embarrassment, cursing in a low and soft voice and running back to her seat.

As soon as Li Yuechen arrived, he found that there were some things on his desk that weren’t there before, and there was even a pink envelope tucked underneath them. This time, he didn’t dare guess that it was from Gu Zhen. He took the carton of milk and the small bag of bread, turning his head to tell Gu Zhen, “I’ve eaten breakfast already, would you like to have some?”

Song Yan just came in and was stupefied by this ‘frightening’ scene: Li Yuechen giving Gu Zhen some milk and bread with gentle, coaxing eyes, and, even more surprisingly, Gu Zhen slowly stretching out his hand to accept it.

Not only was Song Yan surprised by this, even Li Yuechen himself felt a little shocked. He originally thought that Gu Zhen would refuse.

Li Yuechen calmly hid his surprise just now and took out his own book to distract himself, and though his eyes were on the pages, they seemed to focus more on the person next to him. Meanwhile, Gu Zhen was really hungry, having been forgotten to be made breakfast yet again by his nanny. He hasn’t eaten anything since last night, where he only ate some eggs and half a bowl of millet congee.

In truth, he didn’t want to have too much contact with Li Yuechen, or anyone else, for that matter, but when Li Yuechen gave him those snacks with his warm and kind gaze, he found himself inadvertently reaching out to accept it from him.

At this time, he didn’t notice the person sitting in the diagonally opposite seat behind them. The girl who gave Li Yuechen breakfast, Li Xiran, watched with a gloomy expression as Gu Zhen ate the food she had prepared for Li Yuechen, one bite at a time.

During class break, Li Xiran suddenly walked across the building swiftly until she reached the entrance to the door of Class 20 upstairs. She stood at the door and waved at the boy in the last row, who stood up impatiently and walked out of the classroom’s back door. “What do you want? I told you to not bother me.” The boy kept rubbing his fingers, as though he was itching for a smoke.

“Brother Zhicheng, do me a favor.” (t/n: zhicheng-ge to be exact)

The boy raised his eyebrows after hearing this. “What do you need to do? I happen to be good at doing favors.”

The girl gritted her teeth: “Help me teach someone a lesson. Just some little dummy in our class.”

Luo Zhicheng almost laughed after hearing this. “What’s the matter, you little girl? That mute wooden lump in your class can even provoke you, ah?”

“Don’t worry about what happened, just go and tell him not to be so insensitive and to stop getting in my way. Not everyone can eat anything that’s been offered to them.”

“No,” Luo Zhicheng curtly refused.

“Why not? Obviously, it was you who led that group of people to beat him up last time. What’s one more? Not to mention that this time, you’d be doing it for me.”

“That kid isn’t normal at all. Several people were already beating him up yet he didn’t even make a single sound or expression. What’s the point of bullying him?” Luo Zhicheng impatiently finished and turned around to leave.

Li Xiran hastily tugged on his sleeve: “You help me, and I’ll give you all my pocket money for this month.”

Hearing this, Luo Zhicheng stopped in his tracks: “Two months.”

Li Xiran gritted her teeth. “Deal.”

That day, when it came to the last period of their evening self-study, Li Yuechen was called away by the school varsity team shortly after class. The basketball league planned to increase the amount of training for them, and the players were nervous.

Before Li Yuechen left, he saw that Gu Zhen’s seat was still empty, yet it had already been ten minutes since class started. Gu Zhen was rarely ever late to class.

Before Li Yuechen could think twice about it, he was urged by Song Yan to leave and was pulled away to practice.

On the way to the basketball court, Song Yan, who had been holding back his curiosity all day, finally couldn’t help but ask: “What’s going on between you and that little dummy?”

“What do you mean?” Li Yuechen was still thinking about why Gu Zhen hadn’t come back yet.

“Hey, I saw it all. You bought him breakfast earlier this morning. When did you guys get so close with each other? I’m not saying you’re just really easy to get along with, it’s just a little weird that while he ignores everyone, he would suddenly accept whatever you give him…” Song Yan was still talking until Li Yuechen cut him off.

“I didn’t buy it,” Li Yuechen said lightly.

“Ah? Then who bought it?”

Li Yuechen stopped paying attention to him and walked quickly to the locker room.

“Hey, why won’t you answer the question! Wait for me!”