Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  I held his hand and was about to follow him upstairs when I was suddenly nervous. I asked him, “Where are Mom and Dad?”


  “They’re asleep.”


  “Well then…”


  I hesitated and didn’t dare to go upstairs. “Will they scold me? They’ll be angry that I’m home so late!”


  “I told them you were tutoring at your classmate’s house, they didn’t say much.”


  “Brother, you’re awesome!”


  Dongyu glared at me. I didn’t dare to say anything more.

  I followed him up the stairs and into my own room. I’d only just taken my exercise book out of the bag when he reached for it to check through it for me as usual…… I wasn’t going to let him, but he was too quick. He picked it up and flipped through it. Then he found something fishy about it.

  He had always been very sharp and observant, hence he quickly noticed that the handwriting was unfamiliar. He hit me on the head with the exercise book. “Who helped you with this homework?”


  “Su Qi’s friend…”


  Dongyu was startled and raised the exercise book like he was going to hit me with it. I shrank back my shoulders and looked at him timidly. Angry and amused at the same time, he proceeded to erase all the answers on the exercise book with an eraser!

  I couldn’t help but cry out in alarm, hurriedly extending my hand to snatch the eraser from him. “Brother, what are you doing?”


  “Redo it. Using your own brain.”


  Dongyu stared at me and reminded me, “The monthly exam is coming soon. Do you know how to answer these questions?”


  “I do…”


  “Show me how.”


  “But… it’s late and I’m tired!”


  “I’ll accompany you.”


  Dongyu tidied up my workbook and took out my textbook. He flipped through it casually and had a rough idea.

  I had no choice but to work bitterly through the night to finish all my homework. It wasn’t until 1 am that I climbed into bed.

  Dongyu came into my room after taking a shower. He saw that I was already lying on the bed, unable to keep my eyes open. He gave me a carton of milk, then glanced at my bag, which was lying on the table. He silently helped me pack my bag.

  When he finally walked out of the room, my eyelids couldn’t take it anymore. The moment the door closed, I fell asleep.

  …


  The next day after school, Su Qi was waiting for me at the school gate again.

  I didn’t know if it had anything to do with an adolescent boy’s desire to conquer, but I thought at the time that such persistence must have little to do with liking a person.

  Every day after school, he would be waiting for me at the school gate on his bicycle.

  I usually ignored him and turned away, heading for home.

  He would often ride his bicycle and follow behind me. Even if I had absolutely no interaction with him throughout the journey, he seemed to still enjoy it!

  With him following me like this, I naturally could no longer wait for Dongyu to go home together. After all, if he saw me with Su Qi, I’d have a lot of explaining to do.

  It wasn’t like I hadn’t heard about what kind of guy Su Qi was.

  Word had it that he was a particularly dandy child.

  Other than getting into fights, smoking, and drinking, he had a string of bad record.

  Su Qi was so well known that even from a street away, rumors about him were all over my school.

  “I heard that he dated a string of girls. Some of them he courted, while others wooed him. All in all, these girls amounted to an equivalent of the size of a class.”


  “I also heard that he once got a girl pregnant. Do you know what that means? That girl got pregnant, and in the end, it was he who paid for the abortion surgery! After that girl had an abortion, I don’t know who said it, but the whole school knew about it. In the end, that girl probably felt shameful and immediately transferred back to her hometown to study.”