Chapter 63: High School Classmates and High School Life

High school classmates? Lu Wenchuan’s brows furrowed as he watched Sang Yijia mention her old classmate, a gentle look softening her eyes. His expression grew even more tense.

“Were you two very close?” Lu Wenchuan couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy.

Sang Yijia nodded. “Yes, he was my desk mate throughout high school. We never changed seats for three years.”

“Sounds like quite a fateful arrangement, doesn’t it?”

Lu Wenchuan replied with a noncommittal hum, but his mind was already at work. He suspected that this high school desk mate wasn’t as simple as he seemed—perhaps he had special feelings for Sang Yijia and that’s why he’d told the teacher not to change seats.

“I went to First City High. What about you?” Sang Yijia didn’t want to discuss her desk mate any further. The more she talked, the more likely it was that inconsistencies would crop up if her old classmate ever really showed up.

Lu Wenchuan raised his brow. “I attended First City High as well.”

“Oh? Which graduating class?” Sang Yijia calculated that he was four years older than the original host, so they definitely wouldn’t have crossed paths.

Lu Wenchuan shook his head. “I only attended for a year.”

“???” Sang Yijia was puzzled. “Then you transferred?”

“No, I went to university,” Lu Wenchuan answered truthfully.

Sang Yijia was at a loss for words. She looked down at the green hawthorn she’d been eating—it had already turned yellowish, and the taste in her mouth seemed even more tart.

The audience in the livestream was equally shocked.

[He only spent a year in high school???]
[Went to university???]
[He’s only twenty-four now, isn’t he?]
[Is this a joke?]
[I just want to know when he graduated. Did he really start working at Shengchuang Tech at eighteen?]
[My God, the youngest in the company.]
[Was he even eighteen back then?]

The chat was abuzz.

In the car, Yan Ningsi watched Sang Yijia’s livestream on her phone and couldn’t help but laugh. “Working at eighteen? Seriously?”

“Lu-ge graduated university at sixteen,” someone replied.

Bian He raised his brow at this. “You know Lu Wenchuan?”

“!!!” Yan Ningsi’s eyes widened. “How could I know him?” Then, she lowered her voice. “Not really, but I’ve seen him a few times and heard stories about him.”

“Hmm…” Yan Ningsi paused, then added, “He’s that model child everyone talks about, you know?”

Bian He nodded. “Got it.”

“But Lu-ge is really something else.”
“He graduated at sixteen. Where did he go after that?”
Yan Ningsi shrugged. “Where else? He went abroad to study, of course.”

“He came back at twenty…” Yan Ningsi nearly slipped, remembering that Lu Wenchuan was publicly known as a programmer at Shengchuang Tech, not the CEO of the Lu Group. She swallowed, pressing her hand to her chest in relief at not having said too much.

Bian He caught on. “He came back to work at twenty. If he’s been at Shengchuang Tech for four years, he must know quite a few people.”

“Mhm.” Yan Ningsi nodded absentmindedly, her attention returning to Sang Yijia’s livestream. Watching her eat the hawthorn fruits one after another, Yan Ningsi couldn’t help but swallow. She was starting to crave them herself.

“That hawthorn actually looks pretty tasty.”

Back in the livestream, Sang Yijia was still in shock. Only after eating two more hawthorn fruits did she calm down. Just as she reached for another, a hand blocked her. Looking up, she saw Lu Wenchuan, who had calmly taken the last fruit.

“You’ve had enough.”

“So?” Sang Yijia was confused.

Lu Wenchuan continued, “It looks pretty good the way you’re eating it. Can I have this one?”

Sang Yijia fell silent for a moment, her brows knitting together. “Well, how should I put it…”

“The taste isn’t actually that great.” Seeing that Lu Wenchuan didn’t quite believe her, she explained further. “It’s sour at first, then astringent, and it actually makes your tongue tingle.”

As she spoke, Sang Yijia stuck out her pink tongue, her words a little indistinct. “See? It’s red.”

“It’s all from the tingling.”

Lu Wenchuan was momentarily stunned, staring at her tongue, then at her pearly white teeth. It took him a while to snap out of it and look away. “You make it sound intriguing. I’ll give it a try.”

Without waiting for Sang Yijia to protest, Lu Wenchuan took a bite. Instantly, the taste exploded in his mouth—sour and astringent, with a tingling numbness on his tongue.

For a split second, he couldn’t mask his reaction.

Sang Yijia was taken aback, then couldn’t help but cover her mouth and laugh as she watched his expression. “I told you.”

“It’s not good.”

Lu Wenchuan didn’t spit it out, but chewed slowly. The hawthorn pulp was hard to swallow, but even so, he forced it down.

“The taste is… alright.”

Sang Yijia: “…”

A brief silence fell over the car, while the livestream chat was as lively as ever.

[Judging by Lu Wenchuan’s face, is it really that bad?]
[It really is that hard to eat!]
[This flavor isn’t for everyone!]
[Haha, this challenge is actually kind of fun.]
[I’ll have to buy some and try it myself.]
[It’s actually meant for making sweet soup.]

In the other car, Yan Ningsi was doubled over with laughter—if space allowed, Bian He thought she’d be rolling on the floor.

She really would be rolling on the floor.

After laughing herself breathless, Yan Ningsi wiped tears from her eyes. “I can’t take it, Lu-ge is just too funny.”

Bian He was also watching the livestream. “Lu-ge seems very special toward Yijia. Did they know each other before?”

Realizing her question sounded off, she quickly added, “Or maybe Lu-ge had met Yijia before?”

“Huh?” Yan Ningsi shook her head. “I have no idea about that.”

“But I hadn’t heard of Jiajia before this. Our social circle isn’t that easy to break into, you know. First, you need some standing in the capital, and second, your assets have to be in the hundreds of millions at least.”

“In our circle, tens of millions is nothing—barely enough to do a single deal.”

Bian He replied with a couple of understanding grunts.

—

Meanwhile, Sang Yijia took a bottle of drink out of the bag and handed it to him. “Here, wash it down a bit.”

Earlier, Lu Wenchuan had eaten the rest of the hawthorn without changing his expression. Sang Yijia was surprised—she’d wanted to tell him there was no need to force himself, but he insisted that food shouldn’t be wasted.

So she watched him finish it all in silence before handing him the drink.

“Thank you.” Lu Wenchuan felt as though his taste buds no longer belonged to him. After a sip of lemon iced tea, he was hit with another wave of sweet and sour.

He thought that, at this point, even if someone gave him a few chili peppers, he wouldn’t feel the heat.

“You’ll feel better soon,” Sang Yijia said. She was used to the taste, even found it stimulating in its own way. But watching the color drain from Lu Wenchuan’s face, she couldn’t help but worry about how to make it up to him. Before she could think of anything, Lu Wenchuan spoke.

“Can you tell me more about your high school days?”

“I was always busy studying—I never really knew what high school life was like.”