Chapter 85: Early Morning
When Li Mu woke up, he found that he was the only one left in bed.
He looked down and saw Yu Fan, fully dressed, sitting on a chair with a tired face and dark circles under his eyes. He was staring at the ceiling with a hopeless look.
“You didn’t sleep all night?” Li Mu glanced at the Stitch plush toy he was holding, put it aside, sat up, and yawned.
“Yeah, you're too noisy when you sleep.”
“You’re the one who insisted on sleeping with me,” Li Mu replied with a cold face.
The other roommates also started getting up one by one. Yu Fan, completely exhausted, followed them to wash up. Li Mu, on the other hand, couldn’t figure out how he could’ve been that noisy during the night.
After all, none of his roommates had ever said that he snores.
And the beds in the dorm were small, so it wasn’t likely that he rolled around a lot or slept with his arms and legs spread out.
He wasn’t sure what happened exactly, but seeing how tired Yu Fan looked made him feel a little guilty for some reason.
After washing up, Li Mu and Yu Fan went to the cafeteria.
Normally, Li Mu didn’t go there in the morning to save money. Besides, breakfast at the cafeteria was always the same, just porridge with pickled vegetables or soy milk with meat buns.
“My treat,” Yu Fan said.
Hearing that, Li Mu followed him to the food counter without hesitation.
“You really should eat breakfast every day. It’s bad for your stomach if you don’t. It’s better to eat some eggs or meat too,” Yu Fan said out of habit. He always cared like that, no matter who it was.
Li Mu nodded without much expression. He figured that since the breakfast was free, he might as well eat it, even if Yu Fan nagged a little.
A tea egg, soy milk, one meat bun. This simple breakfast cost five and a half yuan.
The cafeteria at their vocational school didn’t give student discounts, and the prices were pretty much the same as eating place outside. The food didn’t taste great either.
People said they had found things like steel wool or half a bug in the food before, but Li Mu had never seen anything like that himself.
The two of them sat across from each other at an empty table. After a few bites, Yu Fan looked up and asked, “So, what did Yang Ye say?”
“Let’s just be honest,” Li Mu answered with a blank face. “You tell him.”
Thinking about it, the homeroom teacher probably already guessed that this so-called “sister” of his was just Li Mu cross-dressing.
After all, Yang Ye had been his teacher for three years and had collected family info many times. Li Mu had never mentioned a sister before.
And since he was too lazy to wear a wig, anyone who looked closely could see that he and his “sister” not only looked exactly alike, but even had the same hairstyle.
“Alright,” Yu Fan scratched his head. “These days, there are tons of cross-dressing guys online. Even if we tell him the truth, he probably won’t think much of it, right?”
I wasn’t even worried about that until you said it out loud!
“He might even think it shows the student has a wide range of hobbies?”
“......”
That joke wasn’t funny at all.
Seeing that Li Mu didn’t want to talk anymore, Yu Fan finally shut his mouth.
While they were still eating breakfast, a girl suddenly came over and sat next to Yu Fan.
This girl was a classmate who often played mobile games with Yu Fan after class. Her name was Wang Ruoyan.
Li Mu looked up at her curiously for a second, then quickly lost interest and focused on eating his breakfast.
She was the petite type, already seventeen or eighteen years old but still not even 160 cm tall. Although she was small, her figure was quite noticeable.
Wang Ruoyan had tan skin. She was going to run in both the 800-meter and 400-meter races at tomorrow’s sports meet. Physically, she might even be stronger than Li Mu was right now.
She was probably considered one of the prettiest girls in their class, though that didn’t include Li Mu when he dressed as a girl.
“You’re here early today,” Wang Ruoyan said with a cheerful smile as she sat down beside Yu Fan with her tray.
“It rained really hard last night, so I stayed in Li Mu’s dorm,” Yu Fan said while reaching into her tray without asking, picking up a few strands of pickled vegetables with his chopsticks. Smiling with squinted eyes, he added, “You eat so much for breakfast, but you never gain weight?”
“Of course not! I just don’t get fat!” the girl proudly straightened her back, and her chest drew attention. Her face turned a little red as she muttered, “You promised to help me rank up in the game, but you haven’t been playing with me lately.”
Yu Fan picked up his cup of soy milk and drank it all in one go before replying, “I’ve been busy, joining the Top Ten Singers contest and getting ready for the sports meet.”
From time to time, Li Mu looked up at the two of them talking and found their interaction kind of interesting.
Yu Fan seemed to treat Wang Ruoyan like one of his friends, but she clearly had some special feelings toward this guy.
Tsk… So jealous.
Good-looking and friendly guys really are different. It seemed like almost every girl who spent time with Yu Fan liked him.
If he weren’t so slow when it came to love, he could probably have a different girlfriend every day, like changing clothes.
“I’m done eating. I’m going to run a few laps on the track,” Yu Fan said as he finished his food, stood up, and gave Li Mu a meaningful look.
Li Mu didn’t understand at first, but quickly stuffed the rest of his bun into his mouth and followed him out of the cafeteria.
“Why’d you give me that look?”
“Otherwise we’d get stuck playing games in the cafeteria again,” Yu Fan replied with a helpless face. “The girls in our class won’t play Dota with me, they always want to drag me into playing Honor of Kings or PUBG. I don’t even like those games.”
“But you always look like you’re enjoying it.”
He shrugged. “I’m just pretending. I’d rather read novels or scroll through short videos after class.”
Since they left early, there were still about 20 minutes before class started. With the sports meet tomorrow, Yu Fan actually did go to the track and began running laps. Li Mu stood nearby with his arms crossed, doing nothing, just watching Yu Fan run.
The longer Li Mu spent time with Yu Fan, the more he started to feel a bit inferior.
No matter if it was looks, personality, fitness, or talents, he felt like he couldn’t compare to Yu Fan at all.
Plus, Yu Fan was popular with the girls, while Li Mu was only liked by “men”.
Thinking of that, Li Mu suddenly remembered Lin Xi’s mother. Without giving it much thought, he decided he should go visit Aunt Cai when he had time.
Even though Aunt Cai was a bit too warm and made him feel like she treated him more like a daughter, Lin Xi was still inside him. Visiting Aunt Cai might even make Lin Xi feel happy enough to “move on peacefully.”
As he was thinking about this, Yu Fan jogged up to him and suddenly said, “Look, it’s Yang Ye.”
Li Mu looked up in confusion and saw their homeroom teacher, who lived on campus, also jogging on the track.
“Should I go tell him now?”
At the last second, Li Mu started to feel a bit nervous, but tried to act calm. “There are too many people around. Someone might hear.”
It was school time, and the track was full of students who had just arrived or had just left their dorms.
“Then I’ll talk to him after class in his office?”
“But his office isn’t private either.”
“Then…” Yu Fan scratched his head in frustration. “Why do you have so many excuses?”