LATDA Chapter 1.2: First Encounter

Translator: Deyonna

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Shen Baoshan sensed something off and glanced at Feng Zilian, but before he could speak, someone across the table was already teasing Feng Zilian: "How's it the same? Him being first in his department at Jian University and you scraping in by the skin of your teeth¹. That's the same?"

¹Literally barely making it to the admission cutoff line

"Exactly. Besides, our Jian University ranks first in the province overall, and the medical school is top-tier nationally. Last year's city top scorer—that senior—was also from Hechuan No.1 High School. He didn't go to Qingbei²; he chose our Jian University medical school!"

² 清北 (Qīng-Běi) is a common abbreviation for Tsinghua University and Peking University

"Hey, Feng Zilian, don't tell me you're holding a grudge against Li Chishu because he turned down your dinner invitation? That's pretty petty of you!"

Feng Zilian, flustered by the barrage of jokes from the table, was about to argue back when Shen Baoshan suddenly seemed interested. He turned to Feng Zilian and said, “You got rejected?”

"Uh." Feng Zilian, unable to vent his frustration, pulled a long face and said, "...Yeah."

At that moment, Shen Baoshan seemed to have lost all emotional intelligence, stirring the pot with relish as he held out his hand. "Let me see."

Shen Baoshan had long been familiar with the name Li Chishu.

After all, from freshman to senior year, except for that one mock exam in senior year when Li Chishu fell to fifth, he'd always ranked above Shen Baoshan—or rather, above every student in the entire grade. Even someone like Shen Baoshan, who had no competitive drive when it came to grades, would find it hard not to remember that name.

As for what he looked like—Shen Baoshan hadn't seen Li Chishu often. Despite his academic excellence, the guy didn't seem like the type to seek the spotlight at school. Maybe they'd crossed paths occasionally, but no one had ever pointed him out and said, "Look, that's Li Chishu." So Shen Baoshan's memory of Li Chishu went all the way back to the senior year Hundred-Day Oath-Taking Ceremony³, when Li Chishu spoke as the student representative.

³Hundred-Day Oath-Taking Ceremony - It is a motivational school assembly held 100 days before major exams like the Gaokao to boost student morale.

At the time, Li Chishu, as the top of the grade, was naturally the obvious first choice for the student representative speech. Shen Baoshan had also been recommended by his homeroom teacher to compete for the position, but he'd turned it down because writing a speech was too much trouble. Otherwise, he would have been the one standing alongside Li Chishu to address the students that year.

At that Monday morning assembly, Shen Baoshan stood at the back of his class's line and watched a slender figure in a white school uniform jacket step onto the podium in the hazy March fog. Facing the tens of thousands of teachers and students below, the first thing Li Chishu did after raising the microphone was turn his face toward Shen Baoshan's direction.

Through the lingering morning mist, Shen Baoshan's casual gaze met Li Chishu's in a brief exchange. It was so brief that even now, looking back, he wondered if it had been his imagination.

Li Chishu's gaze as he scanned the crowd had been too deliberate. He'd looked at Shen Baoshan almost immediately, but Shen Baoshan couldn't find a reason to convince himself why someone who'd had zero interaction with him in three years of high school could zero in on his position in that vast sea of people with such precision.

It was as if he'd already glanced at him countless times before stepping onto that stage.

Could the top of the grade possibly see the second place as some kind of target?

That thought had flitted through Shen Baoshan's mind like a dragonfly skimming water when their eyes met back then, before he quickly dismissed it as absurd.

Maybe Li Chishu had held a grudge about Shen Baoshan surpassing him in that mock exam, so he'd deliberately shot him a look from the top student's podium as a show of intimidation.

—Shen Baoshan had reasonably assigned that logical explanation to the glance, then promptly put the matter out of his mind.

Still, he remembered the sound of Li Chishu's voice during that speech, soft and steady, fitting his pale, slender appearance perfectly.

If he had the chance to do it all over again, he might have agreed to his homeroom teacher's request to be the student representative speaker, standing alongside the legendary perennial first-place student, and hearing that person's voice up close.

Before college, that was the extent of Shen Baoshan's impression of Li Chishu.

Feng Zilian timely handed his phone over to Shen Baoshan. "Here, take a look, pretty aloof."

Shen Baoshan lowered his eyes and saw the WeChat chat interface between Feng Zilian and Li Chishu. The content was very simple.

[Feng Zilian: You free the day after tomorrow afternoon?

Li Chishu: What's up

Feng Zilian: Come to xx hotpot, second-floor private room, I'll save you a seat

Li Chishu: No thanks

Feng Zilian: You don't have to pay, I'm treating, come eat

Li Chishu: No

Feng Zilian: Everyone really wants to have a meal with you, just come if you've got nothing going on]

Li Chishu didn't reply after that.

He left Feng Zilian hanging for two days straight, his stance clear without needing words.

Shen Baoshan looked at Li Chishu's few terse replies and thought about it, feeling it wasn't far off from the distant figure he remembered.

Feng Zilian stared at Shen Baoshan's thoughtful expression, his eyes darting, and nudged him with his elbow: "How about... you give it a try?"

Shen Baoshan's first reaction was, of course, to refuse.

Chasing after someone was never his style.

But then Feng Zilian twisted around, facing away from the crowd, pulling a mournful face and whispering pleadingly: "Brother Shen... Brother Shen, just do me this favor! I swore to Xiao Chen today that I'd definitely get Li Chishu to come, and he's waiting to dig for info on behalf of his friend. Who knew Li Chishu wouldn't even give a fellow hometown buddy face."

Shen Baoshan wasn't buying it: "He won't give you face, so why would he give it to me? Who am I to have that much pull?"

"You're Shen Baoshan! You're different." Feng Zilian urged, "Just try it, just add him as a friend, do me this one favor."

Shen Baoshan opened his mouth to refuse again, but Feng Zilian clasped his hands together, pestering relentlessly, and behind everyone's backs, mimed kowtowing to him repeatedly.

Shen Baoshan shook his head, originally dead set on not getting involved in this kind of fuss, but his gaze swept to the dark phone screen in his hand, and on a whim—maybe out of softheartedness, maybe a bit of curiosity—his words took a turn: "I'll only add him once. If he doesn't accept, don't come to me again."

Feng Zilian: "Fine, fine, fine."

The friend request was sent, and Feng Zilian finally backed off, sitting properly back in his seat to keep chatting with the others. Shen Baoshan also tucked his phone into his pocket.

Neither of them expected Li Chishu to reply that quickly.

In the time it took to take a sip of water, the phone in Shen Baoshan's pocket hadn't even warmed up yet when it vibrated once.

The vibration was faint, and Feng Zilian didn't hear it. Shen Baoshan was caught off guard too, wondering if he'd imagined it.

He took out his phone, unlocked the screen, and there it was—the chat window after Li Chishu had accepted his friend request.

The other party hadn't said anything, clearly waiting for him to state his purpose.

Shen Baoshan, acting on someone else's behalf, didn't send the message with much enthusiasm. He didn't want the other person to misunderstand that the dinner invitation came from his own strong desire.

To put it plainly, the reason Feng Zilian so badly wanted Li Chishu to come to dinner was simply that he was a good talking point to show off; the invitation wasn't born out of respect for Li Chishu.

So Shen Baoshan fully understood Li Chishu's rejection of Feng Zilian's messages.

If it were him, he'd have refused outright too, and even replying to Feng Zilian twice would already be extremely polite.

If Li Chishu had agreed, that would've been the real anomaly.

As for why he'd agreed to help Feng Zilian two minutes ago, Shen Baoshan couldn't quite say.

Maybe his brain had short-circuited, maybe it was out of some little friendship with Feng Zilian, or maybe he also wanted to know. If it were the great Shen Baoshan extending the invitation, would this Li Chishu, rumored to be a “prized catch,” react any differently?

He was curious, yet he didn't really want Li Chishu to agree.

So, recalling the tone Feng Zilian had used with Li Chishu, he sent his first message in a deliberately impolite manner:

[Come eat]

Li Chishu, perhaps caught off guard, took a moment before replying:

[What?]

It was about the same as his reply to Feng Zilian.

Shen Baoshan continued mimicking Feng Zilian's chatting style, casually sending a location pin with the text:

[Fellow Hometown Group hangout, hotpot place at Gate 3, come eat]

Sure enough, Li Chishu didn't reply.

He couldn't even be bothered to say whether he'd come or not.

Shen Baoshan figured he'd successfully offended the guy using the Feng Zilian method of chatting.

He tossed his phone in front of Feng Zilian: "What did I tell you? He doesn't want to come. Begging me to contact him was useless."

Feng Zilian was mid-toast, holding his cup and pontificating to the buddy across from him, and when Shen Baoshan interrupted, he could only awkwardly glance at the phone screen, then push it back toward Shen Baoshan: "Forget it, if he's not coming, then he's not coming."

Then he deliberately raised his voice a notch: "If he won't even give you face, then I've got nothing to say either!"

Shen Baoshan let out a scoffing laugh, silently weighing whether he should send Li Chishu a message another day to invite him out for a meal, all the while cursing Feng Zilian and Jiang Chi in his heart for always stirring up trouble for him.

Latecoming freshmen trickled in one after another. Once everyone had arrived and the dishes were fully served, about half an hour later, just as everyone was about to pick up their chopsticks, a knock sounded at the door of the private room. The server announced that Mr. Li had arrived.

The room fell silent for a moment. Some exchanged puzzled glances, others searched for which seat among the arranged placements was still empty. Shen Baoshan and Feng Zilian exchanged a look, then turned toward the door.

Their seats were closest to the door. Before it even opened, Shen Baoshan heard a low, soft "thank you."

The voice was still light and steady, two notes deeper than it had been on the stage half a year ago, carrying a hint of aloofness and detachment that even the speaker himself might not have noticed.

The door opened.

Li Chishu stepped inside, wearing a thin white hoodie, a jacket clutched in one hand, and clean, light-wash jeans with canvas sneakers on his lower half.

Shen Baoshan once again saw those eyes that locked onto him the moment they entered.

Just like the voice and footsteps that had filtered in from outside the door, Li Chishu's gaze was calm and composed. It rested on Shen Baoshan, and after their eyes met, it quickly swept away.

He seemed to carry the night breeze from outside with him, and one glance was enough to feel the chill of early autumn. This was Shen Baoshan's first formal meeting with Li Chishu as he remembered it.

Thin lips and a slender back, long fingers gripping the jacket, a face slightly pale from the cold wind, and a pair of indifferent, distant brows and eyes.

He stood there without saying a word, yet everyone knew this was Li Chishu.

A dinner that offered him no respect whatsoever, plus a casual invitation from Shen Baoshan—no one understood why he had changed his mind and suddenly showed up.

    

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