But I managed to hold back in the end. I was distracted all through lunch. When class started in the afternoon, just a few minutes before the bell rang, I saw Da Guo rush into the classroom, panting and out of breath, clearly in a hurry.
As he entered, Da Guo couldn't help but glance at me. Our eyes met briefly before he returned to his seat.
During break, Daguo didn't speak to me either. After all, it was only ten minutes, and with so many classmates around, we couldn't discuss such matters.
But seeing Daguo's demeanor, I sensed something odd. Normally, he'd be grinning mischievously at me or winking, but now he seemed to be deliberately avoiding me.
When school let out that evening, Daguo—who usually waited for me—was nowhere to be found.
I couldn't help but call him. He said he had plans that night and would be home later, telling me to go ahead without him.
Riding my bike home, I kept replaying his unusual behavior from that afternoon. Did he really go to my house?
Could something have actually happened?
Why else would he act so out of character?
No way, that fast?
In my mind, even if Da Guo had something with my mom, it should have been a gradual process.
Could he have lost his mind at noon and done something to betray me?
Raped my mom?
The thought made me pedal faster, and soon I was home.
"Coming home so early today? Look at you, all dusty and tired..." As soon as I entered the house, Mom popped her head out of the kitchen and greeted me. Though she was from the countryside, her knowledge and intelligence were impressive, and she always spoke with great poise.
"Worried about you, that's why..." I replied calmly, suppressing my own breath.
"Wait a moment, dinner will be ready soon..." Mom said with a smile before returning to her tasks in the kitchen.
Usually, Mom timed my arrival perfectly, waiting at the dinner table when I got home. Tonight, driven by urgency, I'd cycled like the wind and arrived early.
But my stamina really isn't what it used to be. Looks like I need to start exercising again—just this little bit of activity left me feeling hot and flustered.
At the dinner table, Mom and I kept chatting. Looking at her, there wasn't a trace of exhaustion. Her smile seemed so genuine, completely normal.
If anything was off, it was that Mom seemed a bit gentler than before, and her expression was much more relaxed.
Was I overthinking this?
Had nothing really changed?
Or was Mom just hiding it well—or perhaps she was an exceptional actress?
While doing homework, my mind kept wandering. After finally focusing to finish and review, I opened my phone and checked QQ, only to find no messages from Da Guo.
My mind filled with endless question marks, and I hesitated to ask him directly.
"Where'd you disappear to at lunch?" I finally blurted out to Da Guo, but there was no reply for ages.
Now I lay tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep until I got some answers.
"Guess..." After waiting nearly half an hour, Da Guo finally responded—with just two words.
"Did you come to my place?" I was so frustrated I blurted it out directly.
"Guess..." After another long wait, Daguo replied with two words again, exactly the same as before.
"Plan canceled..." I suddenly felt a surge of anger and typed four words back. I'd been in a bad mood all afternoon, and now this kid was rubbing salt in the wound.
"No, no, no... Bro, I messed up. I really did come to your place at noon today..." This time, Daguo replied quickly—clearly he was anxious over there.
"Did something happen?" I asked again. For some reason, after posing this question, I felt a surge of heat inside me, desperately hoping for his reply. I didn't even know what answer I was craving.
"Nothing happened! I just helped your aunt tidy up the yard at noon and had lunch with her at your place?" Da Guo had learned his lesson this time, seemingly genuinely afraid I'd cancel our plans, so he replied honestly.
"Then why were you avoiding me this afternoon?" More questions flooded my mind. If nothing had happened, why had Da Guo acted so strangely?
"I wasn't avoiding you. How could I talk to you in class? What if someone overheard?" Da Guo replied again.
"Then why didn't you dare walk home with me after school tonight..." I couldn't help but ask again.
"Bro, my mom had a teacher meeting after school today. She told me to wait for her to go home together..." Da Guo couldn't help but add a rolling-eyes emoji at the end.
Normally, since Teacher An wasn't our homeroom teacher, she'd get home earlier than Da Guo and have dinner ready. So every night, it was basically just me and Da Guo biking home together.
"Really?" I found it hard to believe. Was Da Guo lying to me?
For some reason, I felt a bit paranoid now.
"Bro, use your brain, will you? It's only the first day—what could Auntie and I possibly have? Maybe you're just too tense and sensitive, reading too much into every little thing..." Da Guo couldn't help but type an exasperated emoji before continuing.
Hearing this, I couldn't help but reflect: if Da Guo and I hadn't been working on the Green Mother Project, his behavior this afternoon would have been just like usual—nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe I really was overthinking things.
"Then why did you take so long to reply to my message earlier? Were you messing with me on purpose?" I remembered how Daguo had deliberately left me hanging on QQ, seemingly trying to make me anxious. I couldn't help but ask him again.
"Honestly, I had something to do earlier, so..." Daguo didn't finish his sentence.
"What kind of business? You're being so vague. After I said the plan was canceled, suddenly you had nothing to do?" I asked, still feeling a bit suspicious.
"Alright, bro, you got me. I'll tell you the truth, okay? I was chatting with my aunt on WeChat. Switching back and forth between QQ and WeChat was too slow, and my aunt only had limited time, so I wanted to chat with her while she was available. Just then, Auntie got a client inquiry about a product, so we had to stop chatting. If you don't believe me, I can screenshot it for you..." Da Guo typed a long message in one go. Reading his words, I froze. Da Guo was actually chatting with my mom on WeChat?
I didn't reply immediately, waiting quietly.
Sure enough, moments later, Da Guo sent over the screenshots. The chat timestamps matched perfectly—it seemed I really had misunderstood him.
"Why did you blur out the chat screenshots?" I noticed that in the screenshots Da Guo sent me, everything except my mom's name and the timestamps in the chat window had been blurred out.
"Keep it under wraps for now. Let's preserve a little mystery, okay? If you knew everything right away, wouldn't it lose some of the thrill?" Da Guo replied promptly. I was momentarily speechless—he had a point.
"Sure, bro. If you really insist on seeing it, I can send you all the screenshots now. But honestly, there isn't much content." Da Guo added another message.
"Fine, but when there's a breakthrough, you have to tell me first..." I thought for a moment, forcing myself to suppress that burning curiosity before replying. Maybe keeping a bit of mystery early on really would add an indescribable thrill.
"No problem..." came the terse reply.
"How long do you think it'll take your end..." I couldn't help asking again, my curiosity piqued. Chatting on QQ allowed me to open up more freely.
"Honestly, I really don't know. Auntie is incredibly gentle, and she sells adult products, but getting her to give in might actually be harder. I sense she has a very strong inner resolve, and some of her boundaries aren't easy to cross..." At the end of his message, Daguo sent a defeated emoji.
After ending the chat with Daguo, I couldn't help glancing toward the bedroom next door. Mom wasn't streaming today, but the light in her room was still on.
I wondered what she was doing now. Occasionally, I could hear the tapping of a keyboard—Mom was surely busy with work again, replying to questions from male and female customers.
Or maybe she was also chatting intermittently with Daguo?
What exactly were those two talking about?
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