Chapter 78: The Distance Between a Fatty and a Male God

Chapter 78: Chapter 78: The Distance Between a Fatty and a Male God

"Hmph, get away. Who wants to be friends with a fatty like you anyway? Hurry up and move over; you’ve crossed the line again." Dong Xinran held her head high, just like a proud peacock.

With a miserable look on his face, Yue Bin shrank toward his side of the desk. Even with part of his butt hanging in the air, he was still over the line. He was speechless. Then, he decisively moved back and obediently admitted his mistake. He even presented a piece of chocolate with foreign lettering on the wrapper, his expression shifting to a fawning, pleasing smile. "Xinran, I was wrong."

Because he was fat, took up a lot of space, and wasn’t a particularly good student, countless classmates looked down on him with disdain and were even more unwilling to be his desk-mate. As a result, he had always felt insecure. But this insecurity had gradually changed after a year of being desk-mates with Dong Xinran. Not only had she never truly despised or looked down on him, but she also treated him like a normal classmate. Even when she occasionally teased him by calling him "fatty," there wasn’t the slightest trace of discrimination in her eyes. Yue Bin could even hear a unique sort of affection in her tone when she used that name.

This also led him to stop minding so much when others called him "fatty."

’It would be great if I could be her desk-mate forever,’ he thought. ’Otherwise, I’m afraid that as soon as I leave and she gets a new desk-mate, she’ll just forget all about me.’

Yue Bin thought about what his maternal grandparents had told him last night: his parents were going to bring him back to live with them next semester. While he looked forward to reuniting with his parents, he couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of sadness. The discomfort he had felt yesterday when Dong Xinran had suddenly gotten so close with Gu Nuan Nuan now transformed into a deep jealousy for whoever Dong Xinran’s new, unknown desk-mate would be next semester.

"You know what’s good for you. I’ll forgive you."

Seeing the foil-wrapped chocolate, Dong Xinran swallowed and took it without any ceremony, breaking it in two. After a moment’s hesitation, she very generously handed the larger half to Gu Nuan Nuan. "Try some. This is imported chocolate his aunt bought for him. It’s delicious."

’Anyway, Yue Bin brings me some every few days. It’s no big deal to eat half a piece less today,’ Dong Xinran thought, feeling very generous with herself.

Yue Bin stared aggrievedly at the larger half of the chocolate and pouted. That was the one he knew Dong Xinran especially liked; he hadn’t even been willing to take a bite himself, saving it specifically for her...

"Is it sweet?" Gu Nuan Nuan couldn’t ignore the mournful gaze from the miserable fatty next to Dong Xinran, so she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Super sweet and so good." Dong Xinran was already swallowing hard. If it weren’t Gu Nuan Nuan, she wouldn’t have been willing to share with anyone else.

"You eat it. I don’t like things that are too sweet," Gu Nuan Nuan said with a smile, shaking her head.

"You don’t like it either?" Dong Xinran was stunned. She looked at the large piece of chocolate and mumbled under her breath, "How are you just like Yue Bin? You’re both so weird. How could you not like something so delicious?"

Yue Bin smiled shyly. "It’s a good thing you like it. Otherwise, it’d be such a waste if no one ate the chocolates my aunt buys for me."

"Right, you still have me! In the future, if your aunt buys you more chocolate, don’t throw it away or give it to anyone else. Save it all for me, and I’ll help you take care of it. What are good desk-mates for, right?" Dong Xinran nodded at him cheerfully, not the least bit embarrassed.

"Okay. Even if I transfer schools in the future, I won’t give my chocolates to anyone else. I’ll save them all for you," Yue Bin agreed without a second thought.

"What? You’re transferring?" Dong Xinran froze mid-chew. ’Yue Bin is transferring... what about my chocolate after he’s gone...?’ She pouted, looking at him with great reluctance. "Can’t you not transfer?"

"I’m afraid not. But don’t worry, I’ll miss you. And I’ll still save your chocolate for you." Seeing Dong Xinran’s reluctant expression, Yue Bin suddenly felt very gratified.

’He’ll save chocolate for me?’

Dong Xinran swallowed, looking at him hopefully. "Will you come back to your grandma’s place often in the future? When will you be back?" ’If I don’t get the details, even if he saves chocolate for me, how will it get to me? What’s the damn point of him saving chocolate for me if it never reaches my hands?’

...

Gu Nuan Nuan couldn’t help but laugh as she watched their exchange. It was a classic case of an outsider seeing things most clearly. Dong Xinran, the little foodie, was completely fixated on the chocolate, yet Yue Bin looked so touched, thinking she was sad to see *him* go.

She glanced at Yue Bin and suddenly found the little fatty incredibly familiar, as if she’d seen him in her past life. But for the life of her, she couldn’t remember where.

On the way home from school, Gu Nuan Nuan suddenly let out a cry of shock from her perch on the front rack of her uncle’s bicycle.

She remembered! Wasn’t that little fatty the future national heartthrob, Yue Bin, who would later take the entire entertainment industry by storm? The name was exactly the same, and if you looked closely at that chubby face, you could vaguely make out quite a few similarities to the celebrity... That’s right, she was sure it was the same person, not just someone with the same name... ’As expected,’ she thought, ’all fat kids are a stock with hidden potential.’

"Nuannuan, what’s wrong?" asked Zhang Minzhen, who had been startled by Gu Nuan Nuan’s cry.

"Nothing, I just suddenly remembered something." Gu Nuan Nuan shook her head, a strange look on her face. Fortunately, since she was sitting at the very front, Zhang Wei Qiang and Zhang Minzhen, who were behind her, couldn’t see her expression.

’She felt her whole world tilting. Who could have imagined it? Yue Bin—the national heartthrob who, ten or twenty years from now, would be so devastatingly handsome that he’d drive fans of all ages wild; the most low-key, self-disciplined celebrity in history with zero scandals; a man so fiercely protective of his privacy that his fans had no idea about his family background, what his wife and children were named, let alone what they looked like—that Yue Bin was her elementary school classmate? And what was even more despair-inducing was that as a child, he was a super-sized fatty—calling him ’stocky’ would have been a kindness! Heh heh heh... to think such a hidden gem was their classmate now. What would their classmates do if they knew they were missing the best chance to befriend a future superstar and were ostracizing him instead...’

’For a moment, Gu Nuan Nuan felt like this world was truly surreal. What kind of expressions would Yue Bin’s future fans have if they knew their idol was once so fat it was a painful sight to behold? Would his image come crashing down from its pedestal?’

She then recalled the future "heartthrob" who, according to Dong Xinran, didn’t like chocolate. She suddenly remembered that she’d once unintentionally seen an entertainment program interviewing the superstar Yue Bin. In it, his manager revealed that his favorite snack was, in fact, chocolate. He didn’t just like it; he was practically obsessed with it.

The story went that no matter where the superstar traveled, no matter which country he was in, the one thing he absolutely had to do was collect all kinds of different chocolates.

Unfortunately, to maintain his figure, the superstar could only look at, not eat, the chocolates he collected from all over the world most of the time. But even so, he never wavered in his passion and still loved them to death. Rumor had it that he even had a special, massive room in his house just for storing his chocolate collection...

Thinking back to what Yue Bin had said to Dong Xinran, Gu Nuan Nuan broke out in a cold sweat. ’If *that’s* what he calls not liking it, then what on earth would count as liking it?’