Xu Xing was fuming—angry at Lu Che, angry at himself, but most of all, frustrated with the red strings of fate. He had resolved to ignore Lu Che, but quickly realized that sulking on his own wasn’t going to solve the problem. So, while there was still a break before class resumed, Xu Xing turned to Lu Che with a stern expression and said, “If you ever pull that again, don’t even think about touching me in the future—not even for a hug.”

Xu Xing thought he sounded tough, though deep down, he knew it was more of an empty threat. After all, he understood all too well that the red string had a mind of its own, wild and uncontrollable.

Lu Che’s grin grew wider, his body leaning closer, bringing his face nearer to Xu Xing. His dark, starry eyes twinkled with affection, but the words coming out of his mouth were anything but serious. “Class rep, what did I do? I just hugged you~”

Lu Che blinked, feigning innocence.

“…”

Xu Xing was so angry he wanted to punch him, but he couldn’t do anything against Lu Che’s shamelessness. His own embarrassment made it hard to even recount Lu Che’s audacity.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Xing left one final warning, “Leave me alone. If I catch you doing this again, you’re done.”

With that, he turned back to his desk.

Lu Che hummed to himself, mulling over Xu Xing’s words, then smirked. To him, Xu Xing’s warning sounded more like an invitation, as if it meant that as long as he wasn’t caught, anything goes.

Satisfied with his own interpretation, Lu Che chuckled to himself. “That’s just the class rep—tough on the outside, soft on the inside.”

---

On the other side, Xu Xing had made up his mind to give Lu Che the cold shoulder for a few days, hoping this would make Lu Che realize he had crossed a line. However, Xu Xing’s usual attitude toward Lu Che was already quite cold, so his deliberate ignoring didn’t seem much different from his regular behavior.

Despite his efforts, Lu Che continued to pester him with a playful grin, and Xu Xing quickly found his patience wearing thin.

Frustrated, Xu Xing wondered if maybe he needed to try a different approach—like giving Lu Che a little reward now and then. After all, when parents teach children, one has to play the strict role while the other offers kindness. Even when training animals, you have to throw in a treat occasionally.

“…”

Xu Xing felt drained, finding his thoughts toxic. Even though many people say that senior year is probably when your mind is at its sharpest, it’s absurd that he was already thinking about parenting strategies.

This is ridiculous!

---

The next day at lunch.

Xu Xing and Wang Zicong headed to the cafeteria, with Lu Che trailing right behind them.

There were about ten stalls in the cafeteria. Wang Zicong went to line up at another stall for his meal, while Xu Xing, as always, headed straight for the second stall, his favorite. Once he decided on something, he became dependent on it.

Lu Che stood behind Xu Xing, resting his chin on Xu Xing’s shoulder and glancing at the food behind the glass. “They’ve got your favorite braised fish~”

Xu Xing ignored him.

Once the student in front finished ordering and swiped their card, the cafeteria lady prepared another tray and asked Xu Xing, “What’ll you have today, handsome?”

Following his usual routine, Xu Xing ordered a vegetable, a meat dish, and a fish. Just as the lady tapped the numbers into the card reader, Lu Che swooped in, holding Xu Xing’s hand to swipe his own card instead.

Xu Xing: “…”

Xu Xing quietly moved to the side, but instead of immediately grabbing his tray and leaving, he lingered there. He overheard the cafeteria lady ask Lu Che, “Handsome, why haven’t you been getting chicken wings lately?”

In a place where hundreds of students passed through daily, the fact that the cafeteria lady remembered Lu Che was not only due to his regular orders of chicken wings but also thanks to his good looks.

Lu Che smiled, rare warmth showing. “Because my girlfriend doesn’t like them anymore.”

As he said this, he turned his head and gave Xu Xing a meaningful look.

Xu Xing: “…”

Xu Xing was infuriated, resisting the rising urge to punch him. Suppressing his anger, he waited patiently for Lu Che to finish ordering his food.

Having eaten together often, Xu Xing had become familiar with Lu Che’s eating habits. Watching him order dishes like potato beef, mapo tofu, sweet and sour pork, and cumin chicken, Xu Xing couldn’t help but grumble internally. Lu Che had an unhealthy diet—he loved sweets and spicy foods, avoided vegetables, and only ate meat. To make matters worse, the cafeteria lady was blatantly biased. While she would shake the spoon to let extra meat fall off for other students, she heaped Lu Che’s plate generously.

Xu Xing mentally rolled his eyes, but despite his complaints, he kept his gaze on the cafeteria lady finalizing the payment at the machine. Before anyone could react, he quickly swiped his card for Lu Che.

“Beep~”

The crisp sound indicated a successful card swipe. Xu Xing put away his meal card and picked up his tray just as Wang Zicong arrived with his large meal of crispy chicken and a double serving of roast meat.

Xu Xing turned to leave, with Lu Che following behind with his tray.

Wang Zicong walked ahead, and Lu Che squeezed in beside Xu Xing, their arms touching. Xu Xing could hear Lu Che, in a cheerful mood, jokingly say, “Class rep, I’ll take care of you, and you’ll take care of me. Our days ahead will be just as delightful~”

Xu Xing rolled his eyes at him. “Get lost!”

Lu Che’s meal was nearly twice the price of Xu Xing’s two meals combined. Did Lu Che think Xu Xing was that gullible?

Wang Zicong, walking in front, picked up utensils for himself and Xu Xing. He was about to grab some for Lu Che too, but seeing that Lu Che had come over to pick his own, he didn’t bother.

Lu Che selected clean utensils, rinsed them off at the side, and caught up with Xu Xing to find a seat.

The three of them found an empty table and sat down. Lu Che sat across from Xu Xing, and Wang Zicong sat beside him.

Lu Che handed a set of utensils to Xu Xing, and Wang Zicong casually mentioned, “Hey, I grabbed an extra set for Xing Xing too.”

Xu Xing didn’t respond, simply accepting the utensils Lu Che had given him and starting to eat.

After the meal, Xu Xing and Wang Zicong headed back to the classroom together. Wang Zicong, who had made up with his girlfriend the day before, was in a good mood today. He happily took the homeroom teacher’s notes to the backboard to copy exercises.

Tang Mian and Liu Peilian also returned after finishing their meal. Tang Mian, holding her notebook, ran to Wang Zicong’s seat and sat down. Along with Xu Xing, they turned to face the backboard and began copying the physics exercises Wang Zicong was writing.

Wang Zicong’s handwriting on the blackboard was quite neat. After copying a few lines, Tang Mian playfully shook her pen and giggled, “Hey~ wuli Zong Zong, did you see my wish note? And wuli Xing Xing, don’t let me down on the wishes I made!”

Xu Xing absentmindedly hummed in response.

Hearing Tang Mian’s words, Wang Zicong ran over to the bulletin board to take a look. Sure enough, Tang Mian’s wish note was stuck on the right side of the Dream Wall. It had three wishes:

1. I hope I pass the college entrance exam smoothly!
2. I wish to see Xing Xing in a relationship by graduation!
3. I want to see Zong Zong lose weight in my lifetime!

By Tang Mian~

After reading it, Wang Zicong felt genuinely touched. He was moved by how his friend remembered him even in her wishes, showing how much she cared.

Wang Zicong was a very emotional person, but despite his feelings, he still had no motivation to lose weight. He turned back to the blackboard to continue copying exercises, just in time to see Yu Canchun passing by to throw away some trash.

Tang Mian, with her legs crossed under the table, also had her gaze fixed on Yu Canchun, who left after disposing of the trash without saying a word to any of the three of them.

Wang Zicong quickly finished copying the exercises and temporarily sat in Fu Dai’s seat.

Tang Mian leaned over on the desk, forming a small gossip circle with the three of them. In a low voice, she said, “I always felt like Yu Canchun might have a bit of… something for Xing Xing…”

The phrase “a bit of something” could easily be misinterpreted.

Xu Xing frowned upon hearing this and said, “Stop talking nonsense. She doesn’t like me, I can give you a 200% guarantee on that.”

After all, the person Yu Canchun liked was Lu Che. That was a well-known fact.

Tang Mian replied, “No, no, no, I didn’t mean she likes you like that. What I meant was she doesn’t seem to be fond of you…”

Tang Mian wasn’t saying this without reason. She had just recalled overhearing a conversation between Yu Canchun and the vice class rep yesterday. The study committee member had initially asked Yu Canchun to attend a meeting on her behalf. Yu Canchun didn’t mind at first, but when she heard Xu Xing would also be attending, she flat-out refused.

Xu Xing: “…”

If Yu Canchun didn’t like him, Xu Xing was well aware of it.

The reason, of course, was Lu Che.

At this point, Wang Zicong joined in on the gossip, revealing, “It’s true! I noticed back in second year that Yu Canchun wasn’t too friendly toward Xing Xing.”

Wang Zicong wasn’t good at remembering vocabulary, but he could recall every meal he had eaten in the past week with crystal clarity. When it came to food, his memory was exceptional.

Wang Zicong remembered that during the second semester of their second year, Yu Canchun’s seat was quite close to theirs, just diagonally in front of him. Sharing snacks among classmates was a common occurrence, yet Yu Canchun never voluntarily offered any food to Xu Xing, nor did she ever eat any of the snacks Xu Xing brought.

If Xu Xing only brought snacks she didn’t like, that would be understandable—but it wasn’t the case, because Wang Zicong had noticed that Yu Canchun sometimes bought the exact same snacks. This puzzled Wang Zicong for quite some time, but now, hearing Tang Mian’s comment, it suddenly clicked. Yu Canchun didn’t dislike the snacks; she disliked the person offering them.

After hearing Wang Zicong’s words, Xu Xing frowned and said, “That’s impossible. Second year? I didn’t provoke her at all.”

To be honest, he had never interacted with Yu Canchun.

Xu Xing figured that the reason Yu Canchun was unfriendly toward him now probably had to do with some mysterious fate involving red strings. Thanks to the butterfly effect, Lu Che, under the influence of those strings, mistakenly thought he liked Xu Xing. Since Yu Canchun had a crush on Lu Che, she, influenced by the same mysterious force, began to find Xu Xing annoying.

As for the second semester of their second year, Lu Che had just transferred to their class. Apart from getting close to Fu Dai and Ke Di, the aloof transfer student hardly interacted with anyone. Xu Xing’s only connection with Lu Che was the frequent documentation of his truancy in the class log.

He had noted Lu Che’s name so many times that it actually helped him improve his handwriting. The physics teacher even once joked with Xu Xing about it, saying, “This class log witnessed a process. See, your writing of ‘Lu Che’ has gotten better and better.”

Xu Xing had brushed it off at the time, thinking the teacher was just poking fun at Lu Che’s truancy. Even now, recalling it made Xu Xing feel a bit uncomfortable—though it was mainly because anything involving Lu Che now made him overly sensitive.

Xu Xing couldn’t help but reflect: Had he really offended Yu Canchun at some point? After all, there had been no red strings in second year, so blaming them or Lu Che felt a bit unfair.

However—

Xu Xing had forgotten that the physics teacher had said something else: “By the way, this transfer student has a pretty regular pattern of skipping class, huh? He seems to do it every other day.”

The teacher had flipped through several pages of the class log and noticed that Lu Che’s name appeared in the “special circumstances” column every other day.

The teacher was paying close attention because she was already considering taking over the class the next semester and wanted to get a sense of the more troublesome students.

At the time, Xu Xing and the vice class rep were taking turns documenting the class log.

And as it turned out, every other day, when it was Xu Xing’s turn, Lu Che would conveniently skip class or leave early.

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The author’s note: Never thought the phrase “Tang Mian crossed her legs” would be censored. Lesson learned—if needed, just use “Trip over” instead! 🙂