These words were so rarely spoken by Ning Zhuochuan that when he said them, he bit his tongue. After finishing, his face involuntarily displayed a “Who am I? Where am I? What the hell did I just say?” kind of ghostly expression.

Opposite him, Cheng Xi’s expression wasn’t much better. Although he had experienced many advances from both guys and girls at school, this sudden, straightforward confession still left the worldly Cheng Xi wide-eyed in shock.

So, with both of them equally stunned, neither knew what to say, and they just stood there awkwardly facing each other, the atmosphere eerie and strange.

Moreover, the light purple roses in Ning Zhuochuan’s hand were so large and eye-catching that during the brief moment when both were too shocked by Ning Zhuochuan’s shameless confession to react, many passing students had already been watching them for quite a while.

“…” Although he was used to being watched at school, Cheng Xi felt his face couldn’t hold up at this moment.

He pressed his lips together, his face dark, trying to pull his clothes away from Ning Zhuochuan’s grip. But to his surprise, Ning Zhuochuan held on tightly, crumpling his basketball jersey, and Cheng Xi couldn’t pull it free even after two attempts.

“…” Cheng Xi’s expression turned even darker. He lowered his voice and said fiercely, “Let go.”

“…………” Realizing that pulling and tugging in public didn’t look good, Ning Zhuochuan quickly let go. Then he noticed Cheng Xi’s basketball jersey was all crumpled from his grip, and his palm was sticky with a mix of his and Cheng Xi’s sweat, which felt uncomfortable.

“Sorry, sorry,” Ning Zhuochuan coughed twice, deciding to shamelessly continue delivering the “carefully” prepared gift. “Uh, these are roses I bought just for you, cough, cough, symbolizing… Anyway, they’re for you.”

Ning Zhuochuan momentarily forgot what the language of the light purple roses was, so he skipped the inevitably cheesy part and went straight to the most important last sentence.

After speaking, Ning Zhuochuan didn’t forget to endure the impending explosion of awkwardness and extended the bouquet of roses he had been holding to Cheng Xi.

Cheng Xi stepped back as if scalded, avoiding the large bouquet of vibrant purple roses, then looked at Ning Zhuochuan as if he were crazy, unable to hold back any longer, “Take your damn thing away! Don’t come looking for me again, I don’t want to see you. On the high-speed train, I only helped you because you seemed to have trouble with your legs. I don’t need your thanks, and stop investigating me! Don’t come again! Don’t show up again!”

After speaking, Cheng Xi turned around, avoiding Ning Zhuochuan like the plague, and strode briskly towards the dormitory with his basketball, unwilling to linger for even half a second.

Watching Cheng Xi’s tall figure, which seemed to be fleeing, Ning Zhuochuan couldn’t help but laugh.

After laughing for a while, he noticed that many people in the passing crowd were looking back at him and the large bouquet of roses in his arms, clearly treating him as a spectacle.

…Ning Zhuochuan belatedly felt embarrassed for himself and wished a crack would open up beneath his feet so he could fall in and avoid standing there making a fool of himself.

Truly, he forgot everything in his head. A guy giving another guy roses, and with such an obvious age difference between him and Cheng Xi…

This kind of thing would spread quickly on campus, and the story would become more and more bizarre. The end result would be that even if he left, what he did today would continue to ferment, providing endless gossip for many onlookers.

Ning Zhuochuan momentarily felt that today’s overly aggressive confession wasn’t very appropriate. But of course, this was for the original character in the novel who genuinely wanted to pursue Cheng Xi. For his own plan to collect 99 rejections, this was an absolutely perfect start.

As rumors spread, Cheng Xi would only become more and more annoyed with him, eventually leading to him interrupting or rejecting Ning Zhuochuan whenever he spoke.

This way, collecting 99 rejections would soon be within reach!

With this little scheme in mind, Ning Zhuochuan started to feel that being watched by everyone wasn’t so unbearable. He even gave a genuine, pure smile to those who were watching him.

On the way back, Ning Zhuochuan placed the rejected roses aside and then pulled out his phone to create a new star-marked note in his memo, naming it “99 Returns to 1.”

Then, on the blank note, Ning Zhuochuan recorded a bold entry:

April 10, Wednesday, first location at Luocheng University.

After recording, Ning Zhuochuan looked down at the new small line of text in his memo, unable to resist a smile.

He seemed to see, beneath this line, 98 more neatly listed lines of succinct words.

Old Xiong, who was driving in the front row, originally thought Ning Zhuochuan was in a bad mood because his flowers weren’t accepted, so he drove all the way without daring to breathe loudly, afraid of upsetting his boss.

But now, seeing through the rearview mirror that his boss was actually smiling foolishly at a small phone, looking full of hope and longing, he couldn’t help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief, though he still didn’t dare ask more.

After returning to the company, Ning Zhuochuan gave himself a solid two-day break, using this time to indulge himself fully in work.

He held several meetings with his subordinates in the development department, gaining a comprehensive understanding of the company’s current full-scale development of a holographic projection, AI experience-type real-person interactive game.

He even spent two days in the office playing it day and night, finding many bugs and areas for optimization, which he recorded and reported back to the development department for them to fix within a set time.

On the morning of the third day, Ning Zhuochuan was organizing the optimization plan he had listed overnight on his laptop, preparing to hold another meeting with the development department in the morning to further organize and summarize the development direction of this main game.

The office door was knocked, and Xue Kai’s voice timely came from outside.

“President Ning, President Ning?”

“Come in.”

Xue Kai walked in, full of smiles and spring in his step, saying, “President Ning, I have news about the task you assigned me!”

“Oh?” Ning Zhuochuan thought Xue Kai was talking about the task he had just assigned last night, asking the publicity department to contact major gaming platforms and internet companies to come up with a game promotion and launch plan. He nodded, giving Xue Kai a look of approval, and said, “Good efficiency, what’s the news?”

“It’s about Cheng Xi’s school basketball game coinciding with the 120th anniversary of the school, so the school wants to make it lively. But the e-commerce company they initially got sponsorship from isn’t willing to continue investing, so they’re urgently looking for a second company that can sponsor at any time!” Xue Kai announced the good news with a smile, then looked expectantly at Ning Zhuochuan, waiting for his next instructions.

“…………” Feeling like he and Xue Kai were on completely different wavelengths, Ning Zhuochuan said, “Oh, you’re talking about this…”

“Yes, this was a key task you assigned to me, President Ning. I went out of my way to add the contact of the teacher in charge of the Luocheng University basketball department, and this is the news he gave me!”

“So, isn’t this a great opportunity for you and Cheng Xi to meet? Cheng Xi, as the main player of the business school’s basketball team, has been training very hard lately, clearly wanting to win a place for their school. If the basketball game is delayed due to lack of sponsorship, Cheng Xi will definitely be disappointed.”

Xue Kai analyzed the situation seriously, getting more and more into it, “So, President Ning, this is your perfect chance to ‘be the hero who saves the day’! You must seize it! Besides, our company allocates a fixed amount each year for various social activities, and this year’s project hasn’t been decided yet. It can be used to sponsor Luocheng University’s basketball game!”

“Even without your relationship with Cheng Xi, investing in sponsorship at Luocheng University is a profitable deal for our company, since over 30% of our consumer base are college students.”

“…You have a point,” Ning Zhuochuan referred to Xue Kai’s last statement, “So how much do we usually allocate annually? How much does Luocheng University need for sponsorship?”

“I’ve already organized this,” Xue Kai smiled, tapped a few times on his tablet, then looked up at Ning Zhuochuan, saying, “President Ning, I’ve just sent the information you need to your email, please take a look.”

Based on the information Xue Kai compiled, Ning Zhuochuan finally decided to sponsor Luocheng University’s entire basketball game with 100,000 yuan.

Seventy thousand yuan would be used for pre-game preparations and the purchase of various supplies, while the remaining 30,000 yuan would serve as the prize pool for the top three teams.

Of course, 100,000 yuan might be a drop in the bucket for the original character in the novel, but for Ning Zhuochuan, who had never donated more than 200 yuan to charity in his life, he felt he was really going all out to “pursue Cheng Xi.”

After confirming the intention and amount, Xue Kai immediately contacted his “informant” at Luocheng University, the basketball department teacher, to discuss the sponsorship details.

Faced with such a generous benefactor, the teacher was naturally grateful and welcoming, and decided right away to invite the generous Mr. Ning to dine at Luocheng University’s most upscale East Third Canteen, also arranging for many student leaders from the basketball and external relations departments to attend.

Originally, Ning Zhuochuan didn’t like attending such events and planned to let Xue Kai represent him. But Xue Kai somehow got wind that Cheng Xi, as a student vice minister in the basketball department, would also attend, so Ning Zhuochuan decisively decided to go, aiming to secure his second rejection in his new life.