Xu Xing exhausted himself explaining the reasons for changing the profile picture to Xu Yin, but he couldn’t withstand Xu Yin’s few words that struck hard: “So you’re just flipping the game rules to show off your affection, right?”

“…”

Xu Xing was too tired to explain; he felt utterly drained.

Xu Yin advised him to keep a low profile and then gave a blunt assessment: “Lu Che is better looking than you.”

“…”

“Get lost.”

Xu Xing was at a loss for words and was about to delete Xu Yin’s chat history when he suddenly saw two new messages pop up in the chat window—

Xu Kunkun: My parents and I are going to the countryside tomorrow to make clay pot chicken. Should I bring one to you at school in the evening?

Xu Kunkun: You can come out after school to pick it up at the gate and take it to the cafeteria for rice.

Xu Xing replied with a “Sure,” and just as he was about to put down his phone, he suddenly noticed that Lu Che had changed his profile picture—

It was the same photo of the two of them, but Lu Che’s profile picture only showed his own face, with not a single hair of Xu Xing in the frame.

“…”

Xu Xing couldn’t help but furrow his brows, feeling quite mixed about it. He knew Lu Che was just deliberately trying to create a couple’s profile picture.

As Xu Xing looked at the phone screen, two words popped into his mind: childish.

Xu Xing’s thumb hovered over Lu Che’s chat box, and he lightly swiped left to delete the conversation.

Having deleted Lu Che’s chat history, he decided to ignore Lu Che’s profile picture.

The next morning.

During the free activity time in gym class, Xu Xing played a few rounds of badminton before stepping off the court to rest. Liu Peilian took his place to play against Wang Zicong, and Xu Xing sat down next to Tang Mian, with Xiong Huan also sitting beside him.

After Xu Xing opened a bottle of water and took a few sips, he overheard Tang Mian and Xiong Huan quietly chatting, clearly reviving Tang Mian’s romantic interest.

Tang Mian said, “I think Fu Dai is pretty good~”

This time, Fu Dai intentionally scored low on the language exam for the sake of Xiong Huan, dragging down the class average. This was labeled as “romantic” and spread overnight in the girls’ dormitory.

Fu Dai wasn’t bad-looking, came from a wealthy family, and most importantly, he was infatuated with Xiong Huan. He had been pursuing her since sophomore year without any complaints, even though she hadn’t acknowledged him.

Xiong Huan sat with her legs crossed, her cold eyes cast downward, silently staring at her little white shoes, hesitatingly saying, “I don’t know…”

Tang Mian said, “You lack a sense of urgency; you’ve gotten used to him orbiting around you.”

Tang Mian could see through Xiong Huan’s feelings. She liked Fu Dai, but she was afraid to go against her parents’ wishes; early relationships were frowned upon, so she was indecisive. Additionally, Fu Dai was so submissive in front of Xiong Huan, loving her without any principles, which meant Xiong Huan didn’t have to worry that he would leave her because of her hesitation.

After hearing Tang Mian’s words, Xiong Huan pressed her thin lips together without responding.

Xu Xing turned his head and glanced at the red thread on Xiong Huan’s body: it grew from the left side of her chest, cascading down to the ground, winding its way toward the boy on the basketball court.

The heartstring connecting Xiong Huan and Fu Dai had appeared for almost a week, yet their feelings showed no change.

Xu Xing initially thought there was a lack of drama between Fu Dai and Xiong Huan, but that afternoon, Fu Dai stirred up trouble again.

The reason was that Fu Dai had his phone confiscated by the disciplinary director last time and held a grudge, plotting revenge. In the end, he drew a turtle shell on some draft paper used for shading inside the back door of the classroom, waiting for the director to check the discipline again.

On that Friday afternoon, the entire senior class was in self-study—

As the director inspected the classroom discipline through the back door, his head perfectly aligned with the turtle shell on the inside of the door.

Students sitting in the back row turned their heads sleepily, startled by the disciplinary director and then bursting into laughter.

As for Fu Dai, the instigator, he risked having his phone confiscated again and captured this scene on camera.

Fu Dai wasn’t caught in the act and quickly destroyed the evidence of the draft paper at the back door. However, he uploaded that insulting photo to the school’s forum, instantly sparking a flurry of replies.

Fu Dai initially posted anonymously, and after the post gained traction, drawing the school’s attention, that photo had already been saved countless times.

Shortly thereafter, the photo leaked the location of Class 7.

From start to finish, it only took about two hours for things to escalate to this point.

At the time, Xu Xing and the others were doing science practice during self-study class when they suddenly heard the intercom broadcasting. The whole class curiously raised their heads and then listened in stunned silence as Class 7 was publicly called out and criticized. The school leaders sternly reprimanded them, demanding that the involved parties come forward to confess, considering leniency based on their apology.

After hearing this, Fu Dai scoffed, casually tossed his pen onto the desk, and stood up to walk out of the classroom.

The class fell silent.

Only Lu Che muttered, “What an idiot.”

Due to the incident with Fu Dai, the two afternoon self-study periods were particularly quiet. By the time the school bell rang, Fu Dai still hadn’t returned. Ke Di and Zhou Mang finished their training and specifically came back to the classroom. Ke Di initially intended to mock Fu Dai, but seeing he hadn’t been released yet, he called Zhou Mang to go to the cafeteria, saying, “What’s there to worry about? This incident won’t affect Fu Dai at all. At most, it’ll just affect his mood; it’s nothing.”

Ke Di turned around and asked, “Che Ge, aren’t you coming to eat?”

Lu Che replied, “Not going.”

Ke Di shrugged, leaned on Zhou Mang’s back, hooked his neck, and walked behind him on tiptoe.

Just as Xu Xing stood up, he noticed someone moving in the back row.

Xu Xing glanced at Lu Che and said, “I’m going to the school gate to get something from my sister; don’t follow me.”

Wang Zicong cheerfully chimed in, “Xu Xing’s sister brought clay pot chicken. Let’s wait for him to return and then head to the cafeteria together for extra food tonight~”

Wang Zicong had long accepted Lu Che as their regular dining companion.

Lu Che responded with an “Oh,” but instead of obediently waiting, he followed Xu Xing out of the classroom.

Xu Xing stopped in his tracks, saying, “Go back; don’t follow me.”

Xu Yin had already misunderstood the relationship between him and Lu Che; bringing Lu Che in front of her would only deepen that misunderstanding.

Lu Che replied, “Eventually, I have to meet your sister~”

Xu Xing couldn’t win against Lu Che and ultimately had to convince himself, “It doesn’t matter whether the misunderstanding deepens or not; I can’t explain it clearly to Xu Yin now,” and allowed Lu Che to follow him.

Xu Yin and their parents came directly from the farm stay. Their car was parked on one side of the school gate. His Dad was waiting in the car, while his Mom and Xu Yin got out together and stood at the security booth waiting for Xu Xing.

When Xu Xing arrived at the gate, his mom was chatting casually with the security guard, and Xu Yin was standing next to her. The moment she caught sight of Lu Che following Xu Xing, she perked up.

Xu Xing called out, “Mom.”

His Mom replied, “Xing Xing, you must be hungry; take this and go eat quickly.”

Lu Che greeted them as well, “Hello, Auntie, hello, Sister.”

Xu Yin smiled slightly, nodded at Lu Che, and casually assessed him with a few glances. Then, she turned her gaze to Xu Xing, raising an eyebrow slightly.

Xu Xing pretended not to notice, lowering his eyes to take the heavy bag from Xu Yin’s hands.

His Mom smiled and said, “Lu Che, Auntie saved some for you. It’s still warm, so hurry back to eat.”

His mother urged the two to hurry back to eat, and Xu Xing responded affirmatively before leaving first.

Xu Yin stood still, watching the two tall boys walking side by side, and sighed helplessly. Hearing her mom call her to come home, she prepared to leave when the security guard walked out from the booth and suddenly smiled at her, “Oh, so you’re the boy’s sister from earlier? I thought you looked familiar. You graduated this year, right?”

Xu Yin paused, responding oddly, “Yeah.”

·

Xu Xing called Wang Zicong to let him know he could come downstairs now.

Lu Che eagerly offered to carry the bag of clay pot chicken for Xu Xing, smiling as he said, “Your sister is quite pretty; she looks a lot like you~”

Xu Yin’s features resembled Xu Xing’s quite a bit; she was tall and slender, but her facial features were softer, and her eyes were larger and rounder than Xu Xing’s.

Xu Xing responded without thinking, “She has a boyfriend, thanks.”

As soon as he said that, Lu Che burst out laughing, and Xu Xing regretted it afterward, wishing he could slap himself.

Lu Che smirked and teased, “Class monitor, what are you worried about? Even if there were several sisters who looked just like you, I’d only like you~”

Xu Xing forced himself to recover, saying, “What I meant was that Xu Yin having a boyfriend proves she’s pretty. Otherwise, with her temper, aside from her looks, she’s practically useless.”

“Oh—”

Lu Che elongated the word, unable to hide the playful tone in his voice.

Xu Xing frowned and said, “Get lost.”

Lu Che rolled the bag in his hands, casually moving the two clay pot chickens wrapped in foil, and said, “Speaking of which, I think I started liking you because of your sister~”

Upon hearing this, Xu Xing halted in his steps, furrowing his brows as he looked at Lu Che, asking, “What do you mean?”

“Ah.”

Lu Che looked up and smiled, “At that time, it might not even have been liking; it was just a good impression.”

Xu Xing’s brows tightened even more as he questioned, “What does that have to do with my sister? Be clear.”

Lu Che raised his right hand and rubbed away the furrow between Xu Xing’s brows, saying, “I mentioned before that I saw you crying~”

“…”

Xu Xing blurted out, “You’re talking nonsense!”

Lu Che looked at him, eager to refute, and gently said, “Last semester at the school gate, you cried.”