Xia Ruan kept her eyes fixed on Lu Yan and Fang Yinan up ahead, afraid she’d miss something if she blinked. 

Fan Shujuan noticed how the girl next to her kept clenching and unclenching her fists and looked so tense that she couldn’t help but ask, “Ruan Ruan, what are you looking at?” 

They were almost at the school track now, and it was clear there was no interaction between the two people ahead. Xia Ruan pulled her gaze back, feeling a little disappointed, and shook her head at Fan Shujuan. “It’s nothing.” 

At this moment, Fan Shujuan also noticed Lu Yan ahead. Looking again at the person beside her who looked disappointed, she sighed involuntarily. Women really are creatures who say one thing and mean another. That cold and indifferent act from before was probably her trying to make a clean break, but in the end, she just couldn’t ignore how she really felt. 

Xia Ruan had no idea what her desk mate was imagining. At this time, she was cautiously looking at Xia Fei, who was holding a basketball and running toward Fang Yinan. 

“Fang Yinan, wanna come watch us play later?” Xia Fei spun the ball in his hands casually while speaking. 

Before Fang Yinan could respond, the girl holding her arm beside her answered for her: “Sure, we’ll come later.” 

After Xia Fei left, Fang Yinan turned to Yang Xiaomi with a helpless look. “You agreed, so you’re going by yourself.” 

Yang Xiaomi clasped her hands together and pleaded playfully, “Come on, Nan Nan, let’s go together! He obviously wants you to come. I’m just the bonus freebie tagging along. I promise, just this once, okay?” 

Fang Yinan glanced at her. Although she didn’t like her making decisions without consulting her, she was always a person of her word, so she nodded and reminded Yang Xiaomi: “Remember what you just said. This is the last time.” 

Yang Xiaomi instantly brightened up. With a big smile, she promised, “Of course! I swear there won’t be a next time. Thank you, Nan Nan!” 

Seeing her joyful expression and the expectation in her eyes, Fang Yinan thoughtfully glanced at the departing Xia Fei. Did she like him, or was it someone from the basketball team? Before she could think more, Yang Xiaomi began to chatter: “Nan Nan, you don’t know, Xia Fei and his group rarely play basketball at school, and it’s even rarer for them to invite girls from class to watch. That’s why I eagerly agreed just now.” 

“Why don’t they play at school?” Fang Yinan asked, puzzled. 

“I heard Xia Fei thinks the girls watching are too noisy.” Yang Xiaomi wasn’t sure if this rumor was true. 

Fang Yinan smiled. “That’s… a pretty unique reason.” 

Yang Xiaomi recalled Xia Fei’s somewhat familiar tone earlier and curiously asked: “Nan Nan, did you know Xia Fei before?” 

Fang Yinan thought for a moment, then said: “Sort of, we used to be in the same cram school.” 

Yang Xiaomi immediately got interested: “Xia Fei actually goes to cram school? Has he started caring about grades?” 

Fang Yinan thought about Xia Fei’s performance in cram school—either daydreaming or sleeping—and said: “He’s probably just accompanying Xia Ruan.” 

When Yang Xiaomi heard Xia Ruan’s name, she immediately leaned closer with a gossiping look and whispered to Fang Yinan: “Nan Nan, do you know why Xia Ruan goes to cram school?” 

Fang Yinan glanced at her, somewhat puzzled: “Isn’t it to improve her grades?” 

Yang Xiaomi smiled mysteriously: “Of course not. Guess why.” 

Fang Yinan thought about the cram school they attended and didn’t recall any outstanding boys, so she shook her head and honestly said: “No idea.” 

So, the next while was spent with Yang Xiaomi and Fang Yinan recounting the confession between Xia Ruan and Lu Yan and the changes Xia Ruan had been going through these days. 

After listening, Fang Yinan frowned: “Is that so?” Although she didn’t get along well with Xia Ruan, somehow she instinctively felt Xia Ruan wasn’t that kind of person. 

Yang Xiaomi nodded vigorously: “It’s true.” 

Sharing gossip really is a good way to bring people closer. Yang Xiaomi felt her relationship with Fang Yinan had just taken a step forward. 

❖❖❖ 

Xia Ruan saw that Xia Fei even wanted to show off some basketball skills during the ten-minute break between classes. She couldn’t help but take big steps forward and walk up to him: “Brother, what are you doing? Didn’t you say you don’t like playing basketball at school?” 

Xia Fei casually caught the ball passed by his teammate, then smoothly made a cool three-pointer. Then he pulled Xia Ruan to a corner and lowered his voice: “I’m thinking since I’m not good at studying, basketball is the only thing I can show off. Of course, I want to show off a bit in front of Fang Yinan.” Hmm, anyway, trying won’t hurt. What if it works? 

Unexpectedly, he hadn’t given up yet. Xia Ruan felt a little headache but spoke even more gently: “Didn’t I tell you that if you want to pursue her, you have to start by improving your grades?” 

“I’m just covering all bases. What if she likes sporty guys?” Xia Fei clearly had no intention of talking about studying at all. 

Just then, the warning bell rang, and the PE monitor started calling everyone to line up. So they dropped the conversation and headed over. 

Lu Jizhou wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked somewhat dissatisfied at the person beside him: “I called you, why didn’t you come?” 

Lu Yan glanced at the sweat on his temple, then stepped a bit aside, sounding a bit disdainful: “You smell like sweat, stay away from me.” 

“Come on, Lu Yan, do you speak like a normal person?” Lu Jizhou frowned at him. 

Lu Yan glanced at him and said lightly, “What do you think?” 

Lu Jizhou couldn’t help but think: if he said no, wouldn’t he be insulting himself too? Thinking this, he glared at Lu Yan and declared that he unilaterally broke off their friendship. 

…Which lasted all of two steps before Lu Jizhou forgot completely and casually slung an arm over Lu Yan’s shoulder. “Hey, what’s up with Xia Fei today? Why’s he suddenly so into playing basketball at school?” 

Lu Yan didn’t even bother to roll his eyes. “You play with him and you don’t know? How would I know?” 

“Come on, you’re his desk mate, right? And he’s your future brother-in-law too. You’re way closer to him than I am.” Lu Jizhou teased with a grin. 

Lu Yan thought of what he’d seen back in the classroom and replied coldly, “Don’t spout nonsense all day.” 

Lu Jizhou stared at Lu Yan’s departing back and stroked his chin, wondering if Lu Yan was just angry out of embarrassment. 

Everyone gathered at the meeting point from all corners. Xia Ruan and Xia Fei had just arrived when they saw Lu Yan wearing a cold expression. Xia Ruan instinctively glanced at Fang Yinan on the right and couldn’t help but shout inside her heart: Come on, female protagonist, it’s your turn to shine! 

However, Fang Yinan could not possibly hear her inner shout; she kept her eyes lowered and talked to the person beside her. 

Lu Yan saw Xia Ruan’s series of actions clearly and felt a vague, inexplicable anger. Was she pretending not to see him? Thinking of this, Lu Yan felt as if his stomach was packed with fire, ready to explode anytime. 

He took three deep breaths to suppress his anger and quickly regained rationality. All his previous emotions vanished in an instant. He only coldly glanced at Lu Jizhou, who was walking toward him. If Lu Jizhou hadn’t been pestering him every day, he wouldn’t be like this. 

Unaware he’d just been mentally blacklisted, Lu Jizhou stopped next to Xia Fei and clapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s continue when we have free time later.” 

Xia Fei just gave a cool grunt and didn’t say another word. 

The PE monitor quickly got everyone lined up before the teacher arrived. The PE teacher knew this class saw gym as their only real break, so he waved his hand and told them to do ten laps and then they were free to do what they wanted. 

Ten laps were neither too many nor too few. The boys ran fast to quickly get to the fun part. Thankfully, the teacher didn’t make them run together, so the whole track was soon filled with students from Class 7. 

Xia Ruan ran very slowly—after all, it was just jogging.  

Lu Yan glanced back and noticed she was still lagging behind. Was that only her second lap? She really was taking it easy. 

He remembered how, during previous PE classes, she’d be panting while trying to keep up with him. Now she looked relaxed and even kind of happy. Honestly, if he didn’t still have the texts she’d sent him saved on his phone, he might’ve thought he’d imagined all that. 

When Xia Ruan leisurely ran her third lap, Xia Fei finally couldn’t help but run beside her and said, “Ruan Ruan, speed up a bit.” 

She glanced at him lazily. “What’s the rush?” 

Xia Fei lowered his voice: “Didn’t I invite Fang Yinan to watch us play basketball later? You come too and help me observe her expression.” 

If he didn’t say it, Xia Ruan almost forgot he was a troublemaker, so she quickly sped up: “Okay, got it.” 

The basketball game attracted most of the class’s attention. Lu Yan leaned against a nearby pillar, occasionally glancing over. 

“Lu Yan, why don’t you play?” Lu Yanzhi asked with a smile, approaching him without him noticing. 

Lu Yan glanced at him lazily: “You didn’t go either, right?” 

“I just got here. That guy Xia Fei won’t let me play.” Lu Yanzhi sounded very familiar with Xia Fei. 

Lu Yan lowered his gaze. “Is that so?” 

“How about we start our own game?” Lu Yanzhi offered. 

“No, I don’t like the smell of sweat.” Lu Yan rejected immediately and walked toward the basketball court. 

Lu Yanzhi didn’t expect such a clean rejection. Watching Lu Yan’s departing back, he smiled slightly. No worries, there’s plenty of time. 

Watching Xia Fei showing off on the court, Xia Ruan almost laughed out loud. She really wanted to go shake some sense into him and tell him the female protagonist ends up with the male protagonist. No matter how cool he looked out there, it was pointless. 

Although Fang Yinan was pulled here by Yang Xiaomi, her eyes were not on the court but on Lu Yan walking toward them, the target she needed to surpass in the monthly exam. 

Lu Yan seemed to sense her gaze, looked up, and their eyes met for a second before they both looked away. 

Xia Ruan hadn’t even had time to celebrate the main couple’s first actual eye contact when she noticed Xia Fei giving her constant, desperate looks. She moved closer to Fang Yinan like he wanted, and just as she stopped… 

Something unexpected happened. 

A player on the court passed the ball too hard, and it flew straight toward their group.