Xia Ruan turned him down without even thinking. She held her cup and walked off without a word, leaving Lu Jizhou standing there, stunned. This wasn’t how he thought things would go. 

In the past, Xia Ruan would always ask him about Lu Yan, but now she had rejected him. Lu Jizhou couldn’t understand it. At that moment, a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder. He turned his gaze to the owner of the hand and saw Xia Fei looking at him with a sly expression. “What did you want to say to Ruan Ruan?” 

Xia Fei felt like he had become so busy lately. Not only did he have to help Ruan Ruan with Lu Yan, but he also had to keep an eye on those who had intentions toward her. He chuckled. These people had ignored Ruan Ruan before, but now that she had become more beautiful, they suddenly wanted to get close to her, without even asking if he approved. 

Lu Jizhou gave Xia Fei a sideways glance. What a total sis-con, he thought. He rolled his eyes and said irritably, “As Lu Yan’s friend, what do you think I could possibly want to say to her?” 

Xia Fei snorted lightly, “It better be just that.” 

Lu Jizhou was even more confused, “Then what else could I say?” 

Xia Fei gave him a glance but didn’t say what he was thinking. After all, anyone who spoke too much to Ruan Ruan these days made him think they had ulterior motives. 

After Xia Ruan sat down and began preparing for the next class, she took out her textbook and quickly scanned the material for the day. This was her usual habit. When Song Mingfang saw this, she raised an eyebrow. So, it looks like Lu Yan’s words actually got through to Xia Ruan. Just because she heard he liked smart, well-behaved girls, she was already changing herself. 

Xia Ruan had no idea what Song Mingfang was thinking. If she knew, she would be furious. All the changes she made were for herself, and had nothing to do with Lu Yan. 

When Lu Yan arrived at the classroom door, he glanced toward Xia Ruan. The girl was looking down at something she was writing. He could only see the top of her head. She quickly withdrew her gaze. Her changes had nothing to do with him. He had only been paying attention to her lately because her transformation had been so sudden. 

Xia Fei noticed that Lu Yan was staring at Ruan Ruan’s direction. He frowned. What exactly was Lu Yan trying to do? Then, thinking about Ruan Ruan’s feelings for him, his frown slowly relaxed. If Lu Yan felt the same way about her, even better. He could help Ruan Ruan win him over faster, and then maybe she’d get bored of him sooner too. 

Xia Ruan flipped through her previous textbooks and test papers and concluded that she was a genuine academic failure. So, if she wanted to change, it would need to be gradual. Otherwise, it might raise suspicions, which wouldn’t be good. 

She threw her test papers into her desk and then turned to Song Mingfang sitting beside her. She flashed a smile and said, “Mingfang, can you explain this problem to me?” 

Song Mingfang paused for a moment before nodding reluctantly. It wasn’t that she was cold or stingy, but she had previously tried to help Xia Ruan with her studies, only to be met with ingratitude. As a result, their relationship had cooled over time. 

Song Mingfang thought it would take a lot of effort to get Xia Ruan to understand today, but to her surprise, Xia Ruan understood the explanation after just one time. In case she didn’t believe her, Xia Ruan even explained the reasoning she followed and asked, “Is this correct, Mingfang?” 

Song Mingfang, a bit surprised, nodded. “Mm, that’s right.” 

Xia Ruan smiled and thanked her, “Thanks, Mingfang. I’ll keep working on it. If I don’t understand something else, I’ll ask you again.” 

Song Mingfang mechanically nodded. “Okay.” 

Xia Ruan took in her reaction. She slightly lowered her head to hide the smile at the corner of her lips. This felt like a small, successful step forward. 

❖❖❖ 

Lu Yan looked at the person next to him with some dissatisfaction. “What do you want to say to me?” 

“I think Xia Ruan seems a bit off today,” Lu Jizhou recalled his morning attempt to talk to Xia Ruan. 

Lu Yan shot him a sidelong glance and said lazily, “If something’s off, go talk to Xia Fei. Why are you coming to me?” 

Lu Jizhou glared at him, feeling that Lu Yan just didn’t understand good intentions. “I’m saying her attitude toward you seems a little weird.” 

Lu Yan remembered the way she had avoided him like the plague, and the corner of his mouth curled up. “What’s so weird about that?” 

“I tried to talk to her about you, but she rejected me without thinking.” Lu Jizhou frowned, as though it was a very unusual thing. 

Lu Yan raised an eyebrow. “Is that all?” 

Seeing that Lu Yan didn’t care, Lu Jizhou glared at him. “Is that all? Just a few days ago, she confessed to you and was asking me about you every day. Now, her attitude has changed too much.”  

He even put on a thoughtful expression, as if he’d figured something out. “Hey, do you think maybe her confession wasn’t real? What if she lost a bet or was just playing some kind of game?” 

Lu Jizhou’s words made Lu Yan fall silent. Stuff like that had happened before. For example, in their dorm, whoever lost a game had to go up to a random classmate and say something embarrassing. 

At that moment, Lu Jizhou suddenly added, “But that doesn’t make sense. If Xia Fei hates you so much, then Xia Ruan should be serious about you.” He scratched his chin and continued speculating, “Or does he not know about this? After all, I haven’t heard of Xia Ruan confessing to anyone before.” 

Lu Yan quickly dismissed Lu Jizhou’s words. He still remembered the way Xia Ruan had looked at him when she confessed. Her eyes weren’t like the other girls’—they were even more intense. But he didn’t understand why she was suddenly being so distant now. 

Noticing that he seemed lost in thought, Lu Jizhou leaned in and said, “Xia Ruan is our class’s new beauty. Can’t you be a bit more excited?” 

Lu Yan glanced in Xia Ruan’s direction. To be honest, he’d never really paid attention to how girls looked before. But Xia Ruan had left a strong impression earlier. Her rebellious outfit made him frown. Maybe she noticed the disapproval in his eyes—that might be why she said she changed for him. 

His gaze shifted to her face. Her round cheeks still had a bit of baby fat, and her skin looked soft and fair. Her eyes were hard to see with her head down, but her nose was high and her lips were a pretty shade of red. 

She really did look completely different now. 

Lu Jizhou noticed him spacing out and bumped him with his shoulder, grinning. “What? You finally seeing how pretty she is now?” 

Lu Yan withdrew his gaze and then coldly glanced at Lu Jizhou. “Is it because you have a mole on your chin that you’re planning to change careers?” 

By the time Lu Yan returned to his seat, Lu Jizhou finally understood the meaning behind his words. He couldn’t help but growl, “Damn, Lu Yan, are you saying I look like a matchmaker?” He had only been looking out for him. After all, next year would be their third year of high school, and he hadn’t even had his first love. How pathetic would it be to look back on that? He had good intentions, yet Lu Yan didn’t appreciate them. 

The bell rang, and everyone fell silent when they saw the class teacher enter holding a stack of test papers. Liu Jianbo placed the papers on the podium, looking at the suddenly quiet students with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile. “What? Now you’re nervous?” 

The students lowered their heads in unison, putting on a remorseful expression. 

Liu Jianbo snorted coldly. “The class average is 1.5 points lower than Class 5 next door. It’s been almost a month since the semester started, and you still haven’t found your rhythm? After class, change your seats. I’ll distribute the seating chart later.” He then began handing out the test papers according to the scores. 

When Xia Ruan saw her score of 86 (out of 150) on the test paper, she couldn’t help but feel a little distressed. It was barely a pass. Although she knew that the original Xia Ruan was a poor student, it was still hard to accept such a score. 

“Those who didn’t pass should carefully review their test papers and copy them twice after class. If you can’t think of ways to apply what you’ve learned, try memorizing it by rote. Don’t keep holding back the progress of your classmates.” Liu Jianbo’s tone was a little cold. 

Xia Ruan paused for a moment as she held the correction tape. Copy it twice? How long would that take? Was he kidding? 

When the new seating chart was handed to Xia Ruan, she realized that this time, the seats were assigned according to their scores. The lowest-ranking students were seated with the highest-ranking students, and so on. 

Her eyes stopped on the names of Lu Yan and Xia Fei. It wasn’t mentioned in the book that Lu Yan and Xia Fei would sit together. Maybe this was the butterfly effect caused by her being here.  

She felt a bit lost.  

Just then, the student next to her, Song Mingfang, spoke up. “What? You’re so happy not to sit with me anymore?” 

“What?” Xia Ruan came back to her senses. Her new deskmate was Fan Shujuan, the girl who had mentioned before that Xia Ruan and Xia Fei didn’t wear their school uniforms. She was ranked fifth, while Xia Ruan was ranked fifth from the bottom. Xia Ruan saw that Song Mingfang was ranked tenth, so she smiled and said, “I actually wanted to sit with you, but I did too poorly. I’ll try harder next time.” 

Song Mingfang snorted lightly. She knew better than anyone that with Xia Ruan’s current level of effort, her next exam score would definitely improve, so it was unlikely they’d sit together anytime soon. 

When the seats were finally arranged, Xia Ruan realized that Lu Yan and Xia Fei were seated in the first row of the first group, while she and Fan Shujuan were in the second row. Seeing the tall and imposing figures of the two in front of her, Xia Ruan muttered, “Won’t this arrangement block the view of the students behind?” 

Fan Shujuan found it a little funny. Didn’t they used to choose their own seats before? No one ever cared about height back then. It seemed like this was just an excuse for Xia Ruan to avoid sitting in front. 

Though Xia Fei wasn’t thrilled about sitting in the first row, he was relieved when he realized his new deskmate was Lu Yan. Well, he couldn’t always get all the good things. Compared to the others who envied his seat with the top student, he was more pleased about being able to keep an eye on Lu Yan anytime, anywhere. With that thought, he took out his phone and sent Xia Ruan a message. 

Xia Ruan felt her phone vibrating in her pocket and glanced at the teacher at the podium. She quickly took out her phone and saw Xia Fei’s message. 

【Ruan Ruan, wait for good news from me.】