Chapter 11

Qin Xiaoxiao was contemplating how to return Ji Wenchen’s phone discreetly and quickly.

Ji Wenchen’s seat was in the corner. Earlier, during the power outage, it had been pitch dark, so none of their classmates should have noticed their interaction.

However, now the classroom was brightly lit. If she openly returned the phone to Ji Wenchen like this and at least said a word of thanks… someone would definitely notice.

She never dared to underestimate the gossiping tendencies of high school students.

Qin Xiaoxiao didn’t want her classmates to think she had any connection with the school bully—even though it was the truth.

If he was still asleep, she could just wrap the phone in a piece of scratch paper and place it on his desk, right?

Qin Xiaoxiao pretended to casually glance over her shoulder and saw that his seat was empty.

Great, she could just shove his phone into his desk cubby.

This break was relatively long, and most of the classmates had either gone to the cafeteria or the school store. There weren’t many people left in the classroom.

Qin Xiaoxiao quickly walked to the corner of the classroom near the wall. Swiftly, she placed the phone, wrapped in paper, into the desk compartment of a certain desk. Then, she retreated a few steps in a hurry and calmly walked toward the trash bin, pretending to be just passing by to throw something away.

“Qin Xiaoxiao!”

Qin Xiaoxiao’s breath hitched as she looked toward the back door of the classroom.

What was he doing here?

Feng Maoxing looked at his cousin Qin Xiaoxiao with a subtle expression. What had he just witnessed? Qin Xiaoxiao sneakily and suspiciously slipped a note into someone else’s desk!

“You’re actually slipping love letters to someone?”

“??” Qin Xiaoxiao was dumbfounded. “Me? A love letter?”

Feng Maoxing: “I saw everything just now.”

“No, what exactly did you see?” Qin Xiaoxiao quickly responded. “You didn’t even see what was in it, so how do you know it’s a love letter?”

Feng Maoxing gave her a “I see through everything, don’t even try to fool me” look.

“…Overthinking is a sickness.” Qin Xiaoxiao couldn’t be bothered to explain to him. “What do you want from me?”

The original Qin Xiaoxiao wasn’t close to this cousin of hers, who was only seven months younger than her. In fact, they were so distant that even if they ran into each other at school, she wouldn’t bother to greet him.

After asking her question, Qin Xiaoxiao saw the boy in front of her, who was half a head taller, shift his gaze around nervously without saying anything.

“Nothing? Then I’ll head back to the clas—”

“Happy birthday!”

Qin Xiaoxiao was stunned. So today was the original owner’s birthday.

“This is for you.” Feng Maoxing, avoiding her gaze, awkwardly shoved a gift bag toward her.

“Thank you.”

As classmates began returning one after another, Qin Xiaoxiao stepped aside from the back door to make way.

“No need to…” Feng Maoxing, pretending to be indifferent, suddenly froze mid-sentence, his eyes widening as he stared at a certain figure walking past him. Brother Chen is in this class?

When he saw Ji Wenchen sitting in the corner seat, Feng Maoxing’s starry eyes grew as wide as copper bells. He instantly forgot Qin Xiaoxiao’s usual cold attitude toward him and exclaimed in shock, “Your love letter is actually for Ji—”

“You’re overthinking it.” Qin Xiaoxiao interrupted him just in time, cutting him off before he could say that name, which would undoubtedly turn every head in the room.

Little did Qin Xiaoxiao know, her actions looked like a guilty concealment to Feng Maoxing.

“The bell’s about to ring, go back.” Qin Xiaoxiao reminded her cousin.

Feng Maoxing opened his mouth as if to say something but stopped himself. With a complicated expression, he returned to his class.

“Whoa!” Yang Min stared at the gift her deskmate had brought back. “You actually accepted the junior’s token of affection?”

Qin Xiaoxiao felt helpless about Yang Min’s loud voice. “He’s my cousin,” she said, placing the gift into her desk cubby.

“Your cousin? Feng Maoxing is your cousin?”

“Mm.”

“We’ve been deskmates for so long, and you never told me Feng Maoxing is your cousin! Damn it!”

Qin Xiaoxiao paused for a moment. “…What’s there to say?” Besides, she hardly interacted with Feng Maoxing at school.

That said, he actually went out of his way to bring her a gift…

“There’s plenty to say!” Yang Min slapped the desk. “Feng Maoxing, that adorable little puppy, is so good-looking. Do you even know how many girls like him?”

Qin Xiaoxiao truly didn’t know, and hearing a second year girl refer to a first year boy as a “little puppy” felt a bit bizarre.

“Is Feng Maoxing really your biological cousin?” Yang Min continued to mutter. “Apart from this time, I’ve never seen you two interact.”

Not wanting to get tangled up in this topic any longer, Qin Xiaoxiao pulled out an English newspaper and began flipping through it.

That evening, after returning to the dormitory and finishing her evening routine, Qin Xiaoxiao took out the phone she had hidden under the bedsheet. As expected, there were two birthday messages from her father and mother.

When it came to birthdays, both Qin Xiaoxiao and the original owner didn’t place much importance on them, but for different reasons.

The original owner didn’t celebrate birthdays because she had few friends to share it with and lacked the means to throw a party she deemed respectable. The latter was the main reason.

In any case, this birthday night felt no different from any other night. Qin Xiaoxiao lay on the bed, eyes closed, reviewing the day’s study material. Before long, she drifted into a sweet slumber.

…

Qin Xiaoxiao ran into Feng Maoxing again.

This was the third time this week she had encountered her cousin.

Seeing Feng Maoxing walking toward her, Qin Xiaoxiao curved her lips slightly—a purely polite gesture, solely out of consideration for the birthday gift he had given her.

Qin Xiaoxiao had no idea that even a simple smile was enough to stir waves of emotion in Feng Maoxing’s heart: Qin Xiaoxiao didn’t seem as cold toward him as before.

Noticing this subtle change, Feng Maoxing was delighted and couldn’t help wanting to get closer to her, hoping to ease the tension in their relationship.

Even though he had no idea why Qin Xiaoxiao had been so distant toward him over the past two years.

“You’re eating alone?” Feng Maoxing immediately regretted asking—it was obviously the case.

Qin Xiaoxiao nodded.

Impulsively, Feng Maoxing blurted out, “Wanna eat together?” Then added, “I’m also here alone in the cafeteria.”

“I haven’t gotten my food yet.”

Feng Maoxing immediately said, “I’ll wait for you here.”

Qin Xiaoxiao raised an eyebrow slightly. True to his word, Feng Maoxing found an empty spot and waited.

Six minutes later, Qin Xiaoxiao and Feng Maoxing sat across from each other at the same table.

Unlike Feng Maoxing, who was nervous and on edge, Qin Xiaoxiao was completely calm and composed.

As cousins close in age, the original Qin Xiaoxiao and Feng Maoxing used to spend almost every day together during preschool years and in the summer and winter breaks of elementary school. At the time, both families were busy with work and didn’t have the energy to look after the kids, so they often left them at Qin Xiaoxiao’s grandparents’ house.

The two little kids played and bickered together, their relationship very close.

As they grew older, Qin Xiaoxiao gradually noticed the difference in how her grandparents treated them: they favored their biological grandson, Feng Maoxing, over their granddaughter.

When they started middle school, Feng Maoxing became mischievous and rebellious, disliking studying, yet he remained their grandparents’ favorite. What the original Qin Xiaoxiao resented most was that her uncle’s family was well-off, so Feng Maoxing could have anything he wanted. Despite performing terribly on the high school entrance exams, he managed to attend the same prestigious high school as her by throwing money at the problem.

These negative emotions accumulated over time, causing the fragile and vain original Qin Xiaoxiao to grow jealous and resentful of her cousin, even rejecting his attempts to get close with coldness and sharpness.

Qin Xiaoxiao reflected on these memories but was unaffected by the original owner’s emotions.

Across from her, the boy’s lunchbox lid was piled high with picked-out vegetables. Qin Xiaoxiao, who had a bit of a responsible-teacher streak, couldn’t help but comment, “Picky eating isn’t good.”

Feng Maoxing looked up, his handsome, starry eyes flashing with surprise and a touch of emotion. Was his cousin actually showing concern for him?

But when it came to talking to Qin Xiaoxiao, Feng Maoxing always had a habit of speaking without thinking. “Aren’t you picky too? You don’t eat carrots or celery, do you?”

“Who said that?” It was the original Qin Xiaoxiao who was picky; this Qin Xiaoxiao wasn’t.

“I don’t believe it,” Feng Maoxing quickly replied. “Unless you eat it and show me.”

Qin Xiaoxiao glanced at the food in his lunchbox. “Not eating.”

“Then you are picky!”

“I just don’t want to eat from your bowl.”

“Stop making excuses. You’re just picky!”

“I’m disgusted by you.”

Feng Maoxing was slightly taken aback. At that moment, it felt like they had returned to the past, bickering and squabbling like they used to.

Qin Xiaoxiao had a small appetite and finished her meal quickly. Feng Maoxing snapped out of his daze, took a few random bites, and put down his chopsticks. “I’m done too.”

Seeing that more than half of his meal was still untouched, Qin Xiaoxiao didn’t believe that a grown boy could be full after eating so little. “Finish your food first.”

“I am full…”

“I’ll wait for you.”

Feng Maoxing reluctantly picked up his chopsticks and continued eating.

This scene of the two of them sharing a meal and chatting happened to catch someone’s eye.

***

On Monday morning, as usual, the flag-raising ceremony was held.

Aside from the students who were hurriedly memorizing material or whispering to each other, few others were actually listening to the vice principal’s speech, delivered in less-than-standard Mandarin.

Feng Maoxing was so bored he felt drowsy and let out a yawn.

“…Focus on your studies!”

The vice principal’s lengthy speech finally came to an end.

From the side, there were a couple of faint, indistinct sighs, followed by, “Good morning, teachers and fellow students! I am…”

This amplified voice through the microphone was very familiar. Feng Maoxing looked up.

The person standing under the national flag, delivering the speech, was none other than Qin Xiaoxiao.

“She’s so pretty!”

“Look, the girl speaking this week is really good-looking!”

“Her voice is so nice too. Was it ‘Qin Xiaoxiao’? I wasn’t paying attention…”

“It’s Qin Xiaoxiao, of course. How could you not know? She’s a second year student.”

“My goddess! Sweet voice, beautiful looks, and talented!”

…

The students all suddenly lifted their heads to look forward, as if they had collectively developed an interest in the speech under the national flag.

Hearing their discussions, Feng Maoxing was a bit puzzled. Was his cousin Qin Xiaoxiao really that good-looking?

From childhood to now, plenty of relatives had complimented both him and his cousin on their looks, but he had never thought much of it…

“Maoxing,” the boy standing next to him, noticing that Feng Maoxing, who had been looking down earlier, was now staring at the pretty senior, nudged his shoulder. “The senior is really beautiful, right?”

Feng Maoxing scratched the back of his head. “She’s… okay.”

“Just okay? Your standards are way too high, man!”

The boy wasn’t about to let his sense of aesthetics be questioned and kept rambling, “Have you ever seen a girl giving a speech as pretty as the senior? No, just tell me, have you seen any girl in the school prettier than her? Say it, I’m listening.”

Feng Maoxing thought seriously for a few seconds. “Doesn’t seem like it.”

“Exactly! The senior is definitely pretty enough.”

“You two, quiet down! Pay attention to discipline!” The homeroom teacher suddenly appeared behind them and issued a warning.

The restless boys immediately fell silent, as quiet as chickens.

This gave Feng Maoxing the chance to properly listen to Qin Xiaoxiao’s speech under the national flag.

Of course, from the moment he recognized her voice, he already thought his cousin was amazing. There was even an inexplicable sense of pride welling up in his chest.

---

Author’s Note:

Frantically writing Zha Kui: What I fear most is hearing readers say, “I’ll wait until it’s finished to binge…”