Chapter 32

“Listen carefully,” Hu Guangyu said condescendingly, “I’ll give you a chance to be my woman.”

“Sorry, I refuse.”

While replying, Qin Xiaoxiao kept an eye on her escape route.

This boy who had inexplicably stopped her and said these baffling words truly embodied the typical demeanor of a “school bully.”

And “be my woman“? He wasn’t even financially independent or of marriageable age, yet he used such a mature tone.

Perhaps he thought it made him seem suave and cool.

Qin Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly.

By comparison, she actually found Ji Wenchen to be much better than him…

“Refuse? You’d better think carefully. I, Brother Yu, am not just well-known in First High School, but I’ve got influence in all the high schools in Guangjian. You—”

Qin Xiaoxiao couldn’t quite make out the rest of what he was saying.

Because she turned and quickly walked around the flower bed, heading onto the path closer to the shops. The boy who called himself “Brother Yu” couldn’t steer his motorbike onto this narrow road.

She jogged to the bus stop, and as luck would have it, the bus Qin Xiaoxiao needed arrived shortly after. She immediately got on.

Hu Guangyu, after much effort to catch up, ended up getting a face full of exhaust fumes from the departing bus.

…

Wednesday, in the Basketball Court.

Feng Maoxing looked at the can of Sprite beside him with a slightly complicated expression.

It was from Ji Wenchen.

Just moments ago, Ji Wenchen had even asked him what Qin Xiaoxiao liked to eat and what her favorite color was.

Would he tell Ji Wenchen?

Of course not.

He casually brushed it off with a vague, “I’m not too sure myself.”

However, Feng Maoxing’s thoughts began to drift. He only knew what his cousin liked as a child, but as for her current preferences… he really didn’t seem to know.

He really wasn’t doing a great job as her cousin.

A basketball suddenly bounced in front of him. Feng Maoxing reflexively raised his hand to block it and looked up to see who had thrown it.

“Vice-captain! Come train already,” a teammate standing on the court called out to him.

Feng Maoxing responded with a simple “Got it” and stood up.

Feng Maoxing glanced around and noticed that Ji Wenchen was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Ji… the captain?”

“He left a minute ago.”

“Oh.”

He recalled the news he heard yesterday—apparently, Ji Wenchen had gotten into another fight the day before with some “Brother Yu” from First High School… Feng Maoxing shook his head. This kind of troublemaker must have gone out to brawl again.

“Vice-captain, is the captain really chasing after your cousin?”

Feng Maoxing found the question rather annoying. “I don’t know.”

“He’s really chasing her!” Another teammate with naturally curly short hair chimed in. “You guys don’t know? The captain beat up Hu Guangyu from First High School the day before yesterday for Qin Xiaoxiao.”

“Impressive!”

“What’s the story? For Senior Qin? What does this have to do with Senior Qin?”

Feng Maoxing frowned. “Don’t spread baseless rumors.”

The curly-haired teammate lifted the hem of his shirt to fan his face. “I’m not making it up. Last Saturday during the break, Hu Guangyu blocked Qin Xiaoxiao at the school gate, asking her to be his girlfriend…”

“What? Someone cornered Xiaoxiao?” Feng Maoxing’s star-like eyes widened in disbelief.

“It’s true. I was near the school gate that day and saw it,” the curly-haired teammate confirmed.

Feng Maoxing clenched his fists. “Did Hu Guangyu do anything he shouldn’t have?”

“Not really,” the curly-haired one replied. “Qin Xiaoxiao rejected Hu Guangyu and quickly took another route to leave.”

Feng Maoxing felt a wave of relief as the tension in his chest eased.

“I heard Hu Guangyu’s been going around First High School bragging that he’s going to win over Qin Xiaoxiao…”

“That trash! A toad dreaming of eating swan meat!”

“Exactly. I heard the captain was really annoyed and went to shut him up, warning him not to bother Senior Qin anymore. He gave Hu Guangyu a ‘lesson in manners.’“

“Impressive!”

“No wonder I noticed two scratches on the captain’s arm today.”

“Ha, this is nothing! Our Brother Chen once set a record of taking on nine people at once. A mere trash like Hu Guangyu is nothing. Hu Guangyu got hurt way worse than Brother Chen!”

“Alright, that’s enough,” Feng Maoxing, feeling even more conflicted than before, called a stop to the conversation. “Time to train.”

…

It had rained at noon, leaving a faint fragrance lingering in the breeze and the air filled with moist humidity.

A student sitting by the middle row of windows returned to the classroom, felt the gust of wind, and complained, “The wind is so strong—who opened the window?”

“Sorry, I opened it earlier when I got to the classroom.”

The student froze upon hearing that voice. Turning around and realizing who it was, their face immediately flushed with embarrassment. “It’s fine, I… keeping it open for ventilation is good.”

Qin Xiaoxiao nodded slightly. “If you feel the wind is too strong, you can close it.”

“No, it’s not strong at all,” the student quickly replied.

Qin Xiaoxiao was not only beautiful but also gentle in personality, making her the goddess in his eyes.

Since the goddess had opened the window, he certainly wouldn’t dare to close it.

Moreover… the goddess was now sitting next to the school bully, and they seemed to be getting along quite well. This added an extra layer of awe and respect in his heart toward her.

Qin Xiaoxiao gave the agreeable classmate a polite smile and then lowered her head to work on her biology test paper.

After the first class in the afternoon, Ji Wenchen entered the classroom.

Before October, this wouldn’t have been anything unusual. But ever since he claimed he was going to focus on studying seriously, this seemed a bit out of the ordinary.

So much for paying attention in class—he couldn’t even stick to arriving on time for a few days. Qin Xiaoxiao silently shook her head but couldn’t be bothered to call him out.

“Something came up at home, so I’m late.”

Turns out, he explained himself.

Qin Xiaoxiao didn’t stop writing down vocabulary words. “Oh.”

“The material from the last class,” Ji Wenchen said, pulling his textbook out from the desk compartment, “can you go over it with me?”

“Class is about to start.”

“During the next break, then.”

“…Mm.”

Qin Xiaoxiao picked up her cup and got up to fetch water.

Outside the classroom, there was a water dispenser. By swiping a card, you could choose between hot or cold water.

At this moment, the “heating” light on the water dispenser was on.

Qin Xiaoxiao’s period had come, so she wanted to fill her cup with hot water and waited for it to heat up.

“Xiaoxiao,” Bi Chun called out, holding her water cup as she walked out from the front door. “Getting hot water?”

“Mm.”

Bi Chun stood in line behind her.

“If you don’t need hot water, you can go ahead first,” Qin Xiaoxiao said.

Bi Chun shook her head. “It’s fine, I’ll wait with you.”

Alright then.

Qin Xiaoxiao faced the slightly aged wall, silently reciting the biology concepts she had reviewed today.

Bi Chun stared at the back of Qin Xiaoxiao’s head.

“Xiaoxiao…”

“Hm?” Qin Xiaoxiao turned slightly to the side.

Bi Chun seemed to have something to say but hesitated.

Just then, the indicator light switched to the green “Keep Warm” mode. Qin Xiaoxiao stepped forward, swiped her card, and filled her cup with water.

After filling it halfway, she screwed on the lid and said, “I’m heading back.” Qin Xiaoxiao gave a quick goodbye before leaving.

“Xiaoxiao,” Bi Chun called her again.

“How are you getting along with Ji… Ji Wenchen?”

Why ask that? Qin Xiaoxiao raised her eyebrow slightly. Could it really be that invisible magnetic pull between the male and female leads? Were they fated to pay attention to each other as if arranged by destiny?

Bi Chun, unaware of Qin Xiaoxiao’s speculation, waited for her response.

It was a bit strange—she found herself unconsciously paying attention to Ji Wenchen at times… Could it be because he had helped her that one time?

But he was so intimidating. She was afraid to talk to him, no, even to get close or make eye contact with him.

Xiaoxiao was such a kind and good person, yet she had to sit next to someone as terrifying as Ji Wenchen… Bi Chun was a little worried that she might be bullied.

“Just regular classmates,” Qin Xiaoxiao thought, hoping this answer wouldn’t make the female lead misunderstand anything unnecessary about the male lead.

Even though Ji Wenchen… had confessed to her not long ago and said all those inexplicable things, and his behavior lately had been a bit unusual, the female lead was probably interested in the male lead. In that case, the male and female leads would most likely end up together, just like the direction of the novel—though that mediocre novel had never been finished.

Qin Xiaoxiao found herself in a peculiar state of contradiction.

The main conflict was that she deeply felt the sunlight, rain, and air of this world and interacted with the people around her, making her feel like she was living in a real world. Yet every time she saw the female lead, she was reminded that she was merely in a book and would recall the main plot of that book…

After sitting alone for a few minutes, Ji Wenchen stepped outside the classroom for some air and clearly overheard the “just regular classmates” response.

He tugged at the corner of his mouth slightly and turned back inside.

“Just regular classmates,” Bi Chun repeated, then nodded. “That’s good.”

It seemed like they were getting along well enough—he probably wouldn’t bully Xiaoxiao.

Seeing that Bi Chun had nothing more to say, Qin Xiaoxiao responded with a simple “Mm” and returned to the classroom.

Her desk mate, who had asked her for tutoring, was lying on the desk with his eyes closed.

Sleeping again.

Qin Xiaoxiao withdrew her gaze with a hint of disdain.

The class bell rang shortly after.

The chemistry teacher arrived at the podium right on time. “Today’s lesson will cover aromatic hydrocarbons,” he said, pulling up the PowerPoint presentation.

“For those still distracted, still sleeping, or still looking for their books—have your desk mates remind you,” the teacher gave his usual pre-class reminder.

It wasn’t directed at Ji Wenchen specifically.

In fact, like most teachers, she adopted a “see no evil, hear no evil” attitude toward this infamous problem student: as long as he didn’t disrupt classroom discipline, he could do whatever he wanted.

“First, let’s clarify the knowledge and skill objectives for this class: to master the structure and chemical properties of benzene and its homologues; to understand the concept of aromatic hydrocarbons…”

Ji Wenchen’s hand, resting on his lap, twitched slightly. Though his eyes were closed, there wasn’t a trace of sleepiness in his mind.

This… desk mate, wasn’t she the one who advised him to pay attention in class?

Ji Wenchen felt a bit uneasy.

Now that she saw him sleeping during class, why didn’t she say anything?

Qin Xiaoxiao sat upright, listening attentively.

Half the class passed quickly.

“Now, let’s explore the chemical properties of benzene’s homologues. Let’s watch the second experiment,” the chemistry teacher said, playing a video.

The video was a bit dated, and as soon as it started, a loud hissing static filled the classroom.

The students in the front row immediately covered their ears.

“I forgot the sound at the beginning of this video is a bit noisy,” the chemistry teacher said, holding the mouse and dragging the video progress bar forward by about ten seconds. “Is the volume a bit too loud?”

“Yes!” “Teacher, please lower the volume!”

As Qin Xiaoxiao waited to watch the experiment video, she noticed her desk mate seemed to sit up straight. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

“Why didn’t you wake me up to listen to the class?”

Qin Xiaoxiao was slightly stunned. “Didn’t you wake up on your own?”

“It was too noisy,” Ji Wenchen said, his eyes half-lowered. “Besides, half the class is already over.”

Hearing that, she couldn’t help but feel she might be a bit negligent as a desk mate.

Qin Xiaoxiao unscrewed her water cup and took two sips of warm water.

How could he know how long the class had been going if he was asleep? Something about this didn’t quite add up…