Meng Yanxi’s father, Meng Shixu, and Lu Jingyue’s mother, Meng Shijin, were biological siblings. Meng Yanxi was Lu Jingyue’s older cousin, three months older than Lu Jingyue.

Unlike ordinary families where cousins are not especially close, the Meng family placed great importance on blood ties. Meng Shixu and Meng Shijin had been close as siblings since childhood, and with their father, Meng Huai, still alive— the old master continuing to hold the reins of the Meng family to this day as its absolute patriarch and decision-maker— the relationships among the grandchildren were naturally even closer. As a pair of cousins, Meng Yanxi and Lu Jingyue were even closer than biological brothers in an ordinary family.

But Lu Jingyue felt that recently, the way this cousin of his looked at him was always a little off— not quite yin, not quite yang, eyebrows not eyebrows, eyes not eyes.

In other people’s eyes, Meng Yanxi was a cold, cool guy— often reckless, but truly formidable. Lu Jingyue didn’t see it that way. He didn’t think his cousin was reckless at all; he was just very normally formidable, at most a little silly.

For example, right now he was occupying Lu Jingyue’s seat and even looking at him with a provocative gaze.

What was the point of him taking up a seat?

Lu Jingyue stood by the desk and met his gaze for three seconds. Meng Yanxi had no reaction at all— he neither spoke nor stood up. So Lu Jingyue took the initiative and handed him the unopened bottle of water in his hand, saying magnanimously and amiably, “It’s for you.”

Lu Jingyue wore an expression of brotherly harmony, which made Meng Yanxi’s gums ache.

“No.” He frowned in distaste, and finally stood up and left Lu Jingyue’s seat.

Jin Zhao, who had watched the entire exchange, was utterly confused.

Lu Jingyue calmly sat down, twisted open the cap, and tipped his head back to gulp down a mouthful of iced water. The steadiness of his whole demeanor only made her more perplexed.

She felt her intuition had been challenged— those two had clearly been off just now.

“Don’t you think…” she couldn’t help but speak up, then immediately felt it was inappropriate; what she was doing now felt like gossiping behind someone’s back.

Lu Jingyue turned his head to look at her, waiting for her to continue.

Jin Zhao shook her head. “Nothing…”

“Kind of weird?” Lu Jingyue spoke at the same time, finishing the sentence for her.

Jin Zhao lifted her eyes in surprise. So he could feel it— she had thought her desk mate, who secretly feared birds, had an exceptionally dull sensitivity.

Lu Jingyue gave a composed chuckle. “He’s just like that. Every now and then he gets a bout of middle-school syndrome. Don’t mind him, he’ll get over it on his own.”

Middle-school syndrome? Meng Yanxi?

Jin Zhao found it hard to connect those two words together.

And according to her unintentional observation, although Lu Jingyue said he wouldn’t mind Meng Yanxi, in reality he became even more enthusiastic. One moment he asked whether he wanted to go play basketball, the next he asked whether he wanted to go horseback riding with Zhou Huaichen tomorrow, Sunday.

Meng Yanxi remained cold, not even lifting his head—

“Not going.”

“No time.”

Even Luo Heng, thick-skinned as he was, could tell something was off. He quietly asked Meng Yanxi, “Brother Yan, did Brother Yue offend you?”

“Yeah, I offended you?” Lu Jingyue also looked at him with a smiling face.

Lu Jingyue was the kind of person whose smile was sometimes more irritating than a cold face.

Meng Yanxi lifted his eyelids and glanced at him. “No.”

Luo Heng let out a breath of relief; otherwise, being caught between two good brothers would have been far too awkward. Hearing Meng Yanxi deny it, he immediately burst out laughing. “Exactly, we’re all brothers—”

Meng Yanxi stared at Lu Jingyue and added lightly, neither heavy nor soft, “But maybe you could reflect on what you’ve been doing lately.”

Luo Heng’s laughter screeched to a halt.

Huh?

What did that mean?

Lu Jingyue still wore that unruffled expression, and actually followed along with Meng Yanxi’s words, thinking for a few seconds. Then he said with an innocent face, “Other than getting into a relationship, I haven’t done anything.”

Meng Yanxi’s face finally turned completely sour.

Luo Heng: “?”

Luo Heng: “!”

Luo Heng’s pupils shook violently— he almost shouted. Remembering that this was a classroom and that puppy love was not something to publicize, he forcefully lowered his voice, which then converted exponentially into a gossip-filled gaze. “What? Brother Yue, you’re in a relationship?!”

Lu Jingyue turned his head to look out the window, pondered a bit, then said modestly, “Not exactly. I’m still in unrequited love.”

Jin Zhao, who happened to be sitting by the window, was startled by such a huge secret and couldn’t help turning to look at Lu Jingyue.

“Bang!”

Meng Yanxi forcefully shut his textbook, stood up, and left the classroom.

Lu Jingyue had arranged to go horseback riding at the racetrack with Zhou Huaichen over the weekend, which triggered another round of loud crying from Meng Zhuxi.

The little girl wanted to follow Lu Jingyue to ride horses. In truth, she might not actually want to ride horses— she just didn’t want to go to dance class. She’d be fine doing anything, as long as it wasn’t homework. Between doing homework and dancing, she might still hesitate and waver a little. But her brother insisted on making her go dance. She refused and got into an argument with Meng Yanxi; the siblings had a round of love-and-kill-each-other, and the younger sister lost, sat on the ground, and wailed.

After crying, she was still ruthlessly picked up by Meng Yanxi and tossed into the car.

That’s how dance is— at the beginning, you might be captivated by those astonishingly beautiful bodies, but before that, you first have to endure a great, great deal of hardship.

In fact, even Meng Yanxi found it a bit hard to watch.

While Meng Zhuxi went to the changing room to change clothes, he said to Teacher Yuyu, “Go easy on her. Teach her dances she likes— as for fundamentals, there’s no need to force it.”

Teacher Yuyu felt some regret. “I thought you were planning to go down the professional dancer path.”

“She probably won’t make it as a professional dancer,” Meng Yanxi knew his sister’s temperament very well.

She didn’t have that kind of drive, and she couldn’t endure that kind of hardship.

With Teacher Yuyu easing up, Meng Zhuxi finally breathed a huge sigh of relief in this class. Without the terrifying fundamentals training, the little girl’s interest returned quite a bit.

Meng Yanxi watched his rarely enthusiastic sister for a while, then turned and went to the front desk.

Teacher Xiao Feng had originally been off today, but a major client notified him in advance that they would be coming, and he very professionally took the initiative to switch his day off.

In the conference room for receiving VIP clients, Teacher Xiao Feng led Meng Yanxi to sit at the table, then went to close the door and lock it.

Turning back to sit across from Meng Yanxi, Teacher Xiao Feng explained Jin Zhao’s situation to him. “Her family situation is somewhat special. At seven, her mother brought her here to learn dance— at first it was just an extracurricular interest. Back then her academic grades weren’t great, but her dancing was outstanding. All of our teachers thought she was a good seed for dance. Her mother also wanted her to take the arts-student path, so she switched from small group classes to one-on-one private lessons. When she was in sixth grade of elementary school, her mother fell ill. We all thought she might pause for a while, but her mother paid in one go for 300 unlimited private lessons.”

Meng Yanxi raised his eyes. “Why?”

Teacher Xiao Feng smiled. “Since ancient times, once there’s a stepmother, there’s a stepfather too. She was just making plans in advance for her daughter. You’re still young, you don’t understand these things. Men’s base nature.”

Meng Yanxi didn’t say anything.

Teacher Xiao Feng went on. “But it didn’t really help. She was only in sixth grade then. If she truly wanted to take the path of a dance arts student later on, three hundred private lessons definitely wouldn’t be enough. In the end, she would still need her father’s support.”

Meng Yanxi said, “Her dad didn’t support her.”

Teacher Xiao Feng said, “Judging from the result, that’s true. Actually, even if her dad were willing to support her, her stepmother wouldn’t be. After all, it’s a new family, a new mistress of the house—she has to make plans for her own future children too. Besides, raising a child in dance costs an extraordinary amount. To be honest, there are very few saints in this world. Most people are selfish in their own way. So Jin Zhao came less and less after that, while her academic grades kept improving. She probably gave up on being an arts student and focused wholeheartedly on the academic track.”

The meeting room of the dance studio wasn’t large. Bright white lights shone down onto the plain tabletop, while music from the dance studio and teachers calling out counts drifted in through the door.

Meng Yanxi looked at Teacher Xiao Feng. “Call her dad.”

Teacher Xiao Feng actually wanted to say that calling would be useless, but since a major client had made the request, he still did as told. He took out his phone and put it on speaker.

The phone rang with a series of beeps for quite a while. Just as Teacher Xiao Feng thought the other side wouldn’t answer, the call finally connected, and a steady, deep middle-aged man’s voice came through. “Hello?”

Teacher Xiao Feng had a salesperson’s natural warmth about him. He immediately put on a smile. “Ah, Brother Hui, hello, this is Teacher Xiao Feng from Jinghong Dance. Do you remember me?”