Even if Ye Minjia made it sound extremely real, Liang Qianqian still didn’t quite believe it.

Mainly because… it was just too ridiculous.

She and Xiang Di were together all day long, inseparable. What kind of personality Xiang Di had, she couldn’t possibly know better.

When they had just started senior year, Xiang Di had come into their class all alone from a parallel class. At first, she wasn’t familiar with anyone, so she could only follow behind her every day, coming to talk to her the moment class ended, sticking to her wherever she went. It was only after she gradually got familiar with the other girls in the class that things got a little better.

Such a pure and introverted kid—how could she possibly be dating? And even if she were dating, it absolutely couldn’t be with Bai Jiangxin.

And Bai Jiangxin was even more impossible. After all, they had been classmates for three years. Even though she wasn’t close to him, she had at least witnessed his glory of being fawned over by the girls.

Three years as classmates, more than twenty girls in the class, yet the number who could actually talk to Bai Jiangxin could be counted on one hand. Some guessed that he had installed some kind of “king-of-cool system” and transmigrated into their world—if he wasn’t aloof, he’d die. Others guessed he was misogynistic. In short, there were all kinds of guesses. There were even people who guessed that he and Ye Minjia were a couple.

Taking all that into account, Bai Jiangxin and Xiang Di—two extreme passive types—how could they possibly get together? Let alone the fact that Bai Jiangxin was the one who got dumped.

“I still don’t really believe it,” Liang Qianqian said. “If you say they were dating, then someone had to make the first move, right? Who was the one who took the initiative?”

“That even needs asking? Of course it was Xiang Di chasing Bai Jiangxin,” Ye Minjia said without the slightest hesitation. “Then after she got him, she realized Bai Jiangxin was just an utterly boring straight guy with nothing but a pretty face, so she dumped him, messing him up so badly these days that he can’t even read his books properly.”

Liang Qianqian sneered. “Bullshit. How could my Xiang Di possibly be that kind of person? It was definitely your Bai Jiangxin who tempted my pure, innocent Xiang Di, and then after he got her, he didn’t cherish her. That’s why Xiang Di painfully proposed the breakup. Only then did Bai Jiangxin realize his mistakes and start the wife-chasing crematorium arc.”

Ye Minjia sneered as well. “Have you been reading too many novels? Wife-chasing crematorium, my ass. Do you have any idea how many girls in this school have a crush on my Bai Jiangxin? With just a crook of his finger, plenty of girls would be willing to be his girlfriend. Does he really need to tempt anyone?”

“You don’t need to say any more. My Xiang Di is definitely innocent,” Liang Qianqian crossed her arms and irrationally activated full-on protective mode. “A pure little girl who doesn’t even dare talk to boys normally, how could she possibly hurt your Bai Jiangxin?”

Ye Minjia let out a scoff.

“Ha, so your Xiang Di is the shyest and purest, which means my Bai Jiangxin just deserves to be dumped by her?”

The two hardcore solo stans started arguing right there on the spot. There wasn’t even any concrete evidence yet regarding the protagonists’ dating scandal, and the two sides had already begun pushing responsibility onto each other.

“Anyway, my Xiang Di is definitely innocent,” Liang Qianqian gritted her teeth. “Even if they broke up, it must be your Bai Jiangxin’s problem!”

“If your Xiang Di had even a shred of innocence, she wouldn’t have chosen to break up at such a critical time, okay?” Ye Minjia said irritably. “Breaking up at such a critical time—if Bai Jiangxin doesn’t do well on the college entrance exam, your Xiang Di can just wait to go to the principal’s and homeroom teacher’s place to kowtow in apology.”

Liang Qianqian suddenly fell silent. When she spoke again, there was no longer the same righteous insistence in her tone: “…It’s not that serious, right? Bai Jiangxin doesn’t look like the kind of love-brained guy who’d want to die over a breakup.”

“Then let me ask you—aside from this exam, when have you ever seen Bai Jiangxin score only in the sixties? Isn’t that enough to prove how deeply he’s been hurt?” Ye Minjia rolled his eyes. “And what’s wrong with being love-brained anyway? Men’s deep affection—you wouldn’t understand for shit. These days, love-brained men are rarer than endangered animals. So many people are desperately trying to find a love-brained man to date and still can’t. Do you have any idea how valuable love-brained men are?”

Liang Qianqian: “……”

She actually couldn’t quite refute that.

At this point, Ye Minjia added gloomily, “Ruining someone’s college entrance exam is like killing their parents.”

Liang Qianqian blinked.

It was over. Her pure, kind Xiang Di was really about to become a sinner for all eternity, condemned by a thousand fingers.

“No.” Liang Qianqian said as she turned to head back. “I have to go back and talk to Xiang Di. Even if she wants to break up, she should wait until after the college entrance exam.”

Ye Minjia quickly grabbed her. “Are you stupid? If you just go over and tell her directly like that, do you think she’ll admit her crime?”

That was true. Liang Qianqian sounded worried. “Then what do we do?”

Ye Minjia solemnly patted her on the shoulder.

“That’s where the great wisdom of me, this good brother, and you, this good sister, comes in.”

─── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ───

Her go-home buddy was forcibly taken away by the class monitor, and Xiang Di didn’t even have time to stop it.

Whether it was that she didn’t have time to stop Liang Qianqian, or that she deliberately didn’t stop her out of selfish motives, only she herself knew.

At least right now, her mind was completely blank, regarding the matter of being suddenly called aside by Bai Jiangxin, who said he wanted to talk to her alone.

What could he possibly want to talk to her about? And he even insisted on talking alone with her in the classroom after school.

There didn’t seem to be any common topics between them that they could talk about, right?

Although he had called Xiang Di aside, when it really came time to speak, Bai Jiangxin truly didn’t know how to start.

How to, before a girl had even confessed her feelings to him, hint to her to give up on him without hurting her, and at the same time tactfully remind her to focus on studying and stop indulging in fantasies about things that could never happen.

…It was simply harder than getting full marks in every subject of the college entrance exam.

Bai Jiangxin furrowed his brows, lips pressed into a tight line, his expression dark and unreadable.

Meanwhile, Xiang Di blinked, wearing a harmlessly sweet face, her round, bright eyes filled with innocence as she looked at him in confusion.

【Why isn’t he talking?】

A flurry of guesses flashed through her mind—from “Is he going to confess to me?” to “Heh, I’m overthinking it. Bai Jiangxin confessing to me? The probability is even smaller than an asteroid crashing into Earth tomorrow and destroying the planet. It’s fine to yy¹yy: meaning to fantasize or indulge in unrealistic imagination, often about romance or scenarios unlikely to happen in reality. a bit usually, but at a time like this don’t be narcissistic, old baby.”

When she fantasized, she dared to imagine boldly, but once she returned to reality, she became frighteningly rational and cautious. Because with secret crushes, the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. So she would rather not think at all and absolutely not overthink, afraid of being self-deluded.

It was already so late, and suddenly he wanted to chat with her, and even said he’d walk her home. When something unusual happens, there must be a reason. Even if she liked him, she couldn’t let down her guard.

【Late at night, a lone man and a lone woman walking together—what if he gets some kind of ill intentions toward me and drags me into an alley…】

The more Xiang Di thought about it, the more outrageous it became, and the stranger her gaze toward Bai Jiangxin grew.

Bai Jiangxin twitched the corner of his mouth.

Who exactly had ill intentions toward whom? The one who should be afraid of being dragged into an alley should be him, right?

【…And then he pulls out a fruit knife and gashes me, what then?】

Bai Jiangxin: “……”

Was something wrong with her brain?

【No way! I’m still a little virgin. I’ve never even held a man’s little hand or kissed a man’s little mouth in this life, haven’t tasted a man’s flavor yet. I don’t want to get gassed so young, ahhh!】

Thinking this, Xiang Di actually took a silent step back, trying to distance herself from him.

The corner of Bai Jiangxin’s mouth tugged.

Someone who claimed she’d never even held a man’s hand or kissed a man’s mouth in this life, a little virgin, had clearly been fantasizing during evening self-study about him going down on her.

He really must have something wrong with his head, to try to talk things out with her.

“Um, if there’s something you want to say, how about you wait until tomorrow daytime to tell me?” Xiang Di suggested softly at this moment. “You see, it’s already so late.”

Bai Jiangxin’s expression was blank. “What? Afraid I’ll harbor ill intentions toward you?”

【Holy shit, how does he know?!】

Xiang Di’s eyes widened instantly. In her entire life, she had never imagined there would come a day when she’d hear the words “harbor ill intentions toward you” come out of Bai Jiangxin’s mouth, directed at her.

…For some reason, the words “ill intentions” sounded oddly lewd when he said them. Xiang Di’s cheeks heated up, and she hurriedly denied it. “No, no, I just think this isn’t very appropriate.”

Bai Jiangxin: “What’s inappropriate about it?”

Xiang Di hesitated. “If the teachers see the two of us staying alone in the classroom so late, and they misunderstand and think the two of us… have something going on, that wouldn’t be good.”

Footnotes

• 1
  yy: meaning to fantasize or indulge in unrealistic imagination, often about romance or scenarios unlikely to happen in reality.