“Forget it. Just remember to wash your hands next time before taking food.” Seeing that his attitude in admitting fault was still okay, Xiang Di didn’t want to pursue it further. She handed all the remaining puffs to Wang Sichen. “Anyway, I didn’t pay for these puffs. You can have them all.”

Luckily she hadn’t given them away yet—these puffs definitely couldn’t be given to Bai Jiangxin anymore. She’d buy another batch for him another day.

Since he was a grown man, if he made a mistake, he had to own up to it. Wang Sichen said, “That won’t do. I can’t just take your puffs for free. I’ll treat you to a meal at the cafeteria as compensation for the puffs, how about it?”

Xiang Di ignored him. She wasn’t patient with every boy the way she was with Bai Jiangxin.

Wang Sichen added, “Swipe however much you want. As long as you can eat it, you can even eat the entire cafeteria.”

Xiang Di still ignored him, thinking to herself, I’m not interested in the cafeteria.

She glanced at a certain empty seat and thought again, I’m only interested in Bai Jiangxin’s big banana—too bad you can’t treat me to that.

─── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ───

The Bai Jiangxin who was being thought about in relation to a big banana returned from the office. Lunch break had already ended.

The first period of the afternoon—physics—had already been going on for more than ten minutes. But since it was Bai Jiangxin who was late, the teacher didn’t say a single word and just let him come in.

Scheduling physics as the first class in the afternoon was absolutely a major blunder in the scheduler’s career. In the entire classroom, there were hardly any heads held upright.

On top of that, their physics teacher’s lectures were extremely boring. The teacher’s professional level was unquestionable, but the more professionally impressive a teacher was, the worse their teaching tended to be. He often went off-topic and beyond the syllabus while lecturing. Fortunately, the students of Class 97 had a decent physics foundation and could self-study.

The afternoon atmosphere, combined with the teacher’s voice, made it seem as if some kind of powerful hypnotic agent was floating through the air. The classroom was very quiet; only the sound of wind outside the window and pages of test papers being turned could be heard. Bai Jiangxin twirled the gel pen in his hand, staring blankly at the physics problems on the test paper.

Wang Sichen was much quieter than he had imagined. Maybe it was because he had been warned by the teacher in advance. Throughout the day, aside from passing messages for Ye Minjia, he basically hadn’t bothered him.

That was good too. As long as he avoided physical contact with Wang Sichen, Bai Jiangxin could still tolerate it.

But just as he thought this, there was some movement from Wang Sichen beside him. An arm stretched out, suddenly bumping into his elbow.

Turning his head, he saw that Wang Sichen had been nodding off, propping up his chin and fishing for sleep. Now he finally couldn’t hold on anymore—his arm collapsed, and he flopped face-down onto the desk.

Bai Jiangxin was about to move his arm away when he suddenly heard Wang Sichen curse in his head.

【Damn it, hungry and sleepy. I spent noon just playing ball and didn’t even eat lunch.】

The next second, Wang Sichen suddenly propped himself back up from the desk.

【I almost forgot! I’ve got the puffs Xiang Di gave me!】

Wang Sichen quickly pulled his arm back and started rummaging in his desk.

Bai Jiangxin could no longer hear his inner voice, but before Wang Sichen’s thoughts disappeared, he clearly heard—

Xiang Di’s name.

He turned his head and watched as Wang Sichen really did pull out a paper bag from his desk.

That’s right. It was the exclusive packaging bag from the bakery near Xiang Di’s place.

Bai Jiangxin’s expression darkened.

So where were his puffs?

Wang Sichen opened the paper bag, leaned his nose close, and took a satisfied sniff. Then, in a very sleazy manner, he lowered his head, quickly grabbed a puff with his hand, stuffed it into his mouth, and then covered his mouth with one hand in a self-deceiving gesture, chewing slowly.

Bai Jiangxin: “……”

Wang Sichen ate two or three like this before finally noticing that Bai Jiangxin was looking at him.

For no reason, he felt a bit guilty, like he’d been caught red-handed. Wang Sichen split his mouth into a grin, picked up a puff with his hand, and asked him, “Puff—want one?”

Seeing Wang Sichen grab the puff directly with his hand, and that hand might not even be washed, Bai Jiangxin frowned in discomfort.

“No need.” After a pause, Bai Jiangxin asked, “Where did you get these puffs?”

Even though he had already heard Wang Sichen’s thoughts and knew the puffs were given by Xiang Di, Bai Jiangxin didn’t know why he still bothered to ask.

Sure enough, Wang Sichen said, “Xiang Di gave them to me.”

Bai Jiangxin was still frowning and asked again, “Why did she give you puffs?”

That interrogative tone, that blunt question, directly stunned Wang Sichen.

He couldn’t very well say it was because he hadn’t washed his hands at noon and had grabbed Xiang Di’s puffs without permission, then got disliked by her, and she simply gave all the puffs to him to eat.

That would be way too embarrassing. Wang Sichen said, “There’s no why. She just gave them to me to eat.”

Before he went to the office, Xiang Di had been giving one to each person. But when it came to Wang Sichen, for no reason at all, she just slapped the entire bag over to him?

It was one thing if she was especially considerate toward that new mixed-blood transfer, but Wang Sichen—what right did he have?

Was she really so indiscriminate? Liking every type?

Bai Jiangxin was clearly unconvinced by Wang Sichen’s bullshit. He tugged at the corner of his lips and asked, “No reason, and she gave you a whole bag? Doing charity?”

“Hey, Bai Jiangxin, I respect you as the top student of the grade, and my attitude toward you has been pretty respectful, right? But that’s going too far. What do you mean charity? I’m not a beggar.”

Wang Sichen snorted lightly and said, “Then it’s just that Xiang Di and I are close, so she gave me a whole bag of puffs to eat. Is that not okay?”

Bai Jiangxin narrowed his eyes. “You’re close with her?”

Wang Sichen answered confidently, “Yeah.”

Anyway, he had already planned to treat Xiang Di to a meal. Once they ate together, if they got along, they’d naturally be friends—so he wasn’t really lying.

That was what Wang Sichen said in his heart.

Bai Jiangxin asked lightly, “How close?”

Wang Sichen: “……” Why did it feel like he was being interrogated?

“Bai Jiangxin, Wang Sichen, I’ve been watching you two for quite a while.” The physics teacher on the podium suddenly spoke.

It wasn’t surprising for Wang Sichen to be called out, but for Bai Jiangxin to be named—that was rare. In an instant, everyone in the class was wide awake, eyes widened in curiosity as they looked over at them.

Xiang Di had been a little drowsy herself, but the moment she heard Bai Jiangxin being called out, she reflexively looked over.

Everyone in the class was quite surprised. They knew Wang Sichen talked a lot and could chat with anyone, but they hadn’t expected him to be so impressive that he could even get Bai Jiangxin to whisper during class.

Daring to lead the academic god astray—now Wang Sichen was in trouble. He was definitely going to get chewed out by the physics teacher.

Even Wang Sichen himself thought so. He figured it was over—if the physics teacher went and tattled to the homeroom teacher later, he’d get another round of scolding.

But this old physics teacher really didn’t play by the rules. He sighed and directly opened fire on Bai Jiangxin.

“Bai Jiangxin, the teacher knows you don’t really need to listen to class anymore. I’m not forcing you to. If you’re really bored, you can sleep, or wear earphones and play on your phone—anything is fine. But Wang Sichen still needs to listen in class. His physics grade still has plenty of room to improve. You can’t engage with him.”

Being called out by the teacher, Bai Jiangxin’s expression didn’t look too good, while Wang Sichen was completely mortified.

Teacher, on the surface you’re scolding Bai Jiangxin, but in reality you’re humiliating me, right?

Soft laughter rippled through the classroom. This little interruption came at just the right time—everyone was instantly no longer sleepy.

The physics teacher said calmly, “Alright, you’re all awake now, right? Let’s continue the lesson.”

Xiang Di absentmindedly glanced toward Wang Sichen’s side and suddenly felt a bit jealous of him.

She sat next to Bai Jiangxin every day, yet Bai Jiangxin rarely paid her any attention. So why was it fine when it was Wang Sichen?

No, she absolutely had to ask him for tips on how to get along with Bai Jiangxin.

─── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ───

The first class of the afternoon finally ended. As soon as the physics teacher left, Xiang Di immediately went to chat with Wang Sichen.

Opening her mouth and directly asking him to teach her the art of conversation would make her intention too obvious, and Bai Jiangxin was still there. Xiang Di chose to take a roundabout approach.

She put on a smile. “Were the puffs good?”

“They were good.” Wang Sichen said. “Um, how about I treat you to dinner at the cafeteria tonight? Okay?”

She originally couldn’t care less about a meal like that, but eating together in the evening would be perfect for asking him what he’d been chatting about with Bai Jiangxin during class. Xiang Di nodded. “Sure, then let’s—”

“Xiang Di.”

Before she could finish speaking, she was interrupted by a cool voice.

Xiang Di turned her head and saw that it was Bai Jiangxin calling her.

Bai Jiangxin tossed aside the pen in his hand and said directly to her, “Come out for a moment.”

Xiang Di didn’t know what he wanted, but if it was Bai Jiangxin’s instruction, she would definitely follow it.

Before going out, Xiang Di even specifically said to Wang Sichen, “Don’t forget about dinner tonight.”

Wang Sichen replied with an acknowledging sound. “Got it. You go.”

Right in front of Bai Jiangxin, they set a dinner date.

Bai Jiangxin didn’t say a word and went out. Xiang Di hurriedly followed after him. After the two of them left, Ye Minjia slapped the desk and said arrogantly to Liang Qianqian, “You still dare say I’m the reincarnation of Kogoro? I’m clearly Edogawa Conan, the China branch! Kudo Shinichi, the China branch! The China-branch model of a drum washing machine!”

Liang Qianqian: “……”

Idiot.

─── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ───

Xiang Di followed Bai Jiangxin out of the classroom and watched as he led her to the stairwell near the end of the corridor on this floor.

This place was usually where little couples met up. Xiang Di didn’t know why Bai Jiangxin had brought her here. Of course, she wasn’t so narcissistic as to think he had brought her here to confess to her.

Sure enough, when Bai Jiangxin opened his mouth, it wasn’t “I like you,” but—

“Where are the puffs?”

Xiang Di let out an ah, lowered her head, and played dumb with him. “What puffs?”

Just as Xiang Di was keeping her head down, she suddenly felt the top of her head being lifted up by a hand.

Bai Jiangxin reached out, his broad palm pressing down on her small head, forcibly making her lift her head and look straight at him.

Tsk. As expected, he still couldn’t hear her thoughts.

Everyone else was fine—only she wasn’t.

Bai Jiangxin told himself not to care. The puffs were bought by her in the first place; naturally, she could give them to whoever she wanted to eat them. It was none of his business. And she hadn’t said that the puffs were bought for him anyway.

But as he bent down, leveling his gaze with her flickering eyes, what he said was, “You gave them all to Wang Sichen, right?”

Feeling the weight from above her head, Xiang Di felt a little dizzy.

Oh my god, is this the legendary head-pat kill? Even though she didn’t know why she was suddenly being patted on the head, it was so heart-fluttering.

“Xiang. Di.”

Whether it was because she had spaced out again and annoyed him, or because at this moment he couldn’t hear what she was thinking and that annoyed him—since she liked him, then shouldn’t she be listening to him seriously?

Bai Jiangxin had no choice. He really wanted to give her head a couple of hard knocks to vent his frustration. “Why is it that every time I talk to you, you look like you’re spacing out?”