Before, she only felt that the time between classes was too short, as if there was still so much she hadn’t had time to do when the bell rang, but now, she had never felt that these ten-plus minutes could actually be this long.

Minutes passed like a hellish death march, and Bai Jiangxin finally broke the silence.

Although he didn’t know what she had to be so embarrassed about, continuing to stay silent like this wasn’t a solution. Clearing his throat lightly, he returned to his usual mechanical and indifferent tone and asked her, “Which question?”

Xiang Di let out a sigh of relief and quickly handed the chemistry test paper over.

“…This one.”

Luckily, there was finally something that could shift his attention. Bai Jiangxin glanced at the problem and said, “Use the difference method to calculate it.”

Xiang Di: “Huh?”

Her understanding of chemistry hadn’t reached that level at all. Bai Jiangxin picked up a pen and started explaining from the beginning: “You set the mass of magnesium oxide as x. It and magnesium carbonate are heated at the same time…”

“…So you choose A.” Bai Jiangxin looked at her. “Do you understand?”

Xiang Di lowered her head and looked at the calculation steps he had written out for her on the scratch paper, blinking slowly.

Why was it so easy to understand? It hadn’t even been a minute.

She hadn’t listened enough to his clear, low voice while he explained the problem, hadn’t looked enough at his beautiful, slender fingers holding the pen as he confidently calculated on the scratch paper, and hadn’t sat enough by his side.

Because once this question was done, she had to roll back to her own seat.

For the first time, Xiang Di regretted that she was actually this smart.

But if she pretended she didn’t understand, she was afraid Bai Jiangxin would think she was stupid, so she could only honestly say, “I understand.”

Bai Jiangxin hummed and handed the test paper back to her.

Xiang Di took the paper and prepared to leave.

The social-death crisis from just now had already been cleverly resolved. Actually, at this moment, she just needed to pretend nothing had happened.

But…

Xiang Di bit her lip and still decided to explain a bit more.

She didn’t expect her secret crush to succeed, but at the very least, in these last few months, she wanted to leave him with a good enough impression.

That way, years later, even if only for a second, if Bai Jiangxin happened to recall his high school days, in his memories, she should at least be a positive image, not a female hooligan who sent him borderline videos.

Whether he cared or not didn’t matter—she cared. People with secret crushes are just melodramatic. They especially care about their image in the eyes of the person they like. What can you do about it?

Xiang Di spoke in a tone like she was ready to face death.

“So, um, you mentioned abs just now…” she said with difficulty. “Did I also send you some strange video?”

Bai Jiangxin raised an eyebrow slightly and said in a deep voice, “What do you mean?”

Xiang Di quickly explained that if he had received some male internet celebrity’s borderline video, it wasn’t sent by her. It was her older brother who had played a prank using her phone yesterday.

But she didn’t say that that male internet celebrity was her brother. Her own biological brother being a borderline internet celebrity was too embarrassing. She couldn’t afford that kind of shame.

“I’m seriously speechless. My brother deleted the chat records on my side, so I don’t even know, and he also sent that video to Zhou Linxiao.” By the time Xiang Di said this, she wanted to cover her face. “I’m really starting to suspect he mass-sent that video to all the boys in my contact list.”

Xiang Di spoke with absolute certainty, almost raising her hand to swear to Bai Jiangxin. “You have to believe me. That video was definitely not sent to you by me personally.”

Looking at how anxious she was to explain, it seemed like if he didn’t believe her, she would have to die to prove her innocence.

Of course Bai Jiangxin believed her. He knew she didn’t have that kind of nerve.

Now that the misunderstanding had been explained clearly and she hadn’t harassed him, logically, this matter should have been over.

But in Bai Jiangxin’s heart, there was still an inexplicable lump of irritation blocking his chest.

His eyes were dark and calm, and there was no fluctuation in his voice. “Since that message wasn’t sent by you.”

Xiang Di nodded like a pecking chick. “Mm, mm.”

“Then why were you looking at Zhou Linxiao’s abs?” After a brief pause, Bai Jiangxin pressed his lips together imperceptibly. “And even touched them?”

Xiang Di said softly, “Because he said he could let me take a look, so I just…”

“So you looked. He said you could touch, so you touched.” Bai Jiangxin stared at her with pitch-black eyes and asked back, “He grew up abroad and doesn’t care about such things. Could it be that you’re the same?”

Xiang Di scratched her cheek. Why did it feel like she was being lectured by an old-fashioned elder? And she hadn’t really touched them anyway, wasn’t she interrupted?

“This has nothing to do with being abroad or not.” She said, “It’s just touching abs.”

Zhou Linxiao had said that people who work out are generally very happy for others to admire their muscles and would even feel proud.

Bai Jiangxin suddenly laughed lightly. “Just? Does that mean if he asked you to touch somewhere else today, you would touch that too?”

Xiang Di tilted her head. “Somewhere else? Where?”

Bai Jiangxin: “……”

At times like this, she was surprisingly innocent.

Talking past each other. He turned his head away. “Forget it. If you think there’s no problem, then there’s no problem.”

Xiang Di felt that Bai Jiangxin’s thinking was a bit too conservative, but she could also understand it. After all, he was a high, untouchable flower on a mountain peak—something to admire from afar, not to be easily approached. If anyone could pick him, then he wouldn’t be a high ridge of flower anymore.

She kindly explained, “Actually, I used to think the same as you, that casually touching other people’s muscles isn’t very good. But Zhou Linxiao told me that it’s very common in their gym. Sigh, we’ve never gone to the gym to work out, and we’ve never specifically trained any muscles, so it’s normal that we don’t know.”

Bai Jiangxin: “Who said I’ve never been?”

Xiang Di: “Huh? You’ve been?”

Bai Jiangxin fell silent, neither confirming nor denying.

Truly worthy of being a top student. Every day, the test papers handed out piled up like a mountain—more than enough to write—and he still had time to go to the gym.

No wonder his waist was so slim, and even through his clothes she could feel firm strength. So aside from being naturally slim-waisted, he had also trained.

Xiang Di asked, curious and cautious: “…Then, do you also have abs?”

Bai Jiangxin raised one eyebrow, glanced at her lightly, and again neither confirmed nor denied.

Xiang Di pursed her lips.

Really want to see. Really want to touch.

But he wasn’t Zhou Linxiao. He definitely wouldn’t let her look, and even more impossible would he let her touch.

But she really, really wanted to see it. A hundred times, ten thousand times more than she wanted to see Zhou Linxiao’s. Even if he didn’t let her see his abs, even if he just rolled up his sleeves and let her take a look at the muscles on his arms, she would already be completely satisfied.

The summer school uniform in senior year still had sleeves. In the past, the most Xiang Di could ever see was that small patch of skin on Bai Jiangxin’s arms. And he was so conservative— even in the hottest summer, he rarely unbuttoned the collar of his uniform.

Although abstinence itself was a kind of sexual tension, the more tightly he buttoned up, the less he let people see, the more she craved it, craving it even in her dreams.

The flesh | body she had been yearning for in her heart for three years—if she could see it once in reality, she wouldn’t have to rely only on imagining it in her head every time.

No matter how much she fantasized inside, Xiang Di still forcibly suppressed the thought. No matter how badly she was craving, her mouth could only say, “Haha, that’s pretty good.”

Just as the topic didn’t seem to know how to continue, Wang Sichen came back. Seeing Xiang Di sitting in his seat, he made a surprised sound.

Xiang Di immediately stood up and returned the seat to Wang Sichen.

Wang Sichen said, “It’s fine, you can sit. I’m just grabbing something.”

“No, no, I just came over to ask a question. I’m done already.”

After returning to her seat, Xiang Di buried her face into her arms in frustration.

Xiang Di, why are you so cowardly, so useless?

You really deserve to have had a secret crush on him for three years and still made zero progress.

She lay face-down on the desk, blaming herself in her heart, completely unaware that Bai Jiangxin, who was seated with several people between them, had a slightly dark expression, his lips drawn into an emotionless straight line, and was also blaming her.

He didn’t know what she was being timid about. He had already hinted enough.

With his usual distant attitude of keeping everyone at arm’s length, toward her, this didn’t even count as hinting— it was practically stating it outright.

She said that touching muscles in the gym was a very normal thing, and he had clearly told her that he had been to the gym, that he also had muscles on his body.

Bai Jiangxin was different from Zhou Linxiao. He didn’t like being touched, let alone showing himself off everywhere like a peacock.

Telling Xiang Di that he went to the gym was already the greatest concession his inner pride could make. Asking him to be like Zhou Linxiao—impossible.

Besides, she was the one who liked him first. Then shouldn’t she be the one to be more proactive?

When it came to the part she was best at—indulging in fantasies—she never shortchanged herself, doing whatever felt good. But once it switched to reality, she became cowardly beyond belief.

Obviously, she just needed to be a tiny bit braver.

Bai Jiangxin’s mood was complicated.

Useless little groundhog. With this attitude, and she still wants to develop something with him?

At this rate, he was afraid that even when he was already buried in the ground one day, she would still be there, sighing over spring and mourning autumn, carrying on her secret crush.

─── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ───

That night, after evening self-study, Xiang Di went home and directly got into a fight with Xiang Sheng.

Calling it a fight was generous. It was more like Xiang Sheng getting beaten unilaterally. Ever since he sent messages to those two male classmates from her phone yesterday, he had already prepared himself to be beaten and had no intention of fighting back.

The difference in their physiques was simply too big. Not to mention that Xiang Sheng liked working out. If he used even a bit of strength, with Xiang Di’s skinny arms and legs, she wouldn’t stand a chance at all.

The more the person being beaten didn’t resist, the more it stirred up the violent factor inside the attacker. Xiang Sheng tensed his whole body. Xiang Di felt that hitting him with her hands was too hard on her hands, so she directly lifted a throw pillow and hammered it against his head.

In the end, Xiang Di got tired of hitting. She threw the pillow aside, stood by the sofa, and viciously spat at him.

“Do you submit? Will you still dare to use my phone to randomly send messages next time?”

Xiang Sheng lay sprawled in the sofa, the corner of his mouth curling as he said cheekily, “You don’t seriously think that with just that bit of strength of yours, you can make your brother submit, do you?”

Xiang Di made a move as if to hit him again. Xiang Sheng exerted strength in his waist and instantly sprang up from the sofa, accurately grabbing her wrist.

Xiang Di struggled a few times, completely unable to break free. She immediately became anxious. “What are you doing!”

Ever since Xiang Sheng entered middle school and their parents taught him that there is a distinction between men and women, and that even as siblings they should be mindful of boundaries, the two of them had never really fought physically again. At most, they would just bicker.

Xiang Di hadn’t expected that after so many years, her brother’s strength had actually become this great. With just one hand gripping her wrist, she already couldn’t move at all.

Seeing Xiang Di struggling in vain in his grasp, Xiang Sheng lazily raised an eyebrow, his tone smug. “Shake it off. If you can shake it off, I’ll give you a thousand yuan.”