Guo Shichao and Zhao Zheng’s dinner consisted of instant noodles and cola.
In the small convenience store, there was a microwave. After reheating Jiang Yumo’s leftover fried rice, Duan Ye returned to the classroom.
Naturally, Guo Shichao didn’t bother to ask for new disposable chopsticks. He watched his Brother Duan enjoy the fried rice with great interest, as if it was a delicious delicacy. With a teasing thought in mind, Guo Shichao asked, “Brother Duan, how does this fried rice taste?”
Duan Ye didn’t even lift his head and slowly replied, “What do you think?”
Taking advantage of Duan Ye’s current good mood, Guo Shichao was extremely curious about today’s events, so curious that he couldn’t hold it in. He lowered his voice and asked, “Brother Duan, what happened today?” Before Duan Ye could answer, he continued, “We’ve known each other for so long, and I’m sure you didn’t just suddenly want to play. If you really wanted to play, you wouldn’t have chosen mealtime on purpose.”
But he ended up playing with Zhou Ji.
It’s so unusual.
Maybe Jiang Yumo would have listened to Duan Ye’s explanation because, in a sense, even though she was Duan Ye’s love interest, she didn’t understand him as well as Guo Shichao and Zhao Zheng, his friends. It’s widely known that Duan Ye is good at basketball, but he has been busy lately, and there aren’t many people who can keep up with his play pace, so he put it aside. Only occasionally, when he felt like it, he would go to the sports gym to play with others.
They were almost at the cafeteria entrance for dinner, so why would Brother Duan suddenly change his mind?
And still playing with a group of strangers?
In short, something is very wrong.
Duan Ye focused on eating his fried rice and didn’t respond to Guo Shichao’s words.
Guo Shichao speculated on his own, “I don’t know any of those second-year students, and it seems like you don’t either. They wouldn’t dare to make you unhappy, except for Zhou Ji. But Brother Duan, if you have a problem with Zhou Ji, you could have dealt with it directly at the beginning of the school year. Why wait until now? Something must have happened that I don’t know.”
Duan Ye still didn’t react.
Guo Shichao paused, staring at his face and paying attention to his expression. He boldly said, “Is it related to Sister Mo? Sister Mo and Zhou Ji?”
Sure enough, the next moment, Duan Ye put down the chopsticks in his hand and looked at him expressionlessly.
Guo Shichao thought to himself, “Nailed it! As clever as he is, I still managed to guess it!“
But Sister Mo and Zhou Ji… They’re completely unrelated people.
“Don’t make unfounded statements,” Duan Ye spoke up.
Guo Shichao dismissed it with a wave of his hand, “No, Sister Mo and Zhou Ji aren’t acquainted at all, except for that one time.”
At the beginning of the school year, Jiang Yumo did come to Class 10.
She came with other girls to see the transfer student.
Guo Shichao shook his head again, seemingly speaking to himself, “No, if that incident had bothered you, you wouldn’t have waited until now to explode. So it couldn’t be about that time.”
Duan Ye warned him, “I’ve told you, don’t make unfounded statements.”
“… ” Guo Shichao got scared and after thinking for a moment, he still spoke up, “Today, when you were playing basketball, Sister Mo was there. I probed Sister Mo, and she said she hadn’t even seen Zhou Ji twice, let alone spoken to him. Sister Mo isn’t a liar.”
Jiang Yumo is straightforward. Whatever she’s thinking, it shows on her face.
They’ve known each other for so long, and Guo Shichao doesn’t think Jiang Yumo is the type of girl who would lie.
So, where was the real problem? It’s truly frustrating.
Duan Ye stared at him, furrowing his brow, and his voice clearly showed displeasure, “You probed her?”
Guo Shichao : “…”
D*mn, he blurted it out too quickly!
He felt somewhat at a loss, “Well…”
Duan Ye kept a tense face. Just when Guo Shichao was startled, Duan Ye gave him a cold glance and said, “There shouldn’t be a next time.”
He didn’t like others probing her, even if that someone was his friend and did it for his sake. He still didn’t like it.
Guo Shichao breathed a sigh of relief and sincerely apologized, “Alright, I really didn’t mean it this time.”
Well, who told Brother Duan act so out of character?
Duan Ye made a sound of acknowledgment, “If there’s something, I’ll tell you.”
Guo Shichao : “…”
You don’t seem like everything is fine.
The third year students were going to have a parent-teacher meeting, which made the students unhappy.
They felt like they were almost adults, yet they still had to go through the elementary school-like process of a parent-teacher meeting. It was ridiculous.
The students who had good grades didn’t mind, but those who didn’t do well couldn’t help but privately criticize the school authorities.
Zhou Ji was surrounded by a few followers—
“I’m done for! In the past, I could still fake my report card to deceive my parents, but now I can’t hide it anymore,” complained the bespectacled boy. “Old Liu will definitely use me as an example this time. I must have had a grudge with him in my past life!”
“I have to say, your performance on the exam is really unacceptable. Who gave you the answers? Even I could get a higher score by guessing randomly,” another boy remarked.
“Forget who gave them to me. I can’t bear this anymore. The main issue is that we don’t know any top students.”
One of the boys had a sudden realization, “No, we do know a top student.”
The boy glanced at Zhou Ji, who was playing with his phone, “Brother Zhou’s girlfriend is a top student, she’s ranked first in the entire grade!”
In fact, the followers had almost forgotten about this.
They had never genuinely pursued a girl. After collectively buying a bouquet of roses that one time, they each went their separate ways and forgot about it. After all, they were playing games during the few days off for the National Day holiday.
Now that they mentioned grades, they suddenly remembered, oh yeah! Ning Zhiyu is their newly-acquired sister-in-law!
Zhou Ji, who was originally playing with his phone, slowly lifted his head, “Girlfriend?”
When did he… have a girlfriend?
He had no idea.
One of the followers couldn’t help but blurt out, “On the 1st, didn’t we accompany you to have breakfast, Brother Zhou? We ran into Ning Zhiyu, and then we all pitched in money to buy a bouquet of roses in your name and gave them to her. Brother Zhou, she likes you too. As soon as she heard the flowers were from you, she immediately accepted them. That meant she agreed to be your girlfriend!”
The other followers began to flatter, “Brother Zhou is amazing. Without even showing up, Ning Zhiyu accepted the flowers as soon as she heard your name!”
Only now did Zhou Ji understand what had happened. He pressed his temple and couldn’t help but laugh, “So, one dared to pursue, and the other dared to accept.”
Anyone could be considered Zhou Ji’s girlfriend?
The followers looked at each other and started shifting blame, “Brother Zhou, actually, we were just joking with her. Who knew she would accept the flowers so quickly? It’s not our fault. It’s just that you’re too handsome and charming. She was captivated by you.”
Shifting blame also had its unique techniques. They couldn’t make him unhappy, right?
Anyway, Brother Zhou was always so confident, and they didn’t mind saying a few more words to make him happy.
Zhou Ji : “?”
He was speechless. “Fine, ask her to meet me after school.”
He wanted to see who this girl really was.
If he found out a few days later, would she start flaunting her identity as his girlfriend?
The followers : “…”
Okay, okay!
After school, Zhou Ji sat in a car parked outside the school. It wasn’t a fancy car, probably because his dad wanted him to be low-key, so his assistant arranged for an old Toyota. The driver was a local in Ningcheng, responsible for picking him up and dropping him off every day.
Zhou Ji sat in the back seat, waiting for his followers to bring the “girlfriend” over.
Feeling bored, he casually picked up the Rubik’s Cube from the center console and started playing with it. In his mind, he was thinking that maybe he should play another match with Duan Ye tomorrow. Duan Ye arrived late today, and to be honest, he hadn’t had enough of the match.
On the other side, Ning Zhiyu walked alone in the campus.
A few boys approached her, and she hesitated, slowing down her pace. She had a feeling that these boys were coming for her.
In her hand, she held the flashlight that Jiang Yumo had given her.
Realizing that she was on the school grounds, she relaxed a bit, and her facial expression became calm and composed.
“Ning Zhiyu.”
As the group approached, Ning Zhiyu realized that they were the ones who had given her roses during the holiday.
She instantly felt no fear.
“What’s the matter?” Ning Zhiyu asked.
The followers were actually a little worried that a patrolling teacher might see them. Ning Zhiyu was well-known among the third year students, no, among the entire Fifth High School. The teachers were familiar with her, so if a patrolling teacher saw them talking to her, the teachers would definitely interrogate them endlessly… So, Brother Zhou was really good at making things difficult for others! Weren’t they afraid of the teachers? Why did they have to put them in such a predicament?
What if they caught the attention of a teacher and were stared at?
The followers’ eyes darted around, and their speech became hurried. “Our boss is looking for you, right at the school gate.”
Ning Zhiyu wasn’t quite sure who they were referring to.
Last time, they mentioned delivering flowers on behalf of someone named Zhou… But wasn’t Duan Ye the boss at school?
Would Duan Ye look for her?
But considering Duan Ye’s relationship with Jiang Yumo… and since she was Jiang Yumo’s friend, could it be related to Jiang Yumo? However, the person said, “Our boss is looking for you.” It was all very strange.
Ning Zhiyu maintained her composure and asked, “Duan Ye is looking for me?”
The follower was stunned and extremely frustrated. “Nonsense! Our boss is Zhou Ji, how could you forget that we sent you flowers before!”
Ning Zhiyu replied, “Oh…”
As long as it wasn’t Duan Ye, it was fine.
Otherwise, it would feel strange.
“What ‘oh’? Our boss Zhou Ji is waiting for you at the gate. The car has the license plate number 121, a Toyota!”
Ning Zhiyu snapped back to her senses and her expression turned cold. “I’m not interested.”
After saying that, she ignored the stunned expressions of the few people and walked past them, quickening her pace and walked out of the school.
The few of them looked at each other in confusion.
“What does she mean??”
“Should we catch up with her??”
“And then what? Are you going to tie her up and bring her over? Do you think the security guards at the school gate are just for show? I dare not, whoever dares can go and tie her up!”
“I’m not going either. I’m a student, not a gangster.”
“I’m not going either. The parent-teacher meeting is about to start… And the head teacher is on patrol today. If he sees us, I’ll be beaten to death and face disciplinary action!”
They really didn’t dare.
They didn’t have the guts.
They could only dejectedly approach the Toyota car outside the school and complain, “Boss Zhou, sister-in-law is being spoiled and stubborn. She refuses to come over. It seems like she wants you to personally go and pick her up…”
“Girls are sensitive, you know! Boss Zhou, please understand sister-in-law a bit. She’s just shy and embarrassed.”
Zhou Ji curled his lips. “This is getting interesting.”
He had to personally go and pick her up?
Who was she?
After returning home and freshening up, Jiang Yumo received a bombardment of photos from Yan Qing.
Yan Qing : [Image.jpg]
Yan Qing : [Image.jpg]
They were all pictures of Duan Ye.
Yan Qing : [I asked others for these, and some were found on the forum. I didn’t save the ones that were blurry or had bad angles. Come and see if your Big Brother Duan is super handsome and manly!]
Jiang Yumo : [Stop it!]
Yan Qing : [So, should I not send them?]
Jiang Yumo : [Don’t threaten me~ Hurry up, if I don’t turn off the lights and go to sleep, my mom will storm in!]
She saved all the photos sent by Yan Qing.
She looked at them one by one.
It felt like her heart was gradually being filled with something, and she couldn’t control the slight curl of her lips. She almost wanted to roll around on the bed a few more times.
He really was handsome!
She looked at them once, and then again. After that, she opened her Qzone and entered the photo album section. Her account was filled with various colorful and flashy albums, with lots of photos of her idols, some beautiful pictures she found online, and many other photos.
It was a dazzling sight, but it was hard to notice at first glance. Among all these albums, there was one dedicated album with private access and only she could see it.
Inside were photos of Duan Ye.
Her account password was also known by Duan Ye, and sometimes he would help her level up.
But she believed that he only helped her and never actually opened her account, so he never discovered that she had a private album filled with his photos that only she could see.
She felt conflicted in her heart.
She wanted him to see it, yet she also didn’t want him to see it.