Chapter 16 (1/2)

Shen Liyao continued to stare at Zhao Mingxi as she picked out the coriander leaves for Fu Yangxi.

He didn’t believe the rumors from the International Class about how Zhao Mingxi would give Fu Yangxi desserts everyday. But now that he saw it with his own eyes, he had no choice but to believe it.

He clenched his fist tightly. It felt as if a huge pot of oil was boiling in him, making him feel anxious and annoyed.

Even he himself was not aware of the reason why when he saw such a scene, it was like a needle had been pricked into his eyes. It was much too painful to watch.

He didn’t think that Zhao Mingxi had truly fallen for Fu Yangxi.

She was still angry. Angry at both her family and him.

Or else she didn’t have to purposely pick out the coriander leaves for Fu Yangxi right in front of him.

She was doing this on purpose.

However, if she was hoping for him to approach her again, that would be impossible. Since he’s already done it once, he won’t do it again.

His pride wouldn’t allow it.

Shen Liyao calmed down. He decided to first allow Zhao Mingxi to cool off. Then when she’s done with her tantrum, everything will go back to normal.

He lowered his gaze. He was unwilling to look at them again as it might disrupt his feelings. Thus, he picked up his bag and walked out of the library with a quick pace.

The cold wind blew at him ruthlessly. Shen Liyao still had the paper which he made highlighting the important areas of the Hundred School Tournament in his hands. He walked up to the trash can. With a cold expression, he crumpled up the paper and was about to throw it away when he hesitated. In the end, he opened up the paper with a frown.

He walked to a desk at the main entrance, folded the paper and placed it within the pages of a book. Then, he passed it to the librarian. “Hello. Please help me pass this to a student from the International Class.”

*

Fu Yangxi crossed his arms as he leaned back on the chair, his eyes glaring at Shen Liyao.

Only when Shen Liyao left the library did he withdraw from throwing daggers with his gaze.

He dipped his head to the left and stole a glimpse at Little Mask* who was beside him.

ray’s note: while it is not explained in detail, i would assume that mingxi is wearing a mask similar to that of a surgical mask, if not a cloth mask.

Mingxi was earnestly picking out the coriander leaves.

Fu Yangxi observed her for a while. In the end, he couldn’t help but to ask, “Who was that? A friend of yours?”

Mingxi followed his gaze to look at the entrance. She belatedly realized that he was talking about Shen Liyao.

Mingxi hesitated before speaking, “I guess.”

“You guys are rather close, huh?” Fu Yangxi feigned a tone of nonchalance. He tried his best not to let his jealousy seep through. “I saw how he kept on staring at you. Does he have something to say?”

“We’re alright.” Mingxi answered. If the fact that she was avoiding Shen Liyao nowadays didn’t mean that their relationship was just ‘alright’, then she didn’t know how else to describe it.

Thus, she added, “We’re merely acquaintances.”

It wasn’t until Mingxi was done speaking did she feel that something was odd. It had been almost two weeks since she transferred to the International Class. Usually, this fop would either ask her to leave or get her to run errands for him. She could decipher his behaviour of giving her gifts today as a way to repay her, but why was he suddenly asking her about the people from the Gold Medal Class?

As Fu Yangxi was dissatisfied with this answer, he threw a glance at Shen Liyao’s figure and asked again, “He looks like the kind who would make a show of being decent and proper. Are his results good?”

Mingxi asked, “Why do you ask?” Why is he suddenly curious about his results?

Mingxi immediately understood him. Although her current results were not bad, there was still a huge gap between her and Shen Liyao.

Is Fu Yangxi trying to get someone else to do his homework for him?

“Young Master Fu, you should get those thoughts out of your head.” Mingxi instantly put down the chopsticks and tried to promote herself. “Just let me do your homework for you. I can even imitate your writing. There is no one out there who is as patient as I am when it comes to doing your homework, so why do you want to seek greener pastures?”

Fu Yangxi’s mind went black for just a second before he came back to his senses.

Jealousy! If this isn’t f*cking jealousy then what is it?!

Did he say something? Why was she making such a fuss out of the mere act of doing his homework?!

Fu Yangxi tried his best to stop the corners of his lips from curling upwards. Seeing as how Zhao Mingxi was still looking at him, he quickly controlled his emotions and with the utmost arrogance, he waved his hands as if he was annoyed. “Alright, alright. I won’t let other people do it.”

Mingxi let out a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, the tips of Fu Yangxi’s ears flushed red.

The look which Ke Chengwen gave Mingxi was filled with disbelief. He wanted to say something, but he was hesitant.

Mingxi was focused on everything she did, including simple and delicate matters like picking out coriander leaves. Fu Yangxi used his hand to support his head as he observed the concentrated look in her eyes as well as how the light reflected on her eyelashes.

“Done.” Only when Mingxi returned the chopsticks to him did he come back to his senses.

Fu Yangxi took the chopsticks. As his heart was filled with joy, his appetite became better. He began to eat in huge mouthfuls.

He ate quickly like a vigorous windstorm, but he was also very quiet.

Meanwhile, Mingxi was happily looking at her flower pot. Another three tiny buds had grown. She was going to approach 500 buds soon. Fu Yangxi is such a good person.

While good guy Fu Yangxi was eating, the phone which he had placed on the table suddenly vibrated. He picked it up and unlocked it with one hand before taking a glance at the notification. Jiang Xiuqiu had sent him a WeChat message.

However, before he opened up Jiang Xiuqiu’s message, he was reminded of something— Has Zhao Mingxi sent him a text today?

Zhao Mingxi would give him desserts, send him three WeChat messages and help him do his homework every day without fail.

He was actually unused to it when he didn’t receive the texts today.

“Did you damage your phone today?” Fu Yangxi pretended to ask in a casual manner.

Mingxi was doing the homework beside him. “No.”

—Then why didn’t you send any messages to me? But Fu Yangxi couldn’t get himself to ask her.

He continued to pretend as if it was of no matter and scoffed, “Oh, thank God. You have finally stopped harassing me via text.”

“Didn’t you mute me?” Mingxi questioned.

“Of course I muted you,” Fu Yangxi said. “I don’t even understand what you send me every day. What should I do if not mute you?”

Mingxi said, “Oh.”

It’s good that I’m muted.

As she was quite busy for the past two days, she actually forgot about this. But thanks to Fu Yangxi, she was reminded of it.

Her daily messages nowadays did not amount to any significant amount of buds anymore. Nonetheless, something was better than nothing.

Furthermore, based on Mingxi’s analysis, it would be better for her to continue because what if this setting was similar to QQ whereby continuous messages would lead to a random wheel of fortune?

She immediately took out her phone and opened the WeChat app right in front of Fu Yangxi. Then, she sent Fu Yangxi three emojis.

Fu Yangxi who was at the side caught a glimpse of this. “…”

What the heck? She’s blowing me off!

Was she always this nonchalant when she sent me those WeChat messages every day?

Fu Yangxi used to think that she would contemplate for a long time before sending messages to her crush.

Fu Yangxi’s mind almost stopped working. He really didn’t understand girls.

His phone vibrated. Jiang Xiuqiu sent him another WeChat message. Fu Yangxi opened it and took a glance. “What the f*ck did you buy with my card? Those who don’t know me might think that I like cross-dressing!”

“Tsk.” Fu Yangxi replied with one hand: “Fu Zhiyi just came back and my mother already brought him to meet my grandfather. Since I sensed that something troublesome is about to happen, I didn’t use my own card. When you get back to school you can use my card to buy your fishing rod.”

Jiang Xiuqiu was appeased by this, hence he softened his tone. “Wait a minute. Are you the one pursuing her or is it the other way around? You’re this close to falling head over heels for her.”

Fu Yangxi replied dismissively: “What are you afraid of? She’s not here for my money.”

He paused, then as if he was showing off, he tapped a number of words on his screen and replied: “She used the money that I gave her previously to buy gifts for me. You didn’t know this, did you? :)”

…

“What if she has a long-term plan for major returns?”

“She might not be interested in your money, but she might be interested in the life of being part of the Fu family.”

“After all, she doesn’t know that you have an elder brother. After your real elder brother died, your mother, in her madness, took in Fu Zhiyi as a replacement for him. She even tried her best to get the old man to give his share to Fu Zhiyi. The people out there have no idea about the true happenings of the Fu family and still think that you are the only heir. They think that Fu Zhiyi is merely a cousin of yours.”

“If— I’m saying if—”

“Fu Zhiyi becomes the one to receive the inheritance.”

“Will she approach you, or will she approach Fu Zhiyi?”

Jiang Xiuqiu was not joking this time. His tone was serious.

Although these were not kind words, as someone who had grown up with Fu Yangxi, he had to say them.

They had seen too many similar occurrences in their age. Of course, he had to admit that there weren’t many with a tenacity like what this transfer student has, at least according to Fu Yangxi— She didn’t even want 100,000 yuan.

“I’m sticking to what I’ve always told you. Throughout our whole lives, I’ve never seen someone who pursued you because of your character. You have such a bad personality.”

Fu Yangxi lost his composure. “…You’re on thin f*cking ice. How many times do you want to repeat this?”

Jiang Xiuqiu ignored him and continued: “So what makes this girl special?”

Fu Yangxi stared at the whole bunch of messages sent over by Jiang Xiuqiu.

When he looked through it again, his mindset was very different from how it was before.

At the beginning, he was curious about the transfer student and had been teasing her all the time. He wasn’t bothered by Jiang Xiuqiu’s words at all. If the transfer student was approaching him for some unknown reason, he would straight up wave his hands and say goodbye to her.

But this time, these words became harsh to the eye.

For some reason, a sense of fear crept into Fu Yangxi’s heart.

A few moments later.

“Impossible.” Fu Yangxi didn’t know if he was saying this for Jiang Xiuqiu or himself. He sent: “Just keep your jealousy to yourself. If you continue saying such words I’ll block you. :D”

However, after he sent this, Fu Yangxi’s good mood was all but gone.

He subconsciously looked toward Zhao Mingxi.

Zhao Mingxi was still doing her work silently. She was very pale, and when she was quiet, she looked like a piece of jade; it was a view that calmed his mind.

Her black middle-length hair was tied into a ponytail today, revealing her creamy neck.

Fu Yangxi noticed that a red string was hanging around her neck. There seemed to be a good quality jade pendant on it— It didn’t look like an accessory that current 17 or 18 year old girls who would prefer to wear earrings and outrageous necklaces would usually wear. Instead she looked like someone from a small town, emitting a vibe of a gust of wind blowing through a camphor tree in summer.

She seemed to be attracting the attention of a few bugs as there was a bottle of hydrosol on the table. This explained the faint fragrance on her body.

Fu Yangxi couldn’t help but to pull up his pants a little to reveal his ankles. He wanted the mosquitoes to bite him instead.

However, he didn’t have the blood type that attracts mosquitoes.

Although Mingxi noticed Fu Yangxi’s stare, she didn’t stop writing. She turned to take a glance at him and asked, “What’s up?”

As if he got caught, Fu Yangxi immediately retracted his gaze. He stretched his arms upward nonchalantly and cleaned up the takeout boxes. “I’m done eating. It’s almost 10p.m., when are you going back to your dorm?”

When he finished his sentence, he gave Ke Chengwen a look.

Ke Chengwen instantly understood him. “Oh, these things are far too heavy. Since we’re guys, we’ll help you bring them back to your dorm room.”

Fu Yangxi continued the act by furrowing his brows, as if he was forced to do it. “Fine. I’ll help you out.”

While he was speaking, he casually tossed his phone aside.

*

The screen on Fu Yangxi’s phone was bright.