The class went fairly smoothly.
Of course, that was entirely thanks to the fact that he’d grown used to being watched.
After all, he’d spent the whole class sandwiched between Shen Yu and Li Cheng. Jian Yue felt this was the reason the gazes directed at him from those around them had grown even more scorching and excessive today.
He shared his theory with the system, and received a somewhat hesitant reply that ultimately chose to agree with him.
So, Jian Yue decided that in the next class, he would find a way to switch seats.
But after being shuffled around all morning through a string of basic courses, it was as if Jian Yue had picked up two pieces of stubborn plaster that wouldn’t peel off.
When Shen Yu noticed the young man deliberately keeping his distance as they moved to a different classroom, instead of displaying his usual highly attuned emotional intelligence by understanding and backing off,
He closed in without any sense of boundaries. He even took the initiative to ask Jian Yue why he insisted on sitting in an empty seat.
Shen Yu’s downturned eyes, which always used to carry a hint of a smile, looked somewhat pitiful in their disappointment.
Though his tone when asking still carried that distinctly personal, gentle trace of laughter, paired with his current expression, it inexplicably carried a hint of showing weakness.
That said, even if Shen Yu deliberately put on this appearance and attitude, it wouldn’t make him look pathetic or unsightly… But Jian Yue noticed that in that instant, the gazes from the people around them grew even more fervent and downright bone-chilling.
‘So that’s how it is. So that’s how it is.’
Seeing this, Jian Yue murmured inwardly, looking as if he’d just had a sudden realization.
[What have you figured out this time?]
The system’s tone was remarkably calm, its pitch flat as it questioned Jian Yue, every word laced with a faint air of resignation.
After all, having spent so long with his host, the system repeatedly strung along by the host’s exaggerated tones only to receive absurd answers had long since grown accustomed to it… He would no longer let his emotions be so easily stirred by the host’s theatrics. His attitude now carried that familiar, speechless exasperation.
‘I can sense that Shen Yu really wants to project an image of being very close with his roommate in front of others.’
Jian Yue deduced with complete seriousness.
‘At first, I naively thought Shen Yu’s behavior was him signaling romantic interest in me. But when the people around started looking at me because of Shen Yu, I realized something was off.’
‘This is a threat, isn’t it? It’s absolutely a threat. If I embarrassed him on the spot, he’d definitely have those surrounding stares riddle me full of holes…’
‘So that’s how it is. At first I thought maybe this guy actually did have feelings for me, why else would he be so good to me…? But now it’s clear. I was just too naive.’
Hearing his host’s inner mutterings, the system fell somewhat silent.
Logically speaking, he too felt that Shen Yu’s affection for the host was the most likely to pass review.
After all, considering how the man had first called for someone downstairs to help distract the dorm supervisor, then directly used his student council position to negotiate with the school administration the second time… Not to mention that dryer application the host had paid no mind to.
But…
The system glanced at the surrounding crowd those unreadable eyes, and the picture of the hostility that had abruptly multiplied around them thanks to Shen Yu’s actions…
He could more or less guess the reasoning behind his host’s deduction.
And so, once again, he found himself persuaded by his host’s judgment.
Shen Yu was indeed a very popular person.
That being the case, after Jian Yue had actively rejected Shen Yu, he naturally drew quite a few hostile (?) gazes. It was understandable that he’d arrived at the conclusion that “this is a threat.”
What’s more, ever since Jian Yue had established the premise that “they have no real feelings for me,” he felt the whole situation was becoming more and more chilling the longer he thought about it.
Especially when it came to this Shen Yu.
‘Terrifying. If this person keeps up this ambiguous attitude to confuse me, I might never realize that the plot has changed. I could go my whole life without entering the storyline and completing my mission…’
Jian Yue rattled on in his head in a tone that was nearly theatrically dazed.
‘Come to think of it. If it weren’t for that day off, when I suddenly noticed something was off about the plot and used my superb deductive skills to figure out that they don’t actually have any feelings for me, would I have just kept working until I finally figured it out?’
‘Terrifying. Especially Shen Yu, his behavior is completely different from those two, which is exactly why he’s managed to confuse me all this time, and I’ve worked all those days for nothing…’
‘Could it be…’
‘He’s the bubble tea shop manager behind it all?’
Jian Yue had a sudden epiphany.
Having listened to his host’s string of machine-gun-fire deductions, the System was caught completely off guard when the other party suddenly arrived at the “Shen Yu Is the Bubble Tea Shop Manager” theory, and was once again forced to experience a violent emotional rollercoaster.
He genuinely couldn’t understand his host’s thinking anymore.
But the latter, meanwhile, had managed to justify it all to himself with an explanation he considered perfectly reasonable.
‘Look closely, and you’ll see that with Shen Yu playing the all-around nice guy, the only real beneficiary behind the scenes is the bubble tea shop manager.’
‘After all, those idiots who kept showing up night after night contributed quite a bit of money for bubble tea… That money was clearly more like compensation for my emotional distress than payment for tea. The manager pocketed it all, and I got nothing.’
‘So the source of everything must have been one afternoon a fine, sunny day, when Shen Yu made a bet with his family, claiming he could definitely run a successful business… and then just bought the already-popular bubble tea shop by the school gate at a hefty price…’
【Stop. Host, stop talking.】
If the System had been listening earnestly and obediently at first, by the end his face had gone completely dark.
He finally realized his host had been joking around in his head to mess with him, and his mood turned very sour.
But his host, who had been bombarding him with all these bizarre theories, had while mulling over all that nonsense already rejected Shen Yu’s pressure and proactively chosen to sit in a corner seat at the front.
Only then did the System notice that there seemed to be a familiar face by the door.
This familiar face had a languid manner and, as usual, an unfriendly expression. Yet he made the curious gazes of quite a few people shy away one by one, and strolled over with perfect composure to Jian Yue’s side, sitting down uninvited.
It was Mu Yansheng.
When Jian Yue saw that the moment the other party appeared, all those ‘hostile’ gazes directed at her began to disappear one by one, she tacitly allowed Mu Yansheng to sit beside her, and nonchalantly flipped through her textbook.
This discovery made Shen Yu’s smile involuntarily turn cold.
Meanwhile, Jian Yue was continuing her idle chatter with the system in her head, as if justifying her earlier behavior: ‘Don’t be mad yet. Sure, my guess about the bubble tea shop owner was pretty ridiculous, but my earlier suspicion was real…’
‘But I’m ultimately the beneficiary of his actions, so I don’t intend to do anything about it. I just figured things are already this clear, so there’s no point in waiting around for the Quick Transmigration Bureau’s results…’
After saying all that, Jian Yue finally circled back to the topic she most wanted to discuss. With a hint of unmistakable anticipation and delight, she quietly asked this rigid junior system:
‘So… we really can’t leave early? I really don’t mind using up this month’s quota, really.’
The map of the State of Yan was too long, the system genuinely couldn’t process it all at once.
He finally realized that his host truly despised having gotten up early today and having to go to her part-time job after afternoon classes, and for a moment he didn’t know what to say.
But he looked at the form still pending approval, then recalled the lessons from his system training, when the instructor had warned them to ‘not consume resources ahead of schedule, and not let your host lead you by the nose and forget your planning’…
In the end, he steeled himself and refused Jian Yue’s request.
[The chance to leave a mission world unconditionally is precious, Host. So before the real answer comes out, could you hold on for a few more days?]
The system pleaded.