Hearing the knock, Zhu Xing instantly closed his mouth and held his breath, even though he didn’t feel like he had done anything shameful.
After the knock sounded, Lin Yu’s voice was heard again, “Classmate Qu, have you changed your clothes?”
Zhu Xing was a little puzzled as to what Lin Yu wanted with Qu Qingyu.
Qu Qingyu impatiently replied, “What is it?”
“Thank you for what happened last night.”
“Hmm.” After Qu Qingyu’s cold response, Lin Yu fell silent.
Remembering that he still had a face-slapping mission to complete, Zhu Xing hurriedly pulled open the door.
Seeing the door suddenly fly open to reveal Zhu Xing instead, Lin Yu glanced sideways into the room. Seeing that both of them were normally dressed, he faintly let out a sigh of relief.
Lin Yu didn’t dare to provoke Zhu Xing, or rather, to face Zhu Xing alone, so he hurriedly turned around and walked away.
Zhu Xing blocked his path, a look of disdain on his face, “What? Afraid of me? You know what you did was shameful, don’t you?”
Qu Qingyu found it rather novel that the person who had just been shrinking away like a quail was now firing on all cylinders.
“Classmate Zhu, I didn’t do anything,” Lin Yu said, a stubborn look in his eyes as he cautiously glanced at Qu Qingyu, who was watching the drama unfold from behind.
Caring no longer about Qu Qingyu behind him, Zhu Xing stepped forward, raised his right hand, and tried to give Lin Yu a slap; completing the mission took priority.
Before he could make contact, his wrist was grabbed. The protagonist gong arrived just in time and angrily said to Zhu Xing, “For the sake of all these years between us, I won’t deal with you today. But if you ever dare to touch him again…”
Before Ying Chi could finish his threat, a crisp “slap” echoed out. Zhu Xing used his left hand to complete the mission.
He then looked provocatively at Ying Chi, “And then?”
Ying Chi’s expression grew even uglier as he gripped Zhu Xing’s wrist. The wrist was fair and slender, with the pulse of the blood vessels visible beneath the skin. Because Ying Chi was gripping too hard, a sharp pain shot through it.
“Hiss.” Zhu Xing glared at him.
Ying Chi still maintained a shred of propriety and wouldn’t casually resort to hitting people, but he was somewhat frightening when angry. Zhu Xing wasn’t afraid at all; since his in-pain wrist wouldn’t pull free, he raised his left hand, intending to directly stamp this guy with a matching lover’s slap mark.
Ying Chi hadn’t expected that a simple annulment of their engagement would make Zhu Xing so exceptionally hot-tempered and prone to hitting people at every turn.
He flung Zhu Xing’s wrist away, revealing a stark, clearly visible fingerprint that looked unusually glaring.
Ignoring Zhu Xing’s pitiful wrist, Ying Chi rushed over to check Lin Yu’s face.
Lin Yu’s eyes were brimming with tears, though he didn’t dare to cry out loud. Covering his face in silence, Ying Chi forcibly pulled his hand away, revealing that the palm print underneath was actually not very obvious at all.
Of course it wasn’t obvious. Zhu Xing had simply been going through the motions to complete his task; he and Lin Yu were total strangers, and there was no need to actually beat someone to a pulp.
Yet this slight mark was enough to break Ying Chi’s heart with anguish. He hastily dragged Lin Yu toward the infirmary, though Lin Yu went along quite reluctantly.
The two of them pulling and tugging at each other almost blinded Zhu Xing.
“Tsk tsk, Second Young Master Zhu’s hands aren’t just an expert at picking locks; he’s also exceptionally smooth at handing out slaps,” Qu Qingyu remarked mockingly after watching the whole drama.
His gaze fixed on Zhu Xing’s hands. The fingers were fair and delicate, their tips tinged with pink, and the nails trimmed neatly. Qu Qingyu had to admit that these hands truly possessed a certain aesthetic appeal.
Yet the ferocious fingerprint on the wrist completely ruined this harmony.
Having smoothly completed the plot point, Zhu Xing failed to hear the sound of points being credited to his account, and began frantically calling 520 in his mind.
Hearing Qu Qingyu’s sarcastic tone, Zhu Xing realized the audience hadn’t left yet, “Classmate Qu, lick your lips.”
“?”
“See if you poison yourself to death.”
With that, he waited for the notification sound of points being deposited, but nothing happened.
Zhu Xing had no mood left to bicker with Qu Qingyu.
With his points missing and his baseline survival allowance on the verge of disappearing, what did a little sarcasm even matter?
[$250, get out here! Where are my points?!] After Zhu Xing called out several times, the system finally emerged, shrinking and cowering.
[Host, this mission wasn’t judged as a success.] Terrified that Zhu Xing might beat it up, the avatar of a small cat covered its head with both paws.
[Why? Didn’t I hit him?]
[Because although you made a move, the protagonist gong didn’t actually do anything.] The system’s voice grew fainter and fainter as it sensed Zhu Xing’s rising displeasure.
[I want to resign. I’m not doing this anymore,] Zhu Xing said angrily.
[Host, please don’t! What will I do if you resign? Besides, if you resign, you’ll have to go to a remote star system with no food or housing, where the people all look bizarre, and you might even get buggered!] The system tried desperately to salvage the situation.
Hearing the phrase get buggered, Zhu Xing’s backside clenched tightly.
[Host, let me report the situation, okay? Don’t rush to quit just yet. I’ll go apply to get those points back!] Terrified that Zhu Xing might run away, the system hurriedly tapped out the application at lightning speed.
Back in the classroom, Ying Chi was busy comforting Lin Yu, whose eye rims were still red as he sat in silence.
Zhu Xing had no mood to deal with these two; his mind was entirely occupied with when his basic allowance would finally be credited. But even when Zhu Xing ignored them, trouble-makers always managed to seek him out.
“Zhu Xing, come with me,” Ying Chi called out to Zhu Xing, full of lingering rage.
Treating Ying Chi as if he didn’t exist, Zhu Xing simply sat back down in his seat, his mind filled with nothing but his points.
Seeing that Zhu Xing didn’t take his words seriously at all, Ying Chi’s expression turned somewhat unnatural.
“Zhu Xing, it was I who actively called off the engagement; it has nothing to do with Lin Yu.” Gazing abstractedly at the person before him, Zhu Xing muttered a string of incomprehensible nonsense under his breath.
“You’re so annoying!” His voice was crisp and bright, startling Ying Chi into freezing right where he stood.
Eager to be free of the eyesore, Zhu Xing buried his face in his desk. Sometime later, Ying Chi finally walked away.
Drifting into a hazy sleep, Zhu Xing genuinely dozed off. At some point, Qu Qingyu returned to the seat beside him, bringing with him a fresh, piercingly cool fragrance that seemed to instantly banish all irritation.
When Zhu Xing opened his eyes, the scene before him was slightly hazy, as though veiled by a thin layer of gauze. Noticing that Zhu Xing had woken up, the person beside him glanced over and consciously softened his movements.
Qu Qingyu had just sat down when the Zhu Xing beside him woke up. Resting on the desk, only his eyes were visible, carrying a dazed, dewy look as he stared blankly, prompting Qu Qingyu to naturally quiet his actions.
Who would have thought that less than two minutes later, Zhu Xing would suddenly bolt upright with an excited expression, leaving Qu Qingyu to look at him with uncomprehending bewilderment.
Zhu Xing ignored Qu Qingyu’s “you’re acting like an idiot” gaze because his basic allowance had finally returned.
Perhaps due to the threat of Zhu Xing’s resignation, his superiors had finally relented. Looking at the newly credited 20 points, Zhu Xing felt thoroughly refreshed, and even the two people sitting in front of him suddenly looked a lot more pleasing to the eye.
He slipped away the moment school let out, ignoring Ying Chi who was still standing behind him, apparently trying to issue another warning.
Watching Ying Chi’s movements, Qu Qingyu let out a cold snort.
“What is he fronting for?”
“You!”
Ever since Qu Qingyu returned to the Qu family, entered this university, and became classmates with Ying Chi, they had never gotten along. Ying Chi loved to show off, and the former Zhu Xing had been his little tail, trailing after him with a crowd of flatterers and sycophants.
As a result, Ying Chi had truly started treating himself like the local emperor of the school.
Even toward Qu Qingyu, whose family background matched his own, Ying Chi maintained the exact same bossy, imperious attitude. Qu Qingyu refused to coddle him, and after a few back-and-forths, the two of them became completely incompatible.