She glanced sideways. Although he was making a request, the boy’s expression remained as cool and detached as ever, his eyes revealing nothing.
Yu Zhi quietly withdrew her gaze.
“Mm.”
She agreed and unzipped her pencil case.
She didn’t have much else, but she had plenty of pens—she couldn’t resist buying pretty ones.
Before she could take one out, she heard Chen Yihan say, “I have one. Do you want to use mine?”
“Brother Han, don’t you only have that one?” Fu Bin asked.
“I don’t take notes.”
But Zhong Shiyu simply took the less flashy pen Yu Zhi had just pulled out.
“Thank you.” Only then did he look at Chen Yihan. “I have one now, no need.”
Chen Yihan slowly withdrew his hand, but his gaze remained fixed on Yu Zhi. The girl didn’t look at him, leisurely spinning the pen in her hand, then spinning it faster and faster.
Even though he stared for a while, she seemed completely unaware.
The boy slowly averted his eyes, finally turning his head back. He began spinning the pen in his hand at the same speed, as if trying to dispel the gloom in his eyes.
In reality, Yu Zhi paid fairly close attention during lectures. She had a habit of taking photos of the PowerPoint slides—whether they were useful or not, she snapped them all anyway.
A good memory is no match for… well, no match for PowerPoint.
Zhong Shiyu, who had remained silent throughout the entire class, spoke to Yu Zhi during the break: “I missed one of the slides. Could you send it to me?”
“Hmm?” Yu Zhi looked at him. “I don’t think I have your contact info, do I?”
Before Zhong Shiyu could say anything else, she had already opened her photo album. “Which slide did you miss? Just take a photo of it from my phone.”
Zhong Shiyu’s hand holding his phone paused for a moment, but he quickly replied, “Mm.”
Yu Zhi saw him unlock his phone, and a new message notification popped up on the screen. Her eyesight was too good—she could already see it was from Chen Yihan and even make out the content.
“Zhong Shiyu, let’s switch seats next class.”
Uh… what is this little drama queen trying to do?
Fortunately, the High Mountain Flower showed no intention of responding. His slender fingers swiped across the screen, dismissing the message, and then he opened the camera.
“Thank you,” he said after taking the photo, putting his phone away.
“No problem.”
The next two specialized classes required moving to a different classroom.
While packing her bag, Zhong Shiyu handed the pen over from beside her. “Your pen, thank you.”
Yu Zhi didn’t take it. “Keep it. Don’t you still have classes later?”
The boy withdrew his hand and said again, “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
A crowd of students began pouring out of the large classroom through the front and back doors. Yu Zhi was squeezed in the middle when she suddenly felt someone brush against her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Chen Yihan, who was quite a bit taller than her.
The boy was looking down at her.
The moment their eyes met, he seemed about to say something, but no sound came out.
Once outside the classroom, the space opened up, and Yu Zhi immediately turned away.
After walking a few steps, she could faintly hear Fu Bin chattering: “Brother Han, our classroom is this way.”
Their next class wasn’t in the same direction.
The boy, who had instinctively taken a step to follow, paused, then retreated after a moment.
An unfathomable frustration lingered between his brows.
Fu Bin’s dormitory was quite famous throughout Jiang University. While Jiang University didn’t officially rank campus heartthrobs, two of the students who could qualify as such were from his dorm.
Chen Yihan was quite outgoing and skilled in various sports. His family was fairly wealthy, and on the first day of school, he made a grand entrance with a flashy sports car, which kept his classmates talking for a long time.
Now in his second year of university, he had many friends and had almost formed his own circle. People came and went within this circle, but he remained its unchanging core.
Zhong Shiyu, on the other hand, was a completely different type.
He preferred to keep to himself, leaving the dorm early every day for morning runs and reading. When he had no classes, he would spend his time in the library, and when he did have classes, he never missed a single one.
He was the epitome of an icy, top-performing student.
But now…
Both of them were acting rather unusual. One was still in the dorm so late in the morning, while the other had returned unusually early in the evening.
Chen Yihan had been sitting at his desk for quite a while now. Surprisingly, he hadn’t gone out to have fun or started gaming with friends. Instead, he just held his phone in his hand, tapping it idly against the table from time to time, lost in thought.
Fu Bin picked up his basin to go wash up. Just as he turned on the faucet, the bathroom door opened, and Zhong Shiyu walked in.
“Boss, do you need to use the bathroom?”
Fu Bin thought he could step out and wait for a moment.
But Zhong Shiyu shook his head. After standing beside him for a moment, he suddenly asked, “Do you have Yu Zhi’s contact information?”
“Huh?” Fu Bin was taken aback but nodded. “Yeah, I do.”
“Could you share it with me?” Zhong Shiyu paused, then explained, “She lent me a pen today. I’d like to return it to her when I have the chance.”
“Oh…” Something felt a bit off, but it wasn’t a big deal. Though puzzled, Fu Bin still pulled out his phone, found Yu Zhi’s contact, and sent it to Zhong Shiyu.
Zhong Shiyu received the new message notification almost immediately. He opened the contact card Fu Bin had sent—the profile picture was of an anime-style girl.
He didn’t add her right away. After thanking Fu Bin, he turned to leave, but just before opening the door, he suddenly looked back and added, “I’ll help you outline the key points for this semester’s finals. No need to mention this to Chen Yihan.”
He clearly knew that without this reminder, Fu Bin would likely spill the beans.
Fu Bin stood there, toothbrush in hand, staring blankly as the bathroom door closed.
Hmm… why did it feel… even stranger now?
Yu Zhi had been spending her days in the library lately.
As an architecture student, she had a course on ancient architecture this semester and had been reading some related books.
It wasn’t until evening that she noticed the unread message.
It was from Chen Yihan.
“My mom said she’s prepared your favorite dishes at home. Are you free this weekend?”
This was the first time Chen Yihan had contacted her since their last encounter. The message had been sent in the morning, but she only saw it now.
Before Yu Zhi could reply, she received a new friend request.
She opened it—it was from Zhong Shiyu.
The note read: “Thanks for the pen.”
Yu Zhi stared at the “Accept Request” button for a while but didn’t tap it.
Almost simultaneously, the System’s notification sounded in her mind.
“Reminder, Host: You are about to enter Chapter 20 of the plotline ‘Chasing the Aloof Flower.’”
Wait!
She wasn’t prepared at all…
But in the blink of an eye, the scene before her shifted. This was… the school rooftop? The surroundings were eerily quiet, with only the sound of the wind.
In reality, the school rooftop was always tightly locked, but this was different—this was a novel. And what novel would be complete without such a classic dating spot?
“Yu Zhi, is threatening me with those photos all you know how to do?”
A cold, resentful voice made Yu Zhi look down. The person who had just sent her a friend request on her phone was now standing right in front of her. His cool, detached face was slightly furrowed at the brow, carrying three parts impatience, three parts humiliation, three parts disgust, three parts…
Wait, that’s over ten.
In short, he was looking at her with an incredibly complex expression.
Yu Zhi: “…”
Her own feelings were even more complicated.
Chasing the Aloof Flower was, according to the System, the second book in which she served as the female lead.
Zhong Shiyu was the male lead. To this day, Yu Zhi still hadn’t figured out how this System had bound itself to her. Leaving aside her mutually antagonistic relationship with Chen Yihan, she and Zhong Shiyu usually had no interactions at all, right?
They didn’t even have each other’s contact information.
In the book, Zhong Shiyu was also the Aloof Flower, and Yu Zhi fell in love with him at first sight. In the System’s words, she was crazily infatuated and pursued him relentlessly.
As the female lead, she naturally succeeded.
That part wasn’t the main focus. What came after she caught him was the Aloof Flower transforming into a possessive, jealous creature, and the two of them engaging in intense—activities.
Yes, this was a story with some explicit content, so much so that even the synopsis would be censored with asterisks on any proper website.
But now there was a deviation. The explicit content wasn’t the issue; the process was.
What was supposed to be consensual activities had turned into the Aloof Flower being humiliated.
Just like now, the Aloof Flower was being shamefully pinned beneath her.
Yu Zhi hesitated. How could she not? After all, she was a healthy, well-adjusted young woman of her time. Doing something like this…
Wasn’t it quite a dilemma? Yet she couldn’t show any sign of it. Instead, she had to act as though she were experienced and in complete control.
Well, better to start early and finish early. She couldn’t afford to be stuck here forever, and she absolutely didn’t want an NG.
Yu Zhi glanced at her phone.
“I sent you the message at 12:10. It’s 12:20 now.”
“You came up in just ten minutes?”
“Do you really hate it that much?” Yu Zhi asked, her eyes smiling as she looked at him. “Or could it be that you were actually looking forward to it?”
A faint blush appeared on the boy’s originally cold face, though it was unclear whether it was from anger or embarrassment.
“I’m very busy. I don’t have time to waste on this nonsense with you.”
As soon as Zhong Shiyu finished speaking, he tried to sit up. Yu Zhi pushed him back down. “What’s the deal with that girl you had lunch with today?”
She remembered the plot now. In the story, Yu Zhi, jealous after seeing Zhong Shiyu having a meal with another girl, used compromising photos of him to lure him to the rooftop, intending to “teach him a lesson.”
The question seemed to silence Zhong Shiyu for a moment, but he soon sneered coldly. “Weren’t you having a great time fooling around with someone else too?”
Yu Zhi blinked. Well, well, well, there was that jealous flavor. This time, her smile was much more genuine. “What? Are you jealous?”
The boy shot her a cold glare, his voice even icier. “Yu Zhi, I’m telling you, we have no relationship whatsoever. I don’t care what you do, and what I do doesn’t require any explanation to you.”
She understood, she understood. The Aloof Flower was like that.
“Your mouth is so stubborn?”
Since Yu Zhi was pinning him down, the boy was half-lying with his legs apart. Yu Zhi had one knee positioned between his legs, and now she slowly began to shift it upward.
“Is this just as stubborn as your mouth?”
The boy’s originally pale face flushed even redder, his calm voice tinged with disbelief.
“Yu Zhi, have you lost your mind? This is at school! And outdoors at that!”
It’s not me who’s crazy, it’s the System. Yu Zhi glanced at the chapter summary.
Outdoors, mouth exposed, feet exposed, mouth to mouth…
Outdoors is just the beginning.
Her face flushed bright red.
Author’s Note:
None