Wen Chu: “!!!”
Her socially anxious instincts instantly erupted. She quickly buried her face back into her scarf, her voice muffled.
“N-No, I can’t. I have a boyfriend…”
The anticipation on the boy’s face dimmed.
“Ah, I see… Sorry for bothering you.”
He was about to apologize again and leave.
Just then, a calm, emotionless voice with a naturally cold tone came from not far away.
“Wen Chu?”
The voice wasn’t loud, but it pierced through the cold morning air like an icicle.
Wen Chu stiffened all over. She raised her head slightly and saw Xi Liye walking toward them.
He was wearing a long black coat, unbuttoned, revealing a crisp beige sweater underneath. A dark gray cashmere scarf was around his neck as he stood a few steps away.
He did not look at the boy who had just tried to hit on his girlfriend.
His gaze landed directly on Wen Chu.
Wen Chu’s heart pounded wildly. Seeing the male lead who would eventually ruin her life made her nervous. She quickly walked toward Xi Liye with stiff, awkward steps and immediately recited the lines she had memorized.
“Xi Liye! Why are you only here now? I’ve been waiting for so long!”
“I’m not late.”
Xi Liye lowered his head and checked his phone.
“It’s seven forty-five.”
Wen Chu choked for a moment, then put on an unreasonable expression.
“So what? This is our first date. Didn’t you know you should come earlier? I’ve been waiting here since seven. I’m freezing to death!”
Wen Chu pretended to be unhappy while secretly observing Xi Liye’s reaction.
Xi Liye really did not understand why a girl would wait so early.
They had clearly agreed to meet at eight.
There were still fifteen minutes before eight.
In his opinion, under the condition that a meeting time had already been set, waiting so early in such cold winter weather was undoubtedly a very foolish thing to do.
But when his calm gaze fell on her red nose and her round, angry-looking eyes, he unusually did not continue defending himself.
Even though Wen Chu freezing here for so long had nothing to do with him.
Wen Chu was almost unable to endure Xi Liye’s gaze. She stomped her foot.
“Do you not care about our date at all? If you don’t care, then let’s not go on this date…”
Xi Liye explained, “That’s not what I meant.”
He raised his hand.
Then he wrapped the dark gray scarf around Wen Chu’s neck.
His scarf was long, carrying the warmth of his body and a clean, pleasant scent. In an instant, it surrounded her completely.
The sudden warmth and intimate gesture made Wen Chu’s words stop completely.
“Sorry.”
Xi Liye lowered his eyes and looked at her face, made even smaller by the scarf. Under the cold wind, the girl seemed a little thinly dressed.
Forget it.
After all, she had been freezing here for so long.
He would not argue with her.
But Wen Chu was confused.
Wasn’t the male lead supposed to be impatient with every girl except the heroine?
What was going on?
After she said, “Then let’s not go on this date,” shouldn’t he have coldly turned around and left, ending things on bad terms?
The boy who had just been about to leave happened to look back and saw this scene. His eyes instantly widened.
Of course, he knew Xi Liye, the famous top student of the medical department. They were in the same school and occasionally crossed paths, though they had never spoken.
But now, he had just seen Xi Liye personally wrap a scarf around that girl and even lower his head to apologize?
The boy awkwardly scratched his head and forced himself to speak.
“B-Brother Xi, she’s your girlfriend…”
The thought that he had just tried to hit on the top student’s girlfriend made him want to disappear on the spot.
“Mm.”
Xi Liye replied faintly and casually nodded.
Wen Chu shrank awkwardly to the side, lowering her head even more, almost burying herself inside the scarf.
She had been so immersed in the scene of arguing with the male lead that she had completely forgotten the boy had not left yet.
Thinking that her spoiled and unreasonable acting had been witnessed by someone else made her feel so socially dead!
“Oh, I see. That’s good…”
The boy laughed dryly.
“T-Then I won’t bother you two. I’ll leave first. I wish you a hundred years of happiness together!”
After saying that, he practically fled in panic, his back filled with embarrassment.
Only the two of them were left in the snow again.
Only then did Xi Liye fully withdraw his gaze and look again at Wen Chu, who almost seemed to have turned into a quail.
“So where are we going for our date?” he asked.
Hearing Xi Liye ask this, Wen Chu immediately perked up. She lifted her chin and puffed out her chest, trying to look fierce.
“Why are you asking me? Didn’t you make any plans for our date? I knew it. You don’t care about this date at all!”
Wen Chu felt smug inside.
Didn’t expect this, did you, male lead?
I still have a second round.
She had not wasted this past week. She had specially looked up several novels about high-maintenance girls and studied them day and night, determined to play the perfect clingy, affection-bombing, troublesome girlfriend!
But she did not know how little threat her attempt at looking intimidating had in Xi Liye’s eyes.
At 163 centimeters tall, she looked especially petite in front of his 187 centimeters.
Even when she tried her best to straighten her neck and lift her face, most of her imposing aura was erased by their huge height difference.
For some reason, Xi Liye thought of the cat he had raised when he was little.
At first, it had scratched and kicked at him, but after being fed enough, it obediently lay down and let him pet it.
“Weren’t you the one who suggested the date first? I thought you would have planned it,” Xi Liye explained.
His tone was very flat, with no emotion in it.
But to Wen Chu, those words were simply a gift from heaven.
“Are you blaming me?!”
She immediately raised her voice, trying hard to make her expression look both unreasonable and wronged.
As she spoke, she observed Xi Liye’s expression.
Based on her past understanding, this kind of unreasonable questioning was the easiest way to make boys feel irritated and impatient.
Especially someone like Xi Liye, a proud favored son of heaven who was used to controlling everything. He definitely would not be able to tolerate being accused like this.
“Then where do you want to go?” he asked.
“How would I know?”
Wen Chu continued attacking.
“If even this kind of thing has to be decided by the girl, then what’s the point of having a boyfriend?”
“Mm.”
Xi Liye nodded, then suddenly took a step closer to her.
“Then… have you eaten breakfast? Do you want to eat something first? I know a place that specializes in breakfast. The taste and environment are both good. A lot of people make reservations there every morning.”
Wen Chu did not expect the male lead to remain calm instead of getting angry.
He had even started planning the date.
The lines she had prepared were stuck halfway in her throat.
But…
A lot of people make reservations?
The troublesome-girlfriend plan could pause for now.
Asking a socially anxious person to go somewhere crowded was no different from killing her.
“N-No, forget it!”
She immediately waved her hands, then offered another suggestion.
“Why don’t we just eat at the cafeteria? That’s fine too…”
The more she spoke, the smaller her voice became, lacking confidence.
Who goes to the cafeteria for a date?
Fortunately, Xi Liye did not care much about it.
“Okay.”
In the end, the two walked side by side toward the cafeteria.
Wen Chu lowered her eyes and saw the man’s hand tucked inside his black coat. She remembered that one of the affection-bombing tactics mentioned by the forum poster was increasing physical contact.
“Xi Liye, my hands are so cold.”
Wen Chu blinked and deliberately spoke in a delicate voice.
In the novel, the male lead never had physical contact with any girl other than the heroine.
Using cold hands as an excuse to make him warm her hands—this move was simply brilliant.
As long as he refused, she would have a perfect chance to provoke him.
To make him believe her, Wen Chu deliberately stretched her red, frozen fingers out in front of him.
The fingers before him were soft, slender, and beautiful.
The only flaw was that a few of them were slightly red from the cold.
“I became like this because I was waiting for you. You have to take responsibility!”
“How should I take responsibility?”
“You have to warm my hands.”
Wen Chu spoke in a spoiled tone.
Then she saw Xi Liye move.
He stretched out his well-defined hand from inside his coat, wrapped it around her frozen red hand, and tucked both of their hands into the pocket of his coat.
Wen Chu: “???”