Qin Yuan swore that her redemption plan absolutely did not have such a thrilling opening.
However, on the day classes officially began, she walked into the classroom just as the morning reading bell rang and noticed the previously lively room fall eerily silent for a moment.
The classmates seemed to be sizing her up, openly or covertly, their gazes mostly curious, but no one dared to approach her for a chat.
A student standing by the podium immediately stepped aside to make way when they saw her approaching, expressing reverence through action.
There’s so much empty space—what are you making way for?!
Qin Yuan returned to her seat with an expressionless face, maintaining an aloof and indifferent demeanor as if nothing mattered. In reality, the little person inside her was already screaming in embarrassment.
As she sat down, she glanced around and noticed that more than half the class was staring at her, their gazes intense and unwavering.
Qin Yuan was speechless. She didn’t want to know what these innocent high school students were imagining, but she was already regretting being too heavy-handed on the first day of school.
It wasn’t that Zhu Yunle didn’t deserve to be hit, but this approach might attract even more attention and further escalate the conflict between her and Li Yue.
Her original plan was to become a quiet and gentle good person from then on, establishing a reformed and well-intentioned image in front of the male lead. Then, one day, she could casually bring up the past, saying something like, “Oh, I was young and foolish back then, please forgive me,” and Li Yue would reply, “Alright.” After that, their grudges would be settled, and they’d go their separate ways, never to cross paths again. What a perfect plan!
Damn Zhu Yunle! Now, Li Yue would only think she was still the same arrogant and domineering young lady, perhaps even worse-tempered than before.
After all, the original host only targeted him, but now she was hitting his accomplices too.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She yanked her textbook out and slammed it on the desk, only to see the back of the student in front of her tremble slightly.
Qin Yuan:…
Speaking of Li Yue, he was another focal point in Class 37. When entering or leaving the classroom, he received the same level of attention as Qin Yuan, but he seemed to take it in stride, showing no signs of awkwardness or discomfort.
Qin Yuan clenched her fist inwardly. As expected of the male lead, his mental fortitude was truly impressive.
Her seat and Li Yue’s were practically at opposite corners of the classroom. Qin Yuan felt this distance was safe, yet she couldn’t help but pay attention to what was happening on the other side of the room.
Two words could describe this academic prodigy: “aloof.”
Unlike Qin Yuan, who was avoided by her classmates, he actively avoided others.
Around Li Yue’s seat was a quiet “vacuum zone.” During breaks, when everyone else was laughing and relaxing, he would either quietly work on problems or rest his head on the desk for a nap. His deskmate and roommate, Wu Zhuoyuan, was one of the few people who could exchange a few words with him, but even that was limited to necessary daily conversations.
Xing Baitao had secretly complained to Qin Yuan about this unattainable flower, saying he was excessively quiet.
Occasionally, classmates would approach him for help with questions. Li Yue would answer them one by one, but always politely and distantly, never uttering an extra word.
Qin Yuan wondered, with such a solitary and aloof personality, how did he later become a leader in a corporation?
Could it be that Zhu Yunle had once led the entire class in isolating him? So much so that the male lead no longer trusted his classmates? The more Qin Yuan thought about it, the more frightened she became, feeling the blame assigned to her growing heavier.
She always spared a third of her peripheral attention for the seat by the back window of the classroom. Unfortunately, her own seat was near the front, making it less convenient to glance back—especially since she was constantly being observed by other classmates.
This situation lasted nearly a week. Qin Yuan simply attended classes and went home as usual, speaking softly all the while, until everyone finally realized she might not be as difficult to get along with as they had thought.
Qin Yuan wished she could carve the words “I don’t hit people” on her forehead. Finally, after school on Friday, she encountered the second person besides Xing Baitao who actively struck up a casual conversation with her.
As a key high school, Ninghe City No.1 High School did not overload its first-year students with excessive tasks. They even enjoyed the precious privilege of a two-day weekend, as long as they returned to school before the evening self-study session on Sunday. Thus, for their first weekend in high school, everyone was discussing where to go for fun.
Shi Qinghua, the English class representative and study committee member of Class 37, felt a sense of responsibility for improving the class atmosphere. She dragged her close friend to the front door of the classroom, poked her head in, and called out, “Xing Baitao!”
Xing Baitao could chat with just about anyone. She looked up with a smile and asked, “What’s up?”
Shi Qinghua and Ye Jia grinned. “A new handmade ice cream shop just opened at Wanyue Plaza. We were thinking of checking it out on Sunday and wanted to ask if you two would like to join us?”
Her invitation was polite, and Qin Yuan, needing to expand her social circle to improve her image, gladly agreed.
Heaven have mercy—Qin Yuan, a high school second-timer, had only managed to add contact information for more than two new classmates after a full week of school. It just showed how crucial first impressions could be.
Over the weekend, the four of them carried their backpacks and dug into ice cream at the mall. When the atmosphere felt just right, Shi Qinghua finally spoke up, “Qin Yuan, um… were you and Li Yue on bad terms before?”
Bad terms? That was an understatement—they were practically enemies.
But this was exactly the opportunity Qin Yuan had been waiting for to explain herself to others. She put on a perfect smile and chose not to answer directly. “In middle school, he didn’t get along with Zhu Yunle, and I was pretty close with Zhu Yunle back then.”
“Huh? But on the first day of school…” Xing Baitao looked surprised, and all four of them knew what she was about to say next.
But on the first day of school, you slapped Zhu Yunle?
Qin Yuan scraped the edge of her ice cream paper cup with a wooden spoon, her tone calm. “Zhu Yunle and I had an argument before school started.” There had indeed been a quarrel on the day they cornered Li Yue.
“Zhu Yunle tends to get angry easily.” Everyone saw it—he suddenly tried to punch Li Yue.
“Now that we’re in high school, I want to focus on studying.” I’ve turned over a new leaf and plan to be a better person.
Qin Yuan only spoke half-sentences, leaving the rest for others to figure out on their own.
After all, she had spent several years navigating the workplace in her previous life and was well-versed in this half-revealing, half-concealing way of speaking. And now, her audience consisted entirely of innocent high school students. They would only assume the speaker was either too embarrassed or unable to say more, filling in the gaps with their own imaginations—which, in turn, made her story seem even more believable.
The others all wore thoughtful expressions, as if to say, “I understand, I understand.” Only Xing Baitao suddenly chimed in, “So, have you and Zhu Yunle broken up now?”
“Cough, cough!” Qin Yuan nearly choked on her ice cream, her voice involuntarily rising an octave. “We were never together in the first place!”
Being directly denied by the person in question, Xing Baitao felt somewhat awkward for a moment. “I heard it from a friend who was in the same middle school class as him. Back then, you two were always together, so it was probably a misunderstanding.”
Qin Yuan had almost forgotten that Xing Baitao’s friend was in the same middle school class as Li Yue, which meant they were also in the same class as Zhu Yunle. If such romantic rumors could spread and so many people believed them, it showed just how deeply the original host was tied to that clique.
She had to clarify things thoroughly, especially in front of Li Yue.
During evening self-study, half the class was catching up on homework while the other half yawned incessantly.
Shi Qinghua was collecting English homework while holding a box of fruit candies, handing them out to the good students who submitted their assignments on time.
Wu Zhuoyuan was copying homework at lightning speed, yet still found time to shout at Shi Qinghua, who was waiting nearby, “Wait, wait! I’ll finish in just a moment!”
“Work on your own, but give me Li Yue’s.” Shi Qinghua pushed the candy box toward Li Yue, signaling him to pick a flavor. Seeing his lack of interest, she proactively recommended, “The lemon ones are good, not too sour. Qin Yuan also took one.”
Wu Zhuoyuan multitasked, wailing to Shi Qinghua, “If you take Li Yue’s, what am I supposed to copy?” He glanced back at the exquisite candy box on Li Yue’s desk and pleaded with his roommate, “Good buddy, grab a strawberry one for me.”
Li Yue picked out a yellow hard candy, wrapped in a crystal-clear glassine wrapper that shimmered with colorful reflections under the light, like a little star emitting a fresh lemon scent.
Just before the evening self-study bell rang, Wu Zhuoyuan at the front desk finally handed in his English homework, tossed his pen aside, and turned to ask Li Yue for a candy.
Li Yue’s response was to push the small round candy to the side of his cheek with his tongue and spread his hands, indicating there was none for him.
“You’ve turned bad too. The world is no longer what it used to be,” Wu Zhuoyuan lamented dramatically, covering his face in mock despair.
Li Yue ignored his complaint, his eyes crinkling as he smiled. For a moment, he finally seemed like an ordinary high school student.
The lemon candy rolled around on his tongue—it really wasn’t sour.
Qin Yuan gradually formed her own new, relatively healthy social circle, and she smiled more and more often in class.
Since the start of the semester, Zhu Yunle and Guan Youyi hadn’t come looking for her, leaving Qin Yuan’s ears much more peaceful. She knew some people were still secretly discussing her family background or her relationship with Zhu Yunle and the others, but Qin Yuan didn’t care. Returning to campus life was an interesting experience for her, as if her mindset had reverted to that of a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old.
But for some reason, her classmates still assumed she and Li Yue were at odds.
Although she had been wanting to explain things to Li Yue—at least to clarify that she had thrown the book out of panic on the first day of school—she never found the right opportunity.
She continued to secretly observe the male lead, watching as the gauze on his hand was changed daily until, one day, it was finally removed, revealing the pink new skin that had grown over the healed wound.
He remained silent and quiet, or perhaps aloof, seemingly detached from worldly conflicts.
Everything appeared to be progressing steadily, calm and uneventful.
Yet Qin Yuan felt that beneath this tranquility lurked a deeper whirlpool. She couldn’t believe that the male lead, who in the original story was decisive and ruthless, would simply accept things as they were. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Li Yue was plotting his revenge against her at any moment, keeping her nerves constantly on edge.
Ye Jia joked with her, “Some people say our class has two great figures, one in front and one in back—they’re talking about you and Li Yue.”
Qin Yuan felt wronged. She had been so friendly, yet someone was deliberately speculating about her.
It wasn’t unreasonable for everyone to think this way, because Qin Yuan never appeared within five meters of Li Yue. Even after being classmates for so long, the two hadn’t even exchanged a single word.
During Monday’s cleaning duty, Wu Zhuoyuan and Xing Baitao stood idly at the back of the classroom, each holding a broom, while exchanging gossip.
Speaking of those two, Wu Zhuoyuan dramatically waved his hand and passionately declared, “This! This is what you call ‘kings never meet’!”
Xing Baitao poked him with her broom handle, telling him not to create such a dark-sounding image for her deskmate. “Don’t talk about Qin Yuan like that. You ate half a box of her chocolates just yesterday.”
Xiao Wu cheekily claimed he was being fair. “I also copied Li Yue’s physics homework yesterday. Taking from both sides equals taking from neither.”
Li Yue passed by them after wiping the blackboard. Xing Baitao and Wu Zhuoyuan immediately fell silent, offering awkward yet polite smiles.
Li Yue didn’t understand this kind of performance art and walked straight past.
But the other protagonist of the gossip appeared. Qin Yuan entered through the back door carrying a water cup. “Bai Tao, I’ve finished wiping the railing. Can I leave now—”
Her voice cut off abruptly when she saw Li Yue just two steps away.
Li Yue clearly hadn’t expected to run into her face-to-face either. Both of them froze simultaneously, and the air suddenly grew tense.
Qin Yuan instinctively tried to let him pass first, but Li Yue also stepped aside to make way. She moved to the other side, but Li Yue across from her coincidentally shifted a step at the same time. It was as if a mirror had been placed between them—their positions remained unchanged.
It was hard to tell whether this was a coincidence or if the other person was picking a fight. Qin Yuan frowned and let out a soft “tsk.”
However, from the perspective of Xing Baitao and Wu Zhuoyuan behind Li Yue, this impatient reaction was a precursor to the young lady’s impending outburst.
Before Li Yue could say anything, Wu Zhuoyuan threw down his broom with a clatter, rushed over in two or three steps, wrapped an arm around his roommate’s shoulders, and pushed him aside, his tone tense: “Sister Qin, let’s talk this out calmly, Sister Qin.”
His voice was loud, and the dozen or so remaining people in the classroom instantly turned their attention to the small space by the back door.
Qin Yuan widened her eyes, wondering how Wu Zhuoyuan had somehow detected the scent of gunpowder in the air and come to mediate.
On the other side, Xing Baitao stepped forward and tightly grasped Qin Yuan’s right hand holding the water cup, full of reassurance, as if afraid she might splash the water on Li Yue’s head in a fit of displeasure. “Yes, yes, let’s put the water cup down first.”
Qin Yuan turned her head in astonishment, staring at her deskmate. You, a girl with thick eyebrows and big eyes, don’t believe me either!
I really don’t want to bully the male lead!
Author’s Note:
Yuan refers to the fragrant lemon [dog head holding a rose].