“Xian Xian, is Sister Fei not coming?”
Yuan Xiaxian was focused on touching up the nail polish on her fingers, responding to the phone on the table without even looking up.
Her face was tense, but her voice was still fairly gentle. “Yeah. She said she’s sick. I called her several times but couldn’t get her to come out. There’s nothing I can do.”
“She’s had colds and fevers before and still came out to hang with us, didn’t she?” the other person complained. “If she doesn’t come, who’s going to pay?”
Yuan Xiaxian finished painting her nails and casually picked up a bracelet from the table.
It was a Hetian jade bracelet, its color warm and smooth. What made it special was the charm hanging from it—a small sheep made of solid gold.
It was a collaboration piece between a well-known jewelry brand and “Little Sheep Dolly,” heavily marked up and hard to get.
She slipped it onto her wrist and held it up to the sunlight.
The gold shimmered brightly.
“Xian Xian?”
Only then did she snap back to attention. “You guys go first. I’ll figure something out.”
A few seconds later, she dialed another number and asked calmly, “Brother Qiming, we’re going to Mijia Plaza to hang out. Do you want to come with us?”
…
Seriously tutoring for a competition?
Zhu Shuiwen panicked.
Sorry—she shouldn’t have used that excuse! Now it had all turned into punishment for her!
“As long as you realize that g(x) is a decreasing function on ℝ, the following steps aren’t difficult to figure out…”
“Do you know how to complete a tetrahedron into a cube? Then set A₁D₁·A₁E₁ = A₁M₁·D₁E₁…”
“Extend AH to intersect BC at point P…”
“When m is odd, m, m+1, and m+2 are pairwise coprime…”
Zhu Shuiwen finally couldn’t take it anymore.
With both hands, the girl slammed the table—bang—and stood up abruptly.
Forcing a strained smile, she said weakly, “I’m so hungry… I’m going to buy something… you two chat!”
Without waiting for either of them to react, she bolted toward the entrance in a flash.
She put on her shoes and ran out the door in one smooth motion.
Only after she had run ten meters away did she slow down, happily stepping on the pavement tiles.
Goodbye, math hell!
He Xueqi originally wanted to follow her out, but a sharp voice stopped him.
“Sit down.”
Zhu Feifei crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair, staring straight at him.
After a long moment of eye contact, He Xueqi finally sat back down.
As expected, the interrogation began.
“Why did she invite you?”
Thinking of how the girl had specially contacted him from her main account and emphasized, “I’m living with my sister now—why don’t the three of us study together, it’ll be easier to communicate,” his gaze darkened slightly.
…Because of you.
But if he said that, the conversation would drift into a direction he himself could not answer.
Why him and Zhu Feifei?
He and Zhu Feifei were basically strangers—before the girl acted as a bridge between them, they barely even looked at each other.
He replied flatly, “Who knows.”
Without the girl present, his attitude turned distant again, carrying a kind of cold refusal to cooperate.
Zhu Feifei said, “Then let me rephrase. How did you two meet? If I remember correctly, you haven’t been in class for a week, right?”
Her acting was poor—or rather, she wasn’t even trying to act. Her suspicion was completely obvious.
She had failed to notice her sister’s matchmaking scheme, but she had sharply sensed something off about He Xueqi.
Why send flowers?
Even though they were chamomile and not roses, her instincts still sounded the alarm.
As far as she knew, He Xueqi was the most unusual student in their class. He didn’t join any groups, nor did he show favoritism toward anyone.
Yuan Xiaxian had once tried to get close to him, saying it was “so she could copy homework more easily in the future.” Unfortunately, after only a few words with him, she had awkwardly retreated and never approached him again.
If even someone as socially skilled as Yuan Xiaxian was helpless against him, she truly couldn’t understand how Zhu Shuiwen had managed to bring him home—and even willingly get him to tutor her.
“She came to deliver a test paper to me,” He Xueqi said emotionlessly.
“What test paper?”
“The one in your hand.”
Zhu Feifei: …
The boy delivered another calm blow. “You didn’t get it any later than me, did you?”
Creak—
The heavy blackwood dining table gave a painful groan as it shifted.
“Maybe she just thinks I don’t need that much time,” Zhu Feifei said, her expression darkening visibly. “After all, this set of test papers is really, very, simple.”
“I agree.”
The boy tapped his finger on the stone tabletop, eyes lowered. “But since you think it’s simple, Zhu Feifei, why did she still call me over?”
Creak—
The blackwood table groaned a second time.
“Seems like she trusts me more, after all,” he said slowly.
Zhu Feifei laughed in anger. “Right. Since high school started, I don’t think we’ve even taken an exam in the same room. You forgot I’m good at math. That’s normal.”
In their first monthly exam of high school, the only person who tied with He Xueqi in math was Zhu Feifei.
He opened the countdown timer. “20 minutes. Accuracy and speed—let’s compare.”
He pressed start, and both of them began writing at the same time.
…
She really had made the right choice to leave.
Zhu Shuiwen was glad she hadn’t stayed there as a third wheel. Not long after she left, the system status changed from “the villain’s emotions are fluctuating” to “completed.”
But…
Was the villain’s inner world a tsunami or something?
Watching the deviation value drop from 80% down to 40% in an instant, and then crackle all the way down to 0%, she could only sigh in amazement—
As expected of her sister!
Just then, she had walked out of the residential complex and was thinking about where to buy something when suddenly, someone tapped her on the shoulder.
The next second, the roar of a motorcycle echoed in her ears.
After a flashy drifting turn, a boy in a biker jacket took off his helmet and greeted her very familiarly.
“Yo, isn’t this the little sister of that sucker?”
The girl staggered back a step, blinking in shock.
How could she run into the male lead here?
The person in front of her was none other than Gu Jinyan.
“I heard your sister is sick, so I came to laugh at her.” Gu Jinyan tapped the plastic bag hanging from his motorcycle mirror.
On it was the logo of “Fuhai Pharmacy.” Through the semi-transparent bag, faintly visible were cold medicine, amoxicillin, and a box of throat lozenges.
“Thank you for coming to see my sister,” the girl hurriedly said politely, but then her expression suddenly turned pale, her tone tense. “Or… should I pass these to her for you? She’s not really in a condition to see people right now…”
“What, is she that seriously ill?”
“I-it’s a bit…” she said hesitantly.
Gu Jinyan found her expression amusing and deliberately teased her. “Or is your sister on a date right now, afraid I’ll ruin it?”
“No—no! Not at all…”
The girl looked genuinely flustered. After stammering for a long time, she finally forced out—
“Absolutely not!”
Seeing her nervously clenching her fists and darting her eyes around, Gu Jinyan couldn’t help but laugh.
“No wonder your sister is so protective of you.”
“…Huh?”
“If I had such a cute little sister, I’d take her everywhere with me.”
…Well, except to bars.
A little sister like her was more suited to wearing pretty dresses, sitting beside a table full of desserts, and slowly sipping afternoon tea.
“Where are you going? I’ll give you a ride,” Gu Jinyan said, tossing her a helmet as he joked. “Just charge the gas money to your sister. I’ll collect it from her later along with the drinks.”
The girl, not used to dealing with someone so unserious, immediately panicked a little. “W-what?”
Seeing her confused expression, Gu Jinyan suddenly remembered he had skipped an important step.
—He hadn’t introduced himself yet.
He slapped his forehead. “You don’t even know who I am, do you?”
“I do,” the girl said obediently.
“You do?” Gu Jinyan raised a brow in surprise. “Then tell me.”
He was quite curious how Zhu Feifei had described him to her sister.
A jerk? A shameless, ill-mannered bastard? Or the cold, emotionless “Gu Jinyan”?
“Brother-in-law.”
Gu Jinyan: …
With a loud crash, the motorcycle fell to the ground.