After a brief moment of stunned silence, Gu Jinyan called out his name in surprise.
“He Xueqi?”
Although he was bad with remembering people, and students from other classes were basically just moving obstacles to him, He Xueqi was an exception.
In a school where grades reigned supreme, the top student of the year was practically at the top of the food chain—calling him “well-known” would be an understatement.
—That said, it only stayed at the level of “knowing who he was.”
Speaking face-to-face like this was a first.
…This guy really was good-looking. Almost on his level.
Gu Jinyan reluctantly admitted that.
Damn. How did he even turn out like this? Great grades, good looks—wasn’t that a bit too unfair?
On the other hand, Zhu Shuiwen looked unusually nervous.
“You… why are you here?”
“I saw you weren’t coming back for a long time and thought you might’ve bought too much. You probably couldn’t carry it,” He Xueqi said simply. “The shop name was on the menu you sent, so I just came over.”
Gu Jinyan sized him up from head to toe. “Oh, rose sea salt?”
Hearing him immediately name the milk tea he ordered, He Xueqi’s gaze sharpened slightly.
Then the boy asked, “He paid for it?”
His tone was certain.
Immediately after, he turned to Gu Jinyan and said directly, “How much? I’ll transfer it to you.”
Gu Jinyan folded his arms. “No need. It’s just a bit of money. If it makes my little sister happy, I’m fine with it.”
The moment he said that, a chill ran up his spine.
Even though He Xueqi’s expression hadn’t changed at all, there was suddenly an unmistakable killing intent in his gaze.
“Little sister?” He Xueqi repeated. Then, the corner of his lips lifted slightly into a smile with no warmth at all. “Strange. Since when did you change your name to Zhu Jinyan?”
The girl looked helplessly left and right, feeling like her vision was starting to darken.
It had to be said—the two boys standing together, both striking in appearance but completely different in temperament, were extremely eye-catching.
But aside from being shocked by the crackling tension between them, Zhu Shuiwen felt nothing else.
Starting off with this much hostility—weren’t their “romantic rival radars” a little too sensitive?
She felt annoyed at her own carelessness, but…
Who could’ve expected the villain would leave her sister behind and come pick her up instead?!
“I decide who I spend money on—what does it have to do with you?” Gu Jinyan said irritably, then turned to Zhu Shuiwen. “Anyway, didn’t you say your sister is not in a good condition to see people right now—so what is he supposed to be?”
—Crap!
Zhu Shuiwen almost jumped in place.
“Th-this… um… I invited him…”
The moment she said it, she realized she had made a mistake.
Wasn’t she basically completely separating the villain and her sister’s relationship?
But unexpectedly, He Xueqi didn’t say anything. He just gave her a meaningful look.
—No emotion at all, but it made her even more uneasy.
She quickly tried to fix it. “But honestly, I still can’t really keep up with the genius’s way of thinking. In math, my sister understands you better… haha…”
…Even though she was trying to hint that he and her sister were a good match, why did his gaze get even scarier?!
Even worse, Gu Jinyan was getting annoyed too.
“What, she’s pretending to be sick on the weekend just to study in secret? Then I’m coming too. I want to see what exactly she’s learning.”
…The male lead, the villain, the sister.
One female lead, two rivals, three people—studying together?
Huh??
Just imagining it was terrifying enough that Zhu Shuiwen immediately tried to stop it.
“But…”
“But what?”
“…They’re discussing really, really hard competition problems.”
Gu Jinyan didn’t believe it. “How hard?”
“Extremely hard,” Zhu Shuiwen said, still shaken. “The kind where you can’t even understand the questions.”
“Then I definitely have to see,” he insisted.
As someone who often fell for games that claimed “only people with IQ above 120 can clear this,” the young master frowned.
“My brain’s not broken. If your sister can learn it, why can’t I? Are you looking down on me or what?”
“It’s not that, Brother Yan—”
Before Zhu Shuiwen could say anything, He Xueqi suddenly spoke, “You’re welcome.”
The girl nearly choked on her breath.
What kind of move was that?
Villain, I’m warning you not to mess up your chance for alone time!
“Is that a problem?” he asked quietly, noticing the girl’s face turning pale.
“I… it’s not…”
…
In front of him, she looked unusually guilty, her gaze darting between him and Gu Jinyan, as if she was anxious about something but couldn’t say it outright.
—She didn’t want him here.
He Xueqi reached that conclusion easily, but he didn’t want to think further.
Yet before he could stop himself, his thoughts kept unraveling the answer.
Why didn’t she want him here?
Because someone else was here—someone she wanted to see more.
He recalled what he saw the moment he arrived: Gu Jinyan standing casually beside her, speaking to her in a relaxed tone. The girl, smiling brightly with genuine joy—livelier, more playful than she usually was in front of him.
…They looked very compatible.
The paper bag in his hand suddenly felt heavier, as if it were pressing against his throat, like soil tangled with thorns that wouldn’t let him breathe.
—Stop.
Had she rushed out earlier to “buy things” because she knew Gu Jinyan was coming?
—Don’t think anymore.
Was she trying so hard to prevent Gu Jinyan and Zhu Feifei from meeting… because that was the person she liked?
—Stop thinking.
The paper bag made a faint rustling “crack” as he realized he had unknowingly crushed it.
—“Brother Yan.”
He replayed her voice from earlier in perfect detail in his mind: soft, natural, with a hint of dependence and closeness.
He slowly loosened his grip, staring at the creases in the bag.
A shadow gradually covered his hollow, still eyes.
…
Zhu Feifei: …
Zhu Shuiwen, head hanging low: …
Gu Jinyan: ……
Zhu Feifei spoke first, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “At least write the word ‘solution’ on it.”
“…Stop talking.” Gu Jinyan waved a hand impatiently. “The answer’s about to come out anyway. Why waste time writing the solution?”
But fifteen minutes passed, and the pencil in his hand had only drawn a line through the entire problem from start to finish—nothing else was written.
Zhu Shuiwen suddenly understood.
So this is the villain teaching the male lead what it means to “humiliate himself.”
“If you can’t write the solution, you can just call me ‘sister,’ you know.”
Zhu Feifei took a sip of black tea and casually shook the test paper in her hand, as if by accident revealing the answer.
But before Gu Jinyan could even glance at it, she slapped it back onto the desk, covering it underneath her palm.
“Shit!” Gu Jinyan burst out.
“Oh, that’s it, that expression—I like it. Give me more of that.” Zhu Feifei clapped.
Noticing Zhu Shuiwen watching from the side of the table, she shot her a glare.
The girl immediately lowered her head obediently, muttering theatrically, “n = k + 1, so n belongs to N*…”
Satisfied, Zhu Feifei turned back and spun her pen between her fingers as she said to Gu Jinyan, “Can’t solve it? Then just give up. Why are you forcing yourself?”
Gu Jinyan: …
He was one second away from blurting out “I can’t solve it, I’m leaving.”
But since Zhu Feifei had said that…
He said stiffly, “Who says I can’t solve it?”
“Oh? Then I’ll be waiting. Good luck.”
Just as Zhu Feifei finished speaking dismissively, the timer on her phone hit zero.
She immediately stood up. “He Xueqi, switch shift!”
During the match where Zhu Shuiwen wasn’t present, Zhu Feifei had fallen behind He Xueqi by two problems because she hadn’t practiced for too long. In the end, they reluctantly agreed: he would teach for 40 minutes, she would teach for 20.
They took turns tutoring Zhu Shuiwen in this way.
—A full forty minutes!
Gu Jinyan, give her back her precious life!
As she brushed past He Xueqi, she hissed fiercely, “If I see you helping him cheat again, I’ll kill you.”
The boy didn’t even blink. “I won’t.”
Even though she knew he was blatantly lying—and would probably pull something again—Zhu Feifei could do nothing about it despite her anger.
She could only blame herself.
Not long after the “shift change,” Gu Jinyan suddenly claimed he had solved the problem.
Zhu Feifei obviously didn’t believe him and immediately went over to interrogate him step by step. The two of them ended up arguing naturally.
In the middle of the argument, she suddenly heard the door open. Looking over, she saw Zhu Shuiwen and He Xueqi coming in carrying a big bag of snacks—only then did she realize she had been tricked.
—She was so angry she scolded Gu Jinyan again.
By the end of the day, Gu Jinyan felt like his brain had shut down.
His mind was full of P, Q, M spinning around, accompanied by looping sound effects like “You can’t even solve this? Trash!” and “Useless idiot!”
Why did he even come here? He should’ve been out riding his motorcycle on a perfectly good weekend instead of getting mentally crushed by math problems.
Just as he was thinking, “I’m definitely not coming next time, I’m not some masochist,” Zhu Feifei said, “Next time… maybe you just shouldn’t come?”
She shrugged. “I’m worried I’ll need to find two people to carry you home on a stretcher.”
“Come on, why wouldn’t I come?” Gu Jinyan said stubbornly. “I love math. Math loves me.”
—Bullshit. He absolutely hated math.
He glanced toward Zhu Shuiwen, looking for solidarity, hoping to see his “fellow fool” equally miserable.
…Damn, she wasn’t.
Zhu Shuiwen, you traitor to the idiot alliance!
Zhu Shuiwen was studying seriously, filling pages and pages of notes—since He Xueqi was there, she took the opportunity to ask everything she had never understood before.
At first, she had only wanted to stall the villain so he wouldn’t clash with the male lead.
But…
Looking at the plot point that had somehow refreshed and been completed without her noticing, Zhu Shuiwen felt a wave of dizziness.
[The male lead and female lead’s first date: the two deepen their feelings.]
…If arguing counts as “deepening feelings,” then sure.
No, it should be—
Why did doing practice problems at home even count as being in the “dating” category? Wasn’t that judgment a little too hasty?!
And she hadn’t even heard the system’s reminder sound at all—ah, probably because He Xueqi had completely drawn her attention away.
Every time she tried to pay attention to what was going on with her sister, the “villain” would suddenly make some kind of move—sometimes going to cut fruit, sometimes saying he needed to go out to buy something.
—How could she possibly leave him alone like that?!
Wait. Thinking about it this way, this “date” mission was actually being completed right in front of the villain…
Something feels off. My head hurts. Am I about to grow a brain or something?
Just then, He Xueqi suddenly tapped her lightly.
The girl turned her head naturally, looking at him with a puzzled expression.
—Perfectly missing the glance Gu Jinyan shot her way.
“What is it?”
He met her eyes for a long moment, then looked away before she could notice anything unusual.
“Sorry, I was mistaken,” he said softly.
Why was she always distracted by other people?
—Couldn’t she… look at him a little more?
He was clearly right beside her, yet he couldn’t get her attention. If this kept going, what would it turn into?
—Look at me more, Classmate Zhu.
[Detected severe emotional fluctuation from target individual. Adjusting autonomously… adjustment failed. Access denied.]
[Corruption level: 5%]
[Auto-correction in progress}
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[Unable to correct. Warning: unable to…]
The alarm was abruptly cut off, as if it had fallen into a deep void, sinking into complete silence.