“No, no need!”
The girl shook her head, firmly refusing the offer of food.
…As expected, it was a failure.
He Xueqi nodded, his expression unchanged, only taking a napkin to wipe his already clean fingertips again, until the skin turned slightly red.
Saying more would only backfire—better to stop here.
But…
Where had he gone wrong?
He Xueqi calmly reviewed his possible mistakes.
Was his tone not sincere enough? Or had their relationship not progressed to this point, triggering her defenses instead?
Logically speaking, that kind of remark should be something “friends” could say to each other.
Although the example he had referenced was a pair of sisters—who had happened to stand behind him in line—so there might have been some deviation, human emotions should share common ground. The difference shouldn’t be that drastic.
Or…
Could it be that her repeated and firm refusals were because she hadn’t even categorized him as a “friend” in the first place?
It was hard to tell.
For the first time in a while, He Xueqi felt a ripple of unease. He slightly regretted not having accumulated some relevant knowledge earlier, leaving him to improvise now.
The girl pushed another box toward him. “You eat this one too!”
It was freshly cooked fried chicken, golden and crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, releasing a mouthwatering aroma.
…Now the pressure was on him.
The girl sat across like a supervisor, her eyes fixed on him without blinking, radiating an overwhelming enthusiasm.
The sound of her transparent gloves brushing together matched the slight agitation stirring in him.
“Do you want some sauce?”
She watched intently, her eyes bright, as if merely seeing him eat was enough to make her happy.
…It was… subtle.
He had always been a “unit” in a crowd, noticed by few. Others saw him as Fuhai’s top student, as a son, as a mischievous older brother.
He moved seamlessly between these roles, but at this moment, he seemed to be nothing.
In her gaze, he was simply “He Xueqi.”
The feeling of being so intensely “watched” wasn’t unpleasant, but it was strange—awkward.
—As if getting too close might burn him.
He dipped a chicken piece into the creamy sauce. The yogurt cut through the greasiness perfectly.
“Good?”
“Mm.”
He replied.
Her eyes curved into crescent moons. “That’s great!”
It really was “great.”
Thanks to these high-calorie, fatty, sugary bites, his brain worked even faster despite being in an uncomfortable environment.
He wondered why the girl kept encouraging him to eat.
And who exactly was this person calling herself “Zhu Feifei”?
One mystery after another, yet one thing He Xueqi could be certain of:
—She was here for him.
From any perspective, that was the only conclusion.
The timing of her appearance was too perfect.
Rongjin Alley was usually deserted, practically an “urban wilderness,” which was why Su Qiming had insisted on meeting there.
So why did she happen to appear there at that exact time?
Her explanation was—
She had some business to find him, and upon seeing him from afar entering the alley, she followed.
But before she could greet him, she saw him being extorted and, in a panic, chose to scare the culprit with a siren.
At first glance, it made sense, but…
It was impossible.
This so-called “having business with him” was most likely an excuse.
He Xueqi calmly reviewed his memory.
Since he had planned things that way, he naturally paid attention to whether anyone saw him.
Before entering the alley, he chatted with a small shop owner and, on leaving, “accidentally” knocked over the owner’s water.
During this time, he hadn’t seen anyone else nearby.
Rongjin Alley had many short corners; once someone turned in, it was easy to lose sight of them within a few steps.
Believing that the girl just happened to see him, chose the correct path among all the forks, and then appeared like a deus ex machina at the critical moment—this was harder to accept than thinking humans were parasitic meat controlled by mushroom spores.
The girl must have been lying in wait in the alley, anticipating his arrival.
Then, how did she know the exact location?
One name flashed through his mind—
Su Qiming.
The chicken still smelled irresistible, but once swallowed, it tasted waxy and bland.
Following this thread, He Xueqi thought further.
Su Qiming was extorting money.
Before the plan succeeded, unless he was truly stupid enough to have only mush in his head, he wouldn’t broadcast his whereabouts—otherwise, what if someone else got to the “fat sheep” first?
Then, the person he would voluntarily inform…
Was it Yuan Xiaxian?
He remembered that Su Qiming was gathering money to buy Yuan Xiaxian a dress for her birthday.
He recalled the formation during morning exercises and quickly dismissed the guess.
It wasn’t her—Yuan Xiaxian was shorter.
As for others, he couldn’t think of any obvious alternatives; he wasn’t yet familiar enough with Su Qiming’s social circle.
With no leads there, he set that aside and focused again on the girl in front of him.
The warm orange light lent a sense of comfort and relaxation. Her posture, no longer tense and defensive as before, gradually revealed a natural ease.
Very unfamiliar. Everything about her was strange, unlike anyone in the class.
Is she from another class?
It was even possible that she was an outsider borrowing a Fuhai No. 9 school uniform.
He had intended to note down the features she revealed—pupil color, ear shape, stride, and so on—to compare later at school. But something felt off.
When he looked at her, it felt as though there was a layer of fog between them—the girl could be anyone, except herself.
…It was a sensation he had never experienced before.
He took a sip of lemonade and asked, “Do you know who that person in Rongjin Alley was?”
At the mention of Su Qiming, her expression stiffened ever so slightly.
—Good. That reaction meant there was no need to ask further.
She did recognize Su Qiming.
So the current evidence pointed toward a hypothesis extremely unfavorable to him.
The person she wanted to “help” was probably not him—He Xueqi—but rather Su Qiming, who appeared to be in a position of advantage.
This was not a sudden guess.
She didn’t eat the food she handled herself, didn’t drink the water he handed over, refused to take off her mask to reveal her face—for the sake of this purpose, she even allowed her skin to react.
Despite being so guarded against him, she stubbornly sat opposite him, unwilling to leave.
Her attitude seemed more like she was watching something.
—or rather, monitoring it.
He remembered the first moment they locked eyes in the alley. She had trembled and looked away before running over to tug at his elbow.
She was afraid of him.
It didn’t make sense. At that time, his identity was “a victim of extortion,” and there was no reason for her to react that way.
Unless…
She knew something else.
The young man lowered his eyes. The light from the ceiling lamp was swallowed by his crow-feather-like eyelashes.
His fingertips tapped against the empty fried chicken box; the thumping sound was crisp, as if he were tapping on a phone screen.
The messages Su Qiming had bombarded him earlier surfaced in his mind at just the right moment—
You know very well why you came out of the lab so late that day.
No need for me to remind you, right?
…So, was it Su Qiming who leaked it?
Logically speaking, this kind of “leverage,” once obtained, is most powerful when tightly held by the person who possesses it.
But human stupidity often exceeds imagination.
Still, if the girl knew this and dared to sit across from him, she was truly daring.
No.
Seeing the girl stretch out on the table like a sunbathing cat, he revised his thoughts.
—She probably knew there was danger, but didn’t know how serious it was.
Otherwise, she would have fled immediately, as fast as possible.
Suddenly, the girl lifted her head, her voice bright with excitement: “Can I make a phone call?”
The tapping abruptly stopped.
He responded politely, “Sure, go ahead.”
Yes!
Seeing Zhu Feifei’s offset value drop to 0%, Zhu Shuiwen was so thrilled she almost fired celebratory fireworks on the spot.
The first meeting between the male and female leads seemed to be going very smoothly.
No wonder her sister easily accomplished what she herself could never do!
System: […………]
For some reason, the system fell into an eerie silence.
But it wasn’t much of a talker anyway, so Zhu Shuiwen didn’t mind and focused all her energy on the next step.
That step was: calling Zhu Feifei over.
Though it was extremely difficult, it didn’t matter!
She had rehearsed countless times in her mind, anticipating every possible refusal from Zhu Feifei and planning her countermeasures.
She opened the call interface and resolutely pressed the button.
Her stance was determined, decisive, like pressing a rocket launch button.
Beep——
The phone entered dialing mode.
When faced with an uncertain crisis, people often optimistically—and blindly—assume, based on experience, that things will turn out in their favor.
For Zhu Shuiwen, that statement should have been correct.
But in less than a few minutes, the courage she had painstakingly mustered shattered completely, like a balloon popped by a pin.
Beep, beep, beep.
She tried again. After 56 seconds, the black dialing screen automatically exited, returning to the contact list.
The call wouldn’t go through.
No—things might be even worse than that.
…Could her sister have blocked her?
Ah??
Who was she even trying to call?
He Xueqi pondered.
The girl curled up in the corner, deliberately turning her back to him and hiding the phone screen, her entire posture screaming “suspicious.”
Su Qiming?
…Doesn’t seem like it.
He Xueqi dismissed that guess immediately.
The girl’s posture was stiff, her spine slightly hunched, full of unease.
Most likely, she was calling someone with a neutral or even poor relationship.
He stood up to get a look, but the girl seemed wary of him approaching. She quickly shoved the phone into her pocket and walked briskly toward the glass door.
—not even revealing the phone’s color or model.
He stared at her back and suddenly realized another possibility.
Too dangerous.
If she used the call as a pretext to disappear into the crowd—and with her strange, fog-inducing aura—he couldn’t guarantee he’d recognize her next time.
Luckily, that wasn’t the case.
After a short while, the girl slumped and pushed open the glass door, returning to sit across from him.
This movement made He Xueqi realize there was a flaw in his earlier guess.
If her intention had been to stall for Su Qiming, the girl had no reason to keep lingering here, only adding unnecessary risk.
…Then what was her true intention?
So far, every step the girl had taken was completely unexpected.
It could only be said that there was no method to it at all—so much so that He Xueqi began to suspect the girl might not have been thinking at all.
…That seemed unlikely.
Noticing that her posture had returned to the same tense, cramped way as before, he had a hunch that her next words might reveal some clues.
Was she planning to lay her cards on the table?
What was she going to say next? A plea? A threat? Or… intimidation?
He braced himself, focusing on the faint breathy sound beneath her mask.
After a long moment, the girl, in a trembling voice that sounded on the verge of tears, spoke with no confidence at all:
“Excuse me… could we… discuss some competition problems?”
He Xueqi: …?