Li Yuanci was feeling rather flustered when Jiang Hexing’s familiar voice suddenly sounded by his ear.
He instinctively wanted to turn his head, but soon enough, he heard those words of hers—so arrogant they could almost be called wildly conceited.
And it wasn’t just him. Xie Qiushi and the other three heard it too. They turned their heads in unison, wanting to see who was that audacious.
And at once, they spotted Jiang Hexing in the crowd.
Different from the photo.
In real life, Jiang Hexing was even more beautiful.
Her features were exquisitely delicate, her skin so fair it seemed almost luminous, as if she belonged to a different world from those around her.
Her black hair cascaded casually down her back.
The stark contrast between black and white delivered an intense visual impact.
One glance, and it felt like an eternity.
Ji Yan, Zhou Jinran, and Zhuang Mo all but gasped. Even Xie Qiushi was stunned for a few seconds.
But soon, Xie Qiushi snapped back to his senses, and the look in his eyes as he regarded Jiang Hexing instantly turned wary and disgusted.
He spoke coldly: “Spouting such big words—aren’t you afraid your tongue will get struck by lightning?”
Li Yuanci: …
Ji Yan came back to his senses and looked at Li Yuanci: “Now I finally understand why you fell in love with her at first sight. Honestly, with a face like that, even if she did nothing at all—just stood there—she’d have every right to make people like her, wouldn’t she?”
“…I think you might be overthinking it a bit.”
Zhou Jinran glanced at Xie Qiushi.
His meaning was obvious: with a face like Jiang Hexing’s, she wouldn’t need to go to the trouble of playing the hero saving the beauty.
Zhuang Mo thought the same.
And the sudden shift in his three friends’ attitudes made Li Yuanci feel much more at ease.
Although what Jiang Hexing said struck him as somewhat ridiculous, he still walked up to greet her.
“What a coincidence, running into you here.”
He was the first to greet Jiang Hexing.
Ji Yan was right. With Jiang Hexing looking the way she did, even if she did nothing at all, he would still fall for her.
…
[Congratulations, Host. Li Yuanci’s Favorability Rating +1. Current Favorability Rating: 86. Due to the previous decrease in Favorability Rating, current Life Span remains unchanged.]
Li Yuanci’s Favorability Rating increased.
By one point.
Jiang Hexing lifted her gaze and saw Li Yuanci standing before her. He was tall—standing there, he blocked out most of the sunlight. With one hand in his pocket, he carried himself with a touch of effortless charm.
Jiang Hexing pressed her lips into a polite smile: “There’s only one road to the cafeteria. It’s not exactly a coincidence.”
Two faint dimples appeared at her cheeks.
Tian Wenjing and the other two grew nervous again. They thought of the bold claim Jiang Hexing had just made and wondered whether Li Yuanci had heard it.
“You’re right.”
Li Yuanci curved his lips: “So, since we’ve run into each other, how about we eat together?”
Jiang Hexing then asked Tian Wenjing and the other two for their opinion.
“What do you think?”
Tian Wenjing and the other two looked at each other.
“If it’s possible…”
“Then of course, that would be the best.”
Tian Wenjing’s gaze landed precisely on Xie Qiushi and the other three behind Li Yuanci, and her heart began to pound.
Indeed,
Li Yuanci was handsome, but his friends were handsome too.
If she could eat with them, she’d be smiling even in her dreams, wouldn’t she?
Wang Shu and Zhou Yi thought the same.
So they began nodding frantically.
Seeing this, Jiang Hexing said: “Then let’s eat together.”
Li Yuanci’s mood instantly improved again, and Tian Wenjing and the other two became a few degrees more pleasing to his eyes.
And so,
The team instantly grew larger.
…
No one brought up the bold claim Jiang Hexing had made earlier, because Li Yuanci and the others didn’t believe that Jiang Hexing could become number one on the Top 100 Ranking.
They had seen far too many special admittees with the same mindset as Jiang Hexing—people who thought that because they had excelled academically back home, they could come to Laiga Academy and dominate those “good-for-nothing rich kids.”
What they didn’t realize was that the things they studied here were things those outsiders had never even heard of.
That said, Li Yuanci didn’t feel much about it either way. After all, the main reason he liked Jiang Hexing was because of her face. As for who she was as a person, he didn’t particularly care.
Plus, since she had saved him before, he was willing to show her more patience than he would other girls.
As for Ji Yan and the others, they wouldn’t deliberately make things difficult for her either, simply because Li Yuanci treated her specially.
As for Xie Qiushi—
He had his own thoughts.
He watched coldly as Li Yuanci took the initiative to walk over to Jiang Hexing’s side, flashing a gentle smile as he greeted her: “You know what? I’m really happy to see you again at school.”
Hearing this, Jiang Hexing curved her eyes slightly: “Oh, is that so? Then I’m truly honored.”
“…”
That sounded a bit perfunctory.
Yet the corners of Li Yuanci’s lips couldn’t help but curl upward. He felt that Jiang Hexing seemed even cuter than he had imagined.
He said, “The honor is mine.”
“What honor?”
Jiang Hexing tilted her head, looking at him curiously.
“The honor of seeing you again.” Li Yuanci shrugged. “You might not know this, but that day, I actually wanted to ask for your contact information—but you walked away too fast.”
Li Yuanci was a playboy.
He had enough ex-girlfriends to fill several tables at a mahjong game. That was why, when that blond guy claimed Li Yuanci had stolen his girlfriend, he hadn’t doubted it at all—he even racked his brain trying to figure out which girlfriend the blond was talking about.
He didn’t have much finesse when it came to romance. When he wanted to be with someone, he usually just went straight for it. And thanks to his looks, height, and family background, almost no girl had ever turned him down.
This time,
He planned to use the same approach on Jiang Hexing.
There was a lingering tenderness in Li Yuanci’s eyes as he looked at her.
“…” Jiang Hexing met his gaze, her expression turning serious as well. She pressed her lips together, seemingly deep in thought, before finally speaking in a dry, stiff tone: “You flatter me.”
He hadn’t expected that after all that silence, she’d manage to squeeze out something like that.
Watching the girl’s beautiful profile and her slightly trembling eyelashes,
Li Yuanci couldn’t help but laugh.
Ji Yan, Zhuang Mo, and Zhou Jinran also found it hard to suppress their smiles, thinking that Jiang Hexing was actually quite interesting.
“Yuanci’s foolproof moves don’t seem to be working on Jiang Hexing.”
“Jiang Hexing doesn’t seem the least bit interested in him.”
“Do you think Yuanci can win her over?”
“Doesn’t look too promising.”
The three of them quickened their pace, and only after putting some distance between themselves and Li Yuanci and Jiang Hexing did they finally let it all out.
“It’s just playing hard to get.”
Xie Qiushi caught up with them, casting another cold glance at Jiang Hexing, convinced in his heart that she was a scheming woman.
“Why do you dislike her so much?”
Ji Yan’s peach blossom eyes held a hint of curiosity as he couldn’t help but ask, “She shouldn’t have offended you, should she?”
Xie Qiushi said coldly, “I despise any woman with schemes.”
Of course, what mattered more was that the moment Jiang Hexing entered Lega, others actually compared her to Yuan Zhen.
Just who did she think she was?
Did she even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Yuan Zhen?