Inside the classroom.
The students nervously watched the stopwatch beside the blackboard.
One second, two seconds…
At the final second, the cheerful bell for the end of class rang.
Like a signal to charge, the students couldn’t wait to rush outside.
“I’ll go save you a seat first.” His deskmate Shen Zhe hastily left these words before disappearing from sight.
Yun Xiang held her pen and furrowed her brow slightly.
Only after recalculating the wrong problem correctly did she stand up unhurriedly and head toward the cafeteria.
The wide corridor was empty. Yun Xiang walked along the edge, like a little mushroom growing in a dark corner. Sunlight filtered through the dense branches and leaves, landing on her hair whorl in a gentle arc.
The breeze gently rustled the leaves, making a rustling sound, accompanied by unhurried footsteps behind her.
And… his inner voice.
[Yuxiang shredded pork, kung pao chicken, sweet and sour ribs, cola chicken wings, tomato scrambled eggs, boiled pork slices, fried chicken legs, iced cola, and milk tea! My favorite taro bubble milk green tea. So annoying, bro doesn’t want to secretly drink milk tea in the bathroom anymore.]
[Hungry, so hungry, hungry hungry hungry, craning my neck to sing to the sky, feels like I could eat eight kids in one bite. Awooo (Hungry Dragon Roar)]
Yun Xiang’s frail back trembled.
Drinking milk tea in the bathroom? Eating kids?
Was he a monster?
[Little snail is walking so slowly, isn’t she hungry? Ah, so soft and small, I want to eat her up in one bite!]
Yun Xiang’s steps faltered, then she desperately swung her short little legs and started running.
Hilarious—she hadn’t even tried this hard during the physical fitness test.
When she arrived at the cafeteria, there weren’t many people queuing at the windows by now. Everyone had already gotten their food, and the good dishes had been picked clean.
But Yun Xiang didn’t mind much. Even if there were good dishes to choose from, she couldn’t afford them anyway.
She got a serving of greens and shredded potatoes. Holding her tray, Yun Xiang’s two big, dark, deer-like eyes swept across the vast, noisy cafeteria, trying to find herself a corner away from the light.
Over here, Pei Xingche had also arrived at the cafeteria.
He walked straight to his usual spot, where someone had already gotten his meal for him.
That person held out the meal card with both hands, lowering his head meekly as he presented it to Pei Xingche: “Thank you, Brother Che. The lunch was most delicious, we ate to our hearts’ content. Long live the emperor.”
After saying this, several people raised their heads and burst out laughing.
They were all Pei Xingche’s buddies from his original class.
When Pei Xingche switched classes, feeling it wasn’t quite loyal of him, he’d agreed to cover these guys’ lunches for a month.
Pei Xingche took the meal card, stuffed it into his pocket, and curled his thin, pale lips in a smile that didn’t reach his eyes: “If you really want to thank me, then kneel.”
The guys exchanged glances, their eyes meeting as they rapidly transmitted some kind of signal. Five seconds later, they quickly reached a consensus.
The boy who’d just returned the meal card turned sideways, wiped the grin off his face, leaned in toward Pei Xingche, and lowered his voice: “What, things not going well?”
They all knew Pei Xingche had transferred to Class Five to chase after a girl.
As for who this girl was, Pei Xingche guarded her jealously and hadn’t told anyone.
The guys had squatted outside the door of Class Five for days, almost getting caught by the security guard, but still couldn’t figure out who it was.
Pei Xingche held his chopsticks and picked up some food, his face cool and indifferent, not answering.
But in his heart, he thought:
[Not just not going well—there’s been zero progress at all. She’s still as far away as the horizon (dog sigh)]
[I really don’t get it. Did she go through detox or something? How can she resist looking at bro?]
[Is bro not handsome enough? That’s impossible. Sob sob sob, she must hate handsome guys. Damn it, bro is feeling seriously insecure now]
Yun Xiang’s steps halted. She looked toward the right front and immediately spotted the little dog on top of Pei Xingche’s head, its fluffy tail drooping dejectedly.
He was muttering strange things again.
“Xiangxiang!”
From the same right front direction, Shen Zhe’s voice suddenly rang out: “Over here, over here.”
He craned his neck, waving at Yun Xiang, and several gazes turned to look along with him.
Yun Xiang lowered her eyelids and pressed her lips together.
What bad luck.
She shouldn’t have stopped. She should have quickly hidden herself away.
Despite her inner resistance, Yun Xiang still shuffled over slowly.
The only empty seat was next to Shen Zhe. Sitting across from him were all Shen Zhe’s friends, and at the table beside them sat Pei Xingche.
Yun Xiang was rarely at a loss.
One Shen Zhe was already hard enough for her to deal with, and now adding a Pei Xingche on top of that.
It was like a dynamic trajectory equation in math colliding with projectile motion in physics—a 1+1=n problem.
It made Yun Xiang’s head spin twice its size.
“Xiangxiang, I bought too many chicken legs. You have some.”
Shen Zhe pushed a porcelain-white plate over, his features behind his black-framed glasses gentle and warm.
Yun Xiang’s fair, slender fingertips tightened around her wooden chopsticks. Before she could even refuse, the teasing voices around them started up.
“Aiyo, why don’t you give some to me?”
“What are you? The top student Shen is definitely giving it to his little girlfriend.”
“I was wrong, I’ll just eat dog food, you guys go ahead.”
“Hahaha, Yun Xiang really should eat more. Look how skinny you are, you can’t even fill out the school uniform. You should develop more.”
They chimed in one after another, light and teasing in tone, like jokes—but they made Yun Xiang squirm in her seat.
It was always like this.
Shen Zhe’s behavior hovered in that ambiguous gray area, and the classmates always loved to tease them about it. Yun Xiang remembered how kind Shen Zhe had been to her, but she hated this strange, ambiguous relationship.
She had tried to explain before, but everyone would just wink and smirk lightly:
“We get it, we get it—you’re just friends. We’re all just joking around, don’t take it seriously.”
She had also tried to make things clear with Shen Zhe, but he would only give a helpless little smile and say: “I just treat you like a little sister. Don’t overthink it.”
Yun Xiang was left speechless, her irritation growing until it wore away even the initial warmth Shen Zhe had once brought her.
【Fck fck f*ck!】
A frantic voice rang in her ears:
【Damn, why does this food taste sourer and sourer… oh, right, it’s because my own pH dropped below 7. Heh.】
【So done with these guys, so annoying, chattering away—I want to obliterate them! (angry puppy)】
【She’s clearly MY girlfriend, MY baby, okay?! Uppercut! Downward punch! Left hook! I’ll knock them all flat with one punch each—absolute chaos! ABSOLUTE CHAOS!】
Pfft.
Yun Xiang laughed inwardly.
She kept her head down, but somehow found a bit more courage. Her soft voice came out with a slight nasal tone: “I don’t want to.”
“I don’t want to eat it, and I don’t like it.”
The girl’s voice was clear as water, causing the atmosphere at the table to freeze for a moment.
Shen Zhe’s movements stiffened, but then he still smiled good-naturedly and spoke gently: “Alright.”
The two boys across from them looked a bit embarrassed. They raised their eyelids with contempt, thinking Yun Xiang didn’t know what was good for her.
Sure, she looked a little cute—but who did she think she was, playing hard to get?
Honestly, with that shabby look of hers, only Shen Zhe would bother to keep indulging her.
Their inner voices, Yun Xiang couldn’t hear.
She only heard Pei Xingche’s bursts of seemingly deranged cackling laughter.
【Wifey did the right thing! That’s how you reject him hard! Awesome!】
【As expected of the woman I’ve set my eyes on—so principled, so bold. I’m even more in love now!】
Yun Xiang puffed out her cheeks, unable to resist glancing sideways at Pei Xingche from the corner of her eye.
The boy had broad shoulders and a narrow waist, with absurdly long legs that made even the ordinary loose school shirt and pants look sharp and well-fitted. The little puppy on his head seemed to be wagging its tail contentedly.
She had always known Pei Xingche was the school heartthrob—after all, the girls in class talked about him constantly.
But she had never imagined she’d have anything to do with Pei Xingche.
Even less that Pei Xingche might like her.
It was like trying to imagine a star in the sky stooping to kiss the mud.
And least of all—absolutely least of all—had she ever imagined that one day she’d hear Pei Xingche’s inexplicable inner voice.
And see a dog on his head.