“Your humble subject requests permission to add Your Majesty as a friend~” Song Yu smiled sincerely, respectfully holding out his phone.
Looking at Song Yu’s earnest expression, Lu Qiwen let out a light snort but still took the phone and searched for his own account.
Truth be told, Lu Qiwen didn’t know why he cared so much about this matter.
After some thought, he ultimately attributed it to an alpha’s territorial instincts kicking in.
He took out his phone, about to accept the friend request, when he saw a new message notification from Lu Qilan, a picture, and a long one at that.
As soon as he opened it, he was greeted by a dense list of notifications, all marked as likes from Song Yu.
[Oh my, how enthusiastic indeed]
Lu Qiwen sneered coldly.
He wouldn’t get angry over Lu Qilan’s childish tactics. Song Yu liked him so much; he was sure to scroll through his entire Moments feed.
Thinking this, Lu Qiwen even deliberately changed his Moments privacy setting from “visible for three days” to fully open. However, even after the two of them found a quiet sofa to sit on, Lu Qiwen still hadn’t received a single notification about Song Yu liking any of his posts.
Lu Qiwen sank deep into the sofa, gripping his phone with one hand as he refreshed the page over and over again. His brows were tightly furrowed, his watery red lips pressed into a straight line. The tense angles of his face, so breathtakingly beautiful, exuded an almost violent intensity held tightly in check.
Song Yu, originally sitting beside him, was pondering how to get the school bully to ask him to run an errand. Before he could come up with an answer, he was nearly frozen by the icy aura emanating from the person next to him.
He cautiously glanced at Lu Qiwen’s phone out of the corner of his eye and noticed he kept refreshing his Moments, as if waiting for someone.
“Brother Lu… Lu.” Song Yu mustered the courage to speak.
“Speak.” Lu Qiwen replied without moving, his gaze still fixed on his Moments page.
“Do you want some water? I’ll go get it for you.”
“No need.”
“Yes, yes, you do!” Song Yu forced a smile, abruptly standing up and rushing toward the table.
Seeing Song Yu insist on going despite his refusal, Lu Qiwen finally lifted his phoenix eyes, the corners slightly upturned as he watched his retreating figure.
[Jiang Yuanheng, why would someone who likes another person not look at their Moments but instead like every post of someone they just met?]
Jiang Yuanheng, who had just arrived at the venue: ?
[Is this your young man’s heartache?]
[Isn’t it simple? Even a kid would understand, they’re playing hard to get.]
[I’m seriously starting to wonder if Uncle Lu forgot to give you an EQ when you were born.]
[But who is this person you’re talking about? Do I know them?]
[Wait, hold on, why did you open your Moments privacy settings? Didn’t you say people who share on Moments are the dumbest?]
[No way, you actually posted on Moments? What madness is this? An annual update?]
[Are you really Lu Qiwen?? Has something possessed you??]
Lu Qiwen had already exited the chat and set it to receive messages without notifications as soon as Jiang Yuanheng replied to his first message.
He figured Song Yu had simply added him on WeChat, saw the “visible for three days” setting, and never bothered to check again.
When Song Yu returned with a drink and placed it in Lu Qiwen’s hand, he glanced at the system interface and breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the progress had changed to 1/10.
At least this proves the method is feasible.
“Drinks?”
“Yep.” Song Yu was in high spirits, thinking this side quest was way too easy.
“Drinking too much isn’t good. Better not have alcohol.”
Looking at the orange juice in the glass in his hand, Lu Qiwen shook it a few times, his expression unreadable, neither liking nor disliking it.
Song Yu happily took a few sips of his drink and pulled out his phone, planning to scroll through his social media feed.
But as soon as he opened it, he saw a post Lu Qiwen had shared just a minute ago.
No caption, just a picture.
In the photo, a slender, fair, yet strong hand tilted slightly forward, the index and middle fingers naturally curved, resting loosely on the glass. The orange juice was the only vibrant splash of color in the image.
Song Yu stared at the photo for a long time. It never crossed his mind that the school’s top troublemaker, a young master like him, would post a picture of juice.
He blinked.
If he had known Lu Qiwen was going to take a photo, he should have grabbed red wine instead. Would others look down on the school’s top troublemaker for this?
After some thought, Song Yu could only awkwardly pretend he hadn’t seen it and continued scrolling.
Within minutes of the post going up, comments and likes flooded in, except from Song Yu.
Just then, Lu Qilan sent another message.
[Oh, posting on social media now? Not to be that person, but what kind of nonsense is this?]
Lu Qiwen didn’t reply to any messages. Instead, he expressionlessly opened Lu Qilan’s profile and blocked her.
On the other end, Lu Qilan was about to send another message when she saw the red exclamation mark next to it and couldn’t help but laugh.
This guy can’t take a joke.
Lu Qilan didn’t know whether Lu Qiwen was happy or not, but she, having successfully pulled off her mischief, was quite pleased.
Lu Qiwen flipped his phone over and set it aside, the chill around him still palpable.
Song Yu, feeling slightly guilty, also put his phone away.
Was it because he brought juice that Lu Qiwen got mocked?
“Brother Lu, are you… hungry?”
“What do you think?”
“You probably are. I’ll go get something!” Song Yu sprang up from the couch.
Only when he reached the buffet area did Song Yu remember he had no idea what the school’s top troublemaker liked or disliked. If he picked randomly, that picky mouth of his would probably complain.
What should he choose?
Before he could decide, several people suddenly approached Song Yu.
“Song Yu!”
“It really is you!”
“Didn’t expect you to come to Lu Zhi’s birthday party!”
The group crowded around Song Yu, almost surrounding him completely.
“But how did you get in? Weren’t all the Song family members barred from entering?”
Song Yu had no recollection of these people’s faces and had no intention of answering. “Excuse me, let me through.”
“You’ve changed your style quite a bit since starting university,” said a slightly overweight person in the crowd, reaching out toward Song Yu. “A beta like you looks pretty cute this way.”
Song Yu tilted his head to avoid the hand trying to pinch his cheek and said with wide, sincere eyes, “Well, you alone look pretty creepy like this.”
Everyone surrounding him froze, completely unprepared for Song Yu’s retort. Strangely, the person he insulted didn’t even seem angry.
“Hey, your temper’s gotten feisty too.”
Song Yu sighed. Why couldn’t this person understand sarcasm?
Suddenly, the person snatched the plate from Song Yu’s hands. “You pick food pretty well too. These are all my favorites.”
Song Yu glanced at the crowd and suddenly smiled. Without anyone noticing, he raised his hand and slapped the person hard across the face.
“Sorry, I’m not in the habit of feeding pigs.”