Around the playground stood a ring of camphor trees, and scattered beneath them sat students who hadn’t managed to grab a court or simply didn’t enjoy sports.
Wen Ying didn’t rush to sit down. He planned to wander around and find a spot with fewer people.
On a small hill not far away, Qu Huo sat alone, leaning against a tree.
His eyes were tightly shut, his lips pressed into a taut line he looked exhausted.
Perhaps it was the fearsome reputation of the “school bully” that kept students from daring to sit within ten meters of Qu Huo.
This suited Wen Ying perfectly, as he wanted to avoid the crowd.
Wen Ying stopped about five meters away, found a patch of relatively clean grass, laid out his mat, and sat down.
The area was too noisy, so the idle Wen Ying squinted and dozed off for a while, then drifted into a daze, staring blankly into the distance.
“Ohhh ohhh!”
Huo Jueyue and his group were still playing basketball with wild excitement, letting out strange, indescribable screams from time to time.
Like monkeys.
Wen Ying couldn’t understand where they got all that energy.
Feeling Wen Ying’s gaze, Huo Jueyue grew even more pumped, as if injected with adrenaline.
He even deliberately clenched his fist to show off his biceps.
Wen Ying suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and shifted his gaze to another part of the court.
The basketball flew back and forth, nearly landing on Gu Xiche, who was furiously writing away in the corner.
Wen Ying had sharp eyes. His gaze followed the ball and noticed something off about Gu Xiche.
Gone was the composed demeanor he usually wore as class monitor. Gu Xiche now looked extremely anxious and exhausted.
Gu Xiche, who had nearly been hit by the ball, showed neither panic nor anger. He simply pushed up his glasses and lowered his head again, looking dejected.
Wen Ying furrowed his brow. “What he’s holding is our pop quiz from yesterday.”
So busy he couldn’t even pause during PE class Wen Ying genuinely felt Gu Xiche might one day drop dead at his desk.
[Yes,] “Gentleman” said with sympathy in its tone.
[And it’s a Chinese quiz, which requires a lot of reading.]
[Because he’s the perfect top student in the book, responsible for all class affairs with greater ability comes greater responsibility.]
Perfect.
It was a complimentary word, but it made Wen Ying deeply uncomfortable no matter how he thought about it.
“Wen Ying.”
It wasn’t until Wen Ying walked up to him that the handsome young man suddenly snapped out of his focus.
He blinked to adjust his emotions, his silver eyelashes trembling slightly, then smiled and greeted Wen Ying.
“Class monitor.”
Not being used to paying attention to others, Wen Ying didn’t ask directly. He simply sat down quietly beside him.
Gu Xiche gave a shy smile and politely scooted over to make room.
He continued marking the test papers, his head bobbing up and down, the faint dark circles under his eyes especially noticeable in the sunlight.
Gu Xiche was clearly only eighteen, yet he looked like a corporate slave who’d been working for ten years.
Seeing him finish marking the papers and then reach for his laptop to open a folder labeled “Lesson Plans,” Wen Ying couldn’t hold back anymore.
“Do lesson plans also need to be written by the class monitor?”
“This is what I should do.” Gu Xiche paused his work and looked at Wen Ying seriously.
He came from a scholarly family and had been the top student at school his entire life, so the teachers trusted him deeply.
Because he could do it, it was his responsibility to do it.
His attitude was too matter-of-fact, but Wen Ying didn’t doubt his own judgment because of it.
“So, do you want to do it?”
He looked at Gu Xiche just as seriously: “Writing lesson plans, grading papers, organizing classes. I think these are all the teacher’s jobs.”
“The capable do more” was just an excuse, but Gu Xiche seemed to have trapped himself in that excuse.
Gu Xiche froze for a moment, his attitude wavering.
He actually didn’t really want to take on all this work. He was truly exhausted.
But he’d never refused before, and he didn’t know how to refuse.
Wen Ying didn’t get his answer the bell for the end of class rang first.
He picked up a roll sheet that had fallen on the ground, handed it to Gu Xiche, and stood up.
“If you don’t want to do it, you can choose to refuse.”
He said his piece. Whether Gu Xiche was willing to listen was up to him.
“School’s out wanna come hang out?”
Huo Jueyue made a three-pointer, landing the ball perfectly in the hoop, and shouted at Wen Ying: “Let’s go to Cherry Alley, my treat.”
Behind him, a drained Si Haoxing and a still-energetic Richard poked their heads out to look at Wen Ying.
“No thanks, I have things to do.”
The Four Young Masters’ nightlife could be exciting, but Wen Ying still had to go home and study seriously to prepare for the monthly exam.
Gu Xiche, holding his laptop, watched Wen Ying’s retreating figure with a dazed expression.
His parents told him to be tolerant, his teachers told him to be accommodating, and his peers praised him for being capable.
It seemed no one had ever told him he could refuse the things he hated.
The rejected Huo Jueyue wanted to say something more, but Wen Ying simply raised his phone, pretending to be busy, and lowered his head as he left the scene.
From Huo Jueyue’s angle, he could just barely see the small black mole on Wen Ying’s neck so tiny it was almost invisible, hidden at the collar, appearing and disappearing.
He averted his gaze as if struck by lightning, stammered for a long time, then let out a dismissive snort to cover it up: “Fine, if you’re not coming, you’re not coming. Let’s go.”
Ha, playing hard to get!
Walking home from school, Wen Ying glanced at the rapidly rising affection points of the Four Young Masters.
He pursed his lips, somewhat distracted.
“Gentleman” tried several times to speak but never dared to ask.
The young prince went to ask Gu Xiche if it was because.
“Yes, I think Gu Xiche is very similar to the Crown Prince.”
Wen Ying knew what it wanted to say and proactively brought up the topic.
He kicked a roadside stone in frustration, his tone flat and devoid of emotion: “A pushover who can’t say no.”
Whoever came, he’d greet with a smile; whatever was asked of him, he’d grit his teeth and do it, as if he had no will of his own.
They were the exemplary crown princes in others’ eyes, the perfect class monitors.
And that was all.
“Pushover” was a harsh assessment, but he didn’t hate his elder brother, nor did he hate Gu Xiche.
[The Grand Prince was also left with no choice.]
The “Gentleman” said softly.
Wen Ying felt a bit irritated, but still said slowly, “I know.”
That was why he hated the Star Royal Palace so much.
There were too many things done out of necessity there, and his brother, in order to climb higher, had refused his help and willingly accepted those necessities.
They had long since stopped walking the same path.
But Gu Xiche still had a choice.
“Let’s not talk about this.” He didn’t want to continue the topic, even though he had started it.
“I remember a batch of daily necessities is about to arrive.”
[Yes.]
The “Gentleman” tactfully dropped the subject.
Carrying a delivery of over a dozen pounds into the house, Wen Ying made himself a dinner.
Yogurt mixed with granola and chopped fruit that was the most complicated dish he knew how to make.
After eating, he followed the instructions step by step to learn how to pay the electricity bill, then arranged the purchased daily necessities.
With a bit of tidying up, this vast and empty home finally stopped resembling a dreamy haunted house.
[Your Highness, why are you so fixated on the scholarship?]
The “Gentleman” couldn’t help but ask.
He had just finished his chores and was already starting on practice tests the Gentleman had never seen the young prince work this hard before.
“I absolutely must use the scholarship to install a toilet.”
Thinking of the bathroom at home that had no toilet, Wen Ying’s hand writing the test paper sped up.
Running to the nearest public restroom took ten minutes, who on earth came up with the setting that female leads don’t need to use the bathroom?
The “Gentleman”:
What a refreshingly simple reason.
[With the young prince working this hard, you’re sure to succeed.]
It silently pulled out a few more practice tests and projected them for Wen Ying to see.
Fighting for a toilet!
He wrote until 11:30, then went to bed right on time.
Since childhood, he’d liked to hug something while sleeping, so among the delivery items was a cat-shaped body pillow.
But the pillow had just been washed, so he couldn’t hug it tonight.
Wen Ying’s sleep quality remained poor, but the duration of sleep made up for it.
Since it was the weekend, it was definitely meant for resting.
How could going out count as rest?
Holding this philosophy, Wen Ying crashed and slept for fourteen hours straight. Back in the Star Royal Palace, he’d only ever slept that long when he was sick.
So the next day, he crashed and slept another twelve hours.
This was against etiquette, but the “Gentleman” chose to play dumb, dutifully serving as an alarm clock that only rang at mealtimes.
It was a pretty decent weekend, with Huo Jueyue’s harassment on E-E being the only blemish.
Huo·Jue: [Shorty, you there?]
Huo·Jue: [Stop pretending, I know you’re online invisibly, just waiting for me.]
Wen Ying, curled up in his blanket playing on his phone, stared with wide, dazed eyes, expressionless.
He should’ve just kept the phone off.
Huo·Jue: [Wow, a friend gifted you an E-E Color Diamond trial card·7 days!!]
Huo·Jue: [Think the three days I gave you last time was too little? This time I had another one left over.]
Huo·Jue: [I saw no one wanted it, so I gave it to you hurry up and thank me.]
Wen Ying replied with an elderly smile emoji, clicked “decline,” and silently added him to the do-not-disturb list, the whole combo executed as smooth as silk.
If E-E friends could be terminated, he wished Huo Jueyue could permanently leave his internet.
Then, watching Huo Jueyue’s favorability inexplicably rise by another point, he clenched the phone in his hand.
This guy really has some kind of fetish, doesn’t he?
The weekend passed without major incident.
Monday morning, Wen Ying, refreshed from catching up on sleep, arrived early as usual.
He felt like someone was missing from the classroom.
Wen Ying, picking out the cucumber shreds, thought about it.
He could eat cucumber shreds, but not ones coated in dressing.
Seeing the empty seat in another corner, Wen Ying suddenly understood.
It was Qu Huo who hadn’t come.
Like him, Qu Huo always arrived early sometimes when Wen Ying showed up, Qu Huo was the only one in the classroom.
Maybe he’d taken leave.
Wen Ying took a bite of his sandwich and bit into a cucumber shred he hadn’t picked out cleanly.
His face darkened.
Quite unexpectedly, the first math class of the day wasn’t taught by Gu Xiche.
The teacher’s personal arrival caused a stir across the class, but the stir subsided quickly.
Because math was suffocating.
What happened?
Wen Ying looked toward Gu Xiche in surprise, but unfortunately, an entire class separated them, and Wen Ying couldn’t see anything.
But he had a feelingGu Xiche must have taken some very good action.
After the second period ended, Gu Xiche walked up to the podium.
He looked much better, at least with no dark circles under his eyes.
“There’s a form everyone needs to fill out.”
It was the insurance form that had to be filled out every semester. Wen Ying scanned it top to bottom a few times, then neatly wrote his name.
He glanced at Gu Xiche’s desk in passing. The desk, usually piled high with test papers, was noticeably tidier.
After passing out the forms, Gu Xiche still had one left in his hand.
“Is anyone here close with classmate Qu Huo?”
He looked around the class. “The form needs to be turned in the day after tomorrow, but classmate Qu Huo has taken a week of personal leave, so someone may need to deliver it to him.”
“A week?”
That kind of leave was unusually long for a student, and it immediately stirred up a wave of chatter across the classroom.
But talk was talk no one actually dared to take on the task.
“A week I heard that Qu, the school bully, is shady. He’s not off doing something bad, is he?”
“Yeah, I heard Qu Huo lives in the slums. That place is filthy. No way am I going.”
Those flippant words slipped out of these seventeen- or eighteen-year-old mouths, cruel and arrogant.
Wen Ying didn’t join their discussion. He just kept his head down, reading with a blank expression.
In the end, nothing came of it.
“Classmate Wen Ying.”
During lunch break, Gu Xiche walked over to him carrying a stack of books. “I heard you just came back from abroad, so you might have missed some earlier coursework.”
He kept his head lowered. “These are my notes. If you need them, please feel free to take a look.”
By the end, his voice was trembling slightly.
Gu Xiche was the top student in the entire school, and his notes were extremely valuable to Wen Ying.
“Why are you giving these to me?”
The moment he said it, Wen Ying regretted being too blunt.
But Gu Xiche wasn’t rattled. Instead, he gained a bit of confidence. “Thank you.”
That morning, he’d tried talking to the teachers and seen their cheerful, easygoing attitudes. Only then did he realize that refusing some troublesome requests was actually simple.
After coming back, Gu Xiche had been anxious all morning, but as it turned out, nothing happened.
It seemed everything was just as it should be just as Wen Ying had said. He really didn’t have to shoulder so much responsibility, and no one would blame him for it.
“I didn’t do anything.” Wen Ying looked at him. “So I should be the one thanking you for the notes.”
“Just call me Wen Ying.”
That instinctive urge to please others was probably just the persona the main storyline had given Gu Xiche, convenient for writing him as a doormat and clearing space for the male and female leads’ plot.
Thankfully, Gu Xiche was willing to change.
Gu Xiche let out a breath of relief. “Alright, Wen Ying.”
“Yeah.” Wen Ying seemed to suddenly remember something.
“Oh, right. You were looking for someone to go to Qu Huo’s place. Found anyone yet?”
At the mention of that, Gu Xiche, who had just relaxed, slumped again.
“No. Looks like I’ll have to go myself.”
It was the class monitor’s duty, and he couldn’t escape it.
Wen Ying stared at him steadily, seeing right through Gu Xiche’s thoughts. “You don’t want to go?”
Gu Xiche hesitated, then nodded. “I’m not really familiar with classmate Qu.”
And honestly, he wasn’t all that good at dealing with people.
“You’re afraid of him.”
Wen Ying said it with certainty.
Gu Xiche’s fair face flushed, and he instinctively pushed up his glasses.
Seeing him like that, Wen Ying almost laughed out loud.
On the surface, a perfect top student; behind the scenes, a socially anxious introvert who couldn’t say no, carefully maintaining a fragile peace everywhere.
He really couldn’t see what was so scary about Qu Huo. Gu Xiche was probably like everyone else just scaring himself.
“Actually, after school today, I have some free time.”
He slowly spun the pen in his hand, saying it lightly.
Gu Xiche’s eyes lit up.
“Then, then.”
Meeting his expectant gaze, Wen Ying fell silent.
He wanted to see if Gu Xiche would actually make the request.
Gu Xiche had given him the notes, so he should have been confident in asking for help, not needing to be pushed along.
And he wasn’t about to swallow his pride and volunteer on his own.
Closing his eyes, Gu Xiche gathered his courage. “Please, classmate Wen Ying, help me!”
“Alright.”
Wen Ying tucked the ballpoint pen back into his hand.
“Give me his address.”