Huai Yin stared blankly at Shen Xiaozhou’s handsome arm. It was fair and clean, with smooth, natural muscle lines. When he exerted force, the veins would bulge noticeably beneath the skin, exuding a distinctly masculine tension.
Could she really?
Huai Yin was thoroughly tempted. She even wanted to reach out and touch it—to feel for herself how a boy’s body differed from her own.
But what if Shen Xiaozhou suddenly goes back on his word? Huai Yin still remembered that their relationship wasn’t exactly pleasant.
Seeing Huai Yin’s hesitant expression, Shen Xiaozhou felt a wave of frustration.
Is she really that unwilling to touch him? Is he some kind of terrifying monster?
“Hurry up,” Shen Xiaozhou urged impatiently. “If you’re not afraid of the pain, I’m going to keep going.”
Huai Yin hastily grabbed Shen Xiaozhou’s wrist. Not daring to exert too much force, she merely rested her fingers lightly on his skin.
Her hands were remarkably soft, like a kitten’s paws. Strands of hair falling from her shoulders brushed against his skin like feathers, sending a series of ripples through him.
Shen Xiaozhou lowered his eyes and carefully applied the iodine-soaked swab to her wound.
It still stung a little.
Huai Yin sniffled softly, her grip on Shen Xiaozhou’s wrist slowly tightening.
Even though it hurt this much, Huai Yin didn’t pull back. She simply knitted her brows, her watery almond eyes staring nervously at the top of Shen Xiaozhou’s head.
“I-Is it done yet?” Huai Yin asked weakly.
She was nearing her limit.
With his head lowered, Shen Xiaozhou meticulously treated her wound. He was leaning in so close that his cool, crisp breath brushed against her thigh, tickling her skin.
The scrape on her knee was nearly taken care of. Shen Xiaozhou straightened his back and inadvertently caught sight of her expression.
Tiny beads of sweat lined the young miss’s radiant face—likely from the pain. A few wisps of fringe stuck to her forehead, and her large eyes gazed up at him with aggrieved innocence, looking utterly sweet and endearing.
“All done,” Shen Xiaozhou said, his tone carrying a rare note of comfort. “Now give me your hands.”
Huai Yin nodded and extended her hands to him.
The young heiress was remarkably obedient; Shen Xiaozhou even had the absurd illusion that she would comply with anything he asked.
Does she really trust him this much, when they are on such bad terms?
The scrapes on her palms weren’t severe, but out of a private whim, Shen Xiaozhou deliberately dragged out the process for a long time.
Cradling Huai Yin’s hand within his broad palm, he squeezed and rubbed her slender fingers. His fingertips brushed against the lines of her palm with an agonizingly slow, teasing rhythm—feeling far more like a lover’s caress.
They were so soft, almost as if they were boneless.
How could a girl’s hands be so small? Shen Xiaozhou mentally compared her hand to his own.
He tried closing his fingers around hers; his hand could almost completely envelop her small one.
He couldn’t help wondering: What could a hand this small even hold onto?
Shen Xiaozhou toyed with Huai Yin’s fingers tirelessly, as if he had acquired a long-sought prize.
He was so deeply immersed in it that he didn’t feel a shred of weariness, while Huai Yin was on the verge of drifting off to sleep.
Drowsy, Huai Yin half-opened her eyes. “Is it still not finished?”
“Not yet,” Shen Xiaozhou brushed her off glibly.
He had no intention of letting her leave so soon to go find Xu Shiyan.
This silly young heiress had better stay obediently by his side; otherwise, she would undoubtedly end up hurt again.
Huai Yin’s head bobbed up and down like a chick pecking at grain, suspended between sleep and wakefulness.
“We still have class,” she muttered in a quiet voice.
Shen Xiaozhou raised an eyebrow, questioning his own ears.
The lazy, failing heiress who regularly skipped class and flunked exams was actually saying something like this?
“You want to go back to class?” Shen Xiaozhou asked.
Huai Yin shifted her posture, lying on her side on the bed with her shoulder resting against Shen Xiaozhou. Hearing his question, she replied offhandedly without thinking, “Of course.”
Shen Xiaozhou lowered his eyes, staring intently at her face.
The corner of his lips curled into a cold, inexplicable sneer. “Do you really want to go to class, or do you just want to go back to Xu Shiyan?”
Huai Yin couldn’t process it for a moment, unsure of how to answer.
“I don’t,” Huai Yin pouted, denying it instinctively.
Shen Xiaozhou’s eyes searched her face, as if hunting for any sign of a lie.
Huai Yin blinked in utter confusion.
What was wrong? Was there something on her face?
Shen Xiaozhou took a deep breath. His voice sounded stiff, matching his dark expression.
“Xu Shiyan is with Su Yi right now. Stop entangling yourself with the two of them.”
“They’re deeply in love. Why must you break up a pair of soulmates?”
Huai Yin naturally understood this logic.
After all, her role was the villainous female supporting character! She existed precisely to drive the main couple’s romantic plot forward—her role was super meaningful, okay?
Though it was indeed quite annoying to others. It was perfectly justified for the main cast to dislike her.
Always mindful of her character persona, Huai Yin lifted her chin and declared haughtily, “Are you mistaken? I am Shiyan’s fiancée. Su Yi is the third wheel here.”
“What? Are you going to defend the homewrecker?”
Unsurprisingly, the moment those words left her mouth, Shen Xiaozhou’s face turned ghastly dark.
“Fiancée?” Shen Xiaozhou echoed, his tone turning sinister. A tiny smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, though his eyes remained utterly cold.
“Except Xu Shiyan doesn’t like you at all.”
Huai Yin had long anticipated he would say that. She huffed with complete indifference, “So what? Shiyan and I are a perfect match in status. He’ll break up with Su Yi sooner or later.”
A perfect match in status.
Hearing those words, Shen Xiaozhou’s expression shifted instantly.
Huai Yin had no idea she had touched a sensitive nerve.
Back then, Huai Yanli had broken up with Shen Xiaozhou’s mother precisely because the gap in their social standing was too vast.
Sure enough, Huai Yin was the exact same breed as her treacherous, hypocritical father.
Shen Xiaozhou scoffed silently. What on earth had he been expecting?
They were father and daughter—of course they were cut from the same cloth.
“Shen Xiaozhou, do you want to team up with me?”
Meeting Huai Yin’s expectant gaze, Shen Xiaozhou’s face darkened completely.
“Team up for what?”
Huai Yin pulled her legs into the blanket and propped her upper body up, her eyes shining brightly. She proposed with great enthusiasm, “You like Su Yi, and I like Shiyan.”
“Since we’re both in the same boat, we’re practically friends already. Why don’t we cooperate? We can figure out a way to break them up so we both get our chance. How about it?”
The more Huai Yin spoke, the more excited she became, her almond eyes twinkling. She thought she was being exceptionally clever.
If she could team up with Shen Xiaozhou, it would not only smooth over their relationship, but more importantly, it would eliminate a major obstacle from her future tasks, making her job so much easier.
A little cleverness, but not much.
Shen Xiaozhou didn’t answer. Huai Yin waited patiently, but his next words caught her completely off guard.
“Who told you I liked Su Yi?” Shen Xiaozhou’s tone reverted to its usual icy distance.
Huai Yin froze.
Uh, wasn’t he?
That was literally the novel’s setup!
Huai Yin asked the System what was going on, but as usual, the System played dead.
Shen Xiaozhou narrowed his eyes and slowly leaned down over the girl, uttering each word deliberately: “Who said that?”
Huai Yin bit her lower lip, averting her eyes, afraid to meet his gaze. Pressed by his interrogation, she braced herself and replied, “Everyone says so! Aren’t you and Su Yi childhood sweethearts?”
“Besides,” Huai Yin mustered the courage to look up. “You’re always standing up for Su Yi—is that not liking her?”
As if he had heard something absurdly hilarious, Shen Xiaozhou let out a quiet scoff.
His face darkened, his pupils turning as black as ink, carrying an innate chill that caused the surrounding temperature to drop several degrees.
“Su Yi and I grew up together. We’re close, so I help her out. In your eyes, that equates to me liking her? Are you really that shallow?”
“Furthermore, you people target Su Yi for no reason. What’s wrong with me helping her?” Shen Xiaozhou said coldly. “Helping you would be abetting a bully.”
Huai Yin was a bit slow to digest his words.
“So, you don’t like her?” Huai Yin tentatively arrived at this astounding conclusion.
Shen Xiaozhou frowned. “At least not the kind of ‘liking’ you think it is.”
Huai Yin was rendered speechless.
What was going on? This was completely different from the novel’s setup!
Then again, things like this did happen occasionally—authors sometimes forgot the original character setups they had written.
Still, could such a crucial detail really be forgotten?
At that moment, the System finally came back to life and chimed in to explain to Huai Yin.
【At this stage, the male second lead’s feelings for the female lead aren’t romantic love yet. He merely sees her as a younger sister, driven mostly by sympathy and pity. Truly falling in love with her comes later in the plot.】
Huai Yin fell into deep thought.
So that’s how it is.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?” Shen Xiaozhou asked, feeling a strange agitation in his chest.
Had Huai Yin always assumed he liked Su Yi? For some reason, Shen Xiaozhou thoroughly despised the idea of her harboring such a misunderstanding about him.
Huai Yin tilted her head and pondered for a few seconds, her expression looking exceptionally earnest and innocent.
“So, you’re not willing to ally with me?”
After everything he had said, she was still fixated on the alliance! Shen Xiaozhou felt an overwhelming sense of frustration stifling his chest.
Did the young miss take in a single word he had just said?
Shen Xiaozhou gritted his back teeth, forcing out a few cold words through his teeth, “Not interested.”
“Oh. Okay then.”
Huai Yin felt a wave of disappointment.
Shen Xiaozhou lifted his eyelids, his gaze landing on the girl’s pale, slender wrists.
“I’ll take you back. How are you supposed to attend class in this state?”
Hearing this, Huai Yin looked down blankly.
That’s true.
Her skirt and the camisole underneath were still damp, and more importantly, she was currently wearing Shen Xiaozhou’s school shirt.
Going back to class like this really wasn’t appropriate.
Shen Xiaozhou stood up. “Besides, I need to go back and change my clothes as well.”
“I’ll call Uncle Wang and have him drive over to pick us up.”
Uncle Wang was the Huai family driver.
Just as Huai Yin was about to nod, the System’s distinct mechanical voice echoed once more.
【Refuse the male second lead. Insist that the male lead take you home.】
Receiving the task, Huai Yin paused.
Again? These tasks are coming way too frequently!
Huai Yin let out a helpless sigh.
Clearing her throat, she adopted an arrogant tone and flatly rejected Shen Xiaozhou: “I don’t need you. I want Shiyan to take me home!”