The girl took a step back, stammering, “Y-Young Duke…”
Ji Shu, however, felt even more uneasy.
She wanted to push Lu Mingxi away, but in front of these girls, she had to restrain herself, keeping up the appearance of a decent relationship between them.
Only when the girls hurriedly apologized and scurried off did Ji Shu finally slip out from under his arm and quickly put some distance between herself and Lu Mingxi.
“Why are you here?” she asked, frowning.
“I thought you wanted me here,” Lu Mingxi said without annoyance, shrugging and smiling.
He called out as Ji Shu was about to turn away. “I helped you, aren’t I even worth a word of thanks?”
Ji Shu pressed her brows together and slowly said, “…Thank you.”
She started walking back. Lu Mingxi followed, lifting his leg to keep pace. “How did you get yourself into trouble again?”
Ji Shu replied, “None of your business. I was just trying to stall a bit until Xie Zhoulin arrived. Those girls had colluded with people in the student council, preventing the tennis tournament students from reaching the court, so I wanted the president to handle it.”
She stopped in her tracks as she spoke.
At the end of the hallway, still in his sportswear, Xie Zhoulin came rushing toward them, slightly out of breath. His eyes brightened when he saw the girls, and seeing that Ji Shu wasn’t hurt, he finally relaxed.
“Are you okay?”
Ji Shu said, “I’m fine.”
“That’s good. Cen Xuan told me everything. I’ll follow up with her later to find out exactly which members of the tennis club were involved.” He looked at Ji Shu, pressed his lips together, and spoke gently, “They’re tennis club members, and some of them have connections with the student council. Most of this is my responsibility. Next time, don’t act rashly, just send me a message and let me handle it.”
Ji Shu nodded.
Lu Mingxi stopped behind her, his expression cooling slightly.
He chuckled softly twice. “The president sure took his sweet time getting here today.”
Xie Zhoulin didn’t respond. Ji Shu lowered her head and walked on, ready to return to the tournament site. Suddenly, her phone buzzed with a message from Cen Xuan.
She said today’s match was over, Chu Jiayi had successfully advanced, and she wanted to thank Ji Shu specifically. She also mentioned that after tomorrow’s match, she wanted to treat her to a meal as a token of gratitude.
Ji Shu typed her reply, keeping her head down. She didn’t notice when the person in front of her suddenly stopped. She nearly bumped into him, but a hand reached out from behind and pressed on her shoulder, halting her in place.
Ji Shu looked up and saw that the hand pressing on her shoulder had already withdrawn. When she turned, Lu Mingxi was standing behind her, smiling as he reminded her, “Be careful, watch where you’re walking.”
Could he really be this considerate? Seeing his smile made her shiver involuntarily, almost a reflex of her body.
She silently moved away from the two of them and stood off to the side.
In front of her, Xie Zhoulin was on the phone. After saying a few words, he hung up, pressed his hand to his brow, and then said apologetically, “I’ll head back to the student council first.”
Ji Shu replied, “It’s fine, I’m heading home too.”
She followed him out, and only after going downstairs did she notice that Lu Mingxi was still upstairs, watching her from afar.
Because of this incident, Cen Xuan and her friends grew much closer to Ji Shu. They often came to her class to find her, and even Chu Jiayi no longer always wore a cold expression when seeing her, occasionally exchanging a few words.
Chu Jiayi’s tennis matches went without suspense, she succeeded and earned a spot on the summer international team. After a few meals and shopping trips together with Ji Shu, they became even more familiar, and after lunch, they would deliberately wait for her in the cafeteria before getting their food together.
Ruan Si’an, however, hadn’t contacted her much since that coffee shop incident.
Ji Shu didn’t make any effort to reach out to her either.
She felt she had done her part in compensating for the incident and didn’t want to dwell on Qin Jia’s role in instigating others to bully her or circulate photos. She believed she had handled enough and didn’t want to get further entangled with the original story’s female lead.
Spending time naturally and easily with Cen Xuan and the others gave her a brief glimpse of what a normal school life could be like.
If she hadn’t gone through those past experiences, perhaps she could have lived this kind of ordinary life.
As the end of the term approached, the learning atmosphere at Flandre grew increasingly intense. To improve everyone’s grades, the class president began organizing study groups.
The groups were assigned by lottery. Xie Zhoulin wrote thirty random even numbers on slips of paper and placed them in an opaque box. Each student drew a number, and groups of three were formed.
The students at the top of the class were always the most popular. A girl in front of Ji Shu held up her slip and asked, “Ji Shu, what number did you get?”
Previously, the behavior of those around Lu Mingxi had made them think Ji Shu had been drawn into the Young Duke’s circle, so they feared she might take revenge for their past self-preserving indifference. But seeing that Ji Shu showed no signs of abusing her position, they returned to their previous habit of casually asking her questions.
After each quiz or test, her desk would once again be surrounded, leaving little room to move.
Ji Shu glanced at her slip and answered, “Number eighteen.”
“What a shame…” the girl said regretfully, “I’m sixteen, only two numbers apart.”
Once all the slips had been distributed, the students began spontaneously forming groups according to their numbers. Xie Zhoulin slowly unfolded the slip in his hand, it had the number “18” written on it.
Lu Mingxi leaned lazily in his seat, stretching his leg under the desk to kick the chair in front of him.
“What number are you?”
“Uh… twenty-six.”
“Tch,” he muttered impatiently, turning to glance at the other boys nearby. Finally, he spotted the boy with number eighteen. He tapped on his desk and gestured toward the slip of paper in his hand. “Give it here.”
The boy immediately understood and exchanged his slip with Lu Mingxi.
Lu Mingxi took the paper and pretended as if he were only now opening it. He sauntered slowly toward Ji Shu’s desk.
Xie Zhoulin was already standing by her desk, discussing the study plan for their group.
Seeing the two of them, Lu Mingxi let out a short “hm” and raised an eyebrow with a smile. “What a coincidence…” His gaze gradually shifted to Xie Zhoulin. “And also… rather inconvenient, huh.”
Xie Zhoulin had already noticed Lu Mingxi’s little antics earlier. Knowing he couldn’t stop him anyway, he didn’t respond. It had been a week since the two of them had left school together. Lu Ruqing had found him for a talk earlier, and this seemed like a small opportunity to ease tensions.
Ji Shu was surprised that Lu Mingxi had also drawn number eighteen. She stared at the slip for a few seconds before slowly replying with some difficulty, “…Yeah, quite inconvenient.”
Lu Mingxi simply pulled over a chair and sat beside her desk. “Have you planned everything out?”
Xie Zhoulin handed over the schedule. “Yes, we’ve got it all set. Take a look.”
Lu Mingxi glanced at the paper and frowned almost immediately. “Four days a week at the library. Only Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons off, and you still have five hours on Saturday and Sunday?”
He stared at them incredulously. “What do you do at the library for that long? Sleep?”
Ji Shu was speechless. “Finals are coming up. You need to improve your grades. Haven’t you thought you might fail?”
Lu Mingxi’s expression shifted several times. He seemed about to say something but hesitated, finally conceding: “…Alright, I’ll go too. When do we start?”
“Next week,” Xie Zhoulin said, handing him the tutoring book list he and Ji Shu had finalized earlier. “These are the books our study group might use for final exam prep and the SAT. You can buy them and start reviewing.”
Lu Mingxi took the list back to his seat with a peculiar expression.
This was probably the last weekend they could relax and have coffee leisurely. Ji Shu’s study group work was about to begin, and the costumes for the musical were almost finished, with the production about to enter intensive rehearsals.
Even before finals, Cen Xuan was already looking forward to summer vacation.
“Last summer, Chu Jiayi and I went to the summer school camp to check out three universities in Landon!” Cen Xuan recalled. “This year I want to really relax, once we’re in third year, there won’t be a chance.”
She then asked, “What about you, Ji Shu?”
Ji Shu hadn’t really thought about how she would spend the summer. She guessed it would probably be reviewing or working on application essays. Summer still felt too far away, and she didn’t want to think about what would happen in several weeks.
Suddenly, her phone chimed with a distinctive “ding-dong.”
Ji Shu froze. It had been a long time since she’d received any special messages. She looked down at her phone, and her expression subtly changed.
Lu Mingxi was asking her about how to get a certain reference book.
This seemed to be the first time he’d asked about something like this. Previously, he only gave orders, bossing her around, those alert tones had almost left a psychological mark on her.
She bent over and typed back, explaining that the tutoring book had gone out of print a few years ago and was now very difficult to find. She could make a photocopy and bring it to him next week.
Lu Mingxi, however, said it wasn’t necessary.
Ji Shu felt a little puzzled.
Almost immediately, Xie Zhoulin sent her a message too. He updated her on the results of last week’s gymnasium incident.
The girls from the tennis club who had bullied Chu Jiayi were expelled from the club and given a formal report along with a short suspension. As for An Chun from the student council, he said there was no evidence yet and asked for a little more time.
Ji Shu showed Xie Zhoulin’s message to the other two. Chu Jiayi’s eyes flickered, and after a moment, she looked at Ji Shu and slowly said, “…Thank you.”
Ji Shu replied, “It’s nothing.”
Cen Xuan was both happy and relieved. “Thanks to you, Ji Shu, now we don’t have to worry about being bullied, someone from the student council has our backs!”
Ji Shu couldn’t help but laugh, and Chu Jiayi rolled her eyes at Cen Xuan, the two of them burst into laughter together.
Amid their chatter, Ji Shu casually looked up and noticed someone on the second floor of the billiards and recreation area across the way, seemingly looking toward them.
The person wore a hat, was tall, and from afar his face wasn’t clear, only occasionally did Ji Shu feel the glance that seemed accidentally cast her way.
When she looked back, the person soon moved away from the window, going over to the billiard table to talk with others, as if the previous moment had only been her imagination.
In the billiard room, a strikingly attractive girl with excellent poise leaned over a table, aiming at the white ball.
Her features were flawless, lightly made up, and her height matched that of the hat-wearing boy beside her. She exuded an effortless, composed aura. The boy sat down next to her, removed his hat, and their appearances bore six or seven points of similarity.
The girl struck the ball into the pocket in one shot, stood upright, lit a cigarette, and asked, “The one you were watching just now… is that the girl you’ve been telling me about?”
Chi Yaoxing sipped his water and nodded quietly.
The girl laughed. She walked over to Chi Yaoxing and patted his shoulder. “I looked into what you asked me to check before, but there isn’t much information. The few details that did come up don’t match. Are you really sure it’s her?”
“…” Chi Yaoxing lowered his head, staring at his water cup, and said slowly, “The name is the same, the way she speaks is the same, even the way she uses capital and lowercase letters is identical.”
“Lots of people share that name, and the rest could be faked. You can’t conclude anything for sure,” Chi Nianxing paused thoughtfully. “Besides, so many years have passed. Even if it’s the same person, she could have changed. You don’t need to be so fixated.”
“You don’t understand.” Chi Yaoxing only stubbornly said this one sentence.
He had lived alone in the Laise orphanage for nine years, a life that nearly drove him insane. Waiting for her emails every day was the only reason he could look forward to the next day. In her emails, she shared her life, the clothes she wore, the novels she read, and the games she played…
It was the only shred of hope he had while living in a country where he didn’t speak the language and had no family or friends.
“Fine, I don’t understand,” Chi Nianxing shrugged.
After Chi Yaoxing was brought back from Laise, his parents felt guilty and spoiled him excessively, which left him with little experience in daily life or dealing with social matters.
He had gotten into some serious trouble before, and Chi Nianxing had grown tired of him, but as she came to understand his past and spent more time with him, she gradually became like an older sister to him.
Still, he didn’t seem very close to her.
“I was planning to stay another week, but now that you’ve said that, I’m even more curious. I’ll go back to school early next week and check him out for you, see what kind of person this girl is,” Chi Nianxing said with an amused smile.
Chi Yaoxing suddenly lifted his head, eyes wary as he looked at his sister, his gaze dark and heavy. “…I’m warning you. Don’t lay a hand on her.”
His eyes were fierce, imbued with coldness, and even Chi Nianxing instinctively took a step back, a chill running down her spine.
“I promise, I’m just looking, I won’t hurt her,” she said, raising her hands.
Only then did the boy slowly relax his gaze.
“Mom and Dad don’t know you’re back in the country yet. I didn’t tell them. Find a time to tell them yourself,” he added, returning to his usual cold tone.
“Got it,” Chi Nianxing replied, suddenly losing all interest in playing billiards.
She turned irritably and pressed her finger down to snuff out her cigarette.