The main problem was the way those people were looking at him.
He swept his gaze across the room. There were thirty or forty people in total, every one of them dressed sharply. The men stood tall with confident postures; the women carried themselves with poise and ease. At a glance, they were clearly white-collar professionals from office towers.
He remembered that Gu Qinghuan had graduated from a prestigious university, so it was only natural that her college classmates would not be ordinary either.
Compared to their carefully styled appearances, his own outfit was much more casual. If he were standing on the street, he would be no different from any ordinary passerby.
So why were they scrutinizing him so closely? Was it because of Gu Qinghuan?
“Xu Le, you’re here. Perfect timing.”
Gu Qinghuan stood up and waved at him. A faint smile rested on her delicate face.
“Yeah. You didn’t drink too much, did you?” Xu Le glanced at her and stepped closer, catching a light scent of alcohol. After all, at a dinner table, men loved urging pretty women to drink.
“No, I still have to leave with you. How could I drink too much?” Gu Qinghuan blinked her beautiful eyes, a hint of playfulness surfacing.
When the male classmates saw the campus belle interacting with Xu Le like that, jealousy gnawed at them.
They had thought the man she liked would be some rich and handsome elite. And this was it? At most, he was a little good-looking. For the campus belle to treat him differently, it seemed almost unbelievable.
Could he be some low-key wealthy heir?
“Campus belle Gu, is this your friend? Did he drive here? He got here pretty fast,” Meng Yang asked tentatively. The whole class knew about his feelings for Gu Qinghuan. He was tall, handsome, and his family had some money. He had always believed winning her over would not be difficult. But just like in university, she simply did not look at him that way.
“He took a taxi,” Xu Le replied.
The moment he said that, everyone’s expressions changed. Seriously? He did not even have a car? Was this a joke? A young man who could not even afford a car?
At that moment, a female classmate caught Meng Yang’s glance and stood up to steer the conversation. “Qinghuan, Meng Yang is going to show us his gold medal later. You don’t know this, but he became a sprinter and even won a national ranking.”
Hearing that, several classmates were stunned.
“Damn, Meng Yang is that impressive?”
“A national sprint gold medal? That’s no small achievement!”
Meng Yang felt a surge of pride rising in his chest.
Xu Le saw it clearly. This tall man had his eye on Gu Qinghuan. But so what? Gu Qinghuan was the one who had asked him to come pick her up.
“Qinghuan, let’s go. I need your help with something,” Xu Le said.
After he finished speaking, Gu Qinghuan nodded and walked out side by side with him.
The private room fell into silence. Meng Yang’s face turned grim.
“That must be it. You all know her standards. She would never like a man who can’t even afford a car!”
Unwilling to accept it, Meng Yang stood up. “I’d better go check, just in case Gu Qinghuan runs into danger.”
With that excuse, he rushed out of the private room. He wanted to see for himself whether Gu Qinghuan was putting on an act.
…
On the street, Gu Qinghuan walked beside Xu Le in her slender high heels.
When the hem of her skirt brushed against his trousers, a faint, enchanting fragrance drifted over.
Xu Le noticed that she had clearly let out a sigh of relief. It seemed that being beautiful came with its own troubles.
[Mission completed for Gu Qinghuan. Reward: 3,000 yuan. Favorability +5.]
As soon as the Mission System’s voice faded, Gu Qinghuan suddenly stopped. She lifted her head slightly, and her gaze met Xu Le’s.
His eyes met an almost flawless face. Her brows and eyes were as delicate as a painting, and her beautiful eyes carried a faint mist. Her red lips gleamed softly in the sunlight, and even the tiny hairs at the corners of her lips were visible.
“Thank you…”
When she saw Xu Le, Gu Qinghuan had wanted to say more, but the words caught in her throat. A blush spread across her fair face, and her eyelashes trembled lightly.
Why was her heart beating so fast?
He was not even her type. Yet the more she looked at Xu Le, the more handsome he seemed. If they kept staring at each other like this, she might truly fall for him.
She quickly shifted her gaze. The wind had blown Xu Le’s collar slightly crooked.
Without thinking, she reached out her slender hand and smoothed his collar flat, trying to calm herself.
Otherwise, in front of Xu Le, she would not be able to stop herself from blushing.
Behind them, Meng Yang quickly caught up to Xu Le and Gu Qinghuan.
“I refuse to believe Gu Qinghuan would fall for someone this ordinary!”
If he lost to a wealthy man, he would accept it. But losing to Xu Le? That he could not accept.
When he saw Gu Qinghuan slightly tiptoe, a hint of shyness in her eyes as she adjusted Xu Le’s tie, he understood.
He had lost. Completely.
In four years of university, he had never seen Gu Qinghuan show that expression.
“Can someone tell me what Gu Qinghuan sees in him?!”
“Don’t misunderstand. I was just helping you straighten it,” Gu Qinghuan said hurriedly when she noticed Xu Le looking at her. She pulled her hand back as if burned and took a breath to explain.
Even if she felt a tiny bit of attraction toward Xu Le, she would not be with him.
Xu Le did not have much money. He could not give her the life she wanted.
If Xu Le were a rich second-generation heir, she might not have bothered explaining so much. Letting him misunderstand would have been better.
“I know. What I want to ask is, I’ll need your cooperation later,” Xu Le said.
The money had already arrived. Xu Le did not expect this much. Seeing her eyes avoiding his, he found it slightly amusing.
She liked him, yet not quite. If she simply looked at him openly, he would not misunderstand.
The greatest illusion in the world was thinking she liked him.
Her favorability had clearly not reached that stage yet, so he was well aware of his place.
Compared to that, fooling his mom was far more important.
“What kind of help? As long as it’s not pretending to be your girlfriend, I can do it,” Gu Qinghuan said with a teasing smile, brushing her hair back deliberately to make him not overthink.
“Of course not. Listen to me…” Xu Le began to explain.
…
That evening, inside a restaurant, Xu Le saw Gu Qinghuan wearing a simple white dress, and his eyes lit up.
Though she looked more casual in this outfit, her long, fair legs were so pale they almost seemed to glow. It made her even more eye-catching.
She truly knew how to use her advantages.
“You took quite a while with your makeup,” Xu Le said. He had waited for an hour.
“I’m meeting an elder. I need to look a bit prettier,” Gu Qinghuan replied with a smile, and the entire restaurant seemed to brighten.
At that moment, his mom called on video. As soon as Xu Le answered, he heard her urging voice.
“Where are you? Didn’t I tell you to go find a girlfriend? If you don’t, I’ll arrange a blind date for you.”
“A blind date? Mom, how old am I?” Xu Le felt a headache coming on. Every time they met, she brought this up. And blind dates were hardly a good way to find a girlfriend.
So-called blind dates were simply a group of men who were worst at handling women, trying to handle the most difficult women.
“Not willing? If you’ve got the ability, find a woman and show her to me. My own son, you think I don’t know you?” his mom said confidently.