She Said in a Coy Voice: Big Brother, Your Lips Are So Sweet

Lu Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes and pressed her lips together, muttering, "Narcissist. If I weren't trying to finish the task, who'd care to look at you?"

"You're cursing me again." Shao Enci's lazy voice came from above her.

She abruptly looked up and met his dark eyes. Voices clamored around them, but his gaze rested on her alone, intent and direct, as though no one else existed.

Lu Xiaoxiao's eyes widened slightly, and she instinctively looked away.

Shao Enci looked away too, pretending to be calm as he gazed elsewhere, a pleasing curve at the corner of his mouth.

He hadn't heard what she said, but one look at her expression told him it couldn't have been anything good.

After three years, he knew her all too well.

She was polite to everyone else, but with him alone, her tongue was sharper than a knife.

At first, he would get angry, but gradually he got used to it.

Sometimes he even thought it was fine this way. At least, to her, he was special.

Lu Xiaoxiao didn't know what he was thinking. Her head was lowered, her blue leather shoes beside his Air Jordans. They were so close that she could feel his chest rise and fall as he breathed.

She pressed her lips together, gripped the hem of her skirt, and looked up. "Shao Enci, bend down. I have something to tell you."

Shao Enci raised his eyes and glanced around at his teammates, who were watching the show. He said nothing, but a single look was enough for them to understand. They reached out to stop the girls coming forward with water. "Don't crowd around. Can't you see Brother Shao needs to talk about something private?"

In a corner, Ruan Qingyan squeezed the mineral water bottle in her hand out of shape. Her gaze was glued to Lu Xiaoxiao, and she didn't look away for a long time.

"What is it?"

Shao Enci bent down and leaned closer. He was so tall that he loomed over her, blocking most of the light.

Lu Xiaoxiao stood quietly in place, her thoughts slightly unsettled.

From this angle, she could see the line from his Adam's apple to his collarbones. His neckline was open, revealing the two distinct hollows above his collarbones. She glanced farther down, then quickly looked away.

How had I never noticed before? This guy has a pretty good body.

The thought flashed through Lu Xiaoxiao's mind. She closed her eyes, put her arms around his neck, and found the corner of his mouth by feel.

Shao Enci went rigid. His mind went blank for a moment, and he failed to react.

On his slightly cool, sexy, thin lips, she tasted mint and locust blossom. There was only one thought in her mind: My mortal enemy's lips... why are they so nice to kiss?

The gymnasium fell silent for a second, then erupted.

"Holy shit—"

"Lu Xiaoxiao forced a kiss on Shao Enci?!"

"Didn't she say she didn't like him?!"

The mineral water bottle in Ruan Qingyan's hand fell to the floor, its sound drowned out by the crowd's gasps. She stood rooted to the spot, her expression stiff with embarrassment.

The five-second kiss seemed to last an exceptionally long time.

037's notification sounded right on time: [Congratulations, Xiaoxiao. You have completed task 1.]

Lu Xiaoxiao immediately pulled away from his lips and took a step back, her face so hot it was about to smoke. She didn't even dare raise her eyes to look at him and could only stare at his chest, which was heaving.

Shao Enci, who had been kissed against his will, had a faintly dark look in his eyes and was breathing unevenly. As though someone had pressed pause, he stood in place without moving.

Several seconds passed before his Adam's apple bobbed.

The girl's delicate, pretty figure was reflected in Shao Enci's dark eyes, where a tangle of complicated emotions surfaced. He turned his gaze elsewhere, leaving her with only a view of his sharply angled profile.

Lu Xiaoxiao quietly raised her eyes and clearly saw that the pale rims of his ears had turned red, the color spreading down his neck.

The teammates beside them exchanged glances. None of them spoke, but their eyes met:

Could Brother Shao have been won over by a girl's kiss?

The air grew awkward.

A moment later, the reckless desire in Shao Enci's eyes seemed to overcome his clarity.

His back straightened slightly, and he tucked in his chin. His voice was neither cold nor warm as he said, "Lu Xiaoxiao, have you gone crazy?"

The people around them looked at one another and erupted.

"Shao Enci actually didn't curse her out?"

"He used to turn hostile if anyone so much as touched him, especially someone of the opposite sex!!"

The teammates tacitly stepped back to give them space. The opposing team that had lost the game hadn't left either. They leaned against the railing to watch the show, and one of them said with a laugh:

"I was wondering why Shao Enci played so fiercely today. Turns out he was waiting for the girl to take the bait."

"I'm jealous... I want Lu Xiaoxiao to kiss me too."

"Oh, give it a rest. Are you Shao Enci?"

Amid the noisy gossip, Lu Xiaoxiao's mind was in a mess. Her eyelashes trembled, and without thinking, she shot back, "What? I thought you were handsome and wanted to kiss you. Got a problem with that?"

As soon as she said it, she wanted to bite her own tongue off.

How did I say what I was really thinking out loud?

Shao Enci was visibly taken aback by her words. Something suppressed deep in his heart was suddenly pierced open.

"Do you know what you're doing?"

He heard his heartbeat quicken and, doing his best to restrain a certain emotion, questioned her rationally.

Lu Xiaoxiao felt as though he could bore a hole through the top of her head with his stare. She was too mortified to look the young man in the eye.

Just then, 037's voice sounded in her mind again, announcing the second task.

[Task 2: In a soft, coy voice, say to him: "Big Brother, your lips are so sweet." Countdown: 59 seconds.]

"..."

Lu Xiaoxiao felt like dying.

Everyone around her had their eyes on her face. She felt like a prisoner undergoing a public execution.

[Xiaoxiao, you've already kissed him. Do you really care about saying one sentence?]

037 added.

Lu Xiaoxiao bit her lip, clenched the hem of her skirt, and looked up at the young man, who was a head taller than her. His eyes were as dark as ink, his gaze fixed on her as he waited quietly for her answer, his face largely expressionless.

After several seconds of silence, she tried to convince herself that she was only completing a task and that staying alive mattered more than social death. So she called out in a coy voice, "Big Brother."

Shao Enci's heart suddenly skipped a beat. Then he frowned. "?"

Her tongue seemed tied in a knot. Her voice trembling, she stammered, "Your... lips... are... so sweet..."

Disbelief flashed in Shao Enci's eyes. His gaze darkened, and his ears were redder than before, though he still forced his expression to remain calm.

"Lu Xiaoxiao, did you take the wrong medicine today?"

His voice was cool, but it carried a hint of awkwardness.

Someone nearby couldn't help laughing, and then the entire audience joined in the jeering.

"She called him Big Brother?!"

"Aren't they mortal enemies..."

Faced with the ridicule around her, Lu Xiaoxiao was so ashamed she wanted to find a hole to crawl into. Her fingernails dug red marks into her palms.

Ahhh, how am I supposed to show my face at Peking University after this?

On the verge of a breakdown, she asked 037, "How long until the next task?"

[Task 3: Current countdown: 4 hours, 49 minutes.]

Seeing the task notification, Lu Xiaoxiao felt as though she had seized a lifesaving straw. She covered her face with both hands and rushed out of the crowd. As she passed Ruan Qingyan, she caught a glimpse of her face, dark and awkward.

Lu Xiaoxiao went straight past her without saying hello.

Ruan Qingyan watched her retreating figure run into the distance. She stood frozen for quite a while before moving. She turned to look at Shao Enci and was about to walk over, only to find that his gaze had been following Lu Xiaoxiao.

Why is Lu Xiaoxiao the only one in his world?

Ruan Qingyan's heart ached a little more.

People in the gymnasium were still talking, but Shao Enci paid them no attention. He raised his index finger and touched his thin lips. The tip of his tongue unconsciously brushed the corner of his mouth, and a flicker of heat rose in his eyes.

White peach.

So that's what she tastes like.

Xie Yihui walked over and slung an arm across his shoulders, grinning mischievously. "Tsk, even our Brother Shao got forcibly kissed one day."

Shao Enci couldn't be bothered to look at him. "Don't want your hand anymore?" he asked in disgust.

Xie Yihui immediately pulled his hand back. "Hey, I was just joking." After a pause, he couldn't resist asking, "Don't tell me... you really like her?"

Shao Enci turned his head and lifted his eyes to glance at Xie Yihui. His tone was mild. "You only just figured that out?"

Xie Yihui said, "What?"

Wait, my bro likes someone? How did I not know?

By the time he recovered, Shao Enci had already walked away. Xie Yihui hurried after him. "When did you start liking her? Come on, tell me..."

Elsewhere, as Lu Xiaoxiao ran out of the university gates, the wind rushed into her collar, and only then did she feel alive again.

Before she could catch her breath, her phone buzzed. She unlocked the screen and glanced at it. It was a message from Shao Enci.

[My first kiss is very expensive. You have to compensate me.]