For a moment, Bai Lan suddenly felt a little excited.
Don't misunderstand. He had merely thought of a good idea.
I've got it!
"Class Flower Candidate, I need your help!"
"Am I even being denied the qualification to be 'all looks and no substance' now?"
"Because I just discovered a strong rival of yours. But don't worry about the details. Aren't you someone who doesn't care about this?"
"But your attitude doesn't seem like you're asking for help."
"More precisely, this is mutual assistance!"
"What do you mean? I don't think you can help me with anything."
"Of course I can."
"Let's hear it."
Bai Lan opened his mouth, then stopped. He subconsciously glanced around.
He noticed that quite a few people were looking toward their corner.
Bai Lan: "Too many people means too many loose tongues. Let's add each other as contacts and talk on our phones."
Horikita looked suspicious. "You aren't trying to trick me into giving you my contact information, are you?"
Bai Lan: "You're overthinking it. At most, I'm interested in your mouth, not you as a person."
Horikita: "..."
In the end, Bai Lan still managed to get her contact information.
After adding her as a contact, Bai Lan quickly typed out a message and sent it to Horikita.
Horikita opened the message to read it.
The next second, Horikita's face immediately filled with murderous intent, and she shot him a cold glance.
"Are you making fun of me?" Horikita gripped her phone tightly and said viciously, as if she would smack Bai Lan with it if he said even one wrong word.
Note that she would smack him with it like a brick, not take a picture.
The still-lit screen of Horikita's phone displayed a message.
The first two lines read:
"From: First-year Class D—Bai Lan
Message: Horikita, be my girlfriend."
There wasn't even a question mark. It wasn't even a "request," but seemed more like a mere "suggestion."
Bai Lan hurriedly explained, "No! I'm serious. But don't worry, it would be in name only, without any feelings involved."
Horikita: "What do you mean?"
If she hadn't fought him once yesterday and learned that she couldn't break through his defenses, Horikita would have punched him right there.
"Look at your phone. There's more below." Bai Lan quickly sent another message.
Knowing that force would be useless, Horikita calmed down. Any problem could be solved with her brain.
She continued reading:
"Horikita, be my girlfriend.
You don't look like you're trying to find a boyfriend anyway. What a coincidence—I don't want a boyfriend either."
Horikita, upon seeing this: ???
Only when she saw the next line.
"Or a girlfriend."
Which Chinese teacher taught you to break paragraphs like this?
She continued.
"Although I don't know why, I suddenly feel like quite a few girls in our class are interested in me. I don't want to reject them one by one. It's too troublesome, and even after rejecting one group, there will be more later. Some of the girls I've rejected might not give up either.
I can't help it. This is the trouble that comes with being too charming.
Neither of us wants to be shackled by useless feelings, nor do we want to waste time dealing with all this commotion.
So let's cooperate. We'll pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend and act as each other's shields.
Once we have a partner, most pursuers will back off. If anyone still refuses to give up and breaks the rules by poaching someone else's partner—becoming an NTR—then we can feel free to strike them down without mercy.
How about it?"
This was what Bai Lan had in mind: if Horikita was willing to cooperate, the two of them could serve as each other's shields.
Once the other girls learned that he had a girlfriend, some girls without the power to NTR him would definitely give up.
Besides that, the girls could indirectly learn Bai Lan's "criteria for choosing a partner" through Horikita.
What kind of person was Horikita?
By observing her words and actions, Bai Lan had reached the following conclusion.
In terms of appearance, Horikita was a top-tier beauty.
In terms of ability, Horikita had excellent academic performance and physical fitness.
As for her personality, she was extremely unpleasant—a sharp-tongued woman who didn't care whether others lived or died, and a violent maniac who resorted to force when she couldn't win an argument.
She had probably been assigned to Class D because her personality had caused her to lose a great many points.
Class D was full of rejects.
But even rejects came in different types.
Most people in this class were "common rejects." Their abilities were simply inadequate. In short, they were poor at studying and had poor physical fitness as well.
Therefore, just comparing them with Horikita in terms of "ability" would be enough to make the vast majority of girls retreat.
If it came to looks, there were only two or three girls who could put up a fight against Horikita.
As for personality, Horikita was in a class of her own.
It was also worth mentioning that Horikita was the only thorn in the class who had refused Kushida Kikyo's invitation to yesterday's gathering for all the girls and hadn't gone.
In short, Horikita was completely out of place among the other girls in Class D.
Faced with Bai Lan's harsh "criteria for choosing a partner," there was no one in Class D who could replace Horikita.
Besides that, Horikita's fighting ability and forceful personality guaranteed that she wouldn't be bullied by any "love rivals."
Horikita could handle driving the girls away, while Bai Lan could use his status as "Horikita's boyfriend" to draw all the hatred from Horikita's pursuers firmly onto himself.
Two birds with one stone!
However, Bai Lan still didn't know that Horikita had no pursuers at all. At least, she didn't have any for now.
Horikita soon finished reading the message Bai Lan had sent.
Bai Lan stared at Horikita, waiting for her response with an expectant look.
Horikita didn't turn her head to give him her answer in person. Instead, she wrote a message of her own.
Soon, Bai Lan received a text message.
He opened it impatiently:
"From: First-year Class D—Horikita Suzune"
"Scumbag! 444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444 (2,000 characters omitted)"
The number "4" was considered unlucky in Japan.
In other words, Horikita had sent him a simple and crude letter of condemnation.
Bai Lan frowned and typed a reply:
"It's fine if you disagree, but why insult me? Ah~ right. You can simply drive away all your pursuers with your sharp tongue. If that doesn't work, you can use violence to beat them away. Someone like you, who completely disregards the mental and physical well-being of a pure-hearted high school boy, doesn't need a shield at all."
Send.
"Unlike me, as a boy, I can't exactly beat up every girl who pursues me, can I?"
Send.
"Sure enough, men and women are unequal. This time, men are the ones who suffer."
Send.
"When will men ever rise again!"
Send.
Failed to send. You have been added to the communications blacklist.
22. New Target! And Diagnosis of the Illness
Bai Lan put away his phone.
As for lowering the girls' favorable impressions of him and resisting the "ambushes," he would have to think of another way.
He really hoped the other girls were as easy to "get rid of" as Horikita.
Soon, the bell rang.
Class had begun.
After thinking for most of the lesson, Bai Lan came up with an idea.
Bai Lan thought of two countermeasures.
One would treat the symptoms, while the other would address the root cause.
First, for a temporary solution, Bai Lan still planned to find a fake partner to use as a shield.
Since Horikita had refused, couldn't he simply find someone else?
Before you continue