Chen Yanxi's premonition had been wrong.
Yet for some inexplicable reason, the corners of her mouth lifted.
"Do I have to say, 'I've hopelessly fallen in love with you,' before you'll believe me?" she asked.
"That's not necessary." Wang Ge chuckled softly. "I just don't believe that answer."
"Why?" Chen Yanxi asked, puzzled.
"It's simple."
Wang Ge kneaded Chen Yanxi's small hand, lowered his head, leaned close to her ear, and laughed softly. "If you really didn't like me at all, how could you let me take advantage of you like this?"
Chen Yanxi pursed her lips and said nothing.
Wang Ge was right. She made no attempt to argue, because it would have been meaningless.
"So you do like me a little, right?" Wang Ge's hand around her shoulder tightened slightly. "Why not just agree to be with me? What do you say? I'll treat you well."
Chen Yanxi only hesitated for a moment before firmly shaking her head. "No. That isn't what I want."
She took a deep breath and regained her usual composure. "No matter who it is, spending so much time together will inevitably create feelings. That's perfectly normal."
After a pause, she continued, "Even if I really did fall for you, I still wouldn't agree to be with you. Love is only the most insignificant part of life to me. When it conflicts with my other goals, it will never be my first choice."
"Stories where everyone gets the best of both worlds only exist in novels. Reality will only force you to give something up."
She said:
"I'm sorry, Wang Ge. I have more important things to pursue."
Wang Ge lowered his head slightly and saw her eyes behind her black-rimmed glasses. Beneath her long eyelashes, they were pitch-black, deep, calm, and utterly undisturbed.
After a long while, he finally smiled and sighed with emotion. "You're truly fascinating."
"What?"
"A girl like you, who clearly knows what she wants, rejects temptation for its sake, and keeps striving toward it—you're simply too charming."
Wang Ge praised her, then said with a smile, "I'm really liking you more and more, Xixi. I feel like I wouldn't be able to go on living without you. What should I do?"
Chen Yanxi: "..."
"Don't you think saying something like that is rather presumptuous?"
"Is it? These are my heartfelt words."
"...Then go in peace. I'll burn paper offerings for you," she said expressionlessly.
Wang Ge thought about it, then asked expectantly, "May I ask for a life-sized custom inflatable doll modeled after Chen Yanxi?"
As though shocked by those words, Chen Yanxi was silent for a full two seconds before saying, "...You're seriously disgusting."
"You're so cruel too! I like you this much, and you're actually telling me to go die."
Chen Yanxi fell silent.
Having won their verbal sparring match, Wang Ge smiled. He looked down at Chen Yanxi's enchanting face and rosy lips, suddenly feeling a little hungry for more, so he asked, "Can I kiss you?"
"No."
He had been rejected.
Although he had expected it, Wang Ge still smacked his lips in disappointment.
"Don't be too greedy, Wang Ge." Chen Yanxi sighed, as though somewhat exasperated.
"Fine, fine." Wang Ge sighed as well, but then said expectantly, "It's okay. We can kiss after we're really together."
Chen Yanxi fell silent again.
Wang Ge said nothing more either. With one hand around Chen Yanxi's shoulder and the other holding her small hand, he quietly savored this beautiful moment.
"Ding-a-ling-ling~"
The school bell broke the silence in the library.
"School's out. Let go of me," Chen Yanxi said softly.
"Beautiful moments really are short-lived." Wang Ge muttered under his breath and reluctantly let go.
Chen Yanxi sat up straight and adjusted her clothes.
"Then, see you tomorrow—no, the day after tomorrow, Xixi."
"Mm. Goodbye."
The next day was Saturday, during the last class of the morning.
Wang Ge was earnestly explaining to Gu Panyan what she should do during the break.
"Don't do the math and physics homework yet. Work through these sets of papers first to make up for your fundamentals. If there's anything you don't understand, ask me on VX anytime... You have my VX, right?"
Only after seeing Gu Panyan nod did he continue. "As for the homework for your other subjects, you can do it or not. You've already been working very hard these past few days. You can use the break to relax a little and get a good night's sleep..."
Gu Panyan nodded slightly. "Got it."
After saying everything he needed to say, Wang Ge went back to his usual carefree self. He leaned over with a grin and asked, "Student Gu Panyan, you won't be able to see me tomorrow. Will you miss me?"
"Are you dying?" Gu Panyan shot him a sidelong glance while continuing to work on her problems.
The smile on Wang Ge's face froze.
"You're really rude." Choked off, he muttered resentfully.
He had learned this way of insulting people from Chen Yanxi. After pestering her for so long, the harshest thing Chen Yanxi had ever said to him was, "You're so rude."
Gu Panyan curled her lips. "Since you're not going to die, why would I miss you?"
"Then if I were about to die, would you miss me?"
Gu Panyan did not answer. Instead, she rubbed her chin and looked him up and down twice before suddenly asking, "When did you go to Thailand?"
Wang Ge froze. "Why would I go to Thailand..."
"If you haven't been to Thailand, why are you being so fussy?" Gu Panyan rolled her eyes. "Only an innocent little girl would come up with such a sentimental question, right?"
"...I'm just too bored." Wang Ge slumped weakly onto the desk, looked up at the clock, and wailed, "There are still more than ten minutes before school lets out. This is torture..."
The final class before a break was self-study. Sitting through a class like this made every second feel like a year.
Gu Panyan glanced at him and casually tossed him an earbud. "Listen to some music."
He put on the earbud and listened for a while. He could not tell whether the song was in Korean or some other language, but after listening for ages, he still could not understand a word.
"I want to pick a song!" Wang Ge slapped the desk.
Gu Panyan was concentrating on her problems. Upon hearing that, she casually tossed him her phone. "Find one yourself. Don't bother me."
Unlike the phones of ordinary girls, hers did not have a pretty pink case. Gu Panyan's phone was black, without a case, and its screen even had several cracks.
There was no password. One press opened it.
As he searched for a song, Wang Ge asked, "Can I snoop through your private stuff?"
"Go ahead," Gu Panyan replied casually.
"Then I won't hold back." The corners of Wang Ge's mouth lifted slightly.
He first opened the photo album and browsed through it. There were only a few pictures of cats and dogs, all of them dirty, seemingly stray animals that nobody wanted.
There was nothing else of interest—not even a single selfie. The album was clean to the point of seeming unlike a girl's.
Unconvinced, he opened Gu Panyan's VX as well. There were fewer than fifty friends, pitifully few, along with several class groups.
Her friends were all current or former classmates. The group chats had all been muted, and every one of them showed more than 99 unread messages.
Aside from that, the message list was completely empty.
Wang Ge searched high and low for a long time but found nothing. He sighed helplessly.
He had wanted to dig up some embarrassing dirt on Gu Panyan, but he never expected her phone to be this clean.
There was nothing at all.
Wang Ge was unwilling to give up. Since he could not find anything embarrassing, he had to leave something behind, at least.
When the class bell finally rang and Gu Panyan took back her phone, she was shocked to discover that her lock-screen wallpaper had been replaced with a selfie of a certain someone.
That guy was facing the sunlight, showing eight perfectly white teeth, and grinning in an obnoxiously smug manner.
P.S. I've had a lot going on during the day recently, so I won't be updating at noon anymore. I'll save the updates for the evening and post one chapter around eight or nine, then another after ten.
Please favorite, vote, follow, and give me monthly tickets~
Before you continue