This "Lin Tingwan" Couldn't Be...

Jiang Yubai stared at the handwriting on the scratch paper, its emotion plain to see, and couldn't help freezing for a moment.

Why did it feel like she was pretty fired up?

The corner of his mouth twitched. He casually set the notebook aside and couldn't be bothered to reply.

He'd only thought that, since they were now desk mates, it wouldn't hurt to find an excuse to talk.

But Lin Tingwan's reaction was exactly like her sister's earlier, as if he were about to use some leverage against them the next second.

What was there to talk about, then? Better study.

Jiang Yubai casually pulled a Chinese textbook from the pile of books and flipped open to a random page, planning to review a few ancient poems.

But before he'd read more than a few lines, the notebook he'd set aside at the corner of the desk was gently pulled back by a slender, fair hand.

?

He turned his head and saw Lin Tingwan beside him lowering her little head, pen in hand as she wrote something.

A few seconds later, the notebook was passed back through the gap between their desks.

What was this for?

Jiang Yubai took the notebook curiously and saw a neat line of small writing on it:

"Sorry about my tone just now. My sister will pay the rent on time."

Uh...

Seeing those words, Jiang Yubai couldn't help glancing at the girl beside him again.

Lin Tingwan sat quietly, her gaze still fixed on the page of her book as though it had been welded in place, but the tips of her ears had turned a faint, barely noticeable red.

Now Jiang Yubai felt a little embarrassed instead.

After all, at an age when high schoolers valued pride above all else, the words "sorry" and "I apologize" were just too devastating.

Seeing that his new desk mate was willing to chat, he picked up his gel pen again, wrote a reply, and passed it over.

"It's fine. It doesn't matter whether the rent comes early or late."

Lin Tingwan looked at it, and the notebook took a few extra seconds to come back.

"Thank you. My sister said yesterday that her tone wasn't very good either. She was in the wrong then."

Jiang Yubai rubbed his chin, somewhat surprised. He hadn't expected Lin Jianxia, with her bizarre thought process, to actually apologize and admit fault.

Yesterday, he'd clearly just gone to collect the rent, yet she thought he'd shown up because he was lusting after her beauty. What beauty was there to lust after...

Well, she was indeed pretty.

But that wasn't the point!

The main thing was that he really couldn't take it. How had a fine young man with all five virtues and four beauties become some playboy with a messy private life in her eyes?

Honestly, even though he'd teased her a little in the end, Jiang Yubai was still somewhat annoyed.

But since she'd said that, then he...

Hm?

Feeling a rough texture beneath his fingertips, Jiang Yubai looked down and noticed that the final few strokes of the writing had been pressed particularly hard. In some places, the paper had even been poked into fuzzy edges.

What the heck...

Not thinking much of it, he twirled his pen and wrote:

"Mm, it's fine, it's fine. But speaking of your sister... her reaction really was a little strange."

"You didn't see it from inside the room. I came to collect the rent properly, and before I could even say anything after entering, she opened with, 'What exactly do you want?'"

As he wrote this, Jiang Yubai paused, feeling like something about it was vaguely familiar.

He shook his head and continued writing:

"Oh, right. Your sister... does she have something like persecution delusion? The kind where she thinks the whole world is out to get her?"

Jiang Yubai set down his pen and passed the notebook over in the same way.

But this time, the notebook didn't come back for a long while.

Jiang Yubai twirled his pen when his entire body suddenly stiffened, a chill creeping up his back.

He warily raised his eyes and immediately looked toward the hallway.

Whenever he'd felt like this before, it was usually because the homeroom teacher had silently appeared by the window while he was sneaking snacks during class.

But this time, the hallway was completely empty.

Strange...

Jiang Yubai rubbed the goosebumps on his arms. As his gaze withdrew from the window and turned back, it suddenly stopped midway.

Lin Tingwan was staring at the notebook in front of her, her entire body seemingly frozen over, without a trace of expression on her face.

To be honest, she hadn't had much expression before either, but that could at most be called calm.

But the way she looked now made it seem as though she might pull out a second ice scythe from behind her back the next second, enter phase three, launch a rising dragon, and then hit him with an outrageously flashy slash.

Without making a sound, Jiang Yubai shifted a little to the side, feeling somewhat regretful.

They were twin sisters, after all. Their relationship had to be good. He was badmouthing her sister right in front of her—how could the younger sister possibly be happy about that?

He'd spent too long hanging around those guys, and he never had any sense of restraint in his wording.

He should've replaced "persecution delusion" with "does she lack a sense of security"...

Never mind whether they meant the same thing. At least it sounded much more tactful.

Just as Jiang Yubai was silently grumbling to himself, Lin Tingwan suddenly took a deep breath, then turned around and shot him a fierce glare.

The next second, the notebook was slapped back onto his desk with a smack.

Jiang Yubai: "..."

Well, that settled it. His new desk mate was genuinely angry.

There was no helping it. He had to deal with the trouble he'd caused himself.

Jiang Yubai had no intention of explaining anything further. He only thought that once Lin Tingwan had calmed down, he could properly apologize to her.

The pen spun twice between his fingers, and an inexplicable sense of disconnect suddenly surfaced in his heart.

Lin Tingwan... Lin Tingwan...

Jiang Yubai unconsciously frowned and carefully recalled every detail from their meeting the night before.

Though they were twins, Lin Jianxia, the older sister, and Lin Tingwan, the younger sister, had given him completely different impressions.

Whenever her sister looked at him, she was always fierce, and the wariness in her eyes had never faded.

Yet despite having the exact same face, when Lin Tingwan looked at him, her eyes were clear and curious.

The little notebook she'd voluntarily handed him had written in pretty handwriting: "Hello, Jiang Yubai!" It even had a serious exclamation mark.

Honestly, it was adorably silly.

At that thought, Jiang Yubai couldn't help secretly glancing sideways at the person beside him.

Lin Tingwan was pursing her lips and staring motionlessly at that page of her Chinese textbook. She was probably cursing him viciously in her heart.

He truly found it hard to imagine that this little ice block at school could be that person from yesterday... the one who looked kind of goofy?

Could she have split personalities? One way at school, then completely letting herself go at home...

Wait.

Twins...

The pen in Jiang Yubai's hand abruptly stopped, and he vaguely grasped something.

What had been the first thing Lin Jianxia said when she saw him yesterday?

Without showing it, he lowered his eyes to the first line "Lin Tingwan" had written back to him in the notebook.

"..."

Oh boy.

A thought slowly rose in his mind.

He finally knew where that vague sense of déjà vu had come from.

Could this "Lin Tingwan," who never said a word or socialized at school, actually be...

Her older sister, Lin Jianxia?!