Chapter 17

Lu Chi had originally wanted Yue Bin to come up with a motto he liked himself, but Yue Bin had been useless twice in a row. With little patience left, Lu Chi had no choice but to take everything on himself—not only encoding the motto into the bracelet in Morse code, but also considering the aesthetics of the pattern and the space needed for the code. It required both precise calculations and solutions involving solid geometry. Luckily, Lu Chi's brain could handle it; otherwise, he really would not have dared try making a bracelet this way.

Still, the result was excellent.

Lu Chi let out a quiet breath with a blank expression. He secretly glanced at Yue Bin, who was so excited that he was rolling around in the car while clutching the bracelet, and felt inexplicably proud.

Zhang Yang, sitting beside them, could not stay still at all. He stared at Yue Bin's precious Morse Code Bracelet—the one Yue Bin would not even let him touch—with envy, jealousy, and resentment. Tugging on Lu Chi's sleeve, he said pitifully, "Mine! What about mine?"

"Mhm." Lu Chi nodded, closed his eyes, and said, "Wait a moment. I need to clear my head."

"Oh." Zhang Yang obediently responded. His eyes rolled around before he asked, "But Lu Chi, how did you learn Morse code?"

"My dad was a retired soldier." Lu Chi answered blandly. After a pause, he asked, "Do you have a motto you like?"

Having seen Yue Bin's bracelet, Zhang Yang naturally understood what Lu Chi meant. He blinked, then blurted out in a flash of inspiration, "I came, I saw, I conquered!"

VENI VIDI VICI

A famous saying of Julius Caesar, and it was already in Latin. That saved some trouble!

Lu Chi gave Zhang Yang an approving look. He liked people who caught on quickly!

More than an hour later, the car arrived at the equestrian club where Qiao Shiyu, the campus belle, was holding her birthday party.

When the four of them entered the riding grounds, the guests surrounding the birthday girl stared in astonishment at Yue Bin and Zhang Yang, who came running over with their arms raised as though they had seen a ghost. Then they looked at Lu Chi, strolling a few steps behind with an expressionless face, and Lu Miaomiao, who wore a sweet smile. Everyone was completely baffled.

Could someone tell them what exactly had happened?

Chapter 17

Amid Yue Bin and Zhang Yang's excited, incoherent bragging, everyone finally understood what was so cool about the two black bracelets.

In an instant, everyone crowded around Lu Chi. Most of the girls wanted him to teach them how to weave Morse Code Bracelets, while the boys wanted matching bracelets. A whole throng surrounded Lu Chi, chattering nonstop. Standing beside him, Miao Miao made a snap decision and immediately squeezed out through a gap in the encirclement formed by the older boys and girls. She pattered over to Qiao Shiyu, holding two colorful gift boxes, and said, "Pretty sister, happy birthday! These are gifts from my big brother and me."

Lu Miaomiao was lively, adorable, and incredibly sweet-tongued. She was also the younger sister of the person who had saved her life, so Qiao Shiyu naturally adored her by association. Delighted, she accepted the gifts and thanked her softly before asking, "How did you know it was my birthday today?"

Lu Miaomiao's eyes curved into crescents as she smiled. "Because big sister is the prettiest today."

"Miao Miao, you're so adorable!" Qiao Shiyu could not help pulling Lu Miaomiao into her arms and kissing her. "How about I teach you to ride a horse later?"

But I already know how to ride!

Lu Miaomiao thought to herself, then obediently nodded. "Okay. Thank you, pretty sister."

Qiao Shiyu was overjoyed by how well-behaved and cute she looked, and would not even let go of Lu Miaomiao's hand.

Meanwhile, the boys and girls surrounding Lu Chi clearly had not noticed Lu Miaomiao slipping out of the circle. When Lu Chi turned around and found his little sister gone, he was initially startled. But when he saw Lu Miaomiao standing calmly beside Qiao Shiyu, smiling as she watched him make a fool of himself, he felt rather helpless.

Qiao Shiyu had not expected such a commotion to break out at her birthday party either, and she did not know whether to laugh or cry. She could only glare at Yue Bin and Zhang Yang, who were standing nearby looking equally dumbfounded. "...You two! Hurry up and go help Lu Chi out! Did you really come here as a group to run a promotion?"

Yue Bin and Zhang Yang looked over with blank faces, unable to understand the campus belle's train of thought.

Lu Chi, surrounded by the crowd, simply stood there with an expressionless face, innocence written all over him—he had not expected things to turn out like this either. He had only made two bracelets. Why were these classmates acting like mothers and grandmothers who had stumbled upon a massive clearance sale?

In the nick of time, Zhang Yang rescued Lu Chi, who was about to be squeezed into a sandwich cookie by the crowd.

"Hey, don't go too far! There are so many of you asking Lu Chi for bracelets. Even if he had eight arms, he couldn't make that many!"

Several boys immediately shrank back at those words.

Some girls promptly argued, "We don't need Lu Chi to make them for us. We just want him to teach us!"

"You make it sound so easy. Do you even know Morse code?"

The girls looked at each other. What the heck was Morse code? Could they eat it?

"Then I suggest you learn Morse code first!" Zhang Yang shrugged and said sharply, "You can't just think of a sentence, then ask Lu Chi to encode it in Morse code, design the pattern, and teach you step by step, can you? Wouldn't that be even slower than having him make the bracelets himself?"

A few of the girls really had been thinking that way. For example, they wanted Lu Chi to teach them how to weave "XXX, I Like You," then personally make the bracelet and give it to someone they liked as a confession. Now that Zhang Yang had exposed them with a single remark, some of the more thin-skinned girls instantly blushed bright red.

Of course, some girls grew angry out of embarrassment. They surrounded Zhang Yang and protested, "What does this have to do with you? Lu Chi hasn't even said anything. What right do you have to point fingers here? Are you jealous that Lu Chi is more popular than you, so you're deliberately trying to ruin things?"

Zhang Yang had only wanted to help Lu Chi out, but hearing that made him angry as well. He immediately gave a cold laugh and shot back, "I think you're the ones using 'being popular' as an excuse to bully an honest person..."