He Zhen and Yao Tao were the first pair to finish their charity tree planting.
With time to spare, He Zhen naturally went to organize his classmates.
The students of Class 7 had had their fun and finished showing off. If they kept shamelessly hanging around, they really would become impossible to shake off.
They were college students, after all!
No matter how young and shameless they were, they still had some self-respect.
Everyone had just been enjoying their youth and having a laugh. They were old enough to know better, and when it was time to work, they went back to work.
He Zhen organized the group, and his classmates sprang back into action.
Yao Tao noticed that the landscaping workers had already gone numb and resigned themselves to cleaning up afterward. Seeing the students actually get serious about working, they joined in to offer guidance, and their opinion of Yao Tao's university began to recover.
[Good thing we're all adults now!]
[Mature adults have this kind of self-control!]
Yao Tao had been following He Zhen, but as she walked, her eyes became glued to Han Qinglu and Cheng Yu.
Han Qinglu's best friend, Zeng Rou, was paired with Cheng Yu's childhood friend, Zhao Yixiao. The four of them were diligently planting trees together.
[Ooh, they're so shippable!]
Cheng Yu and Han Qinglu really were a match made in heaven, a gorgeous couple born to be together. They were the epitome of childhood sweethearts, the pinnacle of pure love!
Yao Tao was going wild over them.
She could interpret every move Cheng Yu and Han Qinglu made exactly the way she wanted.
Even from a little farther away, He Zhen could still hear her internal squealing, which was rare.
She sounded just like the girls collectively losing their minds in the celebrity gossip videos Tang Zhao's girlfriend, Li Yajun, watched.
Except Yao Tao was a one-woman fan club.
Membership: one. Destructive power: one hundred.
[Aaaaah, sweet Cheng Yu wiped sweet Qinglu's sweat for her!]
[Aaaaah, sweet Qinglu is so careless! How did she twist her ankle without falling into sweet Cheng Yu's arms?!]
[Damn it, have some awareness and stop blocking my view!]
"Hey, you!" Zeng Rou couldn't take it anymore. Yao Tao's gaze was so heated it was practically smoking. "This is our class's assigned area. You should go back to planting trees."
[Exactly! Get lost already!]
Yao Tao enthusiastically agreed in her head.
She had no idea Zeng Rou was talking about her!
"Hey, you!" Zeng Rou had never seen anyone so shameless. Even after she had said all that, Yao Tao acted as if she hadn't heard a thing.
"Start taking it slow, the way I told you." He Zhen patted a boy on the shoulder. "I'm going over to the other side for a moment."
"Okay, class rep. Go do your thing." The boy made a hand gesture.
*[?]*
[Wait, she's not talking about me, is she?!]
Yao Tao was stunned.
[No, she couldn't possibly mean me.]
[I could never be included among the people getting in the way!]
[I'm the best-behaved girl in the world.]
[Don't believe me? Look, I haven't even meddled in He Zhen and Fu Xin's relationship. I managed to hold back even there!]
[My self-control is top-notch, okay!]
As her thoughts ran wild, Yao Tao automatically dragged He Zhen down again to highlight her own self-control.
He Zhen, hurrying over: ...
Had the idea of him and Fu Xin being a couple already become that deeply ingrained?
"That's enough, Rou." Han Qinglu didn't actually mind Yao Tao's gaze much, but the girl was practically staring holes through her.
At first, she had thought Yao Tao was looking at Cheng Yu. Later, she realized the girl was looking at Cheng Yu and her!
Whenever she accidentally made even the slightest physical contact with Cheng Yu, Yao Tao's eyes seemed to light up.
It made her keep fumbling.
"We'll get He Zhen to take every last one of his classmates away in a minute," Zeng Rou said angrily. "She's practically staring holes through Cheng Yu! And she keeps getting closer!"
[In a minute?]
[I think she's talking about me???]
Yao Tao looked around and realized she really had gotten pretty close to Han Qinglu and Cheng Yu.
[Holy shit, my legs aren't listening to me!]
[Damn, they actually moved on their own without consulting my brain!]
[Damn it!]
[Urgent question, waiting for answers: how do I prove my legs have a mind of their own and I didn't move them myself?!]
[No wonder people cling to trees when they spy on others! It's to keep themselves from moving!]
[Pfft, no!]
[What am I saying?!]
[I'm watching my ship in broad daylight, fair and square! I earned these sweet moments! How is that spying?!]
"She didn't mean to." He Zhen arrived just in time, holding back a laugh.
"Class rep." Knowing she was in the wrong and unable to explain herself, Yao Tao hurried behind He Zhen.
[Ni-you guys-ce!]
[Perfect timing!]
[There! Once you've taken your anger out on He Zhen, you can't take it out on me!]
He Zhen thought he should have come a little later.
"Listen, He Zhen, my dear junior. Isn't it enough that you've caused us trouble? Can't you keep your classmates in line?" Zeng Rou was furious. Some of her anger inevitably spilled over onto him; they really had been held up.
[Exactly! Minus ten points for He Zhen on this one!]
Yao Tao hid behind He Zhen. Her mouth stayed shut, but her inner voice was far from dead!
Not only was it exceptionally lively, it could even score people!
"Sorry about that. I'll treat you all to a meal sometime." He Zhen smiled politely and gently.
"A meal?" Hearing that only made Zeng Rou angrier. "One word from your missus and you come running. How many meals with us have you already blown off? Forget it."
[Great roasting!]
[Come on, babe, you've got a way with words! Keep going!]
[Lay into him some more!]
[Plus a hundred points for Zeng Rou on this one!]
[Beautiful!-]
He Zhen couldn't help glancing at Yao Tao several times.
Yao Tao looked back innocently and even blinked at him.
[What are you looking at me for? You had it coming!]
[You haven't been told off nearly enough, you know that?]
[Babe, it's not that I won't take your side. I just genuinely think you need to open your eyes and look at the world!]
[Look at Han Qinglu. Look at Zeng Rou. How is either of them any worse than Fu Xin?!]
[At the very least, you can't pin all your hopes on one person!]
[Especially when the one you picked is such a crooked tree, babe.]
He Zhen felt that Yao Tao was about to shatter the manners he had cultivated all his life.
He had come to help Yao Tao, only to get himself dragged into it.
But-
Within a few seconds, He Zhen sorted out his thoughts. Was he really that unreasonable?
Had he stood Han Qinglu and the others up several times because of Fu Xin?
"Ahem." Zhao Yixiao hurried to smooth things over. "You know how busy the second-years are."
"Busy?" Zeng Rou really did have a spoiled heiress's temper.
She had two older brothers and had been raised as the Zeng family's little princess since birth. If something displeased her, she let her temper fly on the spot.
"Oh, our busy man is very busy. We all grew up together, so how did you end up becoming more distant from us?" Zeng Rou hated smiling types like He Zhen most; they made anyone who got angry seem like the one in the wrong. "Every single time, right when you've made plans with us, your wife calls and summons you away."
"She even calls you when she has diarrhea."
"What, is there nobody left at the hospital, or are you her actual father?"
"Ahem, ahem, ahem!!!" Zhao Yixiao coughed hard. "He Zhen, hurry up and take her away."
[Don't, bro! I want to hear this-]
[This girl is amazing!]
[But why was she barely mentioned in the book?!]
[I absolutely love that mouth of hers!]
[Babe, you need to listen to more of this!]
[These are words of wisdom!!!]
Before you continue