"Then I'll leave it to you to come over in a moment and help explain."
Li Qiuzhi said with a chuckle.
Mona, who stood beside the bookshelves, gave a "hmph," turned to look at Li Qiuzhi and Layla, then walked straight over.
"Is Ms. Mona looking at us?" Layla, beside him, froze slightly.
"Uh, she probably noticed us staring at her, and that caught her attention."
Li Qiuzhi answered after a moment's thought.
"Huh? Did we disturb Ms. Mona? Why don't we leave first?" At a loss, Layla instinctively started to get up and leave.
"Wait!" Li Qiuzhi quickly caught Layla's black-gloved hand. It seemed her lack of confidence was rather serious. He said helplessly:
"She's already coming over. It would be a little rude to just walk away."
"But..."
Layla felt her heartbeat quickening. Just as she was about to say something, it was already too late. Mona had reached them.
She folded her arms across her chest and said to Layla:
"You must be the junior studying the stars whom that fellow beside you said he met at the Akademiya?"
Hearing that Mona seemed to know about her, Layla froze for a moment too. She was no fool and immediately turned her gaze to Li Qiuzhi.
"Hehe, Mona is actually my girlfriend. When I saw how interested you seemed in her earlier, I wanted to introduce you. But you were too unsure of yourself, Layla, so I called her over to let you 'run into' her."
Li Qiuzhi hid nothing and gave a brief explanation.
"What?!" Layla caught the detail in Li Qiuzhi's words and looked incredulous. "M-Ms. Mona is your girlfriend?"
"Ahem, you know, as a fairly famous Legendary Adventurer, isn't it perfectly normal for me to have a fairly famous girlfriend too?" Li Qiuzhi said with