Looking at the expression on his good friend's face, Xu Zhuoyue's own expression changed, and he couldn't help pressing her. "You little rascal, don't tell me I actually hit the mark?"
"Y-you're overthinking it..." Xia Kening's lips twitched. However she thought about it, she still felt that something like that was unlikely to happen.
How could her eldest sister possibly write a love letter to a boy?
As far as Xia Kening could remember, her sister Xia Jinshu had always been gentle and had never lost her temper with her.
Even the last time, when she had punched Xu Lingcheng and the school had summoned a parent, Xia Jinshu had gone to school in their mother's place to deal with it, and hadn't said a single word of reproach to her from beginning to end.
To her, "an eldest sister is like a mother" was more than just a saying. It was something she truly felt.
Their mother already worked hard enough, so it was Xia Jinshu who worried about and handled many of the little things in their daily lives.
Xia Jinshu would write a love letter to a boy?
Impossible.
How could her sister have romance on her mind?
Xia Kening knew that better than anyone.
"That's what I thought." Seeing that he hadn't admitted it, Xu Zhuoyue breathed a sigh of relief. "I was just messing with you. For a second there, I almost thought your bullshit had actually come true."
"How was I bullshitting?" Xia Kening followed his lead with a question of her own, wanting to find out what exactly had happened.
"A while back, you went to the English Club to pick up letters every fucking day after school, and you said they were love letters Xia Jinshu wrote to you," Xu Zhuoyue said irritably. "Now you're denying it?"
Xia Kening: "...You actually believed me?"
"Like hell I did!"
"Then why did you say that just now?" Xia Kening looked speechless, then couldn't resist adding, "Dumbass."
Oh no...
Calling people dumbass seemed to be rolling off her tongue more and more easily.
Xia Kening silently warned herself and subconsciously covered her mouth. If her mother or sisters heard her, they would probably tell her off again.
They had always taught her not to use foul language.
It was all Song Yunshen's fault. Who called their good friends dumbass when they spent time together?
After parting with Xu Zhuoyue at the school gate, Xia Kening grumbled to herself as she walked home.
Before long, she returned to the Tangning New Residence, only to find herself walking to the East District gate out of habit.
When she came to her senses, she remembered that she was Song Yunshen now. She hurriedly turned around and went back to the West District entrance, using facial recognition to enter the complex.
She found Building 24 and took the elevator up to the door of 1801. Just as Xia Kening was about to wonder where Song Yunshen kept his house key, the smart lock recognized her face and opened the door automatically.
"Welcome home. The air conditioner in the secondary bedroom has been turned on for you, and zero-wait hot water is now on."
The voice startled Xia Kening. Once she recovered, she realized it was the house's artificial intelligence speaking.
So fancy...
Is this what rich people's homes are like?
She hadn't had much chance to experience it that morning, and only now did she realize how high-tech Song Yunshen's home was.
She took off her shoes outside the door and stepped onto the doormat in her socks. After putting on slippers, she walked inside, and the lights in the living room and hallway came on automatically.
Song Yunshen's home had a minimalist style, with tile flooring throughout. The bathroom had light gray tiles with a natural grain, while the other rooms and living room had matte, creamy-white floor tiles.
Under the warm lighting, the living room looked spacious and comfortable. Its overall light, warm-toned style instantly softened the mood of anyone just coming home.
Only now did Xia Kening have time to look around Song Yunshen's home.
She cautiously peeked around, looking at the long solid-wood table in the dining room, then the treadmill on the small balcony. Her gaze then turned to the luxurious sofa in the living room and the enormous television mounted on the wall opposite it.
How many inches is that?
Xia Kening walked up to the television and couldn't resist stretching out her arms to measure it. Even with the arm span of Song Yunshen's body, she couldn't touch both edges of the television at once.
She was astonished and didn't dare imagine how much the television must have cost. She quickly took two steps back to get away from it, afraid she might accidentally break it and have to pay for it.
She then crossed the living room to the enormous floor-to-ceiling window on the balcony. The entire pane stretched from ceiling to floor, and from the eighteenth floor, she could even clearly see the tower atop Jinglin Mountain, two kilometers away.
It's beautiful...
Looking at the beautiful scene before her, Xia Kening couldn't help marveling at it.
For some reason, she felt a little jealous at that moment, keenly aware of how unfair heaven was.
Why did she and her two sisters have to live such hard lives from childhood, while someone like Song Yunshen could grow up without worrying about food or clothing and live in a big house like this?
Xia Kening knew perfectly well that it was wrong to think this way, but the thoughts in her head wouldn't obey her and kept popping up.
So she shook her head, hurried back into the hallway, and entered Song Yunshen's bedroom.
Then she took out her phone and used Song Yunshen's WeChat to send a message to her own account.
Before long, Song Yunshen called her on WeChat.
"Hello? How did things go?" As soon as the call connected, Song Yunshen hurriedly asked about the situation. "There weren't any major problems on my end. You didn't give yourself away, did you?"
"No." Xia Kening shook her head. "Apart from not knowing how to answer the exam questions, everything went pretty well."
"Were you able to get along talking with my desk mate?"
"Yeah." Xia Kening nodded. "You taught me how, didn't you? I talked to him exactly the way you said to."
"That's good." Song Yunshen nodded in satisfaction. He hadn't expected Xia Kening to adapt so well. "Tell me what you did today first. If we happen to switch back tomorrow, we can make sure we don't give anything away."
"Oh." Xia Kening obediently acknowledged him, then recounted everything in detail. "When I got to the classroom this morning, I chatted with your desk mate for a while. During morning self-study, I practiced copying your handwriting. Your desk mate asked me to play gomoku, but I turned him down."
"There was a math exam in the morning. I only did the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions. I really couldn't understand the long-answer questions, so all I could do was write 'Solution.'"
"Don't expect too much from me. I feel like getting twenty or thirty points in the end would be pretty good..."
Hearing this, Song Yunshen felt rather helpless, though it didn't really matter. Lao Song wouldn't scold him anyway, so Song Yunshen usually didn't feel much pressure about his grades.
If he did worse than usual this time, so be it. He could just say his stomach had been bothering him on exam day.
The teachers all knew his actual level anyway. If his score was ten-something points lower than usual, they could still say he had slipped.
But if he only scored twenty-something points, there had to be a special reason.
"Go on." Song Yunshen stopped worrying about his grades and prompted her to continue.
"Oh, right." Xia Kening thought back for a moment, then continued, "At noon, I asked Sec-asked Xia Yunuo to have lunch with me. I wanted to treat her, but she refused, so we just had a meal together."
"After lunch..."
"Wait!" Song Yunshen hurriedly interrupted her. "What do you mean, you had a meal with Xia Yunuo? Why did you ask her to eat with you? Couldn't you have just gone with my desk mate?"
"But your desk mate said you'd been pursuing Xia Yunuo lately." Xia Kening wore an innocent expression. "I figured I had to act in character for you at school, so I went to find Xia Yunuo."
"Don't listen to his nonsense!" Dark lines covered Song Yunshen's face. He wished he could fly over to Xu Zhuoyue right now and punch him in his big mouth.
He was a fine young man with a spotless reputation, and that bastard had gone and splashed it with dirty water!