Adolescent Feelings

Having agreed to go out for dinner with Shi Su that night, Cen Xia could only secretly contact Shi Su behind Ding Yiheng's back.

Right after finishing replying to Shi Su's message, Ding Yiheng walked over carrying both of their bags, and he hastily locked his phone screen with a guilty conscience.

"Let's go, time to eat!" Ding Yiheng slung an arm around his shoulder. "Call Shi Su and the others, I saw a newly opened place a couple of days ago, heard the food is pretty good, let's go try it!"

Cen Xia's conscience twitched slightly.

"I won't go, I have some things to do tonight." He tried his best to keep his tone steady, making sure Ding Yiheng wouldn't notice anything.

"Things to do?" Ding Yiheng looked at him suspiciously. Cen Xia's expression didn't change, looking very sincere, so he shook his head with some regret. "All right then, I'll call the other two."

--"How come Shi Su doesn't have time tonight either? Didn't he say the other day that he didn't need to help out at his mother's shop on Friday?"

That Shi Su had to help out at his mother's shop every weekend was something he only found out this week, and he wasn't deliberately hiding it; it was just that none of the three in the chat group asked, and he hadn't thought to mention it.

Cen Xia felt a bit guilty, but still covered for Shi Su.

"Maybe they're short-handed at the last minute, isn't that how business goes?"

Ding Yiheng reluctantly accepted this reason, preparing to pin his hopes on Fang Sheng as the last resort, but the next second--

"Attending a banquet? Doesn't he have an older brother above him? How could it ever fall to a student like him to go? Did you guys agree not to play with me today, or what?"

Cen Xia looked up at the sky.

Fang Sheng explained in the group chat: I really didn't mean to, I was just notified at the last minute too. My dad and my older brother went to talk business, so my mom had no choice but to ask me to tag along.

Immediately following that, he began to play suspense: Guess whose banquet it is?

Before anyone could ask, he couldn't hold back and answered himself: The president's family! Explosive gossip, his family has a second son who was only found not long ago, and today's banquet is being thrown just for him!

Ding Yiheng was hooked by this piece of gossip, and instead of dwelling on the few of them ditching him, he hurriedly asked in the group chat: A second son? I remember the president and his younger brother only differ in age by one year, where did an older brother come from? Twins?

Fang Sheng: I don't know, I'll tell you guys after I go see.

Ding Yiheng: Live broadcast the whole thing!

Cen Xia also saw the chat in the group. In the original book, Lu Mian's true identity was already an open secret among the top elites, and today was merely finding an opportunity to officially make it public to the masses.

However, he wouldn't be able to participate in this plotline; his NPC status could at most serve as background decoration at school, and he wasn't qualified to attend this kind of banquet.

Bidding farewell to Ding Yiheng, Cen Xia went to find Shi Su at the place they had agreed upon.

Shi Su was wearing a grey hooded jacket and black long trousers today, standing there as a tall figure, a bright smile immediately blooming on his face when he saw Cen Xia.

Cen Xia couldn't help marveling in his heart that youth was truly wonderful, with its overwhelming vitality and handsome flair.

On a Friday evening, even the air was a bit sweeter than usual. Luxury cars were like clouds at the school gates, and the leaving young masters and young ladies were picked up by their drivers one after another.

The Kanlitel campus was vast and located in a remote area. Minors were not allowed to drive, and the school also prohibited riding inside the campus, so these young masters and young ladies who arrived and departed in luxury cars outside had to rely equally on their own two legs to finish the journey to and from class once they stepped foot into the school.

Cen Xia's family business was not in the capital, but his family still arranged a driver for him. After transmigrating, he had only left the school gate alone once-that time by taxi-while all subsequent rides were picked up by Ding Yiheng's family driver.

Because he was going out with Shi Su, he contacted his driver in advance for the first time to pick him up. Fridays were not very easy to hail a cab, and he didn't want to waste time on the road.

The magnificent and grand school gate of Kanlitel was set off as even more extravagant and decadent by the endless stream of luxury cars.

Vehicles were congested at the school gate, making it difficult for the driver to get close, so he could only park the car by the roadside not far away.

Cen Xia walked a few steps before realizing that Shi Su hadn't followed.

He looked back and saw Shi Su's gaze scatter, staring blankly in the direction of the surging traffic ahead, as if he had lost his mind.

"Why aren't you walking?"

Hearing his voice, Shi Su suddenly snapped out of his chaotic thoughts, his knuckles moving stiffly.

Amidst the bustling crowd, Shi Su stood on the spot, with the turbulent traffic ahead and the mire of inferiority attempting to engulf him behind.

A youth never belittles himself without cause.

Yet because of liking someone, a sudden self-deprecation arose.

He confronted the gap between the two of them directly for the first time.

Shi Su suppressed the complex emotions swirling in his heart and said in a low voice, "It's nothing, I just zoned out for a moment."

Getting into the car, Cen Xia only then remembered to ask where they were going; today's dining spot had been arranged by Shi Su.

He turned his head to look at the person beside him: "Where are we heading?"

Shi Su barely managed to compose his mind and softly reported the address of the restaurant.

Outwardly he looked calm, but his gaze fell upon the lights flashing past outside the window, and the heavy, stagnant knot dwelling in his heart never dissipated.

The vehicle drove into a tunnel, the surrounding light plunged abruptly, sinking all at once into boundless dimness.

The privacy partition lowered, and the carriage also sank into gloom.

Cen Xia leaned against the car window, perceiving the person beside him slowly moving closer to him, his breath spilling against the side of his neck, accompanied by a low whisper in his ear that sounded like he was acting spoiled yet nervously thirsting for an answer:

"Brother Cen, do you think I'm good?"

-

"Good!"

"Just like this!"

"Cut it for me frame by frame just like this!"

The screen's light shone directly onto Qi Jiayan's face, making her fair-skinned face appear somewhat ferocious.

In the chat group, messages were still jumping continuously.

Picture after picture, several sisters studied the video frame by frame, continuously taking screenshots.

[He was definitely looking at the camera on purpose! Definitely!]

[They definitely made eye contact! Definitely!]

Another image popped up.

[Haha! I captured the cameraman exposing half a second of his hand:]

That picture was extremely blurry, and one could only tell that it didn't belong to a girl.

Yet Qi Jiayan knew who the cameraman was, so this picture was useless scrap material to her, containing no key information.

[...I found something terrifying]

The one saying this was Liuxia Hui, a veteran in the group. This "human radar" had top-tier gossip-digging skills, and her grades occupied the school's top ten year-round; the flexibility of her brain ranked near the top in the group.

If she said so, it meant--

Qi Jiayan grew excited: [What, what? Hurry up and share it!]

Liuxia Hui sent a sticker of both hands crossed in a serious thinking pose.

[I went through all the videos in thirteen group chats, there are almost a hundred of them from various angles.]

Everyone in the group worshipped her.

[The time from 2 entering the court to leaving was less than an hour, to be precise, forty-five minutes. The video posted by Silent and Speechless was filmed in the last thirteen minutes.]

[During the first half-hour, I found that although 2 took the court, his enthusiasm wasn't high, the number of shots he took could be counted on one hand, and the scores of the two teams were very close. But, everyone look at the final score.]

She proceeded to send a screenshot.

The score in the image was 18:9.

[Isn't the gap huge? And where did this turnaround happen? Right in the last thirteen minutes! 2 scored 10 points in these thirteen minutes!]

[Can't I reasonably suspect that 2 only exerted himself like that because he saw a certain person?]

The group fell silent for four or five seconds.

Then various stickers flooded the screen.

Liuxia Hui: [Wait, don't get excited, I haven't finished yet]

The stickers stopped, and everyone held their breath in front of their screens.

[You guys think 2 only looked at this shot once? Wrong! The lens filming this video didn't focus on 2 for nearly two minutes]

[And in these two minutes, I found in videos from other angles--

[2 looked more than once!]

Saying this, she sent three more screenshots.

Qi Jiayan suppressed the excited trembling of her heart and the shaking of her hand as she clicked on them.

Where He Wangsheng's gaze was focused on the screen, combined with the dozen or so videos she had watched repeatedly, she was incomparably certain--this position was precisely the shooting angle of the video posted by Ding Yiheng!