Chapter 38

The school had a rule: during evening self-study, the campus cafeteria and shops were to remain closed. The milk tea shop only operated until the bell rang for study hall, so every evening before class, the queue would stretch endlessly.

Xu Xieyi and Zhang Xiaoli stood arm-in-arm in the middle of the line.

"There are so many people even though self-study is about to start. I'm freezing to death!" Zhang Xiaoli said after checking her watch.

Xu Xieyi was cold too; she shivered, only having the strength to nod. She looked ahead at the dense sea of heads and made a rough count. "It won't be long. There are only a dozen people left before us."

"A dozen isn't 'not long,' sister."

Today was the first time the temperature had dropped below ten degrees. The wind scraped against their necks, damp and chilly.

Finally, with ten minutes left until self-study, it was their turn. Xu Xieyi hurried to press her meal card against the reader. It beeped instantly, and the electronic screen displayed the transaction amount and remaining balance.

"Pearl milk tea, but no pearls, no coconut jelly, and not too sweet—just a little bit of sugar. Oh, and make it extra milky, preferably with some fresh milk added."

Xu Xieyi rattled it all off in one breath.

The shop assistant didn't even have time to operate the sealing machine; she and the students nearby stared at Xu Xieyi in astonishment. It made her feel quite unnatural.

When the assistant finally handed over the drink, she said with a playful smile, "Student, being this picky isn't good, you know?"

Xu Xieyi gave an awkward smile and took it, wrapping it tightly in her scarf.

On the way back to the classroom, Zhang Xiaoli nibbled on her straw and glanced at her. "Xuxu, why are you so picky with milk tea? I've never seen you be this picky with regular meals."

Xu Xieyi: "..."

"Well, I'm just a bit pickier with milk tea."

Truly. She was too embarrassed to say it was for Lin Sheng.

A tall, big man who looked so mature and aloof, yet he was this picky. How delicate.

"Pearl milk tea with no pearls!" The more Zhang Xiaoli thought about it, the funnier it seemed, and she burst into laughter. "Xuxu, you are really so cute!"

Xu Xieyi: "..."

Please—the "cute" one wasn't her.

***

After the evening self-study bell rang, Xu Xieyi packed her bag and headed out through the front door as usual.

As she reached the doorway, she inadvertently glanced at the back rows. Xu Muzhou was buried in his work, but when someone in the front row called out to him, he happened to look up, his gaze sweeping across the room.

Their eyes met for a fleeting second. Both were caught off guard.

Then, Xu Muzhou gave her a candid, friendly smile.

Xu Xieyi shrank her neck almost imperceptibly and tightened her grip on the scarf wrapped around the milk tea. After a second, she offered a short, brief smile in return, then, without pausing for even half a second, lowered her head and hurried out of the classroom.

Watching her nimble, escaping figure, Xu Muzhou’s smile deepened.

On campus, except for the evergreens, the trees were already bare. New Capital was a city in the central-southern region; although it didn't snow in the city proper, the winter was damp, cold, and lacked central heating. It was quite grueling.

After stumbling out of the teaching building, Xu Xieyi slowed her pace and let out a sigh of relief. She clutched her chest.

*Whew.*

That moment just now had made her inexplicably nervous.

She pulled out her phone to check WeChat. Ten minutes ago, Lin Sheng had sent a message telling her to wait for him outside the school gate. He had been delayed and hadn't reached the school yet.

***

At the school gate, the lights were bright. Xu Xieyi blended into the crowd and exited through the north gate.

The roadside was packed with incoming and outgoing vehicles. She hugged her scarf and the milk tea, looking left and right. After waiting for seven or eight minutes without seeing Lin Sheng’s car, she simply tucked herself behind a power box on the side of the road to hide from the wind.

"Hi!"

A low, slightly lazy voice.

"Is the young lady all alone?"

The teasing, flirtatious tone startled Xu Xieyi.

She cautiously poked her head out from the shadow of the power box. A black Porsche was parked by the curb. A man’s arm hung out of the lowered window, his fingers and the back of his hand lean and elegant. His posture was relaxed and comfortable. In the dim space of the car, one could vaguely make out the silhouette of a tall man. As the streetlights hit him, he slowly broke into a smile, his lips and teeth looking sharp and handsome. "If you keep staring, I’m going to have to charge you."

Xu Xieyi laughed immediately. "Brother Lin!"

She hurried over with the milk tea and stood outside his car window. "I didn't recognize you for a second there."

Lin Sheng tilted his head, looking at her sideways with a faint smile.

The young girl was wearing a thin school uniform, standing there so obediently. Lin Sheng’s gaze lingered on her frost-reddened cheeks and lips, and he narrowed his eyes into a gentle smile. "Been waiting long?"

"No, no, I just got here two minutes ago!"

"Hmm." Lin Sheng paused. "Got caught in a car accident on the way, delayed me for a bit."

*A car accident.* Xu Xieyi’s heart skipped a beat.

Seeing her startled reaction, Lin Sheng couldn't help but reach out to pinch her cheek. "Be good, it wasn't me. It was someone else."

"You scared me." Xu Xieyi frowned, looking slightly annoyed. "Can you be more clear in the future? Brother Lin, you scared me."

"Alright, I'll be sure to be careful next time."

Xu Xieyi let out a breath, her shoulders relaxing slightly.

In truth, Lin Sheng hadn't expected her reaction to be so intense. But thinking about it, for a girl whose family had gone through upheavals and whose parents were far away, a lack of security was normal.

Lin Sheng tilted his head and gestured with his chin. "Get in."

"Oh, okay."

Lin Sheng watched her walk around the front of the car to the passenger side. Xu Xieyi had just opened the door and taken off her backpack to put it inside when she heard a group of boys laughing and talking behind her, followed by someone calling her name in surprise—

"Xu Xieyi?"

Xu Xieyi turned around.

It was Xu Muzhou, accompanied by Tang Zhou and Li Xiaochuan; they must have been leaving school together. Tang Zhou and Li Xiaochuan were grinning.

"Oh, look, it's Xu Xieyi."

"What a coincidence, Student Xu."

After saying that, the two of them sneakily peered into the car behind Xu Xieyi. "Is your family here to pick you up?"

Xu Xieyi had never liked talking to them, so she remained silent. Seeing her cold reaction, Xu Muzhou told the other two to go on ahead while he waited. The two troublemakers patted Xu Muzhou on the shoulder as they left, giving him a meaningful look.

"Yo, yo, yo. Incredible, just incredible."

"Brother, you're fast."

However, cautious that the person in the car might be Xu Xieyi’s family, they weren't stupid enough to be too explicit.

With a few words, Xu Muzhou sent them off. When he turned back to speak to the girl in front of him, his tone was gentler. "I saw you leave a while ago; why are you still here?"

Xu Xieyi stood with her back against the car door, her ponytail hanging in front of her chest and covering her school badge. Beneath the streetlights, she looked delicate and refined. "I just got held up for a moment."

"Oh, I see."

Xu Muzhou had his backpack on, one hand in his pocket and the other holding a basketball; his tall, thin frame looked quite upright.

His gaze drifted over the girl's shoulder to look behind her.

A high-end car, with the faint outline of a well-dressed, handsome man inside.

"Your family?"

Xu Xieyi nodded without further explanation. The main thing was that Lin Sheng was too conspicuous; he attracted gossip wherever he went. Whenever her classmates asked, she habitually avoided talking about him.

They exchanged a few brief words, then said goodbye.

Xu Xieyi climbed into the car and lowered her head, feeling that her face was still hot.

Lin Sheng withdrew his gaze from the basketball-carrying boy as he walked away. He rested his left hand on the steering wheel, but didn't start the car yet. He glanced sideways. "Classmate?"

"Hmm."

"The one from last night?"

Xu Xieyi felt nervous for a moment and shook her head with difficulty. "No. That was... a female classmate."

As expected, one lie leads to more lies to cover it up. Xu Xieyi felt a twinge of frustration inside.

Lin Sheng tapped his index finger against the steering wheel twice, let out a soft laugh through his nose, and lifted his eyelids to look at her. Xu Xieyi felt a cold sweat break out on her back.

A shadow swept through the car.

Xu Xieyi held her breath. Lin Sheng suddenly leaned over, bracing his arm on the door beside her, his eyes very close.

"What were you daydreaming about just now?" Lin Sheng’s lips curled into a faint smile as he pulled the seatbelt over to buckle it for her. "You didn't even put your seatbelt on."

He pulled back as soon as he fastened it, and only then did Xu Xieyi exhale.

The car moved along its usual route.

As Lin Sheng turned onto another road, he thought back to the pale, slender fingers Xu Xieyi had been twisting against her sleeve while talking to that boy.

Teenage girls, young and ignorant, are most prone to immersing themselves in fantasies of love.

Prone to being blind, prone to falling easily.

Rather than saying they love the other person, it's more that they fall in love with the flavor of "love" itself—longing for romance and the opposite sex.

Once they are truly together and realize the other person isn't the prince of their dreams, they start to feel inexplicably annoyed, wanting to escape and break up.

That playboy Chu Yuefei was right... dating a teenage girl is a real headache.

It wasn't that Lin Sheng hadn't been through high school; in fact, his high school life had been far wilder than those two seemingly rowdy boys. He knew exactly what was going on with their little ambiguous jokes the moment he heard them.

His circle of friends—Chen Xia, Chu Yuefei... they had all been absolute hell-raisers back in the day.

As Lin Sheng drove, his dark eyes glanced at the unusually quiet girl beside him.

*However,* she had seemed quite shy with that boy earlier.

He looked back at the road ahead, his brow arching slightly.

*Tsk...*

*Baby.*

*Don't be a flirt.*