Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The provision shop fell silent at this.
Half a beat later: “Pfft.”
Xiang Huai burst out laughing again. He bent down, lowering his head to her level. Staring at the girl’s pristine, fair skin, he purposely moved closer before saying, “Little kid, what do you think?”
Right after performing this amorous flirting, he waited for the girl to blush in embarrassment and shyness, but unexpectedly—
Xue Xi blinked her large eyes with a lost expression. She ignored the man’s breath by her ears and pondered this somberly.
As though she was a studious student seeking help from her teacher, she answered, “The stages of a relationship should be confession, then holding hands, followed by kissing, hugging, and finally…”
At this point, she turned to look at him in astonishment.
Xiang Huai: “?”
Her dark irises seemed to constrict as her misty eyes colored with incomprehension. While her face remained stoic, she was actually thinking inside that if Xiang Huai dared to request her to sleep with him, she would immediately serve him a dish of army boxing!
The two were in such close proximity to each other that their breaths mingled.
Under her glare, Xiang Huai retracted his gaze and stuffed his hands into his pocket. He then slowly stood back up and said in an exasperated tone, “Don’t worry. Go to school.”
Don’t worry about what?
Xue Xi silently rebuked inside. Still, she picked up her bag and decided to proceed with caution. At least, she did not feel repulsed by the notion of holding hands for now.
She did not notice a certain person’s ears being dyed in a deep red…
Lu Chao had already hidden in the corner, trying to reduce his presence as lowly as possible.
As the person who had witnessed his boss trying but failing at flirting, he wondered, Am I going to be silenced?
…
The moment Xue Xi stepped into the classroom, she already saw her classmates pointing fingers at her. The words “keeping a toyboy” entered her ears.
When she turned her head over, the few people gossiping promptly shut their mouths.
Someone even said softly, “Hurry and stop talking. What will we do if we offend her and the Roaring Flame Society comes for us?”
“…”
This was the first time Xue Xi found those few Flames to be useful. At least, they allowed her ears to remain much cleaner.
After six periods were over, she had started packing up to move to the Olympiad extra classes when the Flames from the Roaring Flame Society came over again. Gao Yanchen crossed his arms and stood at the side while Flame Number One sat on Qin Shuang’s seat to speak.
“Sister Xi, are you going to class again?”
When she did not answer, he continued, “Are you going to request us to stay here, revise, and do our homework?”
Xue Xi: “Yes.”
Flame Number One instantly revealed a slack expression. “Huh? Brother Chen, what should we do?!”
Gao Yanchen was also dumbstruck. Do homework? He did not like the idea at all, but when he saw the girl’s calm expression, he quickly responded, “She is the boss now, so listen to her!”
This resulted in a series of groans from the Flames as they all dejectedly walked out.
“And here I wanted to go watch a movie!”
“Me too. I wanted to go play basketball!”
Gao Yanchen kicked the few complaining. “I’ll check your homework tomorrow. We must fulfill the Boss’s orders.”
“…Brother Chen, does copying homework work?”
“What do you think?”
The few people left just as quickly as they arrived. Xue Xi watched them disappear at the entrance and could only swallow the words “no need” that she had yet to utter.
She was stupefied.
She would not interfere in however others lived their lives, just as she did not request for this group of people to dye their hair back. She had also never considered asking the Flames to become a bookworm like her.
In fact, that “Yes” had been an answer to Flame Number One’s first question!
However, she realized that other than Gao Yanchen, she did not even know the names of the rest. Hence, she had no way of informing them one by one either.
In the end, she only sighed, carried her books, and left.
Her actions were slow and she was always unhurried. When she was out the door, Xue Yao spoke to Fan Han while following behind her. “…She personally said that her boyfriend is a hooligan. He agreed to be her boyfriend because she was going to give him money. Fan Han, this type of girl doesn’t have respect for herself. We should stay farther away from her.”
Fan Han stared at Xue Xi for a long while, then retracted his gaze with a profound look.
Xue Yao then entered the Physics class while he followed behind Xue Xi and sat down behind her.
After a long while, he could not resist speaking. “Did you find a random person just because you were too shocked by my reneging on the marriage arrangement?”
He frowned when the girl kept her head lowered and did not reply. “Don’t do that. Girls should respect and love themselves more. The toyboy you are keeping just has his eyes on your money…”
She continued ignoring him. At this, he could not help but poke her shoulders with his pen.
He then saw Xue Xi slowly turning around with a blank gaze. When she met his eyes, she frowned. “What?”
Fan Han: “??”
She continued in a frustrated tone, “Don’t disturb me.”
She calmly turned back and engrossed herself in her questions.
Fan Han: …So after I’ve spoken so much, she actually didn’t hear a single word of it?
When he felt the curious gazes of the surrounding students, he felt so embarrassed that he quickly lowered his head.
He was too prideful.
With a grudge in his heart, he looked up and noticed that she had placed the finished paper to the side. They were all foundational questions and were the comparatively easy ones that tested only the key knowledge points.
He could not help but mockingly think to himself, Her results for the Mathematical Olympiad are indeed very terrible. That must be why Old Liu gave her such foundational questions, right?
The Math Star Competition is this week, so I must definitely score better than she does and show her what true abilities really are!
The two periods for the Mathematics Olympiad flew by in the blink of an eye.
Xue Xi did not leave immediately. When she finished the last question and looked up, she found that everyone else had already left.
She packed up her books and returned to her classroom to retrieve her bag.
Along the way, she kept thinking about the last question and whether she had utilized anything out of the scope of the syllabus. Like this, she dazedly walked into the classroom.
Just as she entered, she was almost knocked backward by a girl who was rushing out.
She looked up and fleetingly saw the girl’s eyes. The girl glared hatefully at her, then quickly left.
Was that Qin Shuang?
She was confused but had a feeling that it was not her…
…
After Xue Xi and Xue Yao had returned home and were having dinner, Old Master Xue picked up a call. When he returned, his expression had turned solemn as he spoke to Xue Sheng. “I know why Elder Gao is not accepting any gifts now.”
Xue Sheng hurriedly inquired, “Why?”
The old patriarch sat down and pondered for a while before saying, “I received some internal news that a big shot has arrived at Bin City!”
Old Lady Xue was very curious. “What kind of big shot?”
The old patriarch shook his head. “I don’t know his exact identity, but Elder Gao is very polite to him, so he is definitely not an ordinary person. On our side, we shouldn’t stand out too much for the time being.”
“Yes,” Xue Sheng acknowledged, then continued asking, “Dad, do you know this person’s name? If we happen to meet him, we should take care to not accidentally offend him.”
The old man nodded. “I was just about to speak on this. Next time, if anyone hears this person’s name, remember to not offend him.”
Right after he said this, Xue Xi put her chopsticks down and looked at him with a serious look.
