Chapter 15

Before Ke Chengwen could even form a sentence, Fu Yangxi had already walked to another row displaying a selection of masks.

A top promoter managed to guess what he wanted to buy. He immediately pushed a rack of items to him and asked, “Young Master Fu, do you need this?”

Fu Yangxi turned.

A row of various kinds of female underwear made out of silk and satin entered his vision abruptly.

His handsome face flushed red immediately. He yelled, “What is this?! Do I look like someone who would want to buy something like this?! You’ve misunderstood me!”

The top promoter was about to shakily pull the rack away.

“Wait.” Fu Yangxi called out to her.

Actually, Fu Yangxi had a suspicion that the transfer student was low on money recently because he saw how she would always be on the forum in search of tutoring jobs. He didn’t know if she could afford such things.

“I’ll take two.” Fu Yangxi pulled a long face. He refused to look at it again, so he just used two fingers to pull up some items and threw it in the luggage.

By the time he was done, his whole face was practically red.

He took another two packets of masks and threw it in. Then, he hurriedly used his leg to close the luggage. After pulling the zipper, he turned and quickly ran away with the luggage in tow.

The group of salespeople who came to observe Young Master Fu from behind a shelf watched this whole bizarre transaction with their expressions unusually brilliant.

An unexplainable expression also appeared on Ke Chengwen’s face.

The top promoter smiled.

Looks like I didn’t misunderstand him.

Ke Chengwen chased after him with small jogs. He felt resentful toward Fu Yangxi for failing to meet expectations, and he was impatient to see improvement. “Xi ge, she’s the one going after you, not the other way around. Why are you buying so many things?!”

“I know!” Fu Yangxi retorted unhappily. “I don’t like her! I’m just returning the favor for her insistence to give me desserts every day!”

Ke Chengwen wanted to continue.

Fu Yangxi’s face was emotionless. “Shut up. I said I don’t like her.”

“Okay.” Ke Chengwen had mixed feelings about this.

Fu Yangxi bought a lot of things in a muddle. Towards the end, he took two duvets.

The weather in October was unpredictable. It could turn cold whenever. When the two of them were faced with a gust of cold wind upon leaving the mall, they both sneezed.

A honk came from a vehicle not far away from them. As if it was following them, a limousine drove nearer.

The moment Fu Yangxi saw it, his expression turned cold. He placed the duvets on the luggage and pushed it to Ke Chengwen. “I’ll meet you at the library at eight.”

“Oh my god, how am I supposed to explain this amount of things?” Ke Chengwen was clearly unwilling.

Fu Yangxi said, “Idiot. Just say that you got it as a prize.”

Ke Chengwen was beginning to question his life. Who would believe that he had won so many items only for female use?

The car had already arrived. The back door opened.

A respectful middle-aged man who was wearing a suit came out. He smiled at Fu Yangxi. “Young Master.”

*

Mingxi was extremely focused on her revision in the library.

There were a few people who had yet to go home for the weekend, just about 20 of them. Some were listening to songs on their earphones, some had their legs crossed as they played games, there were also a few couples. Thus, it wasn’t all that quiet.

The system helped her to calculate the time: “You used 75 minutes to complete this paper. You’re getting faster.”

“This test wasn’t hard. It wasn’t even 80% of the difficulty of the college entrance examinations. But I am definitely getting faster than before.”

Mingxi raised her head and rubbed her eyes. She took a glimpse at the pot which was still stuck at 15 small buds.

In accordance with the increase of the small buds— which also meant that her negative luck was decreasing, she could clearly perceive the changes in her.

The most obvious one would be when she answered the test, the answers that she got wrong due to a random glitch in her brain decreased by a lot.

The system’s explanation for this was that her collected luck was currently diminishing the female protagonist’s intelligence reducing buff.

Mingxi was filled with determination.

However, she was currently worried about one thing. She had already submitted the application form for the Hundred School Tournament, but she was afraid that there would be too many outstanding people to the point that there would be a pile of application forms. Then the teacher in charge of the competing team would not even see her application form at all.

If this was true, then she would’ve immediately died in square one.

The teacher in charge of choosing students had the surname Gao. He was over 60 years old and was well-respected by everyone. He was the renowned top tournament trainer for many years. In school, no one would dare to rebut him, even the teachers would have to bow in respect to him.

Mingxi wondered if there was a way for her to directly give her application form to Trainer Gao.

Even if he didn’t choose her, she could at least say that she tried.

—If that doesn’t work, at least she would be on speaking terms with this mysterious teacher and she could try to get some guidance from him.

She must enter a good college in this lifetime.

Mingxi’s possession of her past life’s memories allowed her to broaden her web of thoughts quickly.

“Help me see if this is a request from Professor Gao’s grandchild to find a playmate.”

During her past life, when Mingxi was in college, this top trainer had already retired. Everyone felt that it was such a pity, but it was also then that they found out that he had an autistic grandson at home. As his grandson’s illness got gradually worse, he could only retire to focus on taking care of him.

The system: “Yes. It’s for 200 yuan a day so the price is not bad. If you manage to get it, it could also ease your financial burden.”

Mingxi said, “It shouldn’t be a problem. See? Practically no one replied to this request.”

This user had used a rather stiff tone in his post. The request itself was also very demanding as it required someone to play with an autistic child.

The students who needed to earn money would never take up this kind of request. Everyone was more willing to take simple jobs which could get them more money easily, like being a tutor or helping others to do their homework.

This was the reason why despite this post having been left up there for the past six years, only a few comments like “???” and “Are you for real or is this just a trick?” were there.

If it wasn’t because Mingxi had been given a second chance at life, she would never have connected this post to the ever strict Professor Gao.

As Mingxi wanted to attempt this, she sent a private message to this user, stating that she wanted to take up this job.

However, after she sent it, there was no reply for a whole 10 minutes. There wasn’t even a sign that it had been read.

The system: “Is this idea useful? I think you should just try to find out Professor Gao’s address and head there yourself.”

“That’s too purposeful. Judging by Professor Gao’s personality, he would definitely hate it.” Mingxi contemplated before continuing, “Let’s just give it some more time. It’s getting late, and considering Professor Gao’s age, he must be asleep by now. We’ll check on it again tomorrow morning.”

Mingxi flipped through her calendar and was reminded of something. The time was fast approaching when the Dong family would come back after the end of the Hundred School Tournament in her past life.

The Dong family was her grandmother’s neighbor back when she lived in the small town. Although they were poor, they would always lend a helping hand to Mingxi and her grandmother.

About three years ago, Uncle Dong struck gold with his business. Then, they all left overseas.

In her past life, after the Dong family came back, they would constantly invite Mingxi over to their house.

Their whole family thought that Zhao Yuan was a dog in a manger, hence they all treated Zhao Yuan badly— It wasn’t hard to conclude that they were quite the formidable villains in the original novel as well. They kept on making appearances but were always met with retaliation from the people around Zhao Yuan.

Additionally, although the Dong family was rich, they were painfully straightforward— In the original novel, they were cursed with little IQ and repeatedly made a fool out of themselves.

Although Dong Shen who transferred here was extremely good-looking, due to his poor mannerisms, he was taken as a joke in A High all the time.

Ultimately, the end of the Dong family was no different than the resolution of Mingxi and He Yang’s family.

As Mingxi couldn’t remember phone numbers, she couldn’t make the first contact with the Dong family. However, she circled the date on her calendar and decided that in this life, she would use her luck as the female protagonist to protect this family.

At the very least she would want them to distance themselves from Zhao Yuan.

Also, the first thing she would do the moment she meets Dong Shen would be to bring him to buy new clothes.

There were many things she had to do. Mingxi planned them out neatly in her mind.

Nonetheless, the foundation of doing all these, the core itself, was to quickly stimulate the growth of the small buds in her pot.

Mingxi had just finished rubbing her eyes and was about to continue doing her next test paper.

Suddenly, the chair opposite her was pulled back.

A familiar black bag was placed on the table. Then, a similarly familiar hand opened the school bag and took out a thick Tournament Question Set, a pen and a paper.

“…” Mingxi raised her head. As if on accident, she made eye contact with Shen Liyao.

Shen Liyao glanced at her. He placed his bag on the seat beside him and sat on the seat across her.

“Why are you here?” Mingxi looked around. She did not see the neighboring school’s Kong Jiaze nor did she see anyone else there. Shen Liyao actually came alone— most importantly, he actually sat opposite her voluntarily.

Shen Liyao looked at her with emotionless eyes. As he was trying to put out the rage in his heart, his tone was unkind, “Why can’t I be here? Does your family own this library?”

What the heck? Why is he so angry?

Mingxi was baffled. So much anger. Did you eat a bomb? Did I trigger you?

Shen Liyao’s gaze landed on the pile of neatly stacked test papers beside her. Three words were written gracefully on the upper left side of the papers: Fu Yangxi.

Mingxi followed his gaze. “What’s up?”

Shen Liyao’s felt a headache coming. “Why are you doing his homework?”

“I’m willing.” For the past two days, Mingxi had been helping Fu Yangxi do his homework. On the one hand, she could gain more luck. On the other, she could use it as practice. The more she wrote, the stronger it would be imprinted in her head. But she didn’t want to explain this to Shen Liyao.

“…” Shen Liyao almost choked. The flame in his heart immediately burned even stronger.

Suddenly, he felt as if he noticed something. He knew why for the past two days he would feel annoyed whenever he heard the name Zhao Mingxi and Fu Yangxi appear together in one sentence.

Shen Liyao’s tone deepened, “Are you done with this nonsense—”

Mingxi looked up.

The words ‘Why must you approach someone like Fu Yangxi? Why did you stop appearing in my life?’ were at the tip of his tongue, but due to a young man’s pride, Shen Liyao couldn’t say them out loud.

Instead, what left his mouth was, “You can’t stay in school forever.”

Mingxi originally wanted to greet him, but for some reason she received a scolding from him. She was merely doing her work.

Furthermore, he was speaking on behalf of the Zhao family.

Even with Mingxi’s good temperament, she could no longer stand it.

“God Yao, we’ve only known each other for two years. You were the one who said that we’re not even friends, so you don’t have any right to advise me.”

Shen Liyao held the core areas of the Hundred School Tournament in his hands, but he seemed to have forgotten the reason why he came. He gritted his teeth and glared at Mingxi before rebutting, “Only known each other for two years?”

—Then what did she mean when she said she liked him for the past two years?

“Yes.” Mingxi looked around her. When she saw that no one was paying attention to them, she immediately stood up and started to pack her things.

“I was ignorant for bothering you back then. I’m sorry. But I won’t do it anymore, so please stop meddling in my affairs.”

Shen Liyao was in disbelief. His knuckles were tightening underneath the table.

His complexion was pale as he watched her leave.

Mingxi packed her bags and found a spot in the library’s self-study room which was furthest away from Shen Liyao.

She was aware that Shen Liyao was acting rather odd just now. After all, this was the first time in the past two years that he voluntarily came to find her.

From Mingxi’s perspective, with Shen Liyao’s pride, he was probably just unused to the fact that someone who was always chasing after him had suddenly stopped doing so.

Maybe he was unaccustomed, or maybe a young man’s pride had been struck.

Nonetheless, things will just return to its cold and quiet state in a few days’ time.

After all, he didn’t like her, so a while later he would be overjoyed by the fact that he got rid of this annoying pest.

*

Ke Chengwen was famished, so he went ahead and had dinner outside before coming back with the luggage.

The moment he reached outside of the glass panel, he saw the transfer student and the Gold Medal Class’ Shen Liyao sitting across each other.

Judging by Shen Liyao’s cold gaze, they seem to be quarreling— Nonetheless, it was obvious that they were quite familiar with each other. They acted the same as how he heard, as if they had a lavish dating history.

F*ck.

What am I supposed to do? Should I get the transfer student to come out so that I can prevent Xi ge from meeting Shen Liyao?

Ke Chengwen could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears. Just as he was about to enter and figure something out, someone suddenly tapped on his shoulder.

“Why are you still here?”

Ke Chengwen was going to stop breathing altogether.

He turned his head and saw Fu Yangxi standing behind him, wearing a sports jacket with his hair tousled by the wind.

His body was as if it was doused in chilly air which came from the night winds. He was also carrying a huge box of takeout with him.

Clearly, he had just arrived here from home. There was a hint of cold and indifferent obscurity in his expression. It was a stark contrast from his usual look of arrogance and aggression.

But it didn’t take long for that remaining expression to disappear from his face.

“Xi ge, what happened to your hand?” Ke Chengwen noticed that there were cuts on the back of Fu Yangxi’s hand which was holding the takeout. It wasn’t serious, but there were still some trails of blood oozing out from it.

Fu Yangxi was unbothered. He raised his hand and rubbed it. “I got cut by shards of glass.”

Ke Chengwen hesitated. He didn’t know if he should ask further.

“You’re too slow.” Fu Yangxi changed the topic. He furrowed his brows and took a step to enter the room.

Ke Chengwen hurriedly pulled him back. “Xi ge, don’t eat your takeout inside. Finish it first before you enter!”

“Are you crazy? It’s freezing cold out here.”

Fu Yangxi had a growing suspicion that he was hiding something from him. After giving him a glare, he entered the self-study room without any hesitation.

…

Ke Chengwen’s heart was about to stop beating. Nonetheless, he could only bite the bullet and follow him in while pulling the luggage.

In the end, Fu Yangxi made many turns and ended up at a completely different spot from where he saw Shen Liyao and Zhao Mingxi were sitting earlier.

Ke Chengwen’s mind went blank. He immediately looked toward the earlier spot. Surprisingly, there was only Shen Liyao sitting there with a gloomy expression. There were no hints of Mingxi ever being there.

It seemed like while he was stalling Fu Yangxi, the transfer student changed a spot.

It was only at this moment that Ke Chengwen let out a sigh of relief.

He picked up the pace. As he was trying to make up for his earlier impudence, he rushed ahead of Fu Yangxi to where the transfer student was. Then, with cold sweat dripping down his head, he placed the luggage and two duvets on the chair beside her.

“Transfer student, Xi ge and I won these as a prize today when we went to play games at the cybercafé! They look like things that only girls can use. So since it’s worthless to us, we decided to give them to you.”

Actually, Mingxi had already spotted them while they were standing at the entrance, though it was mainly because of Fu Yangxi’s red hair which was far too haughty and dazzling. His height was another factor as it made him look like a crane in a flock of chicken.

She looked at Fu Yangxi. “Is this for me?”

“Uh-huh.” Fu Yangxi tried his best to not reveal his delight.

He walked over and pulled out a chair which was one seat away from Mingxi. Then, he leaned on it lazily and crossed his legs.

He started to play with a pen’s lid which was on Mingxi’s table. He continuously opened and closed it while carrying a sense of coolness which basically expressed ‘although I gave you something it doesn’t mean that you can covet me’.

Seeing as how Mingxi was still looking at him, he gave her a glance. “Transfer student, don’t dwell on it. I’m just helping you as a fellow classmate.”

“…”

Am I coveting your awful results or your lack of intelligence?

Mingxi took a glimpse at the duvets and everything else beside her. As if I would believe you.

Who would win such things as prizes?

She was 80% certain that these were all specially bought by Fu Yangxi— As for the reason, she wasn’t sure. However, she thought it might be because of the sweets she had been giving him for the past few days. As Fu Yangxi felt that it was disrespectful to just take from her, he decided to give something in return.

Regardless, Mingxi felt a surge of warmth spreading in her heart, especially after her unpleasant encounters with Zhao Zhanhuai and Shen Liyao.

“Thank you.” Her eyes curled into crescent moons.

Fu Yangxi looked into Mingxi’s eyes. She wore a thin layer of clothing and she had long eyelashes. When she smiled, the light which  reflected in her eyes scattered into small flakes.

Fu Yangxi hastily averted his gaze. He grumbled, “I already told you that I got them as a prize. You don’t have to thank me.”

“But I didn’t say that you didn’t win them.” Mingxi said helplessly.

Seeing as how Fu Yangxi had turned away, she took the opportunity to sniff him. Once again, the smell of dried pine wafted through the air. Mingxi couldn’t help herself. The moment she inhaled, the fatigue she had from spending so much time on her homework disappeared almost immediately.

Mingxi’s actions were subtle, but Fu Yangxi was using a gaze which he thought was cool and handsome to take a glimpse at her from the corner of his eyes.

Before Fu Yangxi came, he warned himself to not lose his self-control. However, he still failed as his ears flushed red in an instant.

F*ck. He had already sat one seat away from her on purpose, yet she was still sniffing him!

Fu Yangxi was about to say something when Mingxi cut him off. She was afraid that he was going to say something shocking again. She raised her head to speak to Ke Chengwen, “What did you guys get?”

“Oh.” Ke Chengwen was completely distracted by Shen Liyao who was looking at them from afar. When he came back to his senses, he didn’t think much and immediately pulled open the zipper of the luggage.

“Wait, only open it when you get back—!” Fu Yangxi couldn’t finish his sentence.

Two pairs of silk underwear fell out.

Ke Chengwen completely forgot that the promoter had stuffed these in there too.

The few people who were sitting around them all turned to look at them.

Mingxi’s mind went blank. For a moment there, she wasn’t sure what it was. “You got this as a prize too?”

Fu Yangxi was the first to react. He hesitated for one second before changing his expression and rushed over like an arrow. He quickly picked up the underwear and threw them to Ke Chengwen. “What is this? Why are they in the luggage? Did you put them in there?”

Ke Chengwen appeared helpless. “Xi ge, you—”

Fu Yangxi moved his eyeballs to the right, signaling him to quickly remove these underwear from his sight.

Although Ke Chengwen felt hurt by this, he still hurriedly shoved the underwear into his bag and closed the luggage with a loud thud. “Those were won by me. The rest are all Xi ge’s winnings.”

There was an indescribable expression on Mingxi’s face. She felt like she had a deeper understanding of Fu Yangxi once more. “You bought all these?”

Fu Yangxi mentally cursed. His face flushed red due to anger. “Did you think that I wanted to buy— No, win. I couldn’t have chosen what I wanted to win.”

Mingxi changed the topic. “Have you eaten dinner? In order to buy— No, win. In order to win these, you guys can’t have skipped dinner, right?”

Ke Chengwen and Fu Yangxi both said conflicting answers at the same time:

“I’ve had my dinner, but Xi ge hasn’t yet.”

“I already ate.”

The moment they finished speaking, Fu Yangxi’s stomach growled.

“…”

Fu Yangxi’s face turned impassive. He stood up, stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned to the people around them with a cool look. “Whose stomach was growling?”

Ke Chengwen: “…”

Mingxi: “…”

Mingxi felt that his actions were awkward and funny, but most of all it made her feel a sense of warmth; something she hadn’t felt in a long time— She had a feeling that Fu Yangxi knew that she had left home and stayed in school, or else he wouldn’t have given her duvets. It was true that she needed these as the days were getting colder. However, it might be because he’s never bought these before, hence he got this whole bunch of things for her.

Perhaps Fu Yangxi wasn’t as distasteful as she thought he was.

Mingxi tried her best not to laugh. She turned and continued to do her work. “Forget it. Stop what you’re doing and eat.”

Only then did Fu Yangxi sit down once more. He opened the takeaway in an uncomfortable manner. Then, he took a glance at Zhao Mingxi. Seeing as how she was focused on her work and no longer looking as depressed as she was before, he smiled and opened the lid.

When Ke Chengwen was done arranging the items in the luggage, he pulled out a chair and sat down. “What did you get?”

Fu Yangxi answered, “Shiitake bullfrog.”

The moment he said that, he frowned. “There’s coriander in it.”

Fu Yangxi immediately lost his appetite. However, he gave in to his immense hunger. He peeled apart the wooden chopsticks and started to pick out the coriander leaves to be put aside on the lid.

Suddenly, Mingxi’s eyes gleamed.

Like a small kitten, Mingxi leaned over. “Young Master Fu, I’ll help you pick them!”

Just imagine the amount of tiny buds that will grow from doing such detailed work!

“Whatever.” Fu Yangxi scoffed.

The moment he agreed, Mingxi immediately sat closer to him and took away the box.

Fu Yangxi lowered his head and secretly peeked at Mingxi’s shining eyes. He tried his best to pretend that he wasn’t the least affected by it, but the imaginary tail behind him still twisted up to the skies. Even his complexion was turning a little red.

She wanted to do such detailed work for him! How much does she actually like him?!

Fu Yangxi threw an ecstatic look at the lone dog Ke Chengwen who was seated right beside him.

But all he saw was a distracted Ke Chengwen looking in another direction.

Fu Yangxi followed his gaze— Then, he made eye contact with the cold eyes of Shen Liyao who was seated around eight to nine rows away from them.

It’s that guy again.

Fu Yangxi furrowed his brows. He subconsciously took a glimpse at Zhao Mingxi.

He noticed… that the person whom that guy was staring at was his Little Mask.