Chapter 34

The two boys on the School Representative Team were taken aback. They didn’t think that they would be caught by the person itself since they were gossiping after school.

They immediately understood the situation, grabbed the team uniform that they had tossed aside, turned off the faucet, and slipped away.

“Stop if you dare!” Fu Yangxi’s expression was gloomy and terrifying. He rushed out to grab someone, but was stopped by Ke Chengwen again.

“Forget it, forget it, Xi ge. Think about how many times you’ve been scolded by the dean this month. You even went to the police station! Calm down! Calm down!”

The two boys dared not turn their heads for fear that Fu Yangxi would see their faces clearly.

They hurriedly fled down the academic building.

Fu Yangxi couldn’t calm down at all. His mind was filled with the conversation between the two boys just now.

“What do they mean by chasing after the guy with the surname Shen? What do they mean by ‘can they reconcile’?”

“Was the ‘Fu family’s young master’ referring to me? They said Little Mask used me to make the guy with the surname Shen jealous?”

As if what Fu Yangxi heard was nonsense, he turned to look at Ke Chengwen. “These people have too much time in their hands to come up with things like this!”

However, Ke Chengwen who was at the side walked over to turn off the faucet, his lips squirming as he stole glances at him. He appeared as if he was hiding something.

The air fell silent for a while.

Fu Yangxi paused. “What’s up with you?”

He suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.

He glared at Ke Chengwen. “What are you hiding from me? I’ll give you one last chance.”

“It’s— That’s—” Ke Chengwen didn’t know how to tell him.

Fu Yangxi urged, “Tell me!”

“When Zhao Mingxi first changed classes, didn’t you ask me to find out about her family, preferences, former friends, etc.?”

Ke Chengwen was frazzled. He kept on speaking without a filter, “She used to pursue Shen Liyao! The Shen Liyao from our neighbouring class! The other family’s child*! Shen Liyao, who has won gold medals for years, thinks that he is better than everyone and is arrogant as hell!”

*Translator’s note: Some Chinese parents have a tendency to compare their children with another family’s child, usually saying to their own child (as a form of lecturing) that the other family’s child is better than them. In this context, Ke Chengwen is trying to draw a comparison between Shen Liyao and Fu Yangxi, effectively highlighting the better qualities of Shen Liyao as the trophy child.

“Shen Liyao is very famous. It’s just that Xi ge, since you sleep in class every day, you don’t even remember the name of our homeroom teacher, moreover heard of that guy! It’s the handsome guy who you saw in the library last time—”

“But she said he was just a friend.”

Ke Chengwen murmured, “Girls are shy. It’s impossible for her to tell us that she used to pursue Shen Liyao. Besides, at that time, Xi ge, you chased her away every day. She didn’t have a good impression of us, so why would she tell us about this?”

Fu Yangxi couldn’t understand the situation before him.

An anxious fire filled his heart.

He didn’t understand whether it was jealousy or something else.

Shen Liyao, very handsome; has won gold medals for years; another family’s child.

Then what about me?

“I don’t believe it.” Fu Yangxi took a deep breath, looking calmer. “There must be some misunderstanding.”

Just because Shen Liyao was excellent, he knew Little Mask, and Little Mask used to give him desserts.

Did this group of people make up the fact that Little Mask used to pursue Shen Liyao?

Then he’s at least 100 streets ahead of Shen Liyao. He can use money to bury Shen Liyao alive, is that not good enough?

Little Mask even gave him desserts for almost a month.

——Why don’t these people make something up about him and Little Mask?

Fu Yangxi suddenly realized that he was being jealous of mere rumors.

Since Zhao Mingxi said that he was just a friend, he believed that he was just a friend.

He doesn’t care about the bullshit these people have to say.

When Ke Chengwen saw him like this, he knew he couldn’t convince him otherwise. “Then let’s go back first? Xi ge, are you going back to the villa or the apartment today?”

—No, how could he not care?

He cared a lot.

“We won’t be going back. Let’s clarify some things first.”

Fu Yangxi suddenly moved his legs and walked out.

Ke Chengwen thought he was going to find those two gossiping people to settle their business, so he quickly followed.

However, he saw him running upstairs to the Information Department.

Fu Yangxi rushed into the Information Department. The teacher here hadn’t got off work yet, so when he saw him coming in, he stood up subconsciously.

Fu Yangxi rushed into the digital archives room without saying a word.

Ke Chengwen followed, rushed in and closed the door.

By the time Ke Chengwen walked over, Fu Yangxi had already typed on the keyboard and logged in to the school’s internal official website.

The internal official website holds a lot of photos of previous activities according to the timeline. Photos of weekly basketball games or flag raising ceremonies will also be displayed here.

Fu Yangxi instantly retrieved all the school photos from last year.

All the photos were displayed on the computer, and many details became clear at a glance.

In every basketball game where Shen Liyao appeared, Zhao Mingxi was there, and Zhao Mingxi held the water for him.

During the school celebration last year, Zhao Mingxi and Shen Liyao appeared in the pictures of each other’s class.

When recruiting new recruits last year, Zhao Mingxi also went to help Shen Liyao. She was still wearing a mask at that time.

Turns out the Little Mask that Fu Yangxi knew was also known to Shen Liyao, in fact, he knew her even earlier and longer than him.

…

It could be said that there were quite a lot of photos with the two of them in the same frame.

If you download all of these pictures, there will probably be a few gigabytes.

There are also check-in records in the library and check-in records in the broadcasting room. The signatures of the two often appeared next to each other.

Bit by bit, like a long and grand process of a crush.

Presented itself explicitly before Fu Yangxi and Ke Chengwen.

…

Ke Chengwen practically lost the courage to look any further.

Fu Yangxi pulled a long face. His fingers gripped the mouse tightly, but he still scrolled down, looking through the photos one by one.

The computer’s LED screen was reflected on his face. Ke Chengwen didn’t know how he felt as he looked at these things.

Fu Yangxi had never been on the forum before. Those boring scandals in school were a waste of time for him.

The last time he asked a group of followers to vote for Zhao Mingxi was the only time he ever went to the forum. Even then, he merely clicked directly into the voting channel and did not pay attention to the gossip.

However this time, he couldn’t help but take out his phone and open the forum to take a look.

In the original post about Little Mask, there were far more mentions of Little Mask and Shen Liyao than Little Mask and him.

Someone posted a question: “Is there anyone with any news about the new School Beauty and Shen Liyao from the School Representative Team? It feels like they have a long history between them.

Someone asked: “Zhao Mingxi is now the School Beauty, so everything about how she used to chase after Shen Liyao has been dug up. At that time, I wondered why she had so much courage. Turns out that it was because she was so beautiful~”

“What role does that F (not mentioning the name) play in this? Obviously Shen Liyao is her official pair. Is she using him to make Shen Liyao jealous?”

The more Fu Yangxi read, the more he could feel the nerves in his forehead throbbing.

Little Mask used to pursue others. Why does the whole world know this except for me?!

Jealousy, like an unknown insect, gnawed at his heart, torturing him.

“Don’t look anymore, Xi ge.” Ke Chengwen couldn’t help but say.

The reason why he was afraid that Fu Yangxi would find out about this was precisely because he was afraid of this scene.

Although based on Xi ge’s character he wouldn’t care about such gossip, but if he sees others saying that Zhao Mingxi may have approached him because she was trying to make Shen Liyao jealous, wouldn’t he explode immediately?

He might even blow up the school.

Ke Chengwen tried his best to stop this from happening, but what has to come will eventually occur.

After a long time, Fu Yangxi finally turned off the computer, took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself down.

He stood up and clenched his hands into fists. “What does it matter if she used to like that guy with the surname Shen? I’m not a traditional character from the Qing dynasty, why should I be bothered about this?”

“Indeed, she used to like him— but she definitely doesn’t like him now.”

Now, Zhao Mingxi likes me. Yes, that’s right.

The person she likes now is me.

But even after repeating this in his head over and over again, Fu Yangxi became more and more uncertain, and the question mark in his heart grew bigger and bigger.

…

He felt as if he had misunderstood something.

It was he himself who had been weaving a dream of self-deception for himself by mistake.

And now that there is an accidental tear in this dream, that opening has revealed the truth that made him feel like he was in an ice cellar.

—The opening will only get bigger and bigger.

Fu Yangxi didn’t know whether he should investigate this matter to the end.

If the answer is a blow to the head, what should he do?

Fu Yangxi suddenly remembered the pile of photos the old man asked Lawyer Zhang to give him.

The old man said he was going through unrequited love—

Was there something in the photos?

Fu Yangxi’s heartbeat sped up abruptly.

He immediately typed out a text message and sent it to Lawyer Zhang, asking him to send the things to the KTV room near the school.

Then, Fu Yangxi walked out of the Information Department. His limbs were stiff, his head buzzing. He didn’t know how he left the school.

Half an hour later, at the KTV room outside the school.

There was no singing, only dead silence in the room.

Fu Yangxi sat silently, his expression dull and solemn. He looked closely at the photos the old man had given him one by one.

Ke Chengwen dared not say a word as he stood beside him.

…

The first photo was the day when Little Mask came up to help him take out the trash. The two of them were talking in the alley. The alley was facing the academic building. The one surnamed Shen was standing on the fifth floor, looking at them from a distance.

So at that time, did Zhao Mingxi really rush up to help him take out the trash, or did she come because Shen Liyao was watching?

In the second photo, before the monthly exam, Little Mask suddenly hurriedly held his hand. A corner of the photo from the class’ surveillance camera was printed, and Shen Liyao could be seen passing by—

So did she really want to hold his hand, or did she hold his hand abruptly after seeing Shen Liyao?

The third, fourth and fifth pictures were a series of screenshots from the library’s surveillance cameras. Before he arrived at the library that day, Little Mask clearly had a quarrel with Shen Liyao, and they looked quite familiar with each other. But she told him that he was just an ordinary friend.

In addition to these photos, there was also a record of Little Mask’s application to transfer classes last year.

Turns out, Little Mask didn’t want to transfer to the International Class at the beginning, and she definitely did not transfer to the International Class because she fell in love with him at first sight.

The first time she applied last year was for the Gold Medal Class which Shen Liyao was in, but she did not meet the grades required at that time and was rejected, so she applied for the International Class this year.

…

Fu Yangxi clutched these items so hard to the point that his knuckles were pale. Bit by bit, the blood rushed from his limbs to the top of his head, and his whole body became cold.

The old man was very resourceful. Fu Yangxi didn’t even know where he got all this information from.

He only knew that a lot of things had already been clues. It was just that he chose to humiliate and deceive himself.

…

When she rushed to run 800 meters for him, everyone in the next class knew that Shen Liyao’s was not pleased about this.

At that time, what role did I play? Was I just a tool?

She suddenly wanted to apply medicine on his wound this morning, and Shen Liyao just happened to pass by.

Turns out Shen Liyao was the one who gave her the key points for the Hundred School Tournament. She had been flipping through it so much that it was practically crumpled.

Also, when she refused Li Jingyu, she said that she wanted to focus on her studies, not that she already had someone she liked— She knew that he was listening by the window.

He did find it strange that time.

So that’s what it was.

…

Fu Yangxi didn’t know how to describe his mood at the moment… Angry? Upset? He didn’t even have the strength to display these emotions. Once there are these emotions, feelings of hatred will follow, yet he couldn’t bring himself to hate.

His mind was overwhelmed with feelings of distraught.

It was as if he had personally pierced a dream that he had woven, ushered in reality, and found out that he was nothing but a joke.

Regardless of whether she used him or not, he did not care anymore.

There was a voice in his head maliciously repeating over and over again—

Little Mask doesn’t like me.

Little Mask never liked me.

After she held his hand in the library, he never imagined such a possibility. The voice knocked him off the cliff and caused him to tremble unconsciously.

…

But does she remember my birthday?

This was the main thought in Fu Yangxi’s mind.

As if he was holding on to a lifeline, he thought desperately, what if all this is just a misunderstanding? Such a coincidence can happen in this world! Just when she was being kind to me, Shen Liyao appeared! If I misunderstood her because of this and went to make trouble unreasonably, then I would be considered insane!

She did like Shen Liyao, but what does that matter? She has no contact with Shen Liyao at all now, so I definitely won’t mind this!

As long as she likes me now, I’ll pretend that nothing happened today!

“I don’t believe anyone else. I only want to hear this from her.” Fu Yangxi wiped his face. He suddenly stood up and asked Ke Chengwen to take out his phone. “Call her.”

Fu Yangxi’s sanity was stretched to the brim.

Although his face was already very pale and his lips looked bloodless, he maintained the last bit of decency by trying hard to maintain his expression and not let himself show any signs of embarrassment.

He settled down and said to Ke Chengwen slowly, “Help me ask her.”

…

Ke Chengwen looked at him hesitantly for a while. In the end, he had no choice but to call her.

…

At this moment, only their breathing could be heard in the room.

…

After a while, the call got through.

Ke Chengwen didn’t know how to ask her. He glanced at Fu Yangxi’s expression and asked, “Mingxi, where are you?”

“You’re having dinner with the Dong family? I see. Well, um, it’s just that—” Ke Chengwen paused. “Do you remember when Xi ge’s birthday is? Do we want to surprise him?”

There was a static sound before Mingxi who was at the other end of the line replied, “Yes, of course we should give him a surprise.”

Ke Chengwen put her on speaker.

Then Fu Yangxi heard Mingxi ask, “But when is his birthday?”

Fu Yangxi: “…”

…

The air was dead silent.

Ke Chengwen dared not look at Fu Yangxi’s face, so he asked, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, we’ll discuss what to give him in school then. We have to discuss this privately and keep it a secret from Xi ge. What are you planning to give?”

She said, “I haven’t thought about it yet. Give me some time to figure something out.”

Ke Chengwen’s heart was pounding with nervousness. He tried to coax the truth out of her, “Don’t go too far with your gift, or else everyone in class will know that you like Xi ge.”

After he finished speaking, he shouted and prayed in his heart, Zhao Mingxi, hurry up and say that I’m being stupid! Say that you do like Xi ge! Otherwise Xi ge will really blow up the school tomorrow! Other people will suffer too!

Mingxi on the other side was taken aback.

She suddenly realized that some of her actions since she changed classes could be easily misunderstood. Based on Ke Chengwen’s tone, he seemed to think she was pursuing Fu Yangxi.

Thank goodness Fu Yangxi doesn’t think so.

Fortunately, Fu Yangxi’s single-cell brain has yet to realize this, and he just treats me as a same-sex follower. If he mistakes me for liking him, we won’t even be able to stay as friends anymore. Just like the girl who gave him a thousand paper cranes that day, Ihe would think that I was looking for a beating.

Mingxi didn’t want to lose Fu Yangxi, so she hurriedly took the phone and ran to the toilet before explaining, “No, no, that’s absolute nonsense. I treat Xi ge like my boss, I won’t—”

Mingxi wanted to say that she would not overstep her boundaries, but for some reason Ke Chengwen was suddenly disconnected on the other side of the call, effectively cutting her off.

Then, there was a busy tone.

Out of battery…?