CH 36

The opponent is particularly hard to coax.

The sports field was densely packed. Bai Zhi took a step forward to align himself and heard the sound of the mic:

“The list of winners for the math competition this time will be announced below.”

Bai Zhi shook and stood up straight. His eyes were fixed motionlessly on the platform in front.

The host’s voice slowly spread across the sports field. After it was done declaring the honorable mentions, it began to announce the top three.

“Third place, Class 5 of Senior High Grade 2, Sun Fei.”

There was a round of applause.

“Second place, Class 8 of Senior High Grade 2, Wen Feng.”

“First place–”

The host paused purposefully. Bai Zhi clenched his fists, bit his lips hard, and motionlessly focused on listening to the host’s voice.

“First place, Class 8 of Senior High Grade 2, Ji Guichen!”

Bai Zhi’s eyes lit up and instantly applauded. Ji Guichen elegantly and politely walked up to the platform, bowed to the presenter of the award. Then he turned to face the entire school, accepting the award in a calm and unhurried manner.

There was another round of applause.

Looking at the well-mannered and polite Ji Guichen, Bai Zhi’s heart was uncontrollably moved.

Ji Guichen cut the long hair that had previously covered his eyes, switching to a refreshing and clean hairstyle. With the blue-white uniform on his body, his entire person was tall and slender, overflowing with a vigor only a youth could have.

He was slowly emitting a dazzling light.

Bai Zhi’s heart was very clear.

In his eyes, this was the best and most exceptional youth. One by one he would reveal his talents in the coming days, and little by little he would be recognized by the entire world.

One day he would find a stable path he could call his own.

Bai Zhi blinked, looked up, and smiled.

The person he liked was just that exceptional.

He himself also wanted to become more exceptional so that he could stand beside Ji Guichen.

A certain little demon silently laid down an oath.

When it was time to return to the classroom, everyone was still discussing it. Bai Zhi happily crossed the entire sports field and was about to go find Ji Guichen when his attention was sucked away by the discussion of a few girls: 

“Did you all see that first place today? I thought he was very handsome…how come we didn’t notice before?”

“Right? Tall and slender like that, he’s pretty good looking. He’s even in the same class as Wen Feng.”

“His studies are quite good. What’s wrong guys, wasn’t Wen Feng the one you guys liked before? New target so soon?”

“No, no, hahaha, we just wanted the contact information of someone to ask math questions to.”

“Yo yo…”

Then there was a burst of noisy laughter.

Bai Zhi halted his steps and frowned deeply. Swinging his arms, he planned on finding those girls from just now to warn them. Who could have thought that he was pulled back a step before he could move.

Bai Zhi backed up and turned his head. Ji Guichen was standing next to him with one hand sitting on his shoulder and a smile on his face: “The money has arrived in my account, what gift do you want?”

As soon as Bai Zhi saw the man himself coming, he immediately felt wronged. In an instant, his imposing manner as if he was about to chop people with a knife was gone. Trudging over in small steps, he pulled Ji Guichen to a corner with fewer people, pursed his lips, and then complained:

“Just now a few girls praised you for being handsome…and even said they wanted to get your contact information using math problems as an excuse…” Bai Zhi pouted with a face full of anger and a little discomfort: “You’re not allowed to say yes to them!”

Seeing a certain someone in front of him who had unknowingly begun to act like a baby, Ji Guichen could not hold back a smile: “Where did you hear that?”

“Just now I stood there, those people ran in front of me and said it!” Bai Zhi pointed furiously at the sports field on tiptoe, one hand tightening around Ji Guichen’s clothes:

“Anyway I won’t let you say yes! You’re not allowed to say yes!”

“Okay.” Ji Guichen reached out and lightly hugged a certain little demon who was about to explode and said gently: “If you say so, then I won’t say yes.”

Bai Zhi instantly froze after being hugged. He lay blankly in Ji Guichen’s arms for half a day. It only after he reacted that he lifted his head and whispered to Ji Guichen:

“You’re not allowed to hug others after hugging me.”

“What?” Bai Zhi’s voice was too low, and Ji Guichen hadn’t heard clearly.

Bai Zhi was too embarrassed to speak a second time. He waited for a bit and then changed what he said:

“I said…hug me longer.”

Ji Guichen heard clearly this time. He lowered his head and looked at Bai Zhi, smiling:

“Okay, I’ll hug you until class ends okay?”

Bai Zhi was deeply silent for a while, very reluctant to say no: “Let’s go back to class, I need to study well so I can catch up to you.”

Ji Guichen was taken aback by his sudden change of attitude towards studying and immediately became happy after processing it:

“Okay, let’s study hard together. Next year when the college entrance exam comes around, I’ll tutor you.”

Bai Zhi nodded vigorously and replied very loudly: “En!”

Ji Guichen was true to his word. The next day, Bai Zhi started practicing under his supervision.

“Your foundation is not very good, let’s start with the simpler ones.”

Ji Guichen took out a textbook: “Read the explanations and examples carefully several times. Once you understand it, go do the practice problems in the back. If there’s something you don’t know, think about it first, and if you still can’t get the answer then ask me, do you understand?”

Bai Zhi nodded, took the book from Ji Guichen’s hand, and started working hard.

Seeing the two of them studying diligently, the system thought for a bit and couldn’t come up with a way to help them, so it quietly put two spiritual fruits in Bai Zhi’s hands:

“Nephew you can do it! Keep up your energy!”

Bai Zhi stuffed the spiritual fruits into his pocket and answered the system heavily in his mind:

“Okay uncle!”

With the encouragement and support of Ji Guichen and the system his two most precious people, Bai Zhi felt like he was bursting with motivation. He glued himself to his seat until he fully completed a day’s worth of questions, shocking the group of younger brothers.

“I heard Luo Le say boss recently lost his mind.”

“Seems like it’s true, boss even started doing practice problems.”

“He even told us not to disturb him.”

Luo Le said in a timely manner: “As expected of boss.”

The surrounding people: “Hah??”

Luo Le said with a solemn face: “Boss must think that a villain also needs a high IQ, that’s why he started studying. You see all the TV dramas now, you can only be the villain if you are both handsome and have a high IQ. If you are ugly and don’t have any brains, then that means you’re cannon fodder.”

The group of younger brothers couldn’t help revealing expressions of enlightenment.

Luo Le continued to say: “The boss has a lot of foresight, as expected of boss!”

The younger brothers’ impression of Bai Zhi instantly changed.

Little brother A: “I didn’t think that boss would be this considerate to us. So I’m going to study.”

Little brother B: “I’m going to study.”

Little Brother C: “I’m going to study”

Luo Le coughed: “I’m going to the restroom!”

Little brothers: “…”

Bai Zhi didn’t know that he had changed the fate of this group of people. He was already caught up in the flow of doing questions. Ji Guichen had to call him several times to pull him out.

“Xie Siliu, your progress has been very good.” Ji Guichen carefully looked over the problems Bai Zhi did that day, saying:

“Even though the number of problems you did today was small, that’s okay. Your foundation is not very good so you are slow at the start, but later you will get faster and faster. You have all the time in the world.”

Bai Zhi nodded and listened very closely.

Seeing his expression, Ji Guichen couldn’t help putting down his book and poking his nose:

“Let’s go, we’re going for a walk to relax.”

Bai Zhi made a noise in response, rubbed his sore shoulders, and followed Ji Guichen out.

The hour was late. Ji Guichen went to the cafeteria and got two portions of food. Bai Zhi dodged it as usual: “I don’t like eating.”

“How can you not eat dinner after working all day? There’s still evening self-study left, can you hold on?”

Bai Zhi looked down at his toes: “I don’t like the cafeteria food.”

Ji Guichen said: “Then let’s go eat off-campus.”

“I also don’t eat food from outside.” Bai Zhi continued to look down at his feet.

“Then you—”

“I have fruit, I don’t need to eat.” Bai Zhi pulled out a big spiritual fruit in front of Ji Guichen and said while chewing.

Seeing this, Ji Guichen frowned slightly: “Fruit has vitamins, which is pretty good. If you don’t want to eat I won’t force you, but remember to eat solid food when you get home.”

“En en.” Bai Zhi nodded like a chicken pecking rice and watched Ji Guichen eat while walking next to him.

Once the two of them finished eating, Ji Guichen led Bai Zhi on a walk around the campus.

The falling autumn leaves were sprinkled all over the school, and the ground everywhere was golden. Paired with the autumn dew, it was extremely beautiful.

Ji Guichen quietly held Bai Zhi’s hand as he walked to a shady area devoid of people. Like thieves the two of them kept watch in all four directions, using their uniforms to hide their two hands that tightly held each other. As they stepped on the fallen leaves with particular caution, it made crunching noises.

Bai Zhi’s head was lowered. He felt Ji Guichen’s warmth through their intertwined palms and couldn’t help hooking up the corner of his mouth. Step by step he very happily crunched the fallen leaves on the path.

Ji Guichen tilted his head to look at this small movement of Bai Zhi’s. Without even reminding him, he walked peacefully with him like this.

The sunlight filtered through the gaps between the leaves, and its mottled pattern contained some warmth. A light breeze gusted by and blew the fallen leaves around. From the trees came the sound of rustling leaves.

Ji Guichen reached out and smoothed down Bai Zhi’s collar. Lifting his hand, he glanced at his wristwatch:

“Let’s go back.” 

Bai Zhi’s response was almost unnoticeable. Raising his head, he smiled at Ji Guichen.

Ji Guichen who was planning on leaving suddenly couldn’t move.

His gaze trembled a bit. He glanced at Bai Zhi somewhat uncomfortably and then immediately looked in another direction.

Bai Zhi felt a little strange so he reached out to shake Ji Guichen’s wrist. After being shaken a bit, Ji Guichen immediately came back to his sense, coughed a few times, and then slowly said:

“In the future, let’s go for a stroll every day?”

“Sure.”

Bai Zhi immediately agreed.

Hearing this, Ji Guichen smiled slightly, and his expression finally became less stiff. He let out a shallow breath:

“Let’s go.”

When they returned to evening self-study, Bai Zhi switched to practice problems of a different subject. From time to time Ji Guichen would check his progress, and after he was assured he also busied himself with his homework.

By the time the fourth period of self-study was over, it was already past eleven at night, and the air was a bit cold. Bai Zhi turned up the collar of his uniform and waited for Ji Guichen so they could leave school together.

When the two of them strolled through the campus full of students going home after school, they behaved like a pair of good friends. When they exited the school gate and turned a few corners, Bai Zhi quietly pulled on Ji Guichen’s hand and then carefully watched for his reaction once he was done.

Seeing that Ji Guichen hadn’t meant to refuse at all, Bai Zhi sighed in relief. Just as he was about to say something to kill time, he was suddenly taken to the side.

With his usual expression, Ji Guichen pulled Bai Zhi closer. The cold wind blew through his body, he instantly unzipped his uniform and propped open the outer layer to block Bai Zhi from the wind.

Bai Zhi was slow to react. By the time he realized, Ji Guichen had already walked him home.

“Are you going to take a detour back?”

Bai Zhi was a little worried.

“It’s just around the corner.” Ji Guichen knocked his head a few times: “Thanks for your hard work today, silly!”

“I’m not silly!” Bai Zhi hmph’d.

Ji Guichen’s eyes were smiling: “Okay okay you’re not, go back and rest well.”

“En.” With his head lowered, Bai Zhi was too embarrassed to admit that he started to miss Ji Guichen even before they parted and could shuffle his feet, making rustling noises in the process.

Ji Guichen took a deep breath and said goodbye to Bai Zhi first: “Then I’ll be leaving first, good night.”

Bai Zhi instantly lifted his head, grabbed him, and said hesitantly: “Then will we meet tomorrow– early tomorrow morning?”

“Otherwise?” Ji Guichen rubbed the tip of his nose: “A few hours of separation, and then we’ll meet tomorrow morning, okay?”

“En.” Bai Zhi responded: “Stay safe on your way back.”

“Okay.”

“Text me once you get home.”

“Okay.”

“If something happens, call me.”

“Okay.”

Bai Zhi couldn’t think of anything else. Ji Guichen didn’t rush him even when he scratched his head and thought for half a day, he just waited patiently for him to finish thinking and speaking.

“Nephew, nephew, let Ji Guichen go back. The system will automatically detect it if he has any problems, you don’t need to worry.” The system couldn’t stand to watch these two any longer.

Bai Zhi: “Oh yeah, I forgot.”

The little demon who had been dazzled by love was reluctant to speak: “You go back, remember to text me.”

“Okay, I will remember.” Ji Guichen replied very seriously. Only after seeing that Bai Zhi didn’t intend to ask more did Ji Guichen slowly turn around and leave.

Bai Zhi waited until he could no longer see Ji Guichen’s back. Only then did he slowly go upstairs. Suddenly his phone vibrated.

With one hand he opened the door and entered his room, and with the other hand he opened his phone. The message it showed instantly caused his brows to furrow.

Ji Guichen’s Tencent account showed that someone had added him, with a note saying that it was to ask a question.

Bai Zhi instantly remembered the girl he saw during the day.

He hurriedly entered his room, called out the system, and entered combat mode.

“Uncle uncle, someone wants to rob me!”

“Worry not, nephew.” The system held a small biscuit between its lips to look like a boss: “Eradication of the enemy, step one: verbal attack.”

“I’m going to call her an idiot!” Bai Zhi typed aggressively.

The system pulled him back at once: “Get back here for me! Can your fighting power be any lower?”

Bai Zhi: “Isn’t ‘stupid’ used to curse at people?”

“Swearing at others will only lower your social status.” The system snatched the phone and inserted the data cable into its body: “Watch uncle.”

Bai Zhi leaned over. The system was unendingly busy.

Girl: “Hello little brother, I am Xiao Hong from Class Seven.”

System: “Oh.”

Girl: “…Little brother do you have time right now for me to ask you a math question?”

System: “No.”

Girl: “Oh I see…then do what you have to do little brother, I’ll come find you again when you have time.”

System: “Won’t have time.”

Girl: “Ah…”

System: “The opponent is too difficult to coax.”

After a very long time, a message came from the girl’s side: “Little brother is so warm-hearted. If I were your girlfriend I definitely won’t allow myself to be coaxed by you.”

“Just say…” The system laughed:

“Wishful thinking, I’m not blind yet.”

After sending, he deleted the girl’s contact information.

The system explained to Bai Zhi who had a face full of bewilderment: “Xiao Hong’s words were meant to sow discord between you and Ji Guichen. Not only that, she also said these things knowing Ji Guichen has a partner. That shows that this person doesn’t have a good character, so it’s best to delete them. In the future you should also be aware at school.”

Bai Zhi nodded: “I will!”

“Now that Ji Guichen has shown his talent and walked out of the shadows, he will receive more and more attention in the future. Xiao Hong is only the first.” The system reminded him: “Nephew, if you want Ji Guichen to become even better, you won’t be able to avoid meeting even more people who like him. Can you bear it?”

Bai Zhi hung his head: “As long as he is good, I’ll be happy.”

“Then what about yourself?”

“I believe in him.”

The system’s face was full of worry: “Hai… with your complete lack of scheming, if it weren’t for meeting someone who genuinely liked you and was also smart, it really would be easy for you to be deceived into oblivion.”

Bai Zhi: “No way would I be deceived, Ji Guichen is the best person in the world.”

The system was unhappy: “Then what about me?”

“You’re the best machine.”

“That’s more like it.”

The next day after going to school, Bai Zhi told Ji Guichen all about this incident. After listening briefly, he wasn’t bothered:

“You can deal with it however you want, as long as you take care of yourself. Did you eat breakfast?”

Bai Zhi nodded. Just as he was about to take out a book from the drawer for the morning reading, he accidentally touched something else.

He took it out and saw that it was a cake box printed with small flowers. There was even a pink love letter hung on top. The big heart was particularly conspicuous. There were a few large words written on the letter:

To Xie Siliu.

Bai Zhi keenly felt the eyes of the person next to him sharpen.