Lu Yige pushed open the door, and the noisy classroom instantly fell silent.
When she returned to her seat, the girl sitting behind her called out softly.
"Yige."
Lu Yige turned around. The girl leaned closer, cupping her hand over her mouth and whispering, "Yige, whatever you do, don't let Ye Chen fool you. He's a total scumbag."
"You haven't been at school much, so you might not know—he changes girlfriends more than ten times a year."
"In any case, don't ever get together with him, okay?" The girl warned her with a worried expression.
"Alright, thank you." Lu Yige couldn't help feeling both amused and touched. This classmate probably didn't know that Lu Yige herself was currently being strung along by an even bigger scumbag.
Still, she was genuinely grateful for the concern.
The two girls sitting behind her—one was named Chen Keyi, who had just warned her, and the other was Li Hui. Though they were never mentioned in the book, they were both kind and lovely people.
There were many others like them as well—whether the noisy troublemakers in the back rows or the quiet students who studied diligently. They had no names in the novel, yet each existed vividly in their own way.
This place, beyond the novel Nian Nian, was also a real and warm world.
"Are you very familiar with him?" Jiang Yu's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Not really. I've only met him twice—you saw that yourself."
"But..." Jiang Yu avoided looking at her and spoke slowly, "you two looked quite close."
Lu Yige felt utterly speechless. "You should know what kind of person he is better than I do."
"I'm sorry. I just don't like seeing you get too close to him." Jiang Yu looked at her with dark eyes, wearing a wounded, aggrieved expression.
Lu Yige fought hard to suppress the urge to smack him. There was no saving this guy. Absolutely none.
Ever since returning from Shanghai, where he had behaved normally for a few days, he had only gotten worse. Sure enough, that calm had been nothing but the quiet before the storm.
Life was like acting—everything depended on performance. Watching Jiang Yu's effortless jealousy, Lu Yige felt deeply aware of this truth.
If she were asked to perform jealousy in front of Jiang Yu, she would rather die—it made her skin crawl just thinking about it.
Her mood grew complicated as Jiang Yu continued to look at her intently.
"Got it," she said, defaulting to her most practiced move: pretending to be shy.
That evening during self-study, the homeroom teacher came to rearrange seats.
He first asked everyone to leave the classroom. Dozens of students crowded into the narrow hallway, creating a rather spectacular scene.
The teacher held a list and called names one by one. Once one student finished choosing a seat, the next was allowed to enter.
When Lu Yige went in, she found Xu Lu sitting in front of her original seat, waving excitedly at her and bobbing his head like a little animal.
She was pleasantly surprised and walked over, reaching out to ruffle his fluffy hair.
Xu Lu's eyes widened, but he obediently let her do it.
"Huh?" Lu Yige said in mock surprise. "That's not right. Cute boys like you are supposed to shout, 'Don't touch my head, I won't grow taller!' when someone pats your head, aren't they?"
Xu Lu rolled his eyes expertly and slapped her hand away. "You've watched too much anime. I'm not saying something that dumb. And even if you pat my head a thousand or ten thousand times, I'll still grow to one meter ninety."
"And don't call me a cute little boy."
"You are—" Lu Yige suddenly sensed someone sit down beside her. She looked up, and sure enough, it was Jiang Yu.
Jiang Yu said nothing, quietly picked up an exercise book, and began working.
Xu Lu shot her a glare and turned back around.
Lu Yige: Why does it feel like Jiang Yu comes with his own 'kill-the-vibe' aura?
She wasn't in the mood to do homework, so she watched her classmates choose seats instead.
In fact, most people chose their original seats—probably because they were used to them.
Xu Lu had moved here, leaving the seat next to Jiang Nian empty. Yet until the very end, no one chose it.
Everyone probably assumed Chi Yexuan would take that seat and didn't dare compete with him.
The three transfer students chose last. The seat behind Lu Yige was still empty; the two girls who had previously sat there had moved to the front.
Luo Qing glanced around and sat down behind Lu Yige.
That left only Chi Yexuan and Zhou Yi. Zhou Yi stood there without moving, intending to let Chi Yexuan choose first.
As for Chi Yexuan, whether he was still angry or something else, after staring at Jiang Nian for a while, he unexpectedly sat down next to Luo Qing.
Luo Qing was delighted and linked her arm through his, chatting animatedly.
Chi Yexuan calmly withdrew his arm.
Zhou Yi, naturally, became Jiang Nian's deskmate.
Lu Yige looked at him with deep sympathy. Poor Zhou Yi—his miserable days had officially begun.
"Lu Yige," Luo Qing called out to her.
Lu Yige turned around to see Luo Qing propping her chin on one hand, looking at her with a somewhat knowing gaze. "Ye Chen came looking for you during the day, didn't he?"
"Yeah."
Luo Qing smiled. "I think you could be the one who finally makes him settle down."
No—it should be you. Lu Yige returned her gaze just as meaningfully. "I have nothing to do with him. And he won't come looking for me again."
"Really?" Luo Qing was a little doubtful. Ye Chen was exactly the type who would pursue anyone he set his sights on.
"Yes."
"Don't forget what we agreed on," Chi Yexuan suddenly spoke up beside her.
What agreement did I make with you? Lu Yige nearly blurted it out, but she quickly remembered his childish declaration at the birthday party about "yours and mine."
"You two have an agreement?" Luo Qing instantly became alert.
"Oh." Lu Yige pulled over her workbook. "He said before that he wanted to copy my homework."
Turning back around, Lu Yige felt that she really shouldn't be here, shouldn't be bearing the pressure of being surrounded by the male lead, the second male lead, and the second female lead. She was much better suited to doing problem sets with a sweet kid like Xu Lu.
Fortunately, the next few days passed without incident. Luo Qing was outgoing and talkative, and she and Lu Yige became quite good friends.
One noon, Luo Qing was pulling Lu Yige along, telling her a joke she'd just heard, when her expression suddenly changed and she fell silent.
Lu Yige turned around and saw Jiang Nian approaching.
Jiang Nian glanced at Jiang Yu's seat and asked, "Is Jiang Yu not here?"
"No," Lu Yige shook her head.
Jiang Nian crouched down and took Jiang Yu's old phone out of his desk. Lu Yige noticed a bracelet made of shells on Jiang Nian's wrist.
Well then—Jiang Yu's craftsmanship wasn't bad. That was Lu Yige's first thought.
Noticing Lu Yige watching her, Jiang Nian said, "When he comes back, tell him to come find me in the office. Thank you."
"The office?" Lu Yige was a little puzzled, but she agreed.
Only a few minutes after Jiang Nian left, Jiang Yu returned. Lu Yige couldn't help sighing—true to his role as the second male lead, he was always missing things by a hair's breadth.
"Jiang Nian said for you to go find her in the office."
Jiang Yu looked at her uneasily.
"She didn't say what it was, but it should be something important," Lu Yige said, sounding unconcerned.
"I..." Jiang Yu hesitated.
Seeing him waver like this made Lu Yige inexplicably annoyed. Watching him act like this every day was exhausting, so she decided to be straightforward.
"I saw the shell bracelet on Jiang Nian's wrist today."
Jiang Yu's eyelashes trembled.
"I know you gave it to her. I don't mean anything by it. I never said you couldn't interact with her. 'Keeping your distance' was something you said yourself. But I really dislike how you act one way in front of me and another behind my back."
"It makes it look like I'm forcing you." Saying it out loud felt incredibly satisfying to Lu Yige.
Jiang Yu's expression darkened. "I'm sorry..."
"Go on, go on. Don't keep her waiting," Lu Yige urged him away.
"Sorry." Jiang Yu left the classroom and headed to the office at the end of the hallway.
Jiang Nian was inside, filling out some paperwork.
"Xiao Yu, you're here," she greeted him.
"What's wrong?"
Jiang Nian looked anxious. "The director suddenly had a cerebral hemorrhage and was hospitalized. He's out of danger now, but I still want to go see him."
"How could that happen?"
"Probably his age," Jiang Nian replied. She placed the leave form on the teacher's desk, grabbed Jiang Yu, and hurried him along. "I brought your phone for you. Let's go."
Jiang Yu didn't return to school until the following afternoon. When he reached his seat, he saw Lu Yige wiping away tears with a tissue.
She looked up as soon as she saw him. Her eyes were red, tears pooling in them, making her look even more fragile.
"I'm sorry," Jiang Yu said soothingly. "This is my fault."
Lu Yige: "..."
"What are you doing?" Lu Yige choked out, pointing at the Chinese exam paper on her desk. "I cried because the reading passage moved me. Why are you apologizing to me? Did you write the essay?"
***
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