Chapter 82: Chapter 81: This Is Xi Zirong, After All

Xu Su looked back at him, thinking he was planning to share some juicy gossip. ’After all, as the class president, surely he knows a lot?’

“…” It was rare for Xi Zirong to get this much attention from Xu Su. He froze for a few seconds before walking over. “Should I wait for you so we can go to class together?”

’Is that what I wanted to hear?’

Xu Su pouted. ’He really has changed,’ she thought. With his previous simp Attribute, he would never have acted this way, so hesitant to share a bit of news.

But then again, she thought it was for the best. He had moved on, and there was nothing wrong with that. After murmuring that he didn’t have to, she walked quickly toward the girls’ dorm.

After dropping off Qian Jia’s meal, she returned to the classroom to find Huang Feng already in her seat.

Their lunchtimes hadn’t lined up today, so for once, they hadn’t entered and left together.

Xu Su had just sat down and hadn’t even had a chance to ask about the incident that afternoon before Huang Feng leaned in close.

She whispered, “Do you know why Deng Hui and Qiu Kai fought this afternoon? A classic case of a femme fatale, a femme fatale…”

Xu Su’s eyes lit up. She could smell the drama. “Spill the tea, spill the tea,” she said excitedly.

By the time the bell for evening self-study rang, Xu Su had gotten the full story.

She also finally understood why Xi Zirong had been so reluctant to talk about it. ’Turns out he’s tangled up in this too.’

The gist of it was that Gu Yunjia from Class 18 loved having pen pals. Many of the boys who liked her, hoping to leverage their proximity for an advantage, started out by becoming her pen pal.

The girl had so many pen pals that they were probably spread across all twenty-six first-year classes. Huang Feng didn’t know if any second-year upperclassmen were caught up in it as well.

In any case, both Deng Hui and Qiu Kai were her pen pals. They both liked Gu Yunjia and were aware of each other’s feelings. Plenty of other boys in their class knew about it, too.

Their relationship was already awkward, and then they were assigned to be deskmates. Seeing the other guy writing letters to the girl they both liked every day naturally made them unhappy.

But they knew all that beforehand; it wasn’t enough to make them come to blows. The real trigger was Deng Hui bad-mouthing Gu Yunjia.

Deng Hui must have finally realized he was just a backup, a simp, and had something of an awakening.

That afternoon, he couldn’t hold back and mocked Qiu Kai’s “goddess” right in front of him—during class, no less. Qiu Kai, with his tall stature, wasn’t one to take an insult lying down, and he erupted on the spot.

And as a result, our poor Qian Jia got caught in the crossfire.

So, what did any of this have to do with Xi Zirong?

It was because Gu Yunjia herself had admitted that the only person she had ever proactively written to was Xi Zirong. If her relationship with everyone else was ’passive’, then her pursuit of Xi Zirong was ’active’.

As for whether Xi Zirong ever wrote back or if he was even one of Gu Yunjia’s many pen pals, nobody knew.

When someone asked Gu Yunjia if Xi Zirong had replied to her letters, she would just smile without saying a word. But from her expression, it looked like he probably had.

It was this very incident that made Deng Hui realize he was just a backup. They were all proud young men; who would want to be the second, or even the twentieth, option? In his indignation, seeing his deskmate acting like such a simp reminded him of his own past behavior, and he couldn’t resist making a few sarcastic remarks.

And that was the long and short of it.

After getting the whole scoop, Xu Su was inwardly buzzing with excitement.

’No wonder Xi Zirong didn’t want to talk about it this afternoon. Turns out he was the catalyst for the whole thing.’

’Huang Feng wasn’t quite right,’ she thought. ’This isn’t a case of a femme fatale. It’s clearly a homme fatale.’

Gu Yunjia was doing a fine job as a “master of equilibrium,” treating all her pen pals equally. But then she gave Xi Zirong special treatment. Of course that would be a wake-up call for the others.

’Still, giving up all her other pen pals for Xi Zirong… doesn’t seem like a bad trade.’

’This is Xi Zirong we’re talking about!’

Speaking of which, Xu Su actually kind of admired Gu Yunjia. ’If this were ten years from now, wouldn’t she be the classic definition of a player?’

’Every pen pal was another fish in her sea.’

As her thoughts drifted, Xu Su found herself thinking about Xi Zirong again.

’With his love-addled brain and simp Attribute, I hope that girl isn’t playing him for a fool.’

Xu Su mulled this over for a full half of the self-study period before she finally snapped out of it.

’I’m not his mother, why should I be worrying about this? Even if he does get played, it’s not a big deal.’

’What teenager doesn’t get their heart broken?’

’A few more heartbreaks might just cure that love-addled brain of his.’

Xu Su tapped herself on the forehead and began to focus on her practice problems.

Around nine-thirty at night, the day students began to file out of the classroom. Many of the boarders, however, would stay to study until ten-thirty or even eleven.

Just then, the phone in Xu Su’s pocket vibrated twice.

A text message from Zhou Mochen had arrived: *Susu, I’m at your school gate. Come out and see me.*

Ever since Xu Weiping and his wife had started fawning over her, Xu Su had stopped going home every weekend.

The last time Xu Su had gone home was about two weekends prior.

Xu Su had her own money, enough to live on at school, so she didn’t have to be constrained by the fifty yuan a week for food that the couple gave her.

Zhou Mochen, of course, couldn’t tolerate going weeks without seeing Xu Su. While he didn’t force her to come home, he would occasionally show up at the gates of First High School during her lunch break or after evening self-study to call her out.

Generally, Xu Su would go out to see him once for every three or four times he came, having learned to gauge the very limit of his tolerance.

It had been nearly ten days since they last met. Xu Su figured this psycho’s patience was probably at its limit. She typed out a reply with both hands: *Be there in a bit.*

She slowly folded her exam papers, put them away, and said a quick goodbye to Huang Feng.

After telling her not to wait up, Xu Su left the classroom.

It was the same secluded alley, and the familiar black car was parked there quietly.

The moment Xu Su got in the car, Zhou Mochen’s gaze locked onto her, his longing on full display.

His stare made her skin crawl, and she uncomfortably turned her face to the side.

Zhou Mochen smiled, toning it down a bit. “Hungry? Want to grab a late-night snack?”

Seeing that he had no intention of letting her go anytime soon, Xu Su lifted her chin. “I have to be back at school before eleven.”

Zhou Mochen agreed readily. “Alright. I’ll have you back before eleven.”

Xu Su had expected him to pick some high-end restaurant. She never would have guessed Zhou Mochen could be so down-to-earth, randomly picking a street food stall at a late-night food court near First High School.

Sitting on a plastic chair at the stall, Xu Su stared in surprise at the man across from her, who was peeling crayfish.

He was dressed in unbranded casual wear that made his already young face look even more so. Compared to when they first met in this lifetime, he seemed to have grown to dislike formal wear.

Zhou Mochen was clearly inexperienced when it came to peeling crayfish. After she witnessed yet another drop of red chili oil splash onto his collar, Xu Su’s eyelid twitched. “Stop, I’ll do it myself.”

’I can’t even imagine,’ she thought. ’For a man whose thermos costs two thousand yuan, how expensive must his clothes be?’

’It’s not worth it just to peel a few crayfish…’

Zhou Mochen looked up at her and pushed a small dish of peeled crayfish meat toward her. He smiled gently. “Don’t get your hands dirty. You just eat.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep