TFS | Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Pay Me Back with a Girlfriend

“And you can talk while you’re at it”

Qiyue suddenly laughed in anger. What the hell was wrong with this guy? What did he have to do with him, coming over to lecture him like that? Did he look like he had a good temper or something?

The boy shot him a sidelong glance, his tone disdainful. “You Jiang, are you some kind of saint sent by the heavens? If you’ve got nothing better to do, why don’t you stop meddling so much? If you’re bored, you can go record more audio in crowded places. Maybe you’ll catch some big news. And if you get famous later, maybe you can even become the first campus gossip reporter in history!”

Jiang Mian’s face turned even redder at once. She felt wronged to the point of tears. She had really come to apologize sincerely, but this guy just kept clinging to the matter and refusing to let it go. So what if they had broken up? The girl didn’t even like him, so why was he taking it so seriously?

Her stubbornness flared too. She looked at him, unwilling to back down. “If you don’t want to accept it, fine. I really did come to apologize sincerely…”

“Sure, then,” Qiyue glanced at her. His black eyes remained cool and indifferent, and his peripheral vision casually brushed over the girl’s figure. His tone was utterly unconcerned. “Mm… if you’re really apologizing sincerely, then pay me back with a girlfriend.”

He tucked the cigarette between his lips. His voice was light and a little impatient, low and hoarse, yet somehow carried a strange kind of temptation and sex appeal.

Jiang Mian’s face went completely red. She didn’t know what he meant, but she knew it definitely wasn’t anything good. “W-What do you mean by that?”

Qiyue ran a hand through the broken strands of hair at his forehead, revealing his smooth brow. There was an untamed, roguish charm to him that was hard to resist. “What do you think?”

Jiang Mian stammered, unable to say anything. She didn’t know if he meant what she thought he meant, and just as she was about to refuse and say it was impossible…

The boy suddenly let out a sharp scoff. His expression changed in an instant, his tone both contemptuous and disgusted. “I mean, get lost, you little green-tea freak. Even if I’ve broken up with my girlfriend, I still wouldn’t fall for you!”

Did he really think he was blind? How could he not see such an obvious intention? He had been pretty happy to play along with girls like this before, but his mood had been terrible lately. If they still didn’t know their place and kept throwing themselves into his line of fire, then they couldn’t blame him for not showing mercy.

After he finished speaking, the boy strode off on his long legs without looking back. The disgust in his eyes made it seem like there was garbage behind him.

At this point, he also understood it somewhat. Qi Linruan probably felt exactly this kind of impatience when facing him, desperate for him to get lost and stay far away. If that was the case, then this really was karma coming around full circle. Fuck!

…

Jiang Mian looked at the orchid lying in a sorry heap on the ground. Embarrassment and anger welled up together, and an indescribable grievance surged through her heart. Did he really have to be this arrogant? She had only come to apologize sincerely.

Which eye did he use to see that she liked him…

How shameless!

The girl bit her lip and stared at the orchid she had painstakingly brought back to life, now thrown onto the ground like that. She couldn’t even describe how she felt, only that it was awful.

…………

On the other side.

Xu Linruan went through the day’s classes in order, and without someone’s disturbance, she had been living quite peacefully these past few days.

After school in the afternoon, Xu Linruan finished her duty shift and walked back toward the classroom along the same route.

It was already evening, and aside from the students still staying behind to do their cleaning duty, there were hardly any people left in the teaching building.

When she reached the corner on the third floor, Xu Linruan ran into Qiyue.

The boy in a black shirt was leaning against the wall outside the bathroom, smoking. One long leg was bent, his eyelids lowered. When he heard footsteps and looked up, he froze for a moment, probably not expecting her to still be at school.

Even though he had said he didn’t care anymore, human instinct was not something that could be changed so quickly. The moment he saw her, his fingers still tightened unconsciously.

But then he remembered that they had already broken up, and whether he smoked or not had nothing to do with her anymore. So he forced down the urge to stub out his cigarette.

Then he stared straight at her.

That look carried a distinct air of provocation.

Xu Linruan found it amusing. She ignored the boy’s provoking gaze, turned her eyes away, and kept walking, with no intention of engaging him at all.

Qiyue watched her go up from the last step of the stairwell, one step at a time, drawing closer and closer to him. So close that he could almost smell the scent in her hair, and his heart skipped a beat out of his control.

Then he saw that the girl kept walking forward without even looking at him, brushing past him just like that, growing farther and farther away until she finally disappeared around the corner.

Fuck…

Qiyue pressed the tip of his tongue against the back of his teeth.

What the hell was this supposed to be?

He stared at the girl’s back, growing more and more frustrated. He had to admit it, that guy was even more heartless than he was.

For a split second, he almost wanted to rush up, drag her into the bathroom, and teach her a proper lesson, then make her cry and admit she was wrong.

But he didn’t dare. He had said everything so clearly that night, and if he wasn’t absolutely shameless, there was no way he could do something like that.

But if he just let her go like this, he also felt it was too cheap for her.

Qiyue kicked a small pebble on the ground hard, venting the frustration in his chest. Was this really happening over and over again? Did she really think he had such a good temper, baiting him and then dismissing him without a second thought? Did she think he was that easy to toy with?

After a long silence, Qiyue felt even more defeated, and a slowly rising emotion in his chest made him deeply uncomfortable.

To be honest, in all his years, he had never suffered a loss at the hands of a woman. There had never been a hopeless romantic in the Qiyue family. His father had kept a whole flock of lovers and mistresses, and as the saying went, the son inherited the father’s trade. There was no reason for the gene to mutate when it reached him.

Old sayings were still right, after all. It was hard to find a three-legged female toad[[1]], but there were plenty of two-legged women around. He felt like he needed to broaden his horizons and stop fixating on just one girl…

Thinking that way, Qiyue’s brows slowly relaxed. So what if she was just a pretty woman? Did he look like someone who was short on girlfriends?

Thinking that way, he felt much better.

But not long after, he felt annoyed again. Damn it, wasn’t that basically insulting himself too? He wasn’t some three-legged male toad.

Qiyue angrily ground out his cigarette. He had originally been ready to vent a bellyful of fury, but the moment he turned around, he saw Xu Linruan coming out of the classroom with a white backpack on her back.

She looked indescribably beautiful, even more stunning and breathtaking than when he had first met her.

Their eyes met by chance, and the whole scene seemed to freeze, time becoming strangely slow.

The warm yellow light fell across the girl’s smooth long hair as he watched her walk toward him step by step.

The boy’s surging anger went silent in an instant.

That feeling… how should he put it? His Chinese grades were terrible, so it was hard to describe.

In short, he felt that right now he must look incredibly stupid, and especially pathetic!

Qiyue watched her walk away. Only when the girl’s back was almost out of sight did he finally react, then instinctively followed in the direction she had gone.

Xu Linruan walked out of the school gate and headed straight for the nearest bus stop sign. She did notice the guy following behind her, but as long as he wasn’t causing trouble, she had nothing to care about.

Being completely ignored while loitering in front of her, Qiyue finally couldn’t hold back. He walked up to Xu Linruan and spoke with a hint of mockery.

“Tsk, what, so our great campus beauty Xu is waiting for the bus all by herself? Didn’t your little junior come to see you off?”

When Qiyue said that, he deliberately glanced around, his tone carrying a playful edge. It sounded very much like he wasn’t serious.

Really, what he meant by saying that was to make her see clearly that rejecting him had been the stupidest thing she had ever done in her life.

Xu Linruan just smiled at him, her expression completely natural, as if she had entirely forgotten their previous unpleasantness. “Are you worried about me?”

Qiyue gave her a sideways look. He was not going to admit that he was still worried about her. He was just bored and wanted to see his ex-girlfriend looking pitifully lonely at the bus stop, then come over and mock her on purpose.

But now, when the person merely smiled at him like that, he turned stupid and dazed, like some young fool.

That unpromising little heart of his sped up again, damn it.

Qiyue pressed his lips together and tried hard to control the emotions in his chest, while forcing on an expression of impatience and disgust. “You’re overthinking it. I’m not worried about you.”

“Oh? Is that so? Then I was overthinking it.” Xu Linruan tilted her head to look at him. She wasn’t angry at all, and there was even a hint of understanding in her eyes.

Qiyue couldn’t stand that look of hers the most. It was like she was deliberately seducing him, fully aware that he would never get angry with her.

An indescribable frustration spread through his chest. He even wondered why he had followed her here just to suffer. Crossing his arms, he turned his head away in disgust and continued denying it. “What else? Don’t tell me you think I still like you?”

He deliberately made his expression cold. “Xu Linruan, you really think too highly of yourself. Sure, you are good-looking, but I’m not an idiot. It’s fine after rejecting you twice, but do you really think I’d give you a third chance?”

After saying that, he even gave a calm snort, then looked over with a face full of disdain, thinking that this time he had finally gained the upper hand.

But when he looked up, he discovered that Xu Linruan, for some reason, had put on headphones and hadn’t even glanced at him, completely ignoring him.

The young master was furious again. He had talked for nothing, all his carefully prepared lines wasted. He had been waiting to land a perfect slap in the face on this girl, only to end up slapping his own face instead.

Qiyue was unhappy. He pursed his lips and shifted over to sit beside Xu Linruan, his expression sour, like a willful little brat whose displeasure showed on his face immediately.

Xu Linruan didn’t know what else she had done to offend this young master, and frankly, she couldn’t be bothered to deal with him.

But even when she ignored him, he still found ways to get a sense of existence.

His eyes were clearly so disgusted they could have solidified into something tangible, and yet, maybe because he liked being mistreated, he kept circling around her despite how much he looked down on her.

“Heh, since you’re my ex-girlfriend, I’ll give you a friendly reminder. There have been a lot of off-campus punks hanging around near the school lately. I suggest you don’t wait for the bus here alone.”

Xu Linruan turned to look at him.

Her eyes were like polished jade, clean and luminous, and when she looked at someone, the outer corners of her eyes lifted slightly, as if a pool of spring water were winding through them.

What kind of look was that? Did she think he was trying to scare her?

Qiyue took a deep breath, and his face returned to that cool, aloof expression from before. His tone was cold. “Don’t look at me like that. What, you think I’m lying to you? Hmph. Girls like you are exactly the easiest targets for them to pick on.”

Xu Linruan then patted his shoulder. His body tensed reflexively. “All right, then thanks for the concern. If it’s that unsafe, I’ll head off first. You can keep waiting here.”

As soon as she finished speaking and was about to leave, before she even got up, someone grabbed her wrist. The boy stared at her, his voice rough, and his face was a little red. “Just talk if you want to talk, why are you putting your hands on me?”

Xu Linruan was speechless at that. If patting someone’s shoulder counted as putting her hands on him, then what exactly was he doing now by grabbing her hand?