TFS | Chapter 13

“Heh” Qi Yue coughed once, trying to hide the awkwardness on his face. “Um, we’ve been talking this long, and I’m thirsty. Can you… pour me another glass of water?”

In truth, the water was just an excuse, shifting the topic was the real goal. Young Master Qi thought of that bet and felt a little guilty, not daring to lift his head and look into her eyes.

Xu Linruan casually poured him a glass of water and handed it to the bedside. Qi Yue took it, drank a big gulp, and only then did the stiff look on his face slowly ease.

She didn’t seem to notice anything strange about him. Qi Yue quietly let out a breath of relief, but then he thought, why was he feeling guilty at all? This had been the plan from the start, hadn’t it? Once Xu Linruan fell in love with him, he would dump her!

At that thought, Young Master Qi suddenly felt an inexplicable panic. Something about him seemed off. He seemed to care about this girlfriend more than he had imagined.

This was bad. He had played a bet and somehow ended up losing himself in it. Young Master Qi felt troubled, and a little vexed too. It seemed like he had fallen into some kind of inner conflict, his brows knitted tight, his face looking less and less pleasant.

He stayed like that, sprawled beside the bed like a wooden dummy. Even after his arm had gone numb from lying there, he still hadn’t come up with an answer.

So then he stopped thinking about it. He decided to do whatever made him happy. Anyway, Xu Linruan was still his girlfriend right now. He could just break up with her when he no longer liked her.

Young Master Qi almost wanted to give himself a thumbs-up for being so clever and smart.

The moment Xu Linruan saw that expression of his, she knew what he was thinking. It was nothing more than that bet. Since this idiot wanted to court disaster, how could she not play along?

Thinking that, the expression on her face grew even gentler. With her pale fingers hooking back the loose strands at her temple, Xu Linruan spread out her textbook and quietly sat there doing a test paper.

There was a thick stack of papers, one for every subject. Qi Yue only glanced at them once before his head started spinning. He really was terrible at studying. Not only him, all his friends were too. They had never liked books from childhood to adulthood, though they were pretty talented at all sorts of messy, useless things.

He had originally thought this was a good chance to get closer to his girlfriend. What a nice atmosphere this was, too, one room, one man, one woman. It was perfect for talking romance and sweet nothings.

But now? Xu Linruan had put him to one side and was doing the papers all by herself, dead serious.

Young Master Qi was a little dazed. Was he really less interesting than a test paper? Was he really that unappealing?

He started to question life itself. He even began to wonder whether Xu Linruan really did like him or not. If she liked him, shouldn’t she be clinging to him every day, asking for kisses and hugs? But if she didn’t like him, hadn’t she kissed and hugged him before?

Weren’t those all things only couples did?

Qi Yue still hadn’t forgotten that kiss, soft and careful. As the scene replayed in his head, the tips of his ears turned a little red.

Young Master Qi’s gaze fell on her. The girl was half-sitting up, her black hair spilling in tangled strands over her pale wrist. He couldn’t bear to ruin the sight. She wrote so seriously that it gave him a strangely peaceful, almost timeless feeling.

Qi Xiaoyue lay there on the bed and watched her, watching how her slender fingers moved. Even the way she absentmindedly spun the pen between them was somehow seductive. The smooth curve of her fingertips carried a beauty he couldn’t quite put into words. He reached out his own hand and compared them back and forth. Mm… his was bigger. Just right to wrap around her whole hand.

When he got tired of lying there, he changed positions, propped his head up with one hand, and leaned sideways against the pillow to watch her. He used to like playing games, but now that he had plenty of time for them, he found it boring. So he just stared at her for a whole hour while she did the test paper.

Qi Yue felt a little stupid. He took out his phone to check the time, figured enough time had passed, and tentatively asked, “Ruanruan, are you tired? Do you want some water?”

Xu Linruan noticed that he had changed how he addressed her, so she looked up at him. “What is it? Are you thirsty again?”

Qi Xiaoyue didn’t answer. He just looked a little red in the face.

It wasn’t that he was thirsty. He had clearly drunk too much water and now wanted to use the bathroom. But his body wasn’t exactly convenient at the moment, and he was too embarrassed to ask her to help, so he had just been holding it in all this time.

He had reached his limit by now. If he didn’t go to the bathroom soon, he was probably going to explode on the spot.

Xu Linruan waited a while, and when she still didn’t hear him speak, she poured a glass of water and handed it over. Just as she turned to leave, Qi Yue grabbed her wrist at once.

Those sharply defined fingers pressed tightly against the skin of her wrist, bringing with them a feverish warmth. She pretended not to see how anxious he was and tilted her head to ask, “What is it?”

Qi Yue found it hard to say. “It’s just… you know people have, uh, urgent needs, right?” He loosened his grip a little, his face stiff with embarrassment, and stammered on, “Can you… help me with something? Help me to the bathroom. I want to go pee?”

The moment he said it, he kind of wanted to die on the spot.

Because it really was too embarrassing.

To be fair, it was his own fault for courting disaster. He knew Xu Linruan was coming, so he had sent away all the caretakers in advance. At first he had wanted to develop a little something between them, but in the end she had spent a whole hour doing her test paper without paying him any mind.

And now look at this. Not only had the romance line failed to progress, he even needed help just to use the toilet. It was humiliating beyond words.

After he finished speaking, the boy looked at her while blushing, still clutching her hand and refusing to let go.

Xu Linruan was honestly impressed by how thick-skinned he was. She had thought he was some arrogant rich second-generation brat, but it turned out he was a slightly not-so-bright little wolf dog.

That character setting was falling apart nicely.

She gave him a meaningful look, but didn’t refuse his request. After all, in front of the male lead, she still had to maintain the image of a girlfriend.

So she helped Qi Yue to the bathroom. Young Master Qi was still a little shy. Once they reached the door, he let go of her hand and tried to look calm as he said, “You can just stand here. You don’t need to come in. I can handle the rest myself.”

After he said that, he even sneaked a look at her reaction. She was very calm. Young Master Qi suddenly felt a little unbalanced, and it bothered him. It was as if only he cared this much, as if she didn’t care about him at all.

Hmph. Slut. Heartless bastard. She didn’t care about him at all!

Qi Yue turned and went into the bathroom. After taking care of nature’s call, he still felt somewhat upset. When he came out, Xu Linruan was standing by the door waiting for him.

She didn’t even know to come over and support him a little.

His gaze turned icy, sharp as a knife, every glance landing cleanly.

………

When the door opened, Xu Linruan saw that Young Master Qi’s face was cold, and she didn’t know what had upset him again. In any case, this guy was getting more and more childish, some of his behavior so childish he looked like a little kid throwing a tantrum, needing coaxing before he’d be happy.

She saw him hold out his hand. It was clean, with no water on it, and she subconsciously asked, “Did you wash your hands?”

Young Master Qi froze, then looked down at his hand. Realizing it, he became a little awkward. He had been too rushed when he came out and seemed to have forgotten. “No, I haven’t…”

Just as he was about to take her hand, before he could even touch her, she slapped the back of his hand away with a sharp crack. The force was pretty heavy too.

The disgust on the girl’s face was obvious. “It’s too dirty.” It wasn’t meant to mean anything else, she just thought it was too unhygienic, after all, he had only just touched that area.

Her words were neither light nor heavy, but in the quiet room they were especially clear.

Qi Xiaoyue’s expression stiffened.

Too dirty?

This was the first time Young Master Qi had ever been called dirty. Before he could think further, it felt like his heart had taken a ten-thousand-point critical hit.

He had actually been嫌弃ed again, by the same person no less, and this person was his girlfriend. Furious, his eyes turned red at the corners as he gritted out, “I’m not dirty! I shower every night and wash it very clean. I wash it with soap. I’m very clean, not dirty at all!”