Lu Qingyan stared at the piece of paper in front of her like it was her last will and testament.
She carefully wrote:
Sorry, I've implicated you. I'll definitely memorize the text well next time. How can I make it up to you? How about I buy you some food?
Then, for a finishing touch, she added a crying face—big beady eyes, a trembling frown, and two fat teardrops. It looked like a potato who'd just failed math.
Lu Qingyan stared at it.
Yes, this was sincere. Very moving.
She glanced at Wang Jingyuan, her terrifyingly silent seatmate who had been standing like a statue beside their desk for the past 40 minutes as punishment thanks to her slip-up during recitation.
Her conscience gnawed at her, but her pride screamed louder.
When Lu Qingyan was about to hand the note to Wang Jingyuan, she silently retracted her hand instead.
It would be fine if the tablemate had a better personality, but this one obviously did not.
So it would be better to directly bring him something delicious to eat tomorrow to express her apologies. After all, actual actions were often more sincere than empty words.
"It's fine," she muttered to herself. "Words are cheap. Real sincerity lies in actions."
Yes! That was more thoughtful. She'd just buy him some food tomorrow. Maybe some milk tea or those meat skewers from the street vendor outside. A universal peace offering.
Just as she finished her mental pep talk and bent down slightly to push the note further in, clunk!
However, when she bent over and made these small movements, the cell phone in her pant pocket was moved and it suddenly tumbled out. It landed with a "clunk" sound under her seatmate's table.
Lu Qingyan paused. Her soul left her body.
She looked down.
Her phone. Her sparkly, rhinestone-covered, purplish-pink phone had slipped out of her pocket, made a slow-motion arc of shame, and landed directly under Wang Jingyuan's side of the desk.
Wang Jingyuan lowered his eyes when he heard the movement and saw a purplish-pink cell phone by his shoe.
The phone case was inlaid with diamonds that spelled out a shiny word:
"Kissmet"
Kissmet?
His eyelids twitched slightly.
Lu Qingyan was a little embarrassed and immediately bent down to pick it up.
Who would have expected that the phone fell a little too far away and she couldn't reach it, she even accidentally bumped into her tablemate's calf.
The youth stiffened, then slowly moved his long legs to the side with an elegance that made her want to dissolve into dust.
In the process, a sliver of his ankle was revealed. Pale, slender, almost ethereal. Like it belonged on a watercolor painting, not a real human.
Lu Qingyan blinked, dazed for a second.
Focus, Qingyan. Your phone is sparkling like a disco ball under enemy territory.
Due to this action, a section of his thin ankle was exposed. It was as white as snow.
She tried several times to no success, there came a slight "tsk" sound from above, touched with a vague tone of ridicule.
Lu Qingyan was surprised and then she saw a shadow fall in front of her. The youth's neat and soft hair seemed to brush by her at that moment, and she once again caught the delicate fragrance of Chinese honey locust.
He easily picked up the phone. The bones of his hands were distinct and well-defined.
"Thank you." Lu Qingyan thought he would hand it to her. When she reached out her hand to receive it, she saw the youth raised his eyebrows with a slight smirk.
The expression was casual and lazy, but also incredibly handsome. The whole person had a very different demeanor to the gentle and introverted youth that walked through the door earlier. She even felt that maybe there was something wrong with her eyes.
He played with the phone at random for a moment before he stuffed it into his drawer.
His lips curled lazily, a touch of mockery in his eyes, and in that moment, Lu Qingyan felt a chill run down her spine.
Was she hallucinating?
Lu Qingyan: "Wait...my..."
Too late.
Wang Jingyuan had already turned away, pulled out his pen, and started jotting down notes like he was the poster boy for "Model Student Monthly." The smirk? Gone. The swagger? Vanished. He now had the focused expression of a student who planned to graduate early and cure cancer.
Lu Qingyan stared at him, dumbfounded.
Lu Qingyan who witnessed the whole course of events: "..."
What the hell?
Was she hallucinating? Was he possessed? Did she just meet an actor??
In that moment, she recalled a saying: When a person who never smiles suddenly smiles, it either means they like you or they're about to ruin your life.
Given the circumstances, she was leaning toward the latter.
To her, that lazy smirk he gave her wasn't charm.
So in Lu Qingyan's eyes, this became Wang Jingyuan threat to her, warning her to not seek death.
The smile was full of threat and provocation, with a hint of malicious intent.
A chill prickled her spine. Was he planning to tattle? Hand her phone to the teacher? Announce to the world that she carried around something that looked like a dollar-store love potion?
Her mind spiraled.
The first bell to signal the end of the class rang. Just like this, the class came to an end.
While Lu Qingyan finished up her notes, she heard a shout at the door, "Brother Jing, let's go play basketball!"
Lu Qingyan turned her head and saw the ash-gray haired youth from yesterday by the door, and behind him was a group of boys in their school uniforms.
When those people came to the back door of the class, they suddenly saw Wang Jingyuan who was penalized to stand. They were all a little stunned.
The gray-haired boy blinked, then grinned with wicked glee. "Wang Jingyuan, you actually got punished?! HAHAHA! You'd also have today?!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!"
They burst out laughing, clutching each other dramatically like it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.
Wang Jingyuan didn't even flinch. He picked up his bag like a king rising from exile, his expression blank.
But Lu Qingyan noticed it.
The slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. The same smirk as before.
She gulped.
Yup.
She's doomed.