Gao Jing was a little puzzled, "Brother Xuan, do you think your sister seems a little different?"
Lu Mingxuan was also a little puzzled.
Lu Mingxuan narrowed his eyes slightly, clearly thinking the same. Ever since he could remember, Lu Qingyan had followed behind him like a little tail, flashing him that overly sweet smile no matter how many times he ignored her or brushed her off with a cold face. Her persistence was annoying, yes, but at least it was consistent.
She just walked past like he was invisible. Like he was some random passerby with no blood ties to her. Not even a glance of recognition.
Lu Mingxuan thought for a moment before he realized the reason— she was probably angry because he blacklisted her.
He couldn't take it anymore and sent her straight into the VIP section of his blacklist.
Still, this… silence from her was weird.
"I wish she could be like this forever," he muttered, but there was an odd note of irritation under his breath, as if the silence was just as annoying as the endless messages.
Then he turned his head and raised his chin at Gao Jing, "But I bet within three days, she will come to bother me again."
Gao Jing, always the rational one, scratched his head. "What if… she's just in a bad place right now? I mean, she's in the Special Class now, right? That class is packed with academic monsters. Maybe she's struggling to keep up. Doesn't have friends. Kinda pathetic, you know?"
Lu Mingxuan froze.
That… actually made sense.
He took out his phone. His thumb hovered over the familiar icon—WeChat.
He scrolled down through the Blacklist, and sure enough, there she was.
Big Brother's Little Cotton-Padded Jacket
Her profile picture was a pink chibi drawing of a brother carrying his little sister on his back, framed in sparkles. The nickname still made his eyelid twitch.
His thumb hovered over the "Remove from Blacklist" button.
Gao Jing, who hadn't noticed his little actions, continued, "Honestly, I don't get what her parents were thinking. Shoving her into that class like that. Maybe they thought it'd 'motivate' her or something."
The mention of "parents" made Lu Mingxuan's face twist with disdain. His thumb moved away from the screen. The phone locked with a click as he shoved it back into his pocket.
"Who knows what they're thinking," he said flatly.
On the other side, Lu Qingyan still didn't know that she had already met the brother that she previously complained about.
After she returned to class, she discovered that Wang Jingyuan still hasn't returned yet. With two packs of bear biscuits in her hands, she unhurriedly returned to her seat.
No one knew which class representative went to the teacher's office at noon to get the assignments, but they had left them on everyone's desks.
She looked down at the two packs of bear biscuits in her hand.
One for herself. One… for him.
She hesitated for a second, then took a deep breath and moved like a spy on a covert mission.
She glanced around like a thief and when she was sure that no one paid any attention to her small movements, she quickly stuffed a pack of bear biscuits into the stack of papers on her tablemate's desk.
To hide it, she even deliberately wrapped it twice with the papers.
Although she didn't know why her tablemate pretended to be a good student at school, it still didn't hurt her to apologize to him.
The bear biscuits were so delicious, it should be able to make up for some of today's terrible ink incident and causing him to be penalized to stand.
Lu Qingyan looked at the empty seat when she was done. She felt a little uneasy when she thought about how he would react when he finds the mystery hidden under this seemingly simple stack of papers.
She stared at the desk, then back at her own, worry gradually taking over. What if he finds it and makes a scene? she thought nervously. What if he holds it up and yells, "Which idiot left this here?"
What if he throws it in the trash?!
Unable to sit still any longer, she stood up abruptly, clutching her test papers and textbooks. I'll just… study somewhere else until class starts. Yes. I'll act natural. It'll be like I never saw anything. Never did anything. Like I'm innocent. A saint.
Yes, let's do it like this.
Although he might not care enough to ask her, she still couldn't help thinking too much. The longer Lu Qingyan sat in her seat, the more she couldn't sit still, even the assignments couldn't hold her attention.
So Lu Qingyan took the test papers and teaching materials before she left to look for an empty classroom.
Not long after, the back door of the classroom creaked open.
Wang Jingyuan walked in, his usual languid stride unhurried. He paused near his desk.
His gaze landed immediately on the odd lump beneath his stack of papers.
He arched a brow.
Then, slowly, like someone unwrapping a suspicious gift, he pulled the papers aside.
Thud.
A pink package slid free and dropped to the ground. Strawberry-flavored bear biscuits.
Wang Jingyuan looked down at the strawberry-flavored bear biscuits lying on the ground. An unreadable emotion flashed in his eyes.
Then he bent down and picked it up.
When he lowered his head, he found a crumpled sticky note lying between the two desks.
He also picked up the crumpled sticky note. Then, he very patiently unfolded the crumpled sticky note little by little.