“Thank you.” Her heart was pounding, and her throat felt itchy. Afraid he would notice her nervousness, she quickly put down the wet wipe and pointed at the pile of snacks. “Um, how much do I owe you for these?”

Jiang Chengyi raised an eyebrow. “Lu classmate, are you serious?”

Of course, she was serious.

For some unknown reason, she was eager to draw a clear line between them. Just as she quickly organized her thoughts to respond, girls’ voices came from the hallway outside.

After a moment, someone entered – it was Ding Jing and Liu Yujie.

Seeing Lu Yan and Jiang Chengyi, they froze at the doorway, both looking very surprised.

Unable to hold back, Ding Jing spoke up: “Jiang Chengyi?”

Jiang Chengyi kept his eyes on Lu Yan but slowly straightened up. “I need to go practice basketball,” he said, his voice very low, apparently speaking to Lu Yan.

Before Ding Jing could come in, he draped his jacket over his shoulder and walked toward the door.

After he left, Ding Jing didn’t move, still standing there staring at Lu Yan.

Lu Yan ignored her. Half a month ago, she had been inexplicably falsely accused by Ding Jing and Liu Yujie. She had almost been removed from the cheerleading team because of it. Although the matter was eventually resolved, from that point on, she had officially become enemies with them.

Now, facing Ding Jing’s hostile gaze, she felt no need to acknowledge her. She simply packed up her things and left the library.

At dusk, after classes ended, students rushed out like caged pigeons finally set free. The moment the bell rang, they couldn’t wait to charge out, making the teaching building’s corridors exceptionally crowded with a sea of moving heads everywhere.

There was cheerleading practice that evening. Lu Yan and Deng Man left the classroom together, discussing visiting Tang Jie while struggling through the crowd.

When they reached the stairs between the second and first floors, just as Lu Yan was about to step down, someone suddenly pushed her hard from behind. Caught off guard, she lurched forward, quickly bracing herself against the wall. Despite the support, her ankle still twisted.

Deng Man was startled and quickly steadied her. “Are you okay?” She wanted to crouch down to check Lu Yan’s foot, but it was too crowded to even stand properly, let alone bend down.

Afraid Deng Man might fall too, Lu Yan quickly said, “I’m fine.” Looking back, she saw it was a classmate from Class Three named Li Manli, who, like Liu Yujie, was one of Ding Jing’s lackeys.

Seeing Lu Yan staring at her, Li Manli said innocently, “What’s wrong?”

Just then, a male student nearby said, “Li Manli, that wasn’t right. I saw you push Lu Yan just now.”

“How could you do that?” Deng Man’s face reddened with anger. Though she wasn’t good at confrontation and her voice lacked force, her accusatory tone was very clear.

Several gazes immediately turned their way. Li Manli bit her lip, unable to back down, and had to force herself to apologize: “Lu Yan, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to just now – there were too many people, and I almost fell myself. I wasn’t even aware I had pushed you. How’s your foot? Are you okay?”

Students were still pushing forward, and the three of them could barely stand for a moment before being forced downward by the crowd. Their conversation was cut short until they reached level ground on the first floor of the teaching building, finally escaping the crowd and finding stable footing.

Though Lu Yan’s injury wasn’t severe, thinking about the cause and effect made her feel the situation was too suspicious. She said to Li Manli, “Why don’t you help me to the infirmary? The school nurse should still be there.”

Li Manli showed a troubled expression. “But cheerleading practice is about to start. I’ve already missed once before – if I’m late again, the teacher will remove me from the team. Your injury doesn’t look serious. Why don’t you let Deng Man go with you? I’ll help explain to the teacher.”

“Only a doctor can tell how serious an injury is.” Lu Yan gave her a meaningful look. “This is simple – we’ll go to the gymnasium together, ask for leave, and then you can accompany me to the infirmary.”

Deng Man added, “The competition is only three months away, and the teacher already said we can’t miss any practice. If Lu Yan can’t perform because of this sudden incident, who knows what the teacher will think? Since you ‘accidentally’ pushed Lu Yan, we’d better explain this to the teacher together.”

Li Manli had no choice but to say, “Alright then.”

At the gymnasium, Lu Yan and Deng Man brought Li Manli to explain the situation to the teacher.

Li Manli kept downplaying the incident, occasionally glancing at Ding Jing and Liu Yujie while speaking. Fortunately, Lu Yan was articulate and good at emphasizing key points, and with Deng Man’s support, they managed to prevent Li Manli from evading responsibility.

The teacher, having studied physical education, had experience with common sports injuries. After understanding the situation, she had Lu Yan sit on a nearby chair to examine the injury.

After a careful examination, the teacher told Lu Yan, “It’s not serious, but to avoid making it worse, you should skip practice today. You don’t need to go to the infirmary – just have a classmate get some medicinal wine from there to rub on it. For the next couple of days, watch your teammates’ movements from the stands, and join practice again when you’re completely healed.”

“What happened here?” Someone suddenly spoke from behind. Lu Yan looked up to see several basketball team members, apparently just coming from the back lounge, looking surprised at the scene.

Jiang Chengyi was among them. Though he didn’t speak, when his gaze fell on Lu Yan, his brow furrowed slightly.

“This student sprained her ankle,” the teacher said.

She stood up and turned to Li Manli: “Since you accidentally pushed your classmate, you go to the infirmary for Lu Yan.”

Li Manli responded with an “Oh,” and quickly ran off, afraid the teacher might suspect something else.

The teacher told the others, “It’s getting late, everyone gets in formation.”

Deng Man put her backpack by Lu Yan’s feet and said worriedly, “I’ll go practice then. Call me if you need anything.”

“Go ahead.” Lu Yan tried to appear relaxed. “Learn the moves well – I’ll be counting on you to teach me later.”

Meanwhile, the basketball team members sat down on the long bench. Since their practice hadn’t started yet, they were casually chatting and drinking sodas.

However, they seemed to have some unspoken agreement, as they all kept a certain distance from Lu Yan.

Lu Yan noticed that Jiang Chengyi had only appeared briefly before disappearing. Just as she was wondering about this, someone sat down beside her. Turning her head, she saw Jiang Chengyi had suddenly materialized, holding out a box to her. “Here.”

“What’s this?”

“It’s for sports injuries,” Jiang Chengyi said with a smile. “For cases like yours, it should heal after using it twice.”

Lu Yan saw that the packaging was exceptionally elegant and sensed that the contents would be better than what was available in stores. Knowing that a foot injury would cause many inconveniences, and wanting to recover as soon as possible, she accepted it. “Thank you.”

There was another reason – although she desperately wanted to keep her distance from him, she didn’t want to appear too sensitive in front of so many people.

Opening the box, she found a spray, a small medicine bottle, and some kind of white medical patch. The packaging was covered in dense English text instructions.

Just then, Li Manli ran back with a plastic bag containing a bottle of red flower oil. She reached it toward Lu Yan perfunctorily, saying, “Here you go.”

Jiang Chengyi prevented Lu Yan from taking it, saying sarcastically, “Keep that for yourself.”

Li Manli’s heart trembled. Having been classmates for so long, she understood Jiang Chengyi well. She knew his seemingly harmless appearance was just that – appearance. The more she thought about it, the more her hands and feet went cold. She stood there, unable to find words to respond.

Ding Jing kept glancing their way, inadvertently meeting Jiang Chengyi’s cold gaze. Her expression became extremely uncomfortable. Eager to distance herself, she pretended not to see Li Manli’s pleading looks and forcefully turned away.

Lu Yan read the instructions for a while, then opened the bottle and started applying the medicine.

“Your strength is too weak,” Jiang Chengyi watched her hands, somewhat absently. “At this rate, it won’t heal for half a month.”

“How should I apply it then?”

“Let me help you.” Jiang Chengyi’s voice lowered.

Lu Yan’s face instantly reddened. She looked up at him, but his expression was sincere, showing no sign of intentional offense.

The guys next door had an exceptional hearing and somehow overheard, holding back laughter as they said, “Damn, Jiang Chengyi, you’re something else.”

Jiang Chengyi silently mouthed the word “scram.”

The group was still chuckling but showed enough sense to stop talking.

“No need.” Lu Yan’s face was still burning. She felt Jiang Chengyi was being slyly mischievous and gave him a slight sideways glance, firmly refusing.

The next day at noon, considering Lu Yan’s unhealed foot injury, Deng Man went to buy lunch for her as soon as class ended.

The classroom was empty as all the students had gone out to find food.

Lu Yan sat for a while, then took out the small box from her bag to apply medicine.

As she was applying it, someone suddenly placed takeout food on her desk.

“Hungry, right?”

She looked up to see Jiang Chengyi.

After hesitating, she said, “No need, my friend went to buy food for me.”

“I know,” Jiang Chengyi raised his eyebrows. “But at your friend’s pace, it might take half an hour before she gets back. Have something to tide you over.”

Although the takeout box was tightly sealed, appetizing aromas still wafted up. Lu Yan’s gaze drifted over, seeing it was Takoyaki from a popular shop near the school. Boys didn’t care for it much, but girls loved it. In the blink of an eye, her mouth was watering. After struggling for a moment, even knowing Jiang Chengyi had anticipated this reaction, she still opened the box without dignity: “Alright then, thank you.”

She asked him, “Have you eaten?”

“Yes.” He had no interest in such food, just watching her eat from the side.

After a while, his gaze fell on her ankle, and he was visibly shocked. He crouched down for a closer look, frowning deeply: “Damn, why is your foot so much more swollen than yesterday?”

Lu Yan paused, thinking to herself that indeed it hadn’t been this serious yesterday. But yesterday evening, after Deng Man had dropped her off by a taxi at the entrance of her residential complex, she felt someone following her shortly after she started walking. When she looked back, there was no one there.

Remembering the encounters from the past few days, she broke out in a cold sweat and quickly reached for her phone to call her mother. But because she was too panicked, she wasn’t paying attention and twisted her ankle again.

Later, she told her mother about this, who was so worried she didn’t even eat dinner, instead going to the security office to ask the guards. The security guard assured them confidently: “Just a few kids entered the complex earlier, students like your daughter returning from school. Don’t worry, our complex has always had good security. We don’t let suspicious people from outside in randomly.”

Hearing this, Lu Yan, not wanting to worry her mother, said she was being too paranoid and had caused her mother unnecessary anxiety.

Of course, there was no need to tell Jiang Chengyi all this, so she said casually, “Oh, I accidentally twisted it again at home last night.”

Jiang Chengyi took the medicine bottle, poured some into his palm, and crouched down to apply it: “This needs to be massaged in, otherwise it will stay swollen for a long time. Miss a few more practices, and the cheerleading team might remove you.”

Lu Yan’s heart nearly stopped in her chest, and she almost dropped her takoyaki in shock. She quickly said, “No need, I can massage it myself.”

“Did you massage it yourself last night? Did that work?”

She was speechless.

“Lu Yan, can you stop thinking the worst of me?”

She still shook her head: “No, no.”

Jiang Chengyi gave a meaningful smile and said with double meaning, “Lu Yan, what are you afraid of?”

She froze.

What was she afraid of?

She didn’t know herself.

She only knew that compared to others, Jiang Chengyi always made her feel uncomfortable. Her usual calm composure disappeared, leaving only passivity and awkwardness. This feeling made her very uneasy as if something was taking root and sprouting in her heart, always making her anxious.

Most frustratingly, while she had ten thousand ways to refuse him, at this moment she couldn’t say a single word.

Seeing her hesitation, he took it as consent and applied the medicine to her ankle.

His palm seemed to carry an electric current – the moment it touched her skin, it sent a shiver down her spine.

Her entire body tensed up, almost forgetting the pain. When awareness returned, she couldn’t help crying out, “That hurts!”

“Oh.” His ears instantly turned red. “Bear with it.”

Fortunately, the process was short and finished in just a few quick moves. When he stood up, he was not as composed as usual.

The early summer sunlight generously poured into the classroom. An unusual silence surrounded them. She unconsciously stared at his t-shirt, feeling as if hot waves were washing over her ears, her thoughts stirred by this inexplicable force without rest.

With a kind of premonition, she felt uneasy and had the urge to stand up and flee. After who knows how long, she heard him say: “Lu Yan, I like you. Will you be my girlfriend?”

His voice had a clear, stream-like quality, subtly different from usual, particularly low and enchanting.

Feeling as if someone had gently plucked her heartstrings, her heart began to beat violently.