This stretch of road that Zhao Yiran had called the most beautiful scenery of her life felt, to Qi Xi right now, like a road to certain doom.
Qi Xi didn’t know where to look, and Gu Yan seemed to be in the same boat—staring at a couple making out was clearly rude, and with the bus this packed, staring out the window had become a luxury too. Though Gu Yan’s height let him tilt his head up toward the ceiling, every time the bus jolted, his gaze would inevitably drift back toward Qi Xi. Sometimes it was just a passing glance, but for some reason, Qi Xi always seemed to sense it, as if by some strange instinct.
It wasn’t as if no one else looked at her, but somehow only Gu Yan’s gaze felt different—as if it had physical substance, like a small brush sweeping gently across her heart, making it flutter helplessly.
Qi Xi felt so nervous she didn’t know where to put her hands or feet, as if her entire body had become superfluous—she wanted to shrink away in front of Gu Yan, to shrink until she vanished entirely.
She began praying for the next stop to come quickly, but fate, it seemed, was determined to work against her—the bus, far from speeding up, actually slowed further, growing bumpier still, thanks to road construction ahead causing traffic.
A sudden hard brake sent Qi Xi, pushed forward by the couple behind her, tumbling straight into Gu Yan’s arms.
Gu Yan smelled of pleasant fabric softener, along with that clean scent of sun-warmed laundry.
It was an entirely ordinary, unremarkable scent, and yet—maybe it was the thin air in the packed bus—Qi Xi felt her face flush, her body go weak, her thoughts slow and her mind grow sluggish.
Almost reflexively, as if she’d touched something electric, Qi Xi jerked quickly away from him—but before she’d even fully steadied herself, the bus took another sharp turn, and she toppled right back into Gu Yan’s arms.
The jolting left Qi Xi frustrated and embarrassed, though for the other couples on the bus, it seemed to serve as a kind of romantic mood-setter—boys tightening their arms around their girlfriends as if promising to protect them.
By contrast, Qi Xi and Gu Yan stood out as the odd ones.
With Gu Yan making no move to hold Qi Xi steady amid the swaying bus, he looked, from any angle, like some clueless, arrogant guy who had no idea how to take care of his girlfriend.
That alone might have been fine, except Qi Xi hadn’t expected what came next…
Nearby, one half of another couple, apparently trying to show off how considerate he was, began speaking in a voice he probably thought was too quiet to be overheard, comparing himself favorably to a certain handsome-but-useless type of boyfriend. Except… the guy’s voice really wasn’t quiet at all.
Not only did Qi Xi and Gu Yan hear it clearly, so did several other couples nearby.
And as for who exactly this “handsome but doesn’t know how to take care of you” reference was pointed at—anyone with eyes could tell it was Gu Yan.
In an instant, Qi Xi found herself the recipient of a wave of sympathetic, curious looks from all around, which, upon landing on Gu Yan’s face, took on a faintly knowing understanding.
Qi Xi felt a bit mortified. Gu Yan still looked composed on the surface, but Qi Xi sensed he was a little embarrassed too, because he shot her a glare.
Though he didn’t say a word, Qi Xi read his unspoken meaning perfectly clearly from that look—this is what you get for wanting to take the bus.
Just then, the bus jolted again. Qi Xi, reaching up to brush back her hair, missed grabbing the handrail in time, and given the momentum of the fall, she was about to crash straight into the couple beside her.
But the collision she’d braced for never happened—a hand reached out and caught her around the waist, stopping her from pitching forward into disaster.
Following the arm up with her eyes, Qi Xi found herself looking at Gu Yan’s perfectly composed face.
The man had his arm around her waist, his expression calm and steady, no trace of tenderness in it, no particular emotion in his eyes at all—as if what he held in his arm were a vase, or a stray branch.
But despite how unbothered the gesture looked, once the bus started jolting again, Qi Xi realized just how effectively his arm was working—she no longer swayed and stumbled with every bump. Gu Yan held her steadily, half-cradled against him, giving her a secure space to stay upright.
And because of that steadying arm, every time the bus jolted, Qi Xi had no choice but to fall right into his embrace, as if throwing herself at him on purpose.
It felt as though there was absolutely no safe distance left between them anymore.
Qi Xi found herself so nervous she could barely breathe properly, her palms faintly damp with sweat, her thoughts and reactions growing sluggish. Even though Gu Yan wasn’t doing anything unnecessary, the presence of his hand at her waist felt overwhelmingly strong.
Once the bus reached a smoother stretch of road and a few passengers got off, leaving a bit more room in the cabin, Qi Xi wriggled free, extracting herself from Gu Yan’s protective hold.
Qi Xi felt Gu Yan was truly some kind of cosmic force sent to throw her off balance—like a magnetic field disrupting her normal functioning, leaving her like an astronaut doing a spacewalk who’d lost all sense of direction back to the ship. It seemed like the moment she got close to Gu Yan, everything about her simply stopped working right.
But just as she’d put a small bit of distance between them and hadn’t even had time to catch her breath, she suddenly felt a tightening at her waist—before she could even process it, Gu Yan had already pulled her back.
Qi Xi’s first reaction was pure confusion. But the culprit’s face remained perfectly calm and composed.
Looking at Gu Yan, she murmured, “Why are you still holding on to me?”
Faced with Qi Xi’s confused look, Gu Yan’s voice stayed perfectly level—the man seemed reluctant to explain at first, but perhaps something in Qi Xi’s gaze got to him, because after a moment, he frowned slightly and looked at her, explaining with visible reluctance and characteristic brevity: “People are watching.”
Before Qi Xi could react, she saw Gu Yan purse his lips slightly and say, matter-of-factly, “I don’t want people to get the wrong idea.” He glanced at her and added, “The wrong idea that I’m some kind of jerk.”
“…”
Qi Xi tried to argue with him, but the man was dead set on ignoring her protests, as if being misunderstood as a bad boyfriend concerned him far more than being mistaken for her actual boyfriend.
Qi Xi had never noticed this before, but she was only now realizing just how much Gu Yan cared about what other people thought.
And yet, given how much he cared, the fact that he hadn’t sought revenge on her after being misunderstood because of her outburst at graduation really did show just how magnanimous he’d been toward her.
Gu Yan’s original intention had probably been to keep people from staring at him further—except once he’d put his arm around Qi Xi, even more eyes turned their way.
If anything, Qi Xi found herself growing increasingly self-conscious under all the attention, but with Gu Yan staying perfectly unmoved, she couldn’t very well react too strongly herself, and could only suppress her flushed face, eyes darting around aimlessly—being this close to Gu Yan, she genuinely no longer knew where she was supposed to look, or was even allowed to look.
Fortunately, even a distracting journey eventually comes to an end.
Through the jolting, stuffy, tense ride, Qi Xi finally reached the terminal stop at Rong University, escaping the sealed bus along with the rest of the students and couples, like survivors fleeing disaster.
“Wasn’t this bus route supposed to have the most beautiful scenery?”
Once off the bus, with a bit more walking still needed to reach the campus, as they walked down the tree-lined avenue flanked by phoenix trees on both sides, Gu Yan finally turned to Qi Xi with that pointed question.
Qi Xi had already sent that same question to Zhao Yiran the moment she got off the bus, and Zhao Yiran’s reply had nearly made her furious—of course the beautiful memories and scenery were about riding the bus sweetly with her ex-boyfriend during those young, tender years, who actually looks out the window while riding the bus? Obviously you’re looking at your man!
Gu Yan’s voice was chilly. “What, can’t answer, so you’re just not answering? Tell me where exactly the most beautiful scenery along the way was.”
Of course Qi Xi couldn’t answer that, but she certainly couldn’t fob Gu Yan off with Zhao Yiran’s response either. After racking her brain, all she could manage was a shameless: “Isn’t the most beautiful scenery standing right in front of me?”
Clearing her throat, Qi Xi looked at Gu Yan and pushed through, gritting her teeth: “Gu Yan, aren’t you the most beautiful scenery on the whole bus? It’s not about where the most beautiful scenery is—it’s that wherever you are, that’s the most beautiful scenery! Look, the moment you got back to the Rong University gate, so many underclassmen girls were already sneaking glances at you. When you left, you took the campus scenery with you, and now that you’re back, everything about Rong University feels different again, like it’s been reinjected with life and vitality—I feel like even the words ‘Rong City University’ look more impressive now!”
This had originally just been a desperate bit of flattery Qi Xi threw out, not really expecting Gu Yan to buy it—she’d only meant to change the subject so he’d drop the matter of tricking him into taking that grueling bus ride. But to her surprise, Gu Yan clearly froze after hearing it, staring at her, his face slowly turning red.
This was…
“Are you blushing?”
Gu Yan denied it almost instantly. “No.”
“Then your face…”
“It’s from the heat. It was too hot on the bus earlier.”
Worried that pushing further might make Gu Yan snap at her—already feeling a little guilty about tricking him into that torturous bus ride—Qi Xi didn’t want to provoke him any further, so she just gave an obedient “Oh” of agreement to his explanation.
The two of them walked in silence down the phoenix tree-lined avenue for a while, and soon Qi Xi spotted Gu Xuehan waiting at the campus gate, apparently having arrived slightly earlier than the two of them. Just as Qi Xi was about to breathe a sigh of relief and greet Gu Xuehan, she heard Gu Yan’s voice again—
“How could you even say something like that.”
With that remark, Gu Yan walked briskly toward Gu Xuehan with a perfectly composed expression, glancing back to shoot Qi Xi one last look, his face no longer red, back to his usual cold, hard-to-approach demeanor—except his ears were still red.
No way!
Qi Xi hurried to catch up with him. “You really were blushing, weren’t you? Does no one usually flatter you like that? Don’t you have tons of admirers? Zhao Yiran said the line of people who used to chase you back in college could stretch from the campus gate all the way to downtown!”
Gu Yan looked like he had no desire to acknowledge her, shooting her a sharp glance, though his still-reddened ears undercut the intended effect, giving him a somewhat unconvincing air of bravado. “No one says things like that to my face.”
The man pressed his lips together. “That kind of exaggerated praise sounds completely fake.”
Qi Xi didn’t take offense. “Sure it’s a little fake, but people eat that stuff up! It’s like how some bosses say they hate flattery, but the moment they actually have a subordinate who kisses up to them constantly, even if the flattery is completely over the top, and they know deep down it’s fake, they still can’t help feeling pleased hearing it! You know how it goes, right? There’s a saying about how the ones who flatter, if they keep at it long enough, get everything they want in the end!”
Qi Xi blinked at Gu Yan. “Aren’t you the exact same way, eating this stuff up too?”
“Boring.” Gu Yan frowned slightly at her. “And that internet slang—drop that kind of talk, it sounds vaguely inappropriate. What do you spend your time reading, Qi Xi? Can’t you focus on work?”
The man cleared his throat, then reiterated firmly, “And another thing—I don’t ‘eat it up.’ Stop being ridiculous.”
Qi Xi looked utterly innocent, harboring a bit of mischief inside as she stared at Gu Yan’s face, deciding to press on. “I’m not lying, though. You really were the most beautiful scenery on the whole bus. And the most beautiful scenery on the whole campus, too.”
Sure enough, Gu Yan’s ears reddened again.
The man looked genuinely exasperated now, unable to take it anymore. “Stop talking.”
He glared at her. “You’re talking so loud, people can hear.”
With that, Gu Yan quickly walked away from her, heading toward Gu Xuehan.
Qi Xi hurried to catch up. Aside from Gu Xuehan’s talk on legal career planning, she and Gu Yan would also need to give the underclassmen a short presentation on the firm.
Having learned her lesson just now, Qi Xi said quietly, “Gu Yan, why don’t you handle the presentation part later? I can support from the side.” She added, a little embarrassed, “I’m actually pretty nervous. Can you help me out?”
Gu Yan stopped walking, turned to look at her, his lips pressed flat, not answering.
Qi Xi had to press her palms together, pleading. “Please. Gu Yan, you’re the best person I know.”
Gu Yan turned away quickly, as if he didn’t want to look at her. “You said that so quietly, who’s supposed to hear it?”
How was this man so difficult! One second he complained she was too loud, the next too quiet! How could someone be this hard to please!
Determined, Qi Xi resolved to satisfy Gu Yan’s demand no matter what, and said loudly, with full conviction: “Gu Yan, you’re the best person I know! So you should handle the presentation part this time!”
Sure enough, Gu Yan’s ears turned red again, and this time, curious glances came from all directions. Gu Yan walked off from Qi Xi as if fleeing the scene, his expression perfectly calm and composed, as though he didn’t even know her.
“Fine, fine.” Gu Yan frowned, head down. “Qi Xi, as long as you stop talking, I’ll handle the presentation for you.”
Mission accomplished!
Feeling refreshed and satisfied, Qi Xi immediately clamped her mouth shut and followed Gu Yan toward Gu Xuehan.