Xu You looked at him extremely calmly, “The pervert sees perversion in everything.”

Xie Ci was left speechless.

“Your guts are pretty big now, huh? Even talking back to me?”

He raised his chin, deliberately acting roguish, stretching out his index finger to tap Xu You’s shoulder. “Little classmate, aren’t you afraid the school bully will beat you up?”

This person sat on the ground unscrupulously, his whole body emanating a rogue and forceful aura, yet also carrying a bit of childlike innocence.

Xu You almost laughed out loud.

In the distance, two or three people gathered together teasing.

One person had a short towel hanging around his neck, his hand resting on Song Yifan’s shoulder, asking quietly: “Hey, that girl in the school uniform—is she Brother Ci’s girlfriend?”

As everyone knew, Xie Ci was particularly wild, changing girlfriends like it was a game. Maybe the girl who went out with him this time would be replaced by another the next time they saw him playing ball. So this time when everyone saw a new face, they still weren’t surprised, assuming Xie Ci had changed to a new one again.

Only this time, compared to the past ones, well… she looked…

Just a tiny bit more plain.

Song Yifan laughed: “Whether he can successfully pursue her or not is still uncertain.”

“With A’Ci’s qualifications, does he even need to pursue others?” One person was surprised and didn’t quite believe it.

Another person also agreed in agreement: “Yeah, in the past it always seemed like others were throwing themselves at him. I’ve never really seen A’Ci pursue a girl.”

The blame lay only in this group of people being too young.

Song Yifan smiled without speaking, remembering near the end of last semester when he and Xie Ci had discussed this matter of pursuing girls.

Xie Ci was dating a third-year girl at that time. How did he put it? Oh right:

Dating? Just date casually. Who actually puts their heart into it?

Song Yifan asked: “Do you like being pursued by others?”

The person being asked scoffed.

Song Yifan said again: “I notice all your past girlfriends pursued you. I thought you had this kind of preference.”

Actually, girls who had dated Xie Ci all shared one feeling:

Too exhausting.

He couldn’t really be called fickle. He just never wanted to make any effort, like a child with a natural sense of indifference.

It wasn’t until that transfer student came that Song Yifan felt Xie Ci treated her a bit differently from other girls.

According to his observations, Xie Ci generally rarely took the initiative to flirt with girls. In front of everyone, even with girlfriends he only occasionally interacted. But with Xu You, Xie Ci really went all out in hot pursuit, never letting up until he’d thoroughly bullied her. Unfortunately, Xu You’s reaction time was too slow and couldn’t understand the special meaning in this.

Other people were still leisurely standing aside gossiping and discussing.

After a while, Song Yifan slowly said: “If Xie Ci likes someone, would it even be others’ turn to pursue him?”

Just as the words fell, there was suddenly a girl’s scream on the basketball court.

A basketball that had slipped from someone’s hands in midair, whooshing with swift wind sounds, smashed toward the basketball hoop.

There were two people there.

Xu You hadn’t yet reacted when she only saw Xie Ci make a quick movement, tackling her to the ground.

She was knocked over by that tremendous force, instinctively closing her eyes. Her head knocked on the ground with a thud.

A loud crash sounded by her ear.

Her heartbeat was scared into rapid pounding, jumping irregularly.

She felt the person on top of her let out a muffled grunt after being hit, and the arm supporting himself by her ear went soft.

The basketball smashed against the person’s body and bounced back, bouncing up and down on the ground.

After two or three seconds, the crowd that had been shocked stupid by this sudden accident finally reacted, all surrounding them with shouts and calls.

Xu You was dazed and stunned, still shocked and not having fully recovered.

Among the noisy voices and chaotic footsteps.

Sweat dripped from his chin.

Xie Ci pressed down on her shoulder, turned his head, and lying by her ear said softly: “Don’t be afraid.”

—

That evening, Xu You lay on the small bed in her dormitory, eyes staring at the ceiling, tossing and turning unable to sleep.

Her mind was full of the image of Xie Ci’s back as he was helped away by a group of people. Was he okay or not?

The dormitory lights hadn’t been turned off yet. The roommates were all in bed, discussing various interesting incidents from today’s sports meet, as well as all kinds of big and small gossip in the grade.

“Hey, do you guys know Zeng Qilin?” A thin female voice sounded—it was Chen Xiao.

“Zeng Qilin?” Liao Yuemin thought for a moment. “I think I know him. Third year, right?”

“Right, on the school team.” Chen Xiao answered, speaking with a somewhat mysterious tone: “It seems our school got into it with people from No. 2 High School a few days ago. In a few days, Zeng Qilin will probably find people to block them at No. 2 High School.”

“Oh my god, what happened? How come I don’t know anything about this?” Liao Yuemin’s surprised voice rang out.

Like Xu You, Li Lingfang had little interest in this kind of topic—reading novels was more interesting. So for a time, only two people remained in the dormitory asking and answering questions.

Chen Xiao shared the gossip she knew: “I’m not too clear about the specifics either. Anyway, my friend just told me that people from No. 2 High School provoked Zeng Qilin and his group.”

“Zeng Qilin… is he very impressive?”

Chen Xiao rolled her eyes. “What do you think?”

“I don’t think I’ve really heard others mention him much.”

“That’s because he keeps a low profile. His family has power and influence, and he’s even mixed with gangs before.”

Xu You didn’t know what they were talking about—in one ear and out the other—as she focused on being lost in thought.

The gossip continued.

At the same time, the phone Xu You had placed under her pillow vibrated lightly.

It was a text message notification sound.

Actually, she didn’t usually use her phone much—it was locked in her cabinet, occasionally taken out to call her parents and aunt. But today was the sports meet, and having promised to go out with Fu Xueli tomorrow, she’d taken it out for convenient contact.

She rolled over, fumbled for her phone, and brought it before her eyes.

The cool metal shell pressed against her palm.

Xu You lit up the screen, squinting her eyes to adjust to the sudden bright light.

The text was from an unfamiliar number. The message content was just a period.

Xu You was puzzled for a while. Her phone number was only obtained after coming to Lin City. Only relatives and Fu Xueli knew it—she hadn’t had time to inform her former classmates. Who could this stranger be…

Just when she thought someone had sent it by mistake and was about to turn off her phone, another text came, still brief—just two words:

[Asleep?]

Suddenly, Xu You had a premonition in her heart, vaguely guessing who he was.

As if telepathically connected with her, Chen Xiao said from the side:

“Oh right, you should at least know Xie Ci, right? Zeng Qilin is his older brother.”

Xie Ci…

Xu You wanted to ask who he was, deleting and typing in the message sending field. But she still held back. She put away her phone and placed it back by her pillow.

Before long, there was another ding ding ding of text message notification sounds.

By the fourth time it rang, Xu You sighed, grabbed her phone preparing to switch it to silent. After opening it, her finger still paused, and she couldn’t help but open the inbox.

That person was very persistent, having sent several more messages:

[You’re very arrogant]

[Not replying to me]

[?]

Even sending punctuation marks as individual messages, as if phone fees meant nothing.

Xu You helplessly shook her head, carefully considering her words before sending back:

[Xie Ci?]

The other side replied almost instantly:

[Who else?]

Xu You again couldn’t think of words to reply to him for a long while.

But the phone kept vibrating continuously:

[Do you have no conscience]

Seeing the inexplicable reproach, Xu You was confused. After being stunned, she replied:

[What did I do?]

As soon as Xie Ci received this text message and finished reading these few words, he couldn’t help but laugh. He could even imagine Xu You’s expression when sending this text—how serious, how proper, and a bit cautious.

He couldn’t suppress his laughter. Typing with one hand, his thumb flying across the keyboard:

[Of course you did something wrong.]

Xu You quietly held her phone, opened his message to look at it, and pondered for quite a while.

She couldn’t figure out anything and just felt the two people’s conversation was too boring. She put away her phone, preparing to sleep.

But the other side wouldn’t let it go and called her.

As soon as the phone ringtone sounded, the dormitory people’s conversation stopped, all looking at Xu You’s bed.

“Who is it, A’Chai? Calling you so late.” Chen Xiao asked.

Being asked this, Xu You began to feel guilty and didn’t look at the phone, wanting to hang up directly.

Who knew she accidentally pressed the wrong button, and immediately a voice came from the other end—

“Hello?”

After hesitating for two or three seconds, Xu You sat up from bed, put the phone in her pajama pocket, and fumbled her way down from the bed.

“It’s my older brother.” Xu You explained with a forced smile, then added dryly: “He should have just finished evening self-study.”

Chen Xiao was happily chatting gossip and didn’t notice her unnatural expression, nodding in belief.

Xu You pulled open the glass window door on the balcony and slipped through sideways.

“Hello?” Her voice was tiny, scattered by the night wind.

The voice on the other end of the phone had some mockery: “Having an affair with me? Even specially running out to answer the phone.”

“That’s because I don’t want to disturb my roommates.” Xu You couldn’t help but retort.

The campus at late night had dim yellow street lamps by the trees. Insect chirps and cicada calls, a sky full of starlight.

In the distance, a faint mixed fragrance of unknown flowers drifted over.

Xu You stared at a certain point in a daze. She was already quiet by nature. When Xie Ci didn’t speak, she couldn’t speak even more.

“Heh.”

He laughed lowly twice in his throat. “Call me ‘older brother’ a couple of times for me to hear.”

Xu You knew he must have heard just now and was deliberately saying this. Her face couldn’t help but redden, feeling extremely embarrassed. “Don’t keep joking with me, okay?”

“I’m not.” He said, “I’m serious.”

“You…” She frowned, not engaging with this topic, but instead hesitating: “Are you okay? You were hit by the basketball this afternoon.”

Xie Ci answered, “How could I be okay? I was in so much pain. Who would have thought you’d be so heartless—in the blink of an eye, you disappeared.”

He sensed Xu You’s guilt and pressed his advantage even more. “You tell me yourself, how are you going to compensate me?”

Finally getting back to proper business.

“I’ll buy you medicine.” Xu You said sincerely. She had been holding this in for a long time with no chance to say it.

After all, Xie Ci was injured from blocking the ball for her.

“Do I lack that little bit of money from you?”

Xu You was silent.

After a moment, he seemed completely unconcerned. Saying casually:

“Just give yourself to me as compensation. I don’t lack anything—I just lack a girlfriend.”