Chapter 19

The newly assigned math homework had once again been specially corrected with red pen.

Receiving such a great favor all of a sudden, he would feel uneasy if he didn’t do something in return.

That’s why I didn’t stop Yi Chao from doing these things.

It’s just that he was a bit too diligent.

Whenever I got the same type of question wrong more than three times, he would come over to my seat, ask me when I had time, and say he wanted to explain it to me in person.

I usually preferred to finish things on the same day.

So it was inevitable that I’d run into Lu Yici.

He walked back in from outside, holding a basketball in one hand, followed by a few sweaty boys who were excitedly discussing the game they’d just played.

“Brother Ci’s dunk was amazing!! The main player on the other team looked totally defeated!”

He ran a hand through his hair, revealing his sharp brows and eyes, and immediately noticed Yi Chao explaining problems to me.

Three seconds later-

“Screech-”

A chair was pulled out with some force, as if he was deliberately trying to make some noise.

He leaned back in the chair, his gaze drifting over to me from time to time.

“Anything else you don’t understand?” The tip of his pen landed on the final answer.

“Thanks, that’s all.”

Yi Chao responded with an “Mm,” then took his notebook and went back to his seat.

Seeing that the outsider was gone, the boy next to me looked straight at my face and asked bluntly, “What were you two just doing? Didn’t you say your relationship with him was just about money? Why do you seem so close all of a sudden? Don’t tell me you’re using those wallets to keep him?”

Watching his guesses get more and more ridiculous, I cut him off: “You’re overthinking it. We’re just classmates, nothing more.”

“Just classmates, and you were sitting that close? Your heads were practically touching!”

He blurted it out, then realized something was off.

He had no standing, no reason-his tone was strange, clearly unhappy, and there was an inexplicable… hint of jealousy.

He pressed his lips together, then added, “I’m just stating the facts, expressing my curiosity and doubts.”

“Oh.” I responded flatly.

I took a book out of my drawer, and a few pink envelopes fell to the floor.

I bent down to pick them up and stuffed them back into the book.

“What was that just now?” He stared at me, unblinking.

“Love letters.”

“Why do you have love letters?”

I raised an indifferent eyebrow. “You’re kind of stating the obvious.”

“Who sent them?”

“How would I know?”

“How could you not know?!” he shot back immediately.

Hearing this, I put down my pen, turned to look at him, and asked calmly, “Why are you more worked up about this than I am?”

He looked away awkwardly and retorted, “I’m not.”

He sat up straight, took a Chinese textbook from his drawer, and quietly started to preview the lesson.

But he couldn’t stay quiet for even three seconds before pretending to ask casually:

“Hey, Yan Qingyue, do you have a lot of people chasing after you?”

“Why? You want to cut in line?” I replied as I flipped through my book.

Normally, he would have snapped back at me for being so full of myself.

But this time, he stayed silent for a long while. I couldn’t help glancing at him, only to see his ears turning red-maybe from playing basketball, or maybe for some other reason-as he stared intently at his Chinese textbook.

“What?” Noticing my gaze, he asked awkwardly.

I silently looked away.

For some reason, my ears felt a little hot too.