Chapter 12 Ye Shu: “So Cute.”

【Luo Yi: Do we live very close?】

【One Leaf Book: Not far. Just a few kilometers.】

【Zhou Jiahang: Don’t you live in White Deer Manor? How is that the same way?】

【One Leaf Book: Does my family only have one place?】

【Zhou Jiahang: …】

You’re rich, so whatever you say is right.

Even a cunning rabbit has three burrows, not to mention an exceptionally intelligent genius like you.

Saying you only have one nest is truly an insult to you.

【Tang Kunyu: No stirring up hatred in the group. Keep showing off and you’ll get muted.】

【Sun Yiman: Ah, I forgot to buy drinks. What should I do?】

【Zhou Jiahang: No problem. Let Ye Xiaoyang go buy them. He was just showing off his wealth.】

As the saying goes, show off and get struck by lightning. This retribution just came a little too fast.

Luo Yi pressed her lips together and smiled.

She was a bit thirsty, so she went to the kitchen to pour some water, bringing along the book she had borrowed today while she was at it.

When she returned to the computer, there was a new verification message.

【“One Leaf Book” requests to add you as a friend.】

For some reason, her heart skipped a beat.

The hand holding the cup paused for a moment, then she slowly set the cup down.

Her fingers gripping the mouse hesitated for a second before she clicked “Accept.”

After accepting, he didn’t send any message.

Luo Yi relaxed a little. If Ye Xiaoyang spoke to her privately, she would feel pressure.

It wasn’t because of any oppressive feeling from his status as the academic god, but because of an emotion that was hard to explain clearly.

Luo Yi planned to read a couple of pages to calm down.

She didn’t start with the most famous one, Rashomon . Instead, she chose the short story titled Hell Screen to read first.

“Hell Screen” was a specialized Buddhist term referring to paintings that depicted various scenes of suffering in hell in order to encourage good and punish evil.

A painter, in order to create a bleak and realistic Hell Screen folding screen, did not hesitate to watch with his own eyes as his daughter was burned alive in a sea of fire.

Once Luo Yi got absorbed in it, she forgot about everything else and immersed herself completely in the story.

The novel wasn’t long. After finishing it, she actually felt a chill down her spine and a sense of loss.

She came back to herself and looked at the computer. Ye Xiaoyang had already sent several messages.

【One Leaf Book: What drink do you want?】

【One Leaf Book: Coke? Sprite? Herbal tea? Or juice?】

【One Leaf Book: ?】

The last message was from ten minutes ago.

Luo Yi hurriedly put down the book and typed on the keyboard.

【Romantic: Sorry, I was just reading. Is there coconut milk?】

She thought Ye Xiaoyang might already be gone, but he replied instantly.

【One Leaf Book: There is. Got one for you.】

【Romantic: Thank you.】

【One Leaf Book: Still reading during the holiday? So serious?】

【Romantic: It’s the book I borrowed from the library today, not a textbook.】

【One Leaf Book: Is it good?】

【Romantic: Pretty good.】

Without realizing it, the topic had been opened by Ye Xiaoyang.

Luo Yi discovered that he was actually quite talkative, at least online.

She had thought that a science top student like him rarely read these kinds of books, but she hadn’t expected him to have a wide range of knowledge and be able to chat a few lines on any topic with her.

Chatting was addictive, especially with someone like him.

In the blink of an eye it was already half past seven. You Nianyao was picked up from her tutoring class by Luo Xueqing.

With a “bang,” the bedroom door was pushed open by You Nianyao.

Luo Yi’s eyelids jumped. She immediately closed the chat window.

“Nagging every day is so annoying.” You Nianyao threw her schoolbag onto the bed. Clearly she had just had an unpleasant argument with Luo Xueqing on the way back.

The icon in the lower right corner was still jumping. Luo Yi carefully set the computer to silent, then replied to Ye Xiaoyang with one sentence.

【Romantic: I have something to do. Logging off for now.】

【One Leaf Book: See you tomorrow.】

Luo Yi exited QQ, then turned to look at You Nianyao, who was lying stiffly on the bed like a corpse.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“What else could it be? Every time she opens her mouth it’s ‘someone else’s kid, someone else’s kid.’” You Nianyao sat up from the bed and said angrily, “She even compared me to Senior Ye Xiaoyang. Why doesn’t she go compare herself to Bill Gates?”

Luo Yi: “…”

Alright, she had no comment on this matter.

The person on the other end of the computer seemed not to know that in some corner of the earth, an innocent girl had been caught in the crossfire because of his existence.

Fortunately, Luo Hengzhou didn’t know Ye Xiaoyang.

Of course, Luo Hengzhou never nagged her about studies.

In his view, as long as Luo Yi was healthy and well, that was more important than anything.

“Auntie is doing it for your own good,” Luo Yi could only bring out the universal golden sentence to comfort You Nianyao.

“Hmph, she’s just using the name of love to morally kidnap me!” You Nianyao said indignantly. Who knew where she had learned these phrases.

“Come out and wash your hands for dinner—” Luo Xueqing’s voice came from the living room.

You Nianyao ignored her. Luo Yi called out, “Got it, coming right away.”

Luo Yi closed the laptop, walked over to You Nianyao, and tugged her arm. “Alright, go out and eat.”

Uncle had social engagements tonight, so only the three of them were at the dinner table.

Luo Xueqing had cooked millet porridge, fried a few egg pancakes, and paired them with some small pickled vegetables. The taste was pretty good.

You Nianyao ate with big mouthfuls, not saying a single word the entire time, as if she wanted to use silence to protest her grievances to Luo Xueqing.

The atmosphere at the table was a bit awkward.

“Auntie, tomorrow I’m going on a spring outing with classmates,” Luo Yi said.

“Where are you going for the spring outing?” Luo Xueqing asked.

“Liusha Bay.”

“Do you need to bring any food?” Luo Xueqing added a small spoonful of porridge for Luo Yi.

“No need. The other classmates prepared some.”

“Oh, then be careful on the way. Go early and come back early.”

“Got it.”

You Nianyao squinted and observed for a while, then said, “Mom, tomorrow I also want to go out and watch a movie with classmates.”

“I think you look like a movie.” Luo Xueqing’s attitude completely reversed.

“We finally get two days off. Why won’t you let me go watch a movie?” You Nianyao threw down her chopsticks and refused to continue.

“There’s still a math class tomorrow afternoon. Two hundred yuan per class. The money has already been paid.” Luo Xueqing had solid reasoning.

“That old man doesn’t even teach as well as our math teacher. Going to class is pure waste of time!” You Nianyao was dissatisfied.

“Going to watch a movie isn’t a waste of time?” Luo Xueqing scolded. “How many days are left until the high school entrance exam? Can you act a little more sensible?”

Seeing that You Nianyao was almost about to cry from anger, Luo Yi said, “Auntie, just let her go watch. Third year of junior high also needs to balance work and rest.”

“She only ranked twentieth in the class this midterm. If this continues, never mind No.1 High—I think even getting into No.3 High will be difficult.” Luo Xueqing was frustrated that the iron wouldn’t become steel.

Auntie was clearly in a fit of temper. Luo Yi didn’t dare say more, or she might pour oil on the fire.

In short, the meal ended unhappily.

After returning to the room, You Nianyao lay on the desk doing homework. Luo Yi also didn’t dare play next to her, afraid of touching her sensitive nerves.

One good thing about No.1 High was that during holidays they basically didn’t leave students with much homework. So Luo Yi sat at the head of the bed reading that short story collection.

“Ai.” You Nianyao was tangled up on a major quadratic function problem in math and let out a question from the soul. “Jie, is it true that once you get into high school it becomes easier? The teachers all say that.”

Luo Yi was speechless. Which unscrupulous teacher was lying to kids? Didn’t they have to take responsibility for making up nonsense?

If the life of third-year junior high was hell, then high school was completely purgatory. The study pressure and sense of urgency couldn’t be mentioned in the same breath.

People were like donkeys tempted by a carrot, walking forward step by step in the cycle of the scam.

Only when they reached the end and looked back did they discover that the word “easy” had never existed on the road of life.

If one really had to say it, only the infant period was easy.

But what could Luo Yi say?

People willingly endured hardship only for the sake of a hope.

She turned a page and softly replied, “Mm.”

Hearing that “mm,” You Nianyao seemed to have taken a calming pill. Her mood improved quite a bit.

“I heard Senior Ye Xiaoyang is in the same class as you,” You Nianyao said. “Is his grades really that good, and is he really that handsome?”

Luo Yi silently nodded.

“Is he going on the spring outing with you guys tomorrow?”

“He’s going.”

“Ah, so envious.” You Nianyao propped up her chin and said, “Senior Ye Xiaoyang gets to go out and play during the holiday, but my mom insists I stay home and study.”

Seeing her eyes sparkling, Luo Yi asked, “Do you admire him?”

“He’s the idol of our entire school!” You Nianyao got energized. “When he was at Xiuwen before, so many girls wrote him love letters, from first year to third year of junior high.”

Luo Yi casually responded, “Did you write any?”

“I—” You Nianyao paused, deliberated for half a second, then said, “I definitely didn’t. He doesn’t even know me.”

Luo Yi felt that the Ye Xiaoyang in You Nianyao’s mouth was not quite the same as the Ye Xiaoyang she knew.

According to her, Ye Xiaoyang’s attitude toward girls had always been lukewarm—neither particularly close nor particularly cold.

But when Luo Yi recalled the things that had happened these past few days, she always felt that Ye Xiaoyang’s attitude toward her… at least couldn’t be considered dislike.

At ten o’clock, after washing up, the two of them got into bed to rest.

Luo Yi wasn’t very used to sharing a bed with someone else. Even though they had separate quilts, she still felt awkward.

On the other side, You Nianyao was already sleeping soundly. It seemed she really had been drained of all her energy by studying.

Luo Yi rested her head on the pillow and tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.

She took out her phone. It was almost midnight.

Since she was bored anyway, she opened QQ and discovered a little red dot in the Moments notification area.

She hadn’t used Moments for a long time. When she clicked in, it turned out a new comment had been left on her photo album.

Luo Yi suddenly felt flustered. Her Moments were set to visible only to friends. Today she had only added two new friends—Tang Kunyu and Ye Xiaoyang.

In her album she had put some messy photos, like the one of her wearing a silly paper hat on her birthday.

When she was little she looked like a bean sprout, silly and dumb.

She didn’t mind other people seeing them, but deep in her heart she silently prayed it wasn’t Ye Xiaoyang.

Yet whatever one fears comes to pass.

The photo that had been commented on was exactly the one of her wearing that silly paper hat with two streaks of cream smeared on her face.

【One Leaf Book: Very cute.】

Author’s Note:

Hands shaking, heart roaring—I want to be your boyfriend.

Hurry up and wave the flags and shout for the male lead (voice cracking)!