Chapter 12: I Just Brought It for Wanwan to Eat!

Seeing the girl's guarded look, as if fending off a thief, Jiang Yubai's mouth twitched involuntarily.

Seeing that she looked ready to pick up her tray and bolt, he didn't say a word. He simply walked right past Lin Jianxia and sat in the empty row behind her. Setting his tray down, Jiang Yubai dug into his food without any hesitation.

Beside him, Li Yang looked at the stiff back of "Lin Tingwan" in front of them, then glanced to his left at Jiang Yubai, who was entirely focused on his meal. Having the sense to keep his mouth shut, Li Yang silently shoveled rice into his own mouth.

Barely three or four minutes later, "Lin Tingwan" suddenly stood up. Carrying her completely empty tray, she fled from her seat.

Li Yang waited until he watched her disappear out the cafeteria doors before he finally couldn't hold it in anymore. He nudged Jiang Yubai with his elbow. "I say, Jiang, what's going on?"

"What do you mean, what's going on?" Jiang Yubai casually replied while peeling a shrimp.

"Jiang, I'll admit I was wrong to believe the rumors earlier," Li Yang complained, "but you can't treat me like an idiot. We had so many empty seats over there, but you just had to sit right behind Lin Tingwan?"

"Oh, that." Jiang Yubai tossed the shrimp into his mouth. "I was originally trying to bond with my new desk mate, but it seems she doesn't exactly welcome me."

Hearing this, Li Yang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Come on, Jiang, we're seniors now. Don't you know what Lin Tingwan's personality is like? From freshman year until now, have you ever seen her get close to anyone? No, right?"

He jutted his chin toward the cafeteria doors. "Whether it's guys or girls, whoever tries to strike up a conversation, she either ignores them completely or just nods or shakes her head. Either way, she doesn't make a peep. So, Jiang, you trying to bond with her is like hitting a brick wall. If she actually engaged with you, hell would have frozen over."

"She has aphasia," Jiang Yubai shot back in annoyance. "How do you expect her to make a peep?"

Li Yang choked on his words for a second, then said sheepishly, "Aphasia... well, she could still communicate by writing. But she won't even write notes. She's always cold as ice to everyone."

Hearing this, Jiang Yubai paused, instinctively glancing toward the cafeteria doors. He wondered if he hadn't bumped into Lin Jianxia at Jinxiu New Village, would she have completely ignored his note even after they became desk mates?

"So," Li Yang concluded, "Jiang, if you're really feeling lonely and cold, and you just want a pretty girl to talk to, Lin Tingwan definitely isn't a good choice." Suddenly energized, he said excitedly, "Jiang, I think... that Zhao Yun seems to—"

"Shut up and eat."

"...Oh."

After shoveling down a few more mouthfuls, Li Yang seemed to have opened the floodgates. Smacking his lips, he said, "But speaking of which, are all pretty girls super obsessed with their image? I saw her tray—just some meager vegetables and clear broth. Barely enough to feed a bird. Her figure management is ruthless."

Jiang Yubai couldn't be bothered to reply, silently continuing his meal.

He didn't know if Lin Jianxia was just tight on money this month, or if she always ate this simply. If it was the former, that wasn't too bad. But if it was a long-term habit... he truly couldn't fathom how she managed to endure the grueling academic pressure of senior year on such sparse food. If Jiang Yubai ate that little for a meal, he would probably be starving the moment his afternoon nap ended.

Wait, starving?

Jiang Yubai blinked, a thought suddenly striking him.

During the third period of the afternoon, in study hall.

Lin Jianxia gripped her pen, her brows slightly furrowed as her eyes locked onto an analytic geometry problem. She drew auxiliary lines only to erase them again. Equations gradually crawled into the corners of her scratch paper, but her train of thought remained tangled like a knotted ball of yarn, impossible to straighten out.

A faint yet distinct tightening sensation emanated from her stomach, as if an invisible hand had gently squeezed it. She had long grown accustomed to this feeling. Unconsciously pressing her lips together, she dragged her attention back to the diagram in front of her.

Math was inherently her weak point; otherwise, her homeroom teacher wouldn't have arranged for Jiang Yubai to sit next to her. But this Jiang Yubai, aside from offering absolutely no help with her math grades, was also...

Just as this thought crossed her mind, out of the corner of her eye, Lin Jianxia caught sight of a scratchpad being quietly pushed to the boundary between their two desks.

"Not this again!" she thought, a wave of exasperation washing over her.

It had been almost two days. How could Jiang Yubai still be completely oblivious to her attitude, passing notes over to her every single day!

Taking a deep breath, Lin Jianxia tried to nail her gaze back onto the math problem. But the numbers and symbols seemed shrouded in fog, refusing to enter her brain. She waited patiently for about ten seconds. Sure enough, in her peripheral vision, the scratchpad slowly retreated.

Lin Jianxia breathed a sigh of relief in her heart. According to the pattern of the last two days, after failing to pass the note, this guy would finally settle down for the rest of the period. Although annoying, at least he wasn't at the point of relentless pestering.

At that thought, Lin Jianxia actually felt an unprecedented, tiny trace of goodwill toward him.

"Never mind, forget it," she told herself. Steading her mind, she prepared to conquer the agonizing geometry problem once more.

But just as she found a sliver of clarity, the rustling sound of paper grazing the desk drifted to her ears again.

"Jiang Yubai! I just thought you had gained a bit of sense!" Lin Jianxia's anger flared up. She shifted her gaze slightly, only to suddenly freeze in place.

Sitting perfectly centered on that familiar scratchpad was a massive...

A vacuum-sealed chicken leg.

The translucent, braised soy color gleamed with a greasy shine beneath the plastic wrapping. The firm texture of the meat was clearly visible, making it seem as if the rich, savory aroma of the marinade had pierced through the plastic, wafting faintly toward her.

The moment she saw that chicken leg, Lin Jianxia's stomach let out an incredibly betraying GRUMBLE.

The tips of her ears flushed slightly, and her throat bobbed involuntarily. She forced herself to look away, but that braised sheen and plump silhouette acted like hooks, dragging her gaze back.

Two tiny figures, both looking exactly like Lin Jianxia, were furiously batting at each other inside her head.

The one in the little white dress stomped her foot anxiously, her voice ringing out clearly, "You can't take it! Taking it means showing weakness, which means giving tacit approval to his annoying behavior!"

The one with little black devil horns planted her hands on her hips, speaking with absolute self-righteousness. "Who cares! Didn't we accept that strip of strawberry gummies he gave us on the first day? Besides, we might as well eat it. If all else fails, it'd be great to take back and give Wanwan an extra meal!"

This excuse was the final straw, crushing Lin Jianxia's already precarious resolve. Biting her lower lip, she silently chanted "take it back for Wanwan to eat" in her mind as she reached out and took the chicken leg along with the scratchpad.

Only after stuffing the chicken leg into her schoolbag did Lin Jianxia finally let out a breath and cast her gaze upon the little notebook in front of her.

"Speaking of which, what does your sister like? I need to know ASAP."

Lin Jianxia was speechless.

"Does he really want to use the younger sister to figure out the older sister's preferences that badly?!" she thought, cursing Jiang Yubai, that playboy, upside down and inside out in her heart. As if out of spite, she scribbled three massive words across the scratchpad—"I don't know!"—and forcefully shoved it back.

After doing all that, the lump of irritation in Lin Jianxia's chest finally smoothed out a bit. She secretly swore to never reply to him again. Anyway, the chicken leg was already in her bag; surely he'd be too embarrassed to ask for it back.

Barely half a minute passed before that familiar rustling sound reached her ears again, scratching at the air beside her like tiny claws.

"I won't reply! I absolutely refuse!"

Lin Jianxia forced herself to stare at the math formula in front of her, but her peripheral vision floated uncontrollably toward the corner of the desk.

Sitting perfectly centered on that scratchpad was...

A mouthwatering pork floss bun.