When He Protected Her, Someone Else Started Watching

“Host, a gentle reminder from the system: displaying protective behavior toward other members of the opposite s*x may trigger jealousy and rejection from your life’s first perfect partner.”

“…Could you please stop talking right now?”

After mentally silencing the system, Pei Du awkwardly pulled his water bottle from the side pocket of his backpack and took a sip of cold water.
The beautiful girl was pressed closely against his left arm, a sensation he was extremely unaccustomed to.

“Thank you so much for today.”

Chen Xintian walked close to Pei Du’s left side.
Pei Du had tried to move away, but she used the excuse of wanting to properly express her gratitude to close the distance again.
Today, she had a perfectly valid reason to be near Pei Du, so naturally, she intended to make full use of it.

Chen Xinmei walked on Chen Xintian’s other side, her expression a perfect picture of speechlessness.
Earlier, her sister had firmly denied any interest in Pei Du—this supposedly emotionless guy—but now she was clinging tightly to him.
Just how long did she plan to keep deceiving her younger sister?

That said, the so-called emotionless guy did look quite good tonight, effortlessly taking down that loser until he couldn’t get up.
Fine—she would refrain from calling him “emotionless” for one day.

Chen Xinmei played on her phone, deliberately not looking at her sister’s current behavior, silently granting Pei Du a one-day exemption from her usual mockery.

Because they left later than the other students, there were only a few classmates walking along the road home.
The pitch-black path depended solely on the school’s streetlights for its faint illumination.

“It wasn’t a big deal.”

Pei Du tried shifting farther to the right, attempting to keep at least a few centimeters of distance from Chen Xintian.
But he soon realized he was already at the edge of the flowerbed—there was nowhere left to retreat.
All he could do was hope they reached the school gate quickly.

Pei Du knew the Chen sisters were usually picked up by family.
Once they reached the gate, she would probably stop holding onto him.

Chen Xintian smelled pleasant, and her arm felt soft where it brushed against his.
To Pei Du, it felt like being lightly wrapped in something gentle and springy, smooth and elastic.
In the dim light, her lip gloss looked especially eye-catching.
Paired with her rose-red earrings, it created a blend of youthful freshness and subtle maturity.

“You were really impressive just now,” Chen Xintian said, her tone lingering and gentle, like flowing water.

“Yeah, beating that loser was pretty impressive,” Chen Xinmei added.
She genuinely thought Pei Du’s movements were clean and decisive, full of visual impact—exactly her kind of style.

“Violence isn’t something to be praised,” Pei Du shook his head, responding calmly.
To him, Chen Xinmei was simply the younger sister of an ordinary friend, and he didn’t want her developing distorted values.
“If he hadn’t attacked first, I wouldn’t have used force to solve the problem.”

“How could you reason with a loser like that?” Chen Xinmei scoffed, sounding as if she were the one who had completely suppressed Fang Wen.
“You have to beat someone like that to teach him a lesson.”

“Pei Du, you really were impressive just now.”

Chen Xinmei continued to admire forceful solutions, completely ignoring Pei Du’s point.
In a way, the sisters’ sense of aesthetics overlapped heavily—both appreciated a raw, forceful kind of impact.

“….”

Pei Du fell silent.
Simply restraining Fang Wen was already considered “beating him badly” in Chen Xinmei’s eyes.
To be honest, Pei Du found her logic difficult to understand.
The exaggeration was extreme.

Maybe, in girls’ eyes, whether someone was actually injured didn’t matter.
A clear victory was enough to define who had “won.”
Pei Du didn’t dwell on it—he wasn’t interested.
He just wanted to get home sooner.

Chen Xintian hadn’t spoken for a while; the darkness concealed her actions.
If it were daytime or under bright lights, one might notice how distracted she seemed, occasionally glancing at Pei Du in quiet thought.

The three chatted a little more about the incident and soon arrived at the school gate.
After saying goodbye, Chen Xintian led her sister into the back seat of a black car parked nearby.
Its sleek exterior hinted at a high price.

Pei Du didn’t pay it any attention.
He headed toward the subway, pulled out his phone, and opened the transit code.

Waiting for the train was dull, so he scrolled through his messages.
Chen Xintian had sent him many texts—judging by the timestamps, she’d been messaging him continuously since getting into the car.
Pei Du ignored them.

He had already made his stance clear—he was just helping as a friend.
Replying now would cross that boundary.
He didn’t trust his own self-control.

Unexpectedly, He Chengxi had also sent messages.

“Classmate Pei!!! Are you okay?”
“(Worried cat sticker)”
“Zhuyue sent me a video.”
“(Video)”
“What exactly happened??”

A whole string of concern and curiosity.

Pei Du didn’t know which message to respond to first.

“Nothing serious.”
“Just helped a friend deal with something.”

Two brief replies.
He answered Zhao Yu as well, then switched apps and opened a novel.
Reading on the subway was one of his favorite small pleasures, and he intended to enjoy it.

—

At the other end of the phone, a petite girl who had already returned home lay on her bed, idly kicking her calf before letting it drop onto the mattress.
She replayed the video twice, then asked Hu Zhuyue for more details—Hu Zhuyue had gotten firsthand gossip from Zhao Yu.

After roughly piecing together the whole story, He Chengxi couldn’t help checking whether Pei Du was hurt.
When the fight started in the video, she’d worried about him for quite some time.

What she hadn’t expected was how capable the boy was, effortlessly overpowering the other one.
Even more surprising was that he still looked composed throughout.

Girls really did focus on results.
In their eyes, the winner must have “taught the loser a lesson,” regardless of actual injuries.

Pei Du’s replies were vague—so brief they almost felt like no reply at all.
That made the girl’s thoughts grow complicated.

Why didn’t Classmate Pei want to talk to her about it?
She really wanted to hear him describe what happened himself.
And to tell her that the girl he protected was only a friend.

The girl she’d seen at the beef noodle shop had left a deep impression on her.
A girl whose eyes seemed to hold only Classmate Pei.

Hugging her pillow, He Chengxi stared blankly at her phone, lost in thought.

……

The Chen sisters slept in separate rooms.
They had shared a room when they were younger, but as they grew older and their styles diverged, they started sleeping apart.

First, to give each other sufficient personal space.
Second, because they needed room for their many outfits—extra clothes were stored in a walk-in closet.

After returning home and showering, Chen Xintian went straight to her room and locked the door.
Chen Xinmei found this strange.
Normally, they would watch TV and chat together before heading to their rooms.

She didn’t think too deeply about it.
Her sister occasionally did this—especially on days like today.
Most likely, she was chatting with Pei Du.

After all, he had stood up for her tonight.
It was perfectly normal to feel moved.

Chen Xinmei grabbed her game console and started playing Splatoon 3 on her own.

Inside Chen Xintian’s room, the lights were dim.
She relied only on the glow of her computer and phone.
Opening her gallery, the first video displayed the entire incident from earlier that evening.

She had gotten it from a classmate who recorded it.

She transferred the video to her computer, opened editing software, and scrubbed through the timeline.
Frame by frame, she carefully cut out clips containing Pei Du’s image and voice.

She replayed those segments repeatedly, clearly absorbed.

When she finished, she transferred the edited video back to her phone, shut down the computer, and lay back on her soft bed.

The night was still long.