Art

Tia immediately looked at her older brother.

She hadn’t said anything yet, so how could Sphinx say something she hadn’t even admitted?

Victoria looked at Tia, then at Collins, and suddenly understood why Sphinx’s little sister appeared the moment she herself showed up near Collins.

It turned out she came to declare sovereignty.

“That… romantic feelings between a man and a woman?”

Sphinx nodded at the bewildered Collins.

Collins slowly shifted his gaze back to Tia’s face, and Tia immediately turned her head away.

“N-no, don’t listen to my brother’s nonsense, I—I’m not, I don’t…”

Tia, who was usually quiet and reserved, was terrible at handling words.

She didn’t even know how to refute Sphinx’s statement.

But Tia knew that as long as she could stop her brother from running his mouth recklessly, a lot of things could be smoothed over.

That’s right—rather than explaining things in front of Collins, the most important thing right now was to shut up her annoying brother.

Her palm reached out from under the table and secretly grabbed Sphinx’s hand.

Sphinx grabbed back, then wrote a sentence on the back of Tia’s hand.

“What’s this? Want to do something to your brother? Hmm, let me guess—you want me to shut my mouth, don’t you? After all, you don’t like this atmosphere.”

Sphinx sat back down, his expression full of hidden meaning as he struggled to hold back laughter.

For a moment, Tia suddenly felt that her brother seemed to know very well that she didn’t like Collins.

Then why would he say such a thing?

“You—?”

“If, from now on, whenever you see me, you greet me with the proper respect a younger sister owes her elder brother, then I’ll help you fix the current situation.”

Sphinx’s face slowly took on a deep, serious expression.

Combined with his black gothic outfit, there was even a trace of gloomy darkness about him.

Tia trembled with rage, unable to even speak, but in the eyes of the other boy and girl, her current state looked like nothing more than the shy emotions of a maiden toward her first love.

Collins looked awkward.

Victoria glanced at Collins, then deliberately scooted her body farther away after curling her lips.

Victoria thought that acting too close to a young man in front of a girl in love was undoubtedly a way to offend someone.

The sister’s anger.

Victoria’s embarrassment.

Collins’s awkwardness.

Every detail was fully captured by Sphinx’s eyes.

In truth, understanding people’s hearts was quite complex.

Guessing people’s minds was never about prioritizing speculation.

From all his experience interacting with others, Sphinx knew very well—rather than perfectly grasping every psychological change, which was nearly impossible, it was much easier to use his own methods to guide their emotions, and to leave a strong impression on their hearts.

But everyone’s feelings are different.

So Sphinx preferred to deal with each person individually.

First, of course, was his little sister, who still refused to admit her weakness.

Sphinx took a breath, and a smile bloomed on his face—a smile so beautiful that it could make 80% of girls feel ashamed.

He spoke, his voice as sweet as the expression on his cheeks.

“Collins, you’ve been in the lab too long, you don’t know much about these things. Actually, you’re quite famous at our school. My little sister is just one of the fans who were captured by your talent.”

His sister trembled even harder.

Sphinx lightly wrote the rest of the message on the back of Tia’s hand.

“In truth, breaking out of this awkward situation is very simple. Remember what I just said?”

Tia hesitated for a moment.

Sphinx’s request wasn’t much—at most, it was like showing the courtesy due to an elder, nothing too harsh.

Once she figured that out, Tia trembled as she wrote one word on Sphinx’s hand.

“Fine…”

No one could see the wicked smile hidden beneath the sweet curve of Sphinx’s lips.

The first step of the plan was complete.

Perhaps Tia didn’t realize that everything only needed a beginning.

Once the start was made, what came next would follow a pattern.

As long as Tia felt even a trace of defeat at this moment, in the future, whenever facing her, Sphinx could use this failure to make her feel powerless to argue back.

Once there’s a first time, could the second time be far behind?

Now that Tia’s situation was resolved, the next matter was Collins.

Sphinx rested his chin on his hand.

Collins, looking utterly awkward, didn’t know how to continue the conversation—fortunately, Sphinx offered him a new topic.

“So then, does our great genius Collins have someone he likes?”

This single question once again detonated the conversation among the four of them.

Sphinx knew the three people opposite him might not have high emotional intelligence, but their IQ was top-notch.

By tossing in a love bomb, he could temporarily confuse them, trapping them in a fixed pattern of thought, making them follow his rhythm.

But that rhythm couldn’t last too long.

So, every so often, Sphinx had to throw in a topic that all three of them would find interesting.