Bai Yue, seeing Bai Zhiqiu engrossed in gnawing on his spare ribs, reached out and pinched his arm. Her voice, laced with frustration, exclaimed, “Brother! Stop eating! Say something, won’t you?”
Bai Zhiqiu hissed, drawing a sharp breath through gritted teeth. “Easy there! I’m your own brother; how could you be so ruthless?” He rubbed the spot where Bai Yue had pinched him.
“Cut the nonsense! Brother, quickly tell me, is what that woman said true?”
“Well… actually, either Nandu University or Xijing University would be fine,” Bai Zhiqiu mumbled, stalling. “They used to be part of the same institution anyway.”
“Who asked you about that?” Bai Yue gritted her teeth, fixing her gaze intently on Bai Zhiqiu. “What exactly happened during your ‘in-depth discussion’ last night? Tell me the honest truth!”
Meeting his sister’s ink-dark eyes, Bai Zhiqiu felt a powerful sense of oppression surge through his very veins.
‘Oh no! It’s the bloodline suppression from my sister!’
In all their childhood squabbles, Bai Zhiqiu had rarely, if ever, emerged victorious when pitted against his sister. Consequently, when faced with her knife-sharp gaze, his words stumbled out in a stammer.
“I… I… it was just… that thing… and then… well… you know,” he fumbled, barely coherent. “In short, Xiao Yue, don’t get the wrong idea; nothing happened between us!”
Observing Bai Zhiqiu’s utterly guilty expression and his evasive words, Bai Yue immediately knew he wasn’t telling the truth.
Bai Yue’s pretty face instantly clouded over, her eyes brimming with a mix of dissatisfaction and hurt. She couldn’t believe her brother, who had doted on her since childhood, would treat her this way, refusing even to mention a single detail about last night.
Seeing Bai Yue bite her chopsticks, her face almost entirely consumed by anger, Bai Zhiqiu felt a pang of heartache.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to explain; it was simply that such a matter was utterly unspeakable!
Could he really tell Bai Yue that last night he had transformed into a magical girl to drain Yan Qingzhu’s energy, only to be counter-attacked and fail?
Or should he confess to his sister that her beloved “magical girl” was, in fact, her own brother?
He simply couldn’t bring himself to say it!
“Brother!” Bai Yue’s voice trembled slightly. She could only utter his name, then found herself unable to speak another word.
Yan Qingzhu, seizing the opportune moment, gently set down her chopsticks, adopting an expression of perfectly timed “grievance” and “understanding.” After all, if she didn’t offer an explanation soon, Xiao Yue might well burst into tears from distress.
“Actually, Zhiqiu orchestrated all of this,” Yan Qingzhu stated, her tone remarkably calm.
‘What?! What did I orchestrate? Hurry up and explain! Xiao Yue is about to cry!’
Bai Zhiqiu’s leg frantically nudged Yan Qingzhu’s, subtly urging her to explain.
“We did indeed have an in-depth discussion last night.”
‘No, we didn’t! I didn’t! Don’t spout nonsense! Explain it!’
Despite Bai Zhiqiu’s desperate signals, Yan Qingzhu ignored him.
“Just as I thought…” The light in Bai Yue’s eyes instantly dimmed.
‘What the hell! She’s outright slandering me!’
Bai Zhiqiu was about to open his mouth to explain, knowing that if he didn’t clarify now, the situation would only worsen. Even if he could eventually smooth things over, his standing in his sister’s heart would surely plummet.
However, just as Bai Zhiqiu parted his lips, Yan Qingzhu’s voice chimed in:
“Last night, we had an in-depth discussion at the Xingyue Internet Cafe about how to speedrun games!”
“Don’t cause trouble for your little neph… Huh? You just went to an internet cafe?” Now it was Bai Yue’s turn to sound confused.
“Of course! What else did you think we did?” Yan Qingzhu countered, raising an eyebrow. “Your brother said you don’t let him go to internet cafes, so naturally, he was reluctant to talk about us going last night!”
“So that’s how it was? I thought…”
“Thought what?”
“N-nothing…”
The atmosphere among the three suddenly turned peculiar, leaving Bai Zhiqiu, caught in the middle, feeling utterly ill at ease.
Fortunately, his sister’s next question broke through the strange tension.
“Then, Yan Qingzhu-jie, how did you and my brother meet? And how did you two start dating?”
Although Bai Zhiqiu desperately wanted to clarify that their relationship was anything but romantic, his lips parted and closed several times before he ultimately decided against it. ‘Let it be,’ he thought. He trusted Yan Qingzhu to handle the situation; the girl was quite clever, after all, considering even someone as shrewd as him had fallen into her hands.
“Ah, that question~” Yan Qingzhu drawled, deliberately prolonging her words. She then turned to Bai Zhiqiu, saying, “I’m a little thirsty. Could you go buy me a bowl of pumpkin soup?”
‘Is she trying to get rid of me?’ Bai Zhiqiu certainly wasn’t foolish enough to believe Yan Qingzhu genuinely craved pumpkin soup. He surmised she was likely worried that with both of them present, if Bai Yue pressed further, their fabricated story might unravel.
Believing he had discerned Yan Qingzhu’s intentions, Bai Zhiqiu readily agreed.
Instead of heading to buy pumpkin soup, he turned and walked towards another dining table.
“Old Bai, you’ve already won a month’s worth of milk tea from me… Are you going to drain me dry even of the last bits?” Yang Yuze watched Bai Zhiqiu confidently pick up a cola chicken wing from his plate, a twitch forming at the corner of his mouth. “Can you stop eating my chicken?!”
“What’s wrong with eating two of your chicken wings? I’ll treat you to drumsticks next time! And what kind of barbaric language are you spouting?”
Bai Zhiqiu found Yang Yuze’s offhand remark rather speechless. Fortunately, the two didn’t dwell on that topic, instead diving straight into the main issue.
“Old Bai, you’re truly skilled! You managed to ‘take her down’ in just one morning!” Yang Yuze remarked to Bai Zhiqiu with a meaningful tone.
“Take down what?”
“Playing dumb, are we? Still playing dumb!”
“Seriously, I genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yan, the campus belle, of course! Didn’t you two kiss? Someone even took photos and posted them on the confession wall.”
‘Kissed? How come I, the person involved, don’t know about this? And when did Yan Qingzhu become the campus belle? She only just transferred today!’
Seeing Bai Zhiqiu’s bewildered expression, Yang Yuze pulled out his phone and opened the confession wall. There, emblazoned across the screen, was the headline: [First High’s New Campus Belle Taken on Her First Day? Public Kissing in Broad Daylight?]
To be honest, the title alone startled even Bai Zhiqiu.
However, once he clicked on it, he understood what had happened.
It was all due to a photograph, one taken from a peculiar angle. At the time, the two of them had been whispering secrets, and the image, viewed from that specific perspective, made it appear as though they were kissing. Hence, the misunderstanding.
“That’s fake! We didn’t kiss,” Bai Zhiqiu stated to Yang Yuze with utmost seriousness.
“Old Bai! Someone even took pictures! Are you going to be irresponsible? If you kissed, then you should…”
“We were just whispering; it’s an issue with the camera angle.”
“Oh~ I get it~ I totally get it~ You’re afraid others might misunderstand, right? Just like how we’re ‘just friends’!”
Yang Yuze chuckled, looking at Bai Zhiqiu with eyes that seemed to say, ‘I understand, I understand everything.’
Bai Zhiqiu didn’t bother to argue further. He simply turned and walked away, casually grabbing the bottle of cola from the table as he left.
“Hey! My cola!”
Watching his cola snatched away by the ‘bandit,’ Yang Yuze let out a wail.
Bai Zhiqiu quickly returned to his table, intending to discuss strategies with Yan Qingzhu regarding the rumors circulating about them.
As he reached the table.
His sister’s voice rang in his ears.
“Hello there, little witch!”