Chapter 23

"Xu Jia Ning classmate, can I add you on WeChat? I'd like to ask you some questions about studying," said the Cultural Committee member Zhao Xiaolu.

It was the same old trick - Lin ChuSui didn't want to hear it for the third time. She lazily yawned and glanced back at the Cultural Committee member and Xu Jia Ning.

Zhao Xiaolu, usually ostentatious and overbearing, had transformed in this moment into a quiet, demure girl. She stood next to Xu Jia Ning's desk, holding a math test paper with a 93% score: "Question three, I tried solving it for a long time but couldn't figure out the answer. Could you explain it to me?"

Xu Jia Ning was working on problems, too lazy to even lift his head. "Why don't you go ask the math genius who got a perfect score? Why come ask me, a mere school celebrity who only got a 147?"

Lin ChuSui rolled her eyes.

Don't be so petty!

Zhao Xiaolu glanced at Xiao Yan in the front row, and deliberately raised her voice: "Some people are extremely utilitarian and avaricious, corrupting the atmosphere at school. Knowledge should be priceless. I feel like Xu is very different from certain people."

Lin ChuSui turned around, unsatisfied: "If you're chasing a boy then go chase him, do you have to put someone else down to raise another up?"

Zhao Xiaolu refused to back down: "Did I say anything wrong?"

"While knowledge itself may be priceless, time is valuable, extremely so. Unless everyone in the world is your father, no one has the duty to explain problems to you. The teacher is in the office, why don't you go ask them? Do you really want to be excused to study, or are you just using the guise of studying to pursue someone?"

Cultural Committee member Zhao Xiaolu stamped her feet in anger: "Lin ChuSui, what did I do to provoke you?"

Lu Chi laughed and said: "You didn't provoke her, but you provoked her dear deskmate."

He deliberately drew out the word "dear".

Xiao Yan had been quietly working on problems. At these words, his pencil paused for a moment. He turned around and said: "Wrong. It's respect - she has always held a father-daughter like reverence for me."

"Alright, alright, you're the study god. Whatever you say is right."

Xu Jia Ning wrote down the steps to solving the problem on paper and handed it to Zhao Xiaolu: "Look at it yourself. If you don't understand, go ask the teacher."

"But I want to add you on WeChat."

Xu Jia Ning was in a terrible mood, too lazy to waste words with her. He took back the paper with the solution steps and said coldly: "Since you don't really want to ask about the problem, please stop bothering me."

Xu Jia Ning, who was usually gentlemanly, couldn't be bothered with manners now.

Being with a girl like Lin ChuSui for so long had completely exhausted his patience.

Zhao Xiaolu looked at Lin ChuSui indignantly, then turned and left. She happened to run into Lu TianBai coming into the classroom. "Jia Ning, can you come out for a second? I have something to tell you."

Xu Jia Ning had always been nice to Lu TianBai. He put down his pencil and followed her out of the classroom.

Zhao Xiaolu watched his retreating back, very annoyed.

...

Xu Jia Ning followed Lu TianBai to the end of the hallway. Lu TianBai took off her watch and handed it to him: "Here, give this back."

He looked puzzled: "You don't like it?"

"No, not at all!" Lu TianBai waved her hands in denial. "I really like it. But this was bought with your first hard-earned money. It's so meaningful that I feel you should give it to someone more meaningful, not me."

Xu Jia Ning looked at the Cartier watch, which was quite suitable for women - simple and elegant with a white dial inset with fragmented brick pattern. "Once I've gifted something, I won't take it back for any reason." Xu Jia Ning said, "That night, Xiao Yan and I had a fight which ruined your birthday party. I've felt really apologetic about it. Just take this as compensation, don't be angry with me."

"How could I be angry with you!" Lu TianBai clumsily said, "I won't get angry! I just feel that ChuSui is my best friend, and you're also...someone very important to me. I hope you two can get along harmoniously."

Xu Jia Ning smiled. "I'm very important to you?"

"Oh, that is...you're my deskmate's back deskmate's classmate, so...very important!"

Lu TianBai twisted her hair, feeling she was incredibly stupid.

"Little girl, focus on your studies." Xu Jia Ning reached out and ruffled her hair. "Compared to that rebellious girl Lin ChuSui, you're more like the little sister I envision."

Lu TianBai's cheeks flushed red, but she still held out the watch to Xu Jia Ning: "I really can't accept this because it wasn't specially prepared for me. If you want to make amends, get me another gift, but don't spend too much."

Seeing her serious attitude, Xu Jia Ning finally acquiesced and took back the watch: "Alright, I'll pick another gift for you."

"Thank you, Jia Ning."

Two days later, some diary pages were posted on the school's forum.

The extremely eye-catching post title was: "Click to see the secret diary of a girl from South City No. 1 Middle School."

The diary was a cell phone photo of handwritten pages with delicate and feminine writing. The content was also very private and intimate, clearly a girl's diary -

"Xu Jia Ning, I've liked you for so long. You're so good. But my grades are so bad and I'm not smart at all. I feel completely unworthy of you. I can only confide these feelings in my diary, not daring to confess to you."

"Sometimes I feel like you might know, since you're so clever. But you call me your little sister. I thought about it a lot, and feel this may be a more tactful rejection. Thank you for being so gentle."

"I guess I should just stop liking you. Sigh, I'll try my best to treat you like a brother."

...

In one day, the diary post rapidly gained popularity on the forum, even pinned to the home page by the admin. Countless students left comments:

"Ew, way too cheesy!"

"Yo mama, what a social suicide scene."

"I'm the Dean of Studies. Diary owner please come to my office after class."

"Who wrote this? Can someone dox them?"

"This is easy, just compare the handwriting in assignments. Must be a girl from Xu Jia Ning's class!"

...

Lin ChuSui's brow furrowed when she read the first line of the diary.

Wasn't this that silly Lu TianBai's diary?

The diary itself was bought when she accompanied her shopping in 10th grade. Lu TianBai liked drawing silly cartoon cats and dogs when she wrote in her diary.

The diary owner was definitely her!

She looked up at Lu TianBai in the front row. The poor girl miserably slumped over her desk, head buried in her elbows, crying or napping...she had been like this the whole morning, dreary and depressed.

Lin ChuSui patted her shoulder: "Silly girl..."

Lu TianBai didn't respond.

"I like how you look in white shirts, your upturned smile, your dozing off in class. I just really, really, really like you so much."

Lu Chi happily laughed and passed his phone to Xu Jia Ning next to him: "Come, let's appreciate this marvelous work. With this diary...I feel like your charm levels could instantly surpass our study god. "

Lin ChuSui whipped around and snatched away his phone, glaring fiercely at Lu Chi: "What's wrong with you!"

Lu Chi had never seen Lin ChuSui so fierce: "Did you take the wrong meds today? What's gotten into you?" "We're in class, you should be listening, not showing him things on your phone!"

"But we're not in class right now!"

"Don't show him your phone!"

Lin ChuSui glowered at Xu Jia Ning: "And you, midterms are coming up. If you don't get first place, you're out of our house! For the upcoming exams, hand over your phone. I'll keep it for you."

Xu Jia Ning glanced at her and deliberately spoke louder: "My phone fell in the toilet yesterday. Thanks for the concern, currently in isolation."

"How coincidentally unfortunate." Lu Chi still didn't catch on. He asked: "ChuSui, why are you so worked up? Don't tell me you were the one who wrote those cheesy diary entries about a secret crush?"

As soon as he said this, the whole class's gaze focused on Lin ChuSui.

Zhao Xiaolu said smugly: "Impossible it was her. Her chicken scratch handwriting doesn't match at all."

Lin ChuSui's eyes flashed toward Lu TianBai, who also lifted her head, looking at ChuSui helplessly with red-rimmed eyes. Clearly she had been crying.

"Actually, the diary was written by me." Lin ChuSui readily admitted. "Truthfully everyone, I've secretly liked Xu Jia Ning for a long time. From the first day he came to school, my admiration for him flowed ceaselessly like a river to the east, impossible to dam."

The students laughed. "Your confession really has that diary's style."

"But isn't he your stepbrother?"

"Yes, we previously had an insurmountable moral divide, so I could only pour out my admiration for him in my diary."

As she spoke, she reached out and hooked Xu Jia Ning's chin with her fingertip. "Have you not heard? You were born before me. I was born and you were already old. Thinking of you every day but unable to see you, we share the waters of this river."

Lu Chi almost vomited up his breakfast.

Xu Jia Ning played along and didn't expose her on the spot: "So you love your brother this much."

"You finally know."

Lin ChuSui's twisted and contrived performance instantly diffused her classmates' ridicule and laughter.

Zhao Xiaolu stood up and pointed at Lin ChuSui: "You're lying. That diary wasn't written by you at all. That diary clearly belonged to..."

Before she could finish, Lin ChuSui shot her a sharp glance: "Oh, so you know who wrote it. Then you must also know who was so malicious and despicable, peeking at someone's diary and posting it online. This counts as bullying, right?"

"Right." Zhang Chengyu nodded: "The security guard said during last week's anti-bullying lecture that this kind of behavior definitely counts as bullying, psychologically."

Xu Jia Ning was suddenly jolted back to her senses, realizing that she had been foolishly “setting herself up for failure”, and was filled with regret. She defended herself evasively, “I...I don't know anything! But I only know that the person you like is Xiao Yan! So that diary absolutely wasn't written by you!”

Xiao Yan, the aloof bookworm who had no desire to get involved in this matter, was suddenly brought into it unexpectedly. He impatiently lifted his head, and gave Xu Jia Ning a cold glance. “Wrong.”

“Wrong about what?”

“The person she likes isn't me,” Xiao Yan said indifferently. “I'm the one who was pining for her, but could not win her affections.”

Upon hearing this, the other girls in the class were stunned into silence.

You're the school's heartthrob, sought after by countless young girls. How could you possibly fall for someone as awful as Lin ChuSui?

What a messy and dramatic love triangle!

Xiao Yan looked at Lin ChuSui, using his hand to lift her chin. “Have you not heard, among the trees of the mountain one is finer than the rest, my heart delights in you, yet you think of another...”

“Oh my gosh!”

Lin ChuSui quickly brushed his hand aside, her heart skipping a beat.

He did not continue reciting the verse, but went back to reading his book, with just a hint of a faint smile lingering at the corners of his mouth...

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