Chapter 45: Desire to Welcome Yet Reject

After that night, the relationship between the two quickly heated up.

Originally planning to have a reason to hold hands and such after dating for a while, unexpectedly things developed so fast. Fang Chuning let out a satisfied sigh.

Xu’s hands were really soft and nice to hold.

In the classroom, the teacher was eloquently explaining the content of the book on the podium, while the students below all had uniformly serious expressions.

But beneath these serious exteriors was another scene – some were secretly playing on their phones, some were secretly eating snacks, some were using textbooks as cover to read small erotic books, and even worse, some were flirting!

Halfway through the lecture, the teacher sensed something was amiss. She looked at Fang Chuning sitting in the front row, “Take a look at who’s misbehaving and write down their names.”

Fang Chuning snapped back to attention, “Oh, okay.”

She took out a roster book in a practiced manner, held a pen in her right hand, and her left hand was unseen below the desk.

At this time, if anyone looked closely, they would see two hands tightly intertwined under the desk.

With his right hand unable to move, Xu Muzhou wrote with his left hand without any difficulty, as if he were naturally left-handed. The writing was no different from what he wrote with his right hand.

Fang Chuning marveled, this was quite a formidable skill.

When the bell rang for class dismissal, she couldn’t help but lean closer, “Have you practiced writing with your left hand before?”

How did he practice to reach this level?

The two were very close, hands clasped together, the sweet and sticky atmosphere keeping their hearts racing.

Xu Muzhou lowered his head slightly, smelling the faint fragrance from the girl. His pen strokes became lighter, his long eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings, then he glanced at her sideways, “Practiced for a while.”

“How did you practice? I can write with my left hand too, but not as well as you.”

“Practiced with books…”

“What books? Do you still have them? Can you give me a copy?”

“……”

In others’ eyes, the two were as intimate as a couple in love. The male and female classmates who had been unwilling to believe they were dating had their hearts shattered.

Fang Chuning didn’t bother him further, still holding his hand, resting her chin on the desk while gazing at his handsome profile.

Just as she was about to doze off, she suddenly heard someone call Gao Qiong’s name. She looked up to see Gao Qiong, who had skipped half a day of classes, entering the classroom with her bag, bruises on her face.

“I’ll go check on her.”

Fang Chuning said to him, then let go of his hand and walked towards the back of the classroom.

The released hand seemed to suddenly lose its support point, the immense loss leaving it momentarily frozen in place. After a moment, Xu Muzhou slowly withdrew his hand, and the hand he had been writing with switched back to his right.

…

Meanwhile, Fang Chuning pulled Gao Qiong to the president’s office and asked her, “I’ve been messaging you all day and you haven’t replied, what’s going on?”

“I haven’t looked at my phone today.”

Gao Qiong slumped on the sofa like a boneless creature.

“Why did you skip class, and what happened to your face?”

“Overslept, it’s nothing.”

Fang Chuning would be a fool to believe her. She lightly kicked Gao Qiong’s leg and sat down beside her, “Did you get into a fight and lose?”

Gao Qiong sulked silently, then after a while, as if she couldn’t hold it in anymore, she gritted her teeth: “How could I win against a group of people by myself!”

Once provoked, she spilled everything. Despite Gao Qiong’s usual carefree demeanor as if nothing bothered her, when she felt wronged, she would pout as if the whole world had let her down, just waiting for someone to ask her about it. If no one asked, she’d make herself sick from holding it in.

“Why did you fight?”

Gao Qiong coldly smirked: “This isn’t my fault. That man was despicable. He has a girlfriend but still tried to seduce me. How can you blame me for sleeping with him?”

Before asking, Fang Chuning had already guessed part of it. Besides men, she couldn’t think of any other reason. “Can’t you be more discerning? You stuff everything in your mouth, good or bad. You’re stupid and rich, who else would they try to hook if not you!”

She had said this to her countless times, but Gao Qiong just treated it as a joke, never changing her ways. One day she’d surely fall into a man’s trap.

“I have money and I enjoy it. If he’s only after my money, I can still cherish him for a while. If he dares to scheme against me, I’ll definitely not let them off.”

“So what are you going to do? Tell your mom?”

“No need.” Gao Qiong’s eyes were cold and vicious. “I’ll find someone to break their legs and then make them beggars.”

Looks like she’s been angered to madness.

Seeing the girl’s serious expression, Fang Chuning frowned: “Don’t do anything rash. It’s not worth losing more than you gain over something like this.”

“Then what else?”

“Which school are they from?”

“Don’t know, but they were very arrogant.”

Fang Chuning asked her to recount what happened. The reason was that she had slept with a man who had a girlfriend, and when the girlfriend found out, she brought people to beat her up.

“He told me himself that he was single, and even cleaned up and delivered himself to me. How can you blame me?”

Fang Chuning believed this. Gao Qiong never actively pursued others, she just liked those who delivered themselves to her doorstep, which was why she changed boyfriends so frequently.

But something about this situation felt odd.

“Do you have that guy’s contact information?”

“Yes, why?”

“Arrange to meet him. We’ll ask him some questions then.”

After school, they had originally planned to go eat together, but due to the sudden incident, plans changed. Fang Chuning felt a bit guilty, “How about tomorrow? We’ll go eat together tomorrow.”

The young man looked dejected and said softly: “But we had already agreed…”

Since getting together, she found it increasingly difficult to see him unhappy. She never knew before that his every expression could make her heart so soft. Fang Chuning almost didn’t want to deal with Gao Qiong’s mess anymore.

“How about I come find you later? What snacks or treats do you want? I’ll buy them for you.”

Xu Muzhou pressed his lips together. He glanced at Gao Qiong waiting not far away, “If you really have urgent matters, don’t worry about me. I’m not the type to make unreasonable demands.”

His understanding and sensibility made Fang Chuning feel even more tender towards him. “I promise I’ll come find you later, okay?”

But he refused: “No need. I might go to bed early tonight.”

Fang Chuning wanted to say something more, but Gao Qiong pointed at her wrist indicating the time. “Alright then, I’ll go first. Call me if anything comes up.”

Then she really left, without saying any more nice words, without insisting further.

Watching the two get in the car and drive away, Xu Muzhou took a light breath. His hand holding the books gradually tightened, as if wanting to crush them in resentment.

…

They arrived outside an ordinary school. It was also just after classes had ended, and students in uniform were streaming out of the school gates in throngs. It would be difficult to recognize anyone in this crowd.

Perhaps because she held a grudge, Gao Qiong noticed that boy as soon as he exited the school gate. Ignoring the gazes of others, she strode over, hands in her pockets, and stood tall in front of the boy, looking down at him. “Well, we meet again.”

Hearing her voice, the boy’s body trembled. He didn’t even dare to look up.

Gao Qiong’s lips curled coldly: “Dare to scheme against me and I’ll make you die miserably.”

This scared the boy to tears immediately.

Many students came forward to watch, whispering and openly staring, but no one dared to help.

However, a girl wearing glasses, who looked quiet and studious, stepped forward. She pushed up her glasses and looked them over, “Don’t you two girls feel ashamed bullying one boy?”

Gao Qiong’s cold gaze shifted to her, “It’s none of your business.”

“You’re bullying our classmate at our school, how is it not my business?”

Gao Qiong, already in a bad mood, had no interest in bandying words with her. “In that case, I don’t need to bother with him and can just deal with you instead, right?”

The bespectacled girl pushed her glasses up again, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Seeing the situation turning sour, Fang Chuning grabbed the restless Gao Qiong and whispered in her ear: “I asked you to come find someone, not to cause trouble. Don’t make a scene.”

She showed a friendly expression to the boy, “Don’t be afraid, we’re not here to cause you trouble. We just want to ask you something.”

Perhaps because her face looked trustworthy, although the boy was still scared, he stopped crying. With a choked voice, he said: “Can we… talk somewhere else?”

“Sure.”

The three of them moved to an alley outside the school, while the bespectacled girl persistently followed behind them, worried they might bully someone.

As soon as they reached the alley, the boy eagerly said: “That thing, that thing I didn’t want to do it, it was all their idea, I didn’t dare disobey them……”

“Their idea?”

“The people who beat her up.” The boy timidly glanced at Gao Qiong.

Fang Chuning frowned: “Why did they want to do this?”

“I don’t know…”

Gao Qiong touched the bruise on her face, “Was I cursed by someone?”

“……” What else could she say? She could only say it served her right.

After letting the boy go, they turned back to see the bespectacled girl still standing at a distance watching them. She looked at the embroidery on their uniforms and said in a flat tone: “So these are students from Xinxing. Not much to speak of.” Then she left.

Gao Qiong rubbed her fist, “Why do I dislike her even more than those who beat me up?”

Fang Chuning glanced at her, “I’m quite displeased with you right now too.”

The beautiful date had been ruined like this. Fortunately, Xu wasn’t the type to hold grudges.

She’d buy him a small gift another day as compensation for breaking their date today.

On the way back, she messaged him, but there was no reply for a long time. She didn’t receive a response until the car was almost home.

Xu Muzhou: Mm

Just one word, not even bothering to add a punctuation mark.

Fang Chuning: Want to come out now?

Xu Muzhou: No

Fang Chuning fell into brief contemplation, beginning to doubt whether his claim of not minding was genuine or fake.

Fang Chuning: I’m coming to your place now. Help me open the door in a bit.

The other side took about five minutes to reply: I’m not at home

Fang Chuning asked where he was. The response time lengthened, as if he was hesitating about something, or perhaps not paying attention to her message at all.

After about ten minutes or so.

He replied: I’m out with Shaoqing