Chapter 7 Instinctively Accompanying My Boyfriend to Class

Upon receiving the call, Jin Zhao took a deep breath: "Jiang Xiliu, what tricks are you playing now?"

Jiang Xiliu stopped and complained impatiently, "I was stopped by the security guard at the gate of Peking University. Quickly find a campus card to let me in."

Jin Zhao frowned, suspecting Jiang Xiliu was lying to him: "What are you doing at school?"

"Didn't I say I'd bring you a surprise?" Jiang Xiliu said matter-of-factly. "If you hadn't told Assistant Liao you wanted to see me, I wouldn't have come."

A soft breathing sound came from the other end of the phone: "Go find a bubble tea shop across from the school and wait for me."

"No." Jiang Xiliu rubbed her toes, looked around, and didn't see any familiar brands. "They're all made with artificial flavorings, I don't want to drink them."

"There's a Xigua Sen (Watermelon Forest) across the street. I used to work part-time there. They use really high-quality ingredients for their fruit tea."

Watermelon Forest's signature product is its watermelon-themed fruit tea. Jiang Xiliu didn't like drinking the same thing as others, so she randomly ordered a cup from the corner of the menu.

Drinking something requires taking off your mask. Jiang Xiliu took the prepared fruit tea, looked around, and was wondering where to sit so as not to attract attention.

In fact, she attracted everyone's attention the moment she walked in.

A beautiful back view, bundled up tightly, and the things she's wearing look expensive—could she be a celebrity?

Jiang Xiliu was oblivious to the subtle stares from others, thinking she had found a good spot. She took off her mask and bit her straw.

So sour!

Her almond-shaped eyes looked moist behind her sunglasses.

Jiang Xiliu swallowed hard, her mouth watering from the sour taste: "Jin Zhao is definitely no good. He tricked me into drinking this awful stuff!"

[System 0777: Jin Zhao didn't ask you to order Lemon Forest.]

Jiang Xiliu poked the little ball of light over: "He didn't tell me not to light it."

This stupid system is biased towards Jin Zhao to an extreme degree.

Jiang Xiliu pushed the cup away and went to the order counter to order another "signature" drink.

[System 0777 asked naively: Miss, didn't you say you wouldn't drink the same drinks as other people?]

The customers drinking in the store are holding this drink—five out of ten cups are this one.

Jiang Xiliu inserted a straw and blurted out without even blinking, "I ordered it for Jin Zhao."

No wonder it's their signature dish; it's sweet and sour. What's in it? Watermelon and Yakult?

She took a couple of sips, then lost interest.

So I simply took out my phone and played a game with the system, which had become addicted to gaming.

Jin Zhao rushed to the milk tea shop and immediately spotted Jiang Xiliu wearing large sunglasses in the corner.

Two opened cups of fruit tea were placed in front of the young lady. She was looking down at her phone, her fingers swiping rapidly across the screen, her lips slightly pouting, looking quite unhappy.

The staff at the bubble tea shop greeted him: "Jin Zhao, what brings you here today?"

Jin Zhao said calmly, "I've come to pick them up."

Upon hearing Jin Zhao's name, Jiang Xiliu decisively abandoned System 0777, whose gaming skills were terrible, and looked up.

She discovered that Jin Zhao at school was quite different from the one she had met before.

A pair of thin silver-rimmed glasses perched on his straight nose added a touch of scholarly elegance, softening the sharpness inherent in his striking features.

—He's gotten even more handsome.

Jiang Xiliu was sitting at a two-person table. Taking advantage of the fact that she was wearing sunglasses, she brazenly sized up Jin Zhao.

"Have you finished drinking?" Jin Zhao didn't sit down, but stood by the table.

The staff at the milk tea counter followed Jin Zhao's figure and looked in their direction.

She was probably curious about who he was picking up.

Jiang Xiliu pushed both glasses towards the opposite side: "You drink."

It was a completely commanding tone.

The straw for the Watermelon Double Happiness drink had been bitten to shreds by Jiang Xiliu, while the Lemon Forest drink next to it was full to the brim, and there was no sign of anyone having used it on the straw.

Jin Zhao picked up the watermelon cup without changing his expression, took a very small sip, and put it down: "I have class later, are you coming or not?"

[System 0777: Jin Zhao is so smart! He actually guessed that the watermelon was his.]

Jiang Xiliu:......

Clever? He's clearly a scoundrel who's deliberately trying to disgust her.

He drank hers, so what did she drink? That sour lemonade?

Jiang Xiliu glared at him silently for a moment, then rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses before finally speaking: "Let's go, not only are we going, but I'm also going to accompany you to class."

She forced a smile, her voice high-pitched and unnatural: "Surprised?"

Jin Zhao didn't answer, but pointed to the Lemon Forest drink and asked her, "Want to take it to go?"

Jiang Xiliu glanced at it disdainfully: "That was bought for you, take it or leave it."

In the end, no one took either of the two glasses.

"Where's the campus card I told you to bring?" Jiang Xiliu followed slowly behind Jin Zhao, holding a cup of a drink that Jin Zhao had just made, which could be considered unique, while her eyes searched for the security guard who had stopped her earlier.

She felt embarrassed after being stopped.

Jin Zhao took out his campus card and gave it to her: "I only have one. I'll follow you in."

"Why don't you ask your roommate for another one?" Jiang Xiliu glanced critically at the card in her hand, then took another sip of her drink. "If you get stopped again, I won't care."

Jin Zhao said calmly, "Take off your sunglasses and you won't be stopped."

Jiang Xiliu asked, half-believing, half-doubting, "Why?"

“Because she’s too pretty for a student.” Jin Zhao turned around, his back to the security room, almost completely blocking Jiang Xiliu’s view. “Take it off.”

[System 0777 chimes in: Wow, Jin Zhao is praising your beauty! The task progress is impressive!]

...

[System 0777: Strange? Why is the progress still at 10?]

Jiang Xiliu snorted: "What's so strange about that? He wasn't being sincere; he just wanted to embarrass me by making me take off my sunglasses."

She left her mask at the bubble tea shop, leaving only her large sunglasses to cover her face.

"No, the sun is too strong." Jiang Xiliu paused, then, for the sake of the fruit tea in her hand, chose to reveal the real reason, "Besides, quite a few people saw me being knocked down by you at the school gate last time, it was embarrassing, okay?"

She exaggeratedly emphasized, "I wouldn't have come here if you hadn't wanted to see me."

Jin Zhao didn't respond to her words, but instead grabbed her shoulder and quickly took off her sunglasses.

"you--"

"The security guard on duty today is the same one from that day. If he recognizes you as the person from that day, he won't stop you."

Jin Zhao has large hands. He has worked part-time for many years, doing all kinds of hard and heavy jobs. Inevitably, there is a thin layer of calluses on his palms, which is incongruous with his delicate and smooth shoulders: "No one will remember that I bumped into you. For those bystanders, a month is enough to fade everything away."

He grabbed her hand and swiped the card, and the gate slowly opened.

He was practically pushing her along.

Jiang Xiliu didn't listen to what he was babbling about at all; all her senses were focused on her shoulders.

For some reason, this level of skin-to-skin contact felt more impactful than that night. She turned her head slightly, somewhat bewildered, to look at the hand resting on her shoulder.

Unfamiliar, rough, and scorching.

Jiang Xiliu only came to her senses when Jin Zhao pressed her down into a chair and the sensation completely disappeared.

This is not right, something is very wrong with her.

It was just a handshake on the shoulder.

[System 0777 popped up to explain for her: Because of love.]

[System 0777: It's destined that the female supporting character will fall in love with the male lead. Even if you awaken your instincts, they won't be erased.]

Jiang Xiliu found it hilarious. Was it all destined?

“I am very generous to the people I like. I won’t haggle over a few million dollars. I won’t leave him alone in a three-person ward. I certainly won’t trick him into drinking lemon water that’s so sour it makes your teeth ache.”

It's just an artificially disabled person; what does it know about emotions?

Rather than believing in ethereal love, Jiang Xiliu was more inclined to think that the system had used some kind of evil thing on her.

Only something that cannot be explained by science could control her for a few minutes.

System 0777 doesn't know the saying "a stubborn duck will stick its tongue out."

[System 0777 Honest Talk: Real-time monitoring shows your heart rate has exceeded 150 beats per minute multiple times along the way, which is considered highly arousing.]

Just as Jiang Xiliu was about to retort, a thin pointer tapped on the table in front of her.

"This student," the old teacher on the podium said, used to randomly picking someone from the front row to answer questions. After all, those students who could choose to sit in the front row from a bunch of empty seats must be serious and eager to learn, and wouldn't be unable to answer. "You analyze the reasons why Group A chose debt restructuring."

[System 0777: Hmm, why is my heart beating faster again?]

Jin Zhao didn't run into the young lady this time, so it couldn't possibly affect her.

Jiang Xiliu: "...Is it possible that being frightened can also affect heart rate?" This stupid artificial intelligence.

Jiang Xiliu slowly stood up, outwardly calm but inwardly frantically kicking her neighbor's shin—Help! What's the answer?

The young lady is fearless, except for one thing: she's afraid of losing face.

Strangely enough, no one has ever criticized her or put pressure on her, nor has anyone ever demanded that she be perfect.

But Jiang Xiliu cares a lot about her image.

Oh, so it's still selective.

She didn't care at all about the disdain and strange looks from those who tried to cause trouble; she had her own set of standards.

Being unable to answer the teacher's questions in class is definitely within the scope of the young lady's standards.

Jiang Xiliu attended primary school in China. The content learned in primary school was mostly simple and easy to understand, and almost everyone in her class got full marks. However, when she entered junior high school, the difficulty of learning suddenly increased dramatically. Realizing this, Jiang Xiliu went abroad to study before the first monthly exam.

As long as she runs fast enough, no one will know that there are things she can't do.

So even now, she is still the "other people's child" in the eyes of her elders—after all, they live far away, so who knows how well she is doing in her studies? All they know is that she won a few awards, graduated early, and returned to her family's company in a great manner.

The bad guy who led her to sit in the first row seemed to have lost his sense of touch; his upper body was as steady as a mountain, and he didn't even glance at her.

It was as if they didn't know each other at all.

“Teacher…” Jiang Xiliu didn’t even have a book in front of her; she kicked Jin Zhao hard.

After hesitating for a few seconds between admitting she couldn't answer and giving a random answer, she said tactfully, "I'm sorry, I'm not a student in this major."

Pointing to the next room, her sweet, cloying voice mercilessly dragged Jin Zhao into the fray: "I'm here to accompany my boyfriend to class. How about he answers your questions instead?"

A note from the author:

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