Chapter 69 Have some coffee, are you neighbors?

After the last exam, Hong Qingyang herded the restless students back to their seats like ducks, and one of them was forced to take a note about the National Day holiday.

"What's up? Your mind's wandering?" Hong Qingyang stood at the podium, looking around. "You can relax, but be careful. Stay away from sources of water or fire, and avoid associating with bad elements in society, especially those few restless students—" He paused meaningfully, looking at Zheng Zekai in the back row. "Don't ride motorcycles if you're not old enough. I don't want to have to go to the police station to pick you up when I get back from vacation."

The students below burst into laughter. Zheng Zekai was also laughing, leaning back in his chair and shaking his legs nonchalantly.

"Also, don't forget to study while you're having fun. Take your homework and do it well. I'll collect it and check it after the holiday."

As soon as these words came out, the laughter instantly turned into the howling of ghosts and wolves.

"Teacher, we just finished the monthly exam!"

"Exactly. Can we just have a good National Day holiday?"

"Brother Yang, for the sake of our great motherland's birthday, let's forget about the homework."

Hong Qingyang ignored everyone's protests, clapped his hands, and had the group leaders hand out the assignments. After making sure everyone had received them, he mercifully said, "Alright, let's disband."

Like boiling water falling into a swarm of flies, the students in the class scattered in all directions, whimpering and buzzing.

Zhu Yingning packed her schoolbag and planned to go upstairs to check on how Xu Sirui did in the exam.

As a result, as if he had anticipated her coming, when she went up, his seat was already empty. She reached out and touched his chair, but even the seat was cold. He probably handed in his paper and left early.

“…”

She was angry and helpless, curling her lips and deciding to wait for the results to come out before re-planning her tactics against him. After all, they lived under the same roof, and they would see each other every day. Where could he hide?

I turned around and planned to go home alone, but was stopped by a soft male voice: "Classmate?"

Zhu Yingning was not sure whether the other party was calling her, so she stopped hesitantly, looked left and right, trying to confirm if there was anyone else around who would turn around or respond.

"Hello, classmate." Feng Da simply walked around to her with a gentle smile on his face, "I'm calling you."

"Oh, hello." She nodded hurriedly, recognizing that this person was Xu Sirui's new friend at school.

"Are you looking for Si Rui? He left half an hour ago." Feng Da said in a gentle voice.

Half an hour ago, that was when the exam was almost over but not really over.

...He really handed in the paper early.

Zhu Yingning was so angry that her teeth itched. She had clearly told him repeatedly last night to check the test paper carefully after filling it out. What did he say then? He said "hmm". Now thinking about it, it seemed that "hmm" was just a perfunctory sound squeezed out of his nose because he was annoyed by her.

Feng Da seemed to find her lively expression very interesting. He tilted his head and looked at her for a while, then asked slowly, "Are you Si Rui's old friend?"

This question was like the lid of a frying pan on fire, which, with a pop, gently extinguished Zhu Yingning's flickering anger.

Is she Xu Sirui's friend?

I don’t know why, but every time I face this problem, Zhu Yingning feels less confident.

In all honesty, Xu Sirui hadn't been bad to her. From a certain perspective, he'd even been very good. It had been going on since their time in the village. He'd ignored Liu Guifang's theft, helped her with work when she was injured, and later left his watch at her house and personally called her to come to Beijing... He was so kind to her that if she still felt bad about him, she'd be a bit ungrateful.

However, his attitude towards her was different from that towards Sun Mingyuan and others, and also different from that towards Feng Da and others.

There was a familiarity between him and Sun Mingyuan, an atmosphere of openness where he would tell Sun Mingyuan anything, while with Feng Da and the others he was polite and accommodating.

But there was neither such familiarity nor such accommodation between her and Xu Sirui. She was in an awkward position, neither familiar enough for him to open his heart unscrupulously, nor "high-class" enough for him to maintain a good temper in front of her.

The more Zhu Yingning thought about it, the colder she felt in her heart. The words "I'm his friend" were stuck on her lips, like a broken wine cork that couldn't be pulled out no matter how hard she tried.

Seeing her embarrassment, Feng Da didn't force her. He smiled and said, "You don't have any plans after school, right? Do you want to go for a drink together?"

The expression "drink a glass" startled Zhu Yingning, and he quickly waved his hands and said, "I don't drink. Minors can't drink. It will affect brain development."

Perhaps he didn’t expect her to answer so seriously, Feng Da was stunned for a moment, then he said with a smile: “I’m not drinking, I’m drinking coffee.

……coffee?

She knew about coffee but had never drunk it. When she heard this, she just said "oh" and felt a little embarrassed.

Just then, Guo Yingying came over after packing her schoolbag. Feng Da turned around and called her, "Together?"

Xu Sirui was not around, and Guo Yingying had originally lost interest and planned to go home and rest early, until she saw Zhu Yingning in front of Feng Da. The refusal on the tip of her tongue turned into a "Let's go."

Feng Da patted Zhu Yingning on the shoulder and motioned her to follow.

She was sandwiched between Guo Yingying and Feng Da and walked for a while before she remembered that she had not agreed to the appointment. However, it would seem particularly pretentious to refuse now, so she kept silent.

The three of them walked together in a strange and funny U-shape. Feng Da and Guo Yingying were tall, Feng Da was 1.8 meters tall and Guo Yingying was 1.72 meters tall. In addition, Feng Da had delicate features and Guo Yingying had exquisite features. The two looked like magazine stars. Zhu Yingning walked among them like a mountain girl who was lucky enough to be visited by a star in the countryside.

Their destination was a cafe near the school, where many students from the same school sat. As they walked, students kept greeting Feng Da and Guo Yingying, and when they saw her, they would casually ask, "Who is this?"

"New friend." Feng Da said.

They sat down in a quiet corner of the cafe. Feng Da ordered an iced American coffee, while Guo Yingying, fearing insomnia, ordered pure milk.

"It's vacation time, so it's okay to have insomnia. Who would come to a coffee shop to drink milk?"

"I really don't want to drink. I have trouble falling asleep anyway."

He ignored her and said to the waiter, "One iced Americano and one latte." Then he looked at Zhu Yingning and asked gently, "What would you like to drink?"

"I..." She had no idea what drinks the coffee shop had.

"Take a look at the menu." Guo Yingying pushed the menu to her.

Zhu Yingning picked up the menu, glanced at it, and her face went numb. She was so frightened by the prices that she didn't dare to say anything for a long time.

"Why don't you try the iced American coffee?" After waiting for a while without seeing her answer, Feng Da simply made the decision for her.

Her eyes shifted to the price of the iced Americano. Seeing that it was fifteen dollars, she immediately and decisively refused, "I'll just have plain water."

Feng Da shook his head and laughed, "Nonsense." He looked up at the waiter, "Two iced Americanos and a latte, thank you." Then, before Zhu Yingning could refuse, he interrupted her, "It's your treat."

"No, I can pay for it myself..."

"You are Si Rui's friend, which means you are my friend."

Zhu Yingning didn't know what to say.

She had never met a socialite like Feng Da before. To be fair, he was very handsome, although not as eye-catching as Xu Sirui, but he had his own characteristics, clean and refreshing, and his speech was much more pleasant than Xu Sirui's.

But, for some reason, she always felt a sense of uneasiness and defensiveness when facing him.

Maybe it's because he looks gentle on the surface, but his words reveal a strength that is completely contrary to his appearance.

While waiting for coffee, Feng Da took the initiative to bring up the topic: "You have been coming to our class to look for Si Rui these past few days."

Zhu Yingning responded with a low “hmm.”

"I've seen you guys going to and from school together a few times before. Are you neighbors?"

She and Xu Sirui never deliberately avoided the gazes of their classmates when going to and from school, but they also never deliberately explained their relationship to anyone. If they bumped into each other at school, whether they greeted each other depended entirely on Young Master Xu's mood. If he was in a good mood, he would give her a congratulatory nod; if he was in a bad mood, he would glance away and childishly ignore her.

Although she had been blessed with the urban-rural exchange variety show, the popularity had passed after all. In addition, she was not the protagonist of the variety show, and her shots were rare. Even her full name did not appear in front of the camera. Most people in the school only knew Xu Sirui but not her, so it was normal that they did not know much about their relationship.

Zhu Yingning opened her mouth, not knowing where to start.

They were the sponsored person and the sponsor's son? She was staying at his house?

For some reason, she didn't want to tell Feng Da about these things.

Feng Da waited for a while, but she didn't speak. Then the waiter came over with coffee. He smiled and said, "Let's have coffee first." He gave her an iced Americano. "Would you like to try it?"

The iced American coffee was dark brown in color. Zhu Yingning leaned in to smell it and found that it tasted quite fragrant, with the aroma of beans, so she took a big sip through the straw without any precautions.

"How does it feel?" Feng Da asked deliberately.

Her facial features were twisted into a ball, like a crumpled tissue. She swallowed the coffee in her mouth with great effort, her eyebrows trembling as she said euphemistically, "Good medicine tastes bitter but is good for the disease."

Feng Da burst into laughter, and Guo Yingying next to him also smiled and shook her head.

Then Feng Da suddenly lowered his head to play with his phone. Without him to initiate conversation, the three of them fell into a long silence. Zhu Yingning looked at Guo Yingying, wanting to say something to liven up the atmosphere, but she couldn't find any common topics. In the end, she could only say blankly, "The second to last question in today's history exam..."

Guo Yingying immediately interrupted her: "Don't talk about the exam anymore since it's all over."

"Oh, okay."

Then silence fell again.

Just as she and Guo Yingying were staring at each other, both so embarrassed that they could only lower their heads to look at their coffee cups, Feng Da finally moved.

He raised his head, a faint smile on his face, and showed them his phone screen: "Found it."