Chapter 42 Strategy: Day Forty-Two - He had me completely under his thumb...
A burning tenderness shone through his cold, sharp eyes, leaving Xiang Di almost stunned. Bai Jiangxin's smile instantly stirred an avalanche of emotions within her.
At that moment, she even thought that even if it was a scam, she would accept it. She would give him the money, her heart, and as for her body, as long as he didn't mind, she would give it all to him.
Xiang Di realized that her love-struck mind was hopeless and lowered her head in confusion.
Am I crazy? Why do I actually feel good when he insults me?
But who can understand? His tone was so doting. Never mind, let me have some fun...
To avoid appearing pleased after being scolded, Xiang Di feigned displeasure: "...How could you scold me?"
Her feigned anger was really not intimidating at all. Her voice was still sweet, her cheeks were puffed out, and her delicate eyebrows were slightly furrowed, like a child throwing a tantrum. Instead of being scary, onlookers would only find her incredibly cute.
“I’ll just scold you,” Bai Jiangxin said, looking at her.
Who could understand? He looks so handsome when he's serious and unreasonable. Xiang Di tried hard to keep a straight face and said, "Swearing is wrong."
Bai Jiangxin retorted, "So playing dumb is the right thing to do?"
She denied it: "...Who's pretending to be stupid?"
He said calmly, "She knows what she's doing."
Xiang Di fell silent, and because of her feigned ignorance, the conversation ended seemingly without further development.
The bus wasn't driving very smoothly, and it would occasionally bump along uneven roads. They sat close together, their shoulders gently bumping against each other. With each bump, Xiang Di's heart, like a small boat on a river, would sway and sway.
This kind of subtle contact is torturous, yet irresistibly addictive.
Xiang Di really wanted to ask Bai Jiangxin what he meant by what he just said, and what it meant to have feelings for him, but she was also a little afraid that if she really asked, his answer would not be what she wanted.
She could only analyze Bai Jiangxin's words in her mind, treating them like reading comprehension questions.
Even though the correct answer was right next to her, she didn't dare to ask.
Xiang Di started wondering why the bus hadn't arrived at the station yet, and how much longer it would take. She couldn't stand being controlled by him anymore; her heart was pounding so hard it wouldn't stop.
But she couldn't deny that she enjoyed being controlled by him, feeling a tightness in her chest, a tension that made her feel both aching and throbbing, unable to relax or settle down. She felt that if the bus never reached its stop, it wouldn't be impossible to just sit on the bus with him for the rest of her life.
She was also afraid that after she got off the bus, he would stop talking, and their conversation would truly end there.
Xiang Di felt that she was being pretentious and conflicted. On the one hand, she hoped that he could continue the topic they had just discussed and keep her in a shy and helpless situation. She liked him, so she enjoyed his teasing, which was a little mischievous but not excessive. She hated other people teasing her; she only liked Bai Jiangxin teasing her.
On the one hand, she didn't want Bai Jiangxin to stop talking. Her heart needed time to catch its breath. Using buying scratch cards as an analogy, she would be very happy if she won a hundred or two hundred yuan, but if she suddenly won hundreds of thousands, anyone would be so excited that they would be incoherent.
But Bai Jiangxin is worth far more than just a few hundred thousand to her.
He was her priceless treasure.
She cherished him so much that she married him in a grand procession, even fearing it would be beneath him.
Hearing Xiang Di say in his heart that he would marry this priceless treasure with an eight-bearer sedan chair, Bai Jiangxin raised an eyebrow, moved his Adam's apple, and suppressed a sigh.
Beyond the sigh, there was an irresistible softness in my heart.
...What?
Who's marrying whom? You've got it backwards.
Ke Xiangdi was completely unaware, still pondering what he had just said to her.
[Perhaps the affection he expressed was just a feeling between classmates...]
[If they were just classmates, would he be unable to control himself? If someone else had been alone with him, would he still have been unable to control himself? No, that's so scummy, it'll shatter my illusions...]
But if it's really just romantic feelings between a man and a woman, then that's even more impossible. How could he possibly... have... you know... with me...?
The bus is much quieter at night than during the day. After a long day, most passengers sit silently and wearily in their seats, scrolling through their phones or spacing out, enjoying this hard-won moment of rest.
Two teenagers, a boy and a girl, dressed in the same school uniform, sat together, blending into the scene on the bus. They seemed unfamiliar with each other and didn't even exchange a word, but only they knew that there was an invisible thread tightly binding them together.
Xiang Di seemed lost in thought, and Bai Jiangxin didn't disturb her, letting her feel sweetness and fear because of his words. His mood also changed with her rambling speculations, sometimes helpless, sometimes wanting to laugh, as soft and comforting as soaking in a hot spring.
In that case, even if the bus doesn't actually stop, it doesn't seem like it's not a bad thing to keep going like this.
-
But the bus still arrived at its destination, and the two got off.
She liked him, but was too timid and passive to act on it. Xiang Di was reluctant to let Bai Jiangxin leave, but didn't know what to say to keep him.
As it happened, the bakery downstairs was still open. She used the same trick she had used before, saying to him, "The bakery has recently launched a lot of new products. Let me treat you to them."
Bai Jiangxin agreed.
Coincidentally, the same clerk who had checked them out the previous two times was the same one who had helped them pay. The clerk was surprised when he saw the two customers come in. How come he always saw this young student couple every time it was his turn to be on duty?
This time, the girl bought a lot again, but unfortunately, her favorite cream puffs were sold out today. When it was time to pay, she took out her phone and offered to scan the code to pay.
The shop assistant sighed inwardly, "Still so love-struck, hopeless."
But this time, a hand stopped the girl from paying.
Xiang Di let out a sound of surprise.
Bai Jiangxin: "I'll do it."
As she spoke, she showed her payment code to the clerk. Xiang Di wanted to say no, but the clerk quickly scanned the code and succeeded.
Xiang Di had no choice but to give up. The shop assistant packed the desserts into two bags as Xiang Di had instructed. Xiang Di wanted to take her share, but Bai Jiangxin beat her to it and grabbed both bags.
Let's go.
Xiang Di could only say "oh" and follow behind him, preparing to leave.
But before she left, the shop assistant quietly called her back and gave her a thumbs-up with satisfaction and admiration.
"Wow, impressive, little sister! You've trained her so well."
I really didn't expect that such an innocent-looking female student would be so good at training men.
Xiang Di looked puzzled. Bai Jiangxin, who was waiting for her at the door, noticed that she hadn't left for a while and asked her, "Is there anything else you want to buy?"
Before she could ask the shop assistant what it meant, Xiang Di said, "That's all, that's all. We've already bought a lot. Let's go."
As they walked out of the bakery, Xiang Di said, "I'll take mine myself."
Bai Jiangxin said, "I'll take it, and give it to you when I get you downstairs."
"I'll take it myself," Xiang Di said. "I was supposed to treat you, but you ended up paying anyway, so at least let me do some work."
Although his gentlemanly manners were very endearing, she would feel embarrassed if she received something for nothing.
She reached out to take the bag from his hand, but he hid it behind his back, leaving her empty-handed.
Xiang Di pouted, "Why won't you let me carry them myself? Do you want both bags of desserts?"
If you didn't want to treat her, you should have said so from the beginning. It's not like she can't afford to pay.
Faced with her dissatisfied question, Bai Jiangxin remained silent for at least three seconds before speaking: "It's true that calling you a fool is no exaggeration."
Can't you tell I'm pursuing you?
His tone was heavy, yet it struck like a thunderclap in the quiet night, causing Xiang Di's brain to shut down completely.
Forget about maintaining a ladylike image, she exclaimed, "What?!"
Is he pursuing her?
But she didn't buy any scratch-off tickets, so how did she win the jackpot?
So on the bus, it wasn't that she misheard, and his feelings for her weren't just ordinary affection between classmates; were his words really what she thought they meant?
"No..." Xiang Di stammered, trying to regain her composure, "Are you playing some kind of dare game?"
“I’ve only played Truth or Dare once recently,” Bai Jiangxin said calmly. “Weren’t you there too?”
"...Yeah, but didn't the class monitor ask you the truth that day? Or did he give you a dare later?"
This time, Xiang Di wasn't pretending to be stupid; she was genuinely dazed, racking her brain to recall what she had missed.
“He didn’t mention it,” Bai Jiangxin explained patiently. “So everything I’m telling you now has nothing to do with dares.”
"Listen carefully, Xiang Di."
Under her shocked gaze, her eyes wide with disbelief, he said, slowly and deliberately, "I have feelings for you."
As soon as he finished speaking, the boy's previously calm expression faltered slightly. He suddenly became afraid to look Xiang Di in the eye and turned his face away.
Bai Jiangxin didn't explicitly say he liked her, and he suddenly understood why Xiang Di liked him so much but couldn't bring herself to say it.
Confessing your feelings seems simple—just four words—but it's actually very difficult. The difficulty isn't in acknowledging those feelings in your heart, but in actually saying them aloud.
It is a natural human emotion, yet it can still make people feel ashamed the moment it is revealed.
Fortunately, he's not the only one who feels embarrassed; there's someone even more embarrassed than him.
Xiang Di's mouth gaped open, her limbs frozen. If it were any other boy saying these words to her, she might have been able to understand—she was probably being secretly admired. But the key point was, it wasn't any other boy; the person standing in front of her was Bai Jiangxin! The person she secretly admired!
How could she possibly believe that!
Between them, aside from her quiet, unrequited love, there wasn't a single hint of ambiguity between them, so how did things suddenly...?
Xiang Di didn't know how to react, and Bai Jiangxin didn't urge her to speak. Instead, he understood her fear and disbelief.
From initial discomfort and annoyance to gradually taking her seriously, and even developing a withdrawal reaction, Bai Jiangxin felt like a frog being soaked in lukewarm water, gradually losing its ability to resist in her warm embrace.
He couldn't help but be moved, but he was also passive. He was unwilling to take the initiative to get closer. He originally thought that after the college entrance examination, with the separation of graduation, he would slowly forget this unexpected feeling.
But Xiang Di always finds a way to distract him. One moment it's Zhou Linxiao, the next it's some male internet celebrity. Today she even consciously restrained herself and didn't think about him all day, mentally screaming that she wanted to become desensitized to him.
How could Bai Jiangxin let someone who claimed to like him stir up his troubles and then leave so easily?
He had considered Ye Minjia's suggestion; he had a million ways to force Xiang Di to admit her feelings for him. However, graduation was approaching, and he didn't want any unexpected events to affect her college entrance exam in two months.
But he didn't want her to let go of his feelings for him so easily. Since she didn't want anyone to know her secret crush on him, he would pretend not to know and keep the secret with her. Then, in his own way, he would slowly guide her to willingly admit that she liked him.
Her true feelings are a secret, and he will always keep that secret for her.
Bai Jiangxin pretended not to know anything and asked knowingly, "Do you have someone you like right now?"
Xiang Di's lips moved slightly, and he murmured something.
God knows she really wanted to tell him that she had someone she liked, and that person was standing right in front of her right now.
But she couldn't say.
She didn't want to... appear to like him that much.
She didn't want him to know that she had liked him for a long time, and that compared to his feelings for her, the extent of her liking for him and her longing for him would probably scare him to death if she told him.
She liked him so much that she was almost ecstatic when she heard him say he had feelings for her.
I like him so much that he's all I can think about, and I want to make love to him every day.
Xiang Di lowered her head and whispered, "Not yet... for now."
I'm sorry, please forgive my sentimentality and willfulness at this moment. I've had a crush on you for too long, and I've tasted too much bitterness and sorrow. I want to reward myself for what I did in the past. I want to enjoy and experience this moment more, the way you take the initiative towards me.
Amid her guilty whispers, Bai Jiangxin softly hummed in agreement.
Since one of the two of them has to lower their pride first, and since she doesn't want to be the one who falls in love first, then he should be the one to do it.
Xiang Di looked up in confusion. What did he say?
"Then give me a chance," Bai Jiangxin said. "After the college entrance exam, you can see my performance and then give me your answer."
Xiang Di asked, bewildered, "...What kind of performance?"
Bai Jiangxin said, "If you have any difficult problems, you can ask me. If you want to eat anything, you can tell me and I will buy it for you. If you are in a bad mood, you can complain to me anytime. In short, I will be there whenever you call."
"This is too good to be true," Xiang Di said hesitantly. "Wouldn't that be too much trouble for you?"
Bai Jiangxin: "I'm happy to be bothered by you."
He paused for a moment, then looked at her and said, "This is the first time I've pursued someone. There may be some things I should do for you that I haven't thought of thoroughly, but you can ask me anytime."
Xiang Di tentatively asked, "...Can I buy breakfast then? That way I can sleep a little longer each day."
"Can."
"What about lunch..."
"Can."
"dinner……"
"Sure." Bai Jiangxin couldn't help but ask, "You only have requirements regarding food?"
Xiang Di scratched her face. She wasn't just picky about food; she was afraid that if she made other requests, he would think it was excessive and stop pursuing her.
She then made some other requests to Di, which Bai Jiangxin agreed to. As he indulged her, her requests gradually became bolder, starting from being cautious at first.
"Could you call me in the morning to wake me up?"
She asked very politely, but what she really wanted was what she was asking.
[It would be better if you just slept in the same bed with me and woke me up with a good morning kiss every morning. If that doesn't work, you can just have sex with me to wake me up. Yeah, that's still the way I want you to wake me up the most.]
"..."
Bai Jiangxin seemed to be choked by the sudden gust of wind. He covered his mouth and coughed before nodding and saying, "Okay."
"Can I call you every night if I have any questions I can't answer?"
[After asking the questions, it would be even better if we could have a phone sex session afterwards~]
"..."
Bai Jiangxin's temple throbbed.
Seeing that he didn't speak, Xiang Di's tone immediately became cautious again: "Is this request not allowed?"
"...No, that's fine."
Bai Jiangxin looked at her, his lips curving slightly, his gaze deepening. Perhaps he had just choked on the wind, for his clear voice carried a hint of low hoarseness, with a kind of ambiguous indulgence and implication.
"As long as you dare to bring it up, I can."
Xiang Di was somewhat surprised; he was being far too accommodating.
She wanted to make some more requests, but then her phone rang in her school uniform pocket.
"Wait for me a moment."
Xiang Di took out her phone; it was a voice call from her father.
The question was probably asking why she hadn't come home yet, so Xiang Di quickly answered the phone.
Her father's concerned voice came through the phone: "Daughter, have you finished evening self-study? Why aren't you home yet, it's so late?"
"I'm back now, downstairs, I'll be up soon."
"Oh, then come up quickly, or do you want me to come downstairs to get you?"
"No need, no need, I can come back by myself."
Xiang Di hung up the phone, and before she could say anything, Bai Jiangxin said, "Go home quickly. We can discuss the rest of your requests tomorrow."
Xiang Di knew she should go home, but... she couldn't bear to leave. If she went home, she would have to wait until tomorrow to see him again.
She took the dessert bag and said goodbye to Bai Jiangxin: "I'm going home now, bye-bye."
Bai Jiangxin: "Mm."
As she turned to Di, her reluctance to part with him grew even stronger.
[Xiang Di, you can't be so love-struck! You're not even together yet, and you're already this heartbroken. What will you do when you actually get together? You'll be glued to him all the time!]
[Ahhh, I really want a goodbye kiss, or even just a hug, but I still need to let him pursue me for a while. I can't give in so easily, I have to hold back!]
As she was thinking, someone suddenly called out to her from behind.
Xiang Di turned around: "What's wrong?"
Bai Jiangxin asked, "You've just made so many requests, now can I make one?"
Xiang Di is not the kind of person who doesn't know how to repay kindness, so of course she can't just take his care for granted.
"Okay, go ahead and tell me."
Bai Jiangxin walked towards her and bent down to her.
She looked at him with a bewildered expression, her lips slightly parted like a rabbit's, revealing a tiny bit of her snow-white upper teeth.
His focused gaze lingered on her lips for two seconds before Bai Jiangxin subtly shifted his gaze, restrainedly turning his head away and giving her only a light peck on her downy temples.
Completely caught off guard, Xiang Di was stunned.
"Consider it a perk for me, a little something for my suitors." Bai Jiangxin straightened up and gently patted her head. "Goodbye, goodnight, see you tomorrow."
He turned and left, leaving Xiang Di alone, her face burning and flushed, standing there dumbfounded and bewildered.
Bai Jiangxin hadn't gone far when, a few seconds later, he heard the familiar roar.
【Ah! Ah! Ah!!! ! ...
Why does he only ask for such meager benefits?! Is this all he needs?! Bai Jiangxin, are you even a man?! I despise you!
Bai Jiangxin: "..."
How can he not be a man?
It's not that he's shy; he knows that some people may seem wild and know everything, wanting things like morning kisses, morning exercises, and even phone sex, but when it comes to something real, they'll run away faster than a rabbit.
Bai Jiangxin was right. A few seconds later, the person's dissatisfied groundhog-like roar turned into a shy murmur from a young girl.
[Oh God, I'm doomed! He's got me completely wrapped around his little finger! Oh no, what am I going to do? I'm really going to love him forever now.]
Bai Jiangxin raised his eyebrows slightly.
What can I do? I'll just honestly love him for the rest of my life.
He would do everything she wanted with her.
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