Dong Yue’s chat app avatar blinked insistently. When Liang Sheng saw the message above it, she wanted nothing more than to hurl her phone across the room. The text read: “One more assignment added. Do the third and fourth practice sets from Friday too.”
After reading that, Liang Sheng forced out a smile uglier than crying. She’d rather endure the awkwardness with Kazuko forever than face this insane pile-on of homework.
“Pfft,” Kazuko let out a laugh. She drawled lazily, “I’m off to rest. Good luck to you.”
Heh. Liang Sheng sat stone-faced at her study desk, inwardly cursing Dong Yue to stay single for ten thousand years.
—— —— ——
The next day, predictably, Liang Sheng hadn’t finished her homework.
The girl had nerves of steel. She lounged in her seat with her legs crossed, looking utterly unconcerned. She even joked with Kazuko, “This babe ain’t scared of nothin’. If Sister Dong asks why I didn’t do it, I’ll just tell her straight up, ‘Daddy here didn’t feel like it!’ Heh, let’s see what she does about that.”
Expectations were plump and full, but reality was nothing but skin and bones.
When the icy-cold Dong Yue summoned Liang Sheng to the office with clear resentment in her voice, Liang Sheng’s legs turned to jelly, her calves cramping from sheer terror.
“You…” Dong Yue began slowly.
She didn’t even finish the word.
“Teacher! I was wrong!”
With a “thud,” the 165 cm girl vanished from sight. Dong Yue blinked in stunned silence, staring down at Liang Sheng, who had latched onto her leg. Her mind went blank, unsure what to make of the scene.
“Teacher, boo-hoo-hoo, I deserve a thousand deaths, boo-hoo-hoo! I’m beyond forgiveness, boo-hoo-hoo! Please let me off, Teacher, boo-hoo-hoo! I swear I won’t do it again, boo-hoo-hoo!” Liang Sheng wailed pitifully, snot and tears streaming down her face.
“You…” Dong Yue had never encountered anything like this. She blinked rapidly, her hands hovering awkwardly, not knowing where to put them.
The office fell into dead silence.
After a long moment, even Liang Sheng started feeling embarrassed. She might have overreacted. But it wasn’t her fault—Dong Yue’s face had been terrifying enough to make her brain kidnap her IQ and run off, leaving behind a dim-witted lovechild named Dummy.
“Teacher… I-I’ll finish it right away,” Liang Sheng said pitifully, batting her big, watery eyes. She pouted up at Dong Yue, still clinging to one of the teacher’s shapely legs, hoping for mercy.
“It’s not…” Dong Yue finally snapped out of her shock.
“I’m sorry! Teacher! Really, I’m so sorry!” Liang Sheng bowed her head in contrition again.
“Pfft…” A stifled snort came from above.
Liang Sheng looked up in confusion to find Dong Yue trembling all over, hand clamped over her mouth as she struggled not to laugh.
“Who said I was going to scold you? I wanted to tell you that yesterday’s message was sent to the wrong person.”
“…Huh?” Liang Sheng stared blankly for a beat. Then she nearly exploded in fury.
“I—!” Liang Sheng almost let a curse fly.
They said a man’s knees were worth their weight in gold. Sure, she wasn’t a man, but kneeling like that wasn’t something you did lightly! Whimper whimper whimper~
Dong Yue’s face flushed beet red, but to preserve her dignified image, she just pursed her lips to hold back the laughter.
It wasn’t until the utterly mortified Liang Sheng staggered out of the office, soul seemingly departed from her body, and shut the door behind her that Dong Yue collapsed back into her chair, bursting into hearty guffaws.
“Ding~” Favorability increased.
“Dong Yue’s Favorability Toward Liang Sheng: 37”
Liang Sheng made it a short distance down the hall before snapping back to reality. She dropped into a squat with a “whoosh,” clutching her head and whimpering, “Boo-hoo-hoo, that was so embarrassing! Boo-hoo-hoo, how am I supposed to live this down now? Boo-hoo-hoo.”
All she got for her pitiful display was Kazuko’s unfiltered, booming laughter.
At noon, Song An’an came scampering happily into Liang Sheng’s classroom again, lunchbox in hand for her beloved A-Sheng.
Lu Ziqing watched the scene with a sour taste in her mouth. She wasn’t pleased at all. With a sharp slap on the table that made Liang Sheng’s seat shake three times up front, she declared, “What’s so great about that? It’s way too basic. A-Sheng, your taste is awful.”
Song An’an’s eyes instantly turned red with anger. The usually timid and gentle girl toughened up this time. “A-Sheng loves what I make. So what?”
Liang Sheng was so startled by the tense standoff that she didn’t dare swallow the food in her mouth. Her cheeks bulged out as she froze like a deer in headlights.
Liang Sheng wanted to play peacemaker, but facing off against the two girls, she cowered, not daring to move a muscle. Her dark eyes darted slyly around, gauging the direction of this Shura Field.
“Liang Sheng, you tell her!”
“A-Sheng, tell her I’m right!”
If it was meant to be, it was fate; if disaster, there was no escaping it. Poor Liang Sheng was just built for this kind of misfortune. She’d been sitting there quietly, but nope—her name got called anyway.
“I… I, uh, dunno,” Liang Sheng mumbled, her words all jumbled. She couldn’t afford to offend either side—they were both like little aunties. Life was too hard. Sigh.
But the two girls weren’t satisfied with her answer. Lu Ziqing stared intently at Liang Sheng, unrelenting, demanding an answer to her liking.
Liang Sheng met Lu Ziqing’s gaze, then guiltily looked away. “Th-they’re both delicious. I don’t picky eat.” It was the best she could do. What else was she supposed to say?
Neither accepted that. The air grew thick with tension.
Liang Sheng was on the verge of tears. Still, her hands and mouth kept working. She shoveled rice in huge bites, choking herself into hiccups. But she feared skipping bites would draw their ire, so she kept stuffing her face.
“See? Liang Sheng’s devouring my cooking. That proves she… she loves my food!” Song An’an declared triumphantly.
Lu Ziqing stomped her foot in frustration, muttering under her breath. Her glare shredded Liang Sheng a thousand times over.
Perhaps her brain took pity on how exhausting it was to raise that dim-witted child and decided to return—complete with a bonus bundle of emotional intelligence.
“Young Miss treats me to gourmet delicacies, while An’an makes me loving homemade lunches. They’re different in nature but both delicious. I can’t really compare their flavors,” Liang Sheng said calmly. She’d finished eating and was daintily wiping her mouth with a napkin.
“But they do have one thing in common: both of you did this for me because you like me. That’s why I’m happy.”
This sweet talk instantly melted Song An’an. She burst into joyful laughter, covering her face gleefully.
Lu Ziqing’s reaction was odder. Her face turned red first, then she shot back in a petulant tone, “W-who said I like you? I don’t!”
Spotting the signs of Young Miss Lu’s tsundere flare-up, Liang Sheng grinned. “Hey, no worries. As long as you know I like you both, that’s enough.”
“Ding~” Favorability increased.
“Song An’an’s Favorability Toward Liang Sheng: 170”
“Lu Ziqing’s Favorability Toward Liang Sheng: 107”
Those words struck Song An’an right in the heart. She conveniently glossed over the plural in “you both” and started bouncing with delight.
As for Young Miss Lu, she covered her face, huffed, and stalked back to her seat, pretending to be mad. In truth, she was just too embarrassed about her blushing cheeks to let Liang Sheng see.
