Li Nan’s expression was so earnest it was almost twisted. Any typical young woman might have agreed, simply because it would be hard to refuse him after he had even said such things.
Zhao Mingyue was not a typical person. Her thoughts differed from most other young women’s, and even after hearing Li Nan speak like this, she held firm to her stance.
“Li Nan, I truly have a very important matter after school. If you consider me a friend, then you should be more considerate of me. If you have something important to tell me, you can do it now. There’s no need to wait until after school.”
Zhao Mingyue’s tone was serious. At this point, her attitude softened slightly. “My family situation cannot be compared to Student Li’s. Just getting home takes me half an hour. My time is truly too tight. I hope you can understand.”
“I said I’d give you money. Is even that not enough?”
“No need. You and I are merely classmates. I won’t take your money.”
“Zhao Mingyue, you don’t even earn a hundred in a day. I’m offering you ten thousand, a hundred times that!” Li Nan still wouldn’t give up.
He had to find a way to keep Zhao Mingyue here today. This was the task Teacher Chen had given him. If he failed to complete it…
As he spoke these words, Li Nan was somewhat unable to control his emotions. His voice was a bit too loud, drawing the attention of the other students in the class, who turned to look curiously in their direction.
Zhao Mingyue had a headache. She closed her eyes and gently massaged her temples. “I must refuse.”
“You…”
Before Li Nan could finish, the class bell rang from outside the classroom.
Seeing that Zhao Mingyue couldn’t even be bothered to glance at him anymore, Li Nan clenched his teeth and said nothing more.
Class began, and Zhao Mingyue listened attentively. On her desk, Miss Rabbit sat quietly to the side, her head drooping low, her red eyes fixed on Li Nan, who was sitting nearby.
Zhao Mingyue’s seat was in the third row from the back, by the window. Despite this, her academic performance was actually very good, ranking within the top tier of the entire school. She wasn’t at the absolute peak of the peak, but her grades were already quite surprising to people.
She had very little free time. She was either working or on her way to work. When others were studying, she was working. When others were getting tutoring, she was working. When others were relaxing, she was still working.
Therefore, Zhao Mingyue’s grades had absolutely nothing to do with hard work. She was a complete and total natural talent.
During the morning classes, Bai Yu wasn’t just sizing up Li Nan next to her, but also observing Lu Liangting sitting in front of her.
As for Zhao Mingyue, there truly wasn’t much to see. This girl often zoned out during class, her attention easily caught by all sorts of things outside the window. She even, during math class, used the moment the teacher turned to write on the board to quickly unwrap a chocolate and pop it into her mouth.
Fortunately, she didn’t zone out the entire time. She was focused and listening most of the time.
In comparison, Lu Liangting seemed much more diligent, while Li Nan was at the complete opposite extreme. this person didn’t listen to the lesson at all, just sprawled on his desk, sleeping.
Perhaps because he did this so often, the teacher was accustomed to his behavior. Even seeing him sleeping, they didn’t pay him much mind.
Initially, Bai Yu truly believed the kid was sleeping. But when she looked more closely, she found the problem.
The guy had his arms folded on the desk, his face buried in the crook of his arms, not sleeping at all. Through the gap between his arms, he was staring sideways at Zhao Mingyue with bloodshot eyes.
Those eyes held very complex emotions. One thing Bai Yu was absolutely certain of was that his current thoughts were definitely not about developing a romantic relationship with Zhao Mingyue. It was more like he wished he could flay her skin, pull out her tendons, and hack her to pieces.
A class was forty minutes long. Li Nan just stared fixedly at Zhao Mingyue for a full forty minutes without even blinking.
This kind of crazed look, Bai Yu had only seen on the faces of lunatics. She was starting to suspect whether Li Nan had also had his identity replaced.
The problem was, he wasn’t female.
Out of over thirty game participants, there were only two women. These two women hadn’t escaped the fate of being modified either, though they still remained female, just like everyone else.
There were two possibilities now: either Li Nan was a game participant in disguise, actually female; or this person had been “modified” by a game participant.
The former was the least likely. Although the guy had a very long center-part hairstyle and was fairly clean-cut in appearance, his bone structure and Adam’s apple didn’t lie. The latter was the most likely. Bai Yu clearly understood that the methods of that group of lunatics were endless.
“Someone wants to kill you.”
Right after class, Zhao Mingyue heard this sentence from Bai Yu in her mind.
“Kill me?”
“After class, pay attention to Li Nan.”
“Li Nan…” Zhao Mingyue raised an eyebrow. The hand about to eat chocolate paused.
Under Bai Yu’s reminder, Zhao Mingyue also discovered Li Nan’s gaze. She simply pretended not to see it. Truthfully, she was a little frightened by that look.
After experiencing two quests, coming into contact with that world, and also under Bai Yu’s constant “nagging,” Zhao Mingyue had understood one principle.
When comparing people and ghosts, people are often far more terrifying.
Ghosts are simple. They just purely want to kill you. People are different. Their goals are rarely just purely to kill you; more often, they want to make you wish you were dead.
“He definitely has ill intentions toward me. Perhaps he wants to kill me. Since that’s the case, I should strike first and kill him!”
Silently, Zhao Mingyue replied to Bai Yu in her mind.
Hearing these words, the rabbit doll on the desk imperceptibly shifted its rabbit head.
Was this truly something Zhao Mingyue could say?
And just as this thought appeared, Zhao Mingyue added another line right after, “Heehee, did I imitate you well?”
“Imitate?”
“Yep, imitating you.”
“…”
“Aren’t we supposed to strike first? Did I guess wrong?”
“You didn’t guess wrong.”
Zhao Mingyue laid Miss Rabbit flat on the desk, both hands holding the doll’s body, meeting the rabbit’s red eyes.
“Do you have a plan?”
“No. Play it by ear.”
“Ah, well…”
As the last class approached, a small interlude broke the calm morning.
“Young Master, this is the lunch you asked me to prepare. I’ve brought it for you.” A beautiful girl in a black dress stood at the classroom door. Her voice could be heard by more than half the class.
“Gardenia, I told you, don’t call me Young Master…” Lu Liangting was helpless.
“Young Master, please don’t frown. It will cause you to age prematurely. To make you happy, we are wearing the black stockings you like today.”
Lu Liangting was the male lead of a manga, and this world was the world of that manga. Lu Liangting held a noble status and vast wealth. Bai Yu wasn’t surprised by his title of “Young Master.”
It was just… was Lu Liangting’s character profile a bit different from what she had imagined?
・
