The pretty little follower gets targeted by the crazy guys at the elite academy

"Li, Ruo..."

He called her name, his voice very soft, as if afraid of startling something.

Li Ruo looked at the man standing in the middle of the lawn.

White shirt, gold-rimmed glasses, and a silver briefcase in his hand.

His hair was disheveled by the sea breeze, with a few stray strands hanging over his forehead, making his usually calm and composed face look a bit disheveled.

But he stood very straight, like a tree planted in the wind, swaying but not falling.

"Pei Qingrang?" she asked, somewhat surprised.

Zhou Si, that underworld boss, actually let them all onto the island?!

Pei Qingrang's eyes reddened.

It was just a very light layer of red, like a smear of rouge spreading on white porcelain, so faint that it was almost invisible.

Those eyes, in the sunlight and behind the gold-rimmed glasses, were a restrained, dignified red, a red so intense it was almost unbearable to look at them for long.

He didn't come over; he just stood twenty meters away, looking at her face, swallowing back all the longing he had felt for the past five years, swallowing until his throat tightened and he couldn't speak.

Li Ruo looked at his reddened eyes, but didn't say anything or stand up.

She simply closed the book in her hand, placed it on her lap, tilted her head, and asked in her characteristically carefree tone:

"What brings you to the island? Are you here to catch up with Zhou Si?"

Pei Qingrang's Adam's apple bobbed.

Seeing his carefree attitude, he suddenly seemed to wake up. It seemed that his obsession and longing over the years had been one-sided, and the little girl he had been thinking about day and night didn't seem to be involved.

At that moment, he suddenly felt like a joke.

He couldn't even bring himself to say, "I've come to see you."

"...Hmm." His voice was so hoarse it didn't sound like his own.

What other answer could I give?

You can't exactly say that you're after her scent or the clothes she wore.

Pei Qingrang stood there silently like a telephone pole. Li Ruo, not knowing what to ask, casually asked:

"Have you got a meal yet?"

Pei Qingrang was stunned for a moment: "What?"

"I asked you if you've eaten. You've been at sea for a whole day and night, you didn't go without eating anything, did you?"

Pei Qingrang paused for a moment, then said, "I ate."

Lu Ran stood by and sabotaged them:

"He's lying. All he has on his boat is compressed biscuits and bottled water. I passed by his boat yesterday and saw him squatting on the deck eating compressed biscuits, his mouth full of crumbs."

Pei Qingrang turned to look at Lu Ran, his gaze calm:

"You just passed by my boat? Your fishing boat was moored next to mine for six hours, and you call that just passing by?"

Lu Ran said matter-of-factly, "I'm lost."

"You have GPS."

"The power is out."

"Your ship has a diesel generator."

"broken."

"It was inspected the day before you left."

"It's broken again."

Pei Qingrang looked at him, her lips moved, but in the end she said nothing.

He turned to look at Li Ruo, his voice softer than before:

"I'm not hungry."

Li Ruo looked at his face, which was much thinner than it had been five years ago: "You've gotten so thin, shall I have someone cook you a bowl of noodles?"

"No need, I brought strawberries." He gestured to the cooler in his hand.

"Strawberries can stave off hunger?" Lu Ran scoffed.

"Yes, we can." Pei Qingrang's gaze fell on Lu Ran. "But it's only for me and Ruoruo to eat, so please excuse us."

Lu Ran tilted his chin up. "Hey, didn't you see it? I'm lame, I couldn't avoid it."

"Uncle Butler, would you please carry Mr. Lu back to the reception room?"

Li Ruo stared at the box of strawberries, rubbing her hands together eagerly.

"Okay, Miss Li."

Lu Ran: "..."

She just promised him that they would be the best of friends in the world.

Lu Ran was taken away by two bodyguards who were holding his arms.

The garden fell silent.

Pei Qingrang walked over, blocking the sunlight behind him, and his shadow fell on her, enveloping her in a cool shade.

He put down his suitcase and sat down next to her.

The bench was made of wood, and it creaked slightly when you sat on it.

His body leaned towards her side, his shoulders slightly tilted, like a tree bent by the wind, growing towards her.

The two sat side by side, neither of them speaking.

The sea breeze blew from afar, ruffling her hair and his shirt collar.

The banyan leaves rustled above their heads, as if whispering secrets.

Pei Qingrang turned his head to look at her.

Her profile was soft in the light and shadow, with a straight nose, slightly upturned lips, and a pointed chin, like a lazy cat.

His gaze moved from her forehead to her eyebrows, from her eyebrows to her eyes, from her eyes to the tip of her nose, and finally rested on her lips... He paused for a second, and then looked away.

He looked down at his hands, his fingers interlaced on his knees, long and slender with distinct knuckles, and his nails neatly trimmed.

These are the hands that conduct experiments, write papers, and paint her portrait late at night.

"Didn't you bring strawberries?" Li Ruo waited for a long time but he didn't move.

"Oh, right, strawberries."

His thoughts were pulled back to reality, and he hurriedly opened the refrigerator and took out a transparent food storage container.

The box was filled with strawberries, each one big and red, with the stems carefully removed and neatly arranged like a plate of rubies.

He planted these himself on the island.

It started from a seed and took three years to grow before this year yielded its first fruit.

He didn't eat a single one of the first ripe strawberries; he picked them all, put them in a food storage container, carefully protected them in a refrigerator, and carried them three nautical miles, drifting overnight, just to hand them to her in person.

"For you."

Li Ruo looked down at the strawberries, picked one up, and put it in her mouth.

It was sweet, very sweet, so sweet that she squinted her eyes in satisfaction.

"tasty."

Pei Qingrang looked at her squinting eyes, at the slightly upturned corners of her mouth, and at the way she chewed strawberries with her cheeks puffed out. Slowly, little by little, the corners of his mouth turned up.

The smile was very faint, but there was light in his eyes.

"Have one." Li Ruo held the strawberry to his lips.

Pei Qingrang lowered his head and, using her hand, put the strawberry in his mouth.

His lips touched her fingertips, very lightly, as lightly as a snowflake falling on a petal.

Li Ruo's finger twitched slightly, but she didn't dodge.

Pei Qingrang chewed on a strawberry and looked at her.

The strawberry juice exploded in his mouth, sweet and sour, with a taste of sunshine and freshness.

These are strawberries he's grown on the island for three years, but the taste he's experiencing now is unlike any he's tasted before.

Because it was passed from her fingertips.

Pei Qingrang looked at Li Ruo, who was so close to him, and the scent he had longed for began to stir his self-control again, and some restless factor in his body began to be secreted wildly.

In his agitation, he made an outrageous request that left everyone speechless:

"Ruoruo, can I... suck your...?"