My older sister is a villainous rich girl.

Chris looked conflicted and slowly said, "I'm too popular."

"..." Wayne was speechless.

Richard, upon hearing Chris's words, smiled in deep agreement and said, "Sometimes, people find it hard to resist the existence of 'beauty.' So, even when they receive excessive adulation, I always think it's better not to hurt them."

There were also some other girls who remained in the Lily Club, gazing at the prince with admiration from afar.

Wait a minute, why did this opportunity, which I was supposed to create for Ge Li and His Highness to interact, turn into a conversation between His Highness and Chris?!

Wayne became wary and subtly set a trap for him: "If you clearly don't want to be with someone, but still act all gentle and considerate, aren't you intentionally giving them room for fantasy?"

Chris nodded in agreement: "Wayne is right."

Upon receiving affirmation, Wayne couldn't help but reveal a cunning smile.

Then, she changed the subject: "But you can't hurt someone just because they like you, okay?"

Just because someone doesn't want your affection, you shouldn't think you have the right to hurt others.

Chris's expression was very serious.

Regardless of whether Wayne truly loves her now, she hopes that Wayne can become a real gentleman, not the playboy from the original storyline.

Perhaps because he lacked love growing up, Wayne in the original story seemed to be trying to find the missing part of himself in other girls.

—To demand their love, and then trample it on the ground.

He always pursued beautiful girls passionately, and after succeeding, he would ruthlessly dump them and move on to the next one.

Because he was a minor character, the plot did not explain why he did what he did.

In otome anime, this is actually a very common setting. In order to create diversity in reverse harem, there is always a male character who has attributes such as "womanizing" or "returning from promiscuity".

But after getting to know the real Wayne, she couldn't just treat him as an animated background character.

He would stay up all night copying books for himself, try every means to help himself achieve his wildest dreams, and also have trouble sleeping because he was afraid of having nightmares.

He was a living, breathing person with thoughts and feelings.

So even if I can't reciprocate his feelings in the future, I hope he can find his own direction in life.

……

Looking at Chris's gentle gaze and loving eyes, Wayne felt a chill run down his spine.

He sensed a familiar emotion in Chris's gaze.

So this expression is really that annoying?

I'm sorry, Miss Ge Li, I will never look at you so rudely again.

"By the way, didn't Wayne have something to tell me? What is it?" Richard asked.

Yes, what is it?

Wayne looked blank for a moment, then quickly regained his composure.

He replied quite naturally, "Oh, I just wanted to ask, will the Bobbi dolls in the palace be returned to the craft department?"

From the day she participated in the royal performance, Bobby was kept in the palace.

It is said that he received unanimous praise from other members of the royal family.

"In principle, it should have been returned to the academy long ago, but because my cousin really likes Bobby so much, she begged my mother to delay it for a while longer."

Prince Richard confessed, "I will expedite Bobby's return."

Gavin frowned. "Cousin? Is it Princess Winnie? She's come to the capital?"

"Yes," said the prince, "but only under the guise of visiting relatives. She will have to return to the Kingdom of Stuart soon."

Perhaps because the activity room was crowded and noisy, the prince was reluctant to talk about his cousin and quickly changed the subject.

This relieved Wayne, since Bobby was just an excuse.

The only unpleasant thing was...

Ge Li was very dissatisfied with his work performance and kept giving him disapproving looks.

However, even after she and Chris left, Gavin and a group of unrelated people still acted as third wheels in the Lily Society's activity room.

Having figured this out, Wayne simply gave up and pretended that Goli didn't exist, continuing to talk to Chris.

Furthermore, whenever His Highness the Prince tried to join the conversation, Wayne always managed to quickly create an awkward silence.

In a way, it can be considered that Miss Ge Li's love was protected from another perspective.

However, Ge Li was completely unmoved by this.

"You promised to be my strategist?! Now I'm seriously questioning your loyalty."

In the stairwell, she angrily questioned him.

Taking advantage of Wayne going to the restroom, Ge Li immediately followed and cornered him at the corner of the stairs.

"Tsk, haste makes waste. If you don't get the chance this time, there will be another one. Don't panic."

"What is tofu?"

"Tofu is... nothing at all."

He tried to go around Geli, but Geli moved a step to the side, still blocking his way.

Wayne looked up speechlessly. "Please, I'm really in a hurry. If you keep stopping me, something might happen that none of us want to see."

"Then I'll wait for you here. We'll discuss our strategy for winning over the prince before we go in."

They're quite persistent, actually.

"If you don't mind that I just came out of the men's room after using the restroom."

Upon hearing this, Ge Li's face showed disgust: "You—"

Before she could finish speaking, Wayne had already taken a step past her and headed straight for the bathroom.

When he returned after resolving his personal issues, he was surprised to find that Ge Li was indeed still standing there waiting for him.

Seeing Wayne approach, she deliberately took two steps back to keep her distance from him.

Wayne: ...

"Okay, what are you planning to do?" he asked.

"Are you the strategist or am I? You can't give any effective advice, and I always have to figure it out myself. What's the use of you?" Ge Li said in a low voice.

"But you haven't paid me yet, have you? Of course, the trial period's access is not as good as the full version."

Wayne said, "If we don't go back soon, people will start to suspect that we both fell into the toilet together."

Without hesitation, Ge Li retorted, "Who wants to fall into the toilet with you!"

"Huh? Does that mean falling into the toilet with His Highness the Prince?!" Wayne exclaimed in surprise. "So this is what kind of noble lady you are?"

"...Can you please stop talking about the toilet? It's disgusting!" Ge Li was very contemptuous of his low-class tastes.

"Fine, fine, I give up," Wayne retorted. "If you used this kind of determination and perseverance to pursue His Highness, how could your plan fail!"

He said, "I'll teach you my ultimate trick—playing hard to get."

"First, you need to express your clear affection for the prince."

"Then, suddenly become cold towards him."

He would think: "Huh? I think I'm kind of interested in this person."

"Just do this a few times, going on and off like that, and he'll start to like you."