Don't underestimate the poor and elderly; I was thrilled to refuse the class beauty's adva

As Zhang Yifan pondered, the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up, and he smiled absentmindedly.

"What are you laughing at?" Shen Zhiyi looked at his sudden smile, somewhat puzzled.

"It's nothing."

Zhang Yifan quickly straightened the corners of his mouth, his expression changing rapidly.

He took a step closer, his tone becoming serious.

"Thank you, thank you for everything you've done for me. Don't worry, I will definitely give it my all in the college entrance exam."

Shen Zhiyi kept a straight face, trying her best to make her voice sound cold enough: "It's not for you. It's because I want to truly defeat you."

"Didn't you report the principal because of me?"

"He deserved it."

"Oh." Zhang Yifan drawled, a smirk playing on his lips, then changed the subject, "But why did you bring me all this to Little West Lake?"

"What happened to Little West Lake?" Shen Zhiyi's expression genuinely showed she didn't know.

Zhang Yifan looked at her face, confirmed that she wasn't pretending to be stupid, and couldn't help but laugh:

"You don't know? Little West Lake is the place where couples in our school love to come the most."

The head of the grade level in the Political Education Office, nicknamed "Extinction Master," comes here every morning for surprise inspections and always manages to catch several couples.

You brought me here, I thought you...

"I have no idea!"

Shen Zhiyi quickly interrupted him, her voice slightly louder than usual, and the light pink on her face that had just faded came back on.

"If you don't know, you don't know. Why are you in such a hurry..."

"Shut up."

Just then, a powerful female voice rang out from not far away.

"What are you doing here instead of having class? Which class are you two in?"

Zhang Yifan turned around and his heart skipped a beat.

A middle-aged woman wearing black-rimmed glasses, a gray suit, and flat leather shoes strode towards them with a powerful stride and an expression on her face that resembled a tiger in the forest smelling blood.

She held a notebook in her hand, and her name tag on her chest reflected a blinding light in the sunlight.

Everyone in the entire school knows her: Chen Xiuying, the grade-level director, nicknamed "Extinction Master." She has been in charge of school discipline for over a decade, and the number of couples who have fallen into her hands could form a reinforced company.

Early romance is a death sentence for her; arm in arm during breaks is a suspended death sentence for her; and if she catches you walking home together after school, she'll interrogate you for three minutes.

"Let's go." Shen Zhiyi grabbed Zhang Yifan's hand.

Before Zhang Yifan could react, she grabbed him and started running.

Her hands were small, but her grip was tight, her knuckles digging into the web of his thumb and forefinger. Her fingers were slightly cold, but her palms were covered with a thin layer of sweat.

The two ran along the lakeside path, willow branches brushing past their heads and the pebbles under their feet making a soft crunching sound.

"Why are you running?" Zhang Yifan was being dragged along by her, finding it somewhat amusing. "We didn't do anything wrong. We'll just go over and explain to her."

"It's too much trouble to explain." Shen Zhiyi didn't turn her head, her voice still indifferent.

But what Zhang Yifan couldn't see was that she was desperately biting her lip and pressing down her mouth while facing forward.

She ran while holding Zhang Yifan's hand, her rapidly beating heart pounding in her ears.

She couldn't explain why she ran away, nor could she explain why she wouldn't let go.

Shen Zhiyi only let go of Abbess Miejue's hand when she had run out of sight.

Zhang Yifan's hand paused in mid-air for a moment, his fingers involuntarily curling as if trying to grab something, but he grasped nothing.

The warmth of her fingers still lingered in his palm, though the wind quickly dissipated it, and he felt his palm burning.

Shen Zhiyi turned around, her breath still slightly ragged from being out of it, the wisps of hair on her forehead ruffled by the wind, but her expression had returned to its usual indifference, as if she wasn't the one who had just been running wildly through the campus with a boy.

"Hurry back to class, don't slack off, remember the college entrance exam is a battle to win."

After saying that, she left, her steps neither fast nor slow, her ponytail swaying gently over her shoulder.

She turned the corner of the teaching building and made sure the people behind her couldn't see her face before the corners of her mouth slowly turned up.

It wasn't a faint smile, but a smile that had been suppressed for a long time and could no longer be contained, a smile with a hint of triumph.

She lowered her head, hiding her burning face inside her collar, and quickened her pace.

Zhang Yifan stood there, watching her retreating figure, then looked down at his hands and muttered to himself, "What a strange girl."

Then he scratched his head, put his hands in his school uniform pockets, and turned to walk back.

The moment he pushed open the back door of the classroom, he immediately regretted not climbing in through the window.

The entire Class 9 turned their heads in unison, their gazes even more unified than when he led the smashing of the cafeteria earlier. However, this time, their eyes held not admiration, but a tacit, ambiguous understanding.

He forced himself to sit down, enduring rows of stares like spotlights. Just then, Zong Wen leaned in, his grin stretching to his ears:

"So, so, what did the school beauty call you out for? Did she whisper something to you? Which grove did you go to? Did you go to Little West Lake?"

"Present the topic."

"Explaining the topic?!"

Zong Wen raised his voice very high, then lowered it and whispered in his ear.

"Yifan, can you at least make your lies believable? Shen Zhiyi asked you to help her with her homework? She's first in the grade, why would she need you to help her with her homework?"

She asked me for help with English cloze tests.

Zong Wen looked at him with an expression that said, "Keep making this up, I'm listening."

"I might not have taught her very well," Zhang Yifan said without changing his expression. "After she heard it, she dragged me around several laps."

Zong Wen froze for a second, then slumped onto the table, his shoulders shaking.

Lin Wanqing remained seated, without turning around.

The laughter behind her felt like needles pricking her ears. She turned to the next page of her English textbook, but not a single word stuck in her head.

All I could hear was the laughter and chatter around me.

She finally stopped hesitating, turned to Zhao Rong, and whispered, "What did your cousin say?"

Zhao Rong's eyes lit up, and she immediately leaned closer, lowering her voice so that only the two of them could hear:

"My cousin said it's no problem, he happens to be free these few days. But he needs to meet with you first to discuss the specifics, so I said we should go see him together at noon."

Upon hearing that they would have to meet again, Lin Wanqing immediately became hesitant, her fingers unconsciously twisting the hem of her school uniform.

"We still have to meet? Rongrong, maybe we should just forget about it. I'm just a little unwilling to accept it, it's not that serious..."

Are you willing to accept this?

Zhao Rong grabbed her wrist, not with much force but with a very urgent tone.

"Look at how those people behind you are laughing at you. And look at Zhang Yifan, who knows what he and Shen Zhiyi were doing outside just now? The more you hesitate, the more he leans towards Shen Zhiyi."

Lin Wanqing bit her lower lip, her nails digging into her palms without her realizing it.

Images flashed before her eyes: Zhang Yifan and Shen Zhiyi walking side by side in the corridor; the laughter of the whole class mocking her for "clinging to someone"; and the scene of herself ignoring Zhang Yifan yesterday but sitting here regretting it today.

Then she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, her eyelashes trembled a few times, and when she opened them again, there was a hint of resolute determination in them.

"Okay, I'll go see you at noon."