Chapter 24.1

Ling Chen’an instinctively closed his eyes.

Cold water dripped down his hair, sending a shiver through him. The rest of his words were cut short. In the ensuing silence, there was a knock at the door.

A patrolling security guard, having heard the commotion, poked his head in. Frowning as he scanned the room, he asked, “What are you all doing in here?”

Hua Luoyue calmly placed the cup back on the table. “Someone’s head was a bit cloudy, so I helped him clear it,” she said. She held up her hands to show they were empty. “No fighting occurred.”

The guard looked at them skeptically for a moment before a look of realization dawned on him. He recognized them as a group that gathered here often. Having heard they were local students, he lowered his guard. He had a particularly strong impression of the guy sitting on the floor, as he often saw him walking past the building entrance with different girls.

Sometimes, he’d even seen two different girls arguing over him, even getting into hair-pulling matches, while the boy usually just offered a few half-hearted words of persuasion. Seeing the angry girls standing there now, the guard assumed it was another relationship issue and instinctively pulled his head back.

However, afraid these youngsters might let things get out of hand, he poked his head back in, cleared his throat, and reminded them: “Talk things out properly. If you can’t solve it, call the police—just don’t start a fight here.”

Hua Luoyue said, “Okay. We understand.”

She looked like a calm person; it was hard to imagine her suddenly going wild and starting a brawl. Besides, even if they did fight, how could two slender girls be a match for a grown man?

The guard looked at Ling Chen’an on the floor and finally noticed the bruise on the corner of his mouth. But remembering how he used to strut around with a girl on each arm, it was hard to feel much sympathy.

“Young man, you should be a bit more decent,” the guard said earnestly. “Didn’t you see the news here last month? A guy was two-timing several girls and ended up being stabbed to death by one of them. He didn’t survive even after days of emergency care. You’re lucky that—”

The guard glanced at Hua Luoyue and Cai Xinyue. “You’re lucky your friends are relatively reasonable. If you truly provoke someone into doing something irreversible, it’ll be too late for regrets.”

Ling Chen’an opened his mouth but couldn’t find a way to argue.

The guard then turned to the two girls. “Three-legged toads are hard to find, but two-legged men are everywhere. There are plenty of fish in the sea; don’t do anything foolish for a man who cheats.”

Cai Xinyue was stunned, wanting to explain but not knowing where to start. She never expected she’d be associated with Ling Chen’an in that way.

Only Hua Luoyue, the outsider, felt no shock. She nodded and thanked the guard for his kind advice, explaining nonchalantly, “Don’t worry, our standards aren’t that low.”

The guard breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good then…”

Ling Chen’an: “…”

A dispute that had reached a boiling point turned into a comedic ending thanks to the security guard’s intervention. With the interruption, everyone’s temper slowly cooled. They looked at the messy room in silence until Senior Zhao spoke up: “I’ll take Xinyue and Luoyue back first.”

The three of them went to the same school. The other person acting as a peacemaker, who lived closer to Ling Chen’an’s school, hesitated for a moment before nodding to Senior Zhao. “Then I’ll take Chen’an back.”

With things having escalated to this point, practice was obviously out of the question.

Cai Xinyue followed Senior Zhao sullenly, and he too was rather quiet. As the car approached the school, Senior Zhao suddenly said to Cai Xinyue, “I never heard Ye Zi say anything bad about you. Sometimes… she might have been a bit unhappy, but I think she was just envious of you.”

Ling Chen’an’s words hadn’t been entirely baseless. It was a fact that Ye Zi had complex feelings toward Cai Xinyue. After experiencing such a fall in status, one would have to be either a saint or a fool to have no thoughts at all. But envy and sadness are one thing; hatred, cursing, and belittling are another.

Unless someone is a master of disguise to the extreme, never letting a sliver of their true thoughts leak out, knowing her real feelings would inevitably be hurtful to those involved.

Cai Xinyue forced herself to perk up and managed a small smile, knowing Senior Zhao was looking for reasons to comfort her—at least to make her look less like a one-sided idiot for having considered Ye Zi her “best friend in the whole world.”

Hua Luoyue gently patted Cai Xinyue’s back but didn’t speak. She didn’t know their past and didn’t want to offer presumptuous comfort that might accidentally poke a sore spot.

“Do you have other plans for the afternoon?” Hua Luoyue asked after a moment’s thought.

Cai Xinyue shook her head and let out a long sigh, leaning against the seat in front of her. “I want to go back and sleep,” she said tiredly. “And tonight… we were supposed to have our group dinner.”

With the competition coming up soon, they had long ago arranged to go out for a good meal tonight to cheer themselves on. Hua Luoyue hadn’t been sure she’d have time because of her mother, but the restaurant was booked, and she didn’t want to dampen the mood, so she had initially planned to attend. No one expected things to turn out this way; the dinner was naturally cancelled.

With both sides fuming, it would be difficult to sit down and talk peacefully, let alone eat. Even the Senior said he wanted to rest for two days and think about what to do.

Hua Luoyue wasn’t that familiar with Senior Zhao, so she could only offer some generic comforting words. But seeing Cai Xinyue’s gloomy face, she was worried the girl might let her heart become burdened if she stayed alone. It was better to go out and get some fresh air.

“Since there’s nothing else, come out and have dinner with me tonight?” Hua Luoyue said. “Everything is fine with my mom for now, and I’m actually worried about having nowhere to spend my evening.”

Senior Zhao added his persuasion: “Luoyue has been running between the hospital and school lately, and she’s also been taking care of our band. She’s really worked hard. She’s the hero you brought in to help, Xinyue; you should treat her to a meal as a proper thank you.”

Cai Xinyue thought this made sense. Then she realized that the drama with Ling Chen’an and Ye Zi actually had nothing to do with Hua Luoyue. She was the one who had dragged her into this mess, affecting her mood, and she immediately felt a bit embarrassed.

“I should…” Cai Xinyue said. “I’ll come find you at your classroom when your class is over.”

After getting off the car and entering the school gates, Cai Xinyue went back to her dorm, while Senior Zhao walked with Hua Luoyue for a stretch toward her classroom. Before they split up, Senior Zhao whispered a thank you to Hua Luoyue: “I’ll leave Xinyue in your hands.”

Hua Luoyue replied, “Of course…”

The elective course—Western Art History—was one the original host had chosen herself. It wasn’t because she was particularly interested, but simply because she heard the teacher was lenient. He only took attendance at the start of the first session of even-numbered weeks; after that, he’d pretend not to notice even if someone slipped out early.

Aside from Hua Luoyue, there were two other girls and a boy from her class in this elective. Because they often walked together to class and because Hua Luoyue had become less withdrawn after the fight with Yuan Xiaoxiao, they had grown closer. All three, including the boy, had been targeted by Yuan Xiaoxiao in the past, which was how they became acquainted.

Now, Hua Luoyue had joined their circle.

One of the people who had joked about the love letter this morning was among them—a girl named Zhou Chiyu. Contrary to what her name might suggest, Zhou Chiyu was a petite, delicate, and very pretty girl with a slow-to-warm personality. As the shortest person in class, she instinctively looked up slightly when sitting and looking at people.

Yuan Xiaoxiao’s group used to mock her behind her back for “acting innocent” and “acting like a child,” and they’d call her “elementary schooler” to her face, leaving Zhou Chiyu flushed with anger but helpless. She wasn’t good with words; she couldn’t win an argument or a fight, especially since the other side had numbers. She could only vent her feelings about Yuan Xiaoxiao to her friends.

Hearing that Yuan Xiaoxiao and her lackeys had been beaten up, Zhou Chiyu was undoubtedly the happiest person in class. For several days after, she practically had a spring in her step. Because of this, the two “heroes,” Hua Luoyue and Cai Xinyue, were held in high regard by her. Coupled with the fact that the two spent more time at school and no longer avoided people as much as before, they had become quite well-acquainted.

Zhou Chiyu had arrived early and saved a few seats in the middle row. When she saw Hua Luoyue enter, she immediately waved to her: “Over here, over here!”

Once Hua Luoyue sat down, Zhou Chiyu asked somewhat uneasily, “Is Cai Xinyue still angry?”

Hua Luoyue comforted her: “It’s fine, she’s not that petty.”

Zhou Chiyu blushed slightly with embarrassment. “I’m sorry, we went too far this morning. That kind of thing really isn’t suitable for joking. I promise it won’t happen again. Could you help us apologize to her again later?”

Cai Xinyue had always been an easy-going optimist; losing her temper with classmates was a first. It was no wonder they felt anxious. After returning, they bailiantales.comhad reflected on themselves and realized they had indeed been too reckless and had crossed a line.

Seeing Zhou Chiyu’s sincere attitude, Hua Luoyue felt a mix of helplessness and relief. Malicious people like Yuan Xiaoxiao were, after all, a minority.

“I’ll pass that on when I see her,” Hua Luoyue promised. She then added an explanation for Cai Xinyue: “She wasn’t specifically targeting you guys. She just has some things on her mind at home and didn’t sleep well last night, so her mood was a bit off.”

Zhou Chiyu nodded in understanding.

Hua Luoyue looked at her, suddenly remembered something, and asked, “Has Cai Xinyue ever brought any friends from outside the school here before?”

Zhou Chiyu instinctively said she didn’t know. In the past, Cai Xinyue had also been a loner, rushing off-campus the moment class ended. Although she was quite popular in class, her opportunities for contact were few, so her relationships with classmates weren’t very close. It was only recently, after becoming friends with Hua Luoyue and being seen together often, that she was seen more frequently. In terms of understanding Cai Xinyue, other classmates might know even less than Hua Luoyue.

However, Zhou Chiyu then remembered something: “I think there was once. But it was back in freshman year.”

During the latter half of the second semester of freshman year, their college had held exams early, so they went on break early too. Before the school cleared out the dormitories, most students had already gone home for summer break. Zhou Chiyu’s flight was booked late, so she was one of the last few to leave. Cai Xinyue hadn’t left yet either, and Zhou Chiyu had seen her often, so she still had some memory of it.

“I remember that girl was tall and thin, with slightly dark skin, but quite pretty,” Zhou Chiyu gestured to indicate her height. “But she seemed quite introverted. At first, she stood at the school gate and didn’t dare come in; Cai Xinyue had to pull her in.”

In the following days, Zhou Chiyu would occasionally run into them while entering or leaving the dorm.

Hua Luoyue listened with her chin in her hand, and when the girl stopped, she asked about her impression: “What did you think of their relationship?”

“It seemed very good,” Zhou Chiyu said without hesitation. “At the time, I even commented to Jiajia that I didn’t expect Cai Xinyue to have such a close friend—she even walked arm-in-arm like other girls do. We used to think she was too proud to make friends. But thinking back, Cai Xinyue used to rush off-campus all the time just to see her friend, right?”

Zhou Chiyu then looked a bit puzzled: “Haven’t you seen that friend of hers?”

Hua Luoyue said, “Her friend’s job moved her to another city.”

“Oh…” Zhou Chiyu said. “That’s a real shame.”

Despite saying that, in modern society where communication and transportation are highly developed, temporary partings have gradually ceased to be something worth being sad over in the public mind.

The teacher walked into the classroom with a briefcase, and Zhou Chiyu and the classmate next to her switched to a different topic. Hua Luoyue followed the teacher’s requirements, mechanically flipping open her textbook, scanning it from top to bottom once, and then turning her gaze toward the window.

It was a rare class perfect for spacing out. Thinking about Cai Xinyue’s situation, she felt it was a bit tricky.

At this age in her past life, Hua Luoyue had truly already entered society. Everyone around her was more cunning than the last; even for the sake of surface-level harmony, those older seniors were the ones who looked after her, and it wasn’t her place to speak. Later, when she returned to school at an older age, the average age of her classmates was several years younger than hers. Coupled with her past status as a star, there was more curiosity and awe than closeness, mixed with a few low-lives who hoped to sell news of her recent situation as gossip to the paparazzi. To avoid trouble, she simply minimized social interaction as much as possible and kept a safe distance from friendly classmates. She didn’t avoid them, but she didn’t get close either.

Later, when she stood on firm ground and gained confidence, her few trusted friends were all decisive people with strong opinions. They were the ones who worried about her, and it wasn’t her place as a “person of bitter fate” to turn around and counsel them.

In other words, Hua Luoyue had no experience in counseling a young sister. The unspoken understanding of adults who have entered society is to maintain decorum, keep an appropriate distance, and not tear open wounds to embarrass people. But what about students who have just become adults and haven’t graduated yet?

It wasn’t until the bell rang that Hua Luoyue snapped out of it, unable to help but chuckle. She had actually spent a long time thinking about this like it was a rigorous research topic.