novelraw Chapter 239: "Rest Assured, the Entire School Knows.
Chapter 239: "Rest Assured, the Entire School Knows.
The hand on her arm suddenly tightened. Xu Su felt a sharp pang of pain as she heard Xi Zirong’s voice. "Be good. Answer this one last question for me, and I won’t pester you anymore."
"..." Xu Su tried to pull her arm away, but he was too strong. She couldn’t break free.
The music for the morning exercises ended, followed by the clamor of students from downstairs. The students were finished with their routine and would be heading back to their classrooms any second.
’The other students can’t see this.’ Xu Su’s heart raced. She nodded her head frantically. "Yes, yes, I’m still applying to University B! Xi Zirong, you have to keep your word. Don’t ever bother me again!"
’If Zhou Mochen were to find out about this, he’d surely break a few of Xi Zirong’s ribs again...’
Xi Zirong smiled. "I’ll keep my word."
His thumb slowly caressed the delicate skin of her arm. He only let go when Xu Su glared daggers at him, then sauntered back to his own seat.
Only then did Xu Su realize Teacher Wu had assigned him to the last row, in the very back corner...
’Given his height, the spot was indeed suitable...’
’But with his grades, there was no way he should be sitting there.’
Xu Su looked away, forcing herself not to think about it.
’I can’t pay too much attention to Xi Zirong. It would be useless, aside from giving him false hope.’
’Making Xi Zirong give up for good is what I have to do.’
’It’s better for everyone that way...’
The senior year curriculum was so packed that the morning flew by in the blink of an eye.
The dismissal bell rang, and before Xu Su could even leave the classroom, she saw Zhou Mochen leaning against the doorway.
Her footsteps faltered.
"..."
’Couldn’t he have waited outside the academic building? Did he really have to climb up to the third floor and stand at my classroom door to stake his claim?’
Seeing Xu Su frozen in place, Zhou Mochen walked over and took her hand. "What’s wrong?"
"....Weren’t you going to wait for me in the car?"
"Mm, I wanted to see what your classroom looks like." Zhou Mochen’s gaze drifted past her, pausing for a moment when it landed on the back corner. Suddenly, he smiled, wrapped an arm around her waist, and lowered his head to whisper, "Susu, how about giving me a kiss?"
Xu Su’s eyes shot wide. She glanced around; aside from Xi Zirong, a few other students were still in the classroom. Fortunately, Zhou Mochen’s voice had been so low that they hadn’t heard.
"Don’t be ridiculous!" she warned in a hushed tone, yanking him out of the classroom and hurrying toward the stairwell.
She didn’t let out a sigh of relief until they were out of the academic building and inside the car. She turned her head and continued to glare at him. "Drive!"
Zhou Mochen clicked his tongue and obediently started the car. "I really can’t stand seeing you like this. The moment I show up, you get so tense. Are you afraid of the other students gossiping, or are you afraid your ’ex-boyfriend’ will see?"
He bit down hard on the words "ex-boyfriend," practically grinding his teeth.
Xu Su felt a sense of helplessness. "Regarding Xi Zirong, haven’t I already said everything there is to say? Can we please just move on from this? Don’t you ever get tired of fixating on it?"
Staring straight ahead, his profile devoid of emotion, Zhou Mochen said, "That depends on you. When I believe you truly no longer care about him, then maybe I’ll stop being so hung up on it."
"....." Xu Su glanced down at their intertwined hands. She could actually understand why Zhou Mochen was so bothered.
Especially after that half-naked incident... and that had just been an accident, yet she’d been fuming for days.
Putting herself in his shoes, if Zhou Mochen had an ex-girlfriend he’d been with for a year, someone he had kissed and held....
Just the thought of it made her angry enough to curse, yet Zhou Mochen had to face that reality head-on.
She paused, then said softly, "I’m sorry."
Without turning his head, Zhou Mochen said, "I don’t want to hear you apologize to me for another man ever again, Xu Su. If you really feel sorry, then just treat me better. Much better."
Xu Su took a deep breath and explained earnestly, "I was tense because I don’t want to give our classmates more gossip fodder. It’s not what you think. If being a little more intimate with me at school would make you feel better, then... I can accept that."
He braked as the car came to a stop at a red light.
Zhou Mochen turned his head to look at her. "Does that include kissing you?"
"....." Xu Su choked. "Let’s... not do that."
Her classmates were already gossiping that she was a social climber who’d found a rich boyfriend and dumped Xi Zirong. If they started openly kissing at school...
"Fine." The light turned green, and Zhou Mochen stepped on the gas, his tone surprisingly agreeable. "No kissing it is. As long as everyone who knows you knows you’re mine, that’s all that matters."
Xu Su rested her forehead in her hand and sighed. "Oh, you can rest assured about that. The entire school knows."
’With his overbearing possessiveness, picking me up from school every single day, how could anyone not know?’
If she could still vaguely sense a few male classmates showing interest back when she was with Xi Zirong, now there were none. Absolutely none.
Zhou Mochen’s intimidating aura was enough to scare anyone off. And with Xi Zirong serving as a cautionary tale, what boy at City No. 1 High School would dare compete with him or try to steal his girl?
This was actually a good thing for Xu Su. She wasn’t good at navigating complicated social situations and couldn’t bring herself to be cold to classmates who were just trying to be friendly. So, these days, not having to politely rebuff advances from boys she barely knew was actually quite nice.
After Xi Zirong returned to school, students from the "rocket class" and beyond were all secretly watching to see if he and Xu Su would have any interaction.
After all, they had once been lovers, and their breakup had been so dramatic. It made people feel that a relationship like that couldn’t possibly be over for good. There had to be more to the story.
But to everyone’s disappointment, that wasn’t the case.
From early autumn to the dead of winter, short sleeves gave way to padded jackets, but the sequel everyone was hoping for never materialized.
In everyone’s eyes, they had become the classic "most familiar strangers."
Busybodies who were watching closely noted that for several months straight, Xi Zirong and Xu Su hadn’t exchanged a single word. Their seats were worlds apart, and their paths no longer crossed.
Gu Yunjia, on the other hand, was still relentlessly pursuing Xi Zirong. Perhaps by Teacher Wu’s design, her seat was also quite far from his, robbing her of her previous prime location.
Every break between classes, she could be seen flitting over to the back corner like a little skylark, chattering around Xi Zirong’s desk. But her affection was unrequited. The Xi Zirong who returned to school was even colder than before.
Previously, if classmates had a difficult problem, he was usually willing to help them out. Now, however, he explicitly refused to help anyone solve problems, with the exception of a few close male friends.
He seemed very busy. Qian Jia mentioned that the books piled high on Xi Zirong’s desk were no longer high school textbooks, but rather specialized books that looked intimidatingly complex.
A classmate had deliberately flipped one open and said it was completely indecipherable.
Xu Su remembered back in their first year, she already couldn’t understand the books he was buying then...
’Sure enough, the world of an academic prodigy wasn’t something a mere mortal could easily step into. It was dazzling...’
An ordinary top student like her could only look up in awe.
When Xi Zirong was away, she had even managed to rank first in their grade twice. After he came back, Xu Su returned to her usual number two spot.
Sigh...
Xu Su sighed, but in her heart, she accepted it without any fuss.
In her past life, Xi Zirong had been the top scorer on the college entrance exams for all of N Province. It would be more surprising if he *didn’t* take first place in their grade.
Everything had returned to its proper course. Xi Zirong went on being the resident academic prodigy, and Xu Su went on being with Zhou Mochen.