novelraw Chapter 17
Chapter 17
Chapter 17
"Class is finally over, President. Want to grab lunch?"
As the bell for fourth period rang out, the morning's required classes ended and the lunch break officially began. Ashley, the class's Discipline Captain, strolled over to the window seat and invited Yan Huan to head to the cafeteria. She and Yan were both in Year One, Class A. There were five Year-One classes in total, and students were assigned to them at random at enrollment. Among the five student-council members, Yan Huan and Ashley were in Class A, Hashimoto was the lone occupant of Class B, and Sakuramiya Hitomi along with Yua Lina were in Class E. Since they were all close, they usually ate together unless something urgent came up.
Today was an exception.
Yan Huan gave it a moment's thought, then smiled and declined. "Ashley, you guys go ahead. I've got something to handle in the upper-division building; I'll catch up with you at the cafeteria later."
Ashley shot him a curious look but didn't ask for details. "Okay. I'll let Sakuramiya Vice-President know. If you're joining us, we'll be at the usual spot."
"Sounds good."
Once Ashley had turned away, Yan Huan stood and left the classroom, making a beeline for the other teaching block that housed the senior-year classes.
He was going for Ye Shiyu.
Maybe it was because the morning's student-council meeting had mentioned campus bullying, but the idea of the eccentric Ye Shiyu getting caught in that kind of mess had him on edge. A quick scroll through the news on his phone confirmed his fears: incidents involving Linmen students had spiked lately. Even the two elite schools in Jinghe District—Xiuzhi Academy and Yuanyue Academy—weren't immune; a student at the neighboring campus had jumped off a roof. Things could only be worse elsewhere. The South District schools had already been singled out for criticism.
Although Ye Shiyu's Modifier meant she was unlikely to be anyone's victim—"bully" was more likely—each extra use of the app pushed the situation closer to a disaster. Yan Huan had spent the weekend painstakingly hacking the system and had only just forced the Modifier to spit out a few Fragments. He really didn't want to return after a week away and find the app had leveled up into some unstoppable monster.
So he had to check on her.
Not every student rushed to the cafeteria at the bell. Some brought bento boxes, others dashed to the convenience store for instant meals, and plenty preferred to avoid the lunchtime queue. The classrooms were still half-full when the break began.
Today, Year Two Class A had welcomed a transfer student, and the boys had been buzzing all morning. Unfortunately, after a single period, their peacock enthusiasm had been iced over by the girl's glacial indifference. She radiated "do not approach." Only a handful of classmates had braved conversation.
"Gongzi, aren't you going to lunch?"
"I'm waiting for my boyfriend. He's still at practice."
"Track club's already that busy, and the semester just started?"
"The Club Wars are coming up, remember? Rewards are supposed to be huge. Besides punishing the losing clubs, the winners get to make a wish to the Board. Last year the winning club convinced them to cancel finals—no idea what President Yan's planning this year."
Ye Shiyu sat on a desk in a black one-piece, eyelids fluttering when she heard "President Yan." Ever since last night she'd been carrying a knot of guilt. Yan Huan had done so much for her, and she'd stood there like a block of wood—unable to thank him, even shamefully trying to hypnotize him.
This morning her first thought had been: What can I give him in return?
Answer: nothing useful.
Buy him a gift? He'd already given her that jellyfish plush sitting on her nightstand, and she had no clue what he liked. Invite him to live at her place again? He'd said he missed motherly care—but how could she trust the ugly part of her not to surface again and ruin him?
Her second question: Why is Yan Huan this good to me?
Because of Mom? Because Mom had treated him well, so he repaid that kindness to Mom's daughter? Or for some other reason she couldn't fathom?
Ye Shiyu sighed, the sound startlingly alive. If only dealing with people were as simple as handling dolls.
The classmate chatting earlier had left; only Gongzi, seated beside Ye Shiyu, remained. Noticing the sigh, Gongzi offered a friendly smile. "Classmate Ye, aren't you going to eat?"
It took Ye Shiyu a second to realize Gongzi was addressing her. She turned her blank face toward the girl. "...Mm. I brought food from home."
"Oh? I thought you were from Longguo—people there bring bentos too?"
Truth was, Ye Shiyu's appetite was tiny and she hated crowds, so Auntie Chen's dessert box would suffice. She nodded without explaining.
Then something occurred to her. She looked at Gongzi. "Is Yan Huan... famous at our school?"
"Ah, you mean President Yan?" Gongzi had just pulled out a compact mirror; the question lit her up. "Totally! Back when he first ran for student council as a freshman, everyone was blown away—his smile is lethal. Top grades, gentle personality..." With Yuanyue's gender ratio at one guy for every two girls, Yan Huan had swept the female vote.
Ye Shiyu felt a flicker of irritation whose origin she couldn't name.
"I see."
Without thinking, her phone screen lit up on the desk.
"Didn't expect the ice-queen transfer to crush on our campus heart-throb so fast," Gongzi teased. "Too bad Class A's guys are mediocre—Class B has a looker though."
Ye Shiyu's face said she couldn't care less. Blinking, Gongzi steered the topic back.
"Anyway, President Yan's a freshman, so he rarely visits the upper division. If he shows up, it's usually with Sakuramiya Vice-President, never solo—"
Gongzi's peripheral vision caught something. A languid, handsome boy now leaned against the doorway, arms folded, expression lazy.
"President Yan?" Gongzi blurted.
Yan Huan smiled at her. "Hey, senior."
Ye Shiyu froze, then turned and locked eyes with the boy she'd said goodbye to only last night.
He'd actually been standing there for a while, but seeing Ye Shiyu chatting normally had eased half his worry; he hadn't wanted to interrupt. Maybe he'd worried for nothing—bullying existed, but what were the odds she'd stumble into it on day one?
Since he was already here, he greeted them openly.
Ye Shiyu rose abruptly. Gongzi's gaze ping-ponged between her and Yan Huan like a paparazzo who'd just found the scoop of the century.
Shock! I've uncovered the President's secret wife!
Yan Huan read her expression in an instant. Wrong headline, though. It should read:
Hero Resists Hypnosis Demon King—Why Did Yan Huan Brave the Upper Division at High Noon?
With that in mind, he introduced them. "Senior, this is my older sister, Ye Shiyu. I came to check on her."
Older sister.
Ye Shiyu's throat bobbed; her eyes trembled as they fixed on Yan Huan.
Wait, the surnames don't even match—how is she your sister?
Unless this is some kinky role-play...
Gongzi decided not to question it and chose belief for now. "Ah, your sister. Got it."
Yan Huan offered polite small talk; the bell for next period would ring soon, and the corridor was already thinning out.
"Mmm, I'll trouble you to look after Shiyu sis after this. She just transferred from Longguo."
"Not at all. We're all classmates here, very friendly—no special treatment needed."
Yan Huan smiled faintly, then turned to Ye Shiyu, who had stayed silent the whole time, and asked,
"Shiyu sis, have you eaten? Want to grab lunch with me at the cafeteria?"
Gongzi was about to say, "Your sister brought food," but Ye Shiyu already nodded.
"Okay."
Gongzi opened her mouth, then slowly turned away and played dead, though her ears stayed pricked for gossip.
Ye Shiyu picked up her phone and headed for the door.
"Cafeteria's this way, Shiyu sis."
"Mm."
She fell in step behind Yan Huan, watching his back.
"Some classmates said you rarely come to the upper-grade building."
"Right—it's quite a walk. I can only make it during lunch break. I was going to ask on Plane if you were settling in, but the routes are so twisty I thought coming in person was better."
"."
Ye Shiyu studied his profile, noticing how the lazy ease in his face finally tipped into a soft yawn.
"Didn't sleep well last night?"
"Ah, the trip back from Jinghe District needs one transfer, so I got home late."
".
So it was because of me...
Yesterday he'd left late at night just to spare my feelings, and when I ran after him I didn't manage to make him stay—then because he borrowed my power bank he missed another train.
Ye Shiyu blinked, guilt urging her to ask what he liked, but the words stuck in her throat, same as last night.
Her phone lit up again.
She slapped her left hand over her right, the universal signal for Don't you dare hypnotize him again, and produced a loud clack.
Yan Huan looked back in surprise.
"What's wrong, Shiyu sis?"
Color rose in her cheeks. She hid the phone behind her skirt and murmured,
"A little... hungry."
"Then let's hurry and eat."
"Mm."
Yuanyue's cafeteria sits outside the front gate; in fact, a huge chunk of land out there belongs to the school—including a small park and a shopping street. The cafeteria occupies the southeast corner, closest to campus.
Yan Huan returned balancing plates of Longguo dishes, while in front of Ye Shiyu sat a fruit cup.
"You didn't have to be so extravagant."
Auntie Ye had told her Yan Huan earned every yuan himself; yesterday he'd bought her gifts, today he'd ordered a mountain of dishes.
"It's fine—I eat a lot."
But Ye Shiyu concluded he'd done it all for her sake. To avoid disappointing him, she picked up the chopsticks she always carried—her name neatly etched on them—and resolved to eat more than she wanted.
"How was class today? The lessons and all."
"Pretty good. It's very different from schools in Longguo."
"Exactly. Exams should be easy for you; a lot of the math Longguo teaches in high school we don't see till university."
"Mm."
She chewed, the urge to ask what he liked bubbling up again. She bit her chopsticks—then a half-head crowned with pink-and-red hair popped up at the edge of the table, hands gripping the rim as its owner crouched and sidled closer.
Two big, sparkling eyes swept between Ye Shiyu and Yan Huan like a judge weighing evidence.
It was the student-council secretary, Yua Lina.
Her expression grave, she stroked an imaginary beard—cafeteria magistrate in session.
Confusion, certainty—verdict!
She opened her mouth to shout; Yan Huan beat her to it, spearing a chunk of honeydew with an unused plastic fork and popping it between her teeth.
"Awoo!"
Instinct took over; she chewed, then beamed like a fool.
"So good~"
A second later she seemed to remember something and wailed,
"Wait! President, you traitor! You said you liked me just yesterday—wahhh!"
Ye Shiyu's pupils shrank; she looked at Yan Huan.
He only smiled, ignoring the melodrama.
"More honeydew?"
"Yes please! Love it!" Lina switched to angelic mode.
Ye Shiyu quietly withdrew the phone she'd set on the table.
"Where's Sakuramiya Vice-President and the others?"
Yan Huan fed her another piece as he asked.
"Mm, right behind us."
Watching him feed Lina, Ye Shiyu pressed her lips together and tightened her grip on her phone.
Footsteps approached. She turned to see several student-council members.
A bespectacled boy glued to his phone—ignore.
A short-haired blonde girl—Ashley—earned a second glance.
Then her gaze locked on the girl between them.
Strikingly beautiful, petite, the newcomer studied Ye Shiyu with the same intensity.
Their eyes met for a heartbeat, then slid away.
"Waaah, Sakuramiya, look! The President won't eat with us—he's secretly dating another girl! And you said he wasn't in love?!"
Sakuramiya Hitomi folded the sobbing Lina into a hug. With honeydew still in her mouth, Lina looked grievously wronged.
"There there, don't jump to conclusions about the President's private life. You probably started yelling before asking anything."
"Sakuramiya!"
Yan Huan smiled and introduced Ye Shiyu.
"Everyone, this is Ye Shiyu, daughter of my mother's good friend—my older sister."
"So at noon the President went to see his sister. How come we've never heard you had a sister at our school?" Ashley tapped her chin.
"She transferred in today."
Understanding nods all around; greetings followed.
Ye Shiyu merely nodded, expressionless, offering no reply.
She listened in silence, hearing many things in their chatter.
Watching Yan Huan laugh with his friends, she finally found an answer to the question she'd been turning over:
Perhaps he's kind to me not because of me, or even because of Mother...
More likely, he's just this gentle to everyone.
The realization sharpened the nameless discontent she'd felt earlier; without warning she set down her chopsticks.
"Finished already, Shiyu sis?"
"Mm. Sorry."
Turns out Ye Shiyu has a bird's appetite.
Yan Huan smiled, then told the others,
"I'll stay here with my sister. After lunch I'll show her around campus."
"All right, we'll head off then, President."
Sakuramiya gave a soft smile.
Yua nodded, started to leave, then darted back to spear another piece of Yan Huan's honeydew.
As Yan Huan raised an eyebrow she stuffed her cheeks and bolted.
"Run, run, run! Ashley!"
"."
Yan Huan let a helpless smile tug at his lips and glanced over at Ye Shiyu, who was still watching him. "Want more fruit, Shiyu sis?"
"No thanks." Ye Shiyu shook her head, gaze sliding to the doorway and the retreating back of Sakuramiya Hitomi amid the others.
She couldn't tell whether she was imagining it, but something about the way that girl looked at Yan Huan made her uneasy. It was enough to sour her first impression of a stranger.
And yet Yan Huan greeted even that stranger with the same warm smile he gave everyone. Ye Shiyu realized anew that his kindness probably wasn't reserved for her alone.
With nothing urgent on the first day of term, Hashimoto had gone back to class to game and binge anime, Ashley had slipped off to the library for a nap, and Yua Lina had vanished—no one knew where. Yua Lina might act ditsy, but she was effortlessly popular. From first-years to third-years, every class adored her. Right now she was probably holding court somewhere, surrounded by laughing girls.
Only Sakuramiya Hitomi returned alone to the student-council office on the top floor.
Inside the hushed room she paused, then sat at the desk and drew a laptop from her bag. She unlocked the screen, opened a folder labeled "Research," and inside found a single sub-folder: "Subject of Surveillance: Yan Huan."
A click revealed nearly a hundred sub-folders, all identically named: "Camera-01," "Camera-02," ... "Camera-100."
She opened one at random. Inside lay dozens of photographs of the same handsome boy, always smiling—shot from every conceivable angle. Yan Huan listening in class, Yan Huan looking drowsy, Yan Huan in conversation, Yan Huan jotting something down, Yan Huan sprinting during PE. Most were taken either in his classroom or right here in this office.
She had hidden cameras everywhere.
Folder "Camera-100" even held footage from the corridor outside Yan Huan's rented flat.
Expressionless, the beautiful girl studied the images. Then the face of another girl—Ye Shiyu—floated into her mind. After combing through every camera feed, she had never once found Ye Shiyu's figure. Sakuramiya Hitomi's brows drew together in faint displeasure.
"."
In the stillness of the office she spoke a strange word aloud.
"Room Boundary."
[Activate Room Boundary?]
[Current Modifier Level: 2]
[Coverage: Student-Council Office]
[Effects: Alter personal common sense, rewrite domain rules, omnidirectional surveillance]
She regarded the translucent prompt for a moment, then quietly closed the laptop with a soft clap.