Hong Zihan smiled faintly. He was waiting for Gu Muxue to say exactly this.
Gu Muxue often used this line to reject people. Most of her suitors, usually because of their poor grades, would feel a sense of inferiority and back off.
But he was different. His grades were among the best in the school.
"Muxue, you're number one, and I was third in our grade on the last exam. We're still a bit far apart."
Hong Zihan looked heartbroken and full of regret, as if getting third in the entire grade was something shameful. This made the onlookers' eyes twitch, because the guy didn't seem to be flexing—he was dead serious.
But he quickly pulled himself together, his gaze firm as he said, "However! I had my mom sign me up for cram school. I'll definitely get second place on the next monthly exam!"
Xue Rui thought, 'With an expression that serious, I thought your goal was to be number one in all of Hedong. Turns out you're just aiming for second place?'
"I absolutely will not allow anyone else's name to stand between ours!"
The corners of Hong Zihan's mouth curled up uncontrollably. The thought of his name appearing right next to Gu Muxue's made him so excited he could hardly contain himself. The hand holding the chocolates was trembling slightly.
"Holy shit, this guy is something else!" Xue Rui couldn't hold it in any longer. For a split second, he had deciphered Hong Zihan's thoughts just by looking at his expression.
He wasn't the only one who figured it out. Many others looked disgusted, breaking out in goosebumps.
Gu Muxue heard a familiar voice from the crowd. She looked up, her gaze sweeping through the students until it landed on Xue Rui's face. Only then did her long, slender, pale neck stop turning.
Everyone followed Gu Muxue's gaze and spotted Xue Rui in the crowd.
"Brother Rui, what took you so long!" someone exclaimed in pleasant surprise.
Gu Muxue, too, shot Xue Rui a reproachful glare, as if complaining about his late arrival.
Hong Zihan froze on the spot. He had only made his move because he'd heard Xue Rui had given up his pursuit. He never expected this slacker to show up and bother Gu Muxue again.
"Xue Rui, you...!" Hong Zihan was actually terrified of students like him. Rumor had it they weren't just arrogant at school; they were completely lawless outside of it.
His mother had warned him time and time again never to mix with such students. She said that becoming friends with people like that would ruin your entire life.
But he couldn't show weakness in front of the girl he liked. He was trying to string his words together, figuring out a way to drive Xue Rui off without losing face.
"You what?"
Xue Rui sneered, strode through the crowd, and hopped onto the desk next to Gu Muxue. He looked down at the half-kneeling Hong Zihan, all while casually cracking sunflower seeds.
He then shook the bag of sunflower seeds in his hand and casually offered it to Gu Muxue, motioning for her to take some.
Hong Zihan was completely scornful of Xue Rui's behavior. He was holding up chocolates worth several hundred yuan, and Gu Muxue hadn't even given them a proper look.
'Using sunflower seeds? How cheap! It's an insult to Gu Muxue's image!'
However, under his astonished gaze, Gu Muxue's pale, slender wrist moved like the graceful neck of a swan. Her fingers gently plucked a single seed from Xue Rui's palm.
CRACK.
The crisp sound of the seed cracking echoed between her red lips and pearly teeth.
Yes, Gu Muxue had eaten a sunflower seed.
But to Hong Zihan's ears, that wasn't the sound of a seed cracking. It was the sound of his own heart shattering.
"Gu Muxue, you can't be with a bad student like him! He'll ruin you!"
Hong Zihan said, his voice trembling.
Gu Muxue lowered her beautiful eyes. "I just ate a sunflower seed. I didn't say I'd agree to anything."
Hong Zihan fell silent. It was true, Gu Muxue hadn't agreed to anything.
And yet... he felt as if he had already lost this contest.
"I just saw a teacher go into the office!"
The student acting as a lookout at the door called out a warning.
Xue Rui acted as if he hadn't heard, remaining on the desk and cracking sunflower seeds.
Hong Zihan, however, grew anxious. Not wanting to be caught by a teacher, he set the chocolates down and scurried away.
"Muxue, one day I'll make you understand how I feel!"
Hong Zihan shouted as he left.
Xue Rui found the line strangely familiar. It reminded him of a cartoon he'd watched in the school infirmary, where the villain, Big Bad Wolf, would always shout, "I'll be back!"
'There's not much difference between the two,' he thought.
"Damn, a guy like that can get third in the grade?" Xue Rui scratched his head.
The top three students in this school were truly a bizarre bunch, each one weirder than the last.
Mei Lili picked up the chocolates to chase after him, but the boy ran off so quickly he never looked back.
Just looking at the box of chocolates made Gu Muxue feel uncomfortable.
"Come, come, chocolates from the third-ranked student in our grade! Eat up, it'll boost your IQ," Xue Rui said with a mischievous grin, tearing open the packaging and passing them out to the students nearby.
"Xue Rui! I never accepted them, so why are you opening his things? Take them back to him," Gu Muxue said, her cheeks puffed out in anger.
"Guys like him would rather suffer than lose face. Giving them back would be a huge slap in the face. I bet he'd rather jump out a window than have people know you rejected his chocolates."
'A student like that is as naive as a blank sheet of paper,' Xue Rui thought. 'He's got a lot of hard lessons to learn about love. What's one box of chocolates? Just consider it an advance on his tuition.'
"His chocolates? I get goosebumps just thinking about it. No way I'm eating one!"
a girl said, hugging her shoulders. The disgust in her eyes was plain to see.
"Me neither!" many other students chimed in.
Everyone's aversion to Hong Zihan had been transferred to the innocent box of chocolates.
Once one person started it, the rest of the students, driven by a herd mentality and a sense of defiance, acted as if eating a chocolate would make them as "greasy" as Hong Zihan.
But Xue Rui was a "mature old soul," and he was very good at separating the person from the action.
The greasy guy was the greasy guy, and the chocolates were just chocolates. The two were not related.
He waved his hand dismissively. "Fine, don't eat them. I'll take them to Class Two."
"Heh heh." Many of them revealed knowing smiles.
They followed behind Xue Rui, eagerly waiting for him to hand out the chocolates to the students of Class Two.
Their plan was to wait until the Class Two students had eaten the chocolates, then secretly reveal their "origin" and have a good laugh at their friends' expense.
Xue Rui just smiled helplessly. 'Teenagers can be so childish.'
"Chocolates, everyone gets one," Xue Rui announced, handing them out to anyone he saw.
"Brother Rui, where'd these come from?" Yi Bing asked.
"Don't ask, just eat it," a male student from Class One urged with a sly grin.
"Uh..."
Yi Bing suddenly had a bad feeling. The more his mischievous friend insisted, the more he suspected something was up...
Xue Rui couldn't be bothered with these childish clowns. He took out two chocolates and gently placed them on Lin Ruoxi's desk.
"Don't refuse. Everyone's getting one, and this is your share."
Xue Rui said aloud. He thought, 'A girl this beautiful would only have to brush her hair back and look up, and she'd be flooded with countless chocolates. She doesn't need me to give her any.'
"Thank you," Lin Ruoxi whispered, her voice so quiet it was as if she were afraid a third person might overhear.
Xue Rui was suddenly struck by a mischievous impulse. He leaned closer and whispered, "Everyone else only got one, but I secretly gave you two. Quick, hide them."
Lin Ruoxi was very obedient. When she thought no one was looking, she hastily clutched the two foil-wrapped, heart-shaped chocolates and tucked them away in her sleeve.
Xue Rui grinned and patted Lin Ruoxi on the head like a rogue teasing a maiden, making her shrink back and pull in her neck.
Lin Ruoxi clutched the chocolates nervously, feeling them grow exceptionally warm in her palm.
Only after Xue Rui had left did she slowly unclench her fist.
She had a feeling Xue Rui was just teasing her, but after a quick glance around, she realized she really did have one more chocolate than everyone else.
'Why give me an extra one?'
She couldn't understand why she was getting special treatment.
Looking down at her hand, Lin Ruoxi saw that the chocolates had started to melt. A little had oozed out from a seam in the foil, leaving a sticky smear on her palm.
Her red lips parted slightly, and the tip of her pink tongue darted out to lick her palm clean.
"Chocolate... is really sweet."
In an unnoticed corner of the classroom, under a cascade of hair like a waterfall,
a smile of devastating beauty was quietly blooming.