WMR | Chapter 9

After Yan Shuran left, Zhou Nan and the other boys quickly had a brief discussion, then just as quickly forgot their bad mood and went back to singing and fooling around.

Before long, there was another knock at the private room door.

This time, the owner of the entertainment hall, Song He, came in and said with a smile, “There’s an event at the entertainment hall today. We’re sending a late-night snack set to every VIP room. Thanks for your support, everyone.”

As he spoke, one of the waiters behind him carried in a fruit platter salad and a fried chicken and fries set.

“Class monitor!”

When Zhou Nan and the others saw the waiter, they all cried out in surprise at once, “Class monitor, you’re doing part-time work here?”

Lu Qingci’s expression was indifferent. He calmly set down the two set meal trays, then gently pushed the fruit platter to a spot closer to Jiang Baiyu and said, “Please enjoy.”

Cold and handsome, with an excellent build, the boy was wearing a black service jacket and white shirt, giving him a cool, aloof air.

Jiang Baiyu looked at the fruit platter pushed toward him and frowned slightly.

Because he knew that right now, Lu Qingci most of all did not want his classmates to see him working part-time. At seventeen or eighteen, who would want their peers to see how hard their life really was?

After his initial shock, Zhou Nan snorted coldly. “Class monitor, since you’re here, don’t let Yan Shuran see you again. Otherwise he’ll think one of our brothers likes you again and come cause trouble for us.”

Lu Qingci said, “Did Yan Shuran cause trouble for you?”

Zhou Nan had clearly not said who, yet the boy looked at Jiang Baiyu.

Jiang Baiyu pressed his lips together.

Zhou Nan said unhappily, “Yan Shuran made Xiaoyu say it to your face, that he doesn’t like you. What kind of thing is that? As if our Xiaoyu likes you!”

As he spoke, Zhou Nan took out his phone, opened the recording app, and held it out in front of Jiang Baiyu. “Come on, Xiaoyu, say you don’t like Lu Qingci. I’ll record it and play it for Yan Shuran.”

Jiang Baiyu: ...

“Did she threaten you again?”

The table in the private room was fairly low.

After setting down the fruit platter, Lu Qingci half knelt in front of the table facing Jiang Baiyu, on one knee, and asked in a low voice.

His voice was deep. Jiang Baiyu almost did not hear the word “again.” He only felt that there seemed to be something complicated in the boy’s dark eyes, something he could not see through. Only then did he suddenly realize that he was actually looking down at Lu Qingci.

In his memory, Lu Qingci was always high above him, out of reach.

This was the first time he had seen Lu Qingci appear before him in such a posture.

“It’s, not really a threat.”

The boy was a little unaccustomed to it and looked away as he spoke.

“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Lu Qingci’s voice was low. “There won’t be anything like this again.”

Jiang Baiyu was startled once more.

In his memory, this was also the first time Lu Qingci had apologized to him.

Zhou Nan refused to let it go. “A single sorry is enough? I think tonight’s bill should be on you.”

He was obviously trying to take the chance to fleece Lu Qingci, but thinking of Lu Qingci’s current situation, what they spent in one night might be a month of Lu Qingci’s part-time wages.

Just as Jiang Baiyu was about to stop him, Lu Qingci spoke up and agreed, “Okay.”

Problems between boys were fine as long as they talked them out.

When the others saw Lu Qingci agree, they all told Song He, “Boss, let our class monitor stay and keep us company.”

“Sure.”

Song He pulled Lu Qingci over and stuffed him down beside Jiang Baiyu and Zhou Nan, joking, “Our shop’s number one. I’m lending him to you for tonight. Don’t forget to pay a fee for him.”

Lu Qingci naturally sat down beside Jiang Baiyu, separating the boy from Zhou Nan.

The long sofa in the private room was already packed. With Lu Qingci added now, Jiang Baiyu could only feel his body pressed tightly against Lu Qingci, his face almost brushing the boy’s broad, solid shoulder.

For some reason, Jiang Baiyu felt a little pressure and shifted slightly to the side.

Lu Qingci noticed and glanced sideways at him. The boy met his gaze and quickly lowered his head again. The dim light in the private room fell over the boy’s confused face, making him look shy.

In Lu Qingci’s deep eyes, a trace of warmth gathered.

Zhou Nan was not the sort to be particularly petty either. He poured Lu Qingci a drink and said, “Yan Shuran really has a problem. Which eye did she use to see that our Xiaoyu likes you?”

Lu Qingci said nothing, lowering his eyes toward the boy who was quietly going shy.

Anyone with an observant eye could tell that Jiang Baiyu liked him.

Someone joked, “Why couldn’t it be that the class monitor likes Xiaoyu? If the roles were reversed, the class monitor would have agreed at once to sit with Xiaoyu.”

“Oh, that does seem possible.”

“Our Xiaoyu is prettier than those girls anyway.”

“Hahaha, exactly, exactly.”

...

More and more people joined in the joking, while Zhou Nan looked suspiciously at the two people beside him.

Jiang Baiyu said, “Don’t talk nonsense.”

How could Lu Qingci possibly like him?

Lu Qingci gave the people around him a faint smile, then lowered his head and picked two slices of lemon from the fruit platter into a clean glass, before picking up a carbonated drink and pouring it in. A string of transparent bubbles immediately rose around the lemon slices floating in the glass.

Lu Qingci pushed the glass of lemon water toward the boy and said in a low voice, “Drink it like this, it can cut some of the greasiness.”

Jiang Baiyu’s body reacted on instinct more than on reason, and he reached out to take the cup and drank a sip. He had just eaten fried chicken and fries, and the lemon soda was refreshingly pleasant with it.

Only after he drank it did he realize that this glass of water had been made by Lu Qingci.

He held the cup with both hands and said softly, “Thank you.”

The others were singing and playing around on their own and did not notice what Lu Qingci had done.

But Zhou Nan, sitting beside him, had seen everything clearly. Deliberately, he asked, “Class monitor, make me a glass of lemon soda too?”

Lu Qingci said flatly, “No lemons left.”

Zhou Nan looked at the fruit platter and, sure enough, there were none left.

Still unwilling to give up, he draped an arm casually over Lu Qingci’s shoulder and said, “Class monitor, Yan Shuran shouldn’t just come looking for Xiaoyu for no reason, right? Do you know something?”

Lu Qingci gave him a sidelong glance and said coldly, “Let go.”

The boy was cool and distant, his eyes clear and cold.

Zhou Nan reluctantly let go and warned him in a very low voice, “I’m just telling you, Xiaoyu is simple. If you don’t mean anything by it, stay away from him. Besides, I think the two of you aren’t a good match.”

Lu Qingci said in a low voice, “Whether we’re a good match or not, that’s not for you to decide.”

Zhou Nan had achieved his goal and looked at Lu Qingci with a half-smile. “Looks like you really do like Xiaoyu?”

Lu Qingci pressed his lips together, his gaze clear and cold.

A boy saw the way the two of them were crowded together and asked curiously, “Nan-ge, what are you and the class monitor doing, hugging and talking like that?”

Zhou Nan laughed. “I’m asking our class monitor if he likes my type.”

That immediately drew a burst of laughter from around them.

But after only a moment, there was another knock at their private room door.

This time, another group of men arrived. The man walking in the center held a bouquet of exquisite flowers in his hand. He was wearing a finely tailored suit, his bearing refined and lofty, tall and handsome. The people behind him were likely all bodyguards.

His sudden appearance made the lively private room fall silent at once.

Yan Shuyan?!

Jiang Baiyu was startled.

Zhou Nan frowned and snorted. “What a lively day this is. Yan Shuran just left, and now you’ve come too, Mr. Yan. You’re not here to cause trouble for Xiaoyu too, are you?”

“How could I be?”

Yan Shuyan walked over with a smile.

Holding the flowers in one hand, he extended the other toward Jiang Baiyu and said, “Xiaoyu, I’m apologizing to you on behalf of my younger sister for her rudeness just now.”

Yan Shuyan was Yan Shuran’s older brother.

He was also the one who had brought a group of bodyguards to bully Yan Jinzhou at Old Master Yan’s birthday banquet.

Why was he here looking for him?

Jiang Baiyu felt a vague uneasiness in his heart. He slowly stood up from his seat and said, “It’s nothing serious. You’re too polite, Mr. Yan.”

“I came for another matter as well.”

Yan Shuyan sized up the refined and reserved boy from head to toe, a smile in the corner of his lips as he said, “I was too busy at the old man’s birthday banquet that day to talk to you. Since we’re here now, let’s get properly acquainted.”

As he spoke, Yan Shuyan held out the bouquet of flowers in front of Jiang Baiyu.

The people around them did not know what was going on, but they all knew who Yan Shuyan was. The eldest grandson of the Yan family, the first candidate to become the next family head. At such a young age, he already held an important position in the Yan family, and he was the kind of young talent that every wealthy young lady in City A desperately wanted to curry favor with.

Even Zhou Nan looked at Jiang Baiyu in surprise.

Looking at the intensely blooming flowers, Jiang Baiyu hesitated. “Mr. Yan, this, isn’t quite appropriate, is it?”

Yan Shuyan said, “Are you not giving me face?”

Jiang Baiyu could not make out Yan Shuyan’s intentions and cautiously took the bouquet.

Yan Shuyan smiled. “Our grandfathers have been friends since their generation. I hope we can become friends too. If it’s possible, can we exchange numbers?”

Although he phrased it as a question, he had already taken out his phone for Jiang Baiyu.

Jiang Baiyu hurriedly shook his head. “I’m just a student.”

“We’re not that far apart in age.”

Yan Shuyan interrupted the boy with a smile, his tone faintly suggestive as he said, “Actually, the first time I saw you, I felt we were very much in tune, like we had met before. Why won’t Xiaoyu give me a chance?”

“N, no, that’s not what I meant.”

Jiang Baiyu went red whenever he got anxious.

His handsome face, tinged with pink, looked especially shy and lovely against the flowers.

Yan Shuyan looked at the boy’s face and laughed in a rather pleased mood. He took out his phone, tapped the screen a few times, and Jiang Baiyu’s phone suddenly rang without warning.

Jiang Baiyu: ?

Yan Shuyan nodded slightly and said with a lifted smile, “Actually, Uncle Jiang already told me. Remember to add me and contact me, all right?”

After Yan Shuyan left, Jiang Baiyu looked at the missed call on his phone and the bouquet of flowers, utterly at a loss.

Zhou Nan said in a low voice, clearly enjoying the chaos, “Class monitor, the one who likes Xiaoyu isn’t just you.”

Lu Qingci’s expression was cool.

Yes, the people who liked Jiang Baiyu were actually many.

But he also knew that in the boy’s eyes, there was only him.

--

Just after Yan Shuyan got into the car, Yan Shuran inside hurriedly asked him, “Brother, how was it? Can you win Jiang Baiyu over?”

“Easy.”

Yan Shuyan held up two fingers. “Two weeks, and I guarantee I’ll have him unable to get out of my bed.”

Yan Shuran spat in disgust twice. “I don’t know what’s wrong with Grandpa. He keeps insisting that Jiang Baiyu’s birth chart will bring fortune to our Yan family. He also said that whoever in our family can marry Jiang Baiyu will inherit the next family head position. Just what does Jiang Baiyu think he is!”

“As long as the old man keeps his word, that’s enough. Besides...”

Yan Shuyan’s eyes showed a trace of amusement. “That kid isn’t bad.”

Yan Shuran had her whole mind on Lu Qingci. Thinking of Lu Qingci’s attitude toward Jiang Baiyu, she still felt uneasy.

She snorted. “You’d better get Jiang Baiyu quickly, and don’t let him get in my way!”