Chapter 8

Chen Huo’s words just slipped right out, and left Huo Jing momentarily stunned.
Then, realizing he’d let that slip, Chen Huo’s face instantly turned crimson. The next second, Huo Jing burst out laughing in his face: “Cousin, is that a spring breeze I sense? Hasn’t even been that long and you’re already catching feelings? Weren’t you the one always insisting that girls are just trouble?”
It was too late to walk it back now. Chen Huo could only double down: “I was talking about the girls who are always chasing after me! Not all girls are trouble. She’s different.” The corners of his mouth even curled upward as he spoke, plain as day for Huo Jing to see, yep, this boy was hopelessly love-struck.
So Chen Huo was really serious this time? That actually caught Huo Jing off guard. In his mind, Chen Huo and the phrase “sympathetic to girls” were never, ever in the same sentence. At first, he’d attracted a whole parade of girls, until they got to know the real Chen Huo, at which point no one dared approach again. Lucky for him, Chen Huo didn’t care. Huo Jing never thought the day would come when his cousin actually fell for someone.
“She must be gorgeous, then, if you see her as different?” Huo Jing asked, sounding casual.
Chen Huo took the bait instantly. “Not really… Actually, I didn’t see her face at all. That day, she just said one thing to me, her voice was the prettiest I’ve ever heard. Her face was covered with a mask and a hat, so I couldn’t see her. But she has to be beautiful. Even if she wasn’t, I’d still like her. And she’s a badass fighter, too…”
Huo Jing latched onto the important part: “Fighter? You two met in a fight?”
But Chen Huo clammed up, he wasn’t about to admit he’d been set up, only to be saved by a girl. Unlucky for him, Huo Jing had already heard from his aunt and uncle about a certain someone getting jumped, beating a bunch of guys, and sending them to the police station. Funny thing, they’d actually thought Chen Huo was a bit dumb but good with his fists. Turned out, he didn’t win the fight himself, someone rescued him.
“So you’re telling me she played superhero for you.” Huo Jing quirked a brow. This kid had never shown interest before, but today he was suddenly so open, and after nearly getting set up, no less. Strange, very strange.
Since he was two days older, Huo Jing felt obligated to remind him: “Did you check her background out?”
Chen Huo might be dense about romance, but he wasn’t an idiot. Having grown up in the same environment as Huo Jing, he understood right away.
“You think she’s suspicious?” Chen Huo glared. “Don’t talk about her like that! She just happened to be passing by and helped me out. If it weren’t for her, I’d be lying in a hospital bed right now!”
Seeing Chen Huo really getting riled, Huo Jing quickly took the high road: “All right, all right, fine, I’ll drop it.”
But Chen Huo was still fuming, and shot back without thinking, “You know what, you’ve got your eye on that transfer student, haven’t you? What, is this your new type these days?”
The joking smirk vanished from Huo Jing’s face. “Oh? And what if I have? At least she’s smart enough to get into Yuying as a special-admissions student.”
Chen Huo didn’t know the identity of the girl he was crushing on, so he couldn’t exactly contradict Huo Jing. In his head, the more someone could fight, the worse their grades must be, after all, that’s the kind of student he was himself.
“She’s a good fighter! But that transfer student looks like she could be blown over by the wind. Anyone could knock her out with a punch.”
“And look what that got you, tricked and ganged up on! If brains aren’t your strong suit, at least try not to be a moron.”
“Says you, don’t talk crap…”
“Oh, please, as if you’re not talking crap…”
Their argument, loud and childish, bounced off the walls of the brightly-lit poolside. Lucky no one else was around, otherwise the school tyrant and the campus playboy’s little elementary-school-level shouting match would’ve been laughed at by the whole school. Reputation: gone.
In the end, neither could convince the other.
Chen Huo let out a huff and stomped away, muttering to himself that only he could see how great she was. Huo Jing was just a narrow-minded bookworm, doomed to spend his life with a pile of textbooks.
Watching Chen Huo storm off, Huo Jing grinned, satisfied.
Well, that should keep this idiot from developing any real interest in her.
When Chen Huo stormed back into the main hall, he spotted a familiar face and instantly threw his arm around the boy’s shoulders. “Hey, skipping class on your first week? Getting wild, huh? Even wilder than your senior!”
The younger kid he grabbed was a head shorter. He looked up, unimpressed, and shot back, “Idiot.”
Chen Huo immediately started hollering: “Just ’cause you’re sick doesn’t mean I won’t hit you! Don’t forget you’re just a first-year now while I’m your upperclassman, get it?”
Yun Gu recalled what he’d just witnessed earlier, and his tone was even more certain: “Big idiot.”
“Hey, you, !”
Just as Huo Jing expected, come Monday morning, Chen Huo didn’t spare so much as a glance at Yun Zhuoqing. He slumped at his desk and went to sleep.
Huo Jing turned away, satisfied. Now that his aunt and uncle were back in town, they’d made Chen Huo promise to show up at school every day, so it wasn’t like he’d have the bandwidth to dwell on that night’s incident with Yun Zhuoqing. Huo Jing was in a good mood.
And Bai Jiajia, met with complete indifference, finally breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Chen Huo clearly wasn’t out for revenge. Looked like the Xiaoxue situation had blown over, too.
Later, Bai Jiajia found out from her friends that Xiaoxue had become a laughingstock in their social circle. After she got hauled out of the pool, her soaked, bedraggled look had been filmed, “just so happened” to be by her so-called friends who’d been waiting outside for juicy drama. The video got posted everywhere. Now, not only was Xiaoxue friendless, even her parents had given up trying to cause any more trouble. Bai Jiajia also apologized to Jiang Nuan, who graciously forgave her. Chen Huo wasn’t as vengeful as she’d feared; he hadn’t come after her that night or the next day.
Besides, Bai Jiajia sneaked another glance at Yun Zhuoqing, who was reading intently. She was as quiet and invisible as ever, the trouble Xiaoxue caused the other night seemed to have left her totally unbothered. She hadn’t even bothered to ask why Jiajia had helped someone else set her up.
Bai Jiajia’s chest felt tight; she had no idea how to ease it.
During the break, Jiang Nuan walked over with a small stack of papers and handed them to Yun Zhuoqing, speaking warmly: “Qingqing, have you decided which club you want to join?”
Yun Zhuoqing clearly had no idea what she was talking about and looked up blankly. “Club?”
Jiang Nuan explained, “Every student at Yuying has to join a club, school rules. Special admits too. For example, Bai Jiajia, Xin Xin, and I all joined the music club.” She was careful not to mention any other clubs, even though the info packet she handed Yun Zhuoqing conveniently included them all.
Sure enough, when Yun Zhuoqing opened the folder, the music club was front and center on the first page. She gave it a respectful scan, then flipped straight past it without hesitation.
Jiang Nuan looked crushed. “Qingqing, you’re not interested in the music club?”
Yun Zhuoqing answered with honest bluntness: “I can’t sing on pitch.”
Jiang Nuan pouted. “You don’t have to sing, though! There’s always instruments and stuff…”
She stopped herself mid-sentence.
“I don’t play any instruments, either,” Yun Zhuoqing added matter-of-factly, eyes already roving across the next page.
Jiang Nuan, seeing that Yun Zhuoqing hadn’t picked up on her slip, let out a tiny sigh of relief. She’d completely forgotten that Yun Zhuoqing was a special-admit, not like the rest of them, people who’d at least taken a few music lessons, even if half-heartedly. For them, music appreciation was mandatory. But for someone from an ordinary background, those things might as well have been from another planet. She remembered Bai Jiajia played piano; if Yun Zhuoqing knew nothing at all, maybe her home life was even less privileged than Jiajia’s?
That thought was still buzzing in Jiang Nuan’s mind when Yun Zhuoqing suddenly leaned in and pointed at the page, asking, “What’s the equestrian club about?”
Meeting Yun Zhuoqing’s gaze, Jiang Nuan’s face inexplicably tinged pink, her mind temporarily blanking out. “Ah… Huh? What?”
Taken off guard, she lost her chance to answer. Someone else jumped in: “Equestrian is a sport for the elite. Not just anyone can join, you have to pass a test first. Each week every member has to complete an assessment, or you’re out.” Huo Jing propped himself up against the back of Yun Zhuoqing’s chair, but she was sitting upright, making it impossible for him to get close.
“But,” Huo Jing leaned down, giving her a sidelong glance, “even if you don’t know how, once you join, I’ll give you private lessons.”
Below her hand, Yun Zhuoqing saw the words, “Club President: Huo Jing.”
“No thanks.” She didn’t even spare him a look, just flipped to the next page.
Huo Jing blinked in surprise. “I thought you were interested in the equestrian club?”
“Not anymore.” She’d lost all interest the second she heard about those weekly tests.
If she ever really did want something, she’d find a way to get it, no matter how impossible. But clearly, horseback riding wasn’t on her list.
Jiang Nuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. “Even better, everyone in that club is pretty… unique. You’d never fit in. Let’s keep looking.”
“Unique” was Jiang Nuan’s way, as a well-bred girl, of not saying “snobbish.” In reality, the members strutted around like they owned the school, especially with Huo Jing as their president, no one ever dared challenge their turf. Jiang Nuan thought Yun Zhuoqing’s gentle nature would be eaten alive there. Add Huo Jing, magnet for trouble, to the mix, and who knew what drama would land at Qingqing’s feet.
Huo Jing didn’t seem bothered by the rejection; he just leaned back with a mysterious look.
“This one’s the dance club. Song Hanyue is in it, she’s a real star, always performing at school events. And this is track and field, lots of running. Chen Huo’s the president; legend has it the last president only picked him because she was graduating and didn’t want his talent to go to waste,” Jiang Nuan whispered, sharing behind-the-scenes gossip that didn’t make it into the club flyers. Suddenly, a pair of hands landed flat on the papers from above.
“Join the dance club,” Song Hanyue ordered, looking down at Yun Zhuoqing imperiously. “With how lean you are, you’re perfect.”
“I’ve got zero rhythm,” Yun Zhuoqing said bluntly.
If you needed someone for street brawls, she was game. Dancing? Hard pass.
She’d probably end up looking like she was doing combat drills and become everyone’s laughingstock. Hardly the vibe she was going for as an extra in this story.
But Song Hanyue wasn’t as easygoing as Jiang Nuan. She raised a brow, suspicious. “Don’t think you can brush me off like you do Jiang Nuan. Come audition; I’ll be the judge.”
Jiang Nuan tried to mediate: “Hanyue, Qingqing really hasn’t danced before, she’s telling the truth. You know how much the basics matter, she’s just not suited for it.”
Song Hanyue finally let it go, but for some reason, stuck around, leaning against the wall and watching Yun Zhuoqing flip through the info pack.
Farther back, Yue Hao, who always had an ear for gossip, nudged Chen Huo: “Bro, bro, I just heard them say your name. Do you think the transfer student will join our club?”
At the mention of Yun Zhuoqing, the first image in Chen Huo’s mind was how she’d dodged his feint the other night, cool as ice, but that quickly got replaced by memories of her arguing with Huo Jing.
“Hope not. I don’t want her…” Nothing good ever came from Huo Jing’s crushes. His own taste was way better.
Yue Hao already had the latest scoop: “Oh, she said she’s not coming, doesn’t like to sweat.”
Doesn’t like sweating? Definitely a bookworm, not a fighter!
Chen Huo snorted, growing ever more disdainful of Huo Jing’s so-called taste.
Meanwhile, Yun Zhuoqing had reached the final page, the words “Math Olympiad Club” printed at the top.
She didn’t notice Jiang Nuan’s nervous glances nor Huo Jing’s meaningful stare. After reading through the requirements, she turned to Jiang Nuan. “I’m joining the Math Olympiad Club.”
“Math Olympiad Club?” Song Hanyue shot up, instantly switching to her dictator mode. “No. You’re not allowed to join.”