Chapter 27

Spurred on by Yan Xiao’s very enthusiastic “support,” Class Three lost the finals by a landslide.
Qiu Li, in his first-ever sports festival appearance, led the Gifted Class straight to victory, taking the championship with ease.
He was, of course, named MVP, scoring more than half of the team’s total points, and along the way, charming every girl from Yanwen and three neighboring schools.
Every girl except Yan Xiao.
She was furious.
Her plan had completely backfired: she’d failed to provoke him, gotten crushed instead, and didn’t even earn a single point. If that wasn’t infuriating, what was?
“Still mad?” Qiu Li came off the court, sweat glistening on his temple, brushing it away with his fingertip as a faint smile curved his lips. Even that casual motion was enough to make the nearby girls swoon all over again.
Yan Xiao’s face was expressionless as she turned and started walking away.
Fine, so she’d lost this round, but she wasn’t giving up. There would be other chances. Still, not only had she failed to earn any points, she’d been publicly teased by him in front of half the school. That kind of humiliation took time to digest.
Seeing her stalk off without a word, Qiu Li blinked, then followed her.
He’d only taken two steps before Zhou Hang bounded over like an overexcited puppy. “First! The class rep says we’re all going out for hotpot to celebrate the big win!”
Qiu Li didn’t even look at him. “Not going.”
Zhou Hang was used to this by now; rejection slid right off him. Undeterred, he trotted after them, babbling as he went:
“Come on, Number One! You have to eat anyway, right? What’s the harm in eating with us? Everyone’s waiting, fine, whatever. Hey, little sister! You hungry? Wanna come have hotpot?”
When Yan Xiao heard Qiu Li’s curt “Not going,” her mind sparked with an idea. She’d been about to decline anyway, but Zhou Hang’s invitation came at the perfect time.
“I can go?” she asked, eyes bright.
Zhou Hang gave her a ‘what kind of question is that?’ look. “Of course you can!”
“Okay,” she said sweetly, smiling. “Then I’ll go.”
Zhou Hang grinned. “Great! Let’s go!”
And without sparing Qiu Li a glance, he led her toward the group of students gathering at the edge of the field.
As they passed him, Zhou Hang leaned down, pretending to whisper. “Forget him, if he doesn’t wanna come, let him eat in the cafeteria. You can tell me what you like, I’ll”
He didn’t get to finish.
A firm hand landed on his head and shoved him aside.
Zhou Hang: “…”
He stumbled, half-terrified, half-thrilled, and quickly skipped two steps away, just out of arm’s reach in case Qiu Li decided to hit him for real.
“You craving hotpot that much?” Qiu Li asked, turning his head toward Yan Xiao, voice low and smooth now.
She ignored him.
Qiu Li’s tongue brushed the corner of his mouth as he lowered his gaze, a soft laugh slipping out.
That laugh was the final straw.
Yan Xiao whipped around, eyes sharp. “Weren’t you not going?”
She hadn’t planned to say it out loud, but he was being too much. Might as well lay it all bare.
Qiu Li had always hated group gatherings, parties, dinners, anything crowded.
She’d already provoked him into joining the basketball game, and now, by some twisted chain of cause and effect, he was being dragged into a class celebration too. There was no way he wasn’t annoyed.
Usually, Yan Xiao would farm her points quietly, without confronting him head-on, that way, the petty villain wouldn’t take offense and hold a grudge.
But today, she just couldn’t help herself.
And with her score still stuck, no movement at all, desperation had driven her to dance right on the edge of danger.
Seeing her still puffed-up and sulking, Qiu Li’s eyes curved slightly. “If you’re going, of course I’m going.”
To Yan Xiao, though, it sounded completely different: You went to our class’s victory dinner even after cheering for the opposing team, so obviously I have to go too.
She felt a little triumphant inside, but forced herself not to show it.
She thought she was hiding it well, but she didn’t realize every flicker of emotion was caught in Qiu Li’s gaze. When he saw her smile try to rise and then flatten again, amusement filled his eyes. He carefully kept the laughter from escaping and simply asked, “Still mad, huh?”
“Who made our little sister angry?” Zhou Hang, eavesdropping from the side, perked up immediately. “Tell me and I’ll go teach him a lesson!”
He rubbed his hands together in mock menace.
Yan Xiao, still fuming, raised her finger and pointed straight at Qiu Li. “Him.”
Zhou Hang: “?”
By the time Yan Xiao walked off to join the Gifted Class, he finally processed what had just happened. He scrambled after her. “No way, little sister, you’re kidding, right? He would never”
One icy glance from Qiu Li sliced his words short. Zhou Hang switched tone mid-sentence. “I mean, definitely not! You must be mistaken, absolutely mistaken!”
Yan Xiao didn’t bother to argue. Zhou Hang was Qiu Li’s self-proclaimed best friend, and as far as she could tell, a loyal little lapdog, the kind that wagged its tail even after getting kicked.
And sure enough, despite just getting glared at and shoved, he started wagging again.
When they arrived at the hotpot restaurant, the class rep counted heads, and the thirteen remaining members of the Gifted Class piled noisily into the biggest private room.
Originally, the class had thirty students. Three had transferred out to the regular section; most of the others had taken early admissions or special recruitment exams in their second year and were already at university. Now, only thirteen were left to face the college entrance exam.
Zhou Hang had actually passed an early admissions interview too, but he’d declined the offer.
When people asked why, he’d only said he wanted to stay and take the college entrance exam with his “good friend” Qiu Li, maybe even go to the same university.
Yan Xiao could never figure out how someone with an IQ of 200 could also be this much of a fool.
He called himself Qiu Li’s friend, but in her eyes, he was more like an overeager puppy, one that never stopped finding new and creative ways to get himself in trouble.
Case in point: not five minutes into the dinner, he was at it again.
“Little sister, sit here,” Zhou Hang said, marching to the table and taking charge of seating. “I’ll sit next to you, First can sit here, the three of us together!”
Pleased with his own brilliance, he imagined himself playing peacemaker, stuck between two sulky kids who’d surely reconcile by dessert.
But before he could bask in his cleverness, someone grabbed the back of his collar.
Qiu Li, without a word, lifted him clean off the chair and set him down several feet away.
Zhou Hang hadn’t even warmed the seat before he was relocated. But he was nothing if not persistent, he grabbed another stool, slid up next to Yan Xiao again, and only backed down when Qiu Li shot him a lethal look. Shoulders drooping, he dragged his stool to the opposite side of the table and sat down, sulking.
No one found it strange that Yan Xiao was at their class dinner; everyone already half-considered her an honorary member of the Gifted Class.
But her cheering for Class Three earlier had confused them all.
A girl sitting beside her couldn’t resist asking.
Yan Xiao had just opened her mouth when Zhou Hang, across the table, jumped in first. “Obviously it was psychological warfare! Think about it, if she doesn’t cheer for First but cheers for Class Three instead, that’s pure mind-games! For a team already losing badly, it’s not just confusing, it’s downright humiliating! How could they possibly play properly after that? Of course we crushed them! Tsk tsk, our Queen Xiao is a genius, you should’ve seen the look on their faces!”
Yan Xiao: “…”
She’d never imagined her little outburst would be interpreted like that, and what was worse, all these supposed geniuses were nodding along as if Zhou Hang’s nonsense made perfect sense.
She felt a headache coming on. Turning, she looked at Qiu Li.
At least he wasn’t nodding.
But since the score hadn’t budged, she wasn’t completely reassured. Leaning closer, she whispered, “Do you believe what Zhou Hang said?”
When she leaned in, Qiu Li instinctively tilted toward her. Meeting her bright, questioning eyes, he couldn’t help but smile. “No.”
She had been genuinely angry, after all, that cheer for Class Three had been pure defiance.
But still…
He glanced around the table. Everyone else was happily agreeing with Zhou Hang, and the warmth in his chest grew.
A secret only the two of them shared, it felt strange, new, and somehow exhilarating.
Yan Xiao had no idea what he was thinking. Hearing him say he didn’t believe it, and seeing that teasing smile, she finally relaxed.
But before she could fire back another challenge, Qiu Li added softly, “Still, I won, didn’t I?”
Yan Xiao: “…”
Her eyes widened. The smug look on his face made her want to hurl her juice straight at him.
And while she was still grinding her teeth, that infuriatingly handsome face suddenly leaned in close, too close. She froze, forgetting to move, staring at him in shock.
“So,” Qiu Li said, smiling just slightly, “don’t be mad anymore.”
Yan Xiao: “…”

Author’s Note:
Xiao-xiao: Get any closer and I’ll bite your nose off, you believe me?!
Young Master Li, eyes curved in a smile: Oh?
System: [Ding][Ding][Ding][Ding][Ding]……