Lu Mingfei: Don't call me a loser, call me a hero.

Lu Mingfei took a sip of iced cola, and all the sadness, sorrow, and disappointment he had just felt were instantly washed away and temporarily settled in his stomach.

He gestured towards the encirclement in the distance and winked at Xia Mi: "Senior sister, why are you just watching and not doing anything? Senior brother is almost becoming a popular tourist attraction."

Xia Mi put one hand on her hip, her chest not large but her heart big: "What's there to fear from ordinary women?"

Lu Mingfei was waiting for these words, and pointed at them: "You still say you have nothing to do with your senior brother."

It's his turn to attack!

Xia Mi glanced at him sideways: "Isn't a friendship a relationship? Does it have to be a competitive, back-and-forth relationship like yours with your club president to be considered a relationship?"

"No, no..." Seeing that she easily defused the attack and steered the topic back to herself and Chen Wenwen, Lu Mingfei took a sip of cola to ease the awkwardness: "We have a normal relationship."

With a favorability rating of 35, you can only be considered a friend at best; you can't even be considered an enemy.

Xia Mi scoffed, "Please, you practically wear your affection on your sleeve. Anyone can tell you like her."

Teenage boys often think they've hidden their feelings well, but girls are very sensitive creatures and can tell at a glance who's interested in them.

People like Lu Mingfei are not hiding at all; they're like little dogs locked in a pet store's glass case, wagging their tails like crazy whenever they see someone.

Lu Mingfei stubbornly replied, "Impossible, I hid it very well."

Xia Mi chuckled: "Admit it, you like that girl."

"Are you bluffing me?"

"So what if I'm bluffing you?" Xia Mi patted his shoulder. "Junior brother, listen to your senior sister's advice, change your target. This girl is hard to handle, you can't win her over."

Lu Mingfei's heart tightened, and he wanted to refute, but the favorability rating was obvious, and he really didn't know Chen Wenwen as well as he thought.

But two years of pursuit still left him unwilling to give up: "How so?"

"Gentle girls are the most difficult to deal with because they are not only kind to you, but also kind and equal to everyone."

So everyone gets the illusion that she might be interested in them.

I bet a lot of guys in your literature club like her.

Lu Mingfei was speechless. There were far more than just a lot of them. The literary society itself was a fan club formed around Chen Wenwen, and every single one of them had designs on her.

Xia Mi knew the answer from his expression and continued, "It's because she treats everyone the same that it's very difficult to become someone special in her heart."

It's not because you're not good enough, it's because her gentleness is never selective.

Her kindness is like sunshine; it warms you when it shines on you, and it warms others as well. But to find a ray of sunshine that belongs only to you is unrealistic.

These words were like a scalpel piercing Lu Mingfei's heart. He looked at Chen Wenwen, who was huddled with a group of enthusiastic female fans in the distance, completely lacking her usual artistic goddess demeanor, and had to admit that what Teacher Da Mi said made some sense.

Xia Mi, with the air of someone who'd been there all along, looked at the center of the encirclement in the distance, a slight smile playing on her lips:

"On the contrary, those who seem difficult to get along with can be easily won over if you find the right approach."

Because their defenses are out in the open, you know where the door is, you just need to find the right key.

Gentle girls have no defenses; you can't even find the door. Their Maginot Line only appears when they meet someone they like.

Lu Mingfei had actually seen a similar theory before; last night, a galgame strategy post contained almost the exact same words.

The poster spent several thousand words analyzing the difficulty of winning over different types of female protagonists, and the final conclusion was:

The tsundere type can easily pass the level as long as you find the right combination of options, while the gentle type is the most difficult hidden boss.

Because her favorability rating increases slowly but decreases quickly, you never know which option you chose wrong.

He didn't pay much attention at the time, never expecting to be verified by Senior Sister Xia Mi in person now.

"Chen Wenwen is different."

Lu Mingfei felt a mix of emotions. When he said those words, he himself felt he lacked confidence, as if he were patting the sturdy support pillar of a crumbling building and praising its solidity.

Xia Mi shook his head with disdain: "The onlooker sees more of the game than the player; this is no joke. Junior brother, you're getting too attached to appearances."

Lu Mingfei made a final stand: "But she really treats me very differently. She only feels at ease when she entrusts many things to me."

But Xia Mi easily shattered his weak resistance: "Is it because only you would unconditionally complete the tasks she assigned?"

Lu Mingfei fell silent again, not knowing how to refute those words.

Although the other members of the literary society were there because of Chen Wenwen, they also had their own ideas and wouldn't just let Chen Wenwen have her way.

Only Lu Mingfei blindly supported Chen Wenwen, summoning her at will and dismissing her at will.

Xia Mi looked at him in silence, then waved to a group of girls gathered not far away. One of them, a quiet and somewhat artistic girl, walked over.

"Didn't I say I'd introduce you to a girl?" Xia Mi nudged Lu Mingfei's arm with her elbow. "This is a new member who joined the cheerleading team this year, a freshman in high school."

"You actually brought the whole cheerleading squad over?" Lu Mingfei glanced sideways, thinking how much face that must have taken.

"Let's liven things up a bit." Xia Mi waved her hand dismissively, then introduced the two of them to each other.

Junior student Chong Luming bowed slightly and said with a smile, "Hello, senior." This immediately repaired most of his nearly shattered Dao heart.

I, Lu Mingfei, actually have a day when a pretty junior politely greets me and calls me "senior"?!

He instinctively wanted to transform into a clumsy yet kind male lead from a Japanese drama, scratching his head with his eyes downcast and saying, "Junior, you're fine too," but Xia Mi grabbed him and pressed him down, her eyes full of threat—

If you dare to make such a low move again, I'll kick you away!

After the standard greeting, the junior student asked curiously, "Senior, do you have a younger brother named Lu Mingze?"

Lu Mingfei was taken aback upon hearing this. How did this involve the chubby little cousin? "Yes, how did you know? Are you two classmates?"

The junior nodded: "He sits in the row behind me."

"That's quite a coincidence," Lu Mingfei joked. "Junior, you're so pretty, does Lu Mingze often talk to you?"

Compared to his good-for-nothing cousin, Lu Mingze's younger cousin should be much more popular at school.

As everyone knows, the poorer the loser is, the richer the prince is. By throwing money around, the prince has gathered a lot of cronies around him.

"Yes," the junior nodded. "He likes to hang around me all the time. He passes me notes during class, talks to me after class, and chats with me on QQ when he gets home at night. Sometimes I don't even know where he gets so much to say."

Hearing this, Lu Mingfei's smile froze.

Logically, he should have said something like, "Little Fatty is being unfair, harassing his classmates even after getting 'sunset marks'."

But upon hearing his junior's words and seeing the undisguised helplessness on her face, he immediately and deeply empathized with her.

Because he would always try to get close to Chen Wenwen, sending her QQ messages every day and trying to find topics and things to do.

So what he thought was concern was actually an unbearable nuisance from the woman's perspective?