Even as a "normie," I'm completely oblivious to it.

Zixiao didn't say anything, her gaze as gentle as water, just quietly and tenderly watching Yuzhe bury his face in his hair.

It's true, my brother may seem carefree most of the time, but he actually thinks more and is more tired than anyone else.

Occasionally, he would act cute like this.

Does this count as helping my brother?

That's why Zixiao really likes her long hair.

16. Did you see through it all along?

Actually, school life is pretty good. In the classroom, some classmates gradually come to chat with Yu Zhe. Outside the classroom, during breaks, you can go to the comic club to find Luo Xiaomeng to read comics.

Although Yu Zhe found the content taught in class and the review assignments to be childish, he still completed every assignment because he felt that this was life, and that campus life was much happier than being cooped up in the villa before.

The afternoon passed uneventfully. Just as the warm winter sun shone through the back window of the classroom onto Yu Zhe's face, the gentle, slow pace of life made this young master of the Su family feel exceptionally comfortable.

The only thing worth mentioning is that the class had a small math test just before school ended in the afternoon. At this stage, the difficulty is of course greater than the college entrance examination. Even the students in Class S of the senior year mostly looked worried when doing the test.

By the time Yu Zhe finished this test, it was roughly the same time it took everyone else to finish the fill-in-the-blank questions.

However, he still waited for school to end so he could hand in his paper with everyone else. To put it bluntly, he just didn't like being "special."

Even so, both sides of the two draft papers are already covered with comics!

They were truly idle.

Everyone complained about how difficult the test was, and then they all left.

Yu Zhe also saw Luo Xiaomeng with her head drooping, dejectedly carrying her schoolbag and leaving.

Is it that difficult? Yu Zhe didn't quite understand.

Today after school, I walked home with Zixiao as usual, but this time there was another person with us.

That would naturally be Qin Ruoke, who had just moved next door to them. Since they lived in the same apartment, they could go back together.

However, Zixiao seems to be more hostile than usual... but that doesn't matter.

..............................

"Okay, that's settled then. By the way, Ruoke, would you like to come over for dinner?"

When they reached the apartment building, Yu Zhe tried to invite Qin Ruoke.

The moment she was invited, Qin Ruoke was genuinely happy.

But that was only for a moment, because she was self-aware and had already decided that it was enough to just watch over him from afar. Getting too involved in Yu Zhe's life would only cause him trouble.

Therefore, she politely declined: "No need... I've already bought the ingredients myself, and there's even cooked food included. Honestly, I haven't had such a lavish meal in ages, so..."

"It's okay, we'll do it another day. We'll buy more good food, we're not short of money."

Yu Zhe casually brushed the topic aside. Although it seemed unlikely, Qin Ruoke felt that he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking... It must be just her imagination.

After that, Yu Zhe took Zi Xiao's arm and prepared to go back to his apartment.

After walking a few steps, Qin Ruoke's sweet voice rang out behind him again.

"Um... although we can't go over for dinner, Yuzhe, could you come out for a walk after dinner? Come with me, I'd like to stroll around this apartment area."

He spoke with some hesitation and lack of confidence.

But in reality, it's not a difficult thing.

Before Yu Zhe could nod in agreement, Zi Xiao, who had been quiet the whole way, turned around and asked, "Senior Qin Ruoke, may I ask you something? You said you wanted to walk around here, so you can, but why did you ask your brother to come with you?"

Yeah... why did you have to ask Yu Zhe to come along?

There are some things I want to say in person... but what can I do about the reasons?

Why do I always feel like I need a reason to talk to Yu Zhe when I'm around Su Zixiao? Is this what they call pressure?

With her mind racing, Qin Ruoke quickly replied, "Well... I just moved here and I'm not very familiar with this area yet. I even got a little lost before, so I was thinking that if someone could come with me, it would be a huge help... like this..."

"If you're asking me to show you the way, that's fine too, no need to trouble you, brother..."

"It's okay, Zixiao, I'll go. The main thing is that she has some things she wants to say to me."

Yu Zhe gently patted Zi Xiao's shoulder and whispered, giving her a look that indicated she didn't need to worry.

But Zixiao is trying to keep wildflowers away! How could she not be worried?

"But brother..."

The words were on the tip of her tongue when Zixiao stopped.

Because she remembered something Yu Che said.

"Don't try to interfere with your brother's thoughts. He needs his freedom. And although he may not want to say it, in his heart, you and I are not the same. So don't worry, even if he builds a harem, you and I will still be the strongest!"

Well… Zixiao didn’t see the latter part of the sentence as clearly as Yuche, but she agreed with the former.

My brother definitely needs freedom.

Zixiao could not tolerate anything that interfered with his thoughts, not even herself. Sometimes she shouldn't have interfered too much; her brother's genius meant that he couldn't be restrained in any way.

Thinking of this, Zixiao nodded: "Okay, I understand, brother. Let's talk about it after dinner."

"it is good."

.................................... ..

Both sides enjoyed themselves during dinner time.

Yu Zhe and Zi Xiao chatted and laughed as usual, discussing their respective interesting experiences at school recently.

Although she was alone with Qin Ruoke, she wasn't idle at all. After finishing her meal early, she began to do her makeup and dressing, which she was completely unfamiliar with.

I say I'm not skilled at it because I've almost never dressed myself up like this before, and I never had that much spare money to buy cosmetics and clothes before!

She spent a long time fiddling with the cosmetics, looking at the tutorial, but in the end she gave up. She couldn't do it, she had absolutely no idea.

If the more makeup I do, the more unnatural it looks, then forget it. Just leave it as is; it will look more natural that way.

However, that little hair clip on your head is still necessary.

As for her hairstyle… she kept changing her pink hair in front of the mirror, sometimes lifting it up, sometimes letting it down, sometimes tying it into pigtails with both hands, and sometimes…

Damn it, it's been almost a whole hour!

In the end, I chose the hairstyle that Yu Zhe once said looked good, which was to simply let my hair down.

Then I put on the outfit I bought yesterday and set off!

........................... ..

Yu Zhe finished dinner a little while ago when there was a knock on the door.

Standing in the doorway after the door opened was Qin Ruoke, who seemed even more beautiful than at noon.

"Leave now?"

"Hmm... it's getting late. I'll just take a short walk and come right back."

"Alright then, Zixiao, I'll head out now!"

Yu Zhe called out into the house, picked up the clothes from the hanger, and prepared to go out.

Before he could even step outside, Zixiao ran over with a down jacket: "Wait, brother, it's very cold outside. If you wear this, you'll catch a cold even if you walk for a while."

"Okay, okay, don't worry so much."

Seeing her brother say that but still obediently put on his down jacket, Zixiao smiled knowingly.

I'm still worried.

But Zixiao is different from Yuche. If it were Yuche, she would definitely have put a locator in the down jacket and followed her secretly.

Zixiao was different; she didn't do anything special, she was just worried that her brother would get cold.

but!

She still wanted to follow secretly from behind!

Yu Zhe walked out the door after Qin Ruoke, slowly closing it. Just before the door was about to close completely, he said with a grin but also a serious tone through the crack, "If you're going to follow, you should wear something warm too."

Then the door closed.

Zixiao hurriedly sat down to put on her shoes, her face flushed with embarrassment.

Oh dear... it turns out my brother saw right through me all along!

17. Night Talk

This apartment building is truly high-end; it's quite famous even in the entire Fenghai City.

As part of the amenities, a whole park surrounds this low-rise apartment building, while on the outside is a commercial district that resembles a small satellite city.

The rent is very expensive. The people who rent here are usually big shots who don't live here year-round and only come back occasionally as a temporary place to stay.

There's probably no one else like Yu Zhe who rented a place just to experience life.

Oh, by the way, for Qin Ruoke, although it wasn't about experiencing life, following in Yu Zhe's footsteps to come here made the high rent worthwhile.

At this moment, the two strolled in the beautiful park surrounding the apartment as night fell.

Even people who aren't residents of this apartment complex often come to this park to run and exercise on the rubber track around the artificial lake, though of course, lazy people like Yu Zhe are definitely not included.

Walking outside the artificial lake fence, the bright streetlights and the noise of people running in the distance made Qin Ruoke's thoughts complicated.

After walking for a while, she finally spoke: "You got a high score on today's quiz again."

Hmm? A little quiz?

Oh right, Yu Zhe remembers now, you were talking about that test paper from after school, right?

"The results are out already? Didn't we just finish the exam?"

Qin Ruoke took out her phone, opened the class group chat with a sigh, and pointed to the screen: "You should check the announcements occasionally... It's just our own class, the teachers grade the papers very quickly. Luo Xiaomeng just posted the report cards in the group chat, look."

I took the phone from her; the screen already displayed a picture of my report card.

The first place naturally went to Su Yuzhe, whose perfect score of 150 was particularly eye-catching. Qin Ruoke followed closely behind in second place, but her score was only 142.

Although the difference may seem small, for top students, those eight points can be a huge gap.

As for Luo Xiaomeng, with a score of 124, she ranked around tenth, which is neither good nor bad; her performance was somewhat ambiguous.