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

Where would I be?

Look, isn't Yu Che wearing a kind smile?

Although Yu Zhe hadn't finished his introduction.

But Yu Che knew it just by hearing the name.

"Oh, the Ouyang family's daughter. I thought she looked familiar; I've seen her a few times before. My brother reminded her not to let her get close to you without your and my permission. Honestly, how can Zixiao be so incompetent? She can't even handle the simplest things."

"Ugh..." Little Lychee, though too afraid to look at the screen, could hear, "This is so mean... Everyone's so mean... I'm just a little slow, why are they targeting me..."

Zixiao calmly drank her tea, seemingly indifferent to worldly affairs. "Yuche, go ahead and scold me if you want."

Like I said, if I didn't hear it, it's the same as if you didn't say it.

About half an hour later, after Yu Zhe coaxed and tricked Yu Che, he finally hung up the video call.

Yu Zhe felt that if she were allowed to keep talking, she probably wouldn't finish even by nightfall.

The three of them then cleaned up the tableware together, since it was already past 1 p.m. and they had to start class at 2 p.m.

So we decided to go back to the classroom separately.

Before leaving, Zixiao specifically told Yuzhe, "Brother, you must take good care of yourself. Be careful when you meet pretty girls!"

"It's not that I lack comprehension skills, it's just that what you said is genuinely strange..."

After sending Xiaolizhi and Zixiao back to their classrooms, Yuzhe walked back to the senior high school building.

It was not yet 1:30, and judging from the activity in the corridor, there were not many people there yet.

I pushed open the classroom door and looked around.

No one has come yet...

Well... I said no one came, but that doesn't include someone who never left at all.

Yu Zhe saw that only Qin Ruoke was in the classroom, sitting in her seat, with various test papers and practice questions still spread out on the table.

Hearing the classroom door being pushed open, Qin Ruoke subconsciously leaned forward, as if trying to hide something she was holding.

What's wrong now? Why do you always seem to cause trouble every time I see you?

Thinking this, Yu Zhe ignored her and went straight over to sit in his seat.

However, when Yu Zhe walked behind Qin Ruoke, he saw what was in her hand. After all, it was difficult for her slender hands to completely hide anything.

It wasn't anything worth hiding; it was just a steamed bun.

A steamed bun?

Yu Zhe glanced at her table and saw that there were indeed no other side dishes.

He had a bad feeling, so he casually asked, "Qin Ruoke, you didn't just eat this one steamed bun for lunch, did you?"

Upon hearing this, Qin Ruoke's shoulders trembled, and she leaned forward slightly, as if trying to completely cover the steamed bun in her hand.

She maintained that posture and managed to say with difficulty, "Is that not allowed...? I'll just eat this steamed bun, and if you want to... if you want to laugh, then laugh..."

There was shame, indignation, embarrassment, and trembling in his voice.

Finally, there was even a hint of a sob in his voice.

Although she concealed her sob well, Yu Zhe noticed it very clearly.

Ugh... it really feels like I'm the one bullying her.

Yu Zhe didn't sit down. Instead, he took a bottle of water out of his bag and placed it on Qin Ruoke's desk.

Then he walked back towards the classroom door, saying to her as he went, "Don't eat yet, don't you feel choked? I'll go to the cafeteria and buy you some side dishes. Just make do with this for now. Wait for me, I'll be there as soon as possible and make sure you finish your meal before anyone in the class comes."

By now, Yu Zhe is basically certain that, although he doesn't know her family situation, Qin Ruoke may indeed be experiencing some financial difficulties.

Yu Zhe is not a saint; he won't see a pitiful person and think about helping them, nor can he help everyone.

But what if you only met her a few times, but found her to be a girl who was working hard for tomorrow, fighting for dignity, and who had no intention of bowing to fate?

Wouldn't you unconsciously want to help her, even in the smallest way?

Qin Ruoke glanced at Yu Zhe, who was hurrying out the door, out of the corner of her eye.

He looked down at the steamed bun in his hand again.

I instinctively gripped the steamed bun tighter with my hand.

But she listened to Yu Zhe's words and waited for him to come back.

Wouldn't this steamed bun taste better with some side dishes?

Even with Qin Ruoke's stubbornness, she felt that there might be some misunderstanding about Yu Zhe.

Qin Ruoke didn't detect a hint of sarcasm in what he just said.

On the contrary, it was like the breaking of dawn, a ray of light trying to illuminate the darkness.

42. You still dare to be arrogant?

The school cafeteria is not far from the teaching building, and importantly, it stays open until the afternoon classes begin.

After leaving the classroom, Yu Zhe walked quickly toward the cafeteria, but then she thought of Qin Ruoke, who was still pitifully holding a steamed bun, looking very afraid that someone would come to the classroom before she finished eating.

So he switched to running.

The restaurant had run out of main dishes by then, since it was already late and the good ones had long been sold out.

Yu Zhe just bought some shredded radish and pickled vegetables, which are more suitable to eat with steamed buns.

They ran back, but luckily Yu Zhe has great stamina. If it were an ordinary person, they wouldn't be able to recover from such exhaustion in a short time.

He returned to the classroom as if nothing had happened, and placed the plastic bag containing the side dishes in front of Qin Ruoke.

Thankfully, there's still no one in the classroom. I checked the clock and it only took me five minutes to walk back and forth.

As Yu Zhe predicted, Qin Ruoke indeed did not...

He picked up the disposable chopsticks he had brought with him from the table and ate them directly.

Instead, he placed the steamed bun in his hand on the side dish, his eyes somewhat thoughtful and unfocused.

For the first time, she finally turned her head to face Yu Zhe and spoke to him directly.

"I don't know."

Yu Zhe rolled her eyes at her, crossed her arms, and looked at Qin Ruoke, saying, "There are many things you don't understand, just like I don't understand why you have such a big prejudice against me as soon as we meet."

"That's not what I meant." Qin Ruoke shook her head. "Maybe I really misunderstood you before... I don't know... But what I don't understand is, don't you really find my presence annoying?"

"An eyesore"—Yu Zhe hadn't expected her to use that word.

Although she appears competitive on the surface, has her inner inferiority complex really gotten this bad?

To her question, Yu Zhe just chuckled and said, "It's alright. You sit at the desk next to me, not in front of me. You're not blocking my way during class, so why would I find you an eyesore?"

Qin Ruoke was taken aback. Su Yuzhe's answer, which seemed to be irrelevant to the question, actually completely negated the starting point of her question.

Is it really just me who's being paranoid?

Seeing that she didn't move, Yu Zhe reached out and picked up the disposable chopsticks on the table, then unwrapped them.

He handed it to her and said, "Don't think about it anymore. Class is about to start, and you haven't finished eating yet. We'll all be classmates from now on. I just hope you can give me more trust."

Qin Ruoke took the chopsticks, but the doubt in her eyes did not disappear: "Trust? What use is my trust to you?"

"What kind of question is that... what do you mean by 'what's the use'?" Yu Zhe thought for a moment, then looked into her curious eyes and said, "It's not really useful, it just makes me feel a little better, since I really hate being misunderstood."

"Okay, I understand."

After saying that, she lowered her head and ate her shredded radish and steamed bun.

No, no, no... what do you understand?

After taking a few bites, she looked up and added, "But I still don't think I can completely trust you. After all, in my opinion, it's a foolish idea to completely trust someone."

Yu Zhe waved his hand dismissively: "Fine, fine, whatever you want. Normal trust is fine. Don't always think I'm trying to harm you or anything. You're really overthinking things."

Qin Ruoke suddenly remembered something: "I'll transfer the money for these side dishes to you..."

"Don't do that. I just said we're classmates. Instead of transferring money to me, you'd be better off telling me about the school."

With a slurp, Qin Ruoke sucked the shredded radish into her mouth and nodded.

This should be considered a preliminary resolution to the misunderstanding, although we still don't know where her misunderstanding came from...

Just as Yu Zhe was about to return to his seat.

The classroom door opened, followed by a soft and gentle sound reaching their ears.

"Hey, Yuzhe, you're here so early! Hmm? Qin Ruoke, you're here too? That's a surprise."

It's Luo Xiaomeng.

She swung her two light blue pigtails as she walked into the classroom with her small bag.

Yu Zhe instinctively stepped in front of Qin Ruoke to shield her from the situation on the table.

In fact, Yu Zhe's slender figure couldn't hide Qin Ruoke behind him.

However, the waterfall of silver hair that cascaded down when he turned around, like the first snow falling in a warm winter, caught Luo Xiaomeng's attention.

This gave Qin Ruoke time to quickly move the food on the table to the back of the table.

Seeing that she seemed to have escaped detection, Yu Zhe laughed awkwardly at Luo Xiaomeng, "Haha... We just arrived too, isn't this a coincidence?"

Luo Xiaomeng didn't suspect anything and walked straight to her seat: "Hmm... It's a good thing that you're studying so hard on your first day. I thought I was the only one who came so early."

"Isn't that right?"

I saw Luo Xiaomeng sitting in her seat and packing her schoolbag.

Yu Zhe and Qin Ruoke exchanged a glance and both breathed a sigh of relief.

Normally, Qin Ruoke could finish her meal before everyone else arrived at the classroom, but today Yu Zhe added extra dishes for her, which made her a little late.

However, to be fair, Qin Ruoke didn't seem to blame Yu Zhe for this. Looking at the side dishes hanging on the inner side table, she actually felt a little happy.

This surprised even herself.

For Qin Ruoke, who pursues efficiency and results in everything she does, this is clearly abnormal.