Some matters can be evaded once, but not every time.
Some matters also cannot withstand close scrutiny.
Especially for a high-intelligence youth like Xie Qian.
Even if such palpitations were something he had never experienced, so unfamiliar that he could not analyse them himself, could he not still reference others’ works?
To help his mother Zou Weijun overcome depression, Xie Qian was the sort who could even tackle professional tomes!
No need to go far: in the popular science book *Shh, Little Secret* published by Zou Weijun at Rongcheng Publishing Group, it discussed the vague affections between adolescent boys and girls.
When teaching others, Xie Qian could prescribe the right remedy. Yet when it came to himself, he dared not pick up the pen to diagnose.
For others, he was the clear-headed observer.
Caught in the midst of it, Xie Qian hesitated.
Wen Ying felt that Xie Qian standing under the wisteria tree was utterly beautiful. When Xie Qian turned and saw Wen Ying, did he not feel the same?
Wen Ying, approaching on tiptoe through the petals, still had a touch of baby fat on her cheeks, her round eyes black and white and clear, her figure slender and girlish. In that instant, Xie Qian’s heartbeat faltered, and as if possessed, he reached out to brush the petal from her shoulder. It was emotions accumulated to a certain point finally erupting.
Those dense drumbeats, from distant to near, from soft to loud, turned out to be the sound of his heartbeat!
So be it.
Indulge a little longer.
No one else would know anyway.
Xie Qian clasped the petal he had taken from Wen Ying’s shoulder in his palm. “I have said what I needed to. You should go back and continue with your worksheets.”
If Xie Qian could still feign composure, then when his hand neared Wen Ying’s shoulder, her heart nearly leaped from her throat!
This situation seemed overly ambiguous.
Was it truly just her illusion?
Was it she who had developed “thieving intentions” towards Xie Qian, she who was frantically testing the boundaries of an old cow nibbling tender grass?
In her previous life, there was a famous lecturer in the legal field who often used the fictional character “Zhang San” as the perpetrator in examples during lessons. Over time, “Zhang San” became the archetype of an outlaw rogue.
Wen Ying felt that if this ambiguous atmosphere continued to ferment, she too would soon evolve into the “outlaw rogue Zhang San”, doing something boundary-crossing to Xie Qian—
Until Xie Qian mentioned the “worksheets”, at which point, in an instant, all the pink bubbles burst.
Wen Ying looked up in shock.
“You want me to go back and do worksheets?”
Even though you are a male god, you are too good at ruining the mood!
Wen Ying’s face was full of accusation, but Xie Qian pretended not to see. “If you feel confident you can steadily enter the top 100 in the year for finals, then do the worksheets or not, it makes no difference.”
Of course that would not do!
What if she unluckily scored 101st?
Wen Ying surged with the slacker’s brand of shame and indignation, glared at Xie Qian, and turned to run off.
Xie Qian was amused by her. Only when Wen Ying’s figure vanished from sight did he open his clenched hand.
The petal he had just taken from her shoulder now lay quietly in his palm.
There were many finer blooms still on the wisteria branches, and the ground was carpeted thickly with fallen flowers. If he picked carefully, he could certainly select better ones.
But why would Xie Qian bother to choose?
No matter how beautiful they were, they were not this one taken from Wen Ying’s shoulder.
Just as in this world there were thousands of girls: from good families, with excellent grades, brimming with artistic talent, stunning in looks, some tall, some short, some plump, some slim, each with their strengths, even girls who combined multiple advantages. Such a girl standing beside Xie Qian might better fit the world’s definition of a “suitable match”.
But what did that have to do with Xie Qian?
No matter how perfect they were, they were not Wen Ying.
Xie Qian did not return directly to the tutoring spot with the three slackers. Instead, he went back to his own room first.
He pressed the wisteria petal between the pages of a book.
If preserved properly, the petal would slowly dehydrate, and this beauty would endure in a very special form, neither rotting nor fading.
Just as some affections, to last long, must be carefully nurtured.
When Xie Qian went downstairs, he heard the housekeeper Sister Liu muttering: “You have to be gentle with girls!”
Xie Qian paused in his steps.
Was Sister Liu referring to something specific?
“Dating, and you do not even know how. It is enough to give one a heart attack!”
Sister Liu muttered another line.
That was going a bit too far.
Xie Qian wanted to remind Sister Liu, but he noticed her eyes were fixed firmly on the television screen.
So Sister Liu was watching a drama.
To avoid disturbing their studies, Sister Liu had turned the volume to the minimum, watching only the visuals and subtitles. On the screen was an idol drama, and Xie Qian glanced over: the male and female leads were quarrelling, the male lead having misunderstood the female lead.
So Sister Liu was critiquing the plot?
Xie Qian continued on, but as he lifted his foot, Sister Liu called him back.
Sister Liu brought out a fruit platter from the kitchen. “I have wanted to send this over for ages, but I feared disturbing you all. I have something stewing on the stove that needs watching. Xie Qian, could you help by taking the platter over?”
At first, Sister Liu had been as deferential towards Xie Qian as Wang, the Jiang family’s nanny. Wang called him “Young Master Xie”, while Sister Liu called him “Young Xie”.
Xie Qian had corrected the form of address. Sister Liu found it awkward: if not “Young Xie”, then what?
Xie Qian had a serious talk with Sister Liu: in this home, there was none of that old societal hierarchy. Sister Liu was paid to work, so she could simply call him by his full name.
Names were given to be used, after all.
Zou Weijun fully agreed with this, and only then did Sister Liu reluctantly change.
At first, of course, it felt unaccustomed, but gradually it became more natural.
Xie Qian seemed aloof, but as long as one did not overstep by assuming airs beyond one’s station, he was actually very approachable and did not mind helping Sister Liu with small tasks within his ability.
Carrying a platter of fruit was a trifle, so Xie Qian naturally would not refuse.
It was just the shape of these fruits… Sister Liu excelled at housework and loved her work, always at the forefront of her field. She could adjust cuisines to the owners’ tastes, cook both Chinese and Western dishes, pan-fry a steak or make a sandwich with ease. Even everyday fruit platters she turned into works of art.
The early-season water honey peaches air-freighted to Rongcheng: Sister Liu peeled and sliced the flesh, arranging it into a “❤” shape!
This “❤” was not that “☆”; the shapes differed, yet Xie Qian still suspected Sister Liu was taking a dig at him.
Sister Liu, did she have such sharp eyesight?
Could she see every move in the front courtyard from the kitchen, or had she spotted him folding the paper star?
Xie Qian rarely felt the guilt of being caught red-handed.
“Actually…”
“What?”
Sister Liu had an honest, harmless face. “Is it inconvenient? Then I shall carry it over myself!”
“It is nothing.”
That made him sound truly guilty.
When Xie Qian returned to the tutoring room with the fruit platter, expressionless, Li Mengjiao stared in astonishment.
So the Gaokao had not only driven the slacker Wang Shuang mad, but also Xie Qian, who was tutoring her?!
Even someone as reserved as Xie God had learnt to flaunt his romance publicly!
Did he not care if single dogs could live anymore?
Ah!!!
She endured it so hard usually, pretending not to notice their puppy love, and now how was she supposed to feign blindness?
Li Mengjiao stared dumbfounded, and so did Wen Ying.
The pink “☆” under the wisteria earlier could still be explained as “congratulations”, but now this platter of “❤”-shaped water honey peach slices, what was that about!
Wen Ying felt alternately as if she could transform into the outlaw rogue Zhang San at any moment, and as if Xie Qian were the real Zhang San, pushing their relationship towards some more intimate stage, testing the edges madly!
