Chapter 4

 "Such a pure girl, does she have a boyfriend?" While lost in thought, Yu Luoyin heard Lu Ye eagerly ask beside him.

"Huh, how would I know?" Zhou Xinsui pushed the white gold-rimmed glasses on his tall nose with his slender fingers. "She probably doesn't. I've heard she's quite aloof and hard to get."

"Aloof?" Lu Ye scratched his head. "She seemed to smile pretty gently."

Zhou Xinsui raised an eyebrow. "You want to pursue her?"

"Heh, kind of..."

"Shut up," Yu Luoyin interrupted coldly, cutting them off. "Let's go back to class."

No one knew why his mood suddenly turned sour, but it was indeed almost time for class.

Lu Ye liked pure and beautiful girls. Even after returning to class, he kept pestering Li Yuan to find out more about Bai Xunyin. The two sat in front of Yu Luoyin, their chattering voices constantly reaching his ears, causing him to frown slightly.

"Xin Sui was right. I asked a girl I know, and Bai Xunyin is indeed hard to get."

"Tell me, how hard exactly?"

"You know Li Chuanyun from Class 2, right? Pretty good-looking and a top student. I heard he pursued her for several months during their first year, and she never went out with him even once."

Li Chuanyun.

Hearing this name, Yu Luoyin raised his eyebrows slightly and smiled playfully.

"Damn, I don't believe this," Lu Ye's competitive spirit was fully ignited by Li Yuan's conclusion. He announced eagerly, "I'm going to try pursuing her."

"Seriously?" Li Yuan was a bit speechless. "She's a mute and can't even talk. What's the point?"

"No problem," Lu Ye, being a face enthusiast, said, "Being good-looking is enough."

...

"Besides, didn't you say she was ostracized by Sheng Churan because she won the school flower vote? My appearance would be like a knight saving a little white flower!"

"You, a knight?" Li Yuan snickered. "You're more like a sycophant."

"Screw you, who are you calling that?"

"The teacher's coming, you two be quiet," Zhou Xinsui timely reminded, but he couldn't help laughing as well. His amber eyes glanced at Lu Ye. "I bet you can't get her."

"???" Lu Ye's eyes widened. "You're really underestimating me, aren't you?"

Before he could make a big fuss, Yu Luoyin, sitting behind them, kicked his chair——

"I bet you too," he said slowly, his black eyes full of amusement. "You won't get her."

"......"

The second-year curriculum wasn't too heavy yet, and in the boring school life, they needed some "excitement." Seventeen or eighteen-year-old boys were generally competitive and strong-willed. So, as soon as class ended at noon, Lu Ye actually went to Class 3 to look for Bai Xunyin.

He moved quickly, and when he got there, most of the students were still in the classroom. Ignoring their surprised looks, Lu Ye stood at the door scanning for Bai Xunyin.

People naturally remember beautiful things easily, so even though he had only seen Bai Xunyin's back once, Lu Ye was confident he could recognize her.

"Lu Ye." While searching, he ran into Sheng Churan, who was about to go to lunch with her friends. She was pleasantly surprised to see him and quickly asked, "Why are you here? Where's Yu Luoyin?"

"Yu Ge went to eat." Lu Ye glanced at her, a bit nonchalant.

Sheng Churan, disappointed, asked sullenly, "Why did you come to our class?"

"Looking for someone."

"Who are you looking for?"

"Bai Xunyin. Isn't she in your class?"

Hearing Bai Xunyin's name, Sheng Churan and the two girls beside her froze.

After a moment, a shadow crossed Sheng Churan's eyes, and she bit her lip, asking, "Why are you looking for Bai Xunyin?"

"...What's it to you?" Lu Ye was speechless and sneered.

Yu Luoyin didn't like Sheng Churan and was annoyed by her pestering. Naturally, the rest of them didn't like her either, especially after hearing about how she led others in ostracizing Bai Xunyin.

Sheng Churan was stunned, her temper flaring up immediately. "What do you mean by that? How can you talk to me like that!"

Lu Ye 'hmphed,' ignoring her anger. He walked straight into Class 3, his eyes searching until they landed on a girl sitting in the corner.

Lu Ye's eyes lit up, and he walked over immediately.

Bai Xunyin was focused on solving a physics problem. When a shadow fell over her test paper, she looked up in surprise and met Lu Ye's smiling eyes.

The boy was sunny and cheerful, with a noticeable dimple on his left cheek when he smiled. But Bai Xunyin was sure she had never seen him before.

So, why was he standing in front of her desk?

Bai Xunyin blinked her eyes in confusion, looking at him questioningly.

The girl's delicate face, with her clear eyes like a deer's, made Lu Ye feel a bit 'shy.'

"Hi," Lu Ye said gentlemanly, his tone suave. "Could I have your WeChat ID?"

Many classmates around were secretly watching the situation. With Lu Ye’s words, even a fool could understand what he meant.

Bai Xunyin certainly understood too.

She was stunned for a moment, lowered her long eyelashes a bit awkwardly, and then shook her head without hesitation.

With her fair fingers, Bai Xunyin picked up a pen and neatly wrote two characters on a scrap of paper: "Sorry."

It was the first time Lu Ye had been rejected so quickly and seriously, and he was a bit dumbfounded.

Reflecting on how easily he had obtained girls' contact information before, now... in the midst of all the onlookers, Lu Ye felt genuinely embarrassed. Yet, Bai Xunyin's serious demeanor oddly kept him from getting angry.

He had to swallow this defeat.

Seeing Bai Xunyin’s expression of "I need to study, please don't disturb me," Lu Ye had no face to stick around. He scratched his head awkwardly and mumbled, "I'll come find you after school," then ran off.

This left Bai Xunyin quite puzzled at her desk.

From start to finish, she didn’t even know the name of the boy who had suddenly appeared.

Soon, Sheng Churan came over to tell her.

"Bai Xunyin," she said, not bothering to go for lunch, and stood in front of Bai Xunyin’s desk, questioning, "What did Lu Ye want from you?"

Oh, so that boy’s name is Lu Ye.

Bai Xunyin’s eyes flickered slightly. To avoid Sheng Churan causing more trouble, she wrote three characters on the paper: [WeChat ID.]

Although she had already guessed, hearing it confirmed by the person involved still made Sheng Churan bite her lip in frustration.

Yu Luoyin’s group always had a lukewarm attitude towards her, but now they were asking for the WeChat ID of Bai Xunyin, this little mute... She gave Bai Xunyin a hard look and stormed off in a huff.

"Hey, Bai Xunyin." After most of the people had left the classroom, Liu Yufu turned to Bai Xunyin with a teasing tone, "Do you know that Lu Ye is Yu Luoyin’s friend? The same Yu Luoyin that Sheng Churan likes."

Bai Xunyin was stunned, and the pen in her hand fell onto the desk.

Liu Yufu glanced at her and asked softly, "Does he like you? Are you going to date him?"

Bai Xunyin didn’t expect Liu Yufu to be so nosy and couldn’t help but smile and shake her head.

The phrase ‘falling in love’ had never appeared in her plans.

However, Bai Xunyin didn’t expect that Lu Ye would be so persistent in ‘pursuing her.’

Sending breakfast and lunch, looking for her after school, persistently asking for her contact information... the daily routines of high school boys trying to win a girl’s heart.

This behavior made the whole Class 3 aware of it.

And not just Class 3, other classes had heard of it too—high school students loved ‘emotional’ gossip.

Every time she saw Lu Ye, Bai Xunyin’s scrap paper was filled with "Sorry," "I don’t plan on dating," "Can you stay away from me," but none of it worked.

She couldn’t help feeling quite troubled.

Fortunately, after more than half a month, Lu Ye finally seemed ready to give up.

He hadn’t really liked Bai Xunyin that much from the start; it was just a superficial interest in her looks. But being rejected so thoroughly by a girl for the first time, Lu Ye couldn’t help feeling a bit defeated.

"So you really are that hard to get," Lu Ye muttered gloomily behind Bai Xunyin’s bike after school one evening.

He looked at the slender figure of the girl, took a few steps forward to block her way, and seeing the emotionless look in her eyes, he bit his lip and made one last attempt: "Bai Xunyin, do you really not like me at all? Not even a little?"

Bai Xunyin nodded without hesitation.

"..."

"Damn, I really lost." Lu Ye muttered under his breath, exhaling in frustration before looking at her helplessly. "Alright then, I won’t bother you anymore starting tomorrow."

After he said this, he saw Bai Xunyin’s eyes light up.

"..."

Lu Ye was now completely certain that this girl was unlike any other—she wasn’t playing hard to get or any coy tricks, she simply didn’t like him at all.

Lu Ye decided to make one last ‘detour.’

"This is the first time I’ve met such a unique girl," Lu Ye couldn’t help but laugh, helping Bai Xunyin push her bike gentlemanly. "Can we at least be friends? Give me your WeChat ID."

However, Bai Xunyin, understanding the pretense of "starting as friends," still smiled and shook her head.

Now, Lu Ye was both amused and helpless, but he truly gave up any lingering thoughts.

"This is the first time I’ve met a girl who isolates herself so thoroughly, not even giving a chance to be friends."

That evening, while eating with a few buddies, Lu Ye "officially announced" his failure in pursuing her, and was unsurprisingly ridiculed.

Feeling frustrated, he couldn’t help complaining while chewing on a kebab, "Just look at this face of mine, huh? Isn’t it a face that girls would line up to give their contact information to?"

"And yet, this Bai Xunyin, I chased her for half a month and didn’t even get a WeChat ID!"

"Damn, I finally understand why Li Chuanyun couldn’t get her. I can’t play this game anymore either."

Bai Xunyin didn’t come off as particularly aloof, but she was indeed hard to get.

She was always gentle, yet it was as if she lived in a vacuum, separated from everyone else, making it hard for anyone to get close.

Even being rejected by her felt like punching cotton, leaving Lu Ye unable to even muster any real anger.

Lu Ye had to admit that his initial ‘impulsive interest’ due to her looks was completely exhausted. He really couldn’t handle Bai Xunyin.

"Tsk tsk, stop making excuses. You just don’t have what it takes," Li Yuan teased, fueling the fire. "You pride yourself on being a heartthrob, yet after half a month, you couldn’t even get her WeChat."

"...” Lu Ye was furious. "You’re just saying that because it’s easy for you! Why don’t you try chasing her?"

"I don’t like the mute girl, why should I chase her? Just wanted to see you fail." Li Yuan's words were sharp, and in a few sentences, he had Lu Ye jumping in anger. "If it were Yu Ge, he’d have gotten her in no time."

"Damn, you’re just saying that because Yu Ge wouldn’t bother with this nonsense!"

"But who says I wouldn’t?"

Amid their bickering, a simple sentence from Yu Luoyin, who had been quietly sitting next to them, silenced the noisy table.

Lu Ye, Li Yuan, and even the usually calm Zhou Xinsui looked over in surprise.

Yu Luoyin was playing with an unlit cigarette, a slight smile on his lips. "Since Ah Ye says this girl is hard to get, isn’t that interesting?"

...

"What do you mean?" Lu Ye mumbled, confused. "You’re going to pursue Bai Xunyin?"

Yu Luoyin smiled but only asked, "Do you want to bet?"

After a moment of silence.

Zhou Xinsui spoke first, but his answer was completely different from last time: "If it’s you, I bet you can get her."

Li Yuan: "Me too."

"I..." Lu Ye grumbled, "To hell with you guys."

Then he asked, "How much are we betting? I’ve already lost a lot. I’ll bet that Yu Ge can’t get her either!"

Yu Luoyin said nothing, only recalling what Lu Ye had just mentioned: This is the first time I’ve met a girl who isolates herself so thoroughly.

He unconsciously thought of how Bai Xunyin had run away biting her lip the last two times he had asked for her name.

A delicate girl, but Bai Xunyin was not without worries.

Maybe it was some kind of subtle ‘unwillingness’ at play, but Yu Luoyin, for the first time, said and even planned to do something he normally wouldn’t.

With Bai Xunyin, he couldn’t help but make an exception right from the start.

It was just that at the time, none of them realized how messed up it was to treat emotions as a game and make a bet out of it.

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

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