Chapter 8

 "Xunyin, everything's gone."

Seeing that group of boys and girls clearing out everything from the stall, Amo felt so wronged she almost wanted to cry—though she wasn't particularly concerned about the money, she felt incredibly stifled.

Earlier, she had dragged Bai Xunyin over and had confidently assured her that no one could take away their things.

But her perspective was too narrow, her experience too limited.

Bai Xunyin withdrew her gaze from the slender figure of the young man. She smiled nonchalantly and gently patted Amo's hair.

In fact, she found Yu Luoyin quite impressive.

The two girls stood in place for a while, staring vacantly at the empty space around them. Just as they were about to leave, unexpectedly, Yu Luoyin turned back.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, he piled up all the miscellaneous items into the trunk of his car and then turned to walk straight towards Bai Xunyin and Amo.

Before they could react, Bai Xunyin saw him standing in front of her.

Yu Luoyin's face was too distinctive—pale skin, sharp eyebrows, and dark-as-ink eyes that gave an overwhelming sense of pressure up close.

He stood in front of Bai Xunyin, a fleeting smile passing over his eyes. He asked her very seriously, "Do you have more things to sell?"

...

"If you do, I'll use the remaining forty rings."

He had just bought a hundred rings and only used sixty.

"Hey." Amo finally couldn't hold back her anger, her eyes almost shooting flames. "Don't take advantage of people too much!"

He'd just taken everything they had, and now he wanted to come back for more. What kind of person was he? He was...he was just utterly lacking in gentlemanly conduct!

Yu Luoyin ignored Amo and focused only on Bai Xunyin, asking, "Is there more?"

Feeling trapped under his intense gaze, Bai Xunyin dumbly shook her head.

Yu Luoyin nodded. Unexpectedly, he took out five red bills from his wallet and handed them to Bai Xunyin.

Both girls were stunned.

"Take it." His voice was calm. "Consider it me buying everything."

After saying that, he turned and left, not giving Bai Xunyin a chance to refuse.

With his long legs, she couldn't catch up even if she wanted to. In the end, Bai Xunyin even ran a few steps but could only watch helplessly as Yu Luoyin got into his car and drove away.

She held the five hundred yuan in her sweaty hands, feeling a surge of emotions akin to being caught in a stormy sea.

It was like having towering mountains and flowing rivers inside her, making Bai Xunyin feel numb from her palms to the soles of her feet.

"Damn!" Amo was also completely shocked by Yu Luoyin's actions, unable to help herself from bombarding him with questions in rapid succession. "Who is that guy? Your classmate? He's so generous, so handsome! Xunyin, does he like you?!"

Amo's last question, filled with joy, brought Bai Xunyin back from her daze. Her heart, which had just been light, suddenly sank.

She shook her head.

What did liking someone have to do with it? Although she didn't understand why Yu Luoyin would do this at all.

They had hardly met a few times, hadn't even spoken... How could there be anything to do with liking?

But regardless of the angle, she couldn't accept this money.

If she did, what would she become?

Amo also understood this reasoning. After the initial rush of blood to the head, she quickly calmed down and hurriedly handed the five hundred yuan to Bai Xunyin. "Darling, give this back to your classmate. Our things only added up to two hundred."

To end up with the 'customer' giving them three hundred back? What had they become? They weren't 'business people who couldn't afford to lose.'

Bai Xunyin looked at the five hundred yuan in her hand, feeling somewhat amused and helpless—she did want to return it, but how could she contact Yu Luoyin?

That guy had driven away in his car, clearly not giving her a chance to follow up.

That night, when Bai Xunyin turned her bag upside down, she finally breathed a sigh of relief when she found the draft paper she had placed in the compartment earlier.

---

This piece of paper was nothing special, just had Lu Ye's phone number written on it.

Earlier, when he was pursuing her, she adamantly refused to give him any contact information, be it phone number or WeChat, she didn't leave a single one.

It was Lu Ye who once came to look for her after class and insisted on writing his phone number on her scrap paper.

There was an unresolved question on this piece of paper that Bai Xunyin hadn't thrown away. Later, she forgot about it and kept it in her schoolbag.

Now thinking about it, fortunately she didn't throw it away. If she had, she wouldn't even have had a way to contact Yu Luoyin.

Bai Xunyin tried texting Lu Ye's phone number:

"Lu Ye, hello, I'm Bai Xunyin. Do you remember leaving me your phone number before? I need your help with something. This afternoon at the amusement park, your friend Yu Luoyin left something with me. Could you please tell me how to contact him? I want to return it to him."

Directly mentioning the money seemed inappropriate, so Bai Xunyin thought it best to gloss over it.

After sending the message, she quietly waited for Lu Ye's reply. Bai Xunyin always felt that Lu Ye was cheerful and generous, but not really serious about liking her. If it weren't for this, she wouldn't have asked him for help.

Sure enough, Lu Ye quickly replied to her message:

"Okay! This is Yu-ge's phone number 18XXXXXXXX. Classmate, what did he leave with you?"

Bai Xunyin found it hard to answer and after a while, randomly made up something as an excuse.

The young girl wasn't used to lying, her ears slightly red. However, what she didn't know was that Lu Ye was just asking casually, not really caring about that.

Lu Ye was just thinking... Yu-ge sure has a way.

He had pursued Bai Xunyin for over a month, but hadn't even gotten a single phone number. Yu-ge, on the other hand, had managed to get the girl to contact him on her own with just a few casual interactions.

Tsk tsk, truly.

Bai Xunyin looked at Yu Luoyin's phone number, hesitated for a long time, and finally bit her lip to send him a message:

"Hello, I'm Bai Xunyin. I want to return the five hundred yuan from today to you."

After sending it, her mood was completely different from when she had waited for Lu Ye's reply just now.

It felt like soaking ice in boiling water, unable to go up and down, as if waiting for some kind of execution.

Floating like this in her heart for about half an hour, Yu Luoyin finally replied to her message, just two words: "[Don't want]."

Bai Xunyin suddenly felt like the boiling water was gone, leaving only ice in her heart. She pursed her lips, and kindly sent another message explaining: "[The things on the stall were worth less than two hundred yuan in total, and you took them away by your own ability. I have no reason to ask for your money.]"

This money must be returned.

She was strict and reasonable in her explanation.

Her serious attitude made Yu Luoyin smile.

It was the first time he had seen a girl so actively return money. But the point was, it wasn't much money... But originally, she took the money just to get in touch with him.

The boy sat on the sofa, the dark eyes in the dark were unclear.

He flicked the ash with his long fingers, Yu Luoyin leisurely replied: "[Okay, if you want to return the money, you should give it to me in person.]"

This sentence cut off Bai Xunyin's idea of transferring money.

She bit her lip, hesitated for a while before replying: "[Okay]."

Yu Luoyin arranged to meet her at noon the next day at the Lin Lan City Library. It wasn't far from Bai Xunyin's home.

The weather was hot and humid, and she sat on the bus for half an hour. When she arrived at the library, her fair palm-sized face and neck were flushed with crimson.

Fortunately, there was no rain in Lin Lan today.

Yu Luoyin stood under a tree outside the library and saw the girl walking over from the bus stop.

In the afternoon, although the flow of people was small, Bai Xunyin was still the most eye-catching one in the crowd.

Yu Luoyin saw her tying the scattered black hair into a bun with the hair tie on her wrist, her slender swan neck, thin and straight spine, looking like... a paper person.

She looked extremely thin, as if malnourished.

But where she should have flesh was no less than anyone else.

Yu Luoyin looked at her innocent and blank eyes, calling out, "Good student."

His voice was clear and crisp, and Bai Xunyin, sensitive to voices, immediately turned to look accurately.

Seeing the young man waiting under the tree, she hurried over.

Bai Xunyin's eyes drooped slightly, and the long lashes cast a faint shadow beneath her eyelids. Without saying a word, the young girl swiftly took out five hundred yuan and handed it to him.

...

Wasn't this too direct? Was she in such a rush to clear things up with him?

Yu Luoyin chuckled in exasperation, raising an eyebrow as he looked mockingly at Bai Xunyin handing him the money as if she were handing out punishment.

His voice cooled slightly. "Bai Xunyin, are you dismissing me just like that?"

Bai Xunyin was startled, looking up at him, somewhat surprised that he knew her name.

"Come inside," Yu Luoyin turned and walked towards the library.

Bai Xunyin had no choice but to follow — she didn't quite understand what Yu Luoyin was up to; wasn't she just here to return some money?

Entering the quiet library one after the other, Bai Xunyin unconsciously looked at the tall, slender figure in front of her, following him to a quiet spot by the window and sitting down.

"I remember asking you to repay me, didn't I?" Yu Luoyin settled in across from her, and Bai Xunyin heard him ask.

Suddenly thinking of the note from that rainy day when they moved tables, Bai Xunyin pursed her lips and nodded lightly.

Yu Luoyin had helped her; it was only right to repay him.

But how did he want her to repay him? Bai Xunyin couldn't help but type on her phone to tell him: "[I don't know how to do anything]."

Yu Luoyin glanced at it and couldn't help but smile.

How could there be someone... so amusing? This girl is truly innocent.

He was good-looking, a casual smile from him had a kind of heart-pounding feeling, especially when he was genuinely smiling now.

As if there were twinkling stars in his dark eyes, Yu Luoyin lowered his voice in the perplexed gaze of Bai Xunyin: "You'll definitely be able to handle this."

So Bai Xunyin saw a slender hand pushing a physics workbook in front of her, flipping open to a page with bright red pen circles around a problem.

"Good student, I heard you're good at physics," Yu Luoyin propped his head with one hand, looking lazily at her and said, "Teach me."

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