Chapter 54: Awkwardness
Wen Rong didn’t quite understand what Shi Ye meant, but he gathered he had been rejected.
He took a deep breath, put his hat back on, and turned to look out the window.
The cable car cut through the clouds that blotted out the sun. Sunlight vanished, everything dimmed, and even the air grew a bit colder.
“Um…”
Wen Rong tried to speak, opening his mouth to make a sound, but then didn’t know what to say, so he silently closed it again.
Shi Ye didn’t speak either. Wen Rong couldn’t see his expression, but he guessed it was gloomy and not very pleasant.
No matter how much time seemed to drag on, the cable car finally arrived at the station.
After getting off, Wen Rong returned to the three seniors from the News Club. He bade farewell to Evelyn and Jiang Zhiyue, and they drove away.
Lin Qizheng exchanged a glance with Zhang Lin before speaking up to liven the atmosphere. “Youngest, do you know how to cook?”
Wen Rong’s thoughts returned to the present. “I can’t cook, but I can wash vegetables. I used to wash vegetables for the aunties all the time.”
“That works.” Lin Qizheng draped his arm around Wen Rong’s shoulders. “Since we rarely get a chance to hang out, let’s go to Zhang Lin’s place for dinner tonight, sleep over, and head back tomorrow.”
Despite saying that, that evening, Zhang Lin used Wen Rong’s hand injury as an excuse to pin him to the living room sofa to watch TV. From washing vegetables to cooking and even the cleanup, the three seniors did it all themselves.
The four of them didn’t return to school until Sunday noon.
Wen Rong placed the photos Zhang Lin had developed on his desk. Every few minutes of studying, he would glance at the photos, looking back and forth, the corners of his lips never dropping.
He was truly happy. Climbing a mountain and watching the sunrise with his seniors—this was exactly the university life he had dreamed of.
Meanwhile, the Tennis Club group chat was in chaos.
[Who the hell said the News Club was going to a hot spring? Thank god I grabbed a towel before walking in, or my innocence would have been lost.]
[Don’t even start. I walked around the whole place looking for my goddess ≈ I was seen by the whole place.]
[Being seen isn’t the issue. Whoever’s small is the one who should be embarrassed.]
[Well, I’m definitely not embarrassed. I work out three times a week. It’s a pity the goddess didn’t see me.]
[Speaking of which, I didn’t expect Shi Jing not to have a single muscle. Isn’t he Shi Ye’s brother? They came from the same dad, how is their physique so different?]
[Not just physique, the height difference is huge too! By process of elimination, it must be a mom issue.]
Just as the topic was about to shift, an account with the ID “F*ck” sent a message: [Someone in the News Club posted on Blue Book. They went mountain climbing.]
[Holy shit! One is a mountain, one is water. That’s a difference of a hundred and eight thousand miles. Who said hot springs? I’m going through the chat logs right now to find him and kill him.]
F*ck: [The News Club’s outing itinerary is only visible to the Student Council.]
[Uhh… pretend I didn’t say anything.]
[After this, I will never believe news leaked by the Student Council again.]
[+1]
[+11111 I dreamt of naked men all night. My eyes are dirty, and my brain is dirty too.]
[It’s worse than that! Someone touched my ass. There were too many people, I don’t know which perverted idiot was coveting me.]
In the new week, Wen Rong finished reading all the books arranged by Teacher Xu Qiu. He could now basically understand what the teachers were discussing in class.
The weather forecast called for wind at night. After class, Wen Rong went to the library to study. Not long after, dark clouds gathered over Floriman Academy, and it began to rain.
Wen Rong looked up at the library lights. For the first time, he felt the light was so white it looked blue. It was only six o’clock, but outside the window, it was already dim. The leafless branches looked like monster claws, stretching and swaying in the wind and rain.
Buzz—
His phone vibrated. Wen Rong saw a new message in the News Club group.
Zhang Jincheng: [Everyone is busy this week, we won’t go to Room 100.]
Just as he finished reading the message, someone sat down across from him. It was none other than Zhang Jincheng.
They hadn’t seen each other for just two days, yet he looked as if he hadn’t slept well in ten years. His lower eyelids were swollen like a goldfish, and he had distinct dark circles.
“President, did you not sleep well?”
“I’m fine.”
Wen Rong watched as Zhang Jincheng opened a massive kraft paper sketchbook. With just a few strokes, he outlined a female model with a beautiful figure.
Zhang Jincheng looked up. “You do your thing, don’t mind me.”
“Oh, okay.” Wen Rong continued reading, but after a few seconds, he inexplicably felt Zhang Jincheng’s gaze. Curious, he asked, “President, why do you keep looking at me?”
“Looking for inspiration.”
“Huh?”
Zhang Jincheng handed the sketchbook to him. “Zhang Lin showed me the photo of Mi Lulu. I think you’d be very suitable for this type of dress.”
Wen Rong was stunned, thinking, how could a guy like me be suitable for a dress? But the dress was beautiful—a strapless short dress, blue, curved like a jellyfish, with sparkling threads adorning the hem.
It was… a little pretty.
“President, will this dress actually be made?”
Zhang Jincheng: “It will. Doing traditional period costumes is too difficult; finding the fabric and embroiderers is hard, and it doesn’t sell well. I plan to switch to this style.”
Wen Rong understood. The President was going to “start fresh.” He thought about some videos he had seen and was just about to find some encouraging words for Zhang Jincheng when he caught a glimpse of a tall, athletic figure in his peripheral vision.
He turned his head, saw who it was, and tried his best to curve his lips into a smile.
The other person paused, then hastily turned and left.
“What did you two talk about on the cable car that day?”
“Huh?” Wen Rong turned back.
“You don’t have to say if you don’t want to. The atmosphere between you two was off when you got off the cable car. Qizheng guessed he failed a confession, but didn’t dare ask you.”
What confession?!
Wen Rong’s eyes went wide. “No, no, I just went to ask him if something was weighing on his mind. He looked like he was in a bad mood.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Wen Rong nodded solemnly. “Senior Lin Qizheng’s gossip is not credible. Shi Ye and I aren’t in that kind of relationship.”
“But he was even willing to use B-Type 3671 on you.”
Wen Rong was stunned again. “Huh? That was…”
“The drug injected into you after you were injured. It’s exclusive to the military’s elite forces. It costs five million a dose.”
“Five million!”
Wen Rong felt that selling himself wouldn’t even be worth that much.
He had worked hard for over ten years to get the 500,000 from the government. How could one tiny tube of medicine cost 5 million?
Since he used the medicine, did that mean he had to pay Shi Ye back 5 million?
“But one dose of medicine probably isn’t much to him; his family has plenty,” Zhang Jincheng said just as his phone received a message. He frowned. “Youngest, I have something to do. I’m leaving first.”
“So soon…”
Before he could finish, Zhang Jincheng had already vanished. Wen Rong looked toward where Shi Ye had been standing, but he was gone too.
Thinking about the 5 million, he had no mind to study. Since he couldn’t hear the rain outside, he packed his things, slung his bag over his shoulder, and quickly walked out of the library.
Crash—
Heaven did not comply with people’s wishes. He had only walked a few meters when bean-sized raindrops smashed onto his head. Wen Rong hurriedly ran back to the entrance.
The sound of rain rushed into his ears, feeling as if he were locked in a bathroom with the shower running.
Wen Rong took out his phone to check the weather. Experts predicted this rain would last for an hour. He sighed helplessly, shrank his neck, and prepared to turn back into the library.
Just then, his backpack was bumped.
“Sorry, I didn’t pay attention…” The voice gradually faded into the rain.
Shi Ye stood there with his head lowered gloomily, backlighting obscuring his expression, but Wen Rong had an inexplicably familiar feeling—Shi Ye was regretting things again.
Wen Rong had made many mistakes due to ignorance, but recently he had been browsing Blue Book to learn about many things. He knew that this kind of volatile behavior—angry one moment, apologizing the next—was called being “awkward” (Tsundere/Stubborn).
A somewhat strange personality, but not too annoying.
“The rain is really heavy,” he chattered idly to break the silence.
“…”
“Did you not bring an umbrella either?”
Shi Ye walked to his side, pulled a lump of something from his bag, and thwack—an umbrella snapped open like a piece of machinery.
Wen Rong: “…”
In that brief two seconds, he thought for a moment, then spoke decisively, “Um… could you walk me part of the way?”
The tall figure froze instantly.
Wen Rong saw hesitation in Shi Ye’s eyes. He moved his bag to his chest to prevent it from getting wet. “I don’t have an umbrella.”
“…”
“I really don’t have an umbrella.”
A normal person at this time would act pitiful, preferably shedding a few tears to show they really needed help.
But Wen Rong lacked facial expressions. He blinked, looking up at Shi Ye in a daze. To Shi Ye, it looked a bit overly self-righteous.
Shi Ye took a shallow breath, telling himself that technically Leon should be taking care of Wen Rong, but Leon was obviously busy lately. Helping Wen Rong counted as helping Leon.
Having mentally prepared himself, Shi Ye tilted the umbrella to the right. “You stand on the right. The wound on your left hand can’t get wet.”
“Oh, okay.”
Wen Rong spun around like a top to switch sides and walked down the steps with him.
“Um…”
Shi Ye frowned. “What now?”
“That B-Type—”
He interrupted him. “It’s not mine. It was already in Leon’s medical kit.”
“No, I remember every single thing the Seniors give me.”
Shi Ye’s eyes darkened slightly. “Why remember so clearly?”
“I’m afraid I might lose the Senior’s things.”
“Oh.”
The rest of the way was silent.
The rain was heavy. On the journey from the library to the dormitory, Shi Ye was so quiet there was only the sound of rain.
Wen Rong’s upper body didn’t get wet, but his socks were soaked through. Stepping through the water up the stairs, he prepared to thank Shi Ye, but Shi Ye turned and left without giving him a chance.
Wen Rong helplessly hugged his schoolbag and entered the main gate. While going upstairs, he asked the system, “Brother, what exactly does Shi Ye mean?”
【…】 The system had a premonition. It reluctantly opened the favorability panel it hadn’t paid attention to, and sure enough, Shi Ye and Leon’s favorability toward the host was maxed out.
But how would a system know why Shi Ye acted so strangely? It only asked: 【Why does the Host want to care about him?】
“Maybe because I started feeling a little sympathy for him after learning about his parents’ situation.”
Wen Rong wiped the soles of his shoes at the dorm entrance to remove all the water before entering and answering the system. “I know the feeling of not having parents. I can really understand his mood.”
【Not everyone needs your help.】
He drew the curtains and took off his wet pants. “I don’t help everyone. I only help people I think are nice.”
【Perhaps they don’t want your help.】
“I’ve been reading Blue Book lately and discovered that many people don’t not want help, they just don’t want ‘help’ that makes things worse.”
【…】
The system was stumped and greatly shocked: When did the Host become so articulate?!
“So Shi Ye probably needs other kinds of help. I’ll search on Blue Book.” Saying do meant doing. After changing his pants, Wen Rong sat down and opened Blue Book.
Just as he clicked on the search bar, before he could input questions about Shi Ye, his attention was drawn to the trending searches.
Today’s trending topics were all the same name. Because it contained the words “Zhao Media,” he associated it with Zhao Zeyang.
Curious, Wen Rong clicked in and found it had nothing to do with Zhao Zeyang. The content was about a certain male star hiding his marriage, being exposed by his marriage partner for cheating, and conspiring with the mistress to transfer the wife’s assets.
As he read, he suddenly felt it sounded familiar. Driven by some strange force, he continued scrolling and soon saw photos of the parties involved amidst various information—it was the girl they met while mountain climbing!
The girl posted evidence of her marriage to the male star on her account. It wasn’t clear if something unexpected happened in between, but she didn’t follow Evelyn’s advice to first unite with the husband against the mistress. Instead, she tore things apart with the male star online while suing the mistress in court.
The male star’s fans didn’t give up. They refuted the pieces of evidence posted by the girl one by one under her account.
Wen Rong could see that those were unreasonable fallacies, and his eyes lit up immediately.
He put his phone aside, carefully examined the evidence posted by the girl, verified the authenticity of each item, and finally opened the comments section of the girl’s Blue Book. He used the girl’s evidence to refute the fallacies one by one.
Refuting while screenshotting, screenshotting, screenshotting.
Send, send, send.
Today’s mission accomplished!
Wen Rong: [Senior, I finished the task.]
Lin Qizheng replied instantly: [Ahhhhhhh Youngest! You didn’t switch to a dummy account! You’re going to be scolded to death.]
Wen Rong: ……
Huh?
The next second, Wen Rong’s phone vibrated wildly, making his palm numb.
📖 Advance Access: Complete Novel
- Option 1: Note your email on PayPal/Ko-fi.
- Option 2: Email proof to beezzzreads@gmail.com.
- Option 3: Comment below.
Recommended Reads
![[ABO] President Shou Is Not a Total Shou](https://beereads.space/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/the-shou-is-not-a-total-shou-214x300.jpg)
