Chapter 30: Do You Want to Make a Bet with Me?
When school started in September, A University became lively again, with various orientation activities held one after another.
Wen Yan’s internship at Pei Corp was adjusted to fixed offline hours each week combined with online work.
With many classes at the start of the semester, and things going poorly in both his love life and career, he became much more withdrawn than before, quietly attending to his own affairs.
Sitting in the classroom, he suddenly heard a wave of hushed whispers around him. He looked up instinctively.
“Excuse me, move aside.” Pei Zhouye knocked his knuckles on the desk next to Wen Yan, his voice carrying its usual arrogance.
The person sitting there hurriedly gathered their bag, and Pei Zhouye sat down leisurely. He stretched out his long legs, his knee pressing directly against Wen Yan’s backpack, which he hadn’t had time to move.
Wen Yan snapped his notebook shut. “What do you want now?”
His expression shifted from shock to anger and disgust. He grabbed his book and stood up, intending to move to another seat.
“Sorry, I saved this seat for my roommate,” a student one seat away apologized, looking up awkwardly.
The entire row was full. If Wen Yan wanted to leave, he could only go through Pei Zhouye’s side.
He sat back down in his original spot, eyes fixed straight ahead on his round, neatly trimmed fingernails.
Just because Pei Zhouye was unhappy, he had arbitrarily suspended Wen Yan’s work. Wen Yan couldn’t bring himself to show a pleasant face to someone capable of such unreasonable actions.
“Unhappy to see me?” Pei Zhouye asked in a lazy tone, neither hurried nor slow, though the expression on his face had turned cold.
“Is there anything for me to be happy about?” Wen Yan was already angry, and hearing this made him lose his patience. “With so many seats, why sit here? I wish you would stay far away from me!”
Pei Zhouye didn’t speak. He watched Wen Yan frown and lose his temper with a cold voice. When he heard the last sentence, his expression darkened slightly.
Wen Yan wasn’t good at cursing people. Seeing that his words seemed to have no offensive impact on Pei Zhouye, he added spitefully, “How did you get through the access control? Why didn’t security throw you out? I’m going to report you!”
Pei Zhouye was amused by him and chuckled. “It’s useless even if you report me.”
He must have used some method to get in again, and with such fanfare too. Wen Yan was so angry he stopped talking and turned his head away.
“I came here seriously to attend class.” Pei Zhouye seemed to guess what he was thinking. “I’m an exchange student. I came to audit a class, yet I get scolded like this and threatened with a report. Are students at A University this xenophobic?”
Wen Yan had never seen such a brazen person. He widened his eyes, looking over with disbelief written all over his face.
Pei Zhouye raised an eyebrow at him slightly. “What?”
The class bell rang, and the monitor began roll call.
“I can’t out-talk you, and I’m not as good at disgusting people as you are!” Wen Yan lowered his voice and whispered.
Pei Zhouye’s face and that lazy temperament were too eye-catching.
The teacher for this course was Wen Yan’s mentor, a big shot in the industry. Despite his thinning hair, it was combed neatly, and he looked energetic.
Standing on the podium, his gaze paused on Pei Zhouye’s face for three seconds. A flash of surprise passed through the eyes behind his glasses, but he continued the lecture as if nothing had happened.
Wen Yan noticed this detail, and his eyes filled with a bit more disappointment.
Pei Zhouye acted on whim; he did whatever he pleased, and interfering in other people’s lives was effortless for him.
During class, Pei Zhouye didn’t disturb Wen Yan. He only flipped through Wen Yan’s notes a few times, pushing them back after receiving a few glares.
After the class ended, it was the noon break.
Wen Yan didn’t get up, so Pei Zhouye sat and waited with him. Many students stole glances at them as they passed by.
Both of them had top-tier looks, though their temperaments were distinct.
Wen Yan was born fair. With a cold expression on his face right now, the contours of his brow bone and nose bridge looked even more crisp and aloof. The person beside him was someone they hadn’t seen before, with deep-set brows and eyes that slanted slightly upward at the ends. His pitch-black pupils held a coldness that looked like a smile yet wasn’t.
Everyone in the classroom left, leaving only the professor and the two of them.
Pei Zhouye finally moved. He stood up to clear the aisle, waiting for Wen Yan to rise.
“Professor Ming.”
Wen Yan looked up sharply.
Pei Zhouye, standing to the side, nodded slightly to the person on the podium.
“Young President Pei.” Professor Ming smiled. “So you were accompanying Wen Yan to class. I thought you came for an inspection.”
He made a joke, then looked at Wen Yan. “I didn’t expect you two to know each other.”
Before Wen Yan could speak, Pei Zhouye smiled and replied first, “Wen Yan and I are going to eat first. I’ll visit you when there’s time later.”
Professor Ming nodded and left with his books.
Making sure the person was far away, Wen Yan finally spoke up. “Who wants to eat with you?”
Pei Zhouye leaned against the desk behind him, waiting for him. “I don’t know where the school cafeteria is, and I don’t have a meal card. Please help me out, Senior.”
“Are you really an exchange student?” Wen Yan looked at him suspiciously.
He knew Pei Zhouye had returned from studying abroad and was now taking over the Pei family business.
Saying he came to A University as an exchange student now—did he take Wen Yan for a fool? No normal person would do this.
Pei Zhouye didn’t speak. He swiped a few times on his phone and showed the screen to him.
[Pei Zhouye Exchange Student from U of T, Project XXX Finance Major XXX]
“Wen Yan, I won’t lie to you.” Pei Zhouye stared at Wen Yan, his eye color deepening.
He wouldn’t be like Gu Yulan, lying to Wen Yan time and time again.
Wen Yan felt a chill down his spine from that look. He felt that Pei Zhouye seemed to be implying something else.
He couldn’t bring himself to hate Pei Zhouye, but he certainly had no good feelings toward him.
Wen Yan calmed down and asked, “I have a boyfriend. He won’t be happy if I eat with you. Besides, I don’t want to eat with someone who deliberately affects my work.”
Pei Zhouye grabbed his wrist abruptly. The force wasn’t heavy, yet it was inescapable like a shackle. “You know about that?”
As expected, it was Pei Zhouye. He had absolutely no empathy.
Wen Yan violently threw off his hand, anger burning in his eyes. “Pei Zhouye, why play dumb?”
The air suddenly solidified. Wen Yan walked toward the door.
Pei Zhouye caught up in a few steps. “Just because I intervened, you terminated the contract directly?”
Wen Yan stopped in his tracks. “You can cut off someone’s future with a single sentence. You’re very proud of that, aren’t you?”
Wasn’t it because of him that he was forced to terminate the contract? And now he was putting on this hypocritical act in front of him.
Pei Zhouye guessed something almost instantly.
His eyes turned morose and cold, his tone remaining indifferent. “Wen Yan, do you want to make a bet with me?”
Wen Yan ignored him and continued walking out.
“If you win, I will never disturb you again.” The voice behind him was cold, hoarse, and steady, like a temptation from a demon.
Wen Yan stopped as expected, looking at him with a cold face. “Bet on what?”
“Bet that Gu Yulan is a complete piece of scum, that his being with you is all a lie, and that he doesn’t love you.” There was no smile on Pei Zhouye’s face; he spoke with utter seriousness.
Wen Yan hesitated, his expression clearly conflicted.
Using feelings for a bet wasn’t something he would do.
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