Chapter 4: You'll Have to Pay for the Button

The news from Class Three spread faster than Shi Qi had expected.

She had barely sat down at her desk, hadn't even warmed her seat, when someone tapped her on the shoulder from the back row.

Shi Qi turned. It was Zhao Yan, who sat two rows behind her—one of the few boys in the class she could actually hold a conversation with.

"Nice going, Shi Qi." He patted her shoulder, voice thick with teasing. "I didn't know you and Yu Cheng were so close. She actually accepted your milk tea!"

The moment the words left his mouth, several pairs of eyes swiveled toward her.

Shi Qi turned back around and said nothing.

Truth was, she was pretty surprised herself.

Honestly, when she'd gone to Class Two to drop off the milk tea, she hadn't expected Yu Cheng to accept it at all.

According to her cousin, this girl was famous for never taking anything from anyone. Shi Qi had already pictured the whole aftermath—Yu Cheng passing the milk tea off to someone else, her cousin sending a long string of crying emojis when he heard the news, and her replying with a "Can't help it" before the whole thing blew over.

Then Zhao Yan's comment just now made her freeze for a second.

Yu Cheng had accepted it.

Shi Qi lowered her head and flipped her sketchbook to the page she'd half-finished today, pretending to look for a pen. But her mouth wasn't listening—it curled up at the corner, traitorously.

Hehe.

So her personal charm was still pretty solid, huh. Someone who didn't even know her had accepted her gift—what did that say? While she was quietly gloating over here, the class had already erupted over there.

"What?! Yu Cheng accepted Shi Qi's milk tea?!"

"How come she gets to?!" another boy wailed, clutching his head and slumping back hard against his chair, which let out a creaking groan. "The chocolate I gave her last month—she didn't even look at it before handing it to her deskmate! I specifically picked imported ones! Over three hundred yuan a box!"

"Ahhh," someone by the window chimed in, "the handmade cookies I gave her last semester. Next day I saw the person behind her eating them. That person even thanked me afterward, said they tasted good."

A wave of laughter rippled through the room.

"You guys are all hopeless," a girl cut in lazily, twirling her pen in a flourish. "Remember that girl from Class Nine? The one who played piano at the arts show? Pretty, right? She bought Yu Cheng a Starbucks, and Yu Cheng handed it straight to her deskmate!"

"Her deskmate's always going on about how lucky they are to sit next to Yu Cheng," another girl added.

"So what's the deal? Just because Shi Qi's a girl?"

"Didn't we just say? Girls have failed too."

"Then why?"

"Because Shi Qi's pretty," Zhao Yan summed up for everyone. "Go look in a mirror, all of you. If you can grow a face like Shi Qi's, be my guest."

"Zhao Yan, do you even know how to talk!"

"Is telling the truth a crime now?"

The classroom dissolved into chaos.

"I refuse to accept this!" A boy clutched his chest in theatrical agony. "That box of chocolate I gave her cost over three hundred! She didn't even eat it!"

"I looked up your chocolate afterward," someone nearby cut him down mercilessly. "Cocoa butter substitute."

"It was still three-hundred-yuan cocoa butter substitute!"

Their racket was making Shi Qi's ears hurt.

The pencil tip touched paper and drew the first line.

A minute in, she stopped abruptly, stared at the page for two seconds, then erased the line she'd just drawn.

Crooked.

She was about to erase that whole section and start over when an elbow nudged her lightly.

"Shi Qi."

Her deskmate, Liu Qingqiao, had leaned in at some point. Liu Qingqiao had sat next to her for most of the semester—the person she was closest to in this class.

They ate together, went to the bathroom together, complained about too much homework together. The kind of friendship where you could rummage through each other's desk without asking.

Right now Liu Qingqiao was propping her chin on her hand, voice dropped low enough that only the two of them could hear.

"Shi Qi."

"Hmm?"

"You trying to chase Yu Cheng too?"

Shi Qi's pencil paused mid-stroke.

"No." She grabbed her eraser and wiped away the reversed shadow on the apple, keeping her tone flat. "Delivering it for someone else."

"For who?"

"My cousin."

"Oh." Liu Qingqiao nodded, dragging out the syllable. "Your cousin."

She didn't push further, didn't say whether she believed it. Just kept her chin propped, watching Shi Qi with a look that said plenty.

Shi Qi felt her back prickle under that stare and ducked her head, pretending to focus on her drawing.

But she could feel her ears burning.

She buried her head lower, pencil flying across the page—no idea what she was even drawing anymore.

Liu Qingqiao let out a soft laugh beside her.

Just a laugh. Nothing else.

Shi Qi's ears burned hotter.

She bit her lower lip and forced herself to concentrate on the sketch.

About five minutes later, she snuck a glance at Liu Qingqiao.

Liu Qingqiao was working on an English test paper, expression perfectly normal, as if the whole topic had already been dropped.

Shi Qi exhaled.

Then she looked down at her own sketch and realized that at some point, the outline of a face in profile had appeared next to the apple.

Faint strokes, like something drawn without thinking, but the shape was already there—long hair, slightly curled ends, and beneath the eye area, two small dots she'd dotted unconsciously.

Shi Qi stared at those two dots for three full seconds.

Then she erased that patch fast and hard, rubbing so vigorously the paper nearly tore, leaving a smudge of gray eraser crumbs on the sketchbook page.

Liu Qingqiao's pen stopped.

She didn't turn her head, just asked quietly, "What are you drawing over there? You're erasing so loud."

"What? It came out crooked." Shi Qi blew the crumbs away, head still down.

"Oh." Liu Qingqiao's pen tip returned to the test paper.

Neither of them said anything else.

But Shi Qi knew Liu Qingqiao had definitely seen it. Their desks were right next to each other—one glance sideways and everything was visible.

Shi Qi closed the sketchbook and shoved it deep into the bottom of her desk.

"Shi Qi." Liu Qingqiao spoke again, voice still low, like she was afraid of being overheard by the people behind them.

"Hmm?"

"What's your cousin's name?"

Shi Qi blinked. "Chen Yu. Why?"

"Grade Ten?"

"Yeah."

"Which class?"

"Class Five, I think." Shi Qi frowned. "Why are you asking?"

"Your cousin chased me last semester," Liu Qingqiao said. "Blocked our classroom door every day, delivered breakfast for a whole month. I told you about this, didn't I? That annoying junior from last semester—you even said you'd beat him up for me."

Shi Qi remembered. There had been such an incident last semester. Liu Qingqiao had been pursued by a Grade Ten junior for over a month—showing up at their classroom door every day, bringing breakfast and drinks. Liu Qingqiao had been fed up and complained to her about it multiple times.

It was Chen Yu.

Shi Qi opened her mouth, then closed it. Last semester, Chen Yu had said he liked a senior girl, ran to her class every day, moped for a few days after being rejected, then switched targets.

So that senior girl was Liu Qingqiao.

"That..." Shi Qi started, rarely at a loss for words. "I didn't know it was him. This is so awkward, Liu Qingqiao."

Liu Qingqiao turned to look at her, caught the helpless expression on her face, and grinned wider.

"Alright, alright." She poked Shi Qi's arm with the end of her pen. "But are you sure he actually wants to chase Yu Cheng? Or is this just another three-minute thing?"

Neither of them said anything more.