Chapter 410: This is Too Much!
Xia Yu’s speculation was spot on. After He Gongxing called everyone back to the classroom, he pulled out a form and stood beside Huang Qiao to announce to the whole class, “Ladies and gentlemen, International Women’s Day is approaching! We will select twenty female students to represent our class in the tug-of-war competition. I hope all the girls will enthusiastically sign up with the class monitor. I’ll collect the forms during afternoon homeroom!”
As soon as the homeroom teacher finished speaking, the girls couldn’t help but start chattering. Xia Yu overheard them and figured that it was mostly because she felt too weak to join the fun.
Whether or not she was actually weak, Xia Yu had no idea. One thing was for certain, though—this was definitely not her business. After all, it was a girls’ event… best to stay out of it.
With that thought, Xia Yu turned her head to rest it on her desk and stared out the window in a daze, pondering whether she should buy a gift for her sister Little Ning for International Women’s Day. To her surprise, right after He Gongxing finished his announcement and left, Huang Qiao, Xia Ling, and Jiang Hanhang all approached her.
With big grins they said, “Little Yu, are you interested?”
“Not really. I’m a guy. If I went, wouldn’t that just cause chaos?”
Xia Yu was still a little wary of Jiang Hanhang, and considering Jiang was suddenly coming over to talk to her, she expected only bad news. She wasn’t that naive.
Seemingly having anticipated that Xia Yu would respond this way, the three girls weren’t caught off guard at all. They merely tapped Gao Xiaotian’s desk, reminding him, “Hey buddy, could you step away from your seat for a sec?”
Gao Xiaotian: “…”
As he got up and left, Xia Yu became even more panicked, curling up in a corner, trembling like a leaf in the wind, completely at a loss.
Seeing Xia Yu’s pitiful state, Xia Ling couldn’t help but giggle first. She grabbed Gao Xiaotian’s seat and sat down beside Xia Yu, pinching her timid little face. “Alright, we were just kidding! Even if we wanted you to participate, the girls from other classes would definitely have something to say about it.”
“Then… why did you call me over?”
Xia Yu wasn’t so scared of Xia Ling, considering they had grown up together, and now that Xia Yu was a girl, the sibling barrier had vanished.
With that, Huang Qiao stopped hiding her intentions and cheerfully invited Xia Yu, “Little Yu, we actually came to invite you to help us with the bulletin board! Hanhang said you’re good at drawing, so how about lending us a hand?”
Xia Yu: “…”
When Xia Yu glanced at Jiang Hanhang, she noticed that the girl was barely holding back laughter. In Xia Yu’s eyes, Jiang Hanhang had way too much of a vendetta. Couldn’t she just let her be? When did Xia Yu ever claim to be good at drawing?
Looking back at Huang Qiao, Xia Yu honestly replied, “Class monitor, don’t be tricked by Hanhang! She’s been trying to pull a fast one on me lately. I don’t actually have any drawing skills!”
“That’s fine! You can learn, plus you won’t have to do everything by yourself; we’ll divide the tasks.”
“Who else is involved?”
Huang Qiao looked towards her own seat and listed off four girls’ names before continuing to Xia Yu, “As for Xia Ling and Hanhang, they said if you join in, they’ll come over to help too.”
Great, by now Xia Yu understood why so many girls were looking for her—this was clearly just trouble looking for a reason to happen.
Xia Yu wanted to refuse so badly, but when she saw Huang Qiao’s expectant gaze, she sighed, “Fine, fine! I’ll help. What time are we doing this?” Meanwhile, she was mentally calculating how she could slack off during this project and let them do all the work since they teamed up against her.
“Weekend.”
Now she had one less day to herself; Xia Yu pouted, “Got it.”
“Tomorrow at 9 AM, we’ll meet at school. Don’t forget!”
Huang Qiao noticed Xia Yu’s distressed expression and, teaming up with Xia Ling and Jiang Hanhang, decided to be a little mischievous. To ease her conscience, Huang Qiao gently patted her pocket and, before leaving, slipped Xia Yu two pieces of candy.
As soon as Xia Yu reached out for the two pieces of fruity goodness, Jiang Hanhang shamelessly snatched them away… “You…!”
Xia Yu glared at Jiang Hanhang, finally reaching her breaking point. Over the years, she had encountered many girls, but Jiang Hanhang’s audacity was unmatched—she even had the gall to steal her comfort candy. Unbelievable!
“What’s the matter?”
Jiang Hanhang shrank behind Xia Ling’s back, tauntingly asking, “Not happy? Then come and get them back!”
Xia Yu: “I’ll get you back for this! Just wait until I get home.”
“Mutual destruction? Who’s afraid of who?”
Xia Ling sat in between them, surprised that after only a brief interaction, these two little chickens were already pecking at each other. Of course, she knew Jiang Hanhang was being a bit much, but, you know, future wife and all, she felt compelled to be a little biased.
“Alright, alright, enough bickering! Aren’t you getting tired of this?”
With ease, Xia Ling took the two pieces of candy from Jiang Hanhang, giving one to Xia Yu and returning one to Jiang Hanhang. “There! Problem solved.”
“Those should’ve all been mine in the first place!”
Xia Yu looked at Xia Ling, feeling a bit uncomfortable with the favoritism towards Jiang Hanhang.
In that moment, she finally understood Jiang Hanhang’s feelings when she stole her sister away; it was quite a painful sensation.
As the outsider, Huang Qiao didn’t want to get too involved, so she just watched the spectacle unfold. She never anticipated that Xia Yu and Jiang Hanhang would nearly squabble over two pieces of candy—talk about a new level of drama!
When the class bell rang, the three girls reluctantly returned to their seats to continue with the lesson. Was it really about the candy? No, it was all about pride.
During class, Xia Yu wasn’t paying attention to the lesson; instead, she found herself staring at the piece of candy in her hand, thinking that had she acted quicker, it wouldn’t have been snatched by Jiang Hanhang.
“Hey! Do you want to grab a bite together later?”
Gao Xiaotian invited her again, but unfortunately, Xia Yu wasn’t in a good mood: “My girlfriend already invited me out. I’ll be eating with her.” Gao Xiaotian: “…I’ve never seen you two at the school cafeteria. Do you not eat here?”
“We cook in the dorm.”
With nothing else to do, Xia Ling chimed in with Gao Xiaotian, “The school arranged for us to have teacher’s dorms, and I do all the cooking during meal times… Suddenly, Xia Yu seemed to have an epiphany—she realized that since she was cooking lunch, it was the perfect opportunity to get back at Jiang Hanhang!
She began plotting how to execute her revenge during lunch—something that wouldn’t backfire on her but would still serve her purposes. After all, there’s a saying: “A woman’s revenge is best served cold,” and she certainly wasn’t going to go soft!
Gao Xiaotian watched as Xia Yu zoned out again. He felt like he was getting further from understanding this classmate, as if getting closer was impossible.
