Yesterday, she thought: stay away from Nie Qingkong, he's dangerous.
This morning, she thought: I must stay away from Nie Qingkong, he's too dangerous.
Now, she was sharing his umbrella, with no escape.
The walk from the school gate to the teaching building, usually so short, suddenly felt impossibly long.
"Can you walk any faster?" Xia Qingyu turned to ask Nie Qingkong beside her.
"You dislike being with me that much?" Nie Qingkong glanced at Li Xiaozhong, who kept looking back from a distance. A nameless anger simmered within him. He asked in a low voice, audible only to them, "What is it? Afraid your little boyfriend will get jealous or misunderstand?"
"What did you burn yesterday, your hand or your brain?" Xia Qingyu shot him a glare. "If you're sick, don't refuse treatment."
"So you remember I burned my hand for you yesterday?" Nie Qingkong said. "You don't even offer thanks, and now you're here to get revenge? You ungrateful wretch..."
Hearing Nie Qingkong's half-complaining tone, Xia Qingyu pursed her lips and mumbled, "Thank you. I'll compensate you for the umbrella."
Upon hearing her voice, Nie Qingkong's lips curved subtly, then he said with apparent annoyance, "Hold the umbrella up higher. The rain is falling on my shoulder."
"If you dislike it, why don't you find someone else to hold an umbrella instead of complaining?" Xia Qingyu glanced sideways at the girls whispering nearby, feeling a headache coming on.
Ever since Xia Qingtian had stood up for her at the parent-teacher meeting, she had finally been free from targeted harassment.
Now, it seemed, she was about to encounter trouble again.
Sigh...
"My umbrella wasn't knocked away by someone else," Nie Qingkong retorted, giving Xia Qingyu a look. "Take responsibility!"
"Tsk," Xia Qingyu clicked her tongue and tilted the umbrella entirely to Nie Qingkong's side, leaving half of herself exposed to the rain. "Is that better now!"
"It seems this umbrella is too small. The space under it isn't big enough, and your shoulder is getting wet, classmate Xia," Nie Qingkong said deliberately. Then, he reached out and casually placed his hand on Xia Qingyu's shoulder. "Let me shield you."
"Ah!" A girl nearby immediately exclaimed, "How could he do that!"
"Damn! The campus belle really knows how to play!"
"Exactly! She's deliberately not holding the umbrella properly, making the guy worry... When it comes to flirting, the campus belle is the best!"
"Here, take your umbrella. I don't need it anymore." Xia Qingyu knitted her brows, shoved the umbrella into Nie Qingkong's hand, and ran off directly into the rain.
Watching Xia Qingyu's retreating back, a rare smile flickered in Nie Qingkong's eyes.
Ungrateful wretch, quite the temper.
"Nie Qingkong, is your hand okay? Did Xia Qingyu hurt you just now?" A girl immediately seized the opportunity to ask.
"Yes, why don't we share an umbrella? Mine is quite large."
"Mine is large too!"
"No, thank you for your kindness." Nie Qingkong's smile remained, but the smile in his eyes vanished completely. "It's fine if I hold the umbrella myself."
If these people hadn't been so gossipy, that ungrateful wretch wouldn't have run off like that.
Fortunately, only a short distance remained. After running into the teaching building, Xia Qingyu shook off the rainwater before going upstairs to her classroom.
In the classroom, her classmates were chattering about the heavy rain today, noting how many people had gotten wet.
"Goddess, did you just take a shower? You're soaked to the extreme?" Shi Xingwu asked, running a hand through his prickly short hair.
Xia Qingyu's lips twitched slightly at the sound.
To whose credit was she in this state?
"Here." Li Xiaozhong handed her his handkerchief. "It's clean."
"Thanks, I'll return it after I dry myself," Xia Qingyu thanked him and accepted without hesitation, using Li Xiaozhong's handkerchief to wipe the water droplets from her hair.
She couldn't afford to catch a cold right now.
"Me too..." Shi Xingwu pulled out his already soaked handkerchief, hesitated, then silently put it back and asked, "Would tissues be okay?"
"Yes, thank you." Xia Qingyu thanked him again and took the small pack of tissues Shi Xingwu handed her. "I'll return a pack to you later."
"No need. Why are you being so polite with me?" Shi Xingwu laughed heartily, his tone quite magnanimous. "Just heroes and heroines helping each other in times of need."
Xia Qingyu pursed her lips and smiled faintly. Although Shi Xingwu could be a handful, he was still amusing.
"How is it? Handsome, right?" Shi Xingwu felt rather pleased with himself and immediately turned to Li Xiaozhong, flashing a mouthful of pearly white teeth.
"Sigh..." Li Xiaozhong couldn't bear to look and sighed helplessly.
"What do you mean?" Shi Xingwu asked, confused. "Not handsome? Goddess, am I not handsome?"
"Hmm... Heh heh." Xia Qingyu smiled without speaking.
"Huh? Not handsome? Really not handsome? No way..." Shi Xingwu fell into self-doubt.
Xia Qingyu and Li Xiaozhong glanced at Shi Xingwu, then at each other and smiled.
Having a clown around wasn't so bad.
At the classroom door, Nie Qingkong saw the three of them chatting and laughing, and the usual gentle smile on his face gradually faded.
"See? It's happening again," a girl who had walked to the classroom door with him sneered. "Xia Qingyu is just too fond of showing off."
"She's the campus belle, beautiful, rich, and has a celebrity sister. She has the capital and the means to be a player. Girls like us, who are simple and without ulterior motives, can't envy her." The other girl, after saying this, covered her mouth with her hand and whispered to Nie Qingkong, "Nie Qingkong, we don't mean to gossip about Xia Qingyu, but... you should still be careful. You just transferred here, you don't know."
"Yes," the first girl immediately agreed.
Nie Qingkong didn't respond. He merely cast a casual glance at the two of them before walking directly to Xia Qingyu and handing back the umbrella. "Classmate Xia, here's your umbrella back."
"Mm, just put it there," Xia Qingyu said casually.
"If it rains until tonight, I'll have to trouble Classmate Xia to walk me to the bus stop." Nie Qingkong's usual gentle smile reappeared on his face.
"Is that necessary? There should be plenty of people going your way from class," Xia Qingyu still didn't want any entanglement with Nie Qingkong.
On the contrary, given Nie Qingkong's current popularity, if he said the word, there would be plenty of girls who would be "going his way."
"I just transferred here, so I don't have many friends yet, and I'm too embarrassed to trouble others," Nie Qingkong said.
"Is there a possibility that you're troubling me?" Xia Qingyu looked at Nie Qingkong. She still felt uncomfortable, feeling damp all over.
"Heh heh, if my umbrella hadn't been knocked away by Classmate Xia and then stepped on and damaged by Classmate Shi, I wouldn't be troubling you. Right?" Nie Qingkong said with a smile.
Shi Xingwu pointed at himself, then recalled. "Ah! The umbrella I stepped on and damaged was yours! I'm so sorry!"
"It's fine. Classmate Xia will take responsibility anyway, right?" Nie Qingkong looked at Xia Qingyu.
"Then I'll compensate you with my umbrella," Xia Qingyu said.
"This color doesn't suit me. I don't like it," Nie Qingkong refused outright. "I don't want passersby to doubt my aesthetic taste."
"..." Xia Qingyu's mouth twitched.
Was she being extorted and thoroughly disliked at the same time...
Truly... bad luck!
As expected, this Nie Qingkong was extremely dangerous!
It was better to maintain a distance.
Nie Qingkong looked at Xia Qingyu, his smile not reaching his eyes.
This ungrateful wretch.