"Great, the boss should have dumped that weakling long ago! He's so useless, if it weren't for the boss, I would have beaten him up ages ago," Bai Mao exclaimed with excitement.
"I'll notify the brothers about this. Let's consider the situation with Xuchang as a farewell gift from us to the boss! They don't even look at their own standing, daring to challenge the boss! If it weren't for the boss always accepting these challenges, we would have dealt with them long ago."
Bai Mao was eager to show off. The boss had finally made up her mind, and now it was their turn as subordinates to shine.
"So, who is your girlfriend?" Bai Mao's unusually slow reflexes finally caught the main point.
"Tsk, I haven't won her over yet! So, all of you be careful lately, don't ruin my reputation and affect my pursuit of my girlfriend, understand?" Xing Yuan lightly kicked Bai Mao.
Bai Mao stood at attention and performed a mock military salute, "Boss, rest assured, your subordinate will deliver the message precisely."
Xing Yuan chuckled and couldn't help but kick Bai Mao again, "Alright, hurry up and go! We'll contact each other by phone if anything comes up. Don't bother me unless it's something important."
Bai Mao trotted a few steps outside, then suddenly seemed to remember something, turned back, and approached Xing Yuan again, "Hey, the boss is really looking for a girlfriend! With your fierce appearance, aren't you afraid of scaring the girl away!"
Xing Yuan kicked Bai Mao away with a "bang," "Get lost! I..."
Xing Yuan cleared her throat, then adopted a gentle demeanor, "I am in the prime of my youth, why can't I find a girlfriend? You mustn't spread rumors. Tell me, am I right?"
Hearing Xing Yuan's question, which was clearly laced with a threat, Bai Mao nodded with extreme survival instinct.
"Yes! Our boss is incredibly beautiful, captivating the moon and shaming the flowers. There's no one in this world who wouldn't like you, so it's perfectly normal to have a girlfriend."
Although something seemed off about the statement, Xing Yuan felt it made sense. Given Bai Mao's level of education, it was already impressive that he could come up with so many flattering idioms.
After Bai Mao left, Xing Yuan stood outside for a while, letting the smell of smoke dissipate from her mouth, and then returned to her seat.
Sitting at her seat, Xing Yuan secretly observed Yan Xiyue's expression from the corner of her eye. It seemed she hadn't seen anything.
Although her reputation was already well-established when she arrived, she still cared about Yan Xiyue's opinion of her!
"You have smoke on your breath. Smoking is bad. Eat this!" Yan Xiyue hesitated for a long time before finally taking out a grape-flavored fruit candy from her pocket and pushing it towards Xing Yuan across the table.
Her gaze remained fixed on the textbook in front of her, but her peripheral vision was watching Xing Yuan's reaction.
Xing Yuan paused for a moment, her eyes instantly filling with a smile. She picked up the candy, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.
"Then, Sister~ can you bring me candy every day from now on?" Xing Yuan's tone was incredibly ambiguous, her breath, carrying the rich scent of grape fruit candy, wafted towards Yan Xiyue's ear.
Yan Xiyue leaned uncomfortably towards the window, her face slightly flushed. She nodded seriously, her voice soft, "If you promise not to smoke, I'll bring you candy every day."
Oh~ This world's Ah Jie is actually a cute girl! She preferred this less intimidating version of Ah Jie.
Xing Yuan smiled gently and suddenly extended a hand, making a pinky promise gesture, "Then it's a deal!"
"It's a deal!" Yan Xiyue gently placed her hand on Xing Yuan's, and after completing the pinky promise, she immediately withdrew it.
Looking at Yan Xiyue, who was studying with earnest seriousness, Xing Yuan's eyes were filled with tenderness, "Hmm, no matter which world, Ah Jie is always so good!"
Xing Yuan owned a beloved car, a sleek, all-black motorcycle that looked incredibly cool. She was very satisfied with it.
So, after school, Xing Yuan leaned against her motorcycle at the student parking area outside the school gate, waiting for Yan Xiyue. She had already found out that Yan Xiyue rode her bicycle home every day, and it just so happened they could be "going the same way"!
"Hey, deskmate, what a coincidence! Want to go home together?" Xing Yuan invited with a bright smile.
Yan Xiyue glanced at her indifferently and walked away on her bicycle without a word. Xing Yuan was not disappointed; no answer meant tacit consent. So, she rode her motorcycle slowly behind her.
"What exactly do you want?" Yan Xiyue stopped her bike, looking warily at the person who had followed her all the way. At first, she could tell herself that Xing Yuan might just be going the same way, but after following for so long, it was impossible for them to always be going the same way.
"To send my deskmate home!" Xing Yuan's face was full of smiles, but to Yan Xiyue, this smile inexplicably felt irritating.
"No need, I can go home by myself!" Yan Xiyue firmly refused this clearly ill-intentioned person.
"Alright! Actually, I need your help with something!" Xing Yuan tried to put on a pitiable expression.
However, her face was too aggressive, and Yan Xiyue was not at all swayed.
Instead, she took two steps back, her eyes still wary.
Xing Yuan sighed, feeling a flicker of dissatisfaction with her appearance for the first time. If she had been her former soft and cute self, given Ah Jie's preference for cute things, she would have agreed by now.
"It's just that... exams are coming up soon, right? I heard your grades have always been first in our school, so I thought I'd ask you to tutor me. I can pay you." Seeing that the path of playing the victim was blocked, Xing Yuan decided to be business-like.
The destination is the same! The important thing is to create an opportunity to spend more time with Ah Jie.
Yan Xiyue frowned subconsciously, "If that's the case, why don't you just hire a tutor? Why are you looking for me?"
"Tutors are good, but I can't focus. That's why I wanted to try finding someone of a similar age," Xing Yuan lied with a straight face.
What bad intentions could Yuan have? She just wanted more time to spend with Ah Jie.
Yan Xiyue's expression instantly became hesitant. Although their family wasn't extremely wealthy, they weren't poor either, so she didn't need to work to support the family. But the key was that this person seemed genuinely pitiful.
Before leaving school, Yan Xiyue had asked a few friends about Xing Yuan. They were tight-lipped, only saying that she was a school bully who was not to be trifled with, and revealed nothing else. However, they had repeatedly warned her to stay far away from her.
But Yan Xiyue felt that since this person genuinely had a desire to learn, she should help those in need and pull Xing Yuan out of the mire.