Seeing that Su Yichen did not answer her immediately, the young girl hesitated for a moment before tentatively asking, “Su Yichen… Classmate?”
“Mhm.”
A faint response came from the youth. It was pleasant to the ear.
Shen Ran felt she would never forget this voice for the rest of her life; aside from Su Yichen, she had never heard such a beautiful voice.
The cool breeze from the air conditioner refreshed Shen Ran’s brain, which had been clouded by the heat outside.
She took a tissue from her small bag, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and turned her gaze toward Su Yichen.
At that moment, Shen Ran noticed Su Yichen set down the heavy book in his hand. He looked up, slowly lifting his eyelids to glance at her.
Beneath those glasses that were ugly to the very core of his soul was a pair of deep blue eyes, vast as the ocean.
The moment she met those eyes, which sparkled like sapphires, her breath suddenly hitched. She felt an inexplicable palpitation, as if she were being seen through in a single glance.
It felt as though everything about her was being laid bare and scrutinized without reservation by the youth named Su Yichen.
This was a sensation she had never experienced even when facing Mo Qingqiu. With just a single exchange of looks, Shen Ran felt a sense of utter defeat.
It even stirred a hint of fear in her, someone who was already poor at dealing with boys.
“Why did you come looking for me?”
The moment Su Yichen’s words sounded in her ears, Shen Ran’s mind suddenly went blank.
Since this was her first time interacting with a boy like this, she had tried her best to imagine many different scenarios during her walk here. She had even made some preparations.
For example, she expected to be asked, “What do you want from me?” Or perhaps she would be met with disdain or a poor attitude from him.
Any of those were possible; after all, she was wasting his time. It would only be natural for him to be angry.
However, Shen Ran never expected Su Yichen to ask, “Why did you come looking for me?” in such a calm tone.
It seemed to mean the same thing as “Is there something you need?” but the flavor of it… the difference was immense.
The latter was a common sentence used in ordinary communication, while the former… felt more like a superior questioning a subordinate.
“Is there something you need?” was essentially an inquiry about one’s purpose. “Why did you come looking for me?” was an interrogation of the reason.
It was an invisible pressure, and the sentence itself carried a distinct weight of oppression.
Shen Ran, however, couldn’t articulate these thoughts. A subconscious self-preservation instinct prompted her body to tense up instinctively, and she began to grow nervous and cautious.
‘How should I respond…’
‘Why did I… come looking for Su Yichen…’
‘Because I…’
Before Shen Ran could speak, Su Yichen, who had been watching her expression, suddenly curled his lips into a gentle smile. “Sit.”
“All right, Su… Classmate Su Yichen.”
Shen Ran nodded hurriedly, and the pressure on her suddenly eased significantly. She walked over and sat on the sofa opposite Su Yichen. Her posture was very obedient, as if she were a well-behaved child.
To put it nicely, her movements were polite and disciplined. To put it bluntly… they were stiff and timid.
Su Yichen looked at Shen Ran but did not speak immediately. Instead, he placed a tea cup he had prepared earlier in front of her.
Then, he picked up the teapot, lightly pressed the lid with one hand, and gracefully lifted his wrist, slowly pouring the tea into Shen Ran’s cup.
Shen Ran stared blankly.
She knew nothing about the art of tea, but her instinctive pursuit of beauty allowed her to feel the elegance in Su Yichen’s movements. Every frame could be called art.
The young girl naturally did not know that the tea ceremony skills of the youth before her were so highly praised that even the Empress—the woman who had unified the Six Nations and ruled over the world—insisted on inviting Mr. Su to the Phoenix Palace every day to drink tea and discuss matters concerning the future of the nation.
The entire court, both civil and military officials, knew that the Empress could go three days without attending to state affairs, but she could not go one day without seeing Mr. Su.
Furthermore, Su Yichen’s hands were as beautiful and slender as white jade. Just by looking at them a few more times, Shen Ran felt an urge to touch them.
Subconsciously, she looked down at her own hands. Even though her hands were considered pretty for a girl, they seemed so ordinary now.
‘If I were a hand fetishist… I’d probably fall for him because of this, wouldn’t I?’
It was hard to imagine a boy with such beautiful hands pouring tea for her…
“Classmate Su Yichen, I can do it myself!”
Coming to her senses, Shen Ran spoke up hurriedly, “I can do it.”
“There’s no need to trouble you, Classmate Su Yichen.”
Her voice sounded a bit nervous. She wanted to stop Su Yichen’s movements but didn’t dare touch his body. This left her gesture awkward and frozen, as if she were about to stand up but didn’t know what to do.
Su Yichen’s movements stopped abruptly. He looked up slightly. He didn’t say a word, only glancing at her sideways.
Shen Ran hurriedly sat back down.
Only then did Su Yichen speak. “It’s fine. We are classmates.”
Classmates…
Truly just classmates…
“Mhm.”
Shen Ran responded softly, but it was just a simple acknowledgment. She couldn’t bring herself to associate a Cinderella like her with the ethereal Su Yichen.
‘Someone who can stand as an equal to Classmate Su Yichen would at least have to be someone like the Senior…’
A very strange thought popped into the girl’s mind.
Once the tea was poured to seventy percent full, Su Yichen set the teapot down and said casually, “The tea here is quite good.”
“Oh, right…”
Shen Ran didn’t know how to continue the conversation, so she picked up the tea and took a sip. The fragrance lingered on her palate; it truly was quite delicious.
‘What should I say…’
The girl sipped her tea bit by bit as she organized her chaotic thoughts.
‘Since I’m late… Classmate Su Yichen is probably angry with me…’
‘Will he refuse to help me? After all, I was late.’
‘But… this place really is hard to find…’
Shen Ran had tried several ways to find this spot, including searching online and asking classmates she encountered.
She asked several people in a row who didn’t know until she finally asked a couple who told her the specific location.
That couple even mentioned that this was a place where lovers who enjoyed quiet environments and reading often went on dates.
‘But my goal is to have Su Yichen help me, and now I’ve made a mistake…’
At that moment, Su Yichen’s voice sounded in her ear.
“Shen Ran, there’s a sushi shop across the road outside the North campus gate. Their signature sushi and octopus balls are both decent. Could you go and buy some for me?”
His tone rose slightly at the end, as if it were a question, but not entirely.
Octopus balls, sushi.
‘If I buy them, Classmate Su Yichen won’t be angry with me anymore, right?’
“All right, I’ll go buy them right now. I’ll definitely be back very quickly this time!” Shen Ran stood up immediately, grabbed her phone from the table, and ran out.
Watching Shen Ran’s hurried figure, Su Yichen lifted his glasses slightly and rubbed his aching eyes.
“Huohua, what do you think of Shen Ran?”
“Huh? Shen Ran? She’s a very obedient girl. I totally didn’t expect that.”
“Yes, she is obedient. Ridiculously so.”
Su Yichen glanced at the small, pale blue bag the girl had left by the sofa in her confusion and said slowly, “Rather than calling it being obedient, it would be better to say…”
“She is trying to please.”