If her previous words only made Shen Ran daze, then this sentence left her completely dumbfounded.
Her train of thought suddenly came to a halt, and she even felt that Su Yichen was joking. Did Su Yichen really think she was the kind of woman who would fall in love with someone else so easily?
“Su Yichen,” Shen Ran said, feeling the need to improve her image. She cleared her throat and said seriously, “I can definitely do those three things. If I can’t, my breakfast will be durian every single day!”
“Good, then our partnership is established.” Seeing Shen Ran agree, Su Yichen nodded with a smile. He could tell she was serious, which put him at ease. He hadn’t expected her to detest durian so much; he actually thought it tasted quite good.
Obtaining her guarantee was only secondary, however. The most important aspect was that these three requirements would act like nails, pinning Shen Ran in place — just like the “childhood friend” line he had used on Luo Yueli.
There were some differences, though. By stating it so bluntly, she would subconsciously prevent herself from doing so.
After all, a girl like Shen Ran was far too prone to becoming dependent on someone willing to help her. Now, no matter how good their relationship became, they would only be friends.
Su Yichen would make sure to maintain a proper distance. After all, he had no interest in cuckolding anyone. He was here to be a matchmaker, not the “other man.”
Since he was doing this, he naturally had to do it perfectly. He remembered reading a novel when he was bored where the protagonist, though clever, clearly lacked experience.
While helping a female character, she ended up falling for him, leading to a miserable love triangle with the Eldest Miss.
Su Yichen’s assessment of that was: ‘Too young, lacks experience.’
To be fair, one couldn’t blame that protagonist, as he only wrote “dark-deep-cruel” stories and lacked real-world experience.
You couldn’t compare people like that; unlike him, Su Yichen was a veteran of a hundred battles and could spot the core issue of such a plot at a glance.
“Alright, since we’ve reached a cooperative agreement, we can talk business now.” Su Yichen asked, “Shen Ran, how much do you know about Jiang Jingjie?”
“About him…” Shen Ran bit her finger and thought for a moment before saying, “Only as much as any other classmate would… Hehe, definitely not as much as you! You’re roommates, after all.”
“Heh.” Su Yichen gave a light laugh. “After talking in circles, the root cause is just that you don’t know how to interact with boys. You’ve been at this for so long and don’t even know this much?”
His tone was relaxed and casual, causing the serious atmosphere in the private room to drop instantly.
“You’re single too,” Shen Ran whispered under her breath. Then she added, “Hehe, that’s just the way it is. I’ve never really dealt with boys before.”
“Is that so…” Su Yichen swirled the tea in his cup and looked at Shen Ran with a half-smile.
“Since we’re both just freshmen who recently graduated from high school, I won’t beat around the bush.”
“Speaking ill of a teacher behind their back… back at my high school, the teacher would have held you over the podium to spank you. We don’t have a podium here, but this table could work in a pinch.”
“I was wrong, Teacher Su!” Shen Ran’s face flushed bright red, and she quickly lowered her head.
She wasn’t particularly afraid; she was just shy. She could hear the teasing tone in Su Yichen’s voice, like old friends joking with one another.
Although it was a bit bold, it didn’t feel disgusting or repulsive at all. Combined with his pleasant voice, Shen Ran even found herself wanting Su Yichen to say a few more words to her.
It was a bit embarrassing. ‘But… dealing with boys… doesn’t seem that hard. Su Yichen… is quite humorous and interesting.’
“I’ll let it go this time, seeing how quickly you admitted your mistake.”
Su Yichen stopped teasing her and held out his hand. His expression was calm, and his words were concise. “Unlock your phone and open your chat logs with Jiang Jingjie.”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean, ‘huh’? How am I supposed to tell you what to do next if I don’t look at them?”
“Oh… okay.”
Shen Ran hurriedly unlocked her phone and handed it to Su Yichen. He didn’t poke around the young girl’s phone and went straight to her chat logs with Jiang Jingjie on VX. After scrolling through for a bit, his brow furrowed slightly.
“How should I put this, Shen Ran…”
“Please, just say it, Teacher Su.” At that moment, Shen Ran was reminded of the scenes from middle school when her grades were poor and she was being criticized by her teachers.
“You really are cute, Shen Ran.”
“What?” The girl let out another exclamation of confusion.
“It’s nothing; I meant it literally.” Su Yichen shook his head and returned the phone to Shen Ran.
“The first chat log was on the day of our class’s freshman welcome gala. That’s when you added him. It’s been over half a month, yet your relationship with him is even worse than your relationship with me. Are you slacking off, Shen Ran?”
Shen Ran lowered her head in shame.
“Believe it or not, if you gave me your VX account, I could flirt with Young Master Jiang enough to get him to ask you out to dinner within three days.”
“Really?”
“I’m serious, but you are currently of little use. Besides, your image is already fixed in his mind, so it won’t be that easy.” Su Yichen sighed and said, “First, you need to learn a bit of tea art. There are two most important points to being a ‘tea sister’: one is altruism, and the other is attainability.”
“You already possess attainability. What is altruism? For a girl, being pretty, gentle, virtuous, understanding, romantic, and so on — those are forms of altruism.”
“In the eyes of men, these traits are magnified until they glow. When all these altruistic qualities are combined, the girl’s excellence will be noticed.”
“In a man’s eyes, such a girl is a goddess. Even if she doesn’t have a beautiful face, many men will still fall for her.”
“I know him well enough; although Jiang Jingjie is surrounded by girls, he’s just acting mature. In reality, he doesn’t have much romantic experience.”
“He’s a bit of a ‘love-brain,’ prone to acting on impulse, and some of his heated actions can easily upset girls… He also has a bit of a chauvinistic streak.”
“So, you only need to display your excellent altruistic qualities in front of my roommate. With your looks, and once I teach you some makeup techniques later… it won’t take long before you catch his attention.”
“He’ll come looking for you on his own. Once things become a bit ambiguous between you two, ask Yueli for a favor.”
“Have her give Young Master Jiang a clear signal of rejection. When he is at his lowest point, that’s when you strike. Success will be within your grasp.”