“What?”
Ci Ye’s expression went blank, and a rare look of bewilderment appeared on his face. He couldn’t quite process Song Fu’s words, so he sought confirmation. “You want to date me?”
Song Fu nodded and added a qualifier. “But not now—at least not until college?” She tried to find a reasonable excuse for her actions. “Didn’t the homeroom teacher talk to you before? It wasn’t right for me to casually propose an engagement during high school, so let’s put it on hold for now and talk about it later. How about that?”
Ci Ye didn’t pull his hand away from Song Fu’s grasp.
The girl sat in place, tilting her pretty little face up to gaze at him. Those amber eyes, soft with hope, reflected only his figure. He recalled that Song Fu rarely showed such earnestness; most of the time, she acted like it didn’t matter either way.
Now, just to cancel the engagement between them…
“Okay.” Ci Ye gave his answer after pursing his lips.
He took back the ring he had given her, the box’s sharp edges digging painfully into his palm. “I’ll bring it up.”
Song Fu watched the man before her wilt like a frostbitten eggplant. Her conscience didn’t just twinge a little—it hurt a lot. But the only response she could give right now was a nod before she looked away.
“Mm.”
Without warning, two soft, cool lips pressed against her lips.
Song Fu’s eyes widened the whole time as she watched Ci Ye’s face draw near, then pull away. That intimidating face flushed from pale to red. He was the one who had launched the sneak attack, yet he ended up the embarrassed one.
A dragonfly skimming water—that was how brief the kiss was. Ci Ye didn’t even dare look at Song Fu as he tossed out a line. “Consider this a down payment.” Then he bolted.
He left the ambushed Song Fu behind. “……”
[Host, your ears are so red.]
Song Fu covered her face. “The male lead gave his first kiss to the villainess—doesn’t that feel off?” Even though she had agreed to date Ci Ye, she had deliberately set the timeline after the plotline ended.
The System had already come to terms with it. The host wasn’t upset, so a couple of kisses were just a couple of kisses. The mission was hopeless anyway, so it switched to gossip mode. [Host, have you dated anyone before?]
The “before” here naturally meant before entering the mission world.
Song Fu shook her head. “No, I didn’t have the energy.” Nor the time—there was too much to do every day: studying, part-time jobs, and outsmarting people she despised. “Though, I did have a fiancé back then.”
The System knew about that and pressed further. [What kind of person was your fiancé?]
It had been too long, and most memories had faded. Song Fu thought for a moment and summed it up in three words. “Hot cake.”
System: [Huh?]
“Means he was super popular.” Song Fu ignored the System’s follow-up about what exactly made him so likable and had no intention of elaborating.
She stood up, planning to do some problems.
The light in the room across from hers flicked on.
Song Fu paused and waited a moment. Sure enough, she spotted that familiar pair of phoenix eyes peering from the opposite window. It had always been this routine from childhood to now—whenever Ci Ye did something he wasn’t sure would anger her, he would quietly observe from across the way.
Song Fu mouthed a silent good night.
The next day.
Song Fu got up early, waiting for Ci Ye to bring up breaking off the engagement. She didn’t dare rush him, worried it might push him over the edge. She waited all the way until afternoon without hearing from him. Instead, what arrived first was a contract written in black and white.
The contract’s contents had nothing to do with money or benefits. The entire thing revolved around when Song Fu would date Ci Ye and exactly how they would date.
Song Fu skimmed it. Besides pinning down the exact time she had promised to start dating him, it also stipulated no casual breakups, no two-timing during the relationship, no unexplained cold shouldering—
“There are way too many ‘no’s here.” Song Fu couldn’t help muttering.
Ci Ye was unusually firm in front of her, arms crossed. “None of that can be changed.”
Great, another “no.”
“Anything that can be changed?” Song Fu raised an eyebrow slightly and read from start to finish, spotting an incompleteness. “I don’t see anything about penalties for violations.” Without penalties, what was the point of signing?
Ci Ye replied dryly. “The penalty is that I’ll haunt you like a ghost.”
Song Fu opened her mouth, then closed it. “……”
Ci Ye: “……” What else could he do?!
His face burned all the way to his ears, a bit of frustrated anger mixed in. “Sign it if there’s no problem.”
And so, Song Fu signed it—and was even prompted to add her handprint.
She kept one copy; Ci Ye took the other.
That evening, Ci Ye finally brought up breaking off the engagement.
Because Song Fu had emphasized it many times, he never mentioned it was her request. He only said that getting engaged in high school would stir up a lot of gossip, and it would put the school in a tough spot handling it. They could cancel it for now and discuss the future after graduation. “Is that okay?”
Father Song and Mother Song exchanged a glance.
Mother Song hesitated and glanced at her precious daughter. “What does Fu Fu think about this?”
In the plot, the villainess would definitely react with refusal and anger to being dumped, but Song Fu didn’t dare. She worried that even a “hmph” from her would make the engagement impossible to cancel. She merely lifted her eyes coolly. “No need to ask me.”
Mother Song wasn’t entirely sure she got the gist, but she was confident in Ci Ye’s feelings for her daughter. Besides, she thought getting engaged in high school was too early anyway. “Then we’ll cancel it for now?”
Ci Ye let out an “mm,” looking utterly reluctant—like he was the one being dumped.
Song Fu ignored the resentment from her future boyfriend, faked a yawn, and stood. “That’s it, then. I’m heading upstairs.”
Besides here, Ci Ye still needed to inform his dad.
But his dad was rarely home, so it had to be over the phone.
The call connected on the second try. Under Song Fu’s eager gaze, Ci Ye said the words that displeased him. “My engagement with Song Fu is off.”
There was silence for three seconds on the other end. Just as Ci Ye wondered if it had hung up again, a voice came—not angry, but as if it had been expected. “If you were even halfway reliable, she wouldn’t have asked to break it off.”
Ci Ye had one key correction. “I was the one who brought it up.”
Another few seconds of silence, no accusations—just pure bafflement. “What are you thinking?”
“Weren’t you agonizing over the engagement venue just a couple days ago…”
“You know now, that’s all.” Ci Ye cut his dad off before he could go on, hurriedly hanging up. He met Song Fu’s eyes.
Song Fu gave a light cough, pretending she hadn’t heard a thing, and nudged the fruit plate in front of him. “Grapes?”
“Yeah.” Ci Ye replied.
High school breaks were always short and packed with homework. In the blink of an eye, they were gone—like one moment you were walking out of school with your bag, and the next you were back on the hard classroom bench.
Song Fu and Ci Ye arrived in the classroom one after the other. They overheard the new dead last griping that his parents’ eyes had practically shot flames when they saw his ranking, like they’d swallow him whole the next second.
The second-to-last felt like a fellow sufferer. It had been fine before with Ci Ye anchoring the bottom, but now Ci Ye’s grades had climbed to mid-tier. “My mom gave me a final ultimatum—if I’m still dead last on the final exam, no more breaks. She’s lined up tutoring classes nonstop.”
He scratched his head in frustration, his gaze landing on Ci Ye’s cool, cocky figure like a lifeline. He shot over and clasped his hands together. “Big bro, can you teach me how you studied? Such a huge jump.”
Ci Ye jumped at the sudden appearance of the “big black rat” and frowned, spitting out two words. “Do problems.”
The second-to-last looked pained. “What if I don’t know too many?”
Ci Ye was concise. “Ask.”
“Ask who?”
“Ask me.” Song Fu smiled as she joined the conversation, reminding him. “Aren’t we in the same study group?”
The second-to-last blushed awkwardly and nodded hesitantly. Truth be told, though the homeroom teacher had set up study groups, hardly anyone took them seriously. For starters, the prizes for improvement from last time’s scores still hadn’t been handed out.
The second-to-last still had some sense and glanced at Ci Ye’s dark expression, teasing. “What if your fiancé gets jealous?”
The recently dethroned Ci Ye: “……”
Song Fu looked at him.
Ci Ye’s thin lips parted reluctantly. “Not anymore.”
The second-to-last didn’t catch on. “What’s not anymore?”
Ci Ye ground his back teeth and clarified. “Not your fiancé. The engagement’s off… I proposed it.”
The classmates who caught the fresh gossip reacted in unison, eyes bulging like copper bells with “For real?” faces. They glanced at Ci Ye, then at the expressionless Song Fu, unsure if it was just a lovers’ spat.
The second-to-last didn’t know what expression to make. After a long pause, he managed. “Oh… like that.”
The self-study bell rang, and everyone returned to their seats.
Zhu Chenxi had overheard the exchange too and lowered her voice to confirm. “What got into you to propose breaking it off yourself?”
Ci Ye had his difficulties and could only snap stiffly. “Studying’s the priority now.”
Zhu Chenxi inexplicably caught a whiff of resentment in that short sentence, but it clearly wasn’t aimed at her.
…
Meanwhile, Song Fu was whispering with her deskmate.
The deskmate wrote on scrap paper, crossing out and scribbling until she produced a full sentence: So you two are done—does that mean others have a shot now?
Before news of Song Fu and Ci Ye’s engagement spread, the beautiful, top-scoring Song Fu had been like an untouchable flower on a high peak. Plenty of people had secret crushes but never dared confess. Now, though, everyone updated their view that Song Fu wasn’t absolutely against dating, and hearts began to stir.