Mother Song’s response was completely outside the homeroom teacher’s expectations. He had thought the engagement between Song Fu and Ci Ye was arranged by the parents, but now it seemed not to be the case at all. Mother Song did not seem very supportive either. Could the blame actually lie with Father Song?
Because of Chen Yu’s misdeeds, the school had recently cracked down even harder on puppy love. For that reason, they had specially convened this parents’ meeting to analyze grades while also planning to popularize some knowledge on self-protection and urging parents to pay more attention in various aspects.
“How did you know about this, Teacher?” Mother Song asked belatedly. It was not exactly something worth boasting about.
The homeroom teacher touched his balding forehead, which had only a few hairs left. “It seems Song Fu brought it up herself.”
Mother Song was not too surprised. After all, it had been her daughter who had first clamored for the engagement. “I see.”
The two chatted a bit more, from Song Fu’s grades to her attitude toward learning. The homeroom teacher praised her highly and also complimented Ci Ye’s progress in passing.
Mother Song took the form from the homeroom teacher’s hand and glanced at the two children’s target universities. She sighed. “Why aim for such a faraway place?” There were good universities locally too. One closer by, and they could hop in a cab home for a weekend meal.
…
Among the parents, Mother Song stood out quite prominently. She took good care of herself and spoke in a gentle, soft manner. She had brought snacks for both children, unsure how long the meeting would last and worried they might go hungry.
Mother Song figured Ci Ye’s parent would not come, so she had someone call him from the back row to her side and handed him a bag of cookies. “I heard from your teacher that you’ve made great progress this time. Keep it up, okay?” He still had a long way to go if he wanted to attend the same university as Song Fu.
Mother Song was not the only parent who brought food. After a classmate took something from her, they reciprocated with a piece of chocolate.
From the moment Song Fu took the chocolate, Ci Ye stared at it. When he caught her puzzled gaze, he pointed to the nuts on the chocolate wrapper. “You’re allergic.”
And it was a very severe one.
Back when they had just finished kindergarten, Ci Ye had received a big jar of candy from his grandma. Without even going home first, he had rushed off to find Song Fu with it. She had eaten some and promptly fainted, ending up in the hospital.
Song Fu remembered waking from the shock to see Ci Ye shedding tears pat pat, his little face all red from crying as he begged her not to die. It would not have been an exaggeration to call little Ci Ye a crybaby back then. Once he started, he could not stop, probably from being neglected by Father Ci for so long. Later, he stopped shedding tears so easily.
“I know.” Song Fu just felt that outright refusing would make the atmosphere awkward.
Ci Ye let out an “oh” but still looked not entirely reassured.
As if Song Fu might eat it when he was not looking.
Song Fu: “…” Fine. She simply stuffed the chocolate into Ci Ye’s hand. “Here, for you.”
Was this worthy of the male lead?
Ci Ye’s looks were strikingly handsome and flamboyant. Whether his previous red hair or his current black hair, his pale skin handled it well. His features were deep and three-dimensional, and he had a pair of phoenix eyes that remained dark even under sunlight. Being gazed at by them gave the illusion of being the sole focus of his attention.
It matched Song Fu’s aesthetic perfectly.
After realizing Ci Ye liked her, Song Fu could no longer treat him with her previous friend attitude. Her feelings were indescribably complicated. She had never entertained the idea of being with Ci Ye—or anyone, for that matter.
This was a task world. She was an outsider tasker, and Ci Ye was her important task target.
But now this task target was not following the plot, seemingly about to make her task fail.
Failing the newbie task…
[Let’s just aim for a C, that’s pretty easy to achieve.] The System popped up to cheer her on.
“What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?” Ci Ye noticed Song Fu’s gaze and touched his face, which felt hot from being stared at.
Song Fu looked away. “No.”
She was thinking about what action to take next.
For the parents’ meeting, the homeroom teacher had stayed up all night preparing a PPT—sixty-seven pages in total. After spending twenty minutes lecturing on the dangers of puppy love, he finally got to seriously analyzing the grades.
Thanks to Ci Ye’s improvement, the new last-place boy looked ghastly pale throughout, while his mom sat beside him with arms crossed, her face darker than the bottom of a pot. It seemed like the next second she would reach out and twist her son’s ear. “You’re dead last, and you’re still thinking of going out to play during break?!”
Zhu Chenxi’s mom arrived fashionably late, appearing at the classroom door just as the homeroom teacher mentioned not slacking off during summer vacation. She apologized awkwardly. “Sorry, the traffic was terrible.”
The homeroom teacher expressed understanding and took the opportunity to praise Zhu Chenxi’s grades again, asking Zhu’s mom to share how she educated her child at home and her experiences.
Zhu’s mom was thin-skinned and said it was all Zhu Chenxi’s own love for learning; she had not managed much.
Once the parents’ meeting ended and everyone headed out, Zhu’s mom finally greeted Ci Ye at the school gate and pushed her bags of goods toward him. “You’re Ci Ye, right?” She introduced herself and sincerely thanked Ci Ye’s mother. She had thought about visiting before but always found no one home.
Ci Ye’s phoenix eyes narrowed slightly as he sized up the woman in front of him, then glanced at Zhu Chenxi trailing awkwardly behind her. His voice was cold. “My mom saved the person, not me.”
That line matched the plot exactly.
Song Fu knew everything Zhu’s mom said was true, especially the part about “thinking of visiting to give thanks.”
But it was not that she always found no one home; she had been deliberately given the cold shoulder.
The first time Zhu’s mom visited, Ci Ye had been swinging on the swing in the yard with Song Fu. Upon hearing the maid explain the purpose, he had hidden in the back yard. Back then, Ci Ye had pursed his lips, saying nothing, radiating hard-to-dispel irritation.
Song Fu had heard Ci Ye voice such a question once:
“Has Mom ever thought of me?”
As if asking why she would give her life for a stranger and abandon him.
Time returned to the present.
Zhu’s mom had not expected Ci Ye to say that. She paused, then said, “It’s the same.”
How was it the same? Confusion flickered in Ci Ye’s phoenix eyes because of those words. Neither now nor back then had he ever needed anyone’s guilt. “If I had been there, I would have pulled her back.”
Zhu’s mom understood and looked embarrassed. She opened her mouth to say something more, but Ci Ye had already lost patience to listen.
Ci Ye glanced at Zhu Chenxi.
Zhu Chenxi tugged her mom’s sleeve. “Don’t block them. The other classes’ meetings will end soon, and the road will be jammed.” Their homeroom teacher had ended ten minutes early specifically to spare the parents traffic woes—very considerate.
…
With the people gone, Ci Ye got in the car, his mood inevitably gloomy as he stared out the window in silence.
Song Fu watched him for a while, cleared her throat, and dutifully advanced the plot. “So Zhu Chenxi was the child Aunt saved back then. No wonder…” She trailed off deliberately.
Ci Ye caught the subtle pause and turned to look at her. “No wonder what?”
“No wonder she chose you as her deskmate. She even helped you study, which is such a hassle.” Song Fu finished the sentence, her meaning ambiguous.
Mother Song, also in the car, pondered. Was her Fu Fu jealous? That was novel. No wonder she had suddenly wanted to get engaged to that kid Ci Ye—she had a rival now. Well done. Striking first was always smart.
But to Ci Ye’s ears, it meant something else entirely.
Oh no.
Had Song Fu realized Zhu Chenxi did not like him at all? That her actions stemmed purely from guilt and a desire to make amends, with no hint of romance.
Would the next step be canceling the engagement?
Yet he could not refute the facts. After a moment of silence, his thin lips parted. “Want to watch a movie together tonight?”
Song Fu: “…” The topic change was jarringly abrupt.
This segment was supposed to be the supporting female lead deliberately deepening the misunderstanding between the leads, attributing all their interactions to that past incident. Now, it seemed the effect had been achieved, but there was no misunderstanding to begin with. The leads truly had no romantic feelings.
Under normal development, the leads would cold war for a while, both suffering. The female lead would think the male lead hated her, blaming her as the culprit in his mother’s death, so he grew distant and she dared not approach or do more for him.
The male lead had previously said she had no obligation, and when she really stopped paying attention, his mentality collapsed. On a rainy day when she forgot her umbrella, he confronted her directly. Only then did she realize he had misunderstood her feelings, so she explained—how she had fallen in love at first sight when he heroically saved her.
Misunderstandings cleared, hearts aligned, and the male lead decided to break off the engagement with the supporting female lead.
Standard sweet romance fare.
And for Song Fu, this supporting female lead, aside from her current pointed remark, the next plot was getting dumped.
‘System, do you think it’s still possible?’
[Yes, but the odds are very low.] The System was as rigorous as ever. [The probability of the male lead proactively bringing up breaking the engagement is 0.0212%.]
Mother Song was unaware of what had happened between the two children and looked at Ci Ye with eyes increasingly like those for a future son-in-law. “Final exams and summer break are just over a month away, right? Just like your homeroom teacher said, it’s a great chance to make a comeback. Don’t mess around with those sports cars anymore. Put more effort into studying.”
The male lead obediently agreed, then muttered softly, “I don’t have money to mess around anymore anyway.”
Mother Song did not catch it, but Song Fu did. How could the male lead be broke? She was puzzled but did not ask.