Just as Su Cheng was about to go back to sleep, his phone kept buzzing with messages.
Su Cheng picked up his phone, glanced at it, and opened the messages.
[Psyduck]: "I'm waiting for you by the lake~"
[Psyduck]: "My takeout has arrived. I want to treat you to a meal. Don't get the wrong idea - I just want to thank you for your help and discuss something with you."
This was the nickname he had saved for Cornelia.
Looking at the messages, Su Cheng felt a headache coming on, finding it all extremely troublesome.
He moved his finger to the "Delete Friend" option but after hesitating several times, he still couldn't bring himself to press it.
So, he sighed and walked out of his room, heading towards the lake in the villa district.
Soon, he saw a golden-haired girl in a school uniform sitting on a bench by the lake, with takeout bags beside her, her white-stockinged feet swinging restlessly.
Cornelia spotted him too and quickly waved her paw at him.
Su Cheng walked over with an expressionless face, but before he could speak, Cornelia picked up the takeout and patted the seat next to her, saying, "Sit!"
Su Cheng looked at Cornelia, slightly frowning, "No need, just tell me what's up."
He just wanted to sleep now. Teaching Cornelia about using extra spicy sauce was his responsibility.
Now that everything was fine, he just wanted to stay away from such troublesome women.
Cornelia pushed the food towards Su Cheng with a tsundere expression: "Um... I ordered this takeout for you."
"You can eat it yourself. I'm not hungry."
Su Cheng shook his head in refusal.
Hearing this, Cornelia immediately lowered her head, looking at the takeout boxes in her hands. A flash of disappointment crossed her face before she patted the seat next to her again: "At least sit down?"
Despite having an IQ of only 4.5, she wasn't actually stupid.
She could sense Su Cheng's impatience.
Su Cheng, seeing Cornelia's pitiful expression, felt a bit guilty and sat down on the chair next to her.
After he sat down, Cornelia quickly took out various desserts from the takeout bags, opened one of the packages, and handed it to Su Cheng: "I don't like this one, you can have it!"
Seeing Cornelia's expectant gaze, Su Cheng reluctantly accepted it.
Cornelia's mood immediately brightened, and she lowered her head to open another package.
Su Cheng looked at her enthusiastic demeanor, then glanced down at the cake in his hand.
Without a doubt,
This cake must have cost at least several hundred yuan.
That was equivalent to his food budget for several days.
Then, he finished it in two bites.
He didn't dare to savor this kind of thing slowly.
"So, was it good?"
Cornelia looked up with an expectant face.
Su Cheng shook his head without thinking: "Not good."
"Huh, how can that be? This is my favorite..."
Cornelia's eyes instantly dimmed, but halfway through her sentence, she suddenly seemed to realize something and quickly covered her mouth.
"What did you say?"
Su Cheng pretended not to hear as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.
"No... nothing."
Cornelia quickly shook her head in denial, then hurriedly handed him another dessert: "I don't like this one either!"
Su Cheng looked at the dessert in front of him with a frown of disgust.
He liked sweet things, but he really didn't like things this sickeningly sweet.
"No need, just tell me what you want to say. I have things to do later."
Su Cheng said directly.
He just wanted to find a place to sleep.
Cornelia looked somewhat dejected, lowering her head to look at the dessert in her hands before slowly speaking: "Thank you for today."
"I didn't do anything special. It was mainly you having the courage to face it yourself. That's worth praising. I have to say, you really impressed me today!"
Su Cheng said seriously, then looked away, maintaining an 'I'm really busy' attitude.
However, upon hearing this, Cornelia immediately raised her head and looked at Su Cheng with joy: "Really?"
As she spoke, she shook her head, making her twin tails spin like propellers.
Finally, she sat down and shook her head again, letting out a cold snort: "Whatever... even if you praise me like that, I won't be happy unless you eat all the takeout!"
"?"
Su Cheng was stunned. He looked at Cornelia, whose face was clearly written with 'I'm very happy,' and thought to himself: "You're already trembling with happiness, how can you say you're not happy?"
"Can you stop being tsundere? We can just communicate normally, there's no need to be contrary."
Su Cheng tried to remove Cornelia's tsundere label and normalize her.
"Who's being tsundere? I'm not tsundere at all! You're the one who is!"
Cornelia jumped up upon hearing this, her big watery eyes looking at Su Cheng as she spoke angrily.
"Fine, I'm the tsundere!"
Su Cheng shrugged and stood up, then turned his back to her and said: "No way~ No way~ No way~"
After speaking, he left behind a tsundere silhouette.
Cornelia's face turned red, and she shouted at his retreating figure: "Come back here and explain yourself properly!"
After saying this, Cornelia chased after him, but after just a few steps, she suddenly tripped over her own feet and rolled onto the lawn, ending up face-down on the ground.
"Ouch..."
Cornelia lay on the lawn, one hand covering her injured knee, her face contorted in pain.
Her cute white stockings were torn.
"Did you do that on purpose?"
Su Cheng looked at Cornelia, who was supporting herself on the lawn, with a strange expression.
He really couldn't understand how someone could trip while standing still.
How stupid could she be!
Hearing this, Cornelia looked at Su Cheng angrily and said: "How could I possibly trip on purpose? Do you know how much it hurts? Look, it's bleeding!"
As she spoke, Cornelia rubbed her knee, tears welling up in her eyes.
Seeing her reaction, Su Cheng directly took out several band-aids from his utility pocket and threw them to her: "Here, put them on yourself."
"Thanks..."
Cornelia caught the band-aids and sat down on the lawn, her eyes fixed intently on Su Cheng, as if afraid he might peek at her sacred territory.
Su Cheng felt uncomfortable under her gaze and stood up, saying: "I have things to do, I'm leaving."
"Wait!"
Cornelia immediately spoke up to stop him.
After hesitating for a moment, having failed to put on the band-aid after trying for a while, she finally asked in confusion: "Um, why don't I feel anything?"
"Grass (a type of plant)."
Su Cheng watched as Cornelia put the band-aid on her stockings and helplessly held his head: "Could you take off your stockings before putting on the band-aid?"
Hearing this, Cornelia froze, then her face suddenly turned red. She put her hands on her thigh-high stockings and slowly pulled them down to her calves, revealing her fair thighs.
During this time, Su Cheng stared unblinkingly.
It would be foolish not to look when given the chance.
Cornelia shyly looked at Su Cheng and spoke softly: "Could you not look at my legs with such a creepy gaze?"
Hearing this, Su Cheng slightly turned his head to look outside, saying nothing.
Seeing that he had turned away, Cornelia pulled her other stocking down to her calf, applied two band-aids, and then stood up.
This time, Cornelia had learned her lesson. She walked directly in front of him, grabbed the end of his sleeve, and gently pulled while saying: "Let's go back, I still have something I want to ask you."
Hearing this, Su Cheng lowered his gaze slightly, looking at the fair small hand tightly gripping his sleeve. He remained silent for a moment, then nodded.
Seeing him agree, Cornelia immediately let go of his sleeve and led Su Cheng back to the chairs.
After Su Cheng sat down, she sat down too, then looked at him expectantly and said: "Um, why do you always give me this kind of drink?"
As she spoke, she took out a can of 'Eight Walnuts' drink and shook it.
Su Cheng was momentarily speechless, not knowing how to answer.
He couldn't exactly say that he thought Cornelia was full of 'wisdom' so he wanted her to supplement it?
That would be too hurtful to her self-esteem.
So he could only force himself to say: "This... this is my favorite drink, I wanted to share it with you."
"Your favorite?"
"Yes, do you like it?"
Su Cheng asked.
"How could I possibly like such a cheap drink?"
Hearing this, Cornelia immediately pouted, showing a very disdainful expression.
"Give it back to me!"
With that, Su Cheng prepared to snatch it back.
But Cornelia quickly pulled her hand back and started hiding it against her chest, cautiously saying, "Even though I don't like it... since you insisted on giving it to me, I'll reluctantly accept it."
After saying this, she opened the 'Eight Walnuts' drink and started gulping it down. As she tilted her head back, a few drops of white liquid escaped from the corners of her mouth.
But the next second—
"Cough cough cough~"
Cornelia choked from drinking too quickly, hastily patting her chest while taking big gasps of air.
Seeing Cornelia almost coughing to death, Su Cheng instinctively reached out and patted her back to help her catch her breath.
Cornelia, noticing Su Cheng's caring gesture, froze for a moment, then broke into a silly smile and said, "Thank you, I'm fine now."
Then suddenly realizing something, her face turned red, and she stammered nervously, "You... you... what are you... who said you could touch me... I... I-I-I..."
Her face was bright red, stumbling over her words.
Su Cheng looked at her flustered expression and found it amusing: "Weren't you acting all tough just now? Why are you stammering now?"
"Who-who's stammering... I'm just... just... just..."
"Alright. It's late, I'm going home, and you should too."
Su Cheng had no time for games.
"Wait for me."
Cornelia quickly stood up, ignoring the pain in her ankle, and hurried after Su Cheng.
"Can't you care about the environment?"
Su Cheng pointed at the messy chair, speaking with slight exasperation.
"Wait for me, I'll clean it up right now!"
Cornelia hurriedly went to clean up the things on the chair upon hearing this.
...............
The next day
Su Cheng had a wonderful sleep.
When he opened his eyes, he found it was already light outside. He jumped up like a carp, turned off the alarm clock, then rushed into the bathroom to wash up, finally changed into his school uniform, ate breakfast, and rode his bike to school.
Today his confession target was — Ji Qingyi
He decided to find an opportunity to confess during the afternoon club activities.
"Junior~"
While passing by a bus stop, Liu Qingyue's voice called out.
Hearing this, Su Cheng stopped his bike and turned his head to see Liu Qingyue smiling and waving at him.
Liu Qingyue walked over and said with a smile, "You like her?"
"Hm?"
Su Cheng looked at Liu Qingyue in confusion, not understanding.
Seeing Su Cheng's confused expression, Liu Qingyue couldn't help but laugh.
After laughing, she sat on the back seat, smoothing her skirt: "That girl whose contact information you asked me for last night, what was it... Cornelia or something?"
"Oh, her. I just needed to talk to her about something."
Su Cheng explained.
"Oh."
Liu Qingyue nodded in understanding, then said seriously, "If you want anyone else's contact information in the future, just let me know."
"Senior, you're really amazing."
"Not at all, you're quite amazing yourself, junior."
...
On the way, the two engaged in mutual flattery.
...............
After saying goodbye to Liu Qingyue, Su Cheng arrived at his classroom and immediately saw Li Guanqi reading a book in the corner. She looked up briefly when Su Cheng arrived, then went back to reading.
Su Cheng didn't pay much attention to this, but as he passed by Li Guanqi's seat, she raised her head again, looking at Su Cheng's hands.
However, when she found Su Cheng making no movement, she frowned slightly, looking at his back with confusion.
Su Cheng felt the intense stare from behind, so he stopped and turned around to see Li Guanqi studying him with an investigative look. When he turned, she quickly lowered her head back to her book.
Su Cheng found this behavior peculiar.
Soon, the classroom began filling up with students, with some already in their seats. Seeing this, Su Cheng returned to his seat and took out his books.
Shortly after, the bell rang, and Wang Guancong's duo walked into the classroom just as the bell finished.
The morning classes ended.
Lunch break
This time, Su Cheng didn't choose to go to the rooftop or to Li Guanqi's place, but instead found a random spot to rest during lunch.
........
Meanwhile.
Two tsunderes, one golden-haired and one brunette, were walking around the school after finishing their lunch.
"So why did you stop me from finding Su Cheng earlier?"
Ailiya looked at Cornelia beside her with displeasure, asking unhappily.
Seeing Ailiya's direct questioning, Cornelia became flustered and explained, "The previous confession incident was caused by Eddie from their class, it had nothing to do with Su Cheng!"
"What's that got to do with me? He insulted me last time!"
Hearing this, Ailiya immediately bristled, her beautiful phoenix eyes glaring angrily at Cornelia, looking completely puffed up.
She was still angry remembering the contemptuous look Su Cheng had given her chest!
Seeing this, Cornelia quickly tried to calm her down: "Don't be angry, why bother getting worked up over a commoner!"
Ailiya calmed down slightly at this and looked at Cornelia, saying, "But... you're defending him so much, could it be you're interested in him?"
"That's impossible, I just feel sorry for him, that's all."
Cornelia hurriedly shook her head in denial, but as soon as she finished speaking, she noticed someone eating bread on the stairs nearby.
She turned to look instinctively, and when she did, she felt her heart stop. Her face turned pale, and her eyes filled with panic.
"Su Cheng!"
Ailiya saw him too, and her face immediately darkened.