Chapter 01: The Start of Rumors
Fu Jinting heard the rumor three days later, during his lunch break back at Qinglin High School.
The last class of the morning was English. Our English teacher was also our homeroom teacher. She had no particular hobbies, except for one - she loved to hold us back after class.
Fu Jinting, Xiang Yi, and Zhong Ziyang arrived at the cafeteria to find a dragon-like line snaking through all the food serving windows.
Zhong Ziyang lazily scanned the cafeteria and grumbled, “This old bat is so annoying. Every time, she insists on dragging things out for fifteen minutes, like she's rushing to be reincarnated for the next class!” She makes us stay fifteen minutes longer, but the lesson progress isn't any faster than the neighboring class. I'm truly too lazy to even bother criticizing her.
Zhong Ziyang has a sunny, handsome face, but unfortunately, next to Fu Jinting and Xiang Yi, who are famous for their looks, it's hard for him to attract any attention from passersby.
The moment Fu Jinting entered the cafeteria, numerous girls were casting glances his way. He was wearing a simple light blue shirt with a white jacket over it, and black pants that made his legs look exceptionally long.
As soon as he entered her field of vision, Kong Yiyue's hand holding her chopsticks stalled mid-air.
The white rice grains on her chopsticks gradually lost their warmth, but she didn't resume eating.
Kong Yiyue's gaze lingered on Fu Jinting for a long time. His short black hair, his beautiful phoenix eyes, the ink-black pupils seemed to shimmer with light.
Fu Jinting was leaning sideways and didn't notice her. Kong Yiyue grew bolder in her observation. His skin was fair, but not the kind that made one feel fragile. Even his incredibly handsome lips seemed to be a rare shade of scarlet.
Kong Yiyue scrutinized him from head to toe, ultimately sighing in her heart again: He really is a beautiful man!
Even though she was also in the same high school as him in her previous life, she never had a chance to speak to him alone.
Kong Yiyue always felt that "prodigy" was the perfect word to describe him.
After graduating from university, Fu Jinting lived up to expectations by inheriting the family business. In just two years, he expanded the Fu family's empire tenfold.
At a young age, he instantly became Qinglin City's top golden bachelor.
Kong Yiyue often held financial magazines with his face on the cover, fantasizing about what kind of girl would this successful man like? Later, there were more and more reports about him. Fu Jinting's net worth and his looks made countless unmarried and even married women salivate.
And Kong Yiyue knew that he eventually married Nie Ling Wei, the daughter of the Nie family in Qinglin City, also his university girlfriend. Everyone said they were a perfect match.
A perfect match?
Kong Yiyue withdrew her gaze from him, her eyes calm as water. In this life, would they still be a perfect match?
“Let's eat outside.” Fu Jinting said this, then paused before turning to leave. The cold gaze beside him was...
He frowned and followed the gaze. Besides the girls looking at him with admiration, he didn't see anyone else.
Instead, the girl who had been burying her head in her food suddenly seemed out of place.
Kong Yiyue had been in a hurry to get to the cafeteria after class, so she had grabbed the autumn school uniform from her drawer and put it on. The white and blue school uniform was too big, and to avoid getting her sleeves dirty while eating, she rolled them up twice, revealing her smooth, white, slender forearms and wrists. Her long hair cascaded down her shoulders as she ate.
Before Fu Jinting could catch her face, Xiang Yi beside him burst into laughter, reaching out to poke Zhong Ziyang in the back and teasingly said, “Hey, Zhong Ziyang, the girl you were trying to chat up last time.”
Zhong Ziyang immediately turned around to look at Xiang Yi, asking, “Where is she?!”
Fu Jinting found it strange how they knew the same girl, but he didn't want to ask further. He simply said indifferently, “We're leaving.”
Xiang Yi pulled Zhong Ziyang, who was about to walk forward, back, “Don't play around, eating is important!”
Zhong Ziyang turned back to glance at her as he left the cafeteria. Seeing that Kong Yiyue looked up at the three of them as if she had noticed, he couldn't help but wink at her and then point a finger at Fu Jinting.
Kong Yiyue knew what he meant and didn't disappoint him. Her gaze immediately shifted from him to Fu Jinting in front.
The large cafeteria windows on either side were made of transparent glass. She could clearly see Fu Jinting, expressionless, slightly lowering his head, one hand in his pocket and the other scrolling on his black phone.
Even as the three figures disappeared, Fu Jinting didn't look up at her.
Kong Yiyue put down her chopsticks, picked up her tray, and simply smiled faintly.
Students at Qinglin High were required to stack their used trays in designated areas after eating. As Kong Yiyue got up, she heard the whispers of the girls behind her: “Is that Kong Yiyue?”
"Kong? Is she the one who got first place in the math test for the entire grade this time?"
“Yes, that's her! I heard she likes Fu Jinting.”
“Really? What about Fu Jinting? Didn't he come back after representing the school in a competition?”
“Yes, he was just standing there at the entrance, but I don't see how they have a chance...”
Kong Yiyue discreetly blocked out the discussion. She didn't care what outsiders said. All she wanted was for this rumor to spread as widely and quickly as possible, ideally reaching the ears of the person involved.
But it seemed that Zhong Ziyang and Xiang Yi had helped her with that.
Kong Yiyue's rare, sweet smile reappeared. Yes, this was the best possible outcome.
...
Fu Jinting had just put away his phone when Zhong Ziyang, bursting with excitement, ran up to him. “Fu Jinting, something interesting happened at school while you were gone.”
Fu Jinting merely smiled, “I don't trust your judgment.”
Meaning, your taste is too low, so whatever interesting thing you're talking about is questionable.
Zhong Ziyang was taken aback for a moment before realizing what he meant. He immediately retorted, “Hey, we're still brothers! You're not very loyal this way.”
Fu Jinting didn't respond.
Zhong Ziyang played coy, “It has to do with you.”
“Is that right?” Fu Jinting said, but his gaze fell on Xiang Yi.
Xiang Yi knew the meaning in his eyes and nodded, “Yes, it has to do with you.”
“Tell me.” A dispassionate tone.
Zhong Ziyang, hearing that Fu Jinting was interested, hurriedly told him like he was showing off a treasure, “Did you see the girl in the cafeteria just now?”
Fu Jinting's gaze lingered on him. There were so many girls in the cafeteria. “Are you sure we're on the same wavelength?”
“Ahem!” Zhong Ziyang couldn't stand Fu Jinting's way of speaking indirectly, finding ways to tease you even when he wasn't being direct.
“It's the one in the school uniform, sitting not far from us, long hair, the closest one to us.” Zhong Ziyang patiently jogged his memory.
Fu Jinting almost instantly remembered the girl with her head down eating. He asked, “Then?”
“Do you know who got first place in the math test for the entire grade of our sophomore year?” Zhong Ziyang deliberately kept him hanging.
The top spot in the science stream had always been Fu Jinting's. He was out of school last week for a competition and hadn't taken the school test.
“Hou Guang Lue?” Fu Jinting replied. Hou Guang Lue had always been ranked second in the school.
Zhong Ziyang shook his head, with an expression that said, “I knew you would guess wrong.”
Fu Jinting seemed surprised as well, “Hou Guang Lue got second?”
Xiang Yi nodded, “Yes, there was an unexpected dark horse...”
Before Xiang Yi could finish, Zhong Ziyang impatiently picked up where he left off, “It was the girl in the school uniform, sitting in the cafeteria, who got first place, Kong Yiyue.”
“Kong?” An unusual surname, no impression. Fu Jinting had never been interested in the rankings in his grade. He responded with a lack of interest, “Oh.”
Zhong Ziyang knew the important part was coming up. He continued, “After Kong Yiyue got first place in the math test, there was a little buzz in the school for a while. Suddenly, everyone was paying attention to this seemingly inconspicuous girl. The guys in our class were curious about what the girl who got first place looked like, so they went to check out her class.”
The science stream's top ten students in every subject were almost all guys. It was somewhat of a novelty for a girl to suddenly take the top spot.
“And you know, that guy in our class with the last name Lu, remember him? After seeing Kong Yiyue, he actually said she was a beauty. He was excited and went to confess his feelings the next day, but she rejected him. Kong Yiyue said she already had someone she liked. Lu refused to give up, and he insisted on asking who the guy was, that they should have a competition, and guess who she said it was?”
“Hmm?” Fu Jinting looked at the smile in Zhong Ziyang's eyes and the gentle smile on Xiang Yi's face. A bad feeling arose in his heart.
Zhong Ziyang pointed at him and said, “Kong Yiyue said she likes you, and she even said with certainty that she would marry you in the future.”
"..." Fu Jinting didn't expect there to be such a bold girl in the school. To say in front of a boy who confessed to her that she would marry another boy?
Xiang Yi glanced at Zhong Ziyang, who was enjoying the misfortune, “Actually, Zhong Ziyang didn't tell you one thing. After Lu Yu went back to the classroom, other people who knew asked him about how the confession went, and he told them this. So, within half a day, everyone in the class knew about Kong Yiyue's relationship with you.”
Xiang Yi withheld the latter part. Within a day, it seemed like everyone in the sophomore year was spreading rumors, and it was getting worse.
Fu Jinting's expression didn't look good. He was inexplicably linked to a Kong Yiyue?
Xiang Yi knew that Fu Jinting hated it when girls got entangled with him, but he still kindly reminded him of another thing: “The other day when we were eating in the cafeteria, we heard that the person sitting across from us was Kong Yiyue, and then Zhong Ziyang specifically went to chat with her.”
Fu Jinting didn't think Zhong Ziyang would be so kind as to dispel rumors for him while he was out of school. He asked, “What did you say?”
Zhong Ziyang chimed in, “I asked her if she was Kong Yiyue. She actually replied, ‘I know you're Zhong Ziyang, Fu Jinting's friend.’ Haha, I couldn't believe it, she's actually pretty smart. I asked her if she liked you, and her answer seemed to be that she was going to chase after you. And she also told me to tell you, that the multiple choice question wasn't that hard to choose. Fu Jinting, what multiple-choice question? What does that mean?”
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