However, when Roundy and Buggy happily came downstairs, they saw Xia Pengfei shut out again, his eyes carrying an expression the two young children couldn't understand.
"Why didn't you go in, Brother Fei? Weren't things fine just now?" Roundy tugged at Xia Pengfei's shirt corner and asked.
Xia Pengfei glanced at her but said nothing.
Leng Siyu's sudden mood shift left him at a loss. The girl who looked simple, straightforward, and beautiful had a heart that was impossibly hard to read. When calm, she was like a fish gliding through water; when angry, she was like a gust of fierce wind.
The three stood frozen where they were until the shut door opened again.
All three looked at Leng Siyu. She closed the door with no expression, bent down to pick up Roundy, and silently walked out of the building.
"Big sis is mean! She broke her promise! I hate her—!"
Even the closed door couldn't muffle Roundy's loud, clear voice.
The Xia brothers looked at the door at the same time. Buggy suddenly burst into loud, heart-wrenching sobs. He didn't even know why he was crying—he just felt like crying…
Xia Pengfei bent down, picked up Buggy, and walked upstairs.
Back in Room 0301, Buggy was still crying. Lanlan hurried over, asking, "What's wrong with him?"
"Leave him. He'll stop after a while."
Xia Pengfei dropped his history textbook, went into a sealed room, and locked the door behind him.
He turned on the Blu-ray player, slid in a disc, and lay back on the sofa watching the image on the screen—while Leng Siyu's voice kept replaying in his mind…
"Forget it. I don't want too much entanglement with you!"
That was the reason she gave before pushing him out the door.
He felt she was rejecting his help, and even rejecting his entire family. Maybe she saw his help as a form of pity. And honestly, Xia Pengfei himself wasn't sure whether pity was part of the reason he helped her.
He wanted to help her. Ever since his parents urged him to, ever since he saw her struggling alone. Studying history with her might have been a fancy excuse… or maybe it wasn't…
He woke on the sofa in the middle of the night—cold awake. There was no blanket on him.
The next morning after breakfast, when Xia Pengfei took Buggy outside, they again saw the Leng sisters walking quickly ahead.
"Roundy, wait for me!" Buggy shouted. Leng Siyu scooped Roundy up and ran again, disappearing from the brothers' sight…
"I don't like Sister Yu!" Buggy declared bluntly.
"I don't like her either! Who is she showing that nasty face to? I'm not playing with her anymore!"
—Xia Pengfei shouted that in his heart.
"She's cute in a very non-typical way," Xia Pengfei said. "But Roundy is super cute!"
…
Xia Pengfei walked into the classroom. Leng Siyu stood, let him into his seat, then took out a history test paper.
"Class hasn't started yet. Let's hurry."
Unexpectedly, Xia Pengfei said with a blank face, "No need to trouble yourself. I don't want to owe you anything."
"Oh?" Leng Siyu lifted her brows slightly. Seeing he wasn't joking, she quickly regained her calm.
"Fine."
She put away the history test, took out her math workbook and sped through it, then geography, politics…
"…When the prosperity of the T-dynasty faded, and its mid-period passed in a snap of the fingers, by the time the dynasty declined, the once-brilliant poets vanished into the dust of history.
In the lingering echoes of the end times, a poet gracefully appeared—this unparalleled talent added a streak of gorgeous glow to the T-dynasty's sunset—Leng Siyu—Leng Siyu, Xia Pengfei, wake her up."
During Chinese class, Leng Siyu had dozed off at her desk. Xia Pengfei gently tapped her—no reaction. He pinched her arm hard. With this stubborn girl, politeness was useless.
"Disturbing someone's rest is immoral! Believe it or not, I'll make you vanish into the dust of history!"
Woken by pain, she slapped at him instantly.
Thankfully, Xia Pengfei reacted fast and used his arm to block the "Nine Yin Bone Claw" of this little "Demon Sect Master," saving his handsome face from destruction. Still, his arm burned like it had been pressed against a red-hot iron.
The class fell into chaos, and the Chinese teacher, Kang Yibo, was furious.
"Leng Siyu! Come to my office after class!"
For the normally composed teacher, this was practically shouting.
After class, Leng Siyu stood before Kang Yibo, head lowered, delivering her self-criticism:
"…When drowsiness struck, I failed to resist it with strong willpower, allowing it to take control and resulting in an unforgivable mistake.
Sleeping during the lesson of a learned and lively teacher like you is extreme disrespect to the authority of education, a blatant violation of the Student Code of Conduct, and a serious deviation from the standards of the New Era!
My behavior affected your teaching mood, lowered my classmates' learning efficiency, and hindered my own healthy growth.
Upon reflection, I feel deeply guilty and remorseful. I will take this as a turning point, strengthen my discipline awareness, my sense of mission, and my collective consciousness, and thoroughly eliminate the bad habit of sleeping in class…"
After leaving the office and returning to class, she found Xia Pengfei leaning against the desk, looking at her coldly.
"Leng Siyu, you'd better control your fists. The people around you aren't your family sandbags."
Without a word, Leng Siyu walked up to him, lifted his sleeve, and eyed the redness and bruising on his arm.
"You're lucky your arm isn't ruined. Don't worry—I'll take responsibility."
"Take responsibility?"
"Here."
She pulled out a small glass bottle of mysterious liquid.
"The Leng family's secret safflower oil. It's yours."
"This is a three-no product—no label, no inspection, no certification. I'm not using my arm as your test subject." Xia Pengfei scoffed.
"Trying to extort me?" Leng Siyu raised a brow.
Before he could react, she grabbed his arm, uncorked the bottle, and smeared the medicine on him with inhuman speed.
Her movements were so fast it stunned everyone watching.
"Holy crap! Is that even human speed?!" Hua Kedu exclaimed.
A refreshing coolness spread through Xia Pengfei's arm… Seeing her about to put the bottle away, he instantly stretched out his hand.
"Give it here! Even if it's poison, I'll take it. Otherwise, that beating was for nothing!"
Leng Siyu placed the bottle in his palm and said calmly,
"You won't need half of it. The other half is your compensation."
Xia Pengfei pocketed the bottle and asked with a cold face,
"So you're saying… I earned something?"