"By the way...Zhiye, do you know where Yuqian went? I woke up and there was no information about her, even though she was supposed to be in my class, but someone else was sitting in her seat," I anxiously asked Zhiye, who seemed puzzled.

"Yuqian?"

"Su Yuqian!"

For some reason, my tone seemed a bit aggressive.

"Sorry..." I apologized for my rude behavior.

"I don't know Su Yuqian...what is her relationship with Jie?" Zhiye suddenly had a dark look in her eyes, staring at me intently. Sensing something was wrong, I quickly lied, "Just a friend, a friend..."

"A friend? Jie doesn't need friends of the opposite sex..."

Zhiye said in a cold tone.

"Uh...why?" I was puzzled why it was not allowed to have friends of the opposite sex.

"The only girl who can be close to Jie should be me. Any girl who wants to get close to Jie should disappear from this world..."

"Don't make such dangerous remarks! And...be rational," I shook Zhiye's shoulder, who had lost her composure. Zhiye recovered and looked at me with apologetic eyes, saying, "I'm sorry..."

"Why are you apologizing?"

I asked, puzzled.

"I don't want Jie to dislike or hate me. It would be very painful for me..."

Zhiye gripped her chest tightly, as if really in pain.

"I have no reason to dislike or hate you, but..." I hesitated, remembering Zhiye's previous crazy behavior, and a chill ran down my spine.

Seeing that I wasn't speaking, Zhiye looked at me with confusion.

"Do you know this person? Do you know where she went?"

I asked directly without beating around the bush.

"I don't know..."

"Really...you don't know?"

How could she not know? I felt like Zhiye was lying, but...I couldn't see through her.

"I don't know..."

"Is that so?"

I looked disappointed.

"Sorry, I couldn't help Jie with anything."

"Not...Zhiye has already helped me a lot. If it weren't for you intervening, I would have been bitten by those crazy dogs..."

Thinking about the troublesome guys still in the classroom, I felt even more headache.

"I will protect Jie and not allow anyone to harm Jie."

Zhiye said seriously.

"Really?"

"Yeah, Jie is very, very important to me."

"I am also very surprised by that. Isn't it useless for a girl to protect me?"

I awkwardly laughed.

"Jie...just needs to stay by my side..."

Zhiye's words made the air freeze again. After a while, I pretended to be cool and said, "It should be the guys who protect girls, right?"

"Will Jie protect me?"

Zhiye stared at me and asked.

"I...will. Well, it's hard to say..." It was difficult to say something that went against my feelings. I regretted saying "it should be the guys who protect girls" that made me look cool. Although it sounded cool, it wasn't the result I wanted because I didn't want any emotional attachment from Zhiye, nor did I want her to have too many thoughts about me.

"I feel very happy to be protected by Jie, but I don't want Jie to get hurt because of it. Jie is important...more important than anything else."

"Why am I important? Actually, we don't have much interaction..." I tried to lower the proportion of space I occupied in Zhiye's heart.

"I like Jie...more than anyone else...so...very important, very important."

Zhiye's words left me speechless for a moment. Then, I maintained a slightly ambiguous distance with her, her cheeks blushed, and her gaze became blurred as if she was drunk.

"Does Jie like me?" Zhiye asked.

"This question..."

"Can you answer me? I really want to know where I stand in Jie's heart..."

"Well...the class bell just rang...we should go back to the classroom."

I used that as an excuse to keep my distance from Zhiye.

"Jie..."

"Ah ah... let's go, Zhiye..." I urged.

Zhiye had a sad expression on her face, but even though I saw her like this, I could only ignore it because I didn't have any feelings for her.