“Tch. Like I was trying to get out of doing the dishes.”

Gan Lan gathered up the dishes, carried them in a washbasin, and took them to the kitchen.

Ye Yubai had already changed into his school uniform and tied his tie. He went to the shared garage by the entrance to wheel out his bicycle.

They both went to Chengnan Affiliated High School.

As a key high school, it naturally had strict rules.

There were more than fifty things students were absolutely forbidden to do—you could list them off at random.

For example: no phones, no dyed or permed hair, and no sloppy uniforms.

The rule they enforced most strictly was the ban on dating.

High schoolers were at just the age when romance first bloomed.

Wasn’t it perfectly normal for boys and girls to have crushes on each other?

It was totally normal!

Ye Yubai didn’t have the slightest interest in dating, but people were always developing crushes on him.

Still, you couldn’t blame those girls for swooning over him.

Seventeen-year-old Ye Yubai had the face of a star—the spitting image of the leader of a popular idol group.

He wasn’t even an adult yet, but already had sharp features, striking eyes, and clear, fair skin. Behind his pale purple metal-framed glasses, he looked well-behaved, with just a hint of mischief.

The girls who pursued him all said he didn’t look like he came from an ordinary family.

Gan Lan used to think the girls were just flattering him. Now she could see they’d had a pretty good eye for things!

Ye Yubai really didn’t come from an ordinary family…

While most students were still riding their parents’ castoff secondhand bikes, Ye Yubai had bought himself a flashy black fixie.

After school, it left all the ordinary bikes in the dust.

Gan Lan had no idea how much his bike cost. She just thought it was dangerous, and she’d never ride with him—she didn’t want his showing off to get her into trouble.

It took about five minutes to ride from their rented apartment to the school’s side gate.

By then, Gan Lan had finished clearing away the dishes and left home too.

Like most of the bikes in her class, hers was the old one her mom had used for grocery shopping.

It was a little old, and too small for her.

Whenever she rode it, it went “creak, creak.”

She creaked all the way to the school’s side gate, where she spotted Ye Yubai being stopped by a traffic cop.

Ye Yubai looked as if he’d seen a savior and grabbed her by the arm.

“Officer, this is the person I told you about—my guarantor!”

Gan Lan: “???”

The traffic cop gave Gan Lan a once-over. “What’s your relationship to him?”

Gan Lan: “I…”

Ye Yubai slung an arm around her neck and grinned. “She’s my girlfriend. Look, don’t we look like a married couple?”

As he spoke, he took Gan Lan’s hand and flashed a V sign.

Gan Lan gritted her teeth, fighting the urge to stomp on his foot right there in the street.

Ye Yubai said, “Officer, want us to kiss right here and prove it?”

As he spoke, he actually leaned in as if to kiss Gan Lan.

Gan Lan was horrified. “Don’t come any closer!”

Ye Yubai frantically gestured at her with his eyebrows, urging her to play along. He even made a money-rubbing gesture, trying to bribe her.

Gan Lan wouldn’t budge. “Come any closer and I’ll kick you!”

Ye Yubai kept edging closer. “A beating means affection, a scolding means love. Come on, don’t spare me just because I’m a delicate flower!”

Gan Lan: “…”

She really wanted to beat him to death!

But she silently reminded herself: You’re not a seventeen-year-old anymore. You’re really a twenty-five-year-old working adult. You can’t stoop to arguing with a seventeen-year-old kid.

“Be more careful next time. This bike doesn’t meet the rules, so you can’t ride it on this side of the road.”

Seeing that they were both students, the traffic cop gave them a brief lecture, then waved them on.

When Ye Yubai realized he wouldn’t have to give up his little Blackie, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He glanced at Gan Lan and smiled. “Hey, what’s with your face? Why’s it so red?”

Gan Lan glared at him and shoved him away.

After turning into a girl, she’d lost a lot of her strength.

That shove had been soft and feeble.

Ye Yubai rubbed his chest and clicked his tongue.

For some reason, that shove had felt kind of nice. It left him with a strange feeling inside, too.

“Could it be that I’ve finally developed feelings for my best buddy?”

The thought made Ye Yubai so uncomfortable that he broke out in goosebumps.

He hurriedly rubbed his arms.

“No way. I’m straight.”

…

Gan Lan rode all the way to the bike shed with her face still red.

Along the way, lots of people asked her, “What’s with your face?”

“It’s nothing. I’m probably allergic to jackfruit.”

Gan Lan gave everyone the same answer.

By the time she’d finally found a spot and parked her bike, Ye Yubai had caught up with her.

“Hey, I got you some milk. Remember to give me three yuan later.”

He tossed a carton of milk into Gan Lan’s bike basket.

Gan Lan glanced at him.

Seeing him hurry off toward the classroom, she knew he must’ve left his homework undone last night and was rushing to copy someone else’s.

As Gan Lan watched Ye Yubai, two pairs of eyes looked down at them from somewhere upstairs.

One pair was watching her; the other was watching Ye Yubai.

“That’s Ye Yubai, the guy who just came first in the joint exam.”

“As if getting good grades weren’t enough—he’s that handsome, too. It’s not fair.”

“And he’s so nice, too. He’ll definitely get the most votes in the next school-hottie poll on Tieba.”

“So what about that one?”

The two girls who owned those gazes looked at each other.

They were talking about Gan Lan.

“Oh, Gan Lan? Everyone knows she’s Ye Yubai’s childhood friend.”

“She’s pretty, but she doesn’t really look like a boy.”

“Her grades are terrible—eleventh from the bottom in class—and she’s not athletic, either. She probably won’t get into college.”

“Honestly, I like boys who are bad at school and all soft and cute.”

The two girls exchanged another look.

When almost every girl in class liked Ye Yubai, someone had actually gone off the beaten path and fallen for Gan Lan?

No one would believe that if you told them!

“I mean, Tiantian, you’re the class belle. Why do you like a guy with bad grades who looks like he has no future?”

Tiantian smiled faintly and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

She turned away, folded her arms, and kept basking in the breeze.

Of course, she wasn’t going to tell her best friend Meimei that this was her new way of pursuing Ye Yubai.

Everyone knew Ye Yubai was closest to Gan Lan!

Going after Ye Yubai directly would mean facing a lot of competition.

But taking the roundabout route meant less pressure, didn’t it?